Category Archives: News & Analysis

Database, EnterpriseDB, KT, News & Analysis, postgres

KT, EnterpriseDB to offer OpenStack-based DBaaS

EnterpriseDB and KT are co-developing a postgres-based DBaaS

EnterpriseDB and KT are co-developing a postgres-based DBaaS

Postgres database specialist EnterpriseDB announced a partnership with the technology services subsidiary of incumbent Korean telco KT Corporation, KT DS, that will see the two jointly develop and offer a database-as-a-service offering deployed on OpenStack.

The offering will feature EDB’s database tech which is based on postgres, an open source object-relational database management system, and will be delivered via KT’s uCloud service.

KT, a longtime user of EDB’s postgres tech – the same database tech used by eBay and Facebook – said its engineers already contribute heavily to the open source project.

“Our long and successful partnership with EnterpriseDB with on-premises deployments in our own infrastructure made EDB’s Postgres Plus the obvious choice when we selected a cloud partner for our uCloud,” said Seunghye Sohn, senior vice president of KT DS.

Ed Boyajian, chief executive officer of EnterpriseDB said: “KT was a proving ground in Korea for Postgres Plus to power mission-critical, high-volume workloads. They are now leading enterprise and government users to the future with their uCloud and together we’re building on our years of partnership to play a role as cloud computing expands across Korea.”

KT is looking to bolster its cloud computing business among local incumbents looking to get a piece of the growing market, particularly the public sector segment. Earlier this year the Korean government passed the Act on Promotion of Cloud Computing and User Protection (colloquially known as the “Cloud Act”) designed to encourage public sector uptake of cloud services.

5G, Europe, Inria, Networks, News & Analysis, NFV, Orange, Virtualisation

Orange creates NFV, cloud testing lab for 5G advances

Orange and Inria are partnering on an NFV, cloud testing lab for 5G

Orange and Inria are partnering on an NFV, cloud testing lab for 5G

Orange has unveiled its new lab dedicated to network virtualization and cloud computing, called I/O Lab. It’s targeting an open and accessible environment for collaboration with the wider industry.

In a particularly buzzwordy announcement, the telco has claimed the new testing environment for NFV and cloud tech will enable advances in the development of 5G, IoT and Big Data; while also referencing “fog” computing – a form distributed cloud computing where near-user network edge devices are utilised for storage – and Mobile Edge Computing.

“The networks… will undergo a radical transformation in the next decade as a result of the progress of virtualization techniques,” Orange said in a statement. “General purpose servers will be able to use software to incorporate more and more network functions, all while meeting the networks’ growing needs for capacity and reliability. At the same time, cloud computing techniques will contribute to the development of flexible storage and processing capacities in data centres and even within networks and their peripheries, including connected devices and objects.” This trend could be strengthened by the increased momentum of the Internet of Things and Big Data processing”

“The I/O Lab’s vision is to develop a coherent, flexible and reliable management structure for the networks of the future, seen as distributed communication, storage and processing infrastructures. This will be achieved by virtue of the dual distributed network and software culture of its partners and a large contribution of the worldwide Open Source communities.”

The lab has been developed in partnership with Inria, the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation, and the two companies say the test-bed will be dedicated to contributing heavily to relevant Open Source communities.

Orange also claims the lab will promote and develop a broad scale network OS, called “Global OS”, which will be designed to support a variety of app development for the infrastructure, including security, performance, availability, cost and energy efficiency management. It has also targeted 2020 for tangible outputs from the lab in terms of network infrastructure ready for 5G-compatible deployment.

Accenture, Aimie Chapple, Avanade, Enterprise IT, Europe, Healthcare, News & Analysis, NHS

UK Department of Health taps Accenture, Avanade for cloud deployment

The UK Department of Health is overhauling its comms technology

The UK Department of Health is overhauling its comms technology

Department of Health in England and NHS National Services Scotland have selected Accenture and Avanade to implement a range of cloud-based communications service across England and Scotland.

The NHSmail service is being developed and deployed to enable secure communication to users of less secure systems such as non-NHS partners and patients.

“Almost 700,000 doctors, clinicians and other health and care employees already use NHSmail to communicate securely,” said Aimie Chapple, managing director for Accenture’s UK health business.

“The new improved NHSmail service will provide significant digital technology improvements to help NHS staff drive even more effective collaboration at all points of patient care. This will be one of the largest mailbox migrations ever delivered and will bring significant benefits to the way NHS employees exchange information, communicate and interact across healthcare,” she said.

The five-year deal will also see Accenture and Avanade help overhaul the department’s internal email service and deploy other cloud-based communications services across the NHS including an enterprise-wide directory and Microsoft Lync for enabling instant messaging, VOIP, audio and video communication in a bid to enhance collaboration among NHS healthcare workers across the UK.

Over the past few years the NHS has sought to lean more heavily on cloud services in a bid to improve the care services offered to patients and to reduce the cost of provision, though by its own admission it has struggled.

In the NHS’s five year plan released in November 2014 the department said past failures to successfully adopt more robust IT infrastructure and make its digital services more effective is because it hasn’t changed how it procures those technologies and services, which is where the UK government hopes programmes like G-Cloud will play a leading role, and the lack of attention paid to standards.

“Part of why progress has not been as fast as it should have been is that the NHS has oscillated between two opposite approaches to information technology adoption – neither of which now makes sense. At times we have tried highly centralised national procurements and implementations. When they have failed due to lack of local engagement and lack of sensitivity to local circumstances, we have veered to the opposite extreme of ‘letting a thousand flowers bloom’,” the Five Year Forward View reads. “The result has been systems that don’t talk to each other, and a failure to harness the shared benefits that come from interoperable systems.”

Antonio Neri, Bill Veghte, Chris Hsu, HP, Meg Whitman, News & Analysis, Vendor

HP exec leading the Enterprise split leaves company

Bill Veghte hasn't revealed where he's heading next

Bill Veghte hasn’t revealed where he’s heading next

Bill Veghte, executive vice president of HP’s Enterprise Group (EG) and the man leading HP’s corporate divorce from the enterprise business side will be departing the company later this summer to pursue a new opportunity, the company announced this week.

The move comes barely a month after Tom Joyce, the company’s former vice president of global development and M&A lead, left HP for Dell.

Veghte previously served as chief operating officer, chief strategy officer and executive vice president of software at HP before taking on the Enterprise Group split lead, and will be replaced by Chris Hsu, who will assume the role of COO for Hewlett Packard Enterprise upon separation.

Antonio Neri, who has been serving as leader of the Enterprise Group (while Bill focused primarily on the separation efforts) and previously held leadership positions in the company’s server and networking technology divisions, will officially take over the role as Executive Vice President and General Manager.

“The decision to leave a company and people you are passionate about is never an easy one,” Veghte said.

“It has been a privilege working with Meg and a great leadership team as we transform Hewlett Packard to help customers on their journey to the New Style of IT. HP is equipped to take the business to new heights with great leaders like Antonio Neri and Chris Hsu and the progress we have made over the last 4 years,” he added.

Meg Whitman, chairman, president and chief executive officer of HP said: “From the moment he arrived at HP, Bill has made a huge difference. He brings energy, insight, and leadership to everything he does. I am grateful for all he did to help me lead HP through the turnaround and into the separation. I know Bill will continue to enjoy great success in the years to come.”

HP is just over midway through splitting its PC and printer business from its enterprise services and technology business, with the hopes of having everything done and dusted by November – the beginning of its 2016 fiscal year.

Atos, M&A, Managed services, Michel-Alain Proch, News & Analysis, outsourcing, Thierry Breton, Xerox

Atos completes acquisition of Xerox’s IT outsourcing biz

Atos has finalised the acquisition of Xerox's outsourcing business

Atos has finalised the acquisition of Xerox’s outsourcing business

French IT services outfit Atos announced this week the company has completed its €811m acquisition of Xerox’s IT outsourcing business, a move the companies said would give the combined entity a massive leap forward in the outsourcing market.

Originally announced on the tail end of last year Atos and Xerox agreed to a net total acquisition price of $966m (€ 811m), composed of $950m and an additional $50m assuming certain performance metrics were hit, plus $100m representing the estimated value of future tax benefits to Atos.

Xerox’s ITO business includes about 9,800 employees in 45 countries, with most – 4,500 – based in the US and more than 3,800 in global delivery countries.

Atos said the move, which gives it some strong capabilities in business process outsource and document outsourcing, means North America becomes its largest segment. While the company is popular in the Europe and the UK it’s currently ranked number 9 in North America in terms of outsourcing revenue.

“Today marks a major step in the development of the Atos Group, as we welcome 9,600 Xerox ITO employees to Atos,” said Thierry Breton, Chairman and chief executive of Atos. “With the US now our largest market, we have a stronger and more balanced global presence, which combined with our digital skills, allows us to be the trusted partner for our clients’ digital journey anywhere in the world.”

The companies also announced a deal that would see Atos become one of Xerox’s primary IT service providers globally.

Michel-Alain Proch, group senior executive vice president and recently appointed chief executive of Atos’s North American operations added: “Together with Xerox teams, we have worked extensively to be ready from day one post-closing and we are now fully operational to ensure continued delivery of services to our clients while at the same time leveraging the combined strengths of the two groups for profitable growth.”

arvato, Content & Applications, News & Analysis, Retail, Software AG, systems integration, Vendor

Software AG and sys integrator arvato to partner on app integration

Software AG and arvato are partnering on application integration for the retail sector

Software AG and arvato are partnering on application integration for the retail sector

Software AG and systems integrator arvato Systems announced a partnership this week that will see the two companies jointly develop application integration offerings for the retail and digital commerce sectors.

The two companies plan to offer an integrated digital business solution that uses arvato’s order management system, which connects all of the data and systems needed to manage customer relationships across various channels, and Software AG’s digital business platform, which offers real-time integration capabilities between different channels like websites, in-store apps and POSs, warehouse inventory databases.

“We are delighted to join forces with Software AG in enterprise application integration, and to be able to provide our customers with an even more extensive integration portfolio,” said Axel Mattern, director of arvato Systems. “We are now able to offer a complete solution to help our customers in retail to become masters of their digital transformation.”

As brick-and-mortar and online shops become increasingly being woven together the companies claim apps and databases are becoming siloed and more challenging to link together, a problem this partnership intends to address. The challenge seems quite acute in some sectors – like food retail – and has even contributed to the rise of platform companies looking to whitelabel their sophisticated, highly-integrated offerings for sector-specific marketplaces and back-end systems.

cloud migration, Microsoft, News & Analysis, Office 365, SkyKick, Software as a service, Todd Schwartz, Vendor

Office 365 migration provider SkyKick scores $10m

SkyKick bagged $10m this week and is strengthening its capabilities beyond cloud migration

SkyKick bagged $10m this week and is strengthening its capabilities beyond cloud migration

SkyKick, a cloud migration specialist turned cloud service management provider, secured $10m in funding this week, which the company said would be used to accelerate product development and broaden its portfolio.

SkyKick specialises in migrating Microsoft productivity apps (Office 365, Exchange, etc.) and data into the cloud, and the company recently pivoted into the rest of the lifecycle by offering cloud app and permission management as well as backup and restore capabilities (which are only available in the US for now).

The $10m in funding brings the total amount secured by the firm since its founding to just over $17m, and will be used to expand sales and marketing as well as product development efforts.

“We are excited to usher in the next era for SkyKick—a global software company delivering cloud management solutions for partners,” said Todd Schwartz, SkyKick co-founder and co-chief executive.

“Cloud usage is expected to double in the next three years, and the average IT partner will soon have over 5,000 customer cloud touch points to administer, which can be incredibly complex and time-consuming for solution providers to backup and manage.”

The move to broaden its portfolio comes at a time of increasing saturation in the Office migration environment. Microsoft itself already offers a number of free cloud migration tools and there are a few others developed by third parties like SkyKick, so its ability to develop and offer strong capabilities relevant for post-deployment lifecycle needs is essential to its future growth.

Cisco, David Goeckeler, Hilton Romanski, Internet of Things, IoT, M&A, News & Analysis, OpenDNS

Cisco to acquire OpenDNS to strengthen cloud security for IoT

Cisco plans to acquire OpenDNS for $635m

Cisco plans to acquire OpenDNS for $635m

Cisco is to acquire cloud-based network security provider OpenDNS for $635m.

OpenDNS’ offering combines DNS services with a managed network security service that tracks devices and traffic and helps mitigate malware or denial of service threats. But it also adds predictive intelligence capabilities by using big data analytics to metabolise real-time behaviour and machine learning algorithms to automate mitigating action.

Cisco said the acquisition would strengthen security services portfolio, a core element of its Internet of Things (IoT) strategy.

“As more people, processes, data and things become connected, opportunities for security breaches and malicious threats grow exponentially when away from secure enterprise networks,” said Hilton Romanski, Cisco chief technology and strategy officer.

“OpenDNS has a strong team with deep security expertise and key technology that complements Cisco’s security vision. Together, we will help customers protect their extended network wherever the user is and regardless of the device.”

As part of the deal, which is expected to close sometime in the first quarter of next year, the OpenDNS team will join the Cisco Security Business Group led by David Goeckeler, the division’s vice president and general manager.

Targeting the network has become an increasingly important component of enterprise IT security, particularly with the explosion of malware and denial of service attacks – and will continue growing in importance as the IoT brings vast volumes of automated connectivity and data transaction.

The trend has seen more emphasis place on cloud-based security services, which can act as a security perimeter without needing to install anything with a datacentre. According to Gartner, the cloud-based security market with grow from $2.1bn in 2013 to $3.bn this year.

Accenture, BT, Internet of Things, Mark Harrop, News & Analysis

BT, Accenture and Cisco form Wireless IoT Forum board

The Wireless IoT Forum has announced its founding board memebers

The Wireless IoT Forum has announced its founding board memebers

Following its launch in March, the Wireless IoT Forum has announced its founding board members, featuring BT, Cisco, Accenture and Telensa among others, reports Telecoms.com.

The forum is a collaborative industry effort designed to help further define the requirements of the wireless WAN in an IoT era. Specifically, the group claims it is looking to drive the widespread adoption of wireless WAN tech by removing fragmentation and drive consolidation around a minimal set of standards for licensed and license-except wireless solutions

Ensuring the interoperability of solutions running throughout the entire IoT stack is one of the primary challenges associated with bringing the Internet of Things to fruition. As such, CEO of the WIoT Forum William Webb believes solving compatibility issues remains key to driving the broad scale adoption of IoT.

“…the risk presented by fragmentation remains very real,” he said. “Without widely-agreed open standards we risk seeing pockets of proprietary technology developing independently, preventing the benefits of mass-market scale. We are delighted today to be announcing our inaugural membership and to begin work to drive towards a collective view on the right way to deliver widespread IoT services.”

BT’s Mark Harrop reckons the IoT industry should look at using GSM as a benchmark for collaboration. “As the success of the GSM standard in the mobile world showed, working to open industry standards is critical to creating the necessary situation for mass market success,” he said. “By aligning the complete value chain in defining and promoting these standards the Wireless IoT Forum is ideally suited to make the Internet of Things a success.”

Under the remit of the association are a variety of working groups, focussing on four core areas; including marketing and requirements; review of applications and standard APIs; connectivity and networking challenges, including configurations, security and radio access for low power wide area networks; and finally regulation.

CipherCloud, cloud security, Cloud Security Alliance, CSA, Jim Reavis, News & Analysis, Pravin Kothari

CSA, CipherCloud look to standardise APIs for cloud access security brokerage

The CSA and CipherCloud are leading an initiative to standardise API implementation for cloud access security brokerage

The CSA and CipherCloud are leading an initiative to standardise API implementation for cloud access security brokerage

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and cloud security vendor CipherCloud are forming a working group to jointly develop best practice around API deployment for cloud access security brokerage services.

Cloud Security Open API Working Group, which at its founding will include contributions from Deloitte, InfoSys, Intel Security, and SAP among others, will jointly define protocols, guidelines and best practices for implementing data security services – encryption, tokenisation and other technologies – across cloud environments.

The CSA said the working group plans to develop API specifications and reference architectures to guide cloud-based data protection.

“Standards are an important frontier for the cloud security ecosystem,” said Jim Reavis, chief executive of CSA.

“The right set of working definitions can boost adoption. This working group will help foster a secure cloud-computing environment – a win for vendors, partners and users. Standardising APIs will help the ecosystem coalesce around a universal language and process for integrating security tools into the cloud applications,” Reavis said.

Pravin Kothari, founder and chief executive of CipherCloud said: “Cloud is the killer app for security innovation. But currently, inefficiencies at the technical level in the form of custom connector protocols can hold back innovations in cloud security. Defining a uniform set of standards can enable us all to operate from the same playbook. As a pioneer in [cloud access security brokerage], we are excited to co-lead this initiative with CSA to accelerate security across clouds.”

The initiative may enhance the ability to integrate various cloud services securely according the Jeff Margolies, principal at Deloitte, and open up what is generally considered to be a fairly closed, proprietary-dominated space.

“Currently the cloud security ecosystem lacks basic integration standards for connecting third-party security solutions to cloud applications, platforms and infrastructure,” he said, adding that the working group may help consolidate standards among vendors and cloud customers.