Internet of @ThingsExpo announced today a limited time free “Expo Plus” registration option. On site registration price of $600 will be set to ‘free’ for delegates who register during this period. To take advantage of this opportunity, attendees can use the coupon code “IoTAugust” and secure their “@ThingsExpo Plus” registration to attend all keynotes, as well as limited number of technical sessions each day of the show, in addition to full access to the expo floor and the @ThingsExpo hackathon. Registration page is located at the @ThingsExpo site.
Jason Bloomberg Joins @DevOpsSummit New York Faculty | @TheEbizWizard | [#DevOps]
The cloud has transformed how we think about software quality. Instead of preventing failures, we must focus on automatic recovery from failure. In other words, resilience trumps traditional quality measures.
Continuous delivery models further squeeze traditional notions of quality. Remember the venerable project management Iron Triangle? Among time, scope, and cost, you can only fix two or quality will suffer.
Only in today’s DevOps world, continuous testing, integration, and deployment upend the time metric, the DevOps cadence reinvents project scope, and cost metrics expand past software development to the total cost of ownership of the end-to-end digital initiative.
Jez Humble on High IT Performance Bt @Skytap | @DevOpsSummit [#DevOps]
It didn’t hit me until after a second viewing of Jez Humble’s recent webinar with Perforce that his ways to predict high IT performance aren’t just a neat party trick; they’re absolutely essential. The days of bugs making it into production, distrust between departments, and delayed fixes and releases are becoming a thing of the past, at least among “high performers” of the world.
And as the complexity of software grows year after year, being able to accurately predict success may be the only way to actually achieve it.
Salesforce delivers another billion dollar quarter, $5bn in annual revenue, shares skyrocket
Picture credit: Salesforce
Cloudy software provider Salesforce has announced its latest financial results, with $5.37bn (£3.46bn) in total annual revenue and another billion dollar quarter.
The results were in line with Wall Street’s expectations, with earnings per share at $0.14 and a year on year growth of 26.1%.
It certainly seems a long way since 2009, when Salesforce’s first billion dollar annual figures arrived, and late 2013, when the first billion dollar quarter arrived. CEO Marc Benioff saw the latter, understandably, as a major achievement initially – it’s now almost de facto.
“Salesforce delivered yet another year of exceptional growth, with revenue, deferred revenue and operating cash flow all growing more than 30%,” Benioff said in a statement. “Salesforce reached $5 billion in annual revenue faster than any other enterprise software company and now it’s our goal to be the fastest to reach $10 billion.”
Gross profit for Q414 ended at $1.09bn, up from $871,000 this time last year, while annual gross profit stood at $4.23bn, an increase of 25% from 2013’s $3.39bn.
Shares of Salesforce shot up as much as 10% in the aftermath of the news, yet the analysts were keeping their powder relatively dry. Tim Beyers, of the Motley Fool, said the company’s deferred revenue figures looked good – understandably given their main selling point is subscription based – yet added if balance grew more slowly compared to deferred revenue in the future, it “could suggest the company is having a tougher time signing the sorts of lucrative, multi-year deals Benioff wants.”
Kara Ordway, senior market dealer at City Index Australia, told CloudTech the results were “no great surprise” yet added the market was “pleasantly surprised” by Salesforce’s hike in its revenue outlook range.
“Going forward Salesforce looks well positioned to take advantage of one of the fastest growing markets in technology and is set to reap the benefits of its expansion into the fast growing European markets,” she said. “However Salesforce is yet to fully explore the advantages of geographic revenue diversity which is where the opportunity sits for the future.”
Ordway added: “Salesforce performed in line with expectations, however those forecasts were already well above the previous year’s results. With such an upbeat outlook, investors were particularly keen to jump on board.”
2014 highlights for Salesforce included the launch of the Salesforce1 app, as well as the opening of a first UK data centre, with further European expansion on the horizon. The company has also announced a global agreement with Sage with employees of the business management provider using Salesforce’s Customer Success Platform, as well as an update to its Desk.com product, which is now available in more than 50 languages.
The hype around cloud computing has been justified, say enterprises
(c)iStock.com/ferlistockphoto
85% of respondents in a Tata Communications survey say that cloud computing had lived up to industry hype in their experience, with 23% saying cloud had exceeded their expectations.
Increased productivity was the most popular benefit according to 69% of those polled, with better access to data (65%) and reductions in costs (63%) also highly cited. 83% of respondents admitted they experienced benefits they weren’t expecting to see.
The report added to the plethora of research confirming cloud computing was being widely used in the enterprise. 97% of respondents overall said their organisation had already adopted cloud, with only 1% saying it wasn’t an important part of their infrastructure. Private remains the most popular use case – 50% of respondents said they had deployed private cloud for between one and three years – while hybrid is certainly on the rise, with one in 10 deploying within the last year.
Almost two third (65%) of respondents said using the cloud had led to increased speed of access to technology, while a similar number (67%) experienced reduced delivery times to clients and partners.
Yet this doesn’t explain the full story. More than half (57%) of respondents admit they have migrated data back in-house from the cloud. Not surprisingly, it’s security and data protection they’re concerned about. Of the application structure in organisations polled, only two in five (39%) apps are ready to move to the cloud – and as a result companies are primarily relying on private cloud.
However 94% said their organisations would be more partial to using hybrid cloud is the connections within publicly-used internet structure could be made more predictable.
“This independent research shows that the cloud has exited the hype cycle and entered the real adoption phase for businesses globally,” said Julie Woods-Moss, CMO at Tata Communications. “It is now a strategic investment and a competitive differentiator.”
You can find the full report (email required) here.
Contemplating the Cloud
Cloud computing is being adopted at an exponential rate, with software-as-a-service (SaaS) arrangements being the leader. In the corporate sphere, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is leading. IaaS offers virtual hardware, storage capacity, and network connections. Another type of service is the platform-as-a-service (PaaS) which allows users to build applications on the internet.
Utilization of the cloud promises savings, flexibility, and ease, which is why many companies have begun to implement it. There are some big decisions to make before they can successfully apply cloud computing. These include: public, private, or hybrid clouds; cost-benefit analysis, and risk assessment.
Scenarios
When a company is considering a SaaS arrangement, the motivation is hardware or software upgrades. Usually a company has an old on-site application and they need to upgrade because the old system is running out of support. Since the cost of an upgrade may be comparable to a replacement, cloud computing should be seriously considered. If they opt for a private cloud, they are the only tenants and they own the license or software. This may be favorable for a company who wishes to cut costs and runs a tight IT division. A public or hybrid approach would be better suited for a company who experiences spikes in application usage or who wants their resources spent elsewhere.
Prominence of SaaS
SaaS has become the leader in the market for customer relationship management, supply chain management, payroll benefits, time and attendance, and ERP software. Since 2000, it has grown from being virtually nonexistent to accounting for just over half of all software deals last year. SaaS is beneficial for small companies due to its replacement cycle of only two to three years versus nine years with licensed software. Next, companies look towards IaaS and PaaS.
ERP Resistance
ERP systems are the last thing to be sent to the cloud. Integration of applications, data stewardship and governance all has higher priority than replacing or updating ERP systems. This is because ERP systems are high customized. Manufacturing companies have been the most resistant to adopt ERP SaaS solutions because the customization and integration it requires make it difficult for on site cloud systems to compete. Other highly regulated industries have also been reluctant to implement cloud arrangements due to burdensome compliance requirements.
Capital vs. Operating Expenses
One factor to consider when looking into cloud arrangements is capital vs. operating expenses. Cloud arrangements are more attractive to companies whose performance is measured return on assets deployed. On the other hand, regulated companies aren’t interested in cutting fixed assets, so they might be more likely to hold onto their data centers and other IT infrastructures and build out private clouds within these systems to reduce operating expenses. New companies and startups will most likely implement SaaS applications.
Other Considerations
The cloud could potentially impact worker productivity, security issues, privacy issues, interdependency, and compatibility with other applications. Issues can arise when a security breach occurs, when the contract ends, and ownership issues. These risks need to be evaluated individually to come to the best conclusion for the specified use of the cloud.
The post Contemplating the Cloud appeared first on Cloud News Daily.
Case Study: Cloud Transitions Done Right By @VIIAD | @CloudExpo [#Cloud]
Every successful company hits growing pains at some point along the way. One of the most harrowing for IT is the transition from the “build it quick!” startup mindset to the more structured and stable mentality of a mid-stage business.
For VIIAD Systems, a healthcare technology company that is reinventing how healthcare information flows, our transition from startup to mid-stage was marked by a transition from a physical, bare metal solution to a private cloud.
We had been experiencing an almost overwhelming influx of business over the last two years, which was both a blessing and a challenge. Like many small businesses, we had pieced together our infrastructure over the years, which eventually resulted in an expensive and “clunky” solution. Upgrading our systems was a daunting task, and we were concerned that any downtime to critical systems would be crushing to the business.
The Cyber Security Maturity Model | @CloudExpo [#IoT #Cloud]
We continue to see an increasing trend in cyber-attacks in line with the growth of new technologies, and enterprises have to protect themselves. It is critical for enterprises to devise their own measures to protect against cyber-attacks because any tolerance on this front is more than an IT issue but may affect the very existence and the business model of the enterprise. We have seen in a recent incident where a cyber-attack prevented a large enterprise from performing their basic business process.
Scalable Cloud-Based Video Surveillance Solutions | @CloudExpo [#Cloud]
Kenichi (Kevin) Mori is the director of Sony Electronics’ Security Systems Division, based in Park Ridge, New Jersey. He oversees business development and partnerships for the security group, which is part of Sony Electronics’ Professional Solutions of America group. He started his Sony career doing business-to -business sales and product marketing in China before moving to the security marketing division in Japan and then coming to the U.S.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thank you for joining us today Kevin. Before discussing Sony’s security capabilities in greater detail, please tell us about your background.
Kevin Mori: I am the director of Sony Electronics’ Security Systems Division, based in Park Ridge, New Jersey. I oversee business development and partnerships for the security group, which is part of Sony Electronics’ Professional Solutions of America group. I started my Sony career doing business-to -business sales and product marketing in China before moving to the security marketing division in Japan and then coming to the U.S. I received my Master’s degree in Australia and my Bachelor’s in Japan. Between my schooling and my career, I’ve learned and worked nearly everywhere in the world.
Locking Down the Cloud By @ActiveState | @DevOpsSummit [#DevOps]
CIOs are increasingly concerned about cloud security. And they should be: with the recent outbreak of visible breaches at high-profile organizations like Target, Anthem, and others, and the subsequent damage they cause, corporations are scrambling to make sure their cloud applications, whether on private, public, or hybrid clouds, are safe.
But cloud security is complex. With ephemeral applications and services springing up around multiple data centers, with dozens or hundreds of independent microservices each with their own access mechanisms, with the widespread adoption of virtualization and the recent rampant frenzy over containerization, keeping on top of cloud-specific security vulnerabilities is a huge effort in itself.