“A strategy that will work for the new cloud providers is to focus on a vertical industry / application and provide a deeper and more complete solution than the big guys currently provide,” noted Jeff Tabor, Senior Director of Product Management at Avere Systems, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo conference chairs Larry Carvalho and Vanessa Alvarez. “After succeeding in one vertical, move on to the next vertical to grow the business.”
Cloud Computing Journal: How are cloud standards playing a role in expanding adoption among users? Are standards helping new business models for service providers?
Jeff Tabor: Standards always help users since with standards the users don’t have to treat all the vendors as separate entities. Standards can eliminate vendor lock-in and give users bargaining power since multiple vendors can sell them technically equivalent solutions. Standards create an ecosystem of users and vendors that allow new business models to get started. Without this ecosystem, there is too much risk that users will head down the wrong vendor-proprietary path and new businesses can’t get off the ground.
Eight Ways Cloud-Empowered HCM Solutions Are Driving Business Success
Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions in the cloud are spawning a wide spectrum of services that are revolutionizing the workplace for employers and employees. Instead of HR being just a cost center, cloud computing is affording HR the opportunity to add significant value to the bottom line in the form of reduced expenditures on software and computer systems that are now managed in the cloud, as well as increased efficiencies. With easier access to vital business processes via Wi-Fi networks and mobile devices, cloud tools are driving higher productivity and delivering strategic business results.
In his session at 14th Cloud Expo, Tarik Taman, General Manager, HCM & Cloud ERP at Infor, will examine how HCM in the Cloud is empowering organizations to achieve new levels of success.
Spark Integration Technologies Heißt Jetzt Distrix
Distrix, ein führender Entwickler von softwaredefinierten WAN-Produkten, die einfache, sichere und belastbare Netzwerke ermöglichen, gab heute die Änderung seines Namens von Spark Integration Technologies zu Distrix bekannt. Der neue Name spiegelt den Erfolg des Unternehmens beim Einsatz seines Vorzeigeproduktes – Distrix®, der sichere Gateway-Router – in vielen verschiedenen Branchen weltweit wider.
„Für unsere breit gefächerte Kundenbasis vom Transport- zum Bankwesen, sowie von Telekommunikation bis zur industriellen Steuerung ist der Name Distrix mittlerweile gleichbedeutend mit Netzwerken, die einfach, sicher und skalierbar gestaltet sind, und so die Kosten für die Netzwerkverwaltung senken“, so Jay Friedman, Präsident von Distrix. „Dass wir uns enger mit dem Namen Distrix identifizieren, zeigt die Einfachheit und zunehmende Bedeutung unserer Lösung in öffentlichen sowie privaten Netzwerken, und dem Internet der Dinge.
What Will It Really Take to Provide an Agile Big Data Infrastructure?
“An agile approach to data is really a requirement of just about any application, but even more so with Big Data,” stated Cory Isaacson, CEO/CTO of CodeFutures Corporation, in this exclusive Q&A with @ThingsExpo conference chair Roger Strukhoff. “What the enterprise needs is a data platform that can adapt to changing requirements in a flexible and rapid manner. This has not been the case with existing databases.”
Cloud Computing Journal: With the MapDB announcement, it sounds like to some degree you’re bringing the Java Programming Language into the 21st century modern enterprise. To what degree do you agree with that statement?
Cory Isaacson: This is a very good assessment, while Java has always been a capable language there have been many barriers when it comes to delivering full-featured database technology. For example, APIs like JDBC have worked for many years, but fast performance, convenience and tight integration in Java applications with the database were not there. With MapDB Java developers now have the convenience and agility of the native Java Collections API, with the power of a very fast database engine.
Majority of civil servants claim their experience of cloud is negative
Four in five (83%) of civil servants have said their experience of cloud computing in the public sector was ‘negative’ or ‘poor’, according to the latest research from not-for-profit CSP Eduserv.
The research, the latest monthly update produced by the government cloud provider, found that nearly half (40%) of those who’d suffered bad experiences were hindered by not being able to access the right data or applications, with one in 10 adding their ability to do their job was disrupted by new cloud services.
The results were collated in a paper entitled ‘Delivering Cloud First’ and polled over 800 civil servants to find out the state of the UK government’s cloud first policy – and found that efficiency trumps innovation.
Most cloud adoption (60%) has focused on entry level infrastructure as a service (IaaS) solutions, while the primary driver for adopting cloud remains improving operational efficiency, according to 57 …
Redefining B2B eCommerce in the Cloud
The challenge for many businesses is building an integrated eCommerce solution that delivers on all fronts – design, usability, customer experience, segmentation, and execution.
In her session at 14th Cloud Expo, Marie-Pascale Authie, a Solution Consultant at Infor, will explain how apply new approaches that deliver a deeper and richer personalized online experience – with tailored content, marketing messages, and offers based on an individual user’s activity and buying behavior. Discuss customer engagement platforms that enable companies to enrich their customer interactions, and scale their market impact by taking advantage of omni-channel sales and distribution opportunities that will power their top and bottom lines.
Take Control of Your Schemalessness with Dynamic Schemas
Static data structures have been at the heart of data processing tools since the dawn of computing, but they have always limited the flexibility of the organization leveraging the data. Recently, the rise of flexible formats like JSON have led to schemaless data as an attempt to increase agility. However, schemaless data have proven difficult to work with, because of hidden rigid structure in the form of implied schemas.
EnterpriseWeb addresses the problems of both the inflexibility of structured data as well as the impracticality of schemaless data, by enabling schemaless data to be dynamically and logically structured.
The Future of Cloud IDEs
A great article of future of cloud IDEs: The Cloud IDE and its impact on DevOps by Chris Riley (@HoardingInfo). The article makes a number of excellent points. Many developers will oppose the Cloud IDE without much consideration.
These are all very good points. From my personal experience, developers are very picky, they don’t like change, and they don’t like someone telling them to use some new cloud IDE. The offline issue used to be a sticking point but nowadays it’s becoming pretty difficult to find a place without internet. If no internet or WiFi is available, people can get online by tethering their mobile devices or via MiFi devices. Many airlines offer or installing WiFi on their planes.
SOASTA Announces OEM Agreement with CA Technologies
SOASTA on Tuesday announced that it has entered into a technology and distribution partnership agreement with CA Technologies. The partnership will integrate SOASTA’s Cloud based Web testing solution, CloudTest with CA Service Virtualization and CA LISA Test software suites. The solutions will be taken to market by CA Technologies as a new integrated solution, CA LISA Cloud Test, offering web and mobile developers around the world an advanced Global Test Platform. The integrated test platform can simulate any and every possible user scenario that a web site or mobile app may experience all within minutes.
IBM’s tale of the tape sets new record for big data storage
Anyone who might have spotted a large order of champagne delivered to the Armonk area last night will now know why: IBM has just set a new record for the amount of big data stored on tape.
The Big Blue scientists have announced an eye-watering 85.9 billion bits of data per square inch on the latest tape, built from barium ferrite in conjunction with Fujitsu. This translates to 154 terabytes of uncompressed data on a standard LTO size cartridge – or, in non-tech terms, around 154 million books in one cartridge.
The tape weighs in at 4.3 micrometres thick and 1255 metres long – an improvement on the equivalent in 2010, which was a mere 5.9 micrometres and 917m.
“Even though tape technology is more than 60 years old, it’s very relevant today for one main reason: big data,” said Dr. Mark Lantz at IBM Research. “There’s …