That’s one big check for Big Blue.
IBM won a federal cloud-computing contract with a maximum value of $1 billion, its largest such agreement with the U.S. government, according to an article on Bloomberg.com.
The Interior Department awarded similar, 10-year pacts to nine other suppliers, including Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), which also described the agreement as its largest federal cloud contract.
The deals might reach a combined $10 billion, allowing the agency to speed its efforts to move information to the cloud, a Web-based pool of shared resources such as data storage and software. Other U.S. departments may eventually tap the program.
The agreement shows that “IBM’s ability to help governments transform with new technologies, like cloud, continue to grow,” Michael Rowinski, a spokesman for the Armonk, New York-based company, said in an e-mail yesterday.
Enabling the New Cloud Distribution Model to Fuel Growth and Adoption
by Alex Danyluk, Senior Director, ISV & SaaS Alliances, Parallels
The march to the cloud is accelerating and undeniable. And every link in the IT distribution chain, from companies that develop software to customers, is adjusting to the new cloud distribution model. At the center of this new chain are various types of new and traditional distributors, from traditional hosting companies like HostWay and Hostnet, to managed service providers (MSPs) like Apptix and ApprRiver, to telecommunication companies like Sprint, Telenor and America Movil, to non-traditional service providers like Dell and Staples.
While there is great diversity in the distribution, they all share some common challenges and needs. They all want to sell a rich basket of independent software vendor (ISV) goods that are well integrated with each other and are easy for distributors and their customers to manage. They also want to enhance customer and user interface (UI) experiences. These needs create a challenge for both the new distributors and ISVs that want to reach these new diverse distribution channels. Each ISV and distributor needs to integrate their systems one by one, integrating provisioning, billing, portals and inter-application interoperability.
The cost and time to connect these ISVs with cloud distributors is a barrier to growth and adoption. Several companies, including Parallels, recognized this problem a few years ago and helped create the APS standard (www.APSstandard.org) to build a replicable model for connecting ISVs to distributors. To date, more than 400 ISV applications are APS packaged, distributing their offers via hundreds of distributors around the globe.
Following the APS standard, an ISV can build a connector once to easily enable distribution through APS-enabled disruptors. APS integrations can automatically set up user accounts when a customer purchase is made and assists with billing information, as would be expected from such a standard. APS goes further to ensure the customers and distributors have an excellent experience. APS has the ability for two different services to exchange information so that services like Symantec anti-virus and Microsoft Hosted Exchange automatically knows how to work with each other when a customer purchase both. ISVs can also embed rich customer HTML5 screens, further enhancing the user experience.
With APS, both ISVs and distributors now have a means of not only enabling the distribution of cloud services in the new cloud distribution model, but also enhancing the overall customer and service provider experience for advanced cross product integration capabilities and rich UI experiences.
On September 9, 2:30-3:30, in the Sequoia Room, at VentureBeat’s CloudBeat conference, I’ll be participating in a panel with Uday Keshavdas, Director of Business Development at Box and Joan Fazio Senior Director, Emerging Channels and Verticals, Commercial Marketing at Symantec, and we look forward to continuing the discussion there.
Is hosted private cloud the future of cloud infrastructure?
Every business is different, and their infrastructure is sure to follow suit. However, just as there are standards within best practices for cloud, so too are there consistencies where cloud platforms are concerned.
When we say cloud platforms, however, we don’t mean open or closed clouds, like Rackspace versus AWS. Instead we are referring to public, private and hybrid clouds.
A recent Business Technology Roundtable blog post delved into an IDC study, finding that companies are increasingly leveraging hosted private clouds. IDC points to the hosted private cloud as the new backbone to the infrastructure services,
“…transforming existing provider models for IT outsourcing, hosting infrastructure services, and other key IT industries.”
But what accounts for private cloud’s ascendance? While public cloud will always have a larger audience private clouds get to the heart of what businesses need: dedicated infrastructure that supports the compliance requirements of data.
The truth …
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Zero to Empire in 89 Days
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Hollis Tibbetts, Director for Global Marketing Operations for Dell Software Group, will discuss how you can create a revenue generating machine with Social Media + Cloud in under 90 days.
Hollis Tibbetts is currently Director for Global Marketing Operations for Dell Software Group. He has established himself as a successful software marketing and technology expert. His various strategy, marketing and technology articles are read nearly 50,000 times a month.
Hollis has developed substantial expertise in middleware, SaaS, Cloud, data management and distributed application technologies, with over 20 years experience in marketing, technical, product management, product marketing and business development roles at leading companies in such as Pervasive, Aruna (acquired by Progress Software), Sybase (now SAP), webMethods (now Software AG), M7 Corporation (acquired by BEA/Oracle), OnDisplay (acquired by Vignette) and KIVA Software (acquired by Netscape). He has established himself as an industry expert, having authored a large number of technology white papers, as well as published media articles and book contributions.
Cloud – it’s not rocket science
We have all heard of cloud computing and we all know what it does. It’s undeniable, the cloud has revolutionised IT and will ultimately replace a significant portion of today’s IT services. Yes, it’s here to stay.
With such a saturated and competitive market, vendors are offering an array of cloud models and services, which are relatively easy to acquire. Whether it is public, private or hybrid, enterprises’ choices in the cloud are endless.
Nowadays, they can even choose to adopt a private or hosted cloud today and a public cloud model tomorrow. Gone are the days when different “clouds” couldn’t be combined. While this may provide enterprises with more flexibility and the freedom of choice, it can also hinder their governance, control and oversight of their IT infrastructure.
Take NASA for example. NASA recently released a report, auditing its progress of cloud adoption between June …
I’m Not Scared of DevOps and You Shouldn’t Be Either
DevOps is speeding towards the IT world like a freight train and the hype around it is deafening. There is no reason to be afraid of this change as it is the natural reaction to the agile movement that revolutionized development just a few years ago. By definition, DevOps is the natural alignment of IT performance to business profitability. The relevance of this has yet to be quantified but it has been suggested that the route to the CEO’s chair will come from the IT leaders that successfully make the transition to a DevOps model. If this still seems foreign to you, I recommend reading up on DevOps Blog from IT Revolution, the OpsCode Blog, and check out The Phoenix Project.
Despite all the talk around simple monitoring tools, breaking through the walls between Dev and Ops still poses a real challenge. This is because of a misunderstanding around Operations real purpose – extracting real value from its resources. According to Kevin Behr the definition of Operations is the act of harvesting value from IT resources. Anything that prevents this from happening is a detriment to the business. This means that firefighting and war room sessions are a hindrance to the DevOps model. The following screenshots are good examples of a war room scenario.
Middle East Tech Leaders
The top half dozen Arabic Middle Eastern countries in our current rankings at the Tau Institute are Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. The first three stand clearly ahead of the others, and also rank in the top half of the 102 countries we’ve ranked worldwide. Jordan actually outpaces the United States.
How can this latter statement be true? Jordan is a small, oil-poor, relatively undeveloped nation, with a per-person income level less than one-tenth that of the US. Its entire economy is about the size of that of Vermont, with overall prosperity on a par with Sri Lanka.
But relatively speaking, the Kingdom is doing well in comparison with its neighbors, and on a “pound-for-pound” basis against the wealthier nations of the world.
How We Do It
We integrate several technology and social factors into our algorithms — on the one hand including average bandwidth, access to broadband, number of dataservers, on the other hand including income disparity, perception of corruption, human development, and the local cost of living. This results in rankings that show how well the nations of the world are doing compared to what they already have, with the dynamic that the top performers will continue to outpace the laggards.
Our rankings also reflect a lot of time spent, by me and by our associates and advisors, living in the various corners of the world. They reflect how one can sense optimism in the streets of Jordan, despite tremendous challenges that are only being exacerbated by a flood of refugees from Syria, while sensing a pernicious, lingering pessimism in a United States that seems maddeningly glued to a downward trajectory.
There are similar real-world reflections in other parts of the world as well. Travel to Estonia (ranked #2 in our research) and you’ll find an exuberance lacking in, say, Italy (ranked #76), despite an income level in the latter country that’s still more than twice that of Estonia. Dynamic Poland (#14) and problematic Russia (#80) provide another contrast. There are literally thousands of such comparisons that can be drawn from our research.
We will another major update at Cloud Expo in Silicon Valley the week of November 4. We are also working on developing regional and city rankings, a massive undertaking for us that won’t be complete until sometime next year.
Tiny but Committed
Our Institute is small, headquartered on a former liberal-arts college campus in Northern Illinois, and in Metro Manila, Philippines. We are also committed unequivocally to peaceful means of solving all problems. This can be a difficult point of view to adhere to, but having seen enough violence on small scales and larger scales, I for one take the view that no further human progress is possible through violent means of any type.
I have recently been tweeting a lot and writing a bit about my loathing of NSA spying (which I consider a violent act in that it is purely intimidating), and my enormous reservations about the current march to war against Syria by the Obama Administration.
As a small example, I see the potential disruption this bellicosity will cause in Jordan, and of course it will do nothing but harm to Syria, which already ranks low in our research. We would also love to be able to dig more deeply into the technology infrastructures and potential of all of our Middle Eastern leaders, as well as the countries that lag. But violence (and its potential) puts the kibosh on that. Surely, there are ways to exert irresistible, non-violent pressure on the bad actors of the world without becoming a bad actor oneself.
I am happy to share more details of our research and debate our approach and point of view with anyone at anytime. Perhaps I’ll see you in Santa Clara, or elsewhere — just send me a tweet to engage.
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Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Performance Is Not a Commodity
Performance is the intersection of power, agility, and control. If you value performance you don’t want to use an oversubscribed, commodity cloud as the cornerstone of your business.
In his general session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Nathan Day, Chief Scientist at SoftLayer, will discuss the features of a cloud that combine to create a truly performant environment.
Nathan Day is Chief Scientist at SoftLayer, where he is responsible for the design, creation, and implementation of the proprietary SoftLayer Infrastructure Management System (IMS). Prior to SoftLayer, he served as VP of Development at The Planet where he oversaw the back-end management system. Prior to joining The Planet, Day held the position as Senior Application Developer at Catalog.com. His employment history includes positions with Texas Instruments, MCI WorldCom, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He brings extensive experience in product and software development. His skill set includes PHP, Cold Fusion, Perl, HTML, XML, C, C++, and Python. Mr. Day earned a BS in Aerospace Engineering and an MS in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University.
Cloud Computing is Dead. Long Live Quantum Cloud Computing
Qcloud “…aims to provide resources for anybody interested in quantum technologies, in particular those who want to have some practical experience of using and manipulating information using quantum computers.”
We don’t even pretend to understand quantum computing. Now it’s in the cloud?!?
The Bloch sphere is a representation of a qubit, the fundamental building block of quantum computers (source: Wikipedia).
Cloud Expo: Scalable Big Data Solutions in a Bare Metal Cloud
The cloud provides an easy on-ramp to building and deploying Big Data solutions. Transitioning from initial deployment to large-scale, highly performant operations may not be as easy.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Harold Hannon, a Sr. Software Architect at SoftLayer Technologies, will discuss the benefits, weaknesses, and performance characteristics of public and bare metal cloud deployments that can help you make the right decisions.
Harold Hannon has been working in the field of software development as both an Architect and Developer for over 15 years, with a focus on workflow, integration and distributed systems. He is currently a Sr. Software Architect at SoftLayer Technologies working within their Product Innovation team. He has a passion for leveraging open source solutions to bring real value to the Enterprise space, and has implemented open source solutions with many companies across the globe. Hannon is also active in mobile application development, with multiple published applications.