“No matter how good we get at Big Data analytics, we’ll never be able to accurately predict the future of technology,” noted John Gilmartin, VP of Product Marketing at Coraid, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “This industry is changing fast, bringing ever greater value to end users,” Gilmartin continued. “The only sure bet is that technology will change even faster and in unexpected ways in the future.”
Cloud Computing Journal: Just having the enterprise data is good. Extracting meaningful information out of this data is priceless. Agree or disagree?
John Gilmartin: Definitely agree. Data in enterprises is growing at an unprecedented rate, over 50% year-on-year by some estimates. This growth in data represents both a challenge and an opportunity. IT administrators, faced with the daunting task of storing petabytes of data for their organizations, are turning to cloud architectures for flexibility, ease of management and responsiveness. Once they have a way to capture data, they need ways to mine the data for business insights. According to analysts, business intelligence is the number one priority for CIOs.
Cloud Data Centers in Rural Locations — Gobbling Electricity, Throwing Their Weight Around
Very interesting in-depth article in the New York Times today on the sprawling, electricity-hungry data centers spawned by cloud computing.
Internet-based industries have honed a reputation for sleek, clean convenience based on the magic they deliver to screens everywhere. At the heart of every Internet enterprise are data centers, which have become more sprawling and ubiquitous as the amount of stored information explodes, sprouting in community after community.
the gee-whiz factor of such a prominent high-tech neighbor wore off quickly. First, a citizens group initiated a legal challenge over pollution from some of nearly 40 giant diesel generators that Microsoft’s facility — near an elementary school — is allowed to use for backup power.
Then came a showdown late last year between the utility and Microsoft, whose hardball tactics shocked some local officials.
These data centers are apparently not always good neighbors, and of course as they are there to serve our cloud needs we’re all complicity to some degree.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Supercomputer Genius Watson Will Take Up Residence in the Cloud
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Amplifying the Power of Cloud Computing
When the advent of Infrastructure-as-a-Service first took hold a few years back, virtualization of the network was nothing but a pie in the sky idea. Fast-forward a few years and the race to achieve network virtualization is reaching the finish line.
In his session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, James Meredith, a product manager for the Rackspace Open Cloud, will discuss how software-defined networking (SDN) will break down another barrier to entry for cloud, pros and cons and everything else in between you need to know to optimize the network in the cloud.
Parallels and IBM Join Forces at Telemanagement Forum South Africa
This post is from Matt Vasey, Senior Director, System Integrator Alliances, Parallels
Parallels recently joined IBM at the Telemanagement (TM) Forum Africa Summit in Johannesburg. Together, we focused on helping service providers address many of the cloud and hosting issues facing the African communications market. Like other developing areas, service providers in Africa need to grow and sustain their business, attract and retain their customers and adopt strategies to help differentiate them in the market. Parallels has grown its presence in Africa during the years with this focus by working closely with partners across the continent. This includes MTN Cameroon, who has developed an aggressive strategy with the help of Parallels for offering shared hosting, VPS, hosted messaging and other cloud and hosted services. MTNC has launched one of the most complete cloud services portfolios on Parallels Automation in any emerging market, including Microsoft Exchange, and SharePoint, in addition to shared hosting services with Parallels Plesk Panel with Web Presence Builder. (MTNC is part of the MTNGroup, a multinational telecommunications group, operating in 21 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.)
I was delighted when IBM invited Parallels to join them at the TM Forum Africa Summit for a number of reasons. First, IBMs leadership in the telco space, now includes a compelling joint solution for the rapid deployment and integration of our flagship cloud enablement software, Parallels Automation. Second, I attended a session presented by Gary Cohen, General Manager of IBM’s Global Communications Sector & Chairman, IBM Africa. Gary’s talk – entitled “Integrated knowledge of customers, processes and business can become the source of true differentiation and accelerated growth”, is a theme you’ve often heard Parallels discussing, too. So it’s a natural fit that IBM is the latest partner working side-by-side with Parallels. Together, we’re continued on being focused on helping service providers — in both emerging and established markets around the globe — get their cloud services up and running faster and with the right mix of application bundles.
Follow the ongoing dialogue from TM Forum Africa Summit on Twitter by searching on the hashtag #Africa12. And expect more to come as a result of Parallels new alliance with IBM.
Matt Vasey, Senior Director, System Integrator Alliances, Parallels
Infographic: How Much Can You Store in the Cloud?
The Cloud: Telcos Need a Long-Term Forecast
Have telcos (and their shareholders) really grasped how the advent of mainstream cloud computing could ultimately transform their industry? In most cases, I think not. In general, telcos’ top management teams have yet to articulate a compelling vision of where their company will play in a hyper-connected, cloud-centric world.
Clearly, cloud computing – the provision of hardware and software on a pay-as-you go basis – depends on rock-solid connectivity. Telcos provide connectivity, so they should be pivotal players in the cloud market. But right now many of them seem to be on the periphery, particularly here in Europe. In January 2012, research firm Informa said that European operators accounted for only 7% of the $13.5 billion of cloud investments by operators globally in 2011. “European operators are being outgunned in cloud infrastructure,” wrote Carmille Mendler, principle analyst at Informa, at the time.
Analysts at Citi Research take a similar view. “In Europe, some telecom operators are lagging behind their US counterparts,” they wrote in a just published report in cloud computing. “In many cases their approach to cloud remains too fragmented and sometimes defensive rather than driven by a strategic vision.”
The reasons for European telcos’ cloud caution seem to be manifold: Regulatory uncertainty and inconsistency, economic woes, privacy concerns and (probably) short-termism. For most European telcos, cloud computing isn’t going to move the revenue needle in 2012 or 2013.
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: The Software Defined Data Center
Your applications are getting more distributed, virtualized and pushed into the cloud today. But as the world progresses to multi-cloud deployments and sophisticated software-defined data centers, will your legacy load balancers and application? Next generation ADCs should be as dynamic as the application is, be able to apply application-specific optimizations and policies and deliver advanced layer 7 features and services that map to the requirements of today’s applications.
Mobile Cloud Identity
A key point that Microsoft makes in their Virtual Desktop Infrastructure materials is that IT architecture is evolving from device-centric to user-centric approaches.
Fundamentally this means increased portability and mobility of your apps and data across multiple devices, and it’s an effect that will be accelerated through parallel innovations from the world of Cloud Identity.
Cloud Identity standards are defined by organizations like the Kantara Initiative, who have a telco working group who specialise in this field.
CIOs embracing "infectious" cloud – but how does research compare?
Research commissioned by Fujitsu and Microsoft and published by Connection Research has revealed that CIOs in Australia are “embracing the realities” of the cloud.
In the foreword to the report, entitled “Insights Quarterly: Cloud in Australia”, authors Craig Baty and Greg Stone describe cloud computing as “infectious” and add that “cloud has arrived, and will continue to grow in functionality and popularity”.
The key takeaways from the report, which polled 179 CIOs across Australia, were:
- Cost was the biggest driver in moving to the cloud – lower operational costs and lower capital expenditure was most important to approximately 21% of respondents
- Email and messaging was the service migrated to the cloud most frequently – 22.6% of respondents were on the way to utilising it
- Data security (48.5%) was the most important factor in choosing a cloud provider
Each question was ranked in degrees of importance, leading to a set of …