If we are involved in a cyber-war, where are the frontlines? What are the defenses that will work? Much of the efforts done so far in cybersecurity are nothing more than building an ineffective Maginot Line for cyber-defenses.
Should we be spending more time (and money) in figuring out cyberwarfare and protecting critical infrastructure instead of conventional warfare?
Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater | @CloudExpo #Cloud
It’s a well-known adage, ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water’. These days we generally don’t toss our bathwater out the window, nor do we make a baby take the last bath – but we should probably still heed this advice. Especially when we consider adopting and transitioning to new technologies.
Big Data looks inwards to transform network management and application delivery
We’ve all heard of the business applications touted by big data advocates – data-driven purchasing decisions, enhanced market insights and actionable customer feedback. These are undoubtedly of great value to businesses, yet organisations only have to look inwards to find further untapped potential. Here Manish Sablok, Head of Field Marketing NWE at ALE explains the two major internal IT processes that can benefit greatly from embracing big data: network management and application delivery.
SNS Research estimated Big Data investments reached $40 billion worldwide this year. Industry awareness and reception is equally impressive – ‘89% of business leaders believe big data will revolutionise business operations in the same way the Internet did.’ But big data is no longer simply large volumes of unstructured data or just for refining external business practices – the applications continue to evolve. The advent of big data analytics has paved the way for smarter network and application management. Big data can ultimately be leveraged internally to deliver cost saving efficiencies, optimisation of network management and application delivery.
What’s trending on your network?
Achieving complete network visibility has been a primary concern of CIOs in recent years – and now the arrival of tools to exploit big data provides a lifeline. Predictive analytics techniques enable a transition from a reactive to proactive approach to network management. By allowing IT departments visibility of devices – and crucially applications – across the network, the rise of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend can be safely controlled.
The newest generation of switch technology has advanced to the stage where application visibility capability can now be directly embedded within the most advanced switches. These switches, such as the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise OmniSwitch 6860, are capable of providing an advanced degree of predictive analytics. The benefits of these predictive analytics are varied – IT departments can establish patterns of routine daily traffic in order to swiftly identify anomalies hindering the network. Put simply, the ability to detect what is ‘trending’ – be it backup activities, heavy bandwidth usage or popular application deployment – has now arrived.
More tasks can be automated than ever before, with a dynamic response to network and user needs becoming standard practice. High priority users, such as internal teams requiring continued collaboration, can be prioritised the necessary network capacity in real-time.
Effectively deploy, monitor and manage applications
Effective application management has its own challenges, such as the struggle to enforce flexible but secure user and device policies. Big data provides the business intelligence necessary to closely manage application deployment by analysing data streams, including application performance and user feedback. Insight into how employees or partners are using applications allows IT departments to identify redundant features or little used devices and to scale back or increase support and development accordingly.
As a result of the increasing traffic from voice, video and data applications, new network management tools have evolved alongside the hardware. The need to reduce the operational costs of network management, while at the same time providing increased availability, security and multimedia support has led to the development of unified management tools that offer a single, simple window into applications usage. Centralised management can help IT departments predict network trends, potential usage issues and manage users and devices – providing a simple tool to aid business decisions around complex processes.
Through the effective deployment of resources based on big data insight, ROI can be maximised. Smarter targeting of resources makes for a leaner IT deployment, and reduces the need for investment in further costly hardware and applications.
Networks converging on the future
Big data gathering, processing and analytics will all continue to advance and develop as more businesses embrace the concept and the market grows. But while the existing infrastructure in many businesses is capable of using big data to a limited degree, a converged network infrastructure, by providing a simplified and flexible architecture, will maximise the benefits and at the same time reduce Total Cost of Ownership – and meet corporate ROI requirements.
By introducing this robust network infrastructure, businesses can ensure a future-proof big data operation is secure. The advent of big data has brought with it the ability for IT departments to truly develop their ‘smart network’. Now it is up to businesses to seize the opportunity.
Written by Manish Sablok, Head of Field Marketing NWE at Alcatel Lucent Enterprise
Angular 2: Exposing a Child Component’s API | @CloudExpo #Cloud
In Angular 2 a parent component can pass the data to its child via binding to the child’s input parameter marked with the annotation @Input(). I’ll blog about it later, but you can see how it can be done in my blog on implementing the Mediator design pattern.
In this blog I’ll show you another scenario when the parent component simply needs to use the API exposed by the child. You’ll see how a parent component can use the child’s API from both the template and the TypeScript code.
The Future of Storage By @Kevin_Jackson | @CloudExpo #Cloud
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of doing a Blab on advanced storage with Daniel Newman and Eric Vanderburg. We covered some pretty interesting points on enterprise storage challenges, advanced storage trends and flash. If you didn’t catch it, a replay is now available.
Kimberly-Clark implements IoT-based app for facilities managers
Kimberly-Clark’s professional business unit has announced the launch of a new Intelligent Restroom app that helps customer’s better monitor and manage restrooms remotely.
The app, which was built on IBM’s IoT development platform, Bluemix, and hosted on the same company’s cloud platform, combines IoT and cloud capabilities to allow facility manager’s to receive data and alerts from various devices in restrooms, in an effort to improve efficiency.
“The restroom and supplies management have always been important factors in facilities management, however, we now know they’re critical to maintaining the business itself,” said Bryan Semkuley, VP of Global Innovation at Kimberly-Clark Professional. “We wanted to help our clients reduce tenant churn, lower costs, and improve the customers’ experience along the way. That’s when we turned to innovations in cloud and IoT from IBM that can be operated from facilities managers’ smartphones.”
The team at Kimberly-Clark Professional claim initial tests of the app have helped customers reduce the amount of supplies used in the restroom by up to 20%, and the app is now available in North America, with plans to expand internationally over the course of 2016.
“Kimberly-Clark Professional products are used by one fourth of the world’s population on a regular basis,” said Rachel Reinitz, CTO for IBM’s Bluemix Garage. “IBM Cloud, from development platform through IoT, enabled them to develop and deploy the innovative Intelligent Restroom from the ground up.”
Oracle bolsters construction capabilities with $663mn Textura acquisition
Oracle has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Textura, provider of construction contracts and payment management cloud services.
The deal, valued at approximately $663 million, adds to the Oracle Primavera offering, building on the cloud suite for project cost, time and risk management. Over recent years, Oracle has been making efforts to the re-architect the Oracle Primavera products as a software-as-a-service offering to capitalize on growing digitalization trends within the construction industry.
“The increasingly global engineering and construction industry requires digital modernization in a way that automates manual processes and embraces the power of cloud computing to easily connect the construction job site, reduce cost overruns, and improve productivity,” said Mike Sicilia, GM of Oracle’s Engineering and Construction Global Business Unit. “Together, Textura and Oracle Engineering and Construction will have the most comprehensive set of cloud services in the industry.”
The company now claims to have a complete end-to-end cloud project-solution which manages all phases of engineering and construction projects. Textura’s cloud software currently processes more than $3.4 billion in payments for general contractors, engineers, and subcontractors each month, currently accommodating more than 6,000 different projects.
“Textura’s mission is to bring workflow automation and transparency to complex construction projects while improving their financial performance and minimizing risks,” said David Habiger, CEO at Textura. “We are excited to join Oracle and bring our cloud-based capabilities to help extend the Oracle Engineering and Construction Industry Cloud Platform.”
The acquisition builds on Oracle’s continued efforts to provide industry specific solutions, where the company reportedly spends more than $700 million annually.
Why more enterprises are running Microsoft applications on the AWS cloud
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Microsoft revenue from Windows Server rose a remarkable 46% in 2015, even while revenue from on-premises licenses fell 2%. The source of growth? Cloud service providers like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS), whose customers would rather pay pennies per hour for a license than spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on on-premises licenses.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud is ramping up efforts to make the case that you should run Windows Server or any application from Microsoft on AWS. There have been significant advances on this front in the last five months: AWS announcement of Microsoft Active Directory in December, the new AWS Database Migration Service released in January, and a new white paper published this month, all aimed at large enterprise customers.
It appears to be succeeding: according to IDC, 50% of AWS enterprise users host Windows productivity applications on AWS. It is also interesting that Windows Server licenses on Azure only rose 7% in 2015 — likely not the main source of Microsoft Server’s explosive 46% revenue jump.
Here are just a few of the features of AWS’ platform that enterprises find especially appealing:
- Pre-configured machine images (AMIs) with fully compliant Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server licenses included.
- AWS Database Migration Service, mentioned above, that allows enterprises to migrate their databases with virtually no downtime. Microsoft provides tools for migrating SQL Server easily to Azure, but other DB types are a more significant effort; AWS Database Migration Service supports Oracle, Microsoft SQL, MySQL, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL.
- SQL Server on AWS RDS, a managed SQL Server service that provides automated backups, monitoring, metrics, patching, replication, etc. According to Hearst Corporation, running RDS SQL Server allowed them to launch quickly and refocus 8 or 9 engineers on other projects rather than managing on-premises databases.
- AWS Schema Conversion Tool, which converts database schemas and stored procedures from one platform to another.
- Managed Microsoft Active Directory, which allows you to configure a trust relationship between your existing on-premises AD and AD in AWS, simplifying the deployment and management of directory services. Monitoring, recovery, snapshots, and updates are managed for you. (Many enterprises may also choose to manage their own AWS AD.)
- BYOL (Bring Your Own License) to AWS with the Microsoft License Mobility through Software Assurance program. This can include SharePoint, Exchange, SQL Server, Remote Desktop, and over a dozen other eligible Microsoft products. Can be used on Amazon EC2 or RDS instances.
- Reference Architectures and Demos for running SharePoint, Exchange, SQL Server, etc. on AWS cloud.
According to AWS’ own report, the Database Migration Service has been used to migrate over 1,000 databases to AWS in the first quarter of 2016. This is quite an impressive figure, especially considering that it is a new service. One third of those migrations were not just moving databases, but switching database engines, further evidence that AWS Aurora and its native database services are attracting customers away from big vendor licenses with Microsoft and Oracle.
As AWS continues to develop services that facilitate large-scale migrations and help enterprises modernise applications, it further differentiates itself from other cloud vendors in depth and sophistication of services. Microsoft will have to do more to convince enterprises that they should run Windows Server and other Microsoft services on Azure, especially when AWS keeps creating native services that promise faster, easier migrations and simplified ongoing management.
The post More Enterprises Running Microsoft Applications on AWS Cloud appeared first on Logicworks Gathering Clouds.
Latest research shows three clear tiers in cloud infrastructure services
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The dominance of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in cloud infrastructure has long been apparent – but a new note from analyst house Synergy Research argues the space is in three distinct tiers, with AWS all on its own at the top table.
Amazon currently holds 31% of the global market share, with Microsoft, IBM and Google between them holding 22%. The next 20 vendors, including CenturyLink, Oracle, Rackspace, Salesforce and VMware, have 27% share between them. As previous research indicated, Microsoft and Google are – very slowly – gaining ground on the AWS juggernaut, with more than 100% year over year growth compared to Amazon’s 57%. The 20 vendors in the third tier are growing on average by 41% each year.
The figures come amidst Amazon’s first quarter revenues published earlier this week. The cloud arm noted a particular uplift, with revenues rising 64% year over year and reaching $2.5 billion.
Synergy argues that quarterly cloud infrastructure service revenues are not ‘comfortably’ above the $7bn mark.
“This is a market that is so big and is growing so rapidly that companies can be growing by 10-30% per year and might feel good about themselves and yet they’d still be losing market share,” said John Dinsdale, Synergy Research chief analyst and research director.
“The big question for them is whether or not they are building a sustainable and profitable business,” he added. “This can be done by focusing on specific regions or specific services, but the bulk of the market demands huge scale, a broad footprint, very deep pockets and a long-term corporate focus.”
AWS, Google, Microsoft and IBM pull away from pack in race for cloud market share
New findings from Synergy Research highlight the cloud market is still dominated by AWS, Google, Microsoft and IBM, as the pack is seemingly struggling to gain ground in the race for market share.
AWS still leads the way in the segment, accounting for roughly 31% of the global market share, with IBM, Google and IBM collectively accounting for the next 22%. The next 20 players in the market, companies such as HPE, VMWare and Alibaba for example, account for a collective 27%. AWS year-on-year growth was estimated at 57% while Google and Microsoft both demonstrated more than 100% growth over the same period.
“This is a market that is so big and is growing so rapidly that companies can be growing by 10-30% per year and might feel good about themselves and yet they’d still be losing market share,” said John Dinsdale, Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. “The big question for them is whether or not they are building a sustainable and profitable business. This can be done by focusing on specific regions or specific services, but the bulk of the market demands huge scale, a broad footprint, very deep pockets and a long-term corporate focus.”
Worryingly for the rest of the pack outside of the top four, the gap would appear to be growing as AWS, Google, Microsoft and IBM are pulling further ahead. The 20 companies outside the top four averaged year-on-year growth of approximately 41%, though Synergy claim the cloud segment grew more than 50% over the course of Q1.
The team estimate the quarterly cloud infrastructure service revenues, which include IaaS, PaaS and private & hybrid cloud, has now surpassed the $7 billion milestone, with the US accounting for roughly 50% of the worldwide market share.
