It’s that time again. As 2013 comes to a close, the landscape for 2014 grows ever nearer on the horizon. With a little help from some friends, CloudTech sums up the most compelling stories of 2013 alongside the biggest areas for growth over the coming year.
1) All about hybrid cloud
2013 was the year when hybrid cloud truly came of age, from theories to tangible business use cases.
Big companies practically fell over themselves to push this message through in research reports: Rackspace claimed back in August that hybrid was the future for three in five enterprises, whilst Gartner forecast that almost half of enterprises will be utilising hybrid cloud solutions by 2017.
And in an exclusive interview back in July, SAP VP cloud Sven Denecken told CloudTech that hybrid is “picking up speed” and added that for enterprises “it is the right mix of cloud solutions.”
This IDC whitepaper takes a look at the growth of Linux as a server operating system and how deployment form factors have changed over time. Today, commercial Linux has become a key platform across many workloads. This paper considers both workload data and the ecosystem that has grown up to support the opportunity for Linux deployments, including application software, application development and deployment software, and infrastructure software.
Not-for-profits and cloud computing seem to be made for one another.
The cloud IT delivery model is well suited to not-for-profits (NFPs) for a number of reasons, according to an article on CMO.com. There are little to no upfront costs with cloud services and consumption is usually billed on a monthly subscription basis, allowing for predictable budgeting.
There are also fewer IT staff requirements; this is ideal for NFPs who might not have the resources to hire skilled technical staff. In the specific case of server hardware, no servers need to be purchased, maintained, or recycled with a cloud service.
Other tangible benefits of the cloud for NFPs include rapid deployment of services, and the convenience of being able to use the service from any location – ideal for staff and volunteers.
Do you like opinions? I have asked my UK based colleague and opinionated enterprise mobility expert, Peter Rogers, to share some of his personal views and predictions for enterprise mobility in 2014 in this guest post. Do you disagree or agree with Peter? We would love your comments. Enjoy!
First, the days of the million pound MADP (mobile application development platform) are over. Customers want to see solutions with flexible cost models starting at a 250K entry point in Europe (probably double that in the US). They don’t want a black box take-it-or-leave-it approach for a million pounds.
Second, the virtues of MADPs have been greatly overstated. Customers now realise they can develop their own hybrid mobile applications using powerful yet inexpensive development tools, and they can manage the development themselves or with trusted SI partners.
The MADP business case is dead. However the original MCAP premise of putting the power into the developers’ hands for cross-platform apps and combining this with a Mobile Cloud Platform for life cycle management is alive and well today.
In the past decade, many companies have moved towards the agile method of development rather than the traditional waterfall methodology. Even companies that do not strictly adhere to agile development will usually use a blend of both agile and waterfall techniques. Agile development has many characteristics that make it more suited to modern technology than the waterfall method. Today, agile development is very closely related to DevOps and the cloud.
Agile development allows companies an adaptability and flexibility that is simply not possible through traditional waterfall methodology. In a world that moves as fast as the modern tech industry, the ability to turn on a dime during the development process is invaluable to any company. The waterfall method requires a linear project schedule that advances from one stage to another while the agile method is modular and fluid. It is this same fluidity that ties agile development into enterprise DevOps and the public cloud.
At its core DevOps is all about collaboration. The lines of communication must be opened and it takes some effort to ensure that they stay that way. It’s easy to pay lip service to trends and talk about implementing new methodologies, but without action, real benefits cannot be realized. Success requires planning, advocates empowered to effect change, and, of course, the right tooling.
To bring about a cultural shift it’s important to share challenges. In simple terms, ensuring that everyone knows what everyone else is doing can create a real team spirit and social cohesion that will drive DevOps forward. Here are six tips that can be implemented to help you get there.
On December 16, 2013, our friends over at Compare the Cloud wrote a blog called “The Day Computing Changed Forever – and We All Missed it.” The blog centered on what the future of the Cloud could hold for society. Ironically enough, the post was published on the same day that Google (pictured below) announced it’s new line of products – four legged military machines. SkyNet anyone?
Anyway, in the post our friends over at Compare the Cloud set the stage for what the future of the Cloud and IT in general could look like. From operating in the world via customized avatars, to fitting an entire data center within the space of a few specs of DNA to human clusters providing science with answers beyond current imagination, our friends at Compare the Cloud lay out a very interesting vision for the future. That said, we are going to use this space to, point-by-point, deconstruct their vision of the future and why that vision spells out an extremely scary world.
On December 16, 2013, our friends over at Compare the Cloud wrote a blog called “The Day Computing Changed Forever – and We All Missed it.” The blog centered on what the future of the Cloud could hold for society. Ironically enough, the post was published on the same day that Google (pictured below) announced it’s new line of products – four legged military machines. SkyNet anyone?
Anyway, in the post our friends over at Compare the Cloud set the stage for what the future of the Cloud and IT in general could look like. From operating in the world via customized avatars, to fitting an entire data center within the space of a few specs of DNA to human clusters providing science with answers beyond current imagination, our friends at Compare the Cloud lay out a very interesting vision for the future. That said, we are going to use this space to, point-by-point, deconstruct their vision of the future and why that vision spells out an extremely scary world.
Enterprises are building an API First strategy to keep up with their customer needs, and provide resources and services that go beyond the confines of enterprise. With this shift to using APIs as an extension of their enterprise IT, the key challenge still remains choosing the right deployment model.
Even with bullet-proof technology from a leading provider, your results could be disastrous if you start off with a wrong deployment model. Consider developer scale, innovation, incurring costs, complexity of API platform management, etc. On the other hand, forcing internal developers to hop out to the cloud to get API metadata when your internal API program is just starting is an exercise leading to inefficiency and inconsistencies.
Red Hat, Inc., on Tuesday introduced the Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) in support of OpenShift Enterprise by Red Hat, the company’s award-winning private PaaS.
Ashesh Badani, vice president and general manager, Cloud and OpenShift, Red Hat said the Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Platform-as-a-Service “builds on Red Hat’s leading certification program, which focuses on hands-on testing of real-world skills to provide enterprises with professionals who have proven experience.”