SHI International has teamed with Ariba to streamline IT product discovery and purchasing processes for large agricultural machinery builder AGCO.
A global provider of IT products, procurement, and related services, with more than $4 billion in annual sales, SHI has tapped into the networked economy to improve their business productivity and sales. To learn more about how agile procurement works well, we’re joined John D’Aquila, Applications Support Manager at SHI International Corp. in Somerset, New Jersey.
SYS-CON.tv Interview: The Stairway to Cloud
“The thing about cloud is that a lot of it is about designing and operating for the future, so being mindful of where your providers are going and what their strategy is, is part of the decision criteria of partners that you pick. You are providing what people want but anticipating what they will need,” stated Jonathan King, VP Cloud Strategy & Business Development at Savvis, in this SYS-CON.tv interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at the 12th International Cloud Expo, held June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City.
Cloud Expo 2013 Silicon Valley, November 4–7, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
A Roadmap to High-Value Cloud Infrastructure: Application and Data Mobility
In its first phase, the “Roadmap to High-Value Cloud Infrastructure” focused on Data Storage Expansion. In the second, when talking about disaster recovery and data protection, we discussed not only data recovery, but application recovery in the cloud as well.
In the journey toward cloud, we find two kinds of companies – those that consider themselves «born in the cloud» and have built their entire IT infrastructure in the cloud from the ground up. These folks don’t need a roadmap to high-value cloud infrastructure because they built their infrastructure with the cloud in mind. There’s nothing to migrate, no conversion gotchas to account for.
Telcos keep the noise down at Cloud World Forum
David Molony, Principal Analyst, Enterprise
Telcos have launched a series of credible cloud services offers, and there is a perception in the market that they can now compete with global systems integrators in the converged ICT space. But telco noise levels are set low. There’s a tentativeness in their marketing (which may be deliberate) but, more importantly, they are not getting the direct advocacy they deserve from their global MNC customers.
Tier-2 telcos ramp up cloud services
Telco cloud service providers were heavily outnumbered by cloud technology vendors at the recent Cloud World Forum in London. That’s normal at trade exhibitions, but still we wanted to hear more from the network and data center operators in the shadow of the Google megabooth.
The event was well attended; it featured mostly vendors, but also some network operators who seem to be setting themselves up as European cloud service providers …
With HANA, SAP says commitment to cloud is «stronger than ever»
There were some pretty big statements being laid down during Rob Enslin’s keynote speech at the SAP UK and Ireland Forum today, with the enterprise giant’s global customer operations president making plenty of noise about HANA, the company’s big cloud bet and a shift to the database sector.
The big push this year, of course, is HANA’s Enterprise Cloud, which is in the words of SAP, “the power of real-time business and simplicity of the cloud». It’s enterprise class with cloud’s flexibility, alongside in-memory capability. The company seems pretty pleased with its technology, especially if this morning’s activity was anything to go by.
“HANA is the biggest innovation in the business software industry in the last 20 years.”
“We are the innovation leader – we have to be.”
“We have to understand that change is happening; for you to be able to survive that …
The Other Agile Architecture
In the enterprise context, the missing piece of Agile Software Architecture is Agile Enterprise Architecture, where EA brings together the organization, the processes, the technology, and the information in a consistent, business-driven whole. Configurability alone doesn’t provide this consistency. Instead, true Agile Architecture – that is, architecture that supports the business agility requirement – must tie these concerns together using a balanced combination of Enterprise Architecture, governance, and Agile Software Architecture.
SYS-CON.tv Interview: Migrating Applications to the Cloud
“Cloud Technology Partners focuses on three key service areas: building cloud for our customers, delivering cloud native applications, and we’re migrating applications to the cloud,” explained John Treadway, SVP at Cloud Technology Partners, in this SYS-CON.tv interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at the 12th International Cloud Expo, held June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City.
Cloud Expo 2013 Silicon Valley, November 4–7, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
What Can MSPs Learn from IT Consumerization?
IT transformation is being driven by modern methods of delivering services and MSPs can lead the way in helping customers.
The growth of smart mobile devices has led to a simultaneous advance of social gaming. Game developers are taking advantage of this trend by building popular products that resonate with youth. Not surprisingly, Facebook has enabled the social component of gaming by allowing their platform to be used via APIs.
Companies like Joyent act as cloud service providers specifically targeting Facebook game developers with a niche solution. For example, an immensely successful social game called Candy Crush Saga recently surpassed Angry Birds to become the most popular game. This shows that consumerization of IT opens opportunities to anyone with a great concept who can quickly assemble and deliver a solution that can scale to demand.
In enterprise IT environments, you can see similar developments affecting Managed Service Providers. For example, Joyent delivers infrastructure cloud services for companies like King (the developer of Candy Crush Saga) for game delivery. The IT ecosystem has to change with services delivered in an easy to use manner that simplifies consumption, since assembling a cloud solution from multiple services requires deep expertise. However, MSPs can fill these needs similarly to how they support social games produced and delivered to consumers.
Go Beyond IaaS to Deliver ‘Anything as a Service’
Many organizations want to expand upon the IaaS foundation to deliver cloud services in all forms – software, mobility, infrastructure and IT. Understanding the strategy, planning process and tools for this transformation will help catalyze changes in the way the business operates and deliver real value.
In his Day 4 Keynote at 12th Cloud Expo, Sheng Liang, CTO Cloud Platforms Group, Citrix Systems, discusses the new ITaaS model and how to begin the transformation.
Sheng Liang is CTO Cloud Platforms Group, Citrix Systems. Formerly CEO of Cloud.com, he’s a technology visionary who developed the Java Virtual Machine at Sun Microsystems, and a serial entrepreneur. Before Cloud.com he co-founded web application firewall vendor Teros Networks (also acquired by Citrix), and was a member of the senior management team at SEVEN Networks and Openwave Systems, which developed software products for over 100 wireless and wire-line service providers around the world.
Back Up Data Correctly to Avoid a Disaster, Even When Disaster Strikes
The convergence of increased data stored on company networks and stricter compliance regulations dictating the length of time the information needs to be stored for have helped cloud storage explode in popularity. The cloud offers an easy-to-use, scalable and cost-effective solution for data storage. However, organizations must seriously consider how they manage their storage from a back-up and disaster recovery perspective. While there is no doubt that cloud computing can speed disaster recovery – from reducing the time it takes to restore data, to the fact that information is stored off-site, alleviating the risk of natural disasters – incorrectly managing the storage can often prove more of a hindrance than a help. Whether an employee accidently deletes a file, or a more sinister hack on the company network takes place, for most organizations it is inevitable that data recovery will need to occur at some point. Planning for disaster is essential and having in place an effective back-up and disaster recovery process can save headaches down the line.