Study Finds Enterprise Cloud Focus Shifting From Adoption to Optimization

Cloudyn together with The Big Data Group has released the latest AWS customer optimization data, reinforcing the positive growth trend expected for the year ahead.

We set out to evaluate whether the projected 2013 ‘year of cloud optimization’ is on course and discovered that we are well into the public cloud adoption life cycle. In 2011 and 2012 the conversation centered around how and when to move to the cloud. Now it is all about companies looking for efficiencies and cost controls,” commented David Feinleib, Managing Director of The Big Data Group.

The study, based on over 450 selected AWS and Cloudyn customers, highlights a more mature approach to cloud deployments reflected by a deeper understanding of where inefficiencies lurk and how to optimize them. EC2 makes up for 62% of total AWS spend, with more than 50% of customers now using Reserved Instances in their deployment mix. However, On-Demand pricing remains the top choice for most, accounting for 71% of EC2 spend. Even for customers using reservations, there is still opportunity for further efficiency.

For example, Cloudyn’s Unused Reservation Detector has assisted customers in finding a startling 24% of unused reservations. These can be recycled by relocating matching On-Demand instances to the availability zone of the unused reservation.

There is also a shift away from large instance types to medium, where two medium instances cost the same as one large, but can produce 30% more output. However, with the low 8-9% utilization rates of the popular instance types, there is certainly more work to be done on the road to cloud optimization.

Cloudyn and The Big Data Group host a webinar on May 1, 2013 at 9:00 am PT focused on deployment efficiency.

Cloud Expo New York | License Management: Now What?

License and compliance management was difficult when most everything you needed was terrestrial – on the ground, tangible, countable. But as assets float toward and into the cloud, license and compliance management are becoming more complex, more challenging, and even more important.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Erik Iversen, Leader, Software Asset Management Team at SHI International, to discuss how to use a simple three-step model to help get ready.
Erik Iversen leads the Software Asset Management team at SHI International. He started the SAM Services team in 2008 with just one customer; now the team supports a variety of software governance and compliance programs for hundreds of customers of all shapes and sizes.

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Cloud Expo New York: Isolated Networks in the Cloud

It’s now possible to create isolated networks in the cloud using OpenStack Networking. Cloud Networks can help enhance network security, increase application agility and improve scalability and availability of your servers.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Hart Hoover, Cloud Strategist at Rackspace Hosting, will discuss:
What are cloud networks?
History and progress of OpenStack Networking
Where do we go from here?
Use cases for an isolated network in a cloud infrastructure
Live demo of creating an isolated network and deploying servers within it

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CSOs: Are You a Groundhog or a Giraffe?

Through a great deal of research on enterprise cloud adoption and security, I’ve learned something telling. As you would expect, CISOs’ opinions about cloud strategy are quite varied. While many folks recognize their company’s use of SaaS for HR, sales, communication, and other applications, they are fairly divided about the use of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and how secure these environments are in keeping company data safeguarded. After many talks with these technology leaders, I’ve determined that each fall into three distinct categories.
The first group is the server huggers and they make up a very small percentage of the respondents. They simply have no reason to leverage IaaS. Their applications are very resource intensive and expensive, and their businesses are highly predictable, so the need for scalable capacity just doesn’t exist. However, the time may come where they have company needs to bring the cloud into the mix. If so, they should be well informed on how to take advantage of cloud services and realize the ways to protect data during and after that migration.

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Cloud Expo New York: How to Stop Worrying and Love Your Cloud

The key drivers behind the Cloud Revolution are faster delivery of IT solutions, access to ‘unlimited’ on-demand capacity, and lower operating costs. Still, many struggle with the variables behind the Cloud, including data management, portability, and public, private, hybrid, and virtual private clouds.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Tim Halpin, Director Cloud Services – Adoption and Utilization at AT&T, will show how you can leverage cloud solutions to minimize risk and investment as you execute your overall IT strategy and move your production workloads into the Cloud.

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Bye-Bye Tivoli, Welcome Cloud and Smarter Infrastructure: A New Brand in IBM

In an internal reorg, IBM’s Tivoli, Maximo, TRIRIGA, Endpoint Manager, and Netcool branded offerings, as well as its SmartCloud service management offerings, are now to be clustered under an «overarching umbrella» called IBM Cloud & Smarter Infrastructure. The new division, says IBM, reflects the evolution of client needs and IBM’s portfolio.

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Migrating On-Premise Controls to the Cloud

The scale and automation of cloud computing deliver economies of scale – and price points – that can’t be matched by traditional computing platforms. Managers can minimize capital expenses and align operational costs to business demands with scalable, flexible resource deployments. Those same factors enable innovation through rapid prototyping and testing of complex systems that aren’t feasible – or affordable – with established approaches. It’s little wonder the cloud has emerged as the first choice of infrastructure for many IT managers and practitioners.
Security and compliance play just as critical a role in the hybrid cloud as they do in more conventional environments. So it’s unfortunate that as organizations move operations to the cloud they tend to mirror the protection efforts they employ with their physical, on-premise systems. It’s a mistake because in many cases existing controls don’t migrate well to the cloud. As a result, they fail to provide the requisite protection and diminish – or even eliminate – anticipated cost and operational benefits of cloud computing.

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Cloud Expo New York: APIs and Services – One Platform or Two?

A growing number of organizations looking at building APIs are wondering what existing capabilities they can leverage. Many concepts are common to APIs and Services while others are not, but should be.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Alistair Farquharson, CTO of SOA Software, will discuss this changing market and predict how it might come together for the benefit of both.
Alistair Farquharson is a visionary industry veteran focused on using disruptive technologies to drive business growth and improve efficiency and agility within organizations. As the CTO of SOA Software Alistair is helping to shape and mature the enterprise API and SOA industry. Alistair is responsible for product strategy and development for this leading Enterprise API and SOA Governance company. He spends a great deal of time and energy shaping customer and industry direction with regular conference keynote appearances, discussions with customers, and even the occasional foray into writing code. Alistair has been at the forefront of many technology waves from enterprise web architecture, through web services and SOA, and now into APIs. His expertise spans a wide range of technologies and businesses, and he brings a unique global focus to everything he does.

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Cloud Computing, Cloud Storage and Project Management Software

The demand for distributed data and services is increasing as big companies are more and more spread across the world.
Cloud services are raging from simple storage and up to complex computing processes. Depending on the needs there are products that run completely into the cloud while others are just storing the data into the cloud. In the last few years there is a battle that is given between desktop based applications and cloud based ones.
The notion of web-based products refers to software that runs within a browser on the client side. Generally the central computing part is kept entirely (computing and storage) within the cloud on the software provider side. However for certain offerings like RationalPlan it is also possible to have the central computing unit as a server module on the customer side. This might be a security measure for some customers.

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Upcoming Eucalyptus Release To Include "Features…Other Cloud Platforms Are Only Dreaming of"

«In June of 2013 we are shipping Eucalyptus version 3.3 and again we present features to you that other cloud platforms are only dreaming of,» blogged Eucalyptus CEO Mårten Mickos today. «We are adding three new services for scalable cloud workloads,» he continued, «Auto Scaling, Elastic Load Balancing, and CloudWatch.»

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