Cisco, the networking king and economic bellwether, cleared better-than-expected earnings of $2.09 billion, or 39 cents a share, up 10.6% year-over-year, in its first fiscal quarter, which closed at the end of October. Revenues were up 5.5% to $11.9 billion despite depressed demand in key markets like Europe, down 10%, and long-term threats from widgetry like software-defined networking.
CEO John Chambers called the economy “challenging.”
Cisco’s core switching and routing sales, representing 47% of revenue, both declined 2% year-over-year, to $3.6 billion and $2.1 billion respectively.
Cisco Looking Better than Expected
Cisco, the networking king and economic bellwether, cleared better-than-expected earnings of $2.09 billion, or 39 cents a share, up 10.6% year-over-year, in its first fiscal quarter, which closed at the end of October. Revenues were up 5.5% to $11.9 billion despite depressed demand in key markets like Europe, down 10%, and long-term threats from widgetry like software-defined networking.
CEO John Chambers called the economy “challenging.”
Cisco’s core switching and routing sales, representing 47% of revenue, both declined 2% year-over-year, to $3.6 billion and $2.1 billion respectively.
Gartner: PaaS market to hit the billions globally
The latest round of research data from analyst house Gartner reveals that worldwide platform as a service (PaaS) revenue is on target to hit $1.2bn (£754m) by the end of 2012.
This figure represents an increase from $900m (£565m) from the previous year, and integrates various sub-aspects of the PaaS infrastructure, such as aPaas (application platforms as a service) and iPaas (integration platforms as a service).
Following the prediction through fully, Gartner believes the platform as a service market will hit $2.9bn (£1.8bn) by 2016.
This news appears to confound research last week from Symform detailing the struggle of PaaS compared to the more mature cloud markets of IaaS and SaaS.
The key cornerstone of the Symform report was that 79% of companies surveyed used SaaS, yet 48% had no plans to utilise PaaS in the next 12 months.
It’s no real surprise that SaaS continues …
5 reasons why small businesses choose the cloud
It has recently been shown that 80% of private businesses involved in foreign trade are small or medium sized businesses and many of these are growing or looking to expand and develop.
Expanding a business however means more people, bigger servers, more complex IT management, more computers and ultimately, more data to manage.
The solution to this is increasingly being seen to be cloud computing with its offerings ranging from dedicated servers, managed hosting and so on.
Small businesses have embraced this new way of facilitating business expansion, using it to control data and finance management. Here are five reasons why small businesses are choosing the cloud:
1. Using cloud servers means that you’ll be getting protection 24/7. Your information will be constantly monitored remotely and companies experiencing power cuts or hacker infiltrations will have their systems and data secure.
2. Cloud servers will simplify your filing system …
Storage Made Easy Serves Hybrid Cloud Market as Cloud Service Broker
Storage Made Easy, formerly SME Storage, unifies storage with its Cloud Service Brokerage solution, providing complete access to files via a single management tool, no matter the file location.
“Managing files spread across multiple onsite and public cloud information services is more than challenging, it actually interferes with business operations,” says CEO Jim Liddle. “We’re directly addressing ‘cloud sprawl’ and the ‘shadow IT’ effect these services are imposing on organizations.”
A proven player in cloud service brokerage, Storage Made Easy provides cohesive access to multiple internal and external data services and unifies management, security, governance, and search. The service offers strong audit, BYOD management, and compliance capabilities coupled with fast cross-service file search from any client or device.
Storage Made Easy Serves Hybrid Cloud Market as Cloud Service Broker
Storage Made Easy, formerly SME Storage, unifies storage with its Cloud Service Brokerage solution, providing complete access to files via a single management tool, no matter the file location.
“Managing files spread across multiple onsite and public cloud information services is more than challenging, it actually interferes with business operations,” says CEO Jim Liddle. “We’re directly addressing ‘cloud sprawl’ and the ‘shadow IT’ effect these services are imposing on organizations.”
A proven player in cloud service brokerage, Storage Made Easy provides cohesive access to multiple internal and external data services and unifies management, security, governance, and search. The service offers strong audit, BYOD management, and compliance capabilities coupled with fast cross-service file search from any client or device.
Dell Buys IaaS Automation Start-Up; Forms New Division
Hours after releasing its lackluster fiscal third-quarter results, Dell first thing
Friday morning announced that it’s bought privately held infrastructure
automation start-up Gale Technologies to fuel its all-important advance into
the cloud, the only bright spot in Dell’s numbers.
xRTML 3.0 Makes Websites Come “Alive”
The eXtensible Realtime Multiplatform 3.0 Language that is transforming the World Wide Web into the Realtime Web. Realtime also launched a competition for developers to submit their Realtime apps before a distinguished panel of judges.
xRTML 2.0 was a release we did with a lot of core changes that we felt were necessary at the time. It was something too big to be a minor release so we decided to increase the major release and launch it as 2.0. This new release, 3.0, introduces a lot of new and exciting features, such as the new templating model, storage, new inheritance model and versioning, and it’s a real breakthrough for our framework. If I could, I would even name it 4.0 or 5.0! But I think people would think we were nuts if we skipped a version.
What’s Next for the Cloud in 2013?
The Society for Information Management (SIM) recently released findings from its annual CIO survey that indicate CIOs around the world plan to commit more of their budgets on IT outsourcing in 2013 to boost productivity and reduce costs. Not surprisingly, cloud computing was cited as a top application in 2012 and I expect that to be the case next year as well.
When I speak with CIOs and IT managers many are still surprised that Xerox has been a player in the business cloud for years. But as the world’s leading enterprise for business process and document management, we’ve always contended that the cloud is an integral piece of simplifying the way work gets done – offering on-demand technology that’s scalable, affordable and can be accessed anywhere, anytime.
Violence Continues in Region of ICT Promise
So here we go again. Serious violence, if not outright war, is imminent in Gaza and Israel. This time, Hamas has rockets that can travel to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, upping the ante a few notches.
Violence is a lot uglier up close than as seen on TV, whether delivered by land, sea, piloted aircraft, or drones. Delivered by our continuously improving technology, it obliterates not only buildings and people, but the promise of improved lives brought on by our continuously improving technology.
To that end, we’ve included Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in our Tau Institute research, as we seek to uncover the developing world’s diamonds in the rough and the developed world’s sterling performers. We’ve also included several Gulf States and Northern African nations.
This entire part of the world does well in our rankings, exceptionally so when we consider the violence that’s been part of its fabric. (And I say this knowing that more than 100 people will be murdered throughout the United States this week-end.)
Among the 102 countries we’ve surveyed, we find Egypt, Yemen, Jordan Syria ranking near or above the world average in potential, with Egypt scoring in the world’s Top 20. Among developed nations, Israel scores among the Top 10 with the most potential.
The Middle East and North Africa aren’t as dynamic overall in our findings as are Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia, but the regions are on a par with Latin America and have several places with strong ICT growth and great potential. This message must be delivered behind the podium or lectern at a peaceful hotel or in a classroom, not in chaotic streets in the midst of an air raid.
My hopes are that madness will not rule the week-end in this part of the world, despite all the evidence that it will.