Intelligent Automation is now one of the key business imperatives for CIOs and CISOs impacting all areas of business today.
In his session at 21st Cloud Expo, Brian Boeggeman, VP Alliances & Partnerships at Ayehu, will talk about how business value is created and delivered through intelligent automation to today’s enterprises. The open ecosystem platform approach toward Intelligent Automation that Ayehu delivers to the market is core to enabling the creation of the self-driving enterprise.
AWS joins Cloud Native Computing Foundation at platinum level
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced it has joined the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) strengthening its open source hand – and two weeks after Microsoft signed up.
The company joins, as Microsoft did, as a platinum member, to help speed up the deployment of cloud-native technologies in its public cloud portfolio.
“As the largest cloud provider, AWS brings years of experience in enabling enterprises to successfully adopt cloud computing and enormous expertise in cloud native technologies,” said Dan Kohn, CNCF executive director in a statement. “We are honoured to have AWS join CNCF as a platinum member, and believe that their participation will help shape the future of enterprise computing.”
Among the other platinum members, of which there are now 16, are Google and IBM, meaning AWS was the last of the ‘hypervisor’ cloud providers to hold out. The Seattle giant continues to be absent from the Cloud Foundry Foundation’s list of members, however – Microsoft confirmed membership in June at the gold level – although the foundation has issued documentation about how to deploy Cloud Foundry on AWS.
AWS has also been part of several open source initiatives over the years, including being part of the Linux Foundation since 2013, contributing to such projects as the Open Container Initiative and the TODO Group, as well as being a founding member of the Core Infrastructure Initiative. Current members of the CNCF, including Ticketmaster and Vevo, are already running Kubernetes in production on AWS.
In a post on Medium, Adrian Cockcroft, VP of cloud architecture strategy at AWS, outlined the rationale behind the move. “Over time, components of cloud native architectures move from being experimental, through competing implementations, to being well-defined external services,” he wrote. “We’ve seen this evolution with databases, data science pipelines, container schedulers, and monitoring tools. This is one place where the CNCF acts as a filter and aggregator.
“For customers who are trying to track a fast-moving and confusing world, it’s helpful to regard CNCF as a brand endorsement, for a loose collection of interesting projects,” Cockcroft added. “It’s a loose collection, rather than a single, integrated cloud native architecture, so there’s no particular endorsement of any one project over another, for members of CNCF, or for users of projects.”
The company announced revenues of $4.1 billion (£3.13bn) for its most recent quarter, with analysts at Synergy Research noting it had managed to gain 1% in market share over the last four quarters in spite of its dominant position.
Announcing @SecureChannels to Exhibit at @CloudExpo Silicon Valley | #Cloud #Security #Analytics
SYS-CON Events announced today that Secure Channels, a cybersecurity firm, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 21st International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Secure Channels, Inc. offers several products and solutions to its many clients, helping them protect critical data from being compromised and access to computer networks from the unauthorized. The company develops comprehensive data encryption security strategies that are tailored for the unique needs of each client; the team builds in an intuitive user experience to boost efficiency and effectiveness of its cyber security solutions.
A guide: Top tips to avoid cloud buyers’ remorse
Only a fool believes that moving enterprise applications to the cloud is a panacea for the majority of the challenges facing today’s CIOs. Even cloud migration itself, like any IT project, presents a number of complex challenges. My favourite piece of advice is to think the same as you would if buying a house: don’t be impulsive. By taking the time to develop a clear focus at the outset, cloud buyers can eliminate unwanted costs and complications down the road. First and foremost, be clear around what you are looking for and why.
Updating the procurement function
The procurement department had a firm grip on IT purchasing until the advent of cloud. Now there is the risk that buying cloud services slips through the procurement net. Self-service applications mean that business line executives can whip out a credit card and pay for a small service themselves without involving procurement. But, just like a kid when in-app game purchases get out of control, at some point the bill might be too big to hide or the security too lax.
As with any IT change, the biggest challenges to a successful transition are generally cultural. It’s not just the IT department and users that need to think differently when moving to the cloud. The procurement department also has to change well-engrained mindsets as it adjusts from dealing with products to services.
To transition from a Capex to a granular Opex model, the processes involved in purchasing and evaluating IT have to become more nimble. Without this, the procurement department becomes a bottleneck and the backlash will be a significant increase in shadow IT and shadow cloud.
Instead of negotiating with product providers every couple of years, the procurement team will have to adopt a new model that supports buying Opex services from more than one provider at a time. This means embracing a new level of agility, because cloud features and capacity change overnight.
Drivers for cloud
The first question to ask when someone requests a cloud service is: why? Only by understanding the key drivers at the outset – particularly when those factors are agility or cost – is it possible to choose the right model. This approach undoubtedly helps with negotiations and also makes it easy to switch providers if needed at a later date.
Defining cloud
Having a clear definition of what is meant by cloud within your organisation – and communicating this clearly to everyone inside the company and to your cloud provider(s) – is an important step. Then when your internal business customers talk about ‘cloud’ there are no misunderstandings.
Everyone within your firm should understand that it is an architectural and commercial model rather than simply a location – and that it does not mean any managed services or service delivered over the Internet.
Cloud repatriation and exit strategies
Cloud repatriation – moving workloads from the public cloud to a private cloud – is a growing trend. Even Dropbox, a company that started in the cloud, has now moved from the public cloud to its own data centres for faster performance and lower costs. Although security is one of the main drivers for repatriation, high profile cloud outages, greater control, cost, compliance and latency are all contributing factors.
Exit strategies are often neglected at the outset. But cloud buyers who don’t consider exit costs at the start of a relationship are missing a trick. Moving to a different provider – or repatriation – will require budget and time for recoding and retraining to get your staff up to speed.
Avoiding lock-in
One topic that is generating a lot of discussion right now is how to avoid cloud lock-in. A key reason for moving to the cloud is to gain greater flexibility. But this is stymied if your organisation takes advantage of a cloud provider’s set of compelling, but proprietary, add-on features and APIs without considering how you will manage without those features should you wish to change cloud provider down the line, or add a second cloud provider to the mix.
Balancing the need to avoid becoming too reliant on a provider’s proprietary features while at the same time making the most of what your chosen provider has to offer needs careful thought.
Cross-department collaboration
While DevOps and agile processes have transformed software development, buying cloud services require the business line, IT and procurement teams to work together in new ways. There is a need to collaborate on decisions and to ensure the work force has the right skills to benefit fully from the cloud.
Engaging early
As with any IT change, it is important to remember the users’ perspectives. This requires engaging with users early in the process to fully understand their needs; then at a later time educating them about the new service, particularly if it is self-service, and ensuring it continues to meet their needs over the long term. To do this effectively, many organisations engage third-party cloud expertise early on to transfer essential knowledge and innovation through lessons learned elsewhere.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure
We stressed the importance of being clear about what you are looking for and why at the start. The next step is to set up clear measurements and baselines to measure benefits. Only then is it possible to track improvements and evaluate the return-on-investment.
Despite all these notes of caution, don’t be disheartened. When it is well planned and executed, moving to the cloud is a beautiful thing to behold. Be as prepared as a boy scout and you will reap the rewards.
Walt Disney Gearing up for a Changing Media Landscape
Nothing is permanent in this world except change, and only companies that understand this can thrive and prosper. One company that understands this well is Walt Disney Company as it has announced a slew of measures that would address the changing media landscape and cater better to the needs of its audience.
To this end, it has launched two streaming services, similar to Netflix. One of this streaming service will be for sports and the other for movies and television shows. Both these would be stand-alone services that allow users to choose the kind of entertainment they want to view. For example, if you’re a sports lover, you can simply opt for the sports stream while the other would work well for movie buffs. You don’t have to subscribe to everything for a single fee now.
In fact, the company believes that such a standalone subscription would appeal to a younger audience when compared to traditional media. ESPN, which is a joint venture between Walt Disney Company and Hearst Corporation, would be the sports service. It is expected to feature more than 10,000 sporting events including Major League Baseball. Such a move is expected to make ESPN the most preferred and go-to sports stream for audiences across the world.
The television and movie stream will also feature a ton of movies including some of the original content developed by Walt Disney Studios. Obviously, this will be a major attraction for viewers, considering the many pieces of quality original content that’s being developed by Walt Disney Studios.
Both these services will be operational in 2019 and we can expect these services to complete alter the way we view and choose our entertainment. Walt Disney has announced that it will pay $1.58 billion to increase its stake in a video streaming company called Bamtech, that will be developing both these streams.
Another important move by Walt Disney was to end its movie distribution agreement with Netflix. This move comes at a time when there’s a growing caution in Hollywood about the spectacular increase in the popularity of Netflix. Many people believes that Netflix has changed consumer preferences and as a result, many traditional business models have been failing. Though some companies like HBO and CBS are starting to offer their own streaming service, there’s still much unease about how consumers want to watch their favorite shows.
While these announcements by Walt Disney may seem like a way to check the popularity of Netflix, in reality, it represent a strategic shift in the way entertainment is delivered to customers. As a result, Netflix and Walt Disney have become competitors from partners and this could turn out to be an interesting match, after all.
The post Walt Disney Gearing up for a Changing Media Landscape appeared first on Cloud News Daily.
Planning a Cloud Migration with Digital Experience Monitoring | @CloudExpo #Cloud #APM #Monitoring
In our first installment of this blog series, we went over the different types of applications migrated to the cloud and the benefits IT organizations hope to achieve by moving applications to the cloud.
Unfortunately, IT can’t just press a button or even whip up a few lines of code to move applications to the cloud. Like any strategic move by IT, a cloud migration requires advanced planning.
Eight Hottest Tech Trends in 1776 | @CloudExpo #ML #ITaaS #Cloud
Back, by popular demand, a reprise of my 8 Hottest Tech Trends of 1776. Enjoy!
A little more than 241 years ago, our forefathers used the best technology available to inspire colonial proto-Americans to revolt against King George. At that time, the “best” technology available was the printing press and the “best” social network required the use of “word of mouth” in Public Houses. Grog was the lubricant that facilitated this communication and the rest, as they say, is history.
Simple Secrets of Successful Knowledge Management | @CloudExpo #AI #ML #Cloud
Knowledge that doesn’t serve is knowledge wasted. And for knowledge gained from experience and research to be useful, IT enterprises need to organize, manage and offer it in the best way possible. Fortunately, the best way isn’t a Herculean task when you employ simple tricks to build a profound knowledge base (KB). A sound knowledge base eliminates the need to rediscover or reformulate knowledge and improves the support process. With that in mind, consider these best practices to help build a successful knowledge base.
Amazon’s Q2 Results
Microsoft and Google released spectacular results, and Amazon Web Services, the king of cloud market, was not to be left behind.
During the second quarter of 2017, AWS earned $4.1 billion in revenue. This was almost 11 percent of the overall revenue of Amazon during this period. This is a significant jump from the revenue it earned over the previous two quarters, which were, $3.54 billion and $3.66 billion respectively. The overall sales for this period was a whopping $38 billion.
One of the areas that did see a big decline is in the operating margin, that had reduced to 22.3 percent, the lowest value over the last six quarters. During the conference call, Brian Olsavsky, the Chief Financial Officer of Amazon, explained that this fall in operating margin was due to a 71 percent increase in assets that were acquired in the form of capital leases for its cloud business.
These capital leases have directly contributed to a manifold increase in the infrastructure of AWS, especially its geographic expansion across different countries. Over the last year, AWS has stepped up its operations in a big way to counter the threat from companies like Microsoft and Google. And these investments are paying off.
At this point though, it’s difficult to say how much better AWS is when compared to Google and Microsoft. This is because Amazon is the only company that discloses the revenue and performance of its cloud business separately while the other two club it in a bucket called “other revenue.” So, it’s hard to say how much contribution came from the cloud business in this bucket, so a comparison becomes difficult.
One good way to ascertain performance is through market share, even if it’s not an accurate one. By this parameter, Amazon gained a one percent market share over the last four quarters. This makes it a dominant player in the cloud market, though Microsoft and Google are fast catching up. During this same period, Microsoft’s market share increased by three percent while Google and IBM stayed steady at one percent increase.
Nevertheless, this is another excellent performance by AWS as it dominated the cloud market with a market share of 40 percent. This company alone has generated $1.2 billion in revenue over the last four quarters and this trend is expected to continue as more companies, especially in the developing world, adopt cloud over the rest of 2017 and in years ago.
Since AWS has established its infrastructure and presence in all growing economies, either by itself or through collaboration, it’s in the driver’s seat to make the most of cloud adoption across these countries.
All this is good news for investors as the share prices moved up after the results were announced. In fact, this rise in share price put Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, as the richest man in the world. However, the position went back to Bill Gates when Amazon’s shares stabilized over the next few days.
The post Amazon’s Q2 Results appeared first on Cloud News Daily.
Cloud job roles soar – but salaries not accelerating with it
If you’re looking for your next break in the cloud computing industry, be warned: salaries are slowing down while job postings soar.
That is the verdict of Experis, a professional IT resourcing provider, whose latest Tech Cities Job Watch looked at the challenges and opportunities in the UK technology job market.
According to the research, which utilised Innovantage’s recruitment software to analyse more than half a million employer websites, the number of cloud roles almost doubled (97.73% increase) between Q216 and Q217, but salaries for permanent roles only went up 2.7% on average. For contractors, day rates have stubbornly remained at £481 year on year.
So why the disparity? According to Experis, the maturation of the industry is partly responsible.
The data infers that, as more and more companies have made the transition to the cloud, fewer roles for building platforms from scratch are becoming available. “Demand for cloud skills is increasingly being driven by organisations looking for more IT professionals to maintain, optimise and enhance their existing cloud platforms,” said Geoff Smith, managing director of Experis Europe.
“As these skills are often less specialist, businesses appear to be finding it comparatively easier to fill vacant cloud positions – causing pay growth in this discipline to slow,” added Smith.
As a result, it is up to professionals to skill up in more nascent areas, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and mobile applications, if they are to stand out. “The diverse cloud requirements that we see as a result of emerging technologies like IoT, big data and mobile are driving the increase in demand, but not all businesses are seeking dedicated or specialist cloud architects,” added Martin Ewings, director of specialist markets at Experis UK & Ireland.
“Where cloud has been embraced, businesses will be seeking IT professionals to maintain rather than build these platforms.”
According to the figures, there were 9,783 permanent cloud-based roles advertised across the UK in the second quarter of this year, representing almost a quarter (24.4%) of all tech jobs including big data, IT security, mobile, and web development, alongside 6,942 contract roles.
Experis added that there are five primary activities which do require specialised cloud knowledge; application development, application deployment, application security, database specialists, and migration specialists. Specific cloud skills in demand this quarter include OpenStack and Rackspace.
You can find out more and read the full report here (registration required).