The help desk forms the backbone of IT operations for many federal, state and local government agencies. In fact, the cross-functional nature of its operation means the help desk directly impacts productivity and is an essential part of what enables an agency to meet its stakeholder needs.
However, owing to increasingly complex IT environments, managers struggle to ensure that their help desks are operating at optimum efficiency. This seven-point guide will help IT managers ensure their help desks deliver exceptional service while maximizing productivity.
[session] Debunking the Myths of Scale-up Architectures By @FujitsuAmerica | @CloudExpo #Cloud #BigData #Analytics
When growing capacity and power in the data center, the architectural trade-offs between server scale-up vs. scale-out continue to be debated. Both approaches are valid: scale-out adds multiple, smaller servers running in a distributed computing model, while scale-up adds fewer, more powerful servers that are capable of running larger workloads.
It’s worth noting that there are additional, unique advantages that scale-up architectures offer. One big advantage is large memory and compute capacity that makes In-Memory Computing possible. This means that large databases can now reside entirely in memory, boosting the analytics performance as well as speeding up transaction processing. By virtually eliminating disk accesses, database query times can be shortened by many orders of magnitude, leading to real-time analytics for greater business productivity, converting wait time to work time.
EARP to Exhibit at @CloudExpo NY | #BigData #IoT #AI #ML #DX #FinTech
SYS-CON Events announced today that EARP Integration will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. EARP Integration is a passionate software house. Since its inception in 2009 the company successfully delivers smart solutions for cities and factories that start their digital transformation. EARP provides bespoke solutions like, for example, advanced enterprise portals, business intelligence systems and mobile applications for international enterprises across different sectors such as Energy and Utilities, GreenTech, MedTech, FinTech, Facility Management and Housing, Automotive Manufacturing, and Sport. EARP also cooperates with international software houses by providing them with highly qualified and well-selected, multilingual teams for bigger projects.
[session] Amazon’s Billowing into #AI and #IoT | @ThingsExpo @Xopher5 #AWS
Amazon started as an online bookseller 20 years ago. Since then, it has evolved into a technology juggernaut that has disrupted multiple markets and industries and touches many aspects of our lives. It is a relentless technology and business model innovator driving disruption throughout numerous ecosystems. Amazon’s AWS revenues alone are approaching $16B a year making it one of the largest IT companies in the world. With dominant offerings in Cloud, IoT, eCommerce, Big Data, AI, Digital Assistants, Robotics, shipping logistics and other emerging technologies, developers and competitors ignore Amazon at their peril.
[session] Public Cloud Alternative | @CloudExpo @Cloudistics #AI #DataCenter
You know you need the cloud, but you’re hesitant to simply dump everything at Amazon since you know that not all workloads are suitable for cloud. You know that you want the kind of ease of use and scalability that you get with public cloud, but your applications are architected in a way that makes the public cloud a non-starter. You’re looking at private cloud solutions based on hyperconverged infrastructure, but you’re concerned with the limits inherent in those technologies.
Cloud Startups to Look For
Cloud is a booming tech niche that offers plenty of opportunities for anyone with the right idea. Little wonder then that this sector is seeing so many startups, a lot of which end up being successful.
Before moving on, let’s define “success” in the context of cloud startups. Every company is started with an innovative idea or with the need to fill a gap in the existing infrastructure or services. Though many ideas are hard to implement and don’t take off as a general rule in other sectors, the cloud industry is different. Since it’s an emerging field, there’s a greater chance for entrepreneurs to come up with an innovative idea and implement it well.
Such well-done implementations brings in revenue for companies and more importantly, sets them as a perfect target for acquisition. If you look at the trends in this industry over the last few years, you’ll know that acquisition is a form of success because the idea and implementation of the startup was recognized and it was given an opportunity to become a part of a larger group.
These acquisitions work well for both the acquirer and the acquiree. The acquirer, or the company taking over a startup, is likely to gain from the new idea or practice that it can implement to a larger customer base. In the case of the company that’s being acquired, it’s a welcome event because their idea can now be sold or implemented among a larger customer base. They’ll also have access to more resources to improve on their implementation. In this sense, it’s a win-win situation for both the companies and for the public at large.
So, in the cloud industry, success means not just more revenue, but also becoming a potential target for acquisition.
That said, let’s look at a few cloud startups that have been successful or are on the path of achieving success this year.
Apcera
Apcera provides a container management platform to help its clients operate in the cloud. Founded in 2012, a unique aspect of this company’s offering is that it helps clients to manage both modern and legacy applications that so far are a thorn in cloud management.
Hedvig
Hedvig is a company that operates in hyper-scale storage, a small but growing niche. Founded in 2012, this company specializes in replicating data across public and private cloud systems with a view to provide high levels of data protection.
Pulseaway
This company helps its clients to remotely monitor and manage any kind of cloud infrastructure. Its user-friendly interface and application access ensure that users can connect to their infrastructure from any device including tablets, smartphones and desktops.
Skyhigh Networks
Founded in 2011, this company gives real-time visibility to companies to gauge their cloud initiatives. This way, they stay on top of their threats, implementations and progress and can even lay the basis for deciding on their future business strategies.
Cazena
Cazena offers big data as a platform (dPaaS) that run well on Azure and AWS. It deals with data movements, analytics and security.
These startups are expected to go big by this year.
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Done in 30 Minutes and Other Records of Social Media Support
The world is changing, and with it, various spheres of our life are developing. Technical support services are no exception. In the age of social networking, helping clients and answering their questions directly on Facebook or via other means of Social Media Support (SMS) is the order of the day. My name is Maria, a […]
The post Done in 30 Minutes and Other Records of Social Media Support appeared first on Parallels Blog.
New research explores continued difference between LOB and IT on cloud initiatives
Is it the line of business or IT leading cloud initiatives? According to the latest paper from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), IT directors believe that cloud adoption is driven principally by their IT function as part of a strategic shift, rather than the need for change driven by business decision makers.
The study, which polled 250 IT and business decision makers in large enterprises, found that overall cloud adoption now stands at 88%, with more than two thirds (67%) of users expecting to increase their adoption of cloud services over the coming year.
According to the research, IT decision makers are more likely to think the head of IT or CIO is driving migration to the cloud, while business development managers (BDM) are more likely to say it is driven by the CEO.
CIF dug further into the trends and found a variety of differences between business and IT. IT is more likely to report faster access to technology as a key benefit, compared with BDM more likely to report cost savings, while IT is more likely to note that replacing legacy tech is driving investment opportunities within their cloud initiatives. IT is also more pessimistic about their organisation’s digital strategy – only 18% of those surveyed said it was ‘completely clear’, compared with 33% on the business development side.
“Aligning IT with business strategy is nothing new,” said Alex Hilton, Cloud Industry Forum CEO. “Organisations, which have struggled to use IT to achieve business objectives, are often due to differences in departmental goals and culture, or a mutual ignorance of each other’s methods, resulting in ineffectual products and systems, which fail to provide an effective return on investment.
“These findings are critical therefore to our understanding of the institutional and organisational challenges confronted by many in both the IT department and the wider business,” Hilton added. “Perceptions and expectations are widely different and those enterprises looking to deliver digital transformation projects effectively need to address this disconnect head on.”
DivvyCloud to Exhibit at @CloudExpo NY | @DivvyCloud #Security #Compliance
SYS-CON Events announced today that DivvyCloud will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. DivvyCloud software enables organizations to achieve their cloud computing goals by simplifying and automating security, compliance and cost optimization of public and private cloud infrastructure. Using DivvyCloud, customers can leverage programmatic Bots to identify and remediate common cloud problems in real time. DivvyCloud was founded by seasoned technologists who understand first-hand what is necessary to succeed in today’s fast-changing, multi-cloud world.
Rackspace Buys Tricore
It’s been a string of changes at Rackspace. Only last week, the company announced that it has appointed a new CEO and a few days later, it announced that it is acquiring a managed and consulting cloud services company called TriCore Solutions.
The exact terms of the deal was not disclosed though it is speculated that this acquisition can give Rackspace a big boost in terms of its offerings and its stance in the cloud space today. The deal is expected to close by the end of June.
Though the financial details were not disclosed, Rackspace claims that this is the largest ever acquisition that the company has made so far. This is an important statement coming from the company considering that it has so far acquired eight companies, with the last acquisition being in 2013. This data goes to show the importance given by Rackspace to this deal, as the company believes that TriCore’s products and client base can give a big boost to the enterprise applications management segment of cloud.
TriCore specializes in providing Oracle and SAP Enterprise Resource Planning products that include business intelligence, analytics and data integration services. These are deemed as mission critical in most organizations, yet they are hard to manage and can cost the company a ton of money too. This is why most companies prefer to take help when it comes to handling these applications.
Rackspace has a firm footing in these mission critical applications market and to take it to the next level, it has acquired TriCore. In a way, TriCore’s products are complementary to that of Rackspace, so it’s only natural for both these companies to come together to capture a larger share in this market.
This acquisition gives Rackspace the flexibility to not just manage the cloud services of a company, but also move up the stack and manage complex applications from some of the larger vendors such as Oracle and SAP. This upgrade has been something that Rackspace’s customers have been asking frequently in the near past, and to meet their demands, Rackspace has decided to go ahead with the acquisition of TriCore instead of doing any research and development in-house.
This is a sensible move considering that TriCore and Rackspace have a lot in common and can benefit from each other’s expertise and knowledge. Currently, TriCore servers about 275 customers, and after this acquisition, all these customers will become a part of Rackspace. The new CEO of Rackspace, Jeff Cotten, even opined that TriCore’s workspace is similar to Rackspace, so the transition should be smooth for both the companies.
TriCore has about 500 employees and all of them are expected to join Rackspace, though they will continue to work from their existing locations.
The next few months are likely to be crucial for Rackspace as it moves away from competing with large public cloud providers. At present, Rackspace is unable to break the wield of companies like Microsoft, AWS and Google, so it makes sense for it to change its strategy and focus on a smaller niche area.
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