When you decide to launch a startup company, business advisors, counselors, bankers and armchair know-it-alls will tell you that the first thing you need to do is get funding. While there is some validity to that boilerplate piece of wisdom, the availability of and need for startup funding has gone through a dramatic transformation over the past decade, and the next few years will see even more of a shift.
A perfect storm of events is causing this seismic shift. On the macroeconomic side this storm includes the still-persistent repercussions of the Great Recession, historically low interest rates, and uncertainty about global commerce and trade. On the technology side, still more realities add to the perfect storm, including the increasing popularity of as-a-service options, which make it easier for startups to launch with no on-premise equipment requirements and possibly no physical office at all, and development platforms that streamline the need for original development work.
Simplifying the Monitoring of Multi-Hypervisor Infrastructures | @CloudExpo #Cloud #Virtualization
Over the years, many enterprises have achieved tremendous cost reductions and management simplicity through virtualizing their IT infrastructure. According to Gartner, while some firms have virtualized over 90% of their servers, on an average, most firms have over 75% of their servers in a virtualized infrastructure, indicating the growth and maturity of the x86 server virtualization market.
Juniper’s QI increases on strong cloud earnings
Juniper Networks, a specialist in networking products, announced the first quarter results of 2017. It reported a revenue of $1.2 billion, which is a 11 percent increase year-on-year. The non-GAAP net income was $1.78 billion and this represents an almost 25 percent increase year-on-year.
Juniper’s business is divided into three main divisions, namely, telecom and cable, cloud and enterprise. Out of these three, cloud grew the most for the company and helped it to surpass the expectations of analysts. This led to the company’s earnings per share to be $0.46, almost four cents more than what the analysts had been expecting.
Going back to the segments, cloud grew the highest at the rate of 25 percent, while telecom and cable grew at 10 percent and strategic enterprise at two percent respectively. In fact, the telecom and cable business sagged a bit over the last quarter when compared to the year before, and this was compensated by a buoyant growth in its cloud segment.
Still, routing remains the staple of Juniper Networks, as it accounts for more than 43 percent of its revenue. However, that business grew only by three percent when compared to the last year.
This revenue clearly shows that cloud is the future for Juniper Networks as the revenue and growth are clearly better than the other sectors. The CEO of Juniper, Rami Rahim even said that cloud is one of the biggest strategies that’s driving the industry today. He said that companies across all verticals are adopting the cloud, thereby opening the cloud industry in many ways. This industry is no longer the exclusive idea of a handful of companies and that’s because cloud is way more than mere infrastructure and storage.
In other words, what this essentially means is cloud adoption is increasing the chances for many tech companies to make it a primary revenue generator, and Juniper is likely to be one of them soon. This has also opened many opportunities for Juniper to expand within its own strength. Already, many telecom and cable operators are changing their architecture to include cloud services, and Juniper is poised to handle this transition for them.
Already, Juniper has an interesting list of clients, with the top names being Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and Facebook. It is also looking to expand its cloud offerings to traditional telecom providers located within and outside the U.S, as every company is looking to leverage the power of cloud.
Besides cloud, Juniper is also looking to strengthen its security business. The report shows that there’s been a small increase in the sale of security products, and the company is confident that it can do better in the coming months. Of special mention is Juniper’s SRX security portfolio that the CEO believes is gaining traction among its clients. We can expect better results from this product in the upcoming quarters.
With such an impressive result and an optimistic roadmap for the future, Juniper’s investors are sure a happy bunch. The stock price shot by six percent during aftermarket trading on Wednesday.
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New survey suggests UK data centre optimisation and cooling could be better
A new report argues the UK’s data centres are between them achieving ‘poor’ levels of cooling utilisation, with two thirds of cooling equipment installed on average not delivering any benefits.
The figures come from EkkoSense, a Nottingham-based provider of data centre risk management software. Naturally, it’s worth noting at this juncture that these figures are manna from heaven for such a company and the services it provides – more of which shortly – but the figures are interesting in themselves.
EkkoSense analysed 128 UK data centre halls, and more than 16,500 racks, and found that on average, the data cooling utilisation level is at 34%. Less than 5% of UK data centre monitoring and evaluation teams say they actively monitor and report temperature on an individual rack by rack basis.
The company adds that it’s not the lack of cooling capacity which is causing the issue – indeed, weather patterns in the UK are more often than not a positive contributor – but a ‘continued poor management of airflow and a failure to actively monitor and report rack temperatures’.
“Our ongoing survey into UK data centre cooling clearly shows that, despite their continued reliance on new and more expensive cooling equipment, data centres aren’t doing enough to reduce the risk to the business that unplanned outages inevitably bring,” said James Kirkwood, EkkoSense head of operations.
One company which focuses particularly on the environmental message with its data centres is Rackspace. The open cloud provider opened a data centre in Crawley in 2015 – an event which this reporter attended – with the green theme in evidence. The data centre has a targeted power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15 – its current level is 1.3, with the industry average being 1.7 – while other environmentally-conscious features include a sloped roof to harvest rainwater and cooling using natural air.
Gary Boyd, senior director DC project engineer at Rackspace, told CloudTech about the process behind the data centre in Crawley. “Businesses can make significant power savings by carefully considering airflow when planning a data centre,” he said. “Our Rackspace data centre in Crawley was the first in the UK to make use of innovative ‘indirect outside air’ cooling technology on a large scale, without mechanical cooling.
“This meant the overhead energy required to operate the data centre was cut by almost 80%,” added Boyd. “The cooling design requires operational discipline, and device management best practice, to ensure the hot and cold aisles are separated through containment, thereby enabling the data centre to operate within the higher temperature range of Ashrae standards [for the design and maintenance of indoor environments].
“It led not only to financial savings, but a positive reputation in the industry, making us attractive to both customers and talent. Hopefully we will see more companies utilising airflow to their advantage in this manner.”
EkkoSense, in a similar vein, offers a data centre optimisation (DCOP) service which uses a three-stage approach to getting the most out of sites. The firm measures, 3D maps and analyses airflow performance across each room, then re-balances the floor to reduce hot and cold spots, alongside utilising EkkoAir, a product which tracks data centre cooling loads in real time.
Microsoft’s latest Azure customers revealed; Hershey, Maersk, UBS, and more
Microsoft has announced a slew of new customers using its Azure cloud services at its Digital Difference event in New York, including financial services provider UBS and confectioner Hershey.
The customer announcements came alongside the release of a new study, sponsored by Microsoft and put together by Harvard Business Review (HBR), which found less than half of business leaders have a coherent digital strategy despite 80% saying their industry will be positively impacted by digital transformation within three years.
The message from Microsoft was clear: one, digital disruption is happening, through cloud computing, the Internet of Things, machine learning, and much more besides; two, your organisation needs to keep pace; and three, here’s how we’re helping organisations keep pace. As a result, the primary interest here is not the fact Hershey, Maersk, UBS and others are using Azure, but how they are using them.
Hershey, for example, is using Internet of Things (IoT) sensors which feed data into the cloud, which is then analysed via Machine Learning in Azure, in order to gain greater insights and trends. UBS is using Azure to power its risk management platform, which can ultimately save 40% in infrastructure costs, while Maersk – who readers of this publication may also recognise through their blockchain initiatives with IBM – is doing various things, from its supply chain business Damco building solutions on Azure, to building an app store on Microsoft’s cloud.
Other companies announced as being Microsoft shops at Digital Difference were clothing provider Fruit of the Loom, with the company developing predictive models for consumer behaviour through Azure, and automotive insurer GEICO, who is opting for more of a hybrid cloud strategy.
“Companies are choosing Microsoft to empower their digital difference,” said Judson Althoff, EVP of Microsoft’s worldwide commercial business in a statement. “Microsoft has the edge in development in the cloud, IoT, advanced analytics, mixed reality and artificial intelligence. We understand companies’ needs for innovation, speed to market, and the importance of continually transforming and re-evaluating how business is done.”
Elsewhere, the HBR paper argues the models and strategies for digital disruption are still evolving, but once companies go all-in with a ‘major commitment’ to digital as a primary revenue driver, they are more likely to elevate and centralise digital efforts. “Most respondents recognise the opportunities the digital revolution is bringing, with the two biggest prizes being enhanced customer relationships and greater value chain integration,” the report notes. “The highest digital priority, by far, is creating an exceptional, highly relevant customer experience.”
You can read the full report here (pdf).
Parallels Presents Mac Management Solution at Midwest Management Summit
The Parallels team will present an exclusive showcase of Parallels Mac Management for Microsoft SCCM at the Midwest Management Summit (MMS) 2017. This highly engaging technology summit will take place in Minneapolis, MN, from May 15–18. Purposely capped at just 750 attendees, the event was created to help foster the community that is lost in […]
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Windows 10 as a Service
Microsoft recently shipped the Creators Update with dozens of exciting new features and capabilities! To ensure users get the best experience, Microsoft has announced its commitment to scheduled feature releases for Windows 10, Office 365 ProPlus, and System Center Configuration Manager. The next major release will be available for users as early as this upcoming […]
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Microsoft Update for April with David Barter
This month in our Microsoft update, Practice Director, David Barter discusses the new Citrix and Microsoft service, Citrix XenApp Essentials. This service helps Azure RemoteApp customers simplify management and app provisioning, improve monitoring, and strengthen security. Another major Microsoft announcement this April is Microsoft Teams, a chat-based workspace in Office 365 that helps users stay on task and efficiently collaborate. Available in 181 countries and in 18 languages, this tool is sure to become a serious competitor to Slack.
12 Japanese #IoT Companies to Join @ThingsExpo | #IIoT #AI #DX #SmartCities
NHK, Japan Broadcasting, will feature the upcoming @ThingsExpo Silicon Valley in a special ‘Internet of Things’ and smart technology documentary that will be filmed on the expo floor between November 3 to 5, 2015, in Santa Clara. NHK is the sole public TV network in Japan equivalent to the BBC in the UK and the largest in Asia with many award-winning science and technology programs. Japanese TV is producing a documentary about IoT and Smart technology and will be covering @ThingsExpo Silicon Valley. The program, to be aired during the peak viewership season of the year, will have a major impact on the industry in Japan. The film’s director is writing a scenario to fit in the story in the next few days will be turned in to the network.