Cloud Computing

Forbes – We Must Find A Way To Defy Data Gravity In The Cloud

The IT industry is in the midst of a transformational era in terms of how we treat data. At Moor Insights & Strategy we have discussed countless the times forces that are driving the need for a data strategy, how that need is deeply impacted by real-time analytics, and how data has escaped the datacenter and is now spread from edge to cloud.

The world of IT today is one of hybrid and multi-clouds. IT deploys workloads to the public cloud because it delivers on a compelling value proposition across a number of realms. Deploying resources dynamically, as needed, and terminating them when the project is over saves countless CapEx dollars. Having resources that can be deployed dynamically, gives IT and application owners an almost infinite amount of flexibility.

More of the Forbes post from Steve McDowell

Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / Hybrid Cloud / Multi-Cloud — Comments Off
06
Dec 18

CloudTech – How DevOps and a hybrid model can make the most out of legacy applications

Do you have an application marked with cryptic warning signs and a wealth of cobwebs that is running on legacy hardware hidden away in the back corner of your data centre? If you’re in enterprise IT, chances are high that you do. These old platforms are often considered a bane to IT. More importantly, legacy applications can present a real headache when attempting to uplift the people, processes and tooling needed to embrace a hybrid cloud model.

Providing self-service, orchestrated workflows and delivery pipelines are just a few signature attributes to constructing a hybrid cloud. Imagine trying to apply these ideas to legacy technology, where the interface requires using an archaic console and software that looks like it was written for Windows 3.1. It’s not fun and often derails any efforts to deliver services living in an on-premises software-defined data centre (SDDC) or public cloud environment. It also splits up a team focused on working within the realm of a DevOps cultural model, because concepts such as infrastructure as code, stateless configuration and collaborative code check-ins crumble.

More of the CloudTech post from Rebecca Fitzhugh

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / IT Strategy — Comments Off
05
Dec 18

InfoWorld – Sorry, Linux. Kubernetes is now the OS that matters

Linux is just plumbing. The real OS—the real value—is with Kubernetes

The operating system no longer really matters. And for developers and the cloud, that means that Linux no longer really matters.

You can see proof of that in what has not happened. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has not gotten a $34 billion buyout offer from IBM, even though company founder Mark Shutteworth would have taken that deal, despite protestations that the company isn’t looking for a buyer.

More of the InfoWorld article from Matt Asay

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / Digital Transformation / IT Governance / IT Leadership / IT Strategy — Comments Off
04
Dec 18

Future of CIO – Three Root Causes of Stalled Change or Digitalization

Digitalization represents the next stage of business maturity which will improve how the enterprise works and interacts with its ecosystem, with people at the center of its focus.

Digital transformation represents a break from the past, with a high level of impact and complexity. It is important to understand that digitalization is multifaceted. It is not a single dimensional technology adoption, but a multi-dimensional business expansion and optimization. When digitalization seems to get stalled and culture is stale, business management must ask the big “WHY” question and dig into the root cause. Because the organization’s ability to change and adaptability directly impact the organization’s long-term competency and business maturity.

More of the Future of CIO post from Pearl Zhu

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / IaaS / IT Strategy — Comments Off
03
Dec 18

CIO.com – Workday CIO on tackling SaaS debt and sprawl

Configure your software, don’t customize it — but make sure you have the skills available to do it well: That’s the advice of Workday CIO Diana McKenzie

Being the CIO of a cloud ERP provider is a unique balancing act. As the first customer of your company’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, you must help drive the company’s flagship forward, but you also must support the technical needs of the organization as a whole.

That’s where Workday CIO Diana McKenzie found herself when joining the company nearly three years ago, after the better part of three decades running IT functions in the life sciences industry. The core of Workday was running on its own software, which performs essential financial, HR and planning functions, but elsewhere issues were coming to the fore.

More of the CIO.com post from Peter Sayer

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / Data Center / Digital Transformation / IaaS / IT Governance / IT Strategy / Risk Management — Comments Off
30
Nov 18

IT Business Edge – ERP Entering All Facets of the Economy

Enterprise Resource Planning platforms have been around for several decades. Some people love them, some hate them. What is indisputable, however, is that organizations around the world are being continuously pushed to achieve greater efficiency and faster turnaround, and ERP is a way of achieving both goals.

According to Market Research Engine, ERP is expected to near $50 billion in total market value by 2024, infiltrating tasks as wide-ranging as sales and marketing to distribution management and finance. What’s interesting about the current phase of ERP development is the way it dovetails with a number of other industry requirements besides the perennial need to become more efficient. The rising acceptance of mobile and cloud-based applications, for instance, places greater onus on the need to build more flexible, user-friendly means of support. As well, as business processes become increasingly digital-oriented, ERP brings much-needed intelligibility to complex workflows.

More of the IT Business Edge article from Arthur Cole

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / IaaS / IT Leadership / IT Staff Retention / IT Strategy — Comments Off
27
Nov 18

Forbes – Where Cloud Computing Jobs Will Be In 2019

$146,350 is the median salary for cloud computing professionals in 2018.
There are 50,248 cloud computing positions available in the U.S. today available from 3,701 employers and 101,913 open positions worldwide today.
Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), Deloitte and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) have the most open cloud computing jobs today.
Java, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Software Development, DevOps, Docker and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) are the most in-demand skills.

More of the Forbes article from Louis Columbus

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / Data Center / Data center compliance / IaaS / IT Governance / IT Security / IT Strategy / Technical Debt / Virtualization — Comments Off
16
Nov 18

ZDNet – Eight signs you could be automating more of your data center

From Doug – These same reasons may be used to consider outsourcing your data center infrastructure to an enterprise cloud provider.

Organizations with existing data centers can save time and money by adopting automation tools for data center management. Here are eight signs you can do more to lighten your day-to-day workload.

As commodity server hardware becomes more powerful, infrastructure cost (in raw performance terms, such as IOPS per dollar) continues to plummet. As a result, it has become substantially cheaper to largely automate the software side of data center administration. In essence, the era of coffee-fueled IT staff spending their days pushing around electrons in order to keep the lights on at a given organization has ended, as data centers can be automated to manage computational, storage, and networking resources, as well as programmatically handle software lifecycle management and security patches.

More of the ZDNet post from James Sanders

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13
Nov 18

Baseline – What Companies Expect from DevOps

The majority of IT professionals at organizations that have adopted DevOps are happy with the results, according to a recent survey from KMS Technology. Most of these companies, in fact, indicate that their DevOps initiatives have satisfied goals, which include the need to boost time-to-production for new software. Survey respondents also hope that DevOps will result in greater collaboration between IT and lines of business. To ensure success, they recommend clearly articulating goals and plans, while gaining management support. It’s also key to overcome challenges in the form of limited skillsets and knowledge about DevOps among internal tech staff members. “DevOps offers an opportunity for IT organizations to improve communication and collaboration with lines of business, and the ability to automate various software development processes,” said Josh Lieberman, president of KMS Technology.

More of the Baseline slideshow from Dennis McCafferty

Business continuity / CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / Disaster Recovery / IaaS / IT Security / IT Staff Retention / IT Strategy / Risk Management — Comments Off
26
Oct 18

Continuity Central – For disaster recovery, there are better options than secondary data centers.

Disaster recovery is a headache that every IT department has suffered and in this arena, as in so many others, the cloud offers a better choice, says Laz Vekiarides. In fact, not only is a secondary data center for DR no longer needed, it’s actually no longer a sustainable option…

The days of the secondary data center / centre are numbered, and that is a good thing for the enterprises that have struggled to build them, fund them and maintain them solely for disaster recovery purposes. When on-premises disaster recovery was the only option, IT teams had no choice but to grit their teeth and take on the cost and resource burdens of physical secondary data centers. Today, though, the growing cloud adoption rate and availability of cloud-forward co-location providers have transformed the data center world. One result: the industry has more efficient and cost-effective choices, including hybrid cloud DR.

Key questions to ask before moving DR to the cloud
Nothing is easy in IT, and no data center leader should believe promises about quick or simple transformations from on-prem secondary data centers to cloud or hybrid models.

Doug Theis Leave your comfort zone.