Doug Theis - Leave your comfort zone.

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12
Aug 16

WSJ – U.S. Cloud Firms ‘Out Innovated’ Competitors in Wake of NSA Leak

And now for the good news.

Despite dire predictions of revenue losses in the wake of a leaked U.S. spy agency’s electronic surveillance program three years ago, U.S. cloud providers have instead “out innovated” local competitors to keep a firm grip on the European market, a market watcher says.

U.S. cloud providers were widely expected to be hurt by local business and regulatory efforts to safeguard European data following the 2013 release of documents linking U.S. tech firms to National Security Agency surveillance programs.

The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, an industry think tank, said at the time that “U.S. cloud service providers stand to lose somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of the foreign market in the next few years,” in an August 2013 report about the impact of the leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Its low-end estimate for losses by U.S. cloud providers was $21.5 billion over the next three years, as European and Asian competitors took advantage of stricter data privacy and protection rules in local markets. Its high-end estimate for losses was $35 billion.

More of the Wall Street Journal article from Angus Loten

Baseline – Keeping Up With Digital Disruption

Key takeaway – The reality is that clouds and IoT technologies are now synonymous with digital innovation and change. Without them, it’s impossible to take various processes and workflows to a higher level and achieve performance and cost gains that are now critical for success.

Only a quarter of companies surveyed are investing in the cloud, and a fifth are focusing on the IoT. As a result, many of them are at risk of being disrupted.

The pace of digital change is clearly accelerating. For business and IT executives, all of this translates into huge challenges—but also enormous opportunities. Individuals who can innovate, disrupt and reinvent businesses and industries will emerge as the leaders in the new economy.

A recently released technology adoption report from TD Bank includes a number of technology trends. It recently surveyed CEOs, CFOs and company founders at the Bloomberg Breakaway Summit in New York City and found that:

More of the Baseline article from Samuel Greengard

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / Data Center / Digital Transformation / IT Governance / IT Security / IT Strategy / Shadow IT — Comments Off
10
Aug 16

ZDNet – Half of all cloud services outside of IT departments, but IT is getting wiser

A new study from the esteemed Ponemon Institute says we still aren’t doing nearly enough to protect enterprises in the cloud.

For starters, the survey of 3,476 IT and IT security practitioners, commissioned by Gemalto, a digital security vendor, finds that half of all cloud services and corporate data stored in cloud are not controlled by IT departments. So, there’s a lot of cloud activity among business units that’s potentially not vetted or governed.

However, IT departments are getting a better handle on things, the survey also shows. Fifty-four percent of respondents are “confident” that the IT organization knows all cloud computing applications, platform or infrastructure services in use – a nine percent increase from a similar survey from 2014.

The survey doesn’t spell out how and why IT is getting a better grip on shadow cloud adoption. It may be assumed that there are more policies in place and greater communication and collaboration on best practices. IT may be getting more active in its evolving role as cloud broker or service provider to the enterprise, providing catalogs or directories of vetted services available to business users.

More of the ZDNet post from Joe McKendrick

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09
Aug 16

Virtual Geek – Hyper-Convergence… it ain’t a passing fad

Is hyperconverged infrastructure a cloud alternative for server huggers? It’s interesting that all the benefits listed with hyperconverged infrastructure are the same benefits that cloud providers like Expedient have been providing to customers every day for the last 8 years. And the cloud services alternative removes the troubles associated with owning and operating your own hardware and data centers. So where is the value?

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) is all about getting “out of the infrastructure business”, and focus on the business – just like Converged Infrastructure (CI). But, HCI is different from CI in several important ways:

You can start smaller. Much smaller.
You scale in smaller increments – which “de-risks” sizing small, and growing as workloads get added (and thus adding only what you need). This is fundamentally different economic curve.
It’s operationally simpler. Much simpler.
In our experience, a conservative observations is that HCI generally has about a lower capital cost than CI, but more importantly a big improvement (2x lower) operational/administrative operational cost. This is particularly impactful as there is no “migration event”, you can add/update/remove nodes and capacity easily and non-disruptively.

Like anything that is growing fast, there’s no doubt a bit of a hype-cycle around HCI – and at my last count 28 startups (I wager we will see HCI startup armageddon in 2017 – it’s just not sustainable… any takers?)

IT Business Edge – Tread Carefully into the Mission-Critical Cloud

The initial phase of the cloud transition is nearly done, with more than three-quarters of enterprises pushing at least a portion of their workload to public infrastructure.

As expected, however, most of this is non-critical data and applications and is largely limited to storage and backup services rather than production workloads. So it stands to reason that the next leg of the cloud journey will involve mission-critical workloads – the stuff that sets the corporate suite’s hair on fire if it should cease to function for any reason.

This is why the growth of cloud computing is likely to slow down some as we approach the next decade. It’s not that the enterprise is growing tired of the cloud or is starting to see more of its flaws (yes, the cloud does have flaws), but that future deployments will have to be handled with more care as the stakes get higher. Not only will cloud services have to be more resilient going forward, but they will be increasingly optimized from the ground up to suit highly targeted processes, which takes time and coordination between users and providers.

More of the IT Business Edge post from Arthur Cole

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03
Aug 16

ZDNet – Today’s cloud computing projects are missing something – a strategy

Everyone at some level is exploring or considering public cloud options for a range of functions — from automating IT functions to enhancing business processes.

The survey of 500 executives, published by Softchoice, finds a lack of strategic thinking when it comes to cloud implementations. A majority, 54 percent, report their teams struggle to form an effective cloud strategy, and 52 percent lack a formalized cloud strategy altogether.

Having a cloud strategy makes a big difference, the survey suggests. Compared to IT leaders with no public cloud strategy in place, those with a formal strategy are less likely to grapple with cloud skills gaps, the cloud procurement model, and cloud budgeting. Fifty-eight percent of companies without strategies have experienced cloud failures, compared to only 22 percent of strategy-minded organizations. Seventy-five percent say they are struggling to find the right skills, for example — compared to 41 percent of those with strategies. At the same time, while 70 percent of companies without strategies ran over budget, only 52 percent of those with strategies have had such issues. If anything, transitioning to public cloud is a slow-moving process for most businesses. A new survey of 500 IT and business executives finds 61 percent “still experimenting with or making limited use of public cloud”.

More of the ZDNet article from Joe McKendrick

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02
Aug 16

The Server Side – Managed services model addresses cloud-based analysis paralysis

It can be a tad disconcerting when a popular trend pushes its way through the industry and you and your organization are yet to jump on the bandwagon. For enterprises that haven’t yet moved their applications onto the Azure, Google or Amazon cloud, it would be understandable for managers and C-level executives to be questioning both why it hasn’t happened yet and when it actually will. But according to Jordan Jacobs, vice president of products at SingleHop, the Azure, Amazon and Google cloud models are being oversold, and for many core business functions, a managed services approach to application hosting is often a better model.

Public clouds vs. managed services model

“The thing that wows a lot of people is the market share discrepancy between public clouds and managed services, especially when compared to the press each one gets,” said Jacobs. “Amazon, Azure and Google get all of the press, but they’re actually only about a third of the managed services and managed hosting market.”

Unfortunately, the love affair the press is having with the dominant cloud providers is causing a great deal of consternation with decision makers. On the one hand, decision makers feel that they need to catch up with the latest trend; on the other hand, they are having a hard time rationalizing, in terms of cost efficiencies, security, and business benefits, the porting of their core business applications into the public cloud. It’s creating a sort of analysis paralysis, where decision makers are unsure of whether using the public cloud is the right move, whether the managed services model makes more sense or if they should just keep everything on premises.

More of The Server Side post from Cameron McKenzie

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01
Aug 16

TheWHIR – Nearly Half of All Corporate Data is Out of IT Department’s Control

Many organizations are not responding to the continuing spread of “Shadow IT” and cloud use with appropriate governance and security measures, and more than half do not have a proactive approach, according to research released Tuesday. The 2016 Global Cloud Data Security Study, compiled by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of Gemalto, shows that nearly half of all cloud services (49 percent) and nearly half of all corporate data stored in the cloud (47 percent) are beyond the reach of IT departments.

The report is drawn from a survey of more than 3,400 IT and IT security practitioners from around the world. It shows only 34 percent of confidential data on SaaS is encrypted, and members of the security team are only involved in one-fifth of choices between cloud applications and platforms.

IT departments are making gains in visibility, with 54 percent saying the department is aware of all cloud applications, platforms, and infrastructure services in use, up from 45 percent two years ago. Also, the number of respondents saying it is more difficult to protect data using cloud services fell from 60 to 54 percent, however those gains were offset by more broadly reported challenges in controlling end-user access.

CIO Dashboard – CIOs Wanted for Innovation Expansion

Do CIOs have a role in product development? Some say no. Call on the CTO or CDO or CMO. But those who wish to banish CIOs to the backend of the enterprise for eternity haven’t taken a close look at what’s needed in the enterprise as innovation shifts from products to software and service solutions.

We’re in the midst of an innovation boom. Traditional, standalone products are no longer enough to wow and woo customers. Enterprises are setting up innovation outposts in Silicon Valley to tap into the culture and brainpower of startups to develop sticky products that customers can’t live without. Call it digital or the new way of doing business, but savvy companies are converging technology, data and product design to expand innovation. Think of software and service solutions this way…

Are you selling a fitness wearable or giving consumers the thrill of learning what they’re physically capable of and sharing the experience with family and friends?
Are you providing a refrigerator or empowering people with a remote access view of their food so they can spend more time at home breaking bread with family versus shopping?
Are you offering a ride from here to there or the freedom for people to move fast and fluidly with on-demand availability to cars and data that enable them to make decisions about how they spend their time?
This trend is crossing industries, but consider the automotive sector as one example

More of the CIO Dashboard article from Chris Curran

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28
Jul 16

SearchCloudComputing – On-premises vs. cloud: What’s more cost-effective for your apps?

Some organizations rush into a cloud migration, assuming cost savings are a guarantee. But not all applications are meant for the public cloud, and moving them may cost you more.

Consuming resources only when you need them seems like the most obvious way to increase efficiency. While you can shut down a server to save pennies on power and cooling when it’s not in use, you can’t recoup any of the capital costs. And most OS or software licensing models don’t care how often you use the application. So, when you’re able to pay for the bundled resource, delivered as a service, only when you need it, of course you save money — except when you don’t.

Many applications just aren’t suited to run in a public cloud, for either technological or financial reasons, said David Linthicum, senior VP at Cloud Technology Partners based in Boston. To avoid paying more than they need to, organizations should carefully consider their application costs in an on-premises vs. cloud environment.

“It could be as many as 50% of applications in a traditional enterprise, and the average is about 30 to 40%,” Linthicum said. “You have to do the triage and understand the application portfolio — otherwise you will end up making dumb decisions and moving workloads to the cloud that will end up costing you more money.”

More of the SearchCloudComputing article from Nick Martin

Doug Theis Leave your comfort zone.