August 26, 2013
Volume XLV, Issue 1
Cloud Computing Market Revenue to Approach $20 Billion by End of 2016
451 Research projects that cloud market revenue will increase at a 36% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), putting the cloud computing market just shy of $20 billion at the end of 2016.
The recently published Cloud as-a-Service (CaaS) overview report provides current market size and five-year growth rates for the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) segments; a competitive landscape analysis for each category; and forecasts for revenue generated by 309 cloud-services providers and technology vendors across 14 sectors.
Leveraging 451 Research's deep insight into established cloud vendors and startups, the report employs a pure bottom-up approach, with active participation from sector analysts. The resulting forecast incorporates the unique traits, strengths, and weaknesses of each market participant, and provides a deep, holistic view of the cloud computing marketplace.
"Cloud computing is on the upswing and demand for public cloud services remains strong," said Yulitza Peraza, Analyst, Quantitative Services, 451 Research and coauthor of the report.
"However, public cloud adoption continues to face hurdles including security concerns, transparency and trust issues, workload readiness, and internal non-IT-related organizational issues."
Additional report highlights include:
IaaS accounted for the majority of total market revenue in 2012, with more than half of the total public cloud market share, and a 37% CAGR through 2016.
The PaaS layer accounted for nearly a quarter (24%) of the total public cloud revenue in 2012, and will experience the fastest growth — a projected CAGR of 41% between 2012 and 2016.
The SaaS sector, which does not include enterprise SaaS revenue, represented 25% of total cloud revenue in 2012 and is expected to generate a 29% CAGR through 2016.
Publicly traded companies comprise 23% of the cloud vendors tracked, and generate 78% of the total revenue. The majority of vendors are still below the $5 million revenue threshold; vendors that constitute the cloud 'midmarket' (between $5 million and $50 million in revenue) accounted for 25% of total revenue in 2012.
Only a dozen vendors generated more than $75 million each in revenue in 2012.
83% of all services provider generated $15 million or less each in 2012 revenue.
"Several vendors currently included in the cloud 'midmarket' are titans in their core IT sectors," said Greg Zwakman, Research Director, Quantitative Services, 451 Research. "It is still early days for the cloud divisions at these vendors, and running the same revenue distribution analysis against our 2016 forecasts paints a different picture."
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 With the completion of our agenda, we look forward during the next two weeks to announcing additional speakers for CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 (CCW:2013).
CCW:2013 is the Cloud Computing Association's (CCA) and Distributed Computing Industry Association's (DCIA) business strategy summit taking place October 27th-29th at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, NV.
Here are details of the schedule.
On Sunday afternoon October 27th, from 3:00 to 5:00 PM, we will offer ENTERTAINMENT / MOBILITY & BIG DATA / CLOUD 101 WORKSHOPS followed immediately by the welcoming reception for all speakers, delegates, and sponsors.
Monday morning October 28th will begin with CONFERENCE REGISTRATION & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST at 7:30 AM.
After a brief WELCOME TO LAS VEGAS & CONFERENCE OVERVIEW, at 8:30 AM we will present our opening plenary session, THE STATE OF CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION FOR ENTERTAINMENT, featuring an "Industry Update on Cloud Adoption" and "Consumer Transition to the Cloud: Service Provider & OTT Video, Gaming, and Music Services."
This will be followed by plenary keynotes at 9:30 AM, outlining THE NEEDS OF ENTERPRISE END-USERS IN THE MEDIA SECTOR, and include "Cloud Migration Considerations" and "International Media Enterprise Requirements."
After a MID-MORNING NETWORKING BREAK, at 10:45 AM we will highlight LATEST TRENDS, NEWEST OFFERINGS such as "The 5-3-2 Principle of Cloud Computing" and "Strawberry Coconut Cloud - You Choose the Flavor," followed by a panel discussion of OUTSTANDING ISSUES.
After our CONFERENCE LUNCHEON and DESSERT & COFFEE SERVICE, at 1:30 PM we will begin two major tracks focusing on CLOUD COMPUTING IN ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA — the eCLOUD — and MOBILE & BIG DATA — the mCLOUD.
The eCLOUD will include sessions on THE CLOUD & TELEVISION, COLLABORATION & PRODUCTION, EDITING & TRANSCODING, and CONTENT CREATION IN THE CLOUD.
The mCloud will include sessions on MOBILE STORAGE CONSIDERATIONS, LOWERING LATENCY, ADAPTIVE MONITORING, and MOBILE & BIG DATA MANAGEMENT.
After a MID-AFTERNOON NETWORKING BREAK, the eCLOUD will continue with PROGRAM ELEMENT STORAGE, DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL STORAGE, CLOUD-BASED DELIVERY SYSTEMS, and CLOUD MEDIA LOCKERS.
Meanwhile the mCLOUD will zero in on BIG DATA INFRASTRUCTURE, SEARCH & MINING, ANALYTIC PROGRAMS, and BIG DATA SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS.
Both tracks will wrap-up Monday with roundtables on SECURITY & RELIABILITY ISSUES.
At 5:30 PM, we will have an EVENING NETWORKING RECEPTION.
Tuesday October 29th will begin at 7:30 AM with CONFERENCE REGISTRATION & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST and then continue with our two major tracks.
The eCLOUD will start at 8:30 AM with CLOUD IMPLEMENTATION FOR MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT, including "How to Build Your Cloud Strategy," followed by CLOUD VENDOR SELECTION FOR MEDIA COMPANIES, CLOUD ECONOMICS IN THE ENTERTAINMENT SECTOR and FUTURE CLOUD OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT.
The mClOUD will focus on BIG DATA IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES, including "Selecting Technologies to Secure Your Cloud," followed by MOBILE CLOUD VENDOR SELECTION CRITERIA, MOBILE CLOUD / BIG DATA ECONOMICS, and FUTURE MOBILE CLOUD & BIG DATA OPPORTUNITIES.
After a MID-MORNING NETWORKING BREAK, we will reconvene in closing plenary sessions zeroing in on FINAL CONSIDERATIONS and WHAT'S NEXT FOR CLOUD COMPUTING.
Leaders from the following organizations, among others, have already made plans to attend:
Amazon Web Services (AWS), AT&T Mobility, Comcast, Dell, IBM, Las Vegas Sands Corporation, Microsoft, MP3 TechSupport, NBC Universal, Netflix, Rackspace, Sony Games, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sprint Nextel, Toshiba, Trend Micro, Warner Bros., A10 Networks, ABI Research, Appalachian State University, Aspera, Citrix, DataDirect Networks (DDN), Dell SecureWorks, eGistics, GenosTV, Intertrust Technologies Corporation, The PADEM Group, Rafelson Media, SoftServe, and the author of 21st Century Television: The Players, The Viewers, The Money.
Join them. This year's CCW:2013 themes are "Revolutionizing Entertainment & Media" and "The Impact of Mobile Cloud Computing & Big Data."
There's no question that advances in cloud computing are having enormous effects on the creation, storage, distribution, and consumption of diverse genres of content.
And most profound among these effects are those involving the increased proliferation of portable playback systems and the accompanying generation of unprecedented amounts of viewership, listenership, and usage information from audiences globally.
The ubiquity and widespread acceptance of user interfaces that reflect the dynamic interactivity exemplified by smart-phone applications is rapidly replacing the flat linearity of traditional TV channel line-ups and changing expectations for a new generation of consumers.
Cloud-based information and entertainment-of-all-kinds accessible everywhere always on each connected device will become the new norm.
Perfect data related to consumer behaviors associated with discovering and consuming this content will displace metering and ratings technologies based solely on statistical sampling.
DCINFO readers are encouraged to get involved in CCA's & DCIA's CCW:2013 as exhibitors, sponsors, and speakers.
The CCA is handling exhibits and sponsorships. Please click here for more information.
The DCIA's role is to provide keynotes, panelists, and case-study presenters to participate in our comprehensive agenda of sessions in ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA and MOBILE CLOUD & BIG DATA.
Please click here to apply to speak at CCW:2013. Share wisely, and take care.
Clearing the Fog: The Future of Cloud Computing
Excerpted from Crackberry Report by Rene Ritchie, Daniel Rubino, Kevin Michaluk, and Phil Nickinson
There are many visions for the future of computing, and by-and-large they all involve some form of distributed storage and processing. Sure, our computers, tablets, and smartphones will continue to evolve and become more powerful, but so too will cloud services and the Internet infrastructure that connects it all.
Whether we're looking at connected headset displays, constantly-syncing smartphones, or present-anywhere virtual machines, the cloud is going to play a significant role in computing in the years ahead.
The future of the cloud isn't going to be without troubles, however. What will it take to get our data everywhere? Are our networks and devices and the services themselves up to the challenge of syncing gigabytes upon gigabytes of data?
If we can have all our data everywhere, do we even need a powerful computer anymore, or can we offload it all onto the cloud and just have a thin client for interaction? And what of our media - is it ours, and will we ever be able to get it our way instead of Hollywood's?
If it weren't for decent bandwidth, we wouldn't even be talking about the cloud. Can you imagine trying to sync Dropbox over a US Robotics 14.4k modem? Or even downloading this page? We couldn't have the modern cloud without modern networks.
A decade ago, cloud services weren't a thing that we interacted with on a daily basis. "The cloud" wasn't even a term, though it did exist - its role was making data more efficient. Case in point: the BlackBerry Network Operations Center (NOC). The NOC managed traffic between device and server by streamlining and compressing data that was sent to devices on the BlackBerry network.
The NOC was necessary then, back when you were lucky if your phone was capable of 100Kbps downloads, and even luckier if your carrier ever came close to providing that. Today we live in a world of LTE that can hit 50 megabits down, or even 75 or 100. The speeds are absurd, rivaling what's available for most home wired connections.
Of course, that's if you have a good LTE connection, which not everybody does. 4G connectivity is spreading, but rural and poor areas will lag behind for the foreseeable future.
Bottleneck. It's a phrase that's been applied to automobile traffic, paperwork flow, and manufacturing difficulties over the years, and it's found its way to describing problems on the Internet as well. For as digital as we like to think of the Internet, it is in fact a very real physical network of cables, transmitters, modems, and servers, all powered by electricity and maintained by human technicians.
Even though the Internet is designed to be dynamically managed and distributed, users still encounter slow-downs thanks to increased traffic: bottlenecks. In Internet terms, a bottleneck occurs when high use of the network overwhelms the server's ability to process requests as they come in, leading to a backlog of tasks to process. This most commonly occurs at the ISP level in high-density locations where a surge in use in the afternoon and evening can bring the entire network to a crawl.
Bottlenecks also occur at the cloud level. Twitter is the most publicly-bottlenecked service of our day, often slowing or going offline under the overwhelming load of users during unexpected events like celebrity deaths or natural disasters.
Today, for the most part, cloud services are pretty good, though there's always room for improvement. Sometimes it's hard to tell where the improvement needs to happen. Is it the service itself that's faltering, my local Internet connection, or something in-between? I don't always know who to blame when a show streaming off Netflix has to downgrade its quality or stop to buffer, or when the music I'm streaming stutters and cuts out.
Is it the service itself that's faltering, my local Internet connection, or something in-between?
That said, there's nothing wrong with throwing more bandwidth and more servers at the cloud. A lot of the lag problems in the early years of Android have been solved today by throwing increasingly powerful hardware at it until it could keep up; the same can be done for cloud services. Hell, that's what Twitter had to do when the service took off: more servers, more bandwidth, problem solved.
Bandwidth isn't holding back adoption of cloud services. It's being comfortable with the concept of the cloud, or understanding just what the cloud offers, that's stopping people from jumping on board. But even then we've seen a massive uptake in the past few years - thanks in no small part to a massive uptick in bandwidth. The cloud has momentum now - and clouds aren't easy to stop.
To me, that's what the future is. You have your data, you have your identity, but the fashion will change all the time.
"Computer!" It's become a cliché. What Scotty said in his brogue, Spock in his monotone, or Kirk in his swagger. What commanded the attention of a vast computational core, and caused it to come squawking out of any terminal, anywhere on the Enterprise. It was the thinnest of clients. And it was a concept that everyone from Sun Microsystems to Oracle to Google would embrace and try to extend for decades.
It's a compelling idea. Giant computers, hidden away, surfaced anywhere a light, convenient interface can be found. It's the dream of every IT administrator who'd rather work from poolside than from a desk. It's the hope of every writer and student who wants to carry the barest minimum hardware still maintain constant connectivity.
It's a future that's always coming but never quite arriving.
And like HTML5 apps, it's a future that's always coming but never quite arriving, and for a similar reason: the web just isn't good for everything, and will never be as good for everything.
Take Google's Chrome OS for example. The Chromebook Pixel is probably the most beautiful thin client ever conceived. And one of the stupidest. It's a powerful machine that costs as much as the Adobe suite, yet can't run Photoshop. It has a retina display that won't display Premiere or After Effects. It's utterly dependent on the Internet in an age when the Internet is still utterly undependable.
There are, should be, and increasingly will be software and services that make sense to be cloud-based. Not just things like messaging or browsing, which are born of the web, but anything that benefits from collaboration or cooperation. Other than that, nope, sorry. Code it natively so I can access all the power and performance native enables.
There's only one consumer operating system today that qualifies as a "thin client": Chrome OS. Google's second operating system, Chrome OS is built on top of a Linux core but is designed primarily as a WebKit browser-based system. As such, the Chrome browser (based on WebKit), a media player for music, photos, and videos, and a file browser are the only apps that are installed on Chrome OS.
Shipping in both Chromebook laptops and Chromebox desktops, the hardware Chrome OS runs on is typically lightweight in both its physical and computational measures. With the majority of the processing happening in the web browser and in the Google cloud (Chrome OS ties in nicely with Google's services), high-powered hardware isn't needed for the Chrome OS experience. Most Chromebooks are relatively cheap, with retail prices in the range of $200 to $400.
Even so, in early 2013 Google released the Chromebook Pixel, a high-end Chrome OS laptop with a super-high-resolution touch display, powerful Intel Core i5 processor, aluminum unibody shell, and a high-for-a-Chromebook $1299 pricetag. Much like Google's line of Android-powered Nexus devices, the Chromebook Pixel wasn't meant as a market-dominating move, but more as a demonstration to consumers and partners of what can be done with Chrome OS.
Rather than a thin client, what seems to be evolving is a client with a nice physique. Not emaciated, it's a right-sized machine backed up by an amazing cloud.
Chrome OS is ahead of its time, and hopefully Google will someday meld its strengths with the native strengths of Android. Dropbox, having already bought Mailbox, may one day field its own cloud-based operating system. So might Facebook, which already has a bunch of apps and a strong cloud infrastructure. And Amazon has server-sided browser in Silk, who knows what's next?
The clients that run any or all of those wouldn't be thin either, they'd just be remarkably fit, and that's what we want from the future.
The road to having all of your information everywhere through the cloud is a long and tedious one, but like all things that deal with computing, it's moving faster than ever. The problem is multifaceted: there are security concerns, availability of storage, bandwidth, cost, file integrity, and incorporating these services into our current systems and behaviors.
There are two paths that can be taken: third-party clouds like Dropbox or SugarSync, and first-party clouds like those created by Apple, Google, and Microsoft. To be frank, the easiest way to get to the all-data-everywhere state will be buying into one ecosystem and its first-party cloud. Dropbox, Box, and all the rest of the third-party gang offer loads of flexibility, but it's tough to beat the integrated nature of the first-party cloud.
Microsoft has been talking for some time of their concept of "Three screens and a cloud", and a bridging of devices and services, all powered by Microsoft. Those three screens are the PC (which Microsoft lumps tablets in with), the smartphone, and the living room television.
Microsoft has a healthy foothold in the PC and TV markets thanks to long dominance by Windows on laptops and desktops and a dogged perseverance with their Xbox gaming console line. But tablets, cloud services, and mobile devices have failed to catch on with the public at large, calling Microsoft's strategy into question.
But as with their Xbox strategy, Microsoft is more than willing to pour money into their efforts until they succeed by sheer willpower (and marketing). Microsoft spend billions more dollars than they made in gaming over the first five years of the Xbox's life, and is still making up for the losses with sales of the Xbox 360. Microsoft's Online Services Division - Bing, MSN, other web stuff - has lost more than $11 billion since 2005 in Microsoft's efforts to combat Google. Even so, Microsoft continues to rake in cash from Windows and Office sales, using that money to bolster their efforts in the living room, mobile, and the web.
Hop on with Microsoft and Windows 8.1 will back up nearly everything on your computer to SkyDrive, and you'll be able to access all of that from a Windows Phone. Use a Mac? Get an iPhone and iCloud will seamlessly sync your photos, iWork documents, music, calendar, and more across your whole iEcosystem.
But integrated first-party clouds lock you into that ecosystem. Once you have a Windows 8 laptop paired through SkyDrive with an Xbox One and your Windows Phone, it's hard to justify the switching cost to another platform. There's a SkyDrive app for Android, but is it going to be as integrated of an experience as on Windows Phone? Will a BlackBerry 10 smartphone work well in a household that otherwise runs on Google services?
Integrated first-party clouds lock you into that ecosystem.
Competition is what's driven us to have multiple operating systems, and it's what's driving us to a future with clouds dedicated to those operating systems. It's in the best interests of any manufacturer or developer to make the cost of switching too high, either by loss of features or simply making it inconvenient for customers. It's not great for consumers, but that's just the way it is and will continue to be.
The day that all of your stuff is everywhere is nigh. It is certainly where all of these companies are moving towards today and tomorrow, with vast resources being devoted to the endeavor. It will take time, because for these services to be truly everywhere will require platform updates at a core level. And you'll probably only be able to reap the benefits by buying entirely into the platform ecosystem.
Make no mistake, it's the folks in the mansions in California who control what you watch on your TV, your tablet and your phone. It's not Apple. It's not Google. It's not Microsoft. It's (mostly) not Netflix.
We've all experienced the frustration of searching Netflix for the latest movie and finding nothing. You still can't subscribe to online-only versions of the premium cable channels. For as great as HBO Go and the like are, you still have to have a cable subscription. You, dear user, are at their mercy. And if Hollywood has anything to say about it, that's how things will remain.
There is hope. In 2013 we saw the first series produced by Netflix hit the Internet. Complete seasons released all at once, for you to watch at your leisure. Binge on a dozen episodes in a single day, or pace yourself. Doesn't matter to Netflix.
With a much lower profile (and far fewer dollars at stake) are any number of independent producers that put out their own content on YouTube, Vimeo, or other platforms. They should be commended, and we should all support them. But the simple fact is that they're swimming upstream, and Hollywood is the bear waiting to bite the head off any salmon unlucky enough to poke its head out of the water.
Founded in 1997 as a DVD-by-mail company, the future of Netflix was always in its name. DVD rentals are still a large part of Netflix's business, but their streaming video arm is today by far the largest part of the company.
In March 2011, Netflix announced that they were going to begin acquiring and producing original content for their streaming service. The first series to debut on Netflix was the low-profile "Lilyhammer" in early 2012, a joint production between Norwegian channel NRK and Netflix. Making a bigger splash a year later, however, was the Kevin Spacey-starring political drama "House of Cards," followed by a fourth season of the cancelled Fox sitcom "Arrested Development." Both landed to rave reviews, as did the third Netflix Original Series: "Orange is the New Black."
"House of Cards" was the first online-only series to be nominated for an Outstanding Drama Series Emmy. "Arrested Development's" Jason Bateman and Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright of "House of Cards" were likewise the first actors to receive Lead Actor Emmy nominations for their online work. In total, Netflix received 14 nominations for the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards.
In a perfect world, all video would be available anywhere, at any time. YouTube has made publishing and promoting online video easier than ever. But YouTube (or any other service) usually doesn't own that content. And so we're back at the same formula we started with, with those of us staring at the screen at the dead end of a long, dark road.
There are a lot of little, independent lights working to illuminate that road. But it's a long road to light, and they've got a lot of work ahead of them.
Those of us with young children are raising boys and girls who will never know a world without Netflix. Without YouTube. Without the means to watch any video online, day or night. And, one day, hopefully, they'll know a world in which the studios give us what we want -- their content, whenever and however we want it.
We've been saying it all along: the cloud is the future of computing. But it's not the be-all-end-all of computing. While there's no doubt that the cloud will be more and more involved in our daily computing needs, especially as mobile networks grow stronger, faster, and larger, it's not going to replace our devices as we know them.
Our laptops, smartphones, tablets, and whatever other new forms of personal computing hardware arise in the coming years will continue to become more powerful and more personal, and the cloud is only going to help in that. If it's serving up additional processing power when it's needed, having all of our content on tap at a moment's notice, or simply getting us our emails, the cloud will be there.
But the cloud is going to need better infrastructure if it's going to be with us in new and omnipresent ways. More servers with better redundancy, greater bandwidth, and broader connectivity will all play a part in expanding the reach of the cloud.
We're only in the early days of the cloud. What does the future hold?
Is Google Killing Cable?
Excerpted from Forbes Report by Tristan Louis
Apple took the first tentative steps with the AppleTV, a small device that allow users to stream content from certain apps on iOS-enabled phones and tablets directly to their TV screens. Priced at $99, the device essentially turns your TV screen into a second screen for the content you consume on mobile devices.
Google has decided to enter the space with Chromecast, a device priced at $35 that allows anyone to stream content from Chrome web browsers (available on PC and mac), Netflix, and YouTube. For less than going out to movies, a couple can essentially Internet-enable their TV screen and use any mobile device (iOS, Android) or computer running Google Chrome (Windows or OSX) to stream Internet content.
Both AppleTV and Chromecast are relatively simple to set up for anyone and the controls are simple enough that anyone who understand the basics of using a web browser, tablet, or smartphone can easily send video to the screen. Because of how easy and cheap they are to setup, the two devices point to a world where cable TV subscription will no longer be as relevant as it is today, with Internet connectivity becoming the dominant data stream into the house.
If you look at the recent effort on programming from Netflix, it is clear that today's successful TV channels do not need to have a physical programming grid that ties them to a rigid schedule, nor do they need to be distributed as part of a cable TV package. Netflix today, from a product offering, is getting increasingly hard to distinguish from HBO, except for the fact that its subscribers get to choose what they watch and when they watch it.
As has long been my contention, there are very few types of programming that justify real-time broadcasting: news, sports, and award events represent the exception and here, companies like Al-Jazeera have proven that you can build a following by doing live streaming over the Internet (unfortunately, upon its purchase of the Current.TV cable channel, Al-Jazeera has decided to abandon its pioneering ways, attaching itself to the dying traditional model instead).
With some of the most expensive cable TV channel representing almost $5 in a consumer's bill (whether they watch it or not), there is room for a very different model, one where individual channels could offer their content online (many already do) for a fee within subscription apps that could be send to the TV with AppleTV or Chromecast.
Aereo, for example, already offers the over-the-air broadcasts (about 20-30 channels) as an app that runs on iPhone and iPads and can beam to AppleTV and it is safe to assume that they will be offering something similar on Android and Chromecast in the not too distant future.
If individual TV channels were to charge a membership fee similar to that offered by Netflix ($8), they could increase their overall revenue while leaving cable TV providers behind. Infrastructure costs have been rapidly dropping and companies can now purchase such turnkey infrastructures from third party companies like Brightcove or MLBAM, the digital arm of the MLB, for relatively small per-user prices. Channels aggregating streams over the Internet would then have substantially more information about what their viewers are watching and when, giving them the ability to decide what to fund and what to kill, and whether to charge higher advertising rates for one show versus another.
Such a breakdown will happen and one can assume that it will happen relatively soon if incumbents do not want to be defeated by newcomers. In the 1980s and 1990s, large companies like Turner Broadcasting, Hearst TV, HBO, Starz, and Cinemax were built on the new technology of cable TV, displacing traditional broadcasters as the leaders in the TV space. It is only a question of time before such thing happen again but with the Internet as the distribution network instead of the regular cable aggregators consumers have gotten used to.
And when that happens, the incumbents may find themselves with little choice other than to join the newcomers.
Why Cloud-Based Solutions Are so Important to Field Service
Excerpted from Business 2 Community Report by Joyce Tam
As companies look to trim costs on information technology (IT), many are gravitating to cloud computing as a way to increase IT efficiency and economics. The field service profession, in particular, benefits from the cloud since it requires employees to work beyond the confines of an office, and often beyond the typical 9-to-5 hour workday. And, like many professions sending its employees to the field, it's critical that they use technology that's reliable, secure, and accessible.
To meet these demands, field service professionals are looking to cloud computing as a way of helping remote workers stay connected to company data and applications from anywhere at any time.
The primary benefit of cloud computing is that it lets you increase your computing capabilities while reducing the cost of ownership associated with equipment, licenses, storage, and IT personnel. For medium to large entities, these costs of ownership include not only the hardware and software, but also the space, power, and technical support to store, run, and maintain a high-capacity cloud environment. In-house IT systems have become extremely complex and expensive to maintain, with users operating different versions of software and support across the applications.
Cloud computing reduces this complexity; it leverages a combination of on-demand and self-managed virtual infrastructure as a service. The cloud also offers the flexibility to add and remove services and users as needed. For companies without the budget to regularly upgrade hardware and software, moving to the cloud can help keep those services updated without additional costs.
What is the "cloud?" In very general terms, cloud computing is hardware and software pooled in a hosted infrastructure provided by a vendor that can be accessed over the Internet somewhere beyond your business's firewall security. Typically a cloud service provider runs the Internet-based service and sells its use on a pay-per-use basis or as a subscription. These vendors offer application services or computing power to consumers, businesses or public entities.
You can access the cloud in the same way you access the Internet: via a computer, a tablet, or a handheld device that connects to the Internet. For example, if you use web-based e-mail such as Google Mail, you are already accessing the cloud. You can select different options when choosing a cloud service. Depending on your needs, you can choose from the following:
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) — the cloud service provider owns and houses the infrastructure — servers, storage devices, networking components — and provides the appropriate services to users. The computing resources typically are located in large data centers owned and operated by the cloud service providers. Customers are billed based on usage.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) — which delivers development environments as a service. This includes all of the components required to support the life cycle of building and delivering web applications: programming languages, testing, and debugging capabilities. Developers can build their applications, run them on the provider's infrastructure, and then deliver the applications to their users over the Internet. Google Apps and VMWare are examples of platform services providers. Organizations with customized web applications, i.e., managing payroll, can leverage PaaS so applications are run on a provider's infrastructure, giving the organization more robust support.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) — a central hosting service for specialized application software and its associated data, which is accessed through a Web browser. Using multitenant architecture, SaaS provides a single application to thousands of customers through their browsers. The software runs on a cloud server, not on your local machine. This approach is extremely flexible to meet changing work demands; the load can also be shared over multiple virtual machines using load balancers to distribute the work. Examples of this type of service are customer relationship management associated with sales activities (i.e., Salesforce.com) and mobile solutions for managing fleets and mobile workforces Trimble has found the SaaS form of cloud computing well suited to organizations with field operations such as Utilities, Telecommunications, HVAC or Fire and Security.
Trimble's cloud based services, developed for the Field Service market, allow our customers to access their account and information at any time from any computer and manage their mobile workforce in real time. One example of a "software as a service" cloud-based application is Trimble GeoManager, which offers visibility into day-to-day fleet operations to identify, manage, and improve areas such as driver safety, customer service, back office administration, fuel use, and fleet efficiency.
Companies using GeoManager have increased productivity by up to 30%, dispatch efficiency up to 60%, and cut overtime expenses up to 70% — all without a significant initial investment in their in-house computing capabilities Getting into the Cloud Field service companies looking to leverage the cloud to expand their services and reduce technology costs and complexity should research and select the best options, or combination of options, for their needs. Detailed suggestions and checklists for selecting a service can be found on the websites of most providers.
Points to consider are:
Type of Cloud. Generally speaking, individual users access a cloud that's available to the general public. A business that has already invested in computing resources might create a private cloud within their own data center to use existing resources, retain system flexibility, and control security policies. The drawback of a private cloud is that the burden of management and support stays with your company. A more logical approach may be a hybrid cloud, which is a combination of both a public and private cloud. Prices can vary among cloud types, so be sure to look into costs based on the cloud model you need.
Data Security. If you choose to outsource, it is critical that you trust your supplier. Know your organization's security requirements and make sure the service provider can meet them. Also find out if the cloud provider is in compliance with industry standards for data security. Determine who will have access to the data and on which devices it will be stored. Will it be archived? Look at the provider's server capability and uptime record. How does it manage and back up data, and what is its strategy for redundancy so you have round-the-clock access to your data if a cloud server goes down? Since cloud services are accessed via web browsers, be sure and check browser compatibility for proper display, function, and interaction among the various devices in use. Don't forget wireless coverage and dead zones.
Using cloud computing in the field service industry — whether in-house or through a provider — allows for flexibility, security, ease of use and a lower TCO (total cost of ownership) all of which can be considerations when wanting to deploy technology. With mobile workers out in the field and the utilization of temporary or contractor workforces increasing, a dynamic cloud solution could mean a significant improvement in technology capabilities and customer service at a very attractive cost.
The Great Cloud API Debate
Excerpted from Information Week Report by Charles Babcock
If you were hoping for a barroom brawl, it was a severe disappointment.
At the same time, last week's debate between Randy Bias, CTO of Cloudscaling, and Boris Renski, CMO and co-founder of Mirantis, scored important points about the value of application programming interfaces (APIs) and cloud architecture. And it dealt at length with the wisdom -- or lack thereof -- of focusing on Amazon APIs while inside the OpenStack project.
The protagonists are two outspoken members of the cloud community. Bias is known for assuming leading positions in the industry without showing any vestige of faintheartedness. At one point during the debate he said he was advocating Amazon APIs because Rackspace was the source of two core sets of APIs already in OpenStack: those for the Nova compute and Swift storage services. Rackspace's influence is waning in the open source project, he noted, so he had chosen this moment to "kick it in the teeth" and try to correct Rackspace's early influence in the project.
Renski, who was more soft-spoken during the debate, is known as one of two OpenStack board members who voted against admission of VMware to the project on the grounds that its interests were incompatible with the success of OpenStack. He also predicted PayPal would become an all-OpenStack shop, replacing VMware, as consultants from the firm he founded, Mirantis, were attempting to make the first PayPal server conversions. PayPal contradicted his statement at the time and announced continued support for VMware.
APIs are the gateways through which outsiders call into a cloud service supplier. Amazon APIs amount to a de facto standard, many observers agree, while OpenStack is seeking to create services, and their APIs are recognized industry standards that are adopted by many companies.
The leadership of the open source code project has demonstrated a continuing antagonism toward Amazon Web Services. This "us versus them" mindset is misplaced, Bias said in his opening statement. He stated that OpenStack should support Amazon's APIs as a matter of course.
"When you look at AWS' APIs, it's a little ridiculous to say they stifle innovation," Bias added. "They've been extremely stable. Amazon controls them, but they very rarely break backward-compatibility. So we're just talking about adding new features and functionality [not fixing compatibility]. It's a fast follow strategy."
Bias has a vested interest in the matter. His firm, Cloudscaling, offers a re-engineered version of OpenStack, dubbed Open Cloud System, which includes both standard OpenStack APIs and support for Amazon Web Services APIs. It's a dual, or hedged, bet. But it has the potential of erasing for cloud users the great divide between Amazon's EC2 and OpenStack clouds. An application that could call up compute and storage in one cloud would be able to do so just as easily in the other with no changes required.
Renski, whose company, Mirantis, is the largest OpenStack consulting firm, countered that every successful open source project produces its own native APIs, and OpenStack should do so as well. It would thwart the project's capacity for innovation to be caught aping Amazon.
Bias swore that no one was more devoted to the OpenStack project than he. He pledged eternal faithfulness to the OpenStack code, if only its authors wouldn't be so developer-centric and pig-headed about AWS.
Putting the focus on Amazon was the wrong thing to do in a young OpenStack project, countered Renski. "Any system, in my opinion, has to have its own native APIs. Having a native API doesn't preclude you from making some sort of effort at being cross compatible with other platforms." Renski then stated that Bias was "muddying that focus" with his July 24 blog on the need for Amazon APIs. "In the original manifesto that Randy produced, it wasn't clear what we're talking about," Renski challenged. "Are we talking about throwing away the native OpenStack APIs?"
Predictably, the question was a match applied to a short fuse. "No, it was absolutely, crystal clear," Bias started to respond. "I've had to go back and read it multiple times..."
"You even went back and had to put a follow-on letter," jibed Renski.
Moderator Joe Arnold, CEO of SwiftStack, a cloud storage company based on OpenStack Swift storage, intervened to point out that an OpenStack technical committee said the project was going to support one set of APIs, and everything else would be outside of that. "Do AWS APIs need to be an official thing?" he asked.
Bias responded, "I'm OK if they [AWS APIs] are outside of the core [OpenStack code]."
Renski appeared to agree that it would be feasible to include support for more than one API set, provided the project leaders were clear which set was essential and received the primary effort.
Bias then returned to a favorite theme. "The first thing I ask is, I want the community to stop saying it's us against Amazon. I think it's a totally ludicrous attitude. It's like saying OpenStack vs. VMware. We need to go co-op these systems. OpenStack should support the VMware vCloud Director APIs the same way it supports the AWS system ... that's my belief. Whether it's in core or not, I don't really care."
Renski insisted that maintaining compatibility with Amazon APIs should be left to third parties and not become a burden of the project. Experience has shown that third parties are the most reliable source of the translations needed between two competing ecosystems, he said.
In a flash poll conducted on Twitter after the debate, 30 respondents thought it was a good idea to include support for Amazon APIs; 10 thought it was a distraction and would diffuse the OpenStack effort.
In a follow-up comment to the debate, Alliancecloud founder John Seyer called it "insightful, but it also just scratched the surface of the subject."
Gartner: Amazon Still Public Cloud Leader by a Long Shot
Excerpted from InfoWorld Report by Brandon Butler
Amazon Web Services remains the top IaaS public cloud computing provider, offering the widest breath of services of any vendor in the market, Gartner concluded in its annual Magic Quadrant report.
In addition to having a broad range of cloud-based services, AWS also has the largest capacity to handle cloud-based workloads. Its cloud operation is estimated by Gartner to be five times larger than a dozen of its top competitors in the market combined. "AWS is the overwhelming market share leader," the report reads. "It is a thought leader; it is extraordinarily innovative, exceptionally agile and very responsive to the market. It has the richest IaaS product portfolio, and is constantly expanding its service offerings and reducing its prices."
Each year Gartner compiles its Magic Quadrant for public cloud vendors by examining the estimated 15 largest market players based on estimated market share, then it ranks them based on their understanding of market needs and the company's ability to execute.
In addition to the breadth and depth of services, AWS also has a robust partner ecosystem with leading technology providers offering its services through Amazon's cloud, including some of the biggest systems integrators. Gartner does warn of some cautions when using AWS services though, including complexity around its pricing and support offerings. Individual AWS offerings are rarely bundled, which can complicate purchasing choices.
No other company is really close to Amazon in terms of its offerings, according to Gartner, but there are a variety of niche players. Outsourcer CSC, for example, receives high marks in the report and is named as the only other leader in the market. Based on VMware's suite of cloud computing offerings, CSC has a very different enterprise-focused model compared to Amazon though, Gartner says. "CSC has a solid platform that is attractive to traditional IT operations organizations that still want to retain control, but need to offer greater agility to the business and are willing to embrace data center transformation," Gartner says. Amazon, in comparison is more of an out-sourcing play, with a limited on-premises or "private cloud" option for customers to deploy on their own premises.
Microsoft and Rackspace are listed in the "visionaries" category, while telco-oriented providers Verizon Terremark and Savvis are in the "challengers" quadrant, along with Dimension Data. Joyent, Tier 3, Virtustream, Fujitsu, SoftLayer (now owned by IBM), GoGrid, HP and IBM are considered "niche players" by Gartner.
The IaaS market for cloud computing is rapidly evolving, but it represents the fastest-growing need among Gartner clients. "As each provider has unique offerings, the task of sourcing their services must be handled with care." Most of the vendors included have service-level agreements (SLAs) that ensure the cloud will have 99.95% uptime — some even guarantee up to 99.999%.
Gartner warns that security remains a major issue with cloud computing, with the extent of security measures from each provider varying significantly. While a vendor may provide some base-level of security, in many circumstances — such as with AWS — it's up to the customer to select what additional security features they want. The same is generally true with enterprise-class support, which is offered as an option for customers if they choose from many providers, like AWS.
Customers are using the cloud for more complex workloads now compared to a year ago. Gartner recommends using cloud services for purposes such as test and development, hosting cloud-native applications, e-business hosting, enterprise applications, general business applications and batch computing — depending on the provider.
In the Cloud, Many Jobs Go Unfilled
Excerpted from Associations Now Report by Rob Stott
The latest labor data shows a rise in the number of cloud computing jobs, but millions of positions in the industry remain open because of a lack of properly trained professionals — something the National Cloud Technologists Association is trying to change.
A message to parents sending their kids off to college this time of year: As your student begins exploring potential career paths, you may want to give him or her a gentle nudge toward computer science — especially the cloud variety.
Workforces around the world are steps behind when it comes to attaining the skills necessary to thrive in the cloud computing industry.
Here's why: The economy added 3,600 new cloud computing jobs in July, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly employment situation report. BLS also reported that employment in computer systems design and related services is expected to grow by 3.9 percent annually through 2020—more than double the rate of all industries.
While that's all welcome news, a report by Microsoft from the International Data Corporation (IDC) earlier this year showed that more than 1.7 million cloud computing jobs remained unfilled at the end of 2012.
"Workforces around the world are steps behind when it comes to attaining the skills necessary to thrive in the cloud computing industry," Cushing Anderson, Program Vice President at IDC, said in a statement. "Unlike IT skill shortages in the past, solving this skills gap is extremely challenging, given that the cloud brings a new set of skills, which haven't been needed in the past. There is no one-size-fits-all set of criteria for jobs in cloud computing. Therefore, training and certification is essential for preparing prospective job candidates to work in cloud-related jobs."
One group providing that training is the National Cloud Technologists Association (NCTA), which offers a three-module certification program and various levels of certification — from "cloud master" to "cloud guru."
"Every IT person is fully capable of doing this new job, it's just that they need to be trained on how to do so," said Hart Singh, cofounder and chief learning officer at NCTA. "There's a dilemma here: Their job title remains unchanged and the job function remains the same — to support the team — but the entire infrastructure is gone. That individual has to migrate his skill set from servicing computers with a screwdriver in their hand to operations in the cloud with drag-and-drop and point-and-click."
Training is available to all interested parties, but NCTA received a government grant that goes toward subsidizing training costs for displaced IT workers, which make up a good portion of its classes, Singh said. Others are professionals sent by their companies to get a better grasp on the cloud computing space.
"Firms want their employees to come to these classes so they can learn how to select the technology, purchase the technology, negotiate the contracts, develop the migration roadmaps, and so on," said Singh. "So we're training these people in parallel while that technology is being implemented."
But doing that is getting easier, Singh said, because programs like NCTA's have been around for a while now and can draw on concrete examples of how to successfully work in the cloud.
"These courses no longer work on theoretical scenarios," he said. "Participants can work on real cases and real projects similar to what they are engaged in. They can actually utilize their classwork and go back to their office and use it as part of that larger project."
Coming Events of Interest
NordiCloud 2013 - September 1st-3rd in Oslo, Norway. The Nordic Symposium on Cloud Computing & Internet Technologies (NordiCloud) aims at providing an industrial and scientific forum for enhancing collaboration between industry and academic communities from Nordic and Baltic countries in the area of Cloud Computing and Internet Technologies.
P2P 2013: IEEE International Conference on Peer-to-Peer Computing - September 9th-11th in Trento, Italy. The IEEE P2P Conference is a forum to present and discuss all aspects of mostly decentralized, large-scale distributed systems and applications. This forum furthers the state-of-the-art in the design and analysis of large-scale distributed applications and systems.
CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 - October 27th-29th in Las Vegas, NV. Two major conference tracks will zero in on the latest advances in applying cloud-based solutions to all aspects of high-value entertainment content production, storage, and delivery; and the impact of mobile cloud computing and Big Data analytics in this space.
International CES - January 7th-10th in Las Vegas, NV. The International CES is the global stage for innovation reaching across global markets, connecting the industry and enabling CE innovations to grow and thrive. The International CES is owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $209 billion US consumer electronics industry.
CONNECTING TO THE CLOUD - January 8th in Las Vegas, NV. This DCIA Conference within CES will highlight the very latest advancements in cloud-based solutions that are now revolutionizing the consumer electronics (CE) sector. Special attention will be given to the impact on consumers, telecom industries, the media, and CE manufacturers of accessing and interacting with cloud-based services using connected devices.
CCISA 2013 – February 12th–14th in Turin, Italy. The second international special session on Cloud computing and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and its Applications within the 22nd Euromicro International Conference on Parallel, Distributed and Network-Based Processing.
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