October 28, 2013
Volume XLV, Issue 10
CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 Starts NOW
During CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 (CCW:2013) ongoing now through Tuesday October 29th at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, NV, you'll interact with media and entertainment sector companies like ABC-Disney-ESPN, Comcast, DirecTV, Netflix, Sony Games, and Warner Bros.; cloud computing leaders like Amazon Web Services (AWS), IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Rackspace, and TransLattice; mobile cloud players like AT&T, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, NTT Data, Sprint Nextel, and Toshiba; insightful analysts, advocates, and industry observers — like ABI Research, CDT, Hughes Hubbard, and the authors of 21st Century Television: The Players, The Viewers, The Money and Securing the Cloud.
This is made possible by industry leading exhibitors Aspera, a Platinum Sponsor; Oracle Communications and Savvis, Gold Sponsors; A10 Networks, Citrix, SoftServe, TransLattice, and VASCO, Silver Sponsors; and ABI Research, Marketing Partner for CCW:2013
Without their valuable support, the Cloud Computing Association's (CCA) and Distributed Computing Industry Association's (DCIA) business strategy summit at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, NV, would not be possible. Delegates will be particularly interested in the fascinating demos and presentations of new services by this year's exhibitors.
Don't miss CCW:2013.
Sunday Afternoon at CLOUD COMPUTING WEST
Don't miss the timely and important Sunday afternoon October 27th Opening Session TOWN HALL MEETING ON THE NSA PRIVACY SCANDAL AND THE CLOUD COMPUTING INDUSTRY. Make your voice heard, understand the real impacts, and come away with a clear action plan that will help increase sales and boost profitability.
Register now for CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 (CCW:2013), the Cloud Computing Association's (CCA) and Distributed Computing Industry Association's (DCIA) business strategy summit ongoing now through Tuesday October 29th at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, NV.
The controversy surrounding NSA surveillance is a threat to advancement of the cloud computing industry, but can it also be an opportunity for responsive solutions, legislative reform, and new business practices to accelerate growth?
Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) Senior Counsel and Freedom, Security & Technology Project Director Greg Nojeim, along with Las Vegas Sands Corporation Global CIO Les Ottolenghi, Rackspace Cloud Products Program Manager Tom Hopkins, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Of Counsel Gerry Stegmaier, Rafelson Media CEO Peter Rafelson, Edwards Wildman Palmer Partner Larry Freedman, and others will assess the impact of this controversy, outline the legislative reform process underway in Congress, and drive for proactive responses the cloud computing industry can make to foster growth.
Has this scandal affected your business and if so how? How can the cloud computing industry respond to increase our growth prospects? This is your chance to better understand the impacts of this controversy on business, to make your voice heard on this vital issue, and to come away with a clear action plan that will help expand sales and boost profitability through more advanced solutions and improved business practices.
Don't Miss CCW:2013.
Monday Morning at CLOUD COMPUTING WEST
Monday morning October 28th at CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 (CCW:2013) will start with Continental Breakfast in the Exhibit Hall of the The Cosmopolitan followed by Opening Plenary Session keynotes on "The State of Cloud Computing Adoption for Entertainment" by Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Partner Eco-System Manager Bhavik Vyas and ABI Research's Practice Director Sam Rosen, who will address the "Consumer Transition to the Cloud: Service Provider & OTT Video, Gaming, and Music Services."
Next we'll explore "The Needs of Enterprise End-Users in the Media Sector" with Netflix Architect and Principal Engineer Mikey Cohen examining key "Cloud Migration Considerations" and Las Vegas Sands Corporation Global CIO Les Ottolenghi outlining "International Media Enterprise Requirements."
After a mid-morning Networking Break, we'll delve into some of the "Latest Trends and Newest Offerings" with Microsoft Platform Technology Evangelist Yung Chou keynoting on "Hybrid Cloud, An Emerging IT Computing Model" and Rackspace Cloud Products Program Manager Tom Hopkins presenting "Strawberry Coconut Cloud — You Choose the Flavor."
Then a panel discussion of "Outstanding Issues" will add Hughes Hubbard & Reed New Media, Entertainment & Technology Leader Dan Schnapp to the morning's keynote speakers. We'll break for our Conference Luncheon, followed by Dessert and Coffee Service in the Exhibit Hall and then tracks exploring in detail cloud solutions for the entertainment and media sector (the eCLOUD) as well as the impact of mobile cloud computing and big data (the mCLOUD).
Don't Miss CCW:2013.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 The DCIA is now accepting speaking requests now for CONNECTING TO THE CLOUD, a Conference within the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), on January 8th in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV.
The CCA is handling sponsorships.
Ten keynotes and four panel discussions 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.
Top program topics include case studies on how cloud-based solutions are now being deployed for fixed and mobile CE products — successes and challenges; the effects on consumers of having access to services in the cloud anytime from anywhere — along with related social networking trends.
Also featured will be what broadband network operators and mobile Internet access providers are doing to help manage — and spur — the migration to interoperable cloud services.
Some in traditional entertainment industries find this technology overwhelmingly threatening and disruptive — others see enormous new opportunities; and the value proposition for CE manufacturers will also continue to evolve substantially to providing cloud-based value-adding services — rather than conventional hardware features.
An opening panel focus group will explore "The Impact on Consumers of Connecting to the Cloud for Media Access and Storage." What do cloud-based streaming and storage mean to users in terms of accessing entertainment content and experiencing movies, music, TV shows, games, etc.?
The first keynote will answer the question, "Who's Connecting What to the Cloud?" How should cloud computing be defined in this context? What are the key economic considerations as well as prospects for sustainability of the cloud-enabled delivery phenomenon?
The next session will address, "Where Are There Problems Connecting to the Cloud?" What are the bottlenecks standing in the way of faster and wider adoption of cloud-based services among connected-device end-users? Which participants in the distribution chain need to change?
Two back-to-back keynotes will examine "Consumer Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content: Ubiquity, Cost, Portability Improvements." How can cloud-based solutions applied to popular entertainment bring advantages to users over older methods of online distribution? What is the role of social networking in this arena? And "Consumer Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content: Privacy, Reliability, Security Issues." What has been the experience to date of confidential data being inadvertently leaked or intentionally hacked? What can users do to mitigate not having access to their applications or accidentally losing their data when they go offline? What happens if a cloud provider goes out of business?
The follow-on panel will discuss "The Impact on Telecommunications Industries of Cloud Computing." What does cloud computing mean to broadband network operators and mobile carriers in terms of managing their intellectual property (IP), allocating network resources, and developing and provisioning new services?
Then twin keynotes will delve into "Telecommunications Industry Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content: New Opportunities." How can cloud-based solutions applied to popular entertainment bring advantages to broadband network operators over older methods of distribution? And "Telecommunications Industry Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content: Infrastructure Challenges." How does the on-demand always-accessible nature of cloud-based entertainment delivery challenge conventional distribution systems?
The next panel will address "The Impact on Entertainment Industries of Cloud Computing." What do cloud storage and distribution mean to content rights-holders in terms of managing their intellectual property (IP), realizing cost savings, reaching new audiences, analyzing usage, and implementing new business models?
Twin keynotes will highlight "Entertainment Industry Benefits of Cloud Computing: Cost Savings & Efficiency." How can cloud-based solutions applied to popular entertainment production, storage, and delivery bring advantages to content creators and content distributors? And "Entertainment Industry Drawbacks of Cloud Computing: Disruption & Security." How does the advent of "content everywhere" challenge current distribution systems? What additional security and reliability issues are raised?
Additional keynotes will introduce the subjects "Consumer Electronics Industry Benefits of Cloud-Based Services: New Revenue Streams." How can offering access to applications and content in the cloud provide new monetization opportunities to CE manufacturers, sellers, and partners? And "Consumer Electronics Industry Drawbacks of Cloud-Based Services: Complexity." How do the added administrative and operational challenges of managing cloud-based solutions affect the CE business?
The closing panel will draw on all the preceding sessions to more deeply analyze "The Impact on the Consumer Electronics Industry of Cloud Computing." What are the implications of devices being ubiquitously "connected to the cloud" for the organizations that make, market, and maintain these products and are involved in provisioning these services?
Please contact the DCIA today for consideration to speak during CTTC at CES. Share wisely, and take care.
Monday Afternoon at CLOUD COMPUTING WEST
Starting Monday afternoon October 28th at CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 (CCW:2013), a series of eCLOUD sessions will feature such topics as "The Cloud & Television" by Frank Aycock, author of 21st Century Television: The Players, The Viewers, The Money, "Collaboration & Production" by TransLattice CEO Frank Huerta, "Editing & Transcoding" by V2 Solutions VP of Media Technology and Solutions Adam Powers, and a panel discussion with Rafelson Media CEO Peter Rafelson, GenosTV CTO Mike West, TransLattice Architect and Director of Research Robert Ross, and ZYNC Render CMO Todd Prives.
After a mid-afternoon Networking Break, the eCLOUD will continue with "Cloud-Based Content Management Processes" by Autodesk Senior Global Industry Marketing Manager Richard Blatcher, "Distribution Channel Storage" by Savvis Senior Director - Media Tom Moran, "Cloud-Based Delivery Systems" by Intertrust Technologies Corp. Vice President for Product Management John Gildred, "Cloud Media Lockers" by Securing the Cloud Author Vic Winkler, and a panel discussion adding Akamai Product Line Director Enterprise Cloud Gary Ballabio and PADEM Group President and Chief Analyst Allan McLennan will discuss "Security & Reliability Issues."
Also starting Monday afternoon, a series of mCLOUD sessions will cover "Mobile Storage Considerations" by CSS Corp. VP and CTO Carrier Services Melody Yuhn, "Lowering Latency" by Aryaka VP of Product Management Andy Gottleib, "HyperElasticity" by Kwaai Oak CTO Reza Rassool, and a panel discussion adding Sprint Nextel Cloud Solutions Manager Jay Gleason and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Of Counsel Gerry Stegmaier will examine "Mobile and Big Data Management."
After a mid-afternoon Networking Break, The mCLOUD will continue with sessions including "Big Data Infrastructure" by HP Converged Systems Senior Vice President & General Manager Tom Joyce, "Cloud & Big Data — The Perfect Storm" by ViaWest CTO Jason Carolan, "Analytic Programs" by Master Control Senior Product Manager Cloud Solutions Victor Gill, "Big Data Software Applications" by Oracle Director Product Marketing SDP and Cloud Solutions Brian Kracik, and a panel discussion on "Security & Reliability Issues" will add BrightLine Principal Cloud Assurance and Compliance Doug Barbin and VASCO Data Security VP of Product Marketing Michael O'Malley.
Monday will end with an Evening Networking Reception.
SIGN-UP NOW for CCW:2013.
Tuesday Morning at CLOUD COMPUTING WEST
Tuesday morning October 29th, the eCLOUD will resume with IBM Cloud Architecture Executive Mark Sorency explaining "How to Build Your Cloud Strategy," Unitas Global Co-Founder Grant Kirkwood discussing "Cloud Vendor Selection for Media Companies," and SAP America Media Industry Principal Kurt Kyle examining "Cloud Economics in the Entertainment Sector," followed by a panel forecasting "Future Cloud Opportunities for Media & Entertainment" that will add Citrix Principal Product Manager Cloud Platform Group Manan Shah.
Also Tuesday morning, the mCLOUD will continue with FalconStor VP Enterprise Solutions Chris Poelker on "The Cloud and Big Data," Red Bend Software EVP Marketing Lori Sylvia offering guidance on "Differentiating with Cloud-Based Mobile Services," and "Mobile Cloud / Big Data Economics" presented by SoftServe VP Technology Solutions Russ Hertzberg, followed by a panel on "Future Mobile Cloud & Big Data Opportunities" will add NTT Data Vice President Alkesh Shah and Rafelson Media CEO Peter Rafelson.
Following the mid-morning Networking Break at CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 (CCW:2013) on Tuesday October 29th, "Final Considerations" will feature DataDirect Networks Director of Marketing for Cloud, Content & Media Mike King answering the question, "Does Object Storage Actually Fit into File-Based Workflows," Dell Enterprise Cloud Evangelist Michael Elliott discussing "Hybrid Clouds — The End State" as well as plenary keynotes from Aspera Director of Cloud Platforms & Services Jay Migliaccio and Equilibrium CEO Sean Barger on "The Cloud Changes Everything — Why Linear Television Channels Will Soon Be A Memory."
The closing plenary panel on "What's Next for Cloud Computing" will add Edwards Wildman Palmer Partner Larry Freedman and Equilibrium VP of Business Development Daniel Kenyon.
SIGN-UP NOW for CCW:2013.
Why Attend CLOUD COMPUTING WEST?
Why do you need to ATTEND CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 (CCW:2013)? This year's themes are "Revolutionizing Entertainment & Media" and "The Impact of Mobile Cloud Computing & Big Data."
Find out before anyone else how major players in the Media & Entertainment Sector — like ABC-Disney-ESPN, Comcast, DirecTV, Netflix, Sony Games, Warner Bros., etc. — intend to exploit cloud-based solutions in 2014… and just as important, what they won't be doing in the cloud anytime soon.
Be the first to learn what mobile cloud computing movers-and-shakers — such as AT&T, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, NTT Data, Sprint Nextel, Toshiba, etc. — have in store for next year to dramatically accelerate "Content Everywhere"… and the already exploding "Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD)" phenomenon.
Preview where the top Cloud Computing Leaders — including Amazon Web Services (AWS), IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Rackspace, TransLattice, etc. — plan to take the industry in 2014… and have your questions about what these new directions mean to you personally answered by them.
Hear the warnings from the most insightful analysts, advocates, and industry observers — like ABI Research, CDT, Hughes Hubbard, and the authors of 21st Century Television: The Players, The Viewers, The Money and Securing the Cloud, etc. — about what could burst the Cloud Computing Bubble for some entities… and how to leverage efforts and innovations already in progress to blow away obstacles standing in the way of success.
And the most important reason you MUST ATTEND — CCW:2013 is the single best way to prepare yourself with the knowledge, resources, and contacts you need to advance in your career during 2014 amidst the highly kinetic activities and rapidly expanding markets developing around Cloud Computing.
CCW:2013 is ongoing now — October 27th-29th — at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, NV.
You'll network with speakers, featured delegates, and exhibitors — in addition to the above participants — ranging literally from A10 Networks to ZYNC Render.
SIGN-UP NOW for CCW:2013.
AT&T U-Verse App Launches 100+ Live TV Channels
Excerpted from Broadcasting & Cable Report by George Winslow
AT&T U-verse has announced that it has added over 100 live TV channels to its TV everywhere offering for smartphones and tablets. All of the live TV channels will be available inside the home and authenticated subscribers will be able to watch more than 20 channels outside the home.
The move reflects a wider move by the pay TV industry to add more live TV to its TV everywhere offerings. The live channel launches supplement thousands of hours of on demand programming that is already available on the app.
The new channels are available to U-verse TV customers as part of their U-family or higher U-verse TV package. The telco says that it will be adding more live channels and expanding the live channels in the future to more devices on an ongoing basis.
"By making live TV content available across devices we're enabling our customers to watch TV on their terms when and where they want it," said Mel Coker, Chief Marketing Officer, AT&T Home Solutions in a statement. "U-verse has always been about delivering a TV experience built around our customers, and this enhancement gives them even more flexibility and control."
Aereo Continues to Push Copyright Disruption
Excerpted from Report by Dan Schnapp and Matt Syrkin
As the convergence of cloud-based products and services with the delivery and consumption of entertainment content continues to gain steam in the US, multiple courts across the US are being asked to weigh in on the copyright implications of a new type of online TV service offered by two entities — namely, Aereo and FilmOn X (aka Aereokiller and Barry Driller).
A cross-country surge of litigation in the matter is testing the balance between copyright holders' exclusive rights to exploit their works and consumers' and service providers' ability to make lawful use of these works through emerging cloud-based technology solutions.
Since our last article on the subject, litigation involving these two service providers has now spread from courts in New York and California to courts in Massachusetts, Utah, and the District of Columbia—and now, the US Supreme Court has been asked to weigh in by the plaintiffs.
The technology prompting the disputes consists of a cloud-based solution that captures and digitizes over-the-air television broadcast signals for transmittal to individual subscribers utilizing remotely located, miniature TV antennas.
Both services employ a similar protocol in assigning each individual subscriber his/her own thimble-sized antennae located at the service provider's facility which can be used solely by that subscriber to view live, as well as time and place shifted, streams and downloads of over-the-air television broadcasts on any Internet connected device, including mobile devices.
CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 (CCW:2013) delegates will receive the full report.
Cloud Computing Firms Protect Data from NSA
Excerpted from IBTimes Report by Shane Croucher
Cloud computing specialists are defending their data security set-ups amid inflamed privacy concerns in the wake of the NSA snooping scandal exposed by fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Snowden worked for the US spy agency as a contractor, but is now holed up in Russia on the run from American authorities after releasing documents and information showing the extent of the surveillance on citizens conducted by spooks in the US and UK.
One of the big sticking points for individuals and firms considering using cloud computing are fears that the data will not be sufficiently protected, an issue exacerbated by the NSA scandal.
"I was just in Berlin for 48 hours and I was asked 60 times about the NSA," said Scott Collison, Vice President of Platform Go to Market at Salesforce.com, a cloud computing firm.
"The interesting thing is, would you rather trust your data privacy to some company that does it as a differentiator and a core competency? Or would you rather have your chief information officer or vice president of engineering host this thing in a box in a data center?
"I think I know which one is more secure, from the government and from hackers."
He added: "We also have a rogue team within Salesforce that tries to hack our servers every day. We're very, very serious about that."
Collison was speaking at a Capgemini event in New York. Another speaker on the stage, from cloud content storage and sharing service Box.com, shared Collison's view.
"We have people in our companies who do nothing but think about the security of this content," said Jon Herstein, Senior Vice President for Customer Success at Box.com.
"When your business is storing this content, whatever it is, that's the company. So the attention that we pay to it and the resources we put into it are disproportionate relative to the size of our companies."
TCS Invests in Data, Cloud, and Mobility
Excerpted from NVDS Gadgets Report
India's largest software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is making a serious investment in emerging digital technologies like big data, cloud, and mobility.
TCS CEO and Managing Director N Chandrasekaran said that firms globally are realizing the benefits of these technologies and discretionary spending in this space is rising.
"This business is picking up momentum and we have made serious investments. We are talking with clients in realizing this core transformation and companies are all beginning to invest money in this space, whether it is cloud, whether it is big data, whether it is mobility," Chandrasekaran told PTI in an interview.
He, however, did not provide the range of investments the Mumbai-headquartered firm is making in this domain.
"I think it is a significant pick-up that we are having. It will scale every quarter because this is the time discretionary spending is going in this direction," he added.
TCS is not the only firm eyeing the growing digital technology space. Infosys, country's second largest software services exporter, said in July-September quarter it witnessed increased sales momentum of its big data and cloud offerings.
Similarly, NASSCOM, the apex body of the $108 billion IT-ITeS industry in India, aims to achieve a USD 300 billion revenue by 2020 with focus on Internet and mobile technology, big data, and cloud computing for a speedy growth.
On the size of deals in this domain, Chandrasekaran in an investor conference last week said: "We have been winning a number of engagements and the deal sizes range from a few hundred thousand dollars to a few million dollars — those are the typical deal sizes."
Research firm Gartner says: "Digital Industrial Economy will be built on foundations of the Nexus of Forces (which includes a confluence and integration of cloud, social collaboration, mobile and information) and the Internet of Everything by combining the physical world and the virtual."
In 2009, there were 2.5 billion connected devices with unique IP addresses to the Internet with a majority of devices being cell phones and mobile PCs. In 2020, there will be up to 30 billion devices connected with unique IP addresses and most of them will be products.
Gartner predicts the total economic value add for the Internet of Things will be $1.9 trillion dollars in 2020, benefiting a wide range of industries like healthcare, retail and transportation.
According to research firm IDC global IT spending in 2013 will exceed $2.1 trillion, up 5.7 per cent from 2012, driven by double-digit growth in the third Platform foundations of mobile, cloud, Big Data, social technologies and emerging markets' growth.
It added the most important trends and events in 2013 will cluster around mobility, cloud services, big data and social technologies, which will play a leading role in growth for the next eight years.
Mobile, Social, Cloud, and Big Data Spell More Money for IT
Excerpted from Computer Weekly Report by Bill Goodwin
Mobile computing, social media, cloud, and big data, are top of CIOs' priorities says Software AG COO.
The four forces of social media, mobile technology, cloud computing, and big data, are at the top of business leaders right now, says Darren Roos, Chief Operating Officer of Software AG. The topic was one of the key themes that came out of Software AG's user conference, Innovation World in October 2013.
CIOs, for example, snapped up business cards from 9 start-up firms offering technology based each of these four forces, said Roos. And as these technologies come into play, companies will spend more on IT, rather than less, Roos argues.
He talks about research presented by private equity firm, Andreessen Horowitz, which shows that that IT budgets rise with each new wave of technology. "What is going to happen is more money is going to drift to technology. When that money is going to be spent on innovation and competitive advantage, it's going to be easier to get that spend," he says.
That spend may not come from the IT department - it could equally come from marketing, or HR, or other parts of the business.
Software AG's focus is on supplying the middleware technology that will make this innovation possible - what Roos calls the innovation and agility layer. Innovation is likely to drive more Software AG technology acquisitions over the next 12 months.
But that is unlikely to include Business Process Management or Enterprise Service Bus technology: "We believe we are the best in the market," he says. "We certainly will continue to make acquisitions. We live in a world where you are either being acquired or you are acquiring. The market will continue to consolidate," he says.
Software AG's markets are likely to remain static, but the company plans to grow by taking market share from competitors. It claims to be the market leader in South Africa and German for business process modeling, management, and integration.
That leaves plenty of potential market share to capture in other geographies. "We are seeing growth globally in our business process engineering business. The growth we are seeing is outpacing the market, because we are able to win market share from other businesses," he says.
His advice to CIOs, as business clamor for new technologies, is to focus on business value. "Do it incrementally, step by step, and focus on how the business sees value. Don't do it for the sake of technology," he says.
Cloud Computing Will Become Bulk of New IT Spending by 2016
Excerpted from Business Standard Report by Shivani Nadhe
By 2016, cloud computing will become the bulk of new IT spend, according to Gartner. Year 2016 will be a defining year for cloud as private cloud begins to give way to hybrid cloud, and nearly half of large enterprises will have hybrid cloud deployments by the end of 2017.
In India, cloud services revenue is projected to have a five-year projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.2% from 2012 through 2017 across all segments of the cloud computing market.
"Cloud computing continues to grow at rates much higher than IT spending generally. Growth in cloud services is being driven by new IT computing scenarios being deployed using cloud models, as well as the migration of traditional IT services to cloud service alternatives. Segments such as software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) have even higher projected CAGR growth rates of 34.4% and 39.8%," said Ed Anderson, Research Director at Gartner.
Gartner describes cloud computing as a style of computing in which scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are delivered "as a service" using Internet technologies.
It heralds an evolution of business in positive and negative ways. It has also become a hot industry term that has been used in many contradictory ways.
"Overall, there are very real trends toward cloud platforms, and also toward massively scalable processing. Virtualization, service orientation and the Internet have converged to sponsor a phenomenon that enables individuals and businesses to choose how they'll acquire or deliver IT services, with reduced emphasis on the constraints of traditional software and hardware licensing models," said Chris Howard, Research Vice President at Gartner.
Read the 2013 Gartner Report.
Cloud Computing Storage to Grow
Excerpted from Midsize Insider Report by Marissa Tejada
Cloud computing storage is on the rise, and that's creating new vendor offerings in the market. A new survey found that the United States is the largest revenue generator in the worldwide cloud-based storage market. The growth of acceptance of the cloud to digitally store information has created better choices for midsize firms aiming to implement the cloud at an affordable price point.
Global research firm TechNavio recently released its official forecast of the cloud storage market. The results show that the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 36 percent until 2016. Out of all the global regions, North America is considered the largest adopter of cloud computing storage technologies. The highest enterprise adopters include the manufacturing sector and the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector. Companies in the fields of retail, health care and entertainment will also be implementing cloud storage at an aggressive pace in the future.
The report called out the emergence of mobile technologies, including tablets and smartphones, as a growth factor. Additionally, TechNavio concluded that the overall cloud storage market has seen more vendors offering services, which is resulting in a decreased cost for services.
Cloud storage growth trends are positive for midsize firms that are making business continuity more of a priority. TechNavio points out that more vendors have led to a decrease in pricing, which is key for IT professionals at midsize firms who are responsible for working with experienced vendors at an affordable price point. Smaller firms simply do not have the time, money or resources to make unnecessary mistakes during an implementation. Working with a vendor that understands the specific needs of a growing firm, from implementation to security concerns, is a very important goal.
More vendors will continue to innovate in the midsize business cloud storage solutions space. IT professionals are seriously considering this to truly implement a cost-effective disaster recovery (DR) plan. They need to be sure that they can retrieve precious corporate data in any type of emergency. Another factor that is pushing midsize firms to cloud computing storage is the deluge of data that all firms, including midsize firms, are experiencing. Thanks to the rise of mobile technologies, the consumerization of IT and third-platform technologies, smaller firms have more information to process than ever before. There is revenue to be made from digital data; cloud storage technologies are central to ensuring that a firm can manage and secure it all.
The pace of business is changing due to mobility and the deluge of data with which firms of all sizes must deal to remain competitive. Midsize firms that invest in the right kind of cloud technologies with the help of experienced vendors will ensure that they can store their data securely and at a price point that a growing firm can handle.
Cisco: Cloud Traffic to Quadruple by 2017
Excerpted from Top Tech News Report by Jennifer LeClaire
Once again, Cisco is pushing out cloud predictions. The company just released its third annual Global Cloud Index, which forecasts that global cloud traffic -- the fastest growing component of data center traffic -- is expected to quadruple in the next four years.
The data on cloud computing from Cisco shows that virtualization technology has reached a tipping point, and IT has confidence to run mission critical workloads on virtual servers. We are finally at a point where it shouldn't surprise you to see any company run almost all their workloads in a virtual environment, said analyst Zeus Kerravala.
If Cisco's numbers hold up, that marks a 35 percent combined annual growth rate, from 1.2 zettabytes of annual traffic in 2012 to 5.3 zettabytes by 2017. By contrast, overall global data center traffic will grow threefold and reach a total of 7.7 zettabytes annually by 2017.
A zettabyte is one billion terabytes. For context, 7.7 zettabytes is equivalent to: 107 trillion hours of streaming music (about 1.5 years of continuous music streaming for the world's population in 2017); 19 trillion hours of business web conferencing (about 14 hours of daily web conferencing for the world's workforce) in 2017; or 8 trillion hours of online high-definition video streaming (about 2.5 hours of daily streamed HD video for the world's population in 2017).
"People all over the world continue to demand the ability to access personal, business and entertainment content anywhere on any device, and each transaction in a virtualized, cloud environment can cause cascading effects on the network ," said Doug Merritt, Senior Vice President of Product and Solutions Marketing at Cisco. "Because of this continuing trend, we are seeing huge increases in the amount of cloud traffic within, between and beyond data centers over the next four years."
Cisco predicts about 17 percent of data center traffic will be fueled by end users accessing clouds for web surfing, video streaming, collaboration and connected devices, all of which contribute to the Internet of Everything, which is the networked connection of people, data, process and things.
Other data center traffic is not caused directly by end users, the firm said, but by data centers and cloud-computing workloads used in activities that are virtually invisible to individuals. For the period from 2012 to 2017, Cisco forecasts that 7 percent of data center traffic will be generated between data centers, primarily driven by data replication and software/system updates. An additional 76 percent of data center traffic will stay within the data center and will be largely generated by storage , production and development data in a virtualized environment.
We caught up with Zeus Kerravala, a principal analyst at ZK Research, to get his thoughts on the report. He told us this data shows that virtualization technology has reached a tipping point, and IT has confidence to run mission critical workloads on virtual servers.
"A few years ago if you talked to a lot of CTOs and CIOs, there's no way they would have run any kind of mission critical app on a virtual server . But today it's very commonplace. We are finally at a point where it shouldn't surprise you to see any company run almost all their workloads in a virtual environment," Kerravala said.
"If you are going to run it in a virtual environment then the next step is to run it in some type of cloud delivery model. It fits the virtual methodology better. Mobility is the other big tipping point here. When you think of mobile computing, it's a network-centric compute model and cloud is a better delivery model for mobile. To me cloud and mobile go hand in hand, very much like cake and ice cream," he said.
Siemens, eMeter Push Smart Meter Data & Analytics to the Cloud
Excerpted from GreenTechMedia Report by Jeff St. John
We've been talking for years about the potential for cloud computing to democratize the smart grid IT infrastructure. The idea is to take software that's been built at levels of scale and sophistication meant for the biggest, best-funded utilities and make it available as subscription-based software-as-a-service offerings.
That could open up new vistas for the mass of smaller utilities without the budgets and IT staff to handle their own deployments -- or create new customers out of utilities around the world that want to dip their toes into what the cloud has to offer before diving in.
This week, eMeter launched its full assault on this cloud-based business model. On Wednesday, the advanced metering market leader and a Siemens subsidiary announced the availability of its EnergyIP meter data management suite as a hosted service, available from Siemens or a set of as yet unnamed IT partners, on a per-month, per-meter basis.
Then, on Thursday, eMeter added its grid analytics capabilities to that cloud service. That means offering remote data collection and analysis, and turning it into utility applications for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) health diagnosis, equipment load management, outage and event analysis, revenue protection and load monitoring, plus more offerings to come from its growing portfolio of big-data insight tools.
This combination of cloud-hosted MDM, not just for smart meters but also for AMR and old-school electromechanical meters, as well as a set of analytics meant to derive grid-wide insights from masses of meter data, puts eMeter in the running for one of the most ambitious smart grid cloud offerings out there.
Add Siemens' smart grid technology expertise and market share, and you get "a deep understanding of the type of analytics that bring business value to these organizations," Lisa Caswell, eMeter CEO, said in a phone interview this week. "That's the source of strength we're going to be able to come out with."
Factors like speed to market and low cost of deployment are going to be critical to capturing more business in a utility landscape where the biggest MDM deployments have been claimed, and untapped customers aren't interested in big upfront costs and long integration times, she said.
"You can basically lease, if you will, the application, such that you get the value of the solutions on some fairly aggressive timelines that are set forth in the marketplace," she said. "Get every piece of data into the system as fast as possible, so you can make the most thorough business decisions as possible. That's daunting when it's all behind the firewall. But it's less daunting when you can go to the cloud."
Caswell declined to cite specific price points that eMeter is targeting for its new cloud offerings, nor did she name any customers using the new hosted service. But there's no doubt that eMeter is only one of a number of challengers to create the nascent market for moving core utility functions like meter data management into the cloud.
One big competitor certainly taking notice is Oracle, which holds a significant share of the global MDM market. Oracle has made a big push into cloud-hosted meter analytics with its acquisition of DataRaker, which now collects and analyzes data from about 22 million meters for such tasks as theft detection, outage restoration, and mobile workforce management, as well as some early deployments of grid-centric analysis like volt/VAR management and predictive load modeling.
But DataRaker's cloud smarts are centered specifically on analytics, not on the core meter-to-cash data management processes that have been eMeter's focus since its 1999 founding. And while Oracle and DataRaker are now solely working in North America (albeit with plans to expand internationally), eMeter's cloud offering is being aimed right off the bat at international markets, where the company is already engaged in MDM deployments in Taiwan, Norway, Belgium, the UK, Turkey, and Brazil, Caswell said.
General Electric is another major grid vendor with a data analytics suite, Grid IQ Insight, that has a focus on smart meter analytics. GE also has a smart-grid-as-a-solution business that it's aiming at small to mid-size utilities, where it's contending with a host of competitors such as Leidos, the commercial business spun out of government-contracting giant SAIC last month, and small utility MDM specialists such as Harris Utilities' SmartWorks division and its MeterSense MDM offering.
More smart grid data analytics contenders could be poised to expand their offerings to cloud-based services. Silver Spring Networks has its UtilityIQ suite of analytics, as do smart meter vendors such as Itron, which has a significant market share for its MDM software beyond supporting its own smart meters. Toshiba, which owns metering giant Landis+Gyr and MDM provider Ecologic Analytics, is working on similar analytics capabilities.
One of the big challenges facing vendors trying to convince utilities that it's safe to move MDM to the cloud is proving that the system will stand up to the task. On that front, eMeter points to its implementation with Ontario's Independent System Operator (ISO), which is "probably the biggest cloud implementation on the planet today," Aaron DeYonker, Vice President of Products for eMeter, said.
"To me, that's a really high watermark in terms of functionality and skill," he said. "It's hourly intervals being processed across the province, and being fed back to the local distribution companies in time-of-use buckets, for the various customer bases across the province."
Beyond the operational and regulatory reporting involved, "As they really stabilize this basic meter-to-cash functionality, they're moving into what's called the innovation phase," he said. "That's more around the business side of the analytics."
Merging meter data into grid-wide analytics demands the integration of a whole set of grid IT assets, from the core geographic information systems (GIS) that serve as the foundation of most utility grid data management, to the outage management systems (OMS), distribution management systems (DMS), demand response management systems (DRMS) and other acronyms that delineate how utilities have organized their IT functions to date.
Advanced analytics brings a whole new set of data to the picture, "adding in weather data, and demographic data, adding new dimensions to the grid stability pieces of it, to the customer operations pieces of it," DeYonker said. Part of eMeter's portfolio includes customer engagement, which could tie into future applications for demand response and time-of-use pricing like it's supporting in Ontario.
As for turning meter data into integrated into core grid operations like transformer health monitoring, "We have customers that have real challenges managing tens, to hundreds of thousands of service transformers in their territory," he said, adding, "We have teams in Siemens that have written the IEEE standards on transformer performance."
A plan is in place to bring more specific analytics capabilities to the cloud, Caswell added, though just when and how that will happen has not been set in stone. For example, last week, eMeter launched two new analytics applications, its equipment load management (ELM) app for transformer monitoring, and its Grid Data Vault (GDV) data archiving solution. ELM is already available via eMeter's cloud, but the grid data vault capabilities aren't part of that mix yet.
It will be interesting to see how eMeter's existing integration partners play roles in its new cloud offering. Accenture and Siemens, which have been working together on smart meter implementations since last year, just launched a new joint venture called Omnetric, which "brings great depth when it comes to business transformation capabilities that are available, as well as integration with a number of back-end systems," Caswell said.
And IBM, which last month announced it's working with giant European utility E.ON on a cloud-based smart metering IT infrastructure to serve Germany, Austria and Switzerland, is a big eMeter partner in Ontario, as well as with Texas utility CenterPoint.
Amidst all the excitement around cloud-based smart grid functionality, however, it's important to note that these things don't always move as quickly as planned. Take the announcement, back in February 2011, that eMeter and Verizon were working together to host eMeter's MDM on Verizon's cloud.
That was one of the first big cloud computing announcements in the smart grid world -- and since then, it has been followed by two and a half years of silence. While Verizon told Greentech Media last month that it's getting ready to announce a smart grid project combining smart meters and MDM, and Caswell said that Verizon has "a number of relationships in place utilizing the cloud-based offering," none have been publicly announced.
"We've evaluated how things have gone with Verizon, and we want to expand on the capabilities, and what the market needs are," she said. "It's really our own pricing model here that's the big enabler," along with prepackaged offerings that have been put together with an eye toward delivering the key combinations for which eMeter's current customers have been asking.
"We really want to share that around the globe," she added. "We might possibly need more cloud providers than we might have needed in the past" in order to serve specific markets. The next three months should see some announcements regarding new cloud services partners, as well as first projects with utility customers, Caswell said.
There's no doubt that the utility industry is closer than it was in 2011 to getting ready to try adopting cloud-hosted smart grid platforms for some of its more mission-critical needs -- and turning meter data into bills is certainly one of those. It's also clear that today's growth markets for smart metering and grid analytics lie in sectors that need cost-effective cloud solutions to move more deeply into big data analytics.
Has eMeter or its competitors found the right combination of pricing and reliability to open that market? Watch for new customer announcements and new capabilities being added to the cloud to keep an eye on how that question is being answered.
BitTorrent Recruits Testers for Live Video Platform
Excerpted from Streaming Media Magazine Report by Troy Dreier
The long-awaited BitTorrent Live is now in beta and promises significant cost savings for small businesses serving video.
BitTorrent fans know the company has been working on a solution for live video for some time now. At the recent Streaming Media East conference in New York City, it moved a little closer to launch. Tim Leehane, who works in the marketing department for BitTorrent, was on-hand to show off the beta version of BitTorrent Live.
"Our founder Bram Cohen, who invented the original BitTorrent protocol, decided several years ago that live streaming was the next big challenge to really break down that could be solved by using similar principals of peer-to-peer (P2P)," explained Leehane in a red carpet interview. "He designed from the ground up a brand new streaming protocol for live broadcast. And now it's working. It's working fantastic, so we're here to show people."
The advantage of serving live video with the BitTorrent platform is that it costs much less than on-demand solutions. At the conference, Leehane was hoping to interest small businesses in trying out the beta version.
"I think it does solve a real problem out there right now. If you've got deep pockets, you can afford to stream to as many people as you want. But if you don't, there's really no way that democratizes life streaming," Leehane said. "Where you don't have a lot of cash, so you can only reach a small audience. But when we start using technologies like P2P it really scales beautifully. It really democratizes the process and anybody can stream to millions of viewers."
Click here for the video interview.
GOVERNMENT VIDEO IN THE CLOUD at GVE 2013
The needs for cloud solutions for producing, storing, distributing, and analyzing government-owned video content are now greater than ever.
The DCIA will present GOVERNMENT VIDEO IN THE CLOUD (GVIC), a Conference within the Government Video Expo 2013 on Wednesday December 4th at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. The CCA offers sponsorship opportunities for this event.
Government Video Expo, co-located with InfoComm's GovComm, brings the east coast's largest contingent of video production, post, digital media, and broadcast professionals together with the government AV/IT specialists. The combined event features over 150 exhibits and nearly 6,000 registrants.
The DCIA's GVIC will focus on cloud solutions for government video, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; and other use cases such as agency communications and law enforcement.
The GVIC opening keynote by Tim Bixler, Federal Manager, Solutions Architecture, Amazon Web Services (AWS), will offer an "Update on Cloud Video Services Adoption in the Public Sector." How are branches of the military and agencies of government progressing in their migration to cloud-based video solutions? What cloud video service offerings are the most beneficial and why
The first two case studies will be: "Cloud Solutions for Government Video Production" by Greg Parker, CEO & Founder, Raketu Communications. How can cloud computing being applied to workflow processes for government video from collaboration to editing to applying metadata to transcoding? And "Cloud-Based Management of Government Video Assets" by Frank Cardello, General Manager, Platform, T3Media, Which cloud deployment and service models are best for securely transferring and supporting access to highly sensitive visual data?
The first GVIC panel will add Cirina Catania, Independent Video Producer, to the discussion and cover "Considerations for Creating Government Video in the Cloud." What criteria should be employed in selecting cloud solutions for production tasks ranging from conceptualization of original video to aggregation of unstructured multimedia field data?
After a networking break, the second GVIC keynote by Adam Firestone, Director, Solutions, WSO2 Federal Systems, will address "Security & Reliability Concerns Unique to Government Video in the Cloud." How can encryption and process control techniques from the private sector be applied to protect the confidentiality of video assets associated with the missions of military and government agencies?
The next two case studies will cover "Distribution of Government-Owned Video from the Cloud" by Adam Powers, VP of Media Technology & Solutions. V2Solutions. What cloud-based solutions are available to safely and dependably share multimedia data among multiple users of otherwise incompatible clouds? And "Analysis of Aggregated Government Video Content" by Michael Rowny, CEO, PixSpan. High resolution video and images are Big Data. What techniques will facilitate the on-ramp to the cloud and save on cloud storage with full preservation of fidelity?
The closing GVIC panel discussion will add Larry Freedman, Partner, Edwards, Wildman, Palmer, and examine "Considerations for Cloud Dissemination of Government Video." What lessons learned from private sector business intelligence (BI) and mobile device management (MDM) in the cloud can be applied to delivery systems for sensitive government video?
Coming Events of Interest
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.
Government Video Expo 2013 - December 3rd-5th in Washington, DC. Government Video Expo, co-located with InfoComm's GovComm, brings the east coast's largest contingent of video production, post, digital media, and broadcast professionals together with the government AV/IT specialists. The combined event features over 150 exhibits and nearly 6,000 registrants.
GOVERNMENT VIDEO IN THE CLOUD - December 4th in Washington, DC. This DCIA Conference within Government Video Expo focuses specifically on cloud solutions for and case studies related to producing, storing, distributing, and analyzing government-owned video content.
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.
NAB Show - April 5th-10th in Las Vegas, NV. From broadcasting to broader-casting, NAB Show has evolved over the last eight decades to continually lead this ever-changing industry. From creation to consumption, NAB Show has proudly served as the incubator for excellence — helping to breathe life into content everywhere.
Media Management in the Cloud — April 8th-9th in Las Vegas, NV. This two-day conference provides a senior management overview of how cloud-based solutions positively impact each stage of the content distribution chain, including production, delivery, and storage.
CLOUD COMPUTING EAST 2014 - May 13th-14th in Washington, DC. Three major conference tracks will zero in on the latest advances in the application of cloud-based solutions in three key economic sectors: government, healthcare, and financial services.
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