Volume LII, Issue 4

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In This Issue

Cloud Computing Spending to Hit $32 Billion in 2015

Excerpted from V3 Report by Dan Worth

Public cloud spending will grow by 25 percent in 2015 to reach a staggering $21 billion, as firms continue to host services on platforms from the likes of Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft.

Data from analyst house IDC also revealed that private cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow 16 percent over the year to $12 billion. This will give a worldwide total cloud spend for 2015 of $32 billion, up 28 percent on 2014’s $26.4 billion.

Western Europe is expected to see the highest growth in cloud IT infrastructure spending at 32 percent, followed by Latin America (23 percent), Japan (22 percent), and the US (21 percent).

Overall, this will mean that 33 percent of all IT infrastructure spending in 2015 will be in the cloud, which shows that there is still some way to go before cloud becomes the preferred platform for hosting IT systems.

However, the gap will be even closer by 2019 when 45 percent of total IT infrastructure spend will be on cloud systems, at a total of $52 billion. This will be split between $32 billion for public cloud services and $20 billion for private cloud.

Kuba Stolarski, Research Manager for Server, Virtualization and Workload Research at IDC, said it is clear that the cloud market… Read More

Amazon & Microsoft Will Tell Us about Cloud’s Size

Excerpted from Forbes Report by Charley Blaine

When Amazon and Microsoft report quarterly results on Thursday, an awful lot of attention will be paid to Amazon’s segment breakout.

For the first time, the online retailer will disclose the segment results for its Amazon Web Services, aka AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing business. Don’t be surprised if the business generates several billion dollars in revenue and proves to be the fastest-growing piece of Amazon’s business.

At the same time, Microsoft will be touting the growth of its own cloud-related businesses. And they’re growing rapidly, too. The size of AWS has been the subject of lively guessing for several years. Deutsche Bank recently estimated that the business will generate about $6 billion in revenue in 2015. A few years ago, Macquerie Capital estimated AWS revenue would hit $8.8 billion in 2015, up from an estimate of $6.2 billion in 2014.

Deutsche Bank is probably closer to the mark. The only hint of the size of the business is in Amazon’s financial reports, where the company currently lumps AWS under “Other.” Well, “Other” generated $5.6 billion in world-wide revenue in 2014, up 42% from 2013’s $3.93 billion and up 122% from 2012’s $2.52 billion. That’s mostly cloud… Read More

Google Introduces Wireless Service Called Project Fi

Excerpted from NY Times Report by Conor Dougherty

Now you can Google a phone call.

On Wednesday, Google unveiled its long-awaited phone service, called Project Fi, putting the search giant in competition with Verizon, AT&T, and other wireless service providers. In addition to new turf, the service is an attempt to blend several communication tools and the multiplying ways of calling people — cellular calls, online calls like those offered by Skype — into a single phone number and service.

For now, Project Fi could be considered an experiment. It will be available only to people using Google’s Nexus 6 phone, limiting its reach.

Analysts see the new service as a bid to reimagine phone calls so that they have greater overlap with Google’s expanding world of devices and services.

Unlike your typical cell service, Project Fi will mix traditional wireless technology, where calls are routed through cellular towers, with the wireless Internet service found in Starbucks, airports, and elsewhere. Google has teamed with Sprint and T-Mobile to provide the traditional wireless service, and said it had about a million wireless hot spots for the rest… Read More

Report from DCIA CEO Marty Lafferty

Click Here for Video

Following the highly successful DataCloud South East Asia earlier this month, we’re pleased to expand the DCIA’s partnership with BroadGroup now to include DataCloud Europe.

But first, please note our new archival webpage for DataCloud South East Asia, under the Past Events tab on the DCIA website.

There you can access a post-event analysis and download the top twenty presentations from the conference.

DataCloud Europe will take place on June 3rd and 4th at the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo.

This is the successor event to DataCenters Europe and the Enterprise Cloud Forum.

DataCenters Europe was first held in London in 2005, and rapidly became recognized as the premier European networking conference.

The combined event will now make its home in Monaco, THE new Mediterranean locale for anyone engaged in information technology (IT), data centers, or cloud services.

The 2015 event is expecting attendance to surpass 1,800 executives from fifty countries, with 150 very high-caliber speakers, many of whom are enterprise infrastructure leaders.

The audience profile includes senior management of data centers, cloud services and hosting providers, system integrators, managed services companies, cloud brokers, broadband network operators, and critical infrastructure equipment vendors.

Added to the wealth of content and business opportunities, DataCloud Europe will provide an unparalleled opportunity to meet and talk with peers, prospects, and customers from all across Europe.

Last year’s pre-cursor to DataCloud Europe boasted transactions done at or as a result of the conference in the many hundreds of millions of dollars, earning this event the tagline “where deals are done in the cloud economy.”

Over the two-day conference, delegates will benefit from a very full agenda including keynotes, panel discussions, hands-on labs, workshops, and product demonstrations offering the very latest ideas, market developments, and practical solutions in this space.

And as an added attraction, on June 2nd, the eve of the conference, the DataCloud 2015 Awards Ceremony & Gala will take place.

This is truly an industry event that is not to be missed.

Please contact me for speaking, exhibiting, and sponsoring opportunities; or if you’d like to attend on a complimentary basis as a guest of the DCIA. Share wisely, and take care.

Cloud Computing Comes of Age

Excerpted from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Report

For much of its history, cloud computing has been viewed by many businesspeople as a way to gain new capabilities quickly without having to work with — and get bogged down by — the internal IT department.

Figure out what you want to do, find a service provider that can help you do it, grab your credit card, and pay as you go. No arduous development process.

No large capital outlays to be approved. No hardware and software to maintain.

For line-of-business and functional leaders, this seemed like a great model.

But going around IT has drawbacks — in particular, not being able to connect into other systems and sources of data, and the risks of not being in compliance with regulatory and security needs.

There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to security in the cloud, and this is not something any business leader can take lightly.

For their part, IT leaders have come to view cloud services as a useful tool to have in their toolbox… Read More

A Global Vision for Cloud Services Integration

Excerpted from CIO Report by Luis Alvarez

Something is preventing business from making the most of the cloud. Boards have an appetite for the operational flexibility and commercial benefits of cloud computing and it’s a great platform for innovation. The CIOs we talk with at BT are certainly keen to make the most of these opportunities.

But even though they agree that the cloud could help solve their toughest business challenges, there’s still reluctance to adopt cloud deployments for more than tactical outcomes.

We must make it easier for organizations to embrace the cloud and use it for truly transformational purposes. This is where BT’s “cloud of clouds” vision comes into play: to give CIOs a practical route into cloud computing that meets their needs for choice and flexibility, total security and someone who knows how to make it work together.

In a cloud environment, there’s only one way to guarantee service and security and that’s to have a single, end-to-end global network that can prioritize applications, manage access to data and optimize performance.

Industry analyst Ovum suggests that as a result, “Enterprises are increasingly likely to discriminate toward cloud service providers with combined data center and networking orchestration skills as their trusted brokers across hybrid clouds… Read More

Mobile Commerce Meets the Internet of Things

Excerpted from MediaPost Report by Chuck Martin

While projections of the scope of the mobile commerce market are huge by any measure, the addition of millions of connected devices promises to dramatically increase the actual dollar value into the trillions.

Over the next decade, the Internet of Things (IoT) will generate $8 trillion in value, according to a new report.

The new trend report from Cisco and DHL cites five primary value drivers; innovation and revenue, asset utilization, supply chain and logistics, employee productivity improvements and enhanced customer experience. The last of the five is where the growth in mobile commerce comes in.

The ultimate effect of IoT extends beyond connected things and involves people, essentially providing the capability to network everything with everyone.

Besides it being the title of a new book I’m researching, The Internet of Everything (IoE) is much more than physical objects connecting and communicating with each other. It’s about creating and leveraging links among people, technology, processes and data to provide value to the consumer.

Unfortunately, along with IoE comes a wave of new acronyms including M2M for machine-to-machine, M2P for machine-to-person… Read More

TomTom Launches Maps with Mozilla & Telefonica

Excerpted from Sys-Con Media Report

TomTom (TOM2) today announces a partnership with Mozilla and Telefonica to bring its Maps Online and Nav Online apps to HTML5 powered Firefox OS smartphone devices.

“We’re thrilled to offer Firefox OS users TomTom’s Maps Online and Nav Online apps in the Firefox Marketplace. Our priority is to empower users with a mobile experience that makes their lives richer and more efficient, and great content like TomTom’s ensures that,” said Bertrand Neveux, Director of Marketplace and Ecosystem at Mozilla.

“Telefonica has now launched Firefox OS devices in 14 markets and is pleased to see high quality maps and navigation solutions from TomTom that enhance these devices for our consumers in Latin America and Europe,” said Simon Callan, Director Business Development at Telefonica.

“TomTom is excited to be embracing the openness of HTML5 to bring high quality maps and turn-by-turn navigation to the ecosystem,” said Charles Cautley, Managing Director of TomTom Licensing. “By partnering with Mozilla and Telefonica, we’re opening new markets and opportunities for smartphone users globally.”

TomTom Maps Online offers accurate and up-to-date maps; as well as powerful Address and Point of Interest search capabilities… Read More

Apple & IBM’s Cloud Computing Innovation

Excerpted from The Motley Fool Report by Andrew Tonner

Beyond plenty of publicity, just what have Apple and IBM gained from the much-ballyhooed partnership they announced last July? Well, since then, Apple and IBM have introduced 23 enterprise-focused apps covering a whole host of industries, including social work, insurance, and telecom. And in unveiling their latest creation, Apple and IBM once again demonstrated their big-ticket collaborative potential. Here’s a quick review of three important points of this emerging story.

1) Meet Watson Health Cloud. Last week, Apple and IBM announced their newest product: Watson Health Cloud, a collaborative service that leverages the analytical horsepower of IBM’s storied Watson computing platform to provide custom, real-time data analytics for health care professionals. The service will also utilize IBM’s secure cloud platform to help ensure the safety and integrity of sensitive user health data.

According to the announcement, IBM has partnered with health care powers Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic, in addition to Apple, in developing the service.

As an example of its potential use, a doctor or nurse could use IBM’s Watson Health Cloud to pull data from multiple sources, including implanted sensors, fitness trackers, and other advanced sensors (Apple Watch?) to more completely analyze patient data… Read More

Amazon & Microsoft: New Workloads with Cloud Services

Excerpted from InfoWorld Report by Mikael Ricknas

Hoping to move new applications to the cloud, Amazon has launched a new virtual server with four high-end GPUs, while Microsoft has made its SSD-based storage offering generally available.

Amazon and Microsoft have methodically been launching new services and adding features to EC2 and Azure, respectively, to make the platforms more competitive and a better fit for different applications.

The latest addition from Amazon is a new virtual server, or “instance,” that has been customized for graphic intensive workloads such as large scale rendering, machine learning, video encoding, and other server-side workloads that require lots parallel processing power.

To make this possible, the g2.8xlarge instance has four high-performance Nvidia GPUs, and it can be used to run Nvidia’s CUDA parallel programming framework, OpenCL, DirectX, and OpenGL applications without making expensive up-front capital investments, Amazon said on Thursday.

The instance is priced from $2.60 per hour. It also has 32 virtual CPUs, two times 120GB of storage and 64GB of RAM.

Microsoft, on the other hand, finally made its SSD-based Premium Storage offering generally available, the company said on Thursday… Read More

Threat Detection Platform Leverages Distributed Computing

Excerpted from Net Security Report

At the RSA Conference 2015, Damballa unveiled Damballa Failsafe 6.0. This advanced threat detection platform leverages a distributed computing architecture that enables the seamless addition of new detection modules, ease of integration with other security technologies, and more efficient processing power.

“Enterprises around the world have been turning to Damballa for years to help protect against the active yet hidden threats that bypass their prevention layers,” said Brian Foster, CTO of Damballa. “Now, with Failsafe 6.0, we are delivering the industry’s most mature advanced threat detection product, based on years of machine learning using the industry’s largest set of unfiltered, unbiased data set.” Failsafe 6.0 also includes a Structured Threat Information Expression (STIX) module, which allows enterprises to feed their intelligence into Failsafe and enrich the fidelity of their findings. Numerous financial services, oil and gas, technology and other leading verticals leverage STIX to share intelligence among their peer groups related to threats specifically targeting their industry.

Also at RSA Conference 2015, Proofpoint released the results of its annual study that details the ways attackers exploit end-users’ psychology to circumvent IT security.

For up-to-date conference news check out our dedicated coverage page for RSA Conference 2015… Read More

Managing Application Service Delivery in Hybrid Data Centers

Excerpted from Windows IT Pro Report by Vic Nyman

Enterprise computing now occupies a new space called the “Hybrid Data Center.” As organizations work to achieve the promises of cloud computing while retaining the benefits of on-premises deployments, they are increasingly operating in a new, highly heterogeneous environment that creates new challenges, including application service delivery. Application service delivery in the Hybrid Data Center is one of the biggest challenges that IT Operations teams will need to meet for their organizations to be successful.

I like to start with a basic premise: IT organizations exist to deliver application services. Every business and organization is now highly dependent on applications. Whether it’s consumer applications for banking, scheduling, buying airline tickets, or coordinating youth sports team schedules, or business applications for HR, ordering, or production management; organizations of all sizes today rely on applications to function.

IT teams exist to make these applications work. Any change to the infrastructure used to deliver applications services — in this case the movement from on-premises to Cloud based computing — should be seen as an attempt to deliver application services with higher reliability, better performance, and lower cost.

The term “The Data Center” is shorthand for both the physical building where the racks of servers live… Read More

Huawei Will Soon Launch Public Cloud Services In China

Excerpted from China Tech News Report

At Huawei’s Global Analyst Summit, the company’s rotating CEO and deputy chairman Xu Zhijun said Huawei will launch public cloud services in China in July 2015.

This launch will put Huawei in direct cloud service competition with Alibaba’s Aliyun service. Microsoft and Amazon already launched their public cloud services in China, but those services will ultimately not be able to compete on a large scale because of their foreign investment structures.

Xu said Huawei wants to provide customers with a complete cloud service solution. Huawei can also provide related solutions to carriers while offering public cloud services. As for the overseas markets, Huawei will continue to cooperate with other carriers and provide public cloud solutions to them soon.

In March 2015, Huawei established a strategic partnership with Intel to jointly provide public cloud solutions to telecom operators around the world.

In January 2015, the market research firm IDC published a report on the Chinese public cloud service market which showed that the market scale of China’s public cloud service reached $327 million in the first half of 2014… Read More

Alibaba Helps Sinopec with Cloud Computing & Big Data

Excerpted from Reuters Report by John Ruwitch

Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba has tied-up with Sinopec, Asia’s biggest oil refiner, to provide cloud computing services and ‘big data’ analysis, the companies said.

The link-up was for technical services and did not involve equity cooperation, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, or Sinopec, said on its official microblog. It did not say how much money was involved.

Cooperation between Alibaba, a poster child for private enterprise in China, and one of the country’s biggest state-owned companies dovetails with government policy.

Sinopec and other state behemoths have been under pressure to make better use of information technology and take advantage of cloud computing and big data to better track things like supply, demand and emissions.

Alibaba, whose $25 billion initial public offering in New York in September was the biggest on record, has been leveraging its good standing with the government to forge cloud computing agreements with various government or state-run bodies.

“By helping Sinopec with digitization and big data technologies, we hope we can play a part to help bring about greener solutions… Read More

Beowulf Gods — Rip into Cloud’s Coding Entrails

Excerpted from The Register Report by Trevor Pott

Distributed computing is no longer something that only occurs in universities or the basements of the really frightening nerds with Beowulf clusters made of yesteryear’s recycled horrors.

Distributed computing is sneaking back into our data centers on a number of fronts and it looks like it’s probably here to stay. The thing is, those of us hardened in the ways of Beowulf are likely to have an edge when it comes to wrangling today’s abstracted but supposedly easier-to-use approaches.

Before I get into that, it’s worth making sure we’re all on the same page. Distributed computing is one of those terms that has evolved over the years and is used differently by different people.

As I view it, distributed computing is when a group of individual computers (nodes) work together towards the same goal (usually the provisioning of a given service), but do not have a shared memory space. That is, each node communicates with other nodes by passing messages in some form or another, instead of directly addressing the RAM of another node.

Computers that have a shared memory space (where each node can directly address the RAM of another node) are better talked about as parallel computing… Read More

DoJ Examining Comcast’s Dealings with Hulu

Excerpted from CED Magazine Report by Helena Fahnrich

Department of Justice (DoJ) regulators are reported to be skeptical that Comcast adhered to conditions set on its 2011 acquisition of NBCUniversal, specifically whether Comcast used its influence to discourage its partners from selling Hulu in 2013.

When Comcast made its deal with government regulators to acquired NBCUniversal in 2011, the company agreed that it would not “influence, interfere or attempt to influence or interfere” in the operation or management of Hulu.

Similar agreements were made with the DoJ and the FCC.

When executives from Comcast, 21st Century Fox, and Walt Disney met to discuss the sale of Hulu, Comcast told its partners it would help make Hulu the nationwide streaming video platform for the cable TV industry, which would boost the site’s growth and make it a stronger rival to Netflix, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.

Comcast’s assurances at the meeting played a major role in how Fox and Disney assessed the sale process.

Potential Hulu buyers included AT&T and Direct TV. The sale was called off by Fox and Disney within days… Read More

Coming Events of Interest

All That Matters — May 20th-23rd in Singapore. Packed with influencers, content creators, platforms and marketers, ATM drives business and global collaboration for decision makers in the entertainment, media, and marketing industries.

CES Asia — May 25th-27th in Shanghai, China. The success of the 2015 International CES builds strong momentum for CES Asia. With strong exhibitor demand for CEA’s inaugural event, the show will be curated with select qualifying companies permitted to exhibit.

Data Center and Cloud Awards — June 2nd in Monaco. Europe’s most prestigious awards for data center and cloud achievements will be announced at an evening ceremony prior to the opening of Europe’s ‘must-attend’ DataCloud Europe conference and exhibition.

DataCloud Europe — June 3rd-4th in Monaco. This is eighth annual European Congress & Exhibition focusing on data center and cloud computing, and is co-located with the DataCloud 2015 Awards.

Freescale Technology Forum — June 22nd-25th in Austin, TX. FTF, this year focusing on the Internet of Things (IoT), is the heart of discovery, imagination and innovation. Together we will strategize and design the next market-shifting products.

Cloud World Forum — June 24th-25th in London England. This marquee event is presented by Informa Telecoms & Media. Co-located with the seventh annual major international conference will be Enterprise Apps World.

Internet of Things World Forum (IoTWF) — October (2015 Dates TBD) in Dubai, UAE. IoTWF is an exclusive event that brings together the best and brightest thinkers, practitioners, and innovators from business, government, and academia to accelerate the market adoption of the Internet of Things.

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