Nextbit Robin Review: This cloud has no silver lining

Nowadays, smartphones come in different storage variants, and many with no expandable storage option either. More often than not the only solution is to shell out more money to buy a higher storage variant. Even I had to settle for a 16GB model of the iPhone 6, because the higher storage variants were beyond my budget. Another workaround involves buying a lower storage variant, and back up your content on cloud services like Google Drive, OneDrive or iCloud in case of an iPhone. But what if a smartphone is able to automatically back up your data, and even your apps when your internal storage runs out? US-based Nextbit is trying to deliver this through its first smartphone, Robin.

Global Cloud Services Market is Expected to Reach $555 Billion, Globally, by 2020

According to the new report by Allied Market Research, titled "Global Cloud Services Market (Services, Type, End User and Geography) - Global Analysis, Industry Growth, Trends, Size, Share, Opportunities and Forecast, 2013-2020", the global cloud services market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.6% from 2014 to 2020, reaching a market size of $555 billion in 2020. In 2014, the overall cloud services market revenue will reach $209.9 billion, led by public cloud services. The community cloud services segment is gaining momentum and is expected to garner revenue of $1 billion this year, thanks to its adoption in healthcare segment.

Cloud Computing Benefits Financial Sector

By embracing cloud computing services, companies in the financial sector are able to add efficiency to their operations.

Cloud computing is one of the rising areas in which IT services are being offered to businesses as a commodity. A cloud computing contract incorporates services for different software and applications, as well as the processing and storage of data. These services help clients enhance the efficiency of their work processes and make it possible for clients to respond to and counter issues swiftly, resulting in increased customer satisfaction.

Finance Opts For Hybrid Cloud

Cloud computing is prevailing in many domains but still hasn’t fully entered the financial sector because of concerns about the security and control of data.

Cloud comes with many silver linings for IT strategies

Enterprises have had to continually reinvent their IT strategy to enable the evolution of business to speed up. The adoption of cloud, mobility, social media and big data is reshaping IT usage in organisations.

It has become almost mandatory for enterprises to use cloud services, be on some social media platform or to encourage employees to bring their own devices to work.

Adoption of these technologies is important for organisations to create efficiencies, understand market dynamics and reach out to customers in the most effective way. This has accelerated the rate of business change in organisations and led to a faster transformation of the data centre.

Cloud use in manufacturing and process sectors on cusp of huge growth

Cloud services are on the verge of strong growth in more ‘traditional’ industries, such as manufacturing and processing, as the benefits become harder to ignore for such firms.

Richard Martin, executive vice president for engineer and operations solutions at Rolta, told V3 ahead of our Cloud & Infrastructure Live summit on 20-21 April, that cloud had not been a top priority for traditional industries in the past.

“Process industries have not progressed like some industries in the cloud because a lot of what they do is very driven by intellectual property and they are protective of that and not keen on putting this sort of information in the cloud,” he said.

However, Martin explained that major business software suppliers like SAP and Oracle have started offering services in the cloud which has helped firms realise that they could benefit from the cloud across their business.

“We are starting to see the first uptick on the hockey stick [for cloud uptake in process industries]. CIOs have to have an answer when shareholders say: 'What is your strategy [for cloud]?',” he added.

Martin said that manufacturing firms are ripe for embracing the cloud owing to the huge number of applications they have in use, not just from big box vendors like SAP and Oracle but from more niche, industry-specific providers.

“Most people don’t realise that a typical processing and manufacturing company can have as many as 800 applications, of which maybe 50 are back-office related, so there’s an amazing amount of knowledge that is hidden,” he said.

Making this information easier to access and deriving insights from it becomes much easier when everything is hosted in a central environment, according to Martin.

Read More: http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2454061/cloud-use-in-manufacturing-and-process-sectors-on-cusp-of-huge-growth

Cloud Security Industry Analysis 2020

The world cloud security market is expected to generate $8.9 billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 23.5% from 2015 to 2020. North America dominates the world cloud security market, owing to growing adoption of cloud services in several industries in the region. However, Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow rapidly during the forecast period.

Cloud Services Market to Top $200 Million in 2016

The worldwide market for public cloud services, such as Amazon.com Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Amazon Web Services (AWS), is forecast to reach $203.9 billion in 2016, a year-over-year increase of more than 16%. The fastest growing sector of that market is cloud-based infrastructure as a service (IaaS), forecast to grow from $16.2 billion in 2015 sales to $22.4 billion in 2016, a jump of more than 38%.

When Amazon launched AWS in 2006, the idea that individuals and corporations would store their critical data on someone else’s hardware was nearly unthinkable. That’s all changed now. Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) runs its streaming videos on AWS and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is another huge customer.

Competitors are stacking up as well, with Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) among the top contenders. Amazon’s 27% share of the market tops second-place Microsoft’s 16% and IBM’s 12% third-place showing, according to report at Forbes.

The big difference for Amazon is that AWS adds revenue and gross profit to the company’s financial performance, where the impacts on Microsoft and IBM are more on the order of reducing the amount of lost revenue and income due to the shift away from enterprise hardware and software to cloud computing.

When Gartner released its forecast for cloud computing revenues in 2016, research director Sid Nag said:
The market for public cloud services is continuing to demonstrate high rates of growth across all markets and Gartner expects this to continue through 2017. This strong growth continues reflect a shift away from legacy IT services to cloud-based services, due to increased trend of organizations pursuing a digital business strategy.


Read More: http://247wallst.com/technology-3/2016/03/22/cloud-services-market-to-top-200-million-in-2016/

The Future in the Cloud Is Now

It’s no surprise companies are realizing cloud is their future--and the transition to the cloud is happening now. It is changing how businesses are run and how people work; it’s changing how we communicate and share information. The economics of business will never be the same. It’s happening at an incredible speed, creating opportunity for everyone, including the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) community.

Oracle recently announced a new cloud program that equips partners with the tools and resources they need to help customers move to the cloud. The Oracle PartnerNetwork Cloud program provides an opportunity for partners to quickly build successful solutions around Oracle Cloud to accelerate innovation, lead  transformation and fully realize the competitive advantages offered through Oracle Cloud.

Cloud: the future of storage is here

Using cloud services for data backup and storage is becoming increasingly common among businesses of all sizes. According to Richard Vester, Director of Cloud Services at EOH, hardware-based storage was long the favoured option because companies looked to protect their data from hacking and loss of privacy. That control is now easily accessible through cloud-based options, which is far more cost-effective.

Understanding Cloud Services and your Options

We’ll keep the introduction relatively short here. It’s very clear that cloud is now impacting organizations of all sizes and across all verticals. Cisco recently reported that by 2019, more than 86 percent of workloads will be processed by cloud data centers. Furthermore, global spending on IaaS reached more than US$16.5 billion in 2015, an increase of 32.8 percent from 2014, according to Gartner’s latest forecast. Finally, findings from a recent Gartner report go on to say that the use of cloud computing is growing, and by 2016 this growth will increase to become the bulk of new IT spend.

Microsoft Cloud App Security Unmasks Shadow IT

Last year, Microsoft acquired Adallom, a security software company focused on safeguarding data in multi-cloud environments. Soon, Adallom's tech will feature in Microsoft's forthcoming Cloud App Security product.

"Today, we are announcing Microsoft Cloud App Security, based on the Adallom technology, will become generally available in April 2016," said Microsoft Chief Information Security Officer Bret Arsenault, in a Feb. 25 announcement. "Microsoft Cloud App Security brings the same level of visibility and control that IT departments have in their on-premises network to their SaaS applications, including apps like Box, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Ariba, and of course, Office 365."

Adoption Trends in Personal Cloud By Enterprises-large and small-to boost the global personal cloud market

Enterprise data clouds are fast emerging. Managers are set to transform digital workplace by making continual innovations in end-user computing as personal cloud intersect with many levels of setting up IT goal of enterprises. The degree of impact personal cloud is making on enterprises adoption of cloud services is driven to a large extent by the launch of unprecedented technologies like advanced sensors, Windows 10, smart wearables which is fast blurring the boundaries between consumer and enterprise computing. Increased access to a host of personal information and enhance intelligence is fast changing the technology landscape in personal cloud services.

CSA survey finds trust in the cloud increasing

Suspicion of the cloud has lifted so much that trust in cloud services is on par with on-premises applications, according to a survey by the Cloud Security Alliance.

Around 200 IT executives were quizzed about the state of cloud adoption, the evolving role of IT, and how enterprises approach cloud security. The results suggest that while trust in the cloud may be on the rise companies are trying to replicate the same security controls they did for their on-premises systems.

Cloud Services are Eating the World

The cloud revolution is impacting the technology sector. You can clearly see it in the business results of companies like HP and IBM. For sure, legacy technology providers are embracing the cloud. They are transforming their businesses from building and running on-premise infrastructures to delivering cloud-based services. The harsh reality is that this is a destructive transformation. For every dollar that exits legacy environments, only a fraction comes back through cloud services. This is the great promise of the cloud – maximizing economies of scale, efficient resource utilization and smart sharing of scarce capabilities.

It is just the latest phase of the destructive force that technology applies to all parts of our economy. Traditionally, technology vendors touted benefits such as personnel efficiencies and operational savings as part of the justification for purchasing new technologies – a politically correct way to refer to fewer people, offices and the support systems around them. This has now inevitably impacted the technology vendors themselves. Early indicators were abundant: Salesforce.com has displaced Siebel systems, reducing the need for costly and customized implementations; and Amazon AWS is increasingly displacing physical servers, reducing the need for processors, cabinets, cabling, power and cooling.

Cloud is Eating the World

Marc Andreseen argued in his 2011 Wall Street Journal article that, “software is eating the world.” In my view, this observation is now obsolete. Today, cloud services are eating the world. Cloud services encapsulate and commoditizes the entire technology stack (software, hardware, platforms and professional services). This model is so impactful and irresistible that even capturing only a part of the value is a big win. This is how cloud services now include platforms – including Google, Microsoft, Salesforce.com; and infrastructure, provided by such vendors as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and IBM/Softlayer.

Read More: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2016/01/04/cloud-services-eating-world/

Public cloud vs. on-premises, which is more secure?

Which is more secure: the public cloud or on-premises infrastructure?

“Is it more secure to run in the cloud or more secure to run in my data center?” asks John Treadway, senior vice president at consultancy Cloud Technology Partners. “I can do it better. You can do it better… It becomes a religious debate.”

Large enterprises invest a lot in security, Treadway says and so do large cloud providers. “Whether it's more secure or less secure, [the cloud is] at least as secure as most enterprise environments,” he concludes.

As the cloud market continues to mature in 2016, organizations are more willing than ever to use cloud-based services. At Amazon Web Service’s re:Invent conference in Las Vegas in October, the CIOs of Capital One and General Electric spoke about how they’re gaining tremendous advantage by using the public cloud. Officials from Bank of America and Goldman Sachs admit they too are using cloud services and other emerging technology like containers.

But this question about cloud security remains. A recent survey of 1,500 IT professionals by 451 Research Group found that security, compliance and data sovereignty are the three biggest issues holding back their usage of the public cloud.

Read More: http://www.networkworld.com/article/3016673/public-cloud/public-cloud-vs-on-premises-which-is-more-secure.html

Microsoft chief Satya drops an S bomb in Windows 10, cloud talk

Microsoft claims it really does care about privacy and securing the cloud and Windows 10, promising to build cybersecurity teams and investing in the area.

A new Cyber Defense Operations Center will bring together security response experts from across the technology giant in a new “state-of-the-art” facility. The unit will be staffed around the clock by security professionals, data analysts, engineers, developers, program managers, and operations specialists.

Workers at the facility will work closely with a Microsoft Enterprise Cybersecurity Group. The business unit will offer security assessments and provides ongoing monitoring, threat detection, and incident response capabilities. Regular infused consultants and vendors offer similar service, but Microsoft aims to distinguish itself through the experience of delivering cloud-based services to both consumers (XBox Live) and enterprises (Azure, Office 365).

A new Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) will offer support for mobile application management without the need to enroll the device. The technology will incorporate features that aim to help IT staff in protecting and managing corporate applications and data on any Windows, iOS, and Android device.

Microsoft chief exec Satya Nadella outlined the strategy at an event in Washington DC on Tuesday morning. The speech was the first time Nadella has talked about security since becoming Microsoft chief exec.

Read More : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/17/ms_revamps_security_strategy/

Oracle shows new cloud attitude at OOW 2015

Looking back at Oracle OpenWorld 2015, all one can see is clouds. “Cloud, cloud, cloud” was the conference summation by 451 Research analyst Alan Pelz-Sharpe. The interesting thing about the cloud theme, he added, was that no one, not even Oracle chairman Larry Ellison, was saying “jump on the cloud now.” Instead, Oracle came to town with a cloud transition message.

Sure, Oracle was pushing its cloud technologies, but OOW 2015 keynote speakers largely talked about cloud strategies, said Pelz-Sharpe, 451 research director for social business. This stance was refreshingly realistic and rare in the realm of vendor conferences.

Pelz-Sharpe opines on Oracle’s cloud and Java strategies in this video interview with Jan Stafford, SearchCloudApps executive editor.

TechTarget’s coverage of OOW 2015 supports Pelz-Sharpe’s description of Oracle’s cloud and cloud strategy focus there. For example, Ellison touted Oracle’s cloud services in his keynote, but he also stressed that Oracle and its customers just getting started in adopting cloud services.

To help customers ease legacy applications and development platforms into the hybrid cloud, Oracle touted its Java Standard Edition (SE) Cloud Service and Oracle Integration Cloud Service (ICS). The new SE Cloud Service is a cloud-based platform for Java development that provides the means to move Java SE 7 and 8 applications onto the Oracle cloud platform. Oracle ICS is an application integration PaaS that facilitates point-and-click usage of several Oracle integration suites, including SOA and API management cloud services.

Read More : http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/cloud-applications/oracle-shows-new-cloud-attitude-at-oow-2015/

How To Stay Safe In The Cloud

Using the cloud is now a fact of our digital lives. Email, blogging, website design and storing digital content all rely on cloud services. The news headlines can seem awash with security scare stories, but with a little effort anyone can use the cloud safely.

All of the cloud-based services that are in use today use passwords and encryption to ensure that the data that moves to and from the cloud servers is secure. The encryption part of the security is invisible to most users.

Make sure your browsing is secure

Just look at the web address in your internet browser. It should begin with ‘https’. The ‘s’ shows that the connection to the cloud is secure. Often your browser will also display a closed padlock indicating that the security protocols to the cloud service you are using are active.

Accessing these services to pick up your email or download some photos you have saved to one of the many cloud storage solutions will mean creating a password. The fundamental way that all users can ensure their use of cloud services are secure is to get into the habit of creating strong passwords. 

Pick a secure password
Believe it or not, 123456 and ‘password’ are still the most common passwords used according to the latest survey from SplashData. QWERTY and abc123 are also commonly used to protect what can often be highly sensitive information stored in the cloud.

The good news is that there are a number of options when it comes to creating strong passwords to protect the data in the cloud:

Read More : http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2015/11/how-to-stay-safe-in-the-cloud/

Dark Cloud Hovers Over Rackspace

The sky isn’t always the limit. Rackspace Hosting Inc. is finding that out the hard way.

Shares in the cloud-services provider have lost nearly half their value over the past six months as revenue growth has slowed and competition has picked up. While it may be tempting to think the worst is over for Rackspace as it reports third-quarter results Monday, it probably isn’t.

Rackspace, a pioneer in the cloud market, has transitioned its business model in recent years to become more of a services provider, one that offers bundled computing and support. To combat rising competition and a price war from the likes of Microsoft Corp.,Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit and International Business Machines Corp., Rackspaceannounced a partnership last month with Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud-computing platform, Amazon Web Services.

Yet the deal didn’t do much to juice Rackspace’s flagging stock price. Skepticism rightly remains over how beneficial the partnership will be for Rackspace’s top line, particularly because it is entering an already crowded market for Amazon’s support services.

Analysts at Evercore ISI reckon leading providers in that market generate roughly $100 million of annual revenue from supporting Amazon’s Web services unit. With Rackspace expected to generate $2 billion in revenue in 2015, that wouldn’t move the needle all that much.

Read More : http://www.wsj.com/articles/dark-cloud-hovers-over-rackspace-1447008964

Yes, Oracle is finally serious about the cloud

As Larry Ellison said in his Oracle OpenWorld keynote last week, when it comes to the public cloud, it’s early days for the enterprise.

Amazon Web Services may now enjoy $7.3 billion in annual revenue and 81 percent year-over-year growth, but the proportion of enterprise workloads running in the public cloud remains a small slice.

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From that perspective, Oracle’s entry into IaaS last week doesn’t seem as late as it otherwise might. Three years ago the company jumped into SaaS and PaaS. Last week Oracle president Thomas Kurian announced that an Elastic Compute Cloud was on its way, along with two new Storage Cloud services and a Network Cloud. For all you Docker fans out there, a Container Cloud is coming, too.

I realize that Oracle announcements like this inspire eye-rolling. Who will turn to Oracle for IaaS, even if it fulfills Kurian’s promise that it will be cost competitive?

Oracle’s answer: enterprise customers. Here’s how vice president of public cloud Amit Chaudhry described his approach to me last week:

There you have it. The typical cloud pattern today is that enterprises turn to AWS to build a fancy new e-commerce platform or a bursty big data application -- and Amazon, as it clearly indicated at its Re:Invent show last month, now wants to lure enterprises to migrate or build core applications on its platform. Oracle, on the other hand, says it already offers a proven enterprise cloud platform and is creating an IaaS platform to accommodate anything else an enterprise might want to build and run, even if the person building it is an LoB user buying some Elastic Compute instances with a credit card.

Read More : http://www.infoworld.com/article/3000797/cloud-computing/yes-oracle-is-finally-serious-about-the-cloud.html