Network as a Service (NaaS) enables a flexible and responsive strategy to enable the edge, in all its forms. When organizations view their assets and resources, they all involve what communications services providers consider the edge. But from a client perspective, the edge IS the company. Located at the edge are the organization’s sites, assets, people, applications, productivity needs, and security challenges. Inter-networking these enables the business’s commercial activities and determines the success of the […]
strategy
New survey data reveal that some of the initial concerns about cloud and on-premises data and app integration, and unifying the user experience, continue to be significant challenges. Yet IT governance and the maturing of managing technology have led to a surprising agreement between the data center jockeys and their business customers. A Harvard Business Review Analytic Services poll in the fall of 2015, about cloud implementation experiences, yielded 341 respondents from around the world […]
What’s the next big IT trend? Businesses want to know how they can leverage these trends, as well as how they can address any challenges. These trends, including the explosion of data, cloud computing and the multitude of personal devices on the corporate network, are fast changing the way organizations traditionally manage their business. The challenges and opportunities are more apparent than ever before, and look set to drive IT and business decisions in the […]
The use of cloud computing is growing, and by 2016 this growth will increase to become the bulk of new IT spend, according to Gartner. 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. “Overall, there are very real trends toward cloud platforms, and also toward massively scalable processing. Virtualization, […]
The word ‘cloud’ has been literally hanging over executives’ heads for the past two years — in the form of massive banners hanging from the ceilings of almost every hub airport they travel through. To date, the focus of cloud has been on the delivery of IT-related capabilities from IT-related providers, largely for things that the IT department is responsible for managing. Cloud computing is expected to grow to 20% or more of the total […]
Forecasts from the global analyst firm Ovum reveal that OTT VoIP will cost the global telecoms industry $479bn in lost cumulative revenues by 2020, which represents 6.9% of cumulative total voice revenues. However, new research Future of Voice provides some reassurance to operators that are fearful of the demise of traditional telephony. It suggests that although revenues continue to fall, voice traffic is simply shifting rather than collapsing. Carefully targeted price increases are expected to […]
Many design and construction companies affected by Hurricane Sandy harnessed the powers of technology to serve their clients and remain operational in the aftermath of the storm. Investments that paid off the best were virtualization tools and cloud-based private networks, say some firms. To communicate, most firms rerouted e-mail, sent out mass e-cards or used social media to alert clients and employees with key updates. Others went to much greater lengths and the difference showed. […]
Cloud computing has become mainstream in 2012 for providing IT facilities, but the public sector is slower to move into the cloud than private companies. Cisco commissioned independent research amongst IT decision makers, in enterprises with more than 1,000 employees across a broad range of vertical sectors including government. The results clearly show that cloud has moved from hype to reality, with cloud now seen as a mainstream element of IT strategy. Cloud computing, which […]
Google research says financial bosses will take more active role in buying IT services Cloud computing will give chief financial officers (CFOs) the chance to become more influential on the technology side of a business, according to a new study. According to the research by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Google, half of the senior financial decision makers quizzed believe that as the adoption of cloud computing within enterprise continues to grow, CFOs will become […]
CIOs are worried: cloud computing is being used as a way for businesses to dodge the IT department and get services delivered more quickly. But as well as giving the CIO sleepless nights, this attempt to side-step the IT department is causing additional cost and complexity along the way. I recently wrote about how cloud computing deployments are kicking off without the CIO’s knowledge, and only coming to light when sys admins put their expenses […]
CIOs have tied their future career prospects very much to the mast of cloud computing, with recent research revealing that they believe cloud computing is shifting the focus of their role away from primarily technology onto vital business services, and increasing their chances of promotion to CEO. In a global survey of 615 CEOs, including Australian CIOs, 57 percent of the Australian respondents said that’s what they believed about the affects of cloud computing on […]
CIOs will have the opportunity to move away from the traditional scenario of spending 80% of their budget on maintenance and 20% on innovation if they harness cloud computing technologies. This in turn will raise the expectations put on CIOs from the boardroom, who will expect IT to drive business innovations. Cloud computing is shaking-up competitive landscapes as companies of all sizes can access the same resources and reach similar markets as a result. But […]
The cloud computing industry rolls along at a staggering pace. So much so that one of the biggest issues currently affecting adoptees is the speed at which it expands. It may sound like a badly made ’90s sci-fi flick, but ‘Cloud Sprawl’ is causing many a headache for IT directors across the globe. And while the term may have been first coined over two years ago, it appears it’s only now that we’re coming to […]
If you came here for the article with the title, “How Cloud Computing Will Change IT”, unfortunately, it has been removed at the request of the publisher of the website from which it was obtained. Asking me to remove it was within their rights, but I believe it was a shortsighted decision based on old media ideas about the copyright “protection” of assets and the imagined potential loss of ad revenue. I am not competing […]
Researchers from Swinburne University of Technology are looking for ways to reduce the high cost of internet data storage and retrieval in cloud computing. While cloud computing – which relies on remote, rather than local servers – offers almost unlimited capacity for data storage and processing, current usage charges mean the costs are expanding at the same near-limitless rate. Social media such as Facebook and Flickr are simple examples of cloud computing, but the drain […]
Zynga was created in 2007 with the idea that “play — like search, share and shop — would become one of the core activities on the internet.” Just 5 years later, the company has about 150 million monthly unique users in 166 countries, and has just filed for what could become one of the most important IPOs of 2011. There’s little doubt that Zynga is one of the fastest and most interesting growth stories on […]
Technology leaders in the White House have promoted greater use of cloud technology at the federal level almost from the start of the Obama presidency. Now the administration has issued its strongest backing yet for cloud technology with the release of the Federal Strategy for Cloud Computing. Officials are using the strategy not only to pull together various cloud initiatives into a coherent package, but also as a directive to federal agencies to actively pursue […]
The last 24 months have brought an explosion of new devices, Web applications and social-media platforms. Chief information officers (CIOs) are under pressure from other employees, including senior executives, to open corporate networks to consumer devices and allow access to more of the Web. This migration of consumer devices like smart phones and tablets into enterprise computing is making CIOs very nervous. The risks to data security are obvious and real, and the loss of […]
When it comes to outsourcing, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Coming up is not just more outsourcing, although that will happen. As the industry evolves, and as new technology comes into play–based in the cloud–IT services will become different in kind. They will have a lot to do with strategy; and the changes may fundamentally change the economics of some industries, resulting in new winners and losers. That’s the message I heard in Mumbai earlier […]
It may sound like a PR ploy, but “cloud computing” truly is a different way of using technology resources, and more firms are adopting it. If your head hasn’t been lost up in the cirrus or cumulus, you’ve probably heard of cloud computing over the last few years. “The cloud” has figured prominently in President Obama’s technology initiatives, in the business plans of familiar tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft, and even in […]
One of the challenges of evaluating cloud computing and the use of hosted desktops in the small business enterprise is understanding not only the business case ROI, but the operational impact. Here are 30 questions to assist you in thinking through the issues associated with deploying hosted desktops. First some definitions: VDI, Virtual Desktop infrastructure = Dedicated Virtual Desktop (hosted desktop) There are two kinds of VDI: server-hosted and client-side. A Server-Hosted Virtual Desktop Infrastructure […]
CFOs have high hopes for cloud computing, even though they don’t appear to know much about it. Such are the findings from two recent surveys conducted by CFO. Asked about their current use of cloud-computing services, a majority of senior finance executives either have no plans to pursue it in the short term, or are doing so very tentatively. Nearly a third admit that they aren’t even sure what “cloud computing” really means. Yet, when […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plans to move 600,000 of its employees to a cloud-based email and collaboration system in a comprehensive migration project it’s calling the “Big 4.” The department is looking for a contractor to help it migrate its entire backend email system — comprised of Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint servers, an e-mail archive system, BlackBerry software, and storage and back-up systems — to a hosted cloud environment, according to a request […]
The three dominant cloud computing models — Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) — are changing fast, as cloud providers reach up and down the stack to offer as close to a one-stop shop as possible. To understand how these cloud computing models are evolving and converging, it helps to know the history, said Jeffrey Kaplan, managing director of ThinkStrategies Inc., a consultancy in Wellesley, […]
Cloud computing needs governance. Which is to say that cloud computing needs processes, policies, and procedures. In a way, this is no different from IT more broadly. But virtualization, dynamically moving workloads, and an increased reliance on third parties for many types of IT functions mean that well thought-out and documented processes, policies, and procedures tend to be more important in cloud computing than with a more static and manual environment. This has been driven […]
I recently looked back at some significant papers that had influenced my thinking on cloud computing as part of a review on current strategic trends. In February 2009, a paper published at the University of California, Berkeley, “Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing,” stands out as the first of many papers to drive out the issues around the promise of cloud computing and technology barriers to achieving secure elastic service. The key […]
Cloud Computing creates great opportunities for Europe but various “legal, technical and commercial issues” need to resolved before it can be widely practiced, the EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said at Davos 2011. Normally I prefer clearly defined concepts. But when it comes to cloud computing I have understood that we cannot wait for a universally agreed definition. We have to act. That is why I am really grateful for the opportunity to discuss […]
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ)’s $1.4 billion acquisition of Terremark immediately strengthens its role as a strategic supplier to the U.S. federal government and its position in a rapidly growing Latin American market, as well as adding key assets for the white-hot global cloud computing market. (See Verizon Taps Terremark for $1.4B.) The deal will put pressure on other global service providers — notably AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), BT Global Services and Orange Business Services […]
Internal departments buying their own IT may force the hand of the CIO into making an early move to the cloud. But that shift will alter the traditional role of the CIO forever, says Steven Salmon. Over the next few years, cloud computing is set to transform the way CIOs operate. More organisations will turn to cloud products such as software as a service (SaaS), which will continue to mature. Driving the increased uptake is […]
One of the issues we focus on in conversations with companies evaluating moving to cloud computing is the importance — and challenge — of capacity planning in a cloud environment. The bottom line is that cloud computing is going to make capacity planning much more difficult for CIOs who intend to maintain all or most of their company’s computing in internal data centers. Moreover, utilization becomes a highly risk-associated topic as utilization risk is shifted […]