Author: John Marcus

John is a Principal Analyst for Business Network and IT Services at Current Analysis. His focus is on new developments in cloud services and service providers in Europe.

Huawei Eco-Connect Europe 2018: IoT Strategy Depends on Ecosystem Investment

by John Marcus, posted in Internet of Things
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

  • Huawei made clear its strategy is now based on ‘platform + ecosystem.’ This is the case across the business, but nowhere more acutely than in IoT.
  • While investing in the ecosystem is a requirement, its diverse nature makes for a highly fragmented IoT market.

Huawei held its flagship European event in Rome this week, combining a showcase for customers and partners with a series of broad brush announcements around investing in its global digital platforms and ecosystem. The key takeaway from the waterfall of positioning messages is that Huawei not only recognizes its need to partner with other players across its business; it has also made its ecosystem central to its strategy and is therefore investing heavily in strengthening relationships with suppliers, developers, partners, and customers. In the Internet of Things (IoT), it already has a head start, but a number of new developments will support the ongoing commitment to the ecosystem: Continue reading “Huawei Eco-Connect Europe 2018: IoT Strategy Depends on Ecosystem Investment” →

Vodafone Sets Sights on Vertical Services in IoT, but Which Ones Will Take Priority?

by John Marcus, posted in Internet of Things
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

  • Vodafone stated at its analyst conference this month that its IoT strategy will focus on vertical services.
  • It has picked five verticals so far, but some reflect future potential rather than previous successes.

At its annual analyst conference, Vodafone’s enterprise business presented updates across its portfolio and associated strategy, and when it came to the Internet of Things (IoT), one thing was clear: a new determination to focus on a set of priority verticals to deliver sector-specific IoT services. The idea is that, if it is to access the biggest market opportunities, it must become more of a technology solution provider in order to maximize growth potential as a trusted, ‘go-to’ supplier in digital industries. Continue reading “Vodafone Sets Sights on Vertical Services in IoT, but Which Ones Will Take Priority?” →

Brexit Is Forcing Business Decisions, but a ‘No Deal’ Scenario Puts the IT Focus Firmly on Risk Mitigation

by John Marcus, posted in IT Leader
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

  • Brexit is driving demand for risk management advice in IT as well as in financial and legal domains.
  • Integrators like DXC Technology are offering tactical and strategic solutions, suggesting the disruption of Brexit be used as an opportunity for transformation.

It should surprise no one that a ‘Brexit strategy advisory firm’ is a thing that exists. The increasing potential for the UK leaving the European Union in March 2019 without a trade deal in place is creating bittersweet opportunities not only for financial and legal advisors, but also in tech. Global IT services company DXC Technology has hooked up with specialist consultancy Brexit Partners as its UK and European customer base takes account of imminent risks. Other IT firms will soon be doing the same, if they’re not already. Continue reading “Brexit Is Forcing Business Decisions, but a ‘No Deal’ Scenario Puts the IT Focus Firmly on Risk Mitigation” →

Advanced SOC Capabilities Give Back Time

by John Marcus, posted in Secure
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

  • AI and machine learning are reducing the constraints of traditional SOC operations.
  • Time saved through resulting automation can be put to use on high-priority investigation and response.

Recently, classic rock band The Kinks brought out a previously unreleased track called “Time Song,” which muses on the slippery ubiquity of this thing called time:

Time is ahead of us
Above and below us
Is standing beside us
And looking down on us…

While the song’s message is universal, that last part of the quoted lyrics above may be true when it comes to the key realities of security operations management. The number of person hours available does not come close to the number required to investigate every incident reported by an organization’s systems and users. When it takes a security analyst 10 to 15 minutes to research each incident, but the number of incidents pouring in via collected intelligence is in the hundreds or thousands daily, it can indeed feel like time itself is “looking down on us” and cruelly watching us fail to keep pace. Continue reading “Advanced SOC Capabilities Give Back Time” →

Multi-Cloud Services: Service Provider and Vendor Approaches Keep Coming

by John Marcus, posted in Cloud Enable
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

  • Just as multi-cloud usage is recognized as a necessity, IT suppliers are keen to help enterprises reduce its inherent complexity.
  • IT, hosting, and network service providers have rolled out specific offers over the last year to address the demand.

As multi-cloud consumption becomes the reality for transforming enterprises, solutions are now appearing from service providers as well as platform vendors (beyond their initial solutions for hybrid cloud). Each player has its own take – with varying levels of focus placed on self-service tools, automated operations, and good old-fashioned managed services. Continue reading “Multi-Cloud Services: Service Provider and Vendor Approaches Keep Coming” →

When Cloud-Based Security Can Mean Everybody Wins

by John Marcus, posted in Secure
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

  • Software-defined networking is turning concern about security in the cloud on its head, enabling a winning model for protecting businesses.
  • Enterprises get predictable cost and value, security vendors streamline go-to-market and service delivery, and network providers gain revenue from vendor partners by hosting ecosystems in a B2B2B role.

Protecting a business network has traditionally meant plugging in a bunch of different security ‘appliances,’ in each business location, to protect all the many different devices and machines connected to the LAN or WAN. Managing the process can be a nightmare for companies of even a modest size, to the point where many often simply give up. Continue reading “When Cloud-Based Security Can Mean Everybody Wins” →

Multi-Cloud Services: Fujitsu’s Take

by John Marcus, posted in Cloud Enable
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

  • Just as multi-cloud usage is recognized as a necessity, IT suppliers are keen to help enterprises reduce its inherent complexity.
  • Fujitsu is strengthening its multi-cloud integration and operations services by partnering with key platform vendors and training thousands of service professionals to achieve relevant certifications.

Starting in the second half of last year, the focus on hybrid cloud implementations shifted towards the need to accommodate concurrent management of workloads running on multiple cloud platforms, and this has emerged as one of the biggest themes in cloud computing. Whether it is the case of central IT looking for some level of control over enterprise-wide consumption or the equally common justification for the same organization using, say, Amazon EC2 for one set of workloads while using Azure and/or VMware for others, ‘hybrid’ management solutions now need to support this multi-cloud usage. Continue reading “Multi-Cloud Services: Fujitsu’s Take” →

New WPA3 Makes Wi-Fi Security Stronger for Enterprise, Easier for Consumers Connecting IoT Devices

by John Marcus, posted in Secure

Summary Bullets:

• WPA3 is the new WLAN security standard, with the network and device industry on board for migration from WPA2 starting now

• Stronger authentication and encryption will thwart attackers, while Easy Connect configuration will make set-up easy for connected home and IoT devices

Fourteen years is a long time in Wi-Fi technology. In fact, it’s almost its entire history. That’s why this week’s announcement by the Wi-Fi Alliance introducing Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3 is garnering much more notice than a new security standard usually gets.

Continue reading “New WPA3 Makes Wi-Fi Security Stronger for Enterprise, Easier for Consumers Connecting IoT Devices” →

What Telcos Might Be Good For: Leading the Charge in the Cyber War

by John Marcus, posted in Secure
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

  • Cyber threats are impacting the bottom line, leading to increased security spending.
  • Priority is being placed on managed firewalls, identity management, and SIEM.
  • Telcos like BT are stepping forward with shared threat intelligence initiatives.

Endless new threats impacting businesses and consumers are driving demand for IT and cybersecurity products and services both by besieged IT departments – with the thankless task of protecting against invisible thieves and miscreants – and by their bosses, who have been firmly pulled into cybersecurity decision making.

It’s starting to feel like an endless war. Continue reading “What Telcos Might Be Good For: Leading the Charge in the Cyber War” →

2017: When Kitchen Appliance Manufacturers Start Competing with Amazon and Microsoft

by John Marcus, posted in Cloud Enable
Marcus-70100• The German appliance manufacturer Bosch has announced it is building its own cloud to serve customers that connect their Bosch devices to its own-brand Internet of Things. Once it’s up and running, Bosch will look to sell cloud services to other businesses—presumably adjacent manufacturers and service providers (but not direct competitors), e.g., suppliers of consumables such as soap or spare parts, and non-competing consumer product makers.

• It is not the first time a company operating in a sector other than ICT has planned to turn its ICT investment into a profit centre. Could this be one of the few successful examples?

Bosch announced at the Bosch ConnectedWorld event in Berlin last week the launch of its own cloud for web-based services. The Bosch IoT Cloud includes technical infrastructure owned by the company as well as platform and software offerings for the Internet of things (IoT), enabling solutions for smart cities and the connected home. To begin with, Bosch will use it for in-house solutions. From 2017, the Bosch IoT Cloud will be made available as a service to other companies, putting it in direct competition with IT and cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Continue reading “2017: When Kitchen Appliance Manufacturers Start Competing with Amazon and Microsoft” →