Cloud Enable examines the options available to IT departments considering adopting or managing cloud-based architectures in their business environment.
Last week’s Open Networking Summit in San Jose attracted the largest of telecommunications and networking companies, all reiterating the importance of 5G networks for supporting digital transformations and cloud native implementations. Now companies like Ericsson, AT&T, and Huawei are revealing more on their strategies to include DevOps technologies in 5G telecom networks alongside software defined systems and emerging open source software projects including Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) and others. Continue reading “Open Networking Summit: Despite Cloud Native Advancements, Networking Providers Are Years Away from Offering DevOps Technologies”→
A new breed of San Francisco startups is addressing microservices connectivity issues head-on.
Infrastructure and cloud providers will integrate innovative service mesh technologies into management solutions this year.
A new crop of San Francisco startups is addressing a major sticking point among enterprise app modernization projects: the need for more lightweight connectivity solutions which address those points of intersection between apps and networks. Complexities around infrastructure implementations of modern architectures have finally taken their toll on app modernization projects within enterprises, stalling critical DevOps initiatives and prompting key OSS technologies to come to the forefront along with the disruptive innovators behind them. Continue reading “New Market Disruptors Tackle Microservices Network and App Management”→
• Last week Microsoft announced two new additions to the Azure family of solutions with the goal of targeting an even broader set of customer workloads.
• Microsoft needs to continue innovating with Azure Stack to ensure it remains competitive vis-à-vis a growing number of alternative hybrid cloud solutions.
It’s been a little over a year since the first distributions of Microsoft’s Azure Stack became commercially available, offered by hardware partners that include Dell EMC, Cisco, HPE, Huawei, and Lenovo. Azure Stack is Microsoft’s hybrid cloud play, allowing the vendor to target enterprise customers that, for various reasons, need to keep certain workloads on-premises, while still taking advantage of cloud-based services and resources, including developer tools. According to Microsoft, Azure Stack is now available in 92 countries/regions worldwide and, although the number of Azure Stack customers has not been disclosed, notable customers include Airbus, Royal Dutch Shell, Heathrow Airport, and InterContenential Hotels.
Over the past year Microsoft has continued to add more Azure Cloud features to Azure Stack as part of its regular updates. These updates and additions contribute to a more consistent experience for Azure Stack customers across both their on-premises and public cloud environments, thereby enhancing the utility and overall effectiveness of the solution for a range of use cases. One important new Azure Stack feature, currently in preview, is support for Kubernetes. Users will be able to deploy Kubernetes clusters using the same resource manager templates as in the Azure cloud. This means that applications built using containers can be deployed both on-premises and in the Azure public cloud, while using the same code across each platform. In addition, developers will have access to Azure’s existing service fabric, simplifying migration to and from the public cloud. Continue reading “Microsoft Adds New Solutions to its Hybrid Cloud Portfolio, as AWS and IBM Accelerate Their Hybrid Cloud Strategies”→
Cisco’s soon-to-be-launched HyperFlex 4.0 will come with simplified deployment options and an emphasis on enabling HCI in remote locations such as edge environments.
As part of its edge computing strategy, Cisco needs to be able to address adjacent customer concerns about security, architecture design, and workload placement.
Singtel is strengthening its IoT portfolio through a partnership with Microsoft by integrating a range of Azure capabilities into its network.
Its service coverage is still limited in Singapore, China and Australia (Optus) compared to the global IoT networks offered by competitors.
Singtel announced its partnership with Microsoft in February 2019 to launch an AI-powered IoT network over Microsoft Azure. This is achieved through integration of Singtel’s IoT network into Microsoft Azure cloud capabilities, including IoT Hub, IoT Edge, and other machine learning and cognitive services. Singtel has a comprehensive IoT portfolio with software-defined network capabilities, a range of technologies including LPWAN standards, a private IoT network for added security (‘IoTConnect+’), competitive pricing (as low as SGD1 per month for 10 MB on NB-IoT) and various solutions across industry verticals. The additional capability gained from the partnership with Microsoft complements the carrier’s IoT portfolio. The AI capabilities enable the carrier to deliver more efficient services, especially in the orchestration and automation of applications and workloads across IoT stacks (e.g., devices, network and clouds), thus accelerating enterprises’ business outcomes and the ROI. The cloud services offer scalable deployments, addressing the high upfront investments required by enterprises to implement IoT use cases. It also enables Singtel to retain its IoT leadership in Singapore and address the increasing demand in the key Asian hub. GlobalData research shows that 62% of 1,664 global enterprises interviewed (including 65% of 57 in Singapore) are making major or large investments in IoT in the next three years. The access to Microsoft’s vast range of development tools, developers and other packaged solutions enables the carrier to further strengthen its own IoT platform capabilities, while IoT Hub offers an additional platform option to its customers in addressing diverse market demands. Continue reading “Singtel Collaborates with Microsoft to Enhance Its IoT Portfolio”→
Additions to VMware’s multi-cloud portfolio reinforce the company’s ability to serve enterprises that require a mixture of cloud environments, including on-premises private clouds and two or more public clouds.
To succeed in an increasingly competitive market, VMware needs to continue innovating its developer and DevOps tool sets, as well as in relation to things such as price and flexibility.
VMware recently announced several enhancements to its multi-cloud solutions portfolio, which include the latest version of its hybrid cloud stack, VMware Cloud Foundation, and updates to multi-cloud management tools such as VMware vCloud Director and CloudHealth. The company also announced a growing number of go-to-market partners and the launch of the VMware Cloud in Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in Canada, Paris, and Singapore, increasing the total number of AWS data centers where VMware Cloud solutions can be offered to 13 globally. Continue reading “As VMware Expands Its Multi-Cloud Reach and Toolsets, It Will Benefit from Sharper Articulation of Its DevOps Support and Flexible Consumption Options”→
• NTT Communications’ Nexcenter Lab enables enterprises and technology providers to co-create solutions.
• However, the facilities are only available in Japan while the partner ecosystem is still limited.
NTT Communications launched the Nexcenter Lab program in two of its data centers in Tokyo earlier this month to drive innovation through collaborations among the carrier, technology providers and enterprises. The program enables development and testing of new solutions leveraging the latest services and technologies offered by the carrier and its partners including HPE, Dell EMC, RedHat, Intel, Oracle, and VMware. It also offers enterprises a free use of its server racks and cloud services. NTT group is well known for its research and development (R&D). It spends around US$2 billion a year in R&D to drive innovations, and has commercialized various products such as corevo (AI-based platform), COTOHA (AI-based virtual assistant engine), and CLOUDWAN (SD-WAN). While the group has a Global Innovation Center in California (NTT I3) with a focus on collaborations among technology players (end-user involvement is only in the commercialization stage), the Nexcenter Lab program is more customer-centric by providing enterprises with an opportunity to co-create solutions from the initial stage by sharing real-world requirements as an input to the product developments. Continue reading “NTT Communications Opens Nexcenter Labs to Drive Innovations Through Solution Co-creation”→
• Optus has partnered with Cisco to launch two new offerings at Cisco Live 2019 – Optus Cloud Calling (BroadCloud) and Managed Cloud networking (Meraki).
• The combination of NBN, LTE, SD-WAN, and cloud UC will meet the needs of many SMBs and branch office scenarios.
Optus and Cisco continue to strengthen their relationship. At the Cisco Live 2019 event in Melbourne, Australia, Optus was the key sponsor and it used the event to announce new Cisco-based solutions. The first solution is Optus Cloud Calling which is a unified communications (UC) service based on Cisco’s (formerly Broadsoft) BroadCloud platform. This is cloud-based UC solution hosted by Cisco. The service offers telephony, native mobility, and advanced conferencing and collaboration tools. BroadCloud is integrated with Webex solutions to assess audio/video conferencing and team collaboration applications. Optus Business is providing this service as a managed service bundled with its Evolved Voice SIP trunking and business mobile services. Continue reading “Optus and Cisco Join Forces to Target SMBs in Australia”→
IBM Cloud Integration Platform represents more integration capabilities (MQ, Event Streams, API Connect, App Connect) and a public cloud presence.
Continued innovation in integration is critical for IBM’s broader cloud strategy founded on IBM Cloud Private (ICP), which now serves as its multi-cloud management offering.
IBM released a free beta version of its blockchain platform, componentized to work with Kubernetes containers and operate in hybrid and multi-cloud environments and emphasizing a network-agnostic approach.
At the core of IBM’s cloud strategy is ICP, released a year ago to manage Docker and Kubernetes containers. This year, during last week’s Think conference, the platform’s role graduated to that of multi-cloud management, enabled through best-in-class IBM Cloud Integration Platform and the new IBM Cloud App Platform (WebSphere Liberty solutions which we expect will eventually merge with Red Hat JBoss app platforms). For the past 18 months, GlobalData has noted the importance of dominating the private/hybrid cloud space in order to gain a foothold in the broader multi-cloud ecosystem and carry more influence in modern app development technologies and models. Continue reading “IBM Consolidates Cloud Platforms to Strengthen Strategies in Hybrid/Multi-Cloud and Blockchain”→
New PaaS offerings from IBM, Red Hat, and Pivotal will include reactive programming in coming months.
Reactive microservices will play a key role in furthering migration from monolithic to microservices in 2019.
Open source software bodies have turned up the heat on important microservices technologies, grabbing the attention of startups in recent years and larger cloud service providers more recently. IBM, Red Hat, and Pivotal are readying reactive microservices technologies for the coming months, innovations which add real-time streaming and machine learning to cloud-based applications and support a critical component for enterprises migrating from monolithic to microservices-based apps. Continue reading “Enterprises’ Most Advanced UX Is Enabled in 2019 via New Microservices Innovations”→
