Charlotte Dunlap – Senior Analyst, Application Platforms
Summary Bullets:
• Application platform vendors are working to build IoT initiatives based on integration infrastructure, app development tools, and business intelligence.
• UX has become mobile app development’s critical component for ensuring success around B2E and B2C apps.
Keenly aware that Mobile World Congress (MWC) is heavy with telco vendors, application platforms providers at last week’s event aggressively marketed their IoT and mobile initiatives to try to convince customers that their core integration technology provides the best foundational platform for expanding app development to connect to IoT devices. They are pressed to provide clarity around their IoT strategy, however, as the industry struggles to differentiate between various solution provider and service provider platforms.
Cindy Whelan – Principal Analyst, Network and Wholesale Services
Summary Bullets:
• Service providers are taking advantage of the rise in cloud services to create managed service bundles, providing small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) with a one-stop shop for solutions delivered at a single monthly rate.
• SMBs have an increasing array of options to support a move away from capital investment to an operational expense model, managed service bundles offer the potential to reduce complexity and manage costs.
SMBs, defined by Current Analysis as those with 20 to 500 employees, represent a sizable segment of communications users. Tier 1 providers such as AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon have typically served this segment with business bundles that package business lines and Internet service under a single monthly fee for very small businesses, and PRIs and network-hosted VoIP for larger SMBs. Over the last several years, and coincident with the rise of new competitors in the form of cable operators such as Comcast Business and Time Warner Cable Business and over-the-top providers such as 8×8, major service providers have reinforced their focus on the SMB segment, reshaping partner strategies, adding tools and portals, and expanding VoIP and UC solutions to include managed bundle offers that frees SMBs from the task of managing communications services.
• Enterprises should look at vendor platforms beyond Microsoft and Cisco and demand interoperability between platforms and applications.
• Unified communications (UC) and mobility are now intrinsically linked.
2015 has been the year that UC solutions have really started to achieve market traction. Take-up is far from universal, but for most UC features CA’s own research suggests that usage amongst enterprises is above 50%. The uptick in usage is down to a number of factors–for example, falling prices and the maturity of the technology–however, it is the improvement of the business case for UC that seems to have had the biggest impact. Vodafone, for example, has reported a strong response from customers following the development of new proof of concept demonstrations and a new approach to training and educating its workforce. So the initial message for enterprise users is that a conversation with your provider concerning unified communications is likely to be more centred on achieving better business outcomes, and therefore a more worthwhile experience. Continue reading “As 2016 Beckons, What Should Telecoms Buyers Look for from UC Solutions?”→
Close on the heels of its decision to shutter its Helion public cloud, HP Enterprise is going the partner route to the hybrid cloud with a new alliance with Microsoft Azure
HP Enterprise will now sell customers on Microsoft Azure services while Microsoft will send customers seeking out consulting and private cloud services to HP Enterprise
HP Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman slipped a surprise into the Q4 2015 earnings call, the last quarter in which HP reported as a single company. The company is teaming with long-time ally Microsoft in the cloud. HP Enterprise, which announced last month that it is scrapping its own Helion public cloud services, will now be a preferred Microsoft Azure partner. The company will now sell Microsoft Azure public cloud services while the latter will point clients in need of public cloud and consulting services to HP. Continue reading “HP Enterprise’s Newest Cloud Tactic? Work with Microsoft to Sell Customers on Azure”→
Unify’s free service offers a valuable taster of UC, but there are other ‘try before you buy’ options.
Buyers and providers should both be aware that limitations on a service (e.g., limited integration) may hide the real value of a UC solution.
Unify (newly acquired by Atos) has moved to gain market attention and traction with the offer of free UC services. The free service is limited to only 100 users and provides only 1 gigabyte of storage (for further details, see: Unify Stakes Claim to SME Market, but Might Find Only Fool’s Gold, November 20, 2015). Although it is not without risks, this is a smart move by Unify. It offers a very competitive UC solution via its Circuit platform. However, overshadowed by Cisco and Microsoft and facing the growing popularity of rivals such as BroadSoft and Google Apps, Unify has a significant challenge to gain market attention and traction. Continue reading “Unify’s Free UC Offer Is Good and True, but It May Be Better to Pay”→
Integration with a range of business applications and the ability for solutions to work outside the organisation are key features for valuable UCC solutions.
Enterprises should tell vendors what they want from systems integration offers.
This week, BroadSoft announced its plans for its new Project Tempo initiative to deliver integrated unified communications and collaboration (UCC) services based on the vendor’s UC-One platform. The initiative will begin in January 2016 with beta trials of ‘UC-One Hub,’ a cloud service designed to integrate real-time communication services (e.g., IP voice, IM and e-mail) with third-party hosted/cloud-based applications. BroadSoft states that UC-One Hub will also provide ‘contextual intelligence’ for users. Continue reading “Application Integration Is Key to Delivering Effective Collaboration”→
Summary bullets:
• The 15-year old Safe Harbour agreement between the EU and US was effectively thrown out by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).
• US companies (and all MNCs) are now vulnerable to litigation and loss of customers over privacy concerns.
• While authorities have been tasked with coming up with an alternative by January, that is highly unlikely. Enterprises may need managed security and cloud providers to secure customer data in specific jurisdictions.
October 6 Decision
The CJEU, which interprets EU law to make sure it is applied in the same way in all EU countries, ruled that the Safe Harbour agreement in place for the last 15 years between the European Commission and US authorities did not offer the necessary legal guarantees that it was supposed to have. This ruling erased the quasi-legal framework under which US companies have been handling their EU customers’ data, potentially creating a legal minefield. Continue reading “EU Puts Global Businesses on Notice as Safe Harbour is Struck Down”→
Summary Bullets:
• Future mobile acquisitions will be driven by pure plays involved with OSS ecosystems (e.g., HP/Stackato).
• Modern app developer shortage leads to less sophisticated toolsets aimed at helping traditional developers be productive in B2E app development.
Vendors of mobile app platforms and platform services are realizing an apparent shortage of mobile and cloud savvy developers. As a result, the industry can expect to see a number of initiatives and solutions rolling out over the next 12 months, based around mobile services, low-code, rapid app development tools, and open source code and toolsets.
A recap of recent events illustrating this growing trend (which were also covered by Current Analysis):
Vendors have been surprisingly receptive to getting on board with the OpenStack initiative.
OpenStack is still a major challenge for companies to adopt.
Over the last few weeks there have been a number of key acquisitions in the world of hosted and managed private cloud startups. First tier vendors like IBM, EMC, and Cisco have all made significant investments in private cloud startups that have already built a respectable business providing a simplified path to an OpenStack private cloud through either hosting secure externalized private clouds (which seems like an oxymoron) or by offering a managed private cloud service that can take a lot of the pain out of building an OpenStack-based private cloud. But to me, this raises the obvious question of just why is private cloud so darn hard? Continue reading “Easy Usually Starts Out Being Hard”→
Diversity drives innovation. Operating systems, storage devices, or networking equipment, and yes, even server architectures all took dramatic leaps forward in capability at various points in the storied but short history of enterprise technology, owing to innovation that was fueled by competition. For that reason alone, the idea of Qualcomm pushing the ARM chip into the server market, as was announced last week, is quite exciting. Why? If anything, ARM chips have proven that you can be both quick and energy efficient, two traits that are most welcome in any data center. Perhaps because of this we will see more emphasis placed upon this combination of traits from the incumbent market leaders. For more on this interesting development and how it might play out for enterprise buyers, I’ve included below some thoughts from my colleague, Peter Jarich.
Summary Bullets:
Qualcomm announced a plan to move into the server space at its 2014 Financial Analyst Meeting
While ARM expertise will play in Qualcomm’s favor, it may take a while for that to matter to buyers
Last week, Qualcomm used its 2014 Financial Analyst Meeting to signal an entry into the server market. You can be completely forgiven for not paying attention: it doesn’t seem like the media picked up on this much, and the notion of Qualcomm – a vendor known best for supplying silicon into mobile and connected deices – moving into a crowded server chipset space might seem like a typo or misunderstanding as much as it does a business reality.
Alas, it’s true. It’s also not that surprising.
At a very basic level, the logic is super-simple. Cloud business and architecture evolutions – including the move towards NFV in the telecom space – promise to drive server sales through the medium-term. ARM architectures have long been touted as critical for supporting scalable, energy-efficient server designs and data center growth. Qualcomm, thanks to its position with mobile and connected devices, is one of the market’s dominant ARM-based silicon providers. Where there’s expertise and a market that expertise plays into, it only makes sense to connect the dots, right?
Maybe.
Qualcomm’s position in the ARM ecosystem cannot be denied. Near-term market interest in ARM-based servers is another topic. Yes, ARM’s focus on energy efficiency is a major selling point. Yet, whenever I ask telecom vendors how much energy they’re putting towards ARM in their NFV efforts, the answer is essentially, “none.” The rationale? Operators just aren’t asking for ARM-based solutions yet. Admittedly, this is a relatively narrow anecdote. It’s telling, nonetheless. In their NFV efforts, after all, carriers are responding to the efficiencies obtained by web-scale and data center players. If neither party looks to be too excited about ARM in the near-term, what does that mean for Qualcomm?
While that was a rhetorical question, I can provide something of an answer: nothing. Connected device sales and technology development will keep the company busy for some time. Time enough, in theory, to build up its server credibility and allow for ARM demand to grow.
You must be logged in to post a comment.