Gartner has published a new magic quadrant for infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) – the results should not be surprising to anybody. Consider this posting as update to my previous cloud market posting few years back. Here is reporting on newest cloud market trends from two sources:
Gartner puts AWS, Microsoft Azure top of its Magic Quadrant for IaaS | ZDNet
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure dominate the infrastructure-as-a-service field, according to Gartner, which released its IaaS Magic Quadrant.
However, Google Cloud is emerging as a key challenger.
Gartner confirms what we all know: AWS and Microsoft are the cloud leaders, by a fair way
Paranormal parallelogram for IaaS has Google on the same lap, IBM and Oracle trailing
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Tomi Engdahl says:
AWS adopts home-brewed KVM as new hypervisor
Out with Xen, in with ‘core KVM technology’ for new C5 instances and future VMs too
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/07/aws_writes_new_kvm_based_hypervisor_to_make_its_cloud_go_faster/
AWS has revealed it has created a new hypervisor based on KVM, not the Xen hypervisor on which it has relied for years.
The new hypervisor was unveiled as a virtual footnote in news of new EC2 instance type called the “C5″ powered by Intel’s Skylake Xeons. AWS’s FAQ about the new instances notes “C5 instances use a new EC2 hypervisor that is based on core KVM technology.”
That’s explosive news, because AWS has long-championed the Xen hypervisor. The Xen Project has drawn strength from the fact the mightiest public cloud uses its open-source wares. Citrix makes much of its Xen Server running a close cousin of AWS’s hypervisor.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM leads BigInsights for Hadoop out behind barn. Shots heard
Data analytics platform sunset in December, but enterprise version spared
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/08/ibm_retires_biginsights_for_hadoop/
IBM has announced the retirement of the basic plan for its data analytics software platform, BigInsights for Hadoop.
The basic plan of the service will be retired in a month, on December 7 of this year. IBM said the enterprise plan would continue to be available.
As of December 6, 2017, new BigInsights for Hadoop (basic plan) instances will not be provisioned.
In its announcement of the retirement, IBM said that users should delete their BigInsights for Apache Hadoop service instances before November 7, 2018.
At the time, IBM said it would fully integrate the Hortonworks Data Platform with its Data Science Experience and machine learning platforms, and migrate BigInsights users to HDP.
In the announcement of BigInsights’ retirement, Big Blue said users should move their applications to its IBM Analytics Engine, which was launched in beta in September and uses HDP as its underlying Hadoop distribution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Amazon’s AWS S3 adds five new tools, including default encryption and warnings about unencrypted files, to prevent data leaks
New tools help could help prevent Amazon S3 data leaks
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/07/new-tools-help-could-help-prevent-amazon-s3-data-leaks/
If you do a search for Amazon S3 breaches due to customer error of leaving the data unencrypted, you’ll see a long list that includes a DoD contractor, Verizon (the owner of this publication) and Accenture, among the more high profile examples. Today, AWS announced a new set of five tools designed to protect customers from themselves and ensure (to the extent possible) that the data in S3 is encrypted and safe.
For starters, the company is giving the option of default encryption. That means every object that gets moved into an S3 bucket will have encryption on by default. What’s more, this will happen without admins having to construct a rejected bucket for unencrypted files. It’s not exactly foolproof, but it gives admins a good solid way to ensure the data is always encrypted in a much smoother way than before.
If that’s not enough, Amazon is putting a signal front and center on the administrative console that warns admins with a prominent indicator next to each S3 bucket that has been left open to the public. If something slips through the cracks at the end user level, this should at least give admins an additional level of protection that something is amiss.
Access Control Lists (ACLs) let admins define and manage who has access to buckets and objects in S3. It’s basically ensuring that permissions travel with the data when you move it, but the update now also lets you share ownership of the bucket in transit, which would be useful for giving the admin in the other region control over the bucket too. This provides a way to share ownership, yet maintain separate and distinct ownership for the original objects and the replicas.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Want to provision a new VM on Azure? Get in line
UK West and South regions suffering from capacity issues
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/09/azure_vm_issues_uk_west_south/
Multiple Microsoft customers have for the past nineteen hours been unable to provision new virtual machines in Azure’s UK West and UK South regions.
Although there has been no formal notification on the Azure status page, The Register has seen a copy of a Microsoft issue summary report indicating issues since Wednesday morning.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DivvyCloud Platform for VMware Cloud on AWS
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/divvycloud-platform-vmware-cloud-aws
DivvyCloud’s unique niche in the IT ecosystem is helping organizations automate and manage their multi-cloud infrastructure at scale. The latest innovation from the company is the DivvyCloud Platform for VMware Cloud on AWS, a solution enabling consistent policy enforcement and automation of cloud best practices to customers of VMware Cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
VMware Cloud on AWS unites VMware’s enterprise-class Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) software together with the elastic, bare-metal infrastructure from AWS, which results in a consistent operating model and application mobility for the private and public cloud.
https://divvycloud.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM makes 20 qubit quantum computing machine available as a cloud service
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/10/ibm-passes-major-milestone-with-20-and-50-qubit-quantum-computers-as-a-service/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
IBM has been offering quantum computing as a cloud service since last year when it came out with a 5 qubit version of the advanced computers. Today, the company announced that it’s releasing 20-qubit quantum computers, quite a leap in just 18 months. A qubit is a single unit of quantum information.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jonathan Albright / Berkman Klein Center Collection:
Analysis: propaganda memes from Russia’s Internet Research Agency were more impactful on Instagram than Twitter due to reposting apps, Facebook’s ad targeting
Instagram, Meme Seeding, and the Truth about Facebook Manipulation, Pt. 1
https://medium.com/berkman-klein-center/instagram-meme-seeding-and-the-truth-about-facebook-manipulation-pt-1-dae4d0b61db5
The last couple of weeks have brought us the first new major revelations about the reach and scope of the IRA media influence campaign. Yet the most important development about the ongoing Facebook investigation isn’t the tenfold increase in the company’s updated estimate of the organic reach of “ads” on its platform.
While the estimate increasing the reach of IRA content from 10 million people to 126 million people is surely a leap, after last week’s testimony, the real question we should be asking is: how did we suddenly arrive at 150 million?
The answer is Instagram.
First, the full profile analytics, post “like’ history and comment statistics, and the complete content — including text, dates and original URLs — for a sample of Instagram posts from 28 of the 170 removed accounts. These posts accounted for 2.5 million recorded interactions (not estimated “shares”) and 145 million projected total interactions based on Socialblade, Klear, and Keyhole influencer data.
Second, I collected historical Crowdtangle intelligence for two now-closed Instagram profiles with nearly 10.5 million interactions (comments +likes)
My conclusion: Instagram is a major distributor and re-distributor of IRA propaganda that’s at the very least on par with Twitter. In my opinion, the platform is far more impactful than Twitter for content-based “meme” engagement — especially for certain minority segments of the American population.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AWS sells local Chinese infrastructure to local partner Sinnet
Bezos’ cut price bit barns sell to comply with local laws
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/14/aws_quits_china/
Amazon Web Services has sold some of its infrastructure in China.
Financial newswires report that AWS’ local partner, Beijing Sinnet, has acquired Amazon’s local operations for about US$300m, with news of the deal appearing as a filing on the Shenzen Stock Exchange on Monday.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Supercomputers in the Cloud Erode another Case for Owning Data Centers
Critical Thinking: With HPC stalwarts such as Cray now embracing cloud, on-premises compute is becoming harder to justify.
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/supercomputers/supercomputers-cloud-erode-another-case-owning-data-centers
It’s an accepted trend that enterprise-owned facilities are shrinking as a percentage of total data center capacity. Colocation and cloud account for an increasing proportion of workloads, with more than one-third expected to be in the public cloud by 2019, according to 451 Research.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AWS isn’t exiting China, but Amazon did sell physical assets to comply with Chinese law
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/13/aws-exits-china/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Amazon has denied reports that it is withdrawing its AWS business from China, but the firm did admit that it has been forced to sell some physical assets to its local partner.
Here’s the company’s statement in full:
No, AWS did not sell its business in China and remains fully committed to ensuring Chinese customers continue to receive AWS’s industry leading cloud services. Chinese law forbids non-Chinese companies from owning or operating certain technology for the provision of cloud services. As a result, in order to comply with Chinese law, AWS sold certain physical infrastructure assets to Sinnet, its longtime Chinese partner and AWS seller-of-record for its AWS China (Beijing) Region.
Tomi Engdahl says:
When should you turn to open source cloud?
http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/cloud-essentials/public-cloud/7044/when-should-you-turn-to-open-source-cloud
Proprietary cloud proliferates, but open source is often the better option
It seems that not a day passes without news of a big win for AWS or Azure, raising the prospect that open source cloud efforts are paling into insignificance; but are they?
According to Al Sadowski, research VP of Infrastructure at 451 Research, there’s been no slowdown in open source, generally speaking.
“Cloud Foundry is the standard-bearer for open source PaaS and Kubernetes for container management. NGINX is an open source load balancer that powers over 60% of the top 10,000 websites; AWS use it too. OpenStack is the de facto choice for an open source private cloud,” he says.
But Sadowski adds that when it comes to market size, AWS’ revenue is greater than the next 200+ service providers combined.
“It’s a runaway success by many measurements,” he says. “Everyone at AWS is rowing in the same direction in terms of product roadmap and development priorities. With open source, and namely OpenStack, this isn’t the case and some projects, like Neutron (networking), have suffered. Instead of trying to reinvent things like PaaS, container management and SDN, the OpenStack community was smart to change direction and instead embrace Cloud Foundry, Kubernetes, and OPNFV.”
According to Paul Miller, senior analyst at Forrester, open source components are a key piece of any credible hyperscale cloud platform.
“100% open source cloud projects, like OpenStack, have achieved significant traction in a number of areas,” he says. Miller adds that OpenStack, for example, is used by most large telecoms companies as a key part of their network modernisation initiatives.
“OpenStack has also seen some success in the private cloud world,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Krazit / GeekWire:
AWS releases ONNX-MXNet, giving its support to the Open Neural Network Exchange introduced by Microsoft and Facebook earlier this year — The Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) deep-learning format, introduced in September by Microsoft and Facebook, has a new backer following Amazon Web Services’ decision …
Amazon Web Services backs deep-learning format introduced by Microsoft and Facebook
https://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon-web-services-backs-deep-learning-format-introduced-microsoft-facebook/
he Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) deep-learning format, introduced in September by Microsoft and Facebook, has a new backer following Amazon Web Services’ decision to embrace the framework with a new open-source project.
AWS released ONNX-MXNet Thursday afternoon, which sounds like a telecom standard from the 1990s but is actually a method for allowing deep learning models built around the ONNX format to run on the Apache MXNet framework. In supporting ONNX, envisioned as a standard way to build deep learning models, the cloud computing leader gives a significant stamp of approval to the concept of open data models.
Advanced research into deep learning is a relatively new field, even though we’ve been talking about it for several years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
There are three models of cloud computing
services that tech companies may offer. These three types are called “Infrastructure as a
Service” (IaaS), “Platform as a Service” (PaaS) and “Software as a Service” (SaaS)
The most basic service provision, IaaS is the foundation on which one builds a platform or
software. Generally, other tech companies want this option because they need computing
power but didn’t want hardware maintenance or implementation. I
In terms of security, IaaS offers the greatest potential for personalized, maximum
protection. However, it takes the greatest effort to secure because owners, as opposed to
server hosts, are liable for the data’s safety or breaches.
PaaS has an infrastructure that can be customized with applications made with coding
languages like Python or Ruby on Rails. Everything else, including security and databases,
is managed by the provider. Generally, PaaS products carry applications designed
and engineered by the user for the user. F
Software as a Service
The largest cloud market, SaaS delivers “turn-key” clouds, complete with applications and
software. Users have unique logins but share the service with other clients. All technical
and infrastructure issues are managed by the developer or host. Examples of this type
of cloud computing include iCloud, Google Drive, Netflix and SalesForce. New products
include remote monitoring, like the Sealevel SeaCloud SaaS. These innovative projects
are tied in with IoT and IIoT technology, employing relay commands and smart home
networks.
The most attractive cloud computing model for most individuals and non-technical
projects, SaaS offers a hands-off, low-maintenance subscription. However, with these
programs’ popularity, they can be vulnerable to security breaches.
Source:
http://www.sealevel.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Sealevel-Systems-White-Paper-Cloud-Computing-SL9286-H17.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Video Forecast: Fair to Partly Cloud-y
http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2017/11/video-forecast-fair-to-partly-cloud-y.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-11-21
To keep up with the fast-paced speed of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and other over-the-top (OTT) video providers, who move in the world of the cloud, cable operators are working on transforming to help speed up innovation and change. At a panel discussion during last month’s Cable-Tec Expo, the consensus seemed to be that to move forward there will be a necessary mix of private vs. public cloud, a combo of being cloud-agnostic in one sense and in another exclusive, and there is compelling reason to investigate “edge cloud.”
“When competitors are using this resource the way it was intended to be used and are getting great benefit, (operators) have to join and keep the playing field level in terms of the technology they are using,” said Matt Haines, fellow, IBB Consulting.
The comfort with using the public cloud is rising among the operator set, in part due to cultural acceptance. While initially they were reticent after hosting their own datacenters for many years, they are growing more at ease with the security and reliability of the public cloud.
“Public cloud providers have innovated at an incredibly fast rate,” Haines said. “The fact is that today the technology and services that are available at scale … are exceeding the capabilities that private cloud platforms can provide.”
For example, the type of artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics a company like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) or Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) may provide are easy to use, but complicated to build, Haines said. “The cloud companies have invested to build in a safe and scalable way to allow companies to come in and use (the services).”
Operators also are growing more comfortable with the idea that while they want to be cloud-agnostic as a company (meaning they can use more than one provider), sometimes at the application level it is more useful to stick with one specific cloud provider.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon CloudFront adds six Edge Locations and expands into four new cities
https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2017/11/cloudfront-adds-six-new-edge-locations/?sc_channel=sm&sc_campaign=launch_&sc_publisher=TWITTER&sc_country=Global&sc_geo=GLOBAL&sc_outcome=awareness&trk=_TWITTER&sc_content=CloudFront_21fb427f_Launch_PoP_Helsinki&sc_category=Amazon_CloudFront&linkId=45057702
Today, Amazon CloudFront announces the addition of six new Edge Locations to its global content delivery network. The new Edge Locations are located in: Helsinki, Finland; Madrid, Spain; Manchester, England; Denver, Colorado; Newark, New Jersey; and Phoenix, Arizona.
Four of these Edge Locations (Helsinki, Manchester, Denver, and Phoenix) introduce new cities to CloudFront’s network and each of the six Edge Locations provide additional capacity within their region.
https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/details/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blair Hanley Frank / VentureBeat:
Amazon’s AWS updates its Rekognition service to detect and recognize text within images, perform real-time face searches, and more
Amazon Web Services’ computer vision gets real-time face recognition
https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/21/amazon-web-services-computer-vision-gets-real-time-face-recognition/
Tomi Engdahl says:
AWS launches bare metal instances
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/28/aws-launches-bare-metal-instances/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing division, today announced its long-awaited bare metal instances for its EC2 service.
With bare metal, you get direct access to the hardware and access to virtually 100 percent of the hardware’s resources without any major overhead. They also allow AWS users to run their own virtualization stacks, which also gives them more control over their cloud servers. In addition, though, this now also opens up EC2 to applications that users couldn’t previously license for virtualized environment or couldn’t get support for.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Time-Warner’s Turner opts for AWS as its preferred cloud provider
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/28/time-warners-turner-opts-for-aws-as-its-preferred-cloud-provider/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
All of the hyper-scale cloud providers love to tout their new customer acquisitions: Google talking about Spotify; Microsoft signing up various Adobe services for Azure; or AWS working with the likes of GE. That’s a sign of how competitive this market is, despite AWS’s continuing market share leadership.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon introduces an AWS graph database service called Amazon Neptune
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/29/amazon-introduces-an-aws-graph-database-service-called-amazon-neptune/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
company just announced a brand new database service. Amazon Neptune has been specifically designed for relationship graphs. So if you’re thinking about building a social network feature, Neptune can help you.
The issue with traditional relational databases is that they’re not made for complex social graphs with complicated lists of friends and followers. By default, you have to run demanding database queries to list the friends you have in common for instance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AWS launches new partner programs for networking and machine learning specialists
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/28/aws-launches-new-partner-programs-for-networking-and-machine-learning-specialists/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Amazon’s AWS cloud computing division is launching a number of new programs for its partner ecosystem today. These include a new networking competency program for companies that focus on advanced networking features, as well as the new AWS Machine Learning Partner Solutions program that highlights partners that have demonstrated expertise in (can you guess it?) running machine learning workloads on AWS.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finland is also now directly accessible to the Amazonian Cloud
Datacenter Equinix expands its collaboration with Amazon Web Services. Now Equinix’s Finnish customers have access to AWS Direct Connect directly from Helsinki.
Amazon’s cloud infrastructure is available from Equinix data centers in Helsinki, Madrid, Manchester and Toronto. The service is now available globally in 21 Equinix operating areas.
Of course, AWS services can be accessed through the public web, but the direct link is new. “Previously, access to AWS was either via the public net, or you had to have a particular connection to one of the AWS access points in Frankfurt and London,” says Sami Holopainen, Managing Director of Equinix Finland.
Businesses increasingly want to bypass the congested public Internet and take direct private access to strategically important cloud service providers. The goal is not only to reduce costs but also to improve the performance and stability of network connections.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/7253-suomestakin-paasee-nyt-suoraan-amazonin-pilveen
Tomi Engdahl says:
AWS Launches New Cybersecurity Services
http://www.securityweek.com/aws-launches-new-cybersecurity-services
Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced this week at its AWS re:Invent conference the launch of several new cybersecurity services, including for threat detection, IoT security, and secure communications for Virtual Private Cloud.
Amazon GuardDuty
One of the new products is Amazon GuardDuty, an intelligent threat detection service that helps customers protect their AWS accounts and workloads by continuously looking for unauthorized and malicious activity.
Amazon GuardDuty, which can be enabled from the AWS Management Console, creates a baseline for normal account activity, and uses machine learning to identify any irregular behavior. If suspicious activity is detected, the AWS account owner is immediately notified.
The new service obtains threat intelligence from both AWS itself and third-party sources such as CrowdStrike and Proofpoint, it does not require any new hardware or software, and it can be integrated with products from Alert Logic, Evident.io, Palo Alto Networks, RedLock, Rapid7, Sumo Logic, Splunk and Trend Micro.
Another new product launched this week is AWS PrivateLink, a managed service that allows developers to securely access third-party SaaS applications from their Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).
A majority of Amazon EC2 cloud instances run in VPCs these days, but using third-party SaaS applications can introduce security risks.
IoT Services
AWS also announced the launch of several new services designed for managing, protecting and monitoring Internet of Things (IoT) devices. These are AWS IoT 1-Click, IoT Device Management, IoT Device Defender, IoT Analytics, Amazon FreeRTOS, and Greengrass ML Inference.
Three of the new IoT services help improve security. AWS IoT Device Management, which is available immediately, allows organizations to securely onboard, manage and monitor IoT devices, including to apply patches and software updates.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blair Hanley Frank / VentureBeat:
AWS Cloud9 collaborative cloud-and-browser-based IDE launches, pre-packaged with popular programming languages, based on open source Ace Editor and c9.io IDE
AWS relaunches Cloud9 collaborative development environment, a year after acquisition
https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/30/aws-relaunches-cloud9-collaborative-development-environment-a-year-after-acquisition/
Amazon Web Services launched a new service today that’s designed to provide developers with a full development environment running in its cloud. Called AWS Cloud9, it’s designed to give developers a collaborative workspace for writing code and running the terminal commands necessary to create and deploy software.
Using AWS Cloud9, developers will be able to provide read-only or read and write access to their workspace for other collaborators, who will then be able to concurrently edit code and chat about changes they’re making. The software integrates with AWS Lambda, the cloud provider’s service for running short, event-driven code functions, as well.
Live collaboration is important for the practice of pair programming, when two people work together to write code and smash bugs.
Live collaboration has become a key feature for developer tool companies over the past several months. Microsoft announced live collaboration for its Visual Studio development environment a few weeks ago, while GitHub recently announced a new feature for its Atom text editor that provides co-editing capabilities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Eugene Kim / CNBC:
Google Cloud announces that the former head of Intel’s data center group, Diane Bryant, will join the division as its COO — Diane Bryant is joining Google Cloud as its new Chief Operating Officer. — Google Cloud boss Diane Greene made the announcement through a blog post on Thursday.
Former Intel data center boss Diane Bryant joins Google Cloud as new COO
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/30/former-intel-data-center-boss-diane-bryant-joins-google-cloud-as-new-coo.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Amazon announces Alexa for Business, with launch partners who have developed skills for business customers, and a new marketplace for business apps
Amazon officially unveils Alexa for Business
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/30/amazon-officially-unveils-alexa-for-business.html
Alexa for Business includes management tools and new integrations with enterprise software.
Administrators can also provide private skills to employees.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
At re:Invent, AWS pitched its vision to be the platform developers use to build machine learning, data management, and artificial intelligence applications — It’s time to stop thinking of Amazon Web Services as an infrastructure company as it moves up the stack and value chain to technologies …
Re:Invent 2017: AWS all about capturing data flows via AI, Alexa, database, IoT cloud services
http://www.zdnet.com/article/reinvent-2017-aws-all-about-capturing-data-flows-via-ai-alexa-database-iot-cloud-services/
It’s time to stop thinking of Amazon Web Services as an infrastructure company as it moves up the stack and value chain to technologies such as artificial intelligence, IoT and Alexa for Business.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AWS announces a serverless database service
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/29/aws-announces-a-serverless-database-service/
Amazon’s AWS cloud computing division today announced a new database service that will make it easier and cheaper to quickly launch relational databases that don’t need to process data continuously. Aurora Serverless, which, unsurprisingly, was built on top of AWS’s existing Aurora database system, is basically the database equivalent of a serverless, event-driven compute platform.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AWS kept the announcements coming at a frenetic pace this week
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/02/aws-kept-the-announcements-coming-at-a-frenetic-pace-this-week/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
To give you a sense of the breadth of coverage, we had 25 stories on TechCrunch this week just related to this event — and we didn’t cover everything by any means. It certainly shows that in spite of its commanding lead in the infrastructure market, AWS has no intention of sitting still and waiting for the competition to catch up.
As the Seattle Times put it, Amazon unveils new cloud services at the pace of a startup
Tomi Engdahl says:
AWS has a post re:Invent surprise as it enters the single sign-on market
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/08/aws-has-a-post-reinvent-surprise-as-it-enters-the-single-sign-on-market/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
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AWS has a post re:Invent surprise as it enters the single sign-on market
Posted 12 minutes ago by Ron Miller (@ron_miller)
Steve Jobs used to famously end his keynotes with “there is one more thing…” AWS decided to wait a week after their re:Invent conference ended to announce their more thing when it quietly released a single sign on product for the AWS cloud yesterday.
While the announcement was pretty thin on details, it appears to be focused solely on providing single sign on for the AWS family of products. “With AWS SSO, you can easily manage SSO access and user permissions to all of your accounts in AWS Organizations centrally,” AWS explained in the announcement. That’s very different from what other single sign on products like Okta or OneLogin are doing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hyperscaling The Data Center
https://semiengineering.com/hyperscaling-the-data-center/
The enterprise no longer is at the center of the IT universe. An extreme economic shift has chipmakers focused on hyperscale clouds.
Enterprise data centers increasingly will look and behave more like slimmed-down versions of hyperscale data centers as chipmakers and other suppliers adapt systems developed for their biggest customers to in-house IT faciilities.
The new chips and infrastructure that will serve as building blocks in these facilities will be more power-efficient, make better use of space and generate less heat. They also will be capable of managing enormous and unpredictable data streams, and they will integrate more easily with cloud platforms that have become part of nearly every organization’s extended IT infrastructure.
Google announced last March, for example, that it had spent $30 billion during the previous three years to expand its network of data centers beyond the 15 it already built to support its consumer-services business. Microsoft and Amazon each spend more than $10 billion per year on data center infrastructure, as well.
That’s not all bad, however. Cloud infrastructure, whether private or public, is viewed as the best approach for dealing with huge and growing amounts of data, as well as fluctuations and inconsistencies in that volume.
“The increasing dominance of hyperscale players continues to play out, with all four leading companies having cause to celebrate,” Synergy analyst John Dinsdale wrote in a July report. That report detailed dramatic ongoing growth and an increasing concentration of market share among the cloud leaders.
Looked at from another angle, spending on traditional data center infrastructure dropped 18% between 2015 and 2017, while spending on infrastructure products for the public cloud rose 35%, according to a September report from Synergy Research Group.
Announcing the New AWS Secret Region
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicsector/announcing-the-new-aws-secret-region/
We are pleased to announce the new AWS Secret Region. The AWS Secret Region can operate workloads up to the Secret U.S. security classification level. The AWS Secret Region is readily available to the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) through the IC’s Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) contract with AWS. The AWS Secret Region also will be available to non-IC U.S. Government customers with appropriate Secret-level network access and their own contract vehicles for use of the AWS Secret Region. These contract vehicles will not be part of the IC’s C2S contract.
With the launch of this new Secret Region, AWS becomes the first and only commercial cloud provider to offer regions to serve government workloads across the full range of data classifications, including Unclassified, Sensitive, Secret, and Top Secret. By using the cloud, the U.S. Government is better able to deliver necessary information and data to mission stakeholders.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AWS showed no signs of slowing down in 2017
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/28/aws-showed-no-signs-of-slowing-down-in-2017/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
AWS showed no signs of slowing down in 2017
Posted 20 hours ago by Ron Miller (@ron_miller)
AWS had a successful year by any measure. The company continued to behave like a startup with the kind of energy and momentum to invest in new areas not usually seen in an incumbent with a significant marketshare lead.
How good a year was it? According to numbers from Synergy Research, the company remains the category leader by far with around 35 percent marketshare. Microsoft sits well behind in second place with around 11 percent. Yet AWS showed growth every quarter with an overall growth rate of over 40 percent, fairly remarkable when you consider that it is operating from a large marketshare position
Tomi Engdahl says:
8 resources for understanding the open source cloud in 2017
https://opensource.com/article/17/12/cloud-2017?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
2017 was a big year for open source cloud computing tools. Here’s a look back at some of the most important things you may have missed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Data center mergers, acquisitions totaled $20 billion in 2017
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2018/01/report-data-center-mergers-acquisitions-totaled-20-billion-in-2017.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-01-16&pwhid=e8db06ed14609698465f1047e5984b63cb4378bd1778b17304d68673fe5cbd2798aa8300d050a73d96d04d9ea94e73adc417b4d6e8392599eabc952675516bc0&eid=293591077&bid=1974690
The past year saw some of the biggest data center deals on record. From Digital Realty’s acquisition of DuPont Fabros for $7.6 billion, to Equinix’s purchase of 29 data centers from Verizon, a plethora of facilities changed ownership. As a result, major merger and acquisition transactions involving data center operators reached a total of $20 billion in 2017,
Synergy: Data center mergers, acquisitions totaled $20bn in 2017
http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/content-tracks/design-build/synergy-data-center-mergers-acquisitions-totaled-20bn-in-2017/99532.article
Digital Realty and Equinix are the big spenders
Past year saw some of the biggest data center deals on record: from Digital Realty’s acquisition of DuPont Fabros for $7.6 billion to Equinix’s purchase of 29 data centers from Verizon, plenty of facilities changed ownership.
As a result, major merger and acquisition transactions involving data center operators reached a total of $20 billion in 2017, according to Synergy Research. The number is higher than the total for both 2015 and 2016 combined.
Researchers state that on average through 2017, there was almost one significant M&A deal closed every week.
“That shift is driving huge growth in outsourcing, whether it is via cloud services, or use of colocation facilities, or sale and leaseback of data centers.”
alexander says:
gartner iaas 2018
Google Cloud Platform has made Gartner’s cut to be seen as a leader in infrastructure as a service in the research firm’s Magic Quadrant.
In the 2018 Magic Quadrant for infrastructure as a service, Gartner narrowed the field dramatically to six vendors: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba Cloud, Oracle and IBM.
alexander says:
gartner iaas 2018
Google Cloud Platform has made Gartner’s cut to be seen as a leader in infrastructure as a service in the research firm’s Magic Quadrant.
In the 2018 Magic Quadrant for infrastructure as a service, Gartner narrowed the field dramatically to six vendors: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba Cloud, Oracle and IBM.
alexander says:
gartner iaas 2018
Google Cloud Platform has made Gartner’s cut to be seen as a leader in infrastructure as a service in the research firm’s Magic Quadrant.
In the 2018 Magic Quadrant for infrastructure as a service, Gartner narrowed the field dramatically to six vendors: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba Cloud, Oracle and IBM.