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I was recently invited to talk to a group of IT professionals on the theme of trends in cloud computing. Thinking about the brief and my experiences working in the field for the past few years, my talk centered on five major trends and signs of changes that I’m seeing on a day-to-day basis:
1. Advice to adoption
This is a trend I’ve already written about here. Essentially, enterprise focus has shifted from how to transform workloads to take advantage of cloud to how to truly adopt cloud throughout the business.
2. Low-hanging fruit to the upper branches
Cloud is no exception to the mantra “start simple.” Accordingly, many organizations have transformed their simplest workloads to the cloud and are reaping the benefits that cloud offers.
The next logical step is to tackle harder workloads with a lower cloud affinity, having learned from earlier achievements. Of course, that takes work. For example, some systems may need to be redeployed onto commodity hardware and operating systems from more niche platforms. This may require some application rework, but this is tending to come at a time when some kind of remediation work is required in any case.
3. DIY to SaaS
Not long ago, organizations were investing money in developing their own systems for every part of their business, but as businesses move their mindset from owning everything to using commodity services, there are three types of systems coming to the fore:

Foundation systems needed to run any business, such as HR applications, accounting systems and word processing applications
Competing Systems particular to an industry, such as supply chain applications, which are necessary to compete in the market
Systems of innovation and differentiation needed to compete and win with customers; typically systems of engagement

Organizations are looking for pure software as a service (SaaS) for foundation systems. They want a mix of customizable SaaS and managed service using a cloud delivery model for competing systems. Internal development teams and partners such as IBM are concentrating on developing systems of innovation and differentiation, using platforms such as IBM Bluemix.
This allows enterprises to concentrate on delivering fast-to-market applications that meet the needs of their customers and reach new ones.
4. Monoliths to containers and microservices
In the pre-cloud era, the systems organizations implemented tended to be monoliths, doing lots of different and sometimes quite separate work. They’d often take a long time to implement, which carried the risk of not quite being fit for their intended purpose by the time they were up and running. Once they were in, they took a lot of maintaining, and a simple change could result in copious testing and a nerve-racking change release process.
Microservices developed using technology such as OpenWhisk are flipping that model on its head. Instead of having one single application that does everything, a microservice does one thing well. A business process might be completed by one or more microservices, and business services might share microservices too.
They’re typically between a few lines to a couple of hundred lines of code each, so writing them is much faster and maintenance is simplified. If a microservice is changed, only that changed service needs to be tested rather than the entire end-to-end process.
It’ll be interesting to see if the IT industry starts to monetize microservices and create a microservices economy in a similar vein to the API economy. After all, they operate on a pay-per-execution basis.
Similarly, organizations are looking to containers as a way to create application portability, mass scalability and, where appropriate, drive down costs through pay-per-execution models.
5. Single supplier to hybrid
A few short years ago, organisations were largely dedicated to a single supplier, but I’m now seeing them taking multi-cloud approach. This is in part because of a realization that not all clouds are equal and some workloads are better suited to different clouds.
This leads to some challenges, two of which are placement decision-making and direct connectivity between cloud providers to enable low-latency data transfer between applications hosted in different cloud environments. Decision-making around workload placement is being addressed by brokerage tools, IBM cloudMatrix being a notable example, while providing more direct connectivity between suppliers is problem that is being tackled at the organizational level for now.
What’s next?
The next major trend for my money is going to be in cognitive services, such as those which are already available from IBM Watson via IBM Bluemix. From intelligent chatbots to helping diagnose cancers and developing cures, developers will be enriching their applications with cognitive services so that they not only get a job done, but they can also support everyday decision-making and actions.
Learn more about IBM Bluemix.
The post 5 ongoing changes in the world of cloud appeared first on Cloud computing news.
Quelle: Thoughts on Cloud

27. Juni 2017

da Agency

OpenStack Down Under – OpenStack Days Australia 2017

As OpenStack continues to grow and thrive around the world the OpenStack Foundation continues to bring OpenStack events to all corners of the globe. From community run meetups to more high-profile events like the larger Summits there is probably an OpenStack event going on somewhere near you.
One of the increasingly popular events is the OpenStack Days series. OpenStack Days are regionally focussed events sponsored by local user groups and businesses in the OpenStack universe. The are intended to be formal events with a detailed structure, keynotes and sponsorship.
This year’s OpenStack Days – Australia was held June 1st in Melbourne, Australia and Red Hat was proud to be a sponsor with speakers in multiple tracks!

Keynotes
Despite being a chilly Melbourne winter’s day there was an excellent turnout. Keynotes featured OpenStack Foundation Executive Director Jonathan Bryce presenting a recap of the recent Boston Summit and overall state of OpenStack. He was joined by Heidi Joy Tretheway, Senior Marketing Manager for the OpenStack Foundation, who presented OpenStack User Survey results (you can even mine the data for yourself). Local community leaders also presented, sharing their excitement for the upcoming Sydney Summit, introducing a pre-summit Hackathon and sharing ideas to help get OpenStack into college curriculum.

Just in: The latest OpenStack User Survey has just begun! Get your OpenStack Login ready and contribute today!

Are you running an #OpenStack cloud? Share your feedback, technology choices in the 10th OpenStack User Survey: https://t.co/Ysizr1yTNb
— OpenStack (@OpenStack) June 26, 2017

Red Hatters Down Under
Red Hatters in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) are a busy bunch, but we were lucky enough to have had two exceptional Red Hat delivered presentations on the day.
Andrew Hatfield, Practice Lead – Cloud Storage and Big Data

The first, from Practice Lead Andrew Hatfield, kicked off the day’s Technical Track to an overflowing room. Andrew’s session, entitled “Hyperconverged Cloud – not just a toy anymore” introduced the technical audience to the idea of OpenStack infrastructure being co-located with Ceph storage on the same nodes. He discussed how combining services, such as Ceph OSD’s onto Nova computes, is fully ready for production workloads in Red Hat OpenStack Platform Version 11. Andrew pointed out how hyperconvergence, when matched properly to workload, can result in both intelligent resource utilisation and cost savings. For industries such as Telco this is an important step forward for both NFV deployments and Edge computing, where a small footprint and highly tuned workloads are required.
Peter Jung, Business Development Executive | Cloud Transformation

In our second session of the day, Red Hat Business Development Executive Peter Jung presented “OpenStack and Red Hat: How we learned to adapt with our customers in a maturing market.” Peter discussed how Red Hat’s OpenStack journey has evolved over the last few years. With the release of Red Hat OpenStack Platform 7 a few short years ago and its introduction of the deployment lifecycle tool, Red Hat OpenStack Platform director, Red Hat has worked hard to solve real-world user issues around deployment and lifecycle management. Peter’s session covered a range of topics and customer examples, further demonstrating how Red Hat continues to evolve with the maturing OpenStack market.
Community led!
Other sessions on the day covered a wide range of topics across the three tracks providing something for everyone. From an amazing talk in the “Innovation Track” by David Perry of The University of Melbourne around running containers on HPC (with live demo!) to a cheeky “Technical Track” talk by Alexander Tsirel of Hivetec on creating a billing system running on OpenStack, the range, and depth, of the content was second to none. ANZ and Stackers really are a dynamic and exciting bunch! The day ended with an interesting panel covering topics ranging from the complexities of upgrading to the importance of diversity.
Keep an eye on OpenStack Australia’s video channel for session videos! And check out previous event videos from Canberra and Sydney for more OpenStack Down Under!
Of course, I’d be remiss if I were to not mention one of the most talked about non-OpenStack items of the day: The Donut Wall. Just have to see it to believe it, and here it is:

The donut wall is up!! Come chat to the @OpenStack foundation and get your sugar fix #OpenStackAU pic.twitter.com/a8M8RSuYpn
— OpenStack Australia (@OpenStackAU) June 1, 2017

A big success Down Under
The day was a resounding success and the principal organisers, Aptira and the OpenStack Foundation, continue to do an exceptional job to keep the OpenStack presence strong in the ANZ region. We at Red Hat are proud and excited to continue to work with the businesses and community that make OpenStack in Australia and New Zealand amazing and are extremely excited to be the host region for the next OpenStack Summit, being held in Sydney November 6-8, 2017. Can’t wait to see you there!

Want to find out how Red Hat can help you plan, implement and run your OpenStack environment? Join Red Hat Architects Dave Costakos and Julio Villarreal Pelegrino in “Don’t fail at scale: How to plan, build, and operate a successful OpenStack cloud” today.
Use OpenStack every day? Want to know more about how the experts run their clouds? Check out the Operationalising OpenStack series for real-world tips, tricks and stories from OpenStack experts just like you!
Quelle: RedHat Stack

26. Juni 2017

da Agency

What’s new with App Connect

At IBM, we’ve been busy advancing App Connect to enable business and technical users to achieve more. In this first installment of our new blog series on App Connect, I will highlight some of the new capabilities and detail our exciting new partnership with Salesforce.
Multi-action flows
Many business users are looking to integrate and automate data flow between their applications. App Connect now allows you to create multi-action and complex logic-based data flows. You can take action on multiple applications in response to a single trigger or build a flow which contains different branches to run based upon your predefined conditions.

Furthermore, you can keep your data in sync using the update actions that are now available. You will always get an up-to-date view of the information in your applications.
Let’s say I’m a marketer using Salesforce and I’ve just developed a new lead in Marketo from a campaign I’ve been running. I want to check if this lead already exists as a contact in my Salesforce CRM application. If it doesn’t, I want to create a new entry. But if it does exist, I want to update the existing entry with the new information captured by the campaign. With App Connect, this is now a faster, more straightforward process.
SaaS Application Connectivity
App Connect now connects to even more popular applications, including SurveyMonkey, Dropbox, Coupa and Magento. To help out users working in technical roles, we’ve also added smart connections to SAP, IBM MessageHub and ServiceNow.
There are many ways App Connect can simplify your workflow. Add a subscriber to your Mailchimp list every time you get a new Salesforce contact. Add a ServiceNow ticket for a new Wufoo form entry. You can use these connectors to integrate across your organization, accelerating processes, driving efficiency and ensuring data is consistent and accurate across applications.
Create flows as APIs
For more technical needs, users can now create flows as APIs using a model-driven, code-free approach. This powerful new feature simplifies and accelerates the process of exposing flows. You can integrate complex enterprise systems as representational state transfer (REST) APIs which can be socialized with and consumed by developers quickly and easily.

Unlock the power of Salesforce with IBM App Connect
Earlier this year, IBM and Salesforce announced a strategic partnership to design and deliver joint solutions that leverage the power of their respective AI platforms. Organizations increasingly look to software as a service (SaaS) applications like Salesforce to deliver innovative and scalable solutions for their business requirements. The need for an integration solution that connects SaaS apps to other applications and data becomes ever more necessary.
With App Connect, users can integrate and manage critical data as it moves between the Salesforce platform and existing company systems, on premises and in the cloud. App Connect provides powerful tools to build integrations that expose enterprise systems which are easily consumable with Salesforce Connect. And developers working with lines of business can use these integrations to build employee-facing Lightning applications.
For more information about IBM Cloud Integration for Salesforce, click here.
Stay tuned for more blog posts on App Connect and how it can strengthen your business. For the latest information about IBM App Connect, you can head over to our website or follow us on Twitter.
The post What’s new with App Connect appeared first on Cloud computing news.
Quelle: Thoughts on Cloud

26. Juni 2017

da Agency

Sodexo conquers asset management challenges with IBM SaaS solution

The decision to move to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model is often driven by a number of different goals, including reducing fixed costs, meeting client demand for data localization, putting a scalable solution in place, developing a licensing structure that matches usage patterns and gaining the ability to deploy new functionalities rapidly.
Business leaders at Sodexo, a French food services and facilities management company headquartered in Paris, had those goals in mind. With 75 million customers and 425,000 employees daily across 80 countries on five continents, the volume of services required to maintain Sodexo’s operations is massive.
To put this into context, within one building, the company’s services can range from the basement to the front desk/reception area to groundskeeping to employee child care to the cafeteria. The services go all the way up through the floors of the building, including cleaning and maintenance services.

Range of asset and facilities management services provided by Sodexo
Simpler, more cost-efficient asset management
With 24,000 buildings to manage and an incredible disparity in client facilities — offices, hospitals, research centers, schools, factories, and so on — it had become a cumbersome task to manage everything. There were more than 1.2 million assets, 7,000 technical users, and 100,000 self-service portals for clients to request services. These services require an extensive asset management solution to improve visibility into operations to help manage costs and resources.
With its current infrastructure solution hosted in North America, Sodexo could not meet increasing client needs for data localization requirements, in particular from clients in the European Union (EU) facing new standards presented in the European Legal Data Framework.
The solution the company was using at the time was incurring large fixed costs with limited flexibility or agility. Managing growth required scalability. Sodexo wanted to move to a “concurrent licensing” usage pattern as its current “named user” license was proving to be an ineffective use of resources.
Ultimately, the company wanted to maintain the integrity of the core solution while solving for regional data localization, optimizing the licensing structure and cutting costs.
When Sodexo’s leaders identified these critical pain points, they determined that they could be addressed by moving to a SaaS environment.
Choosing IBM Maximo SaaS
With these challenges in mind, Sodexo worked with IBM to migrate 1.2 million assets to the cloud. Using the IBM Maximo SaaS Flex asset management solution, two production instances were implemented on IBM Cloud, one in the United States and one in the EU, with the opportunity for additional production instances anywhere in the world. Having instances in multiple IBM Cloud locations across the globe addressed clients’ data localization issues.
The organization was also able to take advantage of its low concurrency usage pattern (around 10 percent) with the SaaS Concurrent User licensing model, enabling the company to optimize its licensing structure based on its global workforce.
Reaping the benefits of SaaS
While SaaS migration will not be complete until early June, Sodexo has already begun reaping the benefits. As a result of using a SaaS environment for asset management, the facilities management company gained a level of agility and flexibility that was previously impossible to achieve. Sodexo has benefited from faster upgrades, rapid deployment of new functionalities, scalability and simplified governance.
“The [icing] on the cake,” according to Vincent Ribet, vice president of facilities management applications for Sodexo, was that “this shift to SaaS led to a 20 percent reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO)” and increased cost predictability across the company’s buildings.
Download the SaaS Buyer’s Guide to unlock the benefits of SaaS for asset and facilities management.
This article was originally published on the IBM Internet of Things blog.
The post Sodexo conquers asset management challenges with IBM SaaS solution appeared first on Cloud computing news.
Quelle: Thoughts on Cloud