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PalmTree’s LiveEnsure – Cloud Computing SaaS Authentication

October 20, 2010

Palm Tree Q410 Highlights

Releases LiveEnsure Cloud-based SaaS user authentication service
Lengthy due diligence trials with banks cancelled following the credit crunch in September 2008
Survived the downturn by moving away from devices to SaaS
Wants to be ‘the Google Maps’ of authentication for developers
Prices by transaction rather than annually
Targets all e-commerce providers and applications, web developers, solutions providers and all verticals including Telecoms and Financial services,
Offers ‘high volume, low value’ solution
Cross-platform solution – desktop, laptop, mobile and tablet

Symantec Launches Hardware Appliances – A Non-Cloud Form Of IT Simplification

September 21, 2010

Symantec September 2010 Announcement Highlights

Enterprise Vault 9.0 addresses new content sources
NetBackup 5000 is a ‘dedupe’ appliance
Filestore N8000 is a NAS storage system solution
Appliances come from its joint venture with Huawei
Appliances and Cloud Computing both provide IT simplification – the first mainly as Cap Ex and latter as Op Ex
Appliances enhance the portfolio of offerings for partners

HP Acquires 3Par For $2.35 Billion – Expensive, But Positive, News

September 3, 2010

HP 3Par Acquisition Highlights

Beats Dell by paying $2.35 billion for 3Par – perhaps overpriced for a company with annual revenues of $194 million
With Dell has the worst storage systems business growth
Offsets the more negative news of the loss of its CEO and Department of Justice fine
3Par should help build interesting clustered storage
Should allow HP to go further in building solutions – such as its newly announced CloudStart package
ITCandor expects Dell to continue to search for a storage systems acquisition and could be joined by IBM

Worldwide Smart Phones – Apple Is Clear Leader Of The $57 Billion, 166 Million Handset Market

August 17, 2010

I’d like to thank Marcel Warmerdam and Pim Bilderbeek – both great analysts who have contributed to this article.

Worldwide Mobile Handset Highlights Q2 2010

In 2009 1.1 billion handsets were sold, the equivalent of one for every six people alive on the planet
147 million Smart Phones were sold in 2009 – worth $49.1 billion
In the year to June 2010 the 166 million Smart Phone sales were $57 billion
Apple leads the market for Smart Phone handsets and operating system
Android is growing fast, but is not yet challenging Apple or Blackberry OS on a worldwide basis
Nokia is the world leader of the Basic Phone and overall handset market
No single supplier – with Android or any other operating system – is likely to overtake Apple any time soon

The Sanctuary Group – Successful Virtual Client Deployment In A Large Dispersed Enterprise

July 23, 2010

Sanctuary Group’s Ben Andrews Highlights

Is dispersed in structure with many non-IT users among its 6k staff
Has adopted a ‘Terminal Services’ approach to virtualisation
Still manages fat PCs, especially for tied-in applications, such as alarm and door entry systems
Bases its infrastructure on Citrix, Wyse thin clients, Symantec tools and a resilient MPLS network
Uses EV archiving to address the difficulties of .PST files in a virtualised world
Always plans to stream ‘line of business’ applications using XenApp
Intends to digitise extensive paper records in the near future
Is an excellent example of a large enterprise saving money and improving service levels through centralisation

NGD’s Data Centre Goes 100% Alternative Energy Supply With SmartestEnergy

July 5, 2010

NGD Update Highlights – Q3 2010

Has signed a deal with SmartestEnergy to purchase 100% renewable energy at its data centre in Wales
Has BT and Logica as anchor clients
Its customers now enjoy Green electricity, even though the UK government’s CRC legislation doesn’t yet give credit
I’m looking forward to visiting the sight in the next couple of weeks

Intel vPro – In Praise Of Fat Clients

July 1, 2010

Intel vPro Highlights

Add significant features for business use
Reduce costs through more efficient management and power usage
Address laptop data security issues through Anti-Theft Technology ‘poison pill’ approach
Will lead to a greater Intel content in PCs, including chips, chipsets, and integrated graphics
Will need software companies to address the new features
Intel and Microsoft will survive if there’s a massive shift to virtual PCs in business, the PC ecosystem – including the PC brands – will not

Fujitsu Opens ‘London North’ Data Centre And Launches IaaS Services

June 22, 2010

Fujitsu Data Centre Highlights

Opens a 6-hall data centre north of London
Uses DRUPS machines to provide resilient power supply
Achieves a PUE of 1.4 and a DCiE of 73%

Fujitsu UK and Ireland IaaS Highlights

Offers compute and storage Cloud Computing services
Focuses on understanding business regulations and compliance
Allows customers to meet the requirements for data and storage to be held within the UK
Has an evolutionary approach to Cloud Computing

Read more »

Racemi’s Image-Based Provisioning Ripe For Cloud Computing

May 13, 2010

Racemi’s Image-Based Provisioning Highlights

Enables the migration of bootable server images between physical and virtual machines, as well as in house and Cloud Computing
Provides heterogeneous approach help to large enterprises
Its technology partners and OEM resellers include BMC, CA, Oracle/Sun, VMWare, Emtec and Cisco
Competes with IBM Tivoli, Symantec Altiris and Novell Platespin
Claims to be less complicated than script-based provisioning and cheaper than other image-based offerings
Concentrates on heterogeneous environments with multiple operating systems and hypervisors

Fujitsu’s Cloud Computing Strategy – A Vision For The Networked Society

April 27, 2010

Fujitsu Cloud Computing Strategy Highlights

Identifies four ‘modes’ of consumption for medium and large companies
Distinguishes between Private, Public, Hybrid Clouds
Is working on bringing standards for Federated Clouds
Is investing in data centres from which to run its IaaS and SaaS offerings
Sees strong convergence issues between IT and C
Has build its approach through extensive customer interviewing
Is running Smart Cloud extensions to help develop the ‘Networked Society’
Will avoid the ‘same everywhere’ approach of some US suppliers
Is concentrating more on business, service, compliance and integration than on technical developments

Corporate PC Strategies – Time To Go Virtual?

April 13, 2010

Corporate Client Strategy Highlights

PC sales have declined more in larger companies during the recession
Cloud Computing is highly connected to virtual client developments
Users want access to corporate applications – not just email – via Smart Phones
ITCandor defines four types of client device – laptop, desktop, thin client and smart phone
ITCandor defines four types of virtual client – local VM, streaming, internal hosted and external hosted
PCs can be used as thin clients, but thin clients can’t be used as PCs
Users hate being asked to use anything other than a fully functional PC
VMWare’s lead in x86 server virtualisation doesn’t necessarily make it the winner in client virtualisation
There will be an increasing uptake of virtual clients which will suppress some hardware spending
There will be many interesting supplier announcements coming up

Server Choices – Why Chips, Form Factors, Architectures And Workloads Matter

April 6, 2010

Server Choice Highlights Q210

Chip makers increased the number of transistors and complexity of design when they reached heat limitations with 3GHz chips
There is no need to worry about RISC v CISC or 32- v 64-bit issues today
‘Sockets’ as opposed to ‘Processors’ are now being used to describe the number of physical chips in a machine
The number of in-silicon processors – known as ‘Cores’ – has increased even in x86 chips
There are essentially 4 client device and 4 server form factors in the market today
Server form factors relate increasingly to Scale Up, scale Out and Cluster architectures
Ultimately servers are being bought to run specific workloads and are beginning to be designed that way

AMD’s New Opteron 6000 ‘Magny Cours’ Processors In HP, Dell And Acer Server Lines

March 30, 2010

AMD Opteron 6000 Magny Cours Highlights

Allows the same chip to be used in 2 and 4 processor designs, removing the extra expense of moving up – the ‘democratisation of the 4P market
Was endorsed at launch by HP, Dell, AMD, SGI and Cray
ITCandor expects IBM expected to endorse the new processor later in the year
Has consolidated its position as an x86 server chip provider
AMD is more stable and reliable than ever
Will allow it to catch up ground on Intel
Is another example of simplification in AMD’s transformation approach

AMD Outlines The Developing Web Hosting And Cloud Computing Ecosystem

March 29, 2010

While attending an AMD meeting a couple of weeks ago we had a very interesting presentation from Margaret Lewis (Director, Software Solutions). She covered three themes. In particular:

The extremes to which AMD’s new server processors will support Microsoft Windows Hyper-V R2 and VMWare ESX 4.0u1 virtualisation
The evolution of AMD’s approach to workloads (database and virtualisation for the high-end, High Performance Computing and email/collaboration for the low-end and Web/Cloud and Infrastructure for both)
The concept of the developing ecosystem for Web Hosting and Cloud Computing.

Notes: * Lamp stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and php

AMD see three broad camps of development, split into Lamp, Windows Azure, and JAVA-based software stacks. It also splits software products and projects into three horizontal layers – OS and/or Hypervisor (Infrastructure as a Service), Middleware (Platform as a Service) and Application (Software as a Service). For me there were a number of new names. In particular:

Hulu is a Web-based TV and Movie on demand service popular in USA
Memcached is a ‘free & open source, high-performance, distributed memory object caching system’, useful for speeding up Web applications and alleviating database loads
Hadoop is an Apache project which develops ‘open-source software for reliable, scalable, distributed computing’

Aside from AMD’s own support for supporting developments in this area, it makes me think about the ownership of various components. Oracle’s acquisition of Sun makes it a player in the Lamp ecosystem with MySQL in addition to the JAVA stream. The dominance of RedHat Linux also gives it a foot in both camps. Microsoft’s stack is proprietary in comparison.

It will be interesting to see whether other (hybrid or proprietary) stacks develop over time and how systems companies such as IBM, HP, Oracle, Fujitsu and others decide to work with their large companies as they develop their own private Clouds.

Do you agree with AMD’s analysis of the Cloud Computing ecosystem? Do you use a different stack in your organisation’s service and software developments? Let me know by commenting on this article.

Fujitsu’s New CX1000 Primegy Server – Density Design For Cloud Computing With New Cooling

March 18, 2010

Fujitsu CX1000 Highlights

It is incorporating Intel’s new Xeon 5600 chips
The new node has massive capacity allowing the largest possible power per square foot
Racks can contain up to 38 nodes
Heat is removed by a chimney attached to the rack, removing the need for ‘hot aisles’ in the data centre
Fujitsu technology Solutions aims to help customers meet environmental standards
ITCandor expects strong demand from large enterprises in Japan
FTS is likely to use the new machines in its own Cloud Computing centre in Augsburg Read more »

IBM Expands Its Cloud Computing Offerings – Highlights The Differences In Regional Adoption

March 17, 2010

IBM March 16th 2010 Cloud Computing Highlights

Announced the availability in North America of its new ‘Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud’ service
Opened a Cloud Computing resource centre on its developerWorks Web site
Launched the Rational Software Delivery Service for private Cloud customers and announced its future availability through the IBM Cloud
Used SOASTA and The Collaborative Software Initiative to demonstrate how development, test and deployment work for its customers
Sees large Japanese enterprises adopting Cloud Computing early due to their small IT departments and traditional reliance on external services
Is working in public/private partnerships in Japan and Vietnam to deploy Cloud Computing
Has more of a demand from enterprises for Cloud Computing in Europe and the US Read more »

Fasthosts Brings Cloud Computing ‘Data Centre On Demand’ To SMBs Through Channel Partners

March 12, 2010

Fasthosts Highlights

Launched its new brand Rise on March 31st 2010 to bring IaaS through channels to SMBs
As part of United Internet’s subsidiaries it already has a market leading position in the UK Web Services market for hosting and domain registrations
Will focus in future more on B2B business
Understands the security and legal concerns of UK businesses in moving to the Cloud
Is offering ‘Data Centre on Demand’ service based on Microsoft Dynamic Data Center through VARs and SIs to SMBs
Looks to take a leading role in redefining Cloud Computing as a pragmatic and attainable solution for SMB’s through channel partners based on their philosophy of ‘Partnership as a Service’ Read more »

‘Matrix Integration’ And Its Effects On The IT Industry

March 5, 2010

Matrix Integration Analysis Highlights

ITCandor uses the concept of ‘Matrix Integration’ to describe the change in vendor strategies over the last few years
The vertical integration stage of the industry was ended by anti-trust cases against IBM and others and a genuine change in behaviour
Horizontal integration gave customers many advantages in the choice of vendor and cost of IT
With the new style of supplier strategy, changing supplier will be more difficult and the availability of Open Source software will be less
Vendors are more likely to take responsibility for their solutions if they supply the whole system
ITCandor hopes that we are not returning to the dark days of vendor lock-in associated with vertical integration