CIO — I
don't know how I missed this, but at the Gartner IT Symposium in October,
Darryl Plummer (Chief of Gartner Cloud Research) apparently stated that
enterprises should deploy applications in a public cloud provider as a default,
and only deploy them in a private cloud if the public alternative is not
appropriate.
I became aware of
Plummer's recommendation, which caused quite a stir in the blog world when he
first announced it, via Twitter earlier this week.
Naturally, much of the furor over Plummmer's pronouncement
was a reaction to the quick summary: Gartner prefers public cloud. Wow. That's
a big deal, right? Gartner is probably telling all of its clients that they
should trim their private cloud plans and instead focus on public cloud service
providers. And, in response, all of its clients are scrapping their private
cloud initiatives and planning a big move to public providers, right?
Actually, that's quite unlikely, for some very sensible
reasons.
First, people misunderstand
the nature of analyst firms. They assume that these firms are corporate in
nature and monolithic in their positions. In fact, a better way to look at
analyst firms is that they are much like professional firms (e.g., law firms,
consulting partnerships, etc.). Such firms are comprised of relatively
independent individuals, each with his or her own opinion.
For example, one can
present the same issue to two attorneys within the same law firm and get two
different recommendations about what to do (I speak here from personal
experience). Likewise two analysts from the same firm will hold different
opinions about the right approach to a specific technology issue.
Consequently, even if
one or more (or most) analysts at a firm hold one opinion, there are probably
others who hold a different opinion. At the very least, when presented with a
specific issue, analysts will likely proffer different recommendations, based
on their interpretation of the issue. Of course, it's important to keep in mind
that every situation is specific and different. If blanket advice were
sufficient, there would be no need for analyst firms. Let me be clear, I'm
discussing this phenomenon in general—not picking on Gartner specifically. As I
said last
week, I am not one to gainsay Gartner.
Second, as a complement to the fact that opinion at analyst
firms differs, clients tend to take their recommendations selectively.
Companies tend to have their goals and they seek support and affirmation for
them, searching until they find third-party advice that can be cited as
impartial evidence for pursuing the direction that they have already decided
upon. This is crudely referred to as "shopping for an opinion."
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Enterprises should consider public cloud services first and turn to private clouds only if the public cloud fails to meet their needs.
That was the advice delivered by analyst Daryl Plummer during Gartner's IT Symposium Tuesday. Plummer says that there are many potential benefits to deploying cloud services, including agility, reduced cost, reduced complexity, increased focus, increased innovation, and being able to leverage the knowledge and skills of people outside the company.
The trick for IT professionals is to perform a thorough analysis that identifies which benefits the company hopes to achieve by moving to the cloud. Of course, there are also reasons to not take the cloud route. Those include the inability to get the service-level agreements that you want, regulatory and compliance issues, concerns about disaster recovery and the realization that the cloud might not end up saving you money.
Plummer said an accurate cost analysis is particularly tricky, since you're weighing capital expenses versus recurring costs. He added that customers often underestimate their cloud usage costs, and most companies moving to the cloud will require the services of a cloud broker, which adds to the total tab.
While the cloud hype has reached a fever pitch, Plummer points out that there are a number of potential risks. Those include security, transparency, assurance, lock-in and integration issues. If you do decide to start moving applications to the cloud, start at the edges and work your way into the core, says Plummer. The most common apps to start with are email, social, test and development, productivity apps, and Web servers.
One other point to keep in mind is that individual business units have probably already moved to software as a service (SaaS), so Plummer recommends that IT execs make a concerted effort to get ahead of these rogue SaaS users.
If you break cloud revenues down by the three main categories, SaaS revenues come in first at $12 billion worldwide in 2011, followed by infrastructure as a service (IaaS) at $4.2 billion and platform as a service (PaaS) at $1.4 billion. But Gartner predicts that over the next five years IaaS will grow by 48 percent, while PaaS will only grow 13 percent and SaaS will grow 16.3 percent.
Source: Infoworld
As per a report published on Moneycontrol.com website:
The domestic cloud computing industry is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 53% to be a Rs 2,434 crore market by 2014, a study conducted by CyberMedia Research India said.
"The public cloud computing market in India is estimated to touch Rs 2,434 crore in 2014 after growing at a CAGR of 53% between 2010-2014," a company statement said.
"Cloud computing is witnessing widespread interest from the vendor-service provider-channel community on the one hand and business leaders and CIOs on the other," CyberMedia Research India Software and IT Services Research Lead Analyst Kamal Vohra said.
This is fuelled by the strong belief that cloud computing will allow a large number of SMB enterprises to adopt the same enterprise class software and technology solutions, it added.
As per the study, penetration in cloud computing is expected to grow by 6.8% in 2012 from 4% in 2010.
On the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry, the study said the market was expected to grow by 50% to touch Rs 465 crore by this year-end.
The Infrastructure-as-a-service Industry (IaaS) was also expected to pickup pace after 2012. The overall CAGR for the India IaaS market during 2010-2014 was expected to be at 49%, the statement added.
Reference:
Microsoft Updates Office 365
— Microsoft has released its first major update of its cloud-based Office 365, the online combination of Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync. It’s also expanding the service to 22 additional markets including Argentina, Iceland, Indonesia, South Africa and Taiwan.
Office Division president Kurt DelBene said in a statement that “Customers are adopting Office 365 eight times faster than our previous service, and the solution is on track to become one of our fastest-growing offers in Microsoft history. We are also seeing great traction with small businesses, with more than 90% of our early Office 365 customers coming from small businesses.”
Article URL:http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/2086224
SAP has agreed to buy San Mateo's SuccessFactors Inc. for $3.4
billion in cash in a bid to catch up with rival Oracle in the
cloud-computing market.
The move is the latest acquisition by co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim
Hagemann Snabe, who took charge of SAP when CEO Léo Apotheker was forced
out in 2009.
McDermott and Snabe have pledged to make the largest maker of
business-management software better at meeting demand for new
technologies, such as cloud computing, real-time analytics and mobile
applications.
The SuccessFactors deal shows SAP's previous go-it-alone approach to
the cloud was lacking, said Thomas Otter, a vice president at Gartner
Inc.
"My first reaction was: What took you so long?" Otter said. "This
means a fundamental shift in terms of their cloud strategy, which has
been rather slow to get off the ground. This is a tacit admission that
their cloud strategy was a failure."
Stock takes a hit
SAP shares dropped 1.6 percent to 44 euros in Frankfurt Monday, valuing the company at 54 billion euros.
"In addition to the high price paid, which we think investors will
see negatively, the other question will be whether the decision to
acquire reflects a sign of SAP's strength or its weakness," UBS analyst
Michael Briest said Monday. He cut his rating on SAP shares to "neutral"
from "buy."
SAP, Oracle and companies such as Apple, Salesforce.com, IBM,
Amazon.com, Dell and Microsoft are promoting cloud computing as a secure
way to outsource data centers and reduce the need for pricey servers
and other hardware.
SuccessFactors, which makes software used to manage employee
performance, has more than 3,500 customers and 15 million subscribers in
168 countries. The company is predicted to have $502 million in revenue
in 2013, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
SAP is paying 8 times SuccessFactors' forecast revenue for next year,
compared with a median of 3 times revenue companies paid for 32 North
American software targets over the past five years, Bloomberg data show.
'Crown jewel'
"You get what you pay for, and if you want the crown jewel in this
industry, you have got to pay for it," McDermott said. "We are very
comfortable with the relationship between the price and 2012 revenues.
It's very much in the medium range. We don't consolidate old, tired
companies that don't grow anymore."
SAP may take a break from large deals after the close of
SuccessFactors, while it concentrates on expanding in cloud computing,
mobile business software, data analysis and in-memory computing,
McDermott added.
"For now, I think we have the assets we need to win," he said.
McDermott and SuccessFactors CEO Lars Dalgaard first met on Sept. 27
at SuccessFactors' office in San Mateo. One asset SAP gains is Dalgaard
himself.
Dalgaard, 44, will have the job of overseeing SAP's broad
software-as-a-service efforts, including its Business ByDesign Web
programs for midsize companies. Peter Lorenz, an SAP executive vice
president in charge of the group of products, will report to him,
McDermott said.
"Lars will oversee the entire SAP cloud," McDermott said. "This is our catalyst."
Owning SuccessFactors, which helps companies decide which employees
to retain and how much to pay them, can help SAP sell "human capital
management" software to the highest echelons of its customers'
management, McDermott said.
SuccessFactors may also add programs for handling logistics and supply-chain operations, Dalgaard said.
"The talent management market will probably be worth about $3.5
billion this year," Otter said. "SAP has essentially spent what the
whole market will be worth this year in one swoop. It is a lot to pay
for a niche in their portfolio, but human resources technology is a hot
space."
The global market for cloud services may surge to $148.8 billion in 2014 from $68.3 billion in 2010, Gartner estimates.
01 Dec 2011
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.,
December 1, 2011 – One year ago,
International Data Corporation (IDC) predicted that the
IT industry's next dominant platform, built on mobile computing, cloud
services, social networking, and big data analytics technologies, would begin
its transition into the mainstream. Today, spending on these technologies is
growing at about 18% per year and is expected to account for at least 80% of IT
spending growth between now and 2020. With future market revenues at stake, IDC
predicts that 2012 will be marked by some of the first high-stakes battles as
companies seek to position themselves for leadership in these critical and
fast-growing technology areas.
"The industry's shift to the 3rd Platform will
accelerate in 2012, forcing the industry's leaders to make bold investments and
fateful decisions," said Frank Gens, senior vice
president and chief analyst at IDC. "Companies like Microsoft, HP, SAP,
RIM, and others – including Apple – will face 'crossroads moments' in 2012. By
the end of the year, we should have a good idea which vendors will – and won't
– be among the industry's leaders at the end of the decade."
Overall, IDC predicts that worldwide IT spending will grow
6.9% year over year to $1.8 trillion in 2012. As much as 20% of this total
spending will be driven by the technologies that are reshaping the IT industry
– smartphones, media tablets, mobile networks, social networking, and big data
analytics. Meanwhile, emerging markets (defined as all markets except North
America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand) will drive more
than half of all IT spending growth worldwide in 2012, led by the BRIC
countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and a handful of other
fast-growing markets like Indonesia, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia. The growing
importance of these markets is reflected in IDC's prediction that China will
surpass Japan as the world's second largest IT market sometime in the course of
the year.
2012 will also be the Year of Mobile Ascendency as mobile
devices (smartphones and media tablets) surpass PCs in both shipments and
spending and mobile apps, with 85 billion downloads, generate more revenue than
the mainframe market. The mobility market will see heated competition in 2012
as Microsoft joins the crucial battle for dominance in the mobile operating
system (OS) market and the Kindle Fire challenges the iPad in the media tablet
market. Similarly, a host of new mobile devices with "good enough"
capabilities (think "smartphone lite") will challenge the current
device leaders on price and functionality in key emerging markets like China,
India, Indonesia, and Brazil.
Competition will also characterize the world of cloud
services in 2012 as the strategic focus shifts from building infrastructure to
the creation of application platforms and ecosystems. Here the battle for
enterprise platform dominance is just getting underway with established players
like IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle facing serious challenges from Amazon, Google,
Salesforce.com, and VMware. As evidence of this challenge, IDC expects Amazon
Web Services to exceed $1 billion in cloud services business in 2012 with
Google's Enterprise business to follow within 18 months. IDC also expects a merger
and acquisition (M&A) feeding frenzy as these companies seek to gain a
competitive edge. Look for Microsoft to buy a content/media cloud, like
Netflix, to provide a marketplace for its apps and content. Other prime targets
for acquisition include Cloud Application/SaaS companies, like Workday,
NetSuite, and Taleo.
Social networking technologies – especially where they are
being accelerated by mobile technologies – will be recognized as a mandatory
component in every major enterprise IT vendors' strategy. As a result, IDC
expects a number of major IT vendors to make "statement" acquisitions
in social business while others continue to expand their community platforms.
Companies like LinkedIn, Spigit, BrightIdea, Attensity, and Lithium are logical
acquisition targets for Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle. Meanwhile, Facebook will
attempt to leverage its consumer dominance into a broader role serving as the
business-to-consumer platform of choice.
Finally, Big Data will earn its place as the next "must
have" competency in 2012 as the volume of digital content grows to 2.7
zettabytes (ZB), up 48% from 2011. Over 90% of this information will be
unstructured (e.g., images, videos, MP3 files, and files based on social media
and Web-enabled workloads) – full of rich information, but challenging to
understand and analyze. As businesses seek to squeeze high-value insights from
this data, IDC expects to see offerings that more closely integrate data and
analytics technologies, such as in-memory databases and BI tools, move into the
mainstream. And, like the cloud services market, 2012 is likely to be a busy
year for Big Data-driven mergers and acquisitions as large IT vendors seek to
acquire additional functionality.
- In addition to key developments in mobile, cloud, social business, and big data, IDC predicts that 2012 will be a notable year in a number of other areas:
- Mobile data network spending will exceed fixed data network spending for the first time
- 80% of new commercial enterprise apps will be deployed on cloud platforms
- 15% of new mobile apps will be based on HTML5 by year's end
- Vendors from emerging markets, such as Huawei and China Telecom, will make an aggressive push into developed markets, including the U.S.
- The number of intelligent, communicating devices on the network will outnumber "traditional computing" devices by almost 2 to 1 within next 24 months, changing the way we think – and interact – with each other and devices on the network
"Even though the IT industry will follow along the same
transformational path as it did in 2011, the events, the choices, and the
stakes will be very different in 2012," added Gens. "The urgency to
act – and to make the right decisions – will dramatically increase. By the end
of 2012, we should be able to see much more clearly which players have
successfully positioned themselves in the 'lead pack' of the marathon-like race
for industry leadership in the decade ahead."
IDC's predictions for 2012 are presented in full detail in the
report, IDC
Predictions 2012: Competing for 2020 (Doc #231720). In addition,
Frank Gens will lead a group discussion of this year's predictions in an IDC
Web conference scheduled for December 1 at 12:00 pm U.S. Eastern time. For more
information, or to register for this free event, please go to: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=IDC_P24932.
International Data Corporation
(IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services,
and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer
technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the
investment community to make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and
business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and
local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110
countries. For more than 47 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help
our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG,
the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can
learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.
Source: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23177411