After two decades of hype and struggle, unified communications (UC) is finally starting to make sense. I recently interviewed about a dozen customers of Microsoft's offerings and they were all very pleased with IM, presence, Web conferencing, IP telephony and the rest. Now UC is moving to the cloud, primarily through Microsoft's Office 365, which includes a hosted version of Lync, Redmond's latest UC tool.
But many in IT say, "Not so fast, Buster." In fact, the sour news comes from a survey that a Microsoft partner, Azaleos, paid for.
A scant 10 percent of respondents said they will use UC over the cloud in the next 12 months. Almost 60 percent lament the lack of control and inability to customize as the major stumbling blocks. Another big deal, or deal breaker: Can one really trust the cloud to stay up and available?
These are, indeed, the early days of the cloud, and providers need to provide proof that their wares are secure, stable, controllable and customizable.
What do cloud providers need to do to get more of your business? Share your thoughts with this newsletter's readers by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/21/2011 at 12:47 PM5 comments
Longtime software integration player Talend is now moving its middleware to the cloud. The Talend Cloud can stitch together apps on-premise, in pure public clouds, private clouds or hybrids. Talend claims it can also join data and apps even as you move all this off-site and onto service provider networks, and keep it all secure.
The way the company describes its wares sounds a lot like what folks used to call SOA, or software-oriented architecture. Haven't heard that term since George W. was in office.
While old-style middleware (this phrase is about as common as SOA but I still use it) handled Oracle, SAP, SQL Server et al., Talend Cloud supports new stuff such as Google Apps, Amazon, Saleforce, Twitter and more of this kind of fluff.
There are a lot of companies in this space and I covered Talend because it just announced its new cloud tool. If I was smart enough to be in IT, I would definitely do a lot of research before buying such an essential tool.
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/21/2011 at 12:47 PM1 comments
I remember when Iridium first came to the fore. The whole idea was to build a global network of satellite communications. Although Arthur C. Clarke invented the concept over a half-century ago, Iridium was still leading-edge stuff.
Now the company is harnessing its network of 66 birds circling the stratosphere to let those in need be found.
I remember 10 years ago I had precious little cell, DSL or cable modem access. And by "precious little," I mean none. And I live in a suburb.
Millions -- billions, actually -- live beyond these bounds. The Iridium program is not for everyone, but is instead designed to let these folks, when in need, call for help.
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/21/2011 at 12:47 PM0 comments
There are many ways to approach the cloud. You can be all in, go partway or ignore the whole thing. And whether you go all in or partway, you still need to decide on an architecture.
Two main choices are building your own cloud -- what they call a private cloud -- or buying a public cloud service. The problem with this nomenclature is a public cloud should not be public. How can data be secured if it is truly public? Access to the public (remote) cloud should only be granted to trusted users. Done right, a public cloud is just as private as a private cloud. So how about we change our terms to "in-house cloud" and "remote cloud"?
Anyhoo, noted IT guru Greg Shields believes that some kind of move to the cloud is inevitable and that shops will have a mix of private (in-house) and public (remote) clouds. The key difference, according to Shields, is you build a private (in-house) cloud, but you buy a public (remote) cloud.
On the private -- er, in-house -- side, you are halfway there if you've already virtualized your servers. Once you take that step, you then just need to set it up so these VMs are flexible, taking advantage of extra resources as they're needed and creating a view where all these apps look like a unified manageable service. Jeepers. Sounds easy and cool. Wish it were so.
That brings me back to the whole notion of a private (in-house) cloud. A private cloud is only a cloud if it acts like a cloud, like a utility. I wonder how many private (in-house) clouds actually fit the true description of a cloud. To me, private clouds are more hype than truth. Tell me where I'm right or wrong at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/14/2011 at 12:47 PM3 comments
The cloud, in part, evolved from virtualization. Server virtualization makes massive server farms act as a utility. And client virtualization makes in-house and remote servers act as a sort of cloud. The processing is separate from the client, and if constructed right, is adaptable the way a cloud should be.
This is all justification for why I'm covering Microsoft's newest thin client tool. Windows Thin PC is now solid enough that CDs are being pressed and downloads readied.
Microsoft has a ton of virt tools. This one is based on Windows 7, and like the old Terminal Services, serves up apps from a Windows Server. In this case, Win 7 apps and its interface can be accessed by older PCs that could never run the OS from their own hard drives. This is a nice lifeline for decrepit machines that otherwise would be in a dump in China.
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/14/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
Fujitsu just announced a new cloud service based on Microsoft Azure. The service will use Microsoft's Azure appliance, making it faster and easier to start offering services. HP and Dell have also committed to building similar services, but they apparently won't beat Fujitsu to market.
Clearly, not all Microsoft software is perfect, but in talking to partners and customers, Azure is looking pretty good.
I have no reasonable opinion about technology until I hear from experts such as you. Teach me about Azure at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/14/2011 at 12:47 PM0 comments
Office 365 isn't just a cloud version of Microsoft Office. It is actually a mega-suite: Besides getting all the Office apps, you can get software from the server side such as SharePoint, Exchange, SQL Server and Lync (the unified communications suite).
We've looked at the pricing and it ain't bad. As long as your WAN connections are robust, this is a usable and affordable approach to equipping end-user PCs.
Now in late beta test, Microsoft has confirmed the mega-suite will ship on June 28, the same day the Treaty of Versailles was signed.
Redmond magazine (redmondmag.com) recently interviewed a bevy of beta testers and the news was pretty darn good. It seems the suite is particularly well-suited for smaller shops with limited IT staff, who find it much easier to manage than on-premise solutions. What is your take on Office 365 or cloud apps in general? Spill the beans at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/07/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
This week, Apple announced the widely anticipated iCloud, a relatively free service where all your tunes, photos, docs and such are in the cloud. Is it cool? I guess. Does it give Apple more control over you and the entire music biz? You bet.
Here's how it works. You sign up, presumably giving Apple enough information that it knows who you are and how to reach you. Then you get 5 free gigs to do with as you please. The exception here is that anything you bought from Apple doesn't count against the 5 GB limit. The cool part is all this stuff is stored centrally so you can sync all your Apple devices, getting at the content through a Mac, iPad or iPhone.
Here's what makes me worried: We are now opening our content kimono to Apple. What will it do with this knowledge? What about content that isn't on the copyright up-and-up? Maybe we can trust Apple now, but what about the future? Guide me through this morass by sending your thoughts to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/07/2011 at 12:47 PM5 comments
If you care about patching your computers, you must have heard of Shavlik Technologies. In fact, Microsoft OEMed Shavlik's patch product and made it part of the Redmond arsenal years ago.
Recently, company founder Mark Shavlik has been telling me about moving patches and other wares to the cloud. This way, you can secure and manage your computers without managing the whole mess in-house.
VMware apparently caught wind of all this and wanted in. Last month, VMware bought its way in by picking up Shavlik, or at least promising to.
It is unusual for VMware to buy a company not 100 percent devoted to virtualization. Perhaps VMware is looking to spread its wings. Or perhaps VMware simply has good taste in technology. Either way, I hope both will do fine.
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/06/2011 at 12:47 PM5 comments
Customers have several concerns about the cloud. To my mind, data security, data protection, and uptime are probably the top three. We've recently seen outages from Amazon, VMware (this was a beta service that went down) and Microsoft's online version of Exchange. Clearly, we have a ways to go with uptime.
Security might be the biggest bugaboo of all -- that is, if we believe the Ponemon Institute. The company surveyed 127 cloud providers about the security of their services. The results are mind-boggling, to say the least. Some 75 percent of those polled admit their services don't protect confidential customer data. And 69 percent of providers pass the buck, claiming security is not up to them but to the customer.
I am more than appalled. The lesson here is customers must get service providers to detail exactly how they secure data. It looks like 25 percent of providers may be worthy of your business. Avoid the rest like the plague!
Do you trust cloud security? Let us know how you feel at [email protected].Â
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/24/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
A few months ago, I asked readers to talk about their cloud plans and how cloud adoption will change the nature of IT work. I talked to over a dozen of you, and the results were mixed. Many old schoolers -- and old school isn't always bad -- believe the cloud will kill off a good many IT jobs, particularly admins who run our servers.
Cloud believers believe new jobs will be created. And as applications move to the cloud and admin jobs retreat, IT can and should become more strategic and less tactical.
About a third of the IT pros I interviewed are waiting on the sidelines until pricing, security and uptime are all proven solid.
Where are you with your cloud plans? Spill the beans at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/24/2011 at 12:47 PM5 comments
Author, instructor and all around smart guy Don Jones is taking an interest in the cloud and, with his years of IT experience, wonders just how new all this cloud stuff is. In a recent column, he questioned the term cloud in general.
Now Don is taking on the notion of private clouds. It may be that many call a private cloud what is really just a plain, old datacenter. To Jones, a private cloud has the same characteristics of an external cloud -- capacity and services are provided as they are demanded, the resources are virtualized so they serve as a pool, and charge-backs are based on actual use.
Don sees value in this approach to datacenters, being more flexible and taking a lot of mundane tasks out of the IT equation.
How do you define a private cloud? Are you moving in this direction? Share your thoughts [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/24/2011 at 12:47 PM1 comments