Less than six months after shipping, Office 365 got its third update. The first two were modest; this one has some real meat.
Like the on-premise version of the Office productivity suite, Office 365 has tight links to SharePoint. The update gives it closer ties to the document repository and collaboration platform. These ties revolve essentially around the Web version of SharePoint, which makes sense for the Web-based Office 365.
Office 365 also now supports Lync for Mac, a unified communication tool, and Windows Phone 7.5.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's Internet storage service SkyDrive has been enhanced to be more app-specific, making it more logical to peruse and work with your files.
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/13/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
Oracle has bought its way into many a market -- Java, ERP, even server hardware. It also has a role to play in application servers. It got into this area by buying BEA a few years back, which bought WebLogic way back in 1998.
Now Oracle is on the 12th iteration of the WebLogic server, a version designed to build and migrate apps to the cloud. WebLogic Server 12c ("c" for "cloud") is designed to support private cloud apps or programs meant to run on Oracle's Exalogic cloud. WebLogic is meant for Java developers and supports Oracle's JRockit Java Virtual Machine.
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/13/2011 at 12:47 PM0 comments
Guess who invented virtualization and when? VMware in the late '90s? Citrix in the very late '80s? Try IBM, which in 1968 shipped the very first hypervisor, which ran on the IBM System/360 Model 67 mainframe. Some of those same engineers who worked on that hypervisor later helped build hypervisors for System p and other high-end IBM servers.
So what about mainframes, now dubbed the System z? It is not well-known, but the System z has long been able to virtualize AIX and Linux workloads. The biggest of the big iron can act as some 2,500 discrete servers.
Even lesser-known is the fact that IBM mainframes can also mimic and virtualize x86 machines and run x86 (i.e., Windows) workloads. This effort was announced earlier this year and is now reaching fruition. It may well be the ultimate green machine. Instead of a warehouse full of 2,000-plus servers, you have a much smaller room with much cheaper and simpler cooling and power doing the exact (well, not exactly exact) same thing.
Does a mainframe running Windows make sense, or it the worst combination of the old and the new? You tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/06/2011 at 12:47 PM3 comments
In most cases, IT looks at the cloud carefully, moves forward tentatively and -- if it likes what it sees -- adds more services as time moves along. Rare is the shop that slams the whole thing in reverse faster than a Hollywood stunt driver. But analytics vendor Mixpanel did just that, and blogged about its reasoning.
The company had high hopes for the cloud, buying into the promises of low cost and elasticity. However, theory and practice were two very different things. The company recently backed out of its Rackspace service, opting for a dedicated solution.
I recently wrapped up more than a month of research about how the WAN impacts cloud performance. Mixpanel had the same exact problem that I found: performance. More specifically, the variability and unpredictability of its application performance. Instead of blaming the WAN, Mixpanel thinks it has to do with the fact that the cloud datacenter is a shared environment. If another customer does something stupid, you also pay the price. The company also believes you can't duplicate in-house performance because cloud vendors buy lower-priced gear, not the best and fastest.
Today most important Mixpanel servers are dedicated, and the company couldn't be happier. "Since I started this migration, our traffic has grown more than ten-fold. At the same time, our infrastructure has gotten significantly faster, more reliable, and interestingly enough cheaper (at the per machine level). Most importantly, the amount of time I've spent fixing server issues late at night or on weekend has decreased to almost nothing," wrote a Mixpanel blogger.
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/06/2011 at 12:47 PM6 comments
The battle for cloud partners continues with Microsoft winning the hand of Fujitsu, which is using Microsoft's Windows Azure to power its new Fujitsu Hybrid Cloud Services.
Fujitsu is doing far more than just loading Azure and SQL cloud services onto servers in its datacenter. It is making more of a services and consulting play, hoping to help IT build clouds that rest in the on-premise datacenter and span out to the external cloud. On the private side, Fujitsu is offering to help IT build and install internal Azure programs that run on Windows servers.
Some in IT see a hybrid cloud as the way to go long term. For others, the hybrid approach is a bridge as they eventually move all major operations off-site. "This will enable customers to have a good, solid model for integrating with their on-premises apps," said Fujitsu alliance director Jeff Stucker. "Even if they are going to move a majority of their workloads into the cloud over time, they need something that's going to tie it all together while they are in that process. It's a real nuts and bolts type of solution."
Fujitsu also says it can help migrate older apps, including those built for mainframes and minicomputers (like the AS/400) to the cloud, be it private, public or a bit of both.
Who is your cloud partner and how is it working out? You tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/29/2011 at 12:47 PM0 comments
How would you like to spend eight hours taxing the computing power of a cluster of 30,000 cores? Heck, with that, I could finally get my taxes done in time.
Some lucky researchers are going to get all that computing time -- a $10,000 value -- for free. This all comes courtesy of Cycle Computing, a supercomputing company. The CycleCloud BigScience Challenge (I guess the company isn't a fan of spaces between words!) is open to nonprofit researchers trying to do good. CycleCloud is a platform building cloud-based HPC apps.
Right now, there are five finalists. Here is a brief synopsis:
- Harvard is working on creating organic photovoltaic cells as a way to offer clean, green energy.
- Morgridge Institute for Research is trying to create stem cell treatments tailored for individuals and their ailments.
- The University of Notre Dame is learning more about how diabetes is formed.
- The TU Munich ROSTLAB is trying to decode every single possible gene sequence mutation.
- The Harvard Medical School is trying to understand the impact certain drugs have on Parkinson's disease.
What would you do with eight hours of massive processing time? Dream on at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/29/2011 at 12:47 PM1 comments
The cloud can be a big, scary place. For as long as there have been IT departments, IT has had more or less full control of the infrastructure. With a datacenter, you can walk around all your gear, replace drives, reboot, update software and sometimes just stroll around happily seeing everything humming.
You can't see the cloud. You can't cruise around it (unless you're Superman). And your service provider is the one that gets to reboot the servers. In short, IT no longer has the control it is used to. According to a recent survey by cloud storage purveyor Nasuni, almost half of those questioned have serious reservations about losing control when moving to the cloud.
But a much bigger concern, the survey reveals, is security. Over 80 percent of IT pros are worried about the safety of their data and applications. These fears are holding back cloud apps, but also holding back cloud storage. A minority of IT personnel, 43 percent, will use the cloud for storage in the next year.
The onus is now on the vendors to show that apps and data in the cloud are not only safe, but still in the hands of IT. Only then will we see the full promise of the cloud realized.
Do you have any cloud fears? Cop to them at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/29/2011 at 12:47 PM0 comments
I'm sure nearly all major competitors would disagree, but Microsoft claims to be the one and only company to offer all three major styles of cloud computing: private, public and the blend called hybrid.
The claim was made at a recent investor event by Microsoft GM Charles Di Bona, who also took the opportunity to give Wall Street a crash course in cloud.
First, now that Ray Ozzie is gone from Microsoft, so is the term "Software Plus Services." A shorter and simpler term, "cloud," is its replacement. Second, Azure, perhaps the best-known of Redmond's cloud technologies, is really positioned as a Platform as a Service (PaaS). The idea is to have developers use .NET and other programming paradigms to build custom cloud apps. Finally, not content with just PaaS, Microsoft is now working to make Azure a real player in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/15/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
I'm not a huge fan of research commissioned and released by vendors, since it is clearly self-serving. But that doesn't mean it's wrong (nor is it necessarily right). Just call me a bit skeptical.
Earlier this month, cloud file storage provider Egnyte (I don't know what the name means either) released research done by Forrester Consulting arguing that on-premise file servers should and will be killed off. Actually, the "killed off" part seems to be Egnyte's conclusion, which seems to be a reach.
Here's what the study found: Fifty-seven percent of IT pros surveyed think their file servers cost far less to run than they actually do. When IT runs the real numbers, they are a magnitude larger than what they initially imagined. A second piece of the puzzle is the fact that a bit over 40 percent of "information workers" use online storage for work purposes, services that IT did not specify or approve and don't manage.
Based on this, file servers are too expensive and workers are already used to online storage, which Egnyte claims is far cheaper. Putting two and two together, file servers should and will die. The replacement is a hybrid cloud where cloud file storage is synced with an on-premise NAS, which won't be so much a traditional file server as it is a "virtual appliance."
I have no doubt that plenty will move in this direction, and some may even use Egnyte's online storage services. (Did I mention that Egnyte sells the technology that will supposedly kill off the file server?) But certainly not everyone will, especially as server prices continue to plummet. Do you believe vendor-backed research? And in particular, how much sense does this report make? You tell me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/15/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
Best Buy is best-known for selling stuff, not buying it. That all changed recently when the electronics retailer thought is was best to buy mindShIFT for a cool $167 million (that's a lot of flat screens).
What makes mindSHIFT so valuable and how does it fit in with Best Buy? It all starts with Geek Squad, which Best Buy also bought rather than built. As you know, the Geeks support small businesses and individuals. They have saved the bacon of tech newbies and power users alike. Meanwhile, mindSHIFT aims at the enterprise, offering SharePoint consulting, app development, cloud infrastructure and cloud-based apps.
One of the best things going for Best Buy is its brand recognition and reputation, which I think are pretty darn good. I have only one question: Does mindSHIFT come with an extended warranty?
Actually, I have another one: Would you buy cloud services from Best Buy? Send your best guess to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/15/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
Microsoft has been battling with Google over all the big cloud productivity deals. Redmond has already lost deals to the federal government and the city of Los Angeles. Recently, General Motors was up for grabs; looks like Google also won this one.
The Wall Street Journal is saying that GM has a deal to use Google Apps enterprisewide, but that the actual rollout is still not 100 percent defined -- or perhaps official. The deal could mean 100,000 users for Google and one huge Google Apps reference account.
Google claims over 4 million Google Apps users, but it remains to be seen how active these are. Do you use Google Apps? If so, fire up the e-mail and let me know why at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/08/2011 at 12:47 PM5 comments
I don't anyone who would argue that the U.S. government is the most efficient organization in the world. But it does have hundreds of thousands of well-educated employees with plenty of time -- at least, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (or 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., depending on their department) -- to study various issues.
Lately, government brain cells have been working on how best to move to the cloud. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is leading the charge. Two of the group's three planned volumes on the subject are now out for public comment.
Here are the key concerns. Government clouds must be secure, interoperate with other agencies as well as the outside world, and offer data and application portability. Achieving this can only be done with the proper standards and applications that have been built based on agreed-upon guidelines.
NIST is also detailing exactly how these items are actually implemented and managed -- information that can serve as the basis of yet-to-be-built government clouds.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/08/2011 at 12:47 PM1 comments