"Cloud Elements addresses a key challenge by accelerating the publishing of SaaS application APIs as AWS Lambda functions," said Tim Wagner, general manager of AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway. "Developers using AWS are looking for ways to combine APIs from a variety of SaaS and software applications into their applications, to support their serverless architecture and scale their code without incurring additional costs to run. With today’s release of Element Builder, Cloud Elements offers a simple and useful solution to automate the publishing of API Integrations as Lambda functions."

A wise person once said: The only thing that is constant is change. Open source cloud solutions like OpenStack are challenging companies to come up with new business models to innovate. It was high time for pure play OpenStack company Mirantis to make the right move in the right direction, at the right time.

In September, Mirantis announced that they acquired TCP Cloud, a company that specializes in managed services for OpenStack. The news stirred the beehive as Mirantis was stepping on some partner toes and it was also moving away from the ‘pure play OpenStack company’ model.

The real value lies in people and not technology

The OpenStack Foundation is the community that promotes the global development, distribution and adoption of the OpenStack cloud operating system, and serves more than 30,000 Individual Members from over 170 countries around the world. Enterprise members are divided into platinum member, gold member, corporate member and other supporters. At present, above 150 global enterprises provide code contributions, product integration, market promotion and capital support for OpenStack open source community.

Pulsar is built for the Enterprise, SaaS, and Managed Service Providers. We’re moving ahead to the next level, offering greater flexibility in the adoption of DevOps environment. —  Dr. Rao Papolu, CEO and Chairman

ScaleArc’s database load balancing software deploys between application and Amazon Aurora database servers to direct traffic into the database on behalf of the application. ScaleArc has now engineered its software to work with Amazon Aurora, a MySQL-compatible relational database engine that combines the speed and availability of high-end commercial databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases. The ScaleArc software leverages Amazon Aurora’s application programming interfaces (APIs) to apply ScaleArc’s functionality to Amazon Aurora’s environment.

Now Amazon Aurora customers can leverage ScaleArc software to:

In addition to making it easier to get visibility into threats in the cloud, the integration between Gigamon and ProtectWise also enables organizations to retain a long term memory of the enterprise’s network activity in the cloud. With ProtectWise, enterprises can now build overarching security programs that provide analysts with a single interface – stretching from within enterprises networks all the way across private and public cloud infrastructures – for gaining visibility into threats and performing retrospective analysis.

Goldman Sachs recently upgraded Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to buy from neutral, and raised price target to $68 from $60. Goldman Sachs believes that Microsoft’s gross profit will grow at an accelerating pace and gross profit margin will improve due to Azure’s cloud opportunities.

Since profitability is a matter of managerial accounting and difficult to predict, I’m not sure about profitability. However, I believe Microsoft’s revenue will rise significantly going forward since the company is offering customers the world’s most sophisticated, advanced and diversified container support via its recent launch of Windows Server 2016. Containers also will help Microsoft win the war against Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) AWS despite the latter’s recent deal with VMware (NYSE:VMW).

The shipping industry requires advanced IT capabilities to enable precise tracking of assets and customer shipments as they move around the world. Matson’s vessels, shipping terminals, container equipment, and truck shipments all require highly reliable technology to ensure that its transportation network operates at world-class levels. In addition, Matson’s customers count on cloud-based applications to provide real-time visibility and analytics in managing their own supply chains. All of these mission-critical applications run on the AWS Cloud today, including Matson’s custom-built order-to-cash booking and billing systems, terminal operations, global equipment management, U.S.-wide logistics applications, and customer-facing website.

This year, the National Retail Federation projects that 137 million consumers will shop between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday. Retailers have stocked their shelves and warehouses and are already weathering the traffic storm that comes with this time of year. 

While the profit potential of the holiday season is the upside for retailers, there are many IT challenges related to successfully managing this increase in traffic – ensuring networks stay up, servers can handle demand and data is protected should something go wrong. In store and online, Black Friday sales are dependent on a sound IT infrastructure. On the flip side, Black Friday and Cyber Monday present many opportunities for retailers to capitalize on the massive amount of data collected at this time. To stay on top in the market, it’s crucial for retailers to understand and leverage data analytics tools this season. 

How is retail IT preparing for this all important weekend? Here are a few idea from some top industry experts: