Fast, agile DevOps is the most effective way to rapidly deliver software. But DevOps environments rarely use enterprise storage systems because these systems generally lack the flexibility and agility that DevOps demands.  Instead, alternative infrastructure is typically deployed, creating a myriad of cost and management problems.  

Catalogic solves this with a software-based platform that complements enterprise storage with the required functionality that DevOps needs. 

When it comes to web hosting, the cloud refers to a group of technologies that will allow for reliability, scalability, and redundancy at higher levels than can be provided by a dedicated web server. So it is no surprise that so many people are making the switch to cloud web hosting and ditching old methods of hosting their websites. But should you do the same? Keep reading to learn more.

The survey reflects a wide range of industries and company sizes, ranging from less than 10 to more than 10,000 employees.  Data was also representative across the globe, with the majority of respondents coming from North and South America, followed by Europe.

The survey results show that OpenStack adoption is growing; but it also shows there are still challenges to overcome such as the security model, lack of tools, and cost management. 

Check out the Infographic below:

Grazed from BSMInfo. Author: Jessica Couto.

The verdict is in: Cloud computing can help small and midsize businesses (SMBs) lower operating expenses and improve application performance – and SMBs are increasingly looking to IT channel partners like you to help them realize those benefits. About 78 percent of U.S. small businesses will be fully adapted to cloud computing by 2020, according to Emergent Research. That’s a huge opportunity for channel partners who get the job done right. But be careful because cloud migrations can quickly go haywire. Here’s a look at five common mistakes to avoid when migrating your SMB clients to the cloud:..

1) Failing to conduct a thorough applications assessment: Before beginning any major migration to the cloud, it’s important to conduct a thorough assessment of your client’s IT infrastructure and application stack. Some call this an “applications rationalization” assessment. It should be designed to help you better understand the client’s applications portfolio and create a roadmap to the cloud that fully supports their business…

Read more from the source @ http://www.bsminfo.com/doc/pitfalls-to-avoid-when-migrating-smb-clients-to-the-cloud-0001

Grazed from FocusTaiwan. Author: Editorial Staff.

Japanese telecom giant SoftBank Corp., whose popular “Pepper” robots are manufactured by a Taiwanese contractor, recently announced a new partnership with Microsoft Corp. to jointly develop robots to help retailers provide better customer service. SoftBank made the announcement on the new initiative Tuesday, saying that it will cooperate with Microsoft in the area of cloud robotics, with a focus on integrating “Pepper” robots with Microsoft’s cloud computing technologies.

“Pepper” robots — jointly developed by SoftBank and Taiwanese contract manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. — have been popular since going on sale in the Japanese market last June. The first step in the new partnership will be to integrate SoftBank’s robotics with Microsoft’s cloud computing platform to create robots that can interact with customers to provide better shopping experiences…

Read more from the source @ http://focustaiwan.tw/news/ast/201603090017.aspx

Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: PR Announcement.

owergate, Europe’s largest independently owned insurance intermediary, is undertaking an IT infrastructure transformation across its entire business to address challenges posed by legacy systems and lack of integration and has chosen Accenture (NYSE:ACN) as its strategic service provider.

The transformation programme focuses on four service towers – networks, data centres, end-user computing and service-support. Towergate has chosen to work with Accenture to migrate infrastructure and applications to the public cloud – supporting the data centre and end user computing service towers. Towergate and Accenture have also signed a five-year arrangement for Accenture to manage service support across the whole IT infrastructure estate…

The open source cloud computing project, OpenStack, has come a long way since NASA and Rackspace first launched it in 2010. However, with all of its recent successes, this survey shows there are still questions and debates that surround OpenStack that are worth answering.

Commissioned by Talligent through media firms CloudCow and VMblog, the 2016 State of OpenStack Report surveyed 647 virtualization and cloud IT professionals and executives from across the globe.  The survey found respondents in varying stages of familiarity with the cloud technology ranging from those currently using it to support projects or production workloads (30 percent), evaluating it (32 percent) or familiar with it but not yet implementing the technology (36 percent). But once in place, respondents stated they expect to quickly expand beyond development environments, with lab growth moving from 43 percent to 89 percent and QA/Test to grow from 47 percent to 91 percent, both within the next 12 months.

Grazed from theInquirer. Author: Daniel Robinson.

In an unexpected move, Microsoft has announced that it is prepping a version of SQL Server for Linux systems. The company has provided public preview releases of SQL Server 2016 since May last year, and the release candidate version was last updated at the start of this month. Microsoft will now herald the arrival of SQL Server 2016 with a Data Driven event in New York on 10 March culminating in general availability of the platform later this year.

However, Microsoft has announced that it will also bring SQL Server to Linux, starting with the core relational database capabilities currently available in the private preview release and full availability slated for the middle of 2017. Bringing SQL Server to Linux will enable Microsoft to deliver a consistent data platform across Windows Server and Linux, as well as on-premise and cloud, according to Scott Guthrie, executive vice president for Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise Group…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Editorial Staff.

The part virtual reality (VR) can play in the evolution of the data centre has been mooted as far back as 2013 – but now the future looks good so long as organisations’ infrastructure can stand up to it, according to Aegis Data. Three years ago, writing for Data Center Knowledge, Rich Miller reported on data centre provider IO, whose latest innovation was to provide a 3D visual representation and walkthrough of a customer’s specific environment, with IO describing it as a “gamification of the data centre.”

And according to Greg McCulloch, CEO of Aegis Data, the data centre industry has the potential to be the largest beneficiary of VR – but it will take time. “As a concept, its presence has been felt for a long time but limited computing power combined with slow connectivity speeds means there has always been a cap as to what can be achieved,” said McCulloch…

Grazed from EnterpriseInnovation. Author: Allan Tan.

“As its technologies and processes mature, the cloud is being increasingly relied on as a vehicle for agile, scalable and elastic solutions. To build competitive advantage and cut costs, CIOs and other IT leaders need to constantly adapt their strategies to leverage cloud capabilities.” So says Gartner in its Predicts 2016: Cloud Computing to Drive Digital Business report.

The Cloud terminology has become ingrained in business vocabulary and represents what many businesses see is the next evolution of IT: the ability to source the required IT resources – be it computing resources, storage capacity, network connectivity, mobile application or secured services. However, despite the acceptance of cloud, public or private or hybrid, as an acceptable strategy that delivers on the promise of utility-like services the use of public cloud to host critical business applications at scale remains limited to the puzzlement of cloud service providers…