Why the future of cloud infrastructure is all about the interconnection fabric

The future of cloud infrastructure means the traditional wide area network (WAN) needs to be architected and engineered differently to become a dynamic, automated, interconnection fabric between globally distributed data centre in the core and at the edge.

With the arrival of 5G networks and Industry 4.0, distributed cloud architectures are in the spotlight. Time-sensitive applications, such as industrial automation and autonomous vehicles, will use artificial intelligence (AI)...

By | 3 July 2020 | Architecture

Microsoft launches healthcare cloud, says more industry clouds will follow

Microsoft has launched its first industry-specific cloud offering aimed at healthcare, with the promise of more industry clouds to follow.

The announcement was made as part of the now-virtual Microsoft Build event. While the major headlines of the developer jamboree have focused around big investments in artificial intelligence, as sister publication AI News has reported, Azure has often featured peripherally underpinning the projects. The partnership with OpenAI - to whom...

By | 20 May 2020 | Collaboration

Microsoft to acquire Metaswitch Networks, ramping up Azure 5G push

Microsoft is to acquire Metaswitch Networks, a provider of virtualised network software, as the company's strategy towards binding cloud and communications continues.

The rationale is straightforward: leading cloud vendors are looking to enable telecom operators in deploying and maintaining 5G networks more efficiently. Technologies such as those which Metaswitch builds will be invested into Azure to provide its infrastructure with 'specialised software required to run virtualised...

By | 14 May 2020 | Industry

Lloyds Banking Group signs up to Google Cloud in five-year partnership

Google Cloud continues to secure the big-ticket clients, with the company announcing that Lloyds Banking Group is set to embark on its ‘cloud transformation’ journey with Google.

The bank is investing a total of £3 billion ($3.9bn) between 2018 and 2020 in wider IT initiatives, and in this five-year deal, Lloyds will deploy various Google Cloud services focused around the...

By | 10 March 2020 | Adoption

Alibaba Cloud breaks $1.5bn in revenues amid hope of eCommerce migration encouragement

Alibaba Cloud hit more than RMB10 billion (£1.18bn) in revenue in its most recent quarter, with revenues up 62% year over year.

Total revenues for Alibaba were at RMB161.4bn (£17.7bn) for Q419, at a yearly growth of 38%, meaning Alibaba Cloud comprises 6.7% of the China-based retail giant’s overall revenues. Cloud revenues for Q2 and Q3 were at $1.13bn (£867m) and $1.3bn...

By | 17 February 2020 | Alibaba

5G, the edge, and the disruption of the cloud: Why now is the time for change

Sponsored If one were to put together a linguistic analysis of all the conversations held at MWC 2020, later this month in Barcelona, there is a fair chance that the most spoken word would be 5G.

Not surprisingly, the term will be everywhere this year – much of course as it was last year and the year before. Yet whether it is smartphone vendors looking to showcase their latest, speediest wares, or...

By | 10 February 2020 | Data & Analytics

Google Cloud unveils retail updates, expands Lowe’s and Wayfair partnerships

Google Cloud has announced it is expanding its retail acceleration program (RAP) among other initiatives designed to scale up retailers’ cloud projects.

The moves were announced at NRF 2020, the biggest event in the retail space, with Google doubling down on its message to accelerate retailers’ digital growth and customer experience – pinned together with its data expertise.

By | 14 January 2020 | Google

Amazon criticises New York Times reporting of open source theft concerns

AWS vice president Andi Gutmans has penned a scathing response to an article highlighting concerns that Amazon is stealing the innovations of startups.

New York Times journalist Daisuke Wakabayashi wrote an article titled Prime Leverage: How Amazon Wields Power in the Technology World in which he highlighted several cases where Amazon is said to have "strip-mined" (as startups have coined it) open source technology.

The main example is of Amsterdam-based startup...

By | 18 December 2019 | Amazon

Study shows continued cloud maturation in Nordics – with manufacturing a standout

A new report from Nordic IT services provider Tieto has found the region’s cloud landscape has matured significantly since 2015 from both a strategic and operational perspective – with Sweden and Finland fighting for supremacy.

The study, the latest Cloud Maturity Index which was based on responses from almost 300 decision-makers across the public and private sectors in the Nordics, placed...

By | 25 November 2019 | Europe

IBM touts first financial services-specific public cloud after Bank of America collaboration

IBM is looking to target financial services customers with the launch of what is being claimed as the world’s first financial services-ready public cloud – in association with Bank of America.

In some respects, this can be seen as a glorified customer update. Bank of America will be a ‘committed collaborator’ to use the platform, built on IBM’s public cloud, and will host...

By | 8 November 2019 | Industry