Google Cloud opens up on its edge strategy – and how clouds, telcos and developers all need to work together

Workloads, data and compute power are all moving closer to the edge. For the largest cloud players, who already hold many of the aces, this represents an important opportunity. Yet to do so fully, as Shailesh Shukla, VP and general manager networking at Google Cloud explained, it requires help from telecom providers and developers alike.

Shukla was speaking at The Edge Event earlier today around the hyperscaler's perspective. Speaking with Roy Illsley, chief analyst IT and...

29 September 2020 | Data Management

Oracle touts TikTok as flagship cloud customer after deal approved on US side

Updated The deal has been approved in principle - by the highest authority - and now Oracle has confirmed that social network TikTok will use the company as its 'secure cloud technology provider.'

TikTok, which had been threatened to be banned by US president Donald Trump over national security concerns, had a long list of potential suitors for its US operations before choosing Oracle over other tech behemoths, including Microsoft.

Over the weekend (Sep 19), President...

21 September 2020 | Enterprise

Gartner adds PaaS to IaaS Magic Quadrant in sign of the times – but the leaders remain the same

The script might have changed, but the leading actors remain. Gartner's 2020 Magic Quadrant analysing the leading players in cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) has included various flavours of platform as a service (PaaS) in a nod to expanding enterprise use cases. Yet these additions have reinforced the status quo, rather than disrupted it.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains top of the rankings, with Microsoft and Google Cloud alongside in the leaders' zone. This is a mirror...

8 September 2020 | AWS

Microsoft Azure ‘most used and trusted’ public cloud, says CCS Insight survey

Cloud migrations are accelerating as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic - and Microsoft is the main beneficiary of this extra demand, according to new research.

The latest report from analyst firm CCS Insight, its latest annual survey on IT investment with more than 730 respondents, found the proportion of businesses with more than half of their IT workloads in the cloud is expected to double, to 56%, in the coming 12 months.

Microsoft Azure was cited as both the...

25 August 2020 | Infrastructure

Alibaba Cloud posts $1.75bn revenues at 59% yearly growth rate, cites Asia Pacific dominance

Alibaba Cloud has secured almost $1.75 billion (RMB 12,345bn) in revenues for its most recent quarter at a growth rate of 59% year over year.

The eCommerce giant, whose cloud division broke the $1.5bn mark in February, attributed the figures to increased contributions from its public and hybrid cloud businesses, reflecting higher average revenue per customer.

Total revenue for the wider company for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, was $21.76bn (RMB153,75bn) at an...

20 August 2020 | Alibaba Cloud

Global IaaS market worth $44.5 billion in 2019, says Gartner

The infrastructure as a service (IaaS) space keeps on growing: new data from Gartner has argued the global market was worth $44.5 billion last year, with the hyperscalers further entrenching their positions.

The analyst firm said in a note the worldwide IaaS market grew 37.7% in 2019, with the top five players accounting for 80% of the market, up from 77% the year before.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) remained top of the shop as of the end of 2019, with Gartner estimating a...

10 August 2020 | IaaS

Privacy Shield ruling could lead to dark clouds ahead for hyperscalers, advocates warn

The ending of the Privacy Shield agreement by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) could have serious ramifications for the major hyperscale cloud providers, according to privacy activists.

Privacy Shield is an EU-US agreement which 'provides companies on both sides of the Atlantic with a mechanism to comply with data protection requirements in support of transatlantic commerce', in the words of the framework's website statement.

Max Schrems, a leading privacy advocate,...

7 August 2020 | Data & Analytics

Gartner: How and why cloud providers need to support their customers through Covid-19

Cloud providers need to proactively support their customers through the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic. They can do this by demonstrating the strength and adaptability of their service offerings.

Covid-19 has left many organisations unsure if their business continuity strategy is sufficiently robust, particularly when it comes to cloud services. The reliance on videoconferencing and collaboration tools has stressed the limits of back-end supporting...

21 May 2020 | Infrastructure

Pentagon rules that Microsoft’s $10bn JEDI cloud contract award was fair

Updated A report from the Inspector General at the US Department of Defense (DoD) has ruled that the DoD's award of the JEDI $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft was fair.

Following the announcement that Microsoft had won the contract back in October, Amazon Web Services (AWS), seen by many in the industry as the favourite, said it would appeal the ruling.

This duly happened; in November reports came that AWS had filed the paperwork, while in February AWS...

16 April 2020 | AWS

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna cites ‘essential, ubiquitous hybrid cloud’ in first missive

IBM's new CEO Arvind Krishna has written of the importance of hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) in the company's roadmap going forward.

In a letter to all employees dated April 6, Krishna's first day in charge - and published on LinkedIn - the IBM chief executive noted that an 'essential, ubiquitous hybrid cloud platform' was key to making the company 'the most trusted technology partner of the 21st century.'

Krishna also cited IBM's leading...

14 April 2020 | Applications