Google Cloud Lashes Out at Microsoft, New Hurdle for Broadcom-VMware
This cloud computing wrap-up showcases some big news and happenings at more under-the-radar cloud firms.
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Adopting multiple cloud platforms supports business success, but more than three-quarters (76%) of end users say they need better control over their cloud expenses.
That’s perhaps the most significant takeaway from VMware’s recent Multi-Cloud Maturity Index research. The multicloud provider surveyed nearly 6,000 organizations. Almost 100% of those users — 95% — said multicloud proves critical to their outcomes. However, the costs rack up, and quickly.
Those findings come as little surprise. Starting last year, more organizations started pulling back on their public cloud outlay because of unexpected and soaring expenses. More end users also started implementing greater cost controls, which has contributed to somewhat slower public cloud spending.
Consider these other stats that emerged from VMware’s Multi-Cloud Maturity Index:
• Sixty-nine percent of respondents reported an increase in the number of public clouds they rely on to run their day-to-day operations.
• Ninety percent of multicloud organizations report having apps built to run across multiple clouds.
• Less than one-third (32%) of more mature cloud users say they struggle to control cloud spend.
Speaking of VMware, its acquisition by Broadcom is getting another challenge.
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority expressed dismay Wednesday that Broadcom hasn’t adequately responded to concerns that the mammoth $61 billion deal will have on the server market, Reuters reported.
What does that mean? An in-depth inquiry that could push approval of the acquisition out another six months.
The competition branch of the European Union already launched its own in-depth investigation in December, which was expected to draw the approval process out until at least this summer.
IBM Cloud has teamed with independent cloud storage provider Wasabi Technologies.
The companies said they’ll enable enterprises to run applications across any cloud environment.
IBM Cloud will deliver the hybrid cloud capabilities via IBM Cloud Satellite. Wasabi brings its cloud storage, which features no fees for data egress or API requests, to the deal.
“Our collaboration with Wasabi technology will allow clients to re-imagine business processes enabled by data, while focusing on resiliency, performance, security and compliance,” said Howard Boville, head of IBM Hybrid Cloud Platform. “We are helping organizations across all industries, even those that are highly regulated, uncover game-changing insights from any environment, without sacrificing security.”
Findings from a new DigitalOcean survey show that cybersecurity stands out as a growing concern among small businesses.
Independent cloud provider DigitalOcean targets startups and small businesses. The vendor found that its customers are more vulnerable to cybersecurity threats because they tend to have fewer resources — money, people and time.
Meanwhile, cybersecurity and cloud go hand in hand, which complicates matters for end users. As such, more than half (54%) of DigitalOcean’s respondents say they’re more concerned about cybersecurity than they were a year ago.
Problematically, 80% of startups and SMBs employ one person, or less, dedicated to security. More than one-third (38%) of respondents said they have no one on security detail.
“Even without a traditional security role, there should be someone responsible for making security decisions in every organization; this kind of accountability is crucial,” said Tyler Healy, vice president of security at DigitalOcean. “With slimmer budgets, SMBs shouldn’t look to overcomplicate their security posture. For many smaller businesses, improving cybersecurity is likely not about what they can purchase or who they can hire at any single point in time, and is as much cultural and behavioral as it is technical. Choices to simplify security posture early can pay dividends as a business scales.”
DigitalOcean secured responses from 554 C-suite executives around the world to reach its conclusions.
Content delivery network provider Fastly, which bills itself as an edge cloud platform, has expanded its partner program.
The program now features a tiered model with training, marketing support, sales enablement and new pricing and packaging options. The strategy brings more benefits and incentives to VARs, system integrators, managed service providers, agencies and consultancies.
“Our partners are critical to Fastly’s growth and success, so we’ve designed a program that makes it easier for them to win more business while ensuring customers get the value and quality they expect,” said Emily Friedberg, group vice president of global partnerships at Fastly. “More than ever, customers are looking to deliver the fastest online experiences possible, while also improving site performance, enhancing security and empowering innovation at global scale.”
Fastly competes against the likes of Akamai. A company outage about two years ago took down websites including The New York Times, Amazon and Reddit.
Amazon Web Services has cemented yet another of its strategic collaboration agreements, this time with Zendesk.
The deal lasts for five years.
Zendesk provides a customer relationship management platform. AWS and Zendesk will both pitch in money, tools and people as they seek to add more mutual users.
“Zendesk has been both a member of the AWS Partner Network and a customer for many years, leveraging our cloud services to create innovative customer and employee experience solutions for customers,” said Ruba Borno, vice president of worldwide channels and alliances at AWS. “This strategic collaboration agreement with Zendesk allows companies to personalize experiences using data, taking customer experiences to the next level and helping businesses automate and scale their customer service operations on the cloud.”
Its 19,000 layoffs not withstanding, Accenture recently purchased industrial AI firm Flutura.
The behemoth consultancy is adding Flutura’s capabilities to its existing industrial AI services group, which aims to increase performance among customer plants, refineries and supply chains. Accenture will use Flutura specifically for clients in the energy, chemicals, metals, mining and pharmaceutical industries.
“Flutura democratizes AI for engineers, enabling manufacturing and other asset-intensive companies with the carbon intelligence to reduce emissions, energy consumption and lost output due to unplanned downtime of industrial assets,” said Senthil Ramani, senior managing director and Accenture Applied Intelligence lead for Growth Markets. “This acquisition will power industrial AI-led transformation for our clients globally and particularly in Australia, South-East Asia, Japan, Africa, India, Latin America and the Middle East.”
Even though Accenture is publicly traded, it did not disclose the terms of the Flutura buy because the India-based Flutura was privately held.
Cloud infrastructure security provider Ermetic is targeting solution providers and managed security service providers with its newly redesigned channel initiative.
Dubbed “Above the Cloud,” Ermetic’s updated partner program separates offerings for solution providers and MSSPs.
“Although organizations recognize the need to implement a comprehensive cloud infrastructure security program, they often lack the in-house multicloud expertise to manage it themselves,” said Scott Hoard, head of global channel sales for Ermetic. “This is creating a significant opportunity for solution providers and MSSPs.”
Solution providers, including VARs and other resellers, get access to turnkey cloud security for Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. In terms of new benefits, deal registration now features more margin. Ermetic also has added sales incentives and proposal-based marketing development funds.
Meanwhile, MSSPs get risk-based vulnerability management, prioritization and remediation services to deliver to customers. MSSPs own their Ermetic licenses and may allocate them as needed. They also own the customer relationship. The Authorized and Premium levels provide escalating benefits for partners as their Ermetic business volume grows.
Google Cloud has made some changes to its data and AI platforms. Here are some of the announcements from the provider’s virtual Data and AI Summit this week:
• There’s a new approach to running BigQuery, with more flexibility when it comes to operating and scaling data workloads.
• The company debuted data clean rooms, which keep data separate and anonymous.
• There’s also now AlloyDB Omni, a database for transactions and analytics, building on 2022’s AlloyDB announcement.
• Finally, there’s Looker Modeler, a business intelligence service for defining and accessing metrics.
Google Cloud positions itself as the so-called “data cloud.”
There’s more on the Google Cloud front. Parent company Alphabet is going after Microsoft for what it says are anticompetitive cloud computing practices.
The accusations stem from deals Microsoft is forging with cloud vendors in Europe, Reuters noted. Specifically, Google has asked EU antitrust regulators to examine Microsoft’s wheeling and dealing in the region.
The Redmond, Washington-based software behemoth countered the allegations to Reuters by noting it is still merely a “healthy No. 2” in cloud services, with slightly more than 20% of global revenue. Amazon Web Services, by most industry measures, is No. 1 in the world.
There’s more on the Google Cloud front. Parent company Alphabet is going after Microsoft for what it says are anticompetitive cloud computing practices.
The accusations stem from deals Microsoft is forging with cloud vendors in Europe, Reuters noted. Specifically, Google has asked EU antitrust regulators to examine Microsoft’s wheeling and dealing in the region.
The Redmond, Washington-based software behemoth countered the allegations to Reuters by noting it is still merely a “healthy No. 2” in cloud services, with slightly more than 20% of global revenue. Amazon Web Services, by most industry measures, is No. 1 in the world.
Google Cloud and Microsoft have a new spat over potentially “anticompetitive practices.” Meanwhile, Broadcom faces another hurdle in its acquisition of VMware that could push the deal back months.
Those are two of the biggest cloud computing headlines this week, but there’s also some news that’s flown under the radar but that keeps the sector humming. To be sure, Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean, IBM Cloud and similar providers have been busy.
For starters, VMware and DigitalOcean each have published new reports. VMware looked at multicloud environments and subsequent end user struggles. Not surprisingly, expenses stood out as the biggest problem. DigitalOcean, meanwhile, examined cybersecurity issues in cloud. Also not surprisingly, that’s a big deal among startups and small businesses, where a lot of channel partners aim.
Cloud providers also are teaming up as the first quarter of 2023 comes to a close. IBM Cloud has joined forces with Wasabi Technologies and AWS with Zendesk. The companies’ approaches differ but the goals are the same: to lure more customers and make more money.
Next up, content delivery network vendor Fastly, which competes against Akamai, recently revamped its channel program. Cloud infrastructure security vendor Ermetic has followed suit. We have the details.
And Accenture, despite its 19,000 layoffs this week, has acquired an industrial artificial intelligence firm.
Get more details on the big headlines from Google Cloud, Microsoft, Broadcom, VMware and more of the cloud computing news you might have missed this week. It’s all in the slideshow above.
Craig Galbraith contributed to this report.
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