The Cloud Stops Here
March 15, 2013
In the last few years cloud technology has taken off. It seems that many of the world’s biggest companies all have their head in the cloud but there are still some people out there that aren’t sold on the technology. The Tech Eye article “Forget the Cloud, Get a Mainframe” talks about a large retailer that has stayed away from the cloud. Tasmanian retailer Coggans is not relying on cloud technology but instead has decided to upgrade its Unisys mainframe system. It will be used for their mission-critical applications as well as its online infrastructure. This move is newsworthy for several reasons. The most obvious is that with the popularity of cloud technology why pass on it. Secondly, Australia is not big in the mainframe game and only about 6 organizations within Australia actually use the Unisys’ mainframe system. However, Coogans continues to forge ahead with its mainframe system and has its reasons for staying away from the cloud. According to the IT manager Peter Jandera
“if there was a disastrous crash of the company production machine, the outfit could switch to a disaster recovery environment. Both systems are separate and there is also an offline backup of the entire environment. No one guarantees the last mile and there were real dangers because the cloud means that you do not necessarily know where the data is going. All it would take is a person with a space to cut through a cable and the company is stuffed.”
It seemed that everyone was moving to the cloud so it’s always nice to see that some people are “bucking the system” and choosing other viable types of technology. Perhaps this busts the field wide open for OpenText BRS search engine and Stairs III and could highlight a shift in the industry. Even if it doesn’t it’s always good to see a bit of old mixed in with the new.
April Holmes, March 15, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Shasta Ventures Adds Staff to Meet Demand
March 13, 2013
Demand for enterprise solutions is soaring and the companies that provide them are expanding. Shasta Ventures is the latest to make an announcement about expansion in response to increased demand. Read more about their new staff additions in the TechCrunch article, “Shasta Ventures Doubles Down On Enterprise Software Experience With New Hires.”
The article begins:
“Shasta Ventures is doubling down on enterprise software experience with the additions of Zenprise CEO Jayaram Bhat as an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) and Issac Roth as Venture Advisor at the early-stage venture firm. As the company tells us, this is a move to grow Shasta’s enterprise software, cloud and SaaS practice.”
Shasta Ventures is just another enterprise software solution company to add staff in response to demand. LucidWorks is another that recently upped and expanded its expert staff. LucidWorks is not an up-and-comer, but a trusted, industry-vetted standard. Even more, LucidWorks uses Lucene and Solr as their open source infrastructure. Enterprise is hot and so is open source, and the combination of the two has moved beyond a trend to become a necessity.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Cloud Revenue Drifts Upward
March 13, 2013
Google has added some support items to its cloud menu, we learn from “Google Adds Fee-Based Support Services for Cloud Platform Customers” at ComputerWorld. These options are available for use with Google‘s Cloud Platform products like App Engine, Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, and Big Query. This is an important step for the company, which has been rightly criticized in the past for subpar technical support.
Turning to an unoriginal but easily understood metals theme, Google has named the service tiers Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The free Bronze level just lets you in on documentation, forums, and billing assistance. For $150 per month, Silver hooks users up with the Cloud Platform support team via email, where one can ask about functionality, best practices, and service errors.
Writer Juan Carlos Perez discusses the highest precious-metal options, which are a bit more complex:
“The Gold tier, which starts at $400 per month, adds around-the-clock phone support and consultation on application development, best practices or architecture issues. In the Gold tier, the $400 fee is the minimum charge for all customers, and Google then adds a percentage of the customer’s total monthly usage fees for all Cloud Platform products if those fees exceed $4,000 per month, according to the company. For example, a customer that spends between $4,001 and $10,000 per month in usage fees would pay 9 percent of that monthly total to receive Gold-tier service. Those who spend more than $200,000 in monthly usage fees would pay 3 percent. The top Platinum tier gives customers direct access to a technical account management team. To obtain pricing for the Platinum tier customers need to contact Google.”
Of course they do. Gee, now they’ve made me curious.
Differing levels of response-time promises accompany each paid tier; on urgent issues, Silver customers need wait no longer than four business hours, while Gold and Platinum players should get a response within the hour. For less crucial concerns, Silvers and Golds should see a response within a business day, and Platinums should hear back in under four business hours. The number of an organization’s users who may access the Support Portal also varies with tier, with two for Silver, five for Gold, and an unlimited number for Platinum users.
Cynthia Murrell, March 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Conference Brings Cloud Startups to Paris
March 5, 2013
Open source themed conferences are surging in popularity. In addition to the strong open source community maintained by online communities like SearchHub, conferences are another meaningful way to get like-minds together and innovate quickly and effectively. A similar cloud computing themed conference is making its way across the pond with the CloudConf this summer in Paris. Rude Baguette gives the highlights in, “CloudConf brings Heroku, Elastic Search, dotCloud, and Hadoop to Paris June 7th.”
The article says:
“The latest event brought to you by dotConferences, CloudConf brings together speakers form the world’s leading cloud startups to speak about the most important topics in Cloud Computing. The event will feature Noah Zoschke of Heroku, who came out to Paris last month as well for UXD4Startups, as well as Shay Banon, the creator of Elastic Search, which just announced a $24 Million fundraising. Solomon Hykes, founder of dotCloud, will also be present, with dotCloud being (one of) the only French startup(s) to have gone through Y-Combinator.”
Last week, North American open source fans enjoyed one of the best conferences available at ApacheCon. LucidWorks is a recurring sponsor. As a major player in the open source enterprise solution field, LucidWorks recognizes the value of investing in the developer community. Stronger code leads to stronger value-added solutions.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 5, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
If Oracle RightNow Saved a Salesman
February 21, 2013
If only he had had access to Oracle’s RightNow, Willy Loman’s story might have ended differently. Is that what Greg Sirbu is trying to say when he evokes Arthur Miller’s 1949 opus Death of a Salesman? The literary allusion frames a fictional conversation in Perficient’s blog post, “When? Now? Yes! RightNow! You’ll Find it in the Cloud. . . .”
Sirbu recasts Miller’s scene between the ill-fated Loman and his employer, Howard Wagner, as a modern-day conversation. This time, though, the Salesman is able to suggest their company (Widget, Inc.) adopt RightNow, Oracle‘s cloud-based customer experience platform. His pitch sounds a lot like Oracle’s promotional material, explaining the software’s features. The blog’s creator, Perficient, is eventually brought into the hypothetical dialogue:
“That sounds very complex Loman,” Howard said. “Our information technology staff is busy with many other projects, they may not have the time right now to bring what sounds like a great solution up-to-speed in a timely fashion.’
“Howard, we don’t need to worry about that,” Loman said. “Oracle has a solution implementation partner, Perficient, that can bring all the necessary consulting resources to bear to ensure that RightNow is structured just the way we need it built for our business.”
“Sounds like we need to explore RightNow, right now!” Wagner said.
Of course he did. Such a turn of events would have ruined Miller’s play, but that’s beside the point, I suppose. It is an interesting tactic; will enough readers recognize the name “Willy Loman” to make this an effective device?
Formed in 1998, Perficient offers their clients a competitive edge with a variety of Internet-based business technologies. With offices around the world, the company maintains its headquarters in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Cynthia Murrell, February 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Liferay Upgrades Mobile Capability
February 18, 2013
Liferay is an open source enterprise portal supported by the established JavaScript framework, Alloy. Liferay frequently makes headlines and is quick to try new techniques and develop new add-ons. Their latest update is a venture into mobile technology. CMS Wire has the full story in their article, “Liferay Upgrades Mobile Collaboration App – Sync & Javascript Framework – Alloy.”
The article begins:
“Open source enterprise solutions provider Liferay is updating its Liferay Sync document sharing/synchronization tool for mobile usage, while also introducing version 2.0 of its Alloy Java script framework. In response to growing popularity of the Sync data management/collaboration solution among Android and iOS users, Liferay is providing new mobile Sync capabilities.”
We anticipate that mobile will continue to be a hot topic within enterprise content management and search. Even established solutions like LucidWorks will need to find a way to function on mobile platforms. Many are already quite functional on the Cloud, but the next step will definitely be mobile device integration. Mobile devices are not quite ready for intense data input and are still primarily for information retrieval. However, that distinction will not last long and open source enterprise solutions will be ready with responsive solutions.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Truth Behind Cloud Computing Costs
January 25, 2013
Cloud computing allows users ease and accessibility and lower costs, but Datamation analyzes, “What Are The Hidden Costs Of Cloud Computing?” Datamation pulls it information from Symantec’s “Avoiding the Hidden Costs of Cloud 2013” survey, that shows cloud adoption is very high. Rogue deployments came from 77% of the survey-takers, meaning the clouds were not approved by corporate IT. Does anyone else here security breech problems?
Cloud storage may be lighter than air, but it is also costing money. That is not the scary point, however:
“Perhaps even more concerning is the fact that 43 percent of respondents admitted that they have lost data in the cloud. In Elliot’s view, there are a number of reasons for the cloud data loss. For one, the cloud data provider could have lost the data in a failure of some sort. What is more likely, though, is that some form of user human error led to the data loss.
‘The user could have accidentally misplaced the data and literally just could not find it,’ [Dave Elliott, senior manager, Global Cloud Marketing at Symantec] said.”
Cloud users are also not fully using all of the storage they pay for and they also do not have data duplication in place. What can we learn from this? Install security policies for the cloud, reevaluate the costs, and make sure everything is consistent! In truth, does anyone even notice the costs compared to responsibilities being shuffled around and cutting staff?
Whitney Grace, January 25, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Innovation No Longer Driven by Big IT
January 18, 2013
Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM – these companies spend big bucks on research and development every quarter. Microsoft spends $10 billion a year. But none of these companies have made significant contributions to the enterprise in the last ten years. So who’s making the impact? Open source. ReadWrite Enterprise covers the story in, “Trickle-Down Web Innovation Breathes New Life Into Enterprise IT.”
The author gets to the crux of the issue:
“Cloud computing, Big Data, mobile… they’re all being invented elsewhere, not by the enterprise behemoths . . . these tools were open sourced, not put out for sale. That’s how innovation seems to happen in the 21st Century. In large part innovation comes with an open-source license because it’s a by-product of businesses that heavily rely on technology, but don’t actually sell technology. It’s ‘trickle-down innovation’ from the web business community.”
Web giants like Yahoo!, Google, and Facebook are making great strides in large scale applications on low cost infrastructure. The sheer volume of data dealt with is striking. But there are other smaller companies who focus their effort on precise open source enterprise search software, and they are making a big impact in their own way. LucidWorks is one such company, proving that open source can provider better service at a better price point and maintain just as high a level of reliability.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google Pushes into Enterprise Market
January 9, 2013
Google is about to tackle the enterprise market head on, particularly targeting the areas of the cloud, social media, and mobile software. Could this have anything to do with softening ad revenues? Not sure; that is one topic not mentioned in the informative interview from Computer Business Review, “Q&A with Thomas Davies, Head of Google Enterprise UK and Ireland.”
Journalist Steve Evans spoke to Davies about Google’s enterprise push. Davies names three trends, cloud, social, and mobile, that his division focuses on, and specifies mobile as the most influential. Because smartphones and tablets are becoming important tools to many businesses, Google plans to seize the day with Android for the enterprise.
There are those who question whether the security and management capabilities of Android are up to the task. Davies assures us, though, that his team has been communicating with business leaders and is tailoring the OS to meet their specifications. Furthermore, he says, Android is now pushing out updates the way Chrome does, so companies won’t have to contend with different stages. The chaotic way Android versions have historically been distributed, though, suggests that every worker would have to have the same iteration of the same device for that to work; not ideal.
As for social media, Google anticipates that it will soon melt into collaboration tools, rather than remain a standalone destination application. Oh, but make no mistake– Google+ will remain a destination app. They have a lot invested in that project, Davies says. Evans presses that point, asking why Google + is different from failed attempts like Wave and Buzz. Because Google learns from mistakes, of course. Well, that’s good.
Regarding the cloud, Evans notes that it’s a big step for companies. Davies replies that it’s all about the money. Businesses have now been hard pressed for years- years!- to reduce costs, and there’s only so much you can cut. According to him, porting to the cloud can save on operational costs by 30 to 50 percent—a reduction many companies find well worth the bother.
So, it seems that now is the time for Google to aggressively push into the enterprise market. Financial pressure and technical advancement have come together to create the perfect opportunity, and they are not about to let the moment escape them. Davies concludes:
“People want to change. I think the time for personal productivity – going to the office, filling in your spreadsheets and sending them to someone else – is going. There was a standard, monolithic build; SAP in the background, Office and IE on the desktop and BlackBerry. That’s changing and I think the speed of that change has caught IT departments by surprise.
“That plays nicely into our hands. I think where we will win, and where we are winning, is when it comes to the three main benefits: business benefits, technical benefits and cultural transformation. That’s how you change an entire company.”
Cocky, isn’t he? But the man has a point. I predict the company will succeed spectacularly in this venture.
Cynthia Murrell, January 09, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Autonomy Tech Features Prominently at HP
January 9, 2013
HP is now committed to cloud services, security, and information, according to one insider. Will the approach gel into a solution that makes Autonomy pay off, despite the recent acrimony? Perhaps. ServicesAngle tells us, “Beyond the Controversy, Autonomy at Center of HP Information Strategy.”
One of Autonomy’s advantages is its approach to storage and analysis. While traditional systems store data and perform analysis in separate systems, the Idol platform runs directly on the storage server. The article says this makes the Autonomy approach 40 times faster than that of the competition. Writer Bert Latamore continues:
“Integrate that with HP’s other major Big Data analytics acquisition, Vertica, which is very good at handling very large structured databases, and you have a system that can tame the largest Big Data databases, [Autonomy VP Brian]Wyse says. That is exactly what HP has done, and now it is embedding the Idol/Vertica system in the heart of a list of Big Data products that do anything from analyzing huge medical databases to predicting which HP products in which client environments may fail in the next month, allowing HP to provide proactive to its customers. ‘This is unique to HP,’ Wyse said.”
The write-up emphasizes advantages of speedier analysis. Primarily, companies can actually do something with all that data they’ve bothered to collect but haven’t had time to process. That is certainly a plus. Latamore also gives an example of the sort of thing quick analysis can catch: When producers of Madagascar commissioned an analysis to see how kids reacted to the film, analysts found that children in one particular venue “were running screaming from the theater.” It seems that locale was running a horror-movie promotion before the show. Oops!
So, it looks like Autonomy‘s technology, particularly when paired with Vertica, is becoming a real boon for HP. It’s a shame about the recent accounting conflict, but at least software doesn’t harbor hard feelings.
Cynthia Murrell, January 09, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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