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Tag: cloud

  • APAC cloud video collaboration market booming

    APAC cloud video collaboration market booming

    New business models and advances in cloud computing capabilities are driving adoption and expansion of the Asia-Pacific cloud video collaboration market, according to Frost & Sullivan.

    Cloud video conferencing services grew a strong 43.1% in 2017, and the total video collaboration market is on track to grow at a CAGR of 11.3% over the next five years, the research firm predicts.

    But while newer and agile cloud services are allowing providers to fuel the direction of next-generation video conferencing, a complete overhaul of business models will be required for video conferencing device vendors to match pace with evolving market trends.

    “Cloud, mobility, and innovative use cases are set to drive new growth opportunities within the Asia-Pacific video collaboration market with cloud penetration rates to be around 30% by 2022,” Frost & Sullivan Research Manager Jesse Yu said.

    “Vertically customized solutions and video analytics will become strong areas for differentiation and new growth opportunities.”

    Yu recommends cloud vendors looking to gain a competitive advantage focus on product innovation to support compatibility with Skype for Business or Cisco Spark and offer a flexible approach to cloud services.

    Providers should adopt agile business models that can target SMEs and mid-market customers, pursue collaborations with local telecoms operators on specific industry verticals and use cases and move to reduce bandwidth usage, complexity and costs to improve the user experience.

    “Furthermore, players should explore different strategies to enter the market; for example, local channel partnerships, all-in-one UC/collaboration bundles, freemium deals, eCommerce, and free trials. This will enhance their customer base and reinforce the advantages of video conferencing,” Yu said.

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  • ISPs can help usher in single digital economy in ASEAN

    ISPs can help usher in single digital economy in ASEAN

    The Huawei Southern Pacific ISP Summit 2018 saw over 150 analysts and key industry players converge to discuss how the ISP industry can speed up digital transformation and promote a single digital economy in ASEAN.

    Randy Roberts, Research Director at IDC, shared in his keynote speech, entitled “Regional ASEAN ICT Development – Towards a Single Unified Digital Economy”, that businesses in Asia Pacific have made progress in advancing digital maturity.

    Most businesses are still in the “Digital Explorer” stage, where digitally enabled customer experiences and products are inconsistent and poorly integrated. However, signs of a potential rise in the number of enterprises embarking on digital transformation signal an opportunity for key players in the region.

    Collectively, ASEAN is the sixth largest economy in the world. Its rapidly growing digital economy generates about $150 billion in revenue annually. According to a recent study, the region has the potential to generate an additional $1 trillion in combined GDP by 2025 with a robust digital agenda. In ASEAN, the amount of cross-border bandwidth that is used has grown 45 times larger from 2005 to 2016. It is projected to increase by an additional nine times by 2021 as flows of information, searches, communication, video, transactions, and intra-company traffic continue to surge.

    The digital integration of ASEAN will promote rapid growth of the digital economy, including safe and smart city solutions, to stimulate economic development and inform social intelligence. As ASEAN sets the stage for a single digital economy to harness its full economic potential, it is crucial for key players within the ICT sector to collaborate and contribute to the robust infrastructure necessary to accelerate ASEAN’s growth.

    “Technological innovation and an open ecosystem are critical to the success of digital initiatives,” commented Daniel Zhou, president for South Pacific at Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group.

    “As ASEAN sets the foundation for a unified digital economy, close collaboration between key industry players are key to ensure a solid foundation for a thriving digital economy. Huawei is committed to improving the region and working with our partners for a better connected future.”

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  • AWS launches Aurora via Singapore cloud region

    AWS launches Aurora via Singapore cloud region

    Amazon Web Services has announced the availability of Amazon Aurora in the AWS Asia Pacific (Singapore) region.

    Amazon Aurora is a MySQL and PostgreSQL compatible database engine for the Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) that aims to combine the speed and availability of high-end commercial databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases.

    Amazon Aurora provides up to five times better performance than the typical MySQL and is three times faster than standard PostgreSQL databases. Customers pay a simple hourly charge for each Amazon Aurora database instance they use and Amazon Aurora can automatically scale storage capacity with no downtime or performance degradation.

    “Historically, customers have had to choose between performance and price when evaluating database solutions. Our customers have consistently told us that they wished for an easier way to get the performance of commercial databases, at the price of open source engines,” said Nick Walton, Managing Director, ASEAN, AWS.

    “Amazon Aurora is a database engine that gives customers the best of both worlds – the performance and availability of the highest-grade commercial databases at a cost more commonly associated with open source.”

    Amazon Aurora automatically replicates data across multiple Availability Zones and continuously backs up data to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), which is designed for 99.999999999% durability without performance impact.

    Amazon Aurora is designed to offer greater than 99.99% availability, and to automatically detect and recover from most database failures in less than 60 seconds, without crash recovery or the need to rebuild database caches. Amazon Aurora continually monitors instance health and if there is a failure, it will automatically failover to a read replica without loss of data.

  • Globe commissions pre-fab data center

    Globe commissions pre-fab data center

    Prefabricated data center provider Flexenclosure has secured a multi-million dollar order to build a facility for the Philippines’ Globe Telecom.

    Flexenclosure will provide its eCentre modular prefabicated data center product to the operator for deployment on the island of Mindanao.

    The data center will be assembled and tested at Flexenclosure’s manufacturing plant in Sweden before being shipped to the Philippines for on-site construction. It is expected to be fully operational by early in the third quarter.

    The company is delivering the contract in partnership with Manila-based system integrator Orissa Wicomm.

    Globe CTO and chief strategy officer Gil Genio said the company plans to use its new data center to support its efforts to ramp up capacity and provide innovative new services for its customers in the broadband, enterprise and consumer segments.

    “We are committed to delivering market-leading services to our customers; on the network infrastructure side, this means flexible, modular and low cost,” he said.

    “Our new data center in Mindanao… employs this modular architecture that allows us to rapidly add infrastructure with growth.”

    The deal marks Flexenclosure’s first project in the Philippines but is the latest in a line of recent wins in Asia-Pacific, which included projects in Australia, Palau, Samoa, Fiji and Myanmar announced last year.

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  • IT leaders aim to “consumerize” cloud access

    IT leaders aim to “consumerize” cloud access

    The proliferation of cloud applications and use of a disparate range of devices within businesses has led nearly two-thirds (64%) of IT leaders and their security teams to consider implementing consumer-grade access to cloud services for employees, finds new research from Gemalto.

    Surveying more than 1,000 IT decision makers globally, Gemalto’s 2018 Identity and Access Management Index revealed that the majority (54%) believe that the authentication methods they implement in their businesses are not as good compared to those found on popular sites including Amazon and Facebook.

    With a growing number of cloud apps in use, more employees working remotely and pressure mounting to make authentication stronger while ensuring ease of use, IT decision makers are keen to ‘consumerize’ the login process. In fact, 70% of IT professionals believe that authentication methods applied in the consumer world can be applied to secure access to enterprise resources.

    Despite this, 92% of IT leaders express concern about employees reusing personal credentials for work. This comes as 61% admit that they are still not implementing two-factor authentication to allow access to their network, potentially leaving themselves vulnerable to cyber criminals.

    At the same time, there seems to be increasing recognition that new approaches to cloud access can contribute to alleviating these issues. 62% of respondents believe that cloud access management tools can help simplify the login process for users, while 72% stated that a strong consideration for implementing a cloud access solution is the desire to reduce the threat of large scale breaches.

    The fact that 61% of respondents also stated that inefficient cloud identity management would be a key factor in adopting a cloud access management solution shows that scalability and management overheads are also of high concern to IT professionals, Gemalto said.

    “These findings clearly show that IT managers are struggling to balance the need for a simple and easy login experience with security,” said Francois Lasnier, SVP Identity and Access Management at Gemalto.

    “While there is a need to make things easier for employees, there is a fine line to be walked. IT and business line managers would do best to figure out the risks and sensitivities associated with the various applications used in their organizations and then use access management policies to manage risk and apply the appropriate authentication method. In this way, they can ensure a convenient login experience for their users, while still maintaining access security.”

    With the growth in remote working, the cloud and secure access to applications have become important for organizations. As a result, almost all (94%) respondents believe that cloud access management is integral to adopting cloud applications.

    In fact, nine in 10 also feel that ineffective cloud access management can lead to issues for their company, such as security (52%), IT staff’s time being used less efficiently (39%) and increased operational overheads and IT costs (38%).

    Despite this focus on protecting cloud applications, just three of the 27 applications used on average by organizations are protected with two-factor authentication.

  • Alibaba, JD.Com Could Clash in US

    Alibaba, JD.Com Could Clash in US

    Two Chinese behemoths in online retailing that have battled at home may now take their rivalry to the U.S.—and challenge Amazon. Alibaba Group Holding has reportedly held talks with grocer Kroger (KR) to form a U.S. partnership to better compete with Amazon.com (AMZN).

    Alibaba’s competitor, JD.Com (JD), is also looking to plant a flag here. Richard Liu, JD’s chief executive, has said he plans to expand his e-commerce platform to the U.S. later this year, with a distribution presence starting in Los Angeles. He could partner with Walmart (WMT), a major JD shareholder and retail partner in China.

    To call Alibaba and JD the Amazons of China is an understatement. China mostly skipped the big-box store era that dominated U.S. retail before e-commerce took off, which means few powerful players stand in the way of Alibaba and JD. The two battle each other—sometimes bitterly.

    Late last year, after about 100 domestic clothing brands left JD ahead of the Nov. 11, 2017, Singles Day shopping rush, the company blamed “coercive tactics from our competition, which if proven true would be illegal.” Alibaba denied any wrongdoing.

    JD management recently told analysts that a few of the companies had come back, and that others said they didn’t receive enough traffic from Alibaba during Singles Day to make up for lost JD business. JD posts fourth-quarter results on Friday.

    Last fall, Barron’s said investors should prefer JD shares. Since then, JD has gained 23%, versus 6% for Alibaba and 8% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

    The two companies differ in significant ways. Alibaba is larger and more prosperous. JD’s profits are held down by its spending to build its own end-to-end logistics network. That’s an important competitive advantage; JD does better in high-trust items like baby products and scores higher on customer-satisfaction surveys.

    One concern for JD is that it will stretch too far, too fast. It is expanding in Southeast Asia. It is building a distribution network in France, and says it wants to make a European push as soon as next year. JD recently opened a brick-and-mortar store in Beijing selling high-end food. For financing, the company last year created a subsidiary called JD Logistics, in which it’s sold an 18.6% stake.

    Profits are slim today. Looking out to 2020, estimates for JD earnings range from $1 to $2.30 a share. That’s adjusted for “extraordinary items,” which, for a company in such fast motion, can become all too ordinary.

    Assume the high end of earnings forecasts, factor in remaining growth, and consider low interest rates, then squint and perhaps have a belt of whiskey, and the $47 share price might look reasonable, maybe even cheap. It’s becoming difficult to tell.

    But one thing we liked about JD is that its stock gain lagged behind Alibaba’s last year for no good reason.

    It has since caught up. Time to sell.

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  • Kingsoft Cloud picks Equinix for SEA expansion

    Kingsoft Cloud picks Equinix for SEA expansion

    Chinese software and Internet service company Kingsoft Cloud Holdings has selected the Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Singapore to expand into Southeast Asia.

    According to the Global Mobile Consumer Survey, published by Deloitte, mobile application usage such as social networking, messaging, and gaming, is increasingly popular within Southeast Asia. By strategically deploying its network into Equinix Singapore’s carrier-neutral Internet hub – Asia-Pacific’s network hub, Kingsoft Cloud is able to bring an improved connectivity infrastructure closer to Southeast Asia users for an enhanced mobile application performance experience.

    Offering cloud-based hosting, storage and database services, Kingsoft Cloud is the main cloud service provider in mainland China to Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi. It provides a bulk of the cloud storage on Xiaomi’s operating system that has helped the company serve its rapidly growing customer base both in China and in the world.

    With the increasing mobile adoption and usage in the Southeast Asia region, Kingsoft Cloud has selected Equinix’s Singapore facilities to reduce network costs and enhance user experience by bringing its cloud infrastructure closer to users in the region and interconnecting with multiple Internet Service Providers.

    Equinix’s data center campus in Singapore is the most network-dense across the Asia-Pacific region, housing many of the international and regional networks connecting South Asia. Together with a wide portfolio of interconnection solutions, the campus offers a private, secure, and highly reliable environment for Internet servers and telecommunication equipment, essential for the continuous operations of applications and business operations.

    Kingsoft Cloud’s move to expand in Southeast Asia is in line with the forecast of the Global Interconnection Index, published by Equinix. The Index anticipates more than fourfold growth in Asia-Pacific’s Interconnection Bandwidth, reaching 1,120 Tbps by 2020, with cloud and IT services alone expected to increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 42%.

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  • Smart hospitals to boost cloud spending

    Smart hospitals to boost cloud spending

    Frost & Sullivan predicts that by 2025, 10% of hospitals globally will have completed or be in various stages of implementing smart hospital initiatives.

    The research firm projects significant market growth and billions of dollars in revenues for four key segments, including pharmacy automation, mobile asset tracking, data analytics, and cloud computing.

    Frost forecasts the market opportunity to reach about $11 billion with the data analytics market for smart hospitals reaching revenues of $5.9 billion in 2018. The cloud computing market is expected to hit revenues of $5.1 billion.

    There is currently ambiguity around the term “smart”. Transformational Health Industry Analyst Siddharth Shah says a true smart hospital acknowledges digitization as only the first step, and focuses on three major areas – operational efficiency, clinical excellence, and patient-centricity – with technological advances leveraged for these three areas to derive smart insights.

    “Not every hospital needs to become smart in a single step. Instead, the approach they need to take is to implement smart solutions, one by one, and then allow newer solutions to integrate with existing ones in the journey toward becoming smart,” said Shah.

    “This allows hospitals to implement solutions with limited financial investments, reap rewards and ROI, and then implement the next solution.”

    As for companies, some of the most advanced solution sets are being developed by GE Healthcare for patient flow, including its “Command Center” solution for the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Also noteworthy is the ThoughtWire Ambiant platform, which has customized features, such as the Code Blue events reduction solution developed for Hamilton Health Sciences in Canada.

    IBM is developing and now marketing the “SmartRoom” concept along with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Omnicell has developed pharmacy automation solutions in use by thousands of hospitals and health systems around the world.

    In terms of regional readiness for the adoption of the smart hospital concept, North America leads, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific regarding technological sophistication, regulatory landscape, spending power, and end-user readiness.

    However, the hotspots for current smart hospitals are concentrated in the Asia Pacific region, including Dubai, South Korea, Singapore and Australia, some of which cater to the medical tourism industry as well. Canada and Finland are also hotspots.

    “The two largest challenges obstructing hospitals from achieving the smart hospital vision are interoperability and cybersecurity. To truly achieve a ‘smart’ status by deriving intelligent insights, various devices, systems and networks in the hospital must ‘talk’ to one another in ways that are coherent and complete for a holistic analysis,” observed Shah.

    “Digitization brings in additional vulnerabilities in a hospital for hackers to target, making cybersecurity a challenge.”

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  • DHL invests $364 million to further develop Cyberjaya data center

    DHL invests $364 million to further develop Cyberjaya data center

    DHL expects to invest nearly RM 1.5 billion (US$364 million) between now and 2020 to further develop its IT Services Data Center in Cyberjaya, creating further opportunities for emerging IT talent in Malaysia and around the region.

    The IT Services Data Center has provided critical IT infrastructure, business application development and support initially for the company’s Asia Pacific and, subsequently, global operations over the past 20 years, with DHL investing more than RM 4.7 billion (EUR 941.1M) in its development since 1997.

    “Digitalization plays an increasingly strategic role in helping global logistics networks achieve the speed, reliability and accuracy needed to keep pace with today’s demands. The investment we have made in Cyberjaya demonstrates our commitment towards enhancing our capabilities — and helping our customers improve their market positions through best-in-class IT infrastructure and skilled talent,” said Alexander Pilař, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, IT Services, Deutsche Post DHL Group.

    Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Chief Operating Officer, Dato’ Ng Wan Peng said, “We are heartened by the continued support from DHL, which reflects its unwavering commitment to Malaysia and its digital transformation agenda — as we race towards becoming a developed digital economy by 2020. In addition to employment creation, this move will greatly boost and strengthen the digital infrastructure and ecosystem crucial for a thriving innovation powered socio-economy. We look forward to the journey ahead with DHL, in our quest to make the digital economy a key engine of growth for Malaysia.”

    A team of more than 1,440 employees ensure the Cyberjaya IT Services Center, along with their counterparts in Prague, the Czech Republic and Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, deliver 24/7 IT support across all DHL divisions — DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding, DHL Supply Chain, DHL eCommerce operations. It serves as platform through which DHL hopes to strengthen and level the playing field for talent, particularly for women looking to succeed in IT — which has traditionally been a male-dominated field. While the Malaysia team includes members from 27 different nationalities, the majority — nearly 70% — come from Malaysia, with women making up almost 40% of the total workforce.

    “We started our IT Data Center in Malaysia 20 years ago, occupying a floor in a suburban shopping mall with just 120 staff, facing risks of disruption from flooding to the building’s car park,” said Yogananthan S, Site Head of IT Services Cyberjaya, and VP Business Relations for IT Services, Asia Pacific, Deutsche Post DHL Group. “Since then, we’ve not only relocated to Cyberjaya but also established it as a key pillar in DHL’s regional and global logistics strategy, backed up by one of the most diverse and high-performing workforces in the country and globally.”

    “Over the past 20 years we’ve focused on not only building up the local IT talent market — including hiring almost 500 new graduates since 2006 — but doing so in a way that encourages diversity and equal opportunity for all,” added Yogan. “These values are not only at the core of DHL’s corporate culture — they also play a crucial role in how we effectively we serve our global ‘customer’ base in more than 220 countries and territories.”

    In addition to cultivating the local talent pool, DHL IT Services Cyberjaya plays an active role to give back to the local community and environment. Through the company’s “Living Responsibility” approach, staff volunteer time and expertise on sustainable projects that help address issues which go beyond the workplace.

    The IT Service Data Center in Cyberjaya plans to invest in a range of platform renewals and technical innovations through to 2020, including adoption of hybrid cloud, and higher-efficiency or renewable energy sources.

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  • Malaysia Airlines moves fully to the cloud

    Malaysia Airlines moves fully to the cloud

    Tata Consultancy Services has implemented an industry-first transformation project to migrate Malaysia Airlines’ data center to a 100% hybrid cloud model.

    To better enable a competitive-edge and future readiness for the airline, TCSorchestrated the large and complex project to migrate the airline’s core mission-critical data center infrastructure and myriad applications to a hybrid-cloud model operating 80% on Microsoft Azure and 20% on a private cloud.

    The pioneering move makes Malaysia Airlines the world’s first full-service airline to completely replace its existing data centers and adopt full-scale cloud solutions for its entire range of nearly 200 applications running mission critical commercial, operations and corporate systems.

    “We set out with an ambitious goal to digitally transform core IT operations to an as-a-service model, to achieve a quantum leap in cost savings, scalability, efficiencies, agility, and other key factors,” Malaysia Airlines CIO Tan Kok Meng said.

    The cloud-centric model is achieving exemplary results, including a 51% cost reduction forecast over the a 5-year period from mid-2016; productivity improvements up to 80% for core applications; application delivery times accelerated from days to hours in some cases; enhanced security and compliance capability and reporting.

    TCS Asia Pacific president Girish Ramachandran said this industry-first transformation not just drives improved value and enhanced operational efficiencies, but equally important, it enables Malaysia Airlines to deliver a better customer experience that results from a digitally-reimagined all-cloud IT model.

    As primary service partner, TCS collaborated with Microsoft, SAP, and numerous other vendors to ensure Malaysia Airlines’ current phase of digital evolution is seamless and cost-efficient and delivered without business disruption.

    The project scope included re-platforming of legacy applications for cloud compatibility and network service provisioning for large and complex airline operations. See the cloud transformation story in a single snapshot here.

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  • Oracle to accelerate Singapore cloud startups

    Oracle to accelerate Singapore cloud startups

    Oracle has launched a new six-month Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator program in Singapore, announcing the class of six startup participants selected from hundreds of applicants.

    They are Arya.ai, FlexM, FOMO Pay, Hacker Trail, RL Club, and Unscrambl. These startups leverage new technology solutions across industries such as retail, recruitment, and finance.

    Arya.ai is an enterprise deep learning platform designed to automate complex data science tasks involved while building neural network based application or predictive models and in production.

    FlexM is a fast-growing Singapore-based fintech company working toward the financial inclusion of migrant and foreign domestic workers.

    FOMO Pay is a one-stop QR code payment solution platform that enables merchants to accept a full suite of new payment methods including WeChat Pay, NETSPay, mVISA, and more.

    Hacker Trail is a curated, cloud-based marketplace for the technology industry, designed to source, engage, curate and connect the right candidates with the right job opportunities across Southeast Asia.

    RL Club is a rewards and loyalty club mobile app that rewards consumers for brand engagement and advertisement consumption.

    Unscrambl is an Atlanta-based startup that has developed a disruptive, next generation real-time cognitive analytics platform.

    The startups will be granted technical and business mentoring by Oracle and industry experts, state-of-the-art technology with free Oracle Cloud credits, full access to a co-working space within Oracle’s premises, as well as access to Oracle’s global ecosystem of startup peers, customers, investors and partners.

    “Singapore has a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem and we received a brilliant response from the community,” Oracle group VP of R&D Sanket Atal said.

    “These startups are an exciting mix with expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep technology, payment gateways and other disruptive technologies.”

    Launched in April 2016, the Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator Program is a next-generation acceleration initiative driven by Oracle R&D. The program focuses on reimagining enterprise innovation through collaborations with startups that foster co-development and co-innovation.

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  • Singapore named most robust data center market

    Singapore named most robust data center market

    Despite a large amount of supply coming through 2015–2016, the data center market in Singapore continues to lead some of its large neighbors in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region in a race to the top of data center location rankings.

    According to Cushman & Wakefield’s Data Center Risk Index, Singapore is the most robust market out of 10 Asian countries in terms of business operations for data centers. Out of 10 Asian countries included in the index, Singapore scored 84.50 out of 100, ahead of Korea (83.23), Hong Kong (78.73) and Japan (76.48).

    The Data Center Risk Index identifies the top risks likely to affect data center business operations. It considers such criteria as energy, internet bandwidth, ease of doing business, political stability, natural disaster and energy stability.

    Singapore ranks strongly for network infrastructure, diverse connectivity to major APAC markets, its pro-business environment and political stability.

    Singapore has seen an influx of new data center capacity in the last two years, with an additional 130 MW on top of the existing capacity of 240 MW at the beginning of 2015.

    There has been some price and vacancy pressure, particularly among smaller data center players.

    However, over the medium to long term, Singapore should be able to expand its capacity by another 100 MW on the back of the Smart Nation initiative, as the government pushes for a national digital transformation program.

    Local data center providers such as Singtel, Keppel Data Centres and ST Telemedia stand to be the primary beneficiaries of this, while the international data center providers will continue to focus on winning international deals from medium to large enterprises coming into Singapore.

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  • Alibaba Cloud teams up with Red Hat

    Alibaba Cloud teams up with Red Hat

    Alibaba Cloud and Red Hat are joining forces to bring Red Hat’s open source solutions to Alibaba Cloud’s customers around the globe.

    Alibaba Cloud is now part of the Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider program, joining a group of technology industry leaders who offer Red Hat-tested and validated solutions that extend the functionality of Red Hat’s broad portfolio of open source cloud solutions.

    The partnership extends the reach of Red Hat’s offerings across the top public clouds globally, providing a scalable destination for cloud computing and reiterating Red Hat’s commitment to providing greater choice in the cloud.

    In the coming months, Red Hat solutions will be available directly to Alibaba Cloud customers, enabling them to take advantage of the full value of Red Hat’s broad portfolio of open source cloud solutions. Alibaba Cloud intends to offer Red Hat Enterprise Linux in a pay-as-you-go model in the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace.

    Launched in 2009, the Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider Program is designed to assemble the solutions cloud providers need to plan, build, manage and offer hosted cloud solutions and Red Hat technologies to customers.

    The Certified Cloud Provider designation is awarded to Red Hat partners following validation by Red Hat. Each provider meets testing and certification requirements to demonstrate that they can deliver a safe, scalable, supported and consistent environment for enterprise cloud deployments.

    In the coming months, Red Hat customers will also be able to move eligible, unused Red Hat subscriptions from their data center to Alibaba Cloud. Red Hat Cloud Access is an innovative “bring-your-own-subscription” offering that enables customers to move eligible Red Hat subscriptions from on-premise to public clouds.

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  • Huawei unveils APAC enterprise cloud strategy

    Huawei unveils APAC enterprise cloud strategy

    Huawei has announced its newest enterprise service strategy designed to support companies undergoing cloud transformation in Asia Pacific.

    The enterprise cloud strategy will focus on four key areas including cloud innovation, creating a digital platform, supporting smart operations and enabling businesses.

    As enterprises embrace digital transformation, they will face a new set of challenges across strategy, planning, requirement analysis, business integration, application system evaluation, technology selection, roadmap design, deployment, operations & maintenance (O&M) management, and information security.

    Cementing the company’s commitment to becoming an industry cloud enabler and strategic partner to enterprises in Asia Pacific, Huawei is investing $500 million globally in the development of cloud-based professional services, a cloud platform and cloud ecosystem. This will provide customers with end-to-end cloud transformation service solutions enabling them to build, use, and manage their cloud platforms effectively.

    To drive this strategy forward, Huawei will continue to increase its investment in the development of service solutions and Global Service Centers (GSC), as well as tools, platforms and verification labs for professional services. In the next five years, Huawei will also focus on research and development of industry clouds, increasing their annual investment by more than 50%.

    Additionally, to meet enterprise demand for ICT talent in the cloud era, Huawei will provide a new certification scheme to train ICT architects, ICT developers and industry-specific ICT experts. By 2021, it is estimated that more than 150,000 cloud and industry-specific ICT professionals will have been certified by Huawei.

    Huawei has made strategic investments and works with partners to build a cloud network that has global coverage, providing complete solutions that help Chinese companies go global, as well as help companies outside China enter the Chinese market.

    One of these partners is Orange Business Services (OBS), who has launched a global public cloud offering together with Huawei, that includes consulting, auditing and managed services for cloud infrastructure and applications.

    Named Flexible Engine, the new IaaS/PaaS platform is offered in combination with specialist support (‘Cloud Expert Services’) to assist enterprises in their migration to the cloud, featuring optional managed services to run applications. The suite of services will equip enterprises with the technology to digitally transform their business operations and support businesses in their expansion plans across China, Southeast Asia and Europe.

    The services run on the strength of OpenStack technology, an open-source software platform for cloud computing. Open standards and interoperability are key to meeting the demands for large, scalable public cloud solutions by delivering economies of scale and avoiding the danger of propriety lock-in.

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  • Large Hong Kong enterprises lack cloud expertise

    Large Hong Kong enterprises lack cloud expertise

    Large enterprises in Hong Kong could be losing out on revenue as 84% of IT decision makers say that they don’t have the required cloud expertise.

    Large enterprises across the world are losing out on $258.1 million a year as a result of a cloud skills gap, according to a new report commissioned by Rackspace in collaboration with LSE academics.

    The study also found that this lack of expertise is stifling creativity, with 80% of IT pros saying they could bring greater innovation to their organization with the right cloud insight.

    Beyond innovation and growth, 44% of IT decision makers believe a lack of skills is causing a lag in their organization’s ability to deploy cloud platforms. The wide majority (77%) also believe they need to invest more in their workforce to meet the developmental challenges of cloud computing.

    “While the rise of Artificial Intelligence and automation may cause some to think that human insight is less important, our report shows that this is not the case,” Rackspace CTO John Engates said.

    “With technology and the cloud now underpinning business transformation, the growing technology skills gap means organizations must have a strategy to access the expertise needed. Those that don’t will struggle to be competitive and innovative.”

    The Cost of Cloud Expertise report looks at the wider implications of the cloud skills gap and provides a route for businesses to tackle the realities of modern IT and the resulting skills gap. Consisting of research amongst 950 IT decision makers and 950 IT pros – as well as in-depth conversations with IT leaders – in large enterprises around the world, the study uncovers current and future trends in cloud expertise.