The Cloud Services Market is Looking Like a Red Ocean

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Earlier this week, Opsource announced a partner program. The news came on Monday, the first day developers could download code from OpenStack, a separate initiative that has had considerable attention this week.


Both companies provide cloud infrastructure based upon open source. They could easily be part of a same open-cloud network such as OpenStack. But for now Opsource says it will not join the effort lead by Rackspace. Our guess is Opsource competes to some extent with Rackspace and is looking at other alternatives.

Rackspace, Opsource and almost two dozen other companies are now offering a variety of cloud infrastructures. It's an increasingly crowded market that is due for some consolidation. But for the moment, the market is an example of how companies perceive the opportunities the cloud provides.

Rackspace, as we know, provides public cloud infrastructure. Opsource offers cloud infrastructure to the enterprise, service providers and systems integrators.

Opsource calls its program a partner ecosystem. These partners include integrators, developers, ISVs, cloud platform companies and telecom providers.

Opsource expects 50% of its revenue to come from these partners, and points in particular to telecommunications companies. CEO Treb Ryan:

"The feedback we're getting from the telecoms is that a request for cloud is becoming an increasing part of the RFP's they are seeing from customers. Usually it comes as a request for bundled services (such as managed network, internet access, hosting and cloud.) One of our European telecoms stated they couldn't bid on $2 million a month worth of contracts because one of the requirements was cloud."

Ryan says customers want to work with one company:

"Most likely it's a combination of not wanting to go to separate vendors for separate services (i.e. a colo company for hosting, OpSource for cloud, a telecom for network, and a managed security company for VPN's) they want to get it all from one vendor completely integrated. Secondly, I think many customers have a trusted relationship with their telecom for IT infrastructure services already and they trust them more than a third-party company."

Opsource and Rackspace are two well-established companies in the cloud computing space. But the number of providers in the overall market is beginning to morph.

John Treadway of Cloud Bzz put together a comprehensive list. He says the market is looking more like a red ocean:

"I hope you'll pardon my dubious take, but I can't possibly understand how most of these will survive. Sure, some will because they are big and others because they are great leaps forward in technology (though I see only a bit of that now). There are three primary markets for stacks: enterprise private clouds, provider public clouds, and public sector clouds. In five years there will probably be at most 5 or 6 companies that matter in the cloud IaaS stack space, and the rest will have gone away or taken different routes to survive and (hopefully) thrive."

Lots of blood in the water. Who's going to get eaten first?

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Ingram Micro to Distribute Rackspace Cloud (There's value in distribution in the cloud)

As Rackspace points out, the move is bound to accelerate the adoption of cloud computing

Rackspace Monday became one of the first hosting providers to offer its services through a traditional distribution model and allow VARs, resellers and channel partners to realize new revenue streams.

It has cut a distribution agreement that will see Ingram Micro offer Rackspace's managed hosting and cloud widgetry to its North American channel of managed services providers (MSPs) and VARs. As Rackspace points out, the move is bound to accelerate the adoption of cloud computing. Complements of the deal Rackspace is a founding member of Ingram Micro's Cloud Conduit Initiative, which is supposed to connect Ingram Micro's North America channel partners with cloud computing vendors. It is also on Ingram's newfangled Cloud Conduit Advisory Council, which is focused on best practices among other things.

Now, the US Ingram is one thing, but for them to take a IaaS platform into the UK they'd need a whole new business model. Cloud Distribution represent OpSource Cloud, an Enterprise class IaaS platform which is 100% channel focused and highly scalable, resilient (100% SLA!!!), local and global so if you are a reseller, SI, ISP, ISV or MSP who's looking to migrate clients to the cloud, come and talk to us, we have a complete portfolio of cloud based services which you can add to your portfolio without heavly lifting, DD or cost.


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Unlocking the Value of IaaS

Until recently I've been in an odd spot, generally speaking my biggest competition when a potential customer came to us looking for an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform was either to build it yourself (aka huge risk) or buy it from us.

(Yes there were a few other competitors) But for the most part the space was a greenfield, we really didn't have to worry about our competitors because there weren't many and the ones that were out there were positioned in a significantly different way than us.

The problem with being first is one of education, most potential customers didn't even realize they needed a cloud platform. The good news is things are changing, the idea of Infrastructure as a service is no longer a radical one.

IaaS companies are getting funded left and right and customers are buying. I've long held the notion that an industry isn't real until you have direct competitors. This both proves there is an opportunity as well as brings a broader awareness. A rising tide floats all boats if you will. In my post today, I thought I'd briefly explore the value proposition of IaaS.

So you ask what's the value of providing an Infrastructure as a Service? From a private point of view it's most about efficiency, the draw back is you need to spend money to save money. Which can be a tough sell in a rough economic climate. From a public cloud context it's about converting costs (Fixed to Variable, Capex to Opex etc). Ok, we've heard the story before. It's really about saving money or not losing it to a more nimble competitor. So the real question becomes how do you unlock the value of an IaaS cloud, either internally or externally or both? For me it's all about the application.

If done right, an IaaS platform provides a simple unified interface to your infrastructure. At it's heart it simplifies your infrastructure so you can focus on what matters most, the applications that run on it. It also changes the job of a system/network admin from one of being reactive to one of being proactive. If a server dies, who cares -- leave it. Instead hot-add additional servers just in time based on automatic utilization notifications. Where previously a sysadmin could manage dozens of servers that same admin can now manage thousands, because no one server really matters. It's the overall cloud that matters. IaaS allows you to focus higher in the stack, where the real business value really lies. Do you think end users really case what flavor of load balancer you're using? Probably not. What they do care about is what application they can have instant access to when they have a real problem they need solved. And when it's deployed it will scale to handle anything they through at it. The application just works.

Another one of the more puzzling approaches I've seen a lot lately in the virtualization and IaaS space is that of the so called "Virtual Data Center". Basically what a few of the more backward thinking vendors are saying is, let's recreate the traditional physical experience of running a datacenter but in a virtual or cloud context. Some have even gone to the extent of creating virtual blades which graphically look like physical servers to get their point across. To which I say why? Infrastructure is already too complex so why would I want to recreate an already painful experience. The sales pitch is do what you've already done. I think a better approach is to instead take what you've already done and make it better, easier, more efficient and ultimately simpler. Instead of recreating complexity, I say remove it. If someone is trying to sell you a "Virtual Data Center" I say run. What they should be selling you is business value, how can this save or make you money. The value of IaaS is that it just works, it just scales and it makes you money. Not how many features can we cram into a user interface. And more importantly from a technical standpoint it doesn't require endless hours of configuration and testing. Yep, it's turnkey.

The biggest value of an IaaS platform is as a stepping stone -- one that allows you to gracefully migrate from the traditional physical single tenant infrastructure of the past to a multi-tenant distributed cloud of the future, while not requiring you to completely re-architect or rebuild your applications for it. What IaaS does is move the need to make your applications multi-tenant by making your infrastructure mutli-tenant. If it doesn't accomplish this, than it's not IaaS and there's not a lot of value in it.

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Cloud Computing – Demystifying SaaS, PaaS and IaaS

Is cloud computing the next biggest thing since the Web? The answer is YES.

After Mainframe, Personal Computer, Client Server Computing and the Web, this is the next big thing. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) October 2008 report, projected Cloud IT Spending in 2012 will be $42 Billion; a growth of about 27% from 2008. IDC forecasts that Asia Pacific spending on IT cloud services to grow fourfold, reaching $3.6 billion by 2013. IDC sees that new uses of cloud technology will be introduced to include those markets which cannot yet take advantage of cloud computing.

SaaS, PaaS and IaaSFig 1. Cloud Computing Services

Cloud computing is broken down into three segments: “software”, “platform” and “infrastructure”.

Each segment serves a different purpose and offers different products to businesses and individuals around the world.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is the service based on the concept of renting software from a service provider rather than buying it yourself. The software is hosted on centralized network servers to make functionality available over the web or intranet. Also known as “software on demand” it is currently the most popular type of cloud computing because of its high flexibility, great services, enhanced scalability and less maintenance. Yahoo mail, Google docs, CRM applications are all instances of SaaS. With a web-based CRM all that employees need to do is register and login to the central system and import any existing customer data. The service provider hosts both the application and the data so the end user is free to use the service from anywhere. SaaS is very effective in lowering the costs of business as it provides the business an access to applications at a cost normally far cheaper than a licensed application fee which is possible due to its monthly fees based revenue model. With SaaS user need not worry about installation or upgrades.

From SaaS, now the industry is moving towards Platform as a Service (PaaS). PaaS offers a development platform for developers. The end users write their own code and the PaaS provider uploads that code and presents it on the web. SalesForce.com’s Force.com is an example of PaaS. PaaS provides services to develop, test, deploy, host and maintain applications in the same integrated development environment. It also provides some level of support for the creation of applications. Thus PaaS offers a faster more cost effective model for application development and delivery. The PaaS provider manages upgrades, patches and other routine system maintenance. PaaS is based on a metering or subscription model so users only pay for what they use. Users take what they need without worrying about the complexity behind the scenes.

There are basically four types of PaaS solutions – social application platforms, raw compute platforms, web application platforms and business application platform. Facebook is a type of social application platform wherein third parties can write new applications that are made available to end users. The CRM solutions provided by the companies are examples of business application platform. Developers can upload and execute their applications on Amazon’s infrastructure which is an example of raw compute platform. While the Google provides APIs to developers to build web applications which is an example of web application platform.

The final segment in the cloud computing is the infrastructure. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is delivery of the computing infrastructure as a fully outsourced service. Some of the companies that provide infrastructure services are Google, IBM, Amazon.com etc. Managed hosting and development environments are the services included in IaaS. The user can buy the infrastructure according to the requirements at any particular point of time instead of buying the infrastructure that might not be used for months. IaaS operates on a “Pay as you go” model ensuring that the users pay for only what they are using. Virtualization enables IaaS providers to offer almost unlimited instances of servers to customers and make cost-effective use of the hosting hardware. IaaS users enjoy access to enterprise grade IT Infrastructure and resources that might be very costly if purchased completely. Thus dynamic scaling, usage based pricing, reduced costs and access to superior IT resources are some of the benefits of IaaS. IaaS is also sometimes referred to as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). An Infrastructure as a Service offering also provides maximum flexibility because just about anything that can be virtualized can be run on these platforms. This is perhaps the biggest benefit of an IaaS environment. For a startup or small business, one of the most difficult things to do is keep capital expenditures under control. By moving your infrastructure to the cloud, you have the ability to scale as if you owned your own hardware and data center.

So we could see that where SaaS offers a complete application as service and PaaS offers the ability to develop an application, IaaS doesn’t care about the application at all. If you have already written a lot of code or have a software package you want to install and run in the cloud, then you’ll be looking for IaaS. If you have no software or want to build something from scratch to solve a problem for which there is no package available or the packages are too expensive or complicated, then you should go for PaaS. The unit of deployment varies from the server to the application and these three types of services offered in cloud computing will have great effect on the nature of IT operations.

Full Source: e2eNetworks

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What Do We Call This Cloud Storage Thing?

Not all cloud storage is equal, but it's even difficult to talk about those that are more comparable.

Does an API make it a platform? Are all APIs the same? Setting these questions aside temporarily, we come to a more fundamental question: What should we call cloud storage services, anyway?

The Case for "Platform as a Service" (PaaS)

Platform as a Service is variously defined, but it generally refers to a middle layer between infrastructure (hardware and software) and applications. Cloud platforms offer simplified interfaces for a new generation of applications that use web protocols and are often coded in languages like php, Java, .NET, Ruby, Python, and the like. Public cloud storage solutions like Amazon S3, Nirvanix SDN, and AT&T/EMC are fundamentally different from traditional storage infrastructure.

* Both control and access use a web services (REST) API rather than a traditional block or file storage protocol.
* These APIs are really programming interfaces, and libraries make them highly accessible to modern web-oriented languages.
* To varying extents, these systems do a lot more than just storing data - they can organize it, manage it autonomously, and even process it!*
* Cloud storage APIs often allow rudimentary programming of data control and disposition.
* Public services like these are multi-tenant and have much more extensive accounting and reporting than any conventional storage system.

In short, public cloud storage services match the letter and spirit of Platform as a Service definitions like the one at Wikipedia

The Case for "Infrastructure as a Service" (IaaS)

No storage system is a programming environment, and even the best public cloud storage service isn't anything like what is generally understood as PaaS. Find 10 people who think they know what PaaS is, and few will name Amazon S3 (the most visible public cloud storage service) in their examples. In fact, most won't even think of storage at all! Storage is infrastructure and always will be. The new REST access methods are great, but does an interface change the nature of a system? There are REST APIs to control old-school non-platform storage, too, and vendors might tack on API access at some point. That Wikipedia article about PaaS goes on and on about programming and application development, making scant mention of storage. It's not a platform, so it must be infrastructure!
The Case for "Something Else as a Service"

Storage really isn't PaaS or IaaS. Those definitions are all about compute, and storage is different enough to warrant its own definition. Whether it uses a web services API for control and access or uses old-school block or file mechanisms, storage as a service is a new business model for an old commodity. So what do we call it?

* NetApp and Iron Mountain like "Storage as a Service", abbreviated as "STaaS". But that's also used for "Software Testing as a Service".
* SNIA suggests "Data Storage as a Service", abbreviated as "DaaS". But that sounds awfully like "DAS" or "direct-attached storage", exactly the wrong connotation!
* How about we ditch the "XaaS" format entirely, as Sam Johnston suggested, and just call it something like "managed storage services". But that's exactly what the old managed storage providers called their offering a decade ago!

What do you suggest?

Call it Anything

In the end, it really doesn't matter what it is called. Cloud storage is here in many guises: Hardware or software products, purchasing models, and novel services alike. Soon, it is likely that the "cloud" moniker will lose its luster, too, but that won't change the core value proposition that some storage solutions bring to the table. Certainly this entire discussion will be forgotten as the market adopts some name or other for the thing. And that's for the best.

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Explore Cloud Computing today for a couple of quid!

The premise of the cloud is that there is almost no penalty for trying something and failing. Move some applications and try them out. You didn’t get the SLA or characteristics you were looking for? You’re only out a pound or two.

Of course the premise I’m making is that you don’t have to change anything in your services, applications, networking, or infrastructure to give this a try. I make the further premise that the cloud enablement software doesn’t require a services engagement to acquire, install, set up and configure, and manage operationally over time. This week, we made OpSource Cloud available. Give it a try. You can acquire, install, configure, move and run your applications today. No services required. You point us to your virtual machines, our software will automatically show you if they fit in the cloud, and after we’ve transferred them to the cloud, they will look and feel just like they do now, running in your on premise virtualized infrastructure. No engineering. No changes. No agents. No “additions” to your servers. No funny installers.

All this said, there are physics involved. I recommend a simple process that will result in immediate positive results in selecting candidate applications to move and run in the cloud, as well as in the confidence that comes from a “real test” involving complex multi-tier applications which are tied to both premise-naming services and other network services that cannot be moved out of your data center.

For a first application, I suggest finding something that has servers with relatively small disks. Moving disks over the internet can take time. Some ideas include an internal project server running a program management application, Wiki, or SharePoint. Or perhaps a development environment for a JBOSS application, or anything else based on an open source stack. Move and run this, and run the same load testing or characterization/acceptance tests you use today, and see how they perform.

For a second application, I suggest taking the web and application tiers of the three-tier application and moving them, leaving the data tier on-premise. Leave your management agents on those servers, and leave them joined to the same domain if they are Windows servers, or using the same naming services. Don’t be concerned if the servers have NFS or CIFS mounts to on-premise NAS storage.

For a more in-depth test, go ahead and move development environments for applications such as PeopleSoft, Siebel, or SAP into the cloud and develop your applications there. Extra desktops for developers make a good initial application to move, as do development support servers such as continuous build, defect tracking, and source code repositories.

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An API for Cloud Infrastructure Services

If you are a cloud provider or consumer, specifically in the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) landscape (like OpsourceCloud for example), it's hard not to be excited by the work going on in the Open Cloud Computing Interface Working Group. Owing to the growing number of IaaS providers and increasing adoption of the relatively new paradigm by consumers, this group was formed with a goal of bringing about standards to manage these cloud-based infrastructures.
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Cloud Distribution - OpSource Cloud

Cloud Distribution partners with OpSourceCloud - The Global Enterprise IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) leader

Kudos to Amazon for kick-starting the move to Cloud computing. But now you want to get serious about adopting the Cloud and you need a grown up enterprise-class solution. You need OpSource Cloud. As a reseller with clients asking "what is this cloud stuff all about?" you need to respond with a coherent, effective story. Cloud Distribution and OpSource are the story to tell.

What Amazon EC2 want's to be when it grows up

OpSource Cloud combines the best of Amazon like features with the security, performance and control your development projects and production applications require. You need professional features like private networks, dedicated configurable firewalls, configurable servers with burstable CPU and passwords for multiple users with role based permissions. And OpSource delivers these grown up features and more - all standard and all available on a no commit basis.
OpSource Cloud, the first Cloud to bring together the flexibility, availability and community of the public Cloud with the security, performance and controls the enterprise demands. Emphasizing security, OpSource Cloud provides every user with a Virtual Private Cloud within the public Cloud, allowing them to determine their own degree of public Internet connectivity.

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The new wave in cloud computing (from the Hindu newspaper, India)

CHENNAI: Cloud computing is the latest buzzword. But small-time business operators are wondering if it will be useful and affordable. For them, the answer is a “software as a service” (SaaS) delivery model built into cloud computing.

It is a relatively new model of software deployment. Typically, here an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet. This model eliminates the need for installing and running the application in the customer’s own computer, and also the burden of maintaining software, operations and support.

While the first revolution of the Internet saw the three-tier model emerge as a general architecture, virtualisation in clouds has created a new set of layers such as applications, services and infrastructure. These layers do not just encapsulate on-demand resources, they also define a new application development model.
There are three layers — SaaS; the middle layer, known as platform as a service (PaaS); and the lowest layer, infrastructure as a service (IaaS).

www.salesforce.com is a good example of SaaS. There are many others, including Google Apps, offering basic business services such as e-mail. While cloud computing is considered a boon to large and mid-sized players, the neighbourhood pop and mom stores are waiting for a technology or solution that can help in cost-effective and efficient business. Business Intelligence (BI) software is making inroads into the small business area, and new technologies like SaaS appear perfect for smaller firms.

According to Niraj Jaipuria, founder of BI Retail Ltd, these management software solutions help retail outlets, providing information and data on bill collection, customer trends, inventory management, product display and sales patterns.

New technologies such as SaaS help small firms save money by having a ‘host’ somewhere in cyberspace rather than being present in the physical firm. The inherent ability of SaaS to reduce price points to fractions is what is working to its advantage.

The use of SaaS can also reduce the upfront expenses on software purchase, through less costly on-demand pricing. End-users may thus reduce their investments in servers and other hardware, says Mr. Jaipuria.

HR solutions Human resource solutions created by Adrenalin eSystems Ltd are also marketed through the SaaS delivery model in cloud computing. According to its chief executive officer and managing director, the HR department in every company is expected to take on the role of process owner on behalf of the leader and facilitate this across the organisation. The HR department is also tied down to mundane administrative activities. Thus, there is a key challenge faced by the HR head — to use human resource solutions to help the organisation do the needful.

Such a solution for a small and medium enterprise (SME) could prove expensive. But implementing it through the SaaS delivery model could be cost-effective. Today, most of the mid and large-sized companies are using HR solutions through SaaS, says Mr. Ganesh.

Original Article - http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/27/stories/2009092756151400.htm