Gartner’s first DRaaS Magic Quadrant sees IBM, NTT, Sungard AS at summit
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Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), a commoditised offering whereby organisations can recover if their cloud service hits the skids, has had relatively slow uptake. Yet the trend has garnered enough ground for Gartner to put together a Magic Quadrant on it – and the analyst house has seen fit to put IBM, NTT Communications, and Sungard Availability Services at the top of the pile.
Not surprisingly, the platitudes have not been slow in forthcoming. Peter Groucutt, managing...
By James Bourne, 29 April 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Data & Analytics, Data Loss, Data Management,Disaster Recovery.
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Rackspace’s new UK data centre aims to combine efficiency with environmental change
Picture credit: Rackspace
Rackspace has officially launched its new UK data centre in West Crawley, cutting the ribbon in front of local dignitaries, partners and a smattering of hacks.
The launch, on April 22 – not coincidentally Earth Day – offered the chance for Rackspace and its partner Digital Realty to map out its future and the importance of two key areas; the Open Compute Project – to whom the data centre design has been donated – and environmental change.
The 130,000 square...
By James Bourne, 24 April 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Data & Analytics, Data Centres, Data Management, Europe.
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ARM-based servers: The next evolution of the cloud?
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The benefits of cloud computing have already been well documented, from increased productivity among employees to giving companies added capabilities to expand their business. While the benefits are certainly helpful, that doesn’t mean the innovation that drives the cloud has gone away. If anything, new innovations are propelling the cloud to new levels, and one of those breakthroughs may be the next big thing in
By Rick Delgado, 17 April 2015, 1 comment. Categories: Data & Analytics, Data Centres, Data Management.
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Google Drive, Facebook and Twitter most popular business cloud apps – but are they safe?
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More than 15% of European organisations now use more than 1000 cloud apps with Google Drive, Facebook and Twitter the most popular, according to a report from Netskope.
The findings, which appear in the April 2015 Netskope Cloud Report, saw iCloud and Salesforce make the top five. Five cloud storage apps (Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive for Business, OneDrive and Dropbox) made the top 12, alongside four social apps (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn).
Of the organisations analysed in...
By James Bourne, 15 April 2015, 1 comment. Categories: Applications, Data & Analytics, Data Loss, Data Management, Security, Software.
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Majority of firms say they aren’t confident in responding to cloud-based data threats
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If data stored in the cloud is under threat, what would you do: fight the fire or hide under the bed and hope everything goes away? The majority of respondents in a recent survey admitted they would do the latter.
The research, commissioned by Informatica and conducted by the Ponemon Institute, found 60% of global respondents were “not confident” they had the ability to proactively respond to cloud-based data threats. 80% said not knowing if sensitive or confidential...
By James Bourne, 08 April 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Data & Analytics, Data Loss, Data Management,Security, Vulnerabilities.
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Location, location, location: The changing face of data centres
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One of the rare occasions that the subject of data centres has ended up in the mainstream news was fairly recently, when Facebook built a new data centre in Sweden. It was a precious moment when our industry – which despite being responsible for so much cool stuff in the world is not exactly considered to be the most glamorous to the average Joe – was seen on the likes of Gawker and the Mail Online.
Of course, the Facebook factor is a strong reason for this public...
By Ross Momtahan, 02 April 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Data & Analytics, Data Centres, Data Management, Data Sovereignty.
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New report shows MongoDB to be leader of the NoSQL database pack
Picture credit: Garrett Heath/Flickr
Updated April 15: A report from United Software Associates (USAIN) has found MongoDB to be top of the pile of NoSQL database providers in benchmark testing.
The research tested three leading products – Cassandra, CouchBase and MongoDB – through Yahoo!’s cloud standard benchmark, YCSB. USAIN wanted to assess the durability of each, going on the theory that most applications should prioritise durability over performance, not accepting data loss. The databases were...
By James Bourne, 01 April 2015, 2 comments. Categories: Data & Analytics, Data Management, Research.
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Why organisations need to be extra vigilant over their cloud security and partner use
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A report from Skyhigh Networks has examined the issues for enterprises who share cloud data with partners, with almost 30% of data shared with partners considered “high risk.”
The report, the latest Cloud Adoption and Risk Report, argues the case that security does not end at the corporate perimeter. The average number of cloud services in use by company has risen again, from 545 in Q313 to 923 in Q115. Broken down by cloud service category the average company uses 162...
By James Bourne, 01 April 2015, 1 comment. Categories: Data & Analytics, Data Management, Security,Vulnerabilities.
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Why big data’s big promises are finally within reach
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By Adam Spearing, VP Platform EMEA, Salesforce
Let’s face it - until very recently big data has been a big letdown. Data warehouses and data analytics tools have historically proven difficult to design, build, and maintain. How much storage space will be necessary? How much data is there? What data management tools can the organisation afford and, just as important, what expertise is available in-house to build and run the data warehouse or data analytics platform?
InformationWeek recently...
By Salesforce.com, 30 March 2015, 1 comment. Categories: Big Data, Data & Analytics, Data Management,Infrastructure.
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Research argues hidden costs contribute to a ‘cloud hangover’ for businesses
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It’s the morning after the night before. You’ve had a bit too much, your head’s pounding, and you’re frantically searching your brain for anything you might have said or did that you’ll be paying for later.
We’ve all been there. Yet according to new research from Sungard Availability Services, it’s a similar effect at work when the IT department buys cloud solutions. 87% of the 150 UK-based senior IT decision makers polled say they have...