Azure’s rise instills doubts in AWS shops

Microsoft's cloud computing platform is experiencing a surge in adoption, raising fears in some companies of betting on the wrong horse. But the race did not start

 The "State of the Cloud" RightScale report is now available and has been well covered by InfoWorld, so it will not give you the summary here. But there are important findings that I want to highlight in terms of business impact.

According to the report:

• In respondents, RightScale found that Azure has increased overall from 20 to 34 percent, while Amazon Web Services remained stable at 57 percent.
• Google has increased from 10 to 15 percent to maintain third position.
• Within companies, Azure has significantly increased adoption: 26 percent to 43 percent. However, adoption of the AWS has increased slightly from 56 percent to 59 percent.

Companies are questioning the latter, as they have made a huge investment in AWS, but are now late for their support.

 Make it clear: Azure's success is well deserved. Microsoft was late for the party, but not so late that he could not do the good things around the adoption of his cloud.

And Microsoft has intelligently leveraged its relationships with existing companies, unlike AWS and Google. Companies that have their IT solutions based on Windows servers, representing a large number of companies, are fruits, inexpensive for Microsoft Azure. Background for the migration is also tempting, although you can also get Windows servers in AWS.

However, AWS has followed the growth of the market. In fact, the growth of AWS almost matches that of the cloud computing market in general. AWS will continue to set the standard for IaaS platforms, and it will not give up its market share unless they do something really stupid. I suspect it will not happen.

 Companies have to understand that the cloud computing market is dynamic and in its early days, so the volatility will be with us for some time. Only about 5-7% of the workloads migrated to an IaaS platform, such as AWS or Azure. About 20 percent should be migrated at the end of the year. We do not hit 70% - when we really know if your chosen platform has won - over several years. Today, it could be anything.

It is a fact of life. Companies should not panic if the chosen platform is not the top scorer or the largest producer this quarter. While the market is different, it is clear that AWS, Azure and Google Cloud IaaS are the platforms that are suitable for most companies. If you use one of these, you'll be in good shape for the foreseeable future. This is as good as it is on the Paris gaming platform.

AWS Unveils Chime Conferencing Service

Amazon Web Services on Tuesday launched Amazon Ring, a unified cloud-based communications offering that allows users to participate in high-definition video and audio-quality video meetings on Windows and Mac desktops and on iOS mobile devices and Android.

Companies only have to download the application; They do not need to make initial investments in hardware or software.

Users can switch desktop and mobile applications when needed, even in the conference environment.

User-Friendly Disruption

 Participants click on a ring application button to join a meeting instead of dialing a number and enter a PIN.

A visual list of all participants. Any participant can silence the other, and silenced participants can wake up themselves.

Meetings may be limited. All communications are encrypted and the conversation history of a meeting is not stored on the devices used.

Chat facilities are provided for ongoing collaboration outside of meetings, where historical records and cats are stored safely.

"I'm very surprised that someone does not do the above," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group.

"The current tools are pretty dull ... and mostly unreliable," he told the E-Commerce Times.

"This will disrupt the segment, leaving no player unchanged and put everyone know that they should be better invest in improving the ability to use their products or output," warned Enderle.

"The timing of quality and high-end video and audio devices are fast becoming bets on the table," said Michael Brandenburg, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

Amazon Chime is "really on parity with other features on the market today," he told the E-Commerce Times, noting that Amazon brings its "scalability and rich conference feature solution to aggressive pricing.

Chime Pricing

There are three levels of pricing for Chime:

• Basic - The free version allows users to attend online meetings, to call another person in voice or video, and use email and chat services with Caller;
• The Plus edition, at US $ 2.50 per user per month, adds the ability to manage a mail domain, Active Directory to configure and integrate with identity management systems. Stores 1 GB of messages per user;
• Chime Pro, which costs $ 15 per user per month, adds the possibility of holding meetings with up to 100 participants with shared screen and video. It supports mobile, mobile and in-room video, and includes unlimited VoIP support.

 Basic and Plus users can join conferences created in Pro Chime.

Companies can combine and combine licenses to reduce costs. There is no minimum fee. Charges are based on usage, and users may cancel or change subscriptions at any time.

Interested users can sign up for a free trial of Amazon Pro. After 30 days, they can continue to use the baseline for free or subscribe to a payment level.

Chime will be available in the second quarter of the AWS partner Level 3 Communications and Vonage, which will offer free business customers Amazon Chime Pro.

Chime's Sweet and Sour Notes

 The Amazon Chime service is "much easier than almost all public offerings and cheap, considering the feature set," Enderle said. Still, "it is not new and still not fully tested, suggesting that, until a critical mass level is reached, the problems are not known and can not be addressed.

Many companies have already begun to move from conferencing solutions to cloud facilities, commented Brandenburg of Frost. However, "their contracts and conference investments in these ecosystems are likely to be more of a pure cost factor.

Chime's focus on usability and convenience "is critical to the widespread adoption of unified communications solutions," said Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research at Nucleus Research.

However, infrastructure buyers - typical Amazon customers - are within easy reach of commercial drivers that fuel demand for collaborative tools, the E-Commerce Times said.

Announcer to strengthen competition in the unified communications and collaboration market, which could reach $ 96 billion by 2023, according to projections of Global Market Outlook.

AWS CEO: Luck gave Amazon’s cloud-computing unit a boost

Andy Jassy, chief of Amazon Web Services, said that luck plays a role in the tremendous growth of AWS - but the first decisions that have paved the way for the domination of the cloud computing company.

The leader of Amazon Web Services (AWS) said that its dominance in the cloud comes partly from luck - but also from the first decisions that have proven essential for the establishment of a revolutionary organization.

"There's always a fair amount, it's an opportunity," Andy Jassy, CEO of AWS, said during a speech at the University of Washington's Department of Computer Science and Engineering. "You have to have a good time and some things to break."

Jassy's comments come as AWS - Amazon's cloud computing unit, which leases energy and storage businesses, governments and computer entrepreneurs - has become an activity at $ 14 billion a year, Driven by the recent years by the massive migration of data from private companies to shared data centers. This is an old company for a decade Amazon has launched - and a very profitable business.

In 2016, $ 3.1 billion was reported in operating revenues, or 32% more than the North American unit of the Amazon, the most important activity of the company in terms of billing. It is also by far the largest provider of cloud computing.

AWS sales growth rate, however, fell to 47 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 from 69 percent in the period of last year, amid stiff competition from Microsoft, Google and other high-tech companies .

Among the first decisions of the foundation of the AWS fortune was the creation of "building blocks" primitive basic functions that customers could use and combine according to their needs, Jassy said.

Another key: AWS sells its services to the card and charge based on use, as a public service. It was a big deviation from the costly and multi-year contracts that technology providers usually need. "People gave us a lot of credit from the start to the pricing model," Jassy said.

The next key decision was the first AWS market has gone after.

AWS leaders "very early led software developers and start-ups," even though they knew companies and governments to end up being the main customers, according Jassy.

"This turned out to be a very underserved segment," Jassy said. Many of these developers have only spent a few dollars on AWS services, but "we do not care about that," the executive said. "Some of these will be the next big business in the next five to 10 years."

It was also necessary to continue innovating quickly, to adapt to the needs of growth. "Be quick and fast and be poor in functionality to start only works if you can deliver, and iterate quickly," Jassy said.

Now the scope and sophistication of AWS offers include artificial intelligence, voice data, databases and automated learning tools, some of which rely on innovations Amazon has deployed Alexa PDA and its execution centers.

As for growing competition, Jassy said that the IT services market is so large that there is no room for a number of successful cloud providers. However, "I do not think there will be 30 due to the scale that really matters."

UKCloud: We ARE cheaper than Microsoft or AWS online Storage

UK-based infrastructure services UKCloud says it is "fighting" against industry giants by dramatically reducing the online storage price.

Customers looking for cheap online storage with data volumes above 1000 TB will pay 1.46 pence per GB per month, 66 percent, and most importantly, no additional charge for bed, writing, bandwidth and Support.

Bettors who choose to 500 TB will cough 1.81 pence per GB per nine-pence month, although additional fees may be charged at this level.

Simon Hansford, CEO of UKCloud, a leading provider of government services to the G-Cloud, told us that an updated hiperconvertida of its storage platform has saved costs.

"The UKCloud storage cloud cheaper is cheaper than cloud storage [for general use] cheaper AWS and Azure," he said.

The cheapest for a comparable AWS storage service is 1.81 per GB per month, and Microsoft is 1.83 pence. Both companies also have appropriate replacement storage services for deep archive documents

Hansford said the local cloud vendors might be "too paranoid" about AWS and Microsoft, but El Reg question using the word paranoid.

No doubt some are looking on their shoulders, but rightly so; AWS marketing machine has done a good job of talking about price cuts - over 50 since its release. On the other hand, this was the tenth UKCloud price reduction since its release.

Hansford says AWS offers "big share prices," but said that "customers almost need a degree in AWS price because there are so many warnings and a few."

The decline in prices comes after the rise of Microsoft cloud their prices by an average of 22 percent since the beginning of this month, with the movement of the pound sterling against the blamed US dollar.

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) Valuation Now Fully Represents AWS Strength: Global Equities

Trip Chowdhry believes that investors should now take profits on the stock market as it is fully evaluated
Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry is a pro bull for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). While maintaining its upbeat position on the American eCommerce and cloud computing society, it said in its research report that the company is about to make a profit on the stock market.
Mr. Chowdhry believes that the stock is now fully valued and trading at its peak, because there is no revenue catalyst. He said the conference to reinvent the Amazon Web Services (AWS) this year marked the peak of the point of view of cloud computing.
The research firm wrote that AWS's growth prospects remain intact as it can easily generate revenue growth in the range of 43-50% over the next three to five years. However, she believes the evaluation of AMZN's shares "fully compatible" with limited upside potential because it already takes into account the future growth prospects of the cloud services business.
The analyst noted that several journalists and people who are not high-tech in the investment community have recently been "sing praise" for the fastest growing segment of Amazon's business, now in final indicators.
Mr. Chowdhry pointed out, "The above is very scary .. that is the equivalent of Boy Shoemaker is saying how the AWS-AMZN Basically, this is the peak for AMZN stock !!!".
On the other hand, it is believed that the expansion of Amazon electronic commerce in the Indian market is not a wise decision and it is highly expected to fail. Therefore, investors should exclude online retail business opportunity in India for their bull thesis.
Unlike the United States, the online retailer is not going to get tax cuts from the Indian government in its early years. The analyst said investors should know the value of shares without Amazon AWS and this multiple would be allocated to each business segment.
Mr. Chowdhry believes that Amazon drones, Amazon and AmazonFresh Flex are "pure hot air" that lacks durability. It concluded the report by reaffirming that its vision has not changed with respect to the AWS; I simply think AMZN shares "now reflects the full strength" of the cloud services activity. Amazon shares fell 0.90% to $ 765.21, from 11:09 EST on Thursday.

AWS - Managing an Ever-Changing Channel Ecosystem

Amazon Web Services (AWS) adds new partners at an alarming rate, with the public cloud provider growing its channel by 10,000 in the past year.

In essence, the AWS ecosystem is comprised of several partners, including independent software vendors, global system integrators (GSI), cloud-born providers, consultants, and managed service providers that make them name a few.

So how does a global provider keep pace with the diverse needs of such a fast growing partner base?

Dorothy Copeland, CEO of Global Partners AWS program, is responsible for the design and implementation of the company's channel program and met with the RN at the time of Invent 2016 to discuss its approach to achieving results for a wide variety of partners .

"Usually, with all our programs, there is a global vision and we will work with the geographies to ensure that it aligns with them," he explained.

Copeland said that as partners cover many disciplines, it remains important to infuse a local touch that focuses primarily on customers, in conjunction with a global strategy for the global seller.

As a recent example, Copeland has used the new supplier partner search engine - which is a recast of the existing business partners directory - with the new system developed in conjunction with customers and partners, which ensures better on both sides.
Simply put, the researcher is designed to make it easier for clients to access partners with expertise in specific or vertical disciplines.

"Part of this is structuring programs with many partners we already work with and facilitating client research," she says.

"We have seen that we have created client programs, focused on customers and wanted to ensure partners value AWS and help customers embrace the cloud.

In a local context, Stefan Jansen, director of channels and alliances AWS A / NZ, added that while it is global initiatives, the existing close cooperation with teams and local partners validation initiatives and goals.

"The government is a good example," he said. "We wanted to see that these partners have experience working with the government as part of procurement committees, for example, so validation is always something we work closely with."

In a world of clouds, Copeland acknowledged that the traditional hierarchy does not always define the client as a particular partner is an expert, creating a channel of confusion.
As a result, the provider has spent time developing various skill channels as well as a service delivery program to better understand which pair is appropriate for specific tasks.

"Most of the time, we find that if the specialization of the couple is as important or more important to a client than prioritization," he said.

"Cloud moves in the steps to follow and so now we are not necessarily looking for partners who are generalists, we are more in the way the couple is specialized.

"We have teams of associated development managers who work with both global system integrators and more specialized partners

"Both are very important to us and this is partly why we make sure that the way we establish our needs and our levels of competence requirements are focused on what this couple is really good at instead of how many employees .

Jansen added that the customer approach in terms of partners' resources was equally important in A / NZ than in other regions.

"By being close to the customer, we can work backwards and work with the couple in relation to this customer scenario," he said.

"We have a very good model now mixed field that allows us to have a strategic character with more complex partners like Accenture, but at the same time we are very close with small partners and that is why you see the success of companies like ITOC and Cloudtrek" .

Copeland said that while much of the information provided on the search partner comes from the couple completing their application for the AWS partner portal, the seller has a substantial contribution to the programs.

"The work is directed by us in relation to our programs, in particular the skills, MSP program and service delivery programs," he added.

"Within these three programs, we say that this couple is well validated. Let's list the partners who are in these programs first and we also have a badge that you can see.

As for staging, Copeland said that if several partners have the same certification, priority will be given to the one with the highest level, adding that AWS will continue to develop algorithms to improve this input method.

Copeland said the seller had plans for Q1 2017 to implement the customer side for the pair finder, making it the closest Amazon.com system.

"The other piece we will focus on is actually driving many more clients and case studies references from public clients listed in the partner search engine," he said.

"The case studies are really front and center and will be an impetus so that more partners can post their client case studies.

"Happy customers and clients who have experience with this priority partner now".

Partners Help Improve Your Skills

AWS has sent a consistent message to our partners for a number of years around specialization in specific sectors or competencies.

However, one of the biggest problems for partners - particularly locally - is getting in-proper skills to specialize.

Copeland said the provider is working to enable partners in this and has seen a 75 percent increase in partner certification in 2016.

"We also have more certifications available," she said. "We offer subsidized training for partners who go and get their certified technical teams.

"We also conduct training in the field of professional service training that we offer primarily to our key partners, but also to some of our experienced partners.

"The other piece we do is provide free training for partners in business education through our founder partner solutions, we have trained more than 7,000 people worldwide in 75 cities and have little set up training Of data and are in the process of implementing a Microsoft training workload.

In the local market, Jansen said he could not disclose the exact figures, but growth in training and certification in 2015 saw a significant peak.

"The opportunity we have is next year to be a little stronger in how we communicate with community partners because we have more specialized training to come," he said.

"Training solutions for partners is another aspect and we have a calendar of the indicated solutions for the A / NZ retailer sessions that will take place in each city.

Jansen said the need is there and now was to direct the right resources for the right partners.

Amazon debutes first AWS Region in Canada

Amazon launches a new website Services Amazon region, its first in Canada, in Montreal. AWS Region Canada (Central) offers two availability zones of its launch today, which basically means that there are two separate physical data center points separated by a sufficient distance for a physical event that affects one should not affect the other . AWS had a number of Canadian clients but these clients have requested a Canadian infrastructure for some time and have had to settle for using AWS regions located in other geographic areas.

Local installations of AWS mean that customers can do more in terms of performance for critical applications requiring the lowest possible latency and for applications that require data to be stored locally for regulatory or compliance reasons.

Amazon Canada's expansion means that it now offers 40 separate availability zones in 15 regions of the world, with further expansion expected in the work plan for the UK, France and China in the coming months.