http://www.rackspace.co.uk/ Rackspace EMEA News en http://www.rackspace.co.uk/fileadmin/templates/images/rss_icon.jpg http://www.rackspace.co.uk/ 120 110 Rackspace EMEA News TYPO3 - get.content.right http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Thu, 03 May 2012 16:54:00 +0100 http://www.rackspace.co.uk/rackspace-home/media-centre/news/article/article/government-moving-to-cloud-finds-gartner-study/ Analysts Gartner predict more government bodies will move to cloud in 2012 cloud computing models.

The study, entitled Government IT Sourcing Survey Highlights 2012, questioned 213 IT firms from government organisations in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific, and found there to be a "marked increase" in government IT leaders planning to adopt cloud computing services over the next year.

41 per cent of national government bodies plan to consume software from the cloud this year, in comparison to 27 per cent last year.

Greg Pearce, Finance Minister for New South Wales in Australia, told iTnews his government plans to use cloud computing to deliver "shared services more efficiently."

Gartner analyst Massimiliano Claps said "shared services risk being displaced by public cloud computing offerings that offer lower total cost of ownership and allow much leaner end-user choice."

Additionally, Gartner released research on five cloud computing 'subtrends', which included cloud-centric design in planning migration, data centre and infrastructure investments, lowering of IT costs and hybrid cloud computing.

"Cloud computing is a major technology trend that has permeated the market over the last two years. It sets the stage for a new approach to IT that enables individuals and businesses to choose how they'll acquire or deliver IT services, with reduced emphasis on the constraints of traditional software and hardware licensing models," said David Cearley, vice president at Gartner.

"Cloud computing has a significant potential impact on every aspect of IT and how users access applications, information and business services."

Written by Louise Boyd]]> April 23rd, 2012 http://www.rackspace.co.uk/rackspace-home/media-centre/news/article/article/roi-important-in-cloud-vs-conventional-it-debate/ Survey highlights importance of ROI for businesses considering cloud technology
"Companies that cannot compare costs for public cloud services versus internal IT will be in rough shape once they build private clouds and adopt a hybrid setup," said Lorna Garey, content director at InformationWeek. "And just avoiding cloud won’t be an answer, if enterprises don’t want a stark IT cost delta between them and startups."

The study's author, Jonathan Feldman, added: "While there’s an air of inevitability around cloud computing, the ROI calculation has stayed in flux.

"A lot depends on whether we’re talking SaaS, PaaS or IaaS; some are easier to wrap your arms around than others.

"Because of SaaS’s very granular cost methodology, it’s actually pretty straightforward to calculate investment and who benefits, and thus peg return on investment.

"For example, especially for commoditized enterprise applications like email, it’s fairly trivial to figure out how much personnel, storage, servers, software and licenses cost to come up with a per-seat price for in-house email. Then you can compare apples to apples."

The report found 82 per cent of respondents gave preference to cloud computing for new IT services or systems, and 31 per cent planned to comprehensively evaluate ROI for the lifespan of their cloud computing project - with 54 per cent of those respondents likely to evaluate the ROI based on a three to five year time period for comparison.

Written by Louise Boyd

]]> April 20th, 2012 http://www.rackspace.co.uk/rackspace-home/media-centre/news/article/article/government-plans-to-give-cloud-computing-sector-pound40m-boost-1/ Significant Government funding and private investment in cloud and SaaS enterprises is set to give... Cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) companies in the UK are set to benefit from £40 million of Government funding and private sector investment.

Operated by cloud-focused investment company Notion Capital, the Government-backed fund is called the 'Notion Capital Fund Two' and will invest in high-growth small to medium sized enterprises.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will oversee the project as part of the Enterprise Capital Funds programme, which could see some businesses receive up to £2 million.

The fund is the largest of its kind to date, and aims to address market weaknesses, allowing small companies to have access to equity which will help them to expand and grow.

"This new Enterprise Capital Fund will provide at least £40m of funding to viable UK high-tech businesses," said Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk. "Notion Capital is the largest Enterprise Capital Fund to date and will help a significant number of firms to grow and create jobs, boosting our economy."

In total the Notion Capital Fund Two is worth £62.9 million - possibly rising to £100 million after another round of fundraising - and will also be used to invest in cloud and SaaS businesses across Europe.

"We believe that there is now an under-supply of good quality funds serving an ever-increasing and ever-widening market opportunity within Europe," said Jos White on the Notion Capital blog. "This imbalance will lead to a larger market share for the investors and also stronger and more experienced partners for the entrepreneurs.

"The results could mean a step change in the performance of European VCs that will in turn lead to further growth and investment in the market."

Written by Louise Boyd

]]> April 20th, 2012 http://www.rackspace.co.uk/rackspace-home/media-centre/news/article/article/greenpeace-urges-more-data-centres-to-consider-renewable-energy/ New Greenpeace report calls for better energy use, but praises collaboration and innovation cloud computing, called 'How Clean Is Your Cloud?', has called for cloud leaders to take greater responsibility for their data centres' energy efficiency.
 
The report examined fourteen global IT companies leading the move into the cloud and found changes could be made to the rapidly expanding technology sector.
 
"The growth and scale of investment in the cloud is truly mind-blowing, with estimates of a 50-fold increase in the amount of digital information by 2020 and nearly half a trillion in investment in the coming year, all to create and feed our desire for ubiquitous access to infinite information from our computers, phones and other mobile devices, instantly," said the report.
 
Greenpeace found that while data centres were excellent examples of innovation, energy efficiency was not being maximised.
 
"Despite the tremendous innovation (data centres) contain and the clean energy potential they possess, most IT companies are rapidly expanding without considering how their choice of energy could impact society."
 
The independent global campaigning organisation urged data centre owners to be mindful in choosing the locations of their facilities too.
 
"A growing concentration of data centre investments in key locations is having a significant impact on energy demand and how the electricity grid is managed; if such concentrated expansion is allowed to continue, this will make it increasingly difficult to shift these investments and the surrounding community away from dirty sources of electricity."
 
However, the report also praised the collaboration emerging between cloud leaders in moving toward environmentally friendly data centres; "There are increasing positive signs of collaboration and open source sharing of best practices in both hardware and software design among IT leaders to help accelerate improvement and deployment of energy efficient IT design.
 
"There have been increasing signs that more IT companies are beginning to take a proactive approach in ensuring their energy demand can be met with available renewable sources of electricity, and will increasingly play a role in shaping our energy future."
 
Written by Louise Boyd

]]> April 20th, 2012 http://www.rackspace.co.uk/rackspace-home/media-centre/news/article/article/students-get-innovative-with-cloud-computing/ Students highlight potential of cloud for new technologies cloud computing and mobile technology, and could one day become commonplace.
 
The technology products were developed by students as part of the University's Digital Media Zone (DMZ) and demonstrated in a showcase event.
 
New products included mobile apps to track exercise goals that rewards users with discount coupons for each target reached, a map-tool that shows trending topics on Twitter by location and applications to encrypt emails.
 
"These are just prototypes still undergoing development. But they provide a glimpse of how businesses are and will be using cloud and mobile technology in the very near future," said Hossein Rahnama, research director of DMZ. "In fact some of the projects are already being sponsored."
 
One team used cloud technology to create an app called Twitter 360, which they describe as "the ultimate Twitter-Google Earth mashup". The app can visualise - in 3D - which topics are trending, where, and colour-code them over a map.
 
Peter Kramaric, a former DMZ member, said of the app which is still under development: "A filter that enables users to specify what topics to track would make this a valuable tool for marketers and survey firms."
 
Another creation is an Android app called IDC-Secure which provides four levels of authentication for documents and emails sent to mobile devices.
 
"The DMZ is demonstrating its potential in helping students create more innovative and relevant applications for the industry as part of their curriculum," added Rahnama.
 
"Some guests and sponsors were so impressed by the ideas featured last night that some students even received job interviews and interest for follow up right on the spot," said the DMZ blog.
 
Written by Louise Boyd

]]> April 20th, 2012 http://www.rackspace.co.uk/rackspace-home/media-centre/news/article/article/government-plans-to-give-cloud-computing-sector-pound40m-boost/ Significant Government funding and private investment in cloud and SaaS enterprises is set to give... Cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) companies in the UK are set to benefit from £40 million of Government funding and private sector investment.

Operated by cloud-focused investment company Notion Capital, the Government-backed fund is called the 'Notion Capital Fund Two' and will invest in high-growth small to medium sized enterprises.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will oversee the project as part of the Enterprise Capital Funds programme, which could see some businesses receive up to £2 million.

The fund is the largest of its kind to date, and aims to address market weaknesses, allowing small companies to have access to equity which will help them to expand and grow.

"This new Enterprise Capital Fund will provide at least £40m of funding to viable UK high-tech businesses," said Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk. "Notion Capital is the largest Enterprise Capital Fund to date and will help a significant number of firms to grow and create jobs, boosting our economy."

In total the Notion Capital Fund Two is worth £62.9 million - possibly rising to £100 million after another round of fundraising - and will also be used to invest in cloud and SaaS businesses across Europe.

"We believe that there is now an under-supply of good quality funds serving an ever-increasing and ever-widening market opportunity within Europe," said Jos White on the Notion Capital blog. "This imbalance will lead to a larger market share for the investors and also stronger and more experienced partners for the entrepreneurs.

"The results could mean a step change in the performance of European VCs that will in turn lead to further growth and investment in the market."

Written by Louise Boyd

]]> April 19th, 2012 http://www.rackspace.co.uk/rackspace-home/media-centre/news/article/article/red-hat-joins-openstack-cloud-community/ Open-source software maker Red Hat is among the latest additions to the ever-expanding membership... OpenStack alliance, which promotes standardisation in cloud computing.
 
Just last week, the software provider announced its membership by blog post. Red Hat joins the company as the leadership shifts to a collective governance model and the company aims to be an integral member of the foundation.
 
"Late last year, Rackspace declared its intent to move the stewardship of the project to a neutral governing body," said Brian Stevens, chief technology officer and vice president of worldwide engineering. "Today, it announces the corporate members who have expressed their intention to become founding members of the foundation, and we are proud to say that Red Hat will participate as one of the foundation's Platinum Members. 
 
"In the coming weeks, we will participate in the drafting committee to finalise the foundation structure and we look forward to its eventual ratification."
 
Founded two years ago as a joint project between Rackspace and NASA, OpenStack has steadily gained the support of more and more technology companies. It announced Red Hat as a platinum member at the same time as AT&T, HP, IBM, Nebula, Rackspace and SUSE.
 
"I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest that cloud computing will one day power our global economy, and that means there is a lot at stake," Mark Collier said on behalf of the foundation. "Seeing the calibre of companies putting serious resources into making OpenStack successful, who all believe deeply in the open development model, I am more optimistic than ever it will be an open future, powered by OpenStack." 
 
Written by Jason Morton

]]> April 16th, 2012 http://www.rackspace.co.uk/rackspace-home/media-centre/news/article/article/over-a-third-of-it-budget-goes-to-cloud/ New study shows promising outlook for cloud
The IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing Study was conducted in January this year and questioned 1,650 IT and business executives, with an aim to measure cloud computing trends amongst key decision makers.

The study found most businesses favoured private cloud deployments, with 24 per cent of respondents storing data in this way. 

"The fact that cloud now comprises more than one-third slice of IT budgets suggests the computing approach has gained serious traction within enterprises," said Joe McKendrick from Forbes. "And cloud isn’t just being brought in to enhance applications or to save money. One-fourth of respondents from the business side, in fact, report they believe cloud will play a critical role in shaping business strategy."

IDG Enterprise predicts cloud will account for an increasing portion of IT budgets over the next few years, with two-thirds of survey respondents planning on increasing their cloud computing spend over the next 12 months. 

Following recent debate about greater demand for IT workers with cloud computing know-how, seven out of ten business executives said their IT departments needed to expand their skills to keep up with emerging cloud technologies.

"Cloud computing solutions enable increased IT innovation, agility and reduce long term IT costs," said Bob Melk, SVP, group publisher & CMO, IDG Enterprise. "Cloud computing solution providers have the opportunity to become a strategic partner as cloud investments increasingly fuel business strategy."

Written by Louise Boyd

]]> April 12th, 2012 http://www.rackspace.co.uk/rackspace-home/media-centre/news/article/article/it-workers-stress-about-changing-skills-demand/ Cloud computing technology skills are becoming essential for IT workers cloud computing and social networking up to date. In Computerworld's Salary Survey 2012, 93 per cent of respondents voiced concerns about their careers.

26 per cent of respondents said they were worried about keeping their skills up to date and proving valuable to their employers, while a further 15 per cent that said finding a new position for their skill set was their main concern.

"There's a whole community of CIOs and leaders in tech positions coming together to talk and collaborate on how to get out of this corner we painted ourselves into," said Dean Haddock, IT manager at StoryCorps. "We don't want to be just the people who others call when the printers don't work."

Experts say the recession has brought about large cuts to training budgets, yet ever evolving technologies put added pressure on employees. Mobile, cloud computing, web security, and wireless and communications systems were the areas most in demand, according to the Salary Survey 2012.

"It's not just keeping up with the pace of change. [IT workers] have to be 'broader' to remain relevant," said Joseph Steiner, regional systems engineering manager at Avaya. "There's more breadth required of IT personnel than ever before."

"Given the rapid speed at which innovation is occurring, you can't talk to any person in technology and not pick up some sort of drive or passion to take on or learn new technology," concluded Haddock.

Written by Louise Boyd

]]> April 10th, 2012 http://www.rackspace.co.uk/rackspace-home/media-centre/news/article/article/cloud-computing-helps-charities-deliver-more-for-less/ Charities are increasingly embracing cloud technology to improve efficiency and productivity
A third of charities expect to increase the number of services they offer over the coming year. Collaboration with other charities is also high on the agenda, according to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations charity forecast survey.

With 28 per cent of respondents planning on reducing the numbers of paid staff in their organisations, technology experts say cloud computing could help them collaborate with partners and also share systems and data securely.

"From a business perspective, one of the biggest plus points for any organisation moving to cloud computing is that they will no longer need to buy or maintain expensive and energy-draining servers," said David Sturges, chief executive of Workplacelive. "IT administration, including licensing issues, software updates and IT security management, will all be taken care of by the cloud computing provider. 

"Removing this administrative burden will allow charities to concentrate on their core business and be more productive."

One charity already benefitting from a move to the cloud, reports the Guardian, is Career Academies UK - a business education charity which supports around 1,000 employers and 130 schools and colleges. In a matter of years, the charity grew considerably and found moving to the cloud improved efficiency for employees working remotely and increased productivity.

"The growth in cloud computing adoption is being led largely by the private sector, but many charities are beginning to embrace this technology because of the obvious money savings, increased work efficiencies and the greater flexibility it affords," concluded Sturges. 

Written by Louise Boyd

]]> April 10th, 2012