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Monday, November 28th, 2016
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| 4:05p |
Oracle Bare Metal Cloud: Top Considerations and Use-Cases In keeping with the modern trends of cloud – get ready for yet another public cloud provider: The Oracle Bare Metal Cloud. Now, before you start saying “not another cloud vendor …” we really should take a look at this market and see where there are real opportunities.
First of all, there are some very real opportunities that Oracle is going after. Let’s start with where Oracle is leading – databases. A recent Gartner post noted that overall, the DBMS space continued to grow in high single digits, coming in at $35.9 billion in constant currency – an 8.7 percent growth over the prior year’s $33.1 billion. When it comes to market share – the top five vendors still hold about 90 percent of the market share. The top three can be broken down as follows:
- Oracle: 41.6 percent
- Microsoft: 19.4 percent
- IBM: 16.5 percent
So, we know that Oracle certainly has a market to go after. A lot of customers still utilize a powerful Oracle backbone for quite a bit of their compute requirements. But what about public cloud in general? Is it a bit late in the game to be entering the market, or is there still hope?
A recent Gartner report shows that the worldwide public cloud services market is projected to grow 16.5 percent in 2016 to total $204 billion, up from $175 billion in 2015. The highest growth will come from cloud system infrastructure services (infrastructure as a service [IaaS]), which is projected to grow 38.4 percent in 2016.
“The market for public cloud services is continuing to demonstrate high rates of growth across all markets and Gartner expects this to continue through 2017,” said Sid Nag, research director at Gartner. “This strong growth continues to reflect a shift away from legacy IT services to cloud-based services, due to increased trend of organizations pursuing a digital business strategy.”
Given these trends, we begin to see that there is a market for public cloud consumption and the utilization of cloud services. But how tight is the market itself? A recent report from the Cloud Security Alliance finds that Microsoft is quickly catching up with industry leader Amazon in the race to tap this growing market. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft currently own 82 percent of the IaaS market today. According to the report, Amazon remains the dominant IaaS provider, for now. We’re seeing that Microsoft is closing their gap in market share. Furthermore, IT professionals at 37.1 percent of companies indicated that Amazon AWS is the primary IaaS platform at their organization. Microsoft Azure is a close second, at 28.4 percent followed by Google Cloud Platform at 16.5 percent.
There’s an important hurdle that Oracle will have to overcome here; and that is the market share currently owned by Amazon, Google and Microsoft. However, owning about half of the data base market can actually help with that.
Oracle Bare Metal Cloud – Quick Look Inside
At a very high level, the Oracle Bare Metal cloud is a collection of cloud services designed to allow the user to build an environment capable of handling apps, services, databases, and more in a highly-available cloud ecosystem. Their architecture revolves around a high-performance compute environment which gives users the ability to provision storage, compute (physical hardware as needed), and integrate flexible virtual network overlays into the cloud platform. This gives users easy control access from on-premise networks.
Remember, bare metal servers are non-virtualized physical compute nodes. This means there is no hypervisor running to create virtual machines. This gives tenants access to the physical machine and can be very helpful for high performance (and high I/O and memory) applications, such as database, or Hadoop, for example.
We’ve seen others deploy a bare metal cloud offering – think IBM and SoftLayer. However, Oracle says its bare metal will be faster-provisioning because of its software-defined network underlying it.
Within the Oracle Cloud, you can leverage a few key services. Per Oracle:
- Use the Oracle Bare Metal Cloud Compute Service to provision and manage bare metal compute instances. You can launch an Oracle bare metal compute resource in minutes. Provision instances as needed to deploy and run your applications, just as you would in your on-premise data center.
- Use the Oracle Bare Metal Cloud Networking Service to create and manage the network components for your cloud resources. You can configure your virtual cloud network (VCN) with access rules and gateways to support routing of public and private internet traffic.
- The Oracle Bare Metal Cloud Block Volume Service provides high-performance network storage capacity that supports a broad range of I/O intensive workloads. You can use block volumes to expand the storage capacity of your compute instances, to provide durable and persistent data storage that can be migrated across compute instances, and to host large databases.
- The Oracle Bare Metal Cloud Object Storage Service provides high throughput storage for unstructured data. Object storage enables near infinite storage capacity for large amounts of analytic data, or rich content like images and videos. Block volumes can be backed up to the highly durable Object Storage Service for added durability.
- You can control access to Oracle Bare Metal Cloud Services using the Oracle Bare Metal Cloud Identity and Access Management Service to create and manage compartments, users, groups, and the policies that define permissions on resources.
As you take this in, you might be wondering what really sets Oracle apart from other competitors. Well, aside from the above services, Oracle is definitely aiming their sites at their own core market; Oracle users. Currently “In Preview”, Oracle Bare Metal Cloud users can actually provision Oracle Database instances on-demand. In this scenario, Oracle databases can be requested on-demand with dedicated hardware performance, in-depth security, and granular management controls. All of this delivered via cloud.
There are some key benefits here too. When it comes to use-cases, organizations may very well be looking for new ways to re-design their consumption models when it comes to database and services deployment. With an Oracle database-on-demand ecosystem, you can have the option for a dedicated database instance and version, you can package your own database, integrate DevOps into your data base deployment, and even integrate REST APIs and SDKs into the instance. Furthermore, you can leverage local NVMe storage and even utilize a dedicated server. Finally, security is built-in with various options around VPNs, security lists, utilizing secure virtual cloud networking, and even utilizing data base security and encryption at rest.
Here’s the other cool part – containers, lots of them. Oracle Container Cloud Service provides organizations with a Docker-compatible way to deploy application stacks with a single click. Registry integration capabilities, enterprise-grade application orchestration, and application scheduling and service scaling capabilities make the Oracle Container Cloud Service a uniquely compelling option for cloud developers.
Deploying and Using the Oracle Bare Metal Cloud
It goes without saying that if you’re a big Oracle customer, you should check out this new Oracle Bare Metal Cloud offering. Oracle stated at its announcement that the platform will be more than 11 times faster and 20 percent cheaper than the fastest solution offered by the competition. With compute priced by the hour and storage and networking by the month, Oracle makes it easy to understand the costs. Traffic within or between availability domains is free. Outbound bandwidth is only charged after the first 10TB.
There are a lot of compelling reasons to try out the new Oracle Bare Metal offering. However, there are some “first version” challenges. The database-on-demand offering is still in preview. And, if you’re looking for global data center availability, you’re going to have to wait. For now, Phoenix, is up. A second region is due to come online in Ashburn, Virginia in a few months, says Don Johnson, Oracle’s vice president of IaaS product engineering.
The other challenge is that other vendors have had quite a bit of time to mature. Remember, Oracle is building an IaaS cloud from scratch, so the company some catching up to do. Just last year at OpenWorld, Oracle launched its IaaS cloud; about nine years after AWS introduced its Elastic Compute Cloud.
Nevertheless, Oracle customers are excited at the prospect of a new way to deploy their critical workloads and instances. Oracle has taken a lot of time and investment to create a platform that can definitely go after its existing market base. Through it all, it definitely feels like this platform is a version 1, minimally viable market product.
For now, test the Oracle waters with one foot to make sure it fits your specific use-case. However, if you’re trying to offload a massive amount of infrastructure (especially around Oracle) – leveraging the Oracle Bare Metal Cloud might make sense. Just make sure to carefully understand the use-case and current limitations of the platform. | | 8:06p |
Rackspace Still to Decide Who Builds its Central Frankfurt Data Center While Rackspace announced just prior to last week’s Thanksgiving holiday that it intends to build a data center facility in central Frankfurt, there’s a reason there aren’t many details: The cloud provider’s construction partner has yet to be decided.
“Rackspace is in the final stage of selecting our data center partner,” Rackspace Senior Director of Data Center Product Engineering Gary Boyd told Data Center Knowledge Monday morning. “The decision to select Frankfurt was based on it being a business centric location, and central within the German and European network topography. This enables a Frankfurt data center to be an ideal location to provide low latency solutions across the entire region.”
At present, Boyd said, his company is looking to build within an existing facility. “Low energy efficiency is a key goal amongst others, that forms part of our facility selection criteria,” he told us. “Rackspace power needs require our data center partners’ ability to concurrently maintain the infrastructure.”
The largest single Internet exchange point worldwide is Frankfurt’s Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange (DE-CIX), a carrier-neutral nexus of interconnection services. Its location, say European cloud service analysts, is what has made Frankfurt into continental Europe’s unofficial capital for cloud service providers. One analyst firm, Crisp Research, estimated that over a five-year period beginning in 2009, average bandwidth for DE-CIX quintupled to about 2 terabits per second.
For Rackspace to complete its corporate transition from a public cloud host into a full-service premium provider, it has to become competitive in Germany. A live sampling of customers of the Web site creation service BuiltWith (which is not proportional to Rackspace’s entire customer base) shows that of all that service’s customers whose Web sites are hosted by Rackspace, fewer than one-third of one percent are situated in Germany. Better than 88 percent are U.S.-based.
So for Rackspace to become competitive worldwide, it desperately needs presence on the European continent.
“Rackspace currently serves customers based in Germany out of our London facilities,” said Boyd. “These provide low latency solutions. The Frankfurt facility will improve the latency times for certain customers, but it is unlikely to be the primary motivation for selecting the new facility. Geographic preference is likely to be the main reason German based customers will select Frankfurt.”
A Crisp Research report by Senior Analyst Rene Buest, published in July 2015, suggested that Rackspace may be among the firms with the most to gain by building in Germany. Translated into English (by a person), the summary reads in part, “Rackspace is not yet represented by a local data center in the German market; yet its business is expanding into the DACH market [Germany, Austria, Switzerland], where Germany is of strategic importance. A local data center would certainly underline the commitment. Rackspace could have winning cards as a managed cloud service provider, because the majority of German businesses are already busy with managed cloud services.”
Buest also cited Germany’s strong data privacy laws as one reason Frankfurt has become a “mecca” for cloud service, in his words. But that assertion had already become the subject of intense debate, as the chief of the cloud industry consortium that runs DE-CIX, Klaus Landefeld, had already testified in 2013 before the German Parliament that DE-CIX had begrudgingly complied with a 2009 government order giving Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, a direct wiretap into the exchange’s traffic.
At the time, Landefeld called upon the government to re-examine regulations he claimed were outdated, that gave the appearance of limiting the BND’s ability to monitor data, but that could easily be legally circumvented by re-interpreting the rules. Translating from German, he told Parliament there were presently no checks and balances that truthfully applied to secret government agencies, so long as regulations were determined solely by those agencies’ own lawyers.
He also warned that there was nothing to stop the BND from sharing data with the U.S. National Security Agency.
In another geopolitical development, Germany has been actively implementing plans to build a kind of Internet fast lane for itself, called the “innovation-friendly Internet” (innovationsfreundliche), as part of its national High-Tech Strategy. In a 2014 speech, German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested that a separate tier may be necessary to ensure stronger privacy, so long as a net-neutral Internet (zugängliche) remained a priority of the European Union.
“What does ‘innovation-friendly Internet’ mean? It means that there is a certain security for special services,” said Chancellor Merkel (translating from the German). “These special services will increase in number, but they can only develop if predictable quality standards are available. These two sides must be brought together. I believe this can be achieved in negotiations in Brussels in a short time.”
Data Center Knowledge has asked Rackspace about its opinion of the business situation in Germany, and has yet to receive its response. | | 8:15p |
Report: GoDaddy VP and Managing Director of India and Australia to Join Microsoft  Brought to You by The WHIR GoDaddy vice president and managing director of India and Australia, Rajiv Sodhi, is joining Microsoft next month to lead its cloud and server business, according to several reports on Monday.
According to a report by the Times of India, Sodhi is no stranger to Microsoft, having worked there for 10 years prior to joining GoDaddy in 2012.
In an emailed statement, Andrew Low Ah Kee, executive vice president at GoDaddy International, said: “Sodhi was instrumental in helping GoDaddy expand its business in India over the past four years. India is a priority market for GoDaddy and we’re excited about the growth opportunities in the region. GoDaddy will be hiring a new managing director in India as the company accelerates its plans to help small businesses throughout the country build powerful digital identities.”
The announcement comes as a report has surfaced that GoDaddy is in exclusive talks to acquire Host Europe Group to significantly expand its international footprint.
Earlier this year, GoDaddy launched its services in Hindi, Marathi, and Tamil to attract Indian small businesses, as part of a move to focus on localizing customer touchpoints, Sodhi said. GoDaddy’s success in India corresponds with internet growth in the country coming from regional hotbeds of small business and entrepreneurial activity. There are 51 million SMBs in India, and 63 percent don’t have their own website.
SEE ALSO: Millennials are Doing it For Themselves: GoDaddy Report Shows Entrepreneurship Opportunity
In May, GoDaddy CTO and VP of its cloud division, Elissa Murphy, left the hosting and domains provider to join Google.
This article originally appeared here at The Whir. | | 8:29p |
Apple’s $1 Billion Plan Hits a Three-Person Roadblock in Ireland
BLOOMBERG – “An Apple a day keeps the bank man away — stop objecting!”
So read the handwritten sign in Athenry, the tiny village close to Ireland’s Atlantic coast chosen by Apple Inc. for a vast $1 billion data facility. The message was for three people contesting the potential environmental impact and economic benefits from locals worried the company might scrap the project because of more than a year of delays. Meanwhile, the forestry site remains untouched before a judge hears another round of arguments in March.
“This doesn’t just affect Athenry, but it affects Ireland as well,” said Paul Keane, 39, whose family has lived in the area for generations. “If Apple is turned away, what does it say about Ireland? It’s right that we have a fair and open system, but it can’t be dragged out.”
What would be one of the most high-profile European investments for Apple is an even bigger deal for Ireland Inc. in what’s turned out to be a torrid year.
Britain’s vote to leave the European Union has threatened to upend arrangements with one of its largest trading partners, while Donald Trump’s election victory might undermine Ireland’s status as a haven for U.S. companies in Europe. That was already in question after the EU ordered Apple to pay 13 billion euros ($13.8 billion) relating to its Irish tax arrangements. Both the company and government are appealing.
For some, Athenry illustrates a deeper issue: the difficulty executing large infrastructure developments in Ireland compared with other countries regardless of how attractive the tax regime might be. Apple has already broken ground on a similar project in Denmark that Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook announced simultaneously more than 18 months ago.
At that point, Cook expected the Irish data center to start operations in 2017. Now, it’s unlikely the project will be completed before March 2019 at the earliest based on the timeline company laid out at planning hearings. When asked about the delays, Apple pointed to Cook’s comment in September following the EU tax decision that the company remains “committed to Ireland.”
The data center in the Derrydonnell forest is due to cover 166,000 square meters, the equivalent to about 23 soccer fields on completion. When Cook announced his plan, it was welcomed in a region that had become a byword for economic gloom, immortalized in a folk ballad in the mid-19th century.
Quickly, the project became bogged down in planning objections. Last week, a Dublin court agreed to fast-track a second legal challenge to the planning approval, though that still means the case won’t be heard for another four months. While the court probably won’t block the center altogether, it could send the project back into the planning process if it finds flaws in the earlier procedure.
Local Objections
Two of the objectors making the court challenges, Allan Daly and Brian McDonagh, declined to comment, while a third, Sinead Fitzpatrick, didn’t respond to calls to her office seeking comment.
A flavor of their objections can be found in the submission by the Concerned Residents of Lisheenkyle made during the planning process. That includes concerns that the development may hurt the biodiversity of the wood, the lack of services linked to it and the limited employment associated with data centers.
Local supporters fear that Apple may grow impatient, prompting community leaders to organize a rally in favor of the project earlier this month. Organizers say a couple of thousand people showed up, including children carrying signs emblazoned with “‘Athenry for Apple” and “Athenry says Yes.”
“It was a gesture of solidarity with Apple, to show that the vast majority of people in the area support the project, ” said Peter Feeney, a local councilor with Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s Fine Gael party. “There are only a few opponents. People are beginning to get fed up. This project means an awful lot to the area.”
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