Tuesday, August 22nd, 2017

Time	Event
12:00p	Survey: On-Prem Data Centers Lowest Investment Priority for IT Shops Investing in private data centers isn’t as much of a priority for IT organizations as it was just several years back. That’s a takeaway from IT researcher Computer Economics’ annual IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks report, which for 28 years has taken a deep-dive into the financial and strategic management of information technology. For this year’s study, more than 200 IT organizations were surveyed during the first half of 2017. According to the report, data centers now have the lowest priority for new spending among a list of five categories. Top priority is given to the development of business applications, a category in which 54 percent of respondents plan increased spending. However, only 9 percent have plans to increase data center spending, which the study attributes to increasing reliance on cloud infrastructure, cloud storage, and SaaS, a conclusion borne out by 32 percent of respondents indicating they plan increased spending on network infrastructure. “As a sign of the data center’s demise as a priority, end-user technology, including PCs and printers, has passed the data center, and for the first time data center is the spending category with the lowest priority,” the report said. “Demise” might be an overstatement, as there’s nothing in the summary to indicate this to be permanent, although it’s pretty much a certainty that the percentage of IT spending going to private data center infrastructure will never be as high as it was in years past. For the time being, budgets are focused on operations, with capital spending pretty much flatlining. Although 49 percent of the IT organizations surveyed indicated they will be increasing their spending on infrastructure, equipment, or major system development and implementation — with 23 percent saying their spending will decline and 28 percent indicating no change — the increases won’t be enough to make much of a difference. “While this is the best outlook for capital spending in several years, it is not enough to tip the scale to capital spending growth. For the most part, organizations appear to be spending just enough to maintain normal equipment refresh cycles, not growing their on-premises infrastructure.” In fact, while capital spending is increasing slightly in terms of total dollars spent, it’s declining when considered as a percentage of the IT budget, which the survey puts at a five-year low of 18 percent — down from 21 percent during each of the last two years and 24 percent as recently as 2013. Again, a primary mover behind this decline is the public cloud: “Virtualization, the cloud, and other technologies are lessening the need for capital expenditure growth even when times are good. While existing equipment must still be refreshed, the years of large capital expenditures in order to handle growth are likely gone, due to the elasticity and efficiencies of newer technologies.” So what are the biggest spending priorities? No surprise here: security and the cloud. According to the survey, 70 percent of the organizations responding said they plan increased spending on security this year, followed by 67 percent that will increase spending on cloud applications and 52 percent on cloud infrastructure. These are followed by business intelligence/data warehousing (51 percent), mobile devices (41 percent), and disaster recovery/business continuity (38 percent). Interestingly, although cloud applications are the second largest priority, Computer Economics said their research indicates that cloud apps account for less than 25 percent of the total application budget for most organizations. According to the survey, there might be some cause for concern for those working in tech — especially for those with lower level skills. Although total tech spending is expected to rise this year by about 3 percent, staffing levels are expected to remain even, due mainly to improved productivity. The employment news isn’t all bad, however: “Although IT staffing levels are flat at the median, it does not mean that IT organizations are not adding staff for some positions. While hiring is slowing for lower level skills such as computer operations, scheduling, and lower-level tech support positions, higher-level skills show increasing demand. Examples include business analysts, project managers, data analysts, and IT security professionals. As cloud applications and cloud infrastructure take up a larger percentage of IT spending, there is also a need for IT staff with skills in procurement and vendor management.” Computer Economics does not accept research sponsorships from technology vendors. (Comment on this)
4:30p	Andreessen Leads New Funding in Enterprise AI, Analytics Startup Databricks Julie Verhage (Bloomberg) — Funding for artificial intelligence startups has surged more than eightfold since 2012, and entrepreneurs are rushing to capitalize on the cash that’s still sitting on the sidelines.Money is gravitating toward the area as tech giants such as Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. acquire companies and push advancements. Venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates Inc., and Battery Ventures LP announced Tuesday they have injected $140 million into artificial intelligence startup Databricks Inc., raising the company’s funding to $247 million. While the sector saw just $559 million in funding in 2012, it surged to almost $5 billion in 2016, according to data compiled by research firm CB Insights. The number of deals has also seen a substantial increase, rising from 150 to 698 in that same time frame. According to Databricks, the firm was able to raise at an increased valuation without special provisions such as liquidation preferences, despite having received funding six months ago. The new round, which was led by Andreessen, will help Databricks reach new companies to make more effective use AI and big data. International expansion and building industry specific solutions for sectors including health care and financials will be a focus, the San Francisco-based startup said. “The reason we raised is because there is huge pent up demand in the market for this, and there isn’t a great solution out there right now,” Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and chief executive officer, said in an interview. “We want to hit the gas and bring our product to more customers that are outside of the top few companies actually achieving the full potential of AI.” (Comment on this)
5:20p	Zuckerberg Shares Eclipse Photos Shot from Facebook Data Center Roof If you live in the US and you’ve been checking your Facebook feed since Monday morning, chances are it’s been flooded with shots of the solar eclipse that graced the American skies roughly after 10 a.m. Pacific, interspersed with photos of Donald Trump staring at the sun with a naked eye. One of the data centers where those photos went before being delivered to your screen happened to be in one of the best places on the planet at that time to view the rare cosmic event: the Facebook data center in Prineville, Oregon, was in the path of totality on Monday morning. Employees of the data center didn’t waste the opportunity and shot a time-lapse video of the eclipse from the facility’s roof. The company’s co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted some of those images on his Facebook page. The social network was the first company to build a data center in Prineville followed by Apple, which also built a server farm in town. The Facebook data center in Prineville is the first data center the company designed and built for itself, marking a shift from an earlier infrastructure strategy that relied on leased data center space. It still leases data centers in numerous places around the world, but it’s also been continuously building its own. Facebook’s data center campus in Prineville, Oregon Facebook announced its latest data center construction project just last week: a $750 million server farm in New Albany, Ohio. For everything we know about Facebook data centers see our Facebook Data Center FAQ. (Comment on this)
6:00p	Rackspace’s Private Cloud Built on VMware Now in GA Brought to you by MSPmentor Rackspace, one of the major forces behind the open source cloud infrastructure project OpenStack, this week announced general availability of its new Rackspace Private Cloud, which is built on the VMware Cloud Foundation virtual stack. The new Rackspace Private Cloud enables scalable, software-defined data center (SDDC) capabilities, including compute, storage networking and security. A hosted model allows customers to hand off their IT infrastructure operations and take advantage of around the clock Rackspace support for help with migration, architecture, security and overall operation. See also: VMware, Once the ‘Easiest Value Proposition in IT, Defines Its New Role “Provisioning hardware quickly is no longer considered a value for customers, it’s expected,” Peter FitzGibbon, vice president and general manager of VMware at Rackspace, said in a statement. “The enhancement in our VMware private cloud delivery model through VMware Cloud Foundation will provide further value to new and existing Rackspace Private Cloud powered by VMware customers by giving them access to the most streamlined and innovative VMware SDDC capabilities and lifecycle management.” The hosted private cloud service, available in all regions, is billed as a way to free up in-house IT resources for more valuable tasks, with a solution featuring standardized VMware architecture and continuous updates. Rackspace and VMware have partnered for more than 10 years. “With a decade of proven success in helping customers meet their business demands, VMware and Rackspace are taking another step together to help mutual customers dramatically shorten the path to hybrid cloud,” Geoffrey Waters, vice president of Global Cloud Sales at VMware, said in the statement. “VMware Cloud Foundation is the industry’s most advanced cloud infrastructure platform that unlocks the benefits of hybrid cloud by establishing a common, simple operational model across private and public clouds,” he continued. “Together with Rackspace and its renowned Fanatical Support, we will add great value to mutual customers in their digital transformation journey.” (Comment on this)
6:22p	Iron Mountain Hires ByteGrid’s Infrastructure VP Mike Clemson Mike Clemson, who for the past two and a half years has been VP of critical infrastructure for the data center provider ByteGrid, has joined Iron Mountain, the enterprise information management specialist that has been aggressively expanding its data center services business. Clemson, a long-time data center facilities management professional, is Iron Mountain’s new senior director of data center operations, a role in which he will oversee the company’s entire data center portfolio, including its new facility in Northern Virginia (one of the country’s biggest and hottest data center markets), its underground data center inside an enormous former limestone mine outside of Pittsburgh, its data centers in Boston and Kansas City, and the 210,000-square foot Fortrust data center in Denver the company acquired last month for $128 million. See also: Exclusive – Iron Mountain’s Evolving Data Center Strategy ByteGrid provides colocation, cloud, and managed services, including specialized hosting services for compliance-sensitive customers. Clemson started at ByteGrid in 2015 and oversaw integration of three Sidus BioData data centers the company had acquired at the time into its portfolio. Prior to joining ByteGrid, he held senior facilities management positions at Carpathia Hosting, ServerVault, CES, and CBRE. Chris Miller, Iron Mountain’s senior business development exec for data center services, welcomed Clemson aboard in a post on LinkedIn. Photo: Mike Clemson (Source: LinkedIn) (Comment on this)

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