Hybrid cloud
IBM Cloud and Wasabi partner to drive innovation across hybrid cloud environments
IBM and Wasabi Technologies today announced they are collaborating to drive data innovation across IBM hybrid cloud environments [1.]. This collaboration aims to allow enterprises to run applications across any environment – on-premises, in the cloud or at the edge – and help enable users to cost efficiently access and utilize key business data and analytics in real time. The Boston Red Sox will be the first to leverage the joint power of IBM Cloud Satellite® and Wasabi hot cloud storage, designed to improve the club’s operations across its entire business.
A hybrid cloud network architecture consists of private servers, public cloud virtual servers, and the network that connects them. Public cloud providers typically utilize direct MPLS or Ethernet connections to move data between the client’s private cloud and the service provider’s public cloud.
Note 1. IBM’s hybrid cloud provides a common platform across enterprise customers cloud, on-premises and edge environments. IBM says their hybrid cloud approach can offer up to 2.5x more value than a public cloud-only approach.
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Both IBM Cloud and Wasabi are committed to delivering resiliency, performance, security, and compliance capabilities for their clients. Wasabi hot cloud storage does not charge for egress or API requests when they want to access their data, which Wasabi reports can help with cost predictability and savings for clients. Data can be stored and accessed how and when it is needed. The hybrid cloud approach delivered with IBM Cloud Satellite, can help clients manage cloud object storage and workloads running across environments from a single control point, using innovative security and controls no matter where data is being collected, processed or shared. The Red Sox plan to leverage Wasabi hot cloud storage across its hybrid cloud infrastructure while piloting IBM Cloud Satellite to house data including player video, analytics, surveillance data, IoT, and more, across Fenway Park and bring the flexibility and agility of public cloud services to its secured on-premises data center.
“Our critical data is growing at an incredible rate, so our organization is prioritizing a cost-effective and scalable approach to leverage cloud technology,” said Brian Shield, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Boston Red Sox. “The performance and cost reliability Wasabi delivers have already been advantageous for the Red Sox, and with the addition of IBM hybrid cloud technology we hope to take our digital initiatives to the next level. All of that ultimately funnels back to delivering a best-in-class fan experience.”
Through IBM Cloud and Wasabi, clients across all industries can take advantage of extended secured and open cloud services to help transform applications and workflows, managing security across any environment. This allows enterprises to store and access their data whether on-premises, in the cloud or at the edge.
“Wasabi is on a mission to store all the world’s data. Organizations storing an enormous amount of data, including sports organizations, need to be able to store it in an affordable, accessible way without being locked into a single vendor with exorbitant fees,” said David Friend, co-founder and chief executive officer, Wasabi Technologies. “Collaborating with IBM demonstrates Wasabi’s commitment in the cloud storage market and gives our customers a better way of managing their data cross locations.”
Image Credit: Wasabi Technologies
“In today’s digital-first world, data can be an organization’s greatest asset – empowering them with valuable insights that can transform business. Our collaboration with Wasabi technology will allow clients to re-imagine business processes enabled by data, while focusing on resiliency, performance, security and compliance. We are helping organizations across all industries, even those that are highly regulated, uncover game-changing insights from any environment, without sacrificing security,” said Howard Boville, Head of IBM Hybrid Cloud Platform. For more information about IBM Cloud Satellite visit: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/satellite.
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“When customers think about hybrid, it’s about being able to move their workloads between on-premises and public cloud as well as between [different] cloud platforms,” said HPE’s Joseph Yang said in an interview with ZDNET.
Cloud and software vendors have taken various approaches to address this, such as running an on-premises stack in a public cloud, on a bare-metal environment. However, this locks customers into the software vendor’s infrastructure, and the cost of running bare-metal on a public cloud is high.
Solutions currently offered by cloud vendors to manage hybrid workloads often have limited capabilities and flexibility, compared to what enterprises are used to with their on-premises environment, Yang said.
About IBM:
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, with consulting expertise. IBM helps clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.
About Wasabi Technologies:
Wasabi provides simple and affordable hot cloud storage for businesses all over the world. It enables organizations to store and instantly access an unlimited amount of data with no complex tiers or egress or API fees, delivering predictable costs that save money and industry leading security and performance businesses can count on. Trusted by tens of thousands of customers worldwide, Wasabi has been recognized as one of technology’s fastest-growing and most visionary companies. Created by Carbonite co-founders and cloud storage pioneers David Friend and Jeff Flowers, Wasabi is a privately held company based in Boston. Wasabi is a Proud Partner of the Boston Red Sox, and the Official Cloud Storage Partner of Liverpool Football Club and the Boston Bruins.
References:
https://www.ibm.com/hybrid-cloud
https://www.zdnet.com/article/companies-struggling-to-manage-hybrid-cloud/
TM and ZTE Malaysia to develop next-gen hybrid cloud 5G core network
Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) and ZTE have entered into a new strategic partnership to build out a hybrid cloud 5G core network in Malaysia which is designed for future technologies and will lead the way for next-generation networks. It’s a three year strategic partnership and the hybrid cloud aspect is part of a plan to ‘foster innovation and advancement of state-of-the-art technologies’ for TM’s 5G Core project, which includes bare metal containers, SDN-based architecture, hardware acceleration, CUPS, and 3-layer decoupling.
As well as generally improving network bandwidth and speed in Malaysia, it’s also pitched as a means to which TM can provide new connectivity services to healthcare, finance, transportation, and education, develop smart city and IoT applications, and it is ‘anticipated to revolutionize Malaysia’s telecommunications industry.
The integration of this converged network will strengthen TM’s capabilities to provide seamless connectivity and exceptional network performance, serving a diverse range of industries, including healthcare, finance, transportation, and education. Additionally, the hybrid cloud 5G core network will aid in the growth of smart cities, Internet of Things (IoT), and other next-generation technologies that necessitate rapid, low-latency connectivity.
This collaboration marks a significant achievement in the advancement of 5G technology in Malaysia, with the novel hybrid cloud 5G core network anticipated to revolutionize Malaysia’s telecommunications industry. With the deployment of these sophisticated technologies, customers will gain unparalleled user experience, while also improving the network’s dependability, safety, and efficiency.
Source: Jordi Boixareu/Alamy Live News
“TM is pleased to partner ZTE in building a hybrid cloud 5G core network that is designed to meet the rising needs for future technologies,” said Jasmine Lee Sze Inn, TM’s Executive Vice President for Mobile. “This strategic partnership will transform 5G-enabled networks to deliver innovative solutions and services through our state-of-the-art network and infrastructure, and enable seamless connectivity and exceptional network performance.”
Steven Ge, ZTE Malaysia’s Chief Executive Officer added: “We’re excited to strengthen our partnership with TM through the development of a hybrid cloud 5G core network. This will accelerate the launch of 5G network across Malaysia, which will bring forth new innovation into the market. As a global leading provider of information and communication technology solutions, we are confident that the advancement of our hybrid cloud 5G core network will be the model for future networks. ZTE is committed in this collaboration that will put Malaysia as one of the leading countries in the region to roll-out its 5G network.”
It’s broadly the same pitch as was delivered in places where the 5G rollout is more advanced, such as the US and Western Europe. While we don’t appear to be much closer to the utopian vision of smart cities over here, there has been some progress in private 5G networks in enterprise and industry settings – though much the emphasis now is on things like 5G SA and mmWave to bring the initial promises over the line.
East Asian contracts may be increasingly important for ZTE following U.S. led bans on Chinese vendor (Huawei and ZTE) equipment and phones. As a result of sanctions, ZTE has become more reliant on its home market. It increased domestic sales 9.2% last year compared to 3.4% offshore, with the China market now accounting for 69% of the total, up from 64% three years ago.
Chairman Li Zixue said 2022 was the start of ZTE’s “strategic expansion phase.” He said the company had achieved good growth from innovative products including server and storage, 5G industry applications, auto electronics, digital energy and smart home. “We firmly grasped the opportunities presented by the global trend of digitalization and low-carbon green principles,” he said.
The company further ramped up R&D spending. Research outlays rose 14.9%, mostly on 5G-related products, chip, server and storage businesses. R&D spending accounts for 17.6% of revenue, up from 13.8% three years ago, with the research division now totaling 49% of total headcount.
Li added that ZTE would seek opportunities for industrial transformation presented by new energy and digitalized industries. While the external environment would likely become more unpredictable, “the digital economy has grown into an irreversible trend.” He also said ZTE would “persist in an approach of precision and pragmatism in 2023,” targeting domestic opportunities in the digital economy and seeking breakthroughs in large telco customers offshore.
“We will strengthen our corporate resilience and control operating risks to achieve prudent growth,” Li concluded.
References:
https://telecoms.com/520567/tm-and-zte-team-up-on-hybrid-cloud-5g-core-network-in-malaysia/
https://www.lightreading.com/asia/zte-hikes-full-year-earnings-by-19-/d/d-id/783787?
Swisscom, Ericsson and AWS collaborate on 5G SA Core for hybrid clouds
Swiss network operator Swisscom have announced a proof-of-concept (PoC) collaboration with Ericsson 5G SA Core running on AWS. The objective is to explore hybrid cloud use cases with AWS, beginning with 5G core applications. The plan is for more applications to then gradually be added as the trial continues. With each cloud strategy (private, public, hybrid, multi) bringing its own drivers and challenges the idea here seems to be enabling the operator to take advantage of the specific characteristics of both hybrid and public cloud.
The PoC reconfirms Swisscom and Ericsson’s view of the potential hybrid cloud has as a complement to existing private cloud infrastructure. Both Swisscom and Ericsson are on a common journey with AWS to explore how use cases can benefit telecom operators.
The PoC will examine use cases that take advantage of the particular characteristics of hybrid and public cloud. In particular, the flexibility and elasticity it can offer to customers which can mean deployment efficiencies for use cases where capacity is not constantly needed. An example of this could be when maintenance activities are undertaken in Swisscom’s private cloud, or when there are traffic peaks, AWS can be used to offload and complement the private cloud.
Swisscom had already been collaborating with AWS on migrating its 5G infrastructure towards standalone 5G. In addition, it has also used the hyperscaler’s public cloud platform for its IT environments. Telco concerns linger [1.] around the use of public cloud in telecoms infrastructure (especially the core networks) for some operators, hybrid cloud is seemingly gaining momentum as a transitional approach.
Note 1. Telco concerns over public cloud:
- In a recent survey by Telecoms.com more than four in five industry respondents feared security concerns over running telco applications in the public cloud, including 37% who find it hard to make the business case for public cloud as private cloud remains vital in addressing security issues. This also means that any efficiency gains are offset by the IT environment and the network running over two cloud types.
- Many in the industry also fear vendor lock-in and lack of orchestration from public cloud providers. Around a third of industry experts from the same survey find it a compelling reason not to embrace and move workloads to the public cloud unless applications can run on all versions of public cloud and are portable among cloud vendors.
- There’s also a lack of interoperability and interconnectedness with public clouds. The services of different public cloud vendors are indeed not interconnected nor interoperable for the same types of workloads. This concern is one of the drivers to avoid public cloud, according to some network operators.
–>PLEASE SEE THE COMMENT ON THIS TOPIC IN THE BOX BELOW THE ARTICLE.
Quotes:
Mark Düsener, Executive Vice President Mobile Network & Services at Swisscom, says: “By bringing the Ericsson 5G Core onto AWS we will substantially change the way our networks will be built and operated. The elasticity of the cloud in combination with a new magnitude in automatization will support us in delivering even better quality more efficiently over time. In order to shape this new concept, we as Swisscom believe strategic and deep partnerships like the ones we have with Ericsson and AWS are the key for success.”
Monica Zethzon, Head of Solution Area Core Networks, Ericsson says: “5G innovation requires deep collaboration to create the foundations necessary for new and evolving use cases. This Proof-of-Concept project with Swisscom and AWS is about opening up the routes to innovation by using hybrid cloud’s flexible combination of private and public cloud resources. It demonstrates that through partnership, we can deliver a hybrid cloud solution which meets strict telecoms industry requirements and security while making best use of HCP agility and cloud economy of scale.”
Fabio Cerone, General Manager AWS Telco EMEA at AWS, says: “With this move, Swisscom is opening the door to cloud native networks, delivering full automation and elasticity at scale, with the ability to innovate faster and make 5G impactful to their customers. We are committed to working closely with partners, such as Ericsson, to explore new use cases and strategies that best support the needs of customers like Swisscom.”
“How to deploy software in different cloud environments – at a high level, it is hard making that work in practice,” said Per Narvinger, the head of Ericsson’s cloud software and services unit. “You have hyperscalers with their offering and groups trying to standardize and people trying to do it their own way. There needs to be harmonization of what is wanted.”
https://telecoms.com/520337/swisscom-ericson-and-aws-collaborate-on-hybrid-cloud-poc-on-5g-core/
https://telecoms.com/520055/telcos-and-the-public-cloud-drivers-and-challenges/
AWS Telco Network Builder: managed network automation service to deploy, run, and scale telco networks on AWS
Omdia and Ericsson on telco transitioning to cloud native network functions (CNFs) and 5G SA core networks
Gartner: Public Cloud End-User Spending to approach $500B in 2022; $600B in 2023
Gartner forecasts that public cloud end user spending will reach nearly $600 billion by the end of 2023. The market research firm says public cloud services will continue in 2022, and nearly capture $494.7 billion in global spending this year – up from $410.9 billion in 2021. That represents a 20.4% increase in spending from 2021.
“Cloud is the powerhouse that drives today’s digital organizations,” said Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner. “CIOs are beyond the era of irrational exuberance of procuring cloud services and are being thoughtful in their choice of public cloud providers to drive specific, desired business and technology outcomes in their digital transformation journey.”
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is forecast to experience the highest end-user spending growth in 2022 at 30.6%, followed by desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) at 26.6% and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) at 26.1% (see Table 1). The new reality of hybrid work is prompting organizations to move away from powering their workforce with traditional client computing solutions, such as desktops and other physical in-office tools, and toward DaaS, which is driving spending to reach $2.6 billion in 2022. Demand for cloud-native capabilities by end-users accounts for PaaS growing to $109.6 billion in spending.
Table 1. Worldwide Public Cloud Services End-User Spending Forecast (Millions of U.S. Dollars)
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
| Cloud Business Process Services (BPaaS) | 51,410 | 55,598 | 60,619 |
| Cloud Application Infrastructure Services (PaaS) | 86,943 | 109,623 | 136,404 |
| Cloud Application Services (SaaS) | 152,184 | 176,622 | 208,080 |
| Cloud Management and Security Services | 26,665 | 30,471 | 35,218 |
| Cloud System Infrastructure Services (IaaS) | 91,642 | 119,717 | 156,276 |
| Desktop as a Service (DaaS) | 2,072 | 2,623 | 3,244 |
| Total Market | 410,915 | 494,654 | 599,840 |
BPaaS = business process as a service; IaaS = infrastructure as a service; PaaS = platform as a service; SaaS = software as a service. Note: Totals may not add up due to rounding. Source: Gartner (April 2022)
“Cloud native capabilities such as containerization, database platform-as-a-service (dbPaaS) and artificial intelligence/machine learning contain richer features than commoditized compute such as IaaS or network-as-a-service,” said Nag. “As a result, they are generally more expensive which is fueling spending growth.”
SaaS remains the largest public cloud services market segment, forecasted to reach $176.6 billion in end-user spending in 2022. Gartner expects steady growth within this segment as enterprises take multiple routes to market with SaaS, for example via cloud marketplaces, and continue to break up larger, monolithic applications into composable parts for more efficient DevOps processes.
Emerging technologies in cloud computing such as hyperscale edge computing and secure access service edge (SASE) are disrupting adjacent markets and forming new product categories, creating additional revenue streams for public cloud providers.
“Driven by maturation of core cloud services, the focus of differentiation is gradually shifting to capabilities that can disrupt digital businesses and operations in enterprises directly,” said Nag. “Public cloud services have become so integral that providers are now forced to address social and political challenges, such as sustainability and data sovereignty.
“IT leaders who view the cloud as an enabler rather than an end state will be most successful in their digital transformational journeys,” said Nag. “The organizations combining cloud with other adjacent, emerging technologies will fare even better.”
Gartner clients can read more in Forecast: Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2020-2026, 1Q22 Update. Lean more in the complimentary Gartner webinar Cloud Computing Scenario: The Future of Cloud.
References:
Gartner: Accelerated Move to Public Cloud to Overtake Traditional IT Spending in 2025
Strong growth for global cloud infrastructure spending by hyperscalers and enterprise customers
Gartner: Global public cloud spending to reach $332.3 billion in 2021; 23.1% YoY increase
Microsoft and Telefonica Tech to deliver hybrid cloud services to public administrations
Microsoft and Telefonica Tech, Telefonica’s digital business unit, has signed a new deal with Microsoft, to supply confidential hybrid cloud services to public administrations and companies in regulated sectors. The focus will be on monitoring and encryption services to ensure the security and privacy of data in Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
- The joint solutions of both companies will enable Spanish public administrations and companies in regulated sectors to respond to the needs of digital sovereignty.
- Telefónica Tech and Microsoft meet the most demanding legal and technical requirements for cloud trust principles, guaranteeing them with Microsoft’s Confidential Computing technology and Telefónica Tech’s cyber threat monitoring and management capabilities.
- Telefónica Tech will provide professional and managed advisory, implementation, and operational services to deploy and operate the cloud services, which will be marketed through Telefónica Empresas.
Under the latest agreement, Microsoft will deliver its privacy safeguards, technologies and certifications. The company has high-level National Security Scheme certification for Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 and has made a contractual commitment to legally oppose access to its enterprise and public sector customer data by any government. Microsoft has also announced the EU Data Boundary initiative to allow customers to store and process their personal data within the EU. This commitment applies to Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 cloud services.
Telefonica Tech will provide consultancy, implementation and operation services that will enable the deployment of maximum security cloud services, guaranteeing compliance with information privacy, quality of service and regulatory compliance requirements at all times. The company will also deliver value-added services, such as the intelligent management of communications and infrastructures or the monitoring and management of cyber threats from its Cybersecurity Operations Centre, with the aim of guaranteeing a rapid and secure adoption of cloud services by the different organisations and institutions. It will in addition offer specialised consulting services for the design, deployment and operation of Big Data platforms on Microsoft Azure Cloud capabilities. Finally, specific services will be supplied to the Defence sector. These will include 5G connectivity services offered by Telefonica with Microsoft cloud services.
All of the services will be implemented in Microsoft’s current cloud environments and will be complemented by the upcoming availability of the new Cloud Region that Microsoft will open in Spain.
Telefonica joined Microsoft and Repsol in June to create an artificial intelligence consortium focused on the industrial sector in Spain.
Telefonica and Microsoft partnered in May to jointly develop private 5G connectivity and on-premises edge computing services for the industrial sector. The partners will now provide public sector organizations, including Defense, with cloud computing and infrastructure services to advance their digital transformation plans, while complying with data protection provisions and recommendations defined by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB).
José Cerdán, CEO of Telefónica Tech, assures: “We believe that the alliance between Microsoft and Telefónica represents a giant step forward in enabling the digital transformation of the public sector and, in general, of the country. The combination of Microsoft’s technology with Telefónica’s service, management and control capabilities guarantees sovereignty and privacy as well as scalability and evolution of infrastructure and citizen services, all with the highest level of quality“.
Alberto Granados, president of Microsoft Spain, remarks: “We at Microsoft have long demonstrated our commitment to meeting and exceeding the data protection requirements of the European Union. This joint value proposition with Telefónica to provide confidential hybrid cloud solutions responds to the needs of digital sovereignty and is evidence that we continue to advance this commitment.”
Regarding this alliance, Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, points out: “The proposal of confidential public cloud solutions together with hybrid cloud designed specifically for public administrations and companies in regulated sectors in Spain, responds to the important objective of digital sovereignty and constitutes a very relevant advance to accelerate the digitalization of our economy.”
Microsoft was the first hyperscale cloud provider to achieve certification for compliance with the high level of the National Security Scheme in 2016, demonstrating the company’s commitment to delivering cloud products with the highest security requirements. This certification is available for all three Microsoft public clouds: Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365. It has also been the first to provide Confidential Computing services working with Intel and AMD. These Microsoft cloud services add in-use protection to existing protections for data in transit and at rest, ensuring maximum privacy. In addition, the company offers advanced encryption services that complement the base encryption measures, allowing the implementation of encryption systems using keys provided and managed by the customer or a third party, in this case Telefónica, and managed and dedicated hardware security module (HSM) services.
Telefónica Tech, through its capabilities and experience, accelerates the implementation of technology through its Cybersecurity, Cloud, IoT, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain services. It has 12 specialized Digital Operations Centers (DOC) with 24×7 services from where more than 30,000 servers are managed and more than 100 million cybersecurity events per year are monitored. It also has more than 3,000 expert professionals with the highest certifications in cloud services and cybersecurity who serve the Telefónica Group’s 5.5 million B2B customers in 175 countries.
References:
VMware Cloud with Tanzu services delivers enterprise-grade kubernetes services
VMware has announced new advancements for VMware Cloud on AWS [1.], a multi-cloud computing infrastructure. The new innovations include a new portfolio of managed Kubernetes services to modernize apps on VMware Cloud. The new functions will make it simpler and safer to run enterprise apps in VMware Cloud. This new VMware initiative supports the need for customers to run their IT software in sovereign clouds, as well as technology previews that showcase the future of VMware Cloud.
Note 1. VMware Cloud on AWS is the preferred service for AWS for all vSphere-based workloads [2.]. VMware Cloud on AWS brings VMware’s enterprise-class SDDC (Software Defined Data Center) [3.] software to the AWS Cloud with optimized access to native AWS services. Powered by VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware Cloud on AWS integrates VMware’s compute, storage, and network virtualization products (VMware vSphere, VMware vSAN, and VMware NSX [4.]) along with VMware vCenter Server management, optimized to run on dedicated, elastic, bare-metal AWS infrastructure.
VMware Cloud on AWS uses NSX-T to create and manage internal SDDC (Software Defined Data Center) networks and provide endpoints for VPN connections from the customer’s on-premises network infrastructure. This subnet is used by the vCenter, NSX, and HCX appliances in the SDDC.
Note 2. vSphere is a server virtualization software application from VMware. It debuted in 2009 as the successor to the company’s flagship VMware Infrastructure solution and serves as a complete platform for implementing and managing virtual machine (VM) infrastructure on a large scale.
Note 3. A SDDC network has two notional tiers:
- Tier 0 handles north-south traffic (traffic leaving or entering the SDDC, or between the
Management and Compute gateways). - Tier 1 handles east-west traffic (traffic between routed network segments within the SDDC).
Note 4. NSX is a network virtualization and security platform that enables the virtual cloud network, a software-defined approach to networking that extends across data centers, clouds and application frameworks.
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The company said that together, the innovations will give VMware Cloud customers more tools to accelerate modernization of their enterprise apps, increase business agility and resiliency, and significantly reduce costs compared to existing approaches.
VMware Cloud on AWS is an integrated cloud offering jointly developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and VMware.
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VMware Cloud with Tanzu services (see illustration below) is a new portfolio of managed Kubernetes services that will be available at no additional charge as part of VMware Cloud on AWS (see illustration above), for enterprise-grade Kubernetes on a fully managed, hybrid-cloud ready Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for all enterprise applications.
IT admins will be able to use the VMware vCenter interface to unify VM and container management on a common platform and provision Kubernetes clusters within minutes. Platform operators or SREs will be able to manage Kubernetes clusters consistently across clouds using Tanzu services as a multi-cloud Kubernetes management plane.
VMware Cloud with Tanzu services
Tanzu services include the following capabilities:
- Managed Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service: ision Tanzu Kubernetes clusters within a few minutes using a simple, fast, and self-service experience in the VMware Cloud console. The underlying SDDC infrastructure and capacity required for Kubernetes workloads is fully managed by VMware. Use vCenter Server for managing Kubernetes workloads by deploying Kubernetes clusters, provisioning role-based access and allocating capacity for Developer teams. Manage multiple TKG clusters as namespaces with observability, troubleshooting and resiliency in vCenter Server.
- Built in support for Tanzu Mission Control Essentials: Attach upstream compliant Kubernetes clusters including Amazon EKS and Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters. Manage lifecycle for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters and centralize platform operations for Kubernetes clusters using the Kubernetes management plane offered by Tanzu Mission Control. Tanzu Mission Control provides a global visibility across clusters and clouds and increases security and governance by automating operational tasks such as access and security management at scale.
Tanzu services on the VMware Cloud on AWS platform brings together the three personas working on modern applications. vSphere Administrators manage virtual machines on-premises and in the cloud and allocate resources for platform operators to deploy workloads. The operators use Tanzu Mission Control to manage and maintain clusters across environments. Developers can create code using a flexible platform for container and virtual machine-based workloads.
The managed Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service, which is one of the Tanzu services, will enable admins to provision Tanzu Kubernetes clusters within a few minutes using a simple, fast, and self-service experience in the VMware Cloud console.
- The underlying SDDC (Software Defined Data Center) infrastructure and capacity required for Kubernetes workloads is fully managed by VMware. Use vCenter Server for managing containerized workloads by deploying Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters, provisioning role-based access and allocating capacity for Developer teams.
- One can manage multiple TKG clusters as namespaces with observability, troubleshooting and resiliency in vCenter Server.
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References:
https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud/2021/10/05/introducing-vmware-cloud-with-tanzu-services/
https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud/2021/10/05/vmware-cloud-tanzu-services-a-technical-introduction/
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/vmc-on-aws-networking-security.pdf
HUAWEI CLOUD launches partner programs in LatAm and Caribbean
HUAWEI CLOUD [1.] announced today that it will launch partner programs in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as the Spark Program, which provides a fund of $10 million for startup innovation, and the Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) Ecosystem Program, which provides a fund of $10 million to enable app developers and partners to improve cloud experience.
Note 1. HUAWEI CLOUD provides a powerful computing platform and easy-to-use development platform to support Huawei’s full-stack, all-scenario AI strategy.
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From August 25 to September 3, HUAWEI CLOUD is celebrating its second anniversary in Latin America with a series of activities. HUAWEI CLOUD and its customers and partners will share experiences in digital transformation and intelligent upgrade.
The event includes a series of releases, covering distributed cloud, cloud native, big data, AI, and video service. The following cloud services are launched for the first time in Latin America: Intelligent EdgeCloud (IEC), Intelligent EdgeFabric (IEF), KYON (Keep Your Own Network), FunctionGraph 2.0, Multi-Cloud Container Platform (MCP), Application Service Mesh (ASM), Container Guard Service (CGS), GaussDB database, ModelArts Pro (AI development platform for enterprises), and Cloud-native Video Service. These powerful offerings help Latin American customers simplify connections, deployment, data analysis, AI adoption, and service rollout, facilitating their digital transformation.
Four Initiatives to Accelerate Digital Transformation and Intelligent Upgrade:
“Cloud is the core of the ICT industry and a key driving force for industry digitalization,” said Mr. Zhang Ping‘an, Senior Vice President of Huawei, CEO of Huawei Cloud BU, and President of Huawei Consumer Cloud Service. “HUAWEI CLOUD values the strategy of building a global presence within local reach. Latin America is one of the most important emerging markets for cloud computing. HUAWEI CLOUD has been investing heavily in this market and has achieved rapid growth,” Mr. Zhang Ping‘an continued. “Going forward, we will strengthen our support for the digital transformation and intelligent upgrade of our customers in Latin America through four initiatives: continuous tech innovation, joint outreach by HUAWEI CLOUD & Huawei Mobile Services, Global + Local services, and high-quality business ecosystems. We invite more partners to join. Together, we will build a robust digital ecosystem around the world and lay the cloud foundation for an intelligent world.”
Continuous tech innovation: Drawing on Huawei’s rock-solid foundation built by 80,000 R&D engineers and an annual investment of 15 billion US dollars into R&D, HUAWEI CLOUD continues to innovate in cloud native, AI, and big data, delivering global cloud services with compelling elasticity, performance, and consistency.
Joint outreach by HUAWEI CLOUD & Huawei Mobile Services (HMS): This cloud-cloud synergy initiative enables deep collaboration between HUAWEI CLOUD and Huawei Consumer Cloud for media, audio-visual, finance, industrial interconnection, and medical education. The synergy aims to deliver consistent technologies and experience for developers and partners via unified accounts, development platforms, and application distribution and operation.
Global + Local services: HUAWEI CLOUD has built 45 availability zones (AZs) in 23 regions around the world. Over the past year, HUAWEI CLOUD has continuously invested in Latin America, bringing the second region online in Mexico and adding two new AZs in Brazil and Chile. As of today, HUAWEI CLOUD operates three core regions in Chile, Brazil, and Mexico, and two country-level regions in Argentina and Peru, with eight AZs in total. HUAWEI CLOUD has the largest number of nodes in Latin America and the Caribbean. The unrelenting resource investment helps provide customers with stable, efficient, and low-latency cloud service experience.
High-quality business ecosystem: HUAWEI CLOUD has more than 20,000 partners, including consulting, SaaS, and software partners. In the process of global deployment, HUAWEI CLOUD has focused on building a multi-dimensional global ecosystem and complementing the advantages of different regions to create maximum value for customers. In the future, HUAWEI CLOUD will engage with more partners in Latin America and bring the experience in other regions of the world to create shared success for all.
Continuous Investment in Latin America and Increased Support for Partners
“We position our company not only as a provider of leading cloud infrastructure and services, but also a long-term business partner in Latin America, as well as a responsible corporate citizen,” said Fernando Liu, President of Latin America Cloud Business Dept, Huawei. “As a cloud service provider with the largest number of nodes and the fastest growth in Latin America, HUAWEI CLOUD will continue to invest more in Latin America with more local nodes, new solutions, and partner support. We are dedicated to bringing the latest technology to Latin America.”
Fernando Liu also stressed HUAWEI CLOUD’s belief in a co-created ecosystem of shared success, as HUAWEI CLOUD works with partners to take digital transformation and intelligent upgrade to new heights in Latin America. At the two-year anniversary, HUAWEI CLOUD is launching a series of support initiatives for HMS partners, SaaS partners, and start-ups.
- Spark Program: A fund of USD10 million to encourage and support innovation by start-ups in Latin America.
- HMS Ecosystem Program: A fund of USD10 million to enable developers and partners to launch applications on Huawei AppGallery. The program also helps them better experience device-cloud synergy based on the HUAWEI CLOUD platform.
- Service Partner Program: Provides additional incentives for consulting partners who pass the Service Capability Certification (SCC).
- SaaS Partner Program and Marketplace Program: Focused technical and commercial policies to support technical partners and help them develop solutions based on HUAWEI CLOUD. The Marketplace Program supports the partners throughout the sales cycle, helping them achieve greater business success.
Since 2019, HUAWEI CLOUD has worked with more than 1000 consulting partners and 200 technical partners in Latin America, covering 14 Latin American countries, propelling Latin America towards digital transformation and intelligent upgrade in logistics, manufacturing, transportation, retail, education, and telecommunications.
References:
IBM’s Cloud Satellite service in Generally Available Orbit
IBM’s Cloud Satellite service is now in generally available (GA) orbit. The service extends the IBM Cloud control plane to run virtually anywhere, whether that be on commodity hardware, some edge device, or inside another public cloud.
IBM manages Cloud Satellite deployments, which is different than from most other software-defined hybrid cloud platforms. It provides an administrative control plane and as-a-service operation of IBM cloud services using a Kubernetes (K8s) cluster.
IBM explained that the GA push now makes the platform available to all customers. It allows users to run their IBM Cloud service on-premises or in edge locations managed through a single pane of glass in the public cloud.
The first two services for IBM Cloud Satellite will be Cloud Pak for Data and OpenShift as a Service.
IBM’s not alone in looking to data as one of the first services to be offered on hybrid. Amazon Outposts offers RDS for MySQL and PostgreSQL; Azure Arc data services include SQL Managed Instance and PostgreSQL Hyperscale; while Google recently added BigQuery Omni to its Anthos software-defined hybrid cloud as part of a multi-cloud and edge play.
The rationale as to why data services are so elemental to hybrid cloud is that, for many organizations or use cases, data needs to stay local for reasons ranging from latency issues to data residency requirements. OpenShift as a service will provide a route for customers seeking to build their own private cloud K8s environments. IBM is announcing that this will also be early on the list.
As part of this collaboration, customers will be able to:
- Deploy applications across more than 180,000 connected enterprise locations on the Lumen network to provide a low latency experience
- Create cloud-enabled solutions at the edge that leverage application management and orchestration via IBM Cloud Satellite
- Build open, interoperable platforms that give customers greater deployment flexibility and more seamless access to cloud native services like AI, IoT and edge computing
IBM said it has more than 65 “ecosystem partners” building services to run in the Cloud Satellite environment. Partner include Cisco, Dell Technologies, and Intel. They intend to develop cloud services which can run across the multi-cloud and premises platform services include storage, networking, and server options.
“IBM is working with clients to leverage advanced technologies like edge computing and [artificial intelligence], enabling them to digitally transform with hybrid cloud while keeping data security at the forefront,” said Howard Boville, Head of IBM Hybrid Cloud Platform, in a statement. He added that “clients can securely gain the benefits of cloud services anywhere, from the core of the data center to the farthest reaches of the network.”
IBM highlighted three partners, among them Lumen Technologies and Portworx, that are both heavily leveraging 5G to deliver PaaS services for edge computing, and F5, which is developing vertical solutions for banking institutions.
IBM noted that Lumen Technologies (formerly CenturyLink) was using the hybrid cloud platform to deliver its Edge Compute service. That capability relies on Red Hat’s OpenShift that runs within Cloud Satellite to host the applications running close to Lumen’s edge locations. Lumen touts that it has approximately 450,000 route fiber miles in its network spread across more than 60 countries.
Lumen struck a similar deal earlier this year with VMware that will see both vendors “fast-track the design, development, and delivery of edge computing and more secure, work-from-anywhere solutions.”
Does anyone remember IBM’s Satellite Business Systems (SBS) of the late 1970s? It was a pioneer in delivering data services to businesses as a precursor of the Internet.
References:
https://www.ibm.com/cloud/satellite
https://developer.ibm.com/blogs/distributed-cloud-development-ibm-cloud-satellite/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-cloud-satellite-goes-ga/
https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/ibm-cloud-satellite-boosted-to-ga-orbit/2021/03/
IBM Cloud Satellite: Build faster. Securely. Anywhere. Now generally available. To get started, visit: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/satellite.
For more information on how IBM is working with its ecosystem of partners, visit: www.ibm.com/cloud/blog/ibm-partner-ecosystem-and-cloud-satellite
For more information on IBM Cloud Pak for Data as a Service, visit:
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/journey-to-ai/ibm-cloud-pak-for-data-with-ibm-cloud-satellite
For more information on how IBM is helping developers build on IBM Cloud Satellite, visit:
https://developer.ibm.com/blogs/distributed-cloud-development-ibm-cloud-satellite
For more information on how IBM Cloud Satellite is supported by IBM Storage, visit: www.ibm.com/blogs/systems/improve-it-infrastructure-with-ibm-hybrid-cloud-storage-for-ibm-cloud-satellite
For more information on IBM Global Technology Services capabilities for IBM Cloud Satellite, visit: ibm.biz/PC_IaaS
To learn more about how Lumen has integrated Cloud Satellite across 180K global edge locations, visit: https://blog.lumen.com/speeding-innovation-at-the-edge-with-lumen-technologies-and-ibm-cloud-satellite
About IBM:
For further information visit: www.ibm.com/cloud/