Daily Archives: July 14, 2017

BBC News

Google announces London cloud computing data centre - BBC News BBC News Google has revealed it has built a London data centre for the cloud computing services it rents to third parties. The facility is its second in Europe, after Brussels, ... Google Cloud Sets Up Shop In LondonFortune Google moves to Europe for its cloud computing after establishing itself in US and AsiaStockNewsGazette Google opens first London cloud data centre as competition with Amazon and Microsoft heats upProactive Investors UK Business Insider -Silicon UK -The INQUIRER all 24 news articles »

More:

Google announces London cloud computing data centre - BBC News - BBC News

The cloud in cloud computing originated from the habit of drawing the internet as a fluffy cloud in network diagrams. No wonder the most popular meaning of cloud computing refers to running workloads over the internet remotely in a commercial providers data centerthe so-called public cloud model. AWS (Amazon Web Services), Salesforces CRM system, and Google Cloud Platform all exemplify this popular notion of cloud computing.

But theres another, more precise meaning of cloud computing: the virtualization and central management of data center resources as software-defined pools. This technical definition of cloud computing describes how public cloud service providers run their operations. The key advantage is agility: the ability to apply abstracted compute, storage, and network resources to workloads as needed and tap into an abundance of pre-built services.

From a customer perspective, the public cloud offers a way to gain new capabilities on demand without investing in new hardware or software. Instead, customers pay their cloud provider a subscription fee or pay for only the resources they use. Simply by filling in web forms, users can set up accounts and spin up virtual machines or provision new applications. More users or computing resources can be added on the flythe latter in real time as workloads demand those resources thanks to a feature known as auto-scaling.

The array of available cloud computing services is vast, but most fall into one of the following categories:

This type of public cloud computing delivers applications over the internet through the browser. The most popular SaaS applications for business can be found in Googles G Suite and Microsofts Office 365; among enterprise applications, Salesforce leads the pack. But virtually all enterprise applications, including ERP suites from Oracle and SAP, have adopted the SaaS model. Typically, SaaS applications offer extensive configuration options as well as development environments that enable customers to code their own modifications and additions.

At a basic level, IaaS public cloud providers offer storage and compute services on a pay-per-use basis. But the full array of services offered by all major public cloud providers is staggering: highly scalable databases, virtual private networks, big data analytics, developer tools, machine learning, application monitoring, and so on. Amazon Web Services was the first IaaS provider and remains the leader, followed by Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Cloud.

PaaS provides sets of services and workflows that specifically target developers, who can use shared tools, processes, and APIs to accelerate the development, test, and deployment of applications. Salesforces Heroku and Force.com are popular public cloud PaaS offerings; Pivotals Cloud Foundry and Red Hats OpenShift can be deployed on premises or accessed through the major public clouds. For enterprises, PaaS can ensure that developers have ready access to resources, follow certain processes, and use only a specific array of services, while operators maintain the underlying infrastructure.

Note that a variety of PaaS tailored for developers of mobile applications generally goes by the name of MBaaS (mobile back end as a service), or sometimes just BaaS (back end as a service).

FaaS, the cloud instantiation of serverless computing, adds another layer of abstraction to PaaS, so that developers are completely insulated from everything in the stack below their code. Instead of futzing with virtual servers, containers, and application runtimes, they upload narrowly functional blocks of code, and set them to be triggered by a certain event (e.g. a form submission or uploaded file). All the major clouds offer FaaS on top of IaaS: AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Functions, and IBM OpenWhisk. A special benefit of FaaS applications is that they consume no IaaS resources until an event occurs, reducing pay-per-use fees.

The private cloud downsizes the technologies used to run IaaS public clouds into software that can be deployed and operated in a customers data center. As with a public cloud, internal customers can provision their own virtual resources in order to build, test, and run applications, with metering to charge back departments for resource consumption. For administrators, the private cloud amounts to the ultimate in data center automation, minimizing manual provisioning and management. VMwares Software Defined Data Center stack is the most popular commercial private cloud software, while OpenStack is the open source leader.

A hybrid cloud is the integration of a private cloud with a public cloud. At its most developed, the hybrid cloud involves creating parallel environments in which applications can move easily between private and public clouds. In other instances, databases may stay in the customer data center and integrate with public cloud applicationsor virtualized data center workloads may be replicated to the cloud during times of peak demand. The types of integrations between private and public cloud vary widely, but they must be extensive to earn a hybrid clouddesignation.

Just as SaaS delivers applications to users over the internet, public APIs offer developers application functionality that can be accessed programmatically. For example, in building web applications, developers often tap into Google Maps API to provide driving directions; to integrate with social media, developers may call upon APIs maintained by Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Twilio has built a successful business dedicated to delivering telephony and messaging services via public APIs. Ultimately, any business can provision its own public APIs to enable customers to consume data or access application functionality.

Data integration is a key issue for any sizeable company, but particularly for those that adopt SaaS at scale. iPaaS providers typically offer prebuilt connectors for sharing data among popular SaaS applications and on-premises enterprise applications, though providers may focus more or less on B-to-B and ecommerce integrations, cloud integrations, or traditional SOA-style integrations. iPaaS offerings in the cloud from such providers as Dell Boomi, Informatica, MuleSoft, and SnapLogic also enable users to implement data mapping, transformations, and workflows as part of the integration-building process.

The most difficult security issue related to cloud computing is the management of user identity and its associated rights and permissions across private data centers and pubic cloud sites. IDaaS providers maintain cloud-based user profiles that authenticate users and enable access to resources or applications based on security policies, user groups, and individual privileges. The ability to integrate with various directory services (Active Directory, LDAP, etc.) and provide is essential. Okta is the clear leader in cloud-based IDaaS; CA, Centrify, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Ping provide both on-premises and cloud solutions.

Collaboration solutions such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and HipChat have become vital messaging platforms that enable groups to communicate and work together effectively. Basically, these solutions are relatively simple SaaS applications that support chat-style messaging along with file sharing and audio or video communication. Most offer APIs to facilitate integrations with other systems and enable third-party developers to create and share add-ins that augment functionality.

Key players in such industries as financial services, healthcare, retail, life sciences, and manufacturing provide PaaS clouds to enable customers to build vertical applications that tap into industry-specific, API-accessible services. Vertical clouds can dramatically reduce the time to market for vertical applications and accelerate domain-specific B-to-B integrations. Most vertical clouds are built with the intent of nurturing partner ecosystems.

The clouds main appeal is to reduce the time to market of applications that need to scale dynamically. Increasingly, however, developers are drawn to the cloud by the abundance of advanced new services that can be incorporated into applications, from machine learning to internet-of-things connectivity.

Although businesses sometimes migrate legacy applications to the cloud to reduce data center resource requirements, the real benefits accrue to new applications that take advantage of cloud services and cloud native attributes. The latter include microservices architecture, Linux containers to enhance application portability, and container management solutions such as Kubernetes that orchestrate container-based services. Cloud-native approaches and solutions can be part of either public or private clouds and help enable highly efficient devops-style workflows.

Objections to the public cloud generally begin with cloud security, although the major public clouds have proven themselves much less susceptible to attack than the average enterprise data center. Of greater concern is the integration of security policy and identity management between customers and public cloud providers. In addition, government regulation may forbid customers from allowing sensitive data off premises. Other concerns include the risk of outages and the long-term operational costs of public cloud services.

Yet cloud computing, public or private, has become the platform of choice for large applications, particularly customer-facing ones that need to change frequently or scale dynamically. More significantly, the major public clouds now lead the way in enterprise technology development, debuting new advances before they appear anywhere else. Workload by workload, enterprises are opting for the cloud, where an endless parade of exciting new technologies invite innovative use.

Continue reading here:

What cloud computing really means - InfoWorld

Spotinst, a service that helps businesses optimize their cloud utilization and reduce their cloud computing cost through the use of Amazons EC2 spot instances, today announced that it has raised a $15 million Series A round led by Intel Capital, with participation from Vertex Ventures and Springtime Ventures. This brings Spotinsts funding to date to $17 million.

The original idea behind Spotinst is pretty straightforward. Running workloads on spot instanceson AWS and Azures low-priority VMs (which are a bit different in concept but also allow you to gain cheap access to Azures excess compute capacity) is significantly cheaper than renting a traditional virtual machine but with the disadvantage that Amazon may shut them down at any time. Spotinst aims to overcome this issue with its Elastigrouptechnology, which blends on-demand, reserved and spot-instances to create a cluster thats always available, even if it mostly relies on spot instances. The service is cloud agnostic, but the companys focus still seems to be mostly on AWS.

Spotinst doesnt solely focus on spot instances, though. It also helps AWS users better utilize their reserved and on-demand instances. Too often, after all, companies waste quite a bit of money by not fully utilizing the compute performance they have already paid for.

Spotinst says that its business grew 30 percent month-over-month in the last year and that it now manages hundreds of millions of computing hours for its customers.

When we floated the idea of virtual cloud infrastructure two years ago, many said that it could not be done, said Amiram Shachar, Founder and CEO ofSpotinst, in todays announcement. But since then companies and developers voted with their workloads. We appreciate their confidence and support from our investors.The proceeds will helpSpotinstgrow, and take us closer to our vision of a cloud of clouds.

The company is getting even closer to this idea of a cloud of clouds with the launch of its Spotinst Functions service, which competes with Amazons Lambda serverless platform. Like Lambda, Azure Functions and Google Cloud Functions, the idea here is to allow you to only run your code when a certain event happens. That way, you only pay for having the service execute your code and you dont have to worry about managing your servers either. This new service, which is currently in private beta, is platform agnostic and supports the three major public clouds as well as Packet, and will soon also work with IBM and Oracle.

See the original post:

Spotinst raises $15M to help businesses better utilize the cloud - TechCrunch

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:

Privacy Policy (Updated: October 8, 2015):

hide

JD Supra provides users with access to its legal industry publishing services (the "Service") through its website (the "Website") as well as through other sources. Our policies with regard to data collection and use of personal information of users of the Service, regardless of the manner in which users access the Service, and visitors to the Website are set forth in this statement ("Policy"). By using the Service, you signify your acceptance of this Policy.

JD Supra collects users' names, companies, titles, e-mail address and industry. JD Supra also tracks the pages that users visit, logs IP addresses and aggregates non-personally identifiable user data and browser type. This data is gathered using cookies and other technologies.

The information and data collected is used to authenticate users and to send notifications relating to the Service, including email alerts to which users have subscribed; to manage the Service and Website, to improve the Service and to customize the user's experience. This information is also provided to the authors of the content to give them insight into their readership and help them to improve their content, so that it is most useful for our users.

JD Supra does not sell, rent or otherwise provide your details to third parties, other than to the authors of the content on JD Supra.

If you prefer not to enable cookies, you may change your browser settings to disable cookies; however, please note that rejecting cookies while visiting the Website may result in certain parts of the Website not operating correctly or as efficiently as if cookies were allowed.

Users who opt in to receive emails may choose to no longer receive e-mail updates and newsletters by selecting the "opt-out of future email" option in the email they receive from JD Supra or in their JD Supra account management screen.

JD Supra takes reasonable precautions to insure that user information is kept private. We restrict access to user information to those individuals who reasonably need access to perform their job functions, such as our third party email service, customer service personnel and technical staff. However, please note that no method of transmitting or storing data is completely secure and we cannot guarantee the security of user information. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors may compromise the security of user information at any time.

If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, you must immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us at info@jdsupra.com. In the unlikely event that we believe that the security of your user information in our possession or control may have been compromised, we may seek to notify you of that development and, if so, will endeavor to do so as promptly as practicable under the circumstances.

Except as otherwise described in this privacy statement, JD Supra will not disclose personal information to any third party unless we believe that disclosure is necessary to: (1) comply with applicable laws; (2) respond to governmental inquiries or requests; (3) comply with valid legal process; (4) protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of JD Supra, users of the Service, Website visitors or the public; (5) permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain; and (6) enforce our Terms & Conditions of Use.

In the event there is a change in the corporate structure of JD Supra such as, but not limited to, merger, consolidation, sale, liquidation or transfer of substantial assets, JD Supra may, in its sole discretion, transfer, sell or assign information collected on and through the Service to one or more affiliated or unaffiliated third parties.

This Website and the Service may contain links to other websites. The operator of such other websites may collect information about you, including through cookies or other technologies. If you are using the Service through the Website and link to another site, you will leave the Website and this Policy will not apply to your use of and activity on those other sites. We encourage you to read the legal notices posted on those sites, including their privacy policies. We shall have no responsibility or liability for your visitation to, and the data collection and use practices of, such other sites. This Policy applies solely to the information collected in connection with your use of this Website and does not apply to any practices conducted offline or in connection with any other websites.

We reserve the right to change this Policy at any time. Please refer to the date at the top of this page to determine when this Policy was last revised. Any changes to our privacy policy will become effective upon posting of the revised policy on the Website. By continuing to use the Service or Website following such changes, you will be deemed to have agreed to such changes. If you do not agree with the terms of this Policy, as it may be amended from time to time, in whole or part, please do not continue using the Service or the Website.

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, your dealings with this Web site, or if you would like to change any of the information you have provided to us, please contact us at: info@jdsupra.com.

- hide

The rest is here:

Cloud Computing (Update) - JD Supra (press release)

The Private Company Council discussed the implementation costs of cloud computing during a meeting Tuesday and is asking its associated organization, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, to provide guidance on how to account for those costs.

During the meeting, PCC members confirmed that accounting for implementation costs in a cloud computing arrangement is a prevalent issue for private companies. A PCC member also recommended FASB provide application guidance to specify the types of implementation costs that may be appropriate for capitalization.

Two years ago, FASB issued Accounting Standards Update 2015-05, which provides guidance about a customers accounting for fees paid in a cloud computing or hosting arrangement. In general, an entity evaluates a cloud computing arrangement to determine whether the arrangement provides the entity with control of a license to internal-use software. In comment letters on the exposure draft that led to the update, some of FASBs stakeholders expressed concerns, however, about the scope of some of the amendments, and asked for more guidance on accounting for implementation costs associated with cloud computing arrangements that dont meet certain criteria and are instead considered service contracts.

They argued that, without explicit guidance, diversity in practice would continue when accounting for implementation costs such as setup and other upfront fees. The costs can include training, creating or installing an interface, reconfiguring existing systems, and reformatting data. Companies have looked at different parts of the standards for guidance on how to account for such implementation costs in cloud computing arrangements that are considered a service contract because there is no explicit guidance on them right now.

At a FASB meeting in May, the board decided to add the matter to the agenda of the Emerging Issues Task Force. The EITF plans to discuss it at a meeting next Friday.

Also at Tuesdays PCC meeting, FASBs staff delivered updates and the PCC provided feedback on a number of other FASB projects, including targeted improvements to the related-party guidance for variable interest entities during consolidations. PCC members commended FASB for proposing an alternative for private companies to provide a scope exception from the application of the VIE guidance to companies that are under common control, when certain requirements are met.

PCC members also supported FASBs plans for targeted improvements in liabilities and equity to simplify the accounting of financial instruments with down rounds. The PCC also offered feedback on FASBs proposal for nonemployee share-based payment accounting improvements and expressed support for the private company alternatives within the proposal.

Many PCC members lent their support to FASBs continuing implementation and education efforts for recently issued standards but suggested the board should keep in mind the pace of change when considering possible new projects.

A majority of PCC members recommended FASB finalize its proposed guidance on the balance sheet classification of debt, along with some minor improvements on balance sheet presentation. The members also expressed interest in helping FASB decide on the appropriate transition provisions to make and educational efforts.

FASB and the PCC plan to hold a Town Hall meeting on August 31 in conjunction with the Georgia Society of CPAs. The next PCC meeting will happen on September 19.

Michael Cohn, editor-in-chief of AccountingToday.com, has been covering business and technology for a variety of publications since 1985.

See the article here:

FASB eyes cloud computing implementation costs | Accounting Today - Accounting Today