IBM Introduces Smart Business Desktop Cloud for Desktop Virtualization

IBM today announced Smart Business Desktop Cloud, a desktop virtualization service designed to provide end-user access to computing resources from any location, through a centrally managed cloud computing environment. IBM developed Smart Business Desktop Cloud with partners Citrix, Desktone, VMware and Wyse. According to IBM, Smart Business Desktop Cloud is the industry’s first public desktop cloud.

Smart Business Desktop Cloud provides a logical, rather than a physical, method of access to data, computing power, storage capacity and other resources. The service is designed to provide enhanced levels of security, resiliency, reliability, and quality for virtual desktops, while helping to streamline data backup and recovery, and reduce unauthorized access. The service also enables easy replacement of end-user PCs, because applications and data are accessed in a cloud rather than on individual PCs.

“Today more than ever, enterprises need an affordable, reliable and efficient way to deploy and manage desktop infrastructures,” said Jan Jackman, vice president, end user services, IBM Global Technology Services. “The public desktop cloud service is designed to help bring cost savings, flexibility, scalability and security to clients like never before.”

Can SaaS Companies Survive in Today’s Economy?

The demise in June of LucidEra, a SaaS business intelligence company with excellent products, talent, and customers, raised questions about the viability of SaaS independent software vendors (ISVs).

While analysts such as Jeff Kaplan wrote that the dissolution of a single SaaS company does not diminish the promise and advantages of SaaS and cloud computing, Jeff also predicted that other SaaS companies will follow suit due to the economy, increasing competition, and decreasing availability of venture capital.

Another observer, Chirag Mehta of SAP and author of the blog, “Cloud Computing,” wrote an excellent post detailing the business challenges facing SaaS companies today. “SaaS 2.0 Will Be All About Reducing the Cost of Sales” includes insights such as:

• “SaaS 1.0” is characterized by initial SaaS products, with initially high investments in infrastructure and delivery until less expensive platforms such as Amazon became available. An expensive direct sales approach is still common, and the cost of sales is not significantly reduced to scale with the volume business model and smaller average deal size.
• “SaaS 2.0,” built on inexpensive platforms such as Amazon and Salesforce.com resulting in reduced costs and time to market, will require sales cost reduction for SaaS vendors to remain competitive – The sales organization will need to focus on customer relationships and service excellence to ensure high contract renewal rates, and will need to reduce the use of direct sales.
• Self-service demos to “self-selling” trials – Customers should be able to access, use and purchase the fully functional software with no intervention from sales, webinars or slide presentations.
• Customer acquisition to customer retention – Increased competition and the pay-as-you-go SaaS model itself make it easy for customers to switch vendors. Focus on retaining customers by providing excellent service, keeping track of contract renewals, marketing new solutions to them, and tracking usage analytics, sales activities and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Modernize sales tools to provide customer, competitor and partner intelligence.
• Low-touch persuasions to hi-touch interactions – Design a flexible sales force to accommodate a variety of prospects and customers, and an ecosystem of channel partners to help with sales. Reserve direct sales engagements for C-level executive deals that require considerable effort and interaction to close.
• Low-barrier adoption to zero-barrier productivity – Eliminate barriers such as up-front credit card requirements and registration. Allow prospects to immediately access a fully functional live sandbox and to import content from other sources.

OpSource Introduces OpSource Cloud Enterprise Cloud Platform

OpSource today announced OpSource Cloud, an enterprise cloud computing platform that combines the flexibility, availability and community of the public cloud with the security, performance and controls the enterprise demands.

OpSource Cloud combines public cloud with security by providing a virtual private network to every user. The virtual private network can be configured for the degree of public Internet connectivity, from totally private to fully available. This allows enterprises to manage cloud security the same way they manage security within their internal IT environment.

Other features of OpSource Cloud include user-level login and passwords, operational permissions, departmental and sub-department reporting, and integration with VMware for virtualization and application portability between the cloud and enterprise.

“Although cloud computing promises many business benefits for enterprises, today’s consumer-oriented cloud services lack many of the requirements to reliably, securely and cost-effectively support enterprise-class applications,” said Jeffrey M. Kaplan, managing director, THINKstrategies, Inc. “OpSource’s new cloud solution offers the security, performance and management control enterprises need to move from simple development to serious application deployment and production via the cloud.”

North American Content Security Market to Exceed $1 Billion in 2009

In a report released today, Infonetics Research forecasts that the content security market will exceed $1 billion in North America for the first time in 2009, and $3.2 billion worldwide in 2013. The 2Q09 edition of Infonetics’ “Content Security Appliances and Software Report” attributes content security market growth to the renewed interest in software due to virtualization, cloud computing, and SaaS, combined with astronomical growth in security threats. The report also includes these highlights:

• Worldwide content security gateway revenue grew 1.5% 1Q09 to 2Q09, hitting $544 million.
• McAfee increased its lead in worldwide revenue share in the overall content security gateway market in 2Q09.
• Most content security vendors reported very positive expectations for 3Q09 based on billings so far.
• Service providers continue to upgrade their networks and build out data centers and mobile backhaul networks to support massive growth in wired and wireless traffic, and are now catching up with the security deployments needed to support them.

“The availability of commercial hacking tools, rental botnets, and the overall transformation of hacking from hobby to business has caused an explosion in security threats everywhere. Spam is at an all time high and hackers are leveraging new social media platforms to launch attacks. Facebook and Twitter have had some security challenges recently, and researchers have even discovered a Twitter-based botnet. Many companies react to these threats and to problems in their networks by investing in content security on an ‘as needed’ basis. This reactive buying and lack of planning makes it impossible to stop spending on content security in many cases, which in turn keeps the content security market going,” explains Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for network security at Infonetics Research.

Salesforce.com Introduces Force.com VAR Platform

Salesforce.com today announced the Force.com VAR Program, which enables value-added resellers (VARs) to resell salesforce.com’s Force.com development platform and create cloud-based applications for their clients. The goal of the program is to make it easy for VARs and their customers to move to the cloud with custom cloud-based applications.

Initial VARs that have joined the program include American Data Company, Appiphony, Aptaria, Centerstance, Echo Lane, EDL Consulting, ForceBrain.com, Lexnet Consulting Group, MK Partners, Red Sky Solutions, Reside, Silvertree Systems, Stone Cobra, and Sundog.

The Force.com VAR program includes the following technical tools, training, and go-to-market resources for VARs:

• A sales resource center, including a sales kit, industry insights, demo orgs and customer references
• A consultant resource center, including best implementation practices, community discussion boards, and design guidance and templates
• Online technical training and a Force.com certification program
• No program fees, and recurring revenue on the initial contract and renewals
• Ability to resell Force.com, mobile capabilities, storage, sites, and development sandboxes
• Support for Force.com
• Entry-level Force.com pricing beginning at $7.50 per user per month

“With their depth of customer expertise, resellers bring tremendous value to cloud computing,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. “The new Force.com VAR program gives resellers a clear path to success in cloud computing for the first time.”

NetApp Announces Six New Products and Promotes Partnerships for Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure and Services

NetApp today announced six new products to support customers moving from traditional on-premise IT to IT as a service (ITaaS) and cloud computing models. The company also highlighted its technology and channel partners delivering infrastructure and services for the cloud.

The new products are:

• Data ONTAP 8, which provides secure multi-tenancy, transparent data access during mandatory shutdowns or upgrades, service automation to meter usage and enable departmental chargebacks, improved storage efficiency, integrated backup/recovery and business continuity capabilities.
• NetApp Data Motion, which allows enterprises to move data non-disruptively across storage systems with no application downtime.
• Performance Acceleration Module II, a flash technology-based caching module that increases I/O throughput and speeds response time with no additional power usage or rack space.
• NetApp Dynamic Data Center (NDDC) Solution, which includes three components for delivering ITaaS: a service-oriented infrastructure (SOI) that allows customers to consume and deploy storage, network, and compute resources in a repeatable manner; a service management framework that provides processes and best practices to help manage the infrastructure and reduce fixed costs wherever possible; and a delivery methodology that leverages NetApp Professional Services and NetApp systems integrator partners to deploy ITaaS infrastructures efficiently and with the least risk to customers.
• NetApp Fast-Start Customer Workshop, a two- to four-day consulting workshop to help customers develop their plan to deploy their NetApp dynamic data center solution.
• DS4243 disk shelf, a SAS/SATA disk subsystem that enables enterprise customers to streamline their data footprint and more efficiently use valuable data center resources.

In a separate announcement, NetApp highlighted its technology and channel partnerships that deliver infrastructure and services for the cloud. NetApp partners include BMC Software, Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, Computer Associates, Fujitsu America, Microsoft, SAP, VMware, Avnet Technology Solutions, INX, Long View, Joyent, Rackspace, Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Inc., Tata Communications Ltd., Terremark, T-Systems, Accenture, Avanade, CSC, and Unisys.

“Today’s announcements truly usher in a new era and way of doing business for NetApp,” said Tom Georgens, president and chief executive officer, NetApp. “Customer dynamics are changing in the face of increased economic pressures as IT executives are tasked with doing more with less. As a result, the makeup of the data center is drastically changing as companies choose to take advantage of applications, infrastructure, and platforms delivered in the form of services. NetApp is primed to take advantage of this major shift in the market by providing enterprises with not only the industry-leading storage and data management solutions that are ideal for the cloud, but, more importantly, also serve as the technology partner of choice to guide enterprises on their journey in deploying a cloud infrastructure.”

Survey Indicates More than 80 Percent of Large Enterprises are Testing or Implementing Cloud Computing Solutions

F5 Networks today released the results of a survey examining cloud computing adoption and initiatives at large enterprises. The results indicate that the vast majority of large enterprises throughout North America are involved in cloud computing initiatives: More than 80 percent of the 250 IT managers surveyed replied that they are at least in trial phase for cloud computing deployments. Half of the respondents have already deployed a public cloud computing solution and 66 percent indicated that they have a dedicated budget for cloud computing projects.

Other survey results include:

• Platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) were ranked ahead of software as a service (SaaS) as the most important components of cloud computing.
• Access control was the top concern for cloud computing initiatives, while network security and virtualization were named as key technologies.
• Cloud computing influencers go beyond IT to include application development and line of business stakeholders.

“It’s no surprise that large enterprises are attracted to cloud computing because of the promise of an agile, scalable IT infrastructure and reduced costs,” said Jason Needham, senior director of product management at F5. “However, this survey shows that despite interest in the cloud, widespread enterprise adoption of cloud computing is contingent upon solving access, security, and performance concerns. As organizations turn to the cloud to increase IT agility, it is important for them to understand the technical components of the cloud and how the cloud will affect the network before developing an implementation strategy.”