Gartner says that for CEOs, “Growth is the top priority, by far. In 2014, it almost equals the sum of the next three top issues”. Companies effectively using software development to achieve competitive advantage are more profitable than their peers. Organizations such as Square, Uber, Netflix, Airbnb, the Climate Corporation and Etsy are using software to change industries and disrupt business models. Put another way, software is eating the world. Companies looking to drive innovation through software development have new options and opportunities.
Stepping into the Digital Future with IoTCognizant
How 14 companies across industries are demonstrating the reality of IoT-at-scale and generating actionable intelligence to fuel higher levels of efficiency, innovation and new business models.
Receiving a staggering 39% of all investments made in Q4, 2014, enterprise software is innovating, disrupting and shaking up the current incumbents like never before.
Viewing this change from a recruitment perspective, we've market mapped enterprise software into its key areas to show you where the most value and potential is.
In this QuickView:
- Key Areas to Watch in 2015
- Technology Layers:
- Infrastructure Layer
- Data Architecture Layer
- Applications Layer
- Security
- Investment by Industry
- Top 100 Cloud-Based Enterprise Software Startups Ranked by Total Funding, March, 2015
The Big Five IT Mega Trends - talk @ Filene Research Institute at Kansas City for executives and technology leaders of US and CA Federal Credit Unions and keynote @MEDES
1) Mobile
2) Big data - data doubles every 18 month - the information age economy will create value by sense making form data
3) Social Media
4) Cloud
5) Consumerization
Cognizant Community 2016: Mastering Digital: How to Navigate the Shift to the...Cognizant
For more than a decade, this unique event has provided busy executives with an opportunity to exchange ideas and insights both with each other and with acclaimed subject matter experts on the panoply of topics critical to advancing their business objectives today — and tomorrow.
Stepping into the Digital Future with IoTCognizant
How 14 companies across industries are demonstrating the reality of IoT-at-scale and generating actionable intelligence to fuel higher levels of efficiency, innovation and new business models.
Receiving a staggering 39% of all investments made in Q4, 2014, enterprise software is innovating, disrupting and shaking up the current incumbents like never before.
Viewing this change from a recruitment perspective, we've market mapped enterprise software into its key areas to show you where the most value and potential is.
In this QuickView:
- Key Areas to Watch in 2015
- Technology Layers:
- Infrastructure Layer
- Data Architecture Layer
- Applications Layer
- Security
- Investment by Industry
- Top 100 Cloud-Based Enterprise Software Startups Ranked by Total Funding, March, 2015
The Big Five IT Mega Trends - talk @ Filene Research Institute at Kansas City for executives and technology leaders of US and CA Federal Credit Unions and keynote @MEDES
1) Mobile
2) Big data - data doubles every 18 month - the information age economy will create value by sense making form data
3) Social Media
4) Cloud
5) Consumerization
Cognizant Community 2016: Mastering Digital: How to Navigate the Shift to the...Cognizant
For more than a decade, this unique event has provided busy executives with an opportunity to exchange ideas and insights both with each other and with acclaimed subject matter experts on the panoply of topics critical to advancing their business objectives today — and tomorrow.
Trends 2020 - Demystifying Bleeding Edge from Leading Edge TechnologyFulcrum Digital
Want to gain mileage with technologies? Discover the ones that directly add business value through this FREE Whitepaper.
To download go to bit.ly/2020-tech-trends-whitepaper
A review of Dreamforce announcements including Lighting, Engage, SalesforceIQ, Data.com, and Wave. I also discuss product announcements from InsideView, Dun & Bradstreet / DocuSign, CircelBack, and Lattice Engines.
This is an issue of my weekly subscription newsletter which covers the Sales Intelligence, DaaS, Data Hygiene, and Predictive Analytics spaces.
Although cloud is widely recognized as a technology
game changer, its potential for driving business innovation remains virtually untapped.
Indeed, cloud has the power to fundamentally shift competitive landscapes by providing a
new platform for creating and delivering business value. To take advantage of cloud’s
potential to transform internal operations, customer relationships and industry value
chains, organizations need to determine how best to employ cloud-enabled business
models that promote sustainable competitive advantage.
- Learn to understand what knowledge graphs are for
- Understand the structure of knowledge graphs (and how it relates to taxonomies and ontologies)
- Understand how knowledge graphs can be created using manual, semi-automatic, and fully automatic methods.
- Understand knowledge graphs as a basis for data integration in companies
- Understand knowledge graphs as tools for data governance and data quality management
- Implement and further develop knowledge graphs in companies
- Query and visualize knowledge graphs (including SPARQL and SHACL crash course)
- Use knowledge graphs and machine learning to enable information retrieval, text mining and document classification with the highest precision
- Develop digital assistants and question and answer systems based on semantic knowledge graphs
- Understand how knowledge graphs can be combined with text mining and machine learning techniques
- Apply knowledge graphs in practice: Case studies and demo applications
Our supply chain expert shares insights on how Industry 4.0 is enabling companies to create lasting competitive advantage, sustainably and financially. This paper explores the key pillars of today’s sustainable supply chain and what variables have impacted its rise. Key points:
Industry 4.0 advances are being powered by the Internet of Things in which factory “command centers” are tethered to the cloud, enabling real-time monitoring and demand-driven configuration.
To win in today’s market firms must also embrace big data in a way that stiches together fragmented, custom e-commerce orders with reactive, optimized supply chains and factory production.
An overview of a framework companies can use to deliver on Industry 4.0 to seize a competitive advantage in today’s uber-connected world.
Companies embracing the new era of sustainability not only help the environment through decreased energy usage, but also please shareholders via expanding enterprise value – economically and sustainably.
Market Research Reports, Inc. has announced the addition of “Big Data in Global Telecom Market: Key Trends, Market Opportunities and Industry Forecast 2015-2020" research report to their Offering. See more at - http://mrr.cm/oqS
Digital Businesses Need to Rethink Their Network StrategiesAbhishek Sood
This report from ZK Research explores why it’s critical that digital businesses rethink their network strategies and embrace a software-defined future. Access now to discover:
The challenges of traditional networks
Why SD-WANs are the foundation for new enterprise networks
How you can chart a path to the SD-WAN
Key criteria for evaluating SD-WAN solution providers
Value Journal, a monthly news journal from Redington Value Distribution, intends to update the channel on the latest vendor news and Redington Value’s Channel Initiatives.
Key stories from the November Edition:
•Commercial Bank of Dubai adopts the Microsoft Cloud to accelerate digitization
•The next frontier of value
•Abu Dhabi Municipality chooses Aruba for digital workplace transformation project
•Nutanix announces new IT automation for private clouds
•Fortinet ranked high by Gartner for SDWAN equipment market share by revenue
•Okta launches Okta SecurityInsights to protect global workforces
•Automation Anywhere launches AI-Powered RPA-as-a-Service platform
•New Mimecast report finds staggering increase in BEC Attacks
•Huawei stresses on key pillars for digital economy in the region
•DU chooses Oracle to accelerate uptake of UAE FEDNet programme
•VMware ranked 1st in cloud systems, service management
CIO insights and trends: Preparing for what's next
CIOs rarely have time to rest. There’s always something evolving – from technology innovation and new business practices to emerging security threats and cost pressures – any one of which can have a significant impact on information technology (IT) and the entire business. To help CIOs keep pace with the latest developments and trends, we offer a mix of innovative thinking and practical advice for CIOs – all designed to help you turn new developments in the IT landscape into more value for your business.
For more information, visit: http://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/technology/articles/chief-information-officer-cio-insights.html?id=us:2sm:3ss:cioforum:awa:cliexp:041217
This session outlines how the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team, the organization working to rebuild horizontal infrastructure after the devastating earthquakes that hit the region, are using FME to progress aspects of this project.
Trends 2020 - Demystifying Bleeding Edge from Leading Edge TechnologyFulcrum Digital
Want to gain mileage with technologies? Discover the ones that directly add business value through this FREE Whitepaper.
To download go to bit.ly/2020-tech-trends-whitepaper
A review of Dreamforce announcements including Lighting, Engage, SalesforceIQ, Data.com, and Wave. I also discuss product announcements from InsideView, Dun & Bradstreet / DocuSign, CircelBack, and Lattice Engines.
This is an issue of my weekly subscription newsletter which covers the Sales Intelligence, DaaS, Data Hygiene, and Predictive Analytics spaces.
Although cloud is widely recognized as a technology
game changer, its potential for driving business innovation remains virtually untapped.
Indeed, cloud has the power to fundamentally shift competitive landscapes by providing a
new platform for creating and delivering business value. To take advantage of cloud’s
potential to transform internal operations, customer relationships and industry value
chains, organizations need to determine how best to employ cloud-enabled business
models that promote sustainable competitive advantage.
- Learn to understand what knowledge graphs are for
- Understand the structure of knowledge graphs (and how it relates to taxonomies and ontologies)
- Understand how knowledge graphs can be created using manual, semi-automatic, and fully automatic methods.
- Understand knowledge graphs as a basis for data integration in companies
- Understand knowledge graphs as tools for data governance and data quality management
- Implement and further develop knowledge graphs in companies
- Query and visualize knowledge graphs (including SPARQL and SHACL crash course)
- Use knowledge graphs and machine learning to enable information retrieval, text mining and document classification with the highest precision
- Develop digital assistants and question and answer systems based on semantic knowledge graphs
- Understand how knowledge graphs can be combined with text mining and machine learning techniques
- Apply knowledge graphs in practice: Case studies and demo applications
Our supply chain expert shares insights on how Industry 4.0 is enabling companies to create lasting competitive advantage, sustainably and financially. This paper explores the key pillars of today’s sustainable supply chain and what variables have impacted its rise. Key points:
Industry 4.0 advances are being powered by the Internet of Things in which factory “command centers” are tethered to the cloud, enabling real-time monitoring and demand-driven configuration.
To win in today’s market firms must also embrace big data in a way that stiches together fragmented, custom e-commerce orders with reactive, optimized supply chains and factory production.
An overview of a framework companies can use to deliver on Industry 4.0 to seize a competitive advantage in today’s uber-connected world.
Companies embracing the new era of sustainability not only help the environment through decreased energy usage, but also please shareholders via expanding enterprise value – economically and sustainably.
Market Research Reports, Inc. has announced the addition of “Big Data in Global Telecom Market: Key Trends, Market Opportunities and Industry Forecast 2015-2020" research report to their Offering. See more at - http://mrr.cm/oqS
Digital Businesses Need to Rethink Their Network StrategiesAbhishek Sood
This report from ZK Research explores why it’s critical that digital businesses rethink their network strategies and embrace a software-defined future. Access now to discover:
The challenges of traditional networks
Why SD-WANs are the foundation for new enterprise networks
How you can chart a path to the SD-WAN
Key criteria for evaluating SD-WAN solution providers
Value Journal, a monthly news journal from Redington Value Distribution, intends to update the channel on the latest vendor news and Redington Value’s Channel Initiatives.
Key stories from the November Edition:
•Commercial Bank of Dubai adopts the Microsoft Cloud to accelerate digitization
•The next frontier of value
•Abu Dhabi Municipality chooses Aruba for digital workplace transformation project
•Nutanix announces new IT automation for private clouds
•Fortinet ranked high by Gartner for SDWAN equipment market share by revenue
•Okta launches Okta SecurityInsights to protect global workforces
•Automation Anywhere launches AI-Powered RPA-as-a-Service platform
•New Mimecast report finds staggering increase in BEC Attacks
•Huawei stresses on key pillars for digital economy in the region
•DU chooses Oracle to accelerate uptake of UAE FEDNet programme
•VMware ranked 1st in cloud systems, service management
CIO insights and trends: Preparing for what's next
CIOs rarely have time to rest. There’s always something evolving – from technology innovation and new business practices to emerging security threats and cost pressures – any one of which can have a significant impact on information technology (IT) and the entire business. To help CIOs keep pace with the latest developments and trends, we offer a mix of innovative thinking and practical advice for CIOs – all designed to help you turn new developments in the IT landscape into more value for your business.
For more information, visit: http://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/technology/articles/chief-information-officer-cio-insights.html?id=us:2sm:3ss:cioforum:awa:cliexp:041217
This session outlines how the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team, the organization working to rebuild horizontal infrastructure after the devastating earthquakes that hit the region, are using FME to progress aspects of this project.
Shamit khemka list outs 6 technology trends for 2015SynapseIndia
Originally, We figured we'd reel off some predictions about the coming year. But we're at one of those rare junctures when a bunch of trends have begun to crystallize and We're pretty sure many of them will persist for more than 12 months. Shamit Khemka list outs technology trends.
SynapseIndia technologies and data-driven solutions help our clients grow their businesses. Take a look at the technologies that we specialize in: https://www.synapseindia.jobs/strengths-technologies/
Albiorix Technology brings the top 10 digital transformation trends to watch out for in 2023 that you can adopt to improve your business performance.
For More Information: https://www.albiorixtech.com/blog/digital-transformation-trends/
Navigating the Future of the Cloud to Fuel InnovationPerficient, Inc.
The future of the cloud holds a wealth of promise for those who know how to leverage the power of high-performance computing to fuel business innovation and growth. As predicted, cloud has quickly become a prominent technology for executing digital transformation, but many enterprises are still struggling to understand how the cloud can help future-proof their business.
This second webinar in our Cloud First, Business-Driven webinar series explored some of the key concepts around the future of cloud, and how to think about what’s next for your enterprise. We discussed:
-Short- and long-term cloud trends
-Personal cloud with intelligent agent
-Personalized pricing and payment systems
-Taking hybrid cloud to the next level
-Customer-defined products
Activating Big Data: The Key To Success with Machine Learning Advanced Analyt...Vasu S
A whitepaper of Qubole that How to make all of your data available to users for a multitude of use cases, ranging from analytics to machine learning and artificial intelligence.
https://www.qubole.com/resources/white-papers/activating-big-data-the-key-to-success-with-machine-learning-advanced-analytics
Why is it important? What is it? What is fueling all of the growth? Find out the power of platform-as-a-service for the enterprise in this infographic.
In this presentation, Rishabh introduces the concept of SMAC and discusses trends.He is interested in using SMAC to create solutions that positively impact customer experience. The applications that he intends to develop will be available anytime and anywhere is what he says.
Beyond Cost Savings: Driving Business Value from the Cloud Through XaaSCognizant
By using the cloud for analytics services and other run-the-business capabilities, organizations can move quickly into new markets and free capital for innovation initiatives.
Rebooting IT Infrastructure for the Digital AgeCapgemini
The Digital Transformation Institute has launched its latest research report titled “Faster, Better, Smarter: Rebooting IT Infrastructure for the Digital Age.” The report highlights why organizations need robust and seamless IT infrastructure that keeps pace with evolving market and technology demands. IT infrastructure has always been known as a “keeping the lights on” function but now it has evolved into a core catalyst of Digital Transformation. However, as a function, IT infrastructure is yet to undergo a core transformation. The report discusses why a reboot is critical.
The Tanzu Developer Connect is a hands-on workshop that dives deep into TAP. Attendees receive a hands on experience. This is a great program to leverage accounts with current TAP opportunities.
The Tanzu Developer Connect is a hands-on workshop that dives deep into TAP. Attendees receive a hands on experience. This is a great program to leverage accounts with current TAP opportunities.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
1. Companies looking to drive innovation through software
development have new options and opportunities. Agile
development practices speed time to market with continuous
delivery of new applications and features. Advances in cloud
computing and virtualization allow organizations to streamline
(or eliminate altogether) the provisioning of infrastructure.
Essential but non-differentiating IT and business functions can
be outsourced or accommodated with a Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS) subscription. Many steps in the application lifecycle, such
as testing and deployment, are candidates for standardization.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is a key enabler of software-driven
innovation – facilitating rapid iteration and developer agility. It
comprises a set of tools, libraries and services for deploying,
managing and scaling applications in the cloud. Adopting an
enterprise-grade, multi-cloud PaaS solution frees developers to
create game-changing web and mobile applications. It also allows
these applications to scale across cloud environments, based on
the business need.
One large international firm, Rakuten, experienced 90%
improvement times for application deployment and management
with Pivotal CF – the market-leading PaaS from Pivotal. Pivotal CF
enables enterprises to make infrastructure choices based on
price, performance, location and efficiency. It provides data
management, cloud deployment, and developer tools that
meet enterprise requirements for performance, scale and cost.
Building on existing investments in Infrastructure-as-a-Service
(IaaS), it enhances the operational benefits of the cloud and
greatly reduces the time and cost to develop new applications.
To compete in today’s breakneck markets, and better connect
customers with desirable products and services, while taking
control of their own cloud futures, companies are turning
to Pivotal.
CHANGING MARKETS REQUIRE FAST PIVOTS
Businesses in all industries have to reorient themselves around
software development. In our connected world, powered by
new data insights and services, software is the way companies
engage with customers. From industries as diverse as auto
manufacturing and telecommunications, “traditional” companies
are reinventing themselves, using cutting edge technologies
to keep pace with disruptive market entrants. They apply new
intelligence and find new techniques to accelerate execution.
Analyzing, learning and acting on more data ensures that they
can get to market quickly with the right products and services.
WHITE PAPER
PaaS: Open for Business
BECOMING A GREAT SOFTWARE COMPANY STARTS WITH THE RIGHT PLATFORM
goPivotal.com
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Gartner reports that for CEOs, “Growth is the top priority, by far. In 2014, it almost equals the sum of
the next three top issues”.1
Companies effectively using software development to achieve competitive
advantage are more profitable than their peers.2
Organizations such as Square ($3.5B valuation, Financial
Services), Uber ($3.5B valuation, Transportation), Netflix ($19B valuation, Media and Entertainment), Airbnb
($3.5B valuation, Hospitality), the Climate Corporation ($1.1B acquisition, Agriculture) and Etsy ($600M
valuation, Boutique Retail) are using software to change industries and disrupt business models. Put another
way, software is eating the world.
1
The 2014 Gartner CEO and Senior Executive Survey: ‘Risk-On’ Attitudes Will Accelerate Digital Business, April 9, 2014
2
The software edge: How effective software development and delivery drives competitive advantage, IBM Institute for
Business Value, March 2013
2. WHITE PAPER PAAS: OPEN FOR BUSINESS
2
For example, Tesla’s cars automatically download software
updates on a continuous basis. These updates materially impact
the operation of the cars themselves, from raising the suspension
in response to fires caused by contact with road obstacles, to
modifying acceleration and handling.3
Rather than annual model
updates, Tesla makes major modifications to its cars continuously
– based on data collected from cars already sold to customers.4
When Garmin, the first major GPS provider for consumers,
started to see free GPS-based mapping technologies delivered
with smart phones, it knew the company was at a crossroads.
It decided to make a major shift from navigation devices for
cars to lifestyle sports and activities products.5
To do so, it had
to build and bring to market new products – and engage with
a new customer base – quickly and reliably. By rearchitecting
fundamental systems and processes mid-stream, Garmin
made enhancements to its underlying application platform,
which helped facilitate new traffic volumes and spikes from
new campaigns. Agile is the new normal in the software-driven
enterprise.
Netflix is widely known for their DVD by mail and video streaming
services. More recently, the company has become a major
creative provider – competing directly with traditional content
producers and staking a claim in all areas of the content supply
chain. They attribute their edge to better use of technology,
specifically data and network resources. A widely touted example
is its commissioning of the original series “House of Cards.”
Netflix predicted the success of the hit series by evaluating its
customers’ behavioral and preference data, comprising “30
million ‘plays’ a day, including when you pause, rewind and fast
forward, four million ratings by Netflix subscribers, three million
searches as well as the time of day when shows are watched and
on what devices.”6
“We think of the technology as a vehicle for creating a better,
more modern experience for the content we have,” says Chief
Executive Officer Reed Hastings.7
“We are trying to set this up as
a continuously learning organization.” Netflix must accommodate
the perpetual influx of new mobile and set top device types,
reformatting movie files and optimizing streaming constantly.
They also repurpose their compute power at lower traffic times
to focus on data analysis and improve content offerings – the
epitome of agile. As a result, they are so successful that Netflix
represents 25% of North American web traffic during peak loads.
What does an operating environment for cloud computing
have to do with enabling nimble business strategies? Modern
companies have to get better at building software to survive, and
PaaS allows them to build great software. Building great software
does not require magic – it requires iteration. The faster you
iterate, and the higher your update velocity, the faster you can
get to market, improve and become great.
THE CLOUD PLATFORM EVOLUTION
The move to the cloud and virtualization began about a decade
ago, driven by the same impetus that drives PaaS today: allowing
organizations to build highly automated environments that
support their ability to iterate quickly. Because they have to
support legacy systems, IT resource allocation to new projects is
unable to keep pace with rising user expectations as the industry
has transitioned from the mainframe, to the client server, and
now to the mobile/cloud era. The challenge is to reduce the cost
of new projects while still delivering high value.
Over the last decade, the adoption of virtualization technology
has helped IT drive tremendous efficiencies that significantly
improved its ability to meet business expectations. Research
shows organizations that adopt virtualization are considered to
be 37% more responsive to business demands.8
But business and
customer expectations continue to accelerate. Perhaps this is why
the PaaS market is doubling in size every year.9
Shifting investment from infrastructure to capabilities such as
management and automation allows IT organizations to move
from maintaining existing operations to investing in initiatives
that support business goals. Cloud computing and IaaS enable
this shift. They are a necessary step in the journey to business
agility. However, if not applied against a strategic framework and
vision, virtualization and IT automation tools are all too often
relegated to accelerating the same basic processes used to
deliver technology for a decade or more.
PAAS IS THE ENGINE FOR INNOVATION
We live in exponential times. There are more technology choices,
strategies and products available now than would have been
thought possible even a few years ago. From Moore’s Law
(3,500-fold increase in computing speed over the last 30 years10
)
to Metcalfe’s Law, the acceleration of capacity, computing power,
nodes in the network and data volume is dizzying. 90% of the
world’s zettabytes of data has been generated in the past two
3
http://steveblank.com/2014/01/06/15756/
4
ibid
5
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-23/garmin-finds-a-new-direction
6
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/business/media/for-house-of-cards-using-big-data-to-guarantee-its-popularity.
html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
7
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-09/netflix-reed-hastings-survive-missteps-to-join-silicon-valleys-elite
8
CA Technologies, “DevOps Driving 20 Percent Faster Time-to-Market for New Services, Global IT Study Reveals,” 9/12/13
9
http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/04/why-paas-isnt-just-for-startups/
10
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319330
3. WHITE PAPER PAAS: OPEN FOR BUSINESS
3
years, and that information doubles every year and a half.11
But
the fundamental question leaders should be asking is unchanged:
what can my organization build or buy that will help us learn,
adapt and introduce new and better solutions more quickly than
our competition?
The key to driving innovation in software is iteration – low cost,
short cycle-time experimentation to test and compare new
ideas and outputs. Compared with a traditional software update
process, which sees new features added on a monthly or
quarterly basis, Etsy – an online boutique marketplace serving a
community of 60 million users – makes 30 updates to its website
per day.12
Companies are investing in removing friction in the delivery
of new products and services to customers. This delivery is
happening via software. Books, medical records, home
thermostats, car firmware, music…from airline tickets to
airplane maintenance, all services will be delivered as software.
It’s easier for a startup to play at this game, because they aren’t
bogged down with legacy products, systems or processes. Large
enterprises should consider how these agile organizations bring
new products to market with few financial and engineering
resources. Invariably, these days, they go to the cloud. 64%
of companies in a recent survey have implemented or plan
to implement PaaS within one year.13
49% of companies say
that cloud computing allows them to compete with larger
organizations.14
Agile organizations build and distribute their products in the
cloud, via IaaS. PaaS offers a set of services that software
developers use to build and test applications without having to
worry about the underlying infrastructure. They work this way
because it is less expensive: they can rent or buy computing
power that is virtualized and optimized for just the amount they
need. They can grow this dynamically as they acquire more users.
Figure 1 Business expectations exceed IT capabilities
11
http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/just-how-much-data-is-out-there.html 12
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2014/04/04/at-etsy-the-future- workplace-is-now-thirty-innovations-per-day/
13
http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/29/paas-engine-yard/
14
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2013/02/20/cloud-computing-boosts-next-generation-of-startups-survey-shows/
Figure 2 PaaS speeds the cycle of innovation
4. WHITE PAPER PAAS: OPEN FOR BUSINESS
4
PaaS environments don’t require deep operations expertise, and
they streamline release management on new projects (deploying
code, making changes, rolling back, etc.).
The other reason PaaS sits at the core of the startup
development environment is speed. By abstracting and
automating the parts of the application lifecycle that are
repetitive, time-consuming and uncreative, PaaS allows these
companies to turn around new applications, upgrades and
features with unprecedented efficiency.
Finally, PaaS allows for scale. Companies like Google, Facebook
and Twitter used to rewrite their codebases (called refactoring)
to accommodate the order of magnitude scale increases they
saw in their early days. This approach is no longer tenable. From
inception, companies need to expect their applications will be
required to scale dynamically, without requiring major changes.
By enforcing a design pattern that makes scaling up and down
simple, the right PaaS makes building the application for scale
much less complex.
PaaS abstracts most of the IT complexity of typical enterprise
infrastructure. By eliminating the need to configure VMs,
application monitoring, security policies databases, application
servers and load balancers, organizations not only shrink
provisioning and configuration cycles, they actually reduce the
amount of custom application code the developers need to
deliver (see figure 3, above). With the right, modern PaaS:
• Developers can focus on development, rather than
infrastructure
• IT can separate the concerns of Development and
Operations, allowing each to focus on what they do well
• Provisioning and deployment process bottlenecks are
eliminated
• Organizations can truly optimize and gain maximum ROI
from their investments in the cloud and IaaS
When PaaS becomes integral to their strategies, IT and
business leaders can:
EMPOWER THE DEVELOPER
Application developers deliver business agility. But most
organizations’ ideas for new solutions cannot keep pace with
their ability to deliver them. Engineering resources have
always faced a scarcity problem. There are simply not enough
developers to meet the demand. This problem is likely to get
worse before it gets better.15
When a developer is: provisioning servers, installing operating
systems, application servers and load-balancers, ensuring
adequate storage and providing backup resources – that
developer is not programming functionality into an application.
Developers are best utilized when they are writing code,
fixing bugs and making improvements. Tasks that can be done
automatically and transparently should be.
Companies need to make engineers more efficient by removing
productivity impediments. A recent survey found that, on
average, a developer spends 12.6 hours per work week (only 30%
of his/her time) designing and coding.16
What’s worse is he/she
spends 19 hours on tertiary tasks such as waiting for builds to
complete and managing infrastructure. This is a huge waste.
PaaS eliminates the non-value-added activities by automating
them, allowing developers to focus on where the skills they have
spent their career honing actually lend value.
Imagine what happens when developers are free to work on
game-changing code, when the tedium of the nuts and bolts of
delivery and change management – configuring storage, networks
Figure 3 As organizations implement IaaS and PaaS, building great applications becomes easier
15
http://www.crn.com/news/channel-programs/240163468/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-the-it-talent-shortage-is-more-serious
than-you-think.htm
16
http://readwrite.com/2013/04/25/how-software-developers-really-spend-their-time#awesm=~oDNGXso7uAHqID
5. WHITE PAPER PAAS: OPEN FOR BUSINESS
5
and environments – goes away? What if their new projects could
be pushed live within minutes of completion, and the cycle
from dev to test to production was built without hang times
or latencies? PaaS is about removing the tedious, non-creative
elements from the development cycle, automating them and
speeding application delivery – enabling developers to focus on
building the important features that distinguish their work. A
talented and productive developer is a creative, motivated and
highly-valuable employee.
Pivotal recently performed an audit for a client, and determined
that their developers were only keeping pace with demand due
to a heroic level of effort from key individuals working around
the clock. When faced with this information, the client’s IT
executive said, “I don’t want my organization run on heroics.”
Why? Heroes don’t scale. Heroics aren’t a system or a strategy.
This organization had deployed 55 applications in the past year
(a very respectable number for a company of their size) and
was looking to deploy 200 in the next year. Most of these were
complex customer-facing applications for multiple kinds of
consumption paradigms, desktop and mobile. There was no way
for them to keep pace with the demands of their market by doing
things the old way.
BUILD “SYSTEMS OF DIFFERENTIATION”
A number of the applications in any large organization’s software
portfolio are “table stakes”: ERP, general ledger, CRM, HR, etc.
While some advantage may be derived from enhancing or
customizing these, by and large the functions they provide
are commoditized. These applications can be considered
systems of record, and there are various strategies for acquiring
and maintaining them, from on-premise to SaaS/hosted. Few
companies see value in building these kinds of applications
themselves. However, when a company wants to deliver
unique value, quickly and continuously via custom application
development, they need a new kind of platform. Such a platform
must provide the right data management, cloud deployment
and developer tools to meet enterprise requirements for
performance, scale and cost. Enterprise PaaS is the engine for
this new kind of innovation.
A recent benchmark survey from VMware found that 2/3 of their
clients that liberated IT resources from maintaining old silos and
processes reinvested their savings (>$10 Billion) in agility-focused
initiatives such as cloud computing.17
VMware also found that, on
average, companies allocate 30% of their budget to IT innovation.
Market leaders shift this number to 50% – focusing on custom
development of new, customer-facing applications and services,
rather than the care and feeding of commoditized business
processes that do not support competitive advantage.
FOCUS ON EXCEEDING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS
PaaS can improve not only the applications themselves, but also
the experience customers enjoy.
First, applications built and brought into production with PaaS
incorporate services that allow them to run on any device, and
operating system, consistently. Because a project is built and
deployed with a standard, tested set of tools in a standard, tested
framework, it runs the same wherever it is deployed.
Secondly, the monitoring and analytics tools within the PaaS
help the application improve as it is used. The PaaS environment
collects information about usage and user behavior that, when
fed back to developers, allows for the rollout of fast new upgrades
and new features that continually improve it, in a virtuous cycle
(see Figure 2). Demanding consumers have come to expect high
application update velocity, and this is what PaaS delivers.
SAVE MONEY AND USE THOSE SAVINGS TO DO MORE
How aggressive would organizations be in introducing and
testing new products and strategies if the associated costs fell
dramatically? PaaS is such a disruption. Rakuten experienced
a 90% improvement in times for application deployment and
management with Pivotal CF. Optimizing developer time, and
increasing the speed to deploy, starts to catch up ability to
execute with ideation.
In evaluating any new investment, including development
projects, ROI is top of mind for decision-makers. If the cost per
application decreased, ROI would look more attractive. Further,
reducing the need to prove ROI could allow companies to take
more chances and work in creative new directions. This explains
the explosion in new, cloud-based startups. The financial barrier
to entry has been lowered, thanks to PaaS and the cloud.
HEDGE CLOUD BETS WITH APPLICATION PORTABILITY
Contemporary PaaS environments should be able to extend
application portability support to major public and private
clouds. With cloud portability, any application managed in the
PaaS can be moved, expanded and scaled across the vast majority
of private, hybrid and mega-public IaaS providers.
This capability gives enterprises a wide choice of cloud platforms
to consider, and they can optimize their application distribution
for price, performance, geo-location, regulatory, security and
control requirements. As requirements change and applications
expand, developers and operations can simply migrate, scale
17
VMware Journey Benchmark Survey, 4th Wave 2013