A cloud migration checklist: The lowdown on integration and architecture

IT executives often face struggles or experience limited success in their cloud migration, but this is no reason to give up. They use the lessons learned to improve results in subsequent attempts. So here is a checklist of the major areas organisations looking to modernise mission-critical applications should consider to avoid repeating mistakes.

Designating a migration architect

Every cloud migration project should establish a migration-architect role, right from the start, to...

25 March 2021 | Infrastructure

10 charts which will change your perspective of Microsoft Azure’s growth

Microsoft Azure revenue grew 50% year-over-year in fiscal Q2, 2021, contributing to a 26% increase in server products and cloud services revenue According to the latest earnings call, more than 1,000 Microsoft customers now use Azure Arc to simplify hybrid management and run Azure services across on-premises, multi-cloud and at the edge Commercial cloud gross margins increased to 71% in the latest quarter, up from 67% a year earlier There are now more than 60 Azure regions globally,...

1 March 2021 | Infrastructure

Gartner adds PaaS to IaaS Magic Quadrant in sign of the times – but the leaders remain the same

The script might have changed, but the leading actors remain. Gartner's 2020 Magic Quadrant analysing the leading players in cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) has included various flavours of platform as a service (PaaS) in a nod to expanding enterprise use cases. Yet these additions have reinforced the status quo, rather than disrupted it.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains top of the rankings, with Microsoft and Google Cloud alongside in the leaders' zone. This is a mirror...

8 September 2020 | Applications

AWS, Azure or Google? Six steps to decide the best cloud for SAP implementations

Analysis I have worked on SAP engagement for enterprise customers for almost 30 years. While SAP continued to develop application features and content during these years, generally the hosting of SAP fell into the same classic selection process as any application: what is the service level, what is the cost, who has the happiest customers?

However, with the advent of public cloud (IaaS), those tried and tested criteria no longer give customers an accurate evaluation of each...

27 August 2020 | AWS

Hyperscaler Q2 market share analysis: AWS still dominates but Azure gaining in the enterprise

The “big three” cloud providers recently announced their Q2 2020 earnings. So, it is a perfect time for a comparison of the relative market share of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Let’s take a look at what each cloud provider’s reports shared.

Amazon Web Services

Amazon reported Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue of $10.8 billion for Q2 2020, compared to $8.3 billion for Q2 2019. AWS revenue grew 29% in the quarter.

Across the...

25 August 2020 | AWS

Worldwide public cloud services market hit $233bn in 2019, says IDC

The global public cloud services market grew 26% year over year to hit a mammoth $233.4 billion (£176.7bn) in 2019, according to IDC.

The findings, which come from IDC's Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker, take into account infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (SaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS).

IDC argued that the public cloud services market has more than doubled since 2016. The combined revenues of the top five providers -...

19 August 2020 | Infrastructure

Global IaaS market worth $44.5 billion in 2019, says Gartner

The infrastructure as a service (IaaS) space keeps on growing: new data from Gartner has argued the global market was worth $44.5 billion last year, with the hyperscalers further entrenching their positions.

The analyst firm said in a note the worldwide IaaS market grew 37.7% in 2019, with the top five players accounting for 80% of the market, up from 77% the year before.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) remained top of the shop as of the end of 2019, with Gartner estimating a...

10 August 2020 | Infrastructure

AWS beats $10bn in revenues again – albeit slowed growth – while Google Cloud breaks $3bn

Amazon Web Services (AWS) broke the $10 billion revenue mark again for its most recent quarter - albeit with slowed growth - while Google Cloud has seen a 43% year-over-year climb in an otherwise challenging quarter for Alphabet.

AWS recorded $10.8bn (£8.23bn) in revenues for Q220, an increase of just under 29% from this time last year and a rise of 5.8% from the previous quarter. Google Cloud, meanwhile, broke the $3bn mark at $3.01bn (£2.29bn). Total revenues for Amazon and...

31 July 2020 | AWS

Why one IaaS provider is not the same as another: 10 aspects to consider

Saying “yes” to a cloud strategy is the easy part. Eliminating on-premise infrastructure and management overheads in favour of greater agility, efficiency, security, connectivity, cost-savings and more makes a great business case. However, once the strategy is signed off, the hard work begins: how to choose a cloud provider to deliver IaaS that is “just right” for your business? That’s when the huge array of...

12 May 2020 | Infrastructure

The decade in cloud: Analysing the ‘remarkable transformation’ through SaaS, IaaS and PaaS rise

The dawn of a new decade represents a good opportunity for a more rounded assessment of cloud computing to take place – and according to industry analyst Synergy Research, the ‘remarkable transformation’ has seen the enterprise data centre hit hardest.

Synergy has kicked off 2020 with a couple of notes looking back at wider enterprise IT spending, as well as the impact of SaaS revenues....

7 January 2020 | Data & Analytics