Category Archives: Cloud Migration

Cloud Migration, Cornwall News, Digital Transformation, IT Services, IT Support, News, Technology, Warwickshire

Techsol Group Acquires Charlton Networks and Expands to Gloucestershire

Techsol Group, a leading digital transformation company, are pleased to announce the acquisition of Charlton Networks, a Gloucestershire based MSP. The acquisition will enable Techsol Group to expand its presence to the West Country and to be able to offer a more diverse service offering to its customer base across the region.

Why Gloucestershire?

For more than 25 years Charlton Networks have been helping organisations and business users in Tewkesbury and across the region deliver and transform their IT systems. They have built up a strong reputation for delivering excellent levels of customer support and technical expertise.

“Techsol Group are delighted about our new partnership with Charlton Networks and are excited to see where this new chapter takes us,” said Gavin Morgan, Techsol Group MD. “We look forward to growing our new Tewkesbury base and providing our customers with the best possible service and solutions.”

Richard Perry of Charlton Networks added:

“We are all really excited about the new partnership with Techsol Group. Having founded the business almost 27 years ago, we built a loyal customer base and an excellent team, the continuity, succession and the fit of the businesses were all very important.

“We could not have found a better match in Techsol Group and we are delighted with the prospects this offers both customers and employees and wish the whole team every success for the future.”

The acquisition of Charlton Networks is part of Techsol Group’s ongoing expansion strategy. The company has been growing rapidly in recent years and has established itself as a leader in digital transformation.

Founded in 1996, Techsol Group has over 25 years of experience helping customers on they digital transformation journey.

Techsol Group now have offices in Cardiff, Tewkesbury, Coventry and Cornwall, and, with over a 90% retention rate, Techsol Group now have a customer base of over 600 customers.

Techsol Group is growing and the company now has over 55 members of staff located throughout England and Wales.

About Techsol Group

Techsol Group are experts in digital transformation, delivering robust and secure technology solutions.

By leveraging our expertise and industry-leading technologies, we help businesses improve efficiency, productivity and performance, assisting them with their transition to the cloud.

We have a proven track record of guiding our customers through their transformative journey with confidence, ensuring their systems are not just modernised, but also fully optimised for their individual needs.

Through strategic partnerships and continuous learning, our goal is to be at the forefront of digital transformation in the UK.

To learn more, visit https://techsolgroup.co.uk/

Cloud Migration, Networks, News

CSPs Align with Enterprise Cloud Strategies

Written by Terry Young, Director of Service Provider Product Marketing, A10 Networks

Cloud transition plans have dominated the CISO agenda for the past decade, accelerated by the rapid shift to working remotely. Now, cloud infrastructure and strategies have moved far beyond the initial reactive approach of the last few years and into a revenue-generating, proactive investment for all modern businesses. Communications service providers (CSPs) are aligning their services and networks to support this trend and most are reporting a positive outcome related to the cloud transition of their enterprise customers.

As technology evolves and digital transformation plans continue to accelerate, enterprises that want to stay competitive are transitioning a portion of their infrastructure to the cloud, focusing on finding the right mix of cloud services to support their mix of applications as well as their current and future plans. These enterprises are looking to communications service providers to help them manage a complex multi-cloud environment as well as including CSP cloud services in that mix.

To this point, in our recent second global survey of over 2,750 senior IT professionals from communication service providers, 63% of respondents told us that they had seen positive outcomes related to this enterprise cloud transition, including higher revenue, increased relevance and the new service offerings

Within the 250 participating UK CSP respondents, this number rises to 69%, with over a quarter (27%) of those surveyed reporting that building out cloud services has directly generated revenue, as customers distribute workloads and data centre functions among private, on-premises and public clouds.

Overall, the global CSP research, conducted across 11 regions and 21 countries, paints a promising picture about the ability of CSPs to offer relevant services to a wide-range of enterprises that are embracing public, private, and hybrid cloud as they continue their digital transformation strategies.

 

Private versus public

The fundamental question for any enterprise looking to migrate a portion of their workflows and applications to the cloud has to be: what are the benefits of private versus public?

Public cloud is far easier and faster to set up and manage, and it offers high scalability and promises more predictable pricing. Enterprises can experience the power of the cloud without the hassles associated with managing the hardware, with the diverse options available providing incredible convenience to the user.

However, because its multi-tenant, there is a lack of customisation, flexibility, control, and significant concerns around security, manageability and service availability. Many organisations turn to private clouds or remain on-premises to gain greater control over the hosting infrastructure and security of their data and ensure continuous availability of services. It was therefore not surprising that we found that 27% of UK CSPs are prioritising DDoS detection and mitigation, with 30% focusing on upgrading firewalls and other security appliances, clearly indicating that CSPs are working hard to minimise security risks in their cloud offerings for customers and to prevent any service outages or degradation from DDoS attacks. In addition, 27% of global CPS are building or improving DDoS cloud scrubbing services for their enterprise customers.

In 2021, we conducted our first global CSP research, surveying more than 1,250 CSP respondents across five countries. With 61% of UK respondents scaling up infrastructure across the entire network in response to growing traffic and COVID pressure, the UK was the most ambitious country of all five regions. It is interesting to note that the ease of public cloud appealed to nearly half of all UK respondents at the time, with 48% of CSPs accelerating public cloud investment.

Two years later, one in five respondents reported that they have evolved to offer public cloud and managed data centre services to their customers, with great success. The same proportion of respondents (21%) identified that their organisation’s newly differentiated services have increased their relevance to customers.

 

Not all heads are in the cloud

Despite the clear enthusiasm for cloud across enterprise IT conversations, one-fifth of CSP respondents in our 2023 CSP research had a different experience with their enterprise customers. One-fifth (20%) of CSPs said that most of their enterprise customers prefer their on-premises solutions and have no intention of migrating their data onto either public or private cloud.

Of course, for enterprises that need to maintain full control over their data in highly regulated sectors such as finance and healthcare, this trend is likely to continue. CSPs are therefore having to maintain and innovate to provide a wide range of hosting options – on-premises, public, private and/or hybrid – to fulfil the needs of every customer.

 

CSPs are facilitating ambitious growth

As enterprises hone and scale their cloud environments, CSPs are ensuring that other network investments align with their enterprise customers’ intentions. When asked what factors mattered most in purchasing new network equipment, 30% of our surveyed CSPs stated that equipment needed to be in a cloud-native form factor and deployable in an edge environment.

The cloud continues to be important to UK business leaders, with 62% of organisations planning to increase cloud budgets over the next twelve months, according to Pluralsight’s latest State of Cloud Report, despite ongoing economic pressures.

As well as more investment, UK businesses are also working to get their cloud strategy ‘just right’, to make it as effective as possible. Pluralsight’s research also reveals that 90% of UK businesses are making changes to their cloud strategies – from migrating to new cloud providers (21%) to moving between on-premises and cloud (20%).

In 2023, we can expect to see companies continuing to leverage cloud services in order to access new and innovative technologies as well as drive efficiencies in their own operations and processes and for CSPs to continue to evolve their network and services to meet that need. This is reflected in our most recent report, with CSPs expecting demand to continue to grow and that enterprise cloud migration is having a positive impact.

Cloud Migration, Cloud Providers, News

Parallels Research: 72% of Mid-Size Companies Report Cloud Management Skill Gaps Are a Significant Roadblock to Company Growth

The shortage of skilled talent is driving businesses towards a hybrid cloud approach, with 64% of companies already following this model

Parallels, a sub-brand of the global technology company Alludo, today announced findings from its 2023 Hybrid Cloud Survey, conducted among IT professionals. A hybrid cloud setup is a combination of public clouds, private clouds, and on-premises infrastructures used together by organizations to store, manage, and run their data and applications. The research revealed that the ease of talent search plays a pivotal role in driving the adoption of the hybrid cloud. In fact, a significant majority of IT professionals (69%) find a lack of cloud management skills to be a barrier to growth, an issue even more prevalent in mid-size* companies (77%).

To cope, companies are increasing their use of hybrid cloud infrastructure. Nearly two-thirds of the survey respondents, 66%, had already implemented a hybrid approach, and 29% of all respondents plan to further embrace a hybrid cloud approach in the next year.

The research also looked at the usage of the public cloud, uncovering that the majority derive most value from it. However, within large enterprises, 18% of respondents admit to not getting the most value out of the public cloud. 11% across all companies find themselves in a similar position. Among this group of respondents, 56% cite concerns over the complexity of migrating to the public cloud. This challenge is further exacerbated by a lack of in-house cloud expertise (30%) and IT recruiting challenges (22%).

“While it’s true that cloud use is not a ‘one size fits all’ proposition, it is clear that a hybrid cloud model is preferred by companies, both large and small,” said Prashant Ketkar, Chief Technology & Product Officer, Alludo. “As organizations struggle to find and retain the talent they need to manage complex cloud implementations, hybrid cloud can be the solution. By using a more incremental cloud adoption approach, supported by easy-to-manage software solutions that are enhanced with automation and security, IT professionals can realize the flexibility and cost savings they want from the cloud, without specialized cloud management expertise.”

“IDC’s xOps Census and Forecast 2022 to 2027 shows that the current gap of approximately 1.5 million IT professionals worldwide has already made it challenging for small and medium businesses to get the resources they need, driving a need for new innovation and infrastructure solutions”, said Shannon Kalvar, IDC Research Director.  “That gap will expand to almost 8 million IT professionals worldwide by 2027 due to retirements and a lack of new entrants, forcing the industry to adopt entirely new ways of getting work done.”

Hybrid Cloud for Hybrid Work

The Parallels research found that hybrid cloud infrastructure is the most prevalent model for supporting a hybrid workforce. Out of the 83% of respondents who currently work in a hybrid (working both remote and in the office) structure, 82% use the hybrid cloud.

The top five benefits reported for the use of hybrid cloud, compared to 100% public cloud or 100% on-premises infrastructure, are:

  • Increased flexibility (51%)
  • Improved security (39%)
  • Cost savings (48%)
  • Increased reliability (44%)
  • Scalability (41%)

Legacy Applications Persist

The continued significance of legacy applications is also contributing to the ongoing adoption of hybrid cloud. Nearly all (96%) of the IT professionals surveyed claim that they currently need legacy Windows and Linux applications, and almost half (53%) report that they will need to continue to access these legacy applications more than five years from now.

This is especially true for smaller companies with 54% signifying this is very important. Only 4% of those surveyed reported that they did not use any legacy applications. A hybrid cloud approach helps overcome the legacy application challenge by enabling incremental changes to the IT infrastructure, without a wholesale upgrade to applications that may not be cloud-ready.

Parallels enables the simplified adoption of a hybrid cloud approach with its Parallels RAS (Remote Application Server) solution. The latest release of Parallels RAS enhances automation and security for end-user computing in a hybrid cloud environment while enabling cost efficiency and saving IT administration time in environments including Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). For more information click here.

Survey Methodology

Parallels’ Hybrid Cloud Survey was conducted in July 2023 with data from 805 IT professionals that are using the public cloud to some extent in U.S., UK and Germany. To see the full results of the study, click here.

*Note: Mid-size companies are defined as those with 500 to 1,999 employees.

About Parallels

Parallels is a global leading brand in cross-platform solutions that make it simple for businesses and individuals to use and access the applications and files they need on any device or operating system. Parallels helps customers leverage the best technology out there, whether it’s Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, iOS, Android, or the cloud. Parallels solves complex engineering and user-experience problems by making it simple and cost-effective for businesses and individual customers to use applications anywhere, anytime. Parallels is part of the Alludo™ portfolio. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

About Alludo

Alludo™ is a global technology company helping people work better and live better. We’re the people behind award-winning, globally recognizable brands including Parallels, Corel, MindManager, and WinZip.

Our professional-caliber graphics, virtualization, and productivity solutions are finely tuned for the digital remote workforce delivering the freedom to work when, where, and how you want.

With a 35+ year legacy of innovation, Alludo empowers all you do, helping more than 2.5 million paying customers to enable, ideate, create, and share on any device, anywhere. To learn more, visit www.alludo.com.

Cloud Migration, News, Tech, Technology

Titan and Creative Launch Award-Winning As-A-Service Offerings In The Channel

Titan Data Solutions and Creative ITC today announced an exciting strategic partnership to ignite the channel with cloud innovation as UK businesses and public sector organisations look to reset for growth.

Titan Cloud offers a new range of award-winning as-a-Service propositions launched by the partnership to enable Titan’s reseller community to expand their services portfolio to explore new business opportunities and deepen client relationships.

Blending Titan’s distribution reach, experience in business continuity and cyber security with Creative’s managed services and cloud expertise enables Titan’s partners to sell virtual desktop, backup, disaster recovery, storage, monitoring, networking and security solutions. These are all provided to customers in an OpEx-funded, consumption-based model with a fully managed service wrap. Unlike many other cloud offerings, there are no egress fees.

 

“Together with Creative, we’re now able to help our reseller community access cloud budgets not previously available to them,” said Steve Low, Sales Director, Titan Data Solutions (pictured above). “The nature of those client engagements also changes from a one-time product pitch to a consultative sale with ongoing revenue streams that assist cash flow. Best of all, their customers can tap into unrivalled technical support with less fixed cost, IT complexity and supplier relationships to manage.”

 

“Today, we’re levelling the playing field,” added Steve Patterson, General Manager, Creative ITC. “Increasingly, we’re seeing clients move away from tier one providers and hyperscalers with hidden charges, towards smaller specialist cloud providers investing in technical teams and green data centres. Creative is delighted to join forces with an established distributor like Titan, one that relentlessly pushes the boundaries of channel thinking.”

 

With the aim of building a continuous conveyor belt for channel transformation, the next planned development from the partnership will be a single-stop application modernisation solution that helps clients de-risk and update older software to the latest frameworks.

 

To find out more about Titan Cloud, email solutions@titandatasolutions.com. For further information on partnering with Creative ITC, visit https://www.creative-itc.com/partner-with-us/

Cloud Migration, Tech, Technology

The Managed Cloud Revolution: Why Modern Businesses are Migrating

The digital landscape has rapidly evolved, with businesses continually seeking efficient and scalable solutions. A significant player heralding this change has been the world of managed cloud services. Leading names in the sector, like Nordcloud, have been instrumental in directing this migration, revolutionising business technology. In this post, we’ll unravel the core reasons behind this shift and discuss how managed cloud services offer more than just storage—they’re ushering in a new era of business innovation.

Cost-Efficiency vs. In-House IT Solutions

When you think about the long-term financial implications of IT solutions, managed cloud services offer a clear advantage. Maintaining in-house IT departments can be exorbitant, especially considering overheads like salaries, infrastructure maintenance, and upgrades.

A real-world case study brings this into focus. Nordcloud, for instance, helped a prominent e-commerce business migrate to the cloud. The result? A 40% reduction in operational costs in the first year alone. This significant saving was not only due to the decrease in physical infrastructure but also from the efficient, pay-as-you-go models that cloud services typically offer.

Beyond Storage: Catalysts for Business Innovation

Harnessing Machine Learning & AI

Managed cloud services are more comprehensive than just data storage. Their real power lies in their potential for business transformation. Leveraging integrated Machine Learning and AI capabilities, businesses can derive actionable insights from their data like never before. From predicting consumer behaviour to streamlining operations, the possibilities are vast.

Nordcloud’s AI-driven solutions, for instance, have enabled businesses to launch personalised marketing campaigns, resulting in higher conversion rates. When these capabilities are harnessed effectively, companies can not only meet but anticipate the needs of their consumers.

Scalable Solutions for a Dynamic Market

In our ever-changing market, businesses must be agile. With managed cloud services, scalability is no longer an arduous task. Cloud solutions adapt seamlessly when expanding storage capabilities during peak seasons or integrating new features.

The ability to scale also means businesses can venture into new markets or niches without dreading overhauling their entire IT setup. The agility afforded by the cloud ensures companies remain competitive and resilient.

Global Growth and Compliance

Easing International Operations

One of the standout benefits of migrating to managed cloud services is the ease of global expansion. Cloud solutions simplify this journey as businesses aim to stretch their footprints across borders. The cloud is the linchpin for international operations, from establishing digital infrastructures in new regions to ensuring real-time collaboration across time zones.

For instance, Nordcloud’s suite of services has enabled several businesses to lay down their IT foundations in multiple countries in a fraction of the time traditional methods would take.

Ensuring Compliance with Regional Data Laws

The global digital landscape is a complex web of data regulations. Different regions have varied and often stringent data protection laws. Managed cloud service providers equipped with compliance experts, ensuring businesses adhere to these regional norms, mitigating potential legal complications.

When a business opts for a solution like Nordcloud, they’re not just choosing a service—they’re partnering with a knowledgeable ally, ensuring their global operations remain compliant and efficient.

Conclusion

The migration towards managed cloud services isn’t just a fleeting trend—it’s the future of business operations. With clear financial benefits, unparalleled scalability, and the promise of business innovation, it’s no wonder modern businesses are shifting. In an ever-evolving market, staying ahead of the curve is paramount. With their myriad advantages, managed cloud services ensure enterprises keep pace and lead the charge into the future.

Cloud Migration, News, Technology

Brace for the Impact Study! Varying complexity of cloud environments is causing IT headache

Data from Aptum study finds a lack of a visibility and understanding of cloud infrastructure is resulting in the benefits of cloud not being realised. 

Aptum, a global provider of Managed Services and Advisory & Consulting Services, today released part one of its annual Cloud Impact Study 2023 – Clear Skies Ahead: Avoiding Chaos in the Cloud. The vast majority (98%) of respondents in the latest Cloud Impact Study are satisfied with the rate of cloud transformation in their organisation. However, clear challenges remain around the management and optimisation of cloud spending.

The study canvassed the opinions of 400 senior IT professionals from organisations with 250+ employees across the U.S., Canada, and UK to better understand the business drivers behind their cloud computing infrastructure and overcome complexities that inhibit the realisation of benefits cloud can deliver.

As organisations rushed to implement cloud services during the pandemic, many are paying the price for implementing cloud without the benefit of a comprehensive management strategy. Respondents list key challenges as:

 

  • Integration (42%)
  • Delivering cost predictability (36%)
  • Lack of skills (33%)
  • Changes in technology (33%)

 

The study reveals that organisations are continuing to invest in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, with 59% of respondents using a combination of public and private cloud services. However, the complexity of a hybrid cloud environment is causing organisations to face several hurdles, with respondents stating that complexity is a key issue holding back the adoption of more advanced cloud technologies, and many organisations admit to a lack of visibility into cloud cost and performance. Almost three quarters (73%) of survey respondents state that cloud costs are higher than expected in their organisation, while 34% agree that improving cloud analytics and reporting is a top priority for the year ahead.

 

“It is clear from our survey that, despite living in a time of great economic uncertainty, businesses still understand the need to embrace digital transformation and invest in the cloud. In recent years cloud has become an integral part of most enterprise IT strategies, and our survey shows that the majority of IT leaders say they have delivered business value from cloud. However, there are potential challenges ahead that organisations need to mitigate.  Cloud technology continues to enable agility, scalability, cost savings, and remote work – all essential components for business continuity and growth in turbulent times. But, if not managed effectively with a holistic approach, the benefits of cloud can be missed.” – Susan Bowen, CEO at Aptum 

The results from the survey call for organisations to approach their cloud deployment and ecosystems with business objectives and optimisation at the forefront of their goals. Understanding what these are will allow businesses to appropriately locate their workloads to suit their needs. To save time, money and resources, businesses should employ the help of a hybrid and multi-cloud specialist provider with the expertise and skills needed to optimise and deploy cloud computing strategies.

 

To see the full findings from part one of Aptum’s Cloud Impact Study 2023, click here to access the report.

—

About Aptum

Aptum is a global provider of Managed Services and Advisory & Consulting Services, enabling customers to control and optimize workloads across multiple public and private clouds. The company helps customers “Own your destiny in the cloud™” by solving complex technology challenges with comprehensive, outcome-based solutions.

The Aptum approach is cloud platform-agnostic, empowering customers to improve performance and security of workloads; enable workload portability and optimization; and drive greater flexibility and agility while lowering costs; all with unified management and reporting which span North America, Latin America, UK, and Europe. Aptum is a portfolio company of DigitalBridge, a global investment firm dedicated to strategic opportunities in digital infrastructure. For more information, visit www.aptum.com.

Cloud Migration, Technology

The “Costs” Of Cloud For Your Business

The cloud is now an incredibly popular option for organizations looking to utilize the services cloud storage has to offer. However, this doesn’t mean that cloud is the cheapest option for most. In fact, many businesses have found themselves locked into complicated pricing models with cloud providers, not quite realizing the extent that this costs the business. Despite all the benefits of cloud for your business, in this article we are reviewing what the real costs of cloud may be and how this can be overcome with cloud cost optimization tools. 

The true costs of cloud for businesses 

The big three cloud providers are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. All of which offer a range of services and tools for businesses looking to utilize the cloud.

For the majority of small businesses it appears that AWS is one of the most popular cloud storage providers (when referring to small businesses, this is typically those with less than 1000 employees). Others will use platforms one of the big three or a smaller alternative platform. 

Below is an example of the pricing model for access to AWS: 

Much like the majority of cloud providers, AWS offers a pay-as-you-go approach, which for the most part offers organizations a number of great benefits. Including the ability to be flexible with their usage. This would be similar to that of other business expenses like utility rates. 

This all sounds great to the typical business owner, so where do the problems occur? 

The challenge of managing your cloud costs 

Despite all the benefits that cloud providers and their pricing models can offer businesses, many still face the challenge of cost management. Which is the reason so often organizations find themselves overpaying for their usages of the cloud. 

Organizations can soon overspend in the cloud due to a lack of visibility and often understanding of how to manage and track usage and the inevitable costs that come with this. 

Often a lack of resources also means that teams within the organization are not equipped to prevent the over-use of cloud resources and the shutdown of idle workloads that will be charged for. On top of this, with little understanding of a cloud provider’s pricing model, some organizations, particularly smaller businesses with limited resources, will be stricken by hidden cloud expenses that will not be realized from the offset. 

Hidden cloud expenses your organization may not be aware of: 

  • Cost per hour 
  • Data access and transfer fees
  • Costs for additional analytics
  • Cancellation costs 
  • Costs for compliance resources 
  • Overall unmanaged spending on cloud services 

Tools for cloud cost optimization

The good news is that businesses of any size can now use cloud optimization tools to help manage and control the costs associated with their usage of the cloud. These tools are designed to provide an organization with visibility of its cloud usage, payments and manual charges so it can  better manage and optimize its cloud spending. 

How do cloud optimization tools work?

Cloud optimization tools will provide an organization with a clear view of its cloud usage and bills, allowing it to keep track of all associated costs. Using automation, the tool can help identify redundant expenses, unrecognized charges, as well as any manual changes that have been made. This way organizations can save money by only paying for what they need and not for wasted

In conclusion, the cloud is a great tool for businesses to utilize, however, it is important to understand what the true costs of the cloud may be before making the switch. With visibility of your payments and manual charges through a cloud optimization tool you can ensure that you are paying only for what you need and prevent any hidden costs from arising.  By doing this, you maximize the benefits of cloud computing while ensuring that your business is saving as much money as possible.  

 

Cloud Migration, Cloud Platforms, News

Alibaba Cloud Unveils Plans to Strengthen Global Partnership Ecosystem

New initiatives launched on ISV acceleration, partner training empowerment and new reselling incentives at Alibaba Cloud Partner Summit 2023

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, is set to further empower its ecosystem partners through a series of new initiatives, including the launch of an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Acceleration Program, a training empowerment program for partners, as well as new incentives to reward partner excellency.

“We are committed to growing together with our global partners and providing them with even stronger support to expand their businesses into Southeast Asia and beyond,” said Edward Cai, Chief Commercial Officer, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence at the company’s Partner Summit 2023 in Singapore. “All new initiatives underscore how much value we place on our partners. Together with our partners’ industry know-how, technology capabilities and market insights, we can deliver significant benefits to our customers.”

New Initiatives to Support Partners’ Growth

Alibaba Cloud’s ISV Acceleration Program was launched to provide global ISVs with new financial incentives and more robust technical support to expand their business opportunities in Southeast Asia. As part of the program, the cloud leader willhelp its ISV partners to optimise the marketplace listing fee on Alibaba Cloud’s marketplace platform, and expand the product sales through Alibaba Cloud’s sales team and its vast network of channel partners.

Alibaba Cloud also pledges to enhance technical support for global ISV partners, offering comprehensive technical enablement resources to help them build, publish and operate their solutions on the cloud platform. In addition, the company will invest to co-develop customised products and solutions with its ISV partners, in order to meet the diverse digital transformation demands from customers across Southeast Asia.

ISV partners including Neo4J (graph database provider), 6Estates (AI fintech platform), One2Cloud Pte Ltd (multi-cloud solution and blockchain services provider) and SCash Global Pte Ltd (technology innovation SaaS company)have already joined the acceleration program to get the most benefits from their partnership with Alibaba Cloud.

At the same summit, the APAC cloud leader also announced the launch of a new training empowerment portal for global partners. The Alibaba Cloud Partner Empowerment Portal provides product and service training and certifications, educational content on topical technology developments, as well as resources and tools to increase partners’ service capabilities. The portal aims to empower 500 global partners including channel partners, Managed Service Partners (MSPs) and ISVs in the current financial year, with training topics covering cloud, AI, Web3 and more.

To bring more tangible benefits to Alibaba Cloud’s partners outside China, the company also announced a series of new financial incentives including discounts and rebates for rewarding resellers and distributors as well as some joint go-to-market initiatives. This is part of the USD1 billion investment that Alibaba Cloud announced in 2022 in order to support its global partners’ technology innovation and their market expansion.

“Our new initiatives showcase our unwavering commitment to helping our global partners thrive and innovate on Alibaba Cloud,” said Selina Yuan, President of International Business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. “Partners play an essential role in enhancing and delivering Alibaba Cloud’s services and offering to our global customers. Together with partners, we can bring world-class technologies, products and solutions to our customers for their greater business success.”

New Partnership on Security, Blockchain and Talent Development

During the summit, Alibaba Cloud also unveiled deeper collaboration with its ecosystem partners. The cloud leader hasannounced its new collaboration with IBM to provide a best-in-class security solution for businesses across APAC.

The security solution integrates features of IBM’s security products – QRadar SIEM and QRadar SOAR – as well as Alibaba Cloud’s wide range of security capabilities. It provides services including real-time reporting and centralised visibility into the cloud environment to detect threats such as ransomware, insider threats and cloud attacks. The co-developed solution aims to mitigate mounting cybersecurity risks while creating a secure, stable and protected cloud environment for clients during their digital transformation journey.

Another collaboration unveiled is with Avalanche, a leading blockchain platform, providing a launchpad for businesses to rapidly deploy metaverses on the Avalanche public blockchain. Cloudverse is a one-stop solution for businesses to seamlessly customise, launch and maintain their own metaverse space, creating new dimensions for engaging with customers.

Alibaba Cloud also announced collaboration with training partners to bolster talent development in Southeast Asia. With the target to train 100,000 general public talents in the region by the current financial year, the SEA Talent Empowerment Program aims to attract training partners to contribute to the talent development drive. The initial training partners include Rahi Systems (information technology services and solutions provider), Solutions for Asia (security service solution provider), Lightning Cloud (multi-cloud operation solution platform) and Edu360 Cloud (digital certification service platform).

The leading cloud service provider recognised a wide range of partners for their collaboration and innovation in contributing to customers’ success over the past year. The Asia Partner of the Year honours eight partners including IBM, AI Rudder (from Singapore), LGMS Berhad (from Malaysia), PT Sigma Cipta Caraka (from Indonesia), and Digital One (from Hong Kong).

Alibaba Cloud currently works with about 12,000 partners worldwide, including Salesforce, VMware, Fortinet, IBM and Neo4j.

Cloud Migration, News, Technology

BlueVoyant Enhances its Cloud-Native Splunk Managed Detection with Response (MDR) Consulting and Implementation Services

The company now offers Splunk Your Way with BlueVoyant — more comprehensive Splunk support to help clients maximise their investment, expedite implementation, and streamline cyber threat detection  

BlueVoyant, a cyber security company that illuminates, validates, and remediates internal and external risks in one platform, announced enhanced Splunk capabilities, with end-to-end consulting, implementation, and Managed Detection & Response (MDR) services. With the increasing adoption of cloud technologies, organisations face a complex and rapidly evolving threat landscape. The service helps clients maximise their Splunk investment whether it be on the Splunk Cloud Platform or Splunk Enterprise.

“Splunk Your Way with BlueVoyant enables our clients to have industry-leading consulting, implementation, and cyber defence in a cost-effective manner,” said Drew Gibson, BlueVoyant senior director for the company’s Splunk Alliance. “BlueVoyant has a strong relationship with Splunk, and is known for its dynamic expertise in the company’s products, helping our joint clients have greater control and visibility of their data usage and security posture.”

Key components of Splunk Your Way with BlueVoyant include:

  • Enabling clients to collect, monitor, and analyse security data across on-premise, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments in a single platform
  • Cloud-native SIEM (security information and event management) with real-time visibility to identify security threats and remediate them quickly
  • Clients can reduce their data burden by 20% or more with a proprietary Data Readiness model that improves data quality and reduces costs
  • Onboarding within a month for Existing Splunk users to quickly see the benefits of BlueVoyant
  • Continuously improving client’s Splunk instance by using faster security content delivery, and parity between different SIEM and EDR (endpoint detection and response) tools
  • Availability of numerous bundles of workshops, retainers, and MDR services to help clients optimise, implement, manage, and monitor and protect their Splunk instance

 

“BlueVoyant has the strength of our MDR for Splunk which we launched in 2021, aided by the expertise of thousands of Splunk deployments by our Concanon Professional Services division to provide a compelling service which helps the client get the most their Splunk investment, whether Splunk is installed ‘on-prem’ or via Splunk Cloud,” said Michael Cormier, managing director for Concanon, a BlueVoyant company. BlueVoyant acquired Conanon in fall 2021 to enhance its end-to-end Splunk platform capabilities.

 

Splunk recognised BlueVoyant as a key MSP (managed service provider) partner with the new Premier Manage designation. BlueVoyant also earned core competency badges for

Cloud Migration and Cloud Migration: Co-Delivery. The company has 200 active Splunk certifications. In 2022, BlueVoyant expanded its Splunk go-to-market by including its offerings on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace.

 

BlueVoyant is hosting a webinar at 1 p.m. EDT/ 5 p.m. GMT Thursday, 13th of April to discuss what the company has learned from our Splunk deployments and clients, and to answer questions. Current clients, security professionals, and other parties are encouraged to attend by clicking here to register. More information on Splunk Your Way with BlueVoyant is available here.

 

About BlueVoyant
BlueVoyant combines internal and external cyber defence capabilities into an outcomes-based cloud-native platform by continuously monitoring your network, endpoints, attack surface, and supply chain, as well as the clear, deep, and dark web for threats. The full-spectrum cyber defence platform illuminates, validates, and quickly remediates threats to protect your enterprise. BlueVoyant leverages both machine-learning-driven automation and human-led expertise to deliver industry-leading cyber security to more than 900 clients across the globe.

 

Cloud Migration, Digital Transformation, Technology, Thought Leadership, Thought Leadership

Finding the X-factor in the Cloud

Written by Mark Wass, Strategic Sales Director, UK and North EMEA at CloudBlue

When facing such uncertainty in economic markets, it is important that there is a fundamental shift in how businesses enhance their financial situation during digital transformation. Everything-as-a-service (XaaS) provides an answer, and a way forward, and should be part of the long-term strategy for every business.

Whether it’s software-as-a-service (SaaS), security-as-a-service (SECaaS), or even hardware-as-a-service (HaaS), companies should be striving to diversify their revenue streams with a digital-first mindset.

 

Consumption on demand 

If it’s manual, it’s already broken. Cloud computing will continue to be a cornerstone of innovation and growth, enabling companies to remain agile and scale faster. The research firm Gartner predicts that by 2027, more than 50% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms.

With XaaS, companies can provide products and services on demand. Subscription and pay-per-use models allow businesses to have a more predictable way to manage revenue, while providing agility for business customers.

Manufacturing has evolved beyond the physical, utilising digital technologies to service customers. Traditionally, manufacturers would build a product, ship that product and be done. Now, manufacturers can maintain a continuous connection with customers through consumption on demand models. For example, one of our manufacturing clients has a software component – basically a SaaS version of their product that they can get to their customers in a matter of minutes. If business customers have to purchase a licensed product that takes weeks to arrive, they’re going to take their business elsewhere.

 

Digital bundling as a solution

Like regular consumers, B2B customers want solutions that are only a click away. Digital bundling adds value to a business – allowing companies to distinguish themselves as providers with a smorgasbord of offerings, while building client retention.

Telcos have jumped into digital bundling. For example, along with a phone and a plan, a telecom service provider might also offer their customers the opportunity to choose Office 365 or DocuSign as an added service. Do customers need security on their end- product? When businesses have partners, they can offer these services in a bundle. This allows Telcos to focus more effectively on creating customer stickiness, deepening per-customer contracts with bundled services.

A good example is Telefonica Tech, which offers a cybersecurity package that includes a physical firewall, SaaS licenses and professional setup services. Customers can order through the company’s marketplace as a single solution that is delivered at a monthly fee.

The important outcome of offering these bundles is that they significantly simplify their business customers’ operations. The more telcos invest in complex automation, the more personalisation they will be able to offer through the automated deployment of packages, such as a complete workplace-as-a-service (WaaS).

 

Resilience in supply chains

Automation across the supply chain saves manpower, while increasing communication and connectivity between business partners. Digital technologies increase visibility across the supply chain, providing data in real time. This vital information allows organisations to identify supply chain chokepoints, track inventory and communicate quickly throughout the supply chain.

The pandemic highlighted how vital it is for companies to invest in digital transformation. The more a business leveraged digital technologies during the crisis, the more likely they were to adapt quickly to rapid change. Zoom and Microsoft Teams are two examples. Organisations that did not have that kind of supply chain resiliency, whether it be from a SaaS standpoint or an integration standpoint, were more likely to struggle because they were not ready.

When building the cloud platform, there is a need for end-to-end integration, automation, and scalability. Companies must decide how they are going to market – direct sales or through channels. The power of a platform is that you’re running on somebody else’s infrastructure, allowing businesses to scale up quickly when needed.

 

Growth via a digital ecosystem

A common mistake companies make is trying to do it alone. It can be a painstaking process for businesses to build application program interface (API) systems as well as manage them. Expanding their reach more rapidly through a digital ecosystem that enables setting up of APIs for products into a catalogue that can be distributed globally. Building out through an ecosystem is less expensive, less time-consuming and helps businesses scale faster.

Gartner’s report on Top Technology Trends for 2023 says worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow more than 20% to total $591.8 billion next year. The report emphasises the business value of being able to scale vertical solutions and product delivery.

By using hyperscalable XaaS marketplaces, businesses can add solutions to their catalog without increased overhead costs. A global self-service marketplace platform automates all ordering, fulfillment, and billing processes.

A unified view and data integration improve visibility and workflow as well. Subsidiaries are then able to manage their quotes and regional catalogues, as well as curate location-specific listings while the service provision is handled centrally. Scaling these processes with digitisation is critical to reduce costs and free up resources.

A digital ecosystem allows businesses to expand customer growth and strengthen their foothold in the market by diversifying their revenue sources through cross selling a variety of partner products.

Experienced managed service providers (MSP) enable businesses to seamlessly transform their e-commerce shops into as-a-service marketplace ecosystems.  The platform provider handles all the ordering, fulfillment, subscription management and billing flows, including managing multi-tier reseller levels. Companies can easily manage a catalog of third-party vendor solutions to be offered through their own marketplace. They can also deliver their own products and digital bundles by way of multiple marketplaces in any language, currency, and geography.

XaaS marketplaces allow businesses to become better problem-solvers for their end customers. It also enables them to anticipate risks and proactively offer creative solutions. An increase in demand from customers for customised offerings means any ecosystem partner has the potential to thrive in the service economy, where nearly everything can be delivered to customers as a service.