New and Upcoming for Cloud Insights
In a blog post for Forbes, Liftr analyst Paul Teich predicts the future of containers for the cloud noting how enterprise development has reached a tipping point. Teich takes a deeper dive on that topic for The Next Platform where he predicts a shift away from legacy virtual machines in 2019 and a shift towards containers and Kubernetes container orchestration. Check out those two articles and follow along with Liftr Cloud Insights to see how those predictions play out as the year progresses. Also for Liftr Cloud Insights, we have relaunched! Expect new in-depth analysis and data products coming soon. You can also subscribe to the Liftr Cloud Insights Youtube channel.
AWS Acquires CloudEndure
AWS has acquired CloudEndure, the Israeli cloud disaster recovery and backup specialist service. The acquisition comes amidst rumors of the purchase over the past week. CloudEndure issued a brief statement on January 10, confirming the news saying the acquisition “expands [its] ability to deliver innovative and flexible migration, disaster recovery, and backup solutions.”
What’s interesting about AWS purchasing CloudEndure is that the disaster recovery company also conducts business with other major cloud giants, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and VMWare. We’ve noticed an increasing trend in cloud vendors acquiring horizontal IT suppliers, including IBM’s bid for Red Hat. How will AWS’s purchase of CloudEndure affect the cloud industry in the future?
In other news, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently announced his divorce to wife Mackenzie of 25 years. 25 years ago also happens to be when Amazon was founded. While the separation doesn’t directly affect AWS technologically as a service provider, it could potentially transform the company’s and the industry’s investment landscape. The couple’s split means a split of an inconceivable amount of personal wealth since their marriage was prior to Amazon’s launch back in 1994.
Alibaba Buys into Big Data
Alibaba has obtained Berlin based start-up, Data Artisans in a $103 million deal. Data Artisans provides distributed systems and large-scale data streaming services for enterprises. Some of the enterprises the company already provides their dA platform to include Netflix, ING, Uber, and Alibaba itself, who have been working with the company since 2016.
The deal was first announced by European media followed by confirmation by both Alibaba and Data Artisans in separate blog posts. This deal shows Alibaba’s continual push to gain traction outside the Asia Pacific. It’s also reminiscent of Alibaba’s 2017 investment in MariaDB, the open source startup known for offering the most popular alternative to My SQL, a database management system.
While we’re speaking of MariaDB, AWS now provides Amazon RDS database support for MariaDB relational database instances, but at the same time shipped Amazon Document DB, an API-compatible version of the open source MongoDB NoSQL database. MongoDB recently changed its licensing agreement, providing a loophole for AWS to provide a proprietary API replacement for the widely used MongoDB open source NoSQL database distribution.
IBM’s First Commercial Quantum Computer
IBM announced its first commercial quantum computer designed for use outside of the lab. The 20-qubit system, simply named IBM Q System One, is, as IBM describes it, the first fully integrated universal quantum computing system for scientific and commercial use. Note; however, a 20-qubit system is nowhere near powerful enough for most commercial applications envisioned that would need a quantum computer with more qubits.
IBM stresses that this is only their first attempt and that systems are “designed to one day tackle problems that are currently seen as too complex and exponential in nature for classical systems to handle.” The company also mentions that these systems are upgradable and easy to maintain. If you are in the market for one of these 9-feet tall and 9-feet wide pieces of quantum machinery, you’ll have to wait. IBM isn’t releasing them to the public just quite yet.
In similar news, IBM will be holding their cloud conference, IBM Think February 12-15 in San Francisco. Paul Teich will be there for Liftr Cloud Insights. We will be looking out for more information about the company’s commercial quantum computer and more then.
That’s a wrap for this week’s Liftr Cloud Look Ahead. Has your business made major strides using cloud? We want to hear from you! Email us at ideas@liftrcloud.com. See you next week!
