Intel Capital社がクラウドベンダー、Joyent社に投資した額が$8.5Mと判明、Dellの投資していることも明らかに=>

Cisco、EMC、VMwareの動きを警戒し、手中にクラウドインフラのベンダーを確保しておく、という戦略が素直な見方であるが、Joyentの強みは、Private Cloudの開発能力と実績がある、と言う点にある、というのが下記記事の評価。

クラウドベンダーであるJoyent社は、この投資を元手に中国は他のアジア諸国への事業展開を表明している。

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How Much Money Did Joyent Really Raise?

By Om Malik November 17, 2009

Intel today said it's invested an undisclosed amount in Joyent, the 6-year-old Sausalito, Calif.-based startup that started out as a web hosting company but eventually evolved into a cloud service provider. Neither Intel nor Joyent disclosed the amount of money invested, but Intel's investment in the company is a strategic bet for the chipmaker, as it faces a smaller end user base for its silicon thanks to enterprises turning to computing delivered as a service to help limit the number of servers they buy. First the deal specifics.

Intel Capital has invested $8.5 million into the company, as per a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.  Sources tell me that Dell has also invested an undisclosed amount of money in the company. Dell has not returned my request for comment, but the company has been supplying gear to Joyent for a long time. Joyent shifted vendors from Sun to Dell over two years ago, a move I wrote about. Previous investors in the company include Peter Thiel, former PayPal-executive-turned-hedge-fund-investor whose investments include Facebook.

Jason Hoffman, CTO Joyent @ Structure 09 Conference

I emailed Joyent CTO Jason Hoffman, who declined to comment on either the total funding raised or the other co-investor. He added that the company engaged with Intel Capital after meeting them at our Structure 09 conference, held in June in San Francisco. One thing led to another and eventually, the funding took place. Hoffman said that the company plans to use the money to make an aggressive push into China and other Asian economies where demand for IT infrastructure is growing at a rapid clip. (Related research note from GigaOM Pro, sub. req'd.: Why Bringing Cloud Computing to China Is Joyent's Golden Opportunity.)

So why the Dell and Intel interest in Joyent? I've been talking to a lot of folks involved with the cloud computing industry, and there has been a growing concern with the Cisco-EMC-VMware joint venture company.

Joyent isn't a mere service provider, but has actually built a software competency, which makes it one of the strong contenders in the cloud computing market, especially as large enterprises look to build private clouds. Joyent has been aggressively helping companies build private clouds based on its software delivered on Dell machines. There are several significant companies that are using Joyent's offering. For Dell (or any server maker), that is the kind of push that is necessary as the bulk of enterprise customers beginning to buy their compute hardware as a service.

In an email to his partners, Joyent CEO David Young wrote:

Joyent plans to take cloud computing to a place where our  competitors, built on virtualization foundations such as VMware ESX, Microsoft HyperV, Xen, KVM, won't be able to go. That made the decision to raise money a clear choice and one that translates into greater benefits for Joyent, its customers and the market-at-large. We see a clear opportunity, and we intend to race towards it. Intel Capital agrees with our vision for the market, as said best by Lisa Lambert, Managing Director of Intel Capital: "Cloud computing technologies play a crucial role in allowing companies to scale their data center infrastructure to meet performance and TCO requirements. Joyent's approach to flexible and cost-effective cloud control and cloud development sets it apart and provides measureable performance advantages versus the competition in this fast growing sector."

It's no wonder that Dell and Intel want to get in on a piece of this market while they still can.

http://gigaom.com/2009/11/17/how-much-money-did-joyent-really-raise/

Rackspace社がe-commerce業者向けのホスティングサービスを強化、オンラインモールを開設。=>

Rackspace社がe-commerce業者向けのホスティングサービスを強化、オンラインモールを開設。

年末に向けてのクリスマス商戦対応の戦略であるが、クリスマスに間に合うためには相当早くオンラインショップの移設、もしくは立ち上げを行う必要がある。 

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Web Host Rackspace Launches Holiday Shopping Mall

• By Justin Lee, November 25, 2009

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Web hosting provider Rackspace Hosting (www.rackspace.com) announced on Wednesday it has launched a new promotional service to help its e-commerce customers this holiday season.

The Rackspace Holiday Shopping Mall (http://nomoreservers.com/mall) is a promotional area hosted on NoMoreServers.com that offers discounts and coupons to encourage holiday shopping and highlight the benefits of using e-commerce, says the company.

Launched in October, No More Servers is a Rackspace initiative that focuses on the emergence of computing as a service models to support corporate computing. Rackspace hosts more than 2,000 e-commerce stores among its customers.

As the first of its kind for the company, Rackspace Holiday Shopping Mall will feature special discounts from retailers who are also Rackspace customers, including Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss, and ULTA as well as firms like Bonobos, TeeFury and ChristmasLightsEtc.

A full list of offers can be viewed at the Rackspace Holiday Shopping Mall website.

"As our nation turns its attention to the holiday shopping season, we wanted to provide a special place where we could highlight discounts for holiday gift purchases, gift shipping and other offers that are available from our customers," says Andy Schroepfer, vice president of strategy at Rackspace and principal author of NoMoreServers.com. "Our e-commerce customers depend on the holiday season for financial success. In some small way, this site will help spread the word about the importance of e-commerce to future business success."

Rackspace will continue to add more discounts and offers to the NoMoreServers site throughout the holiday shopping season. Additonally, e-commerce retailers can add their offers to the database by visiting the website.

http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/112509_Web_Host_Rackspace_Launches_Holiday_Shopping_Mall?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thewhir+%28theWhir.com+-+Daily+Web+Hosting+News%29

Rackspace社がVerisign社と組み、同社のSSL認証サービスを提供開始する、と発表。 =>

Rackspace社がVerisign社と組み、同社のSSL認証サービスを提供開始する、と発表。

これは、先に発表された、Rackspace Holiday Shopping Mallでオンラインショップを開設するe-commerce商店の決済システムもサポートするためのインフラの一部にもなる、想定される。 

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Web Host Rackspace Resells VeriSign Certificates

• By Justin Lee, November 27, 2009

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Web hosting provider Rackspace Hosting (www.rackspace.com) announced this week that it is offering the full line of Secure Sockets Layer certificates from security solutions provider VeriSign (www.verisign.com).

The announcement follows SoftLayer Technologies signing of a partnership deal in August with VeriSign where the company will resell VeriSign Secure Sockets Layer certificates to its customers.

Under terms of a recently expanded agreement with VeriSign, Rackspace now can directly sell, install and renew VeriSign SSL certificates to its customers.

The Web host is also offering the entire line of VeriSign SSL certificates as a self-service option via its MyRackspace.com customer portal.

In addition to standard SSL protection, Rackspace offers VeriSign Extended Validation SSL Certificates, which protects users against phishing scams.

Sites protected by VeriSign EV SSL will display a green address bar, which is compatible with over 70 percent of Internet browsers.

The green bar tells consumers they have reached a website whose authenticity has been certified by VeriSign. The EV SSL Certificate offers visual cues beyond the green address bar, including a new field that contains the name of the organization that owns the site and in some cases the name of the security provider that issued the certificate.

In addition to reselling VeriSign SSL certificates, Rackspace also manages the entire process of ordering, installing and renewing certificates.

"Rackspace has long been known as a one-stop shop for organizations looking to launch Web sites and online applications that offer flexibility, scalability, reliability, and security," says John Engates, CTO at Rackspace Hosting. "Our relationship with VeriSign helps us bring one of the most trusted brands on the Web to thousands of customers."

http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/112709_Web_Host_Rackspace_Resells_Verisign_Certificates?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thewhir+%28theWhir.com+-+Daily+Web+Hosting+News%29

ホスティング業者中堅、Peer1社がe-commerce市場のサービスを提供開始：一種のe-commerceクラウド事業と言える。=>

Rackspace社の発表と同様に、e-commerce業者に対して、ネットワークトラフィックが急増する年末商戦時期に、Peer1のインフラをクラウド的に提供し、

従来は、システムを特別に増強するためのハード、システムの追加投資が必要だったのが、今回のサービスを採用することにより、初期費用を殆ど掛けずに必要十分なITリソースを調達し、年を越えて必要なくなった時にはパッと捨てることが出来る、という非常にうれしいソリューション。

e-commerceは競争の激しい市場で、一回システムダウンを経験すると客が2度と来てくれない、非常にシビアが世界。 インターネット事業でピークの激しいセグメントの一つで、クラウドサービスは非常に効果が出る、と期待される。

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Web Host PEER 1 Launches Discounted E-commerce Hosting Bundle

• By David Hamilton, November 27, 2009

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- In time for the "Black Friday" holiday sales scramble, web host PEER 1 Network Enterprises (www.peer1hosting.co.uk) has launched a new dedicated hosting bundle to help e-commerce customers cash-in on the Christmas rush.

According to PEER 1's Thursday announcement, its latest e-commerce bundle was launched to help businesses overcome the impact of the postal strike in the UK and the credit crunch, and has been tailor made to suit e-commerce businesses' current needs -- and it can be scaled back after the holidays once retail levels go back to normal. PEER 1 is also offering the fully scalable hosting bundle for 52 percent off. 

"Most online businesses can manage site traffic and speed during normal trading periods, but few have the capacity to handle the ten-fold increase they can expect this December," PEER 1 UK managing director Dominic Monkhouse said in a statement. "This will result in site crashes, slow check-out processes and disgruntled consumers who will gladly pay more for the same product on a faster site. e-commerce businesses can't afford to drive consumers away this Christmas."

For less than £400 (about $660) per month, individuals have access to a web server and a DB Server for PCI compliance with SAN managed backup for both, as well as a fully managed dedicated firewall, advanced monitoring enabling proactive server management, a SSL certificate for added security, and bi-weekly vulnerability scans and reports on possible improvements.

"We know that consumers will base which sites they chose to visit on previous experience, so online retailers only get one chance to prove the worth of their site," Monkhouse said. "With online shopping set to peak this Christmas, more web traffic than ever before means that e-tailers will thrive or fail based on their ability to maintain a fast and reliable site."

http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/112709_Web_Host_PEER_1_Launches_Discounted_E_commerce_Hosting_Bundle?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thewhir+%28theWhir.com+-+Daily+Web+Hosting+News%29

AWSをバックボーンとするPaaS事業者、Heroku社が急速な伸び、4万アプリケーションをサポート=>

 

• 一週間で1000個のアプリケーションが追加されている
• 従来スタートアップやiPhoneアプリの開発者中心だった顧客層がエンタプライスの本格アプリケーション採用のケースが増えてきている。
• 価格の安さが大きな売りであることがユーザ増の大きな要因（つい最近まで無償のサービスがあった）

ユーザ数が多くなるのはいいことであるが、どこかの時点で事業転換を行い、収益を求めるビジネスモデルに帰る必要が出てくるはずだが、そのタイミングをどこにするのかが大きなポイントである、と言える。 

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The State of Cloud: Startup Heroku Now Hosting 40,000+ Apps

1. Heroku is adding about 1,000 apps to its platform every week
2. Heroku is seeing interest from non web developers.
3. Heroku has built its platform as a service cloud cheaply using Amazon's web services.

Heroku, the San Francisco-based startup that offers a Ruby-focused cloud platform as a service, last week saw the number of apps deployed on its platform top 40,000, according to CEO Byron Sebastian. He joined the company after stints at BEA, EMC and most recently, SourceLabs, where he replaced co-founder James Lindenbaum as CEO. Heroku, which offered its services for free during its beta, started charging for its platform back in April. Sebastian stopped by our offices to give us a quick update on the state of Heroku.

Heroku is adding about 1,000 apps to its platform every week and sales are growing at a rapid clip, Sebastian told me. But he declined to share any revenue specifics, despite my repeated requests, which tells me that they're still a ways off from being meaningful. Indeed, the company's low-cost platform first needs to scale. Sebastian, however, remains confident: "We see a lot of new apps go live with small app development and testing…but in couple of months people shift to premium models." The 2-year-old company was incubated inside YCombinator and raised about $3 million in funding from RedPoint Ventures and certain individuals in May 2008.

According to some developers who are currently using Heroku, the service hits a sweet spot of "managed application hosting at a reasonable price point (and with free small-scale deployment)." Add to that its ease of use, and the gushing of such developers over the service makes complete sense. It helps that Heroku has been listening so intently to the developer community and has subsequently been rolling out some of their most-requested features. For smaller developers, the low entry price is definitely a differentiator. But while the company has targeted its service to the developers of Facebook and iPhone apps, it's slowly seen interest emerge from larger enterprises. "We are seeing a transition from being a prototype platform to being a platform for serious business apps," said Sebastian.

Heroku's platform is based entirely on Amazon Web Services such as EC2 and S3, which allows the company to lower its initial capital outlay while at the same time enabling it to scale as needed, depending on its end customers. As Derrick Harris previously noted, Heroku's platform-as-a-service offering makes deploying web applications "a trivial process, where developers can forgo the busy work of configuring app servers and databases, and of allocating resources to each component."

Heroku's recent growth spurt mirrors that of cloud computing services, especially those in the U.S., many of which Derrick wrote about in a recent note for GigaOM Pro (subscription required). I've been hearing similar stories as to the robust demand taking place across the cloud ecosystem. In the meantime, AT&T last week started offering a cloud compute service and Microsoft is getting ready to launch its much-awaited Azure cloud offering early next year.

http://gigaom.com/2009/11/23/the-state-of-cloud-startup-heroku-now-hosting-40000-apps/

マイクロソフトのBusiness Productivity Online Suite(BPOS)がイギリスのRoyal Mail Group社での大型受注を達成、３万人の従業員がクラウド化する。 =>

マイクロソフトのBusiness Productivity Online Suite(BPOS)がイギリスのRoyal Mail Group社での大型受注を達成、３万人の従業員がクラウド化する。  SIはCSC(Computer Science Corp.)社が行い、Google Appsとの競合の末の案件。

 

City Of Los Angelesでの案件に続き、GoogleとMicrosoftのオフィスクラウド派遣争いが激化しそうである。 

 

この様にクラウド市場でのビジネスが現実のものとなり、実案件が増大していく状況を見る中で、SIの事業収益がどのように変わっていくかが大きな関心事である。  本案件のように、CSC社がSIを提供するケースにおいて、どれだけCSCが事業収益を得ることが出来るのか、あまり見えていないというのがSI/MSP業界全般の印象である。  SaaS収入の一部が収益として入ることと、ヘルプデスクサポートによる収入が想定されるが、Microsoft社との比率がいくらなのか、MicrsoftもGoogleもSaaS製品の値下げを行う中、不確定要素が多い。

 

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Microsoft Wins Huge European Cloud Deal

It's one small step for Microsoft's cloud software strategy, and one giant leap for UK's Royal Mail Group. Specifically, Royal Mail Group's 30,000 employees will leverage Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). Computer Sciences Corp., a massive integrator, won the SaaS and cloud deal for Microsoft. Here are some details and early perspectives for smaller managed service providers (MSPs) and integrators.

As you may recall BPOS is part of Microsoft Online Services, which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and other SaaS (software as a service) offerings. Microsoft BPOS and Google Apps have been competing for big SaaS deals across the globe. A few weeks ago, the City of Los Angeles sided with Google Apps.

Now, Royal Mail says it will work closely with CSC's cloud team to embrace Microsoft BPOS. According to a CSC press release:

"The new contract is an industry first, with CSC being the first Microsoft partner to lead and win a cloud computing services agreement of this scale. Under terms of the contract, CSC will provide Royal Mail Group's 30,000 employees with access to new IT services using Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), part of Microsoft Online Services. CSC will also provide first line helpdesk support."

For smaller MSPs and integrators, Royal Mail Group's BPOS embrace provides a timely reminder: Although Microsoft will wind up competing with some integrators for big SaaS deals, I suspect many smaller engagements will still be led by VARs and integrators.

Competition Ahead

Still, some channel-centric executives are worried about big SaaS providers moving in on small VARs and MSPs. ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini, for one, has expressed concern about an eroding "last mile" of business for solutions providers.

Also of potential concern: How much money can MSPs and VARs expect to make from Microsoft BPOS or Google Apps? The real answer remains open to interpretation. Microsoft cut SaaS prices in early November 2009. And Google Apps doesn't provide much up-front revenue to partners, though Google seems to be gaining momentum with a growing number of MSPs, according to our current MSPmentor 100 survey, which closes Dec. 11, 2009.

Meanwhile, Microsoft partners like Intermedia have introduced Hosted Exchange 2010 and are preparing to introduce white label programs for VARs and resellers. Also, Intermedia is working with the Ingram Micro Seismic team to deliver Microsoft SaaS applications to MSPs. In short, channel partners have plenty of paths for potential Microsoft SaaS options.

Overall, the Microsoft-CSC win with Royal Mail Group is strategic and significant for Microsoft's cloud strategy. I'll be curious to see if Google counters with another Google Apps win in the days ahead.

Follow MSPmentor via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; and Twitter. And sign up for our Enewsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center. Plus, check out www.msptweet.com for managed services chatter.

MSPmentor / Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:16:19 GMT

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クラウドアプリの認証： Signify社が複合認証をSaaSサービスとして提供=>

対象となるクラウド環境はSalesforce.comとGoogleApps。

現在サポートされているパスワード認証に対するセキュリティ懸念が高まっている、という認識から、SAMLプロトコルを採用した認証ゲートウェアサービスを提供することを発表。

具体的にどのようなトークンがサポートされているのかは不明だが、パスワードと何か物理的なデバイスを組み合わせた認証スキーマである、と考えられている。

 

SaaS向けの認証サービスは他にも数社発表をしており、セキュリティソリューションの市場もクラウド事業に参入する動きが活発化している、ということの表れ。

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Secure Access to SaaS Applications

Static passwords replaced by two-factor authentication for applications in the cloud

25 November 2009: With the growing demand for web-based SaaS applications, UK-based Signify has extended its two-factor authentication (2FA) hosted services to provide secure access to cloud-based applications such as Salesforce.com and Google Apps. While 2FA is becoming the de-facto standard for remote access to server-based business applications, most SaaS solutions including Salesforce.com and Google Apps still only provide authentication with static passwords that can be easily compromised.

In addition, the new Signify SaaS Login component of the service allows users to identify and authenticate themselves just once for access to all their network or cloud-based applications using a single set of two-factor authentication credentials. This increases the level of protection for corporate applications and data in the cloud by providing fast and convenient token or tokenless authentication.

"With the growing popularity of corporate SaaS applications such as Salesforce.com and Google Apps that present access to potentially sensitive data in the cloud, it is an anomaly that most enterprises still rely on just a user name and password for authentication," said Dave Abraham, CEO at Signify. "SaaS Login is designed to fill in this security blind spot with strong two-factor authentication and comply with industry policies and guidelines that increasingly specify 2FA for remote access. Many organisations do not realise that this includes access to SaaS applications."

Using the SAML (Security Assertion Mark-up Language) authentication protocol, the new SaaS Login component integrates Signfy's 2FA hosted services with SaaS applications. This enables users to log in using their existing two-factor token-based or tokenless credentials. Once logged in securely, Signify then allows easy 'one click' sign-on to each cloud or SaaS application, without requiring further authentication.

Signify's flexible and reliable hosted service also makes it cost effective, fast and simple to deploy and manage 2FA across an organisation of any size. Without the need to buy new equipment, integrate with existing systems or handle the implementation of the SAML authentication protocol in-house, Signify ensures a low cost of deployment and total cost of ownership. And importantly, Signify hosted services are easy to manage, requiring no additional investment in specialist in-house skills.

About Signify
Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, Signify helps organisations to secure their computer networks. Signify provide a secure alternative to passwords that safely enables remote access to systems and information by delivering two-factor authentication as an on-demand hosted service.

Since 2000, Signify has built an outstanding reputation for delivering secure, reliable and flexible two-factor authentication which is quick and easy to deploy. Signify have an extensive client base across many sectors including major multi-nationals, small and medium sized businesses, professional services, central government and local authorities.'

For more information visit www.signify.net or contact:
Allie Andrews
PRPR
Tel: 01442 245030
Email: allie@prpr.co.uk

Stuart Howden
Signify
Tel: 01223 472582
stuart.howden@signify.net

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Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal / Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:00:00 GMT

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