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G-Cloud - hitting the spot?
Public Sector ICT is a 14 billion GBP market, yet a recent report from the OFT suggests that there are still significant barriers to entry, particularly for SMBs. Can the much-vaunted G-Cloud approach work if it remains a 'closed shop' open only to a chosen few big suppliers?
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Things ain't what they used to be
The 'Internet of Things' is a hot topic in the tech world at the moment. Dave Chester of smart automation specialists Custom Controls looks at the reality of some of the predictions being made and the main obstacles that will need to be overcome before The Internet of Everything can happen for real.
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Cloud SLAs - the devil is in the detail
Public cloud provider SLAs should focus on much more than just an uptime percentage guarantee, argues Andy Lancaster, Director of Cloud Services, Dimension Data
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Smarter than the average cloud
Getting the best out of a SaaS approach should not mean putting all your eggs in one basket, argues Tony Cheung, CTO at EASY Software
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Dimension Data goes mobile
New cloud-based mobility services is the first step for the group to provide a rich suite of end user compute (EUC) services
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No 'blowing hot and cold' over cloud hosting
When replacing its old ERP system, S&P Coil Products avoided the traditional approach of installing new software onsite and instead selected a tailored, hosted and fully managed solution
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Bundles of joy
Parallels Automation and APS are enabling the digital division of Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica to provide a flexible cloud services platform to its local businesses, helping them modernise their SMB offerings, reduce customer churn and drive growth
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Comment
Welcome to the June 2014 Newsletter.
In our last e-newsletter we touched on businesses’ lack of faith in cloud services providers, and particularly in how SLAs are put together. This issue sees a much more in-depth analysis of the issues, in an article by Andy Lancaster of Dimension Data. He argues that the usual approach of uptime percentage guarantees is flawed and misses some central points: "The 'x nines' SLA for uptime is usually the first cited and least meaningful part of a cloud provider's SLA. Nevertheless, it is the first key point of an SLA to identify when evaluating your options.”
When it comes to SLAs the devil is in the detail, contends Lancaster, and it is hard to disagree with his points. Savvy businesses need to investigate their options and vendors carefully. The key to doing this successfully is to understand the details of the SLA: what is covered; the definition of downtime; and penalties. Additionally, buyers should understand how the architecture of a cloud provider's offering impacts security, control and SLAs. As ever I’d love to hear your views if you have experiences good or bad in this area – feel free to email me at the address below!
David Tyler,
david.tyler@btc.co.uk
Editor
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