Category Archives: Cloud Computing
Leveraging Cloud Computing to Your Business Advantage …
IT infrastructure plays a pivotal role in the success of virtually any modern business. Now that the vast majority of business processes are performed digitally, the ability to operate at full efficiency is in large part determined by the quality of IT systems. For instance, a slow server connection will significantly hinder workflows, as will limited or inflexible storage space. The advent of cloud computing has revolutionized the way businesses operate in many ways, offering multiple advantages. In this article, we address some of the core reasons why cloud computing makes good business sense and how it can improve the efficiency and efficacy of your enterprise.
One thing you can be sure of is that business never stands still; you need to be prepared for changing circumstances. Your computing services plays an important part in this. For instance, as your company grows and your web traffic increases, it puts a greater burden on your IT infrastructure. This applies particularly to the capacity of your servers you also have to account for a larger workforce using the internal network. Dedicated, on-site server solutions do not offer the flexibility to be able to adapt to these situations.
On the other hand, because they pull resources from a network of servers, cloud computing allows you to adapt to your business needs at any given time. Cloud server providers typically offer flexible packages, allowing you to adjust the CPU, RAM, and storage configurations on the fly. This way, you can ensure you are receiving exactly the right amount of power, storage, and bandwidth, precisely when its needed.
Cloud computing is also a highly cost effective solution for businesses. Traditionally, firms would have to invest large sums of money into server hardware and infrastructure upfront. These overheads can be prohibitively expensive for startups and smaller businesses, but it represents a major expense even for larger organizations. With cloud computing, the cost to benefit ratio is more favorable because you only have to pay a subscription fee for the service you dont require an on-site data center. Furthermore, this means you incur none of the costs involved in running your own data center, from maintenance to floor space and round-the-clock electricity usage.
The cloud enables the seamless integration of software as a service (SaaS) into your organization. SaaS is an alternate model of software installation where you pay on a rental-like basis, rather than having to pay for the software itself and configure it on your own servers. The most obvious benefit is its convenience the SaaS model reduces installation time, allowing you to focus on more pressing matters.
This means you can use software on a project-specific basis, and of course only pay for the duration that youre actually using it. In addition, software updates and upgrades are conducted automatically in the cloud, saving even more time and effort. These factors combined enable significantly more streamlined workflows in your business and, crucially, save you money.
If youre considering migrating to the cloud, take a look at our guide for some useful tips on how to get started.
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Leveraging Cloud Computing to Your Business Advantage ...
CIOs and factors overlooked when changing your cloud – Cloud Tech
By Clint Gilliam, Virtual CIO, GreenPages Technology Solutions
The topic of cloud computing currently ranks in the top-five of IT articles published for IT professionals. Daily we hear about the benefits of this new world, the range of exciting new services now available, and of course how to make the transition.
Even with the valuable insights provided by these articles, there is one critical aspect given too little attention or even overlooked entirely. Specifically, how to plan for a breakup.
If one accepts the old dictum that change is the only universal constant, then ask yourself why most people do not plan as carefully for unwinding a cloud / SaaS arrangement as we do in setting one up. The details of ending an arrangement can be tricky and not immediately self-evident.
These issues are beyond standard legal provisions for exit clauses, terms/conditions, and related matters. It deals with practicality and preparedness.
Take this as an example, imagine you use a SaaS system to implement secure e-mail for corresponding with people outside your organization. Even in the world of TLS, many still have a need for such services which provide mailbox-to-mailbox encryption for both e-mails and attachments.
Should you decide to terminate this service, you might be in for some unexpected challenges. If your service provider does not provide bulk decrypt and export tools, you could be in for a painful process.
In a previous role, I ran into this exact situation. We had to write custom scripts to go through each mailbox e-mail-by-email to unencrypt and export; it was slow and costly.
Even without terminating the service, data exporting tools can be useful as a course of normal business. Consider the situation when your organization is involved in litigation. As part of the legal Discovery process, you might have to produce e-mails for individuals covering specific subjects and dates. Should the list be significant or the filters complex, you can again run into unexpected workloads.
Another example is data offloading. Many services, AWS included, offer excellent tools for migration / uploading large volumes into their cloud services. In some cases, particularly with large datasets, such approaches are the only feasible or timely solution.
But what happens when you elect to move those datasets to another cloud provider? Dont assume the comprehensive set of options you have for bringing data into your providers cloud is symmetric. You might just find a long slow process to make a change.
In both examples, specific industry or regulatory requirements such as security, data location, and privacy can compound the challenge.
IT professionals have a lot of experience with managing proprietary solutions and data. The key is leveraging that knowledge when considering cloud-based solutions. Personally, I have found two methods for reducing these risks.
The first is to run some tabletop simulations on what happens in various scenarios, to develop and expand your punch list over time. Scenarios to consider might include migration, legal requests, disaster recovery or other matters specific to your industry.
My second approach is to network: it is a knowledge and experience multiplier thats second to none. Check with colleagues; get their advice and listen to their own experiences.
Of course, you dont know what you dont know, but thinking of the end, as well as the beginning, should put you in a better spot.
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CIOs and factors overlooked when changing your cloud - Cloud Tech
Salesforce puts $50 million aside to help ‘next generation’ of cloud consulting firms – Cloud Tech
Cloud software giant Salesforce has announced a new $50 million (38.8m) fund from Salesforce Ventures, the companys corporate investment arm, to provide growth for the next generation of cloud consulting organisations.
The SI [system integrator] Trailblazer Fund will provide the next generation of cloud consulting companies with the capital required to build and scale their Salesforce services capabilities for the future and empower customers to transform their businesses with Salesforce, as the press materials put it.
Naturally, its not an especially altruistic venture, although among the companies Salesforce is already helping in this regard are 7Summits, an online community consulting partner for the Salesforce Community Cloud, and Arxxus, a provider of Salesforce professional services in Australia.
Another company getting involved is ATG, a company which provides quote to cash (CPQ) advisory and implementation services. This is a particularly interesting area on which this publication has recently focused; in a piece last month, contributor Louis Columbus noted how CPQ continues to be one of the hottest enterprise apps today, fuelled by the relentless need all companies have to increase sales while delivering customised orders profitably and accurately.
Alongside the money, Salesforce is also launching the SI Trailblazer Alliance Initiative, giving companies in the portfolio a wide range of training and tools, including accelerated onboarding and marketing and sales mentorship from company experts.
The company cites an IDC note which argues that Salesforce and its ecosystem of customers and partners will drive more than $389 billion in new GDP impact and 1.9 million new jobs worldwide by 2020. Its therefore not the software economy so much as the Salesforce economy.
Consulting firms play a pivotal role in the Salesforce ecosystem, implementing Salesforce solutions that meet the needs of customers of all sizes, industries and geographies, said John Somorjai, EVP of corporate development and Salesforce Ventures in a statement. This new fund will foster the next generation of SIs and supercharge the growth of the Salesforce ecosystem.
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Salesforce puts $50 million aside to help 'next generation' of cloud consulting firms - Cloud Tech
Mary Meeker: Healthcare technology is booming thanks to cloud computing and wearables – SiliconANGLE (blog)
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner and longtime tech analyst Mary Meeker released her annual Internet Trends Report Wednesday, and more than anything else, she pointed to a transformation of health thanks to big data and cloud computing.
The report, which is highly regarded in the tech community for its insights into trends and predictions, dedicated 31 pages to Healthcare @ The Digital Inflection Point and came up with some amazing stats about how technology and the Internet are transforming the sector.
At the top of the list, and perhaps the most remarkable number, is the way data is helping develop new medicines. Meeker said the digitization of medical data means that medical knowledge now doubles every 3.5 years versus doubling only every 50 years in 1950. Meeker added that the increased availability of health datais helping to accelerate clinical trials and encouraging collaboration with the scientific community as well.
That data accumulation, which Meeker describes as Digitally Native Health-Related Data Sets, comes from many sources, not only from medical establishments themselves but directly from consumers with the proliferation of wearable devices. According to her numbers, global wearable shipments hit 102 million in 2016, a figure five times higher than 2014, and a remarkable 25 percent of Americans now own a wearable device with more likely to buy in the future.
That data requires sharing, and some companies have earned more trust more than others in handling it. Google Inc. was trusted by 60 percent of those polled to handle health data, while Microsoft Corp. and Samsung Electronic Co. Ltd. were notfar behind at 56 percent and 54 percent, respectively. At the other end, consumers didnt trust Amazon.com Inc. and IBM Corp. nearly as much, with the companies only being trusted by 39 and 37 percent of people.
The surge in wearables has also been matched by a surge in health-related apps, with downloads hitting more than 1.2 billion in 2016. The types of apps were split across the health spectrum, with the most popular, fitness, sitting at 36 percent followed by disease and treatment at 24 percent and lifestyle and stress at 17 percent.
All the advances in healthcare technology wouldnt have been possible without growing cloud computing support. The cloud got its own section, with the report noting that Cloud Adoption = Reaching New Heights + Creating New Opportunities.
Although traditional data center spending still accounted for the majority of global information technology infrastructure spend in 2016, the type of spending is changing. Private and public cloud infrastructure accounted for 37 percent of total spending last year, versus 23 percent in 2013. Going forward, Meeker notes a survey that indicates that many enterprises are considering cloud adoption, with 57 percent of respondents saying they planned to run appson Amazon Web Services alone, with growing support for Microsofts Azure at 37 percent.
Heres a full copy of the report:
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Mary Meeker: Healthcare technology is booming thanks to cloud computing and wearables - SiliconANGLE (blog)
Movers: Amazon’s Stock Price Hits $1000 – New York Times
New York Times | Movers: Amazon's Stock Price Hits $1000 New York Times Amazon is making itself indispensable on a number of fronts, most notably e-commerce and cloud computing. It is also expanding into areas like artificial intelligence and entertainment services. Our tech columnist recently wrote that of the big five ... Amazon Shares Hit $1000, Showing Dominance of E-Commerce, Cloud Here's What Jeff Bezos' Amazon Stake Was Worth as His Shares Briefly Blow Past $1000 Each Amazon stock tops $1000 |
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Movers: Amazon's Stock Price Hits $1000 - New York Times
Aviatrix Named Cool Vendor in Cloud Computing 2017 by Gartner … – Business Wire (press release)
PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aviatrix Inc., the pioneer in reinventing networking for the cloud era to radically simplify and secure cloud connectivity, today announced it has been named a cool vendor in the Cloud Computing 2017 category by Gartner Inc.
Aviatrix is reinventing networking to dramatically accelerate, simplify and secure cloud connectivity. Designed for Enterprises embracing cloud at scale, Aviatrixs software dramatically reduces cloud networking set up time, from weeks to minutes, and simplifies ongoing management by automating and orchestrating cloud network operations. Built from the ground up for Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform environments, the Aviatrix solution solves the common connectivity problems encountered during application workload migration to public cloud, or when deploying cloud-based applications that leverages on-premise services.
According to Gartner, As cloud computing enters its second decade, the era of cloud optimization not just cloud implementation is here. Infrastructure and operations leaders looking to build or deploy cloud-based solutions can turn to these Cool Vendors for inspiration and best practices on the optimization journey.
Gartner is highly reputed in the technology industry and the cool vendor award in Cloud Computing & Emerging technologies is akin to winning the Oscars for a pioneering tech startup like us, said Steven Mih, Aviatrix CEO. As Enterprises rapidly embrace the cloud, our solution is gaining tremendous traction with both mid-market and large companies like Robert Half International, Hyatt Inc. and more. This recognition further validates that our customers want innovative cloud-based networking solutions that deliver significant business value. Enterprises are leveraging our solution to accelerate workload migration strategies with a networking architecture in the cloud that is simple to setup and manage and fully automated with a comprehensive management, monitoring and operations console.
Aviatrix delivers the worlds most secure, easy to deploy and manage cloud connectivity solution, enabling companies to connect their datacenter and global sites to their cloud or connect cloud-to-cloud in minutes, not weeks. Unlike legacy networking solutions, which are complex, require hardware changes and are inherently insecure, the Aviatrix solution makes cloud connections easy to set up and manage and is fully encrypted for end-to-end security.
To get a full copy of the report, click here
Disclaimer
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About Aviatrix
Aviatrix is the pioneer of the worlds only cloud connectivity solution to accelerate, simplify, and secure cloud networks. Designed for the cloud, Aviatrixs software dramatically shortens cloud networking setup time, from weeks to minutes, and simplifies ongoing management by automating and orchestrating the entire process. Built from the ground up for Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform environments, Aviatrix is fully integrated with these cloud providers. Aviatrix is based in Palo Alto, California and is backed by top-tier Silicon Valley investors, including CRV, Ignition Partners and Formation 8.
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Aviatrix Named Cool Vendor in Cloud Computing 2017 by Gartner ... - Business Wire (press release)
Report argues network issues persist with large scale Office 365 deployments – Cloud Tech
A new piece of research from cloud security provider Zscaler looks at the issues with deploying Office 365 in large organisations and found that companies still suffered from latency despite upgrading their firewalls.
The study, which polled more than 200 respondents from organisations with between 1,000 and 5,000 employees, found more than two thirds of respondents had beefed up their firewalls in preparation for Office 365 a typical tactic for deployments yet 69% reported post-deployment latency.
Almost two thirds (64%) of respondents in the survey admitted they had concerns over the impact of Office 365 on their bandwidth before deploying, while 69% expected to see a bandwidth increase of more than 50%.
The figures got worse once companies took the plunge. Almost half (48%) of those polled said network infrastructure and equipment upgrade costs for Office 365 exceeded their estimates. This is despite 28% of respondents believing the total cost of IT, security and network infrastructure needed to deploy Office 365 was at least 75% of their typical budget.
Yet increasing the bandwidth did not result in a faster Office 365 experience, the research found. 30% of respondents reported daily issues, with 69% reporting weekly problems, impacting on business operations and productivity.
As a result, organisations are beginning to realise that legacy applications were not designed to handle the network demands of Office 365, as the report puts it.
Through their own experiences, organisations are finding out that they simply cannot run ac loud application of the magnitude of Office 365 on legacy architecture, said Punit Minocha, VP business development at Zscaler. To fully leverage the power of Office 365, a majority of organisations are looking to transform their networks from traditional hub-and-spoke implementations to ones that securely access the Internet directly from branch offices.
As Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, noted at the companys BUILD conference earlier this month, Office 365 now tops more than 100 million monthly active users (MAUs). Zscaler also said that Office 365 was the fastest growing software as a service (SaaS) application on its cloud.
You can read the full report here (no registration required).
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Report argues network issues persist with large scale Office 365 deployments - Cloud Tech
The Future Of Cloud Computing In Healthcare – CXOToday.com
The healthcare industry in India is one of the fastest growing sectors, fueled by the continuously rising investments made by both the government and private players. The ever-changing trends in supply and demand within the healthcare market influence the use of IT. The adoption of cloud has thus been on the upswing within this industry, owing to the influence of digitalization, consumerization and the need to meet regulatory changes.
Cloud plays a vital role in providing cost-effective services to todays consumer-driven market, and ensures efficiency and productivity by maintaining records and providing ease of access to the professionals.
There has been a notable rise in the use of cloud services in the recent past and the spending on healthcare cloud-based platform is expected to rise to an estimated $9.5 billion by 2020, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets.
Cloud is not just as an affordable solution to store medical records, but has become inevitable for the advancement and success of critical research projects happening in the medical field.
Why Cloud Computing is Essential?
Cloud is emerging as a truly revolutionary technology for the healthcare sector. Several leading healthcare organizations have already embraced Cloud for their critical workloads. There are various factors that make cloud-based platforms essential in healthcare organizations.
Security and compliance: The skepticism around security in the cloud is an issue of the past. Cloud is now considered to be as safe as, if not more, the on-premise IT infrastructure. Besides, the industry is working towards better regulatory clarity to be able to protect patients rights and security. The recent HIPAA update, for instance, makes cloud service providers as liable for HIPAA compliance as the healthcare entities they serve. There is a lot more focus in the industry towards aspects such as data encryption, back-up, recovery and permission-based data access.
Scalability and future-proofing: Data deluge is hard reality for the healthcare sector across the globe. Even the biggest of the healthcare organizations are struggling to deal with Big Data challenge. They are finding that no on-site infrastructure has the capability to infinitely scale to accommodate the growing demand. The upfront investment required to maintain the on-premise infrastructure is too huge. Cloud is probably the only option for healthcare providers to address this challenge. Cloud is also a sensible choice from a disaster recovery point of view.
Accessibility and collaboration: Cloud environment improves accessibility for both patients and clinicians. The sources of data generation today are numerous and includes, but not limited to mobile devices, videoconferencing and healthcare applications. Cloud model allows quick access across various platforms and facilitates information sharing, knowledge management and predictive analytics for hospitals, medical insurance companies, researchers and other stakeholders.
Reduced Cost and Operational Aid: Healthcare IT professionals have shifted from the capital-intensive technology investments to expenses that offer flexibility. Healthcare leaders want to channel capital into cash flow generating activities that allows them to deliver improved outcomes. Cloud computing lets healthcare focus on healthcare rather than investing in data centers and digital real estate to house them. Cloud services also reduce the cost of hiring skilled professionals to maintain and operate these data centers.
What the Future Looks Like
Adoption of cloud computing in the healthcare industry will continue to evolve and accelerate in the coming years. The increasing penetration of IoT (Internet of Things) in the healthcare segment is predicted to be one of the biggest drivers for Cloud adoption in the coming days. Besides, the need to store and analyze vast amounts of healthcare information to deliver both personal and population health management services necessitates the need for cloud computing from both a business and technology perspective.
Added to this are the increasingly sophisticated and wide ranging healthcare cloud services offerings available in the marketplace, which healthcare providers might struggle to reproduce as in-house applications.
With cloud being accessible on various connected devices, such as mobile phones, wearable technologies and instant alerts, it will be easier to stay connected and procure medical records and seek medical assistance. Cloud is poised to serve as the foundation for technologies like big data analytics, cognitive computing, mobile collaboration and information exchange to accelerate the delivery of advanced healthcare solutions in the coming days.
[Disclaimer:The views expressed in this article are solely those of theauthors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views ofTrivone MediaNetwork's or that of CXOToday's.]
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The Future Of Cloud Computing In Healthcare - CXOToday.com
Cloud Computing to Skip Belmont as Field Comes into Focus – America’s Best Racing
Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing will not run in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets June 10 and will target later races this summer for 3-year-olds, trainer Chad Brown said May 28. Instead, Brown will send Cobra Farm's Federico Tesio Stakes winner Twisted Tom to the third jewel of the Triple Crown.
Twisted Tom, a Creative Cause gelding, worked five furlongs Sunday under exercise rider Peter Roman on the main track at Belmont Park in company with 4-year-old stakes winner Economic Model. The pair went together in 1:01.16, with the last quarter-mile going in :23 3/5, and galloped out to six furlongs in 1:13 4/5, according to NYRA clockers.
"Twisted Tom worked great," Brown said. "This horse has continued to improve all year, and more of the same today. It was a nice, strong work from him. [The Belmont is a] huge class test for this horse, but I love the way he's developed. I do think he can stay a mile and a half, I think the longer the better for him, so I'm anxious to get him out to that distance, but it'll be a tough field, a large field."
New York-bred Twisted Tom faced statebreds in his first four starts, graduating into stakes company in the March 18 Private Terms Stakes at Laurel Park. He returned April 22 to win the 1 1/8-mile Tesio at Laurel on a sloppy and sealed track.
"He appreciated the time after the win in the Tesio and has had a nice string of works since then, so the horse seems to be sitting on a new top again," Brown said.
Not nominated to the Triple Crown, Twisted Tom will require a $75,000 supplemental fee to run in the June 10 Belmont. Blood-Horse Staff
Gormley Breezes at Santa Anita; Decision on Belmont TBD
At Santa Anita Park on May 27, Jerry and Ann Moss' Gormley logged his second workout since a ninth-place finish in the May 6 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands. Trainer John Shirreffs emphasized that although the Belmont Stakes is under consideration, nothing is set in stone.
"I keep telling people, but it doesn't seem like they're listening," Shirreffs said with a laugh. "We'll see how he works and I'll talk with the owners. ... I think he worked well enough today. This work wouldn't eliminate him from the Belmont, anyway. We'll wait a little and see if he keeps improving."
Gormley covered six furlongs in 1:14 flat Saturday at Santa Anita under regular jockey Victor Espinoza. The Malibu Moon colt started about four lengths behind workmate and Shirreffs-trained stablemate Tiz Adore, moved alongside his target in the turn, and finished about five lengths ahead at the wire.
"That's what John wanted nothing crazy," Espinoza said. "Just a little maintenance for him. The idea was to track the other horse to keep me company for the first five-eighths and after that I was moving along."
If Gormley is entered in the Belmont, Espinoza said the Santa Anita Derby winner should not be hampered by the stretch out to 1 miles.
"There's no question about it. The distance is not going to be an issue for him," Espinoza said. "He's in good shape and he's bred to go long."
The prospective Belmont Stakes field as of May 28: Classic Empire, Epicharis, J Boys Echo, Lookin At Lee, Senior Investment, Tapwrit, Twisted Tomand True Timber. Likely to run: Meantime and Multiplier. Possible starters: Conquest Mo Money, Gormley, Hollywood Handsome, Irish War Cry, and Patch. Jeremy Balan
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Cloud Computing to Skip Belmont as Field Comes into Focus - America's Best Racing
Microsoft’s weapon in high-stakes cloud-computing battle with Amazon? Freebies – The Seattle Times
Microsoft isnt banking on snazzy marketing or technical chops alone to make its Azure service a winner in the critical cloud-computing market. Its also offering freebies, betting that discounts and free technical support today will produce paying customers down the line.
DefinedCrowd, a Seattle software startup, had a choice to make when it was developing its first product last year build on the cloud-computing foundation offered by the dominant Amazon.com, or Microsofts upstart competitor?
For founder Daniela Braga, the competing services seemed about even in terms of features. On price, Amazons tools were a bit cheaper than Microsofts. And more developers were comfortable working with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud-computing pioneer and now the markets largest player.
But Microsoft held the trump card: an offer of $500,000 in credits to spend on Microsofts Azure cloud services over three years, a benefit DefinedCrowd had earned by participating in a Microsoft startup program. That kind of sum can pay for the entire technology-infrastructure cost of getting a software companys first products off the ground.
That was kind of hard to refuse, said Aya Zook, business-development manager with DefinedCrowd, which makes tools to train software how to recognize speech or images.
The startup would build its software on Microsofts Azure.
Microsoft has staked its future on the cloud, the range of on-demand computing power and software services bundled into Azure and other products.
But Microsoft isnt banking on snazzy marketing or technical chops alone to make Azure a winner. The technology giant is also offering bargains and freebies, including discounts to large businesses, free trial offers to all comers, and grants of cash for startups and nonprofits that try the service.
The programs are part of a broader, companywide effort to gain market share. The bet is that discounts and free technical support today will make paying customers down the line, ideally bringing thousands of dollars a year to Azure and boosting awareness of Microsofts offering in a highly competitive market.
Its an old tactic for a company that has long had plenty of cash to work with. Exactly where Microsoft has deployed that money to lure software developers offers a window into the companys shifting priorities over the years.
In the midst of its unsuccessful smartphone push a few years ago, Microsoft was shelling out a reported $100,000 (and up) to application makers who built tools for Windows Phone. Before that, Microsoft made similar deals to get developers and corporate partners interested in Bing, the fledgling search engine. And to a generation of technologists years ago, Microsoft offered ample support to get businesses to plug into the new Windows Server.
Those programs have yielded mixed results, said Michael Cherry, who worked at Microsoft in the late 1990s, and today tracks the company with analysis firm Directions on Microsoft.
Grants to use products dont tend to make a big difference on their own, he said. But when you can add feet on the ground to help a developer that had a problem? Theyll be loyal to you forever.
For Microsoft, the cloud is the priority today.
It was the focus of the companys recent Build developer show in Seattle, where the company kicked off the proceedings by staking out a virtual claim to the city, and the market.
A promotional video showed the Space Needle topped by a flag with the Microsoft logo on one side, and Cloud City on the other. Never mind that Amazon, with a much bigger cloud-market share than Redmond-based Microsoft, has its headquarters just a few blocks away from the landmark.
When choosing between Amazon and Microsoft, Braga concedes she had a soft spot for Microsoft. A linguist and speech-software expert originally from Portugal, she had spent seven years at the company. Zook, her colleague, is a fellow Microsoft alum.
Were ex-Microsoft people, she said. Its an environment that were comfortable with.
Still, she said, There are a lot of incentives, and pressure, to go on AWS.
Amazon, which pioneered the business of selling software and developer tools delivered over the internet, built its lead in that market, in part, by touting an easy-to-use product that offered room to experiment without paying. Adding to the appeal, technologists say, was the absence of complex, negotiated software-licensing deals of the sort Microsoft relies on.
A free tier of AWS services, introduced in 2010, can add up to thousands of dollars a year, a benefit available to all customers regardless of size. The company has bolstered that in recent years with credits aimed at researchers and educators, as well as standard startup grants ranging from $15,000 to $100,000.
The combination, on top of a technologically impressive set of products, has given AWS an enviable list of customers at the cutting edge of technology, including Netflix, Airbnb and Slack.
To counter AWS lead, No. 2 Microsoft has brought to bear what some see as its greatest asset: a giant base of corporate customers, and a sales force of tens of thousands built to sell to them.
In contract talks with corporate customers of Windows, Office and other software, Microsoft recently has been offering discounts on those products in exchange for a commitment to buy thousands of dollars worth of Azure cloud-computing services, according to consultants who advise those companies.
The company has also lent customers its own engineers.
Mojio, a Vancouver, B.C.-based software maker, participated in a Microsoft program called BizSpark, essentially a boot camp for technology startups eager for Microsofts counsel and connections. The program comes with complimentary Microsoft software, and, in the last two years, up to $120,000 in cash to use on Azure over two years (though some companies, including Mojio, have received larger grants).
Mojio, which builds software for connected cars, had just about run out of free Azure credits when it caught its big break: a deal with wireless carrier T-Mobile.
Mojio signed on to supply some of the technology behind the Bellevue companys new car-mounted Wi-Fi hot spot and diagnostic data gathering tool. The product went live the Friday before Thanksgiving.
By Monday, Mojio was in crisis mode.
The stream of data being thrown off by the hot spots and into Mojios systems built on Microsofts Azure pushed them to the breaking point. So many customers were using the tools that the software built to digest it slowed to a crawl.
It wasnt clear whether it was an architecture issue, whether it was a bug, said Mojio chief executive Kenny Hawk. The volume came faster than any of us had predicted.
Hawk, worried that he was watching his startup implode, called in a big favor.
A friend, a former Microsoft board member whom he declined to name, agreed to put in a call to Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella, asking for help on behalf of tiny Mojio, which then employed fewer than 15 people.
Literally within a couple hours there were (Microsoft) people working on it, Hawk said.
The next day, Microsoft engineers arrived in Vancouver. They would work side-by-side with Mojios staff for the next three days to retool the software to handle a larger workload.
Hawk is grateful for the help, but has no illusions: Microsoft isnt a charity.
The company, he says, is probably hopeful that Mojio, which outgrew its free allotment of Microsoft tools, would eventually become a major buyer of them.
It wasnt just that we were nice people, or that wed been a part of BizSpark, Hawk said. They see how big the connected car market will be. Having a core customer in that space is strategic.
Corey Sanders, who leads a Microsoft team building Azure infrastructure services that compete with Amazon, wasnt involved with the Mojio rescue and hadnt heard the story. Still, the scale of Microsofts response didnt surprise him.
In the competitive cloud market, every customer matters, he said. Every product is critical.
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Microsoft's weapon in high-stakes cloud-computing battle with Amazon? Freebies - The Seattle Times