With chip makers packing more processing power into CPUs, a leading maker of virtualization software is overhauling its prices significantly to reflect the development. Will VMwares new fees push enterprise users into the cloud?

Its a reckoning that IT executives will be forced to consider come April. Thats when the companys new fee structure kicks in for hypervisor products that run multiple operating systems on a single piece of silicon. Some multinationals could face significant price increases under the new structure.

The Dell EMC subsidiary changed license fees for its Vsphere hypervisor kit. Instead of charging per CPU socket for motherboard connections, it will now base its fee on the number of cores in the CPU.

It will require one license for up to 32 cores. If a CPU has more than 32 cores, VMware will require a second license. And thats on top of the fees that users must fork over for the software that operates their physical and virtual machines.

The price increase plays into the hands of cloud vendors as chips gain in performance. They can now sell large corporations on the cost attractiveness of the clouds scalability and on the concurrent reductions in their IT maintenance and upgrade expenses.

That flexibility underpins the market share of the company. VMwares hypervisors are running in three-quarters of data center servers, according to industry analysts, with license fees accounting for around 40% of its $9 billion annual income in fiscal 2019.

Market leader Intel is touting a pair of chip lines called Ice Lake and Cooper Lake that contain 38 and 48 cores, respectively. Meanwhile, AMDs EPYC microprocessor family, launched last year, runs out 64 cores in its Rome CPU.

Away from the x86 instructions set architectures that those chips contain, a start-up called Ampere Computing is working on an 80-core processor. That chip is intended for cloud platform operators and built on an ISA licensed by Arm. The British chip designer also is pushing for its own piece of the data center market with a line of 32-core Cortex chips.

Huawei launched a 64-core chip based on an Arm design last year. And Amazon Web Services is using a customized Arm ISA called Graviton2 in its data centers.

Nevertheless, that hasnt quelled criticism about the change. It ranges from jabs at the language used to justify it to whether VMware is pushing customers to a preferred chipmaker, given that most Intel chips are below the 32-core threshold.

The larger issue is whether VMware provides the impetus for digital transformation. AsDel EMC offers cloud-hosting of computing, storage and networking services, the impact among competing vendors that run VMware in their data centers could reshape that market, too.

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Will VMware's New Fees Trigger Rush to the Cloud? - Toolbox

Credit: HMRC

HM Revenue and Customs chief executive Jim Harra has concluded that the departments five-year programme to migrate from physical datacentres to the cloud is value for money and deliverable.

The tax agencys boss(pictured above)has provided an assessment summary on the HMRCs Securing Our Technical Programme. These assessments are mandatory for any new or altered programmes of work in the governments major projects portfolio.

Securing Our Technical Future is, according to Harra, a five-year programme to secure the technical future of HMRCs IT services by removing technical debt, reducing reliance on non-government owned datacentres, and migrating eligible services to cloud.

The scheme will see the department move large volumes of services and data from its existing datacentre environment which is largely comprised of Fujitsu infrastructure to Crown Hosting Data Centres co-location facilities or public cloud from Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

The programme will update HMRCs current ageing, and increasingly out of support, IT estate, Harra said. The existing estate, comprised of more than 600 services, lacks agility and is costly to run. Changes delivered by the programme will allow HMRC to generate more cost-effective arrangements with suppliers, while ensuring a more resilient and flexible infrastructure.

As part of major project assessments, accounting officers are required to review the programme in questions regularity, propriety, value for money, and feasibility.

Harras report which he said was somewhat based on the findings of his predecessor as CEO, Sir Jon Thompson, who conducted a full review in June 2018 endorsed the projects credentials on all fronts.

Of the cloud-migration schemes value for money, he said: [It] offers the highest potential to meet critical success factors and minimise IT delivery risks for HMRC, providing best value for money.

He indicated that the plan had been compared with three other options, one of which was to do nothing.

He acknowledged there are significant delivery challenges to successfully managing a complicated datacentre migration and transformation involving numerous stakeholders and delivery partners.

But he claimed work so far is on track, and on target for timely delivery.

The programme has already delivered several milestones and has successfully crossed several assurance and approvals hurdles, including an independent assurance review and HM Treasury approval of the business case, he said. Further independent assurance reviews and HMT approvals are planned at appropriate points throughout its lifetime.

Harra added: The programme leadership, supported by delivery partners, has the skills and experience needed to ensure the technical feasibility of the project deliverables and achieve the major milestones in the timeframe.

Delivering the aims of Securing Our Technical Future which was formerly known as the Columbus Cloud programme has been an ambition of HMRC for several years.

However, the urgency of the departments Brexit-related work imperilled the scheme; as of mid-2018, delivery of the migration programme was being reconsidered. It was one of more than 100 transformation projects that were halted, paused, or merged as part of a review and reprioritisation exercise.

But the programme is now seemingly back on track, and the department has previously set a target of completing migration by June 2022. However, this date was specified in a contract published last year that described the project as three-year programme two years shorter than the timeframe indicated by Harra in his assessment summary.

The HMRC chief executive said he would provide an updated assessment if any of the factors related to the schemes successful delivery change materially during the lifetime of the programme.

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HMRC chief gives thumbs up to five-year cloud migration programme - PublicTechnology

Iain McDonald, ITS business manager at Colas Ltd, says: The biggest issues over the last 20 years has been the move from the old dial-up PSTN broadband and landlines to wireless mesh and on to 5G.

Communication [in highways] has become a two-way process that has allowed the industry and authorities to start helping drivers by influencing their journeys, the directions they take, the speeds they drive. I expect that to only increase and we could have multi-directional communication in the age of 5G and the internet of things.

This connectivity explosion has changed the focus of ITS and intelligent highway systems, says Matthew Vincent, marketing director for intelligent traffic solutions at Siemens Mobility. The availability and adoption of much-improved communications infrastructure and cloud platforms, together with new machine learning techniques, have enabled new software services and business models to be considered, he says.

The predominantly driver-centric mindset that has been prevalent for many years, where outcomes were focused on, for example, better journey times, is changing. A broader consideration for all road users is now much more common, with outcomes increasingly based on improved safety for all road users and of course reduced vehicle emissions.

Siemens Mobility has brought about its own innovations in ITS and is at the forefront of how the sector tackles the relatively new issue of air quality concerns. Mr Vincent says: There have been a few big developments for Siemens. The most significant has been the move to cloud hosting, opening up new ways of delivering ITS services to both our customers and to road users. This is core to our portfolio across our ITS and enforcement solutions in particular.

Our technology sits at the heart of Low Emission and Clean Air Zones and is helping deliver real benefits in terms of cleaner air and improved driving conditions, and we are also excited to begin a new era of distributed traffic control with Plus+ [which uses distributed intelligence with simple power and data cabling].

The process by which new innovations come to market has been another dramatic change for the sector in recent years.

As of 22 April 2016 when the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016 came into force, the statutory type approval system previously required under Direction 56 ceased. Type approval had been provided on behalf of the secretary of state by the former Highways Agency under the auspices of the Department for Transport (DfT).

When this was removed, companies had to self-certify their products under the governance of EU and UK standards.

Mr McDonald says: This opened up the industry somewhat and meant that some technology such as radio temporary traffic signals could come in a lot quicker. However, it meant that companies had to buy in the skills to self-certify products.

The removal of type approval led to the creation of TOPAS (Traffic Open Products & Specifications), which was set up to co-ordinate the management and development of technical specifications for traffic control and related equipment. TOPAS offers a straightforward means for customers to verify manufacturers compliance with the specifications through a new product registration system.

TOPAS has been endorsed by the DfT, the Association for Road Traffic Safety and Management and council directors body ADEPT, which provided the initial funding.

It is comprised of four delegates from industry, four from local government through ADEPT and four from the Governments of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. TOPAS is a limited company but effectively operates like a highly technical voluntary organisation that charges a fee for its certification of manufacturers self-certification.

Colas is currently going through the TOPAS process with its work in Lincolnshire, where it is bringing the Colas M@estro traffic signal controller system over from France. This is the first time it will be used in the UK and the company has spent three years to make sure it is compatible with the UKs systems, which gives you some idea of how complex this sector is.

We are currently in the process of presenting the papers to TOPAS to show them that we have met the self-certification standards, Mr McDonald reveals.

ITS expert Dr Mark Pleydell is director of Pleydell Technology Consulting Ltd and a member of the TOPAS Management Board.

He suggests the biggest developments in ITS over the last 20 years have been mobile comms, single board computers and Linux and adds that a major focus for the industry has been accommodating developments without disrupting the existing and prevailing systems.

Dr Pleydell argues that the industry is still grappling to know what to do with the advance of mobile phone data over the last generation but I think that is largely because we dont necessarily understand the problems well enough to define the questions.

Looking at some of the barriers faced by ITS, especially around its integration with other sectors, he says: The rapid development of advanced Driver Assistance Systems, Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems, and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles may lead to a disconnect between the existing and prevailing established systems of ITS and traffic control.

Under the Traffic Management Act, traffic managers have a duty to manage and improve the movement of people and goods within their purview. That allocation of responsibility and accountability supported the delivery of focused and directed work, balancing the new with the existing to good effect. There seems to be a disconnect now between global mobility solutions and local objectives.

The professional bodies and trade organisations in the ITS and Traffic Control sectors have recognised the need for clarity and are joining together to share concerns and discuss problems with the aim of asking for advice or working with government and users. Activities like these may not yield obvious deliverables but they do inform a sense of direction and purpose for us.

Highlighting some best practice, he cites the Traffic Management Cell at Dartford, a Highways England project managed by Connect Plus. This project brought together a diverse team and implemented a unique solution for protecting tunnel infrastructure by detection and removal of a sub-set of vehicles from the huge traffic flows and during its creation required (at least) two completely new products to be developed and deployed.

The integration of civil engineering, town planners and ITS is an issue, according to Mr McDonald. Sometimes ITS can be an afterthought. ITS is the package that sits on top. This is probably not the best way to do things but it is hard to change the culture.

One of the best ways to influence this is perhaps through an alliance system, which could integrate civil engineering and ITS at an earlier stage. Colas was part of Midland Metro Alliance and provided signalling for the light rail system.

Mr Vincent says that ITS systems have tended to operate within their own ITS eco-system, making good use of appropriate data from the roadside, but were not necessarily designed with data inter-operability in mind.

Aside from a willingness to share data, there needs to be the appropriate mechanisms (and business cases, financial or otherwise) to make it happen. Fortunately, the advances in technology and communications can only help with integration, particularly as the benefits of shared data become clearer and the use cases requiring it to become more prevalent.

John Nightingale is a director at JCT Consultancy Ltd, which runs the JCT symposium, a key event in the ITS calendar since 1996.

Looking ahead to the future, Mr Nightingale says: What if the road surface and its constituent materials were in itself Smart? If it were possible to install a smart mesh in the highway during construction, it could present significant opportunities for monitoring, control, maintenance and even power.

So what would a smart mesh be? Well, it would probably consist of a collection of materials with power and data capabilities and piezoelectric, thermocouple, hygroscopic and inductive properties. It would be flexible, come on a roll and would be installed as a component (or layer) during construction or resurfacing.

By being a mesh it could be truly continuous and be an embedded component of the highway structure and barring complete severance it may be robust enough to suffer damage without loss of service.

This type of technology has been looked into by Shell, Highways understands, so may not be as futuristic as one might think.

These types of ambitious ideas are great fuel for an ITS sector that has come a long way in the last 20 years and has every reason to be ambitious about the next generation.

Read more:
The long read: 20 years in ITS - Highways Magazine

Not much is known about Europes new cloud project, but the signs are promising, writes Alexander Kalkman

With the cloud industry establishing itself as a key movement in the provision of IT infrastructure around the world, the emergence of US dominant global hyperscale providers has placed many European government organisations in an increasingly difficult position.

The issue is one of independence, or more precisely, the enormous reliance that organisations based in Europe have on the market-leading, largely US-based cloud providers, who must enforce US-based regulations and practices that arent suitable for European citizens and company data.

A good example is the US Cloud Act, which calls for US-based technology firms to provide requested data stored on servers, even if the servers containing the data are located outside of the US. For European businesses using US cloud services, this has significant implications, because the Act broadens the US and foreign law enforcements capacity to target and access the data of individuals or businesses beyond US borders.

As a result, the German and French governments intend to break the hold that many of these hyperscale cloud providers have on European data. The solution has come in the form of the Gaia-X project, an initiative designed to provide a safe and sovereign European data infrastructure, regulated by local laws and independent of wider jurisdiction and implemented by European service providers.

Data sovereignty sits at the heart of Gaia-X, and from data infrastructure, data warehouses, data pooling to the development of data interoperability, Europe is on a timetable to launch the platform this year. Many other European countries are also expected to get on board in the months ahead.

Its impact will be to remove much of the data monitoring risks associated with the current US-based market leaders. In the process, it aims to free European government-based organisations from intrusive rules that can order US cloud providers to hand over data to government authorities, no matter where that data resides.

Not too surprisingly, Gaia-X has been on the receiving end of a backlash from the likes of Microsoft and Google, who argue that it will restrict data services along national borders. Additionally, our understanding, based on Microsofts reactions, is that the project may create unnecessary unrest referring to anti-competition issues. This has since been deemed a non-argument by the German Ministry, but it was never likely that US cloud businesses would welcome the platform with open arms.

As one of Europes cloud hosting providers, we are excited to support Gaia-X and the creation of a Europe-wide cloud network, aligning fully with its objectives to facilitate the creation of European data and AI-driven ecosystems, to guarantee data sovereignty, and to ensure that value creation remains with the individual participants. With the German and French governments driving this initiative, supported by leading local businesses in both countries, it wont be long before the Netherlands and other countries join to create a sovereign ecosystem that will have a positive impact on business across the entire continent, strengthening Europes competitiveness in the global digital market.

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Will Gaia-X deliver the independent cloud network Europe needs? - Techerati

Teaching software bots to take over repetitive manual tasks is the magical promise of Robotic process automation (RPA). Only its not magic.

The problem with RPA is that bots break, and if you start putting them in charge of mission-critical tasks, they could break your business.

The value is when these bots are up and running, and they keep running, says Mika Vainio-Mattila, partner and co-founder atDigital Workforce, an RPA services firm. These solutions require, by nature, more maintenance than traditional IT solutions.

[ Wanta primer? Read also:How to explain Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in plain English. ]

Two keys to success: Smart planning for RPA bot maintenance and bot development

That is not to say the promise of RPA labor savings and efficiencies is a mirage, but it does mean planning for bot maintenance as well as bot development.

RPA tools can record human interactions with applications and play them back, say with the goal of fetching data from one application and recording it in another. This is a way of achieving integration without APIs and the automation of repetitive manual tasks. For example, an RPA bot might look up data from two different reports, consolidate it into a single spreadsheet, and email it to one or more people. RPA bots can be created with little or no coding effort, meaning that bots can be created by business users with little or no involvement from IT.

You can get results fairly quickly. Then you get into more complex automations, and you need to have more solid governance in place, says Stephan Blasilli, who leads business transformation initiatives at a global renewable energy company.

If somebody thinks you can just record a process and go home, it doesn't quite work that way.

If somebody thinks you can just record a process and go home, it doesnt quite work that way, Vainio-Mattila says.

Heres what you need to know about where things go wrong.

Whether an RPA initiative is big or small, ambitious or modest, it should include a plan for when automations break, as they inevitably will, Blasilli says. That means having people available to do reactive maintenance (scrambling to fix a broken bot), but also trying to be proactive.

While screen-scrapingtechniques for defining how a bot should interact with an application are popular, they have one weakness.

Blasilli points out that although screen scraping techniques for defining how a bot should interact with an application user interface are very popular and relatively easy, particularly for nontechnical business users their weakness is they map the layout of the screen. If something changes, the bot will have a hard time identifying which of the fields to interact with, he says.

Basic RPA bot creation techniques like screen scraping are also what is easiest for business users to accomplish without help from IT one reason maybe IT shouldnt be out of the picture, or at least should offer training on designing bots for resiliency.

RPA software vendors are working on making bot breakdowns less frequent, which is why there is so much talk about combining RPA with artificial intelligence. If bots can understand the tasks they are assigned, they should be less easily confused. But this is a work in progress.

There are two sides to the solution and number one is to build better bots, says Vainio-Mattila. It sounds obvious, but its not. Number two is to think through very carefully what is your model for operation and maintenance and, I would add, improvement.

One of the services Digital Workforce provides is Run Management keeping bots running. This is an optional add-on to the firms cloud hosting of RPA platforms and can also be performed on-premises over a VPN connection. Clients can contract for the Service Level Agreement appropriate to the importance of their bots (is it okay for a bot that fails on Friday to be fixed by Monday, or does bot failure mean the client immediately starts losing business?).

One requirement: We insist on setting the rules for what bots need to comply with, so that there is a quality gate at the front of the Run Management shop, Vainio-Mattila says. Part of that is also mentoring and guiding the development team on how to design good bots.

Organizations managing their own bot maintenance would be wise to do the same thing.

You design better RPA bots by anticipating the ways they might break.

You design better bots by anticipating the ways they might break. For example, rather than mapping an automation to the exact screen layout of an application, you can have the bot search for the field description to find the appropriate data entry blank or drop-down list, Blasilli says, or use application hotkeys (if available).

Mike Tyson famously said, Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Planning and design can lower the odds of RPA bot breakage, but not to zero. The unexpected will happen. Maybe you designed your bot to search for a field label in a user interface, rather than depending on the screen layout, but the field label changed in the latest release. Or your bot will choke on some unanticipated data input.

Whatever. Its broken, and now you must fix it. If your RPA program has gotten more ambitious, to the point where its managing business-critical processes, you must fix it fast.

You need to have protocols or processes in place. Otherwise, you will have unsatisfied customers, Blasilli says. Reactive maintenance, by definition, is about dealing with the unexpected, but you can plan to have staff available to deal with these issues and provide them with troubleshooting documents to guide them in finding and fixing problems.

Also needed: RPA expectations management. Maybe zero-maintenance, AI-powered RPA is just around the corner. Until then, a certain amount of expectations management is in order.

Its the responsibility of the departments who manage emerging digital technology to educate the organization about what RPA is capable of and not capable of, as well as the requirements and best practices to have in place, Blasilli says. On the other hand, its not a very invasive technology. With an iterative approach, he adds, you can accomplish a lot.

[ Learn the dos and donts of cloud migration: Get the free eBook,Hybrid Cloud for Dummies.]

Read more here:
When Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots break: 3 things to know - The Enterprisers Project