How do cloud services platforms compare?

As the cloud services competition heats up between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, both companies have begun not only slashing prices, but expanding their offerings to cover more of what matters to today’s developers.

This includes Azure’s heavy investing into big data, while also taking steps to ensure that its users are able to develop on whichever infrastructure suits them best. If you think Microsoft Azure isn’t on board with Docker, think again. In particular, Microsoft Azure has also made strides within the open source community, releasing a certification for Linux on Azure in late 2015.

Amazon’s AWS has risen to the challenge in its own ways, offering new storage tiers, a one-stop-shop for IaaS and PaaS development, security, data management, high-availability load balancing, and its go-to standard EC2 container service.

In this corner: Microsoft Azure

Azure was something that wasn’t on very many developer radars at first. That is, until it teamed up with Mesosphere and Docker to create its own container scheduling and orchestration solution.1 The Azure Container Service entered general availability on April 19th, 2016 with developers able to access features such as Mesosphere’s DC/OS and Docker Swarm. These are particularly useful when working with microservices, running containers at scale in production, or utilizing containers in a testing environment.

Azure has been significantly focusing on its Big Data offerings, spearheaded by its Cortana Intelligence Suite. Azure utilizes elastic scaling in its SQL Data Warehouse, while users processing large-scale data workloads will want to consider signing up for a trial of Azure Data Lake. Data Lake offers users no fixed limits on file size or account size, with the ability to work with structured or unstructured data sets. SQL Data Warehouse offers enterprises looking to set up a hybrid cloud solution for their data flexibility in both storage and security.

For developers focused on building applications, Azure offers the ability to set up VMs with ease, without having to worry about manually scaling them. Azure auto-scales based on actual traffic, ensuring that applications will continue to function even under peak loads. Azure also supports nearly every common programming language, is the clear leader for .NET developers, and offers continuous deployment built into the platform. This means new code can be pushed at any time through GitHub, BitBucket, or Virtual Studio to ensure that crucial deadlines are met without issue.

And in this corner: Amazon AWS

Amazon AWS has a lot going for it when stacked up against nearly any competitor. Namely, its powerhouse of networking, storage, databases, and delivery/deployment options available to developers. Amazon EMR and Kinesis offer real-time data processing, along with the strength of the Hadoop framework. Developers can control their entire stack with AWS, making it an end-to-end solution ideal for enterprises with teams that are looking to manage and analyze their workflows from start to finish.

AWS offers customers not only EC2 for computing, but large-scale data storage such as S3 and Glacier, an ever-growing variety of databases to choose from, out-of-the-box deployment configuration, and load balancing. The benefit to utilizing AWS for many developers will ultimately be the insights, analytics, and level of control that AWS offers its users. By having access to the inner workings of one’s entire stack, enterprises can quickly drill down to locate problems and resolve them before end users are impacted by an issue, while bottlenecks or underperforming services can be isolated for review.

It goes without saying that the AWS cloud is also massive–Over 10x the size of its competitors. The size doesn’t affect its performance, as AWS has only experienced a handful of outages in its time. Overall, AWS has withstood the test of time, continuing to improve and upgrade its offerings to better serve their users while refusing to cut corners to do so.

Waiting in the wings: Google Cloud Platform

Google burst onto the cloud computing scene in a big way with the announcement of theGoogle Container Engine and its own Google Cloud Platform, which have quickly gained a dedicated following. Google Cloud is also one of the more affordable solutions, while offering its users a wealth of tools for working with Big Data, such as Google BigQuery and Cloud DataProc. The Google Container Engine gains a significant boost for those interested in usingKubernetes as their container solution, as Kubernetes is optimized to run on the Google Cloud Platform.

So who wins?

When choosing which cloud provider to work with, you must consider not only the amount of storage required by your applications or the amount of data processed, but the overall goals of your organization. Whether looking for an end-to-end solution, a container orchestration setup, or a way to quickly build and deploy applications, every business will have varying needs.

Ultimately, Amazon AWS is the way to go for enterprises looking for an end-to-end solution to their system management both front-end and back-end. AWS offers not only massive storage capabilities, but is available in the most countries with the least amount of outages, while continuing to make constant improvements toward improving its services.

Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform are attempting to close the gap, but they cannot yet compete with the features Amazon AWS offers for infrastructure management at scale.

This battle’s main casualty? Prices.

As the cloud computing war rages on, pricing across all three of these solutions continue to fall as they compete with one another. Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud Platform all offer free trials, thus an enterprise development team can get a feel for each and see what will work best for their infrastructure. Amazon AWS continues to refine its pricing model to fit a variety of use cases, which makes it risk-free to trial in one’s own environment.

While the war between AWS, Azure, and Google shows no signs of slowing down, matchingyour organization’s overall goals with the solutions offered by a cloud provider is the first step toward streamlining your development workflow long-term.

Alex Miller is a business analyst at Clutch, a Washington, DC-based professional services and software consulting firm.

Read More

IoT revenues up 15%; cloud computing a big driver

A new report shows healthy revenues for 21 benchmarked Internet of Things (IoT) companies in the last quarter of 2015, with revenue growing by almost 15% to levels approaching $7 billion. Cloud computing and IT infrastructure are especially potent drivers of IoT revenues, as vendors help companies cope with ever increasing rivers of data.

In a press release Technology Business Research (TBR) reported that commercial IoT opportunities drove year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter by 14.8% among the 21 companies it tracks in its regular Commercial IoT Benchmark report. Total revenues for the quarter were $6.7 billion among benchmarked vendors that include Verizon, Microsoft, Intel, Google, Amazon, Siemens, Cisco, Ericsson and Oracle.

See also: Hackers drive huge growth in IoT security market

“Effectively, every type of IT and operational technology (OT) vendor will have a stake in the growing commercial IoT market, as IoT solutions will drive increased use of diverse IT and OT products and services,” said Dan Callahan, a TBR analyst specializing in devices and IoT.

TBR says revenue growth is being driven by a rise in go-to-market refreshes by top vendors who are striving to become known as early leaders in the commercial IoT space.

“In addition to building interest in established IT products, commercial IoT will create growth in specialized business consulting, hardware, network, development, management and security components,” said Callahan. “IT and OT vendors that are quick to capture IoT opportunities within their current customer base, and attract new ones through developer programs and investing in growing mindshare, will enjoy additional, immediate, revenue opportunities.”

Revenues driven by explosive growth in data management needs

TBR’s report showed vendors are looking to become early IoT leaders in order to drive profits in this emerging industry. Vendors who take an early IoT leadership position are benefiting because there is less competition, customers have limited outsourcing options due to early IoT’s security challenges, and clients require custom solutions due to the lack of technology standards.

Cloud computing services posted the highest year-over-year revenue growth rate of 79% to record $604 million in the quarter. This growth is being propelled by the vastly increasing need being created for platforms to process and store data.

TSR also noted strong growth in IT services and ICT infrastructure, which charted a 51.4% growth rate in revenue for the quarter. This subsector is benefiting from the increasing capacity requirements created by the huge streams of IoT data that is being generated, as more companies struggle to tame the growing flood of information into actionable insights.

Read More

President Obama Regrets Asking Microsoft to Fix Healthcare.gov

The White House is fixing the buggy mess that was Healthcare.gov, and they've finally announced who will be responsible for working on it — Microsoft.

It's a...peculiar choice, to say the least, considering some of Microsoft's questionable product releases. (Anyone remember the mess that was Windows 8 Tiles?) But President Obama must have had some rationale behind choosing the tech company over others. In this comic, Nitrozac and Snaggy of The Joy of Tech wonder if Clippy factored into the White House's decision at all.

Read More

Microsoft Expects to Name New CEO in Early 2014

Anyone hoping for Microsoft to name a new CEO this year will have to wait a little longer.

The company's board of directors announced Tuesday that it has talked with "several dozen" candidates and expects to name a new CEO in early 2014. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's current CEO, announced in August that he would retire within the next 12 months depending on when a replacement was found.

"I’m pleased with our progress," John Thompson, a member of Microsoft's board leading the search for a new CEO, said in a statement. "We identified over 100 possible candidates, talked with several dozen, and then focused our energy intensely on a group of about 20 individuals, all extremely impressive in their own right."

"We’re moving ahead well, and I expect we’ll complete our work in the early part of 2014," he added.

Microsoft has reportedly considered several big name candidates inside and outside the company, including Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, Ford CEO Alan Mulally, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf and former Skype CEO Tony Bates.

Read More

Warning: 'Backwards Compatibility' Hoax Will Brick Your Xbox One

A six-step guide on online forum 4chan promises to unlock backward compatibility on the Xbox One, but Microsoft warns it's a hoax that will break the new gaming console.
The graphic, which closely resembles Microsoft's marketing materials, surfaced over the weekend and instructed gamers on how to turn their consoles into developer mode, which would allow Xbox One owners to play Xbox 360 games. The offer may sound tempting, since the One isn't backward compatible and can't play any of the hundreds of Xbox 360 games, but Microsoft spokesman Larry Hryb cautioned users on Twitter not to try it.

Read More

Tech Giants Fight Surveillance and Other News You Need to Know

Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world.
Today, we're looking at three particularly interesting stories. Some of the biggest names in the tech industry, including Microsoft, Google and Apple, are joining forces to limit government surveillance. A new report shows the technology that police use to tap into mobile phones. A device called a Stingray can act as a cellphone tower and determine the location of a mobile phone. And if you’re not crazy about iOS 7, we have the new Tumblr for you.

Read More

The Year in Microsoft: 10 Defining Milestones

Did Microsoft have a good year or a bad year? For a company with products as sprawling as the creator of Windows, Office and the Xbox, it can be hard to tell. Microsoft grabbed plenty of headlines in 2013, but for many different reasons. To figure out whether or not the company is on the right track, it helps to look at its recent past.
With the introduction of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, 2012 was a huge year for Microsoft. But it was also a rebuilding year, when it completely revamped its software platforms as well as its fundamental purpose, to transition from a software company to a "devices and services" company, as then-CEO Steve Ballmer described it.

Microsoft made some big plays, but they were long plays

Microsoft made some big plays, but they were long plays, and it would take time to see whether they would pan out.Well, we've had time. A lot has happened in the world of Microsoft this year. Its fortunes in 2013 lent some insight into whether Microsoft's bets were well-placed and what it might do to stay in the game — and possibly even win it.
We've rounded up the biggest events in the life and times of Microsoft in 2013, below.

1. Office 365 and the Subscription Model

When the new version of Microsoft Office 365 arrived in January, the most important feature wasn't its optimization for the cloud and social networks or that it wasn't technically a Windows 8 app. Rather, the most noteworthy change was the business model. After years of selling Office as a standalone app, Microsoft switched to a subscription plan.
Now, instead of paying a lump sum for the familiar package that includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, buyers would pony up a few bucks a month or $100 a year to access them. The apps themselves also improved tremendously, with direct ties to Microsoft services, including SkyDrive, which got even better this fall with real-time online collaboration in documents.

2. The Surface's $900 Million Stumble

When Microsoft announced its Q4 2013 earnings in July, it dropped a monumental goose egg: The company was taking a $900 million write-down because of Surface RT inventory, essentially meaning it had produced far more Surface tablets than people wanted to buy.
It wasn't hard to see that coming. Windows 8 was arguably fundamentally flawed, but Microsoft didn't do it any favors by christening a buggy, underperforming device as its flagship product, with few apps of any relevance at launch. While software updates rapidly fixed most of the issues, the damage was done, and the ARM-based Windows RT operating system is all but dead because of it.

3. Office Arrives on iPhone and Android

Office is one of Microsoft's pillars, but it has faced fierce competition from Google, Apple and others, particularly in mobile. To face them directly, Microsoft finally opened up Office to new platforms, including iOS and Android. While the apps themselves are stripped down to the bare minimum for tiny mobile screens, Office's migration to competing platforms represents an "OS agnostic" view that would have been heresy in the company's heyday.

4. Facebook, Foursquare and Flipboard for Windows 8

At Microsoft's Build developer conference this year, Steve Ballmer announced that Windows 8, which so far had done nothing to prevent to slide of PC adoption, was finally attracting some big-name apps. The big Fs — Facebook, Flipboard and Facebook — were all developing Windows 8 versions of their services.
Even better, they all came through, sometimes in big ways. Facebook's Windows 8 app uses the wider screen of most Windows tablets well, Flipboard has a unique live tile, and Foursquare's app re-invents the location service as a powerful discovery engine. With A-list apps on board, the road is paved for other developers to ride into Windows 8. At least that's the hope.

5. Ballmer Steps Down

With summer winding down, Ballmer awakened a sleepy news cycle with the announcement that the Microsoft cofounder would step down as CEO within the next year. Rumors about the move had swirled for a long time, but it seemed Ballmer and Microsoft just couldn't quit each other.
The scuttlebut says Ballmer's departure planned, then accelerated once the Surface RT failure was apparent and the company's across-the-board restructuring, which began in July, was underway. Now the hunt is on for his successor, with former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Ford's Alan Mulally rumored to be leading the pack of contenders.

6. Microsoft Buys (Most of) Nokia

Apple has the iPhone. Google bought Motorola. But what about Microsoft, keeper of the Windows Phone flame? To really be a top-to-bottom master of services and devices,

Microsoft needed a phone.

Microsoft needed a phone. Rather than create its own hardware as it did with the Surface tablets, Microsoft opted to simply buy its closest partner, Nokia, by far the leader in Windows Phone hardware. The move made a lot of sense. The mobile market is nothing like the tablet market, and it's much better to rely on someone else's experience rather than reinvent the wheel. Considering the strategic partnership Nokia and Microsoft made in early 2011, this was simply the consummation of protracted courtship.

7. Windows Phone Goes Big

In early 2013, it was even money whether Windows Phone or BlackBerry would be the true "third alternative" in the war of mobile ecosystems. It's now clear that the Windows Phone has won that title, with fast-growing market share in most regions — even taking the No. 2 position in places such as Latin America.
With its latest update, Windows Phone can now go toe-to-toe with Android in one of the most popular mobile categories: phablets. Big-screen phones are a big deal in China, India and probably a more than a few NBA locker rooms, and Windows Phone now has models like the Nokia 1520 and 1320 to offer those markets.

8. Windows 8.1 Arrives

Microsoft had a powerful operating system with Windows 8, but it was unfinished. Its multi-window mode, Snap, only worked with one size of window; you couldn't use custom images as Start screen backgrounds and working Word docs in SkyDrive was slow as hell.
Windows 8.1 fixed all of those problems and more while introducing several new features. In a symbolic gesture, Microsoft also brought back the Start button to the design of the desktop. It was almost functionally irrelevant, but it sent a message to users: Although we've already picked the road to travel on, we can still change lanes.

9. Surface, Generation 2

The original Surface RT may have been a failure, but its brother, the Surface Pro, was a much more successful product. Benefiting from a later release, meaning polished software and a more powerful processor, the Surface Pro received good reviews when it debuted in January and proved to be a more worthy flagship for Windows 8.
That explains why Microsoft doubled down on the Surface concept and released second-generation models this fall. The new Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 also serve as flagships for Windows 8.1, and the Haswell chip inside the Pro eliminates the biggest criticism of Gen 1: battery life.
Are there enough apps and good feelings about Windows, though, to turn the Surface 2 into any kind of success? Microsoft badly needs it to be, but it will probably have to settle for "not a disaster."

10. The Xbox One

If Microsoft has any product with the kind of buzz and customer loyalty that Apple devices are known for, it's the Xbox. The Xbox 360 is one of the best-selling game consoles ever, and the new Xbox One looks to take its gameplay and versatility as a general entertainment gateway to the next level.
Microsoft may have stumbled out of the gate with seemingly draconian downloading policies, but it quickly reversed itself, especially when Sony rubbed salt into the wound by promising to deliver a more gamer-friendly approach. The Xbox One now appears to be a more fully-formed console than its rival, the PlayStation 4, so Microsoft's Xbox loyalty may carry into another generation. That is, as long as the next CEO doesn't sell it off.

Read More

Google, Microsoft Lead Campaign to Limit Government Surveillance

Eight technology giants, including Google and Microsoft, have started a public campaign to limit government surveillance of users, The New York Times reports.
The companies — Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, LinkedIn, and Yahoo — published an open letter in national newspapers and opened a website at reformgovernmentsurveillance.com (which, curiously, doesn't work at the time of this writing).

Google’s Schmidt: NSA Spying on Data Centers Is 'Outrageous'

In the letter, the Reform Government Surveillance group is calling for the U.S. President and Congress to limit surveillance of people, as it "undermines" their freedoms.
"We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer's revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide," the letter said.
“The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual — rights that are enshrined in our Constitution. This undermines the freedoms we all cherish.”
The initiative comes after a string of leaks this summer, detailing the NSA's extensive surveillance of users, including spying on data centers of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and other tech companies.

Read More

Microsoft and FBI Claim to Stamp Out Malware That Steals Ad Dollars

Microsoft is working with the FBI to stop malware responsible for infecting more than 2 million computers as a part of an effort to steal dollars from online advertising companies.
The company's digital crime unit said on Friday it has "successfully disrupted" rampant malware called the Sirefef botnet — also known as ZeroAccess — which recently targeted search results on sites such as Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines.

Read More