Асоціація підприємств інформаційних технологій України

Вашингтон — 13 июля 2010. В ходе ежегодной Всемирной партнерской конференции руководители корпорации Microsoft поделились с партнерами своим видением развития облачных вычислений и их влияния на ИТ-ландшафт ближайшего будущего. В рамках конференции, в которой приняли участие 14 тыс. человек, Microsoft сделала ряд анонсов, в частности представила платформу Windows Azure Appliance – первую облачную сервисную платформу для развертывания провайдерских и пользовательских центров обработки данных «под ключ».

«Роль партнеров в скорейшем переходе ИТ-индустрии к облачным вычислениям сложно переоценить», — отметил в своей речи Стив Балмер (Steve Ballmer), генеральный директор Microsoft. Их деятельность способствует экономическому росту и созданию новых рабочих мест во всем мире. Так, на протяжении прошлого года 640 тысяч партнеров Microsoft создали более 6 млн. рабочих мест для высококвалифицированного персонала, что принесло 537 млрд. долл. доходов локальным компаниям.

24 червня, 2010 року. – Хвиля оновлень безкоштовних програм і веб-сервісів Windows Live приходить до України. Найближчим часом українці зможуть спробувати тестову версію пошти Hotmail, а бета-версія безкоштовних програм для спілкування й творчості в «хмарах» Windows Live Essentials стане доступною для завантаження вже завтра. Багато чого з того, що люди звикли робити, сидячи за комп'ютером, тепер доступне у «хмарі». Нове покоління Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger та Windows Live Essentials створене для сучасних зайнятих людей, які працюють, спілкуються й творять онлайн.

«По суті, ми всі вже давно в «хмарах», це частина сучасного стилю життя. Люди сьогодні прагнуть швидше, зручніше й легше робити звичні їм речі в Мережі, завжди залишаючись на зв'язку із близькими людьми, незважаючи на те, якими сервісами ті користуються», – відзначив під час презентації оновлених сервісів Windows Live в Україні Томаш Кошка (Tomas Koska), керівник напрямку Online Business штаб-квартири Microsoft у Центральній і Східній Європі.

Корпорация Microsoft заключила сделку с компанией Hewlett Packard, в результате которой обе компании инвестируют более $250 млн. в инновационную ИТ-инфраструктуру. Новый технологический комплекс, который станет результатом совместной работы двух мировых ИТ-лидеров, будет использовать облачные вычисления. Это, наряду с внедрением новых приложений, позволит снизить стоимость ИТ-инфраструктуры для заказчиков.

В рамках сотрудничества компании HP и Microsoft планируют разрабатывать системы управления данными, программные решения, комплексные решения по виртуализации. Облачные вычисления, используемые в создании новой платформы, будут построены на основе платформы Windows Azure и аппаратного обеспечения от компании HP.

Приложения, которые появятся в результате сотрудничества между компаниями, позволят сделать ИТ-решения более эффективными для бизнеса. Компании планируют повысить производительность и надежность бизнес-приложений Microsoft Exchange Server и Microsoft SQL Server, а также за счет внедрения различных инструментов виртуализации.

На конференції розробників Professional Developers Conference 2009 (PDC 2009) корпорація Microsoft оголосила про запуск платформи Windows Azure для комерційного використання з 1 лютого 2010 року, а також початок тестування бета-версій Silverlight 4, Office 2010 та SharePoint 2010.

Під час конференції PDC 2009, яка пройшла в Лос-Анджелесі 17 та18 листопада, корпорація Microsoft представила нові продукти й інструменти для розробників, які реалізують модель S+S (Software+Services, ПЗ+послуги). Розробка програмного забезпечення для Windows дає можливість програмістам адаптувати існуючі застосунки та створювати нові для широкого спектру продуктів – від мобільних пристроїв і комп'ютерів до споживчої електроніки – та поєднувати їх у єдиній «хмарі».

Stamford, Conn., May 7, 2009 — The market for software as a service (SaaS) is forecast to reach $9.6 billion in 2009, a 21.9 per cent increase from 2008 revenue of $6.6 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. The market will show consistent growth through 2013 when worldwide SaaS revenue will total $16 billion for the enterprise application markets.

"The adoption of SaaS continues to grow and evolve within the enterprise application markets as tighter capital budgets in the current economic environment demand leaner alternatives, popularity increases, and interest for platform as a service and cloud computing grows,” said Sharon Mertz, research director at Gartner.

“Adoption of the on-demand deployment model has grown for nearly a decade, but its popularity has increased significantly within the last five years,” Ms Mertz said. “Initial concerns about security response time and service availability have diminished for many organisations. As SaaS business and computing models have matured, adoption has become more widespread.”

SaaS adoption varies between and within markets. Although usage is expanding, growth remains most significant in areas characterised by horizontal applications with common processes, among distributed virtual workforce teams, and within Web 2.0 initiatives.

Office suites and digital content creation (DCC) remain the fastest-growing markets for SaaS. Office suites are projected to total $512 million in 2009, up from $136 million in 2008, while DCC is forecast to total $126 million in 2009, up from $70 million in 2008. The content, communications and collaboration (CCC) market continues to show the widest disparity of SaaS revenue across market segments, generating $2.5 billion in 2009, up from $2.16 billion in 2008 (see Table 1).

Table 1

Gartner Says 20 Per Cent of Commercial E-Mail Market Will Be Using a SaaS Platform By the End of 2012

Stamford, Conn., April 7, 2009 — The Software as a Service (SaaS) model for e-mail solutions is proving attractive for many customers and will represent 20 per cent of the commercial e-mail market by the end of 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2007, the SaaS e-mail market represented 1 per cent of the commercial e-mail market.

Gartner analysts said that the impact of the SaaS model for e-mail will have direct and material consequences for traditional third-party product vendors, effectively cutting the addressable market for traditional third-party applications by one-fifth. However, by 2012, the move to the SaaS model for e-mail will create opportunities for new third-party applications.

“The lost opportunity to the traditional third-party market may be more than 20 per cent because the earliest adopters of the e-mail SaaS model are small or midsize businesses (SMBs), which can represent up to 40 per cent of the market when measured by the number of companies which are likely prospects,” said Matt Cain, research vice president at Gartner. “However, SMBs are less likely to buy third-party tools compared to larger organisations.”

According to Gartner, there are four general categories within the third-party community for e-mail services that will be affected to a greater or lesser extent by the move to the SaaS model for e-mail.

Applications Core to Running Premises-Based E-mail

Examples include disaster recovery, reporting, backup, spam and virus filtering. In this case, the need for most third-party management applications goes away in a SaaS deployment as the vendor provides all core level two and three help desk duties, supplies all required services for redundancy and recovery, provides all reporting options, performs all version upgrade functions, and protects the perimeter with its own spam and virus filters.

Gartner Says Worldwide Cloud Services Revenue Will Grow 21 Per Cent in 2009

Cloud Services to Be Discussed at Gartner Outsourcing & IT Services Summit 2009, 15-16 June in London

Stamford, Conn., March 26, 2009 – Worldwide cloud services revenue is on pace to surpass $56.3 billion in 2009, a 21.3 per cent increase from 2008 revenue of $46.4 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. The market is expected to reach $150.1 billion in 2013.

“Cloud computing is a broad and diverse phenomenon. Much of the growth represents a transfer of traditional IT services to the new cloud model, but there is also scope for creation of substantial new businesses and revenue streams,” said Ben Pring, research vice president for Gartner. “Cloud computing enables a shift in IT provision from direct purchase and payment for services to provision of services which are free at point of use and where revenue is derived from advertising. Services supported by advertising are currently, and will remain, the largest component of the overall cloud services market through 2013.”

Cloud computing is a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are provided "as a service" to external customers using internet technologies.

Business processes delivered as cloud services are the largest segment of the overall cloud services market, accounting for 83 per cent of the overall market in 2008. The segment, consisting of cloud-based advertising, e-commerce, human resources and payments processing, is forecast to grow 19.8 per cent in 2009 to $46.6 billion, up from $38.9 billion in 2008.

Analysts Warn Against Basing SaaS Deployment Decisions on Unproven Theories

STAMFORD, Conn., February 19, 2009 — The rise in popularity of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model has resulted in a number of assumptions about this emerging model, but it has been difficult for many companies to separate truth from fiction, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner analysts have examined the top-five assumptions to provide a bit of a reality check on the state of the SaaS industry.

“In recent years there has been a great deal of hype around SaaS,” said Robert DeSisto, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “As a result, a great number of assumptions have been made by users, some positive, some negative, and some more accurate than others. The concern is that some companies are actually deploying SaaS solutions, based on these false assumptions.”

Gartner has taken the top-five assumptions that users make and provided a fact check on their accuracy.

Assumption 1 — SaaS is less expensive than on-premises software.

Fact Check: True during the first two years but may not be for a five-year TCO. SaaS applications will have lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for the first two years because SaaS applications do not require large capital investment for licenses or support infrastructure. However, in the third year and beyond, an on-premises deployment can become less expensive from an accounting perspective as the capital assets used for the on-premises deployment depreciate.

Assumption 2 — SaaS is faster to implement than on-premises software.

Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced it is working with six universities to leverage IBM Blue Cloud solutions to speed up projects and research initiatives that were once constrained by time, limited or unavailable resources, or overloaded IT systems.

• The Qatar Cloud Computing Initiative, driven by three universities, will open its cloud infrastructure to local businesses and industries to test applications and complete various projects, including seismic modeling and the exploration for oil and gas.
• Another university, the University of Pretoria, is using cloud computing to test the development of drugs to slow the progression of serious illnesses in Africa.
• In addition, IBM is also working with The Higher Education Alliance for Leadership Through Health (HEALTH Alliance) in East Africa and Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan to use cloud computing.

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Qatar University, Texas A&M University at Qatar

One of the first projects to bring cloud computing to the Middle East, the Qatar Cloud Computing Initiative, is operational and initially located at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Qatar University, and Texas A&M University at Qatar will collaborate on this environment, along with a community of industry experts, researchers and clients, to develop a cloud solution to help solve industry problems.