iTWire - Cloud

SKT deploys Lambda’s AI Cloud platform

2024-08-23T08:26:18+10:00

South Korean telecommunications company SK Telecom (SKT) announced it will deploy AI developer Lambda’s AI Cloud platform in its SK Broadband’s Gasan data centre later this year.

SKT has plans to eventually scale up to support thousands of GPUs.

This deployment will enable SKT to bring local AI cloud services to enterprises, startups, and research labs in South Korea.

As per Data Center Dynamics, the Gasan data centre was launched in 2021, featuring 10 stories above ground and five basement floors.

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At the time of its launch, it could support 46MW of IT load across 69,300 square meters (745,940 sq. ft).

Per the report, SK Broadband also operates data centres in Seocho, Ilsan, and Bundang.

“Given the rapid pace of AI innovation happening in South Korea, we’re excited to partner with SKT in their mission to transform their company and country into a global AI powerhouse,” says Lambda CEO and co-founder Stephen Balaban.

“Through our strategic partnership with Lambda, we are able to bolster SK Telecom’s leadership in AI services and capabilities while unlocking new business opportunities,” says SKT vice president and head of enterprise business division Kim Kyeong-deog.

Oracle integrates IoT connectivity into its platform

2024-08-15T08:45:14+10:00

Cloud platform services Oracle announced it integrated AT&T’s IoT connectivity and network APIs into its enterprise communications platform (ECP).

Oracle said this will enable its customers to connect and manage their IoT devices on the AT&T network all in one platform.

ECP delivers IoT connectivity and near real-time communications to Oracle's suite of industry cloud applications.

With integrated capabilities such as IoT edge application management, ECP removes the customer burden of managing complex integrations and network contracts.

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Built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), the unified communication and edge architecture offers connectivity and real-time data intelligence businesses need to power critical new services and experiences.

The integration with AT&T IoT connectivity and network API's is available across OCI regions in the US.

Oracle claims the integration lays the foundation for new industry applications.

For example, public safety network FirstNet—built with AT&T—and ECP helps deliver communications enabling critical components such as dispatch command centres and near real-time camera feeds for first responders actively engaging in incidents.

Cellular data serviced by cloud skyrockets to 2.8 million PB

2024-08-08T08:58:50+10:00

The volume of cellular data serviced by the cloud will grow from 700,000 PB in 2024 to 2.8 million PB in 2028 as operators deploy cloud infrastructure to improve network efficiency, according to Juniper Research.

Juniper Research says the expansion in cloud infrastructure will enable dynamic resource provisioning to increase the reliability of 5G operator network services. This will redistribute network resources to areas under strain, preventing network congestion.

Juniper Research calls this “dynamic resource provisioning,” the process of distributing telecommunications network resources in near-real-time.

The increase in cellular data signifies the transition to cloud-based 5G networks, which is key to dynamic resource provisioning, allowing operators to easily reallocate computing resources for network functions.

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The report urges operators to integrate automated dynamic resource provisioning with other forms of network automation and resource management to ensure a unified approach.

“This will be critical to maximising network efficiency and performance, as it prevents a chaotic collection of network resource management strategies and software,” Juniper Research says.

“To charge a premium, operators must couple increased reliability with improved latency and throughput, providing prioritised network slices to connections where possible,” comments Juniper Research author Alex Webb.

Cloudera offers two new solutions in its Observability suite

2024-07-12T11:28:02+10:00

Hybrid platform company Cloudera unveiled two new offerings for Cloudera Observability Premium to simplify and automate platform administration.

Cloudera said the tier features provide a single source of observability across all cloud-based and on-premises data centres.

Cloudera’s two new solutions in its Cloudera Observability suite include:

Cloudera Observability Premium On-Premises allows customers with secure networks to run observability entirely within their data centres. This solution ensures optimal monitoring, troubleshooting, financial governance, data observability, and automated actions, even in air-gapped configurations.

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Cloudera Observability Premium for Public Cloud Data Hub extends all the advanced premium capabilities to public cloud users, including real-time monitoring, advanced financial governance, automated actions, and data observability.

With the addition of both these offerings, enterprises can now leverage real-time monitoring for Data Hub clusters, jobs, and queries, financial governance with new cost factors and capacity forecasting, workload views, alerts, and automated actions, along with data observability with hot and cold table analysis.

"Implementing advanced observational capabilities is critical for enterprises as they provide real-time system insights that enable proactive issue resolution and enhance security, ultimately leading to operations and reduced risks. Cloudera’s expanded Observability offering enables enterprises to tackle this head on by building a new standard for hybrid data observability across on-premises and public clouds,” notes industry analyst Sanjeev Mohan.

“Cloudera Observability helps enterprises maximise cost-efficiency, enhance performance, and unlock intelligent insights. The new premium additions deepen these insights for enterprises and builds on our commitment to help customers take back control of their data, analytics, and AI,” says Cloudera chief product officer Dipto Chakravarty.

“Australian enterprises are struggling to manage increasing data volumes, escalating costs, and tool sprawl in their digital and data transformation journey,” observes Cloudera ANZ regional vice president Keir Garrett.

“Businesses especially are seeking observability solutions to optimise their visibility and insights across their most sensitive data estates in real time and at speed and scale. These high-value capabilities make administration of the platform easy and automated for our customers, helping them improve total cost of ownership, accelerate time to value and achieve their business outcomes faster.”

Macquarie Cloud Services launches 'Australian-first' Dell, Azure hybrid cloud offering

2024-06-17T12:49:29+10:00

Macquarie Flex brings true hybrid capabilities to Australian businesses revolutionising the handling of critical workloads

COMPANY NEWS: In an Australian first, Macquarie Cloud Services, part of Macquarie Technology Group (ASX: MAQ), has leveraged strategic relationships with Microsoft and Dell Technologies, to launch Macquarie Flex.

Macquarie Flex is a unique hybrid solution powered by Microsoft Azure Stack HCI (Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure) and Dell Technologies APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure providing workload flexibility, a single management plane, consistent experience, 24X7 mission critical support and evergreen compliance across public, private and hybrid cloud environments.

As the first Dell Technologies partner offering Azure Stack HCI in Australia, the launch marks a significant milestone for organisations who have traditionally been challenged by the integration costs and complexity of hybrid cloud. Now, Macquarie Flex provides these organisations with a new solution to simplify hybrid cloud management, manage cloud spend and meet compliance and sovereign requirements.

“Macquarie Flex is the true definition of hybrid and represents a new era of hybrid cloud solutions.” said Macquarie Cloud Services Head of Azure, Naran McClung. “Azure and private cloud, two disparate environments, promising different things, for different purposes, bound together to provide Australian businesses the choice, flexibility, and agility needed to succeed.”

“Macquarie Flex allows us to meet our customers wherever they are on their cloud journey,” added Jonathan Staff, Head of Private Cloud at Macquarie Cloud Services. “Through our strong relationship with Dell Technologies and Microsoft, we can now arm Australian businesses with another lever to extract more value from their IT investment.”

“Macquarie Flex represents a significant advancement in hybrid cloud solutions. By leveraging Microsoft Azure Stack HCI, Macquarie Cloud Services is providing an unparalleled level of flexibility, security, and performance. This collaboration exemplifies our commitment to empowering Australian organisations with the tools and technologies needed to drive innovation and achieve their strategic goals,” said Steven Worrall, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia and New Zealand.

With Macquarie Flex, organisations now can deploy and run sensitive/compliance-driven workloads in a private cloud whilst leveraging the benefits of Azure, diversify deployment locations to improve commercial viability, treat private cloud workloads as first-class citizens of Azure, as well as monitor, alert, report, backup, secure, manage and govern virtual workloads through one integrated toolset.

This announcement follows the company’s recent launch of Macquarie Guard, a full turnkey Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that automates practical guardrails into Azure services.

“Our purpose is to help customers who have been traditionally underserved and overcharged”, said McClung. “We’re thrilled to be leveraging our long-standing partnerships with Microsoft and Dell Technologies to deliver much needed new innovation to Australian Businesses.”

Gartner Forecasts Australian Public Cloud End-User Spending to Reach $23.3 Billion in 2024

2024-05-20T17:09:35+10:00

Analysts Explore the Latest Cloud Trends During Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference in Sydney, 20-21 May

COMPANY NEWS: Australian organisations are expected to spend more than A$23.3 billion on public cloud services in 2024, according to Gartner. Spending on IaaS will see the largest growth with an increase of 24.5%, followed by PaaS at 22.4%.

“Cloud services are fuelling innovation in emerging areas such as generative AI (GenAI), which is finally starting to have an impact in Australia,” said Michael Warrilow, VP Analyst at Gartner. “Local CIOs were somewhat slow to invest but that’s changing as organisations now understand how the technology can benefit their operations. Cloud will continue to be best suited for the delivery of GenAI-enabled applications at scale.”

Gartner analysts are exploring how infrastructure and operations leaders can advance their cloud strategies at the Gartner Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference in Sydney this week.

In Gartner’s annual global survey of over 2,400 CIOs and technology executives, including 87 from Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), cloud platforms continue to be a top focus for ANZ CIOs in 2024 - with 79% expected to invest the second largest amount of new or additional technology funding on cloud platforms this year, behind cybersecurity.

“Despite the local cloud market showing no signs of slowing down, there’s increasing scrutiny from the business,” said Warrilow. “In many cases Australian organisations don’t yet have the discipline to deal with consumption-based cloud pricing. CIOs need to invest in cloud financial management to ensure they don't blow the budget.”

SaaS Remains Largest Spending Segment
Garter reports that software-as-a-service (SaaS) remains the largest end user spending category in Australia, forecast to reach almost A$11 billion in 2024 (see Table 1) - an an increase of 18.3% from 2023, driven by ongoing application modernisation as Australian organisations shift from software-based to cloud-based business applications.

“Although it can provide many benefits, SaaS adoption isn’t always a choice,” said Warrilow. “Many vendors have moved to cloud-only delivery models regardless of their customer’s preferences.”

Increasing Investment in GenAI
According to Gartner, GenAI is rapidly emerging as a key driver and differentiator of future cloud demands, with new technologies and methodologies to develop and operate infrastructure and platforms for it, such as AI chips, GenAI-enabled virtual assistants, prompt engineering and responsible AI.

“We’ll see similar patterns in Australia as GenAI capabilities continue to evolve,” said Warrilow. “Australian CIOs must determine the best adoption model for their needs, whether to build a model from scratch, or focus on AI capabilities being integrated into the applications they buy. If they don’t identify the potential value to their organisation, they risk over-investing.”

Gartner analysts said spending on GenAI will primarily be incorporated into enterprises through existing IT spending in the long-term, through software, hardware and services they are already using.

Gartner clients can read more in the report “Forecast: Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2022-2028, 1Q24 Update.”

Learn how to maximise the benefits of cloud computing in the complimentary Gartner ebook Devising an Effective Cloud Strategy.

Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference
Gartner analysts are presenting the latest research and advice for I&O leaders at the Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference in Sydney this week. Upcoming dates and locations for Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conferences are November 19-20 in London, December 3-4 in Tokyo and December 10-12 in Las Vegas. Follow news and updates from these conferences on X using #GartnerIO.

About Gartner for High Tech
Gartner for High Tech equips tech leaders and their teams with role-based best practices, industry insights and strategic views into emerging trends and market changes to achieve their mission-critical priorities and build the successful organisations of tomorrow. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/en/industries/high-tech.

Follow news and updates from Gartner for High Tech on X and LinkedIn using #GartnerHT. Visit the Gartner Newsroom for more information and insights.

Oracle employee pokes fun at Google Cloud over UniSuper screw-up

2024-05-13T08:49:21+10:00

An Oracle employee has poked fun at Google Cloud after it emerged that the company had mistakenly deleted the private cloud environment it had supplied to Australian superannuation company UniSuper.

Killian Lynch, a product manager at Oracle, published a tweet that said, "shameless plug – if you're building AI and need cheap GPUs check out @OracleCloud (we won't delete your company)."

Lynch's tweet was reposted by Sentinel Labs executive director Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, a well-known and respected security practitioner, who added a GIF of Ryan Gosling covering his mouth and guffawing.

The fact that Google Cloud had wiped out the private cloud environment it had built for UniSuper was admitted by Google Cloud chief executive Thomas Kurian on 8 May. However the admission, in a joint statement with his UniSuper counterpart. Peter Chun, was buried in a FAQ on the UniSuper site and there was no way for a direct link to be provided.

{loadposition sam08}While making another comment, Lynch referred to a tweet by cloud security historian Scott Piper that read: "Google Cloud accidentally deleted a company's entire cloud environment (UniSuper, an investment company, which manages $80 B). The company had back-ups in another region, but GCP deleted those too. Luckily, they had yet more back-ups on another provider." Piper was quoting from a report in Guardian Australia.

https://t.co/XfdmEXiyFl pic.twitter.com/MUqlWRYUs9
— J. A. Guerrero-Saade (@juanandres_gs) May 11, 2024

Lynch's second tweet read: "The DBA who suggested multicloud coming into a work on Monday", accompanied by a short video of an unknown man dancing in front a crowd and revving them up.

News of the deletion of the UniSuper cloud environment comes at a time when Google Cloud is trying to boost its presence in the global cloud market. Oracle is a minor player in this space, with Microsoft and Amazon being the two 800-lb gorillas that dominate.

Whether Kurian will pay a price for what is a major embarrassment for Google Cloud remains to be seen.

Despite its claims to technological competence, Google has made errors of similar magnitude in the past. In January 2009, the company blacklisted every search result for about 40 minutes, claiming they all contained malware.

The DBA who suggested multicloud coming into work Monday pic.twitter.com/Srav27avRm https://t.co/AocfgSd5Ny
— Killian Lynch (@Killianlynchh) May 10, 2024

Marissa Mayer, vice-president of Search Products and User Experience at the time, explained: "Google flags search results with the message 'This site may harm your computer' if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously.

"We do this to protect our users against visiting sites that could harm their computers. We maintain a list of such sites through both manual and automated methods.

"We periodically update that list and released one such update to the site this morning [31 January 2009]. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs.

"Since we push these updates in a staggered and rolling fashion, the errors began appearing between 6:27am [11.27pm AEST] and 6:40am PST and began disappearing between 7:10am and 7:25am, so the duration of the problem for any particular user was approximately 40 minutes."

Google admits UniSuper issues caused by misconfiguration

2024-05-10T05:16:52+10:00

Google Cloud chief executive Thomas Kurian has admitted that an inadvertent misconfiguration during the provisioning of superannuation provider UniSuper's Private Cloud services ultimately resulted in the deletion of UniSuper’s Private Cloud subscription.

This admission was made in a joint statement with UniSuper chief executive Peter Chun on Wednesday. Google Cloud was responsible for the misconfiguration.

But the statement is hidden in a list of FAQs and cannot be linked to directly.

The problems with UniSuper members accessing their accounts has been going on since last week.

{loadposition sam08}The joint statement further adds: "This is an isolated, ‘one-of-a-kind occurrence’ that has never before occurred with any of Google Cloud’s clients globally.

"This should not have happened. Google Cloud has identified the events that led to this disruption and taken measures to ensure this does not happen again.

"UniSuper had duplication in two geographies as a protection against outages and loss. However, when the deletion of UniSuper’s Private Cloud subscription occurred, it caused deletion across both of these geographies.

"Restoring UniSuper’s Private Cloud instance has called for an incredible amount of focus, effort, and partnership between our teams to enable an extensive recovery of all the core systems.

"The dedication and collaboration between UniSuper and Google Cloud has led to an extensive recovery of our Private Cloud which includes hundreds of virtual machines, databases and applications.

"UniSuper had backups in place with an additional service provider. These backups have minimised data loss, and significantly improved the ability of UniSuper and Google Cloud to complete the restoration."

In a second FAQ, dated 9 May, UniSuper said: "Members can now log in to their accounts, view their balance and see the up-to-date investment performance for their accounts.

"Please note, that account balances shown may not reflect transactions which have not yet been processed due to the outage. We are working to get these updated as quickly as possible.

"Transactions will not be possible through the online platform at this time. We are working to progressively restore all functionality as quickly as possible and will keep members updated."

Macquarie Cloud Services ranked best technology company to work for in Australia

2024-05-08T11:32:37+10:00

COMPANY NEWS: Macquarie Cloud Services, part of Macquarie Technology Group, today announced it has ranked number one in the 30-99 employee category in the annual Best Workplaces in Technology in Australia List.

The List is developed by global workplace culture consultancy, Great Place to Work, and shortlists companies using rigorous analytics and confidential employee feedback. It follows the same methodology used to create the renowned Fortune World’s Best Workplaces. The 2024 Technology List focused on organisations fostering workplace equity and ensuring employees feel safe, heard, challenged, and valued.

Macquarie Cloud Services stood out for its job satisfaction across its team, with 99% recommending it as a place to work compared to the average of 56% of employees at other Australian companies. It was also recognised for its health and well-being programs, customer service recognition and rewards, and career development opportunities.

“Macquarie Cloud Services is a tech company that puts our people first,” said Macquarie Cloud Services group executive James Mystakidis.

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“Our purpose is to help customers who are underserved and overcharged, but we can only do that by creating a trusting, transparent, and supportive environment for our people. I’m truly proud that our team has once again propelled us to win this award and rank number one in our category.”

Great Place to Work Australia general manager Rebecca Moulynox highlighted that the influence of leadership within organisations is more critical than ever in 2024.

“What sets these top 55 Best Workplaces apart is the integrity of their leaders and their dedication to fulfilling commitments,” said Moulynox.

“This calibre of leadership fosters trust and cultivates an exceptional employee experience, which transforms organisations. Such workplaces not only attract and nurture top talent but also establish dynamic, resilient cultures that drive business growth and enhance the broader industry and the Australian business landscape.”

The recognition follows Macquarie Cloud Services’ parent company, Macquarie Technology Group, receiving the 2024 Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award (GEWA), highlighting the company for having one of the most engaged workplace cultures in the world.

About Macquarie Cloud Services
We are the Australian specialists in cloud services for business and government customers. For more information, visit www.macquariecloudservices.com

UniSuper says Google Cloud issues being sorted, services to return from 9 May

2024-05-07T16:59:36+10:00

Superannuation provider UniSuper says the progressive restoration of member services, which were disrupted due to an issue with third-party provider Google Cloud last week, would begin on 9 May.

In an update issued on Monday, UniSuper chief executive Peter Chun said services that were expected to have online in some capacity would include the ability to login to online services, access Mobile App, and see balances — initially as at 29 April.

As regular trading and investments have been continuing as normal, this would be reflected in members' balances once systems had been restored, he added.

A Google Cloud spokesperson said the disruption of UniSuper services was caused by a combination of rare issues at Google Cloud that resulted in an inadvertent misconfiguration during the provisioning of UniSuper’s Private Cloud, which triggered a previously unknown software bug that impacted UniSuper’s secondary systems.

{loadposition sam08}"This was an unprecedented occurrence, and measures have been taken to ensure this issue does not happen again," the spokesperson added.

"Google Cloud sincerely apologises for the inconvenience this has caused, and we continue to work around the clock with UniSuper to fully remediate the situation, with the goal of progressively restoring services as soon as possible.

"We would like to stress again that this was an isolated incident and not the result of a malicious behavior or cyber-attack, and that no UniSuper data has been exposed to unauthorised parties."

Chun added: "To minimise further disruption to our members as we come back online, we are putting on additional resources to work through all inquiries and member requests as quickly as possible once systems are operational again."