Oracle's next big business is selling your info

There’s a decent chance you’re part of Oracle’s next big business. Not selling products to you, but selling you as a product. That’s the idea behind the Oracle Data Cloud, a massive pool of information about consumers and companies.

The tech titan has put it together by tracking people across the web and buying data from a variety of sources. People who have their data included may not even know that they’ve opted in for that data collection.

There’s no big red button that someone has to click in order to be a part of the company’s data collection machine. Instead, its base of user data is fed by a network of third parties. The Data Cloud is primarily fed by three types of sources: publishers, like Forbes and Edmunds, retail loyalty programs, and traditional data brokers like Experian and IHS.

All of that adds up to a database of 5 billion consumer profiles, fed by 15 million data sources. Not every profile corresponds to a unique person — people can have multiple profiles — but Oracle has information on billions of people, according to Eric Roza, the vice president of Data Cloud. Using data science techniques, Oracle works to match activity from one browser to others, so companies can make sure the same ads get shown to people on their smartphones, tablets, and computers.

Oracle sees Data Cloud as a key part of its future. The service is being used to help advertisers and publishers better target ads, and it’s attractive to businesses because it’s not tied to a major advertising platform like Google’s or Facebook’s.

The Data Cloud also forms the foundation of machine learning features inside other Oracle software. One of the challenges for companies doing machine learning is getting data sets that are large enough to build accurate models, and Data Cloud can help solve that problem.

But the benefits are mostly borne by Oracle’s business customers, who stand to make more money as a result of using Data Cloud enhanced services. The boon to consumers whose data are being used is less defined.

Oracle isn’t alone in this sort of tracking. There are dozens of companies that exist for the sole purpose of collecting consumer data and then reselling that to other businesses. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and other tech titans have made big money from accumulating customer data and using it to sell ads.

But what makes the Data Cloud different from something like Google’s ad business is that consumers might not know their behavior is being stored for resale, or how broadly it’s shared. Just because someone visits a page on Forbes doesn’t mean they’d expect that information to influence a marketing campaign on a radically different website, but that’s what the Data Cloud enables.

Partners feeding data into Oracle’s Data Cloud must agree they have user permission to collect information. But acquiring that permission is as simple as burying a few sentences deep in a privacy policy. While some might call out Oracle Data Cloud by name, most don’t. 

“Typically, because these things are quite common practice now, there’s a more generalized statement [like] some version of ‘we use this data to inform our own advertising, and select third-party partners,'” Roza said.

Users can opt out from the data collection in a variety of ways, according to Roza. Oracle allows people to install a special cookie in each of the browsers they use to prevent tracking. Deleting the cookie or using a new browser would erase that protection, however. Some publishers may allow customers to opt out of data sharing, and advertising industry groups also support opting out.

But actually knowing whether or not you’re included in the Data Cloud is the first part of the battle. And that’s not the easiest thing to figure out. Meanwhile, Oracle is continuing to pour money into the business and tout it to customers. The company has spent billions on acquisitions to build the Data Cloud, which was created through bringing companies like BlueKai, Datalogix, and Moat into the fold.

Source: InfoWorld Big Data

IBM Named To CRN's 2017 Big Data 100 List

IBM has announced that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named IBM to its 2017 Big Data 100 list, ranking the company as one of the 15 Coolest Big Data Platform Vendors. The annual Big Data 100 list recognizes the ingenuity of tech suppliers bringing to market innovative offerings for harnessing the increasingly huge amounts of data generated in today’s digital world, raising the bar for data management and challenging established IT practices.    

Businesses are constantly grappling with the exploding volume, speed and variety of information they produce and utilize on a daily basis to remain competitive. Solution providers are on a never-ending quest to tame this big data with innovative tools, technologies and services that can convert it into meaningful, usable statistics.

In response to this challenge, the CRN editorial team has identified the IT vendors at the forefront of data management, business analytics and infrastructure technologies and services. The resulting Big Data 100 list is a valuable guide for solution providers seeking out key big data technology suppliers.

IBM was recognized as one of the top 15 Coolest Big Data Platform Vendors for its big data initiatives, many of which are centered on Watson, including the Watson Data Platform and Watson Analytics. CRN also noted recent enhancements to “Watson’s data analysis and discovery capabilities on the IBM Cloud.”

Through the IBM Cloud platform, IBM delivers scale, security, choice and consistency for enterprises worldwide, offering a global network of more than 50 Cloud Data Centers for public, private or hybrid cloud deployments. IBM Cloud’s data-first architecture provides data diversity, data control and isolation capabilities coupled with cognitive capabilities help enterprises unravel key business insights from unstructured data to make smarter business decisions.

“Businesses everywhere are faced with managing information streams of unprecedented volume and complexity, requiring more powerful and efficient tools than ever before for capturing, storing, organizing, securing and analyzing data,” said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company. “CRN is pleased to present the 2017 Big Data 100, a list of vendors whose ingenuity and creative problem-solving have introduced remarkable new ways to help solution providers tackle this mammoth task. Congratulations to these Big Data aces, who have not only kept pace with the rapidly evolving demands of the data management field, but also innovated and challenged the status quo.”   

“We are honored to be recognized among CRN’s Big Data 100 for our IBM Cloud platform’s data-first architecture and cognitive capabilities,” said David Wilson, vice president, IBM Cloud Business Partners and Channel Innovation. “We continue to help our business partners unlock the power of data through initiatives like the Watson Build, a new challenge that gives our partners the training, tools and mentorship they need to bring new cognitive solutions to market quickly.”

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Equinix And Oracle Collaborate To Offer Direct Access To Oracle Cloud

Equinix, Inc. has announced the immediate availability of dedicated, private access to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure — Oracle’s next-generation IaaS offering — via the Equinix Cloud Exchange™. This direct access enables enterprise customers to migrate applications and data to Oracle Cloud in a high-performance, low latency manner for optimal user experience. This announcement builds on previous collaborations between Equinix and Oracle to offer direct access to Oracle’s full suite of cloud services — both PaaS and SaaS solutions — in multiple markets around the globe. Access to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will initially be available via Oracle Cloud Network Service – FastConnect in the Equinix Washington, D.C., International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center, with additional markets expected throughout the year.

Cloud deployments are continually on the rise within the enterprise. Yet, traditionally, enterprise customers with large database workloads have not had a viable way to migrate data and applications easily from their on-premises infrastructure into the cloud. Now, through Equinix Cloud Exchange and its API integration with FastConnect, customers can establish direct connectivity between their on-premises infrastructure and Oracle Cloud environments. This enables them to fully realize the benefits of hybrid cloud — moving application, middleware and database workloads seamlessly between on-premises and Oracle Cloud — with a reliable, low latency, production-ready experience.

Whether a customer is looking to incorporate direct connection to Oracle as part of a broader interconnection strategy, or specifically needing to migrate data-heavy applications to the cloud, connection to Oracle Cloud inside Equinix is an ideal solution for many enterprise users. Specific examples of ideal hybrid deployments include:

Customers looking to migrate and host complex, multi-tier solutions in the cloud while minimizing production downtime can work with Equinix and Oracle to extend their network and communicate with the Oracle Cloud over a high-speed connection inside the Equinix data center.

Customers needing to perform analytics on large data sets residing in Oracle databases can host their Oracle technology solutions on-premises inside Equinix and, with FastConnect on Equinix Cloud Exchange, extend their existing network directly into the Oracle Cloud, removing data size limits and providing lower latency, higher throughput and network-level security protection — all in a highly scalable solution. This is ideal for data privacy, regulatory compliance and data sovereignty scenarios.

Customers looking to consolidate databases into Oracle Exadata Cloud Service yet have little or no capacity in their current data center can place their Oracle Exadata Cloud Service racks inside Equinix and directly connect to Oracle cloud for high availability, disaster recovery and backup.

“As more and more enterprise CIOs deploy interconnection oriented architectures, direct connections like these are critical to their success. The ability to connect directly to Oracle is an essential strategy for CIOs as they deploy workloads to the cloud edge, closer to users and adjacent to related cloud services. Oracle’s common cloud architecture allows customers the choice to leverage Oracle cloud, deploy customer-owned assets inside Equinix, or enable a hybrid solution utilizing both. Offering direct connectivity to Oracle from Platform Equinix is another key step in helping CIOs who are seeking to capture the tremendous benefits of hybrid cloud as the IT architecture of choice. We look forward to ongoing collaborations with Oracle, bringing this solution to Equinix data centers across the globe,” said Charles Meyers, chief operating officer.

Oracle Cloud delivers nearly 1,000 SaaS applications and 50 enterprise-class PaaS and IaaS services to customers in more than 195 countries around the world, and supports 55 billion transactions each day. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is also part of the fast growing sector of cloud computing. According to a recent Gartner report the highest cloud growth is expected to come from IaaS, with a growth of 38.4% in 2016.

“Cloud is the fastest growing part of Oracle’s business. Customers require seamless connectivity from their data centers and networks to Oracle Cloud for their most demanding workloads and applications. This relationship will help our customers leveraging the Oracle Cloud, execute on their business strategies by taking advantage of the Equinix Cloud Exchange for optimal user experience,” said Thomas Kurian, president of product development, Oracle.

Oracle and Equinix have long-standing relationship, and Equinix was recently recognized as Oracle World Wide Gold Level Partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN). Oracle FastConnect, providing private access to Oracle Cloud on Equinix Cloud Exchange is scheduled to be available in six markets globally – Washington, D.C., Chicago, Amsterdam, London, Sydney and others by the end of 2017.

Source: CloudStrategyMag

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Source: TheWHIR

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Source: InfoWorld Big Data

CloudHealth Technologies Extends Its Flagship Platform

CloudHealth Technologies has announced that its industry-leading cloud service management platform for public cloud providers now also manages both VMware and physical server environments. CloudHealth is the industry’s first platform to give visibility, optimization, and control across both the data center and the cloud, unlocking all the benefits of the public cloud — such as flexibility and scalability — for the data center.

Hybrid cloud infrastructure is the new normal. Sixty-two percent of public cloud adopters state that they plan to use or are using hosted private cloud, with another 62% planning to use or already using internal private cloud, according to Forrester¹. And more importantly, this isn’t declining. Within the next 12 months, these figures will rise to 81% for hosted private usage and 80% for internal private cloud usage.

CloudHealth now delivers unprecedented levels of insight, along with integrated analysis across cost, usage and performance in the data center. Enterprises can also use the platform to set policies that govern data center environments, assist in planning migrations from the data center to the cloud and rightsize virtual machine assets.

“The market is evolving rapidly,” said Joe Kinsella, founder and chief technology officer, CloudHealth Technologies. “This has created a gap between how customers operate, report, manage and govern cloud versus data center infrastructure. Enterprises now require a hybrid approach to maintain flexibility and agility, and to strategically align their on-premises, public cloud and private cloud infrastructures for maximum business benefit. CloudHealth enables them to bridge the gap.”

“Having a consolidated view of our cloud and on-premises environments is invaluable,” said Adam Japhet, head of infrastructure at Scholastic. “CloudHealth lets me look at critical assets and resources from a business perspective, so I can align metrics and reporting to business objectives.”

“CloudHealth helped us break through a logjam by providing insight into the performance metrics of existing VMware servers and AWS resources,” said Reed Savory, director of IT and Operations for Connotate. “CloudHealth takes the guesswork out of the process of migrating to AWS. Before, you never knew if you were buying too much or too little.”

Platform highlights include the following:

• Track and report on data center costs: CloudHealth has extended its cloud cost expertise into the data center to provide insight across the enterprise. Customers can utilize the platform for cost reallocation to enable financial reporting and chargeback, and for budget tracking and reporting.
• Analyze usage, performance and metrics: CloudHealth offers granular, interactive reporting by accounts, functional business groups, services and service items. With agentless integration into VMware vSphere environments or an agent-based approach for physical machines, customers can track usage, inventory, CPU, memory, and disk metrics.
• Set policies to govern your environment: Customers can define how to manage the cost, availability and performance of data center infrastructure. They can apply governance rules based on multiple data sources, and choose actions to take when policies are violated.
• Data center migration planning: The platform provides cost analysis for assets that are candidates for cloud migration. The analysis provides rightsized recommendations based on asset types, region and costs based on usage profile of individual assets.

The platform will also include new features that give customers the ability to right size virtual machines (VMs) across CPU, memory, network and disk. Customers can optimize infrastructure by identifying when VMs are over-provisioned and receive recommended actions on how to achieve an ideal state.

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Epsilon’s CloudLX Platform Now Available At Netrality’s St. Louis Properties

Netrality Properties has announced that Epsilon, a privately owned global communications service provider, has executed an agreement to install its Cloud Link eXchange Platform (CloudLX) within the 210 N Tucker meet me room (MMR) with direct connection to 900 Walnut’s MMR in St. Louis. Through a single physical connection, Netrality Properties’ network operator and enterprise customers can connect to CloudLX and access leading cloud service providers and Internet exchanges, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. 

CloudLX forms as a module within Epsilon’s on-demand connectivity platform, Infiny. Through Epsilon’s dedicated Infiny online portal, users can seamlessly procure and manage global networks over a scalable and assured network. CloudLX uses bespoke intelligent networking technologies and automation to deliver port-to-port, port-to-Cloud and port-to-Internet Exchange globally. Users benefit from simple click-to-connect provisioning as well as end-to-end visibility into network performance. CloudLX provides a single source for solving all cloud connectivity needs. 

“We are thrilled to expand our relationship with Epsilon, specifically in our St. Louis core interconnection locations. Epsilon’s CloudLX will create a unique value for our customers and provide a simple platform for connecting and growing their cloud-based services,” says Clarissa Joyce, director of business development in St. Louis. “We are offering customers new options for cloud enablement and providing a dynamic environment for leveraging the cloud in their operations.”

“Our presence within Netrality’s St. Louis MMR’s means that we are able to bring our platform closer to our partners across the Midwest. Our business model attracts VARs, MSPs, data center operators and other service providers in need of efficient and cost effective connection to cloud service providers and Internet exchanges,” states Paul Verhoeven, general manager Americas of Epsilon. “Netrality Properties offers high quality and secure locations in St. Louis to help drive our U.S. expansion plans and thus, give our partners maximum availability.”

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Amazon Cloud Growth Is Hardly Hampered By The Chasing Pack

New Q1 data from Synergy Research Group shows that there are five major cloud infrastructure service providers that are growing more rapidly than Amazon Web Services (AWS), but the market leader remains well ahead of the field with a worldwide market share that is holding steady at around 33%. While Microsoft, Google, IBM, Alibaba, and Oracle all achieved Q1 growth rates that were substantially higher than that of AWS, AWS revenues are still comfortably bigger than the other five combined. Microsoft, Google, and Alibaba all achieved annual growth rates of 80% or more. Salesforce and Rackspace are the two other companies that feature in the ranking of top cloud providers. While they have lower growth rates than the other providers, they are maintaining strong positions in particular market niches.

With most of the major operators having now released their earnings data for Q1, Synergy estimates that quarterly cloud infrastructure service revenues (including IaaS, PaaS and hosted private cloud services) have now reached almost $10 billion and continue to grow at well over 40% per year. While AWS, Microsoft, and Google are the lead providers in IaaS/PaaS, IBM continues to lead in hosted private cloud, where Rackspace and some traditional IT service providers feature more prominently than they do in public cloud.

“At the top end of the cloud provider market we’re now seeing a clear stratification featuring AWS, a group of higher-growth chasers, and a couple of more focused niche players,” said John Dinsdale, a chief analyst and research director, Synergy Research Group. “Beyond those leading companies, the cloud market features a long tail of small-to-medium sized providers or companies that have only a minor position in the market, typically based on either a specific country or focused application area. There are decent growth opportunities for some of these smaller players, but they are unlikely to make much impact in terms of overall worldwide market share.”

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Unitas Global And Equinix To Deliver Bundled Hybrid Cloud Offering

Unitas Global and Equinix, Inc. have announced a collaboration to deliver bundled hybrid cloud services to the enterprise. Through this offering, enterprises gain turnkey access to a fully managed hybrid cloud service, eliminating the need to build and operate their own IT infrastructure. Based on the Unitas multi-cloud orchestration system and available across all 150 Equinix data centers worldwide, the solution combines Unitas Global’s managed cloud design and deployment services together with Equinix colocation and interconnection solutions, including Performance Hub and Equinix Cloud Exchange.

“Equinix was an obvious partner for Unitas when determining where to deploy our new hybrid cloud solution. Together with Equinix, we are committed to enabling global cloud adoption and digital transformation within the enterprise. Through Equinix’s interconnection platforms and vast provider network, Unitas can quickly turn-up customized hybrid cloud solutions and support global enterprises with solutions ranging from IT outsourcing, to cloud security and big data, to disaster recovery and access to our proprietary health monitoring platform, Unitas Atlas™,” said Grant Kirkwood, Founder and CTO, Unitas Global. 

The bundled solution delivers unique service offerings that include space, power, network, compute, storage, cloud software, Equinix Cloud Exchange direct cloud connections, cross-connects, bandwidth, and management — all dedicated to a single client, offered at one monthly price, and managed by a single vendor. As part of the solution, customers can also deploy an Equinix Performance Hub, giving them the ability to efficiently deploy IT and cloud resources at the edge, closest to their end-users, thus increasing global network and application performance.

“By providing hybrid cloud solutions as a fully managed service, this new offering allows customers to focus on their business applications leveraging a true end-to-end hybrid cloud deployment model. Equinix’s global footprint allows Unitas Global to offer its easy-to-consume, cloud-enablement capabilities around the world with the added benefits of our fully owned and operated data center infrastructure and interconnection services,” said Greg Adgate, vice president of global technology partners and alliances, Equinix.

Unitas’ multi-cloud orchestration system connects to Platform Equinix, a platform connecting myriad providers across its global ecosystem. The offering enables on-demand, customizable options for enterprises leveraging hybrid cloud solutions as part of an Interconnection Oriented Architecture (IOA). Equinix customers gain access to a streamlined cloud enablement process that decreases time-to-market and provides management capabilities to handle business-critical workloads and multiple application requirements.

Due to the unique needs of enterprise businesses, all solutions are customizable with migration, network management, security, disaster recovery, and additional managed service solutions.

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Tony Rossabi Appointed Chief Revenue Officer For TierPoint

TierPoint LLC has announced that Tony Rossabi will join the company in early May as executive vice president and chief revenue officer, reporting to chairman and CEO Jerry Kent.

Rossabi brings nearly 20 years of experience in driving growth and innovation for technology and telecommunications enterprises. Most recently, he served as managing director for Digital Realty Trust’s colocation and connectivity business unit. Prior to that, he was executive vice president of sales, marketing, and strategy for Telx Group, Inc.

In his newly created role with TierPoint, Rossabi will oversee revenue growth, manage the daily operations of TierPoint’s national sales organization, and contribute to strategic planning. TierPoint senior vice president of sales John Holland will report to Rossabi.

“Tony is a transformative leader who understands our customer-first culture,” Kent said. “With his experience, track record, and knowledge of our industry, we’re confident he’ll build on TierPoint’s considerable accomplishments, to date, and – working closely with John Holland and other members of our leadership team – he’ll help position the company for sustained, long-term success.”

Prior to Digital Realty and Telx, Rossabi held leadership roles at TATA Communications, WilTel (now part of Level3 Communications) and BellSouth (now part of AT&T).

“I’m thrilled about the opportunity to work with TierPoint’s remarkable team,” said Rossabi. “They have an exceptional mix of clients and 900 professionals, who are laser-focused on the customer experience, delivering world-class hybrid IT solutions.”

Source: CloudStrategyMag