Tag: software as a service

QCI offers quantum software-as-a-service (SaaS) quantum partner programme

Posted on October 11, 2021 by - News

After launching a software-as-a-service (SaaS) quantum computing solution earlier this year, Quantum Computing (QCI) has rolled out a new partner programme for the scheme for those who want their cats dead and alive.

Qatalyst makes quantum computing resources readily accessible to users on classic computer systems, reducing related costs and deployment time. The new Partner Program seeks to take this a step further, extending Qatalyst’s benefits to partners’ customers.

The Qatalyst platform offers what QCI calls a “seamless quantum bridge” that connects classical and quantum computers. Instead of working in binary bits like conventional devices, quantum computers operate on qubits, which can represent both 0 and 1 simultaneously. As a result, quantum computers can process far more possibilities at once, solving more complex problems faster. For businesses looking to crunch more and more data, quantum computing could be an important breakthrough.

Windows on subscription gets closer

Posted on February 10, 2015 by - News

windows-10-technical-preview-turquoiseMicrosoft seems to be moving closer to the idea that its Windows operating system will be sold using a subscription as a service.

The subscription, much like Office 365, will be paid once a year but appeared to have been abandoned when Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will be free, for anyone upgrading from Windows 7 or 8.

Even though Microsoft has not fully detailed its Windows 10 pricing strategy, it recently filed for a trademark for ‘Windows 365’, which adds a bit of fuel to the subscription based version of Windows.

A trademark might have been lodged to stop other people using it, but when Microsoft does announce a subscription version of Windows, ‘Windows 365″ would likely be the name.

So far, there has been no sign that Redmond is rushing to release ‘Windows 365’ in the immediate future, as it is pushing Windows 10 at every possible instance. For now, know that Microsoft has claimed this branding right, it could be something seen in the future.

 

Indian cloud services worth close to a billion

Posted on January 19, 2015 by - News

Clouds in Oxford: pic Mike MageeA report from Gartner said cloud services in the subcontinent will be worth $838 by the end of this year.
That figure will be up by almost a third – revenues last year totalled $632 million.
The revenues are being generated by cloud infrastructure as a service (Iaa), management and security, and infrastructure platform as a service (PaaS).
The market will be worth $1.9 billion by 2018, Gartner predicts.
Ed Anderson, a research VP at the market analysis firm, said Indian organisations looking to outsource their IT are turning to public cloud services.
“Cloud services are not only being used for low value or transient workloads, but also increasingly for production workloads, including some mission critical initiatives,” he said.
While business process as a service (BPaas) was worth $130 million in 2014, it will be with $351 million in 2018, while SaaS will grow from $246 million last year to $707 million in 2018.

 

SaaS deployments are at boiling point

Posted on November 25, 2014 by - News

Pic Mike MageeThe use of Software as a Service (SaaS) by enterprises is becoming “mission critical”,  according to a survey by IT market research company Gartner.

Gartner said that cost and agility are the main reasons for SaaS cloud adoption by enterprises, based on a survey involving four countries in four regions around the world.

Joanne Correia, a research VP at Gartner, said that the most common reasons for using SaaS were to develop and test production and mission-critical workloads.

“We’ve seen a real transition from use cases in previous surveys where early SaaS adoption focused on smaller pilot projects. This is an affirmation that more businesses are comfortable with cloud deployments beyond the front office running sales force automation and email,” she said.

Of those surveyed, 44 percent thought overall cost reduction was the main reason for investment in SaaS.  But CIOs and senior IT project managers rated adoption not only because of cost but because of operational agility and giving their businesses an advantage over competitors.

Gartner believes that few enterprises will completely migrate to SaaS and instead will mix that with traditional on premises deployment.

Outside of the USA, many enterprises still worry about security, privacy and “fear of government snooping”.

Traditional on premise deployments will shrink from 34 percent in 2014 to 18 percent by 2017.

IBM signs deal with Chinese cloud giant

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News

Executives from Tencent and IBMA major Chinese IT player – Tencent Cloud – has signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate with IBM to bring Software as a Service (SaaS) for various industries.

Both firms will concentrate on emerging small and medium enterprises in healthcare and other fields.

Tencent Holdings is one of the major providers of internet services in mainland China, and its Cloud division sells to enterprises and developers a number of offerings.

Taosang Tong, a senior executive VP of IBM said: “Tencent has a stable and reliable cloud computing platform, while IBM has abundant industry expertise aimed at the enterprise.”

Nancy Thomas, a managing partner at IBM China said the two companies will bring scale and cost benefits of cloud computing to Chinese enterprises.  “The industry dimension makes this especially appealing for businesses,” she said.

Financial considerations were not disclosed.

Governments need to go cloud busting

Posted on December 17, 2013 by - News

cloudbustA report from Gartner said that by 2017 public cloud offerings will account for over 25 percent of government business services, not counting defence and security.

But CIOs need to get themselves into the debate on public cloud sourcing, and kick of sourcing strategies with politicos.

By 2017, predicted Gartner, 35 percent of government shared service organisations will be managed by private sector companies. Public private partnerships are already embracing infrastructure as a service but governments will move to integration and software as a service.

And, Gartner predicts, by 2017 as many as 60 percent plus of government open data programmes that do not use open data internally will be discontinued.

And if you’ve a job in government software development, mind your back, because at least 25 percent of such jobs will be axed while governments hire data analysts from outside.  Data analysis is now a high priority.

Westcoast to be powered by HP’s cloud

Posted on October 17, 2013 by - News

Clouds in Oxford: pic Mike MageeHP said that its distributor and partner Westcoast will use its  Converged Cloud offering to woo the reseller base.

The investment is over £1 million and will mean Westcoast will offer its resellers cloud services, to manage Microsoft Lync, Exchange and SharePoint in the distributors’ IL3 data centre.

The move, said HP, means that Westcoast customers – that is to say its resellers –  will be able to use current credit lines as well as take part in a partner programme which includes training and support.

Duncan Forsyth, Westcoast’s MD said that the era of onsite IT is becoming IT in the cloud. “We want to support both,” he said. HP Converged Cloud will let his company deliver IaaS (infrastructure as a service) and SaaS (software as a service) for resellers with a minimal need for capital investment.

The system will effectively be based on HP products including Proliant Bladesystem c7000 enclosures with BL460c Gen 8 blades using Intel Xeon chips.  The system will also use SoreServ storage systems, HP tape libraries and HP 5400 Switch series.

HP exec Michael Clifford said that managing and using data centres “frighten many resellers” but using its systems will help resellers to see clearly through the mists of the cloud and offer quality cloud services.