Verizon signs-up Oracle to tackle Amazon in the cloud
Verizon is building up its cloud service to take on the heavyweight of the industry - Amazon Web Services - and says it took a big step toward that direction by partnering with Oracle this week.
Verizon is building up its cloud service to take on the heavyweight of the industry - Amazon Web Services - and says it took a big step toward that direction by partnering with Oracle this week.
In the battle for the next generation of enterprise IT, John Stratton carries a lot of weapons. Stratton is president of Verizon Enterprise Solutions, the nearly $30 billion unit formed just over a year ago to deliver networking, cloud, mobility, managed security, telematics and a host of other services in a more coordinated fashion for Verizon's top enterprise buyers. Building on a traditionally strong base of wired and wireless network services, Verizon Enterprise also blends in acquired assets like cloud hosting company Terremark, security company Cybertrust and Hughes Telematics. In this installment of the IDG Enterprise CEO Interview Series, Stratton spoke with Chief Content Officer John Gallant about Verizon Enterprise's progress since its inception, including a dramatic streamlining of internal systems and processes designed to make life much easier for the company's customers. Stratton also discussed the company's suite of services aimed at simplifying life for IT teams struggling with mobility and the influx of consumer devices, and he talked candidly about the prospects for a third mobile platform to rival Apple's iOS and Google's Android. He also talked about how cloud is reshaping the IT landscape and hinted at a series of major upcoming cloud announcements from Verizon Enterprise. Also, he explained how the "Internet of Things" is creating powerful new business opportunities for Verizon and its enterprise customers.
Any business that anticipates using cloud-based services should be asking the question: What can my cloud provider do for me in terms of providing digital forensics data in the event of any legal dispute, civil or criminal case, cyberattack or data breach?
2012 has been a year of re-invention among the tech industry’s biggest players, with Microsoft overhauling many of its key product lines, most notably Windows, while also boldly entering the hardware market with Surface tablets. HP slashed its workforce as CEO Meg Whitman reshaped an industry icon that has gone through many shifts in recent years. The transformation to the cloud continued practically unabated (save for those pesky outages!) and suddenly every company seemed to be a software defined something or other, or was snapping up an SDN company.
The business benefits of a cloud computing model have been well stated. You cut costs by switching to more flexible on-demand IT resources that can better handle the ebb and flow technology needs at a company.