US president Donald Trump recently signed an executive order on cyber-security that mandated federal systems move to the cloud. But, questions remain on the feasibility of that goal.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed his long-awaited executive order on cyber-security, laying out his plans for addressing security in federal IT and across US infrastructure. The most ambitious mandate was that all federal IT systems move to the cloud.

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Thursday Night Football games are dumping Twitter for Amazon Prime.

Thursday night NFL games streamed with stunning success on Twitter last year, but for the season, football’s jumping ship. The NFL and Amazon announced they’ve reached a $50 million agreement for streaming rights to 10 Thursday Night Football games for the 2017 season—a five-fold increase over the $10 million Twitter paid for last year’s games.

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Microsoft announced that it will be acquiring LinkedIn Corporation for $196 per share in an all-cash deal, gaining access to the social platform and its data.

 

Microsoft announced that it will be purchasing LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, for $26.2 billion. The all-cash deal will bolster Microsoft’s social media presence among professionals and could potentially give LinkedIn more analytics resources.

In the official press release announcing the acquisition, it was noted that LinkedIn will remain its own entity and CEO Jeff Weiner will stay at the helm. Weiner will report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Despite the astronomical price, one of the most basic reasons for Microsoft’s pursuit of LinkedIn is to grow its appeal among business users. LinkedIn is the world’s biggest site for networking and job searches with roughly 400 million users, and Microsoft will get direct access to that audience and the data it is creating.

Speaking of data, LinkedIn stands to benefit from this deal as well. Microsoft’s press release, pointed out that LinkedIn has updated its mobile app to help “deliver better business insights,” which it could continue to do with Microsoft’s help.

Of course, a big part of LinkedIn’s publishing platform was built around its acquisition of Pulse in 2013. And, in 2015, LinkedIn announced analytics for publishing to help brands and professionals better understand the reach of their posts.

After Microsoft bought Yammer in 2012, it is integrating a host of Yammer capabilities into Office 365 and we may see the same thing from the LinkedIn deal. In a letter written by Nadella to employees explaining the deal, he cited growth in “Office 365 commercial and Dynamics” as one of the goals of the deal, as well as growth in cloud services.

“This deal brings together the world’s leading professional cloud with the world’s leading professional network,” Nadella wrote. “I have been learning about LinkedIn for some time while also reflecting on how networks can truly differentiate cloud services.”

Additionally, Nadella noted that the combination could lead to an interesting overlap between the two brands relative to specific projects or tasks.

“This combination will make it possible for new experiences such as a LinkedIn newsfeed that serves up articles based on the project you are working on and Office suggesting an expert to connect with via LinkedIn to help with a task you’re trying to complete,” Nadella wrote. “As these experiences get more intelligent and delightful, the LinkedIn and Office 365 engagement will grow. And in turn, new opportunities will be created for monetization through individual and organization subscriptions and targeted advertising.”

One other option could be for Skype integration for LinkedIn to help with video interviews for job candidates, but also to assist with learning through the Lynda.com brand. LinkedIn bought Lynda.com back in 2015, which means that Microsoft gets access to the popular training platform and its audience as well.

The deal is expected to be completed sometime in 2016. Microsoft expects that LinkedIn’s financials will be reported as part of its Productivity and Business Processes segment.

The 3 big takeaways for readers

1. Microsoft announced that it has purchased LinkedIn, the professional social network, for $26.2 billion dollars in order to further integrate the two companies’ technologies.
2. In a letter penned by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, he specifically pointed out the integration will focus on “insights” and “cloud platforms.”
3. Microsoft also gets access to the data generated by LinkedIn users around job searches, as well as access to LinkedIn’s training platform, Lynda.com, and its audience and data.

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In a new report from SolarWinds, 92% of companies say adopting cloud is critical to long-term success. But, most don’t think they’ll ever be fully cloud.

On March 29, IT management software provider SolarWinds released its annual report titled IT Trends Report 2016: The Hybrid IT Evolution, detailing some interesting trends around cloud adoption in the enterprise and the rise of hybrid IT.

First off, according to the results of the report, cloud adoption is a foregone conclusion for most businesses. The report found that 92% of the IT professionals who were surveyed said adopting cloud was important to long-term success in their business. Nearly 30% labeled it extremely important.

However, despite this widespread adoption, most organizations aren’t fully embracing the cloud within the whole of their organization. Joel Dolisy, CIO of SolarWinds, said that is because the cloud isn’t the best option for all workloads.

“The findings of this year’s study paint a clear picture: Cloud adoption is nearly ubiquitous, but it’s not now and will not in the foreseeable future be suitable for all workloads, and even if it were, very few if any companies would convert all of their existing applications to run in the cloud,” Dolisy said in a press release.

The data to support Dolisy’s statement came from the report as well. Only 43% of respondents said that half or more of their IT infrastructure will make it to the cloud over the next 3-5 years. And, 60% said it is unlikely that their entire infrastructure will ever be fully cloud-based. Additionally, 9% said they hadn’t migrated any piece of their infrastructure to the cloud.

Dolisy called the resulting dynamic hybrid IT, where an organization blends critical on-premises tools with cloud-based technologies. This affects IT as well, he said, because it shifts the dynamic of the corporate IT professional to one who can guarantee always-on performance regardless of where he or she is based. Additionally, these professionals need new skills and tools to effectively deploy and manage these environments.

Basically, the rise of this hybrid IT means that IT professionals are faced with two key tasks: Leveraging the cloud to increase efficiency and performance, while maintaining security of critical systems.

So, what are the benefits of this hybrid IT infrastructure? The SolarWinds report listed three in ranked order:

1. Infrastructure cost-reduction
2. Increased infrastructure flexibility/agility
3. Relieving internal IT personnel of day-to-day management of some infrastructure

However, there are some challenges to managing this type of infrastructure as well. Of the respondents, 62% listed security as the top challenge within these type of environments.

Then, of course, there are also inherent challenges to encouraging cloud adoption as well. SolarWinds pegged the top three barriers to overall cloud adoption (which, in turn, affects hybrid IT) as follows:

1. Security/compliance concerns
2. Legacy system support
3. Budget limitations

Nearly 70% have migrated their applications to the cloud, almost 50% have migrated their storage, and 33% have moved their databases.

So, how does this affect your organization? Well, new trends in infrastructure often require new skills to support them.

According to the survey, only 27% are convinced that their IT department has the skills needed to fully support a hybrid IT environment. To succeed in hybrid IT, respondents said they needed better monitoring tools, application migration support, distributed architectures, service-oriented architectures, and automation or vendor management tools.

Hybrid IT also require support from leadership as well. Of those surveyed, 56% felt that they had the support needed to do hybrid IT right.

“In short, IT is everywhere,” Dolisy said. “Effectively managing and monitoring the new environment—from on-premises to the cloud with multiplying endpoints—to be able to act when needed is more critical now than ever.”

The 3 big takeaways for readers

1. Hybrid IT, a mix of cloud and on-premises solutions, is growing as the prevailing trend in IT architecture. Almost all respondents said cloud was critical to future growth, but many felt that their organization would never be fully cloud.

2. Hybrid IT can offer cost reduction, increased agility, and management relief. But, it also brings security challenges, issues with legacy systems, and budget challenges.

3. If your organization is engaging hybrid IT, your IT professionals need the proper tools and skills to stay on top of it. Look into monitoring, different architectures, and automation to help support your staff.

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A familiarity with cloud computing terminology will help you follow the industry’s developments. This glossary offers a rundown of more than 40 cloud terms.

Advertising-based pricing model

A pricing model whereby services are offered to customers at low or no cost, with the service provider being compensated by advertisers whose ads are delivered to the consumer along with the service.

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

Part of Amazon Web Services (AWS), EC2 provides scalable computing capacity in the cloud, which developers can use to deploy scalable applications.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)

Part of AWS, S3 allows for the storage and retrieval of data. It can also be used to host static websites.

Apache Hadoop

An open-source software framework for distributed storage and processing of large sets of data.

AWS

The organizational unit of Amazon that provides a variety of cloud services. AWS operates from 11 physical locations across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Content delivery network (CDN)

A distributed system consisting of servers in discrete physical locations, configured in a way that clients can access the server closest to them on the network, thereby improving speeds.

Cloud

A metaphor for a global network, first used in reference to the telephone network and now commonly used to represent the internet.

Cloud portability

The ability to move applications and data from one cloud provider to another. See also Vendor lock-in.

Cloud provider

A company that provides cloud-based platform, infrastructure, application, or storage services to other organizations and/or individuals, usually for a fee.

Cloudsourcing

Replacing traditional IT operations with lower-cost, outsourced cloud services.

Cloud storage

A service that allows customers to save data by transferring it over the internet or another network to an offsite storage system maintained by a third party.

Cloudware

Software that enables creating, deploying, running, or managing applications in the cloud.

Cluster

A group of linked computers that work together as if they were a single computer, for high availability and/or load balancing.

Consumer cloud

Cloud computing offerings targeted toward individuals for personal use, such as Dropbox or iCloud.

Consumption-based pricing model

A pricing model whereby the service provider charges its customers based on the amount of the service the customer consumes, rather than a time-based fee. For example, a cloud storage provider might charge per gigabyte of information stored. See also Subscription-based pricing model.

Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS)

An open standard for controlling content and document management systems and repositories using web protocols.

Customer self-service

A feature that allows customers to provision, manage, and terminate services themselves, without involving the service provider, via a web interface or programmatic calls to service APIs.

Disruptive technology

A business term that describes innovations that improve products or services in unexpected ways. These innovations change the methods used to accomplish a task, and re-shape the market for that task. Cloud computing is considered a disruptive technology because of its elasticity, flexible pricing models, and maintenance cost compared to traditional IT service provisioning.

Docker

Open-source software that automates the deployment of applications inside virtualized software containers.

Elastic computing

The ability to dynamically provision and deprovision computing and storage resources to stretch to the demands of peak usage, without the need to worry about capacity planning and engineering around uneven usage patterns.

External cloud

Public or private cloud services that are provided by a third party outside the organization.

Google App Engine

A service that enables developers to create and run web applications on Google’s infrastructure and share their applications via a pay-as-you-go, consumption-based plan with no setup costs or recurring fees.

Google Apps

Google’s Software as a Service (SaaS) product includes an office productivity suite, email, calendar, and file storage and sharing. Google Apps for Businessincludes an enterprise administration interface and archiving tools, and support for legal holds document discovery compliance. Google Apps for Education includes additional collaboration and reporting tools for classroom environments.

Hardware as a Service (HaaS)

Also see IaaS.

Hosted application

An internet-based or web-based application software program that runs on a remote server and can be accessed via an internet-connected PC or thin client. See also SaaS.

Hybrid cloud

The combination of a public cloud provider (such as AWS) with a private cloud platform. The public and private cloud infrastructures operate independently of each other, and integrate using software and processes that allow for the portability of data and applications.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Cloud infrastructure services in which a virtualized environment is delivered as a service by the cloud provider. This infrastructure can include servers, network equipment, and software, including a complete desktop environment such as Windows or Linux.

Internal cloud

A private cloud instance provided and supported by an IT department for internal use.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft’s cloud platform that provides a myriad of Platform as a Service (PaaS) and IaaS offerings, including Microsoft-specific and third-party standards, for developers to deploy cloud applications and services.

Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft’s software plus services model that offers Microsoft Office on a subscription-based pricing model, with cloud storage abilities. For business and enterprise use, Office 365 includes email and SNS, with cloud-hosted instances of Exchange Server and Skype for Business, among others.

Middleware

Software that sits between applications and operating systems, consisting of a set of services that enable interoperability in support of distributed architectures by passing data between applications. So, for example, the data in one database can be accessed through another database.

Multitenancy

The existence of multiple clients sharing resources (services or applications) on distinct physical hardware. Due to the on-demand nature of cloud, most services are multi tenant.

On-demand service

A model by which a customer can purchase cloud services as needed; for instance, if customers need to utilize additional servers for the duration of a project, they can do so and then drop back to the previous level after the project is completed.

OpenStack

A free and open-source cloud computing software platform used to control pools of processing, storage, and networking resources in a datacenter.

PaaS

Cloud platform services, whereby the computing platform (operating system and associated services) is delivered as a service over the internet by the provider.

Pay as you go

A cost model for cloud services that encompasses both subscription-based and consumption-based models, in contrast to the traditional IT cost model that requires up-front capital expenditures for hardware and software.

Private cloud

Services offered over the internet or over a private internal network to select users. These services are not available to the general public.

Public cloud

Services offered over the public internet. These services are available to anyone who wants to purchase the service.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Cloud application services, whereby applications are delivered over the internet by the provider so the applications don’t have to be purchased, installed, and run on the customer’s computers. SaaS providers were previously referred to as application service providers.

Salesforce

An online SaaS company that is best known for delivering customer relationship management (CRM) software to companies over the internet.

Service migration

The act of moving from one cloud service or vendor to another.

Service provider

The company or organization that provides a public or private cloud service.

Service level agreement (SLA)

A contractual agreement by which a service provider defines the level of service, responsibilities, priorities, and guarantees regarding availability, performance, and other aspects of the service.

Social networking service (SNS)

Used in enterprises for collaboration, file sharing, and knowledge transfer; among the most common platforms are Microsoft’s Yammer, and Salesforce’s Chatter. Often called enterprise social software to differentiate between “traditional” SNS platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn.

Software plus services

The combination of cloud-hosted services with locally running software. This method allows for using the local system for processing power while relying on cloud operations for software license verification, portable identities, syncing between devices, and file storage.

Subscription-based pricing model

A pricing model that lets customers pay a fee to use the service for a particular time period, often used for SaaS services. See also Consumption-based pricing model.

Utility computing

A provisioning model in which services are available as needed, and users are charged for specific usage, in a manner similar to municipal utilities such as electricity or water.

Vendor lock-in

Dependency upon a particular cloud vendor and low ability to migrate between vendors due to an absence of support for standardized protocols, APIs, data structures (schema), and/or service models.

Vertical cloud

A cloud computing environment optimized for use and built around the compliance needs of specialized industries, such as healthcare, financial services, and government operations.

Virtual private data center

Resources grouped according to specific business objectives.

Virtual private cloud (VPC)

A private cloud that exists within a shared or public cloud, e.g., the Amazon VPC that allows Amazon EC2 to connect to legacy infrastructure on an IPsec VPN.

Have questions?

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Every year brings with it new challenges, and new lessons, for IT in the enterprise. Here are 10 of the lessons IT learned this past year.

The end of a year is always a good time for reflection, especially so if you’re evaluating what your business did right and what you can improve upon. In an increasingly digital world, IT has quickly become one of, if not the most, important aspects of an organization. So, it should be with great care that executives and admins look back on their year and try to glean some wisdom about what can be done differently in the year to come.

Here are 10 of the most important lessons that IT learned in 2015.

1. BYOX is here to stay

As smartphone use grew to near ubiquity in the enterprise, it brought with it the trend of BYOD, or, bring your own device. While that originally referred to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, it spawned as host of “bring your own” everything else.

“BYOX is the new mantra with consumers bringing their own applications, cloud sharing tools, social media into the enterprise; essentially bringing their own expectations of which technology they want to use and how and where they want to work in a corporate environment,” said Chuck Pol, president of Vodafone Americas.

2. DevOps is no longer just a buzzword

The term “DevOps” gained huge popularity in 2015 as a reference to an agile method that stresses the collaboration of development and operations. The goal is to connect the writers of the code with those who maintain the systems that run it. However, DevOps continues to evolve and, although it has its own set of challenges, it could be poised to become the method of choice for enterprise IT starting in 2016.

3. Data is currency

Data, especially as it relates to big data has been steadily growing in value but 2015 felt like a tipping point. Tools for both structured and unstructured data exploded in popularity and major data service providers went public, adding credibility to the field and likely creating a better inroad into the enterprise. Also, businesses got better at distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant data.

“It is no longer credible to look at data as big static objects in a deep lake, but rather be considered a set of fast moving assets in a raging river,” said Neil Jarvis, CIO of Fujitsu America. “In 2016 and beyond, companies need to look at the data that creates business-relevant information for today and tomorrow.”

4. Finding talent is problematic

Talent shortages don’t just affect startups on the West Coast. CompTIA CIO Randy Gross said that current estimates suggest there are more than one million IT job opening across the US alone, ranging across skill level from support specialists to network admins. Enterprises are going to have to work harder to attract and retain talent.

“Wise employers with IT jobs to fill have engaged in a self-examination of the tactics and strategies they’re using to attract new talent—and adjusting accordingly,” Gross said. “For some companies, new telecommuting and remote work options have helped them fill their talent gaps.”

5. SMAC is still relevant

The SMAC stack, which stands for social, mobile, analytics, and cloud, is also known by some as the “third platform.” As all of these individual components continue to grow and thrive in the workplace, their interdependencies will grow along with them.

“Senior management must become well versed about these technologies and their possibilities to create new value and new competitive advantages in their own business and markets,” Pol said.

6. Cloud lost its fear factor

Cloud acceptance was a mixed bag for a long time, but 2015 brought a more widespread embrace of cloud technologies and services in the enterprise. In fact, some trends are making it almost a necessity.

“The complete adoption of virtualization, as well as investigation into cloud and other strategies, is far more advanced than expected—particularly amongst SMBs,” said Patrick Hubbard, technical product marketing director at SolarWinds. “Making operating systems and applications truly mobile is redefining how companies think about their IT infrastructure.”

7. The security mindset is changing

Anthem BlueCross BlueShield and Harvard University were among the major organizations that dealt with a public security breach in 2015. With today’s social media, you can almost guarantee any data breach that occurs in the enterprise won’t stay a secret. And, with the risk of a breach high, Intel Security CTO Steve Grobman said that teams must adopt a new way of thinking.

“IT must embrace the mindset that they have already been breached, now how do you protect your environment with this new default outlook?,” Grobman said.

8. Shadow IT is a line item

Shadow IT carries nowhere near the same amount of scorn it once did in the enterprise. Some organizations are even openly embracing it, and making it a foundational part of their IT strategy. And, as shadow IT continues to grow, Pol said, it needs to be properly accounted for in the budget.

“As technology continues to transform business, IT infrastructure will become more complex and more difficult to have a complete view of technology across the business,” Pol said. “The role of IT will need to become more strategic and set clear lines of accountability between IT and line of business budget holders.”

9. Employees are the biggest security risk

When most people think about security risks to their organization, the image of the hooded hacker furiously typing away in a dark room. However, employees themselves pose a real threat to the security of an organization as well. Issues such as poor password practices and using unsecured networks with company devices are a real problem. Kelly Ricker, senior vice president of events and education at CompTIA, said mobile, while helping with agility and productivity, is a cybersecurity nightmare.

“Every device that employees use to conduct business—smartphones and smartwatches, tablets and laptops—is a potential security vulnerability,” Ricker said. “Companies that fail to acknowledge and address this fact face the very real risk of becoming a victim of cyber criminals and hackers.”

10. Commoditization is a threat

With the plethora of tools available to build and replicate popular tech, it is increasingly important for organizations to guard against the threat of commoditization.

“As development cycles become shorter and the potential for intellectual property to be recreated and copied increases, it is becoming more difficult to create a sustainable competitive advantage for your products and services,” Pol said.

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Microsoft begins selling its new highest-end Office 365 business plan, E5, on December 1 for $420 per user per year. Here’s what’s included.

Microsoft will charge users $35 per user per month, or $420 per year, for its new highest-end Office 365 business plan.

Microsoft officials went public with the pricing for Office 365 E5, its top-of-the-line commercial Office 365 offering, on November 30 during the company’s Convergence EMEA conference. Office 365 E5 is available to customers for purchase starting, December 1.

Office 365 E4 — the current high-end version of Microsoft’s Office 365 line — sells for $22 per user per month, or $264 per user, per year.

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