17th March, 2014
3 Min read
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Amazon cloud turns 8
Ten years ago in March, Amazon launched its first Internet storage service S3, and today AWS is dominating the cloud market and is even used to build CIA’s enormous secret cloud storage in a contract worth $600 million over 10 years. Amazon Web Service is now an “IT juggernaut” as hinted at GigaOM. On March 14th, the birthdate, GigaOM wrote: “Eight years ago Amazon, the online book seller, announced a storage service for the internet. That S3 service was the first of a slew of cloud-based products that Amazon launched and which, it can be safely said, shook the IT world to its roots.” As a reminder, you can watch the AWS introduction video below, or read a 2006 press release here.
Google Drive – 100GB is now $1.99 per month
Google Drive again lowered down its prices with 100GB now selling for $1.99 per month, instead of $4.99. 1TB is now $9.99 per month, compared to $49.99 before. “The downward pricing pressure mimics what’s been happening on the developer-focused cloud storage front as well,” says GigaOM. Free storage space is also being given away by Microsoft with Microsoft OneDrive offering 7GB for free and adding up 50GB at a price of $25 and also by Dropbox with pro-version with up to 100GB now available at a price of $9.99 per month. Barb Darrow comments: “There was a flurry of back-and-forth cloud storage price cuts between Google and Amazon right around the inaugural AWS Re:Invent event. Those cuts made it clear that storage is sort of like the crack cocaine of cloud computing: Vendors bank that if you put your stuff in their cloud, you’ll keep coming back for more storage and potentially add more higher-priced services.”
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Read the full article here.
Read the official Google announcement.
Infographic: Cloud Adoption and Risk
Skyhigh group came up with an excellent infographic and report that describes high number of services available in the cloud marketplace, trying them out against enterprises, in different countries. The purpose of the report is to provide hard data on the actual use of cloud services within enterprises of all sizes. “Data from more than 175 organizations suggests the use of cloud services is even more rampant than before. 2,675 cloud services are in use across more than 5.9 million users, as opposed to 2,204 services last quarter (21% growth). 626 cloud services are in use by an organization on average, as opposed to 545 last quarter (15% growth), and the highest number of cloud services in use by an organization is now 2,154 as opposed to 1,769 last quarter (22% growth),” says Skyhigh. The report can be downloaded here and the infographic is attached below.
Linthicum: Business units drive cloud adoption
A few key trends to consider when it comes to cloud computing and business, says Linthicum, include:
- Most businesses get more benefits from the agility and time-to-market aspects of cloud computing then the operational efficiencies, such as resource reduction through sharing and consolidation.
- Business users are more likely to accept the use of cloud computing than many in IT.
- The business value of cloud computing has always been in question since the migration began in 2006. However, the data points that are coming back from the use of initial cloud-based systems show that the ROI from cloud is there, and it’s typically larger than many expected.
He draws this from IBM‘s 2013 cloud survey while he focuses on business leadership that, he claims, basically drives much of the growth around cloud computing. “Remember, it was business units, not IT, that drove Web adoption and e-commerce,” he reminds us.
New video streaming funding: Boxfish gains $7 million from Atlantic Bridge and Samsung
With more than one thousand channels streaming in real time, Boxfish is one of many startups that have popped up over the last several years to change TV and leverage new video streaming technologies. Boxfish has more than 100 third-party developers using its API and licensing data to build their own video discovery tools. “The company has raised some additional funding — $7 million from Dublin-based investment firm Atlantic Bridge Ventures, as well as Samsung,” reports TechCrunch. “According to co-founder Eoin Dowling, the funding will be used to increase headcount as the company begins to serve new markets. It recently launched a U.K. office, for instance, in preparation for offering the same sort of discovery data there as well.”