IDC Believes Cloud Providers Can Learn from Telecom Service Providers That Rating Does Pay
Monetizing cloud computing services is not going to happen overnight, but cloud providers can gain traction by leveraging the telecommunications industry's proven approach for effectively charging for such services. According to new research from IDC, worldwide telecom cloud billing investments will grow from $15 million in 2008 to $350 million in 2013.
While other industries, banking, IT, logistics, online entertainment, retail and transportation, have sought to build comprehensive and flexible billing platforms, cloud computing players are finding it critical to evaluate these telecommunications billing solutions. Leveraging a system to put a value on the transaction, "rate" in telecom language, will be a critical first step for cloud computing infrastructure projects. Telecom billing vendors such as Amdocs, Comverse, Convergys, CSG, Intec, LHS, Oracle, and others include rating as a core component of a holistic billing system, which also includes capabilities such as customer care, partner billing, promotions and payments and collections. Other telecom billing vendors focus on specific pieces such as rating, mediation, settlement or revenue assurance. The business and consumer experiences of complex bills for technology services is often tightly associated with voice and, increasingly, data services, thereby making the telecommunications example instructive. A new generation of business and consumer customers mean that cloud providers need to take a critical look at the options.
"The investment in billing systems for cloud computing is drawing upon the rigor, scale and technology experience of the telecommunications industry," said Elisabeth Rainge, director NGN Operations, IDC. "In examining the existing deals for cloud billing, we identify telecommunications industry expertise as highly relevant."
In addition to providing a key business operations platform, companies aiming at the cloud infrastructure opportunity are recognizing that the ability to develop and maintain a set of pricing plans requires the rating expertise of the telecommunications industry. For example, a fixed line subscriber calling a local number during weekend hours would typically be rated at a lower tariff rate than a roaming mobile user accessing email internationally during peak hours. The kind of subscription, prepaid, postpaid, data, voice, business or consumer, drives a further level of complexity for which the telecommunications industry offers mature and real examples of business processes and systems.
The IDC study, Worldwide Telecom Cloud Billing 2009–2013 Forecast, presents the worldwide market size and forecast for telecom cloud billing, which is a segment of the telecom billing market. It assesses the suitability of telecom billing solutions for nascent cloud requirements as well as customer and vendor interest in addressing cloud billing requirements from the telecom billing context.
Intel to Acquire Wind River Systems for Approximately $884 Million
Intel Corp. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wind River Systems, Inc., under which Intel will acquire all outstanding Wind River common stock for $11.50 per share in cash, or approximately $884 million in the aggregate. Wind River is a software vendor in embedded devices, and will become part of Intel’s strategy to grow its processor and software presence outside the traditional PC and server market segments into embedded systems and mobile handheld devices. Wind River will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel and continue with its current business model of supplying leading-edge products and services to its customers worldwide.
“This acquisition will bring us complementary, market-leading software assets and an incredibly talented group of people to help us continue to grow our embedded systems and mobile device capabilities,” said Renee James, Intel vice president and general manager of the company’s Software and Services Group. “Wind River has thousands of customers in a wide range of markets, and now both companies will be better positioned to meet growth opportunities in these areas.”
The acquisition will deliver to Intel robust software capabilities in embedded systems and mobile devices, both important growth areas for the company. Embedded systems and mobile devices include smart phones, mobile Internet devices, other consumer electronics (CE) devices, in-car “info-tainment” systems and other automotive areas, networking equipment, aerospace and defense, energy and thousands of other devices. This multi-billion dollar market opportunity is increasingly becoming connected and more intelligent, requiring supporting applications and services as well as full Internet functionality.
Black Duck Software Rides Open Source Momentum to Continued Growth in Q1
With 42 percent growth in bookings performance and 27 percent growth in services for the Q1 2009 period, Black Duck Software, a global provider of products and services for accelerating software development through the managed use of open source software, is benefiting from growing interest in, and adoption of, open source technology.
Despite downward economic pressures affecting much of the technology industry, Black Duck closed major deals with three global enterprises, and many other deals with existing and new clients, enabling the company to maintain its steady growth.
Contributing to Black Duck’s continued strong performance is the increased awareness among software development managers of the benefits of multi-source development, in which enterprises manage the use of open source code in software projects that are based on in-house developed code, often augmented by commercial products and/or outsourced development.
“Interest in open source software (OSS) is accelerating, but more importantly adoption is accelerating and that’s what drives our business,” observes Tim Yeaton, Black Duck Software president and CEO. “We see customer interest in expanded OSS use, as well as the need for management tools to ensure effective automation of what are typically cumbersome and error-prone manual methods for search, selection, validation and ongoing monitoring of OSS. These factors, along with the customer need to continue innovation even in a tight budget climate, contributed to our continued growth.”
Hubspan and IBM Team to Deliver New Cloud-Based Integration Platform
Hubspan, Inc., a provider of business integration solutions, and IBM have announced WebSpan, a new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) integration platform. WebSpan combines the Hubspan on–demand integration platform and IBM WebSphere integration software into a single platform that can help businesses reduce the cost, time and complexity associated with traditional integration and business process automation solutions.
Companies and solution providers worldwide continue to focus on the critical need to connect and integrate data and processes across a growing number of applications and business processes. With WebSpan, these businesses will have a new option to deploy business community networks, extend the reach of existing application and infrastructure investments, and accelerate service oriented architecture (SOA) initiatives.
“Our clients are asking us for cloud-based platforms that offer robust and comprehensive integration capabilities,” said Steve Worrall, vice president of WebSphere BPM, Connectivity, Commerce and GB Sales for IBM. “These companies are increasingly looking for a flexible solution that provides an easy entry point, delivering rapid and quantifiable business value. WebSpan expands our clients’ choices when implementing connectivity and integration solutions.”
WebSpan is a single instance, multi-tenant SaaS integration platform, which enables cost-effective business integration and ease of scalability while optimizing the sharing of resources across partner communities. WebSpan is available with specific solution packages to meet the needs of a wide range of companies and business processes, with an initial set of offerings targeting e-procurement, demand/supply chain, e-payments, logistics and e-commerce integration.
Seanodes Inaugurates VMware-Specific Reseller Program for US VARs
Seanodes, the creator and developer of Shared Internal Storage solutions, has launched new US-based reseller program for VARs interested in combining Exanodes VM Edition Storage Virtual Appliances with VMware. Seanodes will offer margins of 100 percent for the first 90 days, a "summer holiday", for an immediate competitive advantage in addition to the lifetime value of selling Exanodes VM Edition.
Seanodes is a VMware Technology Alliance Partner with access to tools and resources to assist resellers in rapidly bringing Exanodes-based storage solutions to the VMware market. The new reseller initiative is modeled after Seanodes' European VMware VAR program where resellers have leveraged their VMware expertise to bring Seanodes' innovative Shared Internal Storage technology to a new market segment.
"This summer holiday program is an opportunity for VMware resellers to add a high-margin product to their portfolio and capitalize on the interest in Storage Virtual Appliances for VMware environments," said Frank Gana, Business Development Director at Seanodes. "There is an important market opportunity for reclaiming bought but unused storage capacity and performance in ESX Servers, and Exanodes VM Edition is the right solution at the right time."
Desktone and Marubeni Partner to Deliver Desktops as a Service in Japan
Desktone, Inc., provider of the first platform that enables hosted virtual desktops as an outsourced subscription service, and Marubeni Corp., a Japanese conglomerate, today announced that they have signed an agreement to deliver virtual desktops as a service (DaaS) in Japan.
As part of the partnership, Marubeni will offer cloud-based virtual desktops based on the Desktone Virtual-D Platform to academic and mid-tier enterprise organizations. Marubeni Information Systems, a subsidiary of Marubeni Corp, is building the DaaS infrastructure that will host the Desktone-powered service.
“The cost and flexibility benefits that DaaS enables are driving global demand, and Japan is at the forefront of this adoption,” says Harry Ruda, CEO for Desktone. “Marubeni is an extremely well-respected organization with strong information systems capabilities and a rich history in providing outsourced IT services. Its vast experience and reach make Marubeni an ideal partner for Desktone.”
“Because of today’s economic climate, Japan’s mid-market enterprise and academic organizations are increasingly concerned with cutting costs and controlling expenses. At the same time, they continue to focus on ways to secure their IT investments and sensitive data,” said Kazunori Ohashi, General Manager, Business Development Team, for the IT Solution Business Department in Marubeni’s Finance, Logistics & IT Business Division. “Desktone-powered DaaS, which has proven very successful in our target markets, enables organizations to effectively address all of these needs, while operating with much more agility and responsiveness.”
Desktone’s Virtual-D Platform enables organizations to quickly realize the cost and flexibility benefits of virtual desktop computing without upfront CAPEX investments. Uniquely designed along two tiers (service provider and enterprise), it lets enterprises keep their data secure within their own infrastructure, and maintain ownership and control over their Windows OS images, applications and all relating licensing while outsourcing the physical data center infrastructure powering their virtual desktops to Marubeni. Marubeni’s DaaS service is expected to launch in the summer, 2009. |
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