For many years, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has dominated  the cloud computing space. More recently, Microsoft Azure has grown in size, offerings and popularity for cloud developers. But a “household name” contender is racing towards those top two positions—namely Google Cloud Platform (GCP)—and recent activities and investments are making headlines, further solidifying GCP as a cloud partner for all.

The rise of blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as others, have made today’s technological landscape more complex than ever; leaving no area untouched, including government IT. Digital transformation is here, and cloud is at the forefront of it all.

On August 1, 2016, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released Memorandum M-16-19, Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies. The memorandum established the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI), designed to help Federal agencies meet OMB requirements to consolidate and modernize IT infrastructure.

The following article is being reposted with permission from the author and Tech Data’s Cloud Solutions team. More information about Tech Data’s cloud solutions and services can be found at techdatacloud.com.

Over time some channel partners and even vendors have moved from a product orientation, to a customer-outcome orientation when it comes to their engagement or sales methodology.

Is your head in the cloud? Perhaps it should be
The worldwide public cloud services market is projected to grow 17.3 percent in 2019 to total $206.2 billion, up from $175.8 billion in 2018[1]. In fact, the IDC predicts that by 2019, more than 60 percent of organizations anticipate that the majority of their IT capabilities will be delivered through some form of public, private or hybrid cloud service[2].

We see it and live it daily. It’s called life and it’s moving and an ever-accelerating rate of speed. Moore’s Law states that technology doubles itself every 18 months. This certainly appears to be true as we are witnessing unprecedented change in how information is stored, managed and distributed.

The following article is being reposted with permission from the author and Tech Data’s Cloud Solutions team. More information about Tech Data’s cloud solutions and services can be found at techdatacloud.com.

Businesses today operate in highly competitive, unforgiving markets. Speed to market, operational efficiency and infrastructure costs have become the bellwethers of profitability, sustainability and growth. DevOps lies at the core of each of these, serving a critical role in a company’s operating strategy.

Companies of all sizes are adopting the cloud in some form or fashion. There are several challenges to utilizing various public cloud offerings and many companies fail to realize that they’re ultimately responsible for their cloud-stored data. In a recent survey of 1,200 global companies conducted by Vanson Bourne and commissioned by Veritas, the majority are misguided when it comes to securing their data in public clouds.

 Modern demands are changing the way the government purchases, builds and delivers storage solutions – and Federal agencies are calling for a network transformation that empowers IT and accelerates mission performance. But let’s start from the beginning and then turn to the road ahead.In 1979, a 250 MB hard drive weighed 550 pounds and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Today, a 16 GB microSD card holds 64 times more data, weighs four tenths of a gram and costs $11. Look how far we’ve come. Impressive? Yes. But, there are still some growing pains.The White House reports government-wide legacy IT spending rising only slightly from 68 percent to 70.3 percent from FY 2015 through FY 2018.