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Microsoft & IBM Venture In European Cloud Data Markets

Microsoft & IBM Venture in European Cloud Data Markets

IBM and Microsoft have penetrated into European markets by establishing cloud centers in some of the cities in Norway and Germany. Microsoft has opened a cloud region in Germany, making use of servers in Magdeburg and Frankfurt data centers. In order to prevent a legal battle with the American law enforcement agencies whose responsibility is to control access to customers’ private data stored abroad, the company has partnered with Deutsche Telekom. The agreement has given Deutsche Telekom T-Systems full control of the stored data in the region belonging to Microsoft cloud customers. This partnership has provided stability to Microsoft’s new cloud market in Germany.

IBM has opened a new data center in Norway. This is the first cloud infrastructure in the Nordic owned by IBM. By launching a cloud data center in this country, IBM makes a total of 48 cloud data infrastructures globally. Since 2014, the company has made tremendous growth most of which have been fueled by its acquisition of SoftLayer.

When examining the servers in IBM SoftLayer data center in Dallas year 2014, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Lance Crosby said that the company was planning to spend about 1.2 billion dollars to expand its cloud services. Indeed, by launching a data center in Norway, the company expands beyond its strategic plan set in 2014 to establish 40 data centers globally targeting a total of 15 countries. During that time, the company was aiming at building additional data centers in China, Washington DC, Japan, Mexico, London, Canada and India. In addition, the company was planning to extend its cloud services in the Middle East and Africa as well by the end of 2015. This shows that IBM has had a history of successful expansion in the global cloud data market.

Currently, IBM and Microsoft are leading in the cloud data services market as they have many data centers compared to other major competitors in the market such as Amazon. Though they do not have the as much revenue as other players, the two companies provide cloud data customers with numerous options for their data storage by ensuring that there are adequate data centers to cater for the increasing demand for the services.

The move by IBM and Microsoft to expand their cloud data services in the European market may be seen as a strategy to counter the stiff competition existing in the cloud industry. In the recent past, Google made a move in allocating additional resources to capture Oracle and enterprise cloud users. In fact, Google has moved further in the last one month to claim a bigger space in the cloud data industry.

It should be remembered that bare metal cloud data services are core to IBM’s growth strategy as it distinguishes the company among other top players such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon. The data sovereignty rule in Germany prompted Microsoft to set up a cloud data center within the country to cater for cloud users who cannot store their data overseas.

Renewable Energy Projects Unveiled By Internet And Cloud Giants

Renewable Energy Projects Unveiled by Internet and Cloud Giants

In the past, Amazon and Apple, the world’s internet and cloud giants have been concentrating on the construction of data centers in different parts of the United States of America due to increased demand for internet services. However, data centers consume a large amount of energy and this has prompted the two companies to think outside the box and come up with a solution for an alternative source of energy to be consumed by their centers in future. Both Apple and Amazon have come up with huge projects for renewable energy worth millions of dollars in various states within the US.

Currently, Apple is constructing a data center in Mesa, Arizona which is yet to be completed. The company has already put in place measures to curb a possible energy issue by constructing a solar energy plant in Arizona. Recently, the company announced the completion of the plant which has a capacity of producing 50MW of renewable energy, adequate to power the new data center in the region.

In addition, Apple has plans to set up other renewable energy projects as it has contracted for another project in Central California with a capacity to produce 130MW solar energy. Similarly, Amazon has launched the construction of a wind energy plant in Texas, aimed at producing 253MW to power the company’s enormous cloud projects within the region.

These solar energy plants will go a long way in offsetting the energy consumption by the company’s existing and new data centers. According to latest sustainability report released by the company, a total of 54 million kWh was consumed by the data center in Oregon, 46 million kWh in Reno Nevada, 218 million kWh in Maiden North Carolina and 137 million kWh in Newark California in the year 2015. This depicts the need for an additional source of energy that will help the company to expand its internet and cloud business in different States.

The decision by Apple and Amazon to go for renewable energy as an alternative source of energy will not only offset the huge electric energy consumption by boosting the cloud business while making service delivery efficient. First and foremost, renewable energy will attract customers who depend on data centers for their daily business operations.

Such customers are likely to settle for a provider offering renewable energy that will aid them in achieving their individual sustainability goals. According to a recent survey, 70 percent of wholesale data centers customers are interested in doing business with data centers using renewable energy and the demand may increase significantly within the next 5 years.

Secondly, renewable energy plants will offer an alternative source of energy that will be cost effective for cloud and wholesale data infrastructure providers. The solar and wind plants will provide opportunities for wholesale data providers to have contracts for energy supply that will protect them from fuel and power price volatility that happens regularly in the market.

Renewable energy projects make Apple and Amazon major players to compete for customers with the leading data center providers such as Digital Realty Trust, Switch and Equinix who have made huge investments in renewable energy.