Why IBM Paid Big Bucks To Expand In The Cloud With SoftLayer

IBM is undeniably eager to get its cloud mission off the ground, which is why it just dropped some serious coin to pick up the cloud computing company SoftLayer today.

No one is sure what the price tag for SoftLayer will be when the deal is finalized sometime in the third quarter, but the Wall Street Journal cites sources that peg the buy somewhere in the $2 billion range. When the dust settles, SoftLayer will be part of a new cloud services division in IBM, combined with Big Blue's existing SmartCloud operations.

On the surface, this is very much a "those who can't do, buy" scenario. IBM will boost its own cloud roster by a reported 21,000 paying customers with the acquisition. Predictably, many observers are going to see this move as IBM's play against Amazon Web Services' dominant position in the public cloud computing sector.

But enough with the obvious insights. Here are a few additional ramifications to today's acquisition announcement you may not have come across elsewhere.

IBM Sells More Servers, OpenStack Wins More Converts

First, there's the nature of SoftLayer's cloud infrastructure, which uses its own home-grown cloud controller and application programming interface (API) and hardware exclusively from Supermicro. IBM has its own servers that seem likely to displace those from Supermicro.

The cloud controller software that SoftLayer uses now will be a little harder to parse out. The cloud controller and APIs are how administrators and developers connect to the cloud servers and get them to deliver the performance and storage that an application needs. SoftLayer's customers connect and control their cloud instances via this very software.

But IBM has, in recent months, made a big push for the controllers and APIs offered by the open source OpenStack project. Moving forward, it seems likely that IBM will want its customers to connect to their combined cloud services using OpenStack APIs. Where this will leave SoftLayer's existing customers, though, is anyone's guess.

So while Supermicro may lose a customer, OpenStack stands to gain some new code and quite a bit more standing in the cloud sector — especially if IBM opts to donate SoftLayer code to the OpenStack project. Even if IBM doesn't donate SoftLayer's code, IBM's stewardship is likely to use a whole new set of OpenStack-based cloud services into the sector.

All of which is pretty interesting for cloud developers and CIOs considering the cloud. Whether the acquisition will pay off for IBM, of course, remains unclear. But you can't fault Big Blue for not aiming high; its goal is to generate $7 billion in cloud-based revenue by 2015, and SoftLayer looks to be a big part of that effort.

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webOS to receive mandatory system update to maintain access to cloud services

AppId is over the quota

It's not exactly the best birthday present ever, but today HP announced that webOS devices running version 2.1 and up will receive an automatic update to the App Catalog. The new code is needed to replace security certificate set to expire on July 23 that grants access to webOS cloud services. For the select few running older versions of webOS, fear not, for updating your devices merely requires manual navigation to the App Catalog, then grab and install the "HP App Catalog Update" application. Got it? Good.

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HP Issues mandatory webOS system update

A certificate used on webOS devices is set to expire on July 23, 2013. For the system to be able to use cloud services such as Backup/Restore and Application Catalog the certificate needs to be updated.

Beginning June 6th an automatic update to the Application Catalog will replace the certificate. That means that anyone running Web OS "2.1" or greater will have the certificate installed automatically when the catalog is run.

For anyone who is running webOS versions older than "2.1", or wants to manually install, they will need to go to the App Catalog and select the app called "HP App Catalog Update", download and install it on their system.

After the expiration of the certificate on July 23, 2013 the user will need to set the system time back to a date prior to July 23, 2013 and follow the same procedure outlined above to update the certificate.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

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Google Entices Mobile Developers To Its Cloud With Kinvey

Google wants to make it extremely easy for developers to use its cloud to build mobile applications. Today, it has a new partner to entice developers to do just that.

Google has partnered with Boston-based mobile cloud services company Kinvey to easily connect mobile applications to its Google App Engine cloud. The partnership is specifically targeted at enterprise developers who tend to require a lot of support, consume a lot of data and need simple solutions to create and support cloud infrastructure for their mobile devices.

“Developers using Kinvey can deploy directly from Kinvey into App Engine. The reciprocal also holds true. Developers using App Engine can consume Kinvey's services using the libraries we’ve built for App Engine,” said Joe Chernov, VP of Marketing at Kinvey.

The announcement comes two days after Google announced a “Mobile Backend Starter” for tying Android apps to Google App Engine. The partnership between Google and Kinvey will expand on the fairly simple starter package and also allow developers building iOS and HTML5 apps to tie their cloud infrastructure to App Engine.

Enticing Developers With The Cloud

If you are looking to build a mobile application with rich cloud functionality, you have a few options. You could build it yourself by selecting and configuring a technology stack; writing all the code and connecting the application programming interfaces and then deploy it and secure it. Good luck finding a developer who knows how to do all of that and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Or, you could have a fairly simple automated process do it all for you.

That is the opportunity that several startup companies saw a couple years ago. StackMob, Parse, Appcelerator, Kinvey, Applicasa, FeedHenry and a variety of others moved quickly to serve this need, which has been termed “Backend as a Service” (BaaS) in the developer world. It didn’t take long for the large cloud providers and mobile platform owners (like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook) to realize that they needed to offer this type of service and each have moved aggressively to build their own capabilities, partner with the startups providing these solutions or straight-up acquire the companies making them.

The basic thought from the ecosystem owners is, “we’ll make it easy for you to build cloud infrastructure if you build for our platforms.” That is one of the prime reasons that Facebook bought Parse earlier this year, to bring brands to Facebook’s app ecosystem. Microsoft has Azure Mobile Services, which is essentially its own BaaS offering. It is why Google is partnering with Kinvey, to bring enterprises to both Android as well as App Engine.

The Maturation of Kinvey

Kinvey started as three guys from Austin, Texas with an idea to make it easier for developers to build cloud infrastructure for their apps. Kinvey got its wings as a participant in the TechStars Boston 2011 class and has been growing since.

Kinvey’s technology stack has grown in the last two years to the point where it would be economically difficult for any company to build from scratch.

“To build your own back-end stack, you’d probably need a year and a million dollars,” said Kinvey CEO Sravish Sridhar in a recent discussion.

Kinvey has moved aggressively to fill out that stack with partnerships (such as with push message service Urban AirShip, media cloud provider Brightcove and now Google) and has become a leader in helping developers solve problems with its helpful content marketing campaign.

Kinvey may be a champion of developers, but it also knows where the money is. Since leaving TechStars, Kinvey has made a push to become the cloud integrator for enterprises looking to scale mobile applications. The App Engine partnership with Google and its status as preferred technology partner with Facebook should help accelerate this growth.

Lead image courtesy Shutterstock.

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10 Reasons Why Your Business Should Be in the Cloud

You likely already use cloud computing in your personal life, whether it's checking your e-mail, listening to online radio, keeping track of your finances or storing photos. The same convenience and improvements cloud computing offers in your personal life translate into your work life, as bringing your business into the cloud has many benefits that will help your budget and streamline productivity.

We've put together a list of the top 10 reasons why you should consider using the cloud to your business advantage.

1. Instead of purchasing expensive hardware or software to use a particular program, cloud computing gives you access to programs or applications powered by someone else's servers and networks. The cost savings from not having to pay for equipment and programs that will quickly become outdated will be extremely helpful to your budget.

2. You'll save money on data storage because your systems won't be burdened with as much memory-consuming digital information. Cloud computing enables you to store and manage data outside of your own computer network.

3. Most cloud-based solutions take extreme precautions to protect your data so that you can feel comfortable storing it outside your own location.

4. Your entire organization will be able to collaborate on projects even if you have teams in different countries or continents. Everyone will be able to work simultaneously on the same documents, presentations, videos and more. Many businesses both small and large are successfully using cloud computing to collaborate on projects on a global scale.

5. If you don't have access to your computer and need to access an important file, it's not a problem. You can use any web-enabled device such as a smartphone, tablet device, or netbook to log into the cloud-based solution you use and find the data you need.

6. Certain cloud-based services give you the ability to increase your processing power. Even if you just need boosted processing capabilities for a short time, you can do it without investing heavily in expensive equipment.

7. Small businesses can leverage the cloud to access tools that they would normally have trouble affording.

8. Large businesses can use the cloud to equip the entire organization with tools that previously had to be installed on each computer, which ate up IT time and was costly.

9. Your employees won't have hardware or software issues resulting from cloud computing, so your IT team will be able to focus on other issues.

10. Finding ways to integrate cloud computing into your business now will pay off later, as more and more business functions can be performed in the cloud. Think of it as a wise investment in your company's future that also pays big dividends in the present.

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