AWS Summit 2018: Amazon Targets Enterprise Developers for App Cloud Migration via ML, Microservices/Containers, and Serverless Computing

Charlotte Dunlap – Principal Analyst, Application Platforms

Summary Bullets:

• Amazon’s high-value services and cloud status make it a competitive threat against PaaS rivals

• Customers are concerned about the cost and effort involved in migrating applications from data centers to the cloud

Amazon has built a behemoth cloud business through its compute power and rudimentary platform services, bringing the notion of IT as-a-service to the masses early on. It has no intention of losing its popular cloud status to technology companies that are innovating in advanced cloud technologies such as AI/ML, chatbots, microservices/containers, and serverless computing.

The New Face of Application Performance Management in a Cloud Era

C. Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

• Application performance management (APM) is becoming the most important application lifecycle management component for PaaS offerings as DevOps seeks better insight into app performance

• A paradigm shift is taking place as large organizations move operations to the cloud, steering the focus from infrastructure capacity planning to the application layer

APM is being reinvented in a new cloud era to provide developers and operations with a window into advanced application performance. So much is at stake to ensure applications perform effectively that APM technology is being baked into the fabric of the application at its earliest test cycle phase to help developers combat problems before they commit to code.

PaaS Use Remains Stalled at Dev/Test

Charlotte Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

• Microsoft encourages app deployment via Azure, but dev/test remains prominent use case
• PaaS vendors’ eventual move to common code base will ease move from dev/test to production

Microsoft is telling channel partners and enterprises that in the next two years, half of the Fortune 500 companies will be on the Windows Azure cloud model. In fact, I just read Microsoft has partnered with NBC to LiveStream the Sochi Olympics through Windows Azure Media Services. But I keep wondering when Azure will move beyond its compute and network use scenarios and more deeply into platform-as-a-service (PaaS) scenarios. Because what I’m hearing from SIs is that enterprise developers’ use of Azure remains largely limited to development and testing (dev/test) of applications, and less around application deployment/production and integration.

SAP Takes on IBM in 2013 with Simplified Enterprise Mobile Solution

Charlotte Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

• SAP’s rebranded SAP Mobile Platform integrates Sybase SUP, Syclo Agentry, and eventually all of Mobiliser
• SAP’s go-to-market strategy is based on simplified MEAP, channel support, continued third-party development tool support

Following a whirlwind year in which SAP appeared to spend all its marketing dollars on its SAP HANA database product, SAP’s mobile platform news will be finally coming out of the shadows. Following the acquisition of Syclo early last year, the company has aggressive integration plans in 2013 aimed at simplifying and strengthening its mobile portfolio and insuring it stays on the radar of core competitors including IBM, Antenna, and eventually Oracle. 

What Does VMware Mean to You?

Jerry Caron – Senior Vice President, Analysis

Summary Bullets:                

• VMware’s VMworld was a hit again, pulling in partners and customers alike
• The buzz around VMware is about much more than simple virtualization software

I did not attend last week’s VMworld in Las Vegas, hosted of course by VMware, the virtualization software market leader. I wish I had, though. While timing and location prevented my own pilgrimage, Current Analysis was very well represented as were a who’s who of technology-market partners and a robust contingent of IT executives and managers. The reason why this event has become so important for so many is simple, but also profound: Certainly VMware caught lightning in a bottle with its virtualization software, but the company is also leveraging this rather arcane solution as a platform to help solve myriad other IT problems, both with and without partner support.

App Platform Vendors Add to Enterprises’ Confusion over Mobility

C. Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

• Application platform providers’ general lack of a mobility strategy adds to the market confusion over mobile application platforms.
• 2012 will be a key year in integration projects between EAP and MEAP.

No one needs a PowerPoint slide to convince a CIO of the unprecedented speed with which the mobile revolution has hit the industry.  Most execs are scrambling to get a mobile strategy in place after realizing the importance of mobile applications to their business’s future growth.  However, many receive a rude awakening when they learn that not all traditional application platform providers have a mobile strategy in place themselves which provides enterprises with the middleware integration necessary to connect mobile applications with back-end systems.  This integration is critical both from a B2E perspective, so that businesses may react more nimbly to the real-time needs of their customers, and from a B2C perspective, so consumers receive real-time information about services and products based on factors such as their location and history.