To comply with the EU regulations outlined in December 2023, Microsoft will cease the provision of cloud services to Russian organizations at the end of this month. This was originally meant to happen on March 20, but extra time has been given to impacted organizations to migrate to alternative solutions.

As a result of the above implementation of EU sanctions, organizations in Russia will no longer have access to best-in-class Microsoft products including Office 365 apps, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, Azure, SharePoint, Visual Studio, SQL Server, as well as LinkedIn apps and Media Player development kits.

There have been no reports indicating that Microsoft will be restricting its cloud services to individuals, and hence they remain accessible to the general Russian public for now. Meanwhile, the Russian government has made efforts to promote domestic alternatives to ensure the continued smooth operations of private companies and organizations.

The Russian Ministry of Digital Transformation, Communication, and Mass Media anticipated this kind of move by foreign cloud service providers like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Oracle. Thus, last year it started to advise Russian organizations to make the transition to domestically made alternatives.No specific domestic alternatives were named or pointed to - so we don't know how the affected organizations will cope. The EU regulations specifically mention imposing a ban on providing software for managing a wide range of essential business operations.

This latest imposition of sanctions comes as a result of Russia's war against Ukraine, and the aggression which has continued for over two years. Sanctions are usually used against countries in such situations with some success. Typically some tech products avoid sanctions by being shipped via third-party distributors and sold in Russia, but other important sanction policies cannot be circumvented, such as the SWIFT ban preventing online transactions via banks.

On the hardware side of tech, reports suggest that China and Russia still enjoy component imports for chipmaking equipment, PCs, and servers. Interestingly the sanctions have also provided profits for scalpers from other nations, and we have seen some smugglers get caught, their goods confiscated, and facing likely legal proceedings.Meanwhile, it is thought some Russian entities subscribe to Microsoft cloud services using foreign accounts or using other bypass methods.

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Russian businesses get shut out from Microsoft cloud services at the end of this month new EU sanctions come into ... - Tom's Hardware

DUBLIN, March 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The "State of the Cloud in Latin America: Maximizing Business Success through Cloud Computing, AI, and Data" report has been added toResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

In Latin America, businesses increasingly adopt cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning technologies to support their strategic business growth. Despite a projected slower economic growth in 2024, digital transformation remains robust. Companies seek external partners to assist them in their journey toward full digitization. Sustainability is also gaining relevance, leading businesses to choose technologies that promote energy efficiency and emission reduction.

These are among the key findings from the 2023 Cloud User survey of Latin American businesses. The data is derived from respondents operating in the 4 largest markets in the region: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia.

Key Topics Covered:

Key Findings

Enterprise Cloud Adoption in Latin America

Cloud Remains at the Center of Digital Transformation

Sustainability Gains Prominence in Latin America

Latin America's Emerging Third-party Collaborations

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/t9k8gl

About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [emailprotected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets

Originally posted here:
Cloud Computing, AI, and Data Trends in Latin America: Cloud Remains at the Center of Digital Transformation - PR Newswire

During KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, research leader CERN is recognized as an exceptional end user of cloud native technologies

PARIS, March 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe -- The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which builds sustainable ecosystems for cloud native software, today announced that CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research and one of the world's largest and most respected centers for scientific research, has been awarded the CNCF Top End User Award. Two times a year, CNCF recognizes the significant contributions made by CNCF End User members across the cloud native ecosystem.

Since 2020, CERN has been a CNCF end user member and has been significantly involved in the cloud native community. CERN's infrastructure is responsible for storing and processing over 1 exabyte of data. At the core of its cloud native strategy lies Kubernetes, which allows the orchestration of containerized workloads across CERN's infrastructure. The laboratory has also embraced CNCF projects, including Prometheus, Argo, FluentD, CoreDNS, and Harbor, which have supported the management of over 500 clusters with thousands of nodes.

"CERN's innovative use of cloud native technologies is a shining example of how open source and collaboration can drive cutting-edge research," said Taylor Dolezal, head of ecosystem, CNCF. "By leveraging Kubernetes and other CNCF projects at an immense scale, CERN demonstrates the power of cloud native to tackle the world's most complex challenges. We are thrilled to recognize their outstanding contributions with the Top End User Award."

Adopting cloud native technologies has significantly impacted CERN's ability to operate at hyperscale. The adoption of projects beyond Kubernetes has facilitated the integration of CERN's identity, networking, monitoring, and storage services, highlighting CERN's commitment to cloud native principles. CERN's initiatives, like exploring a rootless stack or promoting advanced workload scheduling primitives for integrating High-Performance Computing (HPC) resources and enhancing container management, demonstrate its forward-looking approach to leveraging cloud native technologies to address future scientific and operational challenges.

"CERN is deeply committed to promoting innovation and collaboration within the cloud native ecosystem and has made multifaceted contributions to the CNCF community," said Ricardo Rocha, Computing Engineer at CERN as well as a member of the CNCF End User Technical Advisory Board (TAB) and CNCF Technical Oversight Committee (TOC). "By transitioning from a "build-it-yourself" culture to one emphasizing collaboration, CERN has actively engaged with the CNCF community, sharing its wealth of knowledge and best practices. This engagement has allowed CERN to focus more on its core mission of scientific research while contributing to the collective advancement of cloud native technologies. We are very honored to have been awarded this recognition and take this opportunity to thank the CNCF and the cloud native community for helping us push the boundaries of our computing infrastructure."

CERN has also participated in CNCF events and programs, including the Google Summer of Code (GSoC). Through CNCF Online Programs, CERN hosts sessions on managing large-scale cluster deployments, sharing valuable insights into the team's challenges, solutions, and learnings with the broader community.

CNCF's end user ecosystem is home to many innovative and active members, including two runner-ups for this year's award: Expediaand Shopify.

CERN is one of more than 150 organizations in the CNCF End User Community, which meets regularly to share adoption best practices and feedback on project roadmaps and future projects for CNCF technical leaders to consider.

Additional Resources

About Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Cloud native computing empowers organizations to build and run scalable applications with an open source software stack in public, private, and hybrid clouds. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) hosts critical components of the global technology infrastructure, including Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Envoy. CNCF brings together the industry's top developers, end users, and vendors and runs the largest open source developer conferences in the world. Supported by more than 800 members, including the world's largest cloud computing and software companies and innovative startups, CNCF is part of the nonprofit Linux Foundation. For more information, please visit http://www.cncf.io.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media ContactJessie Adams-Shore The Linux Foundation [emailprotected]

SOURCE Cloud Native Computing Foundation

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Cloud Native Computing Foundation Announces CERN as the Top End User Award Winner - PR Newswire

Many businesses are spending between $1.2 million to $24 million on public clouds each year, while annual SaaS spending is typically between $600,000 and $12 million. CRN breaks down new customer spending results on public cloud and SaaS costs based off a new Flexera report.

Nearly one-third of cloud customers are spending over $12 million per year in public cloudssuch as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloudwhile another one-third of organizations are spending between $2.4 million to $12 million each year.

Thats according to Flexeras new 2024 State of the Cloud Report, which surveyed over 750 IT professionals and executive leaders mostly representing enterprise companies headquartered in the U.S.

Looking at yearly Software as-a-Service (SaaS) spending, roughly two-thirds of businesses are paying between $600,000 and $12 million annually, while 22 percent of organizations are spending over $12 million.

[Related: Nvidias 10 New Cloud AI Products For AWS, Microsoft And Google]

Flexeras findings shed light on just how much businesses are paying for SaaS and public cloud solutions typically from leading cloud computing providers AWS, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.

CRN takes a deep dive into specific data results from Flexeras new report on just how much businesses are spending annual on cloud computing and SaaS, as well as generative AI (GenAI) adoption of cloud providers AI tools.

As public cloud adoption continues to accelerate in 2024, Flexera asked its 753 respondents who mostly worked at companies with 1,000 to 10,000 employees how much they spend yearly on public clouds.

Approximately 10 percent are spending $600,000 or lower, 12 percent are spending between $600,000 and $1.2 million, while another 12 percent are spending between $1.2 million and $2.4 million.

Moving up the spending range, 16 percent of respondents report public cloud spending between $2.4 million and $6 million, 15 percent spend between $6 million and $12 million, and 10 percent are spending between $12 million and $24 million.

At the top of the spending tier, 11 percent of businesses are spending between $24 million and $60 million, while 8 percent of respondents report spending over $60 million on public clouds annually.

Click through for information annual spending on public clouds, SaaS and generative AI.

The annual spending levels on public cloud between enterprises and SMBs differ vastly.

Well over half of SMBs61 percentare spending less than $1.2 million annually on public clouds, compared to only 15 percent of enterprise.

Less than 10 percent of SMBs are spending over $6 million annually on the public cloud. Comparatively, over half of enterprises53 percentare spending at least $6 million or more on an annual basis.

Flexera said there was a 21 percent increase in 2024 year over year in organizations spending $1 million or more per month on public clouds.

Flexera said SaaS adoption is at an all-time high, but businesses face challenges such as cost management.

Regarding annual spending on SaaS, approximately 12 percent of respondents are spending $600,000 or lower, 14 percent are spending between $600,000 and $1.2 million, while another 14 percent are spending between $1.2 million and $2.4 million.

Moving up the spending range, 17 percent of respondents report SaaS spending between $2.4 million and $6 million, 17 percent spend between $6 million and $12 million, and 7 percent are spending between $12 million and $24 million.

At the top of the spending tier, 6 percent of businesses are spending between $24 million and $60 million on SaaS, while 9 percent report spending over $60 million on SaaS annually.

Similar to public cloud spending, theres a large difference in the annual amount of money enterprises are spending on SaaS compared to SMBs.

Approximately 45 percent of SMB companies spend $600,000 or less on SaaS each year, compared to only 5 percent of enterprises.

Another 38 percent of SMB companies are spending between $600,000 to $2.4 million in SaaS. Comparatively, 38 percent of enterprises spend between $2.4 million to $12 million each year on SaaS.

There are basically no SMBs who are spending over $12 million per each on SaaS, while 26 percent of enterprises are spending over $12 million annually.

Interestingly, 11 percent of enterprises are spending more than $60 million each year on SaaS.

Generative AI is one of the most popular topics in the tech industry this year. The largest cloud providers in the worldAmazon, Google and Microsoftare pouring millions of dollars into creating new GenAI solutions helping to fuel the AI boom.

Flexera said in the face of ongoing economic uncertainties, many organizations are investing in transformative initiatives such as generative AI.

One-quarter of respondents say they are already using GenAI services from cloud providers extensively.

About 22 percent are using GenAI public cloud services sparingly.

Most respondents, 38 percent, are currently experimenting with GenAI public cloud services.

Fourteen percent of businesses reported not using any GenAI public cloud services.

Overall, nearly half of all respondents are using some form of GenAI cloud service.

For the second year in a row, managing cloud spend topped cybersecurity as the top challenge facing all organizations leveraging cloud computing.

This shift is likely due to organizations becoming more comfortable with cloud security, while the increased use of cloud services leads to increased spend. Flexera said managing this spend has become a priority for organizations.

Approximately 84 percent of businesses reported better managing cloud spending was their biggest cloud challenge, followed by 81 percent who said security.

Other top cloud challenges facing organizations today are a lack of resources and expertise, as well as managing software licensesboth at 78 percent.

Cloud governance, regulatory compliance, cloud migration and managing multiple clouds were also high on the list of customers top challenges in 2024.

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Here's The Annual Public Cloud And SaaS Bill In 2024: Report - CRN

There are few alive today who can remember a time when IBM wasn't a powerhouse in computing. The company has played a major role in the three major periods when tech spending grew faster than gross domestic product, and it's reinvented itself more times than any other major player.

Buyers consistently rate it among the most strategically influential companies in tech, and yet it gets relatively little love from the press. IBM is often portrayed as the sleeping giant that's falling into deeper sleep. What is IBM up to now? How should enterprises assess its future and their future with IBM? The answer is platforms.

As recently as 20 years ago, a platform in computing meant a computer system. Application software, even then, was the critical ingredient in turning something that could do little more than heat a room into an experience that people and businesses value. The computer -- the hardware -- was just what software needed to run. What IBM realized about that time, when considering the broad topic of AI that led to its Watson initiative, was that not only was hardware insufficient to build the foundation of software, but it wasn't even all that important.

What mattered was an emerging and growing software layer that sat between hardware and applications. This layer -- or platform -- consists of OSes, middleware and operations tools. It's the link between that applications layer and the business cases that drive IT spending.

IBM's platform strategy is what led it to abandon networking, which it sold to Cisco, and even personal computing, which IBM made into the business tool it is and then sold to Lenovo. It retained only its mainframe computers: the Z series and Power servers. The former were kept because the largest IBM customers, which were also the largest companies, had written their own software for these systems and the latter to accommodate a large base of enterprise software written for IBM's Advanced Interactive eXecutive, or AIX, OSes.

Over time, application evolution has eroded the software base for both types of hardware, and so hardware is less and less important to IBM's revenues. That's not a problem; it is a sign that the transition to the platform concept is almost complete.

In one way, yes, because the platform strategy builds standardized software tools in a hardware-independent way to build applications. However, it also isn't because a platform is also a customer acquisition and retention strategy, as well as the basis for professional services revenues.

Since a platform is an integrated, symbiotic unit, it also offers buyers an application framework they don't need to build and integrate themselves. Even platforms can't totally unravel software complexity. Platform skills can be sold as professional services. It's no surprise that IBM's software and professional services businesses are growing, more than offsetting the hardware erosion.

Hybrid cloud is currently IBM's most valuable platform, partly because it cuts across all vertical markets and all applications.

IBM jumped on the notion of hybrid cloud because it knew from its mainframe experience that the data center was a persistent part of enterprise strategy. With the Red Hat acquisition, IBM gained a broader potential market and a modern software base on which both data center and cloud applications could be built. The hybrid cloud model then connects and unifies the two.

Given that most of IBM's competitors are relying on an "everything is moving to the cloud" story, IBM sees that enterprise C-suite members are highly uncomfortable with a total migration. Recent softness in cloud growth proves that. The capstone of the IBM hybrid cloud strategy could well be the Software AG's StreamSets and webMethods acquisition in December 2023, both technologies to organize software portability in hybrid and multi-cloud deployments.

Watsonx is not only an AI platform, but a data platform that provides a direct link to business operations. What IBM heard from enterprises was that AI wasn't valuable alone. Instead, it works well as an extension of business analytics and as a means of solving business problems by analyzing past activity and projecting future trends.

We should expect IBM to continue to exploit its hybrid cloud advantage through software and to capitalize on its unique ability to link AI directly to corporate data to gain advantages.

Tom Nolle is founder and principal analyst at Andover Intel, a consulting and analysis firm that looks at evolving technologies and applications first from the perspective of the buyer and the buyer's needs. By background, Nolle is a programmer, software architect, and manager of software and network products, and he has provided consulting services and technology analysis for decades.

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IBM focuses on platform-based plan for hybrid cloud and AI - TechTarget