Cloud Hosting

The platform called an application server is typically used for cloud-based apps for mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. While allowing the right to access and the functionality of the corporate application, the application server serves as the host for the user's business logic.

The banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) industry are always dealing with new regulations, cybersecurity concerns, an increase in the volume of data being generated, and an increase in the number of transactions. Secure, scalable solutions that allow for effective service delivery are constantly needed in the BFSI sector. Additionally, to keep up with technological advancements and have up-to-date security features that guard against continually growing cyber threats, these apps must be updated at fairly regular intervals. Application servers provide tools for building online applications and middleware services for security and upkeep available, as well as network data access.

Get a Free Sample Copy of This Reportat https://straitsresearch.com/report/application-server-market

Rapid advancements in wireless networks and mobile device technology have created a wealth of possibilities for applying application servers in previously untapped fields like information dissemination and the digitization of public services. Additionally, e-commerce and mobile commerce are becoming more and more popular, which is encouraging for the market's expansion over the projection period. As workload and accompanying complexity have increased, government agencies have been utilizing technology more and more. Government agencies must also continually assess the functionality and effectiveness of their current applications and, where necessary or in order to keep up with the difficulties posed by technology, transition to new, better-suited platforms.

With a revenue share of more than 40%, North America dominated the application server market in 2020. North America is renowned for its early adoption of cutting-edge technologies and for having a high mobile device penetration rate. When it comes to early adoption of the newest and most innovative technology, the United States and Canada are regarded as having extremely mature marketplaces. As a result, North American-based companies use application servers at a significant pace.

The fastest-growing regional market is anticipated to be in the Asia Pacific. The Asia Pacific is renowned for the expansion of high-speed wireless internet networks, the proliferation of smartphones, and the exponential growth of the manufacturing and e-commerce sectors. Some of the additional important aspects that are anticipated to support the expansion of the regional market are the rising number of software and IT service providers, the rise in service-based startups, and the aggressive adoption of cutting-edge technologies, notably in China and India.

Microsoft Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Red Hat, Inc., and TIBCO Software Inc. are some of the major companies active in the sector. To gain a larger portion of the market, industry companies are investing heavily in R&D projects and streamlining their internal operations. To enhance and broaden their current product and service portfolios, they are also constantly engaged in new product development. To develop technologically innovative products and acquire a competitive edge in the market, they are also placing a major emphasis on mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnerships. Microsoft Corporation, International Business Machines Corp., Oracle Corporation, Red Hat, Inc., TIBCO Software Inc., The Apache Software Foundation, FUJITSU, VMware, Inc., NEC Corporation, and SAP SE are a few of the well-known companies active in the worldwide application server industry.

See the original post:
App server market size expected to reach 52B by 2030 - App Developer Magazine

I recently came across an interesting article outlining a recent study by Jie Yu Kerguignas, Olivier Furrer, and Ikle Landry exploring the phenomena of 'Customer Captivity' in the hospitality industry. According to the authors, customer captivity occurs when customers become dissatisfied with a service relationship but feel like they don't have the ability to alter or leave the relationship, due to a perceived need for the service and a lack of alternatives." A sense of captivity can intensify negative emotions such as frustration or a sense of unfairness with the feeling that the customer's needs are going unheard and that they are ultimately powerless to change their situation. The result can be devastating to a brand's reputation, as captive customers often turn to negative word-of-mouth behavior to vent their frustrations and regain a sense of control. Kerguignas, Furrer, and Landry argue that companies can ease captivity feelings by empowering customers through increased transparency and additional service options, and by creating controlled channels for customers to vent their emotions.

While these solutions are viable, they aren't comprehensive enough to fully address customer captivity in the hospitality tech industry. This article will present a guide for hoteliers on how to avoid becoming a captive customer and actually identify a true technology partner, including what to look for and what questions to ask before entering a vendor agreement.

Investing in a technology platform especially a system as complex and essential as a property management system is a major undertaking, potentially affecting your hotel's operations, service, and revenue. It's critical to start by clearly defining your needs and objectives: What exactly are you looking to achieve with the platform? What pain points are you looking to alleviate? How does the platform fit in with your hotel or groups unique business goals and service philosophy?

Having a clear understanding of these requirements will help enormously as you search for a PMS vendor that can meet your hotel or groups specific needs. Make sure your vendor research extends well beyond the vendor's website and marketing materials to include independent sources such as customer reviews, case studies, and references. Asking for recommendations or testimonials from peers in your industry is also an excellent way to get the 'inside story' on how the platform actually performs. You should also make sure that the vendor makes their Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) readily available and make a point to ask how they resolve support issues, ensuring that they support their answers with clear use cases and clear data on resolution and response times.

Legacy PMS platforms operated out of independent servers that had to be maintained on-site at the hotel. This required hotels to pay high installation costs upfront, and then pay additional recurring costs for server maintenance and product updates. On the other hand, hotels receive a lot more flexibility in SaaS-based ('Software-as-a-Service) commercial models. SaaS models offer shorter contracts where the customer can pay month-to-month, affording them more flexibility and control over the vendor relationship. And because most SaaS-based platforms do not require on-site servers, there is no need to charge hotels for server installation, maintenance, or manual product updates.

Of course, not all SaaS companies are the same. Pay close attention to a vendor's licensing and pricing models. Are they transparent, and can you predict your costs over time? Be wary of vendors with complex or hidden pricing structures, or vendors that keep their customers captive by locking them into a contract with a support structure that does not meet their needs.

Many platforms do not leverage open APIs, which places hotels into confined 'walled gardens,' forcing them to pay exorbitant fees for 'proprietary' integrations while restricting their ability to customize their tech stack. Instead, look for modern cloud PMS platforms that boast a comprehensive and growing library of integrations that are provided at no additional cost to the end user. The PMS platform should also be based on an open-API architecture ideally enhanced by simplified webhooks which can facilitate seamless data transfers between platforms while making it easy to develop custom integrations to new third-party systems.

Make sure your PMS vendor is also specific about what type of 'cloud' service they are delivering. Although many legacy providers are now offering 'cloud-based' versions of their on-site platforms, these systems often run on independent servers which suffer from issues with reliability, performance, and 'buck-passing' between multiple separate customer service teams. Instead, make sure your cloud-based platform is hosted on a native-cloud server such as Amazon AWS. Native-cloud servers deliver exceptional speed, performance, and reliability, as well as almost perfect uptime and automated scalability based on use.

Becoming a strategic partner involves more than just providing a service; it means actively supporting your clients throughout the customer lifecycle as they navigate challenges, achieve business goals, and realize their ideal service philosophy. It's critical that your technology vendor is committed to seamless change management, including having a clear understanding of your business needs and objectives and providing dedicated support and expertise throughout the customer lifecycle.

Any strategic partnership begins with a well-crafted implementation policy that reduces service and operational disruptions to an absolute minimum. Look for vendors that provide dedicated implementation teams and comprehensive training programs that can deploy their platform and onboard your staff in as little time as possible. The implementation team should remain actively engaged throughout the onboarding process, proactively addressing potential issues before they arise, while providing access to online tools and tutorials. Responsiveness is critical during this stage, with resources being shared promptly, ideally within the same hour and no later than within 24 hours. This level of proactive assistance must be continued throughout the customer lifecycle, with the provider offering continuous, 'follow the sun' support, providing assistance from product and industry experts at any time of day or night.

Once you choose a PMS provider, it's critical to monitor their performance regularly to ensure that they are meeting your expectations and that their platform helps you achieve your business goals. If they are not meeting your expectations, it goes without saying that you should consider switching to a more suitable vendor.

Set Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) to ensure that the vendor is always keeping up on their end of the bargain and identifying areas of improvement with the technology and the partnership. Your vendor should also provide access to a dedicated client success manager (CSM). The CSM acts as your advocate within the vendor's organization, ensuring the platform meets your business needs and facilitating a feedback loop that informs the product development and roadmap. This proactive approach forms the foundation of a robust and enduring strategic partnership, from implementation to the future of the platform itself.

Stayntouch delivers a cloud-native and guest-centric hotel property management system (PMS) with a comprehensive library of over 1,100 integrations. Stayntouch's cloud-native PMS empowers independent hotels, hotel groups, and management companies to drive revenue, reduce costs, enhance service, and captivate their guests. In 2022, Stayntouch launched Stayntouch 2.0, a fully integrated technology suite featuring its core cloud-native PMS and guest kiosk solution, a comprehensive chain management module, a seamless booking engine (Stayntouch Booking), a robust payment processing platform (Stayntouch Pay), and a powerful channel manager. Stayntouch 2.0 enables hotels to streamline their operations, maximize and diversify their revenue streams, and deliver an even more enhanced guest experience with the innovation and support of one trusted technology partner. Stayntouch is supported by a team of professionals with deep roots in the hospitality industry and is a trusted partner to industry-leading management companies including Sage Hospitality, HEI Hotels & Resorts, and EOS Hospitality, innovative independent brands such as Village Hotels, Pod Hotels, and First Hotels, and iconic flagship properties such as the TWA Hotel, Showboat Hotel Atlantic City, and Zoku Amsterdam. For more information, visit http://www.stayntouch.com.

Frewoini GollaDirector of Marketing

View source

Link:
How to Avoid Being a Captive Customer to Your Property ... - Hospitality Net

Summary

Three tips can enhance network preparedness and help secure IIoT networks.This feature originally appeared in the AUTOMATION 2023: Cybersecurity & Connectivity ebook published in September.

When an Industrial IoT network is finally up and running, it may be tempting to rest on your laurels. Nonetheless, change remains the only real constant in the world of industrial networking. An IIoT network may be sufficient for your current needs. It may even be ready for foreseeable application requirements over the next several years. But what about the next decade? Change is always in the air, and you need to be prepared.

Since the early days of industrial automation, manufacturers have adopted a variety of purpose-built protocols and systems for highly specialized control applications instead of using standard Ethernet technologies. However, as IIoT continues to expand, industrial networks in the future will be required to transmit much larger volumes of databetween interconnected devices and to collect information from remote devices for both OT and IT engineers to access (Figure 1). With these growing demands on the horizon, network preparedness may determine an enterprises success.

Consider these three tips to help prepare the IIoT network for the future:

Over the years, various devices using different protocols have been deployed on industrial networks to provide diverse services. Under these circumstances, network integration usually costs more than expected or becomes more difficult to achieve. Manufacturers can either choose the status quo, that is, maintain their pre-existing isolated automation networks with numerous purpose-built protocols of the past, or seek solutions to deterministic services that can integrate these islands of automation into one unified network.

If the goal is to be ready for future demands, the choice is obviously the latter. The rule of thumb is to take potential industrial protocols into consideration and ensure you can redesign networks in case any new demands arise in the market. One approach is time-sensitive networking (TSN), a set of new standards introduced by the IEEE 802.1 TSN Task Group as an advanced toolbox. With TSN, users can build open, unified networks with standard Ethernet technologies that reserve flexibility for the future.

Figure 1: Industrial networks in the future will be required to transmit much larger volumes of data between interconnected devices and to collect information from remote devices for both OT and IT engineers to access.

Cloud-based remote access offers many benefits to IIoT users such as reducing the travel time and expenses of sending maintenance engineers to multiple remote sites (Figure 2). Furthermore, cloud-based secure remote access can offer flexible and scalable connections to meet dynamic, fast-changing requirements. However, operational technology (OT) engineers may find it cumbersome to set up and maintain their own cloud servers for new services and applications. There is considerable effort associated with setting up new infrastructure, even in the cloud. Fortunately, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and machine builders can now deliver secure cloud-based services and remote access to their customers, therefore eliminating the need to maintain in-house cloud servers.

A key issue that demands scrutiny is the cloud server license scheme. Often, upfront costs may seem low for limited server hosts. Yet these apparent cost savings on server hosts may actually make a project uneconomical due to the limited scale of connections. Second, you may also need to consider central management capabilities to flexibly expand remote connections as your needs change. With this said, carefully weigh the costs and benefits of incorporating secure remote access to industrial networks. Always select solutions that minimize hassles and will help deliver more value to customers.

Figure 2: Cloud-based secure remote access can provide flexible and scalable connections to meet the dynamic, changing requirements of the future.

When complexity increases due to greater connectivity on industrial networks, it can become difficult to identify the root cause of problems and maintain sufficient network visibility. Control engineers often have to revert to trial and error to get the system back to normal, which is timeconsuming and troublesome.

To facilitate and manage growing industrial networks, network operators need integrated network management software to make informed decisions throughout network deployment, maintenanceand diagnostics. In addition, as systems continue to grow, it is important to pay attention to a number of network integration concerns. First, only managing industrial networks in local control centers may not be feasible three or five years from now, especially when existing systems need to be integrated with new ones. It is therefore important to use network management software with integration interfaces such as OPC DA tags for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system integration or RESTful APIs for external web services. Furthermore, an interface to facilitate third-party software integration is also a key criterion for ensuring future flexibility.

For many industries, the IIoT presents as many challenges as opportunities. Nonetheless, this new frontier where traditional OT and IT silos converge is clearly the way of the future. Successfully deploying an IIoT application requires careful planning and attention to detail from the moment you decide to begin the journey. As a pioneering expert in industrial networking, Moxa provides a number of innovative technologies and solutions to help speed up network readiness for future IIoT applications.

This feature originally appeared in the AUTOMATION 2023: Cybersecurity & Connectivity ebook published in September.

Roger Chen is manager of Cybersecurity Market Development at Moxa, Inc. Moxas connectivity technology helps to make ideas real. We develop reliable network solutions that enable devices to connect, communicateand collaborate with systems, processesand people.

Check out our free e-newsletters to read more great articles..

See the article here:
Getting IIoT Networks Ready for the Future - Automation.com

By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporter

Gigabyte Technology Co () yesterday said that strong sales of its consumer electronics-related products, such as motherboards and graphics cards, would continue this quarter, and that demand remains strong for its server products artificial intelligence (AI) servers in particular.

Overall, the company is confident that revenue growth would remain steady this quarter. It expects this years revenue to exceed NT$100 billion (US$3.08 billion) earlier than expected, thanks to continued end-market demand and effective optimization of its product mix, it said in a presentation document released after the companys online investors conference.

Gigabytes revenue last quarter was NT$36.9 billion, up 52.53 percent year-on-year and 41.2 percent quarter-on-quarter.

It was the highest quarterly figure in the companys history, the company said.

Sales from graphics cards accounted for 36 percent of Gigabytes total sales in the third quarter, followed by servers at 27 percent, motherboards at 22 percent, and laptops and other computer peripherals at 15 percent, it said.

The companys graphics card business has come out of the trough experienced in the first half of the year, with demand recovering and shipments booming in the second half as clients stepped up efforts to reduce channel inventories, Gigabyte told investors.

Its motherboard business is expected to return to positive sales growth next year following clear signs of improvement in the bottom half of this year, while server shipments are likely to register a high double-digit percentage increase this year, as demand for AI services continues to rise, it said.

To meet demand from clients, the company plans to optimize the production capacity of two server assembly plants in Taiwan, Gigabyte said, adding that its main customers are in Europe and the US, but it aims to gain orders from the Asia-Pacific region.

The US AI chip ban would not affect Gigabyte as it is not shipping to China, it said.

Gigabyte is striving to maintain its leadership by providing a wider choice of product lines compared with its local peers, it said.

While it remains a strong supply partner of US graphics chip designer Nvidia Corp, it aims to launch new server products for other chipmakers and cloud service providers next year, Gigabyte said.

The company did not reveal its bottom-line figures for the third quarter, but analysts forecast that its gross margin would improve to 13.3 percent from 11.83 percent in the second quarter, while its earnings per share would grow to NT$2.72 from NT$1.4, given better economies of scale and higher-than-expected sales in the third quarter.

Gigabytes cumulative sales in the first nine months of the year totaled NT$91.37 billion, an increase of 15.13 percent from the same period of last year and a record high for the period, the company said.

By region, American markets contributed 41 percent to the companys sales, followed by the Asia-Pacific region with 34 percent and Europe and the Middle East with 25 percent, it said.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

Go here to see the original:
Strong demand for products to last, Gigabyte says -