Weekly CloudNews: Cloud During Pandemic & News from Amazon, Microsoft and Google

Welcome to this week’s edition of CloudBolt’s Weekly CloudNews!

Earlier this week, we looked at four tips for scaling Kubernetes deployment. We also featured this blog from Nilesh Deo about six ways companies waste money in hybrid cloud environments, and how to avoid them.

Next week, Nilesh will host a webinar on the hot topic of IT automation on April 29 at 1 p.m. Sign up here, we’ll send you the recording if you can’t make it.

With that, onto this week’s news:

Cloud Remains the Top Technology Tool During Pandemic

Kelly Teal, Channel Futures, April 14, 2020

“Not surprisingly, the cloud remains the top technology tool to which entities are turning as they enable remote work during the ongoing pandemic. This puts the impetus on channel partners to help clients manage those deployments to avoid cost overages and security breaches. This roundup looks at two companies addressing those areas.

COVID-19 lockdowns and other restrictions continue to spur organizations worldwide to support largely unplanned employee work-from-home initiatives via the cloud. And even while cloud vendors were strategizing product launches prior to coronavirus, their new platforms are helping enterprises, vis à vis their channel partners, manage those unexpected deployments.

More than half (52%) of survey respondents cited lack of awareness of cloud security and policies as the top cause of cloud misconfiguration. Another 49% attributed the problem to a lack of adequate controls and oversight; 43% said the issue lies with too many cloud APIs and interfaces to adequately govern. Finally, 32% of respondents said negligent insider behavior creates cloud misconfiguration. These results point directly to ways channel partners can help their enterprise clients better protect their cloud environments, especially amid last-minute, COVID-19-fueled deployments.”

Cloud strength positions Microsoft and Amazon for growth despite IT budget delays, analysts say

Todd Bishop, GeekWire, April 14, 2020

“Despite expectations of broader cuts and delays in corporate technology spending, a new report says Microsoft and Amazon are poised to outperform many other enterprise technology providers in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, due to their heavy investments in public cloud infrastructure and services.

Cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure ‘will continue to see exceptional growth in their infrastructure offerings,’ analysts with Moody’s Investors Service say in the report.

They add, ‘While the transition to the cloud is a headwind for certain legacy software and hardware providers, the overall shift remains a net driver of revenue growth. We expect double-digit growth from cloud infrastructure players though moderately slower than their earlier pace.’”

Google Cloud Unveils COVID-19 Data Sharing Platform For Providers

Samantha McGrail, HIT Infrastructure, April 14, 2020

“HCA Healthcare and Google Cloud recently launched a COVID-19 data sharing platform to enable the exchange of key information during the pandemic. 

The COVID-19 National Response Portal, operated by SADA, runs on Google Cloud and promotes COVID-19 patient data sharing to uncover how the virus is spreading and help communities to prepare and respond. 

‘COVID-19 presents a unique and significant challenge to healthcare providers, and collaboration and coordination is more important than ever to help ensure the best possible response,’ said Edmund Jackson, MD, HCA Healthcare’s chief data officer.”

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