Over the past few years, it’s easy to see how much cloud computing has expanded and evolved. Every time we think we’ve reached peak adoption, new research comes out that shows us all there are still more companies just starting or planning to start their cloud computing journey.
Organizations are increasingly digital. Not only do they have data stored on on-premise infrastructure, but more often than not, they’re operating across public and private cloud and working with multiple service providers. While this complexity is advancing how organizations do business, it also makes networks that much more susceptible to downtime – whether that’s because of human error or security issues.
If you read the 2020 technology predictions from Markley, you may have seen the one related to Zero Trust. In the year ahead, we predict that Zero Trust will pervade the internal network – meaning, data privacy and security concerns will impel the hardening of internal infrastructure, for example, to include data encryption both in-flight and at-rest. Further, hybrid architectures will force IT organizations to re-evaluate their concept of the 'internal network' and consider Internet-independent private network alternatives.
Building a next generation data center isn’t within reach for every company -- from cooling to maintenance to employing staff around the clock, sometimes the juice is simply not worth the squeeze. That’s where colocation comes in. Colocation can match and exceed your IT and business requirements without the significant upfront capital costs and long-term operating expenses.
Organizations have no shortage of data storage and compute options -- from pure public and private cloud strategies to multi-cloud, hybrid-cloud and on-premise. As more organizations migrate workloads to various forms of cloud deployments and make choices for the sake of speed in innovation, understanding threats to data security in the cloud has never been more important.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the most widely used public cloud services but many organizations aren’t getting as much out of their AWS environments as they could be. By accessing AWS through broadband Internet links, some customers and applications can experience poor bandwidth throughput, higher-than-expected costs, and more.
For multi-cloud to be more effective, IT and vendors both need to dedicate themselves to centralized authentication and security policies, and comprehensive solutions across all externally facing infrastructure to web application firewalls and distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection.
We’re excited to once again be sponsoring the annual SIM Boston Technology Leadership Summit to be held at Gillette Stadium next week. The Summit delivers a great day of networking, collaboration, and education for the region’s IT executives and professionals.
As we’ve discussed in two of our latest blogs, more organizations are moving away from an all public cloud strategy in favor of a combination of public and private cloud solutions that can better meet agility, control and security requirements.
In our most recent blog, we explored the growing trend of workload repatriation from the public cloud. Over the past decade of the cloud-first movement, organizations are learning that the “one cloud fits all” mentality rarely suits the operational and budget requirements of the modern enterprise. As the market matures and cloud services advance to meet evolving demands, hybrid models are emerging as an enterprise strategy of choice.
We’ve seen a number of enterprises start to take a step back when it comes to the public cloud. They are beginning to pull some of their applications out of the cloud and return them to their brick-and-mortar data center. Enterprises are increasing investments in private cloud solutions that better meet their security and control requirements.
As many organizations know, the cloud is not one-size-fits-all – every enterprise has different workloads operating in different clouds and environments (from public cloud to private data centers). Moreover, today’s organizations must be able to operate 365/24/7, and require maximum uptime and data access.
If you regularly follow our blog, you know that Markley is a big supporter of the local Boston tech community. From our support of the Boston CIO Leadership Association, to the SIM Boston’s annual golf outing to MassTLC’s Boston TechJam, we are active supporters of the innovation, inventiveness, and entrepreneurship found throughout our community, and we can’t wait for what the future has in store!
As we approach the halfway mark of 2019, colocation providers are gearing up to reel in even more business, as enterprises continue to rethink infrastructure, get rid of as much on-premises data center space as they can, and replace that on-prem data center space with cloud services and modern colocation facilities.
As you may have seen from our recent blog post and on social media, Markley Group will be at this year’s Boston TechJam as an underwriting sponsor, and we couldn’t be more excited to see everyone next Thursday, June 13 at City Hall Plaza!
Next week, the Markley team will be sponsoring SIM Boston’s 18th Annual Michael P. Brooks Memorial Golf Outing on Wednesday, June 12.
As many in the Boston tech community know, Boston TechJam is coming up in a few weeks on Thursday, June 13 -- and the first event details have been released. Keep reading for more information (which may or may not have already made its way to your inbox)!
CIOs from across the Greater Boston area participated in our hybrid cloud straw poll at the recent BostonCIO Leadership Association meeting here at Markley.
On Thursday, May 16th, Markley will host BostonCIO’s next meeting at our One Summer Street facility to collaborate and exchange ideas; learn from peers; share best practices and experiences; recognize technology leadership excellence and more.
Hybrid cloud is often viewed as the new normal, and this week, TechTarget featured a great read from ESG sharing the benefits of a hybrid cloud-first strategy.
As a proud sponsor of the Boston Ballet, it is Markley’s pleasure to spread the word about the opening of Boston Ballet’s 2018-2019 spring season with Full on Forsythe, running March 7-17 at the Boston Opera House.
Today’s healthcare and life science organizations are managing, creating, storing and analyzing more data than ever before – from electronic health records (EHR) to drug discovery and research.
The other week, Boston was hit with its first snow storm of the season. It included snow, rain, and then more snow, and left the city slick with ice. And it’s probably no surprise that these types of conditions can make equipment maintenance all the more difficult, and power outages all the more likely.
The holidays are over and that warm spring air is seemingly ages away. Instead of hibernating these next few months, get out of the house and join us at this year’s VTUG Winter Warmer on Thursday, January 24th at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
With C-Suite and IT decision makers relying on cloud platforms like never before, we are seeing a tremendous increase in demand for cloud computing talent in today’s job market.
Your organization’s cloud infrastructure does not have to remain unsecured. There are ways to improve cloud security without compromising on the flexibility it brings to employees and business operations.
There’s no doubt about it – more and more companies are adopting public, private and hybrid cloud solutions, as well as embarking on digital transformation initiatives. In fact, according to Gartner, IT services will grow at 4.7 percent in 2019 thanks to digital transformation. But as many organizations have come to find out, selecting the right service provider is much spookier than anticipated. As we approach Halloween, here are the top three things to consider when selecting a cloud provider that won’t leave you wondering whether you’ll get a trick or a treat.
Today’s enterprises understand that their IT infrastructure is an integral part of being able to stay competitive – data, applications and operations need to be as flexible, agile and secure as possible if organizations are going to deliver on the demands of employees, customers and shareholders.
On Wednesday, October 17, the VMware User Group (VMUG) will host their annual Boston VMUG UserCon at Boston’s Westin Waterfront Hotel. As a VMware Cloud Provider partner, we’re excited to share that Markley will be at this year’s event as an exhibitor and sponsor! As an independent, customer-led organization, VMUG is a key resource for the VMware community and ecosystem, helping to maximize the use of VMware and partner solutions through knowledge sharing, training, collaboration, and events.
Markley offers a variety of in-house cloud-based services.
I had the pleasure of presenting at the VTUG Summer Slam this year. This event is always great, if for no other reason than the “pull out all the stops” Lobster Bake at Gritty’s following conference sessions. This year, I even had the great fortune of sitting down and eating lobster with Hans Bernhardt from VMware, a perennial presenter and long term supporter of this event and user group.
It is no secret that Marvel’s Avengers movies do well in the box office; in fact, the latest movie, Avengers: Infinity War, just broke two billion in the global box office. However, Avengers: Infinity War is not the most recent Marvel movie to hit the big screen. Deadpool 2 will likely do just as well as the first Deadpool movie, which hit $783.1 million in the box office. Ant Man and the Wasp just hit theatres in the month of July. Much like everybody else, here at Markley, we can not get enough of these heroes, and the new mural at One Summer Street proves it.
While the single public cloud approach may work for a few specific organizations, is it the right strategy for the countless other organizations that are somewhere in their cloud and digital transformation journeys?
Join Markley and NVIDIA on July 25, alongside local healthcare organizations and experts, to discuss how to apply deep learning in clinical settings, share ways to use your data to build intelligent tools that aid physicians and review best practices for getting started on new AI projects.
Over the past year, we’ve discussed multi-cloud and hybrid cloud deployments, and how organizations have been drawn to these models for more flexible cloud deployments that directly meet their needs. And according to a survey from Scalr earlier this year, that’s still the case.
In today’s business climate it is imperative that companies understand their data. If networks or systems go down and data is lost, businesses risk revenue loss, fines for non-compliance and more. Establishing a proper data storage, backup and recovery procedure has never been more important.
There’s a reason why Markley has been a Gold Sponsor at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium for so many years in a row – it continues to be one of the industry’s leading conferences, bringing together the who’s who of CIOs, senior IT executives and MIT academic thought leaders. And this year’s event, themed “Up Your Digital Game from Vision to Execution,” should be no different.
It’s no secret that businesses are migrating from on-site data centers to the cloud, but determining the specific cloud strategy most beneficial to the enterprise is still very much a work in progress for many organizations.
We often talk about disaster recovery in terms of weather events, like hurricane season or a severe blizzard. Yet, that’s not the only time companies may find themselves in need of a disaster recovery plan – including during a cyberattack or a fluke accident that leaves equipment without power.
It’s no surprise, cloud and IT outages can stop businesses in their tracks - that’s exactly what a new report from Lloyd and risk modeller AIR Worldwide demonstrates.
There is no denying the importance cloud computing has played in the digitalization of organizations over the years. And as we enter 2018, the question is no longer when will the cloud take hold, but how big is the market going to get?
Thank you to our staff, partners and customers who have made 2017 a year worth celebrating.
Before we close the book on another year, it’s important to take a look back at the big trends that influenced the industry and use it to inform our strategy for how we approach the year ahead.
2017 may be coming to an end, but one of its biggest trends is definitely not. Cloud computing has continued to dominate as a top business priority throughout the past year, and according to new research, cloud computing’s momentum isn’t going to slow down anytime soon.
Markley has participated in numerous Boston CIO events over the years. We hosted an exclusive member gathering focused on big data and analytics.
The need for supercomputers has never been greater, but accessibility has long been a challenge. Through Markley and Cray’s partnership, which brings the power of the Cray Urika-GX to the cloud, more organizations now have the ability to utilize supercomputing capabilities when and how it’s needed.
Multi-cloud strategies allow organizations to build a custom cloud computing strategy that best aligns with the organization’s needs.
When thinking of cloud-first industries with strict compliance and security regulations – healthcare is be top of mind.
We’ve all heard the modern refrain: “Every company is a technology company.” And IT outages that stop businesses are one of the strongest proof points to that argument. Take the latest airline IT outage – this time impacting Canada-based airline WestJet – when network downtime delayed dozens of flights and stranded travelers for hours. Airlines are just one example of how companies that have never been considered “technology” companies need to operate as if they are, working to achieve the necessary always-on and always-available mindset.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and securing customer data and critical information has never been more important.
We have some exciting news to share - Markley is pleased to announce that we've been selected by Amazon.com's Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide AWS Direct Connect!
Cloud continues to proliferate across many industries, and over the past couple years, healthcare and life science organizations have been leading the charge.
When it comes to IT trends, not many have made a greater splash than the rise of cloud computing.
Recent research backs up the idea that companies are turning to the hybrid cloud to save money and improve reliability/uptime – and to do so quickly and easily.
For most organizations, moving to the cloud is no small task. Reaping a significant ROI is critical. Markley shares three tips for optimizing cloud investments.
Do you accept downtime at your data center as a “normal” cost of doing business? What about an outage, or, even worse, a fire?
Last week we launched our first-of-its kind supercomputing-as-a-service solution with the world’s leading supercomputer company, Cray. As we were working with them to develop the offering we knew we were on to something that could be a game-changer for lots of companies – and the media agreed!
As you may have seen, on Tuesday morning we here at Markley made a major announcement: we launched our new supercomputing-as-a-service solution in partnership with the world’s leading supercomputing company, Cray.
While the cloud started off as a vision, it is now an accepted part of everyday business life, being turned to for an enterprise’s most critical, high-value operations. The cloud has certainly had a major impact across organizations, most notably influencing and evolving the role of today’s CIO.
In the past, the phrase “Shadow IT” has been used by IT experts and industry pundits to describe the practice where rogue groups of employees have decided to set up their own Wi-Fi networks in the office, or to purchase some cloud computing for their specific team or project, doing so outside of the company-approved technologies and processes. The dangers of this type of action were obvious – Shadow IT created massive possibilities for security issues and data breaches, not to mention simply creating the potential for network conflicts and bandwidth strains.
Despite the late winter storm that rolled through Boston and much of the East Coast this month, Spring has sprung. For organizations, this is an opportune time to take stock of existing data assets, examine cloud and physical storage solutions, and establish or refresh your disaster recovery plan. By regularly re-evaluating your data storage plan, you can ensure your business and employees are operating as effectively as possible.
Over the past year, we’ve talked a lot about the hybrid cloud and how organizations have been drawn to this model for easier and more manageable cloud deployment. So, it’s no surprise that hybrid cloud has been seeing tremendous growth in the market.
The technology skills gap – it’s a topic being discussed by almost every technology company and leader today, and a challenge that many are finding very difficult to overcome. And with the advancements in data storage, cloud computing, IoT, mobility and more, IT has emerged as one of the top technology areas struggling to tackle its talent challenges.
With the Big Game on the horizon, it got us to thinking about what business lessons could be learned from what it took for both New England and Atlanta to rise above the rest of the competition this season. The common thread? Preparation.
For IT departments and CTOs across a wide range of organizations and industries, implementing a comprehensive disaster recovery plan remains at the top of priority lists – whether it’s taking the step to create one from the ground up or update an existing plan to meet today’s data demands.
