CIA Looking for Cloud Systems Integrator for Multibillion-Dollar Rollout

The CIA is preparing to go all-in on cloud, much like the Department of Defense has done with the JEDI initiative. There aren’t a lot of details, but we do know a cloud systems integrator in the channel could benefit from the very hefty contract. Meantime, Salesforce users have new data backup and recovery hope thanks to Druva. And enterprises relying on Oracle databases have another option through the vendor as well. Finally, in this week’s cloud news roundup, find out what Nutanix has learned about hybrid cloud during COVID-19.

CIA on Hunt for Cloud Systems Integrator

Here’s a juicy cloud item: The CIA is looking for a cloud systems integrator (or more?) to provide support and management tools.

That tidbit comes from Nextgov on the heels of news that the super-secretive agency will use AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle and IBM in its years-long, multibillion-dollar cloud contract.

The five vendors all will compete for specific task orders; yet, as with the infamous JEDI project, Microsoft remains the cloud vendor with the biggest chance of hosting top-secret data. That’s because the company long has served as a government contractor and attained critical security clearances.

In the meantime, the CIA next will award work to a cloud systems integrator. That entity likely will need the resources to oversee all five cloud environments.

Druva Picks up Where Salesforce Left Off, Adds Oracle Protection

A few months after Salesforce discontinued its own data recovery feature, Druva has taken matters into its own hands.

The California-based vendor has purchased sfApex, which specializes in Salesforce developer tools and data migration services.

Druva said Salesforce’s end to data protection put too many of the CRM platform’s users at risk. So, executives stepped in.

Druva’s Jaspreet Singh

“Salesforce is critical to every organization: the data stored within it fuels growth, ensures strong customer relationships and helps identify opportunities to expand relationships,” said Jaspreet Singh, founder and CEO of Druva. “Given its sensitivity and potential business impact, keeping this data available and compliant is a business critical function. The addition of sfApex, and their team’s deep expertise, to the Druva family brings a compelling and powerful solution to customers to help ensure they meet today’s dynamic business demands without ever having to worry about the lights going out.”

Salesforce said in March it would cancel its data backup recovery service because of the cost and time involved. The company ended support on July 31.

Druva customers relying on Salesforce now can take advantage of cloud data backup and recovery across a variety of enterprise locations (endpoints, on premises, the cloud). They also can protect data from other applications including Microsoft365, Google Workspace and Slack.

Meanwhile, Druva, which continues to expand its channel-first sales strategy, has new protection for Oracle databases in hybrid cloud environments. This comes even as Druva’s services run on Amazon Web Services.

Druva says the support for Oracle gets rid of the need for complex, multivendor infrastructure management, while improving security, total cost of ownership and scalability.

The move seems smart for Druva and its channel partners. Earlier this year, numbers from the DB-Engines Index ranking system showed that Oracle continues to hold its majority market share for databases. Those findings dovetail with others throughout the industry. On top of that, more organizations are hosting their Oracle databases on AWS. Overall, that makes Druva’s new support for Oracle a no-brainer.

Druva’s data protection for Oracle features its standard deduplication, encryption and long-term retention services. Capabilities further include auto-discovery of database instances, role-based access control, auto-tiering to cold storage and more.

Druva expects its new services for Oracle to debut in the first half of next year.

Hybrid Cloud: COVID-19 Impact Brings out Best Model

IT leaders see hybrid cloud as the ideal operating model — no surprise in the era of COVID-19 and demand for flexible accesses.

According to the third annual Enterprise Cloud Index from Nutanix, 86% of respondents lauded the hybrid cloud for its capabilities over strict public or private counterparts. The reaction comes as organizations continue to support workers from home during a pandemic.

In fact, three-quarters of respondents said they’re thinking more strategically about IT because of the impact of the novel coronavirus. That’s largely because remote work looks to stick. In Nutanix’s 2019 report, about 27% of respondent companies had no full-time at-home workers. This year, that number fell 20 percentage points, to 7%, because of COVID-19. IT leaders say they’re now eyeing infrastructure improvements (50%) and work-from-home tools (47%) as priorities for the next 12-18 months.

The “multicloud” adoption trend, too, is seeing uptick. Among the businesses using public cloud, 64% rely on two or more such environments, Nutanix found. Respondents expect that figure to jump to 71% in the next 12 months.

For channel partners, the obvious opportunity lies in building and managing hybrid and multicloud environments for customers.

Nutanix contracted UK research firm Vanson Bourne to survey 3,400 IT professionals worldwide for the report.