Welcome to The Cloud 5, our weekly feature where we scour the web searching for the five most intriguing and poignant cloud links we can find.
Before we jump into this week’s links, please have a look at one of our recent blog posts, Google’s murky cloud numbers. Google is being cagey when it comes to its cloud revenue. It would be nice to have some clear data.
And without further delay, here we go with this week’s links:
Microsoft courts Hollywood with secure media cloud services | eWeek
First came the Sony hack in 2014, then last week we heard about the HBO breach. With these high profile leaks comes a market opportunity, and Microsoft is taking full advantage. Redmond is marketing secure media services, and they couldn’t come a moment too soon.
AWS’ Chinese partner telling customers in China that VPNs are not allowed | GeekWire
Apple got some bad press recently when it agreed to take all VPN software out of its Chinese App store, but it’s not alone. AWS also heard recently from its Chinese partner that VPNs are now forbidden, as China continues to crack down on software to get around its firewalls.
You need a cloud exit plan, even for AWS, Google, Microsoft, or IBM | InfoWorld
One of the great things about the cloud is supposed to be lack of vendor lock-in, and the time may come when you need to leave your cloud vendor behind and take your data somewhere else. If you doubt this, check out Dropbox’s decision to bring all of its data into in-house data centers. Fact is everyone should have an exit plan.
Why BMW is betting on the cloud | TechCrunch
BMW sees the future of the automobile, and reckons it’s going to require a connection between the cloud and the car. The company is working today toward building that future, and it wants full control over that experience. It doesn’t want to be stuck relying on one of the usual suspects: Apple, Google, or Amazon.
Apple embraces a multi-cloud future, and that’s exciting | Computerworld
Embrace might be too strong a word here, but it does appear that the latest version of iOS may make it easier to connect to a multi-cloud environment. That could make life a lot easier for corporate IT to connect to internal data systems than prior versions of the OS.
Photo Credit: Timo Henckel. Used under CC 2.0 license.