#Cloud Repatriation solutions

[attorneysinphuket]

US-Thailand Treaty of Amity

The 1966 Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations between the United States and Thailand (amended 1968) represents one of the most consequential bilateral agreements in Southeast Asian commerce. Emerging during the Cold War's geopolitical realignments, the treaty was designed to:

Strengthen economic ties between the two nations

Provide US investors with national treatment in most business sectors

Serve as a counterbalance to regional communist influences

Key Distinction: Unlike standard Foreign Business Act (FBA) provisions limiting foreign ownership to 49%, the treaty permits 100% US-owned enterprises across most industries.

2. Legal Mechanics: How the Treaty Supersedes Thai Law

A. Treaty vs. Foreign Business Act (FBA)

The FBA's three restrictive lists (Annexes I-III) normally prohibit foreign majority control in:

Annex I: Agriculture, media, land trading (absolute prohibitions)

Annex II: Certain service industries (requires Cabinet approval)

Annex III: Most professions (engineering, accounting, etc.)

The Amity Treaty overrides these restrictions for US nationals through:

Article IV(1): National treatment guarantee

Article IV(3): Most-favored-nation clause

Article VI(4): Capital transfer protections

Exception: The treaty cannot circumvent constitutional land ownership restrictions (US companies may own buildings but not land).

Notable Exclusion: Financial services (banking/insurance) remain regulated by the Bank of Thailand.

3. Establishing an Amity Treaty Company: Technical Requirements

A. Ownership Structure Mandates

Minimum 51% US ownership (individuals or corporate entities)

US citizen control of board decisions

Documentation Requirements:

Notarized affidavit of US ownership

Certified corporate documents (for US parent companies)

Passport copies of US shareholders

B. Registration Process

Name Reservation (Department of Business Development)

Capitalization (No minimum requirement but practical considerations apply)

Treaty Certification (Ministry of Commerce)

Tax Registration (Revenue Department)

Work Permit Applications (No quota restrictions)

Processing Time: 4-6 weeks for complete setup

4. Operational Considerations & Compliance

A. Capitalization Strategies

While no minimum capital is mandated:

THB 2 million recommended for work permit approvals

THB 5 million+ for credibility with Thai banks

B. Tax Optimization

Transfer pricing documentation critical for HQ transactions

Withholding tax planning on service fees (typically 15%)

VAT registration thresholds still apply

C. Annual Compliance

Audited financial statements required

Corporate income tax filings (even if zero revenue)

Shareholder meeting minutes documentation

5. Common Pitfalls & Dispute Resolution

A. Ownership Dilution Risks

Losing US majority control voids treaty privileges

Solution: Implement shareholder agreements with veto rights

B. Banking Challenges

Thai banks often unfamiliar with treaty provisions

Recommendation: Use Bangkok Bank or Siam Commercial Bank (most experienced)

C. Dispute Resolution Mechanisms

Arbitration: Preferred under Treaty Article V

Forum Selection: Thai courts generally respected

Enforcement: New York Convention applies

6. Long-Term Strategic Planning

A. Succession Planning

Transferring shares to non-US heirs risks treaty status

Solution: US-domiciled holding company structure

B. Expansion Pathways

BOI Upgrade: Possible but requires new application

Regional HQ Status: Can complement Amity privileges

C. Exit Strategies

M&A Considerations: Buyer must maintain US majority

Liquidation: Capital repatriation protected under treaty

7. Recent Developments & Future Outlook

2019 Amendment Discussions: Proposed updates stalled

Digital Economy Impact: Cloud services interpretation evolving

Geopolitical Factors: US-China tensions increasing treaty's value

Emerging Trend: More US tech startups using Amity as ASEAN beachhead.

8. Expert Recommendations

For New Market Entrants:

Conduct treaty qualification analysis before incorporation

Structure capitalization for both immigration and banking needs

Document all corporate actions meticulously

For Existing Businesses:

Annual treaty compliance audit

Consider BOI dual-track strategy for manufacturing

Evaluate Elite Visa for non-working shareholders

For High-Risk Industries:

Retain Thai legal counsel for FBA gray areas

Maintain parallel Thai nominee structure as backup

9. Conclusion: The Treaty's Enduring Value

While Thailand's investment landscape has evolved significantly since 1966, the Amity Treaty remains the most efficient vehicle for US businesses seeking:

Full operational control without joint ventures

Rapid market entry (vs BOI's longer process)

Political risk mitigation through treaty protections

Final Consideration: The treaty works best when integrated with:

Proper tax planning

Strategic immigration structuring

Local regulatory compliance

[wdcsuae]

10 Reasons Why Businesses Prefer UAE for Software Development in 2025

UAE 2025 continues to intensify its position as a stubborn contender for tech development, innovation and technology. Software development is one more field that is receiving global interest. Companies world over are looking for strategic locations to set up, grow and issue their digital solutions, and the UAE is ticked off on the list. But what is the reason behind the UAE being so famous for Software Development projects? Here are some reasons that answer why the UAE is becoming businesses first choice in terms of Software Development Services in UAE 2025.

1. Government Support

UAE Government with all its marvellous policies takes software development to a whole new level. Digital transformation is the heart of the software defined government policy. Vision 2025 contains UAE Digital Government Strategy while AI is the prime focus area for 2031. This support allows regulation relaxations, grants and even tax reductions which helps the company on so many levels. This encourages start ups and other dynamite innovators to efficiently scale up.

The governments from Abu Dhabi and Dubai also have the XP Dubai Smart City project, and Hub71 has put into place the policy which helps in effortless investment. Implementing schemes for easy business operations across borders puts into place the remote work system, which helps business growth in the UAE.

2. Business-Friendly Environment

UAE is one of the most business-friendly countries in the world as company registration is easy, there is little red tape, and the tax regime is very attractive with 0% income tax for individuals and low corporate tax rates. 

In addition, free zones like Dubai Internet City and Sharjah Media City specialize in supporting tech and software industries by allowing 100% foreign ownership and profit repatriation. 

3. Access to a Skilled and Diverse Talent Pool

One of UAE’s greatest strengths is its international workforce. Professionals from all over the world converge here which gives the country access to a wealth of technical skills and talent, especially in full stack development, DevOps, AI, machine learning, and cybersecurity. 

Graduates from leading local universities and coding bootcamps are readily available, especially with government investment in upskilling initiatives designed to address talent shortages. This availability of skill makes it easy for businesses to rapidly and effectively expand their software development operations.

4. Strategic Benefits of Geographic Location

Offering the best logistical advantages for businesses trying to penetrate multiple markets is the UAE due to its geographic position at the intersection of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This facilitates not only communication between time zones but also enables speedy software solution rollouts throughout the Middle East and beyond.

Emerging markets that are integrated in a digitally connected world economy make a real difference—and that’s exactly what the UAE offers.

5. Modern Tech Infrastructure

The UAE has a cutting edge broad array of modern technological infrastructure such as data centers, cloud computing and high-speed internet. The UAE infrastructure has a robust framework built on cutting edge 5G networks and cloud computing services, placing the nation at the forefront of modern technology and ensuring its adaptability to the future.

It is important to note these benefits particularly cater to businesses focused on large scale SaaS deployments and software development as well as cloud application development.

6. Thriving Tech Ecosystem and Innovation Hubs

Other than cloud computing and data analytics, the UAE is home to several tech focused thriving innovation hubs that aids startups and enterprises cultivating new innovative ideas in technology. Notable mentions are the Dubai Silicon Oasis, Hub71 in Abu Dhabi, and the Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park (SRTIP).

These tech hubs are great for collaboration and innovation which makes it easier for software development companies to network and share ideas to accelerate growth. 

7. Robust Cybersecurity and Data Protection Laws

For the software developing companies in the UAE, they certainly pay a lot of attention to cybersecurity features, and rightfully so because in 2025, data privacy ought to be of utmost importance.`` The UAE ZAE has relevant and coherent laws that deal with data protection, much like the European Union's GDPR.

For the UAE, having such comprehensive policies ensures that software created within the borders of the state meets international privacy and security standards.

While this pertains to any organization handling sensitive end-user data, it becomes most critical for the ones operating in the healthcare, finance, and e-commerce industries. For enterprise level software solutions, the UAE has a reliable digital infrastructure.

8. High Demand for Digital Transformation 

The rapid emergence of the pandemic fueled the acceleration of digital transformation for businesses in the UAE. This is evident in finance, healthcare education, logistics, and retail industries. Such needs have resulted in a constant flow of new opportunities for software development services in the UAE.

The companies based in this region have a tendency to seek digitizing operations, implementing technologies, and automating workflows which generates a demand for custom software, mobile applications, and AI tools as well as enterprise platforms.

9. Startup Culture with Accessibility to Funding

Venture Capitalists and Startups have found the UAE alluring in recent years. The Emirates had previously been acquainted with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund. Additionally, other international accelerators such as Techstars and Y Combinator have paved their way into the region.

All this available funding and supporting structures allow software development firms, particularly startups, to mature, innovate, and bolster their clientele.

10. Quality of Life and Work-Life Balance

The United Arab Emirates has to offer a highly disregarded, yet alluring, quality of life that ethnically diverse professionals deem to be eye catching. It is contributed by ultra-modern healthcare to education facilities along with quality housing, social life, and a country that is overall welcoming towards entrepreneurs.

As for cleanliness, multicultural, and highly safe globally, it becomes an even more interesting place to establish a business and residence- enabling better retention of employees and productivity amongst software development teams.

Final Thoughts

By the time we reach the mid of 2025, it has become very obvious that the UAE is in need of software development. Their digital economy, availability of relevant personnel, along with extraordinary infrastructure, vision oriented government, and focus on providing businesses quality software solutions mark a check against all needs of the country.

The use of technology for business automation, operational improvements, and enhancing customer experiences has never been easier, especially in the UAE where companies look to harness.

Is your business ready to be transformed with innovative software solutions?

If yes, then partner with WDCS Technology, the leading primary custom software development company in UAE. WDCS develops mobile applications and provides web development services for startups, SMEs, and large enterprises. Our services are modified according to the client's specifications to ensure optimum performance.

Contact us today to embark on your digital transformation journey!

[edbmails25]

Office 365 to Exchange Migration: Overcoming Compatibility and Data Integrity Challenges

Migrating from Office 365 to Exchange is not a typical cloud trajectory. But for certain organizations, especially those in highly regulated industries or with on-premises infrastructure commitments, this move is strategic. While technically feasible, it brings critical compatibility concerns and serious risks to data integrity that must be addressed with precision.

Why Reverse Migration Is Gaining Attention

Not every IT strategy is cloud-first forever. Some businesses shift back to Exchange due to compliance mandates, network control, or integration with legacy systems. In hybrid environments, administrators often seek to consolidate workloads under Exchange Server for governance or policy enforcement. The challenge starts the moment Office 365 data must align with Exchange architecture.

Compatibility: A Real and Immediate Roadblock

Office 365 evolves continuously. Many cloud-native features do not exist or behave differently in on-premises Exchange. These include modern authentication methods, shared mailbox behavior, calendar sharing models, and retention policies. When data is exported, formatting, metadata, and flags may not map accurately.

Outlook clients configured for modern authentication may fail during the reconfiguration process. Autodiscover may point to incorrect records if DNS cleanup isn’t handled precisely. These issues multiply when multiple mailboxes, service accounts, and shared folders are involved. Compatibility cannot be an afterthought. It must be audited and remediated before the first batch migration begins.

The Threat of Data Loss During Repatriation

Office 365 stores data across multiple layers. Mail, calendars, contacts, tasks, and archives live in distinct locations. Repatriating this data requires extracting it in a format Exchange can understand. Exporting mailboxes to PST sounds straightforward, but issues arise when mail size limits, corrupted items, or orphaned folders are involved.

Calendars are particularly fragile. Recurring meetings often break when moved across platforms. Folder permissions may not retain their original hierarchy. Rules, categories, and MAPI properties may be lost if the migration tool does not support full-fidelity transfers.

Data integrity is more than preserving emails. It’s about keeping context, structure, and function fully intact. A partial or malformed restore can impact compliance audits and user productivity.

Avoiding Migration Disasters with Technical Foresight

Planning for Office 365 to Exchange migration must include:

Pre-migration audits: Understand mailbox size, item count, shared access patterns, and retention policies

DNS and Autodiscover configuration: Prevent mail flow interruptions and profile rebuilds

Tool selection: Choose solutions that support direct migration from Office 365 to Exchange without intermediate steps

Incremental syncs: Avoid full cutovers when mailbox activity is high

Detailed testing: Validate not just content transfer but also usability post-migration

Automate with Precision: Use Purpose-Built Migration Software

Manual exports introduce delays, errors, and inconsistencies. Relying on native methods or PowerShell scripts is rarely scalable. A purpose-built solution like EdbMails Office 365 migration software supports direct and secure migration to Exchange. It ensures folder structure, metadata, and user permissions are preserved accurately. With support for large mailboxes, advanced filtering, and incremental sync, EdbMails helps IT teams maintain compatibility and data integrity at scale.

Avoid post-migration surprises. Plan smart, validate every stage, and use a trusted solution that minimizes risk.

Additional links:

👉 Import multiple PST files to Office 365

👉 Microsoft 365 tenant to tenant migration

[strategictech]

Hyperscale cloud: Expectations versus reality

With all the marketing around hyperscale cloud, you’d assume that adopting it would be easy and simple. And the irony is that it once was. When first brought to market, hyperscalers like AWS, Azure and GCP wanted to ensure their services were straightforward. But as time has gone on, these solutions have become much more complex – to the point that, often, specialist training is needed right from the start. 

In recent years, this increasing complexity has started to influence businesses to reconsider their hyperscale cloud usage in favour of alternative infrastructure solutions like colocation and bare metal hosting. In fact, 94% of large US organisations claim to have worked on some sort of cloud repatriation project in the last three years.

@tonyshan #techinnovation https://bit.ly/tonyshan https://bit.ly/tonyshan_X

[creation-plus]

Reverse Cloud Migration: Why Some Enterprises Are Bringing Their IT Back On-Premise

Reverse Cloud Migration: Why Some Enterprises Are Bringing Their IT Back On-Premise

It’s easy to argue that with cloud migration, the wrong workloads are moved or managed – yet requirements like efficiency, security and cost aren’t always predictable. something repatriation Inevitable – providers can always fail or regulations change, low latency may be required, and of course, the kit has to be on-premise somewhere. Paul Flack, director of solutions sales at public…

[rainycloudh-blog]

How to Write an (Analytical) Essay

Using quotations in your essay

When writing an essay, you should refer regularly to the text which you are to analyse. A good way to do this is to cite passages from the text. We call these passages quotations. This method is used because in this way you can use the writer's own words as a basis for the statements you make. It is not just your own opinion of the text that is important but showing how the writer makes her/his points and commenting upon them. Remember to write page and line references after the quotations. You can do it in brackets like this: (p. 3, l. 7) or if there are more than one pages and lines: (pp. 3-4, ll. 8-10).

Each paragraph should be structured in a logical way: A) You make a point, B) you put in a quotation from the text to support your point, and C) you draw a conclusion. We can call this structure P-Q-C for POINT-QUOTATION-CONCLUSION.

The Basic Structure of Your Essay 

An opening introductory paragraph

The main body of the text is a series of paragraphs made up of P-Q-C statements, e.g.,

A concluding paragraph

Point-Quotation-Conclusion

Point-Quotation-Conclusion

Point-Quotation-Conclusion

etc.

Now look at three examples of P-Q-C paragraphs using three quotations from the text written by the National Front

(You can skip this section. It’s just for extra help & context) 

The National Front 

The National Front is the Party dedicated to the promotion of British Racial Nationalism.

We reject multi-racialism absolutely and we recognise that the great achievements and unique character of the British people can, to a great extent, be attributed to its racial composition.

The National Front is committed to the ending of all non-White immigration and to the phased and financially assisted repatriation of all non-Whites, together with their dependents and descendants. White people would have no automatic right of entry but discretionary entry would be allowed according to the circumstances of each case, with a preference for those of recent British descent. Europeans who have already settled here will not be subject to repatriation but those who are resident here by virtue of Common Market membership will no longer have an automatic right of residence.

The Anti-British Race Relations Act will be repealed and its Pro-Black, "positive discrimination" policies ended. Instead, we propose a truly positive policy of putting Britons first in jobs, housing, education and welfare and of providing separate facilities for Afro-Asians while they await repatriation.

Third World countries will be encouraged to provide for the return of their peoples and their descendants by an enlightened policy of providing aid to those countries co-operating with our repatriation programme.

We are not motivated by hatred of Afro-Asian immigrants but by a love of our Nation and a concern for its future.

… Millions are abandoning Conservatism because of its failure to preserve the patriotic principles of its former days. Millions more are abandoning Labour in disgust at its ever growing remoteness from the problems and needs of the British working man.

It is against this background that the National Front has been born. The need for a new national party, not limited to the defence of class or sectional interest, has been felt in Britain for many years. Several attempts, before and after the war, to establish such a party foundered, sometimes in internal squabbles, sometimes form sheer lack of staying power in a hard struggle against the massed weight of old party interest – mobilised to stop the new growth. Founded in 1967, the National Front has managed to overcome these infant problems and now emerges as the first serious movement of its kind in modern times. Formed in the first place as an amalgamation of several smaller political groups, it has grown steadily in strength and influence and is now a permanent part of the British political scene.

As the National Front has grown to prominence, it has had to contend all the way with vitriolic and sometimes downright and deliberately false reporting by press and television. Fortunately, however, there is today a much more serious spirit of inquiry among British people than years ago, and the true facts about the National Front are penetrating through the clouds of distortion– with the result of fast-growing public support.

The National Front is a fully constituted political party pledged to win power by the ballot box. It has no illusions that this will be achieved except by many years of hard struggle, and it straightaway is distinguished from other parties by offering its workers only toil and sacrifice. It is financed, neither by big business, as in the case of the Tories, nor by the unions, as in the case of Labour, but only by the subscriptions and voluntary contributions of ordinary British men and women.

How to Start

Because your essay starts with an introductory paragraph, you would think that it would be easiest to begin writing that first. But this is not the best way to begin work on your essay.

Before beginning to write your essay examine the text carefully and choose a few passages that have struck you as controversial, interesting or maybe misleading. You will have to read the entire text a couple of times to find these key passages and as you become more practised at analysing texts, you will find it easier to choose the appropriate passages. The main body of your essay should centre around these passages.

The Main Body of the Essay 

We have chosen these passages from "The National Front" text as examples of quotations to show how an essay on this text could be built up:

… the phased and financially assisted repatriation of all non-Whites, together with their dependents and descendants.

… a new national party, not limited to the defence of class or sectional interest, has been felt in Britain for many years.

… there is today a much more serious spirit of inquiry among British people than years ago, and the true facts about the National Front are penetrating through the clouds of distortion …

Now here is how you could build up the Point-Quotation-Conclusion structure around these sentences:

Point: The National Front is quite clear about its goals, but instead of stating its policy in straightforward language, it chooses words that soften its radical policies. Quotation:.. the phased and financially assisted repatriation of all non-Whites, together with their dependents and descendants. Conclusion: The key word is "repatriation", which means "sending back to the country of origin". By using a rather unusual word, instead of just using simple language, the National Front is trying to soften the effect of the statement.

Point: The National Front would like to present itself as a truly legitimate political party representing all of Britain. Quotation: … a new national party, not limited to the defence of class or sectional interest, has been felt in Britain for many years. Conclusion: By suggesting there is wide support for the party throughout Britain, the National Front is quietly claiming that none of the major political parties truly represent the British people. If you do not agree with them, then you are not really 100% British.

Point: Even though the National Front is presenting itself as a genuinely legitimate political party, it makes use of biased language to defend itself against its opponents, real or imagined. Quotation: …there is today a much more serious spirit of inquiry among British people than years ago, and the true facts about the National Front are penetrating through the clouds of distortion … Conclusion: Here the National Front is suggesting that if the truth were known, all true Britons would agree with its policies. But it has to resort to attacking its opponents who have been creating "clouds of distortion" to confuse its potential supporters, and the almost religious image of the ray of truth shining through the "clouds of distortion" is used to emphasise the National Front's claim to have a monopoly on the truth.

The Introductory Paragraph 

Now that you have a series of quotations that are the basis for your essay, you can prepare an introduction. The introductory paragraph is important because it presents your reader with your ideas about the text for the first time. The reason to write the introduction after you have begun work on the main body of the essay is that your thoughts and ideas about what to say are being formed as you study and write about the relevant quotations from the text. After you have worked with the text for a while, it is much easier to prepare an introductory statement.

Let us take "The National Front" essay that we have been working on and write an introduction:

"The National Front" is a text that has two main goals. 1) To present the National Front party's policy of racial nationalism, and 2) to represent the National Front as a legitimate political party. To achieve these two aims, the National Front moderates its language so that its openly brutal policies are presented as reasonable solutions to Britain's problems. But by examining the text carefully, it becomes clear that the National Front is not a mainstream political party but a group of extremists.

The Concluding Paragraph 

Now all you have to do is write the conclusion. A conclusion should refer back to the introduction and reinforce the ideas expressed there. In the conclusion, it is permissible to put in your own opinion and draw parallels to related topics in the real world (or other texts) and relate them to the points you have introduced in your introductory paragraph.

Let us take "The National Front" essay that we have been working on and write a conclusion:

Despite the fact that the National Front has tried to moderate its language in the text we have been asked to analyse, it is clear that the National Front is not a legitimate or respectable political party. Great Britain is not the only country in Europe with this type of radical party. In all European countries there are parties that are trying to present themselves as respectable, but whose members are in fact extremists. And if we study their language carefully we will be able to recognise their offensively hostile, anti-immigrant ideology.

☁Good luck!☁

[charterglobal]

3 Ways to Integrate the Cloud Computing into your Business

Cloud computing has become an incredibly popular model for modernizing IT portfolios. With exclusive benefits like gaining agility and speed-to-market, more and more companies are turning to public cloud software.

Hybrid cloud systems are a means to shuttle business applications between public clouds from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and private clouds running internally, or even hosted off-site by a provider.

Previously, many organizations chose one cloud services provider. Yet, because this approach lacks distinctive functionality, organizations are now recognizing the benefits of multi-cloud. Improved organizational flexibility, better performance and efficiency, and avoiding vendor lock-ins, are just a few of the benefits multi-cloud offers.

1. Adopting a Hybrid Cloud Environment

One trend that will see continuous traction in 2020 is procuring cloud services from two or more vendors at a time. AWS is popular for customer-facing apps, while Microsoft Azure for business services and GCP for analytics compliment the execution of specific business scenarios.

Some chose to hold apps closely using private cloud computing, or, shuttle apps back and forth between public and private systems. This is often in the interest of security or financial reasons, with companies rolling back apps from public clouds to internal systems, known as repatriation.

The big picture, however, points to an urgency for a strategy that ensures the entire ecosystem works synchronously, especially as the use of multiple clouds and on-premises cloud installations become more common.

2. Find the Right Fit

When your eyes are bigger than your stomach, you might put too much food on your plate. This is the case for companies who rely too heavily on the public cloud computing, who often lose money after the first 12-18 months.

Over-provisioning resources you won’t consume will ultimately backfire, as is the case with some application developers who accidentally leave cloud workloads running into the weekend. As a result, multi-million-dollar charges are incurred.

Governance can help mitigate these over-spending risks. Crafting a strategy that optimizes functionality across cloud computing (both public and private), is one such way to ensure this risk mitigation.

A solution known as “FinOps” is a combination of analytics software and business management practices that, upon migration to the cloud, monitors and calculates the actual rate of cloud consumption.

3. Modernize, Migrate, and go Cloud-Native

You’re probably familiar with the lift-and-shift approach for migrating apps to the cloud computing, which isn’t enough to drive agility if certain factors aren’t in place. Upgrading legacy applications, for example, is fundamental when moving your data center to the cloud if tackling speed-to-market initiatives.

Modernizing apps, whether migrating as-is or re-architecting entirely, is vital for the attainment of competitive, advantageous software. Containers and microservices also work to make apps portable and capable of breaking-down.

Cloud-native systems like Kubernetes-esque orchestration services (think AWS, Azure, and GCP) automate deployment, scaling, and management of containers, and ultimately enable rapid-fire change and continuous delivery.

Challenging aspects of going cloud-native include the need to manage clusters of containers running in a multi-cloud schema. Stop-gap measures, like using VMware to run virtual servers in AWS or Azure, can help overcome these issues.

Irrespective of the architecture your enterprise chooses to build, don’t sacrifice long-term transformation goals your business needs for short-term cost savings.

[un-enfant-immature]

MariaDB raises $25M more to expand its SkySQL cloud database platform

Cloud services continue to be a key component of how organisations remain operational even as so much else — such as physically working in enclosed offices — is forced to change because of the COVID-19 health pandemic. Today, MariaDB Corporation, the company behind MariaDB SkySQL and one of the startups leading the charge on open source cloud databases, is announcing $25 million in funding to continue its growth.

The money is coming in the form of an extension to the company’s Series C round, and it’s being led by SmartFin Capital, a Belgian VC, with participation also from previous investor GP Bullhound.

(Side note: extensions to existing rounds seem to have become more frequent in recent months. That’s in part because extensions can be faster to close than opening and closing completely new rounds; in part because they are typically smaller amounts; and in part because fundraising has become a lot more challenging and harder to do in recent months, with people travelling and meeting in person much less, and sometimes not at all.)

Notably, however, being an extension doesn’t mean the valuation is not changing. This latest infusion brings the total raised by MariaDB Corp. to over $125 million, “doubling our valuation,” CEO Michael Howard noted in a statement.

Howard didn’t reveal the exact figure of that valuation, but for some context, the company — founded in Helsinki, Finland and now co-headquartered in Redwood City, CA — was last valued at €300 million ($340 million at today’s rates) in 2017, in a $27 million round led by Alibaba. That would put today’s round at a €600 million ($680 million), a big leap for the the startup — and for open source — in the space of three years.

Part of the boost for MariaDB’s business is coming directly as a result of the demands we’re seeing in the enterprise sector today for database-as-a-service tools built on cloud and open source architecture, Howard noted.

“Expanding MariaDB SkySQL cloud operations is our key focus,” Howard said in a statement. “There is an addressable and immediate market need with a growing number of companies who want to enable faster innovation and agility by adopting cloud technologies and shifting database management to DBaaS solutions.”

MariaDB says that DBS Bank, ServiceNow, Walgreens, Samsung and more than 75% of the Fortune 500 customers run MariaDB in both private and public clouds, speaking to the reach of the platform.

MariaDB Corp. is not disclosing its own growth numbers — we’re asking and will update as and when we learn more — but it’s likely they have been strong, judging by the valuation hike.

“MariaDB continues to exceed our expectations,” said Jürgen Ingels, founding partner, SmartFin Capital, in a statement. “The company’s innovation in cloud database technology will help support the rapid growth in IT modernization that businesses large and small are pursuing to keep up with the world around us. We feel MariaDB is well-positioned to take a large share of the growing cloud database market as companies continue to push forward into the cloud. We are proud to invest more in MariaDB to continue their exceptional growth.”

Apart from the more immediate effects of the health pandemic, MariaDB Corp’s growth speaks to other trends in enterprise IT that have been in play for years.

Gartner estimates that 75% of all databases will have migrated to cloud architectures by 2022 either with all-in or hybrid deployments, “with only 5% ever considered for repatriation to on-premises.”

While MariaDB remains committed to open source — indeed there is a MariaDB Foundation that includes members like Microsoft, Booking.com, Tencent and Alibaba — MariaDB Corp has positioned itself as something of a consolidator in terms of building commercial services on top of the open source relational database. Its acquisitions have included Clustrix and MammothDB to expand its functionality, and this funding will be used to that end as well, particularly around scaling and improving the speed of SkySQL.

“MariaDB has risen to be a household name in the IT industry,” said Per Roman, co-founder and managing partner of GP Bullhound in a statement. “We have been particularly interested in MariaDB’s focus on bringing its flexibility, security and stability to the cloud. That’s why we’re excited to invest in MariaDB, as we see enormous opportunities for its SkySQL product.”

[avnid]

Benefits of Cloud Computing

Saying that cloud platforms are popular with IT admins is like saying that water is wet. Over the past several years, the cloud has moved from an interesting emerging usage model to the de facto ruler of enterprise IT. While on-premise infrastructure is still in use (and will continue to be for the foreseeable future) there are few organizations that aren’t at least considering migrating parts of their infrastructure to the cloud.

Cost is a key motivator for this; received wisdom generally says that cloud infrastructure is cheaper and more cost-effective to run than on-premise equivalents, both in terms of the CapEx required for setup and in terms of ongoing costs. Scalability is also frequently cited as an advantage, allowing IT departments to scale the capacity of their infrastructure up and down as needed. The cloud is particularly attractive for database administrators, who are increasingly looking to migrate their large legacy database applications and take advantage of the benefits that cloud can offer.

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SIGN UP This received wisdom, however, is not always accurate. In fact, many database admins have found to their dismay that a poorly-managed cloud migration actually results in lower efficiency and higher costs than they experienced with their on-premise systems. Part of the reason for this is a sub-optimal assessment of an organization’s requirements prior to making the move, as not all databases are created equal.

Before moving your database to a cloud-based infrastructure, you’ll need to establish what service tier you require - this governs the level of CPU, storage, memory and network capacity that your database has access to. Most cloud providers offer right-sizing tools to predict your needs and model costs based on them, but because these are usually based on collecting a limited amount of data from your database over a fixed period, they’re not always accurate. This is important because, with cloud services, you pay for the resources you provision; not for the resources you actually use.

Inaccurately predicting your performance needs could lead to problems further down the road; either locking yourself into a needlessly expensive subscription that offers more baseline capacity than you require, or not having enough performance and headroom to scale when demand starts to spike. This undermines one of the core advantages of the cloud - while the technology is inherently scalable, the restrictions of subscription tiers may not be. These issues are magnified if you adopt a multi-cloud strategy since you’re now using different cloud providers with different rules.

It’s important, therefore, to have an accurate picture of your needs prior to beginning your cloud migration journey. Using tools like Quest Software’s Benchmark Factory to test and measure your database workloads pre-migration and compare performance with a similar cloud-hosted database, you can ensure you’re better equipped when you need to make the transition.

Similarly, it’s important to test whether your database will benefit from improved performance by migrating. Depending on the type of application and the frequency at which it is being accessed under load, your on-premise infrastructure may actually work better for some databases than a cloud-based equivalent. This, incidentally, is part of the reason why hybrid cloud solutions enjoy such a continuing level of popularity among businesses.

High workloads may also affect performance differently depending on where a database sits; although one infrastructure may outperform another when demand is moderate, at higher stresses, performance may start to slow down - an important consideration when planning the transfer of mission-critical systems that are prone to seasonal spikes. Quest’s Foglight for Databases monitoring solution helps counteract these issues by allowing database admins to run cross-platform performance analysis on both cloud and on-premise database workloads, allowing admins to drill down into which specific SQL queries are having the biggest impact on performance.

Without knowing how their databases actually perform in the cloud, admins run the risk of spending time and money on a migration, only to have to undo all that work and repatriate certain workloads that aren’t seeing the benefits they’d hoped for.

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91% Indian firms rebalancing their Cloud Strategy: Report

Bengaluru, March 12 (IANS) Realising that Public Cloud is not the single solution towards their digital journey, 91 per cent of Indian enterprises are already in the process of rebalancing their Cloud strategy, a new report said on Thursday.

Leading the charge when it comes to repatriating Public Cloud workloads, 91 per cent Indian firms are reported having moved, or plan to move, public apps…

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Headlines

Canada’s Trudeau Says Won’t Back Down in Dispute With China (Reuters) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday he would not escalate a deepening trade and diplomatic dispute with China but added that his government had no intention of backing down as it defended its interests.

Trump administration moves to end limits on child detention (AP) The Trump administration is moving to end a long-standing federal agreement that limits how long immigrant children can be kept in detention. The current court agreement now requires the government to keep children in the least restrictive setting and to release them as quickly as possible, generally after 20 days in detention. The new rules would allow the government to hold families in detention much longer than 20 days.

Smoke plunges Sao Paulo into sudden darkness, baffling the Western Hemisphere’s largest city (Washington Post) Experts tried to puzzle out the cause of the midday darkness on Monday, but their conclusions at times appeared to be conflicting, deepening the mystery. The National Institute of Meteorology said the city, which sits at an elevation of 2,500 feet, was “inside a cloud.” Others explained that it was a cold front. MetSul, a Brazilian meteorology company, said the culprit was smoke that had come in from forest fires in Bolivia, Paraguay and remote parts of Brazil. In fact, it appeared to be a combination of all three factors--clouds, smoke and a cold front--that ushered in the smoke from distance reaches, plunging the city into darkness in the middle of the day.

No Greenland, No Visit (Foreign Policy) Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed interest in buying Greenland from Denmark, only to be rebuffed by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Trump has responded by canceling a planned visit to Copenhagen in early September. His tweets left little doubt about the true purpose of the trip. He made it clear that he is postponing the visit because Frederiksen said “that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland,” adding that “The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct.” Danish politicians and commentators across the political spectrum initially saw the idea as a joke and viewed the cancellation as an insult that will damage a strong bilateral relationship.

French Yellow Vests Join Global Activists at G7 Counter-Summit (Reuters) Anti-globalization and climate activists have teamed up with yellow vest protesters and Basque nationalists ahead of a G7 meeting in France this weekend to confront a rich-poor divide they say is growing due to the “cynicism” of world leaders.

Ocean Viking Rescue Ship Awaits Port Access in Latest Migrant Standoff (Reuters) Two charities running rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea have said Italy has ignored requests to allow their ship to bring 356 migrants ashore, exposing Europe’s latest failure to deal with African migration.

Greece says it won’t assist Iranian tanker sought by US (AP) Greece said on Wednesday it won’t endanger its relations with the United States by aiding an Iranian supertanker sought by the U.S. but released by Gibraltar that’s currently in the Mediterranean Sea, believed heading for a Greek port. Deputy Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis told private Antenna TV that the 330-meter (1,000-foot) tanker is too big anyway to enter any Greek port and can’t legally unload its $130 million worth of light crude at EU refineries. The vessel can still enter Greek waters or anchor offshore, in which case Athens will “see” what it will do, Varvitsiotis added.

Urgency for vaccine grows as virus ravages China’s pigs (AP) Scientists are working to develop a vaccine to help guard the world’s pork supply as a deadly virus ravages Asia’s pig herds. Farmers have long contained its spread by quarantining and killing infected animals, but the disease’s devastating march into East Asia is intensifying the search for another solution. The virus hadn’t been considered as high a priority for researchers until it turned up last year in China, home to half the world’s pig population, likely by way of Eastern Europe and Russia. Since then, it has spread to other Asian countries including Vietnam, killing millions of pigs along the way. Though it does not sicken people, the disease is highly contagious and deadly to pigs.

Beijing appeals to US to ‘meet China halfway’ on trade (AP) Beijing appealed to Washington on Wednesday to “meet China halfway” and end a tariff war after President Donald Trump said Americans might need to endure economic pain to achieve longer-term benefits. A foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, expressed hope Washington can “get along with us” and restore “mutually beneficial” trade.

China ‘Will Not Sit Idly by’ Over US Arms Sale to Taiwan (AP) A senior Chinese officer says the country “will not sit idly by” if the U.S. proceeds with a sale of advanced F-16V fighter jets to Taiwan, and warned of other potential countermeasures in addition to punishing foreign firms involved in the deal.

Hong Kong police in standoff with protesters after sit-in (AP) Hong Kong riot police faced off briefly with protesters occupying a suburban train station Wednesday evening following a commemoration of a violent attack there by masked assailants on supporters of the anti-government movement. Also Wednesday, China said a staffer at the British consulate in Hong Kong has been given 15 days of administrative detention in the neighboring mainland city of Shenzhen for violating regulations on public order. The case is stoking fears that Beijing is extending its judicial reach to semi-autonomous Hong Kong. “The relevant employee is a Hong Kong resident, not a British citizen,” so the case is “purely the internal affairs of China,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a daily briefing.

Australia Sees Rush of Hong Kong Millionaires Amid Unrest (Reuters) Australia is seeing an increase in interest in its millionaires-only visa program from wealthy Hong Kong residents who are eyeing a safety net amid political turmoil in the Chinese-ruled territory, migration lawyers told Reuters.

No Rohingya Turn Up for Repatriation to Myanmar (AP) Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner said Thursday that no Rohingya Muslims turned up to return to Myanmar from camps in the South Asian nation.

Syrian Army Opens Corridor for People to Leave Rebel Bastion: State Media (Reuters) Syrian government forces have opened a corridor in the country’s northwest for people who want to cross out of insurgent territory to army lines, state news agency SANA said on Thursday.

UN Warns of Severe Aid Cuts in Yemen Without New Funds Soon (AP) The U.N. humanitarian chief in Yemen warned Wednesday that unless significant new funding is received in the coming weeks, food rations for 12 million people in the war-torn country will be reduced and at least 2.5 million malnourished children will be cut off from life-saving services.

A verdict in Cameroon (Foreign Policy) On Tuesday, a military court in Cameroon sentenced 10 Anglophone separatist leaders to life in prison--including the head of the separatist movement, Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. Activists have called the trial a sham and worry that the harsh sentences will only drag out the two-year conflict, which has killed nearly 2,000 people and displaced half a million.

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Cloud Storage Is Expensive? Are You Doing it Right?

In my day to day job, I talk to a lot of end users. And when it comes to the cloud, there are still many differences between Europe and the US. The European cloud market is much more fragmented than the American one for several reasons, including the slightly different regulations in each country. Cloud adoption is slower in Europe and many organizations still like to maintain data and infrastructure in their premises. The European approach is quite pragmatic, and many enterprises take somewhat advantage of the experiences made by similar organizations on the other side of the pond. One similarity is cloud storage or, better, cloud storage costs and reactions.

The fact that data is growing everywhere at an incredible pace is nothing new, and often faster than predicted in the past years. At first glance, an all-in cloud strategy looks very compelling, low $/GB, less CAPEX and more OPEX, increased agility and more, until of course your cloud bill starts growing out of control.

As I wrote in one of my latest reports, “Alternatives to Amazon AWS S3”, the $/GB is the first item on the bill, there are several others, including egress fees that come after that. An aspect that is often initially overlooked at the beginning and has unpleasant consequences later.

There are at least two reasons why a cloud storage bill can get out of control:

The application is not written properly. In fact, someone wrote or migrated an application that is not specifically designed to work in the cloud and is not resource savvy. This happens often with legacy applications that are migrated as-is. Sometimes it’s hard to solve because re-engineering an old application is simply not possible. In other cases, the application behavior could be corrected with a better understanding of the API and the mechanisms that regulate the cloud (and how they are charged).

There is nothing wrong with the workload, it’s just that data is being created, read and moved around more than in the past.

  OPTIMIZATION

Start by optimizing the cloud storage infrastructure. Many providers are adding additional storage tiers and automations to help with this. In some cases, it adds some complexity (someone must manage new policies and ensure they work properly). Not a big deal but probably not a huge saving either.

Also, try to optimize the application. But that is not always easy, especially if you don’t have control on the code and the application wasn’t already written with the intent to run in a cloud environment. Still, this could pay off in the mid- to long term, but are you ready to invest in this direction?

BRING DATA BACK…

A common solution, adopted by a significant number of organizations now, is data repatriation. Bringing back data on premises (or a colocation service provider), and accessing it locally or from the cloud. Why not?

At the end of the day, the bigger the infrastructure the lower the $/GB and, above all, no other fees to worry about. When thinking about petabytes, there are several ways to optimize and take advantage of which can lower the $/GB considerably: fat nodes with plenty of disks, multiple media tiers for performance and cold data, data footprint optimizations, and so on, all translating into low and predictable costs.

At the same time, if this is not enough, or you want to keep a balance between CAPEX and OPEX, go hybrid. Most storage systems in the market allow to tier data to S3-compatible storage systems now, and I’m not talking only about object stores – NAS and block storage systems can do the same. I covered this topic extensively in this report but check with your storage vendor of choice and I’m sure they’ll have solutions to help out with this.

…OR GO MULTI-CLOUD

Another option, that doesn’t negate what is written above, is to implement a multi-cloud storage strategy. Instead of focusing on a single-cloud storage provider,  abstract the access layer and pick up what is best depending on the application, the workloads, the cost, and so on, all determined by the needs of the moment. Multi-cloud data controllers are gaining momentum with big vendors starting to make the first acquisitions (RedHat with NooBaa for example) and the number of solutions is growing at a steady pace. In practice, these products offer a standard front-end interface, usually S3 compatible and can distribute data on several back-end repositories following user-defined policies. This leaves the end user with a lot of freedom of choice and flexibility regarding where to put (or migrate) data while allowing to access it transparently regardless of where it’s stored. Last week, for example, I met with Leonovus which has a compelling solution that associates what I just described to a strong set of security features.

There are several alternatives to major service providers when it comes to cloud storage, some of them focus on better pricing, and lower or no egress fees, while others work on high performance too. As I wrote last week in another blog, going all-in with a single service provider could be an easy choice at the beginning but a huge risk in the long term.

CLOSING THE CIRCLE

Data storage is expensive and cloud storage is no exception. Those who think they will save money by just moving all of their data to the cloud as-is are making a big mistake. For example, cold data is a perfect fit for the cloud, thanks to its low $/GB, but as soon as you begin accessing it over and over again the costs can rise to an unsustainable level.

To avoid dealing with this problem later, it’s best to think about the right strategy now. Planning and executing the right hybrid or multi-cloud strategy can surely help to keep costs under control while giving that agility and flexibility needed to preserve IT infrastructure, therefore business, competitivity.

To learn more about multi-cloud data controllers, alternatives to AWS S3, and two-tier storage strategy, please check my reports on GigaOm. And subscribe to Voices in Data Storage Podcast  to listen to the latest news, market, and technology trends with opinions, interviews and other stories coming from the data and data storage field

Originally posted on Juku.it

from Gigaom https://gigaom.com/2019/02/26/cloud-storage-is-expensive-are-you-doing-it-right/