Changelog: Google Cloud terminates data transfer charges - with extreme prejudice
This week: Sniping hyperscalers, networking takeovers and a tasty snack of a ransomware decryptor.
Hasta la vista, egress fees
Hyperscale cloud providers do not get on. Observers of Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and AWS will observe that when they’re not announcing the release of a new infrastructure region or extolling their low, low prices, they’re probably criticising each other for some no-good, lousy anti-competitive behaviour.
Google Cloud’s announcement last week that it was eliminating egress fees was no different. Instead of concentrating on the practical implications for CIOs of ending the practice of charging them an arm and a leg when they wanted to evacuate their data from its platform, Google Cloud chief Amit Zavery spent half the press release denouncing what he characterised as the cloud industry’s real problem: its competitors’ restrictive licensing conditions. Unmentioned was Google Cloud’s inclusion in an Ofcom study investigating many other alleged anti-competitive behaviours in the UK cloud sector — and the watchdog’s subsequent recommendation that it also be included in an official CMA market investigation.
Nevertheless, the development was greeted positively, even by individuals who used to work for the very providers who felt they were priced out of the market by the generous provision of usage credits by said hyperscalers. Google Cloud’s decision “shows that [it] is committed to interoperability and flexibility in the cloud market”, said Nicky Stewart, ex-commercial director of UK Cloud, and would likely “drive new business towards Google as consumers become increasingly aware of and concerned about cloud vendor lock-in”. Watch this space.
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HPE buys Juniper (finally)
Last week also saw another big corporate announcement: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) was buying the plucky networking firm Juniper. The deal, estimated to cost the former some $14bn, will supercharge HPE’s networking capabilities as it scales up its business in the cloud.
The announcement came about a day after a scoop by the Wall Street Journal about a possible acquisition and many hours of furiously refreshing my RSS reader. HPE’s absorption of Juniper would, said the former’s chief executive Antonio Neri, “strengthen HPE’s position at the nexus of accelerating macro-AI trends, expand our total addressable market, and drive further innovation for our customers as we help bridge the AI-native and cloud-native worlds.” In other words, as demand for AI applications increases, so too will the burden on the connections holding the cloud together — a market that HPE is increasingly interested in tapping.
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A new decryptor for (almost) all your Babuk Tortilla needs
Were your corporate systems mercilessly hacked last year by criminals wielding the notorious Tortilla brand of Babuk ransomware? If the answer is “yes,” then you’re in luck. In his final piece for Tech Monitor, our dear, departed managing editor Matt Gooding explains how Dutch police and security researchers at Cisco Talos obtained and released the decryption key for the infamous Mexican snack-themed malware.
Organisations impacted by Babuk Tortilla can now download an updated version of the Babuk decryptor. It is available on the NoMoreRansom decryptors page and the Avast decryptors download page.
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