It has never been a better time to be a developer! Thanks to cloud computing, deploying our applications is much easier than it used to be. How we deploy our apps continues to evolve thanks to cloud hosting, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and now Function-as-a-Service.
FaaS is the concept of serverless computing via serverless architectures. Software developers can leverage this to deploy an individual “function”, action, or piece of business logic. They are expected to start within milliseconds and process individual requests and then the process ends.

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SYS-CON Events announced today that Peak 10, Inc., a national IT infrastructure and cloud services provider, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Peak 10 provides reliable, tailored data center and network services, cloud and managed services. Its solutions are designed to scale and adapt to customers’ changing business needs, enabling them to lower costs, improve performance and focus internal resources on core competencies.

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Industry after industry is under siege as companies embrace digital transformation (DX) to disrupt existing business models and disintermediate their competitor’s customer relationships. But what do we mean by “Digital Transformation”? The coupling of granular, real-time data (e.g., smartphones, connected devices, smart appliances, wearables, mobile commerce, video surveillance) with modern technologies (e.g., cloud native apps, big data architectures, hyper-converged technologies, artificial intelligence, blockchain) to enhance products, processes, and business-decision making with customer, product and operational insights.

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Industry after industry is under siege as companies embrace digital transformation (DX) to disrupt existing business models and disintermediate their competitor’s customer relationships. But what do we mean by “Digital Transformation”? The coupling of granular, real-time data (e.g., smartphones, connected devices, smart appliances, wearables, mobile commerce, video surveillance) with modern technologies (e.g., cloud native apps, big data architectures, hyper-converged technologies, artificial intelligence, blockchain) to enhance products, processes, and business-decision making with customer, product and operational insights.

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The current age of digital transformation means that IT organizations must adapt their toolset to cover all digital experiences, beyond just the end users’. Today’s businesses can no longer focus solely on the digital interactions they manage with employees or customers; they must now contend with non-traditional factors. Whether it’s the power of brand to make or break a company, the need to monitor across all locations 24/7, or the ability to proactively resolve issues, companies must adapt to the new world.

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SYS-CON Events announced today that A&I Solutions has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Founded in 1999, A&I Solutions is a leading information technology (IT) software and services provider focusing on best-in-class enterprise solutions. By partnering with industry leaders in technology, A&I assures customers high performance levels across all IT environments including: mainframe, distributed, virtual, and cloud platforms. With expertise in the entire application lifecycle —Plan, Build, Test, Deploy, Operate, and Secure— A&I enables customers to transform their businesses by driving consistency and maximizing efficiency.

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By Clint Gilliam, Virtual CIO, GreenPages Technology Solutions

The topic of cloud computing currently ranks in the top-five of IT articles published for IT professionals. Daily we hear about the benefits of this new world, the range of exciting new services now available, and of course how to make the transition.

Even with the valuable insights provided by these articles, there is one critical aspect given too little attention or even overlooked entirely.  Specifically, how to plan for a breakup.

If one accepts the old dictum that change is the only universal constant, then ask yourself why most people do not plan as carefully for unwinding a cloud / SaaS arrangement as we do in setting one up. The details of ending an arrangement can be tricky and not immediately self-evident.

These issues are beyond standard legal provisions for exit clauses, terms/conditions, and related matters. It deals with practicality and preparedness.

Take this as an example, imagine you use a SaaS system to implement secure e-mail for corresponding with people outside your organization. Even in the world of TLS, many still have a need for such services which provide mailbox-to-mailbox encryption for both e-mails and attachments.

Should you decide to terminate this service, you might be in for some unexpected challenges. If your service provider does not provide bulk decrypt and export tools, you could be in for a painful process.

In a previous role, I ran into this exact situation. We had to write custom scripts to go through each mailbox e-mail-by-email to unencrypt and export; it was slow and costly.

Even without terminating the service, data exporting tools can be useful as a course of normal business. Consider the situation when your organization is involved in litigation. As part of the legal Discovery process, you might have to produce e-mails for individuals covering specific subjects and dates. Should the list be significant or the filters complex, you can again run into unexpected workloads.

Another example is data offloading. Many services, AWS included, offer excellent tools for migration / uploading large volumes into their cloud services. In some cases, particularly with large datasets, such approaches are the only feasible or timely solution.

But what happens when you elect to move those datasets to another cloud provider? Don’t assume the comprehensive set of options you have for bringing data into your provider’s cloud is symmetric. You might just find a long slow process to make a change.

In both examples, specific industry or regulatory requirements such as security, data location, and privacy can compound the challenge.

IT professionals have a lot of experience with managing proprietary solutions and data. The key is leveraging that knowledge when considering cloud-based solutions. Personally, I have found two methods for reducing these risks.

The first is to run some tabletop simulations on what happens in various scenarios, to develop and expand your punch list over time. Scenarios to consider might include migration, legal requests, disaster recovery or other matters specific to your industry.

My second approach is to network: it is a knowledge and experience multiplier that’s second to none. Check with colleagues; get their advice and listen to their own experiences.

Of course, you don’t know what you don’t know, but thinking of the end, as well as the beginning, should put you in a better spot.

SYS-CON Events announced today that Tappest will exhibit MooseFS at SYS-CON’s 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. MooseFS is a breakthrough concept in the storage industry. It allows you to secure stored data with either duplication or erasure coding using any server. The newest – 4.0 version of the software enables users to maintain the redundancy level with even 50% less hard drive space required. The software functions on all major operating systems and is used around the world by businesses, universities and NGOs. The MooseFS team provides on-site implementation and support for your operations.

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You may have noticed that more companies are storing data in the cloud and utilising cloud-based services than ever before. But many are failing to ensure that the data is secured or stored in a compliant manner, placing themselves and their customers at risk from data breaches.

With the European Parliament passing the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) last year, businesses have less than a year before fundamental changes to the way they store and secure data come into effect. As cloud adoption increases, businesses must ensure their service providers are compliant or face a hefty fine.

Many organisations are facing a challenge in their road to GDPR compliance. A study conducted by Gemalto and the Ponemon Institute revealed that 73 per cent of businesses considered cloud-based services and platforms important to their operations. But only 54 per cent believed that their company was handling data stored in the cloud in a secure and compliant manner. The volume of data that appears to be stored outside of compliance puts many businesses and their customers at risk of a data breach.

It seems business are assuming that by storing their data in the cloud it is, by default, compliant. This is not the case, and this ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’ mentality has contributed to many data breaches around the world. Storing data in the cloud without properly considering security is the same as locking your front door but leaving the garage open. Your enterprise network may be secure, but it means nothing if the cloud isn’t as well.

These issues, coupled with often poor communication of the business need for security, are leaving many companies open to hacks and data loss. However securing data in the cloud and becoming compliant isn’t difficult, as long as a business asks the right questions and uses the appropriate measures.

The first step a company must take is to assess its cloud requirements, and then select a cloud service provider that suits those needs. There is no blanket service that will work for every business, as the amount of data stored, and the way it is used, will vary dramatically. Spotify, for example, chose Google because of the company’s need for data processing expertise. Microsoft Azure is taking on-premise enterprise solutions into the cloud, offering businesses the chance to access guaranteed best practices, rather than leaving it to internal IT teams to keep up.

Once a business knows what it requires from the cloud, and has selected a provider, it must ensure that the data is secure. It’s all about controlling who can get access. The following security protocols must be included in any cyber security strategy:

• Two-factor authentication – helps to ensure only those authorised to access data can do so by ensuring the employee accesses through something they have (a phone) and know (code/password)
• Encryption – makes a business’ data unreadable and therefore useless to anyone that is not allowed to access it
• Key management – holds keys created in the encryption process to ensure only those that are meant to access the data do so. Often encryption keys are stored in hardware to prevent them being stolen

These extra levels of protection are important. Research from the Breach Level Index revealed that, in 2016, just over 4% of all breaches were ‘secure breaches’. This means when data was stolen, it had appropriate controls and protection around it to make it unusable by the attackers. Businesses need to increasingly adopt the appropriate tools, so that if a breach occurs their customers can be safe knowing their data is protected.

In less than one year, companies will have to notify both authorities and affected individuals when a data breach occurs. This means that companies who previously ignored or just swept these breaches under the carpet will no longer be able to do so.

If a company is hacked and deemed to not have implemented sufficient compliance measures – such as end-to-end security process reviews and putting the correct data protection measures in place – the proposed fines are likely to be harsh. The regulation recommends up to 4% of their annual worldwide turnover or €20 million, whichever is greater. Experian, for example, could have been forced to pay up to £192m in fines as their turnover was £4.8bn.

Many in the business community still have their heads in the sand when it comes to learning about and understanding data privacy and data protection laws that apply to their companies. This will no longer be possible, as GDPR is going to affect almost every area of their businesses.

It may seem like a long time from now, but for some organisations the process must start now. When used correctly, the cloud can offer businesses better security than they may be able to afford working alone. But this security is worthless without using proper authentication, encryption, and key management. Once this is in place, businesses can be confident that their data is secured and risk of a breach has been minimised.

Read more: One year GDPR countdown is a final warning for organisations to sort compliance