Last month, the Information Security Forum released their annual prediction of the top 10 information security threats they foresee for the next two years – through 2016. While I found the entire list insightful, half of the list resonated strongly with me as someone who is working with large enterprises as they wrestle with security and compliance challenges as they embark on cloud adoption. I believe this group of five predictions is particularly relevant for anyone utilizing the cloud over the next two years and I’ve added a few of my own thoughts on each.
1. Service Providers Become a Key Vulnerability
I find this first prediction especially valid and timely because of some recent headlines. Service providers, given the nature of their business, are a prime “aggregation” for all types of sensitive/valuable data. Cyber criminals and hackers realize this, which puts a big target on the backs of service providers. Think about it – a successful breach equals a treasure trove of coveted information from potentially multiple tenants. And the reality is that service providers acting as a central storage point for large amounts of sensitive data will continue to increase over the next two years, so the prize will only become richer. In response and in preparation, enterprises need to takes steps to protect their most sensitive and important data and decide which data they truly need to send to public cloud service providers.
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Integrated PaaS/IaaS Technology Complements Your Enterprise Cloud Strategy
Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service are technologies that are fast becoming integrated, and this is good news for enterprises looking to implement private, public or hybrid clouds.
The availability of resources on-demand through companies like Amazon and Google has provided developers with the ability to quickly define a scalable and highly available infrastructure to develop and deploy applications. The availability of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) means that anyone can provision servers, storage and networking in the cloud with a high level of configurability and control and pay (in general) for the amount of resources reserved.
From PaaS to SaaS to Hybrid Clouds
“I see almost no one running hybrid clouds,” noted Seth Proctor, CTO of NuoDB, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo conference chairs Larry Carvalho and Vanessa Alvarez. “The few examples are usually public cloud deployments with backup and/or DR options in a private setup.”
Cloud Computing Journal: How are cloud standards playing a role in expanding adoption among users? Are standards helping new business models for service providers?
Seth Proctor: I think the only standards are de facto standards like OpenStack or the AWS interfaces. Honestly there are no “cloud standards” I know of that are fueling adoption. What have become standard are the assumptions around virtualization, provisioning tools, monitoring methods, etc.
Box strikes deal with General Electric, enterprise investments pay off
Around 300,000 General Electric employees are going to be using Box as a standard for content sharing and collaboration, the cloud storage provider has announced.
Following the rumours that Box was to delay its much-vaunted IPO, this client win comes as timely news for Aaron Levie and company.
Levie wrote in a blog post that he was “incredibly excited” to be partnering with “one of the most tech-centric companies of the Fortune 500.”
“While GE has a long history of technology-driven innovation, few enterprises of its scale have reinvented themselves by putting information technology at the centre of their competitive strategy,” he wrote.
He added: “Under [CEO] Jeff Immelt, we’ve seen this manifest in GE’s corporate strategy with the industrial internet, bringing intelligent data to industrial machines and processes; GE is applying that same creativity to empowering its global workforce with better access to information and tools …
Docker + Stackato: The Perfect Workload Portability Solution
If you work in technology, you’d have to have been under a rock to have not heard about Docker. In a nutshell, Docker provides a lightweight container for code that can be installed onto a Linux system, providing both an execution environment for applications and partitioning to securely segregate sets of application code from one another. While this high-level description doesn’t sound that exciting, Docker addresses three key issues confronting application developers:
One of the problems confronting IT organizations is how to get the most benefit from computing resources; this translates as to how to raise utilization of servers to ensure that their cost and power use is actually applied to computing rather than being used to operate a server that is running, but performing no useful work. The previous solution to this issue was virtualization, which enabled a single server to support multiple virtual machines, each containing an operating system and software payload.
Governance, public clouds, and MSPs: Creating a strategy
By David Linthicum
Governance is a loaded term. In the old days of enterprise architecture, it meant the ability to yell at staffers who used the wrong operating systems and databases, thus enterprise architecture was more of a management concept. These days, with the emergence of cloud computing, enterprise architecture is how we control, manage, and secure cloud resources and services.
Public clouds typically don’t exist on their own. They have to work and play well with existing or even new systems that reside on other compute models, such as co-location or managed services providers (MSPs). As a consultant, I find that larger organizations have several brands of public and private clouds, as well as an existing MSP, or, the enterprise will use an MSP in the near future.
This is called multi-cloud, and it drives the need for better governance approaches and technology. A recent CompTIA survey reveals …
Governance, public clouds, and MSPs: Creating a strategy
By David Linthicum
Governance is a loaded term. In the old days of enterprise architecture, it meant the ability to yell at staffers who used the wrong operating systems and databases, thus enterprise architecture was more of a management concept. These days, with the emergence of cloud computing, enterprise architecture is how we control, manage, and secure cloud resources and services.
Public clouds typically don’t exist on their own. They have to work and play well with existing or even new systems that reside on other compute models, such as co-location or managed services providers (MSPs). As a consultant, I find that larger organizations have several brands of public and private clouds, as well as an existing MSP, or, the enterprise will use an MSP in the near future.
This is called multi-cloud, and it drives the need for better governance approaches and technology. A recent CompTIA survey reveals …
Cloud Infrastructure for the Real World
Cloud adoption is an evolutionary process that has been leading to hybrid clouds – specifically, open hybrid clouds that provide for portability of applications and data. This new model means avoiding new points of proprietary lock-in and new silos, and breaking from proprietary software and hardware.
Facilitate Cloud Management
“Hybrids need to coexist with private and public clouds as that’s what cloud consumers will request,” noted Chris Tella, CMO and EVP of Sales at Basic6, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo conference chairs Larry Carvalho and Vanessa Alvarez. “The best advice I’ve heard so far was from an AWS representative discussing scalability – make use of the automated tools such as ours which are designed to facilitate cloud management.”
Cloud Computing Journal: How are cloud standards playing a role in expanding adoption among users? Are standards helping new business models for service providers?
CloudPOST Named “Media Sponsor” of Cloud Expo & Internet of Things Expo
SYS-CON Events announced today that CloudPOST has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 14th International Cloud Expo® and Internet of Things Expo, which will take place on June 10–12, 2014, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
CloudPOST aims to provide useful content to the Cloud community.
CloudPOST was created for the sole purpose of offering timely, relevant information to cloud experts, data center and IT and managers. Today, we’re doing the very same same thing – telling you what makes today’s cloud tick, and tomorrow’s cloud as well.