The advent of the application programming interface (API) economy has forced a huge, pressing need for organizations to both seek openness and improve security for accessing mobile applications, data, and services anytime, anywhere, and from any device.
Awash in inadequate passwords and battling subsequent security breaches, business and end-users alike are calling for improved identity management and federation technologies. They want workable standards to better chart the waters of identity management and federation, while preserving the need for enterprise-caliber risk remediation and security.
Monthly Archives: July 2014
The Cloud Standards Customer Council Named “Media Sponsor” of Cloud Expo
SYS-CON Events announced today that the Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC ) has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 15th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
The Cloud Standards Customer Council is an end user advocacy group dedicated to accelerating cloud’s successful adoption, and drilling down into the standards, security and interoperability issues surrounding the transition to the cloud.
The Council will provide cloud users with the opportunity to drive client requirements into standards development organizations and deliver materials such as best practices and use cases to assist other enterprises.
SYS-CON.tv Interview: Measured Business Outcomes
“Ambernet Technologies is an innovative software company and we’ve been very focused on building enterprise grade cloud management and cloud brokerage software,” explained Troy Halford, CSO of Ambernet Technologies, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at the 14th International Cloud Expo®, held June 10-12, 2014, at the Javits Center in New York City.
Cloud Expo® 2014 Silicon Valley, November 4–6, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
Two Ways Data Breaches Are Driving Change in Cloud Security
We’ve written before about some of the high-profile data breaches occurring in recent months – security breaches that cause some to question the safety of the cloud to store and/or process sensitive data. It seems these stories are reported with increased regularity (sometimes delayed, as in the case of AT&T this month). In fact, Fierce CIO recently called the number of breaches reported this year an “epidemic.”
While not all breaches are created equal in their impact, there are sometimes severe consequences for the business or the end consumer. In response, many enterprises, industries and nations are instituting stricter regulations, better security and more severe penalties for infringements – all in hopes of mitigating the risks of placing data on the cloud.
The Top Five Things About Cloud You Haven’t Thought About Yet
Cloud has been on a lot of boardroom agendas for quite a while, but typically those discussions have focused on using cloud around edge applications – expenses management, human capital management or perhaps customer relationship management. However, as the cloud cover extends to business-critical processes and core activities, five new considerations for enterprise cloud deployment have arisen.
There should be no difference whatsoever to end users when they are faced with an application via the cloud or on-premise. This begins with the user interface, which needs to be intuitive and critically consistent across desktops, tablets and mobile devices. Much of the success of the likes of Facebook is due to the fact that the social experience is not interrupted or disrupted by the cloud behind it and that the interface is so consistent. This invisibility also applies to performance – applications delivered via the cloud must be just a quick, if not faster, than on-premise alternatives.
Two Digital Transformation Time Bombs
Disruptive innovation is all very fine and good, but legacy technology and disruption don’t mix. That old gear is just too brittle and important to mess with, right? That’s when it hits you: it’s time to go rogue.
Adjectives like “swashbuckling” and “romantic” rarely if ever apply to enterprise technology, so the fact that “rogue” IT is now a Thing should give one pause. Errol Flynn swooping down from a yardarm, disarming smile on his too-handsome face? Hardly the image you’d expect bringing your iPhone to work would elicit.
SYS-CON.tv Interview: Ease Application Access in the Cloud
“As the move to the cloud started, we stayed ahead of that by providing security solutions to our enterprise customers, financial customers, and now a whole new range of customers, which are application developers,” explained John Gunn, VP of Corporate Communications for VASCO Data Security, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at the 14th International Cloud Expo®, held June 10-12, 2014, at the Javits Center in New York City.
Cloud Expo® 2014 Silicon Valley, November 4–6, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
Is the future for businesses in Hybrid Cloud?
By now, many companies have embraced cloud computing. While a few years ago, many businesses were skeptical of cloud computing and having their software and data in a remote location. However, today, according to a recent survey by Gartner, many companies both big and small have already deployed the cloud in some capacity in their system. So, what is the future of the cloud now? Well it seems that moving forward; the hybrid cloud is where most organizations are going. According to another survey by a private company, most IT managers today want the hybrid model, that is, the mixture of private and public cloud models for their companies.
Why Go Hybrid?
For many companies, hybrid just makes more sense. Not everyone wants to completely go with public clouds because of security concerns, and not all companies may be able to afford a purely private solution. For any business owner, finding out which should go into which can be a challenge, plus with so many types of solutions, this can be even more of a difficult task.
However, with the way private and public clouds are structured, it’s not that difficult to figure out which should go where. Obviously, applications and data that require high-level security (such as financial information) should go in the private cloud to reduce the vulnerability of the company’s network. Larger applications that do have to be secured are perfect for the publish part of the cloud. Combining public and private clouds is very cost effective because private clouds are pricey, so companies can save more money by picking and choosing which goes where. Also, there are other advantages. A hybrid solution could also help protect the company’s network. It can reduce workload and should anything goes wrong in one part, it’s a good feeling to know that the other part won’t be affected.
Compliance
While many companies would prefer the cheaper public cloud solution, many have no choice but to employ a private cloud to host sensitive information to comply with government regulations. The financial sector, for example, is most affected by this. Financial institutions like banks and brokers need serious security on their networks but they must also abide by the laws that govern their industry. Putting some information in a public cloud could put their customers at risk, and some might even say it could put the economy at risk if certain information were to fall into the wrong hands. While a public cloud could offer cost savings which they can pass off to customers, they must still protect their information through a private cloud.
Eco-Friendly
Many companies today want to seem more appealing to their customers and one way to do that would be to market themselves as “eco-friendly” and one way to do that would be by using cloud computing. If you didn’t know it yet, cloud computing uses less resources and in some cases, it can even give back to the environment (like certain offices using heat from servers to warm rooms in the wintertime.) Some companies may be able to get a green business certification by using a hybrid cloud solution.
It will be interesting what the future has to bring in the world of technology and cloud computing. While we can make predictions, we can only wait and see that will happen in the next few decades.
Do you think the future of businesses is in the Hybrid Cloud? Let us know in the comments.
SYS-CON.tv Interview: Leveraging the Cloud for Disaster Recovery
“We provide disaster recovery services as well as solutions. We also provide back-up solutions that work across your internal on-premise assets as well as in the public and private cloud,” stated Joel Ferman, Vice President of Marketing at InMage Systems, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at the 14th International Cloud Expo® (http://www.CloudComputingExpo.com/), held June 10-12, 2014, at the Javits Center in New York City.
Cloud Expo® 2014 Silicon Valley, November 4–6, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
Integrate Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery into Business Continuity Strategy
Cloud-based Recovery-as-a-Service (RaaS) is becoming big business. Research and Markets forecasts the global market of RaaS and cloud-based business continuity will reach $5.77 billion by 2018, creating major opportunities for business continuity and risk management specialists alike. Likewise, Reportstack announced recently the global Disaster Recovery-as-a Service (DRaaS) market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 54.64 percent from 2014 to 2018.[1]
One of the leading drivers for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) as well as enterprises seeking cloud solutions is Disaster Recovery (DR).[2]Organizations seek improved resiliency and failover in response to service disruptions of all kinds including natural disasters, cyber-attacks and technical malfunctions. In 2013, the financial impact of natural disasters worldwide was more than double the $100 billion estimate of 1990.[3]McAfee® Labs Threats Report indicates service disruptions are inevitable and becoming more predictable, with a reported 20 million new types of malware in the third quarter of 2013 alone. In a recent survey, IDC found that 71 percent of respondents experienced less than 10 hours of annual downtime, with a projected financial impact for SMBs of $125,000. Larger enterprise organizations could potentially have a corresponding annual financial impact of $17 million.[4] Dun & Bradstreet surveyed Fortune 500 companies with 59% of respondents reporting 1.5 hours of downtime each week, amounting to a projected $46 million impact annually for companies of 10,000 employees or more.[5]