24Notion @CloudExpo “Bronze Sponsor” | @24Notion #IoT #DigitalMarketing

24Notion is full-service global creative digital marketing, technology and lifestyle agency that combines strategic ideas with customized tactical execution. With a broad understand of the art of traditional marketing, new media, communications and social influence, 24Notion uniquely understands how to connect your brand strategy with the right consumer. 24Notion ranked #12 on Corporate Social Responsibility – Book of List.

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[session] @Symantec: #MachineLearning & #CyberSecurity | @CloudExpo

Most of us already know that adopting new cloud applications can boost a business’s productivity by enabling organizations to be more agile and ready to change course in our fast-moving and connected digital world. But the rapid adoption of cloud apps and services also brings with it profound security threats, including visibility and control challenges that aren’t present in traditional on-premises environments. At the same time, the cloud – because of its interconnected, flexible and adaptable nature – can also provide new possibilities for addressing cloud security problems. By leveraging the power of the cloud with a data science and machine learning cloud-based solution, security and risk professionals can solve many of the traditional security challenges found in popular apps like Office 365, Google Drive, Salesforce and Box.

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Invaluable Lessons from @CloudExpo | #IoT #BigData #DigitalTransformation

Just over a week ago I received a long and loud sustained applause for a presentation I delivered at this year’s Cloud Expo in Santa Clara. I was extremely pleased with the turnout and had some very good conversations with many of the attendees. Over the next few days I had many more meaningful conversations and was not only happy with the results but also learned a few new things. Here is everything I learned in those three days distilled into three short points.

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Making the Digital Enterprise a Reality | @CloudExpo #DigitalTransformation

The reason I believe digital transformation is not only more than a fad, but is actually a life-or-death imperative for every business and IT executive on the planet is simple: there will be no place for an “industrial enterprise” in a digital world.
Transformation, by definition, is a metamorphosis from one state to another, wholly new state. As such, a true digital transformation must be the act of transforming an industrial-era organization into something wholly different – the Digital Enterprise.

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Making the Digital Enterprise a Reality | @CloudExpo #DigitalTransformation

The reason I believe digital transformation is not only more than a fad, but is actually a life-or-death imperative for every business and IT executive on the planet is simple: there will be no place for an “industrial enterprise” in a digital world.
Transformation, by definition, is a metamorphosis from one state to another, wholly new state. As such, a true digital transformation must be the act of transforming an industrial-era organization into something wholly different – the Digital Enterprise.

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Tech News Recap for the Week of 10/17/2016

Were you busy this week? Here’s a tech news recap of articles you may have missed for the week of 10/17/2016.

GreenPages Enterprise Architect Chris Williams was blogging live from VMworld Barcelona this week. According to Gartner, IT spending will reach $3.5 trillion by 2017. The Pentagon is launching more bug bounty programs. CIOs are shifting more dollars towards digital transformation projects. Google is overhauling its cloud storage offerings, the Apple Watch Series 2 is delivering on last year’s promise, Microsoft points out advantages of Azure over AWS, and more top news this week you may have missed!

Remember, to stay up-to-date on the latest tech news throughout the week, follow @GreenPagesIT on Twitter.

Tech News Recap

Did you miss VMWorld? Register for our upcoming webinar to get all of the most important updates from Las Vegas and Barcelona.

 

By Ben Stephenson, GreenPages Technology Solutions

IT Infrastructure: Deploy. Integrate. Repeat | @CloudExpo #SDS #Cloud #Storage

They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Sometimes doing the same thing over and over while expecting the same results can be insane too. Find out how to change your expectations of IT infrastructure.
Have you ever wondered if you are stuck in an IT infrastructure loop, continuously deploying the same types of components and integrating them into an overall infrastructure architecture? Servers for CPU and RAM, storage appliances, hypervisor software, and disaster recovery software/appliances are just some of the different components that you’ve put together from different vendors to create your IT infrastructure.

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Microsoft’s Earnings get a Big Boost from its Cloud Business

Microsoft’s cloud computing business went into acceleration mode during the last quarter, and this is evident from the latest earnings reported by the company on Thursday. According to a press release, Microsoft’s commercial cloud business, including the sale of cloud-based Office 365, soared by 49 percent from the previous quarter.

Though cloud business is not a separate reporting segment, the online and on-premises versions of its cloud-based software such as Office 365 and Dynamics saw a six percent increase, as sales climbed to a whopping $6.7 billion. Revenue from Azure grew by 116 percent, and the company reports that the use of Azure’s compute service doubled as well during the same period.

These numbers signal a number of things for the company as well as for the industry as a whole. Firstly, there is a digital wave influencing the operations of many mainstream businesses, and Microsoft is making the most of this wave. The company’s overall strategy and long-term vision helped it to position itself to ride this digital wave, and these efforts have definitely paid off.

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, opines that digital technology is not just for the startups located in Silicon Valley, rather they are becoming an integral part of the operations of every company. In this sense, almost every company is becoming a digital one, and Microsoft has positioned itself to serve these companies well.

The second significant aspect about this earning is the change in Microsoft’s business. Earlier, licensing software that customers install on their own computers was a lucrative business for the company. However, declines in this line of business were offset by sales from the cloud business, and this goes to show that cloud business is overtaking software licensing in terms of revenue generation. Going forward, there is a possibility for Microsoft to increase its focus on the cloud business over its licensing segment, though there are no official confirmations in this regard.

Thirdly, these results prove the fact that Microsoft is one of the leading cloud providers out there today. Along with Amazon AWS, a substantial part of the market is shared by these two companies, and much of it can be attributed to the early investments it made in cloud. Machine learning capabilities and a deep business understanding are other factors that have contributed to this stellar growth for Microsoft.

Over the next year too, the company sees a lot of optimism in the cloud market, and it expects sales from its cloud-based platforms to increase. This is good news not just for Microsoft, but for the tech industry as a whole, as many segments are still reeling from the economic slowdown.

All these factors have pushed the price of Microsoft’s shares to an all time high of $60.75 during after-trading hours on Thursday. If this buoyancy continues today, then Microsoft’s shares would set new records for its share price. The highest so far was $59.56 during the dot-com bubble of 1999, and this record could bring much cheer for investors.

The post Microsoft’s Earnings get a Big Boost from its Cloud Business appeared first on Cloud News Daily.

Box and Skyhigh Networks come together for greater cloud security and governance

(c)iStock.com/LeoWolfert

Cloud security services provider Skyhigh Networks and enterprise cloud storage firm Box have announced a partnership designed to enable greater data governance for Box customers.

Users can identify sensitive data, automatically classify it, and enforce collaboration control policies through Skyhigh and Box Security Classification, all without requiring any change in customer behaviour.

To put the partnership into context, take a situation where an employee uploads a document with protected health information (PHI). The document under the new system will automatically be classified, and as a result cannot be shared with employees who lack proper access privileges. Similarly, if an audit uncovers a document with passwords shared externally, the document is automatically removed.

According to Box, more than 18% of stored files in the firm’s storage repository contain sensitive data, such as credit card and social security numbers, as well as health data. The need for data governance policy is therefore necessary, the companies argue. “Companies are flocking to Box not only for a powerful work tool, but for superior security,” said Chris Cesio, VP of business development and channel at Skyhigh in a statement. “With Skyhigh and Box Governance, our joint customers can create a secure collaboration platform that the security and compliance teams love just as much as business users.”

One customer using the revamped solution is the State of Missouri. “We moved work to Box to increase employee productivity and, naturally, control over our sensitive data needed to follow,” said Michael Rolling, Missouri CISO. “Using Box and Skyhigh we can automatically classify sensitive data in the cloud and apply necessary policies, thereby reducing risk without burdening our IT team or business users.”

Last month Skyhigh announced it had secured $40 million (£30.9m) in series D funding. The company said it hoped the funding would enable them “to accelerate our growth and carry us to profitability.”