Why Security Teams Love Intelligent Deception | @CloudExpo #Cloud #Security #Analytics

Cyberattacks are relentless. The pace of attacks shows no sign of slowing, and organizations understand that 100 percent prevention of attacks is not possible. Traditional prevention and detection techniques are falling short, and security professionals are scrambling for new paradigms that can more effectively detect attacks and mitigate the growing levels of damage.
In this climate of confusion, deception-based solutions offer a viable and proven way to stop attackers in their tracks. Why? Because instead of sitting back and waiting to be the victim, detection technologies let organizations be proactive and take the attack to the attacker. We’ve compiled a list of top five reasons why more security teams are opting for deception.

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What’s in Parallels Desktop 12 Update 1?

What’s in Parallels Desktop 12 Update 1? Parallels Desktop 12 Update 1 was released on 11 November 2016 and Update 1 Hotfix 1 was released on 17 November.  Taken together, these releases include the following: Full support for macOS Sierra as both a host OS and guest OS (Figure 1 shows Windows 10 and macOS […]

The post What’s in Parallels Desktop 12 Update 1? appeared first on Parallels Blog.

Technology Isn’t the Answer to Surviving Digital Disruption | @CloudExpo #Cloud #Agile #DigitalTransformation

There’s a funny thing about digital transformation: we are simultaneously over-hyping it and understating it. On the one hand, every tech company in the world is talking about it. It doesn’t matter how mundane the technology; every company is somehow relating their products to digital transformation.

On the other, many people are failing to grasp the import and impact of what digital transformation really means. In far too many cases, business and IT leaders are dismissing it as nothing more than a marketing ploy. The unfortunate result is that the over-hypedness of digital transformation is obscuring its real meaning.

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Virtual Technologies to Create True Scale-out Storage | @CloudExpo #Cloud #Storage #DataCenter

Almost three years ago, VMware introduced the world to its virtual SAN. This new solution enabled customers to use storage within ESXi servers without the need for external storage – an exciting promise for organizations that wanted to quickly scale their virtual storage. Now, it’s time to check in on this technology and see if it’s living up to its promise.
VMware became a player in the storage array and software market when it launched vSAN. Server admins were looking forward to using vSAN because it gave them a symmetrical architecture that did not require external storage, thus being able to use storage within existing servers. It also doesn’t require specialized storage skills. However, no one solution can be all things to all enterprises, and as enterprises began to deploy vSAN across their environments, they noticed something big was missing.

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[video] Technical Testing with @CoalfireSys | @CloudExpo #Cloud #Security #FedRAMP

“Coalfire is a cyber-risk, security and compliance assessment and advisory services firm. We do a lot of work with the cloud service provider community,” explained Ryan McGowan, Vice President, Sales (West) at Coalfire Systems, Inc., in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

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[slides] Agility for Digital Transformation | @CloudExpo @NewhouseConsult #Agile #DigitalTransformation

Successful digital transformation requires new organizational competencies and capabilities. Research tells us that the biggest impediment to successful transformation is human; consequently, the biggest enabler is a properly skilled and empowered workforce. In the digital age, new individual and collective competencies are required.
In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, Bob Newhouse, CEO and founder of Agilitiv, drew together recent research and lessons learned from emerging and established companies, providing a road map for engaging our organizations in the creation and support of digital value chains.

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American Airlines Turns to IBM for Cloud Tech

American Airlines, the ubiquitous airplane company in the US, has turned to IBM for cloud tech. Both the companies announced on early Tuesday morning that the airlines will use IBM’s cloud for some of its applications. Though neither company mentioned the complete list of applications that would be moved to IBM’s cloud, it is expected that American would move some of its legacy applications to the cloud.

The financial terms of the deal is not disclosed at this time, which is not that surprising considering that IBM is one of American’s cloud partners, and there is no exclusivity involved. So, American is free to strike a deal with other companies, and can even have a few cloud providers to host different applications, though there has been no mention of any other deal so far. Amazon is the market leader, though other providers like Google, Microsoft, IBM, and VMware are catching up.

This deal between IBM and American Airlines reflects the long-standing partnership of the two giants, that goes back decades. For example, when American Airlines wanted to introduce an online reservation system called SABRE, IBM was the one that developed and managed it for the airline company. This deep relationship is also partly why American chose IBM when it decided to move to the cloud. Going forward, both the companies are expected to further cement their partnership, and may even tap into IBM’s “Watson” – the artificial intelligence software that IBM is customizing to meet the needs of different clients.

A few months ago, American Airlines’ chief information officer, Maya Leibman, announced that the company would be embracing cloud soon to leverage the opportunities that come with it. This deal with IBM seems to be the first step towards achieving this goal. From this deal, it is clear that American has started on the process of modernizing its tech segment to keep in tune with the growing demands of its customers, who expect faster and a more reliable set of online tools. Also, its growing digital footprint necessitates a scalable infrastructure, that is best filled by a cloud architecture.

In fact, this airline is not alone in making this massive technological shift. Most companies world over are looking to move some or all of their operations to the cloud, with an aim to reap the benefits of such a move. As the volume of data grows, companies can choose to have their own data center or can store their data and applications in a service provider’s infrastructure. There are advantages and disadvantages in both the choices, so sometimes, companies prefer to store some data in their own data center and some in the cloud. American Airlines is also taking this hybrid approach as of now, as it plans to keep some applications on its own premises. But, that may change, depending on how this move to the cloud plays out for the company.

Thus, this is the first baby step taken by American Airlines to make a foray into cloud, and over time, the company may even move all of its applications to the cloud.

The post American Airlines Turns to IBM for Cloud Tech appeared first on Cloud News Daily.

What ‘Mr. Robot’ Can Teach Us About Incident Response | @CloudExpo #IoT #Cloud #Security

It is not often that movies and television shows give viewers the opportunity to explore the world of hacking and digital security in a realistic manner. After two seasons, “Mr. Robot” has attracted its share of IT professionals as well as average citizens. The show has offered numerous depictions that are of particular interest to those who make their living by protecting their organizations.
The critically acclaimed television series offers fictional situations rather than documentary evidence. However, the plots and actions of both the security engineers and hackers are realistic enough that they can send a shiver down the spine of any professional responsible for safeguarding their organization’s system and responding to incidents. This two-part post explores some of the most chilling incidents depicted on the show – incidents that are especially disturbing because they can and do happen in the real world.

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[slides] #Microservices in @Docker | @DevOpsSummit @HPE #DevOps #AI #ML

Application transformation and DevOps practices are two sides of the same coin. Enterprises that want to capture value faster, need to deliver value faster – time value of money principle. To do that enterprises need to build cloud-native apps as microservices by empowering teams to build, ship, and run in production. In his session at @DevOpsSummit at 19th Cloud Expo, Neil Gehani, senior product manager at HPE, discussed what every business should plan for how to structure their teams to deliver.

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Sweden confirms tax break for data centres following government study

(c)iStock.com/SorenP

Swedish data centre operators are to enjoy a vastly reduced electricity tax rate for providing their services after Sweden’s parliament confirmed new legislation.

The move will see the rate for data centres in Sweden move to 0.005 krona, or 0.00054 US dollars per kWh, as of January 1 2017 at a 97% cut.

Last year, a government-led study advocated the move, arguing that the data centre industry should be on an equal footing to the likes of manufacturing, which already has tax breaks on its power and electricity requirements built in. Speaking to this publication at the time of the report’s release Anne Graf, then investment and development director at data centre hub The Node Pole, noted her belief that all stakeholders were for the proposed changes – with the recent decision proving her assertions right.

The Node Pole, which is to be acquired by Vattenfall and Skellefteå Kraft, two of Sweden’s largest energy companies, has among its clientele renewable energy provider Hydro 66 – who claims it can offer colocation at half the cost compared to if they were based in London – and most famously Facebook, whose expansions in Lulea have been well documented.

Sweden’s natural climate and relative close proximity for European customers makes it an attractive proposition for potential customers, and according to Peter Ericson, chairman of the Node Pole, this latest development adds to the mix.

“This parliamentary decision sends a clear message that Sweden is serious about becoming the green home of the internet and taking global cloud service leadership over the short and long term,” said Ericson in a statement. “The combination of low electricity prices, a competitive tax rate and the abundance of renewable energy provides a case for a long-term investment climate that is extremely competitive.”

The break will apply to new and existing data centres which exceed ‘at least a 0.5 [megawatt] capacity, measured as installed effect excluding cooling facilities’, according to the press materials.

Read more: Swedish government study advocates tax cut for data centre providers