Traditional on-premises data centers have long been the domain of modern data platforms like Apache Hadoop, meaning companies who build their business on public cloud were challenged to run Big Data processing and analytics at scale. But recent advancements in Hadoop performance, security, and most importantly cloud-native integrations, are giving organizations the ability to truly gain value from all their data.
In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, David Tishgart, Director of Product Marketing at Cloudera, covered the ins and outs of Hadoop, and how it can help cloud-based businesses.
Monthly Archives: November 2016
Artificial Intelligence – Myth or Reality, Boon or Bane | @CloudExpo #AI #ML #Cloud
Way back in 1969, as a kid, I watched a very interesting movie – “2001: A Space Odyssey”. It was a science fiction where a super intelligent computer program HAL is in-charge of a mission to Jupiter which also carries several astronauts. The program becomes rogue and tries to kill all the astronauts. The hero survives and manages to disable the program. There is a lot more to the plot, but the fight between human and computer is still vivid in my memory.
In 1969, such a scenario looked possible. After all 32 years is a lot of time given the rate of our progress. We are now in 2016, and it appears that something similar may happen in next 32 years.
[slides] How to Become a ‘Digital Predator’ | @CloudExpo @Alfresco #ML #Cloud #DigitalTransformation
According to Forrester Research, every business will become either a digital predator or digital prey by 2020. To avoid demise, organizations must rapidly create new sources of value in their end-to-end customer experiences. True digital predators also must break down information and process silos and extend digital transformation initiatives to empower employees with the digital resources needed to win, serve, and retain customers.
Google Acquires Qwiklabs
Google scores over its arch rival Amazon by acquiring a company called Qwiklabs, that provides hands-on training for AWS developers. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Qwiklabs was founded in 2012 to focus on teaching developers to create and run applications on the AWS platform. Though the original idea was to create a learning tool for cloud-based platforms, the focus quickly turned to AWS because of its dominance in the cloud market. AWS also started using Qwiklabs as its go-to service for providing self-paced labs for different developers.
All that is set to change with this acquisition. Clearly, Google acquired Qwiklabs with an intent to take on its competition head-on. Since the cloud attributes of Google and AWS are fundamentally different, it requires different development approaches. Given this difference, it won’t be a surprise if Qwiklabs transforms from a AWS-based service to a Google-based one, where Google’s own cloud tools and services are showcased to potential customers. It remains to be seen if Google will also allows AWS-based courses on Qwiklabs. Some experts though think Qwiklabs will continue to offer AWS courses, as Google’s cloud head, Diane Greene is a supporter of multi-cloud deployments.
At this point though, Google has announced no major changes to the operations of Qwiklabs, which means, Qwiklabs will continue to offer subscriptions and labs for AWS developers. However, we may not see new AWS courses on this platform, and also, there is no news on when Google’s programs will be included. It is expected that Google will use Qwiklabs to help people understand the Google Cloud Platform and G Suite productivity services better, so more apps can be based out of them.
This acquisition comes as a surprise for many reasons. Firstly, it’s not sure why AWS did not acquire this company before-hand, considering the fact that it sold only AWS-based courses. In fact, Qwiklabs says that more than half a million developers have used its platform, and have spent over five million hours learning about AWS. Secondly, it reflects the multi-pronged strategy that Google has taken over the last few months to get a firm hold on the cloud market. Thirdly, this acquisition can act as the perfect jump board for Google to reach out to more customers.
As for AWS, it has to find a new education partner to fill the absence of Qwiklabs. In September, AWS announced that it will give its Enterprise Support customers free Qwiklabs credits! That has to change now.
This acquisition goes to show the fickle nature of supporting tools. In the past, one company had complete control over all the tools and services that were related to its products, so there was greater certainty. Today, the market is a lot more fragmented, and this can be attributed to the nature of technology and the market itself. Though AWS and Google offer platforms, a host of services and tools from third-party companies are needed to make the most of these platforms, so acquisitions and mergers can significantly alter the market share.
It will be interesting to see the impact of this acquisition for both Google and AWS.
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AI may help create more sustainable data centres – but work still to do
(c)iStock.com/ThomasVogel
Enterprise data centre provider Aegis Data argues in its latest note that utilising artificial intelligence (AI) could be key in winning the battle for sustainable data centres.
“There’s no escaping the reality that as more connected devices and technology trends sweep the market, more demands will be placed on the data centre to provide the high-powered servers and cooling systems required,” said Greg McCulloch, CEO of Aegis. “But in the pursuit of guaranteeing performance, it is having an accumulative effect on the global share of data centre emissions… it’s not an understatement that the industry needs to take immediate action and AI may just be the solution in order to help achieve more sustainable results.”
For data centre providers, PUE (power usage effectiveness) figures have traditionally been the name of the game for sustainability, dividing energy for the whole facility by the energy for the facility’s IT equipment and aiming for an ideal score of 1.0.
Back in April 2015 this reporter attended the opening of a new Rackspace data centre (below) in West Crawley, which had an impressive 1.15 PUE rating; the average was nearer 1.7 with Rackspace admitting themselves their target was 1.25. The data centre utilised other natural benefits, including cooling using natural air – a feature that was tailor made for the UK – while the design was donated to the Open Compute Project.
Picture credit: Rackspace
It was pretty impressive stuff all round. Yet not everyone agrees that PUE is the way forward. Professor Ian Bitterlin, chair of the British Computer Society’s data centre group on server lifecycle, told E&T last year that “improving server effectiveness is the only way to improve data centre effectiveness”, and that people are erroneously putting PUE as a data centre ‘goodness’ metric.
As far as Aegis is concerned, the work Google is undertaking by putting its DeepMind technology in its data centres – and experiencing a 15% energy efficiency improvement in the process – is on the right lines, but not without its flaws. “[AI is] a technology that’s very much in its infancy, and if it is to overtake human interaction in the data centre, then it must be rigorously researched and tested to guarantee performance,” said McCulloch. “But once this hurdle is overcome, AI has the ability to provide a comprehensive visualisation, automation and monitoring process that can envision the necessary power, cooling and energy requirements needed.
“With the wide range of operations that occur in a data centre, the ability to eliminate human error and have an ‘always on’ approach will go a long way in helping reduce energy consumption,” added McCulloch.
Forget about the Internet of Things for a minute – and consider the Security of Things
(c)iStock.com/rzoze19
Opinion The Internet of Things (IoT) is well and truly upon us – and will clearly be even more prevalent in the future. Today, IoT is already branching out into commercial networks as well as enterprise applications. Smart devices are becoming more commonplace in our households with everyday appliances now able to communicate with the internet to help our lives to run more smoothly and interconnected devices are now essential tools in our working lives as well. This is all fantastic news – right?
While it’s easy to get excited about all the new gadgets that the era of the IoT has delivered, it is important to take a step back from all the excitement and talk about security.
Millions of people across the globe are connecting with these devices and sharing valuable data. However, the potential misuse of this data still remains fairly well hidden, disguised under IoT’s novelty halo effect. Infosecurity experts have long warned that IoT devices are set to be a security nightmare as they are often deployed with little or no consideration for security. The question is: are enough people aware of this and are the right security measures being taken – particularly by organisations that need to protect business critical and sensitive data? Recent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks such as that experienced by the DNS provider, Dyn – which made it impossible to access the likes of Twitter, Amazon and Netflix – should be a serious wakeup call.
In its early days, the World Wide Web brought with it little protection from misuse. This, of course, generated consumer distrust, consequently slowing down initial e-commerce efforts. But, if we fast-forward to the present day, it is now the case that e-commerce represents around 15% of all retail sales in the UK, with an expected £5million to be spent online this Black Friday in the UK alone.
This is in no doubt due to the fact that today data encryption and other security measures are simply assumed. People no longer fear sending their credit card information over the wire. As a result, security issues for the most part are kept in the background. It almost seems as though we are in a cycle in which consumers and organisations blindly trust companies with their valuable data and it is only when a case of known and reported intrusions arises that action is taken and data security is examined.
Whether it is the IoT or the cloud, companies need to begin using security technologies and procedures that have already proven to be reliable
This, in some respects, also echoes the initial response to the cloud, which saw low user adoption for the first few years due to security worries around the security of the data being stored offsite. Compare that to the beginning of this year when the UK Cloud adoption rate climbed to 84% according to the Cloud Industry Forum.
It has been found that most of the IoT devices that have been hacked to date have had default usernames and passwords, and at no point had the manufacturers prompted users to change these. Increasingly, hackers are able to use malware software to scour the web for devices that have basic security and detect vulnerabilities. This enables the hackers to upload malicious code so that the devices can be used to attack a targeted website.
What is really worrying is that the owners of the IoT devices are usually unaware of the attack. This is because once a device has been hijacked it can be impossible to tell as they often continue to work exactly as normal. Issues will then begin to occur behind the scenes when the compromised system is subsequently put on the same network as personal computers, corporate servers and even confidential government data.
The main issue is, without knowing which devices exchange data within a specific network or the internet as a whole, there is no way to develop an adequate security strategy. In theory, every single device that is being added to a network needs to be evaluated, but this is just as painstaking as it sounds.
Whether it is the IoT or the cloud, companies need to begin using security technologies and procedures that have already been proven to be reliable. This means applying on-premise levels of IT security to cloud workloads. For example, two-factor authentication, role-based access control, encryption, and vulnerability scanning can enable a protective shield for the cloud to scan all incoming and outgoing data for malicious code, regardless of the device being used. The right level of security technologies embedded into the cloud platform allows companies to gain control of all web-based traffic in order to actively manage which communications should be permitted and which should be blocked.
Recent high profile cyber attacks and, increasingly, ransomware threats have spurred a long overdue discussion about the gaps in IoT security. Unless the security side of IoT is sorted out, it could hold back wider adoption of the technology. Early adopters beware; the best advice is to follow the data. Know how the company behind your latest gadgets and interconnected devices handles security and ensure that any cloud provider is able to provide you with the reports and ongoing visibility that will enable security settings to be managed and maintained.
Automated Tasks and Artificial Intelligence | @CloudExpo #AI #Cloud #MachineLearning
The 2017 procurement landscape has its own impressive retinue of decision bots, automated processes, and data-driven insights.
The next BriefingsDirect technology innovation thought leadership discussion explores how rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are poised to reshape procurement — like a fast-forwarding to a once-fanciful vision of the future.
Top Tech Gifts This Holiday Season
Just in time for your Black Friday holiday shopping. Here are the top tech gifts this holiday season, chosen by Chris Ward, Chris Williams, Dan Allen, and Randy Becker. Hopefully this will help with the gift search!
Chris Ward, CTO
DJI Phantom 3 Drone – With a 4K camera, GPS assisted hover, vision positioning system and Live HD View, it allows you to easily take crisp aerial videos and images from the sky.
Amazon Echo & Amazon Echo Dot – To say it’s just a hands free speaker with voice control would be an understatement. Echo connects to Alexa voice assistant and can play music, tell you the news, order you pizza and much more.
Samsung Gear VR – This VR headset is one of the best on the market, but make sure you have a Samsung phone. However, if you have an Android, check out the Google Daydream.
Chris Williams, Enterprise Consultant
Official Star Wars Drones – These are Star Wars drones, enough said. Best gift ever for the Star Wars fanatic in your family.
Fitbit Charge HR – One of their newest wristbands. It’s built for all day, workouts and more, it also features PurePulse heart rate monitor and caller ID so you don’t have to take out your phone.
Google Home – Google’s answer to the Amazon Echo, a voice activated speaker powered by Google Assistant with countless hands free features. An added bonus is that you can control your Google Chromecast with it. Unlike the Amazon Echo, which cannot control its fellow product, the Amazon Fire TV stick.
Dan Allen, Solutions Architect
Drone – No matter how much you spend, it’s the best gift ever.
Nintendo Entertainment System: Classic Edition – It is a miniaturized replica of the original NES system and comes pre-installed with 30 original NES games. Great for kids or a kid at heart.
Hue Lights – Personal wireless LED lighting with white light or over 16 million colors, the possibilities are endless.
Randy Becker, CTO
Amazon Echo or Google Home – A face off of the home smart speakers, both have personal assistants, but purchase one or the other, and make sure you do your research.
Apple Watch Series 2 – With a built in GPS and water resistant up to 50M, the new Apple watch is full of features to keep you connected and active.
BlueSound – Smart wireless multi-room speakers that are built for studio quality hi-res streaming.
By Jake Cryan, Digital Marketing Specialist
IBM Expanding its UK Operations
IBM announced that it will add four more data centers in the UK to meet its increasing client demand. With this investment, IBM will increase its number of data centers in the UK to six, and its overall presence in Europe to 16. In a press release, IBM has said that this expansion is a part of the long term commitment that it has made to its UK clients.
With this move, IBM joins the ranks of Google and Facebook in investing in the UK. These tech giants feel the need to expand their presence in the UK market, especially after Brexit. Earlier, data centers located elsewhere in Europe was sufficient to cater to the UK market, but all that is likely to change after the UK voted to leave the European Union. This is why IBM and other companies are investing here to ensure that there is no disruption in service for their UK clients.
In many ways, such investments showcase the strength of the UK economy, and the size of its cloud market. According to IBM Europe’s General Manager, Sebastian Krause, a lot of innovation is happening in the UK cloud market, and it’s only right for companies like IBM to support this innovation by providing the right tools, applications, and infrastructure. Further, this move is likely to comply with all rules and regulations pertaining to the presence of data within the country’s borders. Also, it will give UK clients greater control over how they want to manage their data, and leverage the power of cloud for their business.
In addition, the tech scene is UK is unaffected by Brexit, which means, there will be significant opportunities for expanding cloud services. In fact, most tech companies had concluded way back in June, that the UK economy will be strong, regardless of which way voters choose in the Brexit election. This is why they had continued with their expansion plans, and are expected to increase their presence in the near future.
As for IBM, these new data centers would serve some top companies like Thomson, Boots, and Dixon Carphone, National Grid, and the UK government. To give more value to its customers, IBM announced that the new data centers will be infused with cognitive intelligence, so machines can learn and think like humans.
The first of the four data centers will be located in Fareham, and is expected to be operational by the end of this year. Out of the remaining three, another one will also be located in Hampshire, while the location for the remaining two will be revealed next year.
In all, this move augurs well for anyone. For the UK economy, it is expected to create more job opportunities, and also gives small businesses easy access to the cloud. Also, this announcement is likely to support British Prime Minister Theresa May’s efforts to ensure that the UK will be open for business even after Brexit. As for IBM, this presents yet another opportunity to expand its cloud footprint.
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IBM launches four new UK data centres fused with AI
(c)iStock.com/Valerie Loiseleux
IBM has announced it is to add four new cloud data centres in the UK, tripling its capacity and aiming to keep up with client demand.
The announcement comes almost two months to the day since the Armonk giant committed to a cloud data centre in Norway citing rising demand in the Nordics, and one day after eCommerce behemoth Alibaba launched its global cloud plan, opening data centres in Australia, Germany, Japan, and the Middle East.
IBM said its key tenet for the new data centres was ‘cognitive intelligence’; in other words, utilising artificial intelligence for better business decisions, and utilising the capabilities of Watson. Airline TUI was a new customer announced by the company, with travel operator Thomson, part of the TUI Group, trialling a new search chatbot which leverages Watson and gives real-time results on travel destinations and holiday enquiries.
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Picture credit: “IBM’s global cloud data center footprint“, by “ibmphoto24“, used under CC BY NC ND
IBM now has a global network of 52 data centres, with 16 across Europe overall and the UK contingent up to six, as a recently published graphic (above) notes. The first new facility will open in Farnham, Surrey, in December, with the rest opening next year.
“By adding four new cloud data centres in the UK, IBM is giving local businesses an easy route to the cloud, helping them quickly innovate and respond to market demands,” said Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president of IBM Cloud in a statement. “IBM is continuing to invest in high growth areas, offering clients higher value cloud data services such as Watson and blockchain running on our cloud infrastructure that delivers world class scalability, performance and security.”
The company’s list of new and existing customers mentioned in the press materials had a particular focus on retail and a nod towards Black Friday on November 25. Alongside TUI, Boots, Dixons, Shop Direct, and Travis Perkins were also cited.