The Internet of Things will challenge the status quo of how IT and development organizations operate. Or will it? Certainly the fog layer of IoT requires special insights about data ontology, security and transactional integrity. But the developmental challenges are the same: People, Process and Platform and how we integrate our thinking to solve complicated problems. In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, Craig Sproule, CEO of Metavine, demonstrated how to move beyond today’s coding paradigm and share the must-have mindsets for removing complexity from the development process, accelerate application delivery times, and ensure that developers will become heroes (not bottlenecks) in the IoT revolution.
Monthly Archives: December 2016
[video] Cloud Solutions | @CloudExpo @PentaSecSystems @cisluser #Cloud
Infrastructure is widely available, but who’s managing inbound/outbound traffic? Data is created, stored, and managed online – who is protecting it and how?
In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, Jaeson Yoo, SVP of Business Development at Penta Security Systems Inc., discussed how to keep any and all infrastructure clean, safe, and efficient by monitoring and filtering all malicious HTTP/HTTPS traffic at the OSI Layer 7. Stop attacks and web intruders before they can enter your network.
AI vs Digital Technologies in 2017 | @CloudExpo #AI #DigitalTransformation
Almost a year ago, I wrote these words, “Technology has reached the tipping point for me, it moved from a help to a hindrance.” The plethora of adrenaline- and endorphin-inducing mobile apps, 24×7 news, notifications, alerts and updates, drip fed my brain and hindered my “deep work and deep thoughts.” In Cal Newport’s new book titled, Deep Work he posits that most knowledge workers need concentration and substantial time, dedicated and uninterrupted, to produce their best work. He argues that a lot of technologies and open office layouts today inhibit creativity, “deep work” and “deep thoughts,” and are the very things that are most highly valued, and one of the key differentiators between humans and robots.
FINRA Leads the Way in Cloud Adoption
If you thought cloud storage is only for private companies, you can’t be any farther from the truth. In fact, many government agencies, including data-sensitive organizations like the US Army and FBI, are moving their operations to the cloud, mainly because of the many benefits that come with it. Some financial organizations have also started looking into cloud, thanks to the Financial Industry Regulation Authority (FINRA)’s move to adopt cloud in a big way.
At the recently concluded Amazon’s conference, Steve Randich, the executive VP of FINRA, opined that cybersecurity is better in the cloud than in private data centers, and this is why it’s a good idea for financial companies to move their sensitive and confidential data to the cloud. This step has allayed the fear of many financial institutions who believe that data security is one of the biggest problems of cloud storage. A few years back, cloud security was in its nascent stages, so these fears made sense. However today, cloud security has improved by leaps and bounds, and these advancements make cloud one of the safest places to park your data.
These reasons are exactly why FINRA chose Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its service provider. Randich trusts cloud so much that the organization moved its primary and mission critical applications to AWS in the first move itself. There was no question of pilot testing by moving smaller applications. FINRA’s surveillance application alone processes more data on a single day, typically around 75 billion events a day, and this is more than what credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard process over a period of six months. Such is the magnitude of the data handled by FINRA, and it’s heartening to see that all of it is done in the cloud now!
In addition, FINRA has to search through this data and run advanced queries to identify insider trading or any other wrongful trading from this vast amount of data, and AWS makes it possible with its advanced query tools that come with a simple interface. As a result, the search process is greatly simplified, and at the same time, the results are accurate – something that is a must for FINRA’s operations.
This successful adoption of cloud by FINRA has boosted the confidence levels of other financial providers too. Randich says that he gets queries from many financial organizations about their cloud adoption, and is confident that more companies will take to the cloud in the near future. Already CapitalOne has partnered with AWS to move its applications to the cloud, and it won’t be long before other financial companies also follow suit.
Such a move augurs well for not just AWS, but for the cloud industry as a whole. Traditionally, financial companies are the slowest to adopt cloud, and it looks like cloud has broken this final frontier too. Given this scenario, it’s no surprise that many cloud providers including Google and Microsoft, are creating new products and entering into partnerships with other service providers to offer top of the line cloud experience for its customers.
The post FINRA Leads the Way in Cloud Adoption appeared first on Cloud News Daily.
Top 10 disasters of 2016 reaffirm need for cloud business continuity strategy
(c)iStock.com/dwryan
With 2016 drawing to a close – and some may argue with good cause – it is time to assess the landscape throughout the year. According to figures published by managed service providers IT Specialists (ITS), the 10 largest business continuity disasters of the year in the UK include storms, fires, and power outages.
Particularly observant readers of this publication will note a similar study was conducted by ITS back in May, which focused on the top 10 disasters between April 2015 and March 2016. Only two which were on that list; storm Katie and the Saltley recycling fire, which were both in March.
The full list is: storm Gertrude, in January; storm Katie; the Saltley fire; damage to an electricity cable in Cromer in April; a major power feature at a London data centre in July; flash floods in September; a fire in Exeter in October which gutted the Royal Clarence Hotel; storm Angus and a Soho power cut in November; and more London-based flooding earlier this month.
So what does this mean for your business? Put simply, be prepared for anything. “Investing in forward planning can save valuable time, protect the organisation’s revenue and preserve its customer base,” said Matt Kingswood, UK head of ITS in a statement. “We urge businesses to formulate a business continuity programme to identify inefficient processes that cost the organisation money on a daily basis and can prove a barrier to business continuity.”
Writing for this publication back in May on how to create a solid disaster recovery strategy, Kingswood cited an unnamed accountancy firm which was a “poster child” for business continuity, having been affected by a fire in Holborn in spring 2015, whose servers were on the cloud so employees could keep working. “No insurance policy will help employees continue working if they don’t have access to business-critical applications,” Kingswood warned.
“To gain the most ROI from business continuity, businesses need to form a cloud-based data backup strategy, give employees network access, set guidelines for personal device use, provision a telephony solution, have a plan for Internet outages, and set up an alternate workspace.”
Sensor-2-Server Access Layer | @ThingsExpo #IoT #IIoT #M2M #API
The idea of comparing data in motion (at the sensor level) to data at rest (in a Big Data server warehouse) with predictive analytics in the cloud is very appealing to the industrial IoT sector. The problem Big Data vendors have, however, is access to that data in motion at the sensor location.
In his session at @ThingsExpo, Scott Allen, CMO of FreeWave, discussed how as IoT is increasingly adopted by industrial markets, there is going to be an increased demand for sensor data from the outermost (access) layer of the network.
Adopting a Cloud Operating Model | @CloudExpo #API #PaaS #Cloud
When was the last time you’ve ever heard anyone say “IT Applications & Operations”? Frankly, in my 30+ year career in IT, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone use this term. The typical term we hear is IT Infrastructure & Operations. These two go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly, which tells us a lot about how we view the field of IT.
For those that may not be familiar with the role of IT Operations, Joe Hertvik does a great job here of describing IT Operations Management as someone engaged in the role of providing this service to the business. As you can see it’s very interesting how he specifically addresses the gap between responsibilities regarding IT Applications and IT Operations as a Venn diagram in which there is no overlap.
Self-Service Analytics Is Replacing Traditional BI | @CloudExpo #Cloud #BusinessIntelligence
Modern organizations typically use several IT tools to monitor their applications, networks and other IT components in real time. Unfortunately, this leads to independent data islands, which creates a one-dimensional view of IT. In order to make strategic decisions, organizations need an IT operational analytics tool to analyze data from multiple sources, spot trends and make better decisions.
CloudJumper Wins Award from @Frost_Sullivan | @CloudExpo @CloudJumperWaaS #Cloud #Security
CloudJumper, a Workspace as a Service (WaaS) platform innovator for agile business IT, has been recognized with the Customer Value Leadership Award for its nWorkSpace platform by Frost & Sullivan. The company was also featured in a new report(1) by the industry research firm titled, “Desktop-as-a-Service Buyer’s Guide, 2016,” which provides a comprehensive comparison of DaaS providers, including CloudJumper, Amazon, VMware, and Microsoft.
[video] Managed Network Systems with Infranics | @CloudExpo #IoT #M2M #Cloud
“This is specifically designed to accommodate some of the needs for high availability and failover in a network managed system for the major Korean corporations,” stated Thomas Masters, Managing Director at InfranicsUSA, 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.