Digital technology need not fall exclusively in the category of ‘user-facing.’ In fact, any piece of technology, regardless how old it is or where it falls in the enterprise IT environment, is a ‘digital technology’ if it aligns with the customer-centric goal of digital.
From mainframes and middleware to cloud computing and the Internet of Things, all enterprise technology might qualify as digital technology.
Monthly Archives: May 2017
Stop Saying AI Can’t Replace Humans | @CloudExpo #AI #ML #Cloud
To change your world, AI does not need to replace humans – it just needs to displace you. So stop saying that AI can’t replace humans, and start asking, “Can AI displace me?”
We are not close enough to general-knowledge artificial intelligence to consider a world where such a system could completely replace a cognitive nonrepetitive (white-collar) worker. And while Hollywood and sensationalist reporting would have you believe otherwise, malevolent AI systems and sentient cyborgs should not be the subject of any serious discussion about job loss. The most probable future is far scarier.
Serverless Architectures Are Here | @CloudExpo #FaaS #Cloud #Serverless
It has never been a better time to be a developer! Thanks to cloud computing, deploying our applications is much easier than it used to be. How we deploy our apps continues to evolve thanks to cloud hosting, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and now Function-as-a-Service.
FaaS is the concept of serverless computing via serverless architectures. Software developers can leverage this to deploy an individual “function”, action, or piece of business logic. They are expected to start within milliseconds and process individual requests and then the process ends.
T-Mobile to Exhibit at @CloudExpo | #DevOps #IoT #AI #ML #DX #SmartCities
SYS-CON Events announced today that T-Mobile will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. As America’s Un-carrier, T-Mobile US, Inc., is redefining the way consumers and businesses buy wireless services through leading product and service innovation. The Company’s advanced nationwide 4G LTE network delivers outstanding wireless experiences to 67.4 million customers who are unwilling to compromise on quality and value.
Supercomputing as a Service is Available Now
We’ve been using Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for a few years now. We added something called Identity as a Service (IDaaS) a few years back, and now it’s time for Supercomputing as a Service.
Cray, a supercomputer vendor, has made its high performing computers, technologies and servers available to users through the cloud. It has recently partnered with a company called Markley to offer supercomputing technologies as a hosted service.
Under the terms of agreement, both these companies will come together to offer supercomputing to clients in the life sciences industry, to start with. Later, they’ll expand to other verticals and have even hinted that they’ll look at developing some industry-specific software and solutions in the future.
Overall, this is a good move that’ll augur well not only for these two companies, but for the technology industry as a whole. Currently, not all computers are supercomputers simply because it takes a certain amount of time, money and resources, and many organizations may not be up to it. In fact, they may want to focus on their core operations, which is understandable. At the same time, they were missing out on the power that comes with supercomputers.
Now, with supercomputer being offered as a service, it should be easier than before to simply use this service to improve your business, without having to spend considerable time and effort in getting the supercomputers ready. In this sense, this announcement can be seen as a big leap in the adoption of technology and hopefully it can transform many businesses in the future.
From Cray and Markley’s perspective too, this is a good move as it can create a niche area for both the companies. Markley is already well-known for its multi-tenant and mission critical infrastructure and data center facility, so this idea to bring supercomputers as a service will be an important feather to its cap. In fact, this Boston-based company has never experienced a primary power outage in its 15 years of operation, which is a remarkable feat by itself. Add supercomputers to this list, and it’s sure to make it even better.
With this offering, Cray plans to expand its reach to the commercial and enterprise data spaces as well. This is an interesting that was announced by its CEO, Peter Ungaro, during the most recent quarterly report that took place earlier this month. In this announcement, Ungaro accepted that the high-performance computing (HPC) market is slowing down and it’s time for the company to look into related adjacent markets as well.
While the HPC market may rebound soon, it still makes sense for a company to expand to commercial areas, as this is could end up to be a more lucrative and lasting market for Cray.
In all, supercomputer as a computer is a fantastic piece of news that has already started sending exciting ripples in the world of technology. Let’s see how it shapes up over the next few months.
The post Supercomputing as a Service is Available Now appeared first on Cloud News Daily.
Cloud computing goes beyond tipping point in financial services, says DTCC
Cloud computing has reached a ‘tipping point’ in financial services with capabilities and cost efficiencies moving ahead of on-premise data centre equivalents, according to The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC).
The company, which provides financial transaction and data processing services for the global financial industry, has issued a new report, titled ‘Moving Financial Market Infrastructure to the Cloud’. The tipping point, the report argues, comes from a change in questioning on cloud services; the conversation moves forward from ‘is the cloud safe?’ to ‘what compromises are we making by staying on-premises?’
DTCC itself says it has leveraged cloud services for almost five years, and is therefore looking at methods of expansion, with the proof of the pudding in the eating.
The report goes through the usual rigmarole of outlining software, infrastructure, and platform as a service, as well as discussing benefits such as scale, resiliency, privacy, security and cost. The paper also notes that public cloud vendors have significantly upped their game in recent years.
“The leading cloud vendors are at the forefront of security implementation and research, enabling them to attract and retain the top global talent,” the report notes. “Very few companies can replicate the reliability and built-in automation and processes of a public vendor that is installing tens of thousands of individual servers every day and monitoring and trouble-shooting tens of millions of active network components.”
Regulation is another important area DTCC goes into. While many of the concerns over cloud providers are similar to those across the regulatory community, the report notes, the four primary areas to move through are data protection and sensitivity, data integrity, continuity of service, and auditing issues.
“We believe cloud computing has moved past a tipping point and that the security, scalability, resiliency, recoverability and cost of applications in the cloud are better than many private enterprises could achieve on their own,” said Robert Garrison, DTCC CIO. “As a result, we will pursue a strategy of building a cloud ecosystem that supports best practices and standards.
“At the same time, we take seriously our responsibility to be in full compliance with all relevant regulatory requirements and pledge to work in collaboration with our supervisors to achieve this.”
You can read the full report here (registration required).
IBM and Nutanix seal deal for enterprise hyperconverged initiative
IBM and Nutanix have announced a ‘multi-year’ initiative which aligns Nutanix’s enterprise cloud platform with IBM’s Power Systems server line to give large enterprises greater opportunities with hyperconverged deployments.
The two companies aim to put together a product which brings new workloads to hyperconverged. Alongside the mission-critical elements, such as databases and enterprise apps, as well as cloud native workloads like containers, there is also scope for ‘next generation cognitive workloads’, increasingly featuring machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).
The companies set the scene in the press materials. “Being able to react in real time used to give enterprises a competitive advantage, but this approach no longer guarantees happy customers,” the companies write. “The value has now migrated to the ability to rapidly gather large amounts of data, quickly crunch and predict what’s likely to happen next – using a combination of analytics, cognitive skills, machine learning and more.”
The move will also include exclusive virtualisation management with AHV, Nutanix’s open virtualisation platform.
“Hyperconverged systems continue on a rapid growth trajectory. IT teams now recognise the need, and the undeniable benefits, of embracing the next generation of data centre infrastructure technology,” said Stefanie Chiras, VP Power Systems at IBM.
“Our partnership with Nutanix will be designed to give our joint enterprise customers a scalable, resilient, high performance hyperconverged infrastructure solution, benefiting from the data and compute capabilities of the Power architecture and the one-click simplicity of the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform.”
According to a study from 451 Research in February, Nutanix was named the leading vendor for converged infrastructure, ahead of nearest rivals Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Cisco. Comparing the two scores of ‘promise’ and ‘fulfilment’, Nutanix scored lower than HPE for the former, but higher for the latter.
The company’s 2016 paper on putting enterprise applications on hyperconverged infrastructure – available to download on this title – gives an intriguing insight into a ‘fundamentally different approach to enterprise application needs’.
“In the last few years, hyperconverged, web-scale infrastructure has emerged as a better alternative,” the paper notes. “Taking cues from web giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook, hyperconverged infrastructure combines x86-based compute and storage resources – including flash – with intelligent software to create flexible building blocks that eliminate many of the pain points of deploying and managing IT infrastructure.”
The product will be sold exclusively through IBM sales and channel partners, with more specific details to be announced at the time of availability.
How to run Paint Tool SAI on Mac® with Parallels Desktop
Digital arts students use computers and other peripherals such as tablets to create art. They sometimes additionally work in digital photography, animation, electronic sound and music, graphic design, and other digital or interactive media. Popular programs such as Adobe® Photoshop® or Paint Tool SAI are often utilized together to allow artists to maximize their creativity. […]
The post How to run Paint Tool SAI on Mac® with Parallels Desktop appeared first on Parallels Blog.
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley Call for Papers Now Open | @CloudExpo #AI #DX #ML #Cloud
The 21st International Cloud Expo has announced that its Call for Papers is open. Cloud Expo, to be held October 31 – November 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, brings together Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, DevOps, Digital Transformation, Machine Learning and WebRTC to one location.
With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to plant your flag in this fast-expanding business opportunity. Submit your speaking proposal today!
[session] Adopting #DevOps | @DevOpsSummit @Nutanix #AI #Microservices
One of the biggest challenges with adopting a DevOps mentality is: new applications are easily adapted to cloud-native, microservice-based, or containerized architectures – they can be built for them – but old applications need complex refactoring. On the other hand, these new technologies can require relearning or adapting new, oftentimes more complex, methodologies and tools to be ready for production.
In his general session at @DevOpsSummit at 20th Cloud Expo, Chris Brown, Solutions Marketing Manager at Nutanix, will explore how Nutanix is bringing these sides together – agility for pets, governance for cattle – in a single unified platform. With this combined approach, Nutanix removes silos – both technological and human – propelling your applications to a new level.