We’ve all heard about the rapid adoption of JavaScript in recent years. To summarize, JavaScript is the #1 most-used language on GitHub and it looks like this trend will continue. In fact, as one article put it, “JavaScript is the number one language in the world; it’s the language of the web, and a starting point for so many new developers . . .” One of the major reasons behind the rapid adoption JavaScript has been the influence of Node.js. Node.js is a software platform used for building fast, scalable network applications. It’s based on Google’s V8 JavaScript engine, or the Chrome browser runtime, and has gained immense popularity among major enterprises in recent years.
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Case Study: DevOps with WordPress | @DevOpsSummit [#DevOps]
With the media sector and WordPress in mind, a great case study example of this is the Metro Newspaper.
This WordPress case study describes the various ‘hacks’ they employed to grow the site to millions of visitors, achieved through the use of WordPress software off the shelf, which is then augmented with additional modules and ongoing software development and maintenance.
The Head of Development for the site Dave Jensen discusses his philosophy towards this methodology, as well as a number of insightful articles about these improved software practices more rapidly advance the digital products that the web site delivers.
DevOps and Hybrid Clouds By @EFeatherston | @DevOpsSummit [#DevOps]
It seems today we are in a constant state of business and technology disruption. The convergence of the social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC) disruptions have both forced and enabled organizations to move at breakneck speeds addressing the needs and expectations of the lines of business/end users. This speed requires the development teams to be agile. They must be able to respond quickly to changing needs and demands of the organization. The quality assurance (QA) team still needs to ensure a quality product is being sent into production. Finally, the operations team needs to be able to adequately deploy and support these systems. Communication, collaboration, and streamlining of processes are key elements to the success of this rapidly changing environment. Out of that challenge was born the concept and term DevOps. Let’s talk about how DevOps may be able to leverage one of those disrupting technologies, the cloud, to help them operate and deliver on the promise of DevOps.
Enterprise Architecture Frameworks Can Coexist By @Dana_Gardner | @CloudExpo [#Cloud]
John Zachman, Chairman and CEO of Zachman International, and originator of the Zachman Framework, examines the role and benefits of how EA frameworks can co-exist well.
What is the relationship between the major Enterprise Architecture (EA) frameworks? Do they overlap, compete, support each other? How? And what should organizations do as they seek a best approach to operating with multiple EA frameworks?
The Mouse That Roared… for Business by @ChrisFleck
The Citrix X1 Mouse dramatically improves the user experience of any remote Windows app or desktop delivered to an iPad via Citrix and makes anyone more productive.
At Citrix, we’ve been helping people access and use business apps on any device for years. Yet many of our customers depend on Windows-based applications that are hard to use on iPad and Android tablets, because so many features depend on the point-and-click simplicity and accuracy of a physical mouse.
Announcing @dcVAST to Exhibit at @CloudExpo New York [#Cloud]
SYS-CON Events announced today that dcVAST, a leader in IT infrastructure management, support service and cloud service, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
dcVAST provides cutting-edge IT services and IT infrastructure management services. dcVAST builds robust systems that are simple, secure and serviceable. dcVAST’s IT infrastructure support and IT services expertise can help companies reduce costs and increase effectiveness today, tomorrow and into the future.
Industrial Internet Offers Big Opporunity, Daunting Challenges
We heard for many years how developing nations would be able to develop mobile-phone networks quickly, perhaps even leapfrog developed nations, because their lack of traditional, wired networks would not inhibit them from deploying the new technology.
Now there is talk of history repeating itself with the Industrial Internet–a key aspect of the emerging Internet of Things. For example, Guo Ping, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Chinese electronics giant Huawei, said in a recent report from the World Economic Forum, “The Industrial Internet will afford emerging markets a unique opportunity to leapfrog developed countries in digital infrastructure,” says a guy from Chinese giant Huawei in this report.
To some degree the first prediction turned out to be true, as mobile communications have become well established in many developing countries, and mobile phones the first phones ever used by perhaps 2 billion people. Our ongoing research at the Tau Institute shows that, indeed, developing nations in several regions are the most dynamic among all nations of the world.
Unleashing Potential
Now, with the Industrial Internet, no less a pontificator than Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff pronounced the IoT “ground zero for a new phase of global transformation…reshaping industries,” in the same WEF report.
This particular report, entitled “Industrial Internet of Things: Unleashing the Potential of Connected Products and Services,” cites operational efficiency, connected ecosystems, software platforms, collaboration between humans and machines, and something called the outcome economy as the key opportunities afforded by the Industrial Internet.
(“Outcome economy” is some mumbo-jumbo invented by the report’s collaborator, Accenture, and seems to mean that feedback from the IoT will provide companies with new insights that let them create products and services that will better meet customers’ outcomes. Perhaps pharmaceutical companies in the past, for example, were unclear that their customers wanted to feel better.)
In any case, the touted new efficiencies of the IoT in general and the Industrial(ized) Internet in particular do seem to hold promise to bring new productivity–and if history is a guide, economic growth–to nations that move toward the IoT aggressively.
Healthy Growth
Economic growth without increased economic parity and social development will be the empty calories of this new global development engine: if bigger just means fatter, then nations will be hurting themselves over the long term.
This is one of our concerns about recent economic growth in the Philippines, for example. It’s widely reported that the administration of President Noynoy Aquino–which runs from 2010-2016 in the country’s single-term presidential system–has produced rapid economic growth currently running at 6 to 7 percent annually, trailing only China among Asian nations.
And our most recent trip to Metro Manila revealed significant infrastructure improvements at its airport and surrounding highways; a number of new high-end hotels, condominium complexes, and malls; slightly improving bandwidth; much economic development in areas where new agreements have allowed the US military to return in force; and some increasing prices that indicate a growing economy. But the country’s familiar poverty remains entrenched in its cities and provinces, education remains terribly underfunded compared to developed-nation standards, and it doesn’t seem clear that income disparity is being reduced on an overall basis.
We’ve seen similar patterns in other nations in Southeast Asia, and from reports by associates elsewhere.
There has been vibrant residential and commercial construction growth in Thailand over the past decade, along with dynamic pockets of innovative activity, for example, even as a severe, underlying socio-political conflict threatens to undo
Recent inflows of foreign investment into Indonesia, given the nation’s still-recent status as a member of the world’s largest 20 economies, cannot on their own significantly improve an average income that’s about one-third that of neighboring Malaysia. Our research also shows Indonesia as being among the least aggressive technology adopters in the region and the world.
In Africa, we’ve reached out to the dynamic, innovative community in Nigeria, technology entrepreneurs in Kenya and Tanzania, and been apprised of new developments in South Africa. Yet entrenched poverty, factional violence, and a lack of physical and electronic infrastructure remain primary conditions there.
We’ve heard tales of personal frustration with the overall state of things in some countries of the Middle East and Latin America as well.
Some Ideas & Recommendations
So what should be done to facilitate strong socioeconomic growth in developing nations via the Industrial Internet?
Predictive maintenance, remote asset management, and improved working conditions are key areas cited in the WEF report. And several obstacles to improving things in all countries–developed as well as developing–were cited by the group of hundreds of high-level global executives (technical and non-technical) surveyed for this report.
The hurdles include such serious concerns as a lack of vision and leadership, a lack of understanding of values among management or C-level executives, a lack of proven business models (e.g. outcome-based revenue sharing or profit sharing), the thought that the rapid evolution of the technology is causing companies to delay large investments, heavy capital requirements, and the need for business process change.
That’s a daunting list. Add to it the the “urgent need” (in the report’s words) for improved, focused education throughout the world to develop a workforce equal to the challenges and opportunities offered by the Industrial Internet. An amazing 91% of executives surveyed said the world agreed with the statement that “new modes of education and training such as continuous training and certifications) will be required to meet the talent demand in the future digital job market.”
The report recommends that technology providers, technology adopters, and public policymakers unite to invest in strategic research and development, collaborate on “lighthouse” projects, and “accelerate digital reskilling” to address the challenges. Public policymakers are also encouraged to clarify data regulations, update industry regulations, invest in digital infrastructure, and raise awareness of the challenges and opportunities of technology among their colleagues.
Good governance is a staple of software deployment. Good government is the staple of strong, thriving societies. We view the challenges to public policymakers to be the most important catalysts for positive change, as cited in this report and as a general rule.
Technology marches forward, enlightened enterprises and consumers eventually lead all technology buyers toward new horizons, but nothing moves forward in societies plagued by weak leadership and the corruption and violence that comes with it.
Let’s all get to work.
Software Defined Networking | Part 2 By @MJannery | @CloudExpo [#SDN #Cloud]
SDN technologies are broadly split into two fundamentally different paradigms – “overlay” SDN and “underlay” SDN. With overlay SDN the SDN is implemented on top of an existing physical network. With underlay SDN, the fabric of the underlying network is reconfigured to provide the paths required to provide the inter-endpoint SDN connectivity.
Out of the Shadow – Enlightened IT By @NetEnrich | @CloudExpo [#Cloud]
Infrastructure and Operations Management may seem like just so many blinking lights in the back room, as parallel shadow projects are launched by department heads who can’t wait on IT. Today, these shadow projects are more prevalent than ever as more non-tech managers look for easy access to tech functionality. There can be serious unintended consequences both for IT and for the business as a whole.
Cloud computing and easy-to-deploy software, available at lower price points, decentralize technology, which gives business managers a peek behind IT’s silicon curtain. What was once a virtual and mysterious priesthood of little-understood tools and unintelligible code becomes a do-it-yourself model that deploys services at the click of a mouse, at less cost, with deliverables that everyone understands.
OmniTI and GovCloud Join Forces | @CloudExpo [#Cloud]
OmniTI, a provider of web infrastructures and applications for companies that require scalable, high-performance, mission critical solutions, has announced that it has partnered with GovCloud Network, LLC to help clients develop and execute mission and business strategies for cloud-based services.
This collaboration will offer a complete end-to-end cloud service solution for customers. GovCloud’s expertise in Business Strategy and Design combined with OmniTi’s strong Operational and Implementation experience help clients identify business goals and develop and execute business strategies to leverage the parallel and global nature of cloud-based services. The OmniTI/GovCloud partnership focuses on ways to fully leverage the cloud for the client’s business operations while considering a number of critical factors that will impact a successful transition plan including scalability, performance, availability, automation and monitoring initiatives.