All posts by Lavanya

Technology

What’s the difference between device edge and cloud edge?

A few years ago, a lot of our systems were highly centralized and they acted as single points of access for different resources. That’s when cloud computing entered the tech world and dramatically transformed these centralized systems into a more distributed and decentralized architecture.

Such an architecture called edge computing takes cloud computing closer to the consumers. In other words, you can visualize this infrastructure to offer the functions of compute, storage and computing in blocks present at the edge of networks.

The obvious advantage with this architecture is that the latency time is reduced because requests and responses don’t have to travel very long. This short latency time has given a big boost to new technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality and augmented reality. Even rapid strides made in the worlds of artificial intelligence and machine learning can be attributed to some extent to the emergence of edge computing.

That said, let’s get to the central question of this piece- what’s the difference between a device edge and a cloud edge?

Broadly speaking, edge computing is  in its nascent stages, so many companies are trying to identify a niche for themselves in this growing market. They have come up with two models in edge computing.

Device edge computing

In this model, customers have the choice to run any kind of edge computing software in existing software environments while the hardware is shared with other resources or can be dedicated, depending on the needs of edge computing applications. This model is most ideal for running low-powered devices such as an embedded system on chip software in vehicles.

Also, this is best in cases where sensors have to talk to cloud blocks often, as is the case of machine to machine (M2M) communication. Sensors need to communicate quickly and frequently to update information to these device edges, that in turn can be sent to the cloud. So, in all these scenarios, you need a device edge.

Cloud edge computing

Cloud edge computing, also known as fog computing, is a concept that surrounds the implementation of IoT. For this, a device known as fog computing device or cloud edge gateway is placed between the sensors and the cloud, and this device is what provides connectivity between the two.

In other words, this device analyzes the data first, decides if it needs to be compressed or cut, and the remaining is sent to the cloud. This way, network traffic is greatly reduced. Besides this advantage, you can perform calculations on your data and do real-time processing before sending the data to your cloud storage.

This is most ideal when you have to gather and process large amounts of data in a limited bandwidth situation.

Thus, these are the differences between device and edge computing. The right choice of technology depends on your requirements.

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Computing

Heptio Raises More Money

Innovation is the order of the day in tech industry and this explains why startups and small businesses in the cloud space are getting good funding to pursue their ideas. The latest in this regard is a company called Heptio that has raised $25 million in a Series B funding that was led by Madrona Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Accel Partners.

This round of funding comes just within a year when Heptio got $8.5 million in a series A funding. If you’re wondering about the seed money, this Seattle-based company didn’t raise any because it didn’t have a need for it.

According to the CEO and co-founder,  Craig McLuckie, the last eight months has been amazing for the company as they didn’t expect to raise another round of money within such a short time.

So, what does this company do to attract so much funding?

Heptio helps companies to realize the true power of Kubernetes, an open-source system that automates deployment, scaling and management of containerized applications. Essentially, this system helps to group containers based on the application’s logical units, so that management of these applications is easy.

Heptio specializes in bringing Kubernetes and other cloud-native technologies to enterprises by creating new workflows that make this adaptation easy. In other words, it offers professional services for enterprises that want to bring in Kubernetes into their existing system, along with the necessary training and support.

If you look at it from a broader perspective, Heptio is not just helping companies make the most of Kubernetes, but is bringing them closer to the open-source community. And probably that’s what is making this company unique and that’s also what’s attracting investors and customers to it.

When the company first started this project, a lot of things were unclear. But over the last few months, this project has got a defined direction and the business model is sensible as well.  With a defined set of goals, this company has specific plans for this round of funding. It wants to expand to Europe and Asia and maybe even make new partnerships and acquisitions to reach out to new markets.

Let’s hope companies like Heptio are successful in steering companies towards the open-source community.

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News

Michigan School District moves to the cloud

It’s not just businesses that are moving to the cloud, but almost every organization across all spheres of work are looking to make the most of what cloud computing offers. In fact, school districts are increasingly moving to the cloud as it helps them to make the best use of their resources, not to mention the improved connectivity and better reach that comes with it. The latest school district to make this transition is the Michigan school district.

More than a dozen schools in the southwestern Michigan are undergoing a transition to the cloud, so the district could thousands of dollars in a single year. At a time when budget crunches are impacting the way education is imparted to children, this move could potentially improve the facilities and maybe even bring in more qualified teachers to give a great learning experience to the children in these districts.

The best part about this transition is that most teachers and students don’t even know that the underlying infrastructure is being upgraded – that’s really how smooth it is.

Much of this easy transition can be attributed to the fact that the Michigan school district is moving only one application at one time. For example, Moodle, the learning system used by the schools in Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency (KRESA), was one of the first applications to be moved to the cloud.

With the successful transition of this application, the others are likely to follow soon. The entire move is handled by Southwest MiTech, an IT consortium that handles all tech related work in schools located in the Kalamazoo area. This consortium handles everything from purchasing computers to deciding on infrastructural changes. Currently, it provides support to 12 schools and four charter school in this area.

For this transition, the Michigan School District has decided to go ahead with AWS. Though the infrastructure manager of Southwest MiTech is a fan of Microsoft’s products, he still chose AWS over Azure because of a combination of advanced infrastructure, features and availability.

So far, they have completed about 15 percent of the transition, but the consortium and the Michigan School District expect the rest of the transition to be smooth as well. In an interview, the consortium opined that it is the initial start that’s tough because of the potential hiccups that can arise. So, they wanted to start small and take cautious steps. But now that the initial transition is done., we can expect the rest of the transition to speed up.

Overall, this is a sensible move by the Michigan school district and we hope that more such school districts take a proactive approach to move their applications to the cloud, so it can benefit everyone, especially the young children.

 

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Technology

What is disruptive technology?

Disruptive technology, as the name suggests, is an emerging technology that will create a new market and value network, and eventually, disrupt the markets and uses of existing technology. This is a broad term used to describe any new technology that’s overpowering enough to affect the existing technologies.

If you look back, this is not a new concept. When emails became popular, it eventually disrupted the system of letter writing. Likewise, the emergence of cloud changed the way we store data and it eventually caused a decline of the physical storage market. These are all disruptive technologies in their own way.

It’s just that the term “disruptive” is becoming popular now because of our understanding and the way we are embracing technology. Also, these technologies have the power to change the way we live and work.

Let’s now look at a few examples of disruptive technologies.

Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things is a technology that connects our everyday devices like watches and alarm clocks, so we can get more out of them. For example, this technology can power our refrigerators to monitor milk levels and if it goes below a threshold level, it can send a message to our smartphone to order milk right away!

Artificial intelligence

This technology mimics the cognitive powers of the human brain to solve real-time problems. Machines with this artificial intelligence can be programmed to learn from the environment just like how humans do, and based on it, they can make the right decisions and take necessary actions.

This is a truly disruptive technology as it take away the routine jobs that are now being done by humans.

3D printing

Imagine how convenient it would be if you can print a Mercedes sports car right from a printer? Well, that’s exactly what a 3D printer can do for you. We can print buildings, clothes, food, body parts and so much more, which means, almost every traditional industry has a potential to be affected by it.

High speed travel

How convenient it would be if we can travel from Japan to the U.S within minutes? That’s the power of high speed travel. Already, the presence of Hyperloop between Dubai and Abu Dhabi has set an example. If this picks up, then our airplane industry could go out of business soon.

Robotics

Robotics is another interesting disruptive technology, as these robots could potential change our manufacturing and hospitality industries. In fact, the possibilities for robotics are endless and can extend to other industries as well.

Self-driving cars

Self-driving cars may be a reality sooner than we think. It also means, the existing car and oil industry will be down on its knees when this happens.

In short, disruptive technologies have the power to change the way we live and can have a profound impact on our economies. While they are for the larger good for mankind, this disruption is something that we have to anticipate and take it in our stride.

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Amazon AWS, Computing, Google, Microsoft

Who is building the world’s smartest cloud?

Cloud computing has come a long way since it first came into existence almost a decade ago. During this time, it has evolved to transform application development, hosting, deployment, administration and more. In these years, it has also helped businesses to streamline their processes, increase productivity, reduce costs and widen its customer base.

But is that all? Can we expect cloud computing to remain in this robust way over the next decade?

Definitely not, as some of the major cloud service providers in the world are constantly working to create cloud platforms that are faster, less expensive and can store more data. In many ways, they are always working to create the world’s smartest cloud quicker than that of their competitors.

Let’s see how the three major cloud providers, namely, Alphabet, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, have fared so far.

Alphabet

During the annual developers conference conducted by Team Google, the showcased new services that will herald the next phase of cloud computing. It’s powerful data processors, popularly called as tensor processing units, are using machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate many of the tasks that are currently being done by humans today.

Each of these tensor processing units or TPU for short, will have a minimum of 180 teraflops of processing power and each pod will have a group of 64 TPUs. You can now imagine the massive computing power that Google plans to offer soon.

It is expected to be soon available for individuals and businesses through Google Cloud Platform.

Amazon

Amazon has been beefing up efforts to have its own smart cloud. To this end, it is integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities into its platform, so developers can get more out of the AWS platform.

It is also integrating a host of other tools such as Amazon Lex chatbot, Alexa skills set and more to give greater depth, versatility and power to its platform.

Microsoft

Microsoft is not to be left behind in this race for the smartest cloud. Project Brainwave, a next-generation project comprising of some of the most talented of researchers, is working on field-programmable gate array chipsets that can power artificial intelligence.

Many analysts predict that this platform would be more versatile and powerful when compared to the one that’s being developed by Google. This is partly because artificial intelligence is expected to change the way applications are built and deployed, so a platform with built-in AI capabilities is sure to have an edge.

So, who is going to win this three way battle between AWS, Microsoft and Alphabet for creating the smartest cloud? At this point, Microsoft seems to have the lead, but it’s going to be hard to say who will lead this market. Regardless of the winner, this is sure to be an interesting ridr for customers.

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News

What’s the Equifax Data Breach?

Breaches have become more common than we like, and it affects almost every one of us when it happens at a major credit bureau. Yes, Equifax, one of the three largest credit bureaus in the U.S was hacked.

It is estimated that more than 143 million people have been affected by this breach, and this is almost half the U.S population. Since Equifax stores ultra-sensitive information like your social security numbers and date of births, this loss can be significant for you and for the nation as a whole.

Besides the social security numbers of 143 million, it is believed that the credit card details of more than 209,000 consumers and the credit dispute documents of another 182,000 are also stolen. The company has refused to give the number of drivers licenses that was exposed during this hack.

This breach was believed to have started in May and has continued until late July, according to a press release from the company. Hackers had stolen the data of millions of people through a website application vulnerability that had been present in Equifax, but remained unnoticed for a long time.

Equifax has declined to comment on the type of data that was hacked and what it plans to do to curtail the damage.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing much that Equifax can do about the stolen data. Since this was happening over a period of two months, much of this data would have been sold in the dark web world for thousands or maybe even millions of dollars.

The dark web is a network of hackers and miscreants who want to get such sensitive data, so they can manipulate it and use it for their own benefit. Going by this understanding, the social security numbers are one of the most coveted information as they can be misused for maximum gain. There’s always a possibility for these numbers to have been misused by now, so the damage is going to be fairly extensive.

But what Equifax can do is limit the damage and ensure that no more data is stolen through this vulnerability or anything else that may exist in its system.

This is sure to bring up a personal question – will I be affected? Most likely yes, unless you’re one of the lucky few.

What can you do?

For starters, enroll in Equifax’s identity protection program. Though it isn’t the greatest option, it’s still good as you get access to almost every available resource to protect your identity.  If you’re the lucky person and you were not affected, still you get access to a free one-year subscription in this program.

Also, request for a credit report to see if there are any suspicious entries in it. The federal government ensures that every person gets a three free annual reports every year from one of the three credit bureaus. So, make use of it.

If you notice any suspicious activity, reach out to the concerned bank or credit card authority and report a case of fraud.

Even if your report is clean, be vigilant and take measures to protect your credit.

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Technology

Is Wall Street Moving to Cloud?

The benefits of cloud are there for everyone to see. Right from improving productivity to reducing costs, cloud has been providing a ton of advantages to companies. With so many benefits, it’s only right that companies want to make the most of them. Wall Street is no exception to this rule.

Many large financial institutions that are a part of Wall Street have started thinking of using the cloud to get a competitive advantage in a fairly tough market. They want to make the most of cloud to drive innovation and to stand out as a preferred institution among customers.

Some companies like CapitalOne have been using cloud services for some time now, while others like JP Morgan and ANZ Bank have announced that they will be moving to a cloud platform fairly soon. Other smaller companies are likely to follow suit too.

Reliable sources confirm that these financial institutions are considering the top three players, namely, Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft, for this shift to the cloud. Long years of effort in laying an extensive and strong infrastructure is touted to be the reason to consider only these three providers.

All the three companies have an expansive network and have all the necessary tools and services in place to cater to Wall Street. Using this infrastructure, JP Morgan and other financial institutions are improve their technical capabilities and in the process, drive up efficiency and bring down costs.

In many ways, it’s a surprise that the larger financial institutions haven’t turned to the cloud yet. Small organizations like credit unions moved their operations to the cloud a few years ago, but the larger organizations have started this move just now.

Why?

Security was one of the major concerns that held back these companies from making a shift because even the smallest of breaches can prove to be an expensive affair. But now, cloud security has improved and there’s more confidence in the cloud than ever before.

Also, the fact that hackers were able to breach into the so-called “secure” systems of these companies led them to reconsider their choices, and soon they found that cloud is a tenable option. They not only get other benefits such as improved productivity and lesser costs, but also the security is at least on par with what they have, if not better.

To top it, regulators are also going easy on the idea of moving data to the cloud because they also understand that this is the future and it’s only right for banks to make this transition too.

This is why asset managers, insurance companies and large banks are running different tests, talking to vendors and even modifying their existing policies to ensure that their transition to the cloud is smooth and easy.

Overall, wall street is moving to the cloud soon and it won’t be long before customers can enjoy more services while banks stand to gain financially and from an operational standpoint through this transition.

 

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Computing

Huawei’s Ambitious Plans for its Cloud Future

Demand for cloud services is increasing and the overall cloud market is growing at an astronomical rate. Almost every company in the cloud business wants to make the most of this growth, and Huawei is no exception.

It has decided to build a global cloud network on its own public cloud. Well, if that sounds confusing, it means, the cloud data center infrastructure will be owned, managed and branded by Huawei’s public cloud partners, but it is built on Huawei’s network. In many ways, we can imagine this network to be like a Hydra creature with many heads, spreading across different regions in the world.

Essentially, it is creating the infrastructure that includes itself and its partners, so that its customer base and network is spread all over the world. With such a plan in place, Huawei wants to be one of the top five public cloud providers in the world.  According to the CEO, it believes Alibaba, Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services to be the other four public cloud providers against which it will be competing in the future.

This is a strategic move for many reasons. Firstly, the top four companies, according to Huawei, have already established their infrastructure, so it will require massive investments to compete with them.  By partnering with other companies, it may be much easier for Huawei to penetrate into different markets.

Secondly, managing the entire infrastructure can be mind-boggling to say the least. The cost and resources involved will be enormous, so by leasing out its infrastructure, Huawei can have a more workable model that will also be load-friendly.

Lastly, it can avoid vendor lock-ins as all its partners don’t necessarily have to use this network. They can partner with Microsoft, Google, Alibaba or AWS for other operations too. In fact, Huawei offers hybrid solutions that make it easy for applications and customers to integrate  with other third-party cloud platforms that include the platforms of its competitors as well.

This idea and its implementation has been progressing at a rapid pace. This unit of Huawei was first formed in March 2017 and since then, the company has seen a 238 percent increase in its customer base. This goes to show that many of its customers are looking forward to this public cloud product from Huawei.

So far, it has also released 40 new cloud services out of the total 85 cloud services it has released so far. This includes a data warehouse, DDoS protection and content delivery network that are having a big impact on its clients’ operations.

Many notable companies such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Industrial bank of China and Philips are using Huawei’s products. It has also partnered with cloud service providers and telecom companies like Deutsche Telecom, Telefonica and Orange to further its plans.

Overall, it seems ambitious, but it also looks like Huawei has a firm plan in place to further its ambitions. The next few months can give us a better idea of the progress of this product and its acceptance among the global cloud clients.

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Microsoft

Microsoft Targets European Cloud Startups

In a bid to expand its presence in Europe, Microsoft has embarked on a strategy to reach out to European software companies.

As a first step, Microsoft has created a program called “Microsoft for Startups” accelerator and this program will be based out of Berlin. Under this program, Microsoft plans to have a four-month program for startup software companies in Europe, and at the end of this program, $500,000 worth of Azure credits will be given to the best performers. Besides Azure credits, these chosen companies will also get access to outside investors, technical advisers, and inputs from the Microsoft sales team.

From a startup’s perspective, this can be a great opportunity to expand and learn under the proper guidance of an established tech company, while for Microsoft, it is a great strategy to expand its presence and customer base within the European Union. The idea is to catch these companies young and get them hooked on Azure, so when they grow, the use of Azure will also increase. Also, Microsoft believes with such a strategy, it can capitalize on the success of these startups in the future.

That said, Microsoft has laid down certain conditions on which companies can qualify for this course. First off, these companies should be headquartered within the EU and a substantial part of their operations should be geared for the European market. These startups should operate only in the areas of connected factories, connected vehicles, AI, blockchain databases and computer vision.

In addition, these companies should have raised early stage funding and should have at least a functioning prototype of their product. In other words, this program is not for startups, but for those companies that have reached a certain stage of operations and want a boost or accelerator to take their company forward.

By tapping into the startups, Microsoft wants to establish itself as the leader in Europe. But that’s not going to be easy, as similar programs have been rolled by its competitors such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google. In fact, Amazon’s AWS Activate Portfolio and Portfolio Plus packages reach out to startups that are in the acceleration and incubating stage and offer them anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 in AWS credit, along with technical help. Likewise, Alphabet’s Google Cloud Platform for Startup Program gives credits to use the Google Cloud Platform, besides technical and marketing help.

Both these programs from AWS and Google are available for European startups too.

In the light of this situation, how does Microsoft plan to achieve its goals? Well, for starters, it’s offering way more than what other cloud companies offer in terms of credit worth. This alone should be a deciding factor. Secondly, it’s ensuring that the money is used only for the brightest of prospects that have the highest chances of success, so this way Microsoft is associating itself only with the best startups.

Maybe both these aspects can give it a lead, but it’s definitely hard to say at this point in time.

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News

CloudCherry Teams With Salesforce

CloudCherry, a provider of customer service experience software, has integrated itself with the service cloud and marketing cloud of Salesforce, in order to gather more insights into the customer behavior of its clients.

CloudCherry currently provides 17 unique channels for its clients to gather data from customers in real-time. Its software ensures that the data that’s collected is relevant and contextual, so in this sense, it filters out all the noise and unwanted information. The feedback collected from these channels is then routed towards customer center operations of the client company.

With this new integration with Salesforce Cloud, CloudCherry is in a better position to handle customer issues and even drive up the overall customer satisfaction levels. Salesforce’s CRM platform, in general, helps companies to learn more about their customers. It answers questions like who your customers are, what they do, how much do they spend on your products, and more. Putting both these platforms together, companies can glean a ton of information about their customers, that in turn, can help them to make better decisions with regard to their products as well as their customers.

For example, let’s say a dissatisfied customer calls the company’s contact center. If this call is routed to a regular customer support executive, his issue may or may not get resolved early. In turn, this can increase his frustration, especially if the problem is not resolved.

To avoid such a situation, CloudCherry can route the calls of such dissatisfied customers to a team of customer support agents who are specialized in handling such high priority calls from dissatisfied customers. The chances for this team to resolve the issue is fairly high. In turn, the customer can change his impression about the company.

Overall, you can change a customer’s negative experience into a positive one with the right customer support. And that’s exactly what CloudCherry and Salesforce can do for you.

In addition to customer support, the coming together of both these companies can help clients with marketing too. Currently, mass marketing campaigns are sent to all the customers on the database. Unfortunately, this leads to a low conversion rate.

On the other hand, if you can send a marketing campaign to a specific set of targeted users who you know will try to make the most of it, then you’re conversion rate is high. However, to know which customers are right for a specific marketing campaign, you need the software of both these companies.

In all, this integration is sure to augur well not just for CloudCherry and Salesforce, but also for the customers at large as they can better use the data to create better upselling opportunities and to improve the way the customer support team handles customers.

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