Recent high-profile events (2010 Haitian Earthquake, 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami, 2013 Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda) have highlighted the growing importance played by the international community in successful humanitarian assistance and disaster response. These events also showcased the critical importance of quickly providing robust information technology resources to response effort participants. In June 2010, in support of its continuing effort to foster international collaboration, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) initiated a dialog with the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) to discuss this and other aspects of geospatial data information-sharing across the international community. In response to this request the NCOIC through the use of a cloud services brokerage paradigm, built and demonstrated a federated cloud computing infrastructure capable of managing the electronic exchange of geospatial data. The effort also led to the development of the more generalized NCOIC Rapid Response Capability Pattern (NRRC), a process that could improve the effectiveness and reduce the cost of emergency situations that require an international joint civilian/military response.
Breaking Down Enterprise Silos in the Cloud
Are you re-creating existing technology silos in the cloud? If so, your entire enterprise investment in the cloud is at risk.
From the perspective of IT, organizational silos seem to be the root of all problems. Every line of business, every department, every functional area has its own requirements, its own technology preferences, and its own way of doing things. They have historically invested in specialized components for narrow purposes, which IT must then conventionally integrate via application middleware – increasing the cost, complexity, and brittleness of the overall architecture.
Now those same stakeholders want to move to the cloud. Save money with SaaS apps! Reduce data center costs with IaaS! Build a single private cloud we can all share! But breaking down the technical silos is easier said than done. There are endless problems: Static interfaces. Legacy technology. Inconsistent policies, rules, and processes. Crusty old middleware that predates the cloud. And everybody still has their own data model and their own version of the truth.
Weighing the Options for Onboarding Data into the Cloud
One of the questions we hear most frequently is “how do I get my data into the cloud?” For many organizations, the benefits of expanding on-premise data storage to include hybrid cloud storage have begun to resonate, but they struggle to get started as they determine how to get move data into the cloud. The decision on how to onboard initial data to the cloud, or what we call the initial ingest, is one that cannot be overlooked.
While there is more than one way to perform the initial ingest, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the best solution can vary on an individual case basis. Relevant factors influencing the decision include: amount of data intended for ingestion, amount of available bandwidth, timeframe in which you want to load the data. Typically, most organizations will decide on one of the following three methods for the initial ingest:
Weighing the Options for Onboarding Data into the Cloud
One of the questions we hear most frequently is “how do I get my data into the cloud?” For many organizations, the benefits of expanding on-premise data storage to include hybrid cloud storage have begun to resonate, but they struggle to get started as they determine how to get move data into the cloud. The decision on how to onboard initial data to the cloud, or what we call the initial ingest, is one that cannot be overlooked.
While there is more than one way to perform the initial ingest, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the best solution can vary on an individual case basis. Relevant factors influencing the decision include: amount of data intended for ingestion, amount of available bandwidth, timeframe in which you want to load the data. Typically, most organizations will decide on one of the following three methods for the initial ingest:
Cloud Computing: Impact of Comcast’s Acquisition
COMCAST’s recent $45 billion acquisition of Time-Warner Cable was big news in the Cable TV world, but it should be big news in the area of cloud computing and network diversity.
Instead of looking at COMCAST as a cable TV provider, it is time that we should be looking at it as another alternative to the traditional network carriers like AT&T and Verizon for our data needs both at home and at the business location.
Do you have network redundancy in place in your cloud computing applications? They cannot be considered “mission critical” if you only have them running on one connection to the central office.
Five Things Developers Need to Know About PaaS
Although PaaS is new, it’s rapidly gaining momentum, with growth projected at 48 percent annually by Technavio, the research firm, and topping $6 billion in value by 2016. If PaaS is treated as a strategic opportunity to align agendas across IT and across the business, it may well prove to be a ʺonce in a generationʺ opportunity to clarify, improve, and strengthen everything developers do.
As with any new technology or approach to doing business, PaaS will appeal to different groups for different reasons. The clear business value is that PaaS is added at the application layer. For ISVs, PaaS can help extend the availability of a traditional software product or enable organizations to add new capabilities to their existing IT spectrum. It’s also helpful to anyone wishing to achieve productivity gains, speed time to results, or reduce their costs. But like any technological shift, PaaS adoption requires changes in how people work and demands collaboration if it is to be as successful as possible.
A Tale of Two Enterprise Public Cloud Applications
This first person “in the trenches” enterprise Public Cloud story candidly examines the project from inception to delivery. Attendees will hear first-hand the real-world challenges, opportunities, lessons-learned, and what it takes to architect and implement a real-world application in the public cloud.
In his session at 14th Cloud Expo, Brian McCallion, founder of New York City-based consultancy Bronze Drum, will focus on the organizational, cultural, and technical hurdles to designing and implementing a strategic application in the Public Cloud in a regulated industry.
Open Source Innovations for Mobile Application Development
Enterprises need an API tier to meet the demands imposed by mobile technology. The impact of next generation of API servers on mobile and middleware development can be equated to the impact J2EE application servers like WebLogic, JBoss or WebSphere had on web development. It enables enterprises to surface business critical data residing in traditional back ends, databases and service tiers on-premises or on the cloud to multi-channel mobile apps.
An API tier is technology “super glue” that ties together endpoints of disparate enterprise systems, then exposing a uniform API to all clients. The clients include web browsers, mobile smartphones, tablets, and wearables. Each has its own set of capabilities and limitations and therefore unique user experiences. An API tier works on top of existing data and services to leverage existing systems in the context of mobile and next-generation clients. It acts as a natural bridge between front end and back end, providing for increased efficiency as well as rapid iteration to meet changing requirements.
IDenticard® Access Control to Exhibit at Cloud Expo New York
IDenticard® Access Control is a leading manufacturer of integrated access control solutions to protect employees, visitors, and facilities. Owned by Brady Corporation (NYSE:BRC), a $1.15 billion manufacturer of identification products, IDenticard Access Control draws on its 30 years of experience in security software development to provide innovative products based on its customers’ requirements and the needs of the marketplace. With an in-house engineering team, IDenticard Access Control has developed a patent-pending, revolutionary physical security solution that secures and monitors server rack access at the cabinet level. The system features easy-to-use dynamic mapping and customizable reporting capabilities to identify and track who accesses server racks and specifically where, when, and for how long.
MegaTrend Update: Cloud Computing
The continued march to cloud based services that connect to appliance-like devices now includes a full spectrum of options including private clouds, public clouds, edge clouds and blended clouds. This move to cloud capabilities is transforming business models and operating approaches. It is also having a direct impact on server sales globally.
Regarding security, we continue to believe that when security is engineered into your solution, cloud computing is a much more secure approach. There are issues, of course, with multi-tenancy, availability, confidentiality of data. There are also issues of requiring assurance of path to capability and a need to be able to apply more rules to every gate at line rate with no delay (for more see Centripetal Networks).