In keeping with their mission to support young combat veterans’ transition into civilian life, Veterans 360 plans to launch a free Cloud Technology Certification training program.
Vets360-Cloud will give veterans of all ages the opportunity to obtain meaningful employment in the Cloud Technology industry. Cloud computing is quickly emerging as one of the most in-demand skills in IT. The rapid transition from traditional Information Technology to Cloud Technology has created a demand for IT professionals with cloud computing skills. Veterans 360 recognizes this growing demand and has reported that 43 percent of all companies are having difficulty finding cloud computing professionals and 42 percent have hired professionals specifically with cloud IT skills. They also recognize the need for the inclusion of cloud computing in 79 percent of the syllabuses at higher education institutions.
Continuous Testing: Neglected with Continuous Delivery?
In the race to implement Continuous Delivery, emphasis on build-and-deploy has overshadowed Continuous Testing. Service Virtualization’s simulation technology allows you to test your component in a complete environment—any time you want.
“Part of the problem with service virtualization is that the word ‘virtualization’ has a strong attachment to the data center. Everyone knows the economic benefits of server virtualization,” said Lanowitz, founder of analyst firm Voke, who’s been talking about the topic since 2007. “A lot of people don’t know about service virtualization yet… It’s moved from providing virtual lab environments to being able to virtualize a bank in a box or a utility company in a can so there are no surprises when you go live.”
What Today’s Hyperconnected World Means for the Enterprise Security
A newly released report from McKinsey & Company, Risk and Responsibility in a Hyperconnected World: Implications for Enterprises, highlights the findings of a year’s worth of McKinsey research conducted in partnership with the World Economic Forum. Based on the interviews with over 200 enterprises and organizations the findings highlight the importance of protecting online proprietary data and information and puts forth 7 ideas for how to protect the enterprise.
The report first observes that with the rise of new and novel ways to access information via mobile devices, data security risks have dramatically increased. Despite the billions of dollars spent to secure data, cybercriminals have proven themselves to be a highly adaptable, sophisticated, well-funded crew, equipped to take advantage of any weaknesses in an enterprise’s security technology. Recent examples of large breaches at Target and Adobe could potentially really just be the tip of the iceberg.
Consolidating the Variables: Augment Existing Identity Management Systems
Expand on-premise identity management capabilities by utilizing the flexibility and agility of an IDaaS and SSO to augment permissions for cloud-based apps.
The modern enterprise is a fluid entity. As an IT construct it expands and contracts (sometimes simultaneously), and many of the moving parts (like users and applications) are themselves evolving and changing. This creates unique challenges in operational efficiencies, core competency support, compliance observance and risk management. The central theme to all these challenges is establishing and maintaining control of applications which serve as gateways to all the valuable data (personal, trade secrets and other IP) on which an enterprise exists. Many companies have turned to an identity management solution which administrate and validate the digital identities of authorized users.
Cloud Computing: Help Desk Disasters
So many organizations switched to third-party help desk solutions without really putting in place any performance measures or tracking mechanisms to really measure how good – or bad – the support is.
Some executives got a big bonus for “thinking out of the box” and coming up with a cost-cutting initiative to outsource IT help desks. Those same executives do not want to hear all the complaints of people getting no results and wasting a lot of time in repetitive phone calls as well as no solutions to their problems. Even routine problems become time-consuming nightmares because the third-party support person on the other end doesn’t understand the caller or the caller just doesn’t understand them.
Everything-as-a-Service Demands New Approach to Accounts Receivables
When we first built our MetraNet billing platform our customers (large enterprises and service providers) generally offered services that were clearly defined in terms of character and scope, with fairly stable setup charges, usage charges, and periodic recurring charges. Back then, with some exceptions, it was normal to issue regular periodic invoices that consolidated all of those charges. The invoice would then trigger an entry in the service provider’s Accounts Receivable (AR) ledger. That in turn, again with a few exceptions, would constitute the point at which Revenue Recognition would take place. The few exceptions (for example, an invoice for a payment in advance for a service set-up charge) would be handled by adding a matching journal entry in Deferred (or unearned) Revenue until such time as the services had been delivered. The adjustment could be handled automatically (triggered by a flag from order management or billing) or manually.
Demand for Digital Business Technology Transformation
2014 will likely be a year of dual business goals for forward-thinking senior executives. Responding to ongoing needs for business efficiency and growth, but also adapting to exploit a fundamentally different digital commerce paradigm.
Commercial digitalization, based upon the latest and most effective business technology advances has already begun, but most chief information officers (CIOs) do not feel prepared for this next era, according to a global survey of IT leaders by Gartner, Inc.
Their latest market study showed that many CIOs feel overwhelmed by the prospect of building digital leadership while renovating their core of IT infrastructure. The Gartner survey found that 51 percent of CIOs are concerned that the digital transformation is coming faster than they can cope — and 42 percent don’t feel that they have the employee talent to face this future.
Looking to the Cloud to Drive Revenue? Turn to Identity
Over the past few years, enterprises have been moving to the cloud to streamline processes and operations. A study last year by TheInfoPro indicated that there is no sign of cloud investment slowing down – predicting an average growth rate of cloud spending of 36 percent from this year until 2016. As the Internet of Things continues its march to the mainstream, organizations have more opportunities to expand relationships with customers and partners by building and offering new services. These services have the potential to exponentially drive revenue and create business value.
The question is, what do CIOs need to do to make sure that their companies can take advantage of this potential? The first step is to look at their existing technical infrastructure to ensure that it can truly enable companies to drive change. One crucial component: security, including identity and access management.
How profitable is Cloud for the vendors?
The cost benefits that cloud computing offers to its users is something that has been discussed ad nauseam.
In a study conducted by researchers from UC Berkeley and INRIA, France showed that cloud computing can offer savings of anywhere between 40-95% depending on resource usage.
This potential for cloud based systems to bring about huge savings in their annual expenditure is what has been driving the massive migration from in-house server based technology sytems to cloud based alternatives. According to Mary Ellen Power, the VP of marketing at Silanis, a major client for cloud vendors like Amazon AWS, the cloud based services could be seeing as much as 50% growth rate annually in the near future.
However, what impact is this causing to the cloud vendor companies? While the mass migration to cloud helps customers avoid upfront technology investments and thus save money, vendor companies are now in a bind …
What Cloud Startups Need to Know About Hunting Elephants
“Cloud computing” is more than just a buzzword – it has transformed the tech industry. Having been in the business of building enterprise infrastructure for over 15 years, I’ve had the opportunity to witness how cloud has altered the landscape, including most recently at my company, Nexgate. It has not only ushered in a radical wave of innovation, but has also created new business models. The easily accessible and inexpensive nature of its on-demand structure has both paved the way for the rapid launch of new technologies and enabled the growth of businesses.
Yet, as with any technology, it also has its limits and risks, especially for cloud startups. If not configured well, cloud doesn’t necessarily fit hand-in-hand with the needs of large enterprises. While the benefits of gaining a big customer are certainly obvious, the demands of doing so are not talked about nearly as frequently, despite that both are important. Hunting elephants is a dangerous game if you’re a mouse.