As with other industries, the daily operations of law enforcement and criminal justice organizations rely heavily on obtaining, holding and sharing sensitive data. The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) is responsible for providing many critical pieces of data that criminal justice organizations and contractors need to conduct business every day – including fingerprint records, sex offender registries and criminal histories.
There are understandably strict regulations and standards for anyone accessing CJIS data and this applies to any cloud application provider or vendor providing products or services related to this data.
The FBI, collectively with other law enforcement officials, published new CJIS standards in order to address how CJIS information is accessed and shared across the country and world. By September 2014 (the extended date), all organizations that access the CJIS database must institute specific standards, including what the FBI calls “Advanced Authentication,” which specifically entails the need for multiple security measures for anyone accessing or administrating CJIS data, even network administrators. Another requirement is to ensure any data moved outside of a secure facility is properly protected at all times.
How to SaaS-Enable Your Application in Six Weeks
The world of software applications and products is moving from on-premise to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Perpetual licence earnings are shrinking, while subscription revenue including SaaS is growing increasingly fast and at a steady pace. According to a recent PWC report, subscription revenue (including SaaS) is set to grow at a 17.5% compounded annual rate, reaching 24% of total software revenue by 2016. Approximately 40% of the turnover of 10 of the top 100 software companies globally is generated by the SaaS service.
Gartner predicts that 77% of companies plan to increase their spending on SaaS in the next two years. So the big question is, how can you (as a software application or product vendor) quickly move to SaaS, test it and ride the wave of opportunity before losing your specific competitive advantage to some of the fast-progressing SaaS vendors like Workday, Oracle, Saleforce.com, SAP, Microsoft, Intuit, and Zuora.
Has Microsoft Ushered in a New Era with the Cloud OS?
Are you still spending millions of dollars on storage? There’s no need to anymore with the Cloud OS from Microsoft. The new platform, based on Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure, is built to empower people-centric IT by managing applications and hardware in the cloud era more cost-effectively than expensive legacy computing equipment.
The Cloud OS is Microsoft’s vision for the future of enterprise IT. Based on Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure, the Cloud OS is a modern platform built to empower people-centric IT by managing applications and hardware in the cloud era.
Cloud and the Value Entitlement Gap
I often get asked the question “what is really being done differently by delivering supply chain management software through the cloud versus deploying it behind the firewall?” It’s a fair and important question. I’ll give my thoughts here in terms of two of the more important dimensions of supply chain management improvement programs:
How fast do I get value?
How can I sustain and increase value over time?
It is along these two dimensions that cloud represents a step improvement from previous generation deployment approaches. It provides the means by which to achieve value faster and, even more important, it provides the means by which to continuously increase value over time.
Self-Service and Managed Service Provider (MSP) Cloud Solutions
Customer self-service is a theme that is spreading across a number of industries. As a result, numerous jobs, including those in IT, are changing or becoming obsolete, while industries are becoming more efficient. Cloud computing is a key technology enabler in making these changes possible. Last week I spoke at the IBM Edge 2013 MSP summit in Las Vegas, where self-service through automation was emphasized at a number of sessions, with the IBM PureSystems family of products as an enabler.
Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are a segment of the IT ecosystem that needs to pay attention to this trend. It should be an important element that cannot be overlooked while developing their cloud strategy.
Self-Service and Managed Service Provider (MSP) Cloud Solutions
Customer self-service is a theme that is spreading across a number of industries. As a result, numerous jobs, including those in IT, are changing or becoming obsolete, while industries are becoming more efficient. Cloud computing is a key technology enabler in making these changes possible. Last week I spoke at the IBM Edge 2013 MSP summit in Las Vegas, where self-service through automation was emphasized at a number of sessions, with the IBM PureSystems family of products as an enabler.
Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are a segment of the IT ecosystem that needs to pay attention to this trend. It should be an important element that cannot be overlooked while developing their cloud strategy.
Workday Has Not, Repeat Not, Left Amazon
Last week, on the last day of HP’s Discover conference in Las Vegas, HP software chief Bill Veghte stood on stage and said that Workday, the promising HR SaaS company started by David Duffield, who also started PeopleSoft only to lose it to Oracle’ ravenous appetite for acquisitions, had left Amazon Web Services for HP’s OpenStack-based Public Cloud because enterprise customers need real support and stronger SLAs than Amazon offers.
CRN captured the moment, but didn’t check it out.
Veghte’s statement made tweeters sit up and take note, and Amazon denied it.
Policy-Driven Application Management
Millennium Pharmacy Systems, Inc., has successfully deployed mission critical SaaS applications, and implemented advanced IT management and operational efficiency processes and systems to keep all the applications up to date, compliant, performant, and protected.
Managing applications sprawl has long been a burr in the IT saddle, and the popularity of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications hasn’t exactly been a balm on the situation.
As with on-premises applications, the key to SaaS and hybrid apps is getting better visibility and operational data on the applications’ health, and then automating the processes across standardized methods and controls.
The Fifth Wave: How Are Cloud Computing & Big Data Transforming IT?
Joining Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan in the SYS-CON.TV Times Sq. studio on the eve of 12th Cloud Expo | Cloud Expo New York are: Bruce E. Otte – Director, IBM Platform and Workload Services at IBM; Lisa Larson – Vice President of Enterprise Cloud Solutions at Rackspace; Greg O’Connor, President & CEO of AppZero; and Kevin Brown, CEO of Coraid.
Spot Buying Improves Procurement Process
Blue Marble Media in Atlanta has been using so-called spot-buying capabilities on the Ariba Network and Ariba Discovery to find new sales channels and new clients in the cloud.
Tell us a little bit about your company — your size, what services and products you provide. And why is the cloud not intimidating to you as a smaller firm for selling and finding new customers?
Even though we’re very, very small, less than $2 million in revenue, we have clients like Georgia-Pacific, Verizon, Ariba, and the CDC. We work with a lot of medium-sized companies and even startups, very small ones. So the whole planet is our opportunity, if you will. We develop video, motion graphics, and animation for sales support, marketing, corporate communications, and just about any type of visual presentation that you might need.