Malicious content and code is unfortunately everywhere in the digital world. For every piece of genuine content, there are at least double the number of false or illegal content. Though there are many privacy and anti-spam laws, they are not as useful as they are expected to be.

This puts the onus right back on users like us. We have to learn to navigate the digital world by identifying malicious content from the genuine ones.

This becomes all the more imperative for companies that host their data and applications in the cloud, as they have much to lose from malware content. Though cloud offers a ton of benefits like increased productivity and reduce operational overheads, it has also opened up more chances for hackers and malware specialists to insert unwanted code into our applications.

In fact, this problem is more pervasive than what most people think. A study by Georgia Institute of Technology showed that 10 percent of cloud storage repositories were hacked in one way or another. Surprisingly, many of these cloud repositories act as distribution centers for malicious content, without the awareness of the owners.

This study is an important revelation as it helps businesses to understand the threat landscape in which they operate. Secondly, it can help companies to come up with appropriate solutions that’ll help to prevent these attacks or negate them, in the worst case. This way, the organization can prevent such malicious activities from impacting their organization, and more importantly, can curb their repositories from being the distribution centers.

The next big question is how can you identify good content from malicious one?

The same study compared two sets of data – a good set and a bad set, using which they were able to identify the features of a bad set. One of the first things they noticed is the presence of redirection. If a piece of code or data evaded discovery by a scanner or if it was used as proxy, then there’s a high possibility for such content to be spam. This is simple because any good content can be accessed legitimately.

Another big differentiator is the lifetime of the content. In general, malicious content had a short lifespan when compared to genuine content because it takes only a certain amount of time for the malicious content to get distributed across systems. Also, if the same content is present for a longer time, there’s a chance for it to be found out. So, malicious content have only a small lifespan as opposed to genuine content, which can remain in the cloud for many years.

So, what can client organizations do to prevent this malicious code? The answer depends on a host of factors. Firstly, organizations should talk with cloud providers to come up with basic protection mechanism on the infrastructure side to reduce the chances for malicious code to enter into the network. Organizations should also take similar steps to ensure that their network is not compromised either.

Alongside, organizations have to come up with some strategies to control access to unauthorized repositories, constant monitoring of assets and other strategies that it deems essential.

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Accenture is going to become the first few companies to have most of its internal operations in the cloud.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, this company plans to move more than 90 percent of its IT infrastructure and applications to the cloud. Out of all the divisions, Accenture Australia is leading the way in this adoption of cloud.

This strategy is significant in many ways. Firstly, Accenture is one of the leading companies in terms of cloud usage. Already, it’s the biggest user of Office 365 in the world with an employee strength of more than 260,000. It also uses cloud extensively for documentation management. In fact, for internal document maintenance, it uses software-as-a-solution (SaaS) products like Salesforce to increase its productivity and efficiency. Given this usage, it’s only natural for the company to envision a future where all its applications are in the cloud.

The second aspect that makes this strategy interesting is that Accenture will be in a better position to advise its clients on the right cloud path. When this company has most of its applications in the cloud, it gets more credibility for it to talk about cloud adoption to its clients. In this sense, this strategy can even boost its business in a big way.

That said, this transition process is not going to be easy for Accenture. Already, there have been concerns about moving mission-critical data to the cloud and this is one area that the company will take a deep look into before making its move. It may even choose to keep the remaining 10 percent of data and application in an on-premise storage, if its management feel so strongly about the security.

Another major challenge that Accenture will face is the presence of a large number of legacy systems. Some of its divisions have either near-new applications or very old legacy applications, both of which may be difficult to move. In the case of near-new applications, the investments that were made by the company in its infrastructure can go down the drain if it moves to the cloud without realizing the returns.

One possible way to overcome this problem is to wait till the end of the life of that software and replace it with a cloud-first or cloud-only investment. But, that could take time, depending on the expected life of the application.

In the case of legacy systems though, migrating them to the cloud can be a real hassle. It’ll be interesting to see how Accenture is going to handle both these classes of its assets and system while migrating to the cloud. If it comes with a good strategy, it can set a good precedent for others to move to the cloud as well.

Overall though, it’s a great strategy as it is sure to offer a ton of benefits for Accenture in the long run. It can not only increase its productivity and efficiency, but can also save a ton of money in the process. Not to mention, the example that it would set for other companies to follow suit.

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Companies across all sectors are embracing cloud computing to leverage the many benefits it offers. Since cloud offers increased productivity and efficiency, almost every major company in the world, including semi-government ones like utility companies, are taking to the cloud in a big way. The latest utility company to implement cloud is the Seattle City Light.

This public utility company provides electrical power through its grid network to the city of Seattle and its surrounding areas such as Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Normandy Park and Tukwila. Seattle City Light is the tenth largest utility company in the U.S.

Now, this company wants to tap into the power of cloud to increase its efficiency. Specifically, it wants to use high-powered computing, storage and data analysis to improve the efficiency of its power distribution. Given the changing demands of all businesses and the emergence of different clean energy sources, it makes sense for the company to shift to the cloud now than ever before.

In addition, it wants to get a deeper insight into its customers’ behavior, so that they can tailor solutions that meet their unique needs. For example, some customers may prefer to give back solar power to the grid while others may completely depend on the utility company to power their home. Since the needs of each of these customers vary, Seattle City Light wants to be in a position to give them just the tailored solution they want. This is possible only with the cloud as it can analyze vast amounts of real-time data quickly to give the insights that can help this company to make better decisions.

As a first step, Seattle City Light has partnered with a Cincinnati-based company called Integral Analytics to host its flagship LoadSEER solution on AWS.  According to the CEO of Integral Analytics, Kevin Kushman, AWS was one of the top choices given the complex nature of this application and the varying storage it entails. Also, he opined that AWS has many market tested apps and process that essentially meant Seattle City Light did not have to reinvent the wheel.

Just to give you a brief idea, LoadSEER is a distribution and DER integration application that is built on a distribution load database updated with data in real-time. As a result, the distribution can be dynamic and will be based on the current needs of customers. Such a distribution plan will greatly optimize distribution and can make the overall usage of power more efficient.

Over time, this move is expected to pave way for this utility company to adopt smartgrids and maybe even smart meters that can make power distribution and efficiency even more efficient.

It’s noteworthy that Seattle City Light is the first municipal authority in the US to own and operate a hydroelectric plant. It also uses other sources of power such as wind and solar to meet its demands. Given this, it’s not surprise that this utility company wants to embrace cloud and set an example for other public utility companies in the U.S to follow suit.

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Alibaba is in the news again, and this time too, for the right reasons. Analysts world-over are painting an optimistic picture of its cloud business.

This technology giant has been making rapid expansion to its cloud business, as it has added new centers in Australia, Dubai, Japan and London over the last year. Within the next few years, it plans to tighten the competition for global cloud services – a market that is being dominated by companies like AWS and Microsoft.

If you’re wondering why there is so much talk about Alibaba’s cloud business, it’s simply because of its potential to become a big player in the coming years.

Already, it is the leading cloud services provider in China. It is estimated that the Chinese market has huge potential, and currently only a small piece of the cake is covered. Imagine the growth potential of Alibaba just within China when it’s cloud industry matures?  To give you a perspective, the Chinese cloud market was worth $1.5 billion in 2013, accounting for only three percent of China’s enterprise market. According to Bain and Company, this is expected to grow to $20 billion by 2020, signaling a growth rate of almost $1 billion per year.

And that’s not the end because the Chinese government has made cloud computing a priority. In its 13th five year plan that spans from 2016 to 2020, this government wants to give a big impetus to cloud, and to achieve this, it’s willing to offer support to cloud service providers as well as those that want to embrace cloud for their operations. Big tax incentives are being offered to lure more companies to move to the cloud, and all this means, the Chinese market is a huge potential waiting to be explored.

Many companies like IBM are partnering with local Chinese companies like 21ViaNet and Wanda Group to get a strong foothold in the Chinese market, simply because of the huge opportunity it offers. For Alibaba, this is not an issue as it is the most-established and leading cloud services provider in this region.

In addition to China, Alibaba is also rapidly expanding to other parts of the world in a bid to increase its customer base and service coverage levels. This could be a reality soon as this company is sitting on a decent pile of cash generated by many of its popular technology businesses within and outside of China. Also, investors feel confident about this company, so funding is never an issue. Since this is an important part of expansion, we can expect Alibaba to have a smooth transition from a Chinese cloud provider to a global cloud provider.

Alibaba has already started taking steps towards this transition by opening data centers in different parts of the world and entering into partnership with companies in the field of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine-to-machine learning, deep learning, virtual reality, augmented reality and more. With these partnerships, Alibaba plans to offer world-class products and cloud services to its customers.

The future is sure going to be interesting!

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IBM and Salesforce have come together for a significant partnership that can change the face of cloud and artificial intelligence (AI). The two giants of tech world have entered into an agreement that will integrate both their artificial intelligence platforms, i.e., Watson and Einstein.

Besides their AI platforms, both the companies also plan to align some of their software services and components. In addition, IBM has offered to deploy Salesforce Service Cloud in its internal system, as a sign of goodwill of an expected lasting partnership. Specifically, both the companies plan to tap into each other’s machine learning capabilities to deliver more in-depth knowledge about customers to their end-clients. Furthermore, Watson’s API will be introduced to Salesforce CRM-enhancing AI platform, thereby allowing Einstein to make the most of IBM’s work in the area of cognitive computing.

This agreement also includes adding IBM’s Weather Company assets to Salesforce’s app development platform called Lightning. From this, both the companies plan to make weather data a potent tool for predicting customer behavior, and even for driving many of customer preferences. Also, by the end of March, IBM’s Application Integration Suite will be able to provide data from different third-party sources to Salesforce CRM.

This partnership is obviously significant for both the companies, as it can help IBM to turn around its fortunes and at the same time, help Salesforce to meet its ambitious growth plans. But more than the companies, it can have a big positive impact on the industry as a whole.

Imagine what happens when two of the world’s best AI systems come together? It can create the next level of applications, provide the deepest possible insights, and do just about anything else that the tech industry wants. Also, with IoT and the Wearable industry blooming, this move can completely alter the fortunes of companies engaged in both these areas. The existing clients of both the companies though will be the greatest beneficiaries as they can get deeper insights into their customers’ behavior, that can in turn, help them to devise better strategies to boost their sales and revenue.

Both the companies estimate that 2017 will be the year when AI will hit the world on a large scale, and they want to be in a position to drive this industry. Also, IBM expects almost a billion people to be touched by Watson in one way or another, and with Salesforce also joining hands, the possibilities are endless. The CEOs of IBM  and Salesforce are positive about this partnership and even believe that this is the beginning of a long and exciting journey together.

If you’re wondering why these two companies, it’s because they’ve been associated with each other for years. Though IBM is based in Armonk, New York and Salesforce in San Francisco, California, both the companies have worked together. In March 2016, IBM acquired Bluewolf, a product considered to be one of the oldest implemntation of Salesforce. Since then, many interactions have happened between the two companies, and this of course, is the big step that can take their partnership to new heights.

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Nimble Storage has launched a new product called Nimble Cloud Volumes, an enterprise-class multi-cloud storage service that runs applications both in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. This company claims that Nimble Cloud Volumes is the only enterprise-grade multicloud service that uses both AWS and Azure for running applications.

Well, what’s the big deal about this product? A lot actually.

First off, this represents the evolution of cloud over the last few years. When cloud emerged as a feasible technology, organizations began to implement their native applications that included both web and mobile-based ones. Then, as cloud technology and security evolved, organizations began to test, develop and migrate their production instances of traditional products such as CRM and financial applications to the cloud. Now, with Nimble Cloud Volumes, organizations can move their critical data to the cloud too as they’ll have the same durability and enterprise-level capabilities that they enjoy on-premises.

Nimble Cloud Volumes is designed to offer the same simplicity as that of a native cloud storage, and at the same time, offer enhanced data protection for critical applications. To top it, Cloud Volumes is also expected to be cost effective as customers are charged only for changed data, and not for complete additional copies. Such a pricing structure optimizes the space available on cloud, thereby making it more cost effective for customers.

In addition, Nimble Cloud Volumes uses two public clouds, and even allows users to move data between these two clouds at any time. This multicloud feature is what makes this product stand out in the crowded cloud market. The obvious advantage with using the combined services of the top two cloud platforms in the world is high data reliability. In fact, Nimble Solutions claims that it offers 99.999999% storage availability and data durability for all applications. For comparison, this is almost one million times greater than what’s available for native cloud storage.

Currently, any person who wants to make the most of the features offered by Azure and AWS have to sign up for both the services, which is practically a waste of money. Also, moving files between these two systems is anything but easy because of the differing protocols and tools used by both the services. With Cloud Volumes, this problem is handled rather easily.

In many ways, this product can be seen as a wrapper for both AWS and Azure, and a bundling of the two under the same wrapper means users can use them interchangeably.

To conclude, Nimble Cloud Volumes is an exciting product as it helps users to leverage the features of the two leading cloud storage platforms, namely AWS and Microsoft Azure. In addition, it makes it easy to move data between these two storage providers, as and when needed. Further, it offers enhanced reliability and high levels of data protection for critical applications. For all this, the cost is also nominal as users get to pay only for what they use.

In this sense, Nimble Cloud Volumes represents the next generation of products in the world of cloud computing.

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The cloud computing industry is moving at a rapid pace, and every player is under a lot of pressure to constantly expand and innovate, to keep pace with the intense competition. Recently, Google opened its flagship product called Spanner that has been driving its operations for many decades, to cloud users. Microsoft is coming up with a slew of new features such as Azure IP Advantage and Azure AD B2B. AWS, the market leader, is entering into lucrative partnerships, with Snap being its latest customer. Not to be left behind is Alibaba – the Chinese giant that is making a big impact in the global cloud computing industry.

Already, this company is having an aggressive expansion plan, as it opened new data centers in Australia, Japan and Dubai to meet the growing needs of its customers in these regions. Besides setting up new centers, Alibaba has more than doubled its existing facility in Hong Kong to better serve the needs of its Asia-Pacific customers. Primarily, this expansion will meet demand in the areas of disaster recovery, data storage and analytics, middleware, and cloud security services. At present, Alibaba is the largest cloud computing service provider in China.

The company has announced that this expansion is in tune with its strategy to become the preferred cloud service provider world over. It sees itself as a competitor to Amazon Web Services (AWS) – the largest provider in the world today.

So, why are companies scrambling so much to dominate the cloud industry? The cloud industry grew by 16.5 percent in 2016, and Gartner sees the same level of growth in 2017. Organizations around the world, regardless of their size, want to move away from legacy systems and into cloud services to tap into the many benefits that come with it. Currently, AWS and Microsoft account for the lion’s share, though other companies like Google and IBM are catching on.

Alibaba also wants to join in this party, and this is why it is embarking on a “build” approach. In this model, the company wants to build new facilities and expand existing ones, and it believes that such grand facilities will surely bring in users. This strategy is slightly different from the ones followed by companies like Google that want to widen its offerings, so customers get the best value for their money.

However, this strategy has paid rich dividends for Alibaba, as it reported a growth of 115 percent over the last year. Though its revenue of $254 million is a drop in the bucket when compared to the revenues of AWS, Microsoft and Google, it has come within a short time. Over the last year alone, it saw its customer database increase by 100 percent. For the sake of comparison, Amazon’s revenue was $10 billion in 2016.

Currently, Alibaba has operations in 14 global centers including Dubai, London, Sydney, Hong Kong and mainland China. At this rate of growth and expansion, we can soon expect Alibaba to give the market leaders a stiff competition.

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There are many case studies of companies that have benefited from the use of cloud technology, and today, we’re going to see about a transportation and logistics company that has transformed its business with cloud. Swift Transportation is the largest common carrier in the United States, and operates more than 18,000 trucks.  Founded in 1966 by Carl Moyes, this company has seen tremendous growth over the last four decades. It is a publicly listed company and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

Not so long ago, commercial drivers of Swift Corporation spent more time doing data-entry and other mundane tasks, than diving, and this will lowering their overall productivity and morale. The process entailed drivers to go to a customer’s site and browse through more than 60 forms to identify the right one for each kind of load. After taking out the form, the driver has to manually enter the details of the trip. This process was time-consuming and was also prone to manual data-entry errors. Sometimes, drivers have to make four to five trips a day, and this data-entry was frustrating them because they are paid to drive and not enter data.

To address this problem, Swift Transportation turned to the cloud. As a first step, it issued new Android-powered Samsung tablets to the drivers of all 18,000 trucks, and all the apps were connected to Microsoft Azure.

These mobile devices are connected the truck’s dashboard, so drivers cannot take them out and use it for external inspections. The software installed in these tablets have a more navigated workflow, so drivers can find what they want, enter pertinent information, and can get on the road within minutes. Such a streamlined process saves time, and reduces frustration for drivers as they don’t have to spend a ton of time looking for the right form and entering elaborate manual data in it.

The software was developed in partnership with a company called Blue Dot Solutions. Developers of this software sat with drivers and got a feel of what they want and the problems they face. So, the software completely caters to the needs of drivers, and is undoubtedly much faster than the manual process of entering data.

In addition, these mobile devices collect information about the truck on which they are installed. Such information can include engine performance, mileage, and other pertinent data, so it can be shared with the driver, and also can help the company to get a first-hand idea of the state of each truck. Such a data can identify maintenance problems even before they occur, and can be fixed right away. This way, downtimes and late deliveries can be avoided, not to mention the improved safety that comes with it.

On top of it, such data can help the company to get a better insight into its business operations, revenue and more, using which strategic decisions can be made to fill any existing gaps.

In all, cloud is changing the nature of operations of Swift Transportation and is streamlining the processes and making it more efficient.

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Alibaba has entered the world of big budget advertising, as it joins the ranks of giants like Coca-Cola and Samsung, thanks to a deal between Alibaba and the Olympics Committee, under which Alibaba is the official lead sponsor of Olympics Games until 2028.

Besides being the lead sponsor, Alibaba will also provide cloud computing and data analytics services until 2028. This is obviously a big opportunity for Alibaba as it takes on global leaders in the cloud market such as AWS, Microsoft, and Google. Currently, Alibaba’s cloud service called Aliyun is nowhere near the ranks of giants like IBM, AWS and Microsoft, but it hopes that this can change over the next decade or so.

In a way, this is a strategic move by Alibaba as it gives them the much-needed exposure on the global stage. There is no event greater than the Olympics, and being a lead sponsor, means Alibaba is going to be known across all countries that’ll participate in this event. This exposure can propel Alibaba into the limelight, and can even help to increase its revenue and profits.

Other than this benefit, it gives a huge boost for its marketing campaigns as the company can now sport the Olympics logo in all its marketing material. It’s the first Chinese company to do so, and is also the first Chinese sponsor of the 2022 Winter Olympics slated to be held in Beijing. The revenue that it’ll gain from such an exposure is likely to run into billions, and even has the potential to put the company right among the top cloud players of the world. Specifically, the benefits for the Chinese market are expected to be simply enormous, as it can create a separate Olympic channel to sell its merchandise geared towards a Chinese audience.

Over the last few months, Alibaba is plagued by counterfeit products, and it’s doing its best to weed out these violators. According to Jack Ma, the CEO of Alibaba Group, it has employed more than 2,000 people to identify those who are selling counterfeit products on its e-commerce sites, and the company hopes to remove this problem at the earliest. The International Olympic Association also understands this problem, and even lauded Alibaba’s efforts in this regard.

Despite this drawback, the Olympic Committee accepted Alibaba, and this could be partly because of a heavy sponsorship fee. At this point, the amount of money paid by Alibaba for this coveted partnership is not known. Jack Ma refused to divulge into the details, and opined that this is not just a sponsorship, but a partnership deal.

If you’re wondering how Alibaba got this idea, it simply took lead from the Chinese government’s new policies. Recently, the Chinese government called on all local companies to promote the sporting sector in a big way, and Alibaba simply took this idea to the next level.

Alibaba’s first event will begin in 2020 at Tokyo. It’ll be interesting to see how much money Alibaba will make from the deal, and if it’ll be more than what it spends by way of cloud computing infrastructure and the hundreds of millions of dollars as sponsorship fees.

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Cloud is everywhere; we see, hear, and use it just about every day. It’s not just individuals, but also businesses that use cloud for almost every part of their operations. Given this scenario, it’s no surprise that the cloud market is growing at a rapid pace. But what might surprise you is the rate at which the cloud market is growing.

According to a report released by Synergy Research Group, 2016 was a bumper year for the cloud industry, as it dominated much of the IT industry. The cloud revenue for the four quarters was a whopping $148 million, signaling a 25 percent growth when compared to the same time a year before. This growth was also reflected in the revenues reported by many of the giants in cloud industry such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, IBM, and Google, that reported higher revenues from their cloud business.

A closer look into the report shows that out of the many cloud segments, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) saw the highest growth  of 53 percent. This sector is dominated by Microsoft and AWS, with the former having a market share of around 11 percent while the latter is leading the pack with a market share of about 31 percent. It is estimated that AWS has the highest revenue in the segment, with numbers upwards of $13 billion, while Microsoft saw the highest growth at 124 percent. In fact, AWS was the first company to introduce cloud computing almost ten years back, so it’s only natural that it is the leading provider with a worldwide presence. Microsoft, with its strong presence in the tech industry, is fast catching up with competing products like Azure and Office 365. Other companies like Google have a market share of only around six percent, and are getting their act together to chase these two leaders.

The second highest growth among cloud sectors was seen in hosted private cloud, that grew at a rate of 35 percent. This segment is dominated by IBM and Rackspace, while the third place goes to enterprise SaaS that grew at a rate of 34 percent. Enterprise SaaS is again dominated by Microsoft, and Salesforce.

Besides giving the sector-wise breakdown, this report also show the total spending on cloud hardware and software exceeded $65 billion. Out of this, more than half of the money was spent on private cloud, though it showed that public cloud spending is also growing rapidly. Much of this revenue has come from enterprises that are looking to move their operations to the cloud, and the service providers have invested heavily in infrastructure to meet this growing demand from enterprises of all sizes. This investment is paying off in the form of higher revenues, with the report stating that more than $30 billion was generated from IaaS, PaaS, and hosted infrastructure, and another $40 billion from enterprise SaaS. Other ancillary sectors such as social networking, email, and e-commerce also added to the revenue pie.

In all, this report shows the astounding growth of cloud over the last year, and exuded much optimism for this year too.

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