Archivo de la categoría: News & Analysis

Accenture, AI, Artificial intelligence, Digital Transformation, IPsoft, News & Analysis

Accenture and IPsoft team up to launch AI initiative

mayo 16, 2016 Jamie Davies

Accenture has expanded its partnership with IPsoft to accelerate the adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence technologies.

As part of the relationship the team will launch the Accenture Amelia Practice, a new consulting arm for Accenture which will develop go-to-market strategies using the IPsoft’s product offering to build virtual agent technology for customers. In the first instance, the team will target the banking, insurance and travel industries.

“Artificial intelligence is maturing rapidly and offers great potential to reshape the way that organisations conduct business and interact with their customers and employees,” said Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s CTO “At the same time, executives are overwhelmed by the plethora of technologies and many products that are advertising AI or Cognitive capabilities.”

“With our new Accenture Amelia practice, we are taking an important step forward in advancing the business potential of artificial intelligence by combining IPsoft’s world-class virtual agent platform with Accenture’s broad technology capabilities and industry experience to help clients transform their business and operations.”

The extended partnership will focus on creating practical implementations for AI within the current business world, using automation at scale to increase organizational efficiencies. The IPsoft team have implemented the same concept with a number of customers including programs to answer invoicing queries from suppliers and front-line customer service bots.

Artificial intelligence is seemingly one of a number of new areas being prioritized by the Accenture team, as industry continues trends towards a more digitally enabled ecosystem. Recent research from highlighted the digital economy accounted for roughly 22% of the world’s total economy, with this figure predicted to rise to 25% by 2015. This figure was as low as 15% in 2005. The same research also predicts growth of new technology will continue on an upward scale, as 28% of the respondents believe the pace of change will increase “at an unprecedented rate”.

While Accenture’s business has predominantly been focused around traditional IT to date, the team’s future business will shift slightly towards disruptive technologies, building on its new business mantra ‘Every Business is a Digital Business’. AI is one of those prioritized disruptions, as it described artificial intelligence and intelligent automation as the “essential new co-worker for the digital age”.

It would appear Accenture are betting heavy on these new technologies as it claims 70% of executives are making significantly more investments in artificial intelligence technologies than they did in 2013, and 55% state that they plan on using machine learning and embedded AI solutions (like Amelia) extensively.

AI, Alibaba, Artificial intelligence, Database, News & Analysis, Public Cloud, SB Cloud, Softbank

Alibaba and Softbank launch SB Cloud for Japanese market

mayo 13, 2016 Jamie Davies

Alibaba and Softbank have announced the establishment of SB Cloud Corporation, a new joint venture to offer cloud computing services in Japan.

The demand for public cloud in Japan and surrounding countries has been growing in recent years, with Japan leading the way as the most advanced nation. A report from Gartner last year estimated the total public cloud services spending in the mature APJ region will rise to $11.5 billion by 2018. Alibaba has targeted the region to grow its already healthy cloud business unit.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with the Alibaba Cloud team on the joint venture over the past few months,” said Eric Gan, the new CEO of SB Cloud and EVP of SoftBank. “During the business planning discussions, I quickly felt that we were all working very much as one team with one goal. I believe the JV team can develop the most advanced cloud platform for Japanese customers, as well as for multinational customers who want to use the resources we have available in Japan.”

SB Cloud will enable Alibaba to increase its presence in the market, where it already offers services to SoftBank’s business customer base in Japan, which primarily comprises of global organizations. SB Cloud will open a new data centre in the country, where it will now serve customers outside of established SoftBank customer base, offering data storage and processing services, enterprise-level middleware as well as cloud security services.

A recent report from the US Department of Commerce highlighted the Japanese market is one of the most competitive worldwide, though five of the six major vendors are American, Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Salesforce. Domestic companies, such as Fujitsu, have announced aggressive expansion plans. Fujitsu claims to be to investing $2 billion between 2014 and 2017 to capture an increased market share in cloud computing, primarily focused on the growing IoT sub-sector.

While Alibaba’s traditional business has been in the Chinese market, the company has been making efforts over the last 12-18 months to diversify its outreach. Last year, the company launched a new data centre in Singapore, as well as in Silicon Valley. It also launched what it claims is China’s first cloud AI platform last August, DT PAI. The purpose-built algorithms and machine learning technologies are designed to help users generate predictive intelligence insights, claiming the service features “drag and drop” capabilities that let users easily connect different services and set parameters, seemingly following IBM’s lead in designing a more accessible offering for the industry.

data protection, News & Analysis, Trustmarque

The top three cloud security myths: BUSTED

mayo 12, 2016 Guest Author

The rise in global cyber-attacks and the subsequent high-profile press coverage, understandably makes businesses question the security of cloud. After all, the dangers of hosting anything in an environment where data loss or system failure events are attributed to an outside source are magnified. As a result, many CIOs are also still struggling to identify and implement the cloud services most suitable for their business. In fact, research finds over three quarters (79%) of CIOs find it a challenge to balance the productivity needs of employees against potential security threats. Moreover, 84% of CIOs worry cloud causes them to lose control over IT.

But is cloud really more vulnerable than any other infrastructure? And how can organisations mitigate any risk they encounter? The reality is that all systems have vulnerabilities that can be exploited, whether on-premise, in the cloud or a hybrid of the two. It’s safe to say that people fear what they don’t understand – and with cloud becoming increasingly complex, it’s not surprising that there are so many myths attached to it. It’s time to clear up some of these myths.

Myth 1: Cloud technology is still in its infancy and therefore inherently insecure

Cloud has been around for much longer than we often think and can be traced as far back as the 1970’s. The rapid pace of cloud development, coupled with an awakening realisation of what cloud can do for businesses, has thrust it into the limelight in recent years.

The biggest issue CIOs have with cloud is their increasing distance from the physical technology involved. Indeed, many CIO’s feel that if they cannot walk into a data centre and see comforting lights flashing on the hardware, then it is beyond their reach. As a result, many organisations overlook instrumentation in the cloud, so don’t look at the data or systems they put there in the same way they would if it were on a physical machine. Organisations then forget to apply their own security standards, as they would in their own environment, and it is this complacency that gives rise to risk and exposure.

Myth 2: Physical security keeps data safe

It is a common misconception that having data stored on premise and on your own servers is the best form of protection. However, the location of data is not the only factor to consider. The greatest form of defence you can deploy with cloud is a combination of strict access rights, diligent data stewardship and strong governance.

Common security mistakes include not performing full due diligence on the cloud provider and assuming that the provider will be taking care of all security issues. In addition, it is still common for organisations to not take into account the physical location of a cloud environment and the legal ramifications of storing data in a different country. Indeed, a recent European Court of Justice ruling found the Safe Harbour accord was invalid as it failed to adequately protect EU data from US government surveillance. Cloud providers rushed to assure customers they were dealing with the situation, but the main takeaway from this is to not believe that a cloud provider will write security policy for you – organisations need to take ownership.

Myth 3: Cloud security is the provider’s responsibility

All of the major public clouds have multiple certifications (ISO27001, ISO27018, ENISA IAF, FIPS140-2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS) attained by proving they have controls to ensure data integrity.

The real risk comes when organisations blindly park data, thinking that security is just implicit. Unless the data is protected with encryption, firewalls, access lists etc., organisations remain vulnerable. The majority of cloud exposures can in fact be traced back to a failure in policy or controls not being applied correctly – look at the TalkTalk hack for example, and consider the alternate outcome had the database been encrypted.

Education and ownership is the future

The speed at which cloud is evolving can understandably cause a few teething problems. But it is the responsibility of providers and clients alike to take ownership of their own elements and apply security policies which are right for their business, their risk profile and the data which they hold. As with any technological change, many interested parties quickly jumped on the cloud bandwagon. But the allure of a technology can inhibit a lack of critical thinking, and the broader view of choosing the right application at the right cost, with appropriate security to mitigate risk, is lost. Remember, the cloud is not inherently secure and given the fact it stands to underpin enterprise operations for years to come, it’s worth approaching it not as a bandwagon but as an important part of enterprise infrastructure.

Written by Mark Ebden, Strategic Consultant, Trustmarque

Actian, Big Data, data analytics, News & Analysis

Can your analytics tools meet the demands of the big data era?

mayo 12, 2016 Jamie Davies

Speaking at Telco Cloud, Actian’s CTO Michael Hoskins outlined the impact big data is having on the business world, and the challenges which are being faced by those who are not keeping up with the explosion of data now available to decision makers.

The growth of IoT and the subsequent increase is data has been widely reported. Last year, Gartner predicted the number of connected ‘things’ would exceed 6.4 billion by the end of 2016 (an increase of 22% from 2015), and continue to grow to beyond 20.8 billion by 2020. While IoT is a lucrative industry, businesses are now facing the task of not only managing the data, but gaining insight from such a vast pool of unstructured information.

“Getting a greater understanding of your business is the promise of big data,” said Hoskins. “You can see things which you never were able to before, and it’s taking business opportunities to the next generation. The cloud is really changing the way in which we think about business models – it enables not only for you to understand what you are doing within your business, but the industry on the whole. You gain insight into areas which you never perceived before.”

Actian is one of a number of companies who are seemingly capitalizing on not only the growth of IoT and big data, but also the fact it has been rationalized by decision makers within enterprise as a means to develop new opportunities. The company has been building its presence in the big data arena for five years, and has invested more than $300m in growing organically, as well as acquiring new technology capabilities and expertise externally. As Hoskins highlighted to the audience, big data is big business for Actian.

Actian’s CTO Michael Hoskins

But what are the challenges which the industry is now facing? According to Hoskins, the majority of us don’t have the right tools to fully realize the potential of big data as a business influencer.

“The data explosion which is hitting us is so violent, it’s disrupting the industry. It’s like two continents splitting apart,” said Hoskins. “On one continent we have the traditional tools, and on the other we have the new breed of advanced analytics software. The new tools are drifting away from the traditional, and the companies who are using the traditional are being left behind.”

Data analytics as a business practise is by no means a new concept, but the sheer volume, variety and speed at which data is being collected means traditional technologies to analyse this data are being made redundant. Hoskins highlighted they’re too slow (they can’t keep up with the velocity of collection), they’re too rigid (they can’t comprehend the variety of data sets), and they’re too cumbersome (they can’t manage the sheer volume of data). In short, these tools are straining under the swell.

The next challenge is scaling current technologies to meet the demands, which leaves most cases is a very difficult proposition. It’s often too short-term, too expensive and the skills aren’t abundant enough. Hoskins believes the time-cost-value proposition simply does not make sense.

“The journey of modernization goes from traditional, linear tools, through to business intelligence and discovery, this is where we are now, through to decision science,” said Hoskins. “Traditional tools enable us to look back at what we’ve done and make reactive decisions, but businesses now want to have a forward looking analytics model, drawing out new insights to inform decision making. But this cannot be done with traditional tools.

“This is the promise of advanced analytics. The final stage is where we can use data analytics to inform business decisions; this is where data becomes intelligence.”

data protection, News & Analysis, Shadow IT, VMware

24% of businesses expect a cyberattack within the next 90 days

mayo 12, 2016 Jamie Davies

Research from VMWare has highlighted 24% of office workers and IT decision makers believe their organization will be the victim of a cyberattack with the next 90 days, mainly due to the belief that the threats are advancing at a faster pace than a company’s defences.

Although the statistics imply the event of a cyberattack is becoming normalized within the industry, the findings do also suggest investments from enterprise organizations are not meeting the demanding trends of security, as 39% of the respondents believe one of the greatest vulnerabilities to their organisation to a cyberattack is threats moving faster than their defences.

“The issue around accountability is symptomatic of the underlying challenge faced as organisations seek to push boundaries, transform and differentiate, as well as secure the business against ever-changing threats”, commented Joe Baguley, CTO of VMware in EMEA. “Today’s most successful organisations can move and respond at speed as well as safeguard their brand and customer trust. With applications and user data on more devices in more locations than ever before, these companies have moved beyond the traditional IT security approach which may not protect the digital businesses of today.”

While security could be seen as something of a sound-bite for board-level execs in recent months, the importance of spreading cybersecurity awareness and responsibility throughout the organization have been made clear by the IT department. Of the IT decision makers who were surveyed as part of the research, 22% said the board should be most aware of the necessary actions to take following a significant data breach, and 40% said the CEO should be this person.

Industry insiders have commented to BCN in recent weeks that the use of security comments by execs highlighted the importance of cybersecurity has been an effort to appease customers and stakeholders, and there is little follow through in terms of investment in new technologies. Research from the Economist Intelligence Unit also backs up these comments as its own survey said only 5% of UK corporate leaders consider cyber security a priority for their business, contradicting comments made by execs in the press.

Shadow IT was another area which featured in the report, as unauthorized devices and software are seemingly still plaguing IT decision makers throughout the industry. 55% of the IT decision makers surveyed believe their own employees are the greatest security threat a company faces, which is also backed up by the statistics that 26% would use their personal device to access corporate data and almost a fifth, 16%, would risk being in breach of the organisation’s security to carry out their job effectively.

“Security is not just about technology. As the research shows, the decisions and behaviours of people will impact the integrity of a business,” said Baguley. “However, this can’t be about lock-down or creating a culture of fear. Smart organisations are enabling, not restricting, their employees – allowing them to thrive, adapt processes and transform operations to succeed.”

Actifio, data backup, Enterprise IT, News & Analysis, Resilience, Verizon Enterprise

Verizon Enterprise launch cloud backup product with Actifio

mayo 12, 2016 Business Cloud News

Verizon Enterprise Solutions has launched a new cloud backup service alongside Actifio, aimed at accelerating application development, and improving business resiliency.

The new offering, which will be available to customers using a virtualized environment, to create unified hybrid cloud environment with the aim of making data easier to manage, access and protect. The product will be available for customers in North America in June, and other regions towards the end of the year.

“The complexity of legacy infrastructure limits the ability of many enterprises to innovate around their data,” said Dan Jablonski, Director of Cloud and IT solutions, Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “We chose Actifio’s class-leading copy data virtualisation technology to power this new offering because it means we can now offer customers a simple, single solution to protect, move and store data in our cloud. Together with Actifio, we’re helping clients to be more agile so they can deliver better experiences to their own customers.”

The new offering is built on Actifio’s technology, which it claims will allow customers to move data back and forth between the customer premise and Verizon’s cloud-based infrastructure, allows self-serve instant access to data to improve speed of deployment and improve resiliency and availability by protecting data across the full range of conventional protection use cases.

“Data is the lifeblood of business, and it’s essential to have access to the data and applications you need when and where you need them,” said Ash Ashutosh, CEO of Actifio. “This next step in our relationship with Verizon will enable us to provide exactly that to more customers around the world, more easily and efficiently than ever before. We are thrilled to take this step forward with what is becoming one of our most important and valued cloud service provider partnerships.”

containers, hybrid, Joyent, News & Analysis, Public, Public Cloud

Joyent launches Container-Native offerings for public and hybrid cloud platform

mayo 12, 2016 Business Cloud News

Joyent has launched its next generation container-native (G4) and KVM-based (K4) instance package families, which are now available on its Triton-powered public cloud platform.

The company’s cloud platform runs on containers, as opposed to traditional VM’s which the majority of other cloud platforms run on, which it claims will notably improve efficiency. The software used to run the Triton Cloud service is 100% open source and available for customers to use to operate in their own private data centres within a hybrid cloud model.

“Workloads are more efficient on Triton Cloud,” said Bill Fine, Vice President Product and Marketing at Joyent. “This is because Triton allows you to run containers natively, without having to pre-provision (and pay for) virtual machine hosts. The result is less waste and more cost savings for you.

“Consider our recent blueprint to run WordPress in containers. A minimum running implementation requires six g4-highcpu-128M instances and costs just over $13 per month. That minimal site may be perfect for a small blog or staging a larger one. Should you need to scale it, you can resize the containers without restarting them or scale horizontally with Docker-compose scale (or another scheduler of your choice).”

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Joyent’s value proposition and marketing campaigns are seemingly built on the claim it is cheaper and more efficient than AWS, as it would appear the team are set on taking the fight to the incumbent industry leader. The company claim there is a notable price-performance cost advantage, more specifically, Elasticsearch clusters on Triton complete query requests 50% to 70% faster, Sharded MongoDB clusters complete tasks 100% to 150% faster and Standard primary/replica Postgres configurations up to 200% faster, in comparison to AWS.

“The cost of running on Triton is about half the cost of running on AWS,” said Fine. “With enough experimentation and determination you might be able to narrow this cost gap by more efficiently bin-packing your containers into VMs on AWS, but on Triton those efficiencies are built in and the cost and complexity of VM host clustering is removed. Each container just runs (on bare metal) with the resources you specify.”

cognitive computing, IBM, IBM Watson, News & Analysis

IBM’s Watson takes aim at cybersecurity

mayo 11, 2016 Business Cloud News

IBM has launched a new cloud-based version of the company’s cognitive technology to tackle the rising challenge of cyber security.

The company’s R&D team have recently completed a year-long research program to teach Watson to understand the nuances of security research findings, which can be used to realize patterns and uncover evidence of hidden cyber-attacks which could have been missed. IBM plan to move the security-version into beta test later this year.

Watson’s new capabilities builds on the skills gap within the security job market, but also the idea that big data in a security perspective is too vast for human capabilities. Like other areas of the cloud industry, simple tasks are being automated, allowing employees to concentrate on the more critical areas of the business. IBM claim the average organization deals with 200,000 pieces of security event data per day, with enterprises spending $1.3 million a year dealing with false positives alone.

“Even if the industry was able to fill the estimated 1.5 million open cyber security jobs by 2020, we’d still have a skills crisis in security,” said Marc van Zadelhoff, GM at IBM Security. “The volume and velocity of data in security is one of our greatest challenges in dealing with cybercrime. By leveraging Watson’s ability to bring context to staggering amounts of unstructured data, impossible for people alone to process, we will bring new insights, recommendations, and knowledge to security professionals, bringing greater speed and precision to the most advanced cybersecurity analysts, and providing novice analysts with on-the-job training.”

The new offering is built on Watson’s ability to learn and reason from unstructured data, 80% of which cannot be processed by non-cognitive tools, and IBM claim the offering will learn from a number of different sources including blogs, articles, videos, reports and alerts. The company believe only 8% of this unstructured data is being utilized currently, making the concept of secure almost impossible. Once Watson for Security is released it will provide customers insights into emerging threats, as well as recommendations on how to stop them.

To further enhance the offering, the team have also announced eight partnerships with various universities to train Watson on the language of cybersecurity. The universities include California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Pennsylvania State University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; New York University; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC); the University of New Brunswick; the University of Ottawa and the University of Waterloo.

ICLOUD PE