Cloud adoption continues to be hampered by concerns about security and availability. Fast forward to the future where the IT landscape will support thousands of clouds that are protected in a seamless, consistent fashion.
In his General Session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, Sean Doherty, Vice President and CTO for the Enterprise Security Group at Symantec, will discuss how in this future of cloud computing, today’s adoption concerns will be in the past and your clouds will be safer than many data center operations.
Madagascar Appears on ICT Radar Screen
I read a story the other day about “the 10 poorest countries” in the world. The writer examined poverty statistics to determine this list. Some of the countries are known for terrible governments (eg, Zimbabwe), some had high per-person income levels – usually due to abundant mining — but abysmal income disparities (eg, Burundi), while others (eg, Madagascar) were just poor through and through.
But there’s always hope. Madagascar, for example, has landed on our radar screen in the Top 10 “raw” ranking among 22 African nations we’ve surveyed.
What does that mean?
We started our research at the Tau Institute with the struggles of developing countries – “the world’s poorest” – in mind. How could we develop a truly relative ranking, one that shows which countries are doing the best with what they have? We’ve integrated several publicly available sources of information and adjusted them for local cost-of-living levels and income disparity to produce our ranking, known as the Tau Index.
Its purpose is to find the countries that are the most dynamic, ie, which have the most potential for continuous upward economic progress, regardless of where they stand today. It provides a unique view of technology-driven progress, whether you’re looking at developed countries or developing nations across the entire spectrum of relative wealth. (I’ve written extensively on this topic – you can find my most recent articles at http://rogerstrukhoff.sys-con.com )
99 Countries Surveyed
We have an overall ranking of 99 countries at this point, and have broken the overall result into regional and income-tier groupings. We also have a “raw” ranking. The overall ranking integrates income levels, local cost of living, bandwidth measurements, and other publicly available socioeconomic measurements. The raw ranking focuses on the income and technology integration, leaving the socioeconomic factors aside.
Most “developmental” and “competitiveness” rankings and the like simply tell us what we already know, ie, rich countries are at the top, developing countries at the bottom. It’s easy enough to draw a nice, smooth curve as incomes rise from less than $1,000 to more than $50,000 throughout the nations of the world. Measurements of health, infrastructure, technology development, etc. follow this curve faithfully.
But economic progress in this era of globalization and the Worldwide Web is a very odd thing. Ethiopia, for example, has the lowest income (at $374). It does not score well overall, or in our regional or tiered rankings.
Yet the country’s national airline, Ethiopian Airlines, is Africa’s second largest, is the first outside of Japan to buy the new Boeing 787, and is working to establish the nation’s capital, Addis Abbaba, as a major regional hub. Looking at our numbers, we find that Ethiopia does score relatively well in the raw rankings, placing 4th among 22 African countries we’ve surveyed.
Back to Madagascar: it ranks 7th on that particular list, three notches behind Ethiopia but two notches ahead of Egypt. In our overall rankings, Madagascar is a more modest 13th among the 22 African nations, and 82nd overall out of 99 countries surveyed. Compare this to Egypt’s 8th place in Africa and 65th overall.
As I’ve stated, our research is intended to start conversations, not finish them, so please contact me to learn more about what we’re doing.
Cloud Storage Gateways & Cloud Integrated Storage: Sorting the Terminology
Every emerging market goes through a time of confusion where both vendors and analysts try to “define” the solution to a pervasive problem. Meanwhile, companies actually experiencing the problem are left to sort through a cacophony of mixed messages and terminology, all the while struggling to understand how this “category” of products solves their problem. As cloud storage moves closer to the IT mainstream, we see this same story arc playing out, with analysts and vendors coining a new category of products – “Cloud Integrated Storage” (CiS) – that is subtly different from the “cloud storage gateway” term that previously captured the entire category.
According to an ESG report, CiS entails “primary and/or most active data staying onsite (as a tier or cache).” It operates “for less active data … as an easily scalable archive” and offers “powerful remote data protection and business continuity capabilities.” While this description is quite elaborate, in layman’s terms, CiS simply delivers cloud storage in addition to traditional storage to on-premise environments. In fact, it may all sound very familiar to those already using advanced cloud storage gateways and appliances.
Stay Safe in the Cloud With Two-Factor Authentication
The use of two-factor authentication has been around for years, but the recent addition of this security feature in cloud services from Google and Dropbox has drawn widespread attention. The Dropbox offering came just two months after a well-publicized security breach at their online file sharing service.
Exactly What Is Two-Factor Authentication?
Of course, most online applications require a user name and password in order to log on. Much has been written about the importance of managing your passwords carefully. However, simple password protection only goes so far.
Two-factor authentication involves not only the use of something the user knows such as a password, but also something that only the user has. An intruder can no longer gain access to the system simply by illicitly obtaining your password.
Authentication Tools
- ATM Cards: These are perhaps the most widely used two-factor authentication device. The user must both insert the card and enter a password in order to access the ATM.
- Tokens: The use of tokens has increased substantially in recent years. Most of these are time-based tokens that involve the use of a key sized plastic device with a screen that displays a security code that continually changes. The user must enter not only their password, but also the security code from the token. Tokens have been popular with sensitive applications such as on-line bank and
brokerage sites. - Smart Cards: These function similarly to ATM cards, but are used in a wider variety of applications. Unlike most ATM cards, smart cards have an embedded microprocessor for added security.
- Smart Phones: The proliferation of smart phones has provided the perfect impetus to expand two-factor authentication to widely used internet applications in the cloud. In these cases, users must enter not only a password, but also a security code from their phone or other mobile device. This code can be sent to a phone by the service provider as an SMS text message or generated on a smartphone using a mobile authenticator app. Both Google and Dropbox now use this method.
Yahoo! Mail and Facebook are also introducing two-factor authentication using smart phones. However, their methodology only prompts the user to enter the security code if a security breach is suspected or a new device is used.
So What’s Next?
Cloud security is a hot topic and two-factor authentication is one way to mitigate users’ well founded concerns. As a result, development and adoption of two-factor authentication systems is proceeding at a rapid pace and should be available for most cloud applications within just a few short years.
The shift from token based authentication to SMS based authentication is also likely to accelerate along with smart phone use.
Two-factor and even three-factor authentication using biometrics will become more popular. Finger print readers are already quite common on laptop computers. Use of facial recognition, voice recognition, hand geometry, retina scans, etc. will become more common as the technology develops and the price drops. The obvious advantage of these biometric systems is that the physical device cannot be stolen or otherwise used by a third party to gain access to the system.
As with any security system, two-factor authentication is not 100% secure. Even token systems have been hacked and there is no doubt that there will be breaches in SMS authentication tools as well. However, two-factor authentication still provides the best way to stay safe in the cloud and it’s advisable to use it whenever possible.
This post is by Rackspace blogger Thomas Parent. Rackspace Hosting is a service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud operating system. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support to its customers and partners, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing.
More Modernizing Data Protection, Virtualization and Clouds with Certainty
This is a follow-up to a recent post about modernizing data protection and doing more than simply swapping out media or mediums like flat tires on a car as well as part of the Quantum protecting data with certainty event series.
While I was traveling saw this advertisement sign from Datalink (who is a Quantum partner that participated in some of the events) in a few different airports which is a variation of the Datadomain tape sucks attention getter. For those not familiar, that creature on the right is an oversized mosquito with the company logos on the lower left being Datalink, NetApp, Cisco and VMware.
Telx Named “Bronze Sponsor” of Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that the Telx, a leading provider of global interconnectivity, cloud enablement services and data center solutions, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 11th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 5–8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Telx is a leading provider of interconnection and data center services in strategic, high-demand North American markets. With 17 premier C3 Cloud Connection Centers by TelxTM, Telx increases speed to market and reduces connectivity costs by providing direct connections to a community of the industry’s highest performance networks and access to 1,000+ customers, including leading telecommunications carriers, ISPs, cloud providers, content providers and enterprises.
Adopting a Cloud First Mindset
Much has been written here, and in many blogs, about Cloud Adoption. However, most of this has focused on the tangible and critical pieces like technical architecture and operational considerations. This can’t be minimized in the least. However, in my work with both vendors and end customers, I’ve identified what is another critical success factor across all organizations, and that is adopting a Cloud Mindset. And while mindset may seem “softer” than the other issues, if we don’t shift our mindset, we will continue to cling to ideas and assumptions that served us well in the past, but can get in the way of our future success.
Why Your Analytics Should Be Hosted
It’s become increasingly clear that Big Data, and the tools for manipulating, visualizing and analyzing it, are transforming the business landscape. McKinsey released a report in 2011 that projects 40 percent growth in global data generated per year. This is all well and good, but more and more companies are finding that their toolbox for dealing with all of this data is antiquated and confusing.
Indeed, 58 percent of enterprise decision makers surveyed in March 2012 by DataXu felt they lacked the skills and technology required for marketing analytics. Marketers should be chomping at the bit to fruitfully employ the data they have. Successful marketing requires proper segmentation of the customer base to create more targeted campaigns. Real-time insight into the performance of existing campaigns and a clear grasp of where to redirect efforts can also turn a campaign that would have failed into a success. These are the promises made by the drivers of the current “data movement.” The unfortunate reality, however, is that the accumulation of data just adds to the costs of an organization as it struggles to merely store the incoming torrent of data, let alone harness it and allow non-technical individuals to explore and understand it.
Oracle’s Buying SelectMinds
Oracle is buying SelectMinds, a New York maker of cloud-based social talent sourcing and corporate alumni management apps that are supposed to empower recruiters, hiring managers and employees to leverage social connections for higher-quality referrals.
Referrals are the #1 source of external hires according to a CareerXroads study last year.
SelectMinds products are already integrated with Oracle Cloud recruiting, performance management and human capital management solutions and will extend its social and mobile initiatives into talent management.
Terms were not disclosed. SelectMinds was started in 2000 and got $5.5 million from Bessemer Venture Partners in 2007.
SelectMinds claims JP Morgan, ADP, IBM, eBay, Rackspace and Schlumberger as customers.
What are the benefits of cloud technology on manufacturing?
Computer savvy business leaders are aware of the rewards of cloud computing.
However, for those with subscriptions, the benefits are more obvious since they use cloud hosting, receive monthly updates and spot on technical support all at an affordable price point.
Although the government, education and financial industries bask in the glow of cloud technology, there are certain risks to security and issues with downtime.
Still, cloud computing is desirable to many, as evident by the vast majority of companies who have jumped on board the bandwagon. But does it benefit manufacturers?
Cloud Manufacturing
The existing economic climate impacts all businesses, but such conditions mustn’t be allowed to hamper the pursuit of business growth or expansion. Instead, manufacturers need to look for innovative cost-cutting measures that increase profitability. Cloud computing provides such a solution.
That’s good news for today’s manufacturers who must regularly navigate within a global …