It is ironic, but perhaps not unexpected, that many organizations who want the benefits of using an Agile approach to deliver software use a waterfall approach to adopting Agile practices: they form plans, they set milestones, and they measure progress by how many teams they have engaged. Old habits die hard, but like most waterfall software projects, most waterfall-style Agile adoption efforts fail to produce the results desired. The problem is that to get the results they want, they have to change their culture and cultures are very hard to change. To paraphrase Peter Drucker, «culture eats Agile for breakfast.» Successful approaches are opportunistic and leverage the power of self-organization to achieve lasting change.

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As more technologies become software-defined, their adoption demands a significant shift in thinking about how a business organizes its value stream. This shift may be difficult, but it enables you to anticipate changes and position your business to react when software-defined technologies emerge.
Recently a new set of tools and practices has emerged to create and manage environments. Known as Infrastructure as Code (IaC), it enables infrastructure management through a software-defined layer.

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The Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved quite rapidly, especially if you consider how long it took for little packet-switching networks like ARPANET to morph into today’s nearly ubiquitous internet. Our nascent IoT ecosystem is already populated by billions of sensors and connected devices, hundreds of millions of servers, and thousands of hybrid clouds serving billions of people… all of them perpetually producing and/or consuming data in an explosion of information.

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Keeping your enterprise data safe and secure is more important now than it ever has been. IT has always been an ever-changing industry, but in recent years, it has been changing more and more quickly. Now, thanks to the cloud, big data, and mobile devices all expanding at once, it may seem like the entire IT field is completely different every other day. This means your company is going to almost always be re-evaluating and upgrading your network security tools and methods. It’s hard to deal with the current threats to your data, never mind prepare for new ones.

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With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing Cloud strategies, now is the perfect time to attend 21st Cloud Expo October 31 – November 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, CA, and June 12-14, 2018, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is on the right path to Digital Transformation.

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Four in five respondents say cloud adoption in their organisations will not be put off by high profile cyber-attacks, according to a new study from software and IT services provider Advanced.

The survey, which polled more than 500 senior executives in UK organisations and was conducted through Techmarketview, found that the majority of firms said they were concerned about security and data protection in the cloud, with 82% and 68% responding respectively, yet prefer to carry on with their migration plans.

Despite this, more than three quarters (76%) of those polled said governments should do more to protect businesses and customers from cyber threats, while a larger number (82%) said cloud providers need to step up to build confidence among those looking to adopt a digital transformation strategy.

The inspiration for the survey appears to have been taken from two sources; the recent WannaCry attack which took down the NHS – and appears to be wreaking havoc elsewhere – as well as the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation. As the report’s introduction puts it, “cloud has become an essential ingredient in the digital era, despite adversity from new cyber-attacks and data legislation.”

One in three respondents said they were ‘experienced’ in the cloud, while only 27% of organisations said they used cloud-based financial management systems. These figures show there is still some way to go, and the report again intimates it’s on the industry’s head to get it right.

“As an industry and profession, we all need to proactively give clear guidance on security responsibilities and support organisations in being better protected, ensuring devices and applications are properly patched and secured,” said Jon Wrennall, CTO at Advanced.

“There’s still a job to be done in creating trust in the cloud and helping customers use the cloud in the right way for the digital transformation that’s right for them,” he added. “Our survey shows most organisations want financially stable providers and prefer those that store data locally and offer local support.

“This will become even more pertinent as Britain leaves the European Union – they will trust the providers that offer certainty in an uncertain market and those with a vested interest in the UK and the cloud.”

Elsewhere, a study from storage provider Nexsan has revealed that almost half (48%) of 100 survey respondents were unaware of what GDPR was and what it meant to their organisation.

In this demo presentation at 20th Cloud Expo, David Gildeh, CEO and Co-Founder of Outlyer, discusses self-service monitoring from Outlyer and why it is important. Outlyer is a modern infrastructure monitoring platform designed for easy customization that can monitor all your servers, cloud environments, containers, and services in minutes.

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The Internet giants are fully embracing AI. All the services they offer to their customers are aimed at drawing a map of the world with the data they get. The AIs from these companies are used to build disruptive approaches that cannot be used by established enterprises, which are threatened by these disruptions. However, most leaders underestimate the effect this will have on their businesses.
In his session at 21st Cloud Expo, Rene Buest, Director Market Research & Technology Evangelism at Arago, will discuss the digital enterprise evolution in the context of artificial intelligence.

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