Enterprise IT has been in the era of Hybrid Cloud for some time now. But it seems most conversations about Hybrid are focused on integrating AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google ECM into existing on-premises systems. Where is all the Private Cloud? What do technology providers need to do to make their offerings more compelling? How should enterprise IT executives and buyers define their focus, needs, and roadmap, and communicate that clearly to the providers?

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«We are a custom software development, engineering firm. We specialize in cloud applications from helping customers that have on-premise applications migrating to the cloud, to helping customers design brand new apps in the cloud. And we specialize in mobile apps,» explained Peter Di Stefano, Vice President of Marketing at Impiger Technologies, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

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President Obama recently announced the launch of a new national awareness campaign to «encourage more Americans to move beyond passwords – adding an extra layer of security like a fingerprint or codes sent to your cellphone.» The shift from single passwords to multi-factor authentication couldn’t be timelier or more strategic. This session will focus on why passwords alone are no longer effective, and why the time to act is now.
In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, Chris Webber, security strategist at Centrify, discussed how we can move away from passwords towards better, more secure methods of identity verification.

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«At ROHA we develop an app called Catcha. It was developed after we spent a year meeting with, talking to, interacting with senior citizens watching them use their smartphones and talking to them about how they use their smartphones so we could get to know their smartphone behavior,» explained Dave Woods, Chief Innovation Officer at ROHA, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

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«ReadyTalk is an audio and web video conferencing provider. We’ve really come to embrace WebRTC as the platform for our future of technology,» explained Dan Cunningham, CTO of ReadyTalk, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at WebRTC Summit at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

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SYS-CON Events announced today that Fusion, a leading provider of cloud services, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Fusion, a leading provider of integrated cloud solutions to small, medium and large businesses, is the industry’s single source for the cloud. Fusion’s advanced, proprietary cloud service platform enables the integration of leading edge solutions in the cloud, including cloud communications, cloud connectivity, and cloud computing. Fusion’s innovative, yet proven cloud solutions lower our customers’ cost of ownership, and deliver new levels of security, flexibility, scalability, and speed of deployment.

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Data centre firm Equinix has announced its intention to purchase 24 data centre sites, consisting of 29 data centre buildings, from Verizon for $3.6 billion (£2.85bn).

The portfolio includes approximately 900 customers and are based exclusively in the US and Latin America. Equinix will open three new markets, in Culpeper in Virginia, Houston, and Bogota, and will add almost 2.5 million gross square feet to the company’s overall footprint.

“This unique opportunity complements and extends Equinix’s strategy to expand our global platform,” said Steve Smith, Equinix president and CEO in a statement. “It enables us to enhance cloud and network density to continue to attract enterprises, while expanding our presence in the Americas.”

According to the most recent industry figures from Synergy Research, Equinix leads the way in colocation, being the only vendor with more than a 10% market share. The company is ahead of Digital Realty – whose Paris operations Equinix announced it was to acquire in August for $211m – and NTT. To put this in perspective, CenturyLink, who announced in the same November week it was to acquire Level 3 Communications for $34bn and sell 57 of its data centres to a consortium, is one of the seven other players in the top 10, whose market share at the time between them was 15%.

Approximately 250 Verizon employees will switch over to Equinix as part of the move. “This deal is a significant win for our existing customers, who will gain access to new locations, ecosystems and partners,” said Karl Strohmeyer, Equinix Americas president. “It is also a win for the new companies joining Equinix, as they will be able to leverage Equinix’s global footprint and unique interconnection services.”

The full list of metro areas included in the deal is Atlanta, Bogota, Boston, Chicago, Culpeper, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Washington D.C, while the transaction is expected to close by mid-2017.

(c)iStock.com/tonefotografia

Today’s threat landscape is constantly evolving. In 2016 in particular, we’ve seen a huge shift with adversaries penetrating organisations from the DNC to WADA and gaining access to sensitive documents that were later leaked to embarrass individuals. Yet, while many believe that this trend starts and ends with a contentious election, it’s not something that’s going away in 2017. In fact, we’re starting to see continued and varied threats, most recently with DDoS attacks taking down the likes of the EU commission.  

Overall, the pace and variation of exploits driven by technically astute adversaries, will only gain momentum in the coming year if not managed effectively.

No impenetrable defence

Whether a Fortune 500 company, a family run business or a utility company, all businesses are vulnerable and proactively sought after as attack targets. Whether by a nation-state group, a criminal network or an independent hacker, they’re all in the firing line. Yet, we’re moving beyond fines, damage to corporate reputation and a number of scary headlines. In 2017, the manipulation of data to remove its integrity will be significant enough to send companies under. Organisations need to be continually and proactively assessing their networks to understand how they are compromised. Too many are focusing on the “known” bads, rather than trying to understand the threat of the “unknown.”

In intelligence, we trust

Organisations today are also exhausted by “alert fatigue”, where security professionals are cast in the role of passively reviewing tones of alert data, much of which ends up being confirmed by those humans as false positives. This often means security teams are stuck in a reactive mode and not preventing breaches from happening. Businesses need actionable intelligence to overcome this hurdle and get ahead of the threats that could compromise their business.

Ultimately, we can’t properly interpret today’s threat landscape without understanding the impact of global economic developments and geopolitical events. Just because something happens miles away, it doesn’t mean it won’t wash up on your doorstep in the form of an attack. Intelligence needs to be added to the equation so that we can anticipate and detect potential threats and defend against new tactics, techniques and procedures.

Security takes on new meaning for the C-suite

Regulatory fines and disclosure of embarrassing leaks still haven’t eliminated the problem. Yet, awareness across the business around spotting and responding to threats is critical. If even the most senior leader in a business can be duped by a phishing attempt, what does that mean for an organisations wider security posture?

We’re already seeing Fortune 500 companies starting to take a totally different approach to how they manage security as they think about an attack, as when not if. An important lesson in this journey is understanding that more spending doesn’t  equal more security – it’s a cybersecurity paradox. Businesses need to think in terms of risk prevention and mitigation and understanding what the risks to their business are and taking proactive steps to detect and prevent them.

‘New age’ attacks on the rise

The exponential rise in connectivity and data loads is having significant impacts on expanding business networks and opening more doors for hackers. In fact, it’s increasing the surface layer of attack, particularly with regard to ransomware that has grown in prevalence throughout the year.

In fact, businesses should get used to criminals’ sharp business acumen and psychological button-pushing. It’s likely what’s fuelled the attacks we’ve already seen on hospitals and healthcare organisations and will only continue as adversaries acknowledge the opportunity to make much more per ransom transaction than targeting the average user.

So long, legacy

The inherent limitations in conventional security defences has been illustrated in the well-documented proliferation of cyber-attacks across all industries. As such, we’re beginning to see indicators of a tectonic shift away from legacy solutions as people start thinking differently about security. This has been a slow ball that’s been rolling down the hill, and it’s really picking up momentum heading into 2017, where it will likely reach a critical mass.

Businesses are starting to work out how they can get more visibility across their entire network, augment and then entirely replace their legacy systems with next-gen solutions. The industry has been talking about replacing these for 15 years and now we are finally starting to see the trend accelerating.

Whether part of criminal groups or nation-state operations, adversaries can move faster than ever before, mutate malware and actively change exploit tactics or IP addresses. Reactive cybersecurity methods are now obsolete.

2016 brought about more cyberattacks than we thought possible, especially involving ransomware, and we definitely won’t see that trend breaking stride in 2017. By next year, we expect every single adult in the US will know a blood relative that has had their identity stolen – the Internal Revenue Service reported that 2.7 million people had their identities stolen in 2014 and according to TransUnion, 19 people fall victim to identity theft every minute.

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