Cloud applications are well established for many activities such as CRM, HR, and billing. With the cloud paradigm proven for so many enterprise tasks, the question of cloud vs. on-premises seems like yesterday’s – or even last year’s – debate. But is the cloud ready to handle the unique requirements of legal work? The answer is yes, with a caveat. The cloud is ready for legal, but a legal firm must ensure its cloud vendor, cloud applications and internal processes for dealing with the vendor and applications are all in line with legal industry best practices.
IoT and Cognitive Analytics | @ThingsExpo #IoT #ML #CognitiveComputing
Big Data analytics and the Internet of Things are still relative newcomers. Given how quickly technology moves, though, it’s not surprising that their next incarnations are already being talked about: cognitive analytics and a much-grown Internet of Things (IoT).
We all know about the Internet of Things: it’s data from a host of Web-connected devices that can be analyzed and studied, just like traditional data analytics. But what is cognitive analytics? Think back to old sci-fi shows. Remember the insanely smart, almost-human robot sidekick? Cognitive analytics isn’t there yet, but it does emulate that heady mixture of massive processing power and advanced logical capabilities. In some cases, cognitive analytics could be used to interact with humans; in others, it could handle tasks with very little human input.
93% of enterprise now using cloud services – survey
The vast majority of IT professionals are now using at least one cloud-based service, according to a survey recently published by IT portal Spiceworks.
While 93% of respondents confirmed that they are using at least one cloud based service within their operations, the survey also highlighted IT professionals are still hesitant when considering emerging technologies.
Opportunities such as email hosting and cloud storage are increasingly being viewed as the norm, though IaaS is still met with some scepticism with only 20% of respondents currently using it, and only 16% considering its use in the next 12 months. EMEA professionals demonstrated a higher appetite for IaaS, with use 11 percentage points higher in EMEA than in North America.
In terms of current cloud services, web and email hosting are by far and away the most utilized, with 76% and 56% usage respectively. Online back-up and recovery appears to be the biggest growth area, with 35% of respondents currently using the service and 23% planning to engage over the next 12 months.
When building the business case for cloud transition, cost still remains the top priority for the majority of IT professionals. 71% of respondents highlighted this would be considered the number one reason for the transition, though cloud enabled innovation was only a driver for 3%. While early adopters are moving away from CAPEX/OPEX reductions as the business case for cloud adoption, the rising cost of hardware implementation and maintenance still drives mainstream cloud implementation.
The survey also highlighted that Shadow IT remains a challenge for a large part of the industry, as services which remain un-sanctioned by the IT team are still demonstrating high usage from the rest of the business. 33% of respondents highlighted they have deployed Dropbox services officially, but 78% of companies have employees using the service without IT approval. Google Drive was also being used in 59% of companies surveyed without approval from the IT team.
Microsoft Azure emerged as the most commonly used IaaS provider, accounting for 16%, closely followed by rival AWS at 13%. However 21% of respondents are considering Azure over the next twelve months, compared to only 11% weighing up AWS. The Microsoft team can be encouraged by these statistics, though this is a category which currently does not seem to have a clear market leader. Other brands highlighted by the survey in this space include Rackspace, Google and VMWare.
Despite AWS’s dominant market position, industry insiders questioned by BCN perceive Azure as the more effective platform. With Microsoft bolstering its ranks through strategic company and talent acquisition over the last 18-24 months, Azure is viewed as the more productive offering, despite being more expensive.
The results show a number of positive trends within the cloud industry, though still a number of worrying factors. 20% of IT services are cloud based today, and 30% of the respondents expect that within three years, more than half of their IT services will be cloud based. Conversely the culture of trusting public cloud services with company data/content without approval from the IT function seems to be a trend which isn’t disappearing.
New research questions conventional wisdom on cloud providers
(c)iStock.com/BrianAJackson
Two pieces of research have simultaneously hit the inbox of CloudTech, both with surprising findings in terms of cloud providers. A study from Spiceworks argues Microsoft Azure is more popular than Amazon Web Services (AWS) for IT professionals, while analyst house Cloud Spectator has revealed a surprising name at the top of the best ranked European cloud service providers.
The Cloud Spectator report focuses particularly on performance as well as price factors, measuring vCPU, memory, and block storage performance, and found 1&1 to be the best performer. Using 100% at its benchmark, it finished ahead of UpCloud (95), CityCloud (72) and CloudSigma (68). Of the widely considered major players, Google Compute (50) performed best, well ahead of Azure (27), AWS (27), and IBM SoftLayer (22). Verizon, who confirmed its exit from the majority of the public cloud space earlier this year, scored lowest.
1&1 was also cited in January by Cloud Spectator as the best value infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provider, and again the vendor’s high VM performance and competitive pricing saw it come out on top here. AWS scored highly in the VM – vCPU and memory – performance, but lower relative disk performance and higher monthly costs saw it drop, while CloudSigma came top in storage only for VM performance to see it slip to fourth overall.
“Price performance benchmarks offer important insight into the value of IaaS offerings, and this report compares the value of both large and small EU providers,” said Philbert Shih, managing director of Structure Research, adding: “It’s interesting to see the differences in performance even between different sized VMs, and that some small VMs outperform many large VMs. This type of insight can potentially provide large cost savings.”
Elsewhere, Spiceworks argues that not only is Microsoft more popular than AWS in IaaS public cloud – 16% of respondents compared to 13% – it also has more scope for growth. 21% of the almost 350 people polled said they are considering Azure, compared to 11% for Amazon.
The report also examined the what, why and where of cloud services. The most popular option according to survey respondents was web hosting, cited by more than three quarters (76%) of those polled, followed by email hosting (56%), and storage and file sharing (53%). One in five organisations is adopting infrastructure as a service currently, with an additional 16% considering it.
You can find more about the latest Cloud Spectator report here.
Tech News Recap for the Week of 3/7/2016
Were you busy this week? Here’s a tech news recap of articles you may have missed for the week of 3/7/2016!
A type of malware that locks computer files and demands a fee for their release has successfully targeted Apple computers. A suspected Bush family hacker is being extradited to the US. Cisco announced its Cloud Native Platform is coming next month. The crowd at Levi Stadium for the Super Bowl set a single-day Wi-Fi record. Flash storage hype is becoming reality, cyber-crooks now prefer ransomware to botnets, and more top news from this week!
Tech News Recap
- Apple Macs hit by ransomware ‘for first time’
- Suspected Bush family hacker Guccifer to be extradited to US
- Cloud Survival Guide: 3 Tips For CISOs
- Cloud computing powers Nissan Leaf will be key for autonomous driving
- Multi-factor authentication goes mainstream
- 20 Influential Chief Information Officers
- Australia’s digital transformation head Paul Shelter marks a first year
- Sony Vows to Keep Corporate Data Safe for 100 Years
- Walmart’s CTO Says It Wins Hiring Battles With Big Tech By Not Buying The Silicon Valley Hype
- Cisco containing clouds, enterprises
- Cyber-crooks now prefer ransomware to botnets. Yep, firms are paying up
- Levi’s Stadium crowd sets single-day Wi-Fi record with 10.1 TB used at Super Bowl 50
- Flash storage: Has the hype become reality?
- Apple files parent for emergency detection system for Apple Watch
- Want Safer Passwords? Don’t Change Them So Often
- 8 IT Projects To Prioritize When Budget’s Tight
- Wi-Fi hotspot blocking persists despite FCC crackdown
[On-Demand Webinar] Microsoft Office 365: Expectations vs. Reality
By Ben Stephenson, Emerging Media Specialist
Apple vs FBI – The Basics, Explained By @BobGourley | @CloudExpo #Cloud
This post provides an update on the ongoing battle between Apple and the U.S. government regarding Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone, recovered by police after the horrific massacre in San Bernadino on December 2, 2015.
It is just days before the March 22, 2016 hearing in this long-running, highly publicized dispute between the FBI and Apple, with the FBI’s demands of Apple being variously termed “jailbreak”, put a backdoor into, brute force access, compromise security of, or any number of other descriptors, in the case officially known as In the Matter of the Search of an Apple iPhone Seized During the Execution of a Search Warrant on a Black Lexus IS300, California License Plate 35KGD203. It is a good time, amongst all the massive press coverage and legal wrangling, to get back to some of the basics of the legal proceedings.
HPE launches ‘machine-learning-as-a-service’ on Microsoft Azure
HPE has upgraded its Haven OnDemand proposition to deliver it as ‘machine learning as a service’ via Microsoft Azure.
The product offers a freemium model and has collected around 12,000 registered developers since the beta launch in 2014. Through the leadership of Haven OnDemand CTO, Chris Goodfellow, the service is built on the mantra of ‘the sum is greater than the parts’, utilizing more than 60 API’s which combine to provide machine learning capabilities.
“The software industry is on the cusp of a new era of breakthroughs, driven by machine learning that will power data-driven applications across all facets of life,” said Colin Mahony, GM of HPE Big Data. “HPE Haven OnDemand democratizes big data by bringing the power of machine learning, traditionally reserved for high-end, highly trained data scientists, to the mainstream developer community”
Haven OnDemand includes features designed for applications such as sentiment analysis in text, text extraction from images, face and logo recognition, social media analysis and speech recognition. Developers can also build a set of self-learning functions that analyze, predict and alert based on structured datasets. French start-up Ayni utilized the speech recognition API to help it create text transcripts of live audio streams on its foreign language education app.
Alongside the product development over the last 12 months, HPE has also run an active global hackathon program, which has provided feedback to help optimize the offering.
All HPE Haven OnDemand APIs and services are hosted on Microsoft Azure, building on the long-term strategic partnership between the two tech giants. Back in December, the partnership was extended as HPE appointed Microsoft Azure as a preferred public cloud partner. In return, HPE was granted preferred partner status in providing infrastructure and services for Microsoft hybrid cloud offerings.
“Organizations have massive quantities of information that can hold insights into business transformation, but harnessing it can be challenging,” said Garth Fort, General Manager, Partner and Channel Marketing, Cloud and Enterprise at Microsoft. “Leveraging the high performance and scalability of Azure, HPE Haven OnDemand brings our mutual customers a compelling solution to help turn their data into value.”
Analysing security and regulatory concerns with cloud app migration
(c)iStock.com/baluzek
As businesses look to clouds for faster, more flexible growth, they confront significant challenges from a legacy application base that has varying levels of cloud suitability. It is therefore worth examining how security and compliance requirements can impact choice of cloud or architecture strategies within a cloud.
Maintaining privacy for data that must be protected for business or regulatory reasons is a substantial concern in cloud migration, public or private. Security and compliance organisations vary in their acceptance of shared environments, even within a single organisation.
Public clouds particularly can highlight weaknesses in data security practices. As firms consider moving applications into a public cloud it is important to be sure basic policies and procedures are in place. Data classification is a core practice that enables risk-aware protection of data as it moves to the cloud. Having a formal classification system defining what data is public, company confidential, or eyes only is the first step to being able to track compliance in an explicit way. Data life cycle management, decommissioning and disposal in particular, gain increased importance in public cloud. Encryption and key management have new wrinkles when infrastructure is owned by outside parties.
In addition to basic security concerns, legal regulatory issues for data management must also be considered. Distributing data in any cloud environment, public or private, can trip over legal restrictions in global enterprises. It is important to establish what’s permissible in the jurisdictions an application is operating in, and preventing cross-border flows of data is sometimes required. Similarly, for international applications, it’s important to be aware of any requirements for electronic discovery, integrity, and data custody in the countries where data exists. Firms considering moving applications into the public cloud should require their providers to detail the legal requests the provider will respond to and the manner in which they will respond.
In the US, domestic regulatory concerns can also come into play with shared service environments. They can vary depending on the particular standards being enforced. Two common U.S. examples are information protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and data segregation required to maintain credit card privacy: the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS).
HIPAA’s primary focus is preserving administrative security and integrity controls around protected data. Core areas of concern are access control, audit points, encryption of data at rest and in flight. The implementation of each of these varies based on type of cloud model implemented. Virtualisation introduces additional control points and risks. Audit logs should be continuously reviewed for unwarranted access in any shared service environment.
There are vendor solutions that can help: role-based access control ensuring administrators have the least privilege possible for accomplishing their tasks, cloud volume encryption methods that render keys unreadable to public cloud service providers. But planning and awareness are imperative to implementing protection that meets compliance obligations without being operationally burdensome.
While HIPAA emphasises only administrative data access, PCI-DSS adds the burden of technical segregation of protected data. In virtualised, shared environments, this can lead to difficult tradeoffs and increased diligence around audit readiness.
A virtual machine that contains data that is in scope for PCI-DSS compliance renders the hosting hypervisor in scope as well as any virtual machines hosted by the same hypervisor. That means all the shared VMs must be treated with the same strict security management as those with PCI-DSS protected data, even if no PCI-DSS protected data exists on the shared VMs. “Compensating controls” and additional proofs may make logical separation compliant, but there is no one-size-fits-all method to meet PCI-DSS requirements. Specific controls and procedures will depend on how virtualisation is used and implemented.
If, in addition to sharing hardware inside an organisation, you are also sharing that hardware with other organisations in a public cloud, there is additional complexity. Multi-tenancy, nested service-provider relationships, converged administrative responsibilities, can all expand compliance requirements in undesirable ways. Many public clouds, including Google Compute, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure, market themselves as PCI-DSS compliant, but it is important to note that the final burden of compliance for an application falls to the client organisation. Specific responsibilities and proofs for compliance should be carefully spelled out when contracting for cloud services requiring PCI-DSS compliance.
Security and compliance requirements may be met in cloud environments, but special attention and close cooperation with a firm’s risk management organisation is called for.
In summary, while moving applications into a private or public cloud environment may present an opportunity to save costs or improve operations, applications vary in their requirements for data security, privacy and management. The common concerns presented here can add complexity but are manageable with proper care around planning, design, and execution. Performing detailed application analysis for cloud security requirements can create evidence-based guidance on migration costs and requirements rather than letting panic-stricken hand-waving dictate decisions around whether and what to migrate.
Box thanks enterprise market for healthy earnings
File sharing and content management firm Box has released its annual financials demonstrating healthy growth over the fiscal year.
Box’s focus on the enterprise market saw top-line revenues grow 40% year-on-year to $303 million, with the fourth quarter accounting for $85 million, an increase of 36% from the same period 12 months earlier.
“In the fourth quarter, we delivered strong year-over-year revenue growth of 36% and billings growth of 59%,” said Dylan Smith, Box co-founder and CFO. “These top-line results, coupled with our positive cash flow from operations, reflect our progress towards achieving positive free cash flow in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017.”
Over the course of 2015, Box grew its strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Salesforce and IBM, as well as launching a number of new products including Box KeySafe. Last month, Box announced three new integrations with Microsoft that enable collaboration across devices and platforms. Box now supports integrations with Microsoft Office Online with real time co-authoring, Office for iOS and Outlook.com.
Building on the industry trends of mobility and security, the partnership also saw the company update its mobility offering, Box for Enterprise Mobility Management, with Microsoft Intune.
“Just as sales reps update pitches while in the field, or construction workers share the latest blueprints with their corporate team, employees access, edit and share content from mobile devices every day,” said Chris Yeh SVP, Product at Box in his blog “Box provides a solution that ensures nothing prohibits these new ways of working when a device is stolen or lost, when unsanctioned mobile apps are downloaded, or when a user attempts to access content on a jailbroken device.”
With a continued focus on the enterprise market, Box expects another strong 12 months with revenue estimated to be in the range of $390 million to $394 million, with Q1 accounting for $88 million to $89 million.
Application Performance Analytics | @DevOpsSummit @Dynatrace #DevOps #APM
Why a discussion around Application Performance Analytics? There’s a lot of buzz in this industry around the topic of performance analytics – an informal subset of IT operations analytics (ITOA) – as a solution to the growing mountains of monitoring data and the increasing complexity of application and network architectures.
At the same time, there exist many purpose-built performance analysis solutions. Many are domain-centric – server monitoring and network monitoring, for example – while some exhibit a key ITOA characteristic by incorporating and correlating data from multiple sources. Most perform some level of analysis to expose predefined insights.