The Wall Street Journal recently reported that an estimated 10 million zombie servers worldwide burn energy equal to the output of 8 large power plants. You might be wondering what’s burning in your data center? How can you confidently identify a zombie server from infrastructure that supports critical services? In her session at 18th Cloud Expo, Michelle Kerby, the Sr. Director for BMC Software Solutions Marketing, will discuss how automated asset discovery and dependency mapping can give IT a holistic view of all enterprise assets and the relationships between those assets. In minutes, IT can link infrastructure and software to how it impacts the business to optimize capacity, ensure stronger security and improve service, change and problem management. Make smart IT decisions to zap the zombies.
The performance of your application affects your business more than you might think. Top engineering organizations think of performance not as a nice-to-have, but as a crucial feature of their product. Unfortunately, most engineering teams do not regularly test the performance and scalability of their infrastructure. To understand how to test performance in modern applications, you must start by understanding performance is key to a great user experience. The reality is the only performance metric that matters is the user’s perceived load time.
The post Performance Testing for Modern Apps appeared first on Application Performance Monitoring Blog | AppDynamics.
Believe it or not, the first data backups were made on paper. Dating back as early as the 18th century, the "technology" was used in the form of paper tapes constructed from punch cards to control the functions of automated machinery such as textile looms. The concept of these cards was then further developed by IBM in the early days of data processing, where data input, storage and commands were captured using a series of hole punches. In 1956, IBM introduced the 350 disk storage unit - the first ever hard disk drive. It was 60 inches in length, stood nearly 70 inches tall and had a capacity of 5 million 6-bit characters - or 3.75 MB of data. And although less than 4 megabytes may not seem like much (a decent cell phone can today take a picture with a larger file size), the 350 unit represents a more modern concept of storage and data backup that over time has become a critical element of business planning and strategy.
The question of who owns the data is partly determined by the kind of cloud infrastructure that is in place for your business. The advantages that cloud based hosting brings needs to reiteration. Cloud hosting is infinitely scalable, needs radically lower CapEx and with distributed hosting, it is much more fail-proof than data hosted on your premise. But the recent legal spar between Apple and the US government has brought the limelight once again back on the debate about ownership of data. In the case of Apple, the fight is over decrypting the iPhone used by a criminal in order for the government to hack in. But the case may as well be between law enforcement and a web host over data stored by your customers on your startup service.
If your website receives heavy traffic and you are hosted across multiple infrastructures across the world or you are using multiple CDNs, then you ought to use a DNS Load Balancer to reroute traffic for better performance. While there are some large companies who create their own DNS load balancing system, which is complex and tedious to implement and manage, some companies make life easier by opting for ready-made solutions such as those from Cedexis, Dyn, NSONE, Rage4 etc Most of the above mentioned companies are backed by Anycast networks spread across global locations. While there are some differences between the feature sets offered by these companies and the number of POPs they own, it is very important to identify the one that works best for your business.
Earlier this week, we hosted our Continuous Discussion video podcast, this time discussing ITIL and DevOps. The episode featured expert panelists Jan-Joost Bouwman (ING), Kaimar Karu (AXELOS), Jeff Sussna (DevOps writer and speaker) and Simon Morris (ServiceNow). During our discussion, we uncovered the similarities and differences between ITIL and DevOps, and discussed tips for how to align the two methodologies in an organization. Read on for the top highlights, best practices and key takeaways from this week’s expert discussion.
One of the most common early goals of implementing DevOps principles is a deep understanding of our systems in a stable state. However, this objective is not a “once and done” effort. It is important to continuously circle back in some form (a feedback loop) as changes are introduced. It’s an ongoing exercise for an entire organization as our processes, tools, and teams improve continuously over time.
New Relic, Inc. has announced a set of new features across the New Relic Software Analytics Cloud that offer IT operations teams increased visibility, and the ability to diagnose and resolve performance problems quickly. The new features further IT operations teams’ ability to leverage data and analytics, as well as drive collaboration and a common, shared understanding between teams. Software teams are under pressure to resolve performance issues quickly and improve availability, as the complexity of software architectures they manage ranges from more traditional on-premises IT systems to those now including public cloud. The New Relic Software Analytics Cloud provides a comprehensive monitoring platform allowing software teams to work together to monitor from different perspectives for any technology stack. For IT operations this includes proactively monitoring and identifying issues that may impact the performance of critical applications, understanding which customers may be impacted, and enabling them to collaborate with developers and DevOps teams to address an issue.
Both prospects and customers often ask me why we need an artifact repository. Some think that as their favorite CI (Continuous Integration) server such as Jenkins already stores the output of each build, maybe there's no need to add an artifact repository to their existing tool chain. Others simply wonder why they need such a repository at all. In this blog post I'll discuss why it's essential for any continuous delivery and deployment project to version everything, and why artifact repositories such as Artifactory or Nexus are great choices for managing binary and other artifacts.
ITIL, formerly an acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a set of practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. ITIL has been around for a long time, and has helped large teams (particularly those that are heavily regulated) manage the way services are delivered in a predictable and consistent way, as a way to mitigate risk. DevOps, as we know, has a very similar goal. What is the relationship between DevOps and ITIL? What can one learn from the other? is it ITIL vs. DevOps, or ITIL and DevOps? Can they co-exist?
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.
SYS-CON Events announced today BZ Media LLC has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. BZ Media LLC is a high-tech media company that produces technical conferences and expositions, and publishes a magazine, newsletters and websites in the software development, SharePoint, mobile development and Commercial Drone markets.
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.
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.
Exosite has announced its Taipei Office has formally been established. Exosite’s Taiwan operations have grown from the Taichung team, primarily focused on research and development, into a full-service IoT enablement organization with development and consulting capabilities. The new Taipei office is located in the Taipei Minsheng Dunhua district, surrounded by all its hardware and channel partners. Exosite will devote its time to the Taiwan market and expand its business into the Asia-Pacific market.
Over the last few weeks I was fortunate to meet a large number of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) at two separate industry events in Toronto. At both these events, focused on MSPs, and through all my conversations, one thing that resonated throughout was the dire state in which Managed Service Providers are currently conducting business. I am sharing my thoughts to help make sense of what the industry is going through and how the inability to adapt can lead to the slow death of an otherwise highly successful industry.
While drones are responsible for one of the latest tech crazes to hit the mainstream, it’s safe to say that you should not expect them to invade your airspace anytime soon. However, the influx of these flying smart machines may not be as far off as you might think. With heavy-hitters like Amazon, Google and Walmart recognizing the immense opportunity of using drones for shipping and logistics purposes, its no wonder that people are saying “the drones are coming!”
Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) has recently published fascinating new research into release automation and its impact on Continuous Delivery. The study reveals that over 80% of organizations are already engaged in digital transformation initiatives, with the top focus being on improved speed of delivery, improved quality of services and tighter business/IT alignment. The top technology-related digital transformation initiative is Continuous Delivery automation: accelerating the roll-out of new services so the organization is more lean, agile and innovative. However, IT organizations report challenges in delivering this digital transformation. According to EMA, the primary barrier is organizational silos that make it difficult to cross-functionally execute transformation initiatives. This helps explains why DevOps has become such a popular methodology: working across silos, IT teams can support the technology and the application more efficiently. That support leads to faster, lower risk digital transformation.
SYS-CON Events announced today CrowdReviews.com has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7–9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. CrowdReviews.com is the first buyer’s guide that ranks products and services based on client reviews.
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of healthcare, agriculture, and high-tech polymer materials. Founded in Barmen, Germany in 1863, Bayer has 118,900 employees and had sales of €42.2 billion ($45.9 billion US) in fiscal year 2014. Its capital expenditures amounted to €2.5 billion and R&D expenses to €3.6 billion.
As devices, sensors, objects and people are given digital identities that connect them to the Internet by the billions, the need for security and privacy becomes a critical factor for both market adoption and safety. The 40-year-old security methods we now use on our PCs and networks cannot address many of these IoT devices.
Kubernetes is a new and revolutionary open-sourced system for managing containers across multiple hosts in a cluster. Ansible is a simple IT automation tool for just about any requirement for reproducible environments. In his session at @DevOpsSummit at 18th Cloud Expo, Patrick Galbraith, a principal engineer at HPE, will discuss how to build a fully functional Kubernetes cluster on a number of virtual machines or bare-metal hosts. Also included will be a brief demonstration of running a Galera MySQL cluster as a Kubernetes application.
While this book was designed to be used by Windows System Administrators, any developer who has ever needed to write a batch (.bat) file will welcome with open arms the flexibility and power provided by Windows PowerShell. This book is up to date covering all the way through PowerShell version 5. There are 24 chapters that cover a wide array of topics. In addition, any developer who has worked with the .NET framework will enjoy PowerShell, which is a command-line interface built on the .NET Framework.
With new virtualization tools popping up seemingly everywhere, you might wonder why so many testers, developers, QA Engineers, and Operations professionals are virtualizing their web services. Why should you virtualize your APIs? SmartBear Software recently conducted a survey of more than 2,300 software professionals, working in a variety of different roles in more than 50 industries, and found that ease of use, responsiveness/performance, and service reliability/uptime are the three most important characteristics organizations want in an API.
Lean, Agile and DevOps principles have improved software delivery in many important ways. As evolving markets compel software organizations to increase quality and productivity, interest in these concepts has never been higher. But despite their considerable merits, individually and collectively, they can fall short in addressing the full range of issues confronted by modern software organizations. To close the gaps, these principles must be knitted together in a way that allows you to realize the full potential of your people, processes and technologies. The fastest and most effective way to do this is to create an integrated software lifecycle. From planning, development and testing to deployment and maintenance, integrating all the tools required to accomplish all the tasks related to software delivery will allow information to flow freely from practitioner to practitioner and across the entire team. This makes the extended team more effective and provides much-needed project visibility. Software organizations that meet this missing imperative can experience substantial gains in quality, speed, and traceability.