As more and more organizations move to the cloud, log data provides a unifying data source that enables IT and DevOps teams to monitor across servers, applications, and clients. Log files are the most fine-grained data source available for understanding today’s systems and automatically generating an audit trail of all transactions. Log data provides deep insight into performance, security, user behavior, web app activity, and more. These complex new business environments also require an IT and Dev Ops toolset that is designed to instrument and optimize a distributed infrastructure. Logentries’ new Diamond and Shinken Nagios plug-ins enable users to collect metric-rich log data in one centralized location, and perform automated correlation and analysis across server and other important infrastructure data, including data from existing Nagios deployments.
The Industrial Internet revolution is now underway, enabled by connected machines and billions of devices that communicate and collaborate. The massive amounts of Big Data requiring real-time analysis is flooding legacy IT systems and giving way to cloud environments that can handle the unpredictable workloads. Yet many barriers remain until we can fully realize the opportunities and benefits from the convergence of machines and devices with Big Data and the cloud, including interoperability, data security and privacy. In his session at 15th Cloud Expo, Dave Duggal, Founder and Managing Director of EnterpriseWeb LLC, will focus on public-private work being done today to identify the IoT standards, architecture, frameworks and security needed to enable and accelerate the $32 trillion opportunity ahead.
Many businesses are closely scrutinizing the concept of Continuous Delivery and, in most cases, competitive pressure is the driver. CD allows you to deploy applications without having to write endless scripts, provisioning test environments on-demand, and creating delivery pipelines so anybody can see the current status of enhancements—just to name a few. In truth, Continuous Delivery is a response to the challenge of software taking ages to deliver and then not being what the customer wanted in the first place, leading to cost overruns, low ratings and unhappy users. If your competitor releases new versions every week while your team releases new versions every quarter, your company will feel the impact on its bottom-line.
BSQUARE is a global leader of embedded software solutions. We enable smart connected systems at the device level and beyond that millions use every day and provide actionable data solutions for the growing Internet of Things (IoT) market. We empower our world-class customers with our products, services and solutions to achieve innovation and success. For more information, visit www.bsquare.com.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Bitium was founded by Kriz and Erik Gustavson. The 1,500 cloud-based application using Bitium’s analytics, app management, and single sign-on services include bug trackers, customer service dashboards, Google Apps, and social networks. The firm states website administrators can do multiple tasks online without revealing passwords. Bitium’s advisors include Microsoft’s former CMO and the former senior vice president of strategy, the founder and CEO of Like.com, a product strategist at IBM and Oracle, Hootsuite’s CEO, and the founder and CEO of KISSMetric, among others. More about Bitium can be found on its website at www.bitium.com.
New local cloud services for co-location customers in 17 markets has been announced by 365 Data Centers. The new service supports customers' NAS and SAN storage architectures, and is aimed at everything from clustered databases and Big Data analytics to archiving and disaster recovery. We asked company executive Keao Caindec a few questions, and this is what he told us: Cloud Computing Journal: Who are the target customers for the new service? Keao Caindec: We are targeting businesses that are using the storage for databases, clustering, file storage with large volumes, local back, remote disaster recovery and mirroring, storage migration and temporary workloads. Data-intensive industries will also be targeted such as hardware and software, SaaS, manufacturing, retail, advertising, education, finance, and healthcare. CCJ: How important is the hourly pricing plan? What sort of demand have you seen for it? Keao: Hourly pricing is critical to realizing the benefits of cloud-based services. Hourly pricing allows our customers to pay only for the amount of storage they need, when they need it. CCJ: Could you explain a bit how you can work with customers' SANs and NAS storage? Keao: Using our our web-based console, users create a Virtual Private Storage Array (VPSA) made up of dedicated drives that have been selected by the customer. You can easily add those drives into a RAID-protected pool drives. Based on that storage, you can create volumes of block (SAN) or file (NAS) storage. All of this functionality to manage and control storage is built into the console.
In this challenging environment, a combination of automated integration testing and test virtualization can enable test teams to improve software quality and keep up with the rate of change. This white paper helps address these needs by describing the benefits that can be gained through a proactive and continuous approach to integration testing with IBM® Rational® test automation solutions.
Last week, while in San Francisco, I used the Uber app and service four times. All four experiences were great, although one of the drivers stopped for 30 seconds and then left as I was walking up to the car. He must have realized I was a blogger. None the less, the next car was just a minute away and I suffered no pain. In this article, my colleague, Ved Sen, Global Head, Advisory Services Social, Mobile and Sensors at Cognizant shares his experiences and insights.
With the iCloud scandal seemingly in its past, Apple announced new iPhones, updates to iPad and MacBook as well as news on OSX Yosemite. Although consumers will have to wait to get their hands on some of that new stuff, what they can get is the latest release of iOS 8 that Apple made available for most in-market iPhones and iPads. Originally announced at WWDC (Apple’s annual developers conference) in June, iOS 8 seems to spearhead Apple’s newfound focus upon greater integration of their products into everyday tasks, cross-platform mobility and self-monitoring. Before you update your device, here is a look at some of the new features and things you may want to consider from a mobile security perspective.
Azul Systems Inc. (Azul), the award-winning leader in Java runtime solutions, today announced that its OpenJDK-based Zulu 8 offering is now freely available on Docker. Zulu 8 is a 100% open source, fully tested, compatibility verified, and trusted binary distribution of the OpenJDK 8 platform. Azul has also made Zulu versions compliant with earlier Java SE 7 and Java SE 6 standards available on Docker in the same format.
Fujitsu has a long and demonstrated history delivering world-class solutions that enable businesses to succeed in a highly competitive market and ever-evolving technology landscape. The Fujitsu Cloud ISV Partner Program is one more way we’re delivering exceptional value to our customers, where we focus on helping companies transform and deliver their solutions in an “as-a-service” model from our cloud. Our aim is to work closely with leading solution providers to take full advantage of not only our platform and tools, but the underlying shift in how the market consumes technology solutions today. With the Fujitsu Cloud ISV Partner Program, we offer the chance for solution providers to step into a leadership role and maximize the benefits of the latest cloud technology, including not only the transformation and delivery of their solutions as SaaS, but also for support in areas like sales, marketing, professional services, and across innovative operating and revenue models that support a “zero cost” option for the partner.
Is your organization struggling to deal with skyrocketing volumes of digital assets? The amount of data is growing exponentially and organizations are having a hard time managing this growth. In his session at 15th Cloud Expo, Amar Kapadia, Senior Director of Open Cloud Strategy at Seagate, will walk through the essential considerations when developing a cloud storage strategy. In this discussion, you will understand the challenges IT is facing, why companies need to move to cloud, and how the right cloud model can help your business economically overcome the data struggle.
General Electric (GE) has been a household name for more than a century, thanks in large part to its role in making households easier to run. Starting with the light bulb invented by its founder, Thomas Edison, GE has been selling devices (“things”) to consumers throughout its 122-year history. Last week, GE announced that it is officially leaving that job to others. While the lighting division will stay, GE will now turn its attention to selling industrial machinery and analytics as a service to other companies. GE’s transformation to focus on building industrial machines such as aircraft engines, locomotives, gas-fired turbines and medical imaging equipment has been underway for quite some time. But for those that grew up with GE, the company’s catchy slogan, “We bring good things to life,” used between 1979 and 2003, is synonymous with what the brand stood for. Who could have imagined in 1979 when its advertising firm first came up with that memorable catchphrase how well the slogan would capture where GE was headed in the era of the industrial Internet and the Internet of Things (IoT)? GE has been systematically moving to secure its place in both of these fields. Wind turbines, locomotives, jet engines and other industrial machines are all examples of products that have successfully transitioned to being sold as a service.
Docker for Smarties (e.g. non-dummies) from VMworld 2014
By Greg Schulz
In this Industry Trends Perspectives video pod cast episode (On YouTube) I had a chance to visit with Nathan LeClaire of docker.com at the recent VMworld 2014 in San Francisco for a quick overview of docker and containers are about, what you need to know and where to find more information. Check out this StorageIO Industry Trends Perspective episode "Docker for Smarties" aka not for dummies via YouTube by clicking here or on the image below.
For those not familiar with docker.
Docker overview
Three things to know about docker
Checkout the Docker for non-dummies video here.
What's your take, is docker in your future or are you already using it?
Ok, nuff said (for now)
Cheers gs
Greg Schulz - Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio
Storage administrators find themselves walking a line between meeting employees’ demands to use public cloud storage services, and their organizations’ need to store information on-premises for security, performance, cost and compliance reasons. However, as file sharing protocols like CIFS and NFS continue to lose their relevance, simply relying only a NAS-based environment creates inefficiencies that hurt productivity and the bottom line. IT wants to implement cloud storage it can purchase and own like NAS (NTAP) but that works like traditional public cloud storage services like Dropbox, Box and Google Drive.
With the capability to reduce both CapEx and OpEx, it’s easy to see why the SDN-NFV trend has taken hold in the hosting and mobile industry. Early use cases include network virtualization from cloud service providers and enterprise data centers, bandwidth calendaring and network tapping. While this early traction is promising and receiving great praise in the public eye, some of the most promising deployments are being seen in the cable multi-system-operator (MSO) industry. While these use cases aren’t garnering as much attention, they are equally interesting and have the potential to be very powerful. There are several examples that demonstrate different applications offered by MSOs modernized by SDN, such as TV Video on Demand (VoD), voice, and data, which can be delivered in both native environments and on top of these MSO applications, in different network locations.
The Internet of Things is not new. Historically, smart businesses have used its basic concept of leveraging data to drive better decision making and have capitalized on those insights to realize additional revenue opportunities. So, what has changed to make the Internet of Things one of the hottest topics in tech? In his session at Internet of @ThingsExpo, Chris Gray, Director, Embedded and Internet of Things, will discuss the underlying factors that are driving the economics of intelligent systems. Discover how hardware commoditization, the ubiquitous nature of connectivity, and the emergence of Big Data and analysis are providing the pull to meet customer expectations of a widely connected, multi-dimensional universe of people, things, and information.
TechWell, IBM, uTest, and Keynote partnered on a powerful new survey that explores where today’s testers are spending their time, what obstacles they most often encounter, and where they think their attention should be focused. Hear what others are saying about this valuable survey report: "All of these points are consistent with my experience in both being a tester and leading global test teams across multiple companies. The battle cries are the same and don't seem to have changed in a couple of decades." Mike Sowers, CIO and Senior Consultant at Software Quality Engineering "By sharing these survey results, I sincerely believe that IBM has done a great service to the industry and the tester community. Thank you!" Wayne Middleton, CEO at Software Quality Engineering
According to Gartner, Big Data refers to "high volume, high velocity, and/or high variety information assets” – and, this is the key – “that require new forms of processing to enable enhanced decision making, insight discovery and process optimization." While Big Data may seem like an invaluable tool that all security teams should try to leverage, it is not practical for everyone to attempt to harness it on their own. Finding insight from data is rarely as simple as it seems. We are still in the early stages of the Big Data revolution, with people only now beginning to understand what is possible, and what it takes to get there. Simply investing in tools and development is not enough. The fact is security teams are still struggling to identify and respond to incidents in an effective way. The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report of 2013 noted that outside parties, whether it be a telecom provider, credit card issuer, third-party vendor or the FBI, were responsible for 70% of data breach notification, demonstrating that security teams are still missing the signs of detrimental threats that face organizations each and every day.
The advancement of technology has led to widespread Cloud data and SaaS application usage throughout enterprises. And CIOs are unprepared for the (mostly unwelcome) implications - largely unaware of the "SaaS Sprawl" in their organizations. These Cloud applications are available for just about every role in a company - from human resources to marketing, there's an app for that. And odds are, someone in your organization is using it - most likely without IT knowing. As app (primarily SaaS and Cloud) use within organizations continues to spread and accelerate, IT professionals are largely unaware of the massive scale of Cloud application utilization. However, IT continues to be held responsible for many of the implications resulting from this widespread proliferation.
If cloud computing benefits are so clear, why have so few enterprises migrated their mission-critical apps? The answer is often inertia and FUD. No one ever got fired for not moving to the cloud – not yet. In his session at 15th Cloud Expo, Michael Hoch, SVP, Cloud Advisory Service at Virtustream, will discuss the six key steps to justify and execute your MCA cloud migration.
With $13 billion expected to be spent by American businesses alone in 2014, the cloud should no longer be considered an alternative IT model. The demand for hardware to run traditional infrastructures is in a nosedive. IBM is spending $1 billion this year, matching the amount it spent in 2013, on “workforce rebalancing” (the company’s lingo for widespread layoffs). Cisco is experiencing a similarly negative impact, with a 4% decline in revenue for its equipment expected this year. Despite those pieces of bad news for major technology brands, the cloud ultimately represents not closure, but change. It’s been a gradual transition from the established to the innovative, in large part due to concerns over security. Cloud security experts scored a major victory in 2011 when Gen. Keith Alexander announced that the Pentagon would be deploying the new technological approach.
When we are deciding between public or private cloud implementation there are some capabilities we need to take into consideration and security is one of the top ones. Other characteristics like integration with existing systems, costs and management are also important. Looking at the management side of a cloud environment, there may be some delivery models that can be used in this arena that can bring new ways into the decision process.
I'll be heading to Southeast Asia immediately following our upcoming @CloudExpo @ThingsExpo in Santa Clara. I'll rekindle some previous business relationships I had when I lived in the region in 2009-2012. I'll also investigate new ways to bring the messages of socio-economic growth through Cloud Computing, Big Data/Analytics, and the Internet of Things. Our team focus for the next two months is on producing the best event ever in Santa Clara. We're well on the way. (It's easy to keep up with the latest developments.) From Talk to Action But as I read about a job opening with ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asion Nations), a job for which I'm spectacularly unqualified in many respects, I'm reminded of the uniqueness of this region and its potential. ASEAN has been criticized in the past as merely a “talk shop,” a place in which many government functionaries huff and puff but at which little is accomplished. I prefer to be more optimistic. The organization is surprisingly far along a path of liberalizing trade, EU and NAFTA style, and talks explicitly of regional peace and perhaps a unified currency some day. The challenge is very difficult. The organization was almost shunned by Western leaders as it grappled with how to handle the military dictatorship of Myanmar, former Burma. Yet today the country has loosened things a bit, foreign businesspeople, NGOs, and tourists are getting in, and the economic potential of a nation of 50 million people with a glorious past is closer to being realized than it has been in decades. Complexity as a Virtue The ASEAN nations comprise a highly complex fabric of languages and cultures that make the entirety of Europe seem rather simple and drab by comparison. Try to get a grip on, say, Thai, Vietnamese, and Tagalog at the same time and you'll get the idea. If you're a religious sort, you'll encounter myriad varieties of Abrahamism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, with some local syncretism thrown in for extra spice. There are also more than 600 million people here, twice the population of the United States. So I'm looking forward to spending some more time there. The region is jut up against the two giants of glowering China and ambitious India, with Hong Kong and Taiwan also in the neighborhood. The northern Asian economic engines of Japan and South Korea are reached in reasonable flights; even Australia and New Zealand are not unduly accessible and in the same region of time zones. Take Heed So here's my buried lead to this story: the ASEAN Secretariat, headquartered in Jakarta, should take notice of what we're accomplishing with @CloudExpo @ThingsExpo and the research we're doing at the Tau Institute. The technology and solutions more than 7,500 visitors will see in Santa Clara in November are ripe for adoption throughout the world. We live in a time of near-instant communications and wildfire-like global adoption of new technology, when the governments of nations are willing to embrace it. Singapore is, of course, the most developed, and remain heads-and-shoulders above its fellow members. The place can still astonish the Western visitor, even those aware of its starting economic development over the past few decades. Singapore is now among the world leaders in deploying IoT technology to continue to improve itself. Yet Singapore is also a city-state and doesn't have to grapple with the needs of the tens of millions of people populating most other ASEAN nations. Who is Most Dynamic? So our research digs beneath the surface to find who is doing the best on a relative basis, ie, who is doing the most with the economic resources that have? This research has shown that (perhaps ironically) Communist Vietnam leads the ASEAN region in its rate of adoption relative to its income level; Vietnam is the most dynamic of the ASEAN regions, edging out Singapore. They are followed in our rankings by Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand. The region's largest nationa, Indonesia, now a member of the G20 and Jim O'Neil's new MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey) designation, trails most of its ASEAN siblings. I'd be glad to explain why. We have copious amounts of other data on this region, with different measurements for long-term rates of change, immediate rates of change, challenges facing each nation on a per-person basis, challenges facing each nation on a total population basis, and much more. I'm looking forward to spreading the word about our shows and research after the long flight to this highly dynamic, hugely interesting part of the world.
This one-hour webinar will cover the core benefits and features of up.time, including how up.time proactively monitors, alerts and reports on the performance, availability, and capacity of all physical servers, virtual machines, network devices, applications, and services. We’ll take you through the up.time Dashboards, show you how alerting and action profiles work, and dive into up.time’s deep reporting capabilities, including SLA reports. In the end, you’ll know how up.time works and what up.time can do for your company.