If you’ve been paying close attention lately you’ll know that the “Internet of Things” has become one of the technology industry’s biggest buzz phrases. It’s not hard to figure why. The internet has been around for the last twenty years and it has truly revolutionized our lives, the way we work, and how we interact. Consider the transformations in business, commerce, culture, education, politics, and more. But experts are saying we haven’t seen anything yet. If you haven’t read the recent Digital Life in 2025 report it’s well worth your time. One of the major outcomes of this research predicts that within 10 years the internet will become “an ambient information environment where accessing the Internet will be effortless and most people will tap into it so easily it will flow through their lives ‘like electricity.’
The earliest challenge to the original homebrew microcomputer geeks was to get little indicator lights to flash. Then, by toggling several switches to turn the lights on and off, the computer would start doing other things, processing instructions within the confines of several hundred or a few thousand bytes of memory. Fast forward to today, and we're revisiting that age within the IoT, albeit with much more power and sophistication. I was struck by this thought when reading the line, “We'll help you get your Windows application running on a Galileo—and blinking LEDs in no time.” This clear nod to history is part of Microsoft's Windows Developer Program for IoT. The goal is to get Intel Galileo boards into developers' hands, and get people “to create their own cool device,” in Microsoft's words. The effort is part of the emerging Maker's Movement, a sort-of 21st century effort to create a guild culture of practicing craftsmiths, using hardware and software tools rather than gold, silver, tin, or leather. But it also appears to be more than that. Microsoft, along with every other major technology provider, is committing serious resources to the IoT, and what promises to be a mad battle for market share, if not supremacy, throughout the spectrum of what the IoT will do. The “blinking LEDs” will be found in the tens of billions of sensors expected to be deployed worldwide within just a few years. There are significant challenges in security, of course, but many others as well: Getting a a compact OS to function in the micro-micro-environment of sensors Deliver applicatino and enable real-time communications in what will be hives of IoT data generators Deliver updates and and figure out how to forestall or eliminate device obsolescence Get a handle on all the incoming data—how to process it, analyze it, act upon it, and archive it if necessary. For Microsoft's part, the company says, “if you’re a hardware developer who dabbles in software, you can bring your Arduino sketches and shields directly into your project, while leveraging Windows code for cloud connectivity and other computing-intensive tasks. If you’re already a software dev, you can write a regular Windows application that also has easy, direct access to hardware through the Arduino Wiring API set, extending your solution into the physical world.” Perhaps most important, the company also notes that “this first program is just the beginning.” Here's to a future of blinking LEDs!
In Part 6, we dove into the Nagle algorithm – perhaps (or hopefully) something you’ll never see. In Part VII, we get back to “pure” network and TCP roots as we examine how the TCP receive window interacts with WAN links. Each node participating in a TCP connection advertises its available buffer space using the TCP window size field. This value identifies the maximum amount of data a sender can transmit without receiving a window update via a TCP acknowledgement; in other words, this is the maximum number of “bytes in flight” – bytes that have been sent, are traversing the network, but remain unacknowledged. Once the sender has reached this limit and exhausted the receive window, the sender must stop and wait for a window update.
SYS-CON Events announced today that Solgenia, the global market leader in Cloud Collaboration and Cloud Infrastructure software solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 15th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Solgenia is the global market leader in Cloud Collaboration and Cloud Infrastructure software solutions. Designed to “Bridge the Gap” between personal and professional social, mobile and cloud user experiences, our solutions help large and medium-sized organizations dramatically improve productivity, reduce collaboration costs, and increase the overall enterprise value by bringing collaboration and infrastructure solutions to the cloud.
IBM on Monday announced it has acquired the business operations of Lighthouse Security Group, LLC, a premier cloud computing security services provider. Lighthouse Security Group's Gateway platform protects identity and data in an increasingly complex IT environment where more company information is being stored in the cloud and accessed from mobile devices. Lighthouse Security Group is a subsidiary of long-time IBM Business Partner Lighthouse Computer Services, Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed. Today's news follows IBM's acquisition of CrossIdeas, a privately held provider of security software that governs user access to applications and data across on-premise and cloud environments. CrossIdeas combines business-driven governance and analytics capabilities to give customers greater control for securing enterprises. By integrating the businesses of Lighthouse Security Group and CrossIdeas with IBM's identity and access management offering, IBM will offer a full suite of security software and services that protect and manage a user's identity.
Some time ago I blogged that Java Swing should be deprecated and replaced with JavaFX. In this blog I’ll show a piece of JavaFX namely event handlers and binding. I’ve created a simple Sign In window with a GridPane layout (it’s JavaFX equivalent of Swing’s GridBagLayout). I’m not going to spend much time on the GridPane itself, but will show you a basic event handling and a binding. In JavaFX an event object is represented by the instance of the class javafx.event.Event. There are different ways of handling events. Depending on how you structured your application you can handle events either in Java or in FXML. In this blog I’ll do everything in Java, where you can process events using one of the following techniques:
One thing I'm learning this year as I dive deep into the IoT is a new meaning for the word “raspberry.” In particular, Raspberry Pi, the little computer that could. A new announcement involving this technology comes from Ocean Optics, which has a new set of spectral sensing tools for IoT developers. The STS Developers Kit features the company's STS spectrometer—which measures less than 42mm square and 24mm high--a Raspberry Pi, customizable software, and wireless capabilities in single package. “It can be used to develop handheld devices for applications such as color determination in liquid, gases and solids; color temperature of LEDs; or solar UV data collection,” according to company information. “It could also be used to create cloud-connected measurement clusters, and mounted on UAVs for remote monitoring.” Once connected to a WiFi network, the spectrometer can be controlled through phone, tablet, or computer web browser. The WiFi range is up to 150 m, and all data is securely stored to the onboard SD card. It comes pre-loaded and ready to use out of the box, but can also be customized, as noted above. The company offers three models of the device.
Can call centers hang up the phones for good? Intuitive Solutions did. WebRTC enabled this contact center provider to eliminate antiquated telephony and desktop phone infrastructure with a pure web-based solution, allowing them to expand beyond brick-and-mortar confines to a home-based agent model. It also ensured scalability and better service for customers, including MUY! Companies, one of the country's largest franchise restaurant companies with 232 Pizza Hut locations. This is one example of WebRTC adoption today, but the potential is limitless when powered by IoT. Attendees will learn real-world benefits of WebRTC and explore future possibilities, as WebRTC and IoT intersect to improve customer service.
Most people are aware that Windows Server 2003 is coming to the End of Support (EOS) on July 14th 2015. This means enterprises are more or less forced to stop running applications on the WS2003 Operating System, migrate them to a newer OS or replace them. EOS dramatically changes the solid "run-your-business operating platform" to one where there will be no security patches, no compliance and escalating costs. There are few events that open up such large security concerns, throw compliance out the window and have a greater than million dollar price tag all at the same time. In one of the Microsoft sessions at the recent World Wide Partner Conference (WPC), they revealed that there are 22 million machines still running Windows Server 2003. They estimate that 53% of them are physical, likely running on old hardware providing a big hardware refresh opportunity as well.
As software consumers, we’ve become spoiled with the number of choices there are when it comes to open source and freeware. There are so many technologies and vendors out there shouting for attention that you don’t often have to look long to find a usable solution. When you’re on the other side of the relationship, this means that consumers (in this case, developers) aren’t necessarily going to come running because you released new software. You have to find a way to get their attention. One solution is to build, grow and sustain a community.
Adam Nelson (@varud) is working with OpenStack to develop Kili, a public cloud for Kenya and other African nations. “Kili lets local developers be local,” as he explains. Kili offers compute services for as little as the equivalent of US$.02 per hour and storage at US$.08 per gigabyte per month. Despite his enthusiasm for the project and his prospects, he did note there can be “extremely little capital available for serious startups in Africa,” making it difficult to realize all of one's vision and plans. But as we approach @CloudExpo in Santa Clara Nov 4-6, it seemed like a good time to find out what's going on with Kili and its relevance for all of us. Cloud Computing Journal: So please describe your idea and how you do it. Are you the "AWS of Kenya?" Adam Nelson: We run cloud infrastructure—IaaS—in East Africa, so yes, we definitely consider ourselves the "AWS of Kenya". CCJ: How did your journey to this project and destination evolve? Adam: Before coming to Kenya, I was an early adopter and heavy user of AWS at various New York–based startups. We spent up to $25k/month on it. When I then traveled to Kenya, I noticed very quickly upon arriving that there was a giant hole when it comes to cloud infrastructure--in Africa generally as well. So we see an amazing opportunity to get ahead of the curve and become the platform of choice for the coming generation of African tech startups—all of which need local infrastructure. In addition, for global companies attempting to enter African markets, Kili complements the AWS offering and allows those groups to pay for local compute and storage capacity simply by using their credit card. With local capacity, end-user uptime is higher and latency is typically 90% lower than if the server were located in Europe or the US. Those groups can use Kili but don't have to leave AWS for the rest of their global footprint. CCJ: So you're reaching a variety of customers. Adam: Yes, we reach a variety of startups and SMEs with a technology capacity. Government is another sector we're focused on, but the sales cycle in that sector is quite long. We only went live with the beta in April so we have a ways to go. CCJ: What sort of growth for cloud services do you see in Kenya and the region? Adam: We have customers from Uganda and Kenya and hope to get some from Rwanda and Tanzania soon. Continent-wide expansion is the obvious next step and it's when Kili has multiple regions that it will really shine.
SYS-CON Events announced today that TechXtend (formerly Programmer’s Paradise), a leading value-added provider of server and storage virtualization, and r-evolution will exhibit at SYS-CON's 15th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. TechXtend (formerly Programmer’s Paradise) is a leading value-added provider of software, systems and solutions for corporations, government organizations, and academic institutions across the United States and Canada. TechXtend is the Exclusive Reseller in the United States for r-evolution
Recent high profile security breaches at major online websites tell us static passwords are not the answer. Even recent SMS security additions to consumer websites do little to address the issue. Fortunately, a more secure authentication system is available for consumer websites that takes advantage of the two-factor authentication (2FA) process long used for security by the financial industry and Fortune 500 enterprise employees.
Nobody likes waiting in line. This is the fundamental reason enterprise computing has changed so dramatically over the past generation. Nobody enjoyed waiting for what was then called MIS to deliver their batched reports on MIS's schedule and terms. The PC changed all that, even as IT departments continue to wage an eternal battle for control. The current BYOD struggle serves as a reminder of how the bad old days of struggle between technology users who want what they want now and technology managers who want to provide things on their terms. In today's environment, cloud computing services have snuck into organizations through departmental budgets and personal credit cards the same way PCs did 30 years ago. Rogue clouds are one of the most volatile topics in all of enterprise IT today. Because nobody likes waiting in line. But there's an even more important issue in the IT world. Although user impatience has been the principal driver of fundamental enterprise IT change, this other issue is driving fundamental societal change. It has to do with the IoT, but has roots going back almost two decades. I'll write about this tomorrow...
Logentries new Aggregated Live Tail provides effortless, real-time visibility that you cannot get anywhere else…and is a joy to use (and I cant say the same about carrying a cat by its tail – for so many reasons). For those of you not familiar with our existing Live Tail view, Aggregated Live Tail is a simple, elegant and powerful product enhancement that enables you to now select and monitor multiple live logs streaming into Logentries. All events are visible in real-time in a combined view of your log events as they happen. This allows users to monitor multiple streams of data, from across multiple sources, in live mode! What makes this even more powerful is the ability to filter the live incoming events to only display the ones you want, and finally be able to filter out the noise.
Encryption is widely recognized as the gold standard for protecting data privacy, but encryption is only as strong as its key management. Critical credential files such as Oracle wallet files, Java KeyStores, Secure Shell (SSH) key files, and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate files are often widely distributed across servers and server clusters that use error-prone synchronization and backup mechanisms. As organizations increasingly encrypt data at rest and on the network, securely managing all the encryption keys and credential files in the data center has become a major challenge. At the same time, organizations also need to comply with stringent regulatory requirements for managing keys and certificates. Many global regulations and industry standards call for audits demonstrating that keys are routinely rotated, properly destroyed, and accessed solely by authorized entities.
My friend and colleague, the Chief Technologist of Studio 13 at Cognizant, Peter Rogers, shares his insights on digital transformation and mobile strategies in this guest post. He digs deep into the technologies involved in a digital transformation and the role of mobility? This article is a real geekfest so be prepared to think and learn! There is something strange in the air...like that feeling before a storm. You can feel the electric charge in the atmosphere and that anticipation of the mother of all storms, but, nothing comes. Instead there is just a prolonged feeling of anticipation of something coming down the line that will change everything. This is how it feels with "digital transformation" in the vast majority of companies across Europe today.
Today's datacenters face a gauntlet of challenges including protection of physical and virtual environments, fast recovery of data, reducing backup times and storage requirements, server consolidation, and disaster recovery. How are savvy CIOs conquering these types of challenges? Find out how in this white paper by expert David Davis.
In the US Army they have a term called "Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA)." It is often associated with the use of modern data collecting technologies, communications technologies, information analysis and the use of these technologies to improve strategies, doctrines and organizational structures. The Army believes that in future warfare, the size of the opponent and their platforms [weapons], will be less reflective of military power than the quality of sensors [data collection] systems and mobile communication links and their ability to utilize information to their advantage.
It's not the first time we've heard the statement that cloud can be too expensive and I doubt it will be the last. This latest episode comes from Alexei Rodriguez, Head of Ops at Evernote by way of Structure 2014: It is important to note that this admission - like those in the past - have come from what we call "web monsters." Web monsters are, as the name implies, web-first (and usually only) organizations who have millions (or billions) of users. Modern web monsters generally have only one application for which they are responsible, a la Evernote, Netflix, Facebook, etc...
Tom Wesselman is the Director of Communications Architecture at Plantronics. His focus is connecting the capabilities of Plantronics products to the world around them. This starts with defining and building the data and services provided by Plantronics' wearable technology, and then by working with partners and developers to integrate those capabilities into the applications people use. Prior to Plantronics, Wesselman held senior engineering roles at Cisco, where he led a variety of UC engineering programs including the development of the company's first UC client.
I've been writing recently about the dimensions of Big Data in the IoT: urgency, importance, frequency, consequences, remedy, cost. You can find my stories on IoT Journal or at my personal website. The big item missing from this list is, of course, size. How big are individual messages or files? A couple of kilobytes? Many megabytes? And are there still a lot of people who think of Big Data as massive, petabyte-size repositories of epidemiological, meteorological, or particle acceleration data? I didn't originally include it, because I saw it as twinned with frequency. In the IoT, most message & file sizes are going to be small. Big Data in the IoT has more to do with sensors and less to do with massive scientific apps. Frequency might mean a real-time sampling rate of 10 times per second, 100 times per second, or more. Or it may be tethered to a passive device that reports in a timeframe we can call “every once in awhile.” So the frequency dimension might vary by several million times from one application to another. Even if expressed logarithmically, that's a lot of variance. Nevertheless, I think I'll combine the two, and change one of the six categories to size/frequency. Pay to Play I go through all this because, in the end, someone has to pay for the dataflow and all tha supports it. Most analyses seem to focus on the amount of data being consumed and stores, ie the size/frequency dimension. But urgency and importance are mission-critical in setting up proper IoT monitoring, analysis, and the speed of that analysis. Furthermore, the consequences of something gone bad can vary from “there's a lightbulb out on the bridge” to “a section of the bridge just collapsed.” The dimensions of consequence and remedy are therefore potentially much more important to cost than the dataflow. Designing and deploying an IoT project, whether something fun like installing a smart public bench or something grave like monitoring traffic flow, is thus far more than an IT project. As we get involved in analyzing the cloud computing infrastructures that will no doubt underpin and serve most of the IoT, it's time to focus not only on cost-per-whateverbyte—the size/frequency dimension--but also the other dimensions, which tell us what this IoT thing is supposed to do and what happens when things go wrong.
Disruptive macro trends in technology are impacting and dramatically changing the "art of the possible" relative to supply chain management practices through the innovative use of IoT, cloud, machine learning and Big Data to enable connected ecosystems of engagement. Enterprise informatics can now move beyond point solutions that merely monitor the past and implement integrated enterprise fabrics that enable end-to-end supply chain visibility to improve customer service delivery and optimize supplier management. Learn about enterprise architecture strategies for designing connected systems that integrate physical and digital supply chains with your enterprise systems, leveraging IoT devices, hybrid cloud and network service providers to enable innovative business models while mitigating risk, managing security and increasing capacity to meet customer changing SLA requirements.
When Instagram was sold to Facebook in 2012, it employed only 13 people and maintained over 4 billion photos shared by its 80 million registered users. Internally, Instagram was a small business. Externally, it was a web monster. Filling the gap between those two contradictory perspectives is DevOps. Now to be fair, Instagram (like many other web monster properties today) has it easier than most other businesses because it supported only one application. One. That's in stark contrast to large enterprises which are, by most analyst firms, said to manage not one but one hundred and even one thousand applications - at the same time. Our own data indicates an average of 312 applications per customer, many of which are certainly integrated and interacting with one another.
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