For some organizations, cloud computing can be a hard sell, even before you come to the question of how to handle cloud-computing security. Public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, encryption, tokenization, data residency, privacy regulations – all are factors involved and the perceived effort can sometimes seem to overshadow the benefits. But just as cloud computing comes with a slew of demonstrated business benefits, so does effective cloud computing security. Included below are three specific benefits to implementing a cloud computing security system. 1. Regulatory compliance prevents costly fines. One of the most common reasons enterprises have for investing in cloud computing security is, of course, regulatory compliance. Heavily regulated industries like finance and health care – industries that handle the most sensitive personal information – must remain in compliance with relevant regional, national, and international laws, as well as with industry-specific standards. Failure to do so can come with a high price. In fact, banks that fail to comply with the PCI DSS requirements, for example, may face fines of anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 per month, costs that tend to get passed downstream, resulting in higher costs for all, according to the PCI Compliance Guide’s FAQ.
I am frequently hearing couple of misconceptions about iBeacons and I just want to clear those in this post. Misunderstanding 1 - I understand a iBeacon device transmitting standardized coupons. But how does the iBeacon device transmit customized offers? How will iBeacon device be enabled / connected to recognize a customer / his preferences and then send relevant offers? Can the iBeacon tag be programmed to relay some identification back to the server to enable BLE tag to offer something customized?
I am frequently hearing couple of misconceptions about iBeacons and I just want to clear those in this post. Misunderstanding 1 - I understand a iBeacon device transmitting standardized coupons. But how does the iBeacon device transmit customized offers? How will iBeacon device be enabled / connected to recognize a customer / his preferences and then send relevant offers? Can the iBeacon tag be programmed to relay some identification back to the server to enable BLE tag to offer something customized?
"It's been a great show for NetIQ - we've had the opportunity to speak about how NetIQ is enabling the cloud - how we are allowing customers to get access to cloud services that enable service providers to deliver cloud services in a secure, compliant manner," explained Gary Ardito, Chief Architect for Cloud Service Provider Solutions at NetIQ, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, held Nov 4-7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Cloud Expo® 2014 New York, June 10-12, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
"ActiveState is focused on the cloud market with a product called Stackato, an enterprise private PaaS solution that allows enterprises to manage and deploy their own Platform as a Service offering," explained Bart Copeland, President & CEO of ActiveState Software, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, held Nov 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Cloud Expo® 2014 New York, June 10-12, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
German telco EWE TEL has solved performance complexity across an extended enterprise billing process by using service virtualization, which improved applications performance and gained predictive insights into composite application services behavior. To learn more about how EWE is leveraging service virtualization technologies and techniques for composite applications, we recently sat down with Bernd Schindelasch, Leader for Quality Management and Testing at EWE TEL based in Oldenburg, Germany.
The world is going cashless – and USA Technologies will be there when it does. Their Knowledge Base Study shows an average 84% increase in cashless transactions sales at their secure cashless and wireless unattended POS terminals.
"We announced what we believe is a game-changing technology in storage. We introduced a new product called the Ultrastar He6 and we announced a technology called HelioSeal, which is the process of hermetically sealing helium inside the hard drive," explained Brendan Collins, VP of Product Marketing at HGST, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, held Nov 4-7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Cloud Expo® 2014 New York, June 10-12, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
"Since the acquisition Terremark has been getting closer and closer and tighter with Verizon and we have some joint projects underway. We're about to set the world on fire," noted Jim Anthony, VP of Sales Engineering at Verizon Terremark, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, held Nov 4-7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Cloud Expo® 2014 New York, June 10-12, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
As web applications and cloud services continue to proliferate, identity theft, cyber fraud, cyber bullying, and simple misuse of confidential information online expand to chronic levels. Yet cloud providers are expected to ensure high security while maintaining a convenient user experience. MasterCard and Visa spend over $1 billion each year to fight identity theft and web companies are increasingly the subject of class action lawsuits due to online security breaches. Still, hundreds of cloud applications and portals are being hacked monthly leaving millions of passwords and confidential records in the hands of cyber fraudsters. Recently, many cloud users have started to realize that security in the cloud is, indeed, a serious issue. This trend led ASPs, cloud providers, and enterprises to actively search for more convenient methods of securing the identity of their cloud users with strong authentication. While there are a number of such solutions in the market today, not all “strong” authentication methods are strong enough to stop hackers.
Many technologies have made their presence felt this year and continue to excite us with the promises they hold for the future. Cloud computing has now reached a stage where businesses are seriously experimenting and are starting to reap the transformational benefits it can deliver. If you are in the process of determining how and what to do to get the most out of cloud computing in 2014, then here are five key strategic points to get you started immediately. Cloud-centric design of your business - whether you are a software product vendor, service provider or even an enterprise business, a cloud-centric design of your product/service or IT-enablement practice highly outweighs any ‘incremental migration' roadmap. We've observed that organizations that take a very strategic shot at cloud-enablement are better placed than those that have jumped from one piecemeal project to another. Cloud-centric considerations, architecture and design principles help optimize the investment along with the end-customer service experience.
Identity Management (IDaaS) & Access Mgmt (SSO) solve similar but separate issues, but both serve as a cornerstone of an integrated security initiative. One of the biggest misconceptions in cloud security is the perception that identity management (IDaaS) and access management (SSO) are the same thing. They’re not. And it took a viewing of the famous Star Trek episode called Mirror Mirror for me to best illustrate and articulate the difference between the creation and management of a user account and credentialed rights and the funneled applications that entity is allowed to see. For those unfamiliar with the episode, it’s the one where Kirk is transported into an alternate universe and meets evil Spock (the one with the beard)...but more about that soon.
When I first started flipping through this book the diverse set of topics threw me for a loop. Then I read the introduction where the authors say, "This publication aims to provide development information on the intermediate-to-advanced topics that are otherwise not worthy of standalone books. It’s not that the topics are uninteresting or lackluster, it’s that they are not large enough topics." This book covers a wide variety of topics, and it covers them in enough detail that you have a good understanding of them by the end of the chapter. Only Game Center and Core Data are covered in more than one chapter. The book is not a cover to cover read, but rather a pure reference.
When I first started flipping through this book the diverse set of topics threw me for a loop. Then I read the introduction where the authors say, "This publication aims to provide development information on the intermediate-to-advanced topics that are otherwise not worthy of standalone books. It’s not that the topics are uninteresting or lackluster, it’s that they are not large enough topics." This book covers a wide variety of topics, and it covers them in enough detail that you have a good understanding of them by the end of the chapter. Only Game Center and Core Data are covered in more than one chapter. The book is not a cover to cover read, but rather a pure reference.
Our new survey tells us that up to 50% of online shoppers this year will use their mobile device. Good news is that most retail stores that have an online store now also offer a mobile version, e.g., http://m.gap.com, http://m.jcpenney.com, http://m.bestbuy.com. In the past years we have done a deep dive web performance analysis on the desktop versions of these sites and blogged about it. This year we took a look at the mobile sites and found some “terrible” website performance mistakes that will most likely frustrate the mobile shopper. The “highlights” (or lowlights) that we found are:
APM is entering into a period of intense competition of technology and strategy with a multiplicity of vendors and viewpoints. While the nomenclature used within its space has five distinct dimensions that elucidate its meaning, the very acronym of APM is in question: Application Performance ... Monitoring vs. Management. It's strange to think that we would not normally use monitoring and management synonymously, but when used in the APM vernacular they seem to be interchangeable. This may be a visceral response, but I see the APM idiom converging on itself and becoming a matter of expectations vs. aspirations.
Believe it or not, a fair number of people like my workshops on mobile strategy. The problem though is a fair number don't. Why? Sometimes developers come into my sessions, stay for 15 minutes and then leave. They were expecting to learn how to develop mobile apps, or how to secure and integrate them with back-office systems. They had no interest in learning about enterprise wide mobile strategies. Enterprise wide mobile strategies are increasingly a business and IT leadership issue. They involve brand, product and service strategies. They involve plant operations, logistics and transportation. They involve asset management, field operations and sales. Enterprise wide mobile strategies touch every corner of the business. Enterprise mobility is no longer an IT issue, or just a technical discussion. Enterprise mobility is a C level discussion today. Because of this mobile solution vendors must change their marketing strategies to address the needs of both business and IT decision makers rather than developers.
As we move closer toward everything-as- a-service (XaaS), the title “Internet of Agents” seems to fit what is really happening. Agents are systems and devices that sense what is going on, and they exchange information with and act on behalf of other agents and people in ways that ultimately result in useful services being performed. When we start to view the delivery of services as a distributed cooperative effort conducted by millions of agents, as opposed to the actions of a few dedicated and single-minded service platforms, we start to get a glimpse of the huge potential of the Internet of Agents. We also must face the challenge of keeping track of this expanding service universe: managing security and permissions, making the dynamic portfolio available and usable, and ultimately monetizing all of this and ensuring that each contributor to these increasingly complex value chains is compensated for the fragments of service capability provided.
“We see many companies looking to adopt BYOD strategies for employees, but few who are solely BYOD,” observed Milja Gillespie, Director of Product Marketing, Mobile Security, SAP, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Computing Journal. “Often, they offer corporate devices for certain types of workers for whom mobility is a core function and BYOD for others who may want to access business resources on a personal device but don't require it for productivity purposes.” Cloud Computing Journal: Describe for us a bit the recent growth of mobile, and the projected growth over the next few years. Milja Gillespie: According to a recent Infonetics Research survey, respondent organizations reportedly averaged approximately 9,000 devices on their networks, which is expected to grow to 20 percent by 2015, and about 2/3 of those enterprises surveyed allow their employees to bring their own devices into work and connect to the company networks today.
SYS-CON Events announced today that CloudCow has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 14th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 10–12, 2014, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, and the 15th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Established in 2011, CloudCow is an online publication dedicated to the next generation data center environment. It is recognized as one of the leading authorities in cloud computing information. CloudCow is a comprehensive resource for cloud computing news, analysis and information. The online publication provides IT professionals and executives with access to the latest information needed to make cloud computing and IT business decisions within their respective organizations.
Companies don't want enterprise mobility. They want increased sales, lower expenses, better products, improved customer service and more profits. They want to be a survivor during this period of massive digital transformations. What do I mean by digital transformation? I mean the fact that entire industries are being changed before our eyes because the physical world is merging with the digital. I mean big data analytics, mobile applications and broadband connectivity to the internet through mobile devices that introduce completely new business models, processes, products and markets. In order to be a survivor in this competitive climate, companies need to have a clear understanding and vision of what digital transformation is, and how it is impacting their industry, market, products and company. I met with a large national paper manufacturer today. They have yet to start any mobile application projects internally. I wonder if they have ever read about the impact of digital transformation on Kodak film sales? I don't revel in writing about this, I cringe. The challenge is not IT, it is in the business that chooses not to commit budget to preparing for digital transformation. That sounds to me like waving the white flag in the face of change.
Machine-to-machine (M2M) technology and the resulting Internet of Things are leading us inexorably toward everything-as-a-service (XaaS). As more things get connected, the range of service opportunities expands. And as those services are presented online, they become available for use, re-use and re-purposing. At first thought, the idea of more connected devices suggests simply that there will be more devices around, and as such, more products for manufacturers to make and sell. That’s true, but as I suggested in an earlier blog, even the manufacturers will realize that there is actually more value in services related to those connected things than in the things themselves.
Cloud computing is helping businesses combat a growing problem: Too much information and not enough storage capacity. With businesses increasingly facing the prospect of running out of storage capacity, adoption of cloud storage technologies continues to grow, according to a report from cloud-integrated storage solutions specialist TwinStrata. The survey found that 37 percent of respondents have been using cloud computing for three or more years, more than a one-third increase over last year's 27 percent number. When compared with last year's survey, overall adoption of cloud services has steadily increased across all categories, with use of Software as a Service (SaaS) reaching as high as 62 percent and both cloud storage and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) edging closer to 50 percent adoption rates. Platform as a Service (PaaS) experienced the greatest increase in adoption as more organizations become increasingly comfortable with the cloud, the report indicated.
In the last two years, the Apache Hadoop software library has emerged as a veritable Swiss Army knife of data management and analytical infrastructure. The Hadoop toolset has been positioned as a universal platform for all types of commercial and organizational analytical needs. Hadoop is an ideal solution for use cases in which the data is easily partitioned and distributed. For example, consider keyword searches, a major component of SEO. Simply identifying and counting distinct words in text data is a central part of the process for keyword-based searches. No matter how many pieces of text you have, each document, article, blog post, or other piece of content is distinct from the other.
As e-commerce continues to widen its reach beyond the traditional browser onto connected devices – smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc. – ensuring that you are ready to handle peak season traffic has become a very important consideration for retailers. It is critical to plan appropriately and ensure that the right parties are involved – not just for your tech team, but for the business as well. Here are some topics to spark your thinking. No matter how ready your site is to handle peak holiday traffic, having a communication plan nailed down is critical.