Category Archives: Cloud Computing
Denovo Is the Cloud the silver lining? – Scottish Legal News
Sponsored postPublished 6 April 2020
COVID-19 has changed everything. I think its safe to say that remote working and distance communications may be the tip of the iceberg for how legal services could be delivered going forward. In this time of lock-down, thanks to cloud-based technology many firms are able to continue offering uninterrupted services to their clients. For those who embraced cloud-based technology disruption to the delivery of their services has been minimal. For others the race is on to find the right cloud technology for their business.
Reaching for the Cloud
The cloud offers the flexibility demanded by these rapidly changing and uncertain times. One of our larger partners switched to remote working. Most of them would have normally only worked in the office beforehand. Within 24 hours, their entire team switched and are now working efficiently from home, due to the cloud-based tech they had in place.
What weve seen over the past week or so is that firms who arent already on the cloud are feeling a bit left behind in terms of being able to continue to operate well if at all in very challenging times.
Having the ability to work remotely and securely in a crisis is just one of the many benefits of using cloud computing software in your law firm. If your firm is working from an in-house server, no doubt the recent COVID-19 pandemic has got you thinking about changing how you store your business data? If so, keep reading as we aim to outline some of the key benefits of doing exactly that.
The Benefits of the Cloud
Good Cloud-based software gives you so many benefits and advantages. It allows you to manage your contacts, track and analyse your firms data, and stay on top of your firms day-to-day business. Putting you more in control than ever before. Time wasted on administrative tasks can be reduced by using law practice management software, allowing law firms to run more efficiently. In other words, cloud-based computing makes it easy for lawyers to automate their firms and reduce inefficient, redundant processes
Access to your system whenever you want it is now critical. So, for example, lawyers can easily assign and manage tasks, track deadlines, and securely communicate and share information with clients, including court dates, legal documents, and case updates simply by using cloud-based software. Simply put, web-based access makes it easy for you to work effectively and efficiently from anywhere at any time. You can create and store legal documents, share invoices and more using any internet-enabled device. The benefits are many, and cloud computing software like Denovos whole practice management software solution, CaseLoad, is a tool that can make it all possible.
To continue reading about the benefits of cloud-based software which allows remote working visit https://www.denovobi.com/insights-hub/is-the-cloud-the-silver-lining.
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Denovo Is the Cloud the silver lining? - Scottish Legal News
Marriott reported another data breach: Why cyber risk assessment is important – Cloud Tech
Marriott International the multinational hospitality company behind the third-largest hotel brand in the world reported a major data breach on March 31 2020, marking its second major data breach in the last two years. This data breach is expected to leak the information of 5.2 million guests worldwide.
Marriott said Tuesday approximately 5.2 million guests worldwide may have been affected. The information taken may have included names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, loyalty information for linked companies like airlines and room preferences. Marriott said its still investigating but it doesnt believe credit card information, passport numbers or drivers license information was accessed, reported ABC News. In February-end, Marriott found a massive amount of guest information was being accessed using two of its employees user credentials.
After an initial investigation, Marriott believed that the data breach probably started in mid-January. It blocked those login credentials, and now, it is assessing the situation and assisting the relevant authorities for investigating the data breach. Though Marriott is doing everything to fix the problem now, it is no good news seeing it suffered two major data breaches in less than two years.
In November 2018, Marriott reported the first major data breach, which leaked the personal information of 383 million people. So, the combined amount of data that got leaked in these two data breaches totals to 388.2 million. Moreover, after the last major data breach, it was expected that Marriott will harden its cybersecurity infrastructure, train its security teams, and upgrade its systems. However, the latest data breach raises questions on its efforts to fight threats.
This brings us to the question: how does an organisation check and validate its security infrastructure? The answer: cybersecurity risk assessment.
Lets learn more about it and how it helps organisations to test their security postures.
Cybersecurity risk assessment is the risk assessment of cyber or digital threats. It has become increasingly important since every organisation nowadays implements and relies on information technology and systems for running its business. Since it heavily relies on these digital systems, a small breach, hack, or malfunction may pose high risks.
As risk assessments are necessary for every organisation for getting informed and preparing for unexpected issues or risks like industrial malfunctioning and manufacturing defects and deaths, cybersecurity risk assessments are critical for knowing and preparing for unexpected cyber threats. The list of threats includes but is not limited to data breaches, insider or online attacks, etc.
Risk assessments are used to identify, estimate, and prioritise risk to organisational operations (such as mission, functions, image, and reputation), organisational assets, individuals, other organisations, and the Nation, resulting from the operation and use of information systems. The purpose of risk assessments is to inform decision makers and support risk responses by identifying: (i) relevant threats to organisations or threats directed through organisations against other organisations; (ii) vulnerabilities both internal and external to organisations;(iii) impact (i.e., harm) to organisations that may occur given the potential for threats exploiting vulnerabilities; and (iv) likelihood that harm will occur, according to NISTs Guide for Conducting Risk Assessments.
Similarly, cyber risk assessment is the term defining the process of assessing the cyber or digital risks facing your business or organisation. Its primary goal is to help the board members and decision-makers to understand the organisations cybersecurity infrastructure and install and support the best risk mitigation processes for fighting off or at least decreasing the cyber risks of both online as well as offline threats.
There are numerous examples and reasons that prove the importance of cyber risk assessments. The data breaches reported by Marriott International are great examples; if Marriotts security infrastructure was attack-proof, it might not have suffered the data breach at least the second one. Every customer (guest) making a reservation at Marriott after the first breach in November 2018 must have believed in its promise of hardening its security infrastructure. However, it failed super hard at keeping its promise. Though the investigation is still in progress for the second breach, Marriott had probably a gap in their security posture that led to the data breach. What could have been done?
Even if the two employees whose login credentials were used for the second data breach were involved in the breach, its security systems should have detected and reported massive data requests coming from systems at a single location or origin. And if detected and reported, its security teams should have checked the issue and identified the data breach earlier ideally. However, it is evident that they did not detect or find the massive breach until recently.
That said, every organisation must perform cybersecurity risk assessments on a regular basis. It helps the organisation to identify its security weaknesses, inform the security teams as well as decision-makers, and harden or install the necessary cybersecurity processes and products to improve the overall security. Moreover, it reduces the long-term costs, provides awareness on the installed processes and systems, helps avoid data breaches and security incidents, and helps meet the legal and regulatory cybersecurity requirements. These,in turn,helps strengthen your brand and avoid unnecessary costs or risks. Also, it builds trust in your present and future customers for your organisation.
Picture credit: "Marriott Hotel", byJos Carlos Cortizo Prez, used under CC BY 2.0
Link:
Marriott reported another data breach: Why cyber risk assessment is important - Cloud Tech
Nutanix Recognized as a Gartner Peer Insights Customers Choice Vendor for Hyperconverged Infrastructure for the Second Year in a Row – Yahoo Finance
Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in enterprise cloud computing, announced today that it has been named by Gartner, Inc. as a 2020 Gartner Peer Insights Customers Choice for Hyperconverged Infrastructure. This is the second year that Nutanix has been recognized as a Customers Choice.
"At a time when many organizations are struggling with the day-to-day realities of running a business remotely, we are continuing to focus on our customers by delivering an IT infrastructure that is invisible and automated, allowing teams to focus on more immediate business needs," said David Sangster, Chief Operating Officer at Nutanix. "To us, being recognized as a Gartner Peer Insights Customers Choice for Hyperconverged Infrastructure is a great honor, and only strengthens our commitment to deliver cloud computing solutions that are flexible, simple, resilient and adaptable to customers changing needs, including widespread remote work."
Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) integrates compute, virtualization, storage, networking and security, making tasks like deploying a virtual desktop environment much easier and faster. Something that would take weeks with legacy IT, can take just hours with Nutanix. Portable, subscription-based software licenses deliver valuable flexibility so IT infrastructure is no longer coupled to specific hardware devices and configurations, which could be critically important in situations where the global supply chain is impacted.
This Customers Choice recognition is based on detailed feedback from 68 customer ratings in the past year across multiple vendors in the hyperconverged infrastructure space. Nutanix has 301 reviews since the market began to be tracked within the Gartner Peer Insights platform and holds an average score of 4.7 out of 5.*
Nutanix customers said:
Can Handle Complex Data Center Workloads Across All Industries "We have fully implemented our Nutanix platform here. The staff at Nutanix have been very helpful from helping us plan our implementation to providing us with solution architects to help us through solving how to incorporate some of our challenging gaming software pieces."- Database Administrator in the services industry
Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform Review "Nutanix is clearly making IT jobs easier due to its capacity of Virtualization, compute and storage. Well I have to say, not only for IT, also for the company since it reduces cost a lot! [...] The platform delivers scalable high performance storage and virtualization services. Giving us the tools to upgrade our VM in a very easy way and basically with the same price. Something that would be really hard to do in a regular environment because we have to think in many factors before doing it."- Computer Engineer in the services industry
The Best Hyperconvergence Infrastructure Of All Time "The best hyperconvergence infrastructure, I have used for several years helping us manage our entire virtual environment and at the same time monitoring the services and something very important maintaining the continuity of the business since it is composed of nodes that share their resources and this is shown as a single resource say disks, memories, CPU and other resources found in each of the nodes."- System Operator in the healthcare industry
Easy Implementation And An Ever Growing Product "The product and professional services exceeded our expectations. We are still using VMware with Nutanix, but the swap from the traditional 3-tier system to Nutanix was simple. We used professional services as well, but after having them onsite, I think we could have gone without them it was that easy to setup. The product works great, it's easy to navigate, and it's pretty intuitive. Nutanix continues to innovate and create new products and integration."- IT Manager in the finance industry
Easy Installation And [An] Awesome Growing System "It's a complete 100% software defined beast that works well. We have not had any issue[.] I still have yet to see something not working."- Network Engineer in the education industry
Customer focus is one of Nutanixs core tenants, and the commitment to delighting customers is recognized in the companys average net promoter score of 90 over the past six years, as well as the 97% customer retention rate as of the end of the second quarter of fiscal year 2020.
Story continues
As many companies are gearing up for remote work, Nutanix continues to deliver intelligent, easy and resilient cloud software solutions, along with excellent customer service, to its nearly 16,000 customers worldwide, including nearly 880 Global 2,000 customers. The companys flexible and scalable hyperconverged infrastructure solutions deliver the flexibility, scalability, and performance needed during these uncertain times, along with the easy deployment and management Nutanix products are known for.
More customer reviews on Nutanix are available here.
Disclaimer:
*Ratings and reviews current as of March 24, 2020. Gartner Peer Insights Customers Choice constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-user reviews, ratings, and data applied against a documented methodology; they neither represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, Gartner or its affiliates.
About Nutanix
Nutanix is a global leader in cloud software and a pioneer in hyperconverged infrastructure solutions, making computing invisible anywhere. Organizations around the world use Nutanix software to leverage a single platform to manage any app at any location at any scale for their private, hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Learn more at http://www.nutanix.com or follow us on Twitter @nutanix.
2020 Nutanix, Inc. All rights reserved. Nutanix, the Nutanix logo and all Nutanix product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nutanix, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s). This release may contain links to external websites that are not part of Nutanix.com. Nutanix does not control these sites and disclaims all responsibility for the content or accuracy of any external site. Our decision to link to an external site should not be considered an endorsement of any content on such a site. Certain information contained in this release may relate to or be based on studies, publications, surveys and other data obtained from third-party sources and our own internal estimates and research. While we believe these third-party studies, publications, surveys and other data are reliable as of the date of this release, they have not independently verified, and we make no representation as to the adequacy, fairness, accuracy, or completeness of any information obtained from third-party sources.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200406005096/en/
Contacts
NutanixJennifer Massarojennifer.massaro@nutanix.com 408-309-6886
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Nutanix Recognized as a Gartner Peer Insights Customers Choice Vendor for Hyperconverged Infrastructure for the Second Year in a Row - Yahoo Finance
Business Agility In The Digital Age – Analytics India Magazine
Agility provides the nimbleness and flexibility to adapt to the new normal in a more pragmatic and non-linear way so that the strategic goals are accomplished. In this digital age, there is an immense need of building the strategy in an agile way which can be changed when required and focuses on the digital-first mindset by using automation and cloud computing.
As per Scaled Agile, Business Agility is the ability to compete and thrive in the digital age by quickly responding to market changes and emerging opportunities with innovative business solutions. In this context, it is very relevant to understand the way to respond and capitalize on new innovations. At the same time, it is crucial to model an adaptive behavior which forms the very foundation of business agility and aligns with the key measures of strategic agility. In the present period of uncertainty caused due to COVID19 pandemic, a growth mindset needs to be fostered allowing inspection, adaptation, learning, experimentation and treating failure as opportunities for innovation.
Let us understand in detail the agility enabled by automation and cloud computing which are at the core of embracing an agile mindset in the digital ecosystem.
Automation provides a time-saving and efficient approach towards executing manual tasks. Since agility is not only about speed but also about staying relevant and competitive, new Ways of Thinking (WoT) and new Ways of Working (WoW) are to be continuously identified. In view of automation, the speed-to- outcomes is no doubt a driver for digital revolution but it also allows continuous improvement by simplifying the process-oriented approach and increases the operational efficiency by making the processes leaner. Automation also allows improved data insights for taking informed actionable decisions. The journey of automation has been tremendous starting from basic or the traditional automation to Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to Intelligent Process Automation or Hyperautomation including DevOps. Apart from reduction in cost and improving efficiency and accuracy, business agility offered by automation also addresses the following areas:
In view of Cloud computing, the business agility is enabled through on-demand virtualization of resources. It allows the ability to rapidly develop, test and release software applications that drive business growth. Apart from faster time-to-market and pay-per-use model, it also addresses the following areas:
Summary:
Automation and cloud computing are the key drivers for bringing digital transformation which allows sensing the capacity of business agility to remain competitive and changing the direction when required without impacting the overarching goal. The business agility will also allow the businesses to continuously deliver value even during uncertainty by innovatively and empirically disrupting the market for improving business results, increasing market share and building sustainable and resilient systems.
Acknowledgements/References:
Views expressed in this article are my own and may not necessarily be of my employer.
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Business Agility In The Digital Age - Analytics India Magazine
What’s New in Computing vs. COVID-19: Fast-Tracked Research, Susceptibility Study, Antibodies & More – HPCwire
Supercomputing, big data and artificial intelligence are crucial tools in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Around the world, researchers, corporations and governments are urgently devoting their computing resources to this global crisis. This column collects the biggest news about how advanced technologies are helping us fight back against COVID-19.
U.S. Department of Energy elaborates on the COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium
In a briefing last week, the Department of Energy went into more detail regarding the new COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium. In the briefing, the DOE referenced several projects that are already underway, highlighting how the division of labor for fighting COVID-19 is being spread across major supercomputing facilities. The DOE also launched a portal for submitting proposals to the consortium. To read more, visit the HPCwire article here.
Russian supercomputer spins up to identify COVID-19 treatment
The MVS-10P cluster at the Joint Supercomputer Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences has joined the fight against the coronavirus. The 771-peak teraflop supercomputer is being used by an international research team representing a dozen institutions and a half-dozen countries to study the telltale spike protein of the coronavirus. Specifically, the researchers are looking to design aptamers (molecules that bind to specific target molecules) that are more attractive to COVID-19 than the human ACE2 protein. To read more about this work, visit the HPCwire article here.
Bionano Genomics uses cloud HPC to run largest-yet study on COVID-19 disease susceptibility
Aiming to identify what makes individuals more or less susceptible to severe symptoms of COVID-19, Bionano Genomics has launched the largest study yet on genomic variations and active substances that affect resistance or sensitivity to the pandemic. A number of companies are supporting the study through the Tech Against Covid initiative, including Rescale, which is providing its high-performance computing cloud platform, and AWS. To read more, visit the press release here.
Lawrence Livermore applies supercomputing in quest to find COVID-19 antibodies
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) highlighted its COVID-19 research, outlining an interdisciplinary team of researchers working to find antibodies. LLNLs work began with the production of a 3D protein structure of COVID-19. That structure was then leveraged by another team at LLNL, which used a pair of HPC clusters to apply AI to antibody analysis simulations. Yet another group examined 26 million molecules on the Quartz cluster (delivering 3.25 peak petaflops) to see how they interacted with key proteins in COVID-19. To read more, visit the HPCwire article here.
NERSC and ESnet fast-track COVID-19 research, keep services running during the pandemic
The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) and the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) both operate under Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which has spun down much of its activity to ensure social distancing but NERSC and ESnet, both providing essential services, continue to support the nations scientists. NERSC, a member of the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, is working to prioritize COVID-19 research. To read more, visit the HPCwire article here.
PRACE awards its first COVID-19 project under fast-tracked proposal process
Last week, PRACE announced that it was fast-tracking COVID-19 proposals and its already awarded its first fast-tracked project. The project, titled COVID-HP, is led by Jean-Philip Piquemal, a professor of theoretical chemistry at the Sorbonne. The research team will use 20,000,000 core hours on the Joliot-Curie Rome supercomputer (a 6.6-peak petaflop system hosted by GENCI) to research inhibitors targeting COVID-19s key proteins and certain nucleic acid sequences in its genome.
BSC combines bioinformatics, AI and supercomputing to study COVID-19
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) is examining the development of COVID-19, studying how it evolved through different epidemics in order to understand how it passes from species to species. BSC is crunching the data which includes genomic sequences of virus mutations and animal species with its MareNostrum 4 supercomputer, which delivers 13.7 peak petaflops. BSC is also using MareNostrum 4 to examine possible treatments for COVID-19 by testing molecular docking. To read more, visit the press release here.
ImmunityBio leverages cloud supercomputing to target the spike protein
Immunotherapy company ImmunityBio is pitting cloud supercomputing against the coronavirus, running molecular dynamics simulations of the spike protein on a cloud HPC platform through Microsoft Azure. The simulations produced a detailed model of the spike proteins solution structure, affording researchers a clearer pathway to producing a drug of treatment to debilitate COVID-19. The Azure cluster used to conduct the simulations contained over 1,250 Nvidia V100 GPUs. To read more, visit the press release here.
IBMs World Community Grid delivers crowdsourced computing to fight COVID-19
Following in the footsteps of crowdsourced computing projects like [emailprotected] and [emailprotected], IBM has announced that its own crowdsourced computing platform, the World Community Grid, will be contributing to COVID-19 research. The project, called OpenPandemics COVID-19, is designed and led by Scripps Research and promises to deliver hundreds of millions of calculations for COVID-19-related simulations. To read more, visit the press release here.
Indiana University fast-tracks COVID-19 research through Jetstream within XSEDE
IU has announced that Jetstream, its cloud-based, on-demand computing resource, is fast-tracking COVID-19-related projects within the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE). Jetstream is operating through the COVID-19 HPC Consortium. Jetstream is proud to be part of the COVID-19 HPC Consortium, putting the power of our collective resources into the hands of scientists who can use them to respond to this unprecedented crisis, said David Hancock, director of advanced cyberinfrastructure at IU and PI of Jetstream. To read more, visit the press release here.
Do you know about COVID-19 research that should be featured on this list? If so, send us an email at [emailprotected]. We look forward to hearing from you.
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What's New in Computing vs. COVID-19: Fast-Tracked Research, Susceptibility Study, Antibodies & More - HPCwire
Onix Wins 2019 Google Cloud Specialization Partner of the Year for Cloud Migration – The Morning Journal
LAKEWOOD, Ohio, April 6, 2020 /CNW/ --Onix today announced that it has received the 2019 Google Cloud Global Specialization Partner of the Year for Cloud Migration.
The cloud solutions provider was recognized for its achievements in the Google Cloud ecosystem by leveraging Google Cloud's Platform to create comprehensive and compelling cloud migration solutions for joint customers.
"We are honored and humbled to win this important award. It's a testament to the skills of our team and the tireless work we perform on behalf of our valued customers," noted Onix President and CEO Tim Needles. "While we achieved this award for our cloud migration expertise, we also provide comprehensive cloud services tailored to each customer's needs, helping them achieve their strategic goals."
As part of the application process, Onix detailed its successful cloud migration work with retail customer Batteries Plus Bulbs, the nation's largest and fastest-growing battery, light bulb and smartphone/tablet repair franchise.
Batteries Plus made the strategic decision to migrate to the cloud to propel their business to the next level. As a current satisfied customer, they collaborated with Onix to partner on the migration to Google Cloud.
The Onix team guided Batteries Plus throughout the process, from the initial planning stages to post-migration support. Onix used Google Cloud Migrate for Compute Engine for an easy Google Cloud deployment without any latency issues.
Other Google Cloud solutions used during the on-prem-to-Google Cloud migration included Cloud Storage, Cloud VPC and VPN, Cloud Load Balancing, Cloud IAM and Resource Manager, and Stackdriver Monitoring and Logging. The Onix-led migration team was able to move the company's 114 servers in a month.
Jason Thelen, Infrastructure Architect at Batteries Plus said, "Onix's team demonstrated notable skill and knowledge, and we were comfortable with their capabilities and the tools they were bringing forward in the project."
Now that Batteries Plus is up and running on Google Cloud, Thelen said he sees a notable increase in performance and availability across all migrated applications in stores and at HQ.
"We're delighted to recognize Onix's work on behalf of customers," said Carolee Gearhart, Vice President, Worldwide Channel Sales at Google Cloud. "Onix has demonstrated strong expertise and results in cloud migration over the past year, and we look forward to continuing our partnership to help customers succeed."
About Onix
As a leading cloud solutions provider, Onix elevates customers with consulting services for cloud infrastructure, collaboration, devices, enterprise search and geospatial technology. Onix uses its ever-evolving expertise to achieve clients' strategic cloud computing goals.
Onix backs its strategic planning and deployment with incomparable ongoing service, training and support. It also offers its own suite of standalone products to solve specific business challenges, including OnSpend, a cloud billing and budget management software solution.
Headquartered in Lakewood, Ohio, Onix serves its customers with virtual teams in major metro areas, including Atlanta, Austin, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and New York. Onix also has Canadian offices in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. Learn more at http://www.onixnet.com.
Contact: Robin SuttellOnix216-801-4984robin@onixnet.com
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Onix Wins 2019 Google Cloud Specialization Partner of the Year for Cloud Migration - The Morning Journal
10 companies Amazon Web Services could buy, according to analysts – Business Insider Nordic
The coronavirus pandemic has led to fears of a recession, in turn causing Silicon Valley VCs pull back on making big deals, even as tech startups begin to lay off employees as revenue dries up.
Still, some in tech like Amazon Web Services, the online retailer's massively profitable cloud business are poised to make it through just fine. Even as the coronavirus pandemic leads to uncertainty in Amazon's retail business as demand surges and Amazon prioritizes the shipment of essential goods, analysts have praised AWS as "recession-proof" because companies like Netflix and Zoom rely on the platform to power their own apps and services.
That relatively stable position, combined with turbulence on the stock market that's driving down public-company valuations, might mean that AWS takes the opportunity to make some big cloud acquisitions, says Jeb Su, principal analyst and vice president at Atherton Technology Research. If AWS can't develop a certain type of technology in-house, it will look to partner with, or even acquire, other companies, he says.
"They're very opportunistic," Su told Business Insider. "This time it's not going to be different...Amazon can move very quickly, especially when the price is not even right, when it's slow."
AWS isn't typically as acquisitive as Microsoft or Google. Microsoft spent more than $9 billion during its last fiscal year on acquisitions. Google Cloud, meanwhile, is explicitly looking to acquisitionsto catch up to AWS and Microsoft in the cloud space.
Still, in general, AWS takes a "practical and opportunistic" approach to its M&A strategy, Su says. Most likely, AWS will look at technologies and services to help both its cloud and its core retail business become more efficient, such as in robotics, AI, logistics, and cybersecurity, he says.
Su also says that AWS could acquire cloud apps since it hasn't yet made a dent in the space the way its rivals Microsoft and Google Cloud has. He says AWS could look into collaboration apps like Zoom and Slack, but it's unlikely to actually acquire those giant companies. Likewise, Maribel Lopez, founder and principal analyst of Lopez Research, says AWS tends to buy more "small obscure tech."
Indeed, if AWS "decides to get on the M&A bandwagon," it could adopt the same approach as Apple, Microsoft or Cisco, which is to make "a flurry or really interesting small acquisitions," says Futurum Research analyst Daniel Newman.
Even though right now company valuations are dropping amid the coronavirus pandemic, Su says AWS would still acquire a company only if it's worth it.
"I don't believe AWSwill acquire a company because it's in trouble," Su said. "They will acquire a company because it makes sense in their strategy and makes sense in the technology stack."
Here are the 10 companies AWS could consider buying to boosts its cloud business, according to analysts:
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10 companies Amazon Web Services could buy, according to analysts - Business Insider Nordic
CEO of Leading Expert in Fullstack Omnichannel Software Development Will Zhang Reveals Top Emerging Technologies in 2020 – True Hollywood Talk
As the new decade begins, many exciting technological advancements are unraveling that can shape the future of the technology industry. Changes brought by emerging technologies can enhance, disrupt, or dislodge established tech businesses. Nearly 50 years ago, technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, and cloud-based technology did not exist in the real world. These were are just thoughts that lived inside the creative and imaginative minds of fiction writers and only existed in the pages of science fiction novels and movie scenes. Nowadays, these new technologies are the buzzwords of the tech industry.
Technological changes and innovation can either enhance the existing market or disrupt it. Some innovations enhance a product in an existing market; however, some innovations create a new market and eventually displace an existing market. In the past 20 years, we have witnessed disruptive technologies that toppled existing technologies and made them obsolete, rising tech leader Will Zhang explained. Zhang is the founder of Fintelics, an emerging technology company based in Ontario, Canada. It specializes in developing cutting edge technology solutions on artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, omnichannel, big data solutions, and business process automation.
Emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, and cloud computing are now a fact of life. These technologies will have an impact on peoples lives, and it will change the execution of business operations. We can no longer ignore these technologies, Zhang emphasized. He further pointed out that it will change the way people live their lives and how entrepreneurs do their businesses. He added that companies are finding ways to exploit the benefits of new and innovative technologies that tech experts predicted will significantly disrupt the industry.
In just a short time, Zhang steered Fintelics to become a rising star in the highly dynamic world of technology. In 2019, FinTech Awards recognized Fintelics as the Leading Expert in Fullstack Omnichannel Software Development to acknowledge its significant contributions in advancing omnichannel software development. Aside from this, Fintech Awards also named the company as the Best Custom FinTech Solutions Consultancy Ontario.
Likewise, Zhang led the company to become an APN AdvancedSelect Tier Consulting Partner. The APN badge solidifies its credentials and credibility in the tech industry, which means that Amazon Web Services (AWS) recognized the company as a subject matter expert in emerging technologies.
Zhang said that artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain technology, and cloud computing are the emerging technologies to keep an eye on for 2020. He noted that these new technologies would continue to strive and evolve in the years to come.
Artificial Intelligence
He said that AI is not a new term since this jargon has been the buzzword for many years now. Among the emerging technologies, it is the most popular since it is at the forefront of most business automation. Similar to predictive analytics, AI will continue to strive this year. I predict that the global trend will be that more and more businesses will adopt this technology. I observe that AI practices are gradually getting better over time. And it is moving towards becoming a mature technology very soon, he shared with so much excitement in his voice.
He added that AI would continue to revolutionize businesses and lead the digital transformation in the workplace. Last year, the McKinsey Global Survey revealed that about 50% of the respondents are already integrating AI technology in at least one of their business operations. He pointed out that AI adoption will continue to rise in the upcoming year as confidence in the technology grows. He mentioned that plenty of businesses would see the meaningful value that AI can bring to a company.
Blockchain
Zhang said that tech research firms considered blockchain technology as one of the top strategic technologies for 2020. However, experts, at the moment, see blockchain as an immature technology. Still, no doubt that once mature, this new technology can potentially reshape industries.
Blockchain is a technology that is a work in progress. Right now, the general trend is many technical teams are focusing on developing blockchain technology. So one day, it could help solve real industry problems and add value to businesses, he noted. He added that blockchain has tremendous potential, but it must first overcome poor scalability and the problem of interoperability.
Cloud computing
After AI, cloud computing is probably the second most popular buzzword in businesses around the world. Despite its popularity, AI remains underutilized and less understood. He said that most entrepreneurs would immediately think about storage whenever they heard the term cloud computing, but, on the contrary, it is more than that. He explained that the cloud has tremendous promise to perform a multitude of tasks in many industries.
He predicted that cloud computing would continue to thrive around the world because of the tremendous value that it can offer to a business. We are seeing big enterprises are starting to adopt cloud computing. Many companies are integrating it into their platform. Some companies are adopting cloud-agnostic solutions that allow their products to live on multiple platforms. In contrast, others adopt a cloud-native application suited only for one platform. He predicted that the wide adoption of cloud computing would continue to happen in 2020, he discussed while pointing out the world trend on cloud computing adoption.
In Summary
Zhang noted that these emerging technologies are opening new possibilities and opportunities for various industries. With this development and innovations, the future of technology looks exciting, he said. AI, blockchain, and cloud computing are emerging technologies that are maturing at different paces. He emphasized that the current trend will be finding the best way to solve the problem rather than just finding a solution.
The story of a newcomer in the tech industry that rose to this splendor is well, literally, incredible. The awards and recognition that Fintelics earned in the last two years are both startling and inspiring. Despite being a neophyte, it has already attested that it can compete with the giants of the industry.
For businesses that want to generate a competitive advantage using emerging technologies, Fintelics can help you find a solution. Please check their website at http://www.fintelics.com, and follow them on Twitter at @Fintelics1, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/fintelics/.
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CEO of Leading Expert in Fullstack Omnichannel Software Development Will Zhang Reveals Top Emerging Technologies in 2020 - True Hollywood Talk
Is edge computing the answer to a data center overload? – Tech Wire Asia
Edge computing can be a solution to data center strain. Source: Shutterstock
Just 20 percent of business executives believe that their current data-center is meeting their needs. Only 6 percent are confident that these facilities are sufficiently updated for their day to day use.
As demands continue to ramp up rapidly overburdened data centers wont be sustainable for long. To manage new challenges around bandwidth, security and emerging technologies such as AI and 5G, more processing power will be required by businesses.
To accommodate for increasing workloads, data needs to be moved away from the central data center alone, and distributed across a variety of platforms such as core data centers, cloud and particularly, the edge.
Gathering more limelight recently, much of what 5G and IoT can offer is only made possible through edge computing. It brings data storage and computation closer to where its needed, expediting processing and at the same time, minimizing latency.
But it also helps with cloud offload, where network traffic going to and from the cloud can be drastically reduced.
With the immense growth in the amount of data being generated, moving data to and from the cloud is not only time consuming, but costly. The concept of cloud offload has arisen because of this, and edge computing allows for value to be extracted from data at the location where its generated. If necessary, it can even be downsized to be sent over to the cloud for storage or analysis.
With this said, will edge computing replace the cloud?
The edge and the cloud are part of the same continuum, and the edge can be thought of as an enabler for the cloud to expand its reach.
Edge computing does not focus on storing data, rather, it is designed to gather and process data on-site quickly, and analyze data in real-time. Cloud computing, on the other hand, is made to store data, and can easily be scaled according to needs.
Take a look at public cloud providers such as AWS and the complementary role of the edge in cloud computing is evident.
For the enterprise looking to do on-premise edge computing, Amazons AWS Outpost a fully assembled rack of computing and storage that mimics the hardware design of Amazons own data centers will be installed at the clients premises.
Outpost runs on services such as the EC2 compute service, which makes it operationally similar to the cloud.
Edge computing is still in the early stages, but it is already playing a key role in shaping the industry today, and investment from big industry players shows its early worth.
Companies such as Walmart are already using it to generate profit: the US retail giant plans to rent out space at its supercenters as edge computing data centers scattered regularly across the country.
To keep up, enterprises must begin to invest more into their data infrastructure, and start implementing edge computing in stages.
Emily Wong
Emily is a tech writer constantly on the lookout for cool technology and writes about how small and medium enterprises can leverage it. She also reads, runs, and dreams of writing in a mountain cabin.
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Is edge computing the answer to a data center overload? - Tech Wire Asia
Rationing the cloud: How coronavirus has created capacity issues – Open Access Government
These are unprecedented times. Its a sentence you no doubt will have heard a lot in the last few weeks, and one that applies to technology every bit as much as other sectors.
In fact, public cloud services have seen a massive spike in demand since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Microsoft have reported that whole countries have gone from not using cloud to deliver teaching at all to 100% cloud-based remote learning all in a matter of weeks. Collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams are probably responsible for the majority of that increased demand.
Its not surprising, therefore, that we are starting to see the first signs of resourcing issues.
The Register has reported that Azure seems to be full, and I have seen similar coverage of cloud capacity problems elsewhere.
On-demand, scalable computing resources, such as virtual machines (VMs), are a popular choice to increase computing capacity through Azure but with the current surge of cloud custom, users may encounter errors when trying to provision VMs.
For those that do encounter these errors, at the time of writing, Microsoft is suggesting:
I would suggest, however, that this final option be treated with caution. Although all Azure regions are built to the same level of compliance, there are factors to consider when moving data to a different region, such as the US, and subsequently relying on Privacy Shield frameworks and the EU Model Clause to safeguard this data.
Cloud providers are prioritising government and emergency services use of the cloud. Freeing up capacity for emergency health service use by temporarily moving less critical data to less stressed regions seems to chime well with public interest, but during the current emergency, are there any regions that are less stressed?
I do not believe that Microsoft will move data out of the region in which customers have placed it. However, what individual customers choose to do is their decision, and the current crisis may tempt some to create resources outside of their normally preferred regions.
In this instance, I would add the following advice to that above:
As with many essentials right now, its important that we are all mindful of the resources we are using and the impact that has on others.
Capacity issues in Azure will also affect, and be affected by, capacity issues in Office 365. Microsoft have already vastly scaled up this capacity, particularly in response to increased demand for Teams. Customers have very little control over the underlying resource provision of Office 365 since it is delivered as SaaS (software as a service). However, many of the same considerations as outlined above will apply to Office 365.
In all cases, I strongly advise against panic buying: we all know where hoarding toilet roll gets us.
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Rationing the cloud: How coronavirus has created capacity issues - Open Access Government