Category Archives: Cloud Computing
IPI Solutions: Frontier Cloud Computing Services Provider In 17 … – Leadership Newspapers
BY KAYODE TOKEDE
As the global digital age is evolving, companies, individuals and governments are transforming the information technology space to retain their competitive edge.
As expected in the 21st century, companies and governments are increasingly seeking solutions that cater for their unique business solution, technology and user specific requirements.
With the deployment of Information Technology, companies and government operations are driven by efficient, cost-effective, and minimizing risk in complex initiatives.
As the world of productivity and digital usage is on the rise, an organization with the use of Information Technology is aimed at cost reductions, agility for improvement in profits, productivity, device and location independence, and improved security due to centralization of data.
This initiates Cloud Computing; a new form of internet-based computing that provides shared computer processing resources and data to computers and other devices on demand.
In Nigeria, there has been increased patronage of Cloud Computing as digital transformation is the only way for organisations to adapt in order to meet up with the current trend and this will not be possible without cloud, a powerful enabler.
For this in Africa, IPI Solutions Nigeria Limited has evolved over the years to become one of the most trusted Cloud computing platform solutions in 17 African countries.
IPI Solutions last year was chosen as Microsofts 1 Tier partner for its recently introduced Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) programme for West & Central Africa region and Nigeria.
That alone provides IPI Solutions the opportunity to provide Microsoft cloud services covering the markets of the Angola, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Cameroun, Cote dIvoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Basically, Cloud computing allows the users and enterprises with various capabilities to store and processes their data in either privately owned cloud, or on a third-party server in order to make data accessing mechanisms much more easy and reliable.
Cloud Computing model enable service providers leverage on the power of the cloud to deliver profound Information Technology services with stringent application of international best practices Experts claim that Cloud computing allows companies and Individuals to avoid up-front infrastructure costs.
As well, it enables organizations to focus on their core businesses instead of spending time and money on computer infrastructure.
With IPI Solutions on board, Cloud computing with Microsoft has been made easy comfortable and affordable.
Being a Microsoft CSP allows IPI Solutions to sell Microsoft Cloud Services (Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, Enterprise Mobility Suite and Microsoft) along with their own offerings and services.
Armed with its expertise in Microsoft Azure, the IPI Solutions implements a simple process of designing, publishing web and mobile apps with customer specifics.
Azure makes it easy and quick for businesses to leverage on the power of cloud to deliver cutting edge solutions, improve productivity and Return-On-Investment (ROI).
IPI Solutions own the complete customer lifecycle through direct billing, provisioning, management, and support.
In addition, the CSP program enables IPI Solutions to integrate service offerings with the Microsoft cloud services.
As Microsoft CSP partner, IPI Solutions has developed an ordering portal for Microsoft cloud products where payment can be made either in foreign exchange or the local currency, Naira.
The portal by IPI Solutions is an innovative self-service platform enabling customers and partners to independently initiate and conclude their ordering process online.
The portal is the first comprehensive self-service ordering platform for Microsoft Cloud products in the country. This portal has reduced procurement time, lowered logistics costs and enhanced productivity.
Customers can quickly and conveniently deploy Microsoft Cloud Services with full support from IPI Solutions IPI Solutions has 5 Microsoft Gold competencies including Messaging, Datacenter, Cloud Productivity, Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions, Application Integration. This has enabled IPI Solutions to deliver cutting edge enterprise Information Technology services to clients.
Elaborating on the advantage of Cloud computing, Chief Executive Officer, IPI solutions Nigeria Limited, Mr. Adamu Garba II, said Cloud computing is the most secure platform any business can depend on.
He expressed that Cloud computing allows individuals and organisations access technology products and services, using any device of their choice by paying for only what they consume He said many companies consider cloud as less secure but it is simply lack of understanding on how cloud services operate.
According to him, businesses that define themselves to giving the right products or services out there to their customers can only be efficiently sustained when they are sitting on the cloud.
That is why the sustainability of your business today depends on how highly available you are to provide the needed products and services to your customers.
All reasonable business services cannot afford any downtime below 99.9 per cent and to our record at IPI it is only Microsoft that can provide such needed agility. So if you truly want your business to be sustainable you have to be on the cloud, he said.
Elaborating more, he said, level of security built around the cloud Computing is unmatched, it is the most secure platform for you to save your data , provided the information you saved is not harmful to the society.
Aside offering Cloud computing solutions, the indigenous information Technology firm providescomplementary solutions including Technology Advisory Services, Systems Integration, Managed Services, Enterprise Security Solutions, Unified Communication, Disaster Recovery Solutions, Analytics and Large Data Services, Line-of-Business Applications and other related services.
In addition to the support services listed above, IPI Solutions offers the following value added services, Free basic setup and configuration services, Free Cloud readiness assessment services, Free Microsoft Azure advisory services.
IPI Solutions is customer centric Information Technology firms that understand that any downtime is at a cost of organization in terms of resources- the company ensures that client system is built to maximize uptime and availability.
The Information Technology firm was incorporated out of a necessity to curb the ills that plagued the business technology solution industry, at a time where the norm in the industry was to focus on only sales margin and not on effective and conclusive project delivery.
With the delivery of their professional, technology advisory, system integration, and managed services, IPI addresses the most pressing IT needs. Whether system management, collaboration or unified communications, IPI staff are Microsoft certified and competent experts, who can design the most efficient solution for individual needswith optimized results and cost savings.
In an instance, one of IPIs clients who had 400agents nationwide attending to over thousands of customers, was facing issues such as service downtime, frequent user dissatisfaction, and delayed responsiveness to issues.
IPI ended up recommending that they move to Azure and since deployment, there has been tremendous reduction in customer complaints while the service is always on and connected IPI solutions has gained recognition from reputable organizations such as African Quality Achievement Award category from African Quality Institute as Africas Most Reliable Quality Business Technology Solution Provider 2016; Microsoft Partner of the Year Competency Award 2016 from Microsoft Nigeria; Top 100 Most Promising Microsoft Solution Provider 2016 by CIO Review, Fremont, California, USA; 30 Fastest Growing Microsoft Solutions Provider 2016 by Silicon Review; International Quality Summit (IQS) Award in Gold category in Business Prestige and Business Excellence by Business Initiative Direction (BID), New York, USA; Africas Best Premium Microsoft Product and Services Provider 2017 by African Brand Congress (ABC) and Most Important Business Excellence award in the world 2017 by the World Confederation of Businesses (WORLDCOB).
For the future, IPI Solutions aimed at offering unparalleled solutions advantageous both to themselves and their customers, as well as increasing their client base within a vertical market. We are currently developing our own intellectual property to help integrate solutions for our existing and prospective customers, Garba added.
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IPI Solutions: Frontier Cloud Computing Services Provider In 17 ... - Leadership Newspapers
Overcoming File Sharing, Healthcare Cloud Security Concerns – HealthITSecurity.com
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July 07, 2017 -Potential file sharing and healthcare cloud security risks must be addressed in covered entities and business associates risk analyses, according to the latest OCR cybersecurity newsletter.
These collaboration tools can greatly benefit organizations, but the possible privacy and security risks cannot be ignored. Risk management policies and business associate agreements (BAAs) should also review any file sharing or cloud computing options to ensure PHI security, OCR maintained.
Misconfigurations of file sharing and collaboration tools, as well as cloud computing services, are common issues that can result in the disclosure of sensitive data, including ePHI, the newsletter stated. Too often, access, authentication, encryption and other security controls are either disabled or left with default settings, which can lead to unauthorized access to or disclosure of that data.
Any errors or misconfigurations should be included in the risk analysis or risk management approach, and should also be part of the entitys evaluation process in response to environmental or operational changes within the organization.
A vulnerability scan can also be greatly beneficial in terms of pinpointing technical issues, such as missing patches or obsolete software.
These considerations should be made before a covered entity or business associate implements file sharing software or cloud computing technology that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits ePHI, OCR stressed.
For healthcare cloud computing, the agency reminded organizations that it released updated guidance in 2016 on how to properly implement the technology.
Cloud service providers (CSPs) offering cloud services were a main focus of the guidance, and will be considered a business associate under HIPAA regulations when its services are engaged from a covered entity, the guidance stated.
However, a business associate agreement will help ensure that each party will be contractually liable for meeting the terms of the BAA and directly liable for compliance with the applicable requirements of the HIPAA Rules.
Among other things, the BAA establishes the permitted and required uses and disclosures of ePHI by the business associate performing activities or services for the covered entity or business associate, based on the relationship between the parties and the activities or services being performed by the business associate, OCR wrote in its guidance. The BAA also contractually requires the business associate to appropriately safeguard the ePHI, including implementing the requirements of the Security Rule.
Along with a BAA, OCR also recommended that a Service Level Agreement (SLA) can also be used to address business expectations between a CSP and its customer. SLAs can address the following areas:
Even if a CSP does not have an encryption key, it is still considered a business associate, the OCR guidance states. Regardless of whether a CSP can actually view the ePHI it is maintaining, it is considered a HIPAA business associate.
In its newsletter, OCR also noted that it does not endorse, certify, or recommend specific technology or products. Covered entities and business associates should ensure that they are HIPAA compliant when implementing new products or technologies.
A recent survey indicated that file sharing is an increasingly common issue within healthcare organizations.
Forty-nine percent of 1,400 respondents stated that they had at least one confirmed file sharing data breach in the last two years, according to Ponemon Institute and Metalogix.
Fifty-eight percent also said that their entity does not adequately ensure that SharePoint users appropriately interact with confidential or sensitive data. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed 79 percent added that they did not think that existing tools are "very effective" at protecting sensitive content from accidental exposure or a targeted breach.
"SharePoint houses a vast amount of sensitive data, but organizations are not taking sufficient steps to keep it safe," Ponemon Institute Chairman and Founder Dr.Larry Ponemon said in a statement. "The pressure to be productive is causing employees to put sensitive data at risk. Security and SharePoint professionals must understand where this content resides and how it is accessed and shared."
The survey also revealed that data loss prevention (DLP) and automation are top priorities for organizations to properly address security challenges with file sharing options.
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Overcoming File Sharing, Healthcare Cloud Security Concerns - HealthITSecurity.com
10 ways to protect your data on the AWS platform – Cloud Tech
One of theworst data breachesin US history recently made the headlines, and it's a powerful reminder of the importance of protecting data on platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The personal details of nearly four out of every five adult Americans, including virtually every registered voter, were recently exposed online thanks to sloppy security practices. The data not only included contact details and birth dates, but also information on the perceived political views of individuals. Media analytics company Deep Root Analytics had stored the data in an AWS S3 bucket and mistakenly left it exposed for two weeks.
Deep Root Analytics failed to use protected access settings, meaning that the data was accessible to anyone who knew, found, or guessed the six-character subdomain name that Amazon uses to identify an individual bucket.
While in this case it was a very simple user error that was to blame, it's also a reminder of the wider risks of IaaS platforms such as AWS. Amazon has put a great deal of time and money into AWS's security, but it's always possible that either a security misconfiguration by an AWS customer or a particularly powerful attack could create a breach.
Organizations that use AWS also need to take into account the risk of malicious or mistaken activity from their own staff and users along with third parties such as business partners or vendors that require some degree of access to data. The average business faces around 11 threats every month where somebody inside the organization is responsible, whether deliberately trying to compromise security or acting negligently. Meanwhile, third parties with access to data are often to blame for security breaches.
Simply leaving AWS security up to Amazon is neither legally or practically sensible. That's because AWS uses a shared responsibility system when it comes to security. Amazon itself takes full responsibility for the protection of its cloud systems, including both the software set-up and the physical computers, servers and connections. It's also in charge of detecting and blocking any intrusions or fraudulent attempts to gain access.
However, the customer is responsible for managing and configuring everything that happens inside AWS. This includes any applications it runs using AWS's identity and access management system (IAM), along with password protection of the data. The customer organisation is also responsible for protecting its own systems and connections to AWS, including any firewall.
This isn't an all-encompassing list, but it covers the main points and lays a good groundwork for a sensible and effective approach.
Enable CloudTrail everywhere you use AWS: This creates comprehensive logs of all user activities in an AWS service and provides an audit trail for compliance purposes. Remember to do this on all services, including non-geographic services such as CloudFront. You should also switch on multi-region logging as this will pick up any activity in regions you don't use, a strong sign of a security breach.
Enable multifactor authentication (MFA) on your root user account: This is absolutely key as this account can access all your AWS resources. Use a dedicated device for this MFA rather than have the requests sent to a personal mobile device. That cuts the chances that a lost device or a change in personnel can lead to a breach.
Enforce a strict strong password policy: A good minimum threshold is 14 characters with at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number and one symbol. Set passwords to expire after no more than 90 days and don't let staff reuse passwords.
Keep CloudTrail log access as tight and narrow as possible: This will reduce the number of staff who could compromise security by falling prey to a phishing attack or being blackmailed.
Make sure multifactor authentication is required to delete CloudTrail buckets: This will reduce the chances of a hacker covering their tracks after getting unauthorized access.
Never use access keys on root accounts: Doing so is simply too big a risk given how much access somebody could gain after compromising an account.
Restrict access for commonly used ports: These can include CIFS, DNS, FTP, MongoDB, MSSQL and SMTP.
Set accounts to automatically expire after 90 days without any use: An inactive account brings you no benefits but increases the number of potential points of entry for somebody trying to breach your setup.
Turn on access logging for your S3 buckets: This compiles the log data from CloudTrail and makes it much easier to track access requests, authorized and otherwise. If the worst happens, these logs can help with breach investigations.
Use restricted access on any EC2 security groups: This cuts out less sophisticated attack tactics such as Denial of Service, man-in-the-middle or brute force. Make sure access is done via IAM roles rather than through individual credentials that can easily be compromised.
As well as taking care of the restrictions and policies of your AWS infrastructure, you should also follow best practice when you use any custom applications deployed in AWS. By following these best practices, enterprises and users alike can safely store their data in the cloud without compromising security, creating a more secure AWS environment.
Read more: Report argues 'concerning' lack of understanding over IaaS shared responsibility models
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10 ways to protect your data on the AWS platform - Cloud Tech
Public cloud infrastructure spending continues to rise, says IDC – Cloud Tech
Public cloud services will be the fastest growing market segment for IT deployment in 2017, according to the latest note from IDC.
Spending on traditional data centres, which ranked at more than 60% of the market in 2016, will dip to less than half by 2021, the analyst firm argues, with public cloud taking the majority of the slack.
Total spending on IT infrastructure for deployment in cloud environments server, enterprise storage and Ethernet switches will reach $40 billion (31.1bn) in 2017, at an increase of 12.4% year over year. Public cloud will grow at the fastest rate, of 13.8%, with off-premises private cloud environments at 11.9% growth and on-prem private clouds growing 9.6% year on year.
iCharts
For cloud IT environments, Ethernet switches will represent the fastest growing segment, with 25.8% year on year growth in 2017, with spending on enterprise storage at 12.0% and servers 9.1%.
IDC had previously examined the numbers by vendor, finding Dell and HPE just ahead of the faster-growing Cisco, and saying global cloud IT infrastructure revenues hitting $8 billion in the first quarter of 2017.
Natalya Yezhkova, IDC enterprise storage research director, said spending will continue on 2016 trends in general, not counting differences in specific technology segments.
Enterprise adoption of hybrid and multi-cloud IT strategies and the proliferation of cloud-native applications and areas such as the Internet of Things, which embrace a cloud-first approach to supporting IT resources, will fuel further increases in end-user spending on services-based IT.
In turn, this move will be reflected in a shift of the overall spending on IT infrastructure from on-premises to off-premises deployments and from traditional IT to cloud IT, Yezhkova added.
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Public cloud infrastructure spending continues to rise, says IDC - Cloud Tech
Microsoft rumor: Company to reorganize cloud computing division – Network World
Andy Patrizio is a freelance technology writer based in Orange County, California. He's written for a variety of publications, ranging from Tom's Guide to Wired to Dr. Dobbs Journal.
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Multiple news outlets in Seattle and the tech press report that Microsoft plans to announce a significant reorganization in an effort to refocus its cloud computing division. In the process, a lot of people are going to lose their jobs.
The Seattle Times, Puget Sound Business Journal, Bloomberg and TechCrunch all cite sources claiming that the news could come this week, and that could mean layoffs in the thousands.
The Seattle Times said it was unclear what groups would be affected and where they are located but that the move would be to get its sales teams to emphasize its cloud computing products instead of pushing packaged software.
The Puget Sound Business Journal predicted the news would come Wednesday, July 5, but that has not happened.
The group likely to be affected is the Worldwide Commercial Business group under Judson Althoff and Jean-Philippe Courtois. Its a part of the global sales and marketing group. Job cuts were expected to be in local markets rather than across the board.
Last September, Althoff told The Seattle Times that Microsoft had had the wrong approach to selling cloud computing products by treating them much like its packaged software offerings and that he planned to change the sales pitch.
It was a flawed strategy to try to sell Azure like, Do you want fries with that? Althoff told the Times.
There have already been some moves in this area. At the beginning of June, ZDnet noted Microsoft consolidated some of its cloud computing, AI and data platform business units into a new Cloud AI Platform organization, which would oversee Microsoft Azure and other data science groups.
And the reorganization rumor comes just days after Microsoft acquired Cloudyn, which offers cloud services management and monitoring tools to help companies stay within their budgets. Bills for cloud services, which charge for everything you use, have a habit of running away, and keeping an eye on your monthly usage is a really good idea.
Cloudyn supports cloud services monitoring on Microsoft Azure, as well as Amazon, Google and Openstack. Microsoft did not say if Cloudyn would continue to support the competition, but youd have to think if Microsoft cuts them off, there will be hell to payespecially from the European Commission, which just loves to slap Microsoft with billion-dollar fines.
Since Cloudyn is privately held, Microsoft did not disclose what it paid for the firm. It also has not given a timeline for the deal to be finalized or for any work on further integrating Cloudyn and Azure.
Andy Patrizio is a freelance journalist based in southern California who has covered the computer industry for 20 years and has built every x86 PC hes ever owned, laptops not included.
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Microsoft rumor: Company to reorganize cloud computing division - Network World
The latest cyber attacks show why the cloud is safer – InfoWorld
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Computer systems from the Ukraine to the United States were affected last week by the Petya cyber attack. Its similar to the recent WannaCry ransomware attack last month.
The WannaCry ransomware took advantage of vulnerabilities in the older versions of Windows that allowed the infection to spread. All someone needed to do was click a malicious link andbang!they were infected. That is, if they hadnt installed the patches and updates.
These attacks are a reminder of why the cloud is a safer place to do your computing.
The parade of attacks in recent years have forced enterprise IT tobecome more diligent about holistic security. These attacks are successful when security is not holistic, such as when patches and fixes are not applied.
But the generalized security fears have also caused many IT organizations to delay the adoption of new technologies, such as cloud computing. Theres a sense that something new, especially something managed by others, will make things more vulnerable.
Actually, the opposite is true.
Using the public cloud makes you less likely to get attacked and breached. The layers of security in the cloud are more than a deterrent for most attacks. The cloud providers proactively monitor these clouds, and they quickly spot and quickly block them. And they automatically apply operating system, application, and service patches and fixes are automatically behind the scenes.
Extremely few IT organizations do the same.The cost of security is just too much for most enterprises to bear, and most cant keep up with all that needs to be done to keep their systems and users secure enough from WannaCry, Petya, and other malware that shut down systems.
Enterprises should not run in place when these attacks occur, but instead do a look in the mirror assessment around the state of systems and security. Youre likely to find deep issues that cant be solved overnight.From there, youll need to plan the to be state of things, including how data, processes, PCs, mobile devices, IoT devices, and other elements are going to be secure.
As you undertake that effort, youll find that using the cloud is becoming the best fit for security. It may be counterintuitive to those who equate hands-on control with effective control, but its simply true. The cloud has had outages, yes, just like enterprise IT systems. But no major cloud provider has fallen victim to all the malware attacks of the last few years. What does that tell you?
David S. Linthicum is a consultant at Cloud Technology Partners and an internationally recognized industry expert and thought leader. Dave has authored 13 books on computing and also writes regularly for HPE Software's TechBeacon site.
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The latest cyber attacks show why the cloud is safer - InfoWorld
Sungard Availability Services Makes Cloud Computing Easier with Managed Services for AWS – PR Newswire (press release)
"AWS has done an amazing job of leading a sea change in programmable infrastructure," said Josh Crowe, CTO, Sungard AS. "Through that change, customers continue to look to us to help solve their infrastructure challenges across their existing estate of systems and hyperscale clouds. We provide them with the tools and expertise to deploy their new apps and migrate existing workloads onto AWS so they can focus their attention on their core business."
Sungard AS takes a programmatic approach to leveraging AWS to ensure consistency and reliability. For example, when creating new accounts, the security and configuration is implemented automatically. An automated environment confirms that customers' workloads are secure and performing properly inside of AWS and also in Sungard AS data centers, including our newest data center in Santa Clara, California.
Managed Cloud AWS is intended to integrate easily with other Sungard AS services. One size does not fit all when it comes to the cloud. According to IDC Worldwide IT Predictions 2017, some 85 percent of organizations are adopting a multi-cloud strategychoosing different clouds for different applications, such as a combination of private clouds, hosted private clouds or public cloud environments across different providers. Sungard AS can meet the needs of these complex environments, providing managed services not just inside of AWS but also in Sungard AS data centers and even, potentially, at customer sites.
"Customers are looking for a partner to help them across their entire IT deployment," continued Crowe. "Not all applications are ready to move to the cloud, so most companies find themselves in a hybrid IT environment. Sungard AS has the expertise to help companies determine the right course of action for each application and create a robust, available and recoverable infrastructure for both cloud and legacy applications."
AWS provides a highly reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure platform in the cloud that powers hundreds of thousands of businesses in 190 countries around the world. With data center locations in the U.S., Europe, Brazil, Singapore, Japan, and Australia, AWS allows customers across all industries to take advantage of low cost, agility and instant elasticity, openness and flexibility, and security. Millions of customers already use AWS products and solutions.
Sungard AS Managed Cloud AWS is available in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
About Sungard Availability Services
Sungard Availability Services ("Sungard AS") is a leading provider of critical production and recovery services to global enterprise companies.Sungard AS partners with customers across the globe to understand their business needs and provide production and recovery services tailored to help them achieve their desired business outcomes.Leveraging more than 35 years of experience, Sungard AS designs, builds and runs critical IT services that help customers manage complex IT, adapt quickly and build resiliency and availability. To learn more, visit http://www.sungardas.com or call 1-800-468-7483. Connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact: Nora Hahn Sungard Availability Services Tel:281-584-4616
Sungard Availability Services is a trademark or registered trademark of SunGard Data Systems or its affiliate, used under license.The Sungard Availability Services logo by itself is a trademark or registered trademark of Sungard Availability Services Capital, Inc. or its affiliate. All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
The abbreviation for Sungard Availability Services is 'Sungard AS' as cited above.Please use 'Sungard AS' when abbreviating the name rather than 'Sungard' or 'SunGard,' which may confuse the reader with another separate company with a similar name.
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sungard-availability-services-makes-cloud-computing-easier-with-managed-services-for-aws-300482579.html
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Sungard Availability Services Makes Cloud Computing Easier with Managed Services for AWS - PR Newswire (press release)
Four in five companies not getting most out of cloud investments, research warns – Cloud Tech
Only one in five organisations are getting the most out of their cloud investments with 96% saying it could do with a makeover, according to new survey results from Fugue.
The research, which garnered the responses of more than 300 IT operations professionals, found the majority of those polled said compliance and security concerns, unexpected downtime, and a plethora of cloud management tools available today, means their investments are not hitting the right mark.
When asked why the cloud landscape needed a makeover, 33% said their experience needed to be simplified and easier to use, compared with 29% who cited security, with more ease controlling costs (13%) and easier to control generally (10%) also cited.
More than a third (36%) of respondents said the C-suite fails to understand its complexity, while a quarter (26%) said IT leadership struggles with it and one in five (20%) said the same for developers. This complexity is borne out in the number of disparate tools used by organisations; just under a third (31%) say they are using between six and 10 tools, compared with 38% using three to five, 16% for 11-15, and 7% who are using more than 15.
Naturally, these results bode well for Fugue, a company based in Maryland, as well as Washington DC and Silicon Valley, whose modus operandi is around cloud automation and simplifying lifecycle management of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure service stack.
The promises of the cloud are tremendous, but they are hard-won, said Josh Stella, CEO and co-founder of Fugue in a statement. You hear youll get rid of data centres, save money and move faster; clouds essentially an infinite resource. But what happens is that IT departments lose control of it they cant keep track of everything thats running, and there are security and compliance complications.
If youre Netflix, you have enough money to throw at the problem, but most companies trying to manage the cloud end up in a DIY headache of patch-ups and tools that were born in the data centre and adapted for use in the cloud, Stella added.
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Four in five companies not getting most out of cloud investments, research warns - Cloud Tech
Cloud computing security: This is where you’ll be spending the money – ZDNet
kynny, Getty Images/iStockphoto
As businesses get more serious about using cloud computing they're also getting more concerned about security.
This may come as something of a surprise to some who were sold cloud computing as being inherently more secure than traditional in-house IT infrastructure, but it also reflects the differing levels of security required by organisations.
"For immature organizations the native cloud service provider security almost always improves security. For mature and very mature organizations, native cloud security controls may be insufficient, this is why companies prefer to use extra cloud security layers and solutions to improve their security coverage of cloud workloads," said Andras Cser, principal analyst at tech research company Forrester.
This demand is leading to growth in cloud security tools, which monitor data moving to and from the cloud and between cloud platforms. For example, tools that aim to identify fraudulent use of data in the cloud, unauthorised downloads, and malware in the cloud.
According to Forrester, the market for cloud security solutions grew 28 percent every year up to 2021, from $1bn in 2016 to $3.5bn in 2021, although it will remain small compared to the total public cloud market, which will hit $236bn by 2020.
Businesses tend to use a number of different platforms -- public, private, and hybrid cloud -- and this means that monitoring data, detecting anomalies, and spotting bad behaviour across different services can be hard.
"Traditional perimeter-based security tools do little to protect cloud workloads, and do-it-yourself internal solutions can be costly to develop and consume valuable in-house it resources. We expect most companies to look to commercial off-the-shelf solutions for their cloud security needs," said Forrester.
Using third party tools, rather than relying on the cloud vendors own security, can give companies an additional layer of security. By using an additional layer of encryption, for example, companies can ensure that even if the cloud provider gets hacked their data should remain secure.
But adding that additional layer of security over the top of cloud computing does have an impact, both on price and performance.
Cser said these additional steps will effectively reduce the return on investment of the cloud by five to 10 percent, while performance of systems also diminishes by five to 15 percent, depending on the processing requirements. "Think of it as a performance tax," he said.
Forrester's Cloud Security Solutions Forecast said growth areas for cloud security include:
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Cloud computing security: This is where you'll be spending the money - ZDNet
How innovation accelerators will drive global ICT growth – Cloud Tech
Emerging technologies, such as IoT, robotics, and augmented reality or virtual reality (AR/VR), will drive the next wave of growth in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, increasing the overall opportunity to $5.5 trillion by 2020, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC).
The IDC forecast illustrates that the ICT sector is dependent upon new technology innovation for growth, as traditional business technology revenue streams begin to decline in the face of cannibalization, substitution, and the shift to cloud-based computing solutions.
New technologies, which IDC calls "Innovation Accelerators," will provide almost $7.4 trillion in aggregate industry revenue from 2015-2020 -- adding $1.8 trillion to the overall size of the industry in terms of annual sales by the end of the forecast period.
A large proportion of this growth will come from the fast-growing IoT market, which is forecast to reach almost $1.3 trillion in annual revenue by 2020, of which more than $1 trillion represents new opportunity outside of traditional technology market categories.
According to the IDC assessment, robotics, augmented reality or virtual reality, security, cognitive systems or artificial intelligence, and 3D printing will contribute the rest of this fast-growing portion of the ICT market.
"The traditional ICT market of data center infrastructure, client devices, software, services, and telecommunications is now growing at a rate not much faster than real GDP and increasingly resembles a mature sector of the overall economy," said Stephen Minton, vice president at IDC.
That being said, between 2015 and 2020, overall ICT Spending - excluding the Innovation Accelerators - will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just 1 percent in constant currency terms. Including the Innovation Accelerators, ICT spending will increase by 5 percent over the same period. In total, the Innovation Accelerators will post a CAGR of 18 percent.
Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) represents the largest market for Innovation Accelerators, forecast to reach more than $600 billion by 2020, followed closely by the United States. The fastest growth over the same period will be in Latin America, Central & Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Africa.
"Device sales are now dominated by mobile devices and cloud service providers represent a growing proportion of all infrastructure hardware and software sales, while big data and analytics are at the heart of the fastest-growing opportunities. Meanwhile, growth in the telecom market is already entirely dependent on mobile," added Minton.
With public cloud services still growing at a double-digit rate, cloud computing will continue to cannibalise traditional spending on infrastructure, software, and IT services. Big data and analytics is also still expanding at a double-digit rate of growth and is forecast to see a 12 percent CAGR between 2015 and 2020.
Public cloud services and big data and analytics will each provide more than $200 billion in annual revenue by 2020. Meanwhile, the explosion in smartphone sales over the past few years and the ongoing growth of mobile data services means that overall mobility offerings are already valued at more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales.
Read more: Global cloud IT infrastructure revenues hit $8 billion in Q117, says IDC
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How innovation accelerators will drive global ICT growth - Cloud Tech