Category Archives: Cloud Computing
Livin’ on the Edge: What Comes Next After Cloud Computing … – Associations Now
Cloud computing isnt dead yet. Far from it.
But it is becoming more mature. As Gartner recently pointed out, the technology is now in its second decade, at a point where if youre not using it for mainstream enterprise applications yet, you should really get on that.
But maturity implies a point of limitationthat things have reached their peak. And thats leading some to wonder whats next. Even as the cloud defines the modern technology stackand further, the way we interact with our vendorstheres always a good chance that it may not stick with us forever.
That sounds more than a bit premature, but some of the technology worlds most prominent thinkers are already making this case.
Last year, Andreessen Horowitz analyst Peter Levine made this very point in a 25-minute presentation that contextualized the need for offsite storage in the context of historic technology trends.
Everything thats popular in technology always gets replaced by something else. It always goes away, he said. And thats, you know, thats either the beauty of the opportunity, or the beauty of the businessthat these things actually go away.
This claim is bold, but he has a larger point that hes reaching at. Levine makes the case for something called edge computing, a phenomenon which he suggests will come about as our computing devices become so sophisticated that it no longer makes sense to offload computing ability to an exterior sourceas, for example, devices that rely on the Internet of Things (IoT) become increasingly sophisticated.
Heres the gist of what that means in real-world terms: Once, computing power was so resource-intensive that we needed a server room. Cloud computing moved that server room off the premises. Eventually, however, the devices we use on a daily basis will be sophisticated enough that theyll have as much computing power as the machines in the server roomwithout all the extra space.
There will still be a need to offload data elsewhere, but most of the computing capabilities that the cloud once managed can now be handled on the premiseswhich is where you want them, because itll save money and time to manage that data onsite.
In comments to Business Insider last year, Levine noted that as a greater number of sophisticated computing devices become more common, were going to reach a theoretical limit on what a remote computing platform can do.
You will never have enough bandwidth and speed on the network between [artificially intelligent devices] for that, Levine told the website.
The result is that the cloud will still be there, but it will take on a management roleorchestrating the execution, as the technology on the ground does all of the work.
The problem with something new, like edge computing, is that it often feels like an idea without a use case. But the use cases, over time, will show themselves, even in spaces like associations.
Amazon Go is probably a great example of where something like edge computing would come into play. The concept, announced late last year, effectively would allow grocery stores to work without human inputautomatically charging customers as they pick up items, walk through the store, and walk out.
But, according to The Wall Street Journal, the problem with the approach is that, when too many people are in a store, it starts to have trouble tracking all the activity. At some point, managing all this data via an offsite cloud system is simply going to complicate the experience.
I have no clue what Amazon is doing to solve this problem, but edge computing would probably come in handy in a case like this. The cloud needs a connection to enable the transaction, but its a case where so much data needs to be pushed around the store that adding an outside element like a cloud connection could gum up the works. Sure, the cloud needs to be there at some point of the transactionsay, during the actual paymentbut if not properly contextualized, itll get in the way.
Likewise, there are other real-world situations where a lot of data is involvedand as a result would probably benefit from an edge computing approach. In terms of associations, I could see the immediate benefit with events that have embraced beacon or IoT technologies. As those approaches become more sophisticated, well ultimately want platforms that can not only collect data but also react to it in real time.
What would be the benefit? Ernest Sampera, the chief marketing officer for vXchnge, recently explained in a Data Center Knowledge op-ed that the benefits of this approach will best be seen in real-time use cases.
Todays data management systems require the most immediate information to support in the moment decisions that can have an impact of millions of dollars to the bottom line, he wrote. By bringing processing to the edge of the network, businesses reduce latency by prioritizing processing and lightening the load on the primary network, supporting better, faster decision-making.
Lets be clear: Im throwing this out there knowing that the answers arent all laid out. They wont be for a while. But opening up this discussion so early is a great way to contextualize how IT departments make critical decisions.
There was a time when the things being said about edge computing could be said about cloud computing, where the approach wasnt ready for prime time and then suddenly, it was. (Going back a little further, its worth keeping in mind that the internet was once the same way, and just think of how obsessed we are with that.)
But if associations are going to eventually gain a reputation for innovation, they need to be thinking a couple of steps ahead.
A cloud computing model is great now, but will it be forever? Depending on the use case, not necessarily.
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Livin' on the Edge: What Comes Next After Cloud Computing ... - Associations Now
China’s Huawei Will Take on Amazon, Alibaba With New Cloud Services – Fortune
Chinese telecoms equipment and smartphone maker Huawei Technologies on Tuesday said it aims to compete with Amazon.com and Alibaba Group as a global provider of public cloud services.
The Shenzhen-based firm, which last month reported its slowest profit growth in five years, said it will expand in cloud computing with a dedicated division that will recruit 2,000 more people this year.
"We used to focus on private cloud and did well," Zheng Yelai, president of the new unit, said at an annual analyst meeting. "Now the purpose is to strengthen our public cloud offering."
Public cloud services involve shared data infrastructure, rather than dedicated infrastructure built for single customers. Consultancy Gartner expects the market for public cloud services to reach $383 billion by 2020 from $247 billion in this year.
By expanding in cloud computing, hardware-focused Huawei hopes to continue developing software-based revenue at a time of slowing growth in smartphone sales and reduced spending on telecommunication infrastructure.
In China, its biggest rival in public cloud services would be Alibaba Cloud, while the latest market entrant is conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group in partnership with International Business Machines ( ibm ) .
Zheng declined to say when Huawei aims to beat Alibaba ( baba ) , which is also a client of Huawei's IT infrastructure and services.
Eric Xu, deputy chairman of Huawei's board and one of three rotating chief executive officers, said Huawei's global network of telecoms clients give the firm a unique advantage.
"I believe we can build upon our advantages accumulated over the years," Xu said, referring to carrier partnerships in Europe and a strong presence in developing countries.
"Compete and coexist with AWS and Microsoft , I believe that is the trend we are going to see." Xu said, referring to Amazon Web Services ( amzn ) and Microsoft's Azure ( msft ) .
Xu also said Huawei would not compete for market share by offering services at extremely low prices.
Last month, Tencent ( tcehy ) won a cloud computing contract with a bid of just 0.01 yuan. Rivals complained of unfair competition, local media reported, but Tencent told Reuters that the case was a one-off.
"Our strategic focus will be on our telecom partners' cloud transformation," Xu said.
Huawei's comments come after the Ministry of Industrial and Information Technology on Monday published a Cloud Computing Development Three-Year Action Plan. The ministry forecast the domestic cloud computing industry to grow to 430 billion yuan ($62.32 billion) by 2019, from 150 billion yuan in 2015, and said "two to three leading global players" would emerge.
Huawei earlier said it expects its cloud computing revenue to reach 10 billion yuan by 2020.
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China's Huawei Will Take on Amazon, Alibaba With New Cloud Services - Fortune
Cloud Computing Market in Europe – Yahoo Finance
LONDON, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- KEY DYNAMICS: Whilst not on the scale of the industry in US, European Cloud computing continues to be a quickly developing and fast growing industry. Organizations have sought cloud solutions to reduce expenditure, widen productivity and scale, and increase computing power in light of Big Data issues. Western European countries are ranked significantly higher on the World Economic Forum Network Readiness rankings than those in the East. The European Cloud Computing industry is expected to generate total revenues of $18.9bn in 2016.
Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4773700/
WHO SHOULD READ THIS REPORT Executive leaders and business unit leaders, procurement managers, advisors, Investors who have responsibilities to set their organization on Digital transformation and cloud journey.
WHAT YOU'LL KNOW AFTER READING Readers will get a deeper understanding of the current adoption level, market drivers and challenges of cloud services in European organizations which would help IT vendors to market their products and services effectively in Western and Eastern European region. The report covers the impact of Brexit and how cloud services vendor can penetrate European market keeping in mind other issues related to data privacy and protection, data accessibility laws, email spam laws etc. Cloud service providers can look into the IT spend areas by countries and their forecasts till 2021. With growing adoption of cloud services, European enterprises continue to see IT security as a major barrier to adoption which is continuously haunting the enterprises. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4773700/
About Reportbuyer Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers http://www.reportbuyer.com
For more information: Sarah Smith Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com Email: query@reportbuyer.com Tel: +44 208 816 85 48 Website: http://www.reportbuyer.com
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cloud-computing-market-in-europe-300437460.html
Why it’s still important to educate your employees around cloud security, VPNs, and Wi-Fi – Cloud Tech
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Sponsored For those at the coalface of the security industry, the feeling of metaphorically banging ones head against a brick wall, of continually educating, re-educating and correcting misinformation, mischievous or otherwise, will feel all too familiar.
Take the comments from Home Secretary Amber Rudd around WhatsApp following the terror attack in Westminster. Following the disclosure that the messaging service was used moments before the attacker struck, Rudds remarks there should be no place for terrorists to hide were met with a certain level of dismay in the industry.
Graham Cluley, a long-standing independent security analyst, put it this way. There is a danger that politicians will take ghastly incidents of terror as a platform to push forward their agenda of weakening encryption, he wrote. It makes them sound tough in the fight against terror at least to people who dont know much about technology. But it wont make a blind jot of difference to bad guys.
With other technologies, such as cloud and Wi-Fi, a similar effect occurs. Last month David Linthicum, a highly-respected cloud thought leader, wrote about how the battle for cloud security in enterprises is increasingly not a technological one. The truth is that competent cloud security technology is available, and most IT organisations cloud teams are good at finding and using it, he wrote in InfoWorld. To achieve solid cloud security, departments across IT need to come together, both those that focus on legacy and those that focus on cloud computing.
In reality, this union has proven to be difficult. Why? The people down the hall are dead set against you driving change.
One firm which looks at how employees deal with these situations is mobile connectivity provider iPass. The company issues a yearly report around mobile security, with last years revealing that almost two thirds of organisations ban their mobile workforce from accessing free Wi-Fi hotspots. In addition, 94% of respondents said free Wi-Fi was either very much or somewhat of a threat to their company. This is backed up elsewhere; Xirrus, in a recent report, found that 91% of Wi-Fi users did not believe it was secure, yet 89% continued to use it anyway.
Raghu Konka is vice president of engineering at iPass. He argues that all security challenges are both organisational and technological to varying degrees, but adds a caveat. Education is hugely important, and employees need to understand that security is their responsibility as well, not just those in IT, he explains. However, relying on employees to do this for themselves, and to always follow best practice, is a sure-fire way to get hacked.
One element of best practice which should be but is not always followed is around VPNs. The iPass study found that only one in five (21%) US firms polled were fully confident their workforce always used the companys VPN. Employees still need to be more aware of VPNs as commonly the last mile is where a users data is most vulnerable. However, by using a VPN, data is masked and encrypted, protecting people from the infamous man in the middle attacks, and unwittingly exposing their online data to malicious activity, says Konka.
In todays Wi-Fi first world, it is imperative that mobile workers are equipped with the requisite tools to get online and remain productive, while simultaneously ensuring the security of corporate data from wherever it is being accessed, he adds.
All that said, the onus is not entirely on the employee. Konka argues that employers taking actions such as simply banning public Wi-Fi will be a stop gap as workers will just find a way around it. Getting employees to use VPNs, for instance, should primarily be a technology issue, he says. Employers need to provide zero touch technology solutions to cover employee misuse and mistakes, as well as any inevitable gaps in education, training and awareness.
Sometimes, however, its a question of watching the watchers. Last week, an article on Motherboard debunked a service calling itself MySafeVPN, after it spammed a database of media player provider Plex. Among the various issues which led people to suspect the service was not entirely legitimate, the companys sign up page had no SSL, its headquarters was traced to a Vietnamese restaurant, and some users reported visiting the website triggered an anti-virus warning.
As the Motherboard story argues, the emergence of operations such as MySafeVPN may well be linked to new US legislation which allows internet service providers to sell users browsing history to the highest bidder.
Konka hopes VPN services reputable ones, that is will see an uptake following the vote, which was passed in the House of Representatives by 215 votes to 205, but is not entirely confident. General awareness around VPNs is likely to rise as a result of the ISP privacy vote, but we cant rely on there being an instantaneous surge in VPN use, he says. When privacy and security are concerned, apathy regularly trumps reason.
For those in the security industry, its a continual goal to make reason trump apathy.
This post is brought to you by TheBestVPN.com. Find out more about them here.
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Why it's still important to educate your employees around cloud security, VPNs, and Wi-Fi - Cloud Tech
IDC: Global cloud IT infrastructure spend hit $32.6 billion in 2016 – Cloud Tech
Vendor revenue from sales of infrastructure products for cloud IT, including server, storage and Ethernet switch, grew to $32.6 billion in 2016 at a 9.2% year on year climb, according to the latest note from IDC.
The missive, which appears in the companys latest quarterly cloud IT infrastructure tracker, found that cloud IT infrastructure sales, as a share of overall global IT spending, was at 37.2% in Q416, up from 33.4% this time last year.
Private cloud infrastructure growth was led by Ethernet switch at 52.7% year on year, ahead of server (9.3% growth) and storage (3.6%). For public cloud, it was a similar story; Ethernet switch (30%) and server (2.4%) grew, while storage declined by 2.1%. Revenue in traditional IT infrastructure in other words, not cloud decreased 9% year over year in the fourth quarter.
Looking at the leading vendors, Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Cisco remain top, albeit with the former two losing market share and revenue year over year, finishing at 17.3% and 14.6% share respectively. Cisco grew 23.1% in revenue and 1.5% market share to 11.3%, while the biggest climbers were Huawei, moving ahead of IBM with a 61.4% revenue growth year on year. IBM, Lenovo and NetApp were tied for fifth.
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Growth slowed to single digits in 2016 in the cloud infrastructure market as hyperscale cloud data centre growth continued its pause, said Kuba Stolarski, IDC research director for computing platforms in a statement. Network upgrades continue to be the focus of public cloud deployments, as network bandwidth has become by far the largest bottleneck in cloud data centres.
After some delays for a few hyperscalers, data centre buildouts and refresh are expected to accelerate throughout 2017, built on newer generation hardware, primarily using Intels Skylake architecture, Stolarski added.
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IDC: Global cloud IT infrastructure spend hit $32.6 billion in 2016 - Cloud Tech
Can Google Challenge Microsoft And Amazon For Cloud Supremacy? – Forbes
Forbes | Can Google Challenge Microsoft And Amazon For Cloud Supremacy? Forbes Market research firm Gartner projects that by 2020, cloud computing will be a $383 billion market. This year, it is expected to grow by 18 percent and it is no wonder cloud players are aggressively making their moves to claim bigger slices of the ... How IBM plans to be the "undisputed leader" of the next cloud phase Beer, bots and broadcasts: Companies start using AI in the Cloud |
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Can Google Challenge Microsoft And Amazon For Cloud Supremacy? - Forbes
Utilizing Cloud Computing for Stronger Healthcare Data Security – HealthITSecurity.com
Source: Thinkstock
As healthcare providers continue to make the switch to digital records and implement EHR capabilities, being able to store information offsite is becoming more important. The digital data also likely needs to remain accessible from multiple locations, which further underlines the need for strong healthcare data security measures.
Cloud computing for healthcare is quickly evolving into a key area for covered entities, as providers are seeking out the best option to keep ePHI secure and not hinder daily operations.
Healthcare providers need to understand the potential cloud computing security concerns, but they should also be aware of the benefits this digital option can bring. Finding a secure solution that does not disrupt physician or staff member workflow and is not an impossible feat for covered entities is key.
Vice President of Commercial Operations & Chief Security Officer for IBM Watson Health Carl Kraenzel told HealthITSecurity.com that the implementation of cloud computing creates both challenges and surprise opportunities for healthcare organizations.
He explained that he has encountered many clients and partners who have struggled with the idea of the cloud, and worried that it might not be as secure or as compliant as they needed.
Ive found that originally there were a lot of people reluctant to get on the cloud for the unknowns associated with that, Kraenzel stated. Fast forward to where we are today, and the majority of businesses in healthcare and outside of healthcare are now familiar with the cloud.
Im seeing more of a tendency for people to look for clouds that they know have those capabilities already for them. Its difficult and challenging to add security capabilities and compliance capabilities within homegrown IT.
Healthcare organizations must also keep up with the changes, such as malware, other cybersecurity threats, and regulatory alterations in a global setting, he added.
Over the last 10 years roughly, there has been a radical change in how clients and partner chief security officers approach cloud vendors, Kraenzel said. Instead of being afraid of cloud, they now expect cloud to give them a better alternative than doing it on their own.
Foley Hoag attorney Colin Zickexplained to HealthITSecurity.com that cloud computing has been around for some time, and it is not a new notion for data to be stored on remote servers. The sooner that people stop thinking about the cloud as a new concept, the better off they will be.
By and large, particularly with the established providers of cloud services Microsoft, Google, Amazon they devote incredible resources to their services, Zick stated. They devote incredible resources to security for those services. Why? Because their reputation is based on it.
In contrast, physical records are difficult to track or replace if they are stolen, he noted. Organizations may not be sure if an unauthorized individual walked off with records or not, as there is no way to trace that.
The good news is that the cloud providers have gotten the message, and they now will sign HIPAA [business associate agreements].
When you think about that in a comparative sense, most anything electronic can be traced and it can be reproduced, Zick stressed. Even if it is improperly accessed. This is an enormous development above where things were.
Zick did recommend that as entities start to look into storing information remotely, they find a vendor that knows what it is doing.
Look at the services agreement, he urged. Understand exactly what the scope of the services are, whos responsible for what, whos indemnifying who, who has insurance, and what your rights to access are with data of backups, and what their rights are to access.
Zick added that the attitude of cloud service providers has also changed over the years, and they now have a greater understanding of what being a HIPAA business associate means.
The good news is that the cloud providers have gotten the message, and they now will sign HIPAA [business associate agreements], he explained. They may not negotiate their HIPAA BAA, but its progress. You can get the appropriate HIPAA BAA protection if you are a HIPAA-covered entity in terms of getting things in the cloud. But like anything, youve got to do your diligence.
Cloud computing can help healthcare organizations improve the strength of tried and true, repeated controls and technologies, noted Kraenzel.
There still is a knee-jerk tendency of people to hear cloud, think public cloud, and think their stuff will be mixed with that of other organizations, he explained. But increasingly, the understanding of multi-tenant, secure, encrypted clouds has created an awareness for all enterprises and healthcare and life sciences providers that there is great benefit of trust, repeatability, and auditability.
Kraenzel used an example of a tenth tenant in a cloud that already has HIPAA and GXP capabilities proven and supporting other production clients. As long as that organization can have that auditability and verifiably show that their data and their activity is kept separate from other tenants, then the cloud now is a better place than a home-grown deployment.
That entity can point at the repeatability and the shared advances in protective technologies that are going in for all the other tenants.
That rigor and robustness allows them to both inspect for the better capabilities that theyd like to see, but also have an assurance that these controls have been stretched, vetted, and tested by multiple other parties, Kraenzel stated.
The 21st Century type of security thinking has also evolved, he pointed out. Previously, the mindset was to go at? it alone. Now, there is a great awareness of the importance of cooperative technology and controls.
The reality is that as healthcare becomes more and more electronic, it's our job as industry leaders to help protect your and my data from being incorrectly used.
Dell Cloud Client-Computing Vice President and Chief Strategy OfficerJeffMcNaught told HealthITSecurity.com that HIPAA regulations tend to drive everything that healthcare does with patient data. Cyber criminals have also turned to medical records as a primary source for their activity, and certain doctors have even reported payments to insurance companies that never occurred.
What happens is the patient now has the record of these procedures being performed in the insurance records, McNaught explained. That affects the patient's medical history and now corrupts that patient's medical history in terms of the insurers and healthcare providers that they speak to after that. One way to prevent that is by better protecting the electronic medical records from attack.
An increasingly popular way to better protect that data is by positioning all that information in a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) server, McNaught stated.
It's supported by companies that you already know; Citrix and Microsoft and VMware, he said. Then we access those servers where all the software is running and all the data is stored with these Thin Client devices. The key to doing a great Thin Client is you want to make it really, really fast so that the experience that someone using one gets is identical to what they get with PC.
McNaught added that organizations need to ensure that this approach is secure. This can be done by relying on the storage and the processing power of the cloud and not having that sensitive data stored on the local device.
The reality is that as healthcare becomes more and more electronic, it's our job as industry leaders to help protect your and my data from being incorrectly used, said McNaught. It is our job to keep our customers in healthcare out of harm's way using terms of the regulatory requirements.
Source: Thinkstock
There are common cloud security concerns, for the healthcare and life sciences industry, as well as other sectors, Kraenzel noted.
Cloud or not, everyone is concerned about insider threats, phishing, and other vectors toward data breaches because of the increasing realization that the classic perimeter defense is highly insufficient, he stressed.
Citing the large-scale Yahoo data breach, Kraenzel explained that approximately 1 billion accounts being hacked likely caused worry across multiple industries.
I know that I, and other officers in the healthcare industry, are worried how many of those users are in healthcare or life sciences? How many use some variant of the same password or secret questions on their work accounts? he inquired.
With cybersecurity attacks such as phishing, or other credentialed breaches, Kraenzel pointed out that there is a great worry that the bad guys are already able to get into a network, or through the perimeter.
With that great worry, combined with general uncertainties about the scope of insider threats, people within the industry are looking for what can they do, he stated. People want to know what should they do in the worst case assumption that the bad guys are already through the door? How do you protect your assets and your clients data, patients data, in that worse case assumption?
Sidley Austin LLP Partner Anna Spencer pointed out potential HIPAA violation concerns that may arise with the use of cloud computing.
One of the most important things for providers to remember is that cloud providers are business associates, Spencer told HealthITSecurity.com.
There was a lot of confusion about the status of cloud computing companies and whether they qualified as business associates, particularly where the data was encrypted in what well call end-to-end, she stated. That means at no point did the cloud provider actually view the data.
OCR has also clarified that those entities are business associates, even if there is end-to-end encryption, Spencer noted, citing OCR guidance from 2016 on cloud computing.
It's clear from the [OCR] guidance that covered entities need to work with their business associate cloud service providers to work in a way that's going to promote the security of the information.
Healthcare organizations need to make sure that they are getting a business associate agreement with their cloud computing vendor, she added.
Collaboration between the covered entity and the cloud provider will also be key, Spencer explained. The two parties need to ensure ePHI is being secured properly and understand where the customer might control who has access to the data, or who can view it through an authentication requirement.
It's clear from the guidance that covered entities need to work with their business associate cloud service providers to work in a way that's going to promote the security of the information, Spencer stated.
She noted one aspect of the OCR guidance that covered entities should heed. If the cloud service provider recommends that the customer implement certain security features and the customer refuses, then the cloud service provider is not responsible for the compliance failures. The compliance failures are then solely attributable to the customer, Spencer pointed out.
If there is a breach or a compliance review, and they find these compliance failures, the implication is that they will take action against the covered entity and not the cloud service provider, Spencer said. This just puts an emphasis on working together to achieve compliance.
Kraenzel recommended that to ensure strong cloud security, organizations should focus on a few key areas. Going beyond the foundational basic tenants of protect, detect, and respond is essential.
Cognitive intelligence, which is what Watson Health utilizes, can help protect the inside of a perimeter. This is a key piece to protecting the inside of the cloud, he said.
Another piece of protecting it is to deploy a combo of encryption key management that is tied with a blast radius analysis, he suggested. By that I mean, you dont put all of your data underneath one encryption key.
Encrypting data should be a baseline measure, he added. However, using multiple encryption keys will help organizations keep their data more secure. That way if one key is compromised, not all of the data is compromised.
You have to have sophisticated, well-oiled key management linked to how your cloud is operated, Kraenzel said.
Decoy techniques can also aid organizations. Even if cyber criminals are able to penetrate a perimeter, they do not necessarily find what they are looking for. Layers of deception can divert an insider threat to the wrong content.
For healthcare and life science compliance, Kraenzel explained that there is a lot of evolution ahead that will be happening both in the US and globally.
If they stay stuck in an old compliance interpretation, they can fall behind competitively and they can fall behind on protecting themselves against new risk factors.
All participants involved in compliance the IT team, the security team, the compliance team, the vendor need to go back to a clear-eyed interpretation of the regulations that form the basis of a policy.
Policies are frequently formed at an institutional or corporate level, and formed by really good compliance people at a certain point in time, Kraenzel said. Then those policies are used as a checkmark list, by say the procurement team or other groups downstream.
While organizations do need to verify that they are compliant, there must be a living interpretation of that document, he stressed.
If they stay static too long, then a company will get stuck in an old interpretation of something, such as data locality, Kraenzel maintained. If they stay stuck in an old compliance interpretation, they can fall behind competitively and they can fall behind on protecting themselves against new risk factors.
Old compliance interpretation can also prevent an organization from adopting cloud for no good reason, Kraenzel added. That entitys competitors might be adopting the cloud, or the industry is, but that organization is lagging behind.
Lagging behind presents business and security risks, Kraenzel stated. Theres plenty thats changing and the compliance team needs to be part of leading the change. Excellent compliance teams get out there and are fighting for the new interpretation that still protects patients, company data, and governmental interests.
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Utilizing Cloud Computing for Stronger Healthcare Data Security - HealthITSecurity.com
This Cloud Computing ETF Is Loaded With FANG Stocks | Stock … – Investor’s Business Daily
It's been years since cloud computing became a technology buzzword, and the buzz hasn't really let up. Now, an ETF that tracks that industry is in IBD's ETF Leaders screen.
First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (SKYY) holds 30 stocks in the cloud business, either providers or heavy users of cloud computing the data and software shared over the internet rather than on PC hard drives.
Some companies in the fund are cloud-computing pure plays, while others are big users or merely provide support for the cloud-computing space, according to First Trust. About 10% of the portfolio is in what the fund calls technology conglomerates, which are large companies "with business models that indirectly utilize or support the use of cloud-computing technology," the prospectus explains.
Amazon.com (AMZN), for instance, got about 15% of sales last year from Web Services, its cloud business that has emerged as a major provider of cloud infrastructure services.
Facebook (FB), Netflix (NFLX) and Amazon are the three biggest holdings. With Alphabet (GOOGL) as another large holding, First Trust Cloud Computing is somewhat of a "FANG" ETF, the term used to describe the four internet giants Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google's parent company, Alphabet.
The FANG stocks are trading near highs and have contributed to the ETF's success. So have other components. SAP (SAP), the German business software company, has made a strong advance since a July bottom. Equinix (EQIX), a real estate investment trust that owns server farms, has advanced well for more than two years, despite a plateau in the second half of 2016.
VMware (VMW) is still recovering from a deep decline. Apple (AAPL) has rallied more than 20% from a Jan. 6 breakout and has been a big contributor to the ETF's gains this year. Adobe Systems (ADBE) has climbed about 18% from a 111.19 entry.
The ETF is trading near record highs. Although it's extended from its most recent breakout in July, shares are just above the 38.45 buy point of a three-weeks-tight pattern. Such formations can be used to buy shares, though they are not as prime opportunities as breakouts from bases. Shares have found support at the 50-day moving average since their run started in July, a positive sign.
First Trust Cloud Computing is up about 12% so far this year. Last year, it climbed 15.4% and had its best year in 2013, when it roared more than 33%. The ETF started trading in 2011. The biggest price decline was 27% in the fund's first year of operation.
Stocks the ETF buys must have a minimum market capitalization of $100 million. The median market cap is $34.3 billion, making it a predominantly big-cap fund.
The IBD ETF Leaders index shows the performance of a model portfolio of exchange traded funds that are leading the overall market. A computer algorithm selects the ETFs based on relative strength and other objective performance ratings, with periodic adjustments for market trends and conditions. The universe from which the ETFs are selected includes the funds listed below.
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This Cloud Computing ETF Is Loaded With FANG Stocks | Stock ... - Investor's Business Daily
Amazon amp; Microsoft: Are These Cloud Computing Leaders in a Growth Slowdown? – Zacks.com
The cloud and cloud computing have become incredible buzzwords. It seems most people are floating around the idea, as the term ambiguously suggests, but dont seem to have a grasp on how the cloud functions.
Believed to be invented by American psychologist and computer scientist J.C.R. Licklider in the 1960s, cloud computing was created to connect data for people between locations and times. Now, this technology has vastly grown and made publicly available by industry leaders Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) and Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) .
What is the Cloud?
In basic terms, cloud computing is accessing and storing data over the Internet. To the end user, benefits of the cloud include: the ability to deliver and manage their own computer resources, scale up or scale down computing levels as needed, and only pay for the amount of computing power they use.
Synergy Research Group shows cloud vendor revenues reached $148 billion in 2016, which accounts for 25% annualized growth. Clearly, this is a vast and fast growing space. Leaders in the movement are changing the traditional notion of accessing data through hardware by introducing the idea of retrieving data through space, or the cloud.
At the end of the day, this data needs to be stored somewhere. Companies which offer cloud computing services allocate massive and secure servers to store the data being held in the cloud. Even though cloud data is not being stored in users personal hard drives, is it held somewhere and may be vulnerable to failures.
With the rate of growth this technology is flying at, it seems cloud computing will soon take over the necessities of personal hard drive space. The two popularly known leaders of the cloud computing business are known to be: Amazon with AWS (Amazon Web Service, Inc) and Microsoft with Azure.
How Fast are the Amazon and Microsoft Growing?
Amazons cloud computing service, AWS, launched in 2006. They advertise themselves to deliver large computing capabilities and capacities which cost less and take less time than a company building physical servers. As of 2016, AWS offers more than 70 services.
Year over Year (Y/Y) growth of AWS sales for Amazon were increasing until, and as of now peaked on, Q2 of 2015 at 81%. Since, AWS revenues have been seeing high growth, but not to the level it once did. In Q4 of 2016, Y/Y net sales growth for AWS was 47%.
A similar story is shown with Microsofts Azure. Y/Y revenue growth (GAAP) of their Azure business capped, to date, in Q2 of 2016 at 127% growth. Just like AWS, the later quarters show sales growth at a decreasing rate with Q4 2016 Y/Y revenue growth (GAAP) at 93%.
So Who Cares?
Two of the leaders in cloud computing platforms have not been able to increase their sales growth of their respective cloud businesses. In an industry which is infamous for how fast it is expanding into the hands of businesses and individuals, these numbers are concerning.
It looks like the maximum potential for Amazons and Microsofts sales growth for their cloud computing businesses have capped. Unless either company releases break through cloud computing technology or breaking price points, their sales growth rates look to continually decrease considering current levels.
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Amazon amp; Microsoft: Are These Cloud Computing Leaders in a Growth Slowdown? - Zacks.com
Okta rings the bell on IPO as shares soar – Cloud Tech
The cloud tech IPO landscape has arguably stalled in recent years with the M&A landscape heating up alongside it but one company looking to buck that trend is identity and management provider Okta, who officially rang the bell today after going public last month.
According to CNBC, the companys shares went up 37% in the aftermath of its public debut, trading at around $23.
Were proud that today is Oktas first day as a public company, a statement from co-founders Todd McKinnon and Frederic Kerrest said. Were all familiar with the Okta saying always on. That includes today, the day of our IPO, and each day that follows. It speaks to the mission-critical nature of our products, and acknowledges the trust that we must build with our customers every single day.
The companys introduction, as per its S-1 form published on March 13, details its customer base more than 2,900 customers in over 185 countries, with 20th Century Fox, Adobe and LinkedIn among the standouts and its cloud-centric focus.
We believe that we have the opportunity to serve the identity needs not just of the largest companies, but of organisations of all sizes that want to safely and securely move to the cloud, the note explains under our opportunity. We estimate that there is at least an $18 billion global opportunity to serve organisations of all sizes by providing an integrated approach to managing and securing all of their internal identities.
Back in February, a report from Byron Deeter, of Bessemer Venture Partners, argued the state of the cloud was in flux last year, but has since roared back. 2016s IPOs in the cloud space Apptio, Blackline, Coupa, Everbridge, and the standout, Twilio represented the lowest figure since the financial crisis of 2008. Yet the various M&A activity alongside that suggested a serious amount of work going on underneath: Microsoft buying LinkedIn;, Oracle buying NetSuite, and so on.
Okta was notably one of the original cloud-based investments made by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). In a post on the venture capital firms blog, Ben Horowitz wrote that Okta has become the cloud identity company (emphasis theirs). Through relentless hard work, determination and ingenuity, they defeated their startup competitors and fulfilled their original vision.
According to the S-1, Oktas revenue grew to $85.9 million in the 2016 fiscal year, putting alongside it net losses of $76.3 million for the same period.
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Okta rings the bell on IPO as shares soar - Cloud Tech