Category Archives: Cloud Storage
Hybrid Cloud: the key to digital transformation? – Gigabit Magazine – Technology News, Magazine and Website
With industry insights provided by Eran Brown, CTO of Infinidat EMEA, Technology Magazine explores the utility and rising popularity of hybrid cloud
It can sometimes be easy to understate the importance of cloud computing and its role in changing the tech landscape. Whilst other aspects of the digital transformation triumvirate (cloud, IoT and AI & analytics) are arguably more tangible in their effect, the scale for connectivity and optimisation across an enterprise is severely restricted without an integrated infrastructure wherein data can be stored and accessed. Hybrid cloud takes this revolutionary technology one step further by allowing companies to synthesize aspects of multiple cloud offerings (both private and public) and create a bespoke solution which addresses their specific needs.
With fewer companies choosing to maintain their own expensive data centres, the wide availability of public cloud offerings - such as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and AWS, amongst others - means that most businesses will be able to secure a package that meets their basic storage needs. Although the lists of features for each provider can stretch into the hundreds, corporations are able to select a cloud which has specialised industry applications (IBM Clouds Watson for IoT) or a general spread of functions. However, if a companys data requirements necessitate more than what one provider can accommodate, hybrid cloud becomes a very attractive possibility. Investing in the on-premises development of a private cloud can be advantageous for those with the resources to make it happen. If this is a possibility, companies need only have a sufficient WAN (wide area network) connection in order to join their selected private and public clouds.
Eran Brown, CTO of Infinidat EMEA, believes that businesses looking to pursue hybrid cloud should do so via careful evaluation of the agility, flexibility, speed-to-market and cost efficiency offered by each option. Companies will need to draw a strategic line between how and when they use public and private cloud for data storage. It will be impacted by the quantity of legacy data to be stored, as well as what data companies want to own or store locally; not all data is suitable for storage in public clouds. What is required, then, is a frank technological assessment of what benefits they are hoping to extract from hybrid cloud, a defined plan for where and why certain data will be stored and an understanding of the financial ramifications. Choosing between on-premises and public clouds should not be driven by hype, Brown enthuses, but rather what will enable units at a cost that is acceptable for the long-term viability of the business.
The economics of data storage, particularly public cloud offerings, can be complicated and its imperative that consumers educate themselves on the short-term and long-term benefits of each clouds payment plan. Storage company Wasabis survey of Azure, Google Cloud and AWS found that customers would pay approximately $0.46, $0.26 and $0.23 per GB per month respectively (note: these prices dont take into account regional variances or added costs).
Whilst no reliable data on the average consumption of businesses generally, industries utilising high-quality video, photographs, long-form documents or other caches of extensive records could soon run up high costs. As data growth continues unabated, larger organisations will be under increased pressure to more clearly understand the cost vs benefit for different storage models as the volume of data expands exponentially, explains Brown. If the solution is combining public cloud with a companys own private infrastructure, what are the costs of doing so? Cloudian has compiled a report estimating that its on-premises data storage hardware will cost 65% less than public cloud. Assuming that such savings can be broadly achieved, companies may be drawn to private cloud as an alternative to public cloud storage which is too expensive to maintain. The cloud has proven not to be as cheap as businesses were, perhaps, expecting it to be, but whats the trade-off? Brown asks. Is converting time-to-market faster more of a business focus than bottom-line operating costs are?
The balance of flexibility, accessibility and cost-efficiency offered by hybrid cloud might account for recent widespread interest in it. Although public cloud offers a convenient off-the-peg solution for those wanting to consolidate their data, private cloud allows for transformational control of the entire framework. However, for the sake of efficiency, businesses should save themselves reinventing the wheel and simply augment a public cloud with the added features necessary to make it representative for their operations. The compatibility of the resulting hybrid will be determined by careful selection of the private clouds basepoint and the public package chosen.
In addition to hybrid is a growing trend towards multi-cloud, a strategic and often complex layering of public, private and hybrid clouds, distributing data across multiple platforms and ensuring that no one cloud asset is overly relied on. Data gravity issues and digitalisation may result in increased interest in multi-cloud solutions which are better able to compete on price, availability and resiliency, says Brown. Presenting far lower risk of DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack, a much more personalised infrastructure, greater reliability and optimised cost efficiency, multi-cloud is the logical next step for those who have already begun exploring the possibilities of hybrid. Hybrid cloud models will continue to provide the most commercially resilient solution, especially for those companies that want to take a cloud-first approach, Brown concludes. A subset of defining a cloud strategy is also to consider that, inadvertently, you are defining what doesnt go across to the cloud.
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Hybrid Cloud: the key to digital transformation? - Gigabit Magazine - Technology News, Magazine and Website
DRaaS vs. cloud DR: What are the differences? – TechTarget
Today, nearly all backup and disaster recovery vendors use cloud services in some way. Even so, there are major differences between cloud DR and disaster recovery as a service.
Prior to the mainstream acceptance of public clouds, organizations that wanted to ensure the continuity of business following a disaster would implement a disaster recovery platform. This meant creating an infrastructure that would enable mission-critical workloads to fail over to either a secondary data center or to a colocation facility. Although this approach worked, its high cost meant that disaster recovery was only an option for the largest companies.
Today, disaster recovery capabilities are far more accessible than they once were because the cloud can be used as an alternative to a secondary data center or colocation facility. As the cloud has matured as a disaster recovery platform, however, two main options for disaster recovery have emerged: cloud DR and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS).
The term cloud DR has historically been somewhat ambiguous. Some publications define cloud DR as the practice of either using the cloud as a backup target or replicating backup snapshots to cloud storage. In reality, these practices are better defined as cloud backup rather than cloud DR.
True cloud DR is based on the idea of being able to fail a workload over to a cloud-based virtual machine in the event of an outage.
True cloud DR is based on the idea of being able to fail a workload over to a cloud-based virtual machine in the event of an outage. Although DRaaS providers do essentially the same thing, there is one key difference between the two techniques. Cloud DR is a do-it-yourself approach to disaster recovery. An IaaS cloud such as AWS or Microsoft Azure takes the place of a secondary data center or colocation facility. It's up to the organization to figure out how to replicate workloads to the cloud and how to initiate a failover should the need arise.
In contrast, DRaaS providers specialize in cloud-based disaster recovery. These providers offer a ready-made platform that automates workload replication and failover. DRaaS providers also commonly offer tools that can help organizations perform a fail back once the cause of the outage has been repaired.
Ultimately, DRaaS and cloud DR are two different approaches with a common result. Even so, neither approach is clearly superior to the other. Rather, there are pros and cons associated with both methods.
The primary advantage to using cloud DR is that it's extremely flexible. Organizations have complete freedom to design a platform that fully addresses all their requirements, even if it means building a disaster recovery platform that spans multiple clouds.
The disadvantage to cloud DR is that it requires significant expertise. The organization's IT staff will need a strong working knowledge of cloud services, disaster recovery techniques, virtual networking and other disciplines.
Conversely, DRaaS tends to be much easier to use but less flexible. DRaaS providers base their entire business on helping their subscribers avoid an outage in times of disaster. As such, these providers will have generally gone to great lengths to create reliable platforms that can be counted on to keep critical workloads running.
There are, however, at least two potential disadvantages to using DRaaS. First, DRaaS is a prebuilt platform, so it isn't as flexible as cloud DR. In fact, some DRaaS providers take a one-size-fits-all approach to protecting their customer's workloads.
A second potential disadvantage is that a DRaaS provider might be ill equipped to handle a large-scale disaster. If an entire region were to be devastated by an unthinkable disaster, then numerous organizations within that region would initiate a DRaaS failover at the same time. The DRaaS provider might not have enough bandwidth or hardware capacity to handle so many simultaneous failovers.
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DRaaS vs. cloud DR: What are the differences? - TechTarget
India IT spending forecast to drop to –4.5% in 2020 due to COVID-19 – InfotechLead.com
India IT spending on hardware, software and services is expected to drop to 4.5 percent in 2020 as compared to 2019 growth rate of +9.1 percent, IDC report said.The hardware segment will contribute the most to this decline.
Growth in Software is expected to drop to 4.1 percent in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, as compared to 2019 growth rate of 16.7 percent as enterprises relook at their buying decisions owing to increased focus on profitability.
Growth in IT services is expected to be almost flat at 6.9 percent in 2020 as enterprises look at maintaining the status quo on IT services contracts.
On the software side, there will be a demand for productivity applications as the remote workforce increases.
Collaborative application vendors are looking at making minor adjustments and offering the premium version through a minimum price subscription model. Apart from collaborative tools, cloud platforms, security solutions, and automation technologies, most of the other applications will post only marginal growth.
On the IT services side, endpoint and network services will witness a stronger demand because of extended remote working options.
Hardware and software implementation or integration services will be slightly impacted because of the non-deployment/non-availability of new hardware or software. Implementation and integration services will be severely impacted.
New outsourcing deals or renewals will be shelved because of financial duress impacting the growth of the managed services market.
IT vendors are gearing up to adapt and transform the way of doing business, in a bid to support their clients during these testing times, says Shweta Baidya, senior research manager, Enterprise Software & IT Services, IDC India.
Solutions such as conferencing and collaboration, secure endpoint and network management, CRM, cloud storage, backup & recovery solutions, and remote support & services will achieve steady rise.
Renewal of IT services contracts will be delayed by a few quarters and organizations will adopt a wait and watch approach for non-critical IT spending.
Indian enterprises are also looking at cloud options for business continuity, infrastructure services, and application management.
Digital transformation has again become the centerpiece for all boardroom discussions as enterprises adjust to a new world in which all businesses are virtual. Enterprises are evaluating software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud models to facilitate business in a digital world, says Sharath Srinivasamurthy, research director, Enterprise Solutions & ICT Practices, IDC India.
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India IT spending forecast to drop to --4.5% in 2020 due to COVID-19 - InfotechLead.com
Windows 10 gets a little more G-shaped: G Suite admins can now manage Microsoft’s OS, and that includes remote wipe – The Register
Sign into Windows with Google, part of the company's effort to manage Windows 10 devices
Google has upped security for business customers using its G Suite package, including Windows 10 administration, data loss prevention rules, and access rules based on where you are and what device you are using.
Remote security is top of mind for many businesses in these days of lockdown, and Google is in some respects better placed than rival Microsoft in that it has adopted a remote model from day one.
On the other hand, Microsoft has adapted and improved its enterprise security and device management tools for the cloud, pushing customers towards its premium Microsoft 365 product, which includes device management for Windows, iOS and Android via its InTune service.
In November 2019, Microsoft said that "System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) and Microsoft Intune are managing 200 million devices."
Google has its own endpoint management tools, though in the past it has been mainly focused on cloud identity controls and its own Android or Chrome devices. The company has now kicked out the full release of its enhanced security for Windows 10, which includes single sign-on, so that users sign into Windows 10 using Google credentials (via Google Credential Provider for Windows 10), and Windows 10 devices can be managed in Google's admin console with features including remote wipe, device configuration, and checking compliance with policies.
"More than 110 million devices are managed by our endpoint management solution," says Google still short of Microsoft's number, but substantial.
Another feature, called "fundamental desktop security", provides the basic benefits of device management as soon as a user logs into G Suite via a web browser on a desktop computer. It is not really device management, however, and is limited to showing "the device type, operating system, first sync time, and last sync time in the Admin console. They [the admin] can also sign the user out from that device."
If merely signing into a browser gave admins device management rights, it would be a breach of browser security. Note also that although Google bragged about this feature in an announcement yesterday, the actual update description says: "Due to COVID-19 related activity, full rollout of fundamental device management has been delayed until later in 2020."
Google is also improving its data loss protection. This technology aims to prevent confidential documents from leaking out of the secure corporate environment. A new feature is an automatic document classification effort based on automatic scanning for keywords in documents in Google's Drive online storage. Sensitive content can trigger alerts and warnings.
Google's Android for Work already isolates corporate data, but the company is now adding iOS copy/paste protection which prevents data being copied to personal accounts via the clipboard. Such controls are valuable for deterring accidental data loss, but determined users can normally find ways round them, for example, by photographing the screen.
The company also now offers an updated Log Viewer for viewing logs, including those of G Suite logs as well as Google Cloud Platform.
Google is probably not the first company that comes to mind for businesses looking to manage Windows 10 devices. Then again, you could say the same for Microsoft with regard to Android. Microsoft's Windows 10 management tools are far more extensive, as you would expect, but Google's new services, along with the option to sign into Windows with a Google account, mean that Google-centric businesses can make Microsoft's operating system more G-shaped than before.
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Australian researchers tap cloud to save the Tasmanian devil – ComputerWeekly.com
With over a third of Australias modern mammals having become extinct in the past two centuries, the countrys researchers are speeding up genomics research to protect endangered animals.
For the past decade, Carolyn Hogg, a senior research manager for the Australasian Wildlife Genomics Group in the University of Sydneys science faculty, has been assembling and annotating genomes for the Tasmanian devil, a rare marsupial that is being threatened into extinction by a contagious cancer.
But identifying the function and location of specific genes in a genome can be laborious and resource intensive. Hogg likened the process to putting together a 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle with no picture to work with.
Solving the puzzle would involve spreading out all the pieces and finding the edges. Slowly, you start to slot bits together, and you contract the space used by the other pieces. Were often working with more than a billion pieces of jigsaw and no guide, she said.
To address the challenge, the University of Sydney teamed up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) on a trial project in 2019 to tap cloud-based services, such as Amazon EC2 and S3 storage, to process, analyse and categorise genomic data.
Within 12 weeks, Hoggs team managed to analyse and process the data in more than 50 data pipelines the same task would have taken longer if they had relied on the universitys high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure.
One of our most commonly employed pipelines used to take us up to a week with HPC because we would have to split it up into different commands and then wait in the queue for each one, said Parice Brandies, a doctoral student on the team who worked on the data pipelines.
And, if there was an error, we would have to start again. Weve got it down to under three hours from start to finish with Amazon, she said.
That said, Hoggs team still uses Australias National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) to crunch certain workloads depending on the size of the data pipeline.
The thing that AWS gives us is the ability to scale the size of the machine quite rapidly to the size of the data that we have, said Hogg. Historically, weve had to look at the size of the data and work out where we can break the pipeline to optimise our processing time.
The genetic research is already being used to support a wildlife conservation programme initiated by the Tasmanian government to maintain a healthy population of Tasmanian devils on Maria Island off mainland Tasmania.
Specifically, Hoggs team did a genetic assessment to ascertain which Tasmanian devils could be put on the island, and subsequently monitored changes in their genes. Then, they identified those that could be moved back to Tasmania to improve the genetic make-up of the diseased animals on the mainland.
The diseased population in mainland Tasmania receives new genes, and that will help them to be more resilient in the future, Hogg said.
Now, Hoggs team is starting a new project to assemble and annotate the genomes of 40 to 50 of Australias most threatened species.
The researchers will be sharing this genome data on the AWS Public Dataset Program, an initiative designed to give researchers anywhere in the world access to scientific datasets, with the aim of accelerating scientific discovery.
At the same time, Hoggs team is planning to put up a database of immune genes in an Amazon S3 bucket that will be publicly searchable by other researchers globally, adding that the current Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic is a testament of the need to better understand genomes.
The reason were able to sequence genomes so quickly during the pandemic and be able to understand the differences between the virus and other species that we can potentially come into contact with is because weve got access to genomic data, she said.
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Australian researchers tap cloud to save the Tasmanian devil - ComputerWeekly.com
China’s information consumption booms in Q1 –
Passengers use mobile apps in a subway train in Beijing. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]
BEIJING -- The fast-expanding information consumption sector has played a vital role in countering the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and advancing the stable development of China's economy during the epidemic period, according to an official Saturday.
In the first quarter of 2020, the country's mobile data traffic consumption soared 39.3 percent from the same period of last year, Li Ying, a senior official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told a press conference.
In March alone, the average household usage of mobile traffic reached 9.5 GB, the highest level in almost a year, reflecting the rapid growth of information consumption, Li added.
During the epidemic period, consumer demand for online medical and education services, as well as food delivery and new retail services, posted explosive growth.
Services such as audio and video conference meetings, telecommuting and cloud storage have accelerated enterprises' efforts in work consumption, according to the official.
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China's information consumption booms in Q1 -
NetApp Architects Application-Integrated Data Management for Kubernetes with Project Astra – IT News Online
IT News Online Staff2020-04-25
NetApp, a provider of cloud data services, has introduced Project Astra, a vision for a software-defined platform that is currently in development with the Kubernetes community. The company said Project Astra will deliver the industry's most robust, easy-to-consume, enterprise-class storage and data services platform for Kubernetes that enables both application and data portability for stateful applications.
Project Astra is being purpose-built for and in collaboration with Kubernetes developers and operations managers to help bridge the fundamental gap that exists between the popularity of containers today, the capabilities and user experience they require, and their ability to deliver true, comprehensive portability. NetApp's vision for Project Astra is to enable companies to work seamlessly with their choice of Kubernetes distribution, on any cloud.
Project Astra leverages the underlying technology delivered through NetApp's public cloud partners and enhances it through Kubernetes-native integration of data services with applications.
NetApp is working with the Kubernetes community to further develop technology that advances the user experience and extends the promise of Kubernetes to data-rich workloads. Together, NetApp and the Kubernetes community are building a platform to help you:- Discover applications with your Kubernetes of choice, whether on your premises or in any cloud- Integrate and unify applications and data management- Deliver NetApp's expertise in data and Kubernetes both as a service and as built-in capabilities- Extend the promise of portability for all workloads, including stateful, data-rich apps
"Project Astra represents the next major step in the evolution of storage and data services for Kubernetes," said Anthony Lye, senior vice president and general manager, Cloud Data Services, NetApp. "We are making a decisive and long-term commitment to addressing the data challenges of Kubernetes, together with the communities and platforms that use it. Project Astra will provide a software-defined architecture and set of tools that can plug into any Kubernetes distribution and management environment."
Project Astra builds on NetApp's experience in enabling customers to manage petabytes of container data with NetApp Trident and NetApp Kubernetes Services and adds a specific focus on the developers and operations managers who are innovating with containers today.
"As the first product manager for Kubernetes with Google back in 2014, I'm thrilled to be at NetApp as we continue to lead the effort to tackle the very real challenges that organizations are facing," said Eric Han, vice president of product management, Cloud Data Services, NetApp. "I've been inspired by the potential of Kubernetes to transform IT services and by the passion of the community that has helped to build Kubernetes to its prominence today. In a few short years, Kubernetes has become the de facto choice in orchestrating container environments. Yet there is still potential, and a need, to further evolve. With Project Astra, NetApp is delivering on the true promise of portability that professionals working with Kubernetes require today and is working in parallel with the community and our customers to make all data managed, protected and portable, wherever it exists."
Kubernetes developers and operations managers who are interested in participating can sign up here.
Amazon’s next best bet to take the $10 billion JEDI cloud deal from Microsoft hinges on a ‘wildcard’ error in the process after a Pentagon…
The months-long dispute between Amazon, Microsoft, and the Department of Defense over a $10 billion cloud computing contract is at a standstill, as the Pentagon reconsiders aspects of its decision to award the deal to Microsoft.
The Department of Defense last year chose Microsoft for its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) deal, a massive cloud project that will store and manage sensitive military and defense data considered by many as an upset for Amazon's market-leading cloud business Amazon Web Services.
Amazon, a regular target of President Donald Trump, challenged the decision in federal court on the basis that its technology is so superior to Microsoft's that the process had to have been affected by political interference. Trump reportedlywanted to "scuttle" the bidding process for JEDI for fear that Amazon Web Services might win.
Microsoft disagrees with Amazon's allegations, saying that its rival is seeking a "do-over" after losing the deal fair and square.
The Pentagon's inspector general dealt a blow to Amazon's claims when it recently cleared the JEDI decision, despite saying it couldn't fully investigate Trump's role because the White House barred key witnesses from cooperating. The report cited ethical violations on behalf of Pentagon officials, but said they ultimately didn't impact the decision.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit is on hold while the Pentagon reevaluates its decision and is scheduled to resume later this summer.
Now, according to experts, if Amazon has any shot at the contract, it lies with whether a seemingly small error by the Department of Defense is indicative of a flawed procurement process and how eager the Pentagon is to get to work on the contract.
In its challenge to the Pentagon's decision, Amazon blamed President Donald Trump's "repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks" and alleged Trump influenced the Pentagon's decision in order to serve "his own personal and political ends" and harm Bezos, "his perceived political enemy."
In one allegation, a former Defense Secretary James Mattis staff member wrote a book in which he said Trump ordered Mattis to "screw Amazon" out of the contract in the summer of 2018.
Asked whether Trump told him he didn't want Amazon to get the contract, Mattis told the Pentagon inspector general: "I don't recall that. It could have happened but I just don't recall those words. Again, I knew his dissatisfaction with Amazon. I mean I knew that loud and clear."
The Pentagon inspector general investigated, and released the results in a recent report, clearing the Defense Department's decision to give the award to Microsoft.
Amazon, which declined an interview for this story, blasted the conclusion, calling it "yet another blatant attempt to avoid a meaningful and transparent review of the JEDI contract award," in a recent statement to Business Insider.
The inspector general did, however, find Pentagon officials made ethical violations, but in the end the office decided they did not influence the outcome of the contract.
"I can't think of another procurement ever where the nonstop litany of inappropriate ethical behavior and conflicts of interest produced such a steady drumbeat," said Steven Schooner, a George Washington University professor who is considered a top expert in government procurement law.
The investigation concluded Pentagon official Deap Ubhi was negotiating a job with Amazon while working on the JEDI contract. He failed to disclose the employment negotiations to department officials, according to the report, and "lied three times to Amazon and DoD officials about his negotiations with Amazon for employment." The inspector general concluded Ubhi's involvement was early and brief and did not impact the outcome of the process.
The report also finds that another Pentagon official, Stacy Cummings, failed to disclose she owned as much as $50,000 worth of Microsoft stock when she participated in meetings and made recommendations related to the contract, but the Pentagon inspector general concluded the conflict did not impact the award decision.
While the Pentagon inspector general's findings dealt a blow to Amazon's claims of political interference, Amazon likely took some comfort in the fact that a federal judge ruled that its lawyers will likely be able to prove the Department of Defense made an error in evaluating an aspect of Microsoft's proposal and that the error affected the outcome.
When the Department of Defense solicited bidders for JEDI, a requirement for one aspect of the proposal was for online storage to be "highly accessible." Amazon alleges Microsoft's proposal did not meet that requirement.
That might seem like a small thing, but Amazon alleges it should have been enough to eliminate Microsoft from the competition. The judge said Amazon is likely to be able to prove the DoD improperly evaluated Microsoft's proposal, and that Amazon's "chance of securing the award was not insubstantial absent the error."
The error is what drove the Pentagon to request a remand of the case, which a federal judge this month granted, pausing the dispute for 120 days until August. Amazon opposed the remand, arguing the Pentagon intends only to give Microsoft a do-over.
Microsoft, which declined an interview for this story, has said the judge focused on one small aspect of the JEDI contract, and said Microsoft the Department of Defense carefully evaluated the proposal based on many factors and selected Microsoft's as "significantly superior."
Schooner, the government procurement expert, said those kinds of errors are relatively common and unlikely related to any allegations of political interference. Amazon's case in some respects now lies whether this apparent error is just one example of flaws in the procurement process.
"The biggest wildcard in all of this is we don't know," he said. "Amazon's fear is that it's just the one thing, because if it's the one thing, the DoD could be capable of getting around that."
Putting pressure on all of this is the judge's decision to delay the start of the contract until the legal dispute is resolved. Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst and close watcher of the JEDI dispute, said that could force the Pentagon's hand.
The Pentagon has spent years on the procurement process to find a cloud vendor, and the contract is for 10 years.
"It's a quagmire for the DoD because it's such an important initiative," Ives told Business Insider. "Ultimately, the DoD potentially could be forced in terms of just wanting to get this thing rolling or just continuing to battle Amazon in the courts."
Are you an Amazon Web Services or Microsoft employee?Contact this reporter via email atastewart@businessinsider.com, message her on Twitter @ashannstew, or send her a secure message through Signal at 425-344-8242.
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Amazon's next best bet to take the $10 billion JEDI cloud deal from Microsoft hinges on a 'wildcard' error in the process after a Pentagon...
Pixel 3A vs. Moto G7: Which one’s the better budget buy? – CNET
With their $400 price tags, recently announced phones like the2020 iPhone SEand theGalaxy A51give many cost-conscious users more options to choose from. But the launches of new affordable phones also mean additional discounts on older phones that debuted last year. This includes Motorola'sMoto G7, which was originally $300 and now goes for $200. Back when it launched, we compared the Moto G7 with Google's Pixel 3A, which is still priced at $399 (399, AU$649).
Because both handsets offer a lot of the same great camera, battery and design features as their high-end rivals, we considered two of our favorite wallet-friendly phonesfrom 2019 in categories like camera performance, specs, battery life and all-around design to determine which one is a better deal for you.
Read:Pixel 3A: I 'dumbed' down my phone and didn't last 24 hours
Though the Pixel 3A is objectively the "better" phone, the Moto G7's $200 price tag makes it an outstanding deal. Even before the deeply discounted price, it earned our CNET's Editors' Choice Award. The phone has a sleek design, a large screen and expandable storage, which is especially useful if you take lots of photos and video but don't like the idea of storing everything on a cloud.
If you want even more battery life, consider the Moto G7 Power. It's a contender forthe longest battery life of any phone we tested in 2019, clocking in 23 hours and 10 minutes of continuous video playback in Airplane mode). It also has a lot of the same great features as the traditional G7. Read our Motorola Moto G7 review.
If you're not on a tight budget, the Pixel 3Ais a great phone. But considering how much you'd now save on the Moto G7 and the arrival of newer 2020 budget phones, it may be best to wait for Google to slash the price on the Pixel 3A andPixel 3A XL. Though it shaves off a few features from 2018's Pixel 3 (it's not water-resistant, it doesn't have wireless charging and it maxes out at 64GB of storage), the Pixel 3A has a solid camera, a headphone jack and longer battery life and a faster processor than the Moto G7. Read our Google Pixel 3A review.
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If camera is your main priority when you're looking for a phone, this is likely where your search would end because there is a clear winner here: the Pixel 3A.
This is true even though the Pixel 3A has a single 12.2-megapixel camera on the back, while the Moto G7 has two cameras: one 12-megapixel camera and a 5-megapixel depth camera. And both phones have an 8-megapixel selfie camera on the front.
The Pixel 3A sets a high bar for the Moto G7, since it has the same camera as the more expensive Pixel 3. The Pixel 3 has consistently been one of our top performers in previous camera comparisons (at least for stills). That said, the G7 didn't lag too much when it came to general photography.
Digital zooming on Alcatraz with the Pixel 3A (left) and the Moto G7 (right).
Taking a photo in low light with the Pixel 3A's Night Sight feature (left) and the Moto G7 (right).
Taking a portrait photo of Charlie the dog with the Pixel 3A (left) and the Moto G7 (right).
Taking a portrait photo with the front-facing camera on the Pixel 3A (left) and the Moto G7 (right).
In near-perfect conditions, it's a nearly even playing field. The Pixel 3A has better dynamic range than the Moto G7 (especially with the HDR Plus enhancement enabled), but the G7 has a slightly cooler color temperature, which looks great on landscapes. For anything else, however, you'll notice a stark contrast in quality. Night shots and lowlight pictures on the Moto G7 are grainy with a lot of noise in the background, and portraits taken with the second camera look a bit blown out and unnatural. The Pixel 3A crops in closer for portraits, but shows a lot more detail in the subject and the transition from background to foreground looks a lot more natural. Plus you can adjust the intensity of the blur if it ever goes overboard with the effect.
It's in these difficult scenarios where the Pixel 3A really shines. Its low-light mode, Nightsight, excels at lighting up dim settings and smoothing out images so that it looks as if you can see in the dark. HDR Plus Enhanced mode tackles tricky lighting scenarios by rendering a great image from several different exposures. And while digital zoom will always have some degree of graininess and digital noise, the Pixel 3A's zoom works much better than the Moto G7's. We were also impressed by how well the Pixel 3A pulls off portrait shots with just a single lens. Foregrounds remain sharp and richly detailed, while the falloff between them and the background looked smooth.
One nifty feature that the Pixel 3A has out of the box is time-lapse video. The videos were clear and steady overall, and we like the way you can change the time intervals and see how long the video will be as you record it. But it isn't perfect, and the recording looked muddier and grainer than the timelapse on the iPhone XR.
Video in general isn't a strong suit for either one of these phones, but the Pixel 3A still comes out on top. The results won't be as obvious when watching them on their respective phone screens, but once you take them off the camera, you'll notice video on the Pixel 3A looks a lot sharper and clearer. The Moto G7 oversaturates colors and increases contrast to compensate for the lack of detail, but can look unnatural as a result.
The Moto G7 also lacks optical image stabilization. This makes its tracking shots look jerky compared with the smoother quality of the Pixel 3A, which has both optical and digital image stabilization. OIS is also the reason why the Pixel 3A works so well in low light. While video and stills look dark and grainy on the G7, on the Pixel 3A they're sharper and brighter.
As for the front-facing camera, both phones can take portrait-mode photos. And while we liked how the Moto G7 made skin tones look warmer, the Pixel 3A's camera is just sharper and retains more details. Lighting was also more even on the Pixel 3A, whereas the Moto G7 had a tendency to overexpose or blow out light sources.
There is one possible workaround for the Moto G7 that could improve your photos if you're willing to try it out, and that's installing the Google camera app (Gcam APK), which basically layers the Pixel 3A's camera onto the existing G7 camera interface along with some of the software features that make the Pixel 3A's camera great. The procedure isn't as easy as simply downloading an app, but it improves the camera significantly and the results are worth it.
Winner: The Google Pixel 3A. Even with the APK workaround, the Moto G7's camera is no match for the Pixel 3A's.
Both phones have a 3,000-mAh battery, but the Pixel beat the Moto G7 by about 3.5 hours during our testing, which consists of playing a video on a continuous loop in Airplane mode. To be more exact, the Pixel lasted 16.5 hours, while the G7 died after about 12.8 hours. Both phones offer their own version of fast charging (the Pixel with Fast Charge and the Moto G7 with Turbo Charge), but neither has wireless charging.
The Pixel 3A has a 2GHz Snapdragon 670, while the Moto G7 has a 1.8GHz Snapdragon 632 processor. Though you won't notice it unless you have both phones right next to one another, the Pixel 3A is a tad faster at loading apps and running multiple programs than the Moto G7. The Pixel 3A also edges out the Moto G7 when it comes to processing power and came out on top during all four of our benchmark tests.
There were some cases where the Pixel 3A did take a beat or two longer. Though Google reoptimized the OS to work with the Snapdragon 670 chipset, the things that needed extra processing time on the Pixel 3 also felt like they took the same amount of time on the 3A. That includes HDR Plus Enhanced, Night Sight and screen flash for the front-facing camera.
Winner: The Pixel 3A is a faster phone with longer battery life.
Though the Pixel 3A has a smaller, 5.6-inch display, its OLED screen is brighter and more vibrant than the Moto G7's 6.2-inch LCD screen. It's easier to view in sunlight, blues and greens pop more and blacks are inkier. The color shift is also more severe on the Moto G7. When viewing both phones from the side, the screen washes out more dramatically on the Moto G7. But you can really only notice these differences when holding the phones side by side. If you're just handling the Moto G7 alone, you won't have any gripes about its display.
Both phones have a fingerprint scanner on the back and a headphone jack. The Pixel 3A has the familiar design of the Pixel 3. It's small, lightweight and comfortable to navigate. But unlike the original Pixel 3, it has a plastic back that makes it look and feel cheaper in the hand than the all-glass Moto G7.
The glass on the back of the Moto G7 has a subtle curve on the edge reminiscent of Samsung's Galaxy phones. And the nearly bezelless display gives it a high-end feel on the front as well. The G7 has a tiny dewdrop notch on the top for the front camera, while the Pixel 3A has two thick bezels on the top and bottom of the phone to house the camera.
The downside of having all that glass though, is that the Moto G7 is prone to smudges on either side. It also feels more fragile than the Pixel 3A. On both sides it's covered in Corning's Gorilla Glass 3, which is a few generations behind the current Gorilla Glass 6 that's on a lot of the high-end flagships like the Galaxy S10. The front of the Pixel 3A is covered in Asahi's Dragontrail Glass, a Gorilla Glass alternative that we haven't drop-tested yet.
But if you're more prone to spills than drops, the Moto G7 is the one of these two phones that offers some kind of water protection. It's water- and dust-repellent, according to Motorola, while the Pixel 3A has no official rating.
Winner: The all-glass Moto G7 edges out the Pixel 3A's plastic exterior, although we do like the OLED screen and purplish color option on Google's phone.
Both phones run Android, but the Pixel 3A has a bit of Google's UI layered on top, while the Moto G7 has a few features exclusive the Motorola phone. Given this, both remain pretty true to the stock version of Android, which we love.
Some of the Motorola UI features we like on the Moto G7 include a standby feature that shows you the time and lock screen if you wave your hand over it while the phone is lying screen-side-up, and automatically switches to "do not disturb" mode when you flip it over. On the annoying side of the spectrum is the Moto G7's jingle, which seems to be programmed to play every minute if you forget to put the phone on silent or vibrate. (OK, maybe not every minute, but it plays every time there's an update or notification.)
Both phones serve up a near-stock version of Android.
The Pixel 3A, on the other hand, has AR walking navigation in Google Maps right out of the box. By overlaying navigational directions right on the screen in real time, you can begin orienting yourself as soon as you start walking directions in Maps, which is quite useful. If you have a terrible sense of direction (like we do), it's a good tool to have. But the feature isn't exclusive to the Pixel 3A and it has rolled out to other Android phones as well.
Both phones also offer 64GB of onboard storage, but only the Moto G7 has a microSD card slot to expand it locally. Google offers free cloud storage for Pixel 3A users, but it doesn't store photos at their original quality but rather "high" quality, which isn't as large.
Winner: Tie. The Moto G7 has expandable storage, but the Pixel will be the first to get Android updates.
Note*: Prices at launch
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Pixel 3A vs. Moto G7: Which one's the better budget buy? - CNET
What you can cancel without penalties during lockdown to save money – Mirror Online
While Britain is locked down everything from gyms to schools, restaurants and stadiums are closed, while travel is restricted to essential journey's only.
But what happens if you are paying for a subscription, membership or season ticket that is now effectively useless?
In some cases ditching annual membership could cost you more when time comes to re-start your subscription, in other cases there could be an exit fee or a black mark on your credit report.
But not in every case.
Chances are you can save a packet by going through your bank or credit card details and having a cull of what you dont need.
But, fist, a quick ethical message. Before you start deleting, have a think about the business thats receiving the cash.
Can it fend for itself or might it benefit from a bit of largesse on your part (if you can afford it?).
However, there are also things it makes no sense to pay out for any more - lockdown or no lockdown.
There are two main categories when it comes to saving some cash:
Things you havent authorised or should have been cancelled - This can include things like old insurance policies for a mobile phone you no longer have but didnt realise you were paying for or packaged bank accounts, where you didnt want or need the extras.
Things you dont need any more - This can include subscriptions, memberships and services that you arent taking full advantage of.
This is what to look for.
We use and stream so much data without fully understanding the technology - so many of us panic and just click to accept cloud, streaming services and other digital services. After all, its only a few quid a month, right?
Ok, so you dont want to lose all your photos in a tech failure, but you only really need one cloud storage service. Same goes for music streaming services, which are also often duplicated.
With streaming sites charging around 15 a month and other services not far off, youre wasting loads of cash.
If youre paying for two cloud services and two music streaming services and you reduce that to one each, you could save up to 400 a year.
If you check out your email inbox (if you can bear it) youll find many a message from the various services you subscribe to.
Many will be offering you deals to not cancel your regular payment.
Take a bit of time to look them over. Ive seen some gym upgrade deals that are pretty good for keeping the monthly payments going.
But ultimately, if money is tight or youve just reached the point when you want a clear out youre usually able to cancel most subscriptions these days with around a months notice at most.
Gyms used to be a nightmare for this, but things have improved significantly since the dark days of three months notice.
However, if you feel youre being significantly penalised financially and you were misled when you took out the agreement you can pursue a formal complaint.
The arts and media need your support more than ever at this difficult time.
So keep that paper subscription up and support your local theatre and arts venues too.
Lurking on your statements may be one-off payments or sneaky monthly subscriptions.
You may have signed up to free trials and forgotten to cancel, or tried out a service but you simply dont use it. These payments dont appear on your regular payment lists so you have to trawl through your accounts to find them.
Go back a year and one month, which will allow for every annual payment to be tracked down.
If you didnt authorise these payments, werent told you were going to be debited or you think youve been scammed, your bank can cancel them right away and you might even get a refund.
Contracts for things like insurance, broadband and mobile phones can have have significant penalties for pulling out of mid-term with broadband and mobile phones being the biggest offenders.
Insurance contracts also catch people by surprise as they are an annual contract where theres one price each year that is split in to twelve chunks.
No-one really gets why this is, but it does mean that youll have to pay a variable fee to bail early. Beat this by saving the renewal dates in your diary a month in advance so youve got time to shop around and jump ship.
However, if youve been overcharged by a business as a result of staying loyal compare your current payments to what youd be charged as a new customer (without the initial offers). You may be able to claim back quite a bit of cash.
Millions of us are paying for insurance policies that we dont use or need.
Check your regular payments and debits from your bank account - you may be surprised to spot a mobile phone insurance policy for a phone youve upgraded years ago that youre still being charge for.
Or you might find an expensive gadget insurance policy is much cheaper if you update your home insurance ditch it! You could be able to claim back hundreds if youve been overcharged if you asked for an insurance policy to be cancelled.
And if you have a packaged bank account and youre over 70, then your insurance is unlikely to cover you and you might get some cash back.
The Mirror has covered the problems that people seeking refunds for airline and packaged holidays have encountered extensively.
But what about trains and other forms of transport? As a general rule, if you cant travel, you may be offered a refund, however, other firms are only offering vouchers.
Well have to take this to the T&Cs for each company ultimately to see if thats fair, but dont assume its automatic contact the travel firm and ask how to claim.
Season tickets do have refund policies if youre unable to use them for extended periods, but again, they all vary so youll need to check out the website for the latest guide.
Bear in mind that you dont know how long youll have to claim for yet, so check out how the process works but hold fire.
Online accounts are great, but it means weve become less vigilant about checking our spending.
Yet there are countless errors that can occur on bank and credit card statements, from duplicated transactions, services that you cancelled that are still being billed and honest-to-goodness errors.
If you spot anything you dont recognise, ask your bank or card provider to charge back the money.
You might have to sign a statement saying you didnt authorise the payment but usually theres no delay. There are time limits though, so dont hesitate.
Most of us have been cajoled/persuaded/told to drop paper statements from utility companies. The same goes for mobile phone services.
Chances are you might not need the full package youre on and could instantly save be reducing it.
Phone bills also hide a range of charges you might not have been aware of. These can include data roaming charges that you might not have realised you were paying when on holiday, premium rate text services (up to 5 each) after you agreed to let a firm send you notifications and other disputed charges.
Have a scoot through the bill and flag up anything you havent authorised.
The Phone Paid Services Authority can help if you arent happy with the response from the firm.
Making a few savings can really help you make your cash go further, but remember that businesses are super busy these days, so for non-urgent enquiries take your time and try to avoid tying up phone lines where possible.
And be friendly even if youre frustrated. A bit of kindness goes a long way.
If you need any help or support throughout the lockdown, were here for you at Resolver http://www.resolver.co.uk
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What you can cancel without penalties during lockdown to save money - Mirror Online