Bitcoin LIVE news: Price latest as top investor warns cryptocurrency is an ‘unfounded FAD’ – Express.co.uk

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin

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Investor Howard Marks, who predicted the financial crisis and dotcom bubble implosion, warned that cryptocurrency is a nothing more than a fad or pyramid scheme style scam.

He said: In my view, digital currencies are nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it.

The co-chairman of Oaktree Capital, compared cryptocurrencies to the Tulip mania of 1637, the South Sea bubble of 1720 and the internet bubble of 1999.

In an investor letter, he said: Serious investing consists of buying things because the price is attractive relative to intrinsic value.

Speculation, on the other hand, occurs when people buy something without any consideration of its underlying value or the appropriateness of its price."

Bitcoin suffered a crash earlier this month but has since bounced back and is now up by almost nearly 160 per cent this year.

On Wednesday Bitcoin briefly fell as low as $2,433.83, its lowest price since the cryptocurrency dramatically rebounded last week.

The volatile digital currency saw a surge last Thursday after miners backed a new upgrade of the system designed to solve the cryptocurrencys scaling issue.

CoinDesk

Although Bitcoin narrowly avoided a fork this month, there are still concerns that digital currency is at risk of splitting into two versions.

Here is the latest Bitcoin news, prices and live updates (All times BST).

1pm:The value of Bitcoin is rising.Today's high is $2,822.24 andtoday's low is $2,682.87, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin opened at$2,697.47.

8.30am: Hong Kong-based digital currency exchange Bitfinex claims that a minority of Bitcoin miners will be "forking" to create a new blockchain called Bitcoin Cash on August 1.

A "fork" is when a blockchain splits into two potential paths. Bitfinex said the fork does not impact Bitcoin balances, but it creates a new token.

Midnight: Thursday'shigh was $2,715.69 and its low was $2,541.71, according to CoinDesk. Bitcoin opened at $2,550.18 and closed at $2,697.47.

9.15pm: The provider of a publicly traded bitcoin exchange-traded note (ETN) has been fined more than 93,000 ($120,000) by Nasdaq Stockholm for infractions of exchange rules and financial regulations.

The stock exchange's Disciplinary Committee announced that it had levied the fine because the company, XBT Provider, violated provisions in its Internal Rule Book and certain regulations of the Financial Instruments Trading Act.

Among those violations, according to the statement, were "failing to ensure that the risk function reports to the board" and "failing to implement an audit of the company's internet and IT security."

The release also pointed to infractions related to annual reporting requirements.

CoinDesk

8.20pm:Bank of America Managing Director Francisco Blanch thinks that Bitcoin cannot successfully expand around the world without being subjected to some regulatory guidelines.

He says: "A key step for Bitcoin would be for it to become pledgeable collateral.

However, large inherent risks to digital tokens such as fraud, hacking, theft, new protocol adoption, limited acceptance and that it is not legal tender many places in the world make it an unlikely development."

Mr Blanchs position is supported by other financial services industry players like Morgan Stanley.

However, the efforts by several governments around the world to regulate the digital currencies have been relatively unsuccessful so far.

CoinDesk

11.30am: Bitcoin briefly fell below $2,500 on Tuesday and Wednesday. Last Thursday the price rose sharply after most developers backed BIP 91, a upgrade to the bitcoin system.

The BIP 91 lock-in was hailed as a victory as miners agreed to cement the first part of a larger effort to upgrade bitcoin, called Segwit2x.

Alex Sunnarborg, research analyst at CoinDesk, told CNBC: "I believe the market is currently somewhat torn between the optimism around BIP 91 locking in, which could lead to SegWit activating if all goes smoothly, and the fear of the second half of SegWit2x proposal, the 2MB block size hard fork, still being contested.

9am:A US jury has indicted a Russian man as the operator of a digital currency exchange he allegedly used to launder more than $4 billion for people involved in crimes ranging from computer hacking to drug trafficking.

Alexander Vinnik was arrested in a small beachside village in northern Greece on Tuesday, according to local authorities.

AFP Getty

US officials described Vinnik in a Justice Department statement as the operator of BTC-e, an exchange used to trade the digital currency bitcoin since 2011.

They alleged Vinnik and his firm "received" more than $4 billion in bitcoin and did substantial business in the US without following appropriate protocols to protect against money laundering and other crimes.

US authorities also linked him to the failure of Mt. Gox, a Japan-based bitcoin exchange that collapsed in 2014 after being hacked.

Vinnik "obtained" funds from the hack of Mt. Gox and laundered them through BTC-e and Tradehill, another San Francisco-based exchange he owned, they said in the statement.

8.30am: According to Sheba Jafari, head of technical strategy at Goldman Sachs, bitcoin needs a "few more swings" before the upward trend continues.

"Anything above 3,000 (Jun 13th high) will suggest potential to have already started wave V, which again has a minimum target at 2,988 and scope to reach 3,691 (the latter being a preferred target as this assumes a new high)," Ms Jafari wrote in a note to clients.

Goldman Sachs said Bitcoin is "still within the limits of a well-defined range", adding: "At this point, it seems reasonable to assume that the market is in a corrective process until there's been real evidence of an impulsive advance."

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Bitcoin LIVE news: Price latest as top investor warns cryptocurrency is an 'unfounded FAD' - Express.co.uk

What Does Net Neutrality Mean for the Future of Cryptocurrency? – Futurism

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin

Net Neutrality

Americans are slowly realizing the significance of the potential consequences of the FCCs current net neutrality regulations being repealed. These regulations once protected small businesses and content providers from intrusion by private, monopolistic internet service providers (ISPs), such as Verizon and Comcast. Before net neutrality, ISPs could disrupt, slow, and even censor content on the internet without any liability. This controversy reached its climax in 2007 when Verizon was exposed for blocking group chat conversations coming from a large pro-choice abortion group. However, many defenders of net neutrality are currently overlooking the political dynamic between net neutrality and the development of cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have greatly benefited from past net neutrality regulations. Bitcoins price has increased 300 percent since Obamas regulations were put in place in February 2015. This growth has been attributed to many factors, including the governments of Japan and China becoming more tolerant of cryptocurrency use. Not to mention countless initial coin offerings (ICOs) also hitting the worldwide market. The last two years have been the most profitable and evolutionary period for cryptocurrencies since their inception. However, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been in the middle of a financial bubble, and a series of interventions from ISPs could force that bubble to implode which may not be a bad thing. Without net neutrality regulations, ISPs can function without any accountability. What that will mean for cryptocurrencies remains yet unknown.

Its no secret that many American corporations lean staunchly conservative, and would happily wipe out a disruptive technology that works against their interests something like cryptocurrencies. ISPs and the U.S. government maintain close ties, something which has become increasingly obvious in the past few months. The appointment of former Verizon lawyers such as Ajit Pai, as the head of the FCC is just one example, and state policies continue to keep 60 percent of Americans confined to just a single internet provider option.

The concentration of power amongst ISPs allows the government to more effectively regulate and influence the internets evolution. When and if cryptocurrencies are viewed as a problem by the U.S. government, the internet service provider will be looked at to find the solution. Under the current status quo, Bitcoin will not be considered as an alternative monetary system because it is too difficult to control and tax. Not to mention that Congress position on virtual currencies is still unclear, and interpretations of the Stamp Payments Act of 1862 may provide Congress with the legal footing to leverage against cryptocurrencies.

The Act states that:

Whoever makes, issues, circulates, or pays out any note, check, memorandum, token, or other obligation for a less sum than $1, intended to circulate as money or to be received or issued in lieu of lawful money of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

A simple way in which an ISP can affect the attractiveness of cryptocurrency investment is by slowing down broadband speeds of blockchain sites, which would in turn slow down transaction speeds. Yet, the speed (or lack thereof) of transactions has seemingly had zero effect on investment. Thus, cryptocurrencies themselves arent necessarily at risk unless ISPs conduct structural attacks on blockchain servers. By nature, blockchains are immune to human intervention. However, the internet provider holds the ability to implement a partition or delay attack. These attacks could effectively create a blackhole, where all bitcoin transactions are lost and made impossible to track. This could lead to wasted processing power and doubled spending for miners. However, these concerns are coming from the lawyers and businessmen, not the engineers.

Engineers see this problem as a perfect example of why blockchain was designed the way it was. To them, repealing net neutrality regulations would invite the possibility of having to reposition themselves back onto an I2P network, like Kovri.

Net neutrality while it does embody the decentralization mantra of blockchainis far from a requirement for the functionality of blockchain. The future of the monetary system is a global currency free from human intervention. If Bitcoin fails to survive the coming storm, it would be because of structural errors not ISP intervention. In addition, if the ISPs start a war against blockchain and cryptocurrencies, the internet may experience an accelerated evolution of decentralization. In the context of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, net neutrality may be a blessing in disguise, forcing further development in the industry.

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Wikileaks: CIA targets Red Hat with hacking tool – WRAL Tech Wire

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin

Updated Jul. 28, 2017 at 8:49 a.m.

Published: 2017-07-28 08:47:00 Updated: 2017-07-28 08:49:21

By RICK SMITH, WRAL TechWire Editor

Raleigh, N.C. The top software product from Raleigh-based Red Hat is the target of a hacking tool developed by the CIA, according to documents published by WikiLeaks.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is one of the world's most popular software platforms used by global financial firms, and services related to RHEL is among Red Hat's most profitable revenue streams. Red Hat is the world's best-known developer of Open Source Linux software.

WikiLeaks says Red Hat's RHEL was targeted under a CIA program called "Imperial."

National Security Agency-born hacking programs were utilized in two major global ransomware attacks, according to researchers.

The program taking aim at RHEL is called Aeris, perhaps named after a character in the Final Fantasy VII game. And it appears to be quite dangerous. (An image of Aeris from the game is included with the "users guide" Wikileaks published.)

"The malware includes features for data exfiltration and can be used to build customized attacks," says tech news site Inquirer.

Led by Julian Assange, WikiLeaks did not identify the source of the latest document dump.

"RELEASE: CIA 'Aeris' implant targeting Debian, Red Hat, Solaris, FreeBSD and Centos users," WikiLeaks declared in a tweet on Thursday.

The targets

The software targets two versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Red Hat calls RHEL"the leading open source platform for modern datacenters" and says it "delivers military-grade security, 99.999% uptime, support for business-critical workloads, and so much more. Ultimately, the platform helps you reallocate resources from maintaining the status quo to tackling new challenges. It's just 1 reason why more than 90% of Fortune Global 500 companiesuse Red Hat products and solutions."

According to Wikileaks, Aeris is an "automated implant" that "supports automated file exfiltration."

Written in "C" programming language, Aeris also targets other software: Debian, Solaris, FreeBSD and CentOS.

Wikileaks adds that Aeris is "similar" to "implants" also used to penetrate Windows systems.

WRAL TechWire has reached out to Red Hat for reaction.

The full explanation

Here's the description about Aeris as published by Wikileaks:

"Aeris is an automated implant written in C that supports a number of POSIX-based systems (Debian, RHEL, Solaris, FreeBSD, CentOS). It supports automated file exfiltration, configurable beacon interval and jitter, standalone and Collide-based HTTPS LP support and SMTP protocol support - all with TLS encrypted communications with mutual authentication. It is compatible with the NOD Cryptographic Specification and provides structured command and control that is similar to that used by several Windows implants."

Other hacking tools

Aeris is one of three tools unveiled by WikiLeaks in its latest expose, include one that penetrates Apple Mac operating systems.

The tools are called "Achilles" and "SeaPea."

"Achilles is a capability that provides an operator the ability to trojan an OS X disk image (.dmg) installer with one or more desired operator specified executables for a one-time execution," Wikileaks says.

"SeaPea is an OS X Rootkit that provides stealth and tool launching capabilities. It hides files/directories, socket connections and/or processes. It runs on Mac OSX 10.6 and 10.7."

Chelsea Manning: President Trump, Trans People in the Military Are … – New York Times

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin

What does this mean? Well, for now we dont exactly know, since it is clear that the presidents tweets were not exactly well thought out. But it could mean that trans people will have to pack up and go home for pretty much no reason other than you cant stay here. For no other reason than, we feel like using you as political pawns today, or we dont understand you, or you simply are not welcome here.

Money is the excuse today. It was supposed to be expensive to provide trans people with adequate health care. The reality is that the costs are negligible. Military spending wastes billions of dollars on projects that are canceled or dont work, every day.

Medicine was the old excuse. The old military regulations were laced with medical terms to justify discrimination. They psychopathologized us trans people as having manifestations of paraphilias, and psychosexual conditions, transsexual, gender identity disorder to include major abnormalities or defects of the genitalia such as change of sex or a current attempt to change sex, that would render an individual administratively unfit to serve.

These old regulations could come back. The rhetoric about trans people having mental disorders could come back, too. Its the same thing we see in state houses across the country. Trans people are mentally ill. We are predators. We are the ethereal enemy of the moment. Even though there is a medical consensus, a legal consensus, a military consensus that none of this is true.

This is about bias and prejudice. This is about systemic discrimination. Like the integration of people of color and women in the past, this was a sign of progress that threatens the social order, and the president is reacting against that progress.

But we will move forward. We will make sure that all trans people in the military, and all people outside the military after serving, receive the medical care they need. We will not back down. Our progress will continue. Our organizing and activism will grow stronger.

We are neither disruptive nor expensive. We are human beings, and we will not be erased or ignored.

Chelsea Manning (@xychelsea) is a former United States Army intelligence analyst who was convicted in 2013 by court martial under the Espionage Act. Her sentence was commuted by President Obama in January and she was released in May.

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Another Way To Address Leaks – FITSNews

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin

VIA TOBY ZIEGLER

We ran a big report today on the latest implosion associated with the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump. It involved Trumps new White House communications directorAnthony Scaramuccibasically losing his mind while speaking with a reporter.

Scaramucci was upset over leaks emanating from the White House, which reminded us of one of our favorite scenes (above) from The West Wingstarring Richard Schiff as White House communications director Toby Ziegler.

We know what youre probably thinking

This is the real world. Syrupy mellifluousness creating momentary feel-good vibes isnt a realistic long-term strategy for addressing systemic breakdowns in intelligence security.

And youd be correct

Obviously anyone caught maliciously leaking information from within the White House should be prepared to lose their jobs. Of course that reminds of us another favorite West Wing scene involving a leaker

(Click to view)

(Via: YouTube)

Again, we know things are vastly different in Hollywoods fantasy White House than they are in real life. But still, there is something to be said for an approach like this.

Seriously, leaks happen. From Teapot Dome to Watergate to Monica Lewinsky to Edward Snowden to the present day. The challenge is weighing their significance and (assuming the leaker is identified) dealing with them properly based on the content and intention of the information that was disseminated without authorization.

Not all leakers are the same, either. Some like Snowden are heroes. Others like many senior staffers in the Trump White House, it would appear are purely self-interested.

Politics is a game of addition. As is life. Subtraction is often necessary and justified but in many cases there is far greater power to be found in measured consideration than reflexive condemnation (i.e. the currency of those who go all in).

Politics and life are also examples of the long game, something were still learning after more than a decade of covering it here in our rough-and-tumble home state of South Carolina.

Anyway were not foolish enough to belief the leak responses encapsulated in these clips are necessarily applicable to modern-day Washington, D.C., but we certainly wouldnt commend Scaramuccis approach, either.

Got something youd like to say in response to one of our stories? In addition to our always lively comments section (below), please feel free to submit your own guest column or letter to the editor via-email HERE or via our tip-line HERE

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Venafi Study: Consumers Conflicted About Encryption Backdoors – ISBuzz News

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin

Sixty-five percent believe they shouldnt be forced to hand over encrypted private data to government

SALT LAKE CITY Venafi,the leading provider of machine identity protection,today announced the findings of a study that evaluated attitudes and opinions of 3,000 adult consumers from the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany on initiatives that would grant governments more access to private, encrypted data.

According to the study, half of consumers (51 percent) do not believe their government can protect their personal data, and nearly two-thirds of respondents (65 percent) suspect their government already abuses its powers to access the data of citizens. Additionally, 68 percent of respondents believe governments should not force private companies to hand over encrypted personal data without consumer consent.

The study also found that consumers are concerned about the impact encryption backdoors would have on their personal privacy. Sixty fire percent of respondents state that governments should not be able to force citizens to turn over personal data, such as the contents of mobile phones, social media, email and online activity, without consent.

The results of this research indicate that security and privacy are probably going to get a lot worse before they get better, said Jeff Hudson, CEO of Venafi. Its very clear that consumers are confused about what access to encrypted data will mean to their privacy, and its equally clear that governments dont understand how encryption backdoors will be used to undermine our global digital economy. The negative impact encryption backdoors will have on every aspect of security and privacy is tremendous.

Despite concerns regarding government abuse, many consumers remain conflicted over how encryption backdoors would impact both their privacy and national security:

Hudson continued: Giving governments access to encryption will not make us safer from terrorism in fact, the opposite is true. Most people dont trust the government to protect data and they dont believe the government is effective at fighting cybercrime. Its ironic that we believe we would be safer if governments were given more power to access private encrypted data because this will undermine the security of our entire digital economy.

Encryption backdoors create vulnerabilities that can be exploited by a wide range of malicious actors, including hostile or abusive government agencies. Billions of people worldwide rely on encryption to protect a wide range of critical infrastructure, including global financial systems, electrical grid and transportation systems, from cybercriminals who steal data for financial gain or espionage.

The study was conducted by One Poll and completed in July 2017. It analyzed responses from three thousand adult consumers from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.

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Venafi Study: Consumers Conflicted About Encryption Backdoors - ISBuzz News

Fornetix and Cyphre Security Solutions LLC, a RigNet Company, Join Forces to Deliver Advanced Key Protection … – PR Newswire (press release)

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin

"One of the core issues facing organizations today is the onslaught of cybersecurity products and capabilities in the marketplace and the inability to objectively understand which are needed and which are best. Powerful encryption has been proven to be the best protector of sensitive data-at-rest and data-in-transit. With powerful encryption comes the need for a policy-based advanced encryption key management ecosystem that operates with groundbreaking precision and speed. Together, Cyphre and Fornetix provide that holistic encryption solution," said Chuck White, CTO of Fornetix.

Fornetix Key Orchestration is an advanced key management ecosystem that takes traditionally long, manual encryption processes and transforms them into automated, easy-to-use solutions. Benefits include reduced costs, process consistency, enhanced use of encryption, and enterprise modifiability. Fornetix's Key Orchestration appliance integrates with Cyphre's BlackTIE-powered offerings to deliver high-performance security solutions that protect the integrity of your encrypted data from continuously evolving threats. The integrated solutions are available immediately.

Cyphre's BlackTIE technology augments vulnerable single encryption keys with hardware-encrypted Black Keys to render hijacked keys useless, thus neutralizing the threat. Chip-resident Black Keys are completely isolated from hacker exposure, even hidden from Cyphre itself. For heightened security, BlackTIE uses a key-per-file protection approach to encrypt all data-at-rest and data-in-transit.

"As businesses continue to demand data protection beyond a classic software based encryption, the integration of Cyphre's BlackTIE technology and Fornetix's Key Orchestration appliance, provide RigNet an opportunity to meet our customer demands for best-in-class cybersecurity solutions," said Steve Pickett, President and CEO of RigNet, Inc. "By fully integrating heightened data protection and key management with other security elements within a multilayered posture, organizations can further narrow gaps between their security layers, while implementing strong cryptographic protections for their most sensitive, and vulnerable, data."

About FornetixFornetix is helping organizations unleash the full potential of encryption by conquering the key management bottleneck. Our Key Orchestration ecosystem automates the key lifecycle across the entire enterprise with groundbreaking precision and speed. Policy-driven automation of the key rotation lifecycle reduces human error and empowers your organization to remain secure and avoid costly data breaches. As global use of encryption rapidly expands, you can be prepared for the future with unparalleled scalability. Please call 1-844-KEY-ORCH or visit http://www.fornetix.com for more information.

About Cyphre Security Solutions LLCCyphre, a wholly owned subsidiary of RigNet, Inc. (NASDAQ: RNET), is a cybersecurity company deploying disruptive data protection innovations by enhancing industry standard encryption protocols with our patent pending BlackTIE technology. Product offerings include Encrypted Cloud Storage and Enterprise Collaboration services, Secure Integration with IoT devices and applications, and the Enterprise Cloud Encryption Gateway. For more information, visit http://www.cyphre.com and follow us on Twitter: @getcyphre.

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Encryption: UK Defence Sec says tech companies ‘have to do more’, gives no detail – Computerworld Australia

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin

The UK Secretary of State for Defence has struggled to explain what his government wants tech companies to do to support national security operations, but was adamant that they have to do more.

Sir Michael Fallon, speaking to ABC's 7.30 program last night, said the UK had not fully used new laws which compel operators to decrypt messages sent via services such as WhatsApp and Telegram.

We want them to do more and we are continuing to discuss with them how they can help our security services to do more, he told 7.30.

UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd was in discussion with a number of companies, Fallon said, to make them do more, to acknowledge their responsibility, to work with us in identifying potential terrorist threats to our country.They have to do more.

Despite passing its Investigatory Powers Act last year, the UKgovernment has struggled to maintain a consistent message on end-to-end encryption, and has not said what it expects providers to do to remove electronic protection.

The act nicknamed the Snoopers Charter compels companies to remove electronic protection applied by or on behalf of that operator to any communications or data. They must also provide information in an "intelligible form"when requested.

Rudd said in March said that it was completely unacceptable that law enforcement agencies were unable to read messages hidden by end-to-end encryption, before coming out in support of encryption later the same day.

Australia's government is now seeking to create similar laws, and has cited the Investigatory Powers Act as an inspiration.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Attorney-General George Brandis have been similarly vague on the details of how tech companies are expected to cooperate, but made it clear that they should.

Fallon added that security services should be given all the powers they need to thwart terrorist plots.

That's vital and we're continuing to work with those [tech] companies to make sure they cooperate better, he said.

On Wednesday, the UK and Australia cemented its long-standing relationship in tackling cyber threats which can risk international stability, a joint statement said.

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German Police to Bypass Encryption by Hacking Devices – Infosecurity Magazine

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin

German police are set to make use of new laws to hack the devices of criminal suspects in order to monitor communications, bypassing the need to force tech companies to provide encryption backdoors.

Local media reports referencing Interior Ministry documents claimed that law enforcers will be able to make use of new Remote Communication Interception Software (RCIS) to target Android, iOS and BlackBerry mobiles.

The idea is to hack into suspects devices in order to read communications at source. This would seem to be a neat way of monitoring targets without the need to engage with providers of services like WhatsApp, iMessage and Telegram.

Tech companies including Facebook and Apple have been steadfast in refusing to engineer backdoors for law enforcers arguing that it would undermine security for millions of innocent users and businesses. As most are based in the US, its unlikely that the German government alone could do anything about it.

The German parliament recently passed a new law expanding the power of the police to hack devices belonging to all criminal suspects and not just terror suspects.

This is in stark contrast to the situation in the UK, where the new Investigatory Powers Act grants police the power to hack devices irrespective of suspicion of criminal activity.

However, activists in Germany are still worried about the move, especially as the authorities have been revealed to have bought surveillance software from infamous provider FinFisher, as a back-up in case their own RICS 2.0 tools are leaked or get compromised.

By using third party provider tools, governments could skirt legal restrictions on what they can and cant do, according to Deutsche Welle.

The European Commission claimed back in March that it was planning to give tech communications providers three or four options forcing them to make the communications of suspects available to police, ranging from voluntary measures to legislation.

In related news, rights groups have this month signed a joint open letter to EU member states urging more to be done to reform EU rules governing the export of surveillance equipment.

It claimed over 330 export license applications for such technology have been made to 17 EU authorities since 2014; with 317 granted and only 14 rejected.

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How IT operations management is embracing open source – Cloud Tech

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin

Open source software adoption continues to disrupt the traditional IT markets, as enterprise CIOs and CTOs seek ways to evolve by working with progressive vendors and service providers who have a proven track record of open innovation.

The growth of digital business transformation and the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to drive large investment in IT operations management (ITOM) through 2020, according to the latest global market study by Gartner. A primary driver for organisations moving to ITOM open-source software (OSS) is lower cost of ownership.

While acceptance of OSS ITOM is increasing, traditional closed-source ITOM software still has the biggest budget allocation today. Moreover, complexity and governance issues that face users of OSS ITOM tools cannot be ignored.

"In fact, these issues open up opportunities for ITOM vendors. Even vendors that are late to market with ITOM functionality can compete in this area," said Laurie Wurster, research director at Gartner.

Gartner believes many enterprises will turn to managed ITOM or ITOM as a service (ITOMaaS) enabled by open-source technologies and provided by a third party. With OSS, vendors can provide more cost-effective and readily available ITOM functions in a scaled manner through the cloud.

Through 2020, public cloud and managed services are expected to be leveraged more often for ITOM tools, which will drive growth of the subscription business model for both cloud and on-premises ITOM.

However, on-premises deployments will still be the most common delivery method. This imposes multiple challenges to incumbent ITOM vendors. First, those vendors that do not offer a cloud delivery model will face continuous cannibalisation from ITOM vendors that can deliver ITOM through both cloud and on-premises.

Second, platform vendors are providing some native ITOM functionalities on their public clouds. Customers that are running workloads solely on these platforms may prefer these native features. There are also hybrid requirements for ITOM tools that can seamlessly manage both cloud and on-premises environments.

Customer demand has driven traditional software vendors to transform and adapt to the changing technology and competitive landscapes. Competitive pressure from cloud (SaaS offerings) and commercial OSS (offerings with a free license plus paid support) is forcing ITOM providers to move toward subscription-based business models for both cloud and on-premises deployments.

The influx of new, smaller ITOM vendors focused on one or two major tool categories will continue to cause disruption for large traditional suite vendors. Given this situation, traditional vendors will need to react by changing how their products fit together.

More importantly, according to the Gartner assessment, traditional vendors need to change how their solutions are sold as customers exert significant pressure to shift to offering cloud-based services.

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