Daily Archives: April 9, 2022

Is Real Time with Bill Maher new tonight, April 8? – Last Night On

Posted: April 9, 2022 at 4:07 am

Bill Maher

Friday night means its time forReal Time with Bill Maher. So should late-night TV fans expect to see a new episode?

Like the rest of late-night, Bill Maher has spent the past few weeks covering the war in Ukraine and the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. In typical Maher fashion, hes made headlines for his perspective.

Theres no reason to expect anything different on Friday. There will be a brand new episode ofReal Time with Bill Maher.

Maher will undoubtedly touch on the newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Jackson, Russias attacks in Ukraine, and more. He may even weigh in on his fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and his run-in with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

First up, Bill Maher interviews David Mamet. It will be the playwright and authors second visit toReal Time.

Mamets latest book isRecessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch. Maher loves defending free speech and mocking wokeness along with political correctness. He and Mamet should see eye-to-eye.

Then, its time for the panel. Both guests have appeared onReal Time with Bill Maherin the past.

Nancy MacLean is a Duke University historian and author. Her bookDemocracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Rights Stealth Plan for Americahits on many of the criticisms of the modern GOP.

David Leonhardt is a journalist and the columnist behind The Morning newsletter fromThe New York Times. In recent weeks, hes been covering the debate over masks and their impact on the countrys public health.

Real Time with Bill Maherairs tonight at 10:00 p.m. ET on HBO. Fans can use #RTOvertime to submit a question for the panel for the Overtime segment.

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The futility of framing one another as progressives and evangelicals, devils and dummies – Baptist News Global

Posted: at 4:07 am

In politics, framing is the attempt to alter reality by selecting words, slogans and tropes that convince the public to see the other side in a certain negative way. As Robert Entman explains, Toframeis toselect some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendationfor the item described.

Framing is choosing the language, the words, the tropes that will produce the most lasting image in the minds of voters.

Everybody frames everybody with whom they disagree. Evangelicals frame progressives as demons; progressives frame evangelicals as dummies.

Google Democrats as devils, and the web blows up. Headlines scream: Its Almost Official: The Democrats Are the Party of the Devil; The Democratic Party is Satanic, Literally!; Devilfor theDemocrats?; Its all in the details;Its official: theDemocratsare the party of theDevil; The Democrats Are Evil; Democrats Have Become the Partyof Satan. A cursory search produced more than 50 articles insisting that Democrats are devils.

The arguments of the Democrats are devils trope are working. Here are representative samples of the bombarding of the public with the major trope:

Evangelicals, on the other hand, have been framed by liberals as dupes, dummies, backward hillbillies, rednecks, racists and ignorant. The primary pathos of liberal persuasion is shaming. Civil virtue has shamed evangelicals for not supporting gay marriage or feminism.

Shame is a primary liberal pedagogy. Since framing is an attempt at persuasion, it always intensifies what is perceived as the weakness of evangelicals and exaggerates those perceived weaknesses to the maximum.

Shame is a primary liberal pedagogy.

American historian David Blight says, Liberals sometimes invite scorn with their devotion to diversity training and insistence on fighting over words rather than genuine inequality.

Evangelicals, in other words, have reasons for deeming progressives as elitist and hypocritical. In the court of public opinion, perhaps it is hard to discern if liberal framing of evangelicals has stuck.

George Lakoff, in The Political Mind, says progressives have been framed by conservative rhetoric that is deeply emotional and has powerful appeal for voters. Polls show that Americans support Roe v. Wade by large margins. But in conservative framing, abortion is still the go-to issue to show that Democrats and progressive Christians are undermining morality.

Likewise, 70% of Americans support same-sex marriage and 67% of Americans believe in evolution. Even 68% of Republicans support alternative energy development. Yet Republicans continue to win elections by opposing the issues that the majority of the nation supports. The frame job has worked.

Whereas once American Christians lived in the Methodist frame, the Baptist frame, the Episcopal frame, the Catholic frame, the Lutheran frame, or the Presbyterian frame, now conservatives have framed progressives as non-Christians. This has nothing to do with the affirmation of all these mainline Christians of the Apostles Creed. They are framed as non-Christian because of their positions on abortion, marriage and gender.

Now conservatives have framed progressives as non-Christians.

The valedictorian of the progressive Christians are devils class is Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas. Jeffress has framed all Democrats with the charge of paganism: Well, apparently the god they worship is the pagan god of the Old Testament Moloch, who allowed for child sacrifice. The god of the Bible doesnt sanction the killing of millions and millions of children in the womb, I think the god they are worshiping is the god of their own imagination.

Jeffress has called Democrats a godless party and said the God (Democrats) talk about is not the God of the Bible. It is the God of their imagination a God who loves abortion and hates Israel, whereas the true God that most Jews and Christians are familiar with is a God who hates abortion and loves Israel.

No one likes to be shamed, but shame is the primary product of the liberal frame job. Eve Sedgwick asks: Can anyone suppose that well ever figure out what happened around political correctness if we dont see it as, among other things, a highly politicized chain reaction of shame dynamics?

Political correctness becomes a pedagogy, a sweeping masterwork of shame designed to rip residual structures of degradation from speech.

Evangelicals often are confused when people lose jobs because of the use of politically incorrect language. They think they are making jokes, but when shamed by the new civil virtues of acceptance and diversity, they fight back. People get shamed, or lose their jobs, for example, when they believe theyre just having a little fun making fun.

The evangelical angst revolves into a mantra: I feel unfree. It would be cavalier to deny these are legitimate feelings. Evangelicals feel they are being denied freedom of speech.

In the court of public opinion, the evangelical trope seems to stick to progressives; the progressive trope doesnt stick to evangelicals as well.

Democrats and progressives have been framed, and the jury has returned the verdict and found them guilty as charged not on the evidence but on the emotional appeals of the conservative testimonials.

Democrats and progressives have been framed, and the jury has returned the verdict and found them guilty as charged not on the evidence but on the emotional appeals of the conservative testimonials.

In Will Campbells novella, Cecelias Sin, a group of Anabaptists face execution for their faith. The night before their anticipated arrest, they discuss that the authorities claimed they were communists. Goris tries to help Peter understand that it doesnt matter that the charge of communism is false. But they believe we are communist, Goris said. And that is enough. If they think we are seditious, we are seditious. That is what sedition is. It is what they say it is.

No progress can be made in understanding the conservative appeal until we grasp that its about emotional arguments. Facts, truth, reality, policies evaporate like morning dew; emotions of rage, outrage and moral indignation stick like Velcro. The right-wing mantra possesses contagious feelings.

People catch feelings as easily as the common cold. Affect leaps from one body to another, evoking tenderness, inciting shame, igniting rage, exciting fear. Feelings not only spread, they stick, according to Sara Ahmed in The Cultural Politics of Emotion.

When these ancient feelings were attacked by a new civic virtue that promoted diversity, acceptance and a new ethical consciousness, conservative thoughts were dislodged and became unstuck. What has followed has been a furious denial of culpability.

The old evangelical paradigm, like a giant white egg, developed cracks and fractures, and panic ensued. The new pedagogy of antiracism, gender emancipation, queer emancipation, new horizons of political enfranchisement turned evangelicals into rebellious students unwilling to be taught by others. Confronted by new ethical paradigms designed to make persons more hospitable, more open, more sensitive, more thoughtful, more moral, evangelicals reverted to the old paradigms and attempted to patch the fractures and cracks.

Perhaps this explains the desperate attempts to revise American history and oppose science in the classroom. The epistemic foundations of evangelical faith are coming loose. Instead of claiming that evangelicals are resentful, Lawrence Grossberg says we should examine the terror of the humiliation of being a victim. One avoids the humiliation of loss and victimage by humiliating the other, by diminishing their status and capacity, destroying their sense of pride, reducing them to a lower state of being. Therefore, evangelicals have intensified attacks on gays, women, transgender persons, immigrants, scientists, historians, liberals. They have framed everyone as devils and demons.

The evangelical feeling machine delivers a constant flow of emotional frames.

The evangelical feeling machine delivers a constant flow of emotional frames. Like a chocolate fountain at a wedding reception, evangelical emotions pour forth to the public feelings, feelings and more feelings. What underscores evangelical argument is emotion.

Progressives, on the other hand, mistrust emotion and at times make fun of emotional arguments as if Aristotle didnt insist on its persuasive power. Progressives can come across as austere, thick-minded, stubborn and insistent on not exhibiting feelings. In place of emotional frames, progressives tend to use intellectual, scholarly, elitist frames.

Progressives are seen as the ones taking away the nation, taking away morals, history and the future. Conservatives insist they are the ones aligned with freedom and rights. They claim they are protecting the nation. Evangelicals feel justified in these claims when they think progressives are no longer taking the Bible seriously. Progressives would be better served by attempting to understand the evangelical frames.

What can progressives do? Perhaps the first move would be to stop playing the frame game. Instead of depicting evangelicals as enemies, return to seeking any possible common ground. Failing to find such an ideal place to stand, at least surrender the language of framing that labels evangelicals as dummies and rednecks.

Admit that conservatives have successfully won the framing war and progressives have failed. Then, develop and articulate a moral vision for the future of democracy. Instead of embracing conservative frames, progressives must construct their own frames. Stop pretending that conservative, evangelical morality is anything other than self-righteous moralism. Insist that the civic morality of acceptance comes far closer to the practice of Jesus than that of evangelicals. Defend democracys anchor institutions. And maintain professional ethics while refusing to buy the lie of the devil that Gods work can be accomplished with the devils means.

Admit that conservatives have successfully won the framing war and progressives have failed.

Progressives should stop trying to use conservative frames and instead use their own language: empathy, compassion, truth, hope, justice, grace, mercy, righteousness. Stop being afraid of emotional arguments. Frame arguments with legitimate emotional appeals. Always speak from moral vision. Progressive policies follow from the morality of empathy and hospitality.

Instead of dismissing evangelical arguments, do a deep dive into the abyss and learn to understand the power of the frame job that has turned progressives into devils. Be able to explain why conservatives believe what they believe without making fun of what they believe.

The great challenge for progressives is to keep the arguments from spiraling out of control into hateful, resentful emptiness. Kenneth Burke argues: The process of human enlightenment can go no further than in picturing people not as vicious, but as mistaken.

If evangelicals would speak of progressives as misguided instead of as devils, perhaps a small crack would occur in the door to make possible renewed conversations with one another.

It is time to break out of the cycle of framing, blaming and judging.

Rodney W. Kennedycurrently serves as interim pastor of Emmanuel Freiden Federated Church in Schenectady, N.Y., and as preaching instructor Palmer Theological Seminary. He is the author of nine books, including the newly releasedThe Immaculate Mistake,about how evangelical Christians gave birth to Donald Trump.

Related articles:

Progressives have a problem telling their story | Analysis by Rodney Kennedy

The Trump Card: How white evangelicals are being played| by Joel Bowman Sr.

Understanding the evangelical civil war| Analysis by Alan Bean

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"The Real World of College: What Higher Education Is and What It Can Be" – Public Radio Tulsa

Posted: at 4:06 am

On this edition of ST, we talk about how going to college has so dramatically changed in America over the past several years -- the experience of college itself, as well as the expectations people have about college before they even arrive. Our guest is Wendy Fischman; she and Howard Gardner are the co-authors of a book from MIT Press titled "The Real World of College: What Higher Education Is and What It Can Be." The book draws upon myriad interviews and a vast amount of research in order to show why higher education in the United States has lost its way, and how universities and colleges can focus -- and, in fact, re-focus -- on their core mission. Indeed, despite what certain media outlets might indicate, most college students today are not preoccupied with political correctness, free speech, or even the cost of college. They're most concerned about their GPA and their resumes; they basically see jobs and earning potential as more important than learning. There's also, moreover, a clear and present mental-health crisis unfolding on college campuses nationwide, given the pandemic.... Per Library Journal: "In this fascinating book, Gardner and Fischman (both, Harvard Graduate School of Education) share the quantitative and qualitative results of a study conducted from 2013 to 2018, intended to ascertain how participants viewed higher education; they conclude that it has 'lost its way and stands in considerable peril.' The authors found that students are struggling with mental health and feelings of belonging and alienation -- from their fellow students, from their scholarly work, and from their institutions. The study focused on 10 colleges and relied on surveys and interviews with students, faculty, staff, administrators, trustees, young alumni, and parents.... [The book's] epilogue includes a thought-provoking dialogue between the authors as they reflect on their own educational journeys."

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Oreos Gone Woke: Is Nothing Off Limits to LGBT Left? – Daily Signal

Posted: at 4:06 am

Milks favorite cookie wants you to know its OK to be gayagain.

Im sure youve wondered, as youve dipped your delicious, cream-filled cookie (Double Stuf, please!) into a nice, cold glass of milk: What is Oreos policy about coming out?

Wonder no more. Not even a Birthday Cake Oreoor my kids favorite, the Fudge Covered Oreois safe from woke politics.

On Monday, Oreos parent company Nabisco released a short film detailing a young Asian mans experience coming out as gay.

In the two-and-a-half-minute film, the boy nervously reads a note to his immediate family, and it becomes apparent he is practicing to come out as gay to his extended family, who are soon to visit. The scene is tense. The doorbell rings, a family member grabs an Oreo before answering it. A handwritten note from the mother is visible on the boys speech.

She might be my mother, but you are my son, the note reads. The film ends on a high note as presumably the boy comes out as gay and all happily get a sugar high from Oreos afterward.

Coming out doesnt happen just once. Its a journey that needs love and courage every step of the way, Oreo tweeted along with the video. Share our new film and let someone know youre their #LifelongAlly.

As a brand, Oreo can, of course, do whatever it wants. If it wants to hire renowned director Alice Wu to make a short film on coming out and Oreos, by all means.

But that doesnt exclude the rest of us from some marketing observations.

If youd told me 20 years ago that in the year 2022 we would not yet have flying cars but wed have cookie brands endorsing the LGBT lifestyle through artistic short films posted on social media, Id have laughed out loud.

Woke politics have consumed so much of life that even household brand names feel the need to make a show of their outward support.

Im just curious: Was there pressure from the LGBT community to do this? Was a gay person hesitant to eat an Oreo because he didnt know Nabiscos position? Chances are slim to none.

Its easy to make light ofbecause its a cookie, for goodness sakebut were seeing a surge in large corporations and popular brands diving head first into woke marketing.

You know the first rule of business: Follow the money. As such, we endeavor to understand what that means. Oreo didnt invest in a film like this for nothing.

If you think a commercial like this sounds commonplace or maybe just benign, a shift in characters might help you come to a different conclusion.

Imagine Oreo doing a commercial on a Chinese man coming out as Christian to his family in China. Christians are heavily persecuted in Communist China, but Christianity is also growing rapidly, due to that persecution. However, Oreo would never communicate such an inspirational truth.

Commercials like Oreos manage to communicate this absurdity: Despite the LGBT communitys constant appeals for media attention and for equality, it not only has both, but it proves a much more problematic point; namely, only left-wing politics, particularly about gender identity or sexual orientation, command the attention of household brands.

Anything else would be too basic, too boring, too center-right, or too religious.

Increasingly, corporate America has been stepping in to support woke social justice causes. Political correctness has captured big businesses, even brands previously just associated with a sugar high, theme parks like Disney World, or childrens programming, like that of Nickelodeon. That brand just tweeted about a transgender kid for the so-called Transgender Day of Visibility, highlighting a childs gender dysphoria for the world.

LGBT activists complain about being caught in the middle of the culture war, even as they fuel the controversy at every turn, even rendering cookies like Oreos woke.

The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email[emailprotected]and well consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular We Hear You feature. Remember to include the url or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.

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Unveiling the Potential Relationship between IoT and Cloud Computing – IoT For All

Posted: at 4:05 am

Today, if we look around, we find that IoT, the Internet of Things, disrupts our daily lives, either at home or the workplace. It has been 20 years since this concept has knocked the tech world. Since then, it has offered excellent solutions that have made everything seamless and better.

From smart Fitbits to the Amazon Echo or Google Home, today, most people are using connected smart devices and wearables to monitor their health like heart rate, calories, and daily activities. In fact, some use it to manage their heating, lighting, home security, and re-order household staples when supplies run low.

The digital changes occurring everywhere, at home or business, in hospitals, buildings, or the entire town, show that IoT is growing at a breakneck speed.

As per research conducted by Juniper Research, the number of IoT devices is set to increase from 35 billion connections in 2020 and reach 83 billion by 2024, which results in around 130 percent increase in the coming four years as enterprise IoT users will extend their IoT ecosystems to improve operational efficiencies to generate real-time insights.c

The pandemic strike has proved that digitization in every sector has become necessary. Companies have to double down on digital transformation projects, and technologies like IoT are the only way to make it possible. Embracing these technologies is the only way to improve customer services, automate processes and tasks, track assets, detect existing loopholes, and re-invent and renovate existing business models. But the success of IoT is not possible without cloud computing. We can simply say the cloud offers a lot more than just connectivity on which IoT devices are dependent. This means IoT devices are dependent on the cloud to store essential data in one central location that can be easily accessed, managed, and distributed in real-time.

When it comes to the relationship between IoT and cloud computing, here are four significant benefits that can compel organizations to use clouds to unleash the full potential of their IoT devices.

The cloud can assist organizations in overcoming the technical and cost hurdles that get dragged in with deploying an IoT solution.

The cloud eliminates the requirement to set up physical servers, deploy databases, configure networks, manage connections, or do other infrastructure tasks. It makes it speedy and easy to spin up virtual servers, launch databases, and generate the needed data pipelines to operate an IoT solution.

On the other hand, on-premises IoT network infrastructure needs much hardware, and time-consuming configuration efforts to make sure things run appropriately; implementing a cloud-powered IoT system is significantly more streamlined.

For instance, scaling up the number of IoT-enabled devices just requires leasing another virtual server or more cloud space.

In the same way, cloud services can easily streamline remote device lifecycle management, ensuring delivery of a 360-degree view of the device infrastructure and tools that automate the update and setup of software and firmware over the air.

IoT devices are essential for both consumers and enterprises because of their information. But they become more helpful when communicating with each other.

For instance, a connected thermostat can communicate with smart refrigerators to increase or decrease the temperature. A connected micro-controller can analyze and predict preventative maintenance, which is needed to reduce the chances of any damage.

The cloud helps in this operation by streamlining and optimizing machine-to-machine communications and facilitating this across interfaces. With the increased interactions between many connected devices and immense volumes of data generated, organizations will have to find a cost-effective way to store, process, and access data from their IoT solutions.

In addition, they also need to be capable to scale up to manage peaks of demand or extending the infrastructure to handle extra functionality whenever they add more features to their IoT solution.

We all know that an IoT solution generates immense amounts of data. In that case, adding built-in management tools and processing capabilities that support the successful transfer of data between devices effectively and efficiently will make the process easy and convenient. The cloud also offers a hosting platform for Big Data and data analytics at a significantly lower cost.

Data generated by IoT devices can be stored and processed in a cloud server and easily accessible at any time from any place without any infrastructure or networking issues. In the same way, data can be collected remotely and in real-time from devices located anywhere and in any time zone.

Sometimes, interoperability hampers the ability of enterprises to link or integrate data generated by IoT devices to other data resources.

Adding a cloud can assist in linking applications and seamlessly integrate all the data sources so they can be analyzed, regardless of source.

Cloud can also help the organization streamline the integration of the IoT solution with other smart products developed by their third parties to generate additional value for users.

Security has been a much-talked concern as security lapses, and failure to update IoT devices has created a gateway for cybercriminals. Cloud platforms can support enterprises in improving and strengthening security in two ways.

Firstly, as we already know, cloud providers can make it simple to undertake regular software and firmware updates, signed with digital certificates that ensure users these updates are safe and authorized.

Secondly, cloud platforms help initiate customized client and server-side encryption that guarantees complete security of data flowing through the IoT ecosystem and even when it is at rest in the database. Many cloud service providers provide 24*7 monitoring to minimize the risk of a security breach.

Many organizations embrace IoT technologies, and those who are still reliant on the old-traditioned infrastructure will find themselves at a loss.

Adopting the Cloud, a power plant for IoT device communications and memory, organizations will experience better connectivity rates and improved ROI.

Embracing a hybrid cloud approach facilitates IT teams to establish the right mix of hosting opportunities that allows them to manage rapid rollout and enablement while getting the max out of IoT devices and securing better IoT IoT strategy without investing much time and money and efforts into developing costly infrastructure.

For organizations that have decided to extend their IoT ambitions, the cloud can assist in developing IoT products faster, can easily manage and handle all the generated data, secure the IoT ecosystem, and establish better integration with existing systems and other IoT devices. This means cloud computing will be the key to unlocking a faster time to market, with greater flexibility and adding lifetime value for success and profit churning IoT deployment.

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Cloud Computing Now IT’s Default Tech Are You in the Game? – Channel Futures

Posted: at 4:05 am

This weeks cloud news roundup also features takeaways from Prosimo, Google Cloud and NetApp.

Cloud computing is turning into the most in-demand technology, in all its different facets. Think SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, everything as a service. New research from Foundry (formerly IDG Communications) highlights the momentum organizations are undergoing as they adopt more cloud services and infrastructure. Partners will want to take note of the end-user demand, given the channels growing involvement in guiding, deploying and managing customers cloud environments. (Well be talking about cloud computing opportunities for smaller partners, April 11-14, at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo.)

Along similar lines, Prosimo, a vendor built by Viptelas cofounders, has a new cloud computing platform partners will want to investigate. Its geared toward resellers and managed services providers.

Next up, you probably know that Google Cloud is a founding member of the new Data Cloud Alliance. We covered that a couple days ago but here we offer a few more details. Channel partners should benefit, albeit in a trickle-down kind of way.

Finally, NetApp, which bought CloudCheckr, just announced another acquisition. FInd out which cloud computing company its buying to add to its Spot by NetApp portfolio (where CloudCheckr now resides).

Its all in the slideshow above.

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Software-as-a-Service Rules the Cloud – DARKReading

Posted: at 4:05 am

The majority of respondents in a new survey on cloud adoption say they use software-as-a-service (SaaS). Eight in 10 (80%) IT professionals at organizations that employ cloud computing have implemented SaaS.

That's according to "State of the Cloud: A Security Perspective," a report from Dark Reading released in March. The research surveyed decision-makers with IT job titles at organizations that use cloud services. Those organizations include companies of all sizes from a variety of industries, including technology, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, and education.

The overall picture from the survey is one ofa robust remote workforce environment. While SaaS was by far the most widely embraced cloud application, almost half of respondents also reported using infrastructure-as-a-service (49%) and platform-as-a-service (47%). Other everyday work solutions were rarer, including desktop-as-a-service (19%) and containers-as-a-service (14%).

One of the obstacles to implementing cloud computing more widely is concerns about security, the main focus of this report. Many respondents say they already use cloud tools to secure their data and networks. One-quarter (25%) of respondents use disaster-recovery-as-a-service to help bounce back from cyberattacks and natural disasters. Almost one in five (18%) implement security-as-a-service. Only 10% of cloud users run secure access service edge (SASE) defense, however, which means that area is still wide open for competition.

For more data and insights, download the full report.

Keep up with the latest cybersecurity threats, newly-discovered vulnerabilities, data breach information, and emerging trends. Delivered daily or weekly right to your email inbox.

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Cloud computing spending is growing again and there’s more to come – ZDNet

Posted: at 4:05 am

Businesses around the world spent $21.1 billion on cloud infrastructure services in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2021, signaling a rebound in spending on cloud storage and compute power.

Spending on cloud infrastructure was up 13.5% in the quarter year on year to $21.1 billion, according to tech research firm, IDC.

The previous quarter saw spending on cloud infrastructure reach $18.6 billion after a remarkable year-on-year decline of 1.9% in Q2 2021, which was the first time in seven quarters that spending on cloud decreased.

Cloud spending rose as businesses and governments across the world embarked on major digital transformation projects over the last two years. The big winners are the big three cloud players: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft with Azure and its other cloud services, like Office 365.

"This marked the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth as supply chain constraints have depleted vendor inventories over the past several quarters. As backlogs continue to grow, pent-up demand bodes well for future growth as long as the economy stays healthy, and supply catches up to demand," IDC said of Q4 2021.

Over the whole of 2021, spending on cloud was 8.8% higher than in 2020, reaching a total of $73.9 billion for the year.

Enterprise spending on traditional IT grew too, but not as fast as cloud spending. Enterprise invested in non-cloud infrastructure to the tune of $17.2 billion, up 1.5% year on year in 4Q21, according to IDC. It marks the fourth consecutive quarter of growth on traditional IT spending, which grew 4.2% over 2020 to $59.6 billion for the year.

Cloud giants are trying to gain an edge on each other in all sorts of ways. Last week a Google Cloud survey argued that government workers were worried thatreliance on Microsoft's products was undermining the government's cybersecurity: Microsoft didn't agree.

IDC forecasts that firms will spend $90.0 billion cloud infrastructure in 2022, up 21.7% compared to 2021. The biggest loser is traditional IT spends for organizations that maintain their own infrastructure. CIO spending on non-cloud infrastructure is to decline 0.3% to $59.4 billion.

However, IDC reckons that spending on shared cloud infrastructure spending will grow 25.5% year over year to $64.5 billion for 2022, while spending on dedicated cloud infrastructure is expected to grow 13.1% to $25.4 billion in 2022.

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Importance of cloud computing highlighted at investment summit – Gulf Today

Posted: at 4:05 am

Top dignitaries and participants during the investment summit in Riyadh.

Gulf Today Report

Sir Anthony Ritossa's 18th Global Family Office Investment Summit held recently in Riyadh in the presence of Prince Abdulaziz Bin Faisal Bin Abdulmajeed Al Saud.

The event hosted more than 400 world leaders who share similar values regarding the importance of tailoring solutions to the worlds greatest challenges and making an impact through investment, positive action and personal commitment.

Royal families, global business leaders, leading entrepreneurs, and private investors were guests at the event. The previous summits have raised $2.8 billion in investments for leading global start-ups, entrepreneurs, funds, and philanthropic endeavors.

As a VIP guest at the event Ethernity CLOUD presented the latest developments in its network for private, confidential data processing.

In light of todays focus on Web 3.0, the applicability of Ethernity CLOUD is limitless and long-term use cases include healthcare, military, and government applications. The companys technology is decentralised, confidential anonymous, and highly available, which makes it an ideal solution for the fast-growing confidential computing market, which is estimated to reach $52 billion in the next three years, according to Everest Group Market research.

Our processes are transparent, and the data is confidential - while in storage, in transit, and during processing. With data being at the core of the digital world and privacy demand on the rise, Ethernity CLOUD provides a valuable network where data can be processed in a private and confidential manner, said Iosif Peterfi, Founder and CEO of Ethernity CLOUD.

Because Ethernity CLOUD uses blockchain technology, the activity on the network is fully transparent and it takes place in a trustless environment, preventing foul play. On top of everything else, because the network is comprised of independent CPUs (nodes), downtime is virtually reduced to zero. Essentially, Ethernity CLOUD provides a way for business entities to run dApps in a private and confidential manner, while also providing a passive income source for node operators.

Importantly, the company is also environmentally oriented and takes proper measures to offset carbon emissions. Through a partnership with Green Ant, a project which plants trees in Thailand and mints an NFT for each tree that they plant, Ethernity CLOUD is committed to becoming carbon negative.

Iosif Peterfi speaks during the summit.

As a former security guy, having worked with the US Department of Defense, I recognise that blockchain is the building block that is the answer to solve a lot of our current issues. At Ethernity CLOUD, data privacy is considered a human right. That is our mission. Blockchain opened the door to make our project feasible; blockchain for us is about decentralisation, said Peterfi.

Ethernity CLOUD is revolutionising the cloud computing industry with its fair ecosystem where everyones right to privacy is fully protected, andintegrity is insured by the blockchain itself. Data is protected from abusive cloud providers activities ensuring fair, decentralised and truly private operations. We are honoured to have had the team join us in Riyadh, said Sir Anthony Ritossa, Chairman of Ritossa Family Office.

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Google Finally Gets The Edge Computing Strategy Right With Distributed Cloud Edge – Forbes

Posted: at 4:05 am

Announced at the Google Cloud Next 21 conference, Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) plays a critical role in the success of Anthos by making it relevant to telecom operators and enterprise customers. Google Distributed Cloud Edge, a part of GDC, aims to make Anthos the foundation for running 5G infrastructure and modern workloads such as AI and analytics.

Recently, Google announced the general availability of GDC Edge by sharing the details of the hardware configuration and the requirements.

5G

In its initial form, GDC Edge runs on two form factors - rack-based configuration and GDC Edge appliance. Lets take a closer look at these choices.

This configuration targets telecom operators and communication service providers (CSP) for running 5G core and radio access networks (RAN). The CSPs can expose the same infrastructure to their end customers for running workloads like AI inference that need ultra-low latency.

The location where the rack-based hardware runs is designated as a Distributed Cloud Edge Zone. Each zone runs on dedicated hardware that Google provides, deploys, operates, and maintains. The hardware consists of six servers, and two top-of-rack (ToR) switches connecting the servers to the local network. In terms of storage, each physical server comes with 4TiB disks. The gross weight of a typical rack is 900lbs or 408kg. The Distributed Cloud Edge rack arrives pre-configured with the hardware, network, and Google Cloud settings specified when it was ordered.

Once a DCE zone is fully configured, customers can group one or more servers from the rack to create a NodePool. Each node of the NodePool acts as a Kubernetes worker node connected to the Kubernetes control plane running in the nearest Google Cloud region.

This distributed topology gives Google the flexibility to upgrade, patch, and manage the Kubernetes infrastructure with minimal disruption to customer workloads. It allows DCE to benefit from a secure and highly available control plane without taking up the processing capacity on the nodes.

Google took a unique approach to edge computing by moving the worker nodes to the edge while running the control plane in the cloud. This is very similar to how Google manages GKE, except that the worker nodes are a part of the NodePool deployed at the edge.

The clusters running on DCE may be connected to Anthos management plane to gain better control over the deployments and configuration.

A secure VPN tunnel connects the local Distributed Cloud Edge infrastructure to a virtual private cloud (VPC) configured within Google Cloud. Workloads running at the edge can access Google Compute Engine resources deployed in the same VPC.

The rack-based configuration demands connectivity to the Google Cloud at all times. Since it runs in a controlled environment in a CSP facility, meeting this requirement is not a challenge.

Once the clusters are provisioned on the DCE infrastructure, they can be treated like other Kubernetes clusters. It is also possible to provision and run virtual machines based on kubevirt within the same environment.

CSPs from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Finland, and the United Kingdom can order rack-based infrastructure from Google.

The GDC Edge Appliance is a Google Cloud-managed, secure, high-performance appliance for edge locations. It provides local storage, ML inference, data transformation, and export functionality.

According to Google, GDC Edge Appliances are ideal for use cases where bandwidth and latency limitations prevent organizations from processing the data from devices like cameras and sensors back in cloud data centers. These appliances simplify data collection, analytics, and processing at remote locations where copious amounts of data coming from these devices need to be processed quickly and stored securely.

The Edge Appliance targets enterprises from the manufacturing, supply chain, healthcare, and automotive verticals with low-latency and high throughput requirements.

GCD Edge Appliance

Each appliance comes with a 16 core CPU, 64GB RAM, an NVIDIA T4 GPU, and 3.6TB usable storage. It has a pair of 10 Gigabit and 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports. With the 1U rack-mount form factor, it supports both horizontal or vertical orientation.

The Edge Appliance is essentially a storage transfer device that can also run a Kubernetes cluster and AI inference workloads. With ample storage capacity, customers can use it as a cloud storage gateway.

For all practical purposes, the Edge Appliance is a managed device running Anthos clusters on bare metal. Customers follow the same workflow as installing and configuring Anthos in bare metal environments.

Unlike the rack-based configuration, the clusters run both the control plane and the worker nodes locally on the appliance. But, they are registered with the Anthos management plane running in the nearest Google Cloud region. This configuration makes it possible to run the edge appliance in an offline, air-gapped environment with intermittent connectivity to the cloud.

Analysis and Takeaways

With Anthos and GDC, Google defined a comprehensive multicloud, hybrid, and edge computing strategy. GDC Edge targets CSPs and enterprises through purpose-built hardware offerings.

The telecom operators need a reliable and modern platform to run 5G infrastructure. Google is positioning Anthos as the cloud native, reliable platform for running containerized network functions (CNFs) required for 5G Core and Radio Access Networks (RAN). By delivering a combination of managed hardware (rack-based GDC Edge) and software (Anthos) stack, Google wants to enable CSPs to offer 5G Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) to enterprises. It has partnered with AT&T, Reliance JIO, TELUS, Indosat Ooredoo, and more recently with Bell Canda and Verizon to run 5G infrastructure.

Googles approach is different from Amazon and Microsoft for delivering 5G MEC. Both AWS and Azure have 5G-based zones that act as extensions to their data center footprint. AWS Wavelength and Azure Private MEC enable customers to run workloads in the nearest edge location, managed by a CSP. Both Amazon and Microsoft are partnering with telecom providers such as AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone to offer hyperlocal edge zones.

Google is betting big on Anthos as the fabric to run 5G MEC. Its partnering with leading telcos worldwide in helping them build the 5G infrastructure based on its proven cloud native infrastructure based on Anthos. Though Google may have a competing offering for AWS Wavelength and Azure Private MEC in the future, its current strategy is to push GDC Edge as the preferred 5G MEC platform. This approach puts the CSP at the front and center of its edge computing strategy.

Google has finally responded to Azure Stack HCI and AWS Outposts with the GDC Edge Appliance. Its targeting enterprises who need a modern, cloud native platform to run data-driven, compute-intensive workloads at the edge. The edge appliance may be deployed in remote locations with intermittent connectivity, unlike the rack-based configuration.

With Anthos as the cornerstone, Google's Distributed Cloud strategy looks promising. It is aiming to win the enterprise edge as well as the telco edge with purpose-built hardware offerings. Google finally has a viable competitor for AWS Wavelength, AWS Outposts, Azure Edge Zones, and Azure Stack.

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Google Finally Gets The Edge Computing Strategy Right With Distributed Cloud Edge - Forbes

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