Category Archives: Cloud Computing

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Guess what? Its not CIO or other leaders who are calling in the cloud consultants these days. Its the CFOs who are picking up the phone.

Thats logical if you think about it. CFOs are charged with keeping the company financially healthy. They are not happy about most IT expenses, and they have a deep-seated belief that IT is spending more money than it needs to. So, the concept of cloud computing seems to be a hammer that the CFO can use to beat IT into being much more efficient.

Although CIOs love to complain about the CFOs constant harping over expenses, the reality is that IT got its way for a long time. Indeed, many CEOs have confided in me that they felt that their IT shop was holding them hostage. Ive heard stories about IT stopping mergers due to that amount of work needed to integrate the systems. And about building new data centers about every five years to deal with the growing need for data storage that reduces earnings per share, and causes CEOs some tense times at shareholder meetings.

IT is of course not evil far from it. Most are moving in directions that they truly believe in. However, although were seeing progress, its still hard for many IT organizations to consider concepts such as cloud computing that reduces their span of control.

Enter the CFO. CFOs are the ultimate objective party because that they dont understand anything about IT and so dont have a dog in the technology hunt. They just want to spend less money so the company can make more. They dont really care if its cloud computing or voodoo.

The CFOs read technology vision as dollars and cents, not as span of controls They are focused on doing things as efficiently as possible, so the business can do what the business needs to do: return shareholder equality.

As a result, many IT organizations are getting pushed to the cloud by the CFO, and to a lesser extent by the CEO or COO. That reality is likely to cause some political turmoil; in fact, Ive been in the middle of a few such fights in the last few years.

Whoever is going to do whats best for the business is always who I will listen to. I dont care who they are. Neither should you.

David S. Linthicum is a consultant at Cloud Technology Partners and an internationally recognized industry expert and thought leader. Dave has authored 13 books on computing and also writes regularly for HPE Software's TechBeacon site.

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CFOs have discovered the big stick of cloud computing - InfoWorld

With Cloudistics StarterCloud and ReadyCloud, MSPs have new, cost-effective alternative to public clouds

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Jun 7, 2017) - Cloud Expo -- Today at the 20th International Cloud Expo at the Javits Center in New York City, Cloudistics, an on-premises cloud computing company, announced the launch of its North America Managed Service Providers (MSPs) Program, to meet growing demand from MSPs looking for an alternative to large hyperscale public clouds. The new program gives partners the opportunity to build recurring revenues by creating, hosting, and managing their own on-premises private cloud environments.

Now, MSPs can create their own high performance clouds using the Cloudistics platform. The Cloudistics platform comes with all the software and hardware needed to create your own private cloud. Recognized as an IDC 2017 Innovator and a Gartner 2017 Cool Vendor in Cloud Infrastructure, Cloudistics is the perfect platform for creating and hosting customer virtual datacenters, running resource intensive applications, or anything else your customer may need from the cloud. With native multi-tenancy built in, MSPs can create secure clouds for each customer, eliminating the need for costly dedicated environments.

Utility Datacenter, a leading data center technology integrator and cloud services provider based in Massachusetts, recently joined the Cloudistics Managed Service Provider program.

"We saw a real opportunity to offer our customers an alternative to the public cloud with the Cloudistics platform," said Joshua Opper, Managing Partner of Utility Datacenter. "With Cloudistics, we can build and host private virtual datacenters for each of our customers that deliver better performance and economics than the public cloud."

Cloudistics Managed Service Provider Program Benefits

Cloudistics gives MSPs all the tools they need to compete in the crowded cloud market:

"Cloudistics has made a commitment to help MSPs efficiently manage the specific priorities and business needs of their customers. Our dedicated team and specialized services, combined with Mimecast's cloud technology, save time, resources and cost," said Steve Conner, Cloudistics' Global VP of Sales. "It is our goal to streamline and improve the partner experience to make it the best it can be for each MSP."

The Managed Service Provider program consists of two main components:

About Utility Datacenter Utility Datacenter is a leading provider of cloud hosting, consulting and managed IT services. UDC provides architectural design, full and part time resources, implementation services, training, and strategic advice about a wide variety of IT disciplines, projects and platforms. UDC offers VM-Portal, a self-service product that allows customers to aggregate and manage their cloud, virtualization and bare metal infrastructure from a single interface.

About Cloudistics Cloudistics, an on-premises cloud computing company, delivers a complete public cloud experience with composable on-premises infrastructures to medium and large enterprises. Its software-defined technology natively converges network, storage, compute, virtualization, and management into a single platform to drive unprecedented simplicity in the datacenter. Customers can start with a base infrastructure and scale to multi-site and multi-geo infrastructures with predictable economics and performance. With open and secure virtual networking, elastic storage, application orchestration and SaaS management, Cloudistics is the blueprint for application-optimized on-premises cloud infrastructures. Learn more at http://www.cloudistics.com or follow @cloudistics on Twitter.

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Cloudistics Announces New Cloud Computing Program That Enables High Margin Reoccurring Revenue Models for ... - Marketwired (press release)

IDC predicts that the cloud computing market in 2017 will be worth $107 billion and, according to Gartner, by 2020 a corporate no-cloud policy will be as unusual as a no-internet policy would be today

The adoption of cloud computing has been on the up since as far back as 2008, when a survey conducted by the Pew Research Institute found that cloud services were used by nearly 69% of Americans. Since then, the industry has experienced hyper-growth and exceeded the already vast predictions of how big it would become.

IDC predicts that the cloud computing market in 2017 will be worth $107 billion and, according to Gartner, by 2020 a corporate no-cloud policy will be as unusual as a no-internet policy would be today. Indeed, it would be difficult to imagine an organisation in 2017 that did not use webmail, file sharing and storage, and data backup.

As the use of cloud computing spreads so does awareness of the associated risks. At the time of writing, there have been 456 data breaches worldwide this year according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). The ITRC also noted a 40% increase in data breaches in 2016 compared to the previous year. Yet, despite the well-documented cases of data breaches, organisations continue to invest in and adopt cloud computing services because the benefits usually outweigh the risks.

To understand why the growth of cloud computing has continued in the face of high-profile data breaches, look first to what it can offer an organisation.

>See also: Building trust in cloud security is crucial to UKs digital future

Cloud computing is a virtual environment that can adapt to meet user needs. It is not constrained by physical limits, and is easily scalable making it an obvious choice for start-ups. Cloud computing makes state-of-the-art capability available to anyone with an internet connection and a browser, reducing hardware and IT personnel costs.

Cloud services and software applications are managed and upgraded off-site by the provider, meaning organisations can access technology they would not have been able to afford to install and manage on their own. The popularity of the cloud essentially comes down to its provision of advanced, next-generation IT resources in an environment that is cheaper and more scalable than local networks.

The risks involved with cloud computing are mostly security-based. Clouds are often made up of multiple entities, which means that no configuration can be more secure than its weakest link. The link between separate entities means that attacks to multiple sites can occur simultaneously. When cloud providers do not employ adequate cyber security measures, those clouds become a target for cybercriminals.

Yet, its not all bad news. A user survey conducted by one cloud service provider found that concerns about security fell to 25% compared to 29% last year. And as more becomes known about security risks so too does our knowledge around what organisations can do to protect themselves.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) released its Treacherous Twelve in March 2016 detailing the top 12 threats to cloud security based on responses from their members. At the top of this list was data breaches.

Any leak or exposure of sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, social security and health records constitutes a data breach. The organisation, and not the cloud service provider, is ultimately accountable for keeping their data secure.

When a data breach does occur, a company could be fined or face criminal changes, regardless of whether it was intentional or not. Even though cloud service providers will deploy a high level of security measures, the CSA advises organisations to implement a multifactor authentication and encryption system on the user end to protect against data breaches. This could involve single-use passwords, smartcards, or phone-based authentication.

These multifactor authentication processes can also work to prevent the occurrence of compromised credentials, which can expose an organisation to a data breach. Commonly, data breaches and cyber security attacks rely on lax security systems like predictable passwords and poor certificate management.

Allocating permissions within an organisation is another area where credentials could be compromised if they are misallocated or not removed when a user leaves or changes roles. As well as multifactor authentication, companies should prohibit the sharing of account credentials and ensure permissions are allocated or removed as soon as is necessary.

Organisations can also increase their chances of avoiding a data breach by implementing proper training. Innocent mistakes can often look like deliberately harmful insider activity. Would your data administrators ever unintentionally copy sensitive customer information over to a publicly accessible server? The only way to be truly confident in a workforce and prevent mistakes happening in the cloud is to implement correct training and management.

While the cloud may differ to local networks in many ways, its data centres remain just as susceptible to damage or destruction by natural disasters. To avoid losing data to fires and floods, distribute data and applications across more than one zone. Implement appropriate data backup procedures, and adopt best practices in business continuity and disaster recovery.

Consider using off-site storage for data that, if lost, would result in its own kind of disaster. As the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) start date approaches, protecting your data is more important than ever. GDPR sees both data destruction and corruptions as serious breaches.

>See also: What to do when it comes to cloud security?

It would be unwise and certainly a bad business decision for an organisation to not take advantage of the technological advances made by the cloud. More than that, however, cloud computing services and applications also support growth in a way that traditional IT hardware cannot. Whether it is a start-up with a handful of staff, or a multinational corporation with a headcount of thousands, the cloud continues to be the way of the future.

Over the next years and decades, the regulations and laws around data in the cloud will come into maturity. Like many times in the past, governments are moving slower than the technology when it comes to implementing policies and law. Decisions made in the courts will instead set the precedent of who is ultimately responsible for the security of information stored within the cloud. In the meantime, organisations around the world can focus on self-regulation as they tackle cyber security in the cloud.

Sourced from Dean Sappey, president and co-founder, DocsCorp

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How to approach cloud computing and cyber security in 2017 - Information Age

Forbes

Meet The Cloud Wars Top 10: The World's Most-Powerful Cloud-Computing Vendors Forbes (Note: After an award-winning career in the media business covering the tech industry, Bob Evans was VP of Strategic Communications at SAP in 2011, and Chief Communications Officer at Oracle from 2012 to 2016. He now runs his own firm, Evans Strategic ...

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Meet The Cloud Wars Top 10: The World's Most-Powerful Cloud-Computing Vendors - Forbes

Belfast IT firm celebrates cloud computing success in 57 countries

BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

A Belfast-based IT firm has said it has grown its team in Northern Ireland as its software customer numbers hit six million.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/news/belfast-it-firm-celebrates-cloud-computing-success-in-57-countries-35790730.html

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article35792149.ece/3730e/AUTOCROP/h342/lSkehelAwar.jpg

A Belfast-based IT firm has said it has grown its team in Northern Ireland as its software customer numbers hit six million.

CloudMigrator365, which was founded by Antrim man Darren Mawhinney, offers cloud migration services and software to customers across the globe.

The company has said it has now doubled its sales and tripled its headcount in Belfast over the last year.

It added it has "successfully migrated over six million people to the cloud in 57 countries".

The business helps companies migrate their email and data across to Microsoft Office 365 cloud.

It is expanding its workforce and global partnership network to support this growth, and is "continuing to scale its operations including recruiting for a number of new positions".

Mr Mawhinney said: "The international response to CloudMigrator365 has been phenomenal.

"From our base in Belfast we have so far helped companies in 57 countries to migrate while ensuring the safety and sovereignty of their data.

"We are delighted to be working with world-class organisations including LinkedIn, YMCA and the University of Bristol.

"We are currently recruiting a number of new positions in response to increasing demand from companies such as these, who are keen to invest in a simple, secure and cost-effective cloud migration solution.

"I'm extremely proud this is being developed and delivered in Northern Ireland, where we have been able to build a highly skilled global technology team alongside support from Invest NI, which has made a difference as we continue to significantly scale our operations."

And Steve Harper, Invest NI's executive director of international business, said: "Having benefited from Invest NI employment and trade support, CloudMigrator365 has been able to capitalise on new market opportunities and growing sales.

"Our employment support is enabling the company to scale its business to support an increase in productivity and export sales," he added.

Last year, welcoming the new Belfast jobs, former Economy Minister Simon Hamilton said that the firm was a "leader in its field".

Belfast Telegraph

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Belfast IT firm celebrates cloud computing success in 57 countries - Belfast Telegraph

Forbes

Here Are The Key Drivers That Are Pushing Cloud To The Edge Forbes Today's cloud computing architecture resembles 70s mainframes. The heavy lifting happens in dense data centers that act as the central point of gravity. In both the scenarios, applications share the underlying infrastructure. While this architecture ...

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Here Are The Key Drivers That Are Pushing Cloud To The Edge - Forbes

In a recent article which focused on cloud security I presented a comparison between security-as-a-service and traditional style security tooling in the cloud. This installment is a deeper dive into the security as a service (SECaaS) paradigm.

It would seem to me that a natural outgrowth of the cloud computing and 'everything as a service' paradigm that the technology world is undergoing, would be that the tools and services we use to manage and secure our cloud environments also move into an as a service mode.

In much the way one would expect, SECaaS works under the principle of a small agent controlled from an external service provider. It is not so different conceptually from controlling a number of firewalls (virtual or physical) from an external management console.

Heres how it works. A security administrator sets the policy for the service in the SECaaS provider cloud, using online management tools, and sets what policy or policies applies to a group of VMs classified by any number of criteria.

Then, the SECaaS services governs the security activity within and around the VM via a lightweight, generic, agent installed within the VM. When a new VM is created out of a template the agent is included in the image.

Finally, the agent executes various security functions according to the direction/policy communicated from within the providers cloud environment.

For example, the security administrator creates a segmentation policy that all webserver VMs will only accept traffic on ports 80 and 443. The administrator creates a policy in the SECaaS cloud which is transmitted to the agents on all webserver VMs in the environment. The agent then acts to block and/or allow traffic as per this and other policies that apply to this type of VM.

The advantages of using a SECaaS solution include:

As more organisations continue to adopt and move to the public cloud it becomes even more critical to secure those environments, applications and services. SECaaS providers continue to enhance their offerings and continue to add specific security services to their portfolios. As SECaaS matures it becomes an even more viable option for securing enterprise public and hybrid cloud deployments.

Read more: Cloud security best practice: Security as a service or cloud security tooling?

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A deeper dive into cloud security as a service: Advantages and issues - Cloud Tech

Part of the CIOs job is to keep the lights on, but increasingly business colleagues are turning to the CIO to lead digital transformations, win customers, and drive revenue. Its a tall order.

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Are you an enabler or a digital leader? Do you view the CIOs role as that of a change agent or more like an IT triage surgeon?

Many CIOs are conflicted by the need to maximize the value of existing infrastructure while laying the path for digital transformation. Some CIOs may think that the key to effective digital leadership lies in simply clearing the way for business units to quickly innovate by freely consuming cloud services. Grasping a leadership role may be a better option.

Gartner says that 29% of IT spend comes from business units, and that rate is going to increase. This business-driven IT was often a means of getting around traditional slow-paced IT processes, Gartner states. However, in todays world, it is more often designed to provide technically savvy business people a means of implementing new ideas quickly, while adapting to, or entering, new markets as effortlessly as possible.

But simply stepping out of the way of business units is not likely to meet the needs of the boss. According to Gartners 2017 survey of CEOs, 47% say they are being challenged by boards of directors to make progress in digital business.

CIOs should help CEOs set the success criteria for digital business," said Mark Raskino, vice president and Gartner Fellow. It starts by remembering that you cannot scale what you do not quantify, and you cannot quantify what you do not define. You should also ask yourself: What is digital for us? What kind of growth do we seek? What's the No. 1 metric and which KPIs must change?

While many CIOs strive to shape digital success within their organizations, they struggle with perceptions that theyre solely transactional IT actors. One of the most accelerated paths to digital transformation in recent years is a cloud-based infrastructure, which is helping drive the adoption of mobile technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) across enterprises and organizations large and small.

To be seen as change agents, CIOs need to play a central role in developing a cloud strategy that enables business units efforts to more effectively consume cloud services. This ensures that lines of business can be more agile and support their specific computing needs, while the overall cloud computing services help achieve corporate objectives for:

A company with 10 different business units doesnt need 10 lines of business leaders haphazardly going off in various directions. Instead, it needs a clear overall technology strategy and vision driven by the CIO that individual leaders can buy into and adopt.

The reality is that most organizations will be using hybrid IT environments for years to come. Its the CIOs role to set overall guidelines on how to balance traditional infrastructure with new capabilities in the cloud, based on the desired outcomes the CEO wants to achieve. Thats the difference between an enabler and a leader.

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How Cloud Computing Can Be a Change Agent in Your Enterprise - CIO

Tata Communications and Bahrain's Batelco have signed an agreement to collaborate in the field of cloud computing and connectivity solutions to their customers.

The agreement allows Tata communications to extend its data centre footprint in locations like Bahrain, Jordon, among others enabled by Batelco.

"Batelco has chosen Tata Communications as a cloud partner to ensure high levels of flexibility and reliability for its customers through Tata Communications' IZO Cloud Enablement Platform," Tata Communications said in a requlatory filing.

The agreement was signed by Batelco Chief Global Business Officer Adel Al-Daylami and Tata Communications' Senior Vice President for Middle East, Central Asia and Africa Radwan Moussalli, on the sidelines of International Telecoms Week (ITW) which took place in Chicago, USA from May 14-17.

Tata Communications said its IZO Cloud Enablement Platform empowers enterprises to connect and build their cloud, their way be it private, public or hybrid.

"This allows Tata Communications' customers to have a one stop, seamless solution for their network, cloud and collocation requirements," it added.

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Tata Communications, Bahrain's Batelco tie up for cloud computing, connectivity solutions - Daily News & Analysis

Mobily Business recently signed an agreement with Microsoft Arabia. The agreement aims to provide Microsoft cloud services and productivity tools over the Internet such as, Office 365, Dynamics, Enterprise Security Suite, in order to fulfil the needs of small and medium enterprises (SME) in the Saudi market. The agreement was signed in the presence of Ismail Alghamdi, Mobily chief business officer, and Sameer Noman, CEO of Microsoft Arabia. The deal reflects Mobily Business efforts in developing and enhancing the business sector services by combining existing services with Microsoft cloud products. Alghamdi said: We are pleased to sign this agreement with Microsoft which confirms Mobilys leading role in the business sector, especially the SME sector. It also confirms Mobilys efforts to enhance this sector by providing Microsoft cloud services. Moreover, we are proud of our successful partnership with Microsoft during the past years and look forward to further strengthening this partnership in the future. Mobily Business and Microsoft Arabia have been strategic partners for a long time, which helped Mobily establish a strong presence in the local market. Microsoft Arabia CEO Noman said: We are happy to sign this agreement with Mobily Business, which will enable Mobily to provide Microsoft solutions that enhance productivity, efficiency, and security of SMEs. This partnership is part of our commitment to enable individuals and establishments to achieve more especially in this time which depends on cloud computing as an infrastructure. Microsoft cloud solutions facilitate productivity through its Office 365 by completing tasks quickly and in a smart way for a monthly subscription fee starting at SR16 ($4) including support that will be added to the monthly service bill. Users can exchange documents in a secure way, and access their computers that are working on Windows 10 or smart phones from any other operating system. The agreement aims to raise the level of joint technical collaboration between both sides and provide Microsoft cloud for SMEs. Moreover, Microsoft is committed to developing the skills of workers in these establishments in order to transfer them into a paper-free environment by using Microsoft cloud solutions.

Mobily Business recently signed an agreement with Microsoft Arabia. The agreement aims to provide Microsoft cloud services and productivity tools over the Internet such as, Office 365, Dynamics, Enterprise Security Suite, in order to fulfil the needs of small and medium enterprises (SME) in the Saudi market. The agreement was signed in the presence of Ismail Alghamdi, Mobily chief business officer, and Sameer Noman, CEO of Microsoft Arabia. The deal reflects Mobily Business efforts in developing and enhancing the business sector services by combining existing services with Microsoft cloud products. Alghamdi said: We are pleased to sign this agreement with Microsoft which confirms Mobilys leading role in the business sector, especially the SME sector. It also confirms Mobilys efforts to enhance this sector by providing Microsoft cloud services. Moreover, we are proud of our successful partnership with Microsoft during the past years and look forward to further strengthening this partnership in the future. Mobily Business and Microsoft Arabia have been strategic partners for a long time, which helped Mobily establish a strong presence in the local market. Microsoft Arabia CEO Noman said: We are happy to sign this agreement with Mobily Business, which will enable Mobily to provide Microsoft solutions that enhance productivity, efficiency, and security of SMEs. This partnership is part of our commitment to enable individuals and establishments to achieve more especially in this time which depends on cloud computing as an infrastructure. Microsoft cloud solutions facilitate productivity through its Office 365 by completing tasks quickly and in a smart way for a monthly subscription fee starting at SR16 ($4) including support that will be added to the monthly service bill. Users can exchange documents in a secure way, and access their computers that are working on Windows 10 or smart phones from any other operating system. The agreement aims to raise the level of joint technical collaboration between both sides and provide Microsoft cloud for SMEs. Moreover, Microsoft is committed to developing the skills of workers in these establishments in order to transfer them into a paper-free environment by using Microsoft cloud solutions.

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Mobily partners with Microsoft for cloud computing services | Arab ... - Arab News