Category Archives: Cloud Computing

Amazon Web Services Inc. is planning a major overhaul of its 60,000-strong sales team, in order to address problems as rivals such as Microsoft Corp. and Google LLC make some headway in the global cloud computing market.

Thats according to a report today in The Information, which said the Amazon.com Inc. cloud units sales and marketing chief Matt Garman is planning to consolidate various sales teams that have developed conflicting sales strategies within the company. The plan also calls for changes in how AWS assigns its technical staff to help customers, the report said. It comes after a number of AWS clients expressed dissatisfaction with the companys existing practices.

Although AWS remains by far and away the most dominant player in the cloud computing infrastructure-as-a-service market, the company has seen slowing growth. Moreover, it has reportedly failed to meet its internal growth targets at a time when the industry is rapidly transitioning to expand its focus on artificial intelligence.

A report by Business Insider last month claimed that AWS is falling short of its sales goals in two key segments its startups and small-business divisions and will likely miss its targets in those segments in 2023.

Moreover, AWS public disclosures show that its unable to match the growth displayed by its two main rivals in the cloud, Microsoft and Google, though its still much larger at least in the infrastructure segment of the market and continues to grow that business much more in terms of absolute revenue.

Apples-to-apples comparisons are tricky because all three companies report their cloud numbers differently, but its clear that AWS is facing some challenges. In its most recent earnings call, AWS revealed that its cloud revenue had grown by 12% in its fiscal third quarter. However, Microsoft reported that its cloud business grew by 29% year-over-year, while Google Clouds 22% growth rate also outpaced Amazons.

A spokesperson for AWS told SiliconANGLE that the company disputes the claims that the company isnt growing as fast as its rivals.

AWS continues to be the significant leader in cloud infrastructure in customers, revenue, security, operational performance and partner ecosystem, and we believe that AWS had the largest absolute growth in revenue of any cloud provider last quarter at $919 million, the spokesperson said. Others might report a larger percentage of growth, but theyre working from a considerably smaller base. Its also important to note that not everyone breaks out their cloud numbers as transparently as AWS does, so its impossible to compare apples to apples.

Some of AWS best-known execs, including former senior vice president Charlie Bell, marketing chief Rachel Thornton and data center vice president Chris Vonderhaar, have quit the company in the last couple of years, and the rate at which lower level managers are leaving has also reportedly increased.

AWSs spokesperson said The Informations report concerns an organizational change that was first announced by Garman in November and reported by GeekWire. At the time, Garman wrote in an internal memo distributed to employees that the company will reorganize its Sales, Marketing and Global Services group in order to lay the foundation for accelerated customer impact and growth in the years ahead.

The goal of the reorganization is to improve customer experiences by betteraligning our customer-facing teams, resulting in increased agility, scale, and efficiency, Garman wrote.

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Report: AWS to reorganize sales teams amid slowing cloud revenue growth - SiliconANGLE News

There is no question the cloud has and continues to gain popularity among businesses and individuals, and today whether its SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS 94 percent of enterprises are now utilizing cloud services. Cloud has allowed organizations to save on infrastructure and operational costs while enabling more flexibility and scalability. Adopting the cloud has helped companies find alternative plans to reduce costs while ensuring the availability of their data and infrastructure.

But every technology has its drawbacks. Cloud-related vulnerabilities have doubled in the last four years, resulting in 82 percent of data breaches involving cloud data compromises. Cloud-first enterprises have been consistently targeted by cybercriminals, resulting in data breaches stemming from inadequate security measures and cybercriminals gaining access to sensitive data through account hijacking. Additionally, when not properly executed, there is a high risk of professionals overlooking outdated applications running in the cloud, enabling new vulnerabilities for cybercriminals to exploit.

This brings into consideration the benefits of a hybrid cloud and on-premises model, which helps to maintain a robust security posture to safeguard business operations more effectively. Lets dive in deeper to understand further the obstacles companies face when purely dependent on the cloud and the benefits of a hybrid approach.

To highlight the severity of the vulnerabilities, lets consider a recent report by Qualys examining top vulnerable areas about assets hosted in a cloud environment. A few critical threats emerged as significant organizational concerns among the various vulnerabilities examined.

Misconfigurations and external vulnerabilities were identified as the foremost susceptibilities, posing a substantial risk to cloud-based assets. These misconfigurations often stem from the complexity of cloud environments and the challenge of aligning security settings with the specific needs of each organization. External vulnerabilities, on the other hand, highlight the susceptibility of cloud-based systems to threats from external actors, emphasizing the need for robust perimeter defenses.

Another significant concern noted in the report was weaponized vulnerabilities. This threat encompasses vulnerabilities that have the potential to be exploited as weapons by cybercriminals, underscoring the critical importance of promptly addressing vulnerabilities. Malware within the cloud was also identified as a significant risk factor. Cloud environments, while offering many benefits, can inadvertently provide a breeding ground for malware if not adequately secured.

All this to say, the shared responsibility model in cloud computing places the responsibility on both cloud service providers (CSPs) and organizations to maintain security. While CSPs provide security settings and controls, the ease and speed at which data can be moved into the cloud can sometimes lead to these controls being overlooked. This oversight can create vulnerabilities (like those listed above) and potential points of entry for cyberthreats, essentially leaving cracks in the overall defense strategy.

As cloud adoption continues to rise, organizations must strike a balance between the convenience of cloud computing and the robust security measures required to safeguard digital assets. This can be achieved by adopting a hybrid approach of both cloud and on-premises deployments.

Due to the nuanced nature of the cloud, many often find themselves checking boxes and setting up infrastructure without proper security or understanding of what they are doing. Amazon Web Services, by default, turns off all outbound communication on every workload created because they know it is the end users responsibility and ultimate risk to open the floodgates. While the cloud offers unbelievable convenience, it is a veritable Pandoras Box of functionality and requires expertise and constant education to stay in best practice and ahead of threats.

Due to the built-in complexity of CSPs, some clever vendors have built an alternative to the cloud model. They are creating remote and on-premises solutions that acknowledge the end users need for security, simplicity, and power and eliminate the complexity of management, expertise, and control. Users can free up time and significantly reduce risk by taking advantage of on-premises and remote services and solutions designed to improve the now-aging cloud model.

Furthermore, the cloud is limited by an organizations internet bandwidth, whereas on-premises infrastructure and storage allow for much faster ingest and recovery speeds. Slow ingest speeds could mean that backup windows are not being met. If backup windows are not met, there may not be a good copy of data to recover from. If cyber attackers compromise data in the cloud, hold it hostage for ransom, or even destroy it, IT teams with on-premises copies of data will still be able to rapidly recover and restore everything.

By adopting the hybrid model, organizations can have the flexibility and scalability offered by the cloud while maintaining the immutability and integrity of on-premises storage solutions. While the cloud brings undeniable advantages, even the most robust cloud security can be penetrable, making on-premises backup storage critical to your overall data protection strategy. To ensure the most effective protection, the best practice is to adhere to the 3-2-1-1-0 backup strategy. Maintain three copies of your data on two different media types, with one of those copies stored off-site and one immutable or air gapped, while ensuring zero errors upon backup.

Embracing a hybrid approach allows organizations the benefits of data accessibility in the cloud and on-premises. It provides safe, simple, and affordable solutions for organizations to effectively manage and store their data with the robust security measures that the cloud offers. Its essential to recognize that no system is entirely immune to potential breaches or ransomware attacks. By implementing on-premises immutable backup storage, organizations are fortifying their data protection strategy, ensuring that valuable information remains resilient and safeguarded against potential threats.

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Don't underestimate vulnerabilities in the cloud. Adopt hybrid to stay protected - Best Enterprise Data Storage Software ... - Solutions Review

Top executives from Cloud Box Technologies, CPX, Dimension Data, Dynatrace, Fortinet, Gulf Business Machines, Genetec, ManageEngine, NetApp, Palo Alto Networks, SAP, share their insights into innovations, disruptions, transformations expected in 2024 in areas like AI, cybersecurity, datacentre, cloud and sustainability.

In 2024 and beyond, the IT industry is poised for innovation and transformation. From exciting innovations and opportunities to newfound challenges, the ever-evolving technological landscape will bring an entirely new spectrum of changes.

Artificial Intelligence, driven by Generative AI, will automate tasks and personalise experiences, while AIaaS democratises access. Cloud computing sees multi-cloud adoption and serverless computing for flexibility, says Ranjith Kaippada, Managing Director, Cloud Box Technologies.

Last year, organisations have focused on streamlining operations and cutting costs in response to rising inflation. This year, they have been challenged to do more with less, innovate faster, and tame the growing complexity of modern cloud environments, and we expect these challenges to continue in 2024, says Jorge Longo, VP Middle East and Africa, Dynatrace.

Achieving lofty goals inevitably requires new approaches. Therefore, numerous organisations are adopting Generative AI, which uses its training data to generate text, images, code, or other types of content that accurately represent the natural language queries of users. Many are also turning to platform engineering to create new efficiencies and opportunities for innovation.

The numbers show that these technology trends have taken hold. According to a recent Dynatrace survey, 83% of technology leaders said AI has become a requirement.

However, we anticipate that in 2024 and beyond, organisations will move towards a composite AI approach that combines multiple types of AI, such as generative, predictive, and causal, and different data sources, says Dynatraces Longo.

Dynatrace calls this hypermodal AI and it is already a core technology within the Dynatrace platform. This approach brings precision, context, and meaning to AI outputs.

Furthermore, 83% of respondents to a recent DevOps Digest survey have plans to adopt platform engineering or have already done so. Thus, in 2024 expect platform engineering to become mission critical. Data observability will also become mandatory as organisations seek to drive more intelligent automation and faster decision-making.

Overall, the IT landscape in 2024 will witness an intricate interplay of AI, ML, cloud computing, and Generative AI, propelling businesses into a realm of unparalleled efficiency, innovation, and connectivity, says Firas Jadalla, Regional Director Middle East, Turkey and Africa, at Genetec.

In 2024, the IT industry is set to undergo groundbreaking transformations across multiple fronts. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will continue to evolve, with a focus on more ethical and responsible applications. The integration of AI into various business processes will streamline operations, enhance decision-making, and pave the way for unprecedented innovation.

SAP expects 2024 to be the year that businesses move past the hype around Generative AI and Large Language Models, and seek to identify and implement real business use cases to leverage the benefits. Enterprises will realise that the effectiveness of AI-generated solutions largely depend on the quality of available data, says Ahmed AlFaifi, Senior Vice President, SAP Middle East and Africa North.

Green IT focuses on sustainability, and Quantum Computing revolutionises various sectors. The pace of change will demand adaptability, urging businesses and individuals to embrace these advancements for continued success.

Cybersecurity

According to Cloud Box Technologies Kaippada, cybersecurity advances with Zero Trust Network Access and Quantum-resistant cryptography. Low-Code, No-Code development empowers non-programmers for agile app creation. The Metaverse and Web3 redefine user interaction and decentralised applications.

Cybersecurity will experience a paradigm shift, leveraging AI to anticipate and counteract evolving threats. Quantum computings advancements will pose both challenges and opportunities, revolutionising data processing capabilities.

In the realm of cybersecurity, Generative AI tools can generate human-like text and speech, allowing them to automate the creation of phishing emails, social engineering attacks, and other malicious content. Simultaneously, these tools have untapped potential in helping cyber defenders analyse, correlate, and communicate information more effectively, says Paul Lawson, Executive Director Cyber Defence, CPX.

The impact of geopolitical events in cyberspace, coupled with global conflicts and more than half of the global population participating in elections, means that 2024 is expected to be a record year for cyber-activism, mis- and disinformation campaigns, continues Lawson.

Cyber defenders must prepare for an upswing in targeted communication aimed at delivering malicious payloads or extorting information from users via email, web and social media channels.

Fortinets FortiGuard 2024 Threat Predictions report looks at a new era of advanced cybercrime and how AI is changing the attack game. The classic methods are not going away, instead, they are evolving and advancing as attackers gain access to new resources.

Fortinet also predicts the evolution of Generative AI and how its weaponisation could add fuel to an already raging fire, giving attackers an easy means of enhancing many stages of their attacks.

In addition to the evolution of Advanced Persistent Threat operations, we predict that cybercrime groups will diversify their targets and playbooks, focusing on more sophisticated and disruptive attacks, and setting their sights on denial of service and extortion, says Alain Penel, VP Middle East, Turkey and CIS, Fortinet.

Cybercrime turf wars will continue, with multiple attack groups homing in on the same targets and deploying ransomware variants, often within 24 hours or less. We have seen cybercriminals increasingly use AI to support malicious activities in new ways, ranging from thwarting the detection of social engineering to mimicking human behaviour, adds Fortinets Penel.

As cyber threats become more sophisticated, the technology sector will see improvements in proactive and adaptive security measures. Therefore, bolstering defences against evolving cyber threats through AI-driven threat detection and zero-trust architecture will be another key focus area in 2024, according to Gulf Business Machines CEO Mike Weston.

In 2024, companies will invest in cyber-resiliency plans, making it a key business differentiator for success in the complex global market. Cyber resilience promises to become a strong business differentiator, says Rajesh Ganesan, President ManageEngine.

Enterprises will adopt an identity-centric approach, ensuring authorised access and data protection. Cloud infrastructure and entitlement management will enhance visibility, minimise threats, and provide a worry-free digital experience.

Artificial Intelligence, AI will continue to be a truly disruptive and transformative area in 2024. Business and IT departments will struggle to define true ownership of AI, while cybersecurity best practices around AI will be left behind, says Haider Pasha, Head of CSO Team, EMEA and LATAM, Palo Alto Networks.

Attackers will leverage Large Language Models, and Generative AI to significantly improve spear phishing emails, combining them with deepfake and other AI-enabled attacks to increase click rates. Deployed correctly, Generative AI will accelerate cybersecurity as an enabler, adds Palo Alto Networks Pasha.

As Generative AI models mature through 2024, the rise of Security Copilots will increase Security Operations, SecOps productivity. This significantly changes the focus within the team towards a proactive versus reactive mindset, with a greater focus on building threat intelligence platforms that leverage AI as early-warning systems.

In addition, a greater focus on threat-hunting programmes will provide better visibility to attack surfaces before security teams embark on digital-first projects.

Datacentres

The combination of IoT, Private 5G, and edge computing can enable organisations to gain real-time insights and make informed decisions based on device data. As the IoT ecosystem expands, businesses will increasingly adopt edge solutions to seamlessly integrate their enterprise networks, says Burcak Soydan, Managing Executive Middle East, Dimension Data.

Dark NOC, a fully automated network operation centre, is rapidly becoming a reality with the advancement of AIOPs. Networking companies are expected to further integrate AIOPs into their operations in 2024, aiming to enhance network quality, support engineers, and modernise infrastructures.

2024 will see increased investment in AI-driven energy supplies for data centre infrastructure, with enterprises collaborating with energy providers to explore sustainable options. Focus on network efficiency, reliability, sustainability, and future-readiness will bring optical networking to the forefront in 2024, adds Dimension Datas Soydan.

Innovations in edge computing will also drive new growth as organisations adopt faster data processing at the source for better business outcomes. These advancements, however, will give rise to new threats and expose businesses to expanded attack surfaces, says Gulf Business Machines Weston.

As businesses carve out competitive advantages and differentiation in their respective markets, they are collecting and analysing massive amounts of data and metadata from every business application, customer touchpoint, and device they can to generate actionable insights.

Continuing innovation in areas like AI and analytics has given these businesses new ways to apply their data, but they need to ensure their underlying IT and business infrastructures can process and analyse all that data, no matter where it is stored or when it is needed.

Those that can make their data work for them will operate more efficiently and drive business value, says Walid Issa, Senior Manager for Pre-Sales and Solutions Engineering, MENA and East Europe, NetApp.

In 2024, NetApp predicts that organisations will move beyond pre-trained AI models, focusing instead on data-driven AI fuelled by continuous data pipelines for adaptability. Breaking down data silos through unified data storage will unlock hidden connections and fuel AI and analytics innovation.

As cyberattacks become increasingly common, organisations will adopt an assume your data was already hacked approach, prioritising secure by design IT systems and rapid recovery solutions for business continuity. By embracing these trends, businesses can operate with greater agility, and thrive in the dynamic landscape of the future, says NetApps Issa.

Artificial intelligence

Generative AI will become even more sophisticated, influencing content creation, code generation, and creative pursuits. This technology will redefine human-machine collaboration, fostering a new era of productivity and creativity.

Building on the initial momentum gained over the last two years, AI will continue to be a key business disruptor, transforming the regions fast-changing innovation landscape. In 2024, AI will seamlessly integrate into routine business processes, offering users more personalised and elevated experiences, says Gulf Business Machines Weston.

2023 has been a transformational year, with both existing technologies and novel innovations revolutionising the way organisations work. In 2024, enterprises will continue to embrace further updates to technological measures that design a better digital environment for everyone, adds ManageEngines Ganesan.

Enterprises will be keen to adapt to purpose-built Large Language Models that enable deep-nested conversations, align with software tools, and address creative and redundant workloads. They protect data, reduce biases, and provide detailed audit reports for AI decision understanding, continues Ganesan.

Enterprises that will get the best results are those with access to reliable, real-time business data that can be combined with Generative AI to create contextual solutions, adds SAPs AlFaifi.

There are two further developments arising from implementation of AI. First, a focus on research into improving not only reliability but also the security of Generative AI models, for example watermarking data and developing new encryption algorithms. Second, a period of greater innovation and creativity in software development driven by the use of AI itself.

Cloud

According to Genetecs Jadalla, cloud computing will remain a cornerstone, with a surge in edge computing capabilities for faster data processing. The convergence of 5G technology and edge computing will redefine connectivity, enabling real-time applications and unlocking new possibilities for industries like healthcare and IoT

According to Dimension Datas Soydan, in 2024, vertical specific clouds package software, PaaS, and IaaS layers is also expected to be used to deliver industry-centric use cases focused on business outcomes.

Businesses will shift their focus from finding the perfect cloud environment to implementing an intelligent data infrastructure that combines unified storage and data management capabilities for seamless data storage, control, and utilisation across any cloud environment, says NetApps Issa.

Denial-of-service, DDoS attacks, once a seen as merely a nuisance, have also evolved into a serious threat for major digital service providers. With a growing reliance on cloud services, IT teams must ensure the availability of adequate, redundant, and secure connectivity for uninterrupted access to key business processes and applications, points out CPXs Lawson.

Sustainability

Sustainability will be a crucial factor in IT procurement, impacting investments and innovation, especially as stringent regulations are expected to increase their influence in the coming year, points out Dimension Datas Soydan.

Sustainability also remains a top priority on the regional agendas. Technologies addressing efficient utilities and transportation, resource optimisation, renewable energy, and ESG data tracking will feature prominently in a businesss growth strategy. Integrating these technologies not only aids in meeting sustainability goals but also positions businesses as responsible leaders in the evolving technology landscape, says Gulf Business Machines Weston.

Key takeaways

Artificial Intelligence, driven by Generative AI, will automate tasks and personalise experiences, while AIaaS democratises access

2024 will be challenged to do more with less, innovate faster, tame the growing complexity of modern cloud environments.

Achieving lofty goals inevitably requires new approaches and numerous organisations are adopting Generative AI.

Organisations will move towards a composite AI approach that combines multiple types of AI, such as generative, predictive, and causal.

Dynatrace calls this hypermodal AI and it is already a core technology within the Dynatrace platform.

The IT landscape in 2024 will witness an intricate interplay of AI, ML, cloud computing, and Generative AI, propelling businesses into a realm of unparalleled efficiency.

In 2024 businesses move past the hype around Generative AI and Large Language Models, and seek to implement real business use cases.

Enterprises will realise that effectiveness of AI-generated solutions depends on the quality of available data.

Generative AI tools can generate human-like text and speech, to automate creation of phishing emails, social engineering attacks.

Denial-of-service attacks, once seen as a nuisance, have also evolved into a serious threat for major digital service providers.

IT teams must ensure availability of adequate, redundant, and secure connectivity for uninterrupted access to key business processes.

Cyber defenders must prepare for an upswing in targeted communication aimed at delivering malicious payloads or extorting information from users via email, web and social media channels.

Cybercrime turf wars will continue, with multiple attack groups homing in on the same targets and deploying variants within 24 hours or less.

Artificial Intelligence will continue to be a disruptive and transformative area in 2024.

Business and IT departments will struggle to define true ownership of AI, while cybersecurity best practices around AI will be left behind.

Attackers will leverage Large Language Models, and Generative AI to improve spear phishing emails, combining them with deepfake to increase click rates.

Deployed correctly, Generative AI will accelerate cybersecurity as an enabler.

As Generative AI models mature through 2024, the rise of Security Copilots will increase Security Operations, SecOps productivity.

As the IoT ecosystem expands, businesses will adopt edge solutions to integrate their enterprise networks.

Dark NOC, a fully automated network operation centre, is becoming a reality with the advancement of AIOPs.

Networking companies are expected to further integrate AIOPs into their operations, aiming to enhance network quality.

2024 will see increased investment in AI-driven energy supplies for data centre infrastructure collaborating with energy providers.

Focus on network efficiency will bring optical networking to the forefront in 2024.

NetApp predicts organisations will move beyond pre-trained AI models, focusing instead on data-driven AI fuelled by data pipelines.

As cyberattacks become increasingly common, organisations will adopt an assume your data was already hacked approach, prioritising recovery.

In 2024, AI will seamlessly integrate into routine business processes, offering users more personalised and elevated experiences.

Enterprises will be keen to adapt to purpose-built Large Language Models that enable deep-nested conversations.

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Innovations, disruptions, transformations expected in 2024 Intelligent CIO Middle East - Intelligent CIO

Industry cloud platforms are designed to meet the unique needs of vertical industry customers inadequately served by generic solutions. Yet finding a service that covers all the bases at reasonable terms can be a challenging task.

The main thing to consider when selecting a cloud provider is identifying candidates that fit your companys requirements, advises James Meade, digital solution architecture director with NTT Data Services in an email interview.

Look inward when considering industry cloud providers, suggests Brian Campbell, a principal in Deloitte Consultings strategy practice. An industry cloud should be closely tied to your business strategy, he says via email.

Find the fastest path to value, Campbell says. Many generic cloud players also offer specific industry cloud solutions. Pre-existing vendor relationships may make some platforms easier to integrate than others. Strive to preserve flexibility and the ability to innovate, he advises. The market is rapidly evolving, and monolithic implementations are giving way to user-friendly building blocks that are continuously improved. These are proving to provide the greatest advantage, Campbell observes.

Begin with your organizations current business strategy and work backwards, Campbell suggests. Consider the most important capabilities, then scan for solutions that can be leveraged in those particular areas. However, ensure that you take a wider view as well, so you dont lock yourself into your current ecosystem, he adds.

Related:Amazon CTO Talks Cloud, Creative Architecture, and Cost

An industry cloud package should also be evaluated on the basis of how well it meshes with existing applications and storage requirements. Re-educating the support staff to work with the new cloud environment can be costly and complex without the right guidance and precautions in place, Meade cautions.

Dont overlook your due diligence when searching for the right industry cloud for your organization. In a recent email interview, Bernie Hoecker, a partner and enterprise cloud transformation lead with technology research and advisory firm ISG, suggests breaking the industry cloud selection process into eight basic steps.

1. Define your requirements. Outline your organizations technical and business requirements and establish defined business goals and outcomes. The goals should be approved by senior management and coupled with strong management and governance practices.

2. Consider your overall cloud strategy. In many cases, a firm has already established a hybrid/multi-cloud strategy for internal and external workloads. Its critical to have the industry cloud aligned with the overall enterprise cloud strategy and to ensure that the firms data, security, and cost are integrated into an enterprise-wide IT and business strategy.

Related:What You Need to Know About Hybrid Cloud Computing

3. Perform a needs assessment. Conduct a review of the existing IT environment to identify gaps that should be addressed during the industry cloud journey.

4. Examine the clouds support attributes. The platform should offer strong data management and analytics functions to inform decision-making.

5. Understand the pricing structure. Consider the total cost of ownership, including any possible hidden costs.

6. Budget wisely. Establish a multi-year budget for deploying and running the industry cloud. The budget should focus on ROI and the value the cloud will bring to the enterprise and end-user clients.

7. Research. Meet with multiple cloud service providers, consultants, and services firms specializing in your specific industry. Also explore industry forums, associations, user groups, publications, and case studies to learn from others about their industry cloud experiences and models.

8. Ensure regulatory compliance. Be certain that the cloud selected complies with industry-specific regulations and standards.

Related:Getting Aggressive with Cloud Cybersecurity

One of the biggest mistakes IT leaders make when shopping for an industry cloud is searching for a solution without first constructing a holistic strategy, Campbell says. He recommends focusing on areas that will maximize the overall investment value, including data management and security operations, while ensuring both business and IT buy-in.

Due to multiple factors, including, compliance, business continuity, customer trust, and financial health, cybersecurity should be a central consideration when assessing industry clouds, says Nigel Gibbons, a director and partner with cyber threat consultancy NCC Group. Businesses store sensitive data in the cloud, such as customer details, financial records, and intellectual property, making cybersecurity essential to safeguard against unauthorized access and breaches, he notes. Gibbons adds that its also important to be aware of data sovereignty requirements and the impact of laws on where and how data is stored, particularly for businesses operating internationally.

To ensure tight alignment with both present and future business goals its important to choose a forward-looking provider, Gibbons says. Its essential to future-proof investments by choosing a provider that regularly innovates and updates its offerings.

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How to Select the Right Industry Cloud for Your Business - How to Select the Right Industry Cloud for Your Business - InformationWeek

The provision of computer services via the internet, including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence, is known as cloud computing. Users can access and use these services without having to pay for and maintain physical infrastructure thanks to cloud computing. Additional advantages of cloud computing include scalability, dependability, security, and cost-effectiveness.

The global cloud computing market is anticipated to develop at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.1% from USD 626.4 billion in 2023 to USD 1,266.4 billion by 2028, according to a research analysis by MarketsandMarkets.

The market for cloud computing is expanding due to several factors, including the rising demand for cloud services across various verticals and industries, the COVID-19 pandemics acceleration of cloud spending, the growing adoption of emerging technologies like edge computing, 5G, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML), and the growing need for digital transformation. This article will examine some of the major developments and prospects in the cloud computing market, as well as how they will affect the direction of the sector going forward.

A hybrid cloud is an on-premises infrastructure, private cloud, and public cloud combined into one cloud computing model. With a hybrid cloud, customers may benefit from the greatest features of both public and private clouds, including cost-effectiveness, scalability, and flexibility, all while retaining control, security, and performance from on-premises infrastructure and private clouds.

Applications that are created, developed, and implemented utilizing cloud computing concepts and tools, like serverless architecture, microservices, containers, and DevOps, are referred to as cloud-native applications. Users may fully benefit from the clouds features, like agility, scalability, resilience, and portability, with cloud-native apps.

A distributed computing paradigm known as edge computing moves processing and data storage closer to the places where they are required, such as near users, sensors, or other devices. Edge computing improves data processing security, privacy, and dependability while lowering transmission latency, bandwidth, and costs.

Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS provides a vast array of cloud services, including networking, analytics, machine learning, computing, storage, databases, internet of things, security, and more.

Microsoft Azure: A wide range of cloud services, including computing, networking, analytics, machine learning, storage, databases, internet of things, security, and more, are provided by Azure.

Google Cloud: A wide range of cloud services, including computing, networking, analytics, machine learning, storage, databases, internet of things, security, and more, are provided by Google Cloud.

Alibaba Cloud: Numerous cloud services, including computing, storage, database management, networking, analytics, machine learning, the internet of things, security, and more, are provided by Alibaba Cloud.

IBM Cloud: Cloud computing, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning, the Internet of things, security, and other services are all provided by IBM Cloud.

Data security and privacy: Working with cloud settings raises several security concerns because users are responsible for their data and because some cloud providers cannot guarantee 100% data privacy.

Cost management and containment: Managing expenses can be difficult when utilizing cloud services because users are only charged for the resources they use and may run into unforeseen or hidden expenses. Some of the things that can drive up cloud costs are performance problems, underuse, overprovisioning, and wasted resources.

Cloud computing is predicted to reach a size of US$1,266.4 billion by 2028, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.1%, from US$626.4 billion in 2023. This information comes from MarketsandMarkets. The following is the annual anticipated market size:

2024: US$760.9 billion

2025: US$925.8 billion

2026: US$1,125.6 billion

2027: US$1,240.9 billion

2028: US$1,266.4 billion

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Cloud Computing Market Set to Reach US$1,266.4 Billion by 2028 - Analytics Insight

Cisco announced this week its intent to acquire Isovalent, a leader in open-source cloud-native networking and security, to bolster its secure networking capabilities across public clouds. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in Q3 of 2024, the companies said in a statement.

This is technology M&A deal number 339 that ChannelE2E and MSSP Alert have covered so far in 2023. See more than 2,000 technology M&A deals for 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020 listed here.

Cisco, founded in 1984, is based in San Jose, California. The company has 99,809 associated members listed on LinkedIn. Cisco's areas of expertise include Networking, Wireless, Security, Unified Communication, Cloud, Collaboration, Data Center, Virtualization, and Unified Computing Systems.

Isovalent, founded in 2017, is based in Cupertino, California. The company has 158 associated members listed on LinkedIn. Isovalent's areas of expertise include Kubernetes, security, observability, networking, k8s, eBPF, and zero trust.

Isovalents team is a major contributor to the open-source extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) technology, and has led the development of Cilium, a cloud-native solution for networking and security. eBPF provides visibility into the inner workings of the operating system to help teams build security systems that can protect a workload while it runs. Isovalent has also recently introduced:

The acquisition of Isovalent will build on the Cisco Security Cloud vision, an AI-driven, cloud-delivered, integrated security platform. The Cisco Security Cloud enables customers to abstract security controls from multi-cloud infrastructure to provide advanced protection against emerging threats across any cloud, application, or workload.

Together with Isovalent, Cisco will build on the open source power of Cilium to create a truly unique multi-cloud security and networking capability to help customers simplify and accelerate their digital transformation journeys, said Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and general manager of Security and Collaboration at Cisco. "Imagine in today's distributed environment - of applications, virtual machines, containers, and cloud assets - having security controls with total visibility, without hindering networking and application performance. The combination of Cisco and Isovalent will make this a reality.

Cisco is committed to nurturing, investing in, and contributing to the eBPF and Cilium open source communities, said Stephen Augustus, Head of Open Source at Cisco. Isovalents team will join Cisco's deep bench of open-source governance and technical leadership to solve complex cloud-native, security, and networking challenges. Their knowledge will accelerate innovation across the business and help further strengthen the Cisco Security Cloud platform to meet the growing demands of our customers.

Isovalent holds leadership positions in theCloud Native Computing FoundationandeBPF Foundation,in addition to upstream software contributions, and this acquisition strengthens Cisco's role in supporting the open-source ecosystem, the company said. Cisco and Isovalent will continue to build solutions powered by eBPF technology that aim to solve the challenge of protecting workloads no matter where they reside, according to the statement. Cisco is committed to Cilium and Tetragon as open-source projects and intends to create an independent advisory board to help steer Cisco's contributions to these important efforts in a way that is aligned with the needs of the open-source community, Cisco said.

The Isovalent team will join the Cisco Security Business Group once the acquisition closes, which is expected in the third quarter of fiscal year 2024.

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Cisco to Acquire Isovalent to Secure Cloud-Native Networking - Channel E2E

Karunakarn Palaniswamy, Senior Director - Delivery & Technology, MSys Technologies Businesses today need to remain agile, nimble, and competitive, and to that end, cloud-native applications can prove to be of immense help. Contrary to the monolithic networks underpinned by tightly coupled entities, cloud-native applications are based on loosely coupled microservices architecture boasting high scalability and resilience. Further, these applications run on cloud platforms that complement business processes through their distributed architecture, decentralized access, and flexible storage options. No wonder the demand for cloud computing is rising exponentially across sectors, with research reports predicting the segment to reach $1240.9 bn by 2027 from a market cap of $545.8 bn in 2022, thereby growing at a CAGR of 17.9%. Benefits of cloud-native applications Scalability: The seamless addition of the instances to the individual microservices makes cloud-native applications the best for the scalability process. The best part is that this addition can be done without impacting the overall performance, which is in stark contrast to monolithic applications where any such addition impacts the entire system's performance. Hence, cloud-native applications allow organizations to scale operations swiftly without mandating comprehensive changes in their entire system architecture.

Agility: Thanks to the modular architecture of microservices, the apps can be developed and deployed independently. This makes it easier for firms to introduce new features and integrate updates without causing any significant disruption in their current ecosystems. This swift development, independent deployment, and uninterrupted integration offer businesses a competitive edge by helping them stay ahead of the innovation curve and swiftly bringing new products and features to market.

Portability: Cloud-native applications' platform-agnostic nature is another significant aspect. These applications can run on any supporting platform, and their ability to move seamlessly offers service providers the freedom to choose the platform that best fits their needs. Further, access to a wide variety of options in the development space fuels healthy competition, stimulates innovation, and helps the industry stay competitive on both the demand and supply side.

Microservice architecture: Cloud-native applications are based on microservices made up of smaller, loosely coupled components that allow for scalability at the granular level. Based on the firm's specific requirements, each microservice can be scaled independently of others, thereby offering the freedom to scale specific components without altering the architecture of the entire application. This feature also helps organizations to allocate resources judiciously, develop rapidly, deploy efficiently, and scale optimally within the broader constraints of resources.

iLeveraging containerization: To unlock the immense potential of cloud-native applications, containerization technology is becoming increasingly crucial. Container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes allow the development and running of microservices in an isolated environment. These platforms also allow for the quick scaling of individual components per the changing needs and demands of the business environment. In addition, modern container platforms offer customers a complete automation facility, thereby enhancing both the scalability and resilience of organizations.

Dynamic workload management: Among their differentiating competencies, cloud-native applications adjust resource allocations dynamically based on varying requirements on the workload front. This auto-scaling allows organizations to predefine thresholds and trigger responses (such as allocating more storage capacity or computing power) as and when situations mandate. This helps achieve performance optimization during peak times while minimizing operating costs during low-activity periods.

Amplifying agility

Agility helps businesses create superior value by quickly tapping into emerging opportunities and responding to changing customer needs. The facet is equally essential from the development standpoint as it allows firms to remain innovative, competitive, and responsive. Here are the crucial factors that cloud-native applications enable to equip organizations with desired levels of agility and performance:

Faster time-to-market: Compared to the conventional methods, the microservices used by cloud-native applications speed up the development process and time-to-market response. The modular approach allows different development teams to work independently on individual services and components, allowing businesses to introduce new features, update existing networks, and replace laggard services with novel, efficient processes. Continuous development and delivery: Thanks to the modular approach and loosely bound architecture, firms using cloudy-native applications can continuously run their development and delivery operations. These applications also enable the automation of the building, testing, and deployment processes, thereby minimizing manual interventions and human errors. This continuous development also makes the companies' product pipelines dynamic and vibrant, further augmenting their appeal among current and prospective consumers.

High elasticity: Cloud-native applications dynamically add or withdraw resources in response to the changing demands on the various work fronts. This elastic behavior allows more computational power or storage capacity during high demand while withdrawing them from usage in lean hours. This, in turn, helps firms achieve a higher degree of operational efficiency and resource optimization while minimizing the cost and wastage associated with the use of resources.

Real-world examples

Netflix: The leading streaming company, Netflix, uses the cloud-native application to offer its streaming services to its customers worldwide. The microservice architecture allows Netflix to scale its operations effortlessly, handle traffic optimally, and quickly improve and roll out new services per changing customer preferences.

Spotify: Spotify, a well-known music streaming platform, uses the microservice architecture to offer personalized music recommendations to its millions of users worldwide. It uses cloud-native technologies that, coupled with the loosely coupled architecture, help the company handle massive volumes of data and continuously improve its algorithm for superior search and recommendation results.

Airbnb: Airbnb handles millions of its bookings worldwide effortlessly thanks to cloud-native principles in its functional procedures and operational mechanisms. The company uses various containerization and orchestration tools that help it create better value and deliver superior customer experiences.

Cloud-native applications are changing how organizations develop, deploy, and integrate their services to deliver superior value to their end consumers. The potential of these applications is immense. By embracing these loosely coupled, decentralized, and cloud-oriented microservices, organizations explore new opportunities while maximizing customer reach and business profitability.

The author is Senior Director - Delivery & Technology, MSys Technologies Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETCIO does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETCIO shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organization directly or indirectly.

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Cloud-native applications: Unlocking the potential of scalability and agility - ETCIO

For a recent commentary in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, radiologistFlorence Doo, MDand colleagues examined the role of cloud computing in supporting the specialty's future.

The authors argued that radiologists, as pioneers in integrating technology into healthcare, grapple with the increasing importance of managing the vast amounts of medical imaging datawhich they said constitutes 90% of all healthcare data.

The advent of AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), poses challenges in computing power and storage for current noncloud systems. Considering the strain on these systems, cloud technologies emerge as potential game-changers, offering technical capabilities along with economic and environmental advantages, noted Doo, with theUniversity of Maryland Medical Intelligent Imaging Center.

Below are the three key takeaways for why the shift to the cloud deserves serious consideration:

1. Moving to the cloud makes business sense:Radiology's increasing reliance on data-driven processes makes migrating to cloud-based solutions a logical and strategic move. Cloud adoption signifies a fundamental shift in how radiology departments manage imaging data. Tangible benefits of cloud migration include reduced downtime, enhanced productivity, deferred hardware investments, and economic advantages.

2. The AI revolution needs the cloud:Radiology is on the brink of a technological revolution driven by AI, mainly LLMs, which necessitate robust computing capabilities and extensive storage space. Cloud solutions offer a potential remedy, providing necessary infrastructure while reducing costs associated with hardware ownership, maintenance and upgrades.

3. Reduces the environmental impact of practices:Cloud migration not only offers economic benefits but also champions environmental responsibility by concentrating hardware, optimizing energy consumption and reducing the environmental footprint of radiological operations.

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If AI is the future, radiology needs to look to the cloud - Health Imaging

Maybe we are doing microservices all wrong?

This was the main thesis of Towards Modern Development of Cloud Applications (PDF), a paper from a bunch of Googlers (led by Google software engineer Michael Whittaker) that was presented in June at HOTOS 23: Proceedings of the 19th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems.

The problem, as Whittaker et al pointed out, was that microservices largely have not been set up correctly, architecturally speaking. They conflate logical boundaries (how code is written) with physical boundaries (how code is deployed). And this is where the issues start.

Instead, the Google engineers suggested another approach. Build the applications as logical monoliths but hand them off to automated runtimes, which makes decisions on where to run workloads, based on what is needed by the applications and what is available.

With this latency, they were able to lower latency systems by 15x and cost by up to 9x.

If people would just start with organized modular code, we can make the deployment architecture an implementation detail, Kelsey Hightower commented on this work in October.

A few months earlier, the engineering team at Amazon Prime Video posted a blog post explaining that, at least in the case of video monitoring, a monolithic architecture has produced superior performance than amicroservices and serverless-led approach.

In fact, Amazon saved 90% in operational costs by moving off a microservices architecture.

For a generation of engineers and architects raised on the superiority of microservices, the assertion is shocking indeed.

This post is an absolute embarrassment for Amazon as a company. Complete inability to build internal alignment or coordinated communications,wroteanalystDonnie Berkholz, who recently started his own industry-analyst firmPlatify.

What makes this story unique is that Amazon was the original poster child for service-oriented architectures, weighed in Ruby-on-Rails creator and Basecamp co-founderDavid Heinemeier Hansson. Now the real-world results of all this theory are finally in, and its clear that in practice, microservices pose perhaps the biggest siren song for needlessly complicating your system. And serverless only makes it worse.

The original Amazon video delivery system.

The task of Amazon engineers was to monitor the thousands of video streams that Prime delivered to customers. Originally this work was done by a set of distributed components orchestrated by AWS Step Functions, a serverless orchestration service, AWS Lambda serverless service.

In theory, the use of serverless would allow the team to scale each service independently. It turned out, however, that at least for how the team implemented the components, they hit a hard scaling limit at only 5% of the expected load. The costs of scaling up to monitor thousands of video streams would also be unduly expensive, due to the need to send data across multiple components.

Initially, the team tried to optimize individual components, but this did not bring about significant improvements. So,the team moved all the components into a single process, hosting them on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS).

Microservices and serverless components are tools that do work at high scale, but whether to use them over monolith has to be made on a case-by-case basis, the Amazon team concluded.

Arguably, the term microservices was coined by Peter Rodgers in 2005, though he called it micro web services. He gave a name to the idea that many were thinking though, especially in the age of web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA) gaining attraction at the time.

The main driver behind micro web services at the time was to break up single large monolithic designs into multiple independent components/processes, thereby making the codebase more granular and manageable, explained software engineer Amanda Bennett in a blog post.

The concept took hold, especially with cloud native computing, over the following decades, and has only started receiving criticism in some quarters.

Software engineer Alexander Kainz contributed to TNS a great comparison on monoliths and microservices.

In their paper, the Google engineers list a number of shortcomings with the microservices approach, including:

When The New Stack first covered the Amazon news, many quickly pointed out to us that the architecture the video folks used was not exactly a monolithic architecture either.

This definitely isnt a microservices-to-monolith story, remarkedAdrian Cockcroft, the former vice president of cloud architecture strategy at AWS,now an advisor for Nubank, in an interview with The New Stack. Its a Step Functions-to-microservices story. And I think one of the problems is the wrong labeling.

He pointed out that in many applications, especially internal applications, the cost of development exceeds the runtime costs. In these cases, Step Functions make a lot of sense to save dev time, but can cost for heavy workloads.

If you know youre going to eventually do it at some scale, said Cockcroft, you may build it differently in the first place. So the question is, do you know how to do the thing, and do you know the scale youre going to run it at? Cockcroft said.

The Google paper tackles this issue by making lives easier for the developer while letting the runtime infrastructure bets figure out the most cost-effective way to run these applications.

By delegating all execution responsibilities to the runtime, our solution is able to provide the same benefits as microservices but with much higher performance and reduced costs, the Google researchers wrote.

This year has been a lot of basic architectural reconsiderations, and microservices are not the only ideal being questioned.

Cloud computing, for instance, has also come under scrutiny.

In June, 37signals, which runs both Basecamp and the Hey email application, procured a fleet of Dell servers, and left the cloud, bucking a decades tradition of moving operations off-prem for vaguely defined greater efficiencies.

This is the central deceit of the cloud marketing, that its all going to be so much easier that you hardly need anyone to operate it, David Heinemeier Hansson explained in a blog post. Ive never seen it. Not at 37signals, not from anyone else running large internet applications. The cloud has some advantages, but its typically not in a reduced operations headcount.

Of course, DHH is a race car driver, so naturally he wants to dig into the bare metal. But there are others willing to back this bet. Later this year, Oxide Computers launched their new systems hoping to serve others with a similar sentiment: running cloud computing workloads, but more cost-effectively in their own data centers.

And this sentiment seems to be at least considered more now that the cloud bills are coming due. FinOps became a noticeable thing in 2023, as more organizations turned to companies like KubeCost to control their cloud spend. And how many people were taken aback by the news that a DataDog customer received a $65 million bill for cloud monitoring?

Arguably, a $65 million observability bill might be worth it for an outfit that generates billions in revenue. But as chief architects take a harder look at engineering decisions made in the last decade, they may decide to make a few adjustments. And microservices will not be an exception.

TNS cloud native correspondent Scott M. Fulton III contributed to this report.

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Year-in-Review: 2023 Was a Turning Point for Microservices - The New Stack

The Cloud Adoption Imperative

The current macroeconomic landscape is marked by exceptional volatility and uncertainty, posing challenges to traditional models in the financial services sector. This climate demands greater flexibility and responsiveness from established players to meet evolving customer needs, while managing costs and risks effectively.

Cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) are key technological drivers enabling financial institutions to adapt to this changing market. Cloud computing, in particular, has emerged as a fundamental component of the financial system. It supports the necessary transformations banks and other financial bodies must undertake.

The adoption of cloud computing aids firms in streamlining processes, minimising risks, and enhancing efficiency. It also improves the capacity to identify new business opportunities and revenue sources. A central aspect of its impact lies in offering more tailored customer propositions, better pricing, and conducting operations that are safer and less risky.

Furthermore, cloud computing is essential for maintaining competitiveness in the new financial landscape. It empowers financial institutions to be more agile, resilient, and efficient, aligning with regulatory standards, especially in terms of outsourcing. By embracing cloud technology, financial institutions can revolutionise their business models, fostering new competencies, increasing efficiency, and delivering greater value to customers.

Download this Finextra impact study, produced in association with Microsoft Azure, to learn more.

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AI and Cloud: The Proving Ground for Regulatory Resilience in 2024 - Finextra