September 2, 2013
Volume XLV, Issue 2
Expanding Cloud Computing Market in 2013
Excerpted from Umbrella Infocare Report
A recent survey and research analysis suggest a different turn being taken by most of the organizations in North America and in major parts of Europe when it comes to information technology (IT) infrastructure for 2013-2014.
The analysis says that most of the giants as well as small business units have started to set aside budgets for cloud infrastructure for their businesses. They have started to understand the importance of cloud computing, which is reflected in this new trend of technology upgrades. Cloud computing is one of the futuristic IT solutions that cater to all the needs of IT in any organization.
There is a clear sign of an increased customer base of cloud computing enabled businesses across the world. India too has started to feel the heat, and the companies in India are becoming accustomed and adaptable to this robust future solution. Even in the countries like Sri Lanka and the Philippines, companies have started adopting cloud computing as their IT solution.
TechMarketView, an analyst company, states that more customers will be using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Hosted-Business-Process-as-a-Service (BPaaS) in the months to come. Cloud technologies are becoming increasingly responsive to cost transparency, elasticity of consumption, and increased delivery flexibility.
The estimation suggests that cloud storage services will jump from $5.6 billion to $46.8 billion by the end of 2013. The multifold jump gives a clear picture of cloud computing's soaring demand across the world. Similarly, the cloud computing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) market will grow by 47% by the end of 2015.
The survey discussed above includes Backup & Recovery, Cloud Storage Gateways, Data Movement & Access, Data Replication, Security & Storage Resource Management Solutions, and Hierarchical Storage Management & Archiving.
It's time for all the organizations to rethink their IT budget for 2013 and migrate to cloud computing.
More Investors Looking into the Cloud
Excerpted from CenterBeam Report
Investors are starting to love cloud computing solutions more by the day, as VentureBeat reported that many start-up cloud-based services organizations are starting to draw in more cash. One organization, for example, raised $76 million in the first round of funding as a mobile e-commerce company.
Another organization, which provides data storage products at a low cost, raised $55 million in its fourth round, according to the news source.
According to a post from earlier this year by Forbes contributor Joe McKendrick, 62 percent of respondents in an industry survey either agreed in-part or in-full with the statement "cloud computing is a key factor in the recent boom of entrepreneurs and start-ups."
This came from a report from the Manchester Business School, which noted that 43 percent of respondents had started their businesses in the last three years and 52 percent said they would not have been able to afford on-premise tools.
"The result is we'll see more extremely lightweight businesses on the scene, powered by applications running in someone else's data center," according to McKendrick, adding that it appears as though cloud-based services will be a powerful tool for larger organizations as well moving forward.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 We're very pleased beginning today, and continuing for the next few weeks, to announce new speakers for CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 (CCW:2013).
CCW:2013 is the Cloud Computing Association's (CCA) and Distributed Computing Industry Association's (DCIA) business strategy summit taking place October 27th-29th at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, NV.
Two CCW:2013 conference tracks will zero in on the latest advances in applying cloud-based solutions to all aspects of high-value entertainment production and storage, as well as media delivery and analysis options; along with the growing impact of mobile cloud computing on this sector, and the related expansion of big data opportunities and challenges.
The event will begin on Sunday afternoon October 27th with a "Media, Mobility, and Big Data Cloud 101 Workshop" followed by a Welcoming Cocktail Reception for speakers, delegates, and exhibitors.
Monday morning October 28th will open with opening plenary session keynotes on "The State of Cloud Computing Adoption for Entertainment" by Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Partner Eco-System Manager Bhavik Vyas and ABI Research's Practice Director Sam Rosen, who will address the "Consumer Transition to the Cloud: Service Provider & OTT Video, Gaming, and Music Services."
Next we'll explore "The Needs of Enterprise End-Users in the Media Sector" with Netflix Architect and Principal Engineer Mikey Cohen examining key "Cloud Migration Considerations" and Las Vegas Sands Corporation Global CIO Les Ottolenghi outlining "International Media Enterprise Requirements."
After a mid-morning Networking Break, we'll delve into some of the "Latest Trends and Newest Offerings" with Microsoft Platform Technology Evangelist Yung Chou explaining "The 5-3-2 Principle of Cloud Computing" and Rackspace Cloud Products Program Manager Tom Hopkins keynoting on "Strawberry Coconut Cloud — You Choose the Flavor."
After a panel discussion of "Outstanding Issues," we'll break for our Conference Luncheon, followed by Dessert and Coffee Service in the Exhibit Hall.
Then a series of eCLOUD sessions will feature such topics as "The Cloud & Television" by Frank Aycock, author of 21st Century Television: The Players, The Viewers, The Money, "Collaboration & Production" by TransLattice CEO Frank Huerta, "Editing & Transcoding" by V2 Solutions, and a panel discussion with Rafelson Media CEO Peter Rafelson, GenosTV CTO Mike West, and others.
A series of mCLOUD sessions will cover "Mobile Storage Considerations" by AT&T Mobility Enterprise Architecture Manager Melody Yuhn, "HyperElasticity" by Kwaai Oak CTO Reza Rassool, and a panel discussion with Sprint Nextel Cloud Solutions Manager Jay Gleason, Citrix Senior Director of Product Management Kedar Poduri, and others.
After a mid-afternoon Networking Break, the eCLOUD will continue with "Distribution Channel Storage" by Savvis Senior Director - Media Tom Moran, "Cloud-Based Delivery Systems" by Intertrust Technologies Corp. Vice President for Product Management John Gildred, and a panel discussion with PADEM Group President and Chief Analyst Allan McLennan and others.
The mCLOUD will continue with sessions including "Big Data Infrastructure" by HP Converged Systems Senior Vice President & General Manager Tom Joyce, additional topics, and a panel discussion with Trend Micro Director Dan Reis and others.
Monday will end with an Evening Networking Reception.
Tuesday morning, the eCLOUD will resume with IBM Cloud Architecture Executive Mark Sorency explaining "How to Build Your Cloud Strategy;" and the mCLOUD will continue with Dell SecureWorks Director of Product Management, Cloud Security, Mark Wood offering guidance on "Selecting Technologies to Secure Your Cloud." "Mobile Cloud / Big Data Economics" will be presented by SoftServe VP, Technology Solutions, Russ Hertzberg.
After a mid-morning Networking Break, "Final Considerations" will feature DataDirect Networks Director of Marketing for Cloud, Content & Media Mike King answering the question, "Does Object Storage Actually Fit into File-Based Workflows?" and Dell Enterprise Cloud Evangelist Michael Elliott discussing "Hybrid Clouds — The End State." Aspera Director of Cloud Platforms & Services Jay Migliaccio will also keynote, among other speakers.
There's no question that advances in cloud computing are having enormous effects on the creation, storage, distribution, and consumption of diverse genres of content.
And most profound among these effects are those involving the increased proliferation of portable playback systems and the accompanying generation of unprecedented amounts of viewership, listenership, and usage information from audiences globally.
The ubiquity and widespread acceptance of user interfaces that reflect the dynamic interactivity exemplified by smart-phone applications is rapidly replacing the flat linearity of traditional TV channel line-ups and changing expectations for a new generation of consumers.
Cloud-based information and entertainment-of-all-kinds accessible everywhere always on each connected device will become the new norm.
Perfect data related to consumer behaviors associated with discovering and consuming this content will displace metering and ratings technologies based solely on statistical sampling.
DCINFO readers are encouraged to get involved in CCA's & DCIA's CCW:2013 as exhibitors, sponsors, and speakers.
The CCA is handling exhibits and sponsorships. Please click here for more information.
The DCIA's role is to provide keynotes, panelists, and case-study presenters to participate in our comprehensive agenda of sessions in ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA and MOBILE CLOUD & BIG DATA.
Please click here to apply to speak at CCW:2013. Share wisely, and take care.
Enterprise Gets Serious About Cloud Computing
Excerpted from ReadWrite Report by Brian Proffitt
The age of exploration in the cloud is passing. Now it's time to get down to business.
The use of the cloud within the enterprise is still growing at a healthy pace, but in a much more disciplined manner than in recent years. New data suggests that cloud computing is becoming less of an experimental tool but a production workhorse in the enterprise.
The data comes from just-released 2013 State of the Enterprise Cloud Report, an eight-page whitepaper from Verizon to positively portray its Verizon Terremark unit within the cloud market. Even taken with that grain of salt, the data within was interesting, such as:
Since January 2012 to June 2013, the use of cloud-based memory increased by 100 percent, and cloud storage by 90 percent.
That's pretty high growth, and doesn't initially smack of discipline, but rather a willy-nilly charge into the promised glory of the land of cloud hype-o-mania. But another piece of information in the report cools down the hype quite a bit.
The number of virtual machines (VMs) — software applications that run programs like a traditional computer — deployed by enterprise customers has increased 35 percent since the start of 2012.
A 35% jump in VMs versus much higher rates of cloud memory and storage use would suggest that IT managers are finally starting to get their cloud management act together and aren't just deploying into the cloud on whim and are actively managing away from cloud sprawl.
If this is the case, then a very important step is happening in the evolution of the cloud computing cycle: IT departments are starting to take cloud computing seriously. They are managing what they have not by adding more VMs to their clouds or virtual data centers, but rather optimizing the VMs they have with more memory and storage capacity.
The results would seem to be clear in the report itself, which adds that that nearly 60% of respondents had applications on the cloud that were mission-critical, web-facing production applications. It's not just development environments where DevOps teams are playing in their virtual sandboxes.
Even though we are still in the early days of cloud adoption, the report stated, "forward-thinking organizations are looking for closer integration of cloud services with their own infrastructures and applications by leveraging a hybrid model to create differentiation and competitive advantage."
In non-marketing speak: IT is done playing around with cloud.
One thing about the report that may prove useful in retrospect, albeit in not the way the authors imagined. Since the data was gathered up until June 2013, prior to the revelations from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden of alleged active collection of cloud-based data by US intelligence agencies, this report may represent the apex of enterprise optimism about the cloud.
Wait until next year.
Which Start-Up Could Be the Next Big Thing?
Excerpted from NY Times Report by Winni Wintermeyer
When it comes to technology start-ups, there are a lot of paths to success.
Some successful start-ups sell for a billion dollars, as Tumblr did this year to Yahoo. When that happens, it's a windfall for the founders of the start-ups as well as for the investors and some employees.
Other new companies are considered successful if they attract millions of users and venture money before going public, as Facebook did and Twitter is doing. And still others are considered hot because their products attract demographic groups that advertisers want to reach or because they have come up with some new idea or technology that seems to change the way we live.
About a year ago, right after Instagram was snapped up by Facebook, a few other start-ups seemed poised for some degree of success. Some of them, like Pinterest, Square, and Uber, are still thriving, with plenty of users and cash from investors. Others, like Path or Airtime, have lost steam, and users' attention, and may be on their way to the tech boneyard.
This year, there's a new class of interesting start-ups to watch. Some are attracting record numbers of new users and significant amounts of venture capital, or appealing to a new and interesting demographic.
Some are simply working on a new idea that seems to be taking off. In the unpredictable world of tech start-ups, any of them could fizzle and be forgotten by the end of the year.
But they could also be the next big thing.
Hybrid Clouds: Protecting Data Integrity
Excerpted from VISI Blog Report by Iris Kurman
Hybrid Clouds are the new black. It's a cloud computing system that lets you reap the pros of both the Public Cloud and Private Cloud with none of the cons. You have flexibility to jump back and forth between the two clouds where you need it and when you need it. But, with all this flexibility and jumping around, what about security? Is your information safe?
ReliaCloud for Hybrid Clouds security is our number one priority. Some policies and technologies that ReliaCloud employs to protect your data are: multi-factor authentication using biometric scanners and proximity access cards; remote access multi-factor with multi-factor authentication including SMS based one-time passwords, software tokens and physical hardware tokens to augment traditional password based authentication; intrusion detection/prevention within networks to target application exploits; and dedicated firewall contexts to provide full separation of firewall services from other customers via an exclusive configuration assigned to a single customer.
ReliaCloud for Hybrid Clouds also provides measures to ensure their clients are compliant with their industry regulations: SSAE16 SOC 1 audits based on the AICPA's standards for Type II reports on controls; AICPA's SOC 2 criteria which consists of five sets of pre-defined trust principles; HIPAA and HITECH to secure your protected health information; and PCI-DSS to protect payment card data.
Flexibility and scalability with ReliaCloud for the Hybrid Cloud does not mean compromising security or performance. ReliaCloud is safe, and it will protect your information and guarantee your data integrity is not at risk. To learn more about ReliaCloud for the Hybrid Cloud, contact us today for more information.
Longhorn Network and AT&T Kick-Off TV Everywhere Deal
Excerpted from Broadcasting & Cable Report by Jeff Baumgartner
AT&T and ESPN have signed a deal that gives U-verse TV subs access to the Longhorn Network's authenticated TV Everywhere service on Apple iOS devices and on PC browsers. The app delivers a live stream and other mobile features associated with the network, dedicated to the University of Texas. AT&T is getting access to the network's TVE app as the Longhorns get ready to open up the 2013 college football season Saturday night, when they take on the New Mexico State Aggies. According to data associated with the app, other pay TV providers that carry the Longhorn Network and have TV Everywhere rights include Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Grande Communications, and Verizon FiOS TV.
Google Fiber, Consolidated Communications, En-Touch Systems, E-Tex Communications, Bay City Cablevision, Mid-Coast Cablevision and Texas Mid-Gulf Cablevision also carry the channel.
Telefonica Picks Front Porch Lynx Cloud-Based Storage Tech
Excerpted from Telecompaper Report
Telefonica will implement Front Porch Digital's Lynx cloud-based storage service. Telefonica plans to use the Front Porch technology for its cloud-based services in Spain, Portugal, and South America, Prensario reports.
The Front Porch Digital Lynx CSM service will be installed in the Telefonica system at the operator's data center in Spain.
From there, the Lynx services will be resold in Spain, Portugal, and South America. The service targets broadcasters with large archives management needs. The service is already available for Telefonica customers.
Xbox One Cloud Features Limited by Users' Broadband Speeds
Excerpted from Pocket-lint Report by Rik Henderson
Microsoft has been extolling the benefits of cloud usage as a significant advantage for the Xbox One over its main rival in the next-generation console war. The PS4 is claimed to be a more-powerful machine, but the Xbox One has Microsoft's cloud servers to draw on to enhance the amount of data that can be worked on. But while the potential of the system is huge, the reality at present is that its use will be limited by the fact that owners of the new console might not be able to download that extra data fast enough.
Speaking at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, Dan Greenawalt, creative director at Turn 10 Studios, the development house behind Forza Motorsport 5, said that the cloud servers are a great resource to have at his company's disposal, but it can't currently be used to enhance real-time gameplay or graphics.
"We're using the cloud for exactly what the cloud is great for, which is asynchronous number crunching," he told Pocket-lint and other select games industry outlets. "It is going to be very difficult to use the cloud with current bandwidth around the world as something that I can just synchronously update every frame, just always updating, because that needs to count on the fact that, one, you need to be connected, and two, you need a really really good pipe coming out of the back of the box."
Turn 10's approach, Greenawalt explained, is to use the cloud servers for its new Drivatar feature; virtual racing profiles that learn real gamers' abilities, skills and techniques and are then fed to other players' games to give computer opponents an all-new dimension. Without the cloud, these profiles would not be possible. They take a lot of processing to devise and update, but not a lot of bandwidth to move back and forth between consoles.
"Here's what the cloud's great at; how about I throw data at it once in a while - let's call it at the end of every race, maybe even every second - and throw a lot of data up there. I just trickle it up there. And these servers are just crunching away at supercomputer rates, all of this data. It's exactly what Bing does, it's a lot of data," he said.
"I can't do that in a box, you have got to do that in the servers. But it doesn't have to be done every split second. It just sits up there, and it crunches and crunches and then trickles back down to where the box is. That's what we do with Drivatars."
That depends on being connected, of course, which has become a bone of contention for some in the build up to the launch of the Xbox One. But the Turn 10 boss reiterated that you don't need an Internet connection to play Forza 5, you just won't get Drivatar features.
"If you're not connected, you don't get the benefits. But the nice thing is that even if you only connect intermittently, you do get it. When you connect up, it's going to trickle down the data."
Forza Motorsport 5 is a launch title for Xbox One. It is expected to be available in November.
Mobily & Huawei Deploy World First in Telecom Technology
Excerpted from Al-Bawaba Report
Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, and Mobily, a leading mobile broadband service provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), have announced the activation of the world's first commercial 400 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) IP core network, bringing a more diversified and efficient service experience to millions of telecom customers.
As the fastest growing mobile communications and Internet technology provider in KSA, Mobily's new 400G capabilities enable the operator to quickly and easily provide a superior customer experience for video, teleconferencing, machine-to-machine (M2M), and cloud computing services.
According to data from Ovum, Huawei had the highest growth rate in the global telecom IP market in Q1 2013. That momentum has been further reflected as Huawei announced just last month a 10.8% increase in revenues during the first half of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012. The company's growth has in part been fueled by a solid 18% increase in Middle East revenues recorded last year.
"We aim to bring leading-edge technology and infrastructure offerings to our customers," said Mr. Nasser Al Nasser, Chief Operation Officer, Mobily. "The 400G IP Core keeps pace with Mobily's service development largely because of sufficient performance and scalability, and ensures positive performance in the coming years."
"Rapid development of mobile broadband and video services will generate tremendous traffic growth for backbone networks. Now is the time to apply 400G technology. Huawei is leading the development in 400G technology and fully understands carriers' network reconstruction requirements. Huawei can and will systematically improve network performance, expand bandwidth capacity, and eliminate bottlenecks to help carriers build future-ready backbone networks," said Zha Jun, president of Huawei Fixed Network Business Unit.
The latest Mobily network uses a Huawei NE5000E core router. As the world's first commercially available 400G core router, the NE5000E supports flexible networking of 100GE ports, 40GE ports, and 10GE ports to provide an ultra-large capacity of 400 Gb/s per line card, and can be smoothly evolved to provide a Terabit-level capacity for the backbone network. In addition, power consumption of the 400G line card is within 1 W/G, keeping energy and investment costs low.
BitTorrent Sync Allows Users to Sync Files Among iDevices
Excerpted from AppAdvice Report by Joe White
BitTorrent has a new iOS application, BitTorrent Sync, in the App Store, which allows iOS users to sync files between all of their trusted iDevices quickly and easily. It's an interesting and exciting application, and can be downloaded in the App Store free of charge.
As explained in the app's release notes:
BitTorrent Sync is a brand new product from BitTorrent that lets you sync an unlimited number of files and folders of any size across all of your trusted devices. BitTorrent Sync for iOS gives you access to all of your synced folders when you're on the go, and introduces a new mobile-to-mobile sharing feature for easily sending your photos and videos to your friends.
As such, it could be that a number of iDevice owners using Dropbox for a similar purpose, for example, will be jumping ship for BitTorrent's new, free service.
Features of BitTorrent Sync include: access all your Sync folders and files from your iOS device; add photos and videos from your iOS device to any of your Sync folders; quickly and easily send photos and videos from your iPhone directly to your friends iPhone using BitTorrent Sync mobile-to-mobile sending; automatically backup your Camera Roll to a folder on your computer; file transfers are encrypted and protected by private keys; your information is never stored on a server in the cloud; and connecting the iOS application to other Sync folders is as easy as taking a picture of a QR code with your camera.
It's worth noting that BitTorrent Sync is "a personal file sharing application," and does not allow users to download torrent files using an iDevice.
BitTorrent Sync can be downloaded in the App Store free of charge, and is optimized for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Top 12 Sites for Free Cloud Computing & Software Research
Excerpted from Enterprise Irregulars Report by Louis Columbus
One of the most common questions I get from students is where can they find free cloud computing and enterprise software research.
Few if any of my students work for companies who have subscriptions with the top analyst firms however. A small group of students are working on a start-up on the side and want to absorb as much market data as they can.
Many of my former students are also in IT management roles, and when they become interested in a specific cloud computing or enterprise topic over time, they write me and ask if I have any data on their subject of interest. I keep the following list updated from them, too. To serve all these students I've been adding to the list shown below for a number of years. None of these companies are current or past clients and I hold no equity positions in any of them.
The requests are so prevalent in global competitive strategy courses I distribute this list at the beginning of the semester with the following disclaimers.
Many of the cloud computing and enterprise software companies pay to have white papers written and research done. Writing white papers and doing research for an enterprise software vendor client is a very lucrative business for many industry analyst firms. Ethical industry analysts will often insist that a disclaimer be included in the white paper and on the website stating that they and their firms were hired to write the paper or do the research and publish the report.
The reports are intellectual property of the firms publishing them. Enterprise software vendors often pay tens of thousands of dollars at a minimum for reprint rights and the right to provide them on their websites. I advise my students to seek out the copyright and quote policies of the research firm of interest if they plan on re-using the graphics in any published materials or in their blog posts. One for example, the Gartner Copyright and Quote Policy, is shown here.
Pay attention to the methodologies used in each report and realize they change over time. This is especially the case with the Gartner Magic Quadrant and MarketScopes. Gartner has been very active this year in refining the Magic Quadrant methodology for example.
The following are the list of cloud computing and enterprise software vendor sites that offer free downloads of cloud computing and enterprise software research:
Amazon Web Services — Amazon has purchased re-print rights to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service written by Lydia Leong, Douglas Toombs, Bob Gill, Gregor Petri, Tiny Haynes published on August, 19, 2013 in addition to the latest reports from Forrester on enterprise public cloud platforms and enterprise cloud databases.
BMC Software — Many free reports from Gartner, Forrester, The 451 Group and other research firms covering advanced performance analytics (APA), cloud computing, IT Service Management and long-term technology trends.
Computer Associates — An extensive collection of cloud computing and enterprise software research organized into the following categories: cloud; data management; energy and sustainability management; IT automation; IT security; IT service management; mainframe; project and portfolio management; service assurance and virtual organizations. CA requires opt-in on the latest research as they use this site as part of their lead generation strategy.
Cisco Systems — Data Center and Virtualization; includes the latest Current Analysis, Forrester, Gartner, IDC, Lippis and Yankee Group research reports covering Big Data, blade servers, cloud computing, Hadoop, unified data centers and many other topics. Be sure to click across the Computing, Network, Orchestration/Automation, and Network Services tabs to find additional research.
Hewlett Packard — HP has invested primarily in networking-related analyst research including the latest studies and market frameworks from Forrester, Gartner, IDC and Infonetics Research.
Intel — Organized around the topic of designing a data center for the cloud, Intel is providing a series of research studies, reports, white papers and videos that provide insights into virtualization, networking, mobility and Intel-based servers running cloud architectures.
Microsoft — Balancing the need to support their enterprise applications today and create demand for cloud-based initiatives now and in the future, Microsoft's series of analyst reports reflect their evolving business model. Microsoft has licensed the latest research from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESDG), Forrester, Gartner, IDC, Ovum, Yankee Group and others listed on this site.
Oracle - The most comprehensive collection of industry analyst research online for any enterprise software vendor, Oracle has hundreds of research reports available for viewing under their reprint licenses for free, and also for download. The reports are organized into corporate, infrastructure, systems, services, solutions, industries, enterprise applications and regions.
Progress Software — Extensive collection of research from Bloor, Forrester, Gartner, IDC, Tabb Group, Ovum and other research firms are available for download from this site.
SAS — The most extensive and well-organized online collection of analyst research on analytics and business intelligence (BI) available, SAS makes research available from fifteen analyst firms across six industries on this area of their website. You can find the SAS Analyst Viewpoints section of its website.
Symantec — Provides downloadable analyst reports in the areas of risk and compliance, endpoint security and management, information and identity protection, messaging security, backup and archiving, storage and availability management, services and emerging trends. ESG, Info-Tech Research Group, Forrester, Gartner and IDC reports are on this page for download.
Teradata — Extensive collection of industry analysis and research organized into the sections of Active Data Warehousing, Active Enterprise Intelligence, Enterprise Data Warehousing, Teradata Analytical Ecosystem and Teradata Integration Analytics. The latest market frameworks from Gartner, Forrester, IDC and other research firms are available for download.
Why the NSA Is the Least of Your Cloud Concerns
Excerpted from Forbes Report by Mike Elgan
Revelations over the US National Security Agency's (NSA) aggressive data collection have ignited fears that customers will abandon US cloud companies — or even cloud computing itself.
The fears are unfounded and will dissolve. Here's why…
The NSA harvests communication metadata — who talked for how long on what device, etc. — on a program the NSA calls MAINWAY. It's collected and stored; it's also processed to discover suspicious activity. For example, if a terror suspect is apprehended, the metadata for people he contacted in the past may be analyzed.
Another related program, called PRISM, enables the NSA to gather information in two ways. The first is by request. The NSA may ask (say) Facebook for all activity by certain people or groups of people, which Facebook deposits into an electronic "lock box." From there, it can be downloaded by the NSA. PRISM is not about metadata, but actual data.
The second PRISM collection approach is that the NSA splits the data flowing through fiber-optic lines at key junctions (which is where the word "PRISM" comes from—the splitting into two streams of the light carrying the data).
Together these programs "touch" roughly 75% of all US Internet traffic.
Once harvested, the NSA processes all this data looking for interesting keywords and other attributes, keeping the MAINWAY metadata but discarding most of the PRISM data.
However, the scale and scope of this intelligence gathering has caused many to fear horrific damage to the U.S. cloud computing industry:
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) predicts that the US cloud industry may lose as much as $35 billion by 2016 because of the NSA programs.
Forrester researcher James Staten disagrees, pegging the possible damage to as much as $180 billion — 25% of total US revenue (although Staten believes that maximum amount is unlikely).
Some cloud companies report having already lost customers: a Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) survey found that 10% of surveyed executives at non-U.S. companies have canceled contracts with US cloud providers because of the NSA revelations.
Others say cloud computing as an idea is under threat, or at least public cloud service providers vs. private ones.
However, this flight from US cloud service providers, both real and imagined, is completely irrational. The worst fears will not be realized.
The reason? As events unfold over the next year or two, it will become clear that abandoning US cloud vendors is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction that makes no sense at all.
Data — any data, anywhere — may be compromised by one of five types of groups: government crime-fighting or counter-terror agencies; state or state-sponsored hackers; criminal gangs motivated by monetary gain: theft, extortion, identity theft, spam, etc.; political or recreational hackers: individuals or groups motivated by ideology or curiosity; or employees: disgruntled, incompetent or otherwise.
If data stored in the cloud can be compromised by one of these groups, it can be compromised by any of them.
Of all of these, the first type — government — os actually the least worrisome for business. It's a type of data infiltration that's the least likely to have any impact on business. (It's probably the worst kind for political, legal and constitutional reasons, and in my opinion it needs to be opposed — but not because it will impact business.)
Industrial espionage and criminal hacking are the greatest threat to business by far, especially by highly-motivated, well-funded state actors. The other non-NSA hacking types are also far more likely to impact business than the US espionage community's intent to stop terrorist attacks.
Location is no barrier to any of these four groups — especially for the NSA, which has been bugging, eavesdropping, decrypting and hacking communications worldwide since the 1950s — before the Internet even existed.
If the current NSA scandal is revealing the inadequacy of checks and controls on the NSA for spying on Americans, it should be noted that there are practically zero such checks and controls on criminals or state actors abroad.
Mark my words: We're likely to soon hear that overseas cloud vendors have also infiltrated by both NSA and similar agencies in those countries. The NSA isn't alone: It's just a leading indicator.
Deliberately seeking out a cloud provider outside the US has zero benefit, all things being equal.
The only safeguard is better security, better policies, better encryption — in other words, the same requirements before any NSA revelations took place.
Cloud Computing Standards & Interoperability Established
Excerpted from IT World Canada Report by Dylan Persaud
The advent of cloud computing exploding to most any type of application being available, has caused severe confusion for end-users. It only makes sense for industry standards and interoperability to be established and provide some guidance for customers. This is an update of a post we did in 2009 when the standards were announced. It has been updated for today's evolution of the cloud and SaaS marketplace.
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announced the formation of the Cloud Storage Initiative (CSI) in order to establish a lexicon of cloud-computing terminology, publish use cases, white papers and technical specifications, and to create reference implementation models for grid-storage architectures.
A good start for customers as it starts the conversation as to what factors organizations need to consider when implementing a cloud solution. The amount of areas that these initiatives cover highlight that organizations need to be more educated towards the marketplace and what is available from the vendors as to what their solutions cover. Vendors need to also work with consumers and educate them. This means actually putting customer needs above selling their solution and getting it right.
Organizations will have to become more educated and understand where cloud, SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, SOA and others fit within their IT infrastructure. Whether you have a legacy system or are adding to existing systems; how do you add solutions to complement existing systems? How do you combine them with on-premise and/or cloud solutions either as a SaaS or outsourced business services is where organizations will have to pay attention.
The implications of this news, should it be embraced by vendors and more importantly end-users (organizations) should drive cloud computing to a whole other level. The creation of open standards for vendors to comply will also make it easier for customers to migrate from one system to another and allow the end-user multiple choices of vendors and applications as they should all work together as this is one the goals that this cloud initiative establishes.
Theoretically these initiatives should provide those benefits. However in 2012 with an ever-changing evolution of cloud solutions this has not been the case. More cloud and SaaS solutions have introduced more questions as to new software categories emerging, new trends such as big data, collaboration is making it more difficult to make the right software decisions.
The creation and consumption of data should be easier by making the data easily portable to other applications within the enterprise space. This is especially great news for the SME market as there are many services that an SME can utilize such as cloud storage, outsourced procurement, server virtualization, human resources and all types enterprise software systems that can be made to work together. To the credit of enterprise software vendors they have made some strides as to the portability of data, social and vendor lock-in has been reduced, thereby not limiting consumer options.
This would make the IT strategies for organizations easier as now the data portion of the will be considered as this was not often the case. The explosion of information, different sources, and content management of internal and external data can now be managed a little easier. An advantage that this may offer organizations is that they can easily switch to other applications and not have to redo the implementation as the data is now reusable and portable (theoretically)
Let's hope the cloud computing initiative can provide direction, allows data transformation, increase portability and not lose sight of why this was created. Vendors that offer this thought leadership and early adoption of the cloud initiative might be looked upon as market leaders in a step towards creating a more trusting relationship with customers.
Cloud Computing Can Boost Security of BYOD
Excerpted from Kroll Ontrack Report by Polly Button
Cloud computing has emerged as one of the key technologies across modern businesses.
Companies in a variety of sectors are now taking advantage of the technology to improve the way that employees work and provide new ways of working.
Writing for CloudTweaks, tech expert Miles Young explained that security is one of the biggest concerns for modern organizations, adding that employers are worried that "corporate secrets" could fall into the wrong hands.
More people are now using laptops and smartphones in the workplace, meaning that traditional and mobile cloud computing are becoming important solutions for firms.
"While businesses can ensure their own devices have proper antivirus and malware protection, they give up some of this control with a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) model.
"Thankfully, this can also be remedied with cloud computing. Mobile device management tools help secure devices from outside threats by using a cloud environment from a central location," Young told the news provider.
He added that organizations should communicate company policies relating to workplace activities on the business network and monitoring measures in place to guarantee workers remain on the "straight and narrow".
"When employees use company-provided devices, in some ways, life is easier for businesses. They know their employees' computers will be on their desks in the morning, just where they left them at the end of the day before," Young noted.
He went on to say that cloud computing can help workplaces deal with potential disruptions, explaining that staff can begin working from another machine whenever their device is lost or stolen.
To help staff to boost the security of their personal devices, data recovery measures should be put in place, which will help businesses to restore information whenever it is lost.
To ensure protection in the event that employees' mobile devices experience data loss, companies should extend their usual IT policies, including backup protocols, to include all mobile devices.
Can Cloud Computing Boost Growth in Developing Countries?
Excerpted from Smarter Planet Blog Report by Steve Hamm
Cloud computing seems like a natural fit for the developing world. In places where capital for major information technology (IT) purchases can be difficult to round up, this approach to computing makes it possible for small business owners, start-up entrepreneurs, social service non-profits and universities to share resources and buy computing services more affordably, by the drink. So far, though, while cloud computing is taking off in mature economies, adoption is lagging in less developed ones.
An initiative by a team of IBMers in India shows how the cloud could penetrate into some of the most remote parts of developing countries—and, potentially, help boost economic growth. The team, led by Vikas Prasad, country manager for IBM's business continuity and resiliency services in India, is recruiting small cooperative banks in the country's hinterlands to shift their core banking activities to a cloud data center.
Vikas' work gives truth to the phrase, "Walk the extra mile for a customer."
He recalls a trip to Nainital, a hill station in northern India, to meet for the first time with the executives of a local bank. He and his colleagues discovered that the bank office was in a hilly part of a town and was not accessible by vehicle, so they had to climb for 30 minutes to get to their meeting. Once there, they waited until noon for the officers to arrive. When the meeting began, the bank officers expressed their gratitude that the IBM sales team had been willing to travel so far. "This was our first experience with this type of organization. It helped us learn how to relate to a different kind of customer," Vikas says.
Today, nine cooperative banks are being hosted in an IBM cloud data center in India. That's just scratching the surface of what's possible, but Vikas believes that over time, many more of these banks will shift to cloud computing. The local banks, many owned by families, are beginning to feel pressure from the major banks, which are expanding their branch networks into smaller cities. At the same time, the cooperative banks are under pressure from the government to digitize their core banking operations.
For many of these local banks, the best way to deal with the challenges might be to leapfrog with technology and move their banking operations to the cloud. Once they have cloud systems, they can more easily provide mobile banking and payments—key ingredients in bringing a host of modern banking services to India's hundreds of millions of rural citizens.
If that happens, India's small banks could have an outsized impact on development of the rural economy.
3 Steps for Your Business to Get Up to Speed on Cloud Computing
Excerpted from Nuage Consulting Group Report by Nicole Skuba
The popularity of cloud computing is rising, but it is still sometimes difficult for small businesses to decide on whether they need it or not.
Based on a study by CompTIA, awareness of cloud computing by small and medium businesses (SMBs) has increased considerably, from 27% in 2012 to 78% early in 2013. Half of those who participated in the survey said they were going into cloud computing in the coming year.
You and your business may already be familiar with cloud computing, but do you already know the benefits beyond using the now ubiquitous Google Drive and similar services? Here are 3 steps to take so your business is up to speed on cloud computing.
1. Read Up on The Cloud. Cloud computing may look foggy, but a little reading can fix that. There's plenty of information on the Internet, but if you require something more solid, you can get a book or two on cloud computing. One good text is Deconstructing Cloud, which has been reviewed by Kevin L. Jackson in his blog Cloud Musings (Deconstructing Cloud: An Excellent Guide).
2. Get Testimonials. With the rising number of enterprise cloud computing users, it's likely that there's some good word-of-mouth which has been picked up by businesses with an ear for the latest tech that can give them an advantage. Listen to what's going around. If other companies are getting "ahead of the pack" using cloud computing, you can do the same, but listen to what they have to say.
3. Hire Cloud Experts. There's little to doubt about the usefulness of the cloud in expanding a business. One attractive aspect of cloud computing is that it can be a ready, cost-effective, and managed infrastructure. For serious company concerns involving financial, administrative, and security data, it's best to get the opinion and analysis of cloud experts to help you consider moving to cloud computing. Companies such as Hanover Direct have effectively embraced cloud computing with the help of consultants.
Your steps towards the cloud may be tentative, even wary at times. But with the proper preparation, you can make the right decision on cloud computing and finally make it a part of your business.
Coming Events of Interest
NordiCloud 2013 - September 1st-3rd in Oslo, Norway. The Nordic Symposium on Cloud Computing & Internet Technologies (NordiCloud) aims at providing an industrial and scientific forum for enhancing collaboration between industry and academic communities from Nordic and Baltic countries in the area of Cloud Computing and Internet Technologies.
P2P 2013: IEEE International Conference on Peer-to-Peer Computing - September 9th-11th in Trento, Italy. The IEEE P2P Conference is a forum to present and discuss all aspects of mostly decentralized, large-scale distributed systems and applications. This forum furthers the state-of-the-art in the design and analysis of large-scale distributed applications and systems.
CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 - October 27th-29th in Las Vegas, NV. Two major conference tracks will zero in on the latest advances in applying cloud-based solutions to all aspects of high-value entertainment content production, storage, and delivery; and the impact of mobile cloud computing and Big Data analytics in this space.
International CES - January 7th-10th in Las Vegas, NV. The International CES is the global stage for innovation reaching across global markets, connecting the industry and enabling CE innovations to grow and thrive. The International CES is owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $209 billion US consumer electronics industry.
CONNECTING TO THE CLOUD - January 8th in Las Vegas, NV. This DCIA Conference within CES will highlight the very latest advancements in cloud-based solutions that are now revolutionizing the consumer electronics (CE) sector. Special attention will be given to the impact on consumers, telecom industries, the media, and CE manufacturers of accessing and interacting with cloud-based services using connected devices.
CCISA 2013 – February 12th–14th in Turin, Italy. The second international special session on Cloud computing and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and its Applications within the 22nd Euromicro International Conference on Parallel, Distributed and Network-Based Processing.
CLOUD COMPUTING EAST 2014 - May 13th-14th in Washington, DC. Three major conference tracks will zero in on the latest advances in the application of cloud-based solutions in three key economic sectors: government, healthcare, and financial services.
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