Volume LII, Issue 1

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In This Issue

IBM’s Latest Big Bet: $3 Billion on IoT

Excerpted from Fortune Report by Heather Clancy

Imagine adjusting store merchandising based on whether it will rain or snow over the next 48 hours; alerting auto insurance policy holders to find shelter as a hailstorm approaches; or anticipating spikes in electricity demand, using temperature and humidity metrics to consider historical data.

Those are just three scenarios made possible through a new global, strategic relationship between IBM and The Weather Company, parent of the Weather Channel and WSI, which licenses forecast information to businesses.

Under the deal, WSI will move most of its massive weather data service – which collects information from more than 100,000 sensors, aircraft and drones, and millions of smartphones – into IBM’s cloud service.

The data involved supports more than 26 billion forecasts daily. Up until now, the Weather Company has been an oft-cited Amazon Web Services reference account.

IBM plans to use the WSI platform as the foundation for industry-specific analytics services for retailers, utility companies, and insurers, as a start.

The data will also be available to entrepreneurial software developers that want to use it to drive new applications and services… Read More

New Cybersecurity Models Driven by Tsunami of Data & Devices

Excerpted for Federal News Radio Report by Jason Miller

The cyber threat agencies continue to face will dramatically expand over the next five years as the amount of data and the use of devices grow.

The increasing complexity of networks and data requires agencies and contractors to think differently about cybersecurity.

David Bray, the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Chief Information Officer (CIO), said to defend the networks and devices of tomorrow, agencies need to consider changing their current approach.

Bray, who spoke Thursday at the AFFIRM and US Cyber Challenge’s Second Annual Cybersecurity Workforce Summit in Arlington, VA, said for him that different thinking focuses on three principles.

“We do a lot on signature detection, how can we also move to be much more about behavior, so we can deal with unknowns? It may just be the hardware or software is having an issue, but it also could be a cyber threat that isn’t characterized yet,” he said.

“The second step would then be thinking about how do I move from just security to resiliencyâ?¦ Read More

Asia-Pacific Double-Digit LTE Growth in 2014

Excerpted from ABI Research Report

Asia-Pacific regional growth in base stations dominated in 2014 as it continued to account for the majority of worldwide base-station deployments.

According to ABI Research, Asia-Pacific is now by far the largest market for Long-Term Evolution (LTE), followed by North America and Western Europe, with Asia-Pacific regional installed base growing by double-digits in 2014.

LTE macro Radio Access Network (RAN) spending also set records in 2014 as LTE expenditures accounted for a majority of RAN spending.

Ericsson maintained its number one market share rank for 2014 followed by Huawei, Nokia Networks, and Alcatel-Lucent all with double-digit shares, according to ABI Research estimates.

One of the main mobile network operators behind this trend is China Mobile – a major proponent of Time-Division LTE or TD-LTE, and one of the three nationwide carriers in China licensed to deploy 4G networks.

“After deploying over 700,000 TD-LTE base stations in 2014, China Mobile now plans a massive expansionâ?¦ Read More

Report from DCIA CEO Marty Lafferty

Click Here for Video

You’re invited to gain a fresh perspective on the future of cloud computing and regional data centers this Wednesday and Thursday at South East Asia’s newest forum in Johor, Malaysia.

Datacloud South East Asia, co-sponsored by BroadGroup and the DCIA, will take place on April 8th and 9th at Traders Hotel in the rapidly growing section of Johor known as Iskandar.

Representatives of regional and international enterprises are invited to attend on a complimentary basis.

Johor is an expanding area for data centers, and our event will provide a unique opportunity to join the region’s business leadership as we highlight the unique value of information technology (IT) infrastructure in South East Asia.

Iskandar, with ample available land for industrial development and very close proximity to Singapore, is ideally situated to become the new datacenter hub in this globally important territory.

At this event, we will hear from the chief executive of the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), which will host a networking cocktail reception on the evening of April 8th.

Two leading Ministers from the Malaysian government will also address our delegates, who will be invited to meet with government officials during their stay, as well as tour datacenter sites.

Our conference has also been extended to include a Finance and Investment Symposium for datacenter and cloud computing, bringing investors and business owners together in a valuable networking platform.

Key objectives for our event are to provide a current assessment of the datacenter sector in this geographic region as well as to foster new business opportunities among attendees.

How far has this sector advanced in valuations? What are current and future risk assessments, and why is the overall economic outlook for IT infrastructure assets more attractive here than elsewhere? How will modular data centers contribute? What are the physical considerations, including architecture, connectivity, and power consumption issues?

Dato Yasmin Mahmood, CEO of Malaysia’s Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), said it well: “Bringing together users and business leaders with an expert academy of speakers, this event has a content rich agenda and high business networking values.”

To register at no charge, please email enquiries@broad-group.com as soon as possible. Share wisely and take care.

Microsoft Taiwan Opens Cloud Solution Center for Enterprises

Excerpted from Focus Taiwan Report

The Taiwan branch of Microsoft opened a cloud solution laboratory Monday designed to help enterprises set up and run Internet of Things (IoT)-style systems with its integrated Azure cloud services.

The Azure IoT Solutions Lab is aimed at helping enterprises store and analyze large amounts of data from millions of end-user devices by providing Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite – a series of applications designed to cut deployment time for typical IoT use cases such as remote monitoring, asset management and predictive maintenance.

The Azure IoT Suite was announced March 16th at Microsoft’s annual conference for its business customers and will be available in a preview version by the end of this year.

Microsoft has been moving away from former CEO Steve Ballmer’s focus on “devices and services” toward new CEO Satya Nadella’s “mobile-first, cloud-first” vision, in an attempt to drive the next phase of growth for the world’s largest software company.

Tech research firm IDC defines the IoT as “a network of networks of uniquely identifiable endpoints (or “things”) that communicate without human interaction using Internet Protocol connectivity — be it locally or globallyâ?¦ Read More

MoU Signing Ceremony on Cloud Computing in Thailand

Excerpted from Mahidol Report

On March 17th, Associate Professor Dr. Jarernsri Mitrpanont, Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Mahidol University, together with Dr. Sak Segkhoonthod, Director General of the Electronic Government Agency (EGA) and President of the CSA Thailand Chapter, Aloysius Cheang, Managing Director APAC of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), and Thanawat Suthampann, Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard (Thailand) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The MoU covered the “Cloud Computing and Security System in Thailand among CSA-MU-HP.”

Dr. Sak Segkhoonthod said that nowadays, Cloud Technology and Cybersecurity play important roles in everyday life.

With support from the public and the government sectors, the CSA has invited some experienced specialists to Thailand and encouraged creating builders and developers from users by applying cloud technology to the government sectors which is called “Government Cloud”.

There are more than 600 systems now.

Moreover, cybersecurity is vital to cope with changes as well as constantly respond to the digital economyâ?¦ Read More

The Impact of Net Neutrality on Cloud Computing

Excerpted from ITWorld Canada Report by Don Sheppard

Net Neutrality has been in the news a lot lately, but there’s much less discussion of its relationship to and impact on cloud computing (or, for that matter, the Internet of Things [IoT]).

On February 26th, the FCC ruled in favor of Net Neutrality by reclassifying broadband access as a telecommunications service and applying Title II (common carrier) of the Communications Act of 1934 to Internet service providers (ISPs).

FCC decision FCC-15-24A1, a massive 400 page document, was released publicly on March 12th. The lawsuits, which were fully anticipated, are already starting to be filed.

According to the Public Knowledge website:

“Net Neutrality is the principle that individuals should be free to access all content and applications equally, regardless of the source, without Internet service providers discriminating against specific online services or websites.”

“In other words, it is the principle that the company that connects you to the Internet does not get to control what you do on the Internet.” The entry in Wikipedia for Net Neutrality includes one of the longer reference lists I’ve ever come acrossâ?¦ Read More

DC Court to Hear USTelecom & Alamo Title II Challenges

Excerpted from MultiChannel News Report by John Eggerton

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has been chosen to hear USTelecom and Alamo Broadband challenges to the FCC’s Title II reclassification of Internet Access service.

That is according to a decision by the US Judicial Panel on Multi-district Litigation. The panel randomly picks the circuit if challenges are filed in more than one venue.

USTelecom filed in the DC Circuit, Alamo in the Fifth Circuit, which covers Texas, where the company is based.

The DC court is the one that threw out the FCC’s 2010 Open Internet order, rejected the FCC’s Comcast/BitTorrent Net Neutrality ruling, and is generally the venue of choice for regulatory challenges by industry (it is also the court with primary jurisdiction over FCC decisions).

The FCC has signaled it will ask those suits to be dismissed, arguing they were premature since they were filed before the February 26th decision was published in the Federal Register.

USTelecom said it filed out of an abundance of caution in case the 10-day window for suing was triggered… Read More

Verizon Tells Congress to Step Up to the Plate

Excerpted from The Hill Report by Julian Hattem

Lawmakers in Congress have largely ceded their ground to regulatory bureaucrats, the head of Verizon told legislators on Friday.

In a letter to the bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate Commerce Committees, CEO Lowell McAdam lent support to Congressional efforts to update the 1996 Telecommunications Act, saying the existing telecommunications laws and regulatory processes are “outdated and broken.”

“It is time for Congress to re-take responsibility for policymaking in the Internet ecosystem,” he wrote.

“It is time for Congress to assert its longstanding role of setting, in a bipartisan fashion, public policies for the communications sector that both protect consumers and provide incentives for investment and innovation in new products and services.”

In the short term, he urged lawmakers to come together on legislation to replace the Federal Communications Commission’s Net Neutrality regulations, which take the controversial step of reclassifying web service to treat it like a public utility and “lead to far more questions than answers.” GOP lawmakers have eyed some type of legislationâ?¦ Read More

Cloud Computing: An industry in Exponential Growth

Excerpted from Investopedia Report By Brett Relander

Investors today have far more options available than in the past; among these options is the cloud — Nasdaq reported that last year revenues for cloud services grew by 60 percent.

Furthermore, cloud computing is anticipated to continue growing at a robust rate over the course of the next five years.

If you are considering investing in a technology-based company, there are certainly many advantages.

By owning stock in a company offering cloud-based services, you will not only be able to follow the latest trends but also have the opportunity to make money from the explosive growth of this industry.

Before getting involved in cloud computing investing, however, it is important to understand what is involved, what is driving the growth in this industry, and the best way to plan your cloud investments.

Before you consider investing in cloud computing, it is a good idea to have a basic understanding of exactly what it is.

While many of us enjoy the ability to upload photos, documents, and videos to “the cloud” and then retrieve them at our convenienceâ?¦ Read More

Mobile Cloud Computing and Internet of Things

Excerpted from Hindawi Report

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity, which enables it to achieve greater value and service by exchanging data with the manufacturers, operators, and other connected devices.

However, the supports from clouds are often inefficient for the intensive computations and mass storage, such as the limitations of energy, storage, processing, and communication capabilities.

This demand motivates the research of using Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) technologies in IoT.

As an emerging technology, MCC integrates multiple technologies for maximizing capacity and performance of the existing infrastructure.

The crucial value of implementing MCC is to provide rich computational resources for mobile users and network operators, as well as cloud service providers.

The joint research issues need more attentions although many prior researches have addressed MCC and IoTâ?¦ Read More

Google Unveils Cloud Management Platform Console for Android

Excerpted from MSPmentor Report by Dan Kobialka

Google has introduced Cloud Console for Android, an application that enables users to manage Google Cloud Platform from a smartphone or tablet.

So what does Cloud Console for Android mean for managed service providers (MSPs)?

This app allows users to control a solution running on Google Cloud Platform directly from an Android phone or tablet and could help service technicians view and manage incidents tracked in Google Cloud Monitoring.

“Cloud Console for Android integrates with Cloud Monitoring, enabling automated incident tracking when system metrics deviate,” Google Product Manager Michael Thomsen wrote in a blog post.

“You can configure alerts to display directly in the Android notification drawer, and you can comment so that your team knows you’re working on the issue.”

In addition, Google pointed out that Cloud Console for Android users can: check the state of Google App Engine or Compute Engine resources; create a custom dashboard to get a solution overview; and take actions directly from a mobile deviceâ?¦ Read More

2015 NAB Show Redefines Itself

Excerpted from TV Technology Report by Susan Ashworth

For those that may not normally think of the NAB Show as their own – whether you are an online video distributor or film marketer or the like – the NAB is saying: think again.

How does an organization that wholly defines itself as broadcast- centric-whose lobbying efforts are squarely focused on the nation’s radio and television broadcasters-cater to those who are not?

At its Washington headquarters, the focus is not on MSOs, nor bloggers, nor podcasters.

But once the industry arrives at convention itself, it’s clear that all of these media ventures have a presence in sessions and conferences that are designed to introduce the professional media industry to a new, innovative way of doing business.

Are these market segments threats, or valuable partners? The answer is yes. And it’s also no. And that’s where the struggle comes in.

At no time is this dilemma more apparent than on cusp of the annual NAB convention, when more than 90,000 attendees and 1,700 exhibiting companies are set to head into the desert to see what’s new, what’s working andâ?¦ Read More

The Path Toward Tomorrow’s Internet

Excerpted from NY Times Report by Steve Lohr

High school students in Tennessee can see and manipulate ocean plankton under a superhigh-resolution microscope in Southern California, with a biologist in California serving as their tour guide.

Surgeons in Cleveland and Los Angeles share insights and run through a simulation of brain surgery on a biologically exact image of the patient’s brain just before the real operation begins.

Harnessing data from sources ranging from environmental sensor networks to patient records, researchers in Dallas and elsewhere are working to someday be able to send personalized alerts to people who are particularly sensitive to tiny airborne particles – notably, the 44,000 Americans who have an asthma attack each day, with 1,200 of them having to be admitted to a hospital.

Those were three of the projects shown off at a gathering last week that focused on what ultrahigh-speed Internet communications and advanced software can make possible.

The conference, in Arlington, VA, brought together participants in two initiatives supported by National Science Foundation: the Global Environment for Network Innovations project, or GENI, and US Ignite. The attendees included White Houseâ?¦ Read More

IoT – From Cloud to Fog Computing

Excerpted from Cisco Blog by Maher Abdelshkour

Nowadays, there are billions of devices connected to the Internet, and this has led to some advances in the electronics and telecommunication technology developments in recent years which resulted in various kinds of very powerful devices with communication and networking capabilities that have attracted the industries to adopt this technology into their daily business to increase their efficiency.

Other than the industrial sector, there are other sectors like assisted living services, public services, etc., which have a big demand for information and communication technology developments.

Therefore, there is the need for a new paradigm in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication which enables “Things” connectivity to the global Internet network. This paradigm is known by the term Internet of Things (IoT).

IoT is the network of physical objects or “Things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity to enable it to achieve value and service by exchanging data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices through advanced communication protocols without human operation.

The technology of IoT has been evolved according to the environment based on information communication technologyâ?¦ Read More

Tech Leaders Call for Anti-Discrimination Laws in All 50 States

Excerpted from NY Times Report by Nick Wingfield

Technology leaders are looking beyond an Indiana battle over gay rights that united them in the past week, and are calling on all states to enact anti-discrimination protections for lesbians, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

More than three dozen chief executives and other senior Silicon Valley leaders issued a joint statement on Wednesday, asking state legislatures to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes to their civil rights laws.

Max Levchin, a Co-Founder of PayPal and the chief executive of Affirm, a payments start-up, organized the statement, which was signed by the chief executives of Twitter, Airbnb, Lyft, Evernote, Salesforce.com, Yelp and other companies.

The statement follows a firestorm over a new Indiana law signed last week by the state’s Republican Governor, Mike Pence, that supporters said would protect religious freedoms in the state. An array of critics from business, entertainment, sports, and politics have criticized the law as a thinly veiled attempt to let businesses deny service to gays, including to same-sex couples seeking to marry.

Following the outcry, Mr. Pence has said he plans to modify the law. Arkansas passed its own religious freedom law on Tuesdayâ?¦ Read More

Coming Events of Interest

Datacloud South East Asia – April 8th-9th in Johor, Malaysia. Datacloud South East Asia will assess the energy, scalability, security, architecture, and software challenges confronting operators of data centers and enterprises engaged in or considering transitions to the cloud.

NAB Show – April 11th-16th in Las Vegas, NV. Popular and fresh attractions for 2015 include the Cloud Pavilion (CP) for asset management; Connected Media Live (CML), focusing on the consumer experience; the Drone Pavilion (DP), featuring a fully enclosed “flying cage” for demonstrations; and the New Media Expo (NMX).

Internet of Things Conference – April 15th-17th in San Diego, CA. The IoT Con will focus on how companies are using a variety of technologies, including ZigBee radios, Wi-Fi, and machine-to-machine (M2M)software, to connect things to the Internet, and how they are achieving real business benefits from doing so.

All That Matters – May 20th-23rd in Singapore. Packed with influencers, content creators, platforms and marketers, ATM drives business and global collaboration for decision makers in the entertainment, media, and marketing industries.

CES Asia – May 25th-27th in Shanghai, China. The success of the 2015 International CES builds strong momentum for CES Asia. With strong exhibitor demand for CEA’s inaugural event, the show will be curated with select qualifying companies permitted to exhibit.

Data Center and Cloud Awards – June 2nd in Monaco. Europe’s most prestigious awards for data center and cloud achievements will be announced at an evening ceremony prior to the opening of Europe’s ‘must-attend’ Datacloud Europe conference and exhibition.

Freescale Technology Forum – June 22nd-25th in Austin, TX. FTF, this year focusing on the Internet of Things (IoT), is the heart of discovery, imagination and innovation. Together we will strategize and design the next market-shifting products.

Internet of Things World Forum (IoTWF) – October (2015 Dates TBD) in Dubai, UAE. IoTWF is an exclusive event that brings together the best and brightest thinkers, practitioners, and innovators from business, government, and academia to accelerate the market adoption of the Internet of Things.

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