Volume LX, Issue 12

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In This Issue

Addressing the Cybersecurity Skills Gap

Excerpted from Entrepreneur Report by Adam Levy

In the face of a growing number of cybersecurity threats and increasingly sophisticated attacks, IT professionals need help. Unfortunately, they’re having a hard time finding it.

According to Cisco, there are more than one million unfilled cybersecurity positions around the globe.

To drive that nail further, a recent report published by ISACA states that many cybersecurity positions remain open for six months or more before they’re filled (if they’re ever filled).

The talent shortage is real, and it might get worse before it gets better.

As the amount of accessible data grows, data crime is becoming more pervasive.

Ransomware, sophisticated extended-duration attacks, phishing and whaling attacks are all targeting large enterprises, government organizations, mom and pop shops and everyone in between.

It doesn’t help that the rapid growth of data crimes is a relatively new trend, making it hard to find people who are deeply experienced in fighting data crime and who can be thrown into the fire immediately… Read More

Verizon Digital Media Adds Microsoft Cloud Storage

Excerpted from Broadband Technology Report

Verizon Digital Media Services is extending its relationship with Microsoft to make cloud-based storage from Microsoft Azure available to all its Edgecast Content Delivery Network (CDN) users.

Azure Storage will now power Verizon STORE, the cloud-based origin storage offering on the Edgecast CDN.

“We are pleased to work with Microsoft to now give our Edgecast CDN customers streamlined access to a trusted and exceptionally robust cloud storage service,” said Kyle Okamoto, Chief Network Officer for Verizon Digital Media Services.

“We value Microsoft’s continued investment and innovation in cloud technology, which complements our commitment to providing our customers with optimized solutions that meet the increasing demands of today’s media landscape.”

Verizon Digital Media Services’ billing model is based on volume stored, and not on transactions, transfers or egress costs.

Verizon Digital Media Services and Microsoft already feature customized APIs within each other’s platforms and integrated network interconnections.

Edgecast CDN customers can take advantage of Azure Storage as part of one single solution from only one vendor… Read More

Manufacturing Rapidly Moves to Cloud Computing

Excerpted from Manufacturing and Engineering Magazine Report by Charlotte Walker

With the shift to the technological revolution growing nearer and nearer manufacturers are increasingly opting to use cloud computing as their first step towards the future.

More than half of European manufacturers are now adopting a cloud-first approach and a report released by ScienceNow: The Cloud Computing Tipping Point estimated that almost all in the manufacturing sector (86%) are expected to complete the shift within the next twenty-four months.

This is higher than the average shift in other business sectors such as financial services which has an estimated average increase to 77% over the next two years.

The popularity for cloud computing is taking a lot of stress from manufacturers across the globe.

Due to the nature of the job many companies and employees find themselves under constant pressure to increase accuracy, capitalize internal intelligence and process speed at a competitive force.

High quality tech is needed in modern manufacturing and using the cloud could be the solution people need for a little breathing space… Read More

Report from DCIA CEO Marty Lafferty

Click Here for Video.

The DCIA co-sponsored Delivery of Things World (DoTW) has attracted more than 400 DevOps experts to join us in Berlin this Monday and Tuesday, April 24th and 25th.

Our host for this seminal event, we.CONECT has rapidly become one of the leading business information companies globally, developing and providing digital business information, business events, business communities and event technology, and this event showcases its capabilities particularly well.

American Express, Audi, BASF, BMW, DHL, IKEA, ITV, PAYBACK, and Viacom, are the latest companies to send their teams to DoTW, which this year features more than 60 speakers and over 40 exhibitors.

This conference promises to define the future of DevOps and help attendees gain a competitive edge in this vital and increasingly important information technology (IT) discipline.

Our roster of expert speakers includes Ignacio Coloma, Chief Architect, Solution Engineer Google Cloud Platform; Peter Fassbinder, Principal Key Expert Consultant, Siemens; Henk Kolk, Chief Architect, ING; Domenico Lorenzelli, Information Technology, CTO Office, Credit Suisse; Aniruddh Chaturvedi, Senior Software Engineer, LinkedIn; and many more.

Business & Strategic Sessions include impacting customer experience, productivity, costs and profitability, speed and application delivery by using DevOps; using the increasing capabilities in automation, continuous delivery, continuous integration, automated testing and application monitoring; and overcoming cultural inhibitors and process issues in transforming your organization to an agile and time-to-market delivery machine.

Technical & Operational Sessions include putting developers on the front line of support and security – how companies can secure their most valuable features within the IT department; simplifying and standardizing the development and production environments by using cloud solutions / SaaS / PaaS; and how to organize feedback loops within a company’s continuous delivery process.

If you missed the opportunity to attend the 2017 DoTW, please check back with us for a conference recap in coming weeks. Share wisely, and take care.

High Goal Set in Cloud Computing

Excerpted from ShanhaiDaily Report by Yang Wong

China is aiming to increase the scale of its cloud computing industry by more than 2.5 times by 2019, from 2015 levels, according to a new government plan.

The scale of the cloud computing industry will be expanded to 430 billion yuan (US $62.4 billion) by 2019, up from 150 billion yuan in 2015, according to an action plan for 2017-2019 issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Other targets include making breakthroughs in core technologies, increasing cloud computing in manufacturing and government affairs, and strengthening the global influence of Chinese cloud computing companies.

The ministry expects that two to three Chinese cloud computing companies will lead the global market within three years.

Cloud computing should be a strong support for China’s manufacturing and Internet industries and help make other social and economic sectors more information-based, the ministry said.

It pledged to enhance cloud computing network security and improve security regulation and relevant laws, as many users from key industries are still hesitating due to safety concerns, reliability and movability… Read More

Huawei to Spin-Off Cloud Business

Excerpted from Mobile World Live Report by Joseph Waring

Huawei stepped up its already strong commitment to the cloud by announcing plans to create a separate cloud business unit.

The new unit will be the company’s fourth business group after carrier, consumer (devices) and enterprise.

The company said a year ago it would invest $1 billion to expand its cloud business.

Eric Xu, Huawei’s rotating CEO (pictured), said it has been pushing its new public cloud platform both independently and by partnering with operators in some countries, such as Deutsche Telekom in Germany.

He argued Huawei needs to first become a digital company itself in order to lead telcos down the path towards digitalization: “We face the exact same issues that operators face. The key is to take action, not to have a discussion.”

Xu said Huawei sees artificial intelligence (AI) as an enabling technology to increase the value of its existing products, not as an independent industry, and Huawei won’t develop an AI business.

“AI will be everywhere in our products, solutions and operations in the future.

We’ll use AI to automate and drive improvements in efficiency… Read More

Market Favors Hyperscale Cloud Operators

Excerpted from Datamation Report by Pedro Hernandez

Businesses are increasingly migrating their IT workloads to the cloud, benefiting hyperscale cloud operators the most, finds a new study from Synergy Research Group.

Currently, there are 24 cloud operators that fit the bill, according to the technology analyst firm.

In general, a hyperscale cloud providers have a broad data center footprint, each with 45 or more data centers across the globe.

They operate at least two data centers in each major region, namely North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC).

Typically, they have hundreds of thousands of servers at their disposal, or in the case of cloud giants Amazon and Google, millions of servers.

Combined, these 24 hyperscale cloud companies, a group that also includes Microsoft and IBM, operate nearly 320 data centers worldwide… Read More

Today’s Content Calls for Cloud Collaboration

Excerpted from Videoedge Report by Andy Hurt

Watching a program at a specific time on the household TV is no longer the only way to consume media.

Over-the-air TV broadcasts have given way to on-demand content of every conceivable sort from an ever-growing number of sources.

Consumers have come to demand all kinds of content on any device in any location.

This drastic change in viewing habits is driving an equally drastic change in how content is created.

Entities like Netflix and Amazon, whose productions rival those of the biggest networks and movie studios, have rendered the historical model less relevant every day.

Even viewers are getting in on the action and generating content themselves. (Think everyone from football fans who post their favorite highlights, to YouTube stars who garner hundreds of thousands of followers.)

The same holds true for content distribution.

Until recently, most content was created for linear programming and handed off to a cable or satellite company for distribution… Read More

Cloud Boom Rains Money on Optical Networking

Excerpted from MarketWatch Report by Therese Poletti

Applied Optoelectronics proved Wednesday that the boom in optical-networking products is not slowing down as companies build out corporate and cloud-computing data centers.

On Tuesday, Applied Optoelectronics said its first-quarter results will easily exceed its previous guidance, thanks to the “continued robust demand” for its data center products.

The company did not say much beyond its raised guidance and noted it will report final quarterly results on May 4, but the news fueled a 20% jump in its stock in after-hours trading.

In an investor presentation last month, Applied Optoelectronics executives talked about some of the reasons that were fueling strong demand for its products, comments that gave a window on the current market for fiber-optic components in general.

Chief Financial Officer Stefan Murry discussed a major paradigm shift in the data center from copper to optical components, as more companies adopt an open architecture and realize the likely need to expand.

He also noted that the transition of data to the cloud is still in its early days, which could mean more data centers will be built… Read More

The Value of Hybrid

Excerpted from CloudTech Report by Olly Pesland

The term “hybrid cloud” has grown in popularity among established technology vendors, but one could be forgiven for thinking it’s a convenient “cloudwash” for companies to showcase progress while delaying an inevitable shift to public cloud.

I say that because to focus exclusively on cloud overlooks the reality that almost every CIO in an established enterprise today is contending with legacy as much as the need to embrace new technologies.

Some critical data center hosted systems just don’t move to cloud so easily.

It’s all simply IT, which is why I call the effective combination of public cloud, managed service provider cloud, and dedicated infrastructure “hybrid IT.”

It is by no means intended as a “catch-all”, so I feel I owe it to the reader to explain precisely what I mean and how established companies are successfully exploiting the benefits of such choice on their terms.

At its core, hybrid is about choice: Choice to work with the appropriate combination of an organization’s on-premises infrastructure, managed services, private cloud and public cloud infrastructure and services… Read More

Don’t Let Your Data Get Out of Control

Excerpted from CloudTech Report by Melodye Mueller

Cloud usage is accelerating at a rapid rate, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down.

Right now, 90 percent of all companies are using the cloud in some way, and, in the next 10 years, spending on public cloud alone is slated to multiply by a factor of five to $500 billion, according to recent studies by North Bridge and Wikibon.

Enterprises are launching new infrastructure at a furious pace, migrating workloads of all kinds and big chunks of data to public and private cloud environments.

Many of these enterprises are generating tangible results – cutting out costs, increasing agility and getting products to market faster.

But cloud initiatives don’t come without growing pains.

If they aren’t managed closely, cloud projects can spiral out of control quickly, leaving a trail of data breaches, regulatory fines and cost overruns.

What organizations need is a strong governance program to ensure that their move to the cloud starts smoothly and continues to perform… Read More

Nevada Eyes $3.5 Million Cybersecurity Boost

Excerpted from Las Vegas Sun Report

Governor Brian Sandoval is asking the Nevada Legislature to spend $3.5 million over the next two years to build up the state’s cybersecurity infrastructure and management.

His proposed Office of Cyber Defense Coordination would organize data systems across all state agencies, partner with education officials on workforce development and consult private businesses on best practices.

Existing cybersecurity protocols are designed to protect the sensitive information of Nevada residents and anyone who does business here.

An attorney for the governor’s office says financial and personal securities rely only in part on the machines and software that house that information.

Defense adviser Brigadier General Bill Burks says frequent collaboration and human oversight are also crucial to mitigate and respond to attacks.

No one spoke against Assembly Bill 471 at its first legislative hearing Friday… Read More

Education Greater Risk for Identity Theft

Excerpted from IT Business Edge Report by Sue Poremba

I’m all about being educated and understanding the risks involved every time you connect to the internet or access your company’s network or handle sensitive data.

But can being educated actually work against cybersecurity efforts?

A study conducted by online IT training company CBT Nuggets found that overconfidence in our abilities, and in our devices, can end up resulting in identity theft

According to the survey of more than 2,000 respondents, 18 percent of those who admit to being tech savvy are more likely to become victims of identity theft.

Also, more education increases your risk, with 24 percent of PhDs stating that they have been a victim of identity theft at some time, as opposed to 11 percent of high school graduates and 14 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree.

Now, there could be a number of reasons for the disparity in the numbers, such as the amount of time someone with only a high school degree spends on a computer versus that of someone with an advanced degree… Read More

DARPA Baking Chips with Cybersecurity Fortification

Excerpted from Network World Report by Michael Cooney

In an IT world where security software patches seem to be a dime a dozen, the researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) want to take a different approach – bake cybersecurity right into the circuitry.

The research outfit will this month detail a new program called System Security Integrated Through Hardware and Firmware (SSITH) that has as one of its major goals to develop new integrated circuit architectures that lack the current software-accessible points of criminal entry, yet retain the computational functions and high-performance the integrated circuits were designed to deliver.

Another goal of the program is the development of design tools that would become widely available so that hardware-anchored security would eventually become a standard feature of integrated circuit in both Defense Department and commercial electronic systems, DARPA stated.

“Security for electronic systems has been left up to software until now, but the overall confidence in this approach is summed up in the sardonic description of this standard practice as ‘patch and pray,'” said SSITH program manager Linton Salmon of the Agency’s Microsystems Technology Office… Read More

Educate Employees on Cloud Security

Excerpted from CloudTech Report by James Bourne

For those at the coalface of the security industry, the feeling of metaphorically banging one’s head against a brick wall, of continually educating, re-educating and correcting misinformation, mischievous or otherwise, will feel all too familiar.

Take the comments from Home Secretary Amber Rudd around WhatsApp following the terror attack in Westminster.

Following the disclosure that the messaging service was used moments before the attacker struck, Rudd’s remarks – “there should be no place for terrorists to hide” – were met with a certain level of dismay in the industry.

Graham Cluley, a long-standing independent security analyst, put it this way.

“There is a danger that politicians will take ghastly incidents of terror as a platform to push forward their agenda of weakening encryption,” he wrote.

“It makes them sound tough in the fight against terror – at least to people who don’t know much about technology. But it won’t make a blind jot of difference to bad guys.”

With other technologies, such as cloud and Wi-Fi, a similar effect occurs… Read More

C-Level Leaders and Cybersecurity

Excerpted from Computerworld Report by Matt Hamblen

Despite the scale and potential harm from cyber-attacks, there’s wide recognition that corporate leaders, especially boards of directors, aren’t taking the necessary actions to defend their companies against such attacks.

It’s not just a problem of finding the right cyber-defense tools and services, but also one of management awareness and security acumen at the highest level, namely corporate boards.

“Our country and its businesses and government agencies of all sizes are under attack from a variety of aggressive adversaries and we are generally unprepared to manage and fend off these threats,” said Gartner analyst Avivah Litan, a longtime cybersecurity consultant to many organizations.

Litan’s worries seem to have reached some quarters of the corporate governance community.

The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) recently released a survey of more than 600 corporate board directors and professionals that found only 19% believe their boards have a high level of understanding of cybersecurity risks. That’s an improvement from 11% in a similar poll conducted a year earlier.

Meanwhile, when an attack does happen, there seems to be an excess of finger-pointing in the C-suite… Read More

Coming Events of Interest

Delivery of Things World — April 24th and 25th in Berlin, Germany. Over 400 IT executives will discuss what DevOps really means for business. This event brings together all stakeholders to share their experience and expertise.

Security of Things World — June 12th and 13th in Berlin, Germany. A world class event focused on the next information security revolution. Security concerns that preoccupy enterprise customers today and pragmatic solutions to threats.

Autonomous Systems World — June 14th and 15th in Berlin, Germany. An international knowledge exchange among top experts in the field, providing a unique glimpse into the fascinating world of autonomous robots, intelligent machines, and smart technologies.

INTRASECT — June 29th and 30th in Washington, DC. The first conference of its kind to engage key stakeholders in a comprehensive and engaging examination of existing and future regulatory policy governing the usage of commercial autonomous vehicles.

Industry of Things World Asia — July 3rd and 4th in Singapore. An international knowledge exchange platform bringing together more than 300 high-level executives who play an active role in the industrial internet of things (IoT).

Industry of Things World Europe — September 18th and 19th in Berlin, Germany. Join more than 1,000 high-level executives to rethink your technology and business strategy for scalable, secure, and efficient IoT.

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