Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Finally, A Thoughtful Choice In Where The Cloud Runs Best
Finally, A Thoughtful Choice In Where The Cloud Runs Best http://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2016/03/24/finally-a-thoughtful-choice-in-where-the-cloud-runs-best/
Amazon, Microsoft, or Google: Which Tech Stock Is Winning the Cloud Wars?
Amazon, Microsoft, or Google: Which Tech Stock Is Winning the Cloud Wars? http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/28/amazon-microsoft-or-google-which-tech-stock-is-winning-cloud-wars.html
The benefits and challenges of building a hybrid cloud
The growth of cloud computing over the last decade has been unprecedented. From a relatively unheard-of concept, the cloud has become a key part of the boardroom conversation amongst CIOs and IT directors at companies across industries, sizes, and revenues for its promise of organizational transformation.
A large amount of enterprises have already built their own private cloud networks, hosting essential applications and providing anywhere, anytime access to mission critical data for employees scattered across the world. In many cases, the effort pays off, resulting in increased productivity, reduced costs and ease of access.
And there’s no shortage of companies that have built public cloud offerings to leverage this trend — tech giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle all having entered into the market in the last few years, not to mention the thousands of smaller service providers offering more niche solutions. These services can be cheaper alternatives to building a private cloud infrastructure, or provide a necessary extension to the limits of a private cloud, allowing for occasional bursts in computing capacity.
The biggest trend however is to blend the benefits of both private and public cloud offerings to create a hybrid cloud infrastructure. These hybrid clouds exploit the control and security of a private cloud, along with the flexibility and low cost of public cloud offerings. Together they form a powerful solution to meet the demands on IT from the rest of the organization.
Cloud computing has a seemingly endless list of reasons for why companies should adopt it: cost savings, improved security, enhanced agility, greater accessibility and flexibility, among many others. Considering changes in the IT infrastructure always poses risks and challenges that must be taken into account and built into the plan for rollout. For that reason, we’ve put together this guide with best practices for building a hybrid cloud.
Hybrid Cloud: The Benefits
1. Cost savings. One of the foremost benefits of implementing a hybrid cloud is of not having to spend the money and build infrastructure to withstand occasional bursts in system usage that only happens a small fraction of the time. Instead organizations can leverage public cloud offerings to offload some of the heavy usage, and only have to pay for it when they need it. With less money spent on infrastructure, more funds can be devoted to other critical projects that help move the business forward.
2. Improved security. While the perception that the cloud is insecure is a persistent one among members of traditional IT teams, many believe that customers of service-provider environments actually suffer from less attacks than on-premise users do. The myth that cloud computing is less secure than traditional approaches can lend itself to the fact that having things stored off-premises feels less secure, however this does not reflect reality.
3. Enhanced organizational agility. By leveraging the public cloud in times of heavy usage, organizations can experience fewer outages and less downtime. For developing and testing new applications, the hybrid cloud also offers an attractive option for hosting them — buying time until a decision is eventually made as to where to host it permanently.
4. Greater accessibility. With employees becoming increasingly mobile, greater accessibility to business-critical applications is a necessity for any 21st century enterprise. Gone are the days when employees only need to access their email when they’re at their desks, or only need to update a spreadsheet or access an application during business hours. Today, Business happens 24/7 and for companies to compete effectively, the cloud offers the advantage of anywhere, anytime access.
Hybrid Cloud: The Challenges
1. Tools and skills. To effectively operate a hybrid cloud solution, it takes tools and skills. Not everyone has these skills, and it can be costly to get them. If your organization has recently decided to move to the cloud, it might be necessary to look for outside talent that has the necessary skillset to accomplish the transition. Moreover, the team implementing the project will probably need additional training to learn the systems, and all of this costs time and money; bringing us to our next point…
2. Cost. As always, cost is key. It plays a major role in planning to execute a hybrid cloud strategy. While the public cloud can offer an attractive option for its flexibility and relatively low cost to operate, building a private enterprise cloud requires significant expenditure and can become expensive very quickly with all the physical hardware necessary. At the same time, heavy use of public cloud resources can rack up unexpectedly high usage bills that may not have been planned for.
3. Security. It’s at the forefront of everyone’s mind when they think of the cloud. While we’ve already seen that cloud computing is not inherently any less secure than traditional computing, and in fact faces fewer attacks, there are still considerations to take into account when building out a hybrid cloud. The proper precautions must be taken to ensure data is properly protected and that the right people maintain control. Additionally, depending on the industry, there may be regulatory requirements that prohibit data from being stored off-site, which would prevent the use of a public cloud entirely.
3. Data and application integration. This is a particular challenge when taking the move to a hybrid cloud into account. Applications and data exist in a symbiotic relationship, with each one being useless without the other. Oftentimes they’re chained together. So when considering where to store each of them, it’s essential to ask whether the infrastructure they’re placed on matters. For example, if an application lives in a private cloud and its data lives in an on-premises data centre, is the application built to access the data remotely? Technologies like copy data virtualization can decouple data from infrastructure and make this problem less of a headache.
4. Compatibility. Across infrastructure, compatibility can prove itself to be a major issue when building a hybrid cloud. With dual levels of infrastructure, a private cloud that the company controls, and a public one that the company leverages, the chances are that they will be running different stacks. Can you manage both using the same tools, or will your team have to learn a new set in order to effectively oversee them?
5. Networking Another important factor to consider in hybrid integration is designing the network around it. For instance, will very active applications be living in the cloud? It’s necessary to consider the bandwidth usage that this could take up on the network, and whether or not it could cause problems in bottlenecking other applications.
Like every IT project, building an enterprise hybrid cloud brings many benefits and some challenges. When properly accounted for during planning, organizations can minimize these difficulties and maximize the value they bring for the company.
The biggest challenge to IOT is thus big data that requires an infrastructure that is capable of processing billions or more data points each second.
The biggest challenge to IOT is thus big data that requires an infrastructure that is capable of processing billions or more data points each second.
If you thought e-commerce revolutionized the retail industry over the past two decades, something much bigger is coming over the next ten years and that is the Internet of Things (IoT). By deploying sensors and network connectivity to everyday physical objects like cars, refrigerators, television and buildings, it is possible to remotely connect, manage and engage with these entities in ways that are not possible today.
Proponents of IoT describe a future where your car could interact with your air conditioner at home so that your house could be appropriately cooled by the time you reach home, or such devices could be automatically turned off each time you leave the house. While such examples are not far from truth, the true test for IoT shall come from policy makers.
The prospects for IoT in administration is so good that in countries like India and the UK, IoT is a matter of state policy today. However, it here that IoT is likely to meet its largest set of detractors. This is because IoT in state administration comes with huge stakes. Take the example of smart traffic management where Internet-enabled devices can monitor traffic movements across the city and can smartly administer lanes to ease congestion. Insufficient infrastructure or a badly executed IoT system could crumble under heavy load and could paralyze traffic movements across the city during peak times.
The biggest challenge to IoT is Big Data. The Internet of Things in administration could require an infrastructure that is capable of processing billions or more data points each second. Essentially, when IoT becomes main stream, we will be dealing with information that is much bigger than what the Big Data tools of today process on average. For mission-critical services like traffic management, this necessitates sophisticated data infrastructure that can handle the humongous volume of data thrown in by these large scale IoT systems.
Some experts argue that IoT and Big Data are essentially two sides of the same coin - like Big Data, the solution to a successful IoT implementation lies in storing, processing and extracting value from the data received. Protocols like Mosquitto and platforms like Hadoop and Hive do a good job in queuing and storing data while custom analytics tools will help process and derive meaningful information from this data. In both cases, however, the underlying infrastructure can make or break the system. A recent study published by CA Technologies found that among enterprise Big Data players, nearly 32% believe that their existing infrastructure is a major obstacle and not adequate to implement Big Data projects. It is not surprising then that close to half of the respondents believed their organizations needed major investments in infrastructure to implement their projects.
According to technology writer Arthur Cole, the solution to the infrastructural challenges facing IoT and the associated big data is not bigger infrastructure. Rather, it is in the design and implementation of smarter infrastructure that can process data in transit as well as optimize resources through prescriptive platform analytics and active copy analytics. Such an infrastructure could use machine learning algorithms to dynamically allocate the resources required to back up job processes, monitor services and produce output for the user.
This argument makes sense since focusing merely on larger infrastructure could create a bull-whip effect that could lead to exponential rise in infrastructural investment that could make IoT unviable. By focusing on smarter infrastructure that can possibly make use of current investments to process much larger volumes of data, we could be looking at larger adoption that could in effect lead to quicker mainstreaming of IoT. And that's a good thing for everyone in the ecosystem.
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Private, public or hybrid cloud?
Private, public or hybrid cloud? This is the question that is being asked by C-level executives and IT professionals across the globe, as each enterprise continues to mature its cloud strategy and rethink the earlier role of cloud and whether to move away from an all public or private environment and embrace a hybrid cloud strategy.
Benefits of a private cloud in a hybrid strategy
The private cloud has a very particular role within a hybrid cloud strategy. Its main advantage is to address the most challenging of security concerns by dedicating the use of exclusive resources by an enterprise, versus a shared pool across multiple enterprise customers hosted by a cloud vendor. The private cloud is a ‘'best of both worlds" solution that combines the benefits of public cloud - dynamic resource allocation, automation, improved uptime and reliability - with dedicated resources previously only achieved through traditional enterprise infrastructure models and ‘enterprise DIY private clouds.' The tradeoff for the security offered by the private cloud is the economic consideration. The more dedicated resources, the higher the impact on the overall hybrid cloud financial model.
Private cloud is adopted by those enterprises' that have a high security and compliance requirement - either business or technical - for specific applications and services that are considered to be highly regulated. Additionally, enterprises turn to private clouds when its most valuable information and corresponding applications need to have a private cloud located in proximity to other enterprise resources due to latency issues. These applications can include mission critical, customer facing applications such as a mobile banking backend solution, Enterprise Resource Applications (ERP), financial applications and highly regulated/ governmental applications and data. The industries adopting private clouds are those that deal with highly sensitive and restricted data comprising of financial institutions, retail/payment associations, healthcare, education, insurance and government agencies.
To truly maximize the benefits of a hybrid cloud strategy, there are ways to balance the economic impacts of private cloud. For those enterprises that want to lessen the financial impact of a private cloud, they may dive further into the application design and architect a solution that includes only running certain transaction types for the data being processed and stored in a private cloud. For instance, a customer's personal data such as credit card processing, product and catalog selection may be best kept in a private cloud before adding to a customer order in a public cloud where the rest of the application is run in a shared resource pool.
Beyond security, the other benefit of the private cloud is the reduction in latency that will accommodate application connections that require a high degree of integration running in a particular location. Each enterprise will have to balance the economic impact of private cloud resources against other options including application modernization, migration to a new platform or traditional IT infrastructure.
How to deliver the private cloud service
Once a decision has been made to include a private cloud in the overall hybrid cloud strategy, IT professionals are faced with the next major decision for the enterprise: how to deliver the cloud services. Enterprises can select whether to build, buy or rent cloud services in a managed or consumptive environment from a provider. In any option, private cloud requires access to massive resources, most notably skills and capital.
An enterprise that makes a decision to build and support its private cloud will need to retain in-house talent and capital investments for expansion, product updates and the addition of innovations to meet with user demands. Most important, IT teams will need an individual who has a dedicated focus on security requirements and regulations. The security aspects are critical, as the reason an enterprise typically selects a private cloud is often based on the security requirements for the applications and data that require additional protection. The requisite investment is substantial, especially at scale, and will be in addition to the investments needed to develop, operate and innovate the cloud services and applications. It is a consideration that should be weighed against the goals of the enterprise. Today, one of the biggest barriers to cloud adoption is the ability to both attract and retain qualified staff, second only to security. The staffing risk is increased as an enterprise will need to operate both the cloud maintenance team, as well as the group to build and manage the applications that will run in that cloud.
Considerations for managed private clouds
Alternatively, most enterprises that have selected a private cloud choose to reduce the talent and security risk by partnering with a managed private cloud provider. The managed cloud providers can recruit and retain talent in this area, due to the scale of the business and invest heavily in a pool of trained specialists in each area - including security. The enterprise will be renting the cloud service and benefit from the knowledge of a much larger group of professionals than they would be able to recruit and employ. The professionals not only drive innovation in the cloud offering, but they will also partner with the private cloud customers to help them understand the benefit of the features in the enterprise market. Also, most cloud providers offer complementary services and platforms that extend the private cloud options, such as business continuity and recovery options as well as micro-services such as single sign-on, performance analytics, etc. The enterprise must consider the cost/value of these add-ons in the make vs. buy decision.
A managed private cloud is a ‘rental' option. The managed cloud provider will build, operate maintain and continue to innovate a private cloud for the enterprise in a range of dedicated options, whether on-premise or in a selected cloud data center. A managed private cloud provider takes on the risk of capital expense, staffing, upgrades and continued innovation and can either provide additional services to operate applications or the enterprise can opt to do the later in-house. Many enterprises select the managed private cloud option to obtain the benefits of a private cloud and to free up internal technical staff to innovate specific business applications and services that propel the products and services it offers its customers. Managed private clouds are offered in a range of commercial constructions including fixed monthly fees for a reserved size, minimum commitments with consumption for growth to fully consumptive. The commercial models typically require a higher rate for a greater level of dedication; i.e. the less shared resource pools, the higher the price.
It is important for the enterprise to conduct an analysis of the most important features they are looking for in a managed private cloud. As the market evolves, the managed cloud providers are offering ‘niche' private cloud options that are optimized for specific applications and vertical industries.
A sample of the list of considerations includes:
Geographic requirements - including cloud hosting locations and local support staff, government certifications and regulations required
Data protection and location and the ability to define where the data resides
Industry specific applications and certifications that require specialized access including payment card industry (PCI) or HIPPA standards
Specific application requirements such as high bandwidth for video or other processing requirements
Storage requirements including high I/O for optimal performance, encryption and business continuity requirements
Segmentation and security access requisites
Level of service required ranging from only minimal on the private cloud platform or more advanced services such as managed application services
Internal audit requirements and access
Monitoring and transparency requirements, even if the enterprise is buying managed cloud services
Customer access constraints through an application or employees only
Types of integration required for adjacent systems, partners and ecosystems
Predictable usage or variable which is critical for deciding on best commercial models
Using the evaluation criteria and clearly stating the objectives the enterprise is trying to achieve using a private cloud will make the decision/selection process of which private cloud is best suited for the intended outcome.
Once IT leaders have selected the private cloud, it is critical to ensure that the applications that reside in the private cloud are designed and implemented in such a way that supports some level of abstraction to more easily migrate applications and workloads in the future. Each enterprise must map out its strategy for building, deploying and operating applications in the cloud with an understanding of risk and migration options should the business objectives and relationships change. Every public and managed cloud provider is going to continue to innovate in different areas. It will be important to incorporate a health check and evaluation of the services to ensure the cloud is meeting the needs of the business. While migration introduces risk, carefully designed and implemented development/operations help to minimize risk and disruption while ensuring the enterprise maximizes the benefit of ‘adopting the best of both worlds.'
Symantec Corp. has announced the worldwide availability of Encryption Everywhere
Symantec Corp. has announced the worldwide availability of Encryption Everywhere, a website security package available through web hosting providers. Encryption Everywhere lets web hosting providers integrate encryption into every website from the moment it is created. With the new web security service, hosting providers can offer a variety of flexible options, including basic website encryption included as part of any hosted service, and a number of premium security packages with increasingly stronger levels of website validation, protection, and trust seals. Symantec wants to see 100% of legitimate websites secured by 2018, and Encryption Everywhere was developed to support that goal.
According to the Norton Cybersecurity Insights Report, 47% of global respondents reported they have been a victim of a cyberattack. Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report cited five out of six large companies had been targeted for attack in 2014, a 40% increase over the previous year. In addition, Google and other browsers have announced they will push unencrypted websites down in search ranking results. Websites that want to remain viable will need to at least use basic encryption by 2018. Encryption Everywhere encrypts 100% of customer data shared on a business's website, giving businesses of any size precious brand trust and providing consumers with the confidence that the information they share is protected and will reach the intended recipient.
Encryption Everywhere makes it easy to secure any website from the time it's registered or renewed. Many web hosting providers will integrate basic encryption with every website. For more customized options, the user can simply click on the preferred Symantec security products offered by their web hosting provider. Web hosting providers can now offer a complete security solution to their customers from one of the most trusted and recognized brands in cybersecurity. Encryption Everywhere is the first security solution that gives web hosting providers an upsell opportunity to bring in new revenue streams without incurring a burden to their infrastructure, sales processes or administration teams.
Symantec will launch the Encryption Everywhere with a number of global web hosting partners, including InterNetX, one of the largest providers of domains, webspace and hosting products for resellers.
Encryption Everywhere is available immediately wherever Symantec SSL/TLS and security certificates are sold. For more information, visit go.symantec.com/encryptioneverywhere.