Neustar, Inc., a trusted, neutral provider of real-time information services, today announced its Cloud Security Partner Program, a channel partnership program for a select group of strategic business partners and cloud service providers. The Neustar Cloud Security Partner Program enables its channel partners to capitalize on the growing adoption of cloud security solutions by delivering Neustar Security Solutions to its customers. Neustar Security Solutions offer flexible deployment methods for a variety of industry-leading cloud services, including DNS and DDoS mitigation.

According to IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2017 Predictions, "Many enterprises have shifted to a ‘cloud first’ strategy over the past several years. Over the next several years – as two-thirds or more of IT spending shifts to the cloud – many organizations (and IT suppliers) will get steadily closer to ‘cloud only.’"

The Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC) has published a new whitepaper, Cloud Customer Architecture for Securing Workloads on Cloud Services, that outlines security services and corresponding best practices for deploying a comprehensive cloud security architecture. The aim of this new guide is to provide a practical reference to help IT architects and IT security professionals architect, install, and operate the information security components of solutions built using cloud services. It is available for download at http://www.cloud-council.org/deliverables/cloud-customer-architecture-for-securing-workloads-on-cloud-services.htm

Many cloud services are now available, covering infrastructure, platform and application capabilities. Building business solutions using cloud services requires a clear understanding of the available security services, components and options-allied to a clear architecture- which addresses the complete lifecycle of cloud solutions covering development, deployment and operations.

The following security components are covered in detail:

A key takeaway from the survey was that companies are planning to spend more money on those AWS cloud native services in 2017 than they did last year. According to the survey results, 35 percent of respondents said they plan to spend 10-20 percent more on these services this year than last, while 13 percent said they would spend 21-30 percent more. The ramp-up in spending is occurring as companies are realizing the value of previous investments in cloud-related products and services. Thirty-six percent of survey respondents said they are gaining their expected return-on-investment from the use of cloud services, and another 30 percent said they had not yet achieved their anticipated ROI but soon would.

Faction, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud provider, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted Faction a new US Patent #9,621,374, which extends the functionality of hybrid and multi-cloud to new protocols including Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) and Software Defined Networking (SDN). The new patent further reinforces Faction’s place at the forefront of hybrid and multi-cloud solutions. 

Faction’s new patent allows customers to leverage two key innovations in the networking and cloud arenas: VXLAN and SDN. VXLAN technology is attractive to enterprises as it works to improve scalability challenges associated with large cloud deployments. SDN technology enables networks to add agility and flexibility, while allowing administrators to respond quickly through a centralized control location.

Axiomatics today launched the Axiomatics Policy Server (APS) for Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Axiomatics Policy Server in the cloud makes it even easier for organizations to get started with externalized dynamic authorization while realizing the benefits of the cloud such as elastic scalability, reduction in Total Cost of Ownership, and co-location with AWS-based applications. AWS users can install this policy-based approach with one-click deployment and a Bring Your Own License (BYOL) model.

However, businesses of all sizes must start paying more attention to the threat of cyber attacks, given that the type of businesses that criminals are targeting varies from a small start-up business to a global company that is a household name. Recently we have seen numerous cyber attacks hitting the news headlines, such as payday loan company Wonga who was subjected to an attack, leaving 245,000 customers affected. 

Grazed from 1RedDrop. Author: Shankar Narayanan.

Microsoft announced the launch of new migration resources and tools to help customers who want to take the hybrid route for their cloud deployment. As more and more companies look at hybrid cloud as the path of least resistance to a cloud presence, Microsoft is slowly rolling out more services to address that growing need.

Microsoft now offers a free Cloud Migration Assessment, which provides Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) across cloud, on-premise and hybrid environments. According to Microsoft, the automated discovery tool will assess the client’s workload configuration and provide a detailed validation plan…

Grazed from MBTMag. Author: Lisa Pope.

This is the year when cloud deployment will dominate industry news. Signs point to it, from industry trends to forecasts from analysts, media pundits and software experts. Cloud deployment is the must-have starting place for new technologies. Plus, it provides the agility that is so necessary to remain competitive. It’s simply the logical deployment choice for today’s manufacturing landscape. Let’s look closer at the top twelve driving factors converging around this topic, making 2017 the year for cloud deployment.

1. Overcoming Reluctance

In the early years of new millennium, cloud deployment was shrouded in misconceptions and haunted by myths that were, at times, more emotion-based than fact-based. Change is frequently worrisome to an organization, causing resistance and uncertainty. Users were often reluctant to give up functionality that was deeply entrenched in their processes…

Grazed from Diginomica. Author: Wayne Bobby.

There was a time less than a century ago when a telex machine was a bold, new innovation. And anyone who ever operated a telex remembers the dreaded backspace/correct button. A telex network could send a message anywhere in the world, and it only took about 15 minutes per page. But to send a telex, you had to retype your text (originally produced on a manual typewriter) on a separate keyboard that translated each character into a code on a coil of paper tape.

Once the tape was punched, the only way to fix a typo was to backspace and repunch the character. The keyboard was slow and clunky, so corrections — what today’s IT managers think of as modifications, or ‘mods’ — happened early and often, chewing up valuable time and consuming the last of the user’s patience…

Read more from the source @ http://diginomica.com/2017/04/12/how-digital-transformation-drives-public-sector-service-delivery/