Skyhigh Networks, the world’s leading Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), announced today the company has been awarded two new CASB patents for security and governance capabilities. This official recognition follows nearly four years of comprehensive assessment by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, further validating Skyhigh’s risk-based approach to helping customers safely adopt software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud services.

The two new patents, ‘Cloud Service Usage Risk Assessment’ and ‘Cloud Service Risk Usage Monitoring System,’ brings Skyhigh’s granted portfolio count to eight, forming the most robust and growing patented technology portfolio in the CASB industry. Previous CASB patents granted to Skyhigh covered cloud-based encryption with enterprise managed keys, increasingly critical for the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other privacy regulations; and identity-based, mobile-to-cloud inline security enforcement, critical for any inline CASB use case. A combination of these seminal patents positions Skyhigh as the CASB industry leader covering cloud discovery, compliance, data security and threat protection.

Grazed from NetworkAsia. Author: Brandon Butler.

Google cloud is seen by analysts as an up and comer. Company executives will even admit that the past few years Google has not had everything it needs to compete for enterprise customers in the IaaS public cloud market against Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and even IBM. But they will also tell you that Google is ready now.

Recently, Google held NEXT, its user conference where the company introduces new cloud features and users get to learn about the cloud platform. In the opening day keynote, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet, the parent company of Google’s cloud division, said that not many analysts have questioned Google’s technical abilities in the cloud. But now, they’ve rounded out the rest of their portfolio…

Grazed from ServerWatch. Author: Sean Michael Kerner.

In December 2016, Solomon Hykes, the founder of Docker, announced a re-focused containerd (Con-tay-ner-D) initiative, spinning out the core container runtime from the Docker Engine community project. At the time, it wasn’t entirely clear where containerd would land, but now the picture has come into focus, as Docker is sending containerd to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). "We already have an investment in the CNCF, and it made sense to take advantage of that existing investment," Hykes told ServerWatch.Docker

Docker Inc was among the founding members of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which got started in July 2015 as a Linux Foundation Collaboration Project. Hykes noted that Docker already has technical integrations with several projects hosted by CNCF, including the Prometheus monitoring project and the GRPC remote procedure call effort…

Read more from the source @ http://www.serverwatch.com/server-news/docker-donating-containerd-to-cloud-native-computing-foundation.html

Grazed from Investors. Author: Brian Deagon.

Database software provider Oracle (ORCL) reported fiscal third quarter earnings late Wednesday that cruised past estimates as the software giant’s transition to a cloud-based model picks up momentum. Oracle reported non-GAAP revenue of $9.3 billion, just topping the consensus estimate of $9.25 billion and 3% above a year earlier. It reported earnings per share minus items of 69 cents a share excluding various items, up 8% vs. a year earlier beating the consensus estimate of 62 cents, as polled by Thomson Reuters.

Oracle sees fiscal Q4 down 1% to up 2%. The midpoint for a 0.5% rise would slightly exceed Wall Street forecasts for a 0.2% uptick to $10.618 billion. Oracle also sees Q4 EPS of 78-82 cents in constant currency, though it’s unclear how that compares to analysts’ target for 78 cents. The software giant also hiked its quarterly dividend to 19 cents a share from 15 cents…

According to an IDC study, nearly 68 percent of organizations are using some form of cloud to help drive business outcomes; however, only three percent have optimized cloud strategies in place today. Businesses are challenged by unexpected cloud costs, the complexity of mapping security and data policies from the data center to the cloud, a scarcity of skilled cloud engineers, and a lack of visibility into monitoring the status of mass workload migrations.

SecureWorks Corp., a leading provider of intelligence-driven information security solutions, is bolstering its Cloud Guardian portfolio with a new service that automates the application of strong cloud security policies for organizations embracing digital transformation.

With the Security Configuration Management solution, clients can add another layer of cyber protection for their workloads on Amazon Web Services (AWS) by programmatically implementing and enforcing best practices for security. The service leverages not only the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks for AWS as a best practices library, but also a series of policies based on SecureWorks’ AWS usage and incident response experience. Users can repair their cloud configurations with a single click, simplifying security and enabling organizations to focus on rapidly developing new applications and tools for their customers.

The addition of Security Configuration Management to the Cloud Guardian portfolio continues SecureWorks’ efforts to address the challenges many enterprises and small businesses face as they continue their march towards hybrid IT. With the Cloud Guardian solutions, organizations can receive:

SingleHop, a global provider of on-demand private cloud and managed hosting, today announced the official launch of its AWS managed services offering  – Service First Support for Amazon Web Services. The fully managed solution is the first to offer architecture, management and optimization of environments in the AWS cloud based on the availability, performance and security needs of individual applications.

"Time-constrained IT departments are adopting AWS in large numbers, only to find they first have to master a new set of technical capabilities before they can achieve the desired performance and efficiency gains for their applications,"said Zak Boca, CEO of SingleHop. "Our managed AWS customers avoid this situation entirely by leveraging our extensive automation and AWS-certified engineering team to manage deployments for them.  They want the best vehicle to drive their applications, but they don’t have the resources or desire to build and maintain the vehicle themselves."  

Application-Driven Infrastructure Management for AWS Cloud

Linux Academy, the foremost online Linux and cloud training platform and community, today launched the public beta of Cloud Assessments, a new platform that allows enterprises to test and train their IT teams, as well as prospective job candidates, on their technology. Individuals can also leverage Cloud Assessments to prove real, hands-on skill and earn micro certifications. The first Cloud Assessment offerings will focus on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

"In today’s world of constantly changing technologies and competition for IT talent, it’s necessary for companies to know for certain that their IT staff and new hires have more than a theoretical understanding of their technology, particularly AWS," said Anthony James, CEO and founder, Linux Academy. "Whether it’s used by companies to test, vet, or train their teams on AWS skills or by individuals to assess and learn new ones, Cloud Assessments provides proof of those skills, and we’re very excited about the tremendous advantages and opportunities it presents to both."