Security and Privacy on the Cloud

Technology has created a plethora of connection choices and with this IT, pain points can arise for business owners, or anyone else trying to manage company-owned and private devices connecting in the office or at home. Employees working remotely need flexibility and typically use their own devices, including laptops, desktops, tablets and cell phones, for work tasks. They are connecting over home broadband or Wi-Fi hotspots, each presenting potential security challenges.

Grazed from AFCEA. Author: Sandra Jontz.

New document lays out plans for department-wide operating system, use of CACs, data center consolidation and migration to cloud services. The U.S. Defense Department unveiled Thursday a bold information technology and cybersecurity road map that modifies its approach on several efforts in the rapidly changing environments.

The guide positions the department’s IT infrastructure and processes for a broad impact, in addition to hopes of greater security and scrutiny, said its chief information officer, Terry Halvorsen. Outlined in the nine-page paper are a number of DOD efforts, from its crawl to a department-wide operating system to its plans to ditch use of the common access card, migrate to a cloud environment and consolidate and virtualize its data centers…

Grazed from Optics.org. Author: Editorial Staff.

Intel says it has started shipping silicon photonics products based around a hybrid indium phosphide/silicon laser, and says that it expects the technology to eventually feature “everywhere” in data centers. Officially launching the platform at this year’s Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel’s general manager of data centers Diane Bryant claimed that the Californian chip giant was the only company building its silicon photonics around a laser directly integrated into the material. “We are the first to light up silicon,” she said, adding that products had been shipping since June. “We integrate the laser light-emitting material, which is indium phosphide, onto the silicon and use lithography to define the laser, to align it with precision.”

Cost, reach and density advantage

Bryant says that this yields a cost advantage versus other approaches to silicon photonics, which can involve tricky manual alignment, as well as longer reach and higher density. But she admitted that it had taken Intel a long time – 16 years to be precise – to transfer the technology from its research laboratories and into a full-blown product…

Grazed from StanfordBusiness. Author: Harshith Mallya.

Advances in cloud computing have brought in a technological revolution in recent years. Now, small and medium scale businesses don’t need to physically invest in infrastructure like servers and then worry about changes they need to make while scaling up, or even cutting back and scaling down during lean business cycles.

Cloud computing has also brought in a new era of business, with ventures that are being termed ‘born-in-cloud’ companies. Bengaluru-based Powerupcloud is one such company, and it has an interesting story. PowerupCloud initially started as a Cloud and Big Data consulting startup in June 2015. The founding team consists of Ankit Garg (COO), Ranjeeth Kuppala (CTO), Siva Surendira (CEO), Ram Kumar (Director-Engineering) and Arun Britto Lawrence (Director-Analytics)…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Rick Delgado.

Cloud services have been able to store customers’ data for many years now, but the number of prospective clients for several vendors has recently dramatically increased. Back in late June, the announcement was made that three vendors had received special certifications from the federal government, allowing them to store sensitive data that the government had on hand.

Two of those providers are among the most popular within the cloud market, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, while the third is CSRA’s ARC-P IaaS, a vendor that might not be as universally known as the others but still carries enough weight for those in the know. The news was certainly noteworthy for those providers, but it also has tremendous implications for federal agencies as well as the cloud market as a whole…

Grazed from Fortune. Author: Barb Darrow.

Datapipe, which over the past three years has been busy snapping up cloud computing properties, is at it again: This time out, it is buying Adapt, a U.K.-based company that helps customers run Amazon Web Services. Terms were not disclosed. Adapt is what is called a “managed services provider,” or MSP, which means it offers an array of technology services in a way that is theoretically easy for the business customer to use.

An MSP is often thought of as a sort of outsourced IT professional. It might run the customer’s email and provide related security and other services, for example in a way so the customer does not have to sweat the details of upgrades and patches etc. The Adapt deal comes about a year after Datapipe bought DualSpark, a company founded by former Amazon AMZN 0.08% personnel to make it easier to move business applications from internal equipment to the AWS cloud, which is a massive array of servers, storage, and networking owned and managed by AWS…

Read more from the source @ http://fortune.com/2016/08/17/datapipe-buys-adapt/

Grazed from CXOToday. Author: Muqbil Ahmar.

On June 28, Internet services major Amazon launched its first set of data centers in India, saying that it is spending ‘tens of millions of dollars’ to set up data centers in the country. “The data center will help accelerate growth,” said Shane Owenby, managing director-APAC, AWS in an interview. In India, Microsoft by now has three data centers, IBM has two, whereas many others such as Japan’s NTT also have big data center operations in the country. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group too is reportedly planning to announce its India entry with a data center.

India is not unique to this as these days the Asia-pacific region has become a favourite destination for setting up of data centers. According to APAC Reach, a marketing and research company focused on assisting expansion throughout the Asia Pacific region, has reported a marked increase in European clients interested in data center investments in the area following the UK Brexit referendum…

Grazed from HostReview. Author: Brooke Chaplan.

Although the healthcare industry was initially slow to move its data and services to the cloud, more than 40% of healthcare companies and providers reported that they are using the cloud in 2016. The move to the cloud is due to enhanced security, cost-effectiveness, and the increased availability of services that enhance efficiency and patient safety.

Patient Registries

Patient registries are maintained by healthcare providers for many reasons, including follow-up and tracking of procedures. Because patient registries include confidential information such as the patient’s social security number, date of birth, and health conditions, security is essential. Cloud security has changed for the better so that healthcare providers can trust that patient confidentiality is maintained in the databases stored in the cloud…

Flux7, an IT consultancy providing cloud architecture and migration services and solutions to help businesses modernize their IT practices, today announced its new Microservices SmartStart architecture offering. Built on its award winning Assess, Attune, Engage methodology, the new Microservices SmartStart helps organizations increase developer efficiency and efficacy, speed time to market, and grow customer satisfaction with applications that provide a better customer experience.

“Microservices are a natural next step for many organizations as they look to further evolve IT efficiencies for business advantage,” said Flux7 co-founder and CEO, Aater Suleman. “With years of experience and deep expertise assessing, architecting and building AWS solutions that directly address business needs, we are excited to bring a custom microservices offering to our clients, enabling them to quickly achieve the benefits of microservices infrastructure and compete more effectively in the marketplace.”

Grazed from Clutch.

Cloud hosting is an overwhelmingly popular option among small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), as shown by a new survey from Clutch, one of the leading B2B ratings and reviews sites. Nearly 95% of SMBs say they either already use a cloud hosting service or plan to transition to it.

According to industry analysts, the Clutch survey findings are indicative of a necessary trend, who suggest the transition to cloud hosting services is a good strategic move for SMBs.

"I don’t think you can truly move forward within a company without using cloud in some way, whether that’s by buying software as a service from somebody or creating your own cloud infrastructure for your business," said Rachel Bair, Director of Hosting and Client Services at Unleashed Technologies, a web development and hosting service. "To stay competitive in your own vertical, cloud hosting will be the way to go."