Category: News

Grazed from WilmingtonBizInsights.  Author: Shaun Olsen.

You love your technology. In fact, it’s with you more often than your spouse – and may actually know you better, given both Android and Siri’s propensity to find you/follow you/anticipate your next move.  You’re committed to your platform, in part because it has made you more productive. But start a new job, and you’re likely to find that they use a different platform, and you’re stuck learning a new skillset just to get started.

A movement to allow you to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to work began in 2009, and despite significant push-back from corporate IT departments, it has continued to grow. If the data included in recent reports from analyst firm Ovum are true, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is “here to stay.”…

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Katherine Noyes.

Focusing in particular on users of the Amazon Web Services cloud, the new tool takes advantage of NEC’s ExpressCluster software. The tool can automatically detect system faults as SAP Hana runs on AWS and switch over to a standby server when problems arise. The result, NEC said, is to shorten downtime and improve both availability and operational efficiency.

The tool is aimed both at companies using SAP Hana for high-speed Big Data analyses and those using it for core business-critical systems, the company said.  Eventually, NEC plans to make the software available for other cloud-based services as well.  The new offering fills a distinct need at the intersection of the four key technologies involved, said Kirk Borne, a data scientist and professor at George Mason University…

Grazed from CloudWedge.  Author: Sean Shado.

The most cited barrier to entry for cloud into the enterprise continues to be the security concerns involved with an infrastructure overhaul. Many IT decision makers are hesitating on making the switch to cloud as far as mission critical apps are concerned because of the unknown variables posed by cloud security risks. A KPMG report mentions that cloud security is still a top concern as IT executives look for ways to reduce costs.

The report mentions that 45% of respondents said data loss and data privacy were their top hesitations in regards to cloud implementations. What exactly are the biggest cloud computing security risks that will emerge in 2015?…

Grazed from Tom’s IT PRo.  Author: William Van Winkle.

Operating officially since 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is closing in on its 10-year anniversary. Some might call that old, while others would say that Amazon has merely had that much more time to build an incredible head start over its competition. One of those competitors, Microsoft Azure, entered the market in 2010. But by this time had Amazon already sprinted ahead to an insurmountable lead?

Microsoft doesn’t think so, clearly, and has been building its infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering out from AWS’ shadow ever since.  Of course, insurmountable leads and shadows are largely irrelevant to your own enterprise. These companies are both global titans with the resources to make their respective cloud services as robust and expansive as they want…

Grazed from TechCocktail.  Author: Santosh Satya.

A little more than a decade ago, three famous paintings were on display at the Whitworth Gallery, an art museum in Manchester, England. Since the works of Gauguin, Picasso, and Van Gogh were valued at about $8 million, they were heavily protected by security guards and electronic systems. Guards patrolled the gallery. Alarms were set in place. And closed-circuit television scanned the paintings.

Still, none of this was enough. Burglars broke into the Whitworth Gallery in late April, 2003 and stole the three paintings. A few days later, the expensive masterpieces were found in a public restroom near the art museum. A note attached to the masterpieces dismissed the episode as a caper designed to test the woeful security measures. This bold art burglary is a lesson for network administrators who guard information systems…

Grazed from SysCon Media.  Author: Kira Makagon.

There’s no denying we’re in the midst of a cloud craze – but, behind all the hype, is cloud adoption really imperative? How much of the cloud buzz is fabrications of possible benefits, and how much of it is reality? To decipher what’s true and what’s false, I’ve put together a list of five reasons why cloud adoption is important, according to the facts:

  1. Freedom from responsibility and costs. Yes, when you move services to a cloud provider, you immediately relinquish some control. However, you instantly free yourself from the cost of hardware and server management, and gain back the time (or manpower) that it would ordinarily take to run IT systems. In fact 84% of CIOs report they’ve cut application costs by moving to the cloud…

Grazed from Avanade.  Author: Scott Lewis.

Ah, the cloud. Everyone is doing it. Everyone is talking about it. While writing this blog post, I decided to Google the number of recent news articles on cloud strategy within the last 24 hours. Want to read all the articles? Hope you have nothing else on your schedule today or recently completed a speed reading course because a quick count revealed approximately 250 articles.

According to the 5th Annual Trends in Cloud Computing study released in November 2014 by CompTIA, more than 90% of companies have adopted cloud computing at some level. But the study also reveals that moving applications, infrastructure and other resources are not so easy to implement. In addition, 28% of companies in the early stages of cloud conversion indicated that it required “significant” effort, while this jumps to 63% for companies who have already completed their journey…

Grazed from Baseline.  Author: Kent Weaver.

Organizations planning to make a bold digital splash in 2015 are also likely to need another upgrade: their data centers. As new technologies enter the marketplace, many enterprises are planning—and budgeting—for the next big thing.

However, data center migrations are, in many ways, both easier and more complex than ever. Technologies such as virtualization may eliminate the need for moving physical equipment, but the vast array of other options, such as hybrid and cloud solutions, make the process inherently more complex than it was before…

Grazed from TechTarget.  Author: David Linthicum.

AWS has a great set of tools that come with its public cloud service. In many instances, the tools are there for use free of charge, with the clear bet being that these tools will drive AWS cloud service usage.

However, those IT shops that are AWS-focused are now seeking the best-of-breed tools that work and play well with their AWS deployments. Thus, the question comes up as to which path to take when it comes to selecting and using third-party tools that work with the AWS platform…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Barb Darrow.

Amazon Web Services already offers software development kits (SDKs) for Java, C#, Ruby, Python, JavaScript, PHP and Objective C programming languages. Now it says it will add Go (aka Golang) to that list. More accurately, it says it’s taken over aws-go, an SDK developed by Stripe. The SDK is in a sort of beta stage, with work continuing.

While Go doesn’t have nearly as many users as Java or C — an IEEE Spectrum survey ranked it as the nineteenth most popular language between Scala and Arduino — it’s gained traction among developers. That’s especially true for those building cloud or web services infrastructure. Docker, which has taken the development world like a gale force wind, is written in Go, for example…