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5 priorities that cut cloud costs and improve IT ops – InfoWorld

During the past decade, companies have been building significant computing workloads on public and private cloud infrastructure or shifting workloads to the cloud. Gartner predicts that spending on public cloud services by end-users worldwide will reach $591 billion in 2023, a 43% increase from 2021. Thats a significant jump and suggests that many companies optimized their cloud migrations for speed and that managing costs and operational efficiency were likely secondary concerns.

Although Gartner forecasts worldwide IT spending to grow 2.4% in 2023, some analysts are cutting back their predictions, and many IT leaders are planning spending adjustments.

The initial race to build cloud capabilities is pivoting toward managing costs, optimizing infrastructure, and automating more operations. Following up on my recent article on seven ways to reduce costs with agile and devops, here are five recommendations of how IT teams can optimize their cloud stacks to reduce costs and improve operational efficiencies.

Infrastructure has passed a complexity point at which manually deploying infrastructure and applications is an antipattern, says Marko Anastasov, cofounder of Semaphore CI/CD. Use infrastructure as code (IaC) tools like Terraform to set up your cloud infrastructure.

Other IaC platforms and tools include AWS CloudFormation, Azure Arm Templates, Red Hat Ansible, Progress Chef, Puppet, and Kubernetes. These platforms enable setting infrastructure standards (sometimes called patterns or templates) and then using code to manage the configuration and deployment. IaC eliminates the manual steps to build, configure, and deploy cloud infrastructure, including networks, computing, storage, and services.

Anastasov says, Automation is the key to reducing costs and improving reliability. Using IaC increases visibility on what services youre running in the cloud and lets you run automated cost analysis tools.

My take: Using IaC is an important step, but organizations looking for efficiencies should standardize cloud architectures and reusable IaC patterns. There is a trade-off between providing devops teams full infrastructure flexibility versus gaining efficiencies from standardizing cloud stacks and infrastructures. But IT teams using IaC and automation can increase the number of supported infrastructure patterns.

I covered CI/CD (continuous integration and condinuous deployment), continuous testing, and other devops practices earlier. These are expected practices when developing cloud-native applications. Agile teams should also address these security risks in software development and increase devops observability.Consider these key devops practices for all applications.

What should devops teams do beyond these basics when developing apps and microservices where high usage is expected and consistent performance is a key requirement?

Arjun Chandar, CEO at IndustrialML, answers, When designing a new cloud tech stack with features meant to be distributed across large numbers of clients, making design choices to improve concurrency is a great way to improve your customers experience. Using languages and frameworks suited to concurrency will reduce your headaches as you scale.

My take: When developing new apps and services, the product manager and agile teams need to review what nonfunctional criteria are priorities. For some apps, its scalability and performance. For others, it might be reliability, flexibility, or meeting compliance requirements. Teams that recognize these priorities up front are better equipped to debate trade-offs when designing the architecture and developing the code.

More organizations are shifting from desktops and laptops to virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs) running on the cloud. One market study values the VDI market at $16 billion with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 20% through 2023.

Enterprises are modernizing end-user computing with cloud PCs, a valuable addition to cloud computing strategies that deliver greater agility in uncertain times, says Matthew Davidson, field CTO at Workspot. With cloud capabilities and costs varying among hyperscalers, enterprises benefit from deploying cloud PCs across multiple cloud regions and clouds, enabling cost optimization by use case, an important innovation when budgets are tight.

My take: Many organizations shifted to VDIs during the pandemic, and many rubber-stamped one-size-fits-all configurations. Although this solved an urgent problem and is an efficient way to manage IT resources, it may have delivered a poor user experience, especially for employees with higher-than-average computing needs. IT may find more holistic efficiencies by studying the impact of VDI technologies on employee productivity, identifying usage personas, and creating VDI deployment patterns optimized by persona.

Getting more workloads to the cloud is only the first step of a modernization journey. Providing an efficient and responsive Day 2 model to ensure reliable, efficient, and high-performing cloud stacks and workflows requires IT teams to improve operations iteratively.

Ming Gong, vice president of product at Blameless, recommends improving efficiencies with incident management practices. We find a poorly defined incident management process to be both a hindrance to productivity and an obstacle to innovation, he says. Optimizing your incident management process to remove toil and reduce ambiguity will go a long way towards improving your IT ops efficiency.

Incidents, outages, and poorly performing systems create downstream impacts that can be easy to measure in e-commerce and customer-facing systems but harder to quantify for many departmental workflow and operational systems. AIops platforms can help incident management teams reduce the mean time to resolve incidents and manage their service-level objectives. These are two best practices for reducing the cost and productivity impacts of incidents.

IT ops teams deploy monitoring tools, observability practices, and AIops to cloud stacks, but monitoring virtual desktops and the user experience is also needed. Davidson says, Companies should look for VDI solutions that offer comprehensive, global observability for their cloud PCs across public clouds in a single view. This powerful capability empowers IT teams to provide the highest reliability and availability for maximum productivity.

My take: I believe that you cant improve what you dont measure, an idea often attributed to renowned management consultant Peter Drucker. Whether youre trying to reduce costs, manage more cloud workflows, improve experiences, or increase reliability, I recommend prioritizing observability, monitoring, and AIops at the forefront of your Day 2 models.

In an economic downturn, enterprises should look at their existing tech stack and evaluate which IT initiatives can make the biggest impact with the smallest lift, says Clear Skye CEO John Milburn.

Dan Ortma, global finops practice director at SoftwareOne, adds, Recessionary fears and an overall priority on spend optimization are driving the growth of finops, a cloud financial management practice that brings together IT, finance, engineering, product developers, IT asset management, leadership, and others to align on cloud usage and spending goals.

IT leaders know that rapidly innovating and deploying reliable applications requires a partnership between IT and financial disciplines. Putting financials before IT can lead to slow project plans and underfunded Day 2 operating models, often a recipe for accelerating technical debt. Instrumenting IT without financial disciplines can lead to inefficiencies and systems that underdeliver business impacts. Cloud finops is one approach to helping engineering, finance, technology, and business teams collaborate on data-driven spending decisions.

IT leaders should develop an architecture strategy that promotes developing platforms and reusing capabilities. Milburn suggests, See what features or solutions exist within your platform to make the most out of your current investment. Not only does this save money, but it also reduces complications with new tech implementations.

Anastasov shares this AI example. Running AI workloads is expensive as it needs powerful GPU hardware. Say your application goes viral. Thats great until you get a gigantic bill at the end of the month that you cant pay, he says. He suggests that IT teams only release a feature after having done a comprehensive cost analysis.

My take: IT teams should prioritize experimentation and manage innovation pipelines for developing new products, improving experiences, and building data-driven practices. Then, institute financial disciplines while planning pilots and production use cases, which helps reveal cost and efficiency considerations during development phases. For systems already in production, seeking costs and operational improvements is one way to fund tech debt reductions.

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HIMSS report highlights cloud’s role in building APAC connected health – Healthcare IT News

HIMSS has shared in a new report some points in advancing digital health transformation by extending the role of cloud computing in the post-COVID-19 era.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

The report, Next stop, the cloud: connected health on the brink of a new age in Asia-Pacific, features five key policy recommendations that consolidate HIMSS' vision of connected health. Taken from a virtual roundtable with government representatives and regional health authorities in October, each point is dependent on cloud adoption across health systems.

WHY IT MATTERS

Governments across APAC are now coming out of the pandemic with lessons learned during their response.

They are finding value in their experiences, particularly with cloud computing, to support their digital transformation journeys. While some countries have transitioned to public and hybrid cloud models for EMR systems and individual services, this is "still a relatively unchartered territory in healthcare," according to HIMSS.

THE LARGER TREND

Over the past year, major hospitals across APAC have demonstrated enhanced capabilities in care delivery through their transition to the cloud.

In anticipation of raising care demands from its service population, the hospital chain Manipal Hospitals in India has worked with Google Cloud and its telehealth partner Amwell to power its virtual care.

Over in Singapore, the Alexandra Hospital took part in the launch of a cloud-based digital health service called LifeHub+, which connects clinicians and health coaches with patients who are at risk or dealing with preventable chronic health conditions.

Another noteworthy example in the region is Korea University Anam Hospital, which has implemented a cloud-based HIS that propelled its ranking in the HIMSS Digital Health Indicator. The system has resulted in significant outcomes, including cost reductions.

Read the full report here.

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DOD Makes Headway on Cloud Computing > U.S – Department of Defense

The Defense Department is moving ahead quickly on the adoption of cloud computing and implementation of a "zero trust" computing environment, the Defense Department's chief information officer told lawmakers today on Capitol Hill.

"At last, the department has access to enterprise cloud capabilities from four world-class U.S. vendors at all three security classification levels from the continental United States to the tactical edge," said John B. Sherman during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee's cybersecurity subcommittee.

The enterprise cloud, Sherman told senators, will help the department advance its Joint All Domain Command and Control effort and will further enhance efforts involving artificial intelligence and machine learning efforts, software modernization and cybersecurity.

In December, the Defense Department awarded contracts to four technology companies to provide services in support of its Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability. The four companies include Amazon Web Services Inc., Google Support Services LLC, Microsoft Corp and Oracle.

The JWCC is a multiple-award contract vehicle that allows the department to acquire commercial cloud capabilities and services directly from commercial cloud service providers.

"To help facilitate the rapid adoption of cloud, we've deployed several accelerators, which streamline the cloud adoption process from a normal 45-day timeline to within hours or minutes," Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert J. Skinner, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, said. "This is helping to accelerate our pace to the cloud to improve our overall user experience, while also increasing our cyber security."

Sherman also discussed the DOD's shift away from perimeter security of its networks toward a "zero trust" environment.

"[Zero trust] is predicated on the assumption that an adversary might already be on our network, and we must prevent them from moving laterally and gaining access to our most critical data," Sherman said.

In October the department released its strategy on zero trust, Sherman said, and that strategy has since become a "North Star document" for the DOD and other federal agencies, as well. The DOD plans to implement zero trust by 2027, he said.

The Zero Trust Strategy and Roadmap spells out how the department plans to move beyond traditional network security methods to achieve reduced-network attack surfaces, enable risk management and effective data-sharing in partnership environments, and contain and remediate adversary activities over the next five years.

It's not just technology, but the people who run that technology who are critical to the department's network efforts. Sherman said the DOD is making strides as well in ensuring the right personnel are in place to implement and manage the department's ongoing network modernization efforts.

"The best technology in the world means nothing without a trained, motivated and diverse workforce," Sherman said. "We recently released a cyber workforce strategy that will continue to drive us to new and more effective approaches to how we identify, recruit, retain and upskill our cyber digital personnel."

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How Cloud Computing is transforming HR and helping enterprises attract the best talent – Express Computer

By Suresh Kumar Khemka, Head of Platform Engineering & Infrastructure apna

Traditionally, human resource roles have been perceived as the operational mainstay oforganisations. Despite this, HR departments have been comparatively slower in adoptingtechnology.

However, the pandemic was a blessing in disguise as it nudged HR heads to adopt cloud computing and other AI-enabled technologies in managing functions such as attendance, leave management, training programs, and more to keep operations going during the work-from-home period.

Furthermore, spheres with minimal technology penetration, e.g., talent acquisition, technical training, onboarding and employee engagement, have all gathered momentum now. For instance, no one would have imagined hiring could be managed end-to-end remotely when stakeholders recruiter, interviewee, interviewer and hiring manager were all based across diverse locations.

Likewise, no one would have ever envisioned candidates could be onboarded into the company without being physically present. Yet, that is precisely what happened when organisations hired people via online interviews and remote hiring processes. Thanks to SasS solutions enabled by cloud computing, all the above functions are being done seamlessly, speedily, and securely.

Highlighted below are some salient features that facilitate hiring through cloud computing and allied new-age technologies:Smooth recruitment procedures: Generally, the recruiting process is prolonged and cumbersome. But with cloud computing, recruitment is streamlined completely. As the information linked to each step of the procedure is stored in the cloud-based applications, the entire process is collaborative and accessible to every stakeholder. As a result, feedback and decision-making happen in real-time through the cloud.

Moreover, the democratisation of machine learning models and artificial intelligence has enhanced job relevancy, classification of skills and domains, flexibility to launch new features for the recruitment process for both job seekers and employers, cost-effective delivery of services over different channels, seamless scaling to manage ever-increasing workloads, end-to-end process visibility and the ability to garner invaluable insights through data analytics and data science all are made possible by innovations in cloud computing.

Automation: In the pre-cloud computing era, human resource managers handled core HR processes offline or on internal platforms. Now, data-heavy HR functions, including timesheet submissions and performance reviews, have all been automated with cloud-based/SaaS HR solutions. Cloud-based solutions have enabled agility to build new features or make feature changes to meet the demands of the ever-evolving business needs. Automation has significantly reduced time and effort on tasks, better workflow management, improved communication and status updates, etc. making even non-techteams more efficient, driving higher productivity. Consequently, low-code/no-code solution available over the cloud allows HR heads to focus on the big picture without worrying about mundane, daily tasks.

Data security: Since the cloud enables HR devices to maintain all data in a centralised, secure cloud location, it is accessible at any time. Cloud technologies provide a better overview of inventory, track data flow through data lineage, enforce role-based access control and monitoring of access patterns, security is an intrinsic part of the cloud; cloud-based HR solutions remain more secure since the administrator has fine-grained control over who can access and what information. Other benefits include transparent encryption of data at rest or in motion, secure data sharing, control and visibility of data flow across companies and partner entities as well as data loss prevention.

Best of all, with HR solutions on the cloud, data remains protected yet available even in case of natural disasters or incidents like fire in the office. Access to data is available from anywhere and everywhere, with just a basic requirement of the internet.

Centralisation of key data: Data centralisation brings all data into one place where it is managed and accessed more effectively. Centralisation of information is one of the most salient features of cloud computing because it permits efficient, secure storage and swift retrieval. For example, as HR registries are organised flawlessly, even the heaviest documents can be stored and retrieved easily. Additionally, as the data is available to cross-functional teams, it helps in driving deeper insights and better work outcomes. Advancements in Data lakes and lakehouses allow to store petabyte-scale of data at a very low cost.

Plugging the communication void: Cloud computing ensures a simpler and easier flow of communication through various channels like email, chat, text messages, WhatsApp, and social media as well as collaboration suites such as Google Workspace, Chat, and online shared documents.

It also helps in tracking touchpoints through technology, close monitoring of online conversations, sentiment analysis, and more. Besides, by filling the communication gap between leaders and team members through regular messages both synchronous and asynchronous, it promotes greater employee satisfaction.

Training and administration: Supported by cloud computing, training teams are well-placed to impart training and even hold examinations in a proctored setting despite being virtual. HR teams can also undertake activities related to employee engagement, performance management, annual celebration ceremonies as well as rewards and recognition events all in virtual mode.

Providing a level playing field: Apart from people management, HR can be tasked with overseeing key processes within a company, which requires a consistent approach across its operations. Consider companies with branches across global geographies, where it is most challenging to interpret and implement decisions emerging from the headquarters. With cloud computing, however, HR leaders can create a level playing field across regions, regardless of the location of diverse offices. Therefore, be it training, performance metrics, or remuneration, cloud computing ascertains that every element of employee management is centralised.

Today, cloud technology is living up to its promise by empowering HR departments to act efficiently for more productive outcomes. Naturally, cloud computing has made its presence felt globally in HR management. As cloud computing stands poised to gain greater traction in the days ahead, companies deploying this technology are bound to attract the best talent and, thereby, enjoy better bottom lines.

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10 Cloud Computing Companies in the United States to Work For – Analytics Insight

Cloud use is rising as a result of factors like COVIDs effect on the rise in home office use and developments in mobile networking. Fortunately, there is a wide range of computing businesses available to assist in meeting the rising demand.

However, applicants seeking employment in the cloud computing industry face difficulty due to a large number of cloud companies in the United States. Competitors with hopes need something to prove which U.S. distributed computing organizations deserve their endeavors and time.

Thankfully, thats what were talking about here. This article lists cloud computing companies in the United States that you should apply to and work for. Well talk about things like the history of cloud computing and the best cloud-related businesses with the best jobs for cloud engineers in the United States. When you finish reading this article, you will have a better idea of where to focus your search for a cloud technology-related job.

The following is a list of some of the best cloud computing companies in the United States to work for, in no particular order. This resource can help you narrow down your options if youre looking for jobs as a cloud engineer, cloud architect, or cloud consultant in the United States. This list is by no means complete because there are so many cloud computing businesses in the United States.

Size of the Firm: 10,000+. This is not surprising given that AWS pretty much wrote the book on cloud computing providers. AWS specializes in analytics, blockchain, containers, storage, machine learning, and more, making it the largest platform provider in the world.

Size of the Firm: 10,000+. VMWare is one of the worlds leading virtualization and cloud computing companies, and it shares the same prominence in the world of virtual machines as AWS, the pioneer of cloud computing.

Size of the Firm: 50-249. Zymr is a Silicon Valley-based organization that grows full-stack programming utilizing state-of-the-art open-source innovation and Lithe improvement rehearses. Companies looking for DevOps, integrated cloud, and cybersecurity expertise can turn to them as a single technology partner.

Size of the Firm: 50-249. IT Svit is a trustworthy Large Information and DevOps specialist co-op with a staff of north of 60 programming designers, Huge Information draftsmen, and DevOps engineers who proposition start-to-finish answers for business undertakings of all sizes and types.

Size of the Firm: 50-249. CodeBright collaborates with startups, non-profit organizations, and businesses of all sizes to solve business issues, boost productivity, simplify and automate business procedures, and bring Minimal Viable Products to market.

Size of the Firm: 10-49. A reputable Salesforce development and consulting firm is the one we mentioned earlier. AWSQuality collaborates with its customers to assist in the design, development, and administration of various Salesforce, Salesforce 1, and Force.com solutions.

Size of the Firm: 10,000+. They had to be on this list, didnt you know that? According to Indeed, Microsoft receives one of the highest scores for a non-military employer for Cloud Engineering positions.

Organization Size: 10,000+. For Cloud Engineers, this telecom giant is yet another no-brainer. Indeed, has received positive feedback, with the companys compensation score standing out.

Size of the Firm: 10-49. Vrinsoft is a software development company that specializes in creating apps for the iPad, Apple Watch, iBeacon, and Phonegap, as well as web design, .NET, PHP, SEO, and graphic design.

Size of the Firm: 10,000+. Deloitte is a respected accounting and professional services company that offers solutions for financial and technical consulting. They offer their customers assistance with analytics, risk, financial advisory, audit and assurance, and numerous other services in addition to their cloud solutions. They have north of 80 areas throughout the US.

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How cloud computing is helping Indian businesses – India TV News

Globally, C-suite and Senior Leadership have prioritized Cloud adoption in the business. A similar pattern has emerged in Indian businesses. According to NASSCOM, Cloud technology will account for roughly 5%-8% of GDP by 2026 and has the potential to create unprecedented growth in employment opportunities in this shared digital infrastructure space aka Cloud.

Indian Government has been supporting Cloud adoption by devising policies and providing support to MSMEs (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) by creating an appropriate ecosystem. The Digital MSME and the Digital India program has led the transformation for Indian businesses and have encouraged them to use Cloud platforms for communications and information technology applications. These initiatives have helped MSMEs to cut on CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) infrastructure and move to cutting-edge applications and infrastructure economically.

Various cloud providers like AWS, GCP, and Azure are building platforms catering to the need of various businesses and providing support for them to implement cloud in their businesses without having adequate technical know-hows. Creating accounts, connecting with cloud platforms, storing files, or accessing cloud-based SaaS apps have been made very easy for businesses and have helped them come to a place from where they can scale their business and have business continuity and resilience.

Cloud technologies and platforms have provided innumerable opportunities for Indian businesses with access to high-end computing, cutting-edge software, pay-per-use model and have helped businesses move from CAPEX model to OPEX (Operating Expense) model.

The various advantages of Cloud in terms of infinite storage, data security, data encryption, data safety, and flexibility & reliability have helped businesses focus on core business drivers, business agility and go to market strategies. Cloud features like fail fast, create quick proof-of-concept have led to innovation and multifold growth creating new products and customized service offerings for our customers in turn creating enhanced customer satisfaction.

While there are multiple benefits of adopting cloud, there are various challenges as well that our Indian businesses need to take care of prioritization of migration, lack of planning, employee training and unrealistic timelines. One of the common myths among businesses is to have immediate cost savings from their adoption of cloud platforms.

On the contrary, there are costs associated with various challenges outlined above but if implemented strategically, investments will not only have better returns but will help businesses with productivity and scalability.

Cloud providers are providing newsletters, seminars, and conducting various events through which Indian businesses can learn what mature cloud players are doing right and create appropriate internal knowledge within their organization.

Businesses and Educational organizations have a symbiotic relationship the more businesses will drive cloud adoption the more educational institutions will create cloud ready courses and workforces thus driving better employment opportunities and in turn help Indias economy & GDP.

While India looks forward to becoming 3rd largest economy of the world, it is time for our businesses to evangelize cloud adoption in their organization and create future-ready workforces.

Authored by -Sharad Kumar, Regional PMO Head, Hanu An Insight company

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of India TV)

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How Cloud Computing Is Fueling The AI Hype Cycle And … – Digital First Magazine

Lewis Smithingham is the SVP of Innovation at Media.Monks. A problem-solver who identifies innovative digital opportunities, he helps usher brands and partners into the future with creative and technical expertise and the forefront of digital transformation and virtualization. With a background in film and fine arts and passion for gaming, he levels up Media.Monks work at the intersection of creativity and technology. Most recently, he was named to Business Insiders list of the top 24 agency executives leading advertisers charge into the metaverse and Web3. He sits on the World Economic Forum working group on Value Creation in the Metaverse. He is a sought-after speaker, taking the stage at the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference, Sports Video Group Summit, Siggraph, CES, NAB, IBC and IAB to name a few.

At a time when the possibilities of technology seem limitless, its hard to imagine we could be on the verge of hitting any sort of ceiling. But the truth is, we are. For a while now, experts have been warning that were approaching the computational limit of deviceswhich means we cant pack more transistors onto a microchip nor make the existing devices smaller than they are.

However, the imminent limits of current hardware are meeting a ferocious hunger for new technological innovations, which are mainly driven by software. This poses the question of how were going to be able to advance in areas like AI and VR when computing performance cant keep upat least not while maintaining the same stability and efficiency.

After years of exploring different tools, services, and technologies to exploit their opportunities, Im convinced that the answer to this conundrum can be found in cloud computing.

The Key Enabler of Technological and Cultural Change

As previously mentioned, the biggest drivers of technological and cultural change are now in software, not devices (although, if you try Half-Life: Alyx in a VR headset, you may beg to differ). Years ago, smartphones wildly evolved from one generation to the next, whereas now they introduce almost no new features. Yet as hardware suffers from the computational plateau, software and GPU are taking off. The improvements in Unreal Engine and Unity, the development of ICVFX, the virtualization of broadcast production and the sudden and rapid onslaught of generative AI are some of the most prominent examples.

At the core of this change lies the fact that people want a type of internet thats experiential, meaningful and useful. ChatGPT reaching one million users in five days is not only a reflection of how good the technology is, but also how much value people are finding in it.

If we want to continue to ride that wave, we have to invest in cloud computing. Considering where Moores Lawcoined by the late Gordon Moore, who recently passed awayis at today (flat and potentially inapplicable), computing has to shift off-device. Unless computers and phones get substantially bigger (thank you, but no) cloud computing will grow as the most valuable infrastructural tool in society.

While digital businesses will still face some profitability challenges, much of this new wave is, quite simply, very useful to the vast majority. And when technology meets cultural needs, commerce waterfalls naturally off their backeven in a recession. People are willing to pay for tools that they find value in, and investors are gazing longingly at the biggest AI startups. Its the reason OpenAI has become profitable, increasing its intake and revenue at a speed that many other technology startups have never seemed able to reach.

The Solution to the Content Distribution Bottleneck

For those of us in the business, its sad to see Moores law coming to an end, even though it will leave a lasting impact. The number of transistors in integrated circuits has become a mainstream metaphor for technological change in general, and interestingly enough, it reached the world of marketing. In fact, Moores law has probably been overshot in the content department.

Soon, well find ourselves with more content than we know what to do with. While we have moved from one-directional, one-stop-shop content (cable TV) to ecosystems encompassing the entire customer journey, supply will still loom over demand, and content distribution will face a bottleneck issue.

Im interested in seeing what we come up with to increase distribution in a way thats cost-efficient and sustainable, and cloud computing will rise as the obvious solution in that regard too.

As Matthew Ball said years ago, The tens of billions that will be spent on cloud gaming over the next decade, too, is based on the belief that such technologies will underpin our online-offline virtual future. Cloud computing will be the key to solving the immediate problems we face in the age of AI enablement, new hardware formats and the distribution of content through new and existing channels.

Ultimately, the internet has developed through punctuated equilibrium. It hasnt been a linear evolution; rather, a series of sudden jumps that pushed the technology forward. AI represents the most recent jump, but weve hit an uncanny valley where its almost but not quite exact. In order to get over that feeling, the technology needs to become more sophisticated, and the cloud will play a key role in enabling itas well as allowing us to effectively navigate whatever advancements and new technologies lie ahead.

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Is Business Intelligence as Same as Cloud Computing? – Analytics Insight

Technology advancements have helped cloud computing gain popularity, but although this is significant, it has mostly been driven by technological innovation rather than commercial needs.

On the other hand, business intelligence is prepared to offer past, present, and future insights about your company. This is accomplished by utilizing a variety of technologies, processes, and practices, ranging from data mining and predictive analytics to analytics and reporting. Business intelligence gives your firm the tools to create a business plan based on factual data by giving a precise picture of the business at a certain point in time.

The ability to store both structured and unstructured data in cloud computing makes it the perfect platform for supplying business intelligence applications with data obtained from a variety of devices at any time and from any location. Activities involving corporate analytics are well complemented by the clouds adaptability and scalability.

By the use of storage, networking, and tools that can sort through large data, the democratization of the cloud is now enabling enterprises that have employed business intelligence using on-premises applications and on a restricted scale to reach a whole new level (coupled with analytics capabilities).

Using the cloud, these firms may let their service provider run and manage the infrastructure and the business intelligence applications as many are unable to staff or understand the complexity needed to manage a BI infrastructure. Compared to an on-premises infrastructure, this might be a more affordable option and a better means to spread information.

For instance, enterprises are testing their business intelligence-based application proofs of concept on the cloud before deploying them on-premises. Costs have been decreased, installation times have been cut, and productivity has risen for those who have deployed these apps in the cloud.

Although the advantages are clear, security is still a concern for many businesses that do not want their data to cross international boundaries and come under the control of other governments. There are still other difficulties, such as the problem of moving vast volumes of data, issues with serviceability, and the complexity brought on by integration.

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How Cloud Computing Solutions Help with Environmental Sustainability – Green Prophet

In a world first, plant sounds are recorded by scientists in Israel.

Regenx from Canada has evolved the concept of mining: they are urban mining in the classic sense and pointing the way to cleaner and more sustainable ways of recovering minerals from industry.

The British design studio of Thomas Heatherwick's is designing the new Jeddah Central Museum in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to be located in a former desalination plant by the Red Sea.

When people think of electric vehicle (EV) companies, most dont think of countries where electric vehicle research and development takes place, so most dont think of Lebanon. EV Electra will change that.

Cow dung could be used to create a next generation sustainable material, according to a new report.

Red Sea Farms has rebranded from being a business that produces cucumbers and peppers to RedSea, one that produces technology for hydroponic companies.

Melda Akin will mentor women in AI so they can do AI tech in the Middle East

a forward thinking Abu Dhabi is putting their mark on greening the plastics industry by connecting industry at Etihad Rail with students at ACTVET to apply the latest 3D printing technologies that use recycled materials.

Saudi Arabia's crown ruler has decided to put oil money profits from Saudi Aramco, its national oil company and largest company in the world, to an interesting use: he is building 110-mile long 15-minute city called The Line on the coast of the Red Sea.

Syrian cuisine features home-cooking and a secret ingredient called "love", necessary in Middle Eastern style cooking. Syrians use a wide variety of spices such as cumin, coriander, allspice, cinnamon, sumac, and za'atar.

Are we just held captive by the workplace looking for ways to escape? Working less gives us more time to refresh.

Car exhaust fumes pollute our cities and damage our lungs but tiny bits of car tires when we screech to a lot, or which come over with wear and tear? It was assumed by the scientific community that these bits of plastic end up on the side of the round or down the storm []

It hit me like a punch to the gut: the world pioneer in cannabis research, Prof. Raphael Mechoulam, known as the father of cannabis research died in Israel at age 92. His research in cannabis, on THC and CBD set off a chain reaction globally, recognising cannabis as medicine.

The Quran, which is the central religious text of Islam, contains several verses that prohibit the consumption of alcohol. There are clear commands from the Muslim God Allah to abstain from intoxicants, including alcohol and cannabis, in order to attain success in life.

In Islam, alcohol is strictly prohibited by the Quran, the holy book of Islam. They join a growing group of abstainers. Here are 10 virgin cocktails that are great for summer.

Starting a seed bank at home is a great way to preserve family traditions of food and gardening. You don't need to be a biologist or forester: Many families have unique heirloom seeds that have been passed down from generation to generation.

You may have heard about the doomsday Svalbard Global Seed Vault but there are smaller versions of seed banks all over the world. The seed banks in the Middle East protect ancient seeds like wheat, chick peas, fava beans, and sesame.

Lebanese authorities have failed to uphold the right to electricity by mismanaging the sector for decades, Human Rights Watch said in a scathing report released this month.

Thanks to Abu Dhabi's renewable energy company Masdar, of which zero-energy city Masdar is also named energy-poor Jordan gets a new project under the sun. This month Masdar officially cut the ribbon and inaugurated the Baynouna Solar Park in the Middle East country of Jordan.

LLNL showed that a laser confinement fusion power is possible even if it isnt practical until it can target its lasers at more than one peppercorn for longer than a ten-billionth of a second.

But what if we didnt have to split hydrogen from oxygen? What if there were places like the coal mine Mendeleev studied in Ukraine with an even higher percentage of hydrogen? Like the chemical patterns revealed in Mendeleevs dream, so-called geologic hydrogen was there all along but we werent looking for it, or we were looking in the wrong places.

Sultan Al Neyadi, SpaceX Crew-6 mission specialist, will be the second United Arab Emirates astronaut to fly to space and the first Arab to spend an extended journey in space.

Hicham Husami from Lebanon has announced on Al-Manar TV (Hezbullah-Lebanon) that he has invented the Lira Ecological Car, the first car produced in an Arab country to run on electric and solar energy. Its clunky and lacking slick design, but when people cant afford the fuel to run their cars or diesel generators, its a []

Climate change is heating our seas so less oxygen can be absorbed. What does this mean for reef health? Chinese and Israeli researchers give data for policy makers.

It isn't often you can bite into a cookie with a load of ancient history behind it. Call them Hamentaschen or Oznei Haman, or Haman's Ears but make sure to bake up a batch of these buttery, traditional Purim cookies.

In a recent study the group used gene editing and hydroponics to pinpoint which genes are responsible for long roots. Long-rooted wheat can search for water and minerals better in the wild and is a more ideal gene trait if seed bank researchers want to produce seeds from wild varieties that are climate resilient.

How can we combat wild peeing in cities and make our toilets more sustainable?

Here are 10 comforting soups to get you through the winter. One or two may be a pleasant surprise.

Why do some animals poo pellets, some tubes, and others pies, and how is it similar to cooling lava? Cracking the code for cubed poop.

Big enough to fit 20 Empire State buildings inside, consider the Mukaab in Riyadh is a shape-shifting fantasy block where inside you enter realms of the multiverse, without the goggles.

Is this the world's ugliest building? And why we keep things when they are not perceived as ugly.

Lets be optimistic. Maybe there is a way to sneak around that third law of physics, a trick to hide the carbon from mother nature.

A two-letter typo led to a $500 million nuclear accident that exposed 22 people to radioactive contamination.

We feel what happens to food prices and our lifestyle when conflict broke out in the Ukraine and Russia. So much of our daily lives are interdependent on the global village that countries, and people, know they need to start thinking more locally to support food traditions and the culture they love. On one side []

Zaha Hadid was an Iraqi and Middle Eastern woman architect, a starchitect legend who died too soon. She was the first female architect (and first Muslim) to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize. But the firm behind her name and iconic feminine language carries on. While we dont love that Zaha Hadids firm is behind the []

Permaculture is a holistic environmental design system where we draw inspiration from patterns in nature to create functional design.

Marathons are a sustainable way to explore the Middle East. We have the best marathons in the Middle East list here, some easy some extreme and ultra. But want to try the oldest marathon in the Middle East. In Dubai? TheDubaiMarathon is the largest mass sporting event in the Middle East, according to event organizers. []

The secrets of ancient Pharaohs and Egyptians still have the power to astonish: a new research paper chronicles the discovery of 2,500 year crocodile mummies, preserved in a ritual dating back to the time of Sobek, a fertility deity worshipped by ancient Egyptians.

Researchers have just confirmed what fishing together means for Brazilians and dolphins. They studied a centuries-old practice of dolphins and people fishing together in southern Brazil and learn its a symbiotic relationship which is now under threat. The researchers report how bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus gephyreus) find schools of fish and herd them to the []

We need a spiritual transformation to change our planet's greed, he says in response to Saudi Arabians not responsible for dry Arizona water wells.

Sea-swimming was part of the new normal that came with Covid-19. It was safer than going to the gym or disco during a pandemic. We had a beautiful natural setting, healthy social distance, fresh air and fitness. It was the perfect activity except for one thing. It was cold.

Yonatan Neril is an eco-rabbi. Catch him in Davos making climate change through faith.

MAYU, a new kind of water device filter company from Israel that makes economical and ecological sense.

Ostriches were common in the area from the early prehistoric periods until they became extinct in the wild in the course of the 19th century.

A new study finds 12.7% of childhood asthma in the US is caused by gas stoves

Frequency Electronics makes clocks for time in space. Each tradition, religion and space seems to have its own sense of time.

Dalan Animal Healths vaccine for American foulbrood, an aggressive bacterial disease, is the first for any insect in the United States.

The new study on ancient concrete shows that while ancients didn't know exactly why the concrete they used worked chemically, even though it was a recipe they perfected, it may be a recipe for reducing climate change.

A new study from the desert has found that light pollution hurts small mammals Which means light pollution is hurting our planet and probably us.

The white patches are exposed opal caches on Mars. The result could mean water for future Martians.

Like the elaborate and luxurious riads of Morocco, the Levant area (Lebanon, Syria, Israel) has its own style of elaborate estates and Ottoman palaces.

Tourists welcome at the spectacular region of Alulu in Saudi Arabia, and the Khaybar Volcano Camp. Sleep under the stars, for $500 a night.

From an ancient fortress you get to by a river hike to cave dwellings even older. Find history and ecology meeting in Israel's secret day trips.

Saudi Arabia is planning on building a floating port called Oxagon, as part of its Neom development. They say it will be the worlds largest floating structure.

Bees are turned off by the electrical changes created by pesticides. A study offers a new perspective on how human-made chemicals disturb the natural environment.

With its large number of dispossessed artists, musicians and writers, parts of Mastodon resemble Paris in the 1920s.Here is our intro guide.

CT scans help researchers "unwrap" the face of Ramses II without disturbing the mummy in any way. This is his face at 45. He was the man who met Moses.

Dubai is opening a new cafe in 2023, Donna Cyber Caf, featuring "super-model" Diana, who will serve you coffee with a smile between the valleys of her big bosom.

Essential Hannukah recipes to impress your Jewish friends.

So what happens when ancient microscopic fibers of cotton turn up on an archeology dig in Israel? A look back into how we once lived.

A common material called a zeolite might lead to breakthroughs in energy storage

America's NASA will start to monitor millions of lakes from space. The aim is to quantify what's happening to protect against climate change.

Want a certificate in medical marijuana, endorsed by New York? get in on the first classes

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New hidden imagery not found on Google Earth, and hidden since March reveals construction progress on The Line in Saudi Arabia.

Like most and maybe all urban farming projects that rely on hydroponics - growing food in water, with nutrients added, unless you are selling cannabis products (medical marijuana), vertical farming is yet to make much sense beyond education and as a social project.

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Hey ma, I've run away and joined a sustainable sea circus. Find me on a Greek island somewhere.

Hermes pop-up shop Petit h creates a falcon stand for Dubai mall shop

A never-before-seen look at bathroom physics.

Track the greenhouses gases of Saudi and Omani sheiks, kaisers and oligarchs as their yachts pollute without repentance.

It's a whale of an idea. A biodegradable plastic that returns to the earth with a little bit of help.

He thought he was doing a good deed but it turns out a man in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) mistook a fox for a dog. The Arabian fox was caught and brought to the shelter and surprised the staff

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Malaria threatens Europeans as the world warms

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Le Petit Robert, the popular single-volume French dictionary, hasadded the word labn, also pronounced as labneh or "labaneh" to its latest 2023 edition.

An Italian architecture firm has presented a Vertical Forest skyscraper plan for Dubai. The same firm built the two towers of Bosco Verticale in Milan.Vertical Forest Dubai, rendering by Stefano Boeri Architetti

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The Islamic regime in Iran has lost its head and control over women who refuse to wear the Islamic state's stringent dress codes, and the hijab.

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The prince of Saudi Arabia wants his very own car company and just announced Ceer, the country's first electric vehicle company, which should attract over $150M foreign direct investment and is expected to be available by 2025.

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Multidisciplinary artist Muhannad Shono has been selected to represent Saudi Arabia at BiennaleArte 2022 in Venice with his installation, The Teaching Tree

List of global environment prizes.

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How Cloud Computing Solutions Help with Environmental Sustainability - Green Prophet

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Securing cloud tech stacks with zero trust will drive growth of confidential computing – VentureBeat

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For enterprises to realize the potential that real-time datasets can deliver, cloud tech stacks need hardening with zero trust. In this, confidential computing is essential to securing data at rest, in transit and in use.

VentureBeat spoke with CIOs from banking, financial services and insurance industries who say they are at various stages of piloting confidential computing to see how well it handles their compliance, regulatory reporting and real-time auditing of data transactions. Notably, compliance and support for zero trust frameworks are emerging as the killer apps.

One CIO who spoke on condition of anonymity said that their board of directors team assigned to risk management wants to see proof that data is secured during use within protected CPU enclaves and Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), two foundational elements of confidential computing.

Board members on risk management teams recall Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities that target processors that rely on branch prediction and advanced speculative actions. CIOs and CISOs say boards need to see pilot data and simulated attacks thwarted before they go into production with confidential computing.

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Based on period pilots that VentureBeat is briefed on, its clear that confidential computing strengthens zero trust in multicloud tech stacks on which highly regulated businesses rely on. Compliance, privacy, and security use cases, particularly on public cloud, have gained the most significant traction, accounting for 30 to 35% of the worldwide market, according to Everest Groups report Confidential Computing: The Next Frontier in Data Security. And, the confidential computing market is predicted to grow to $54 billion by 2026.

Confidential Computing is a cloud computing technology that secures data during processing by isolating sensitive data in a protected CPU enclave. The contents of each enclave, including the data and analysis techniques, are only accessed with authorized programming codes, remaining invisible and protected from external access.

Confidential computing is gaining momentum because it provides greater data confidentiality, data and code integrity than current security technologies protecting cloud tech stacks and infrastructure.

The Confidential Computing Consortium (CCC) is instrumental in promoting and defining confidential computing across the industry. The CCC is a Linux Foundation project that combines the efforts of hardware vendors, cloud providers and software developers to help increase the adoption and standardization of TEE technologies.

TEEs protect proprietary business logic, analytics functions, machine learning (ML) algorithms and applications. Founding members include Alibaba, Arm, Google, Huawei, Intel, Microsoft and Red Hat. The CCC defines confidential computing as protecting data in use by computing in a hardware-based TEE.

Whats working in confidential computings favor with boards is how effective it is at ensuring regulatory compliance. Its also proven to be effective at enforcing end-to-end security and least privileged access to data at rest, in transit and in use. CIOs and CISOs tell VentureBeat that they expect confidential computing to be complimentary to their Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) frameworks and supporting initiatives.

John Kindervag created zero trust and currently serves as SVP forcybersecuritystrategy and is a group fellow at ON2IT Cybersecurity. He is also an advisory board member for several organizations, including to the offices of the CEO and president of theCloudSecurityAlliance.

He recently told VentureBeat that the biggest and best-unintended consequence of zero trust was how much it improves the ability to deal with compliance and auditors. And, he said that a Forrester client called and informed him how perfectly aligned zero trust was with their compliance and audit automation process.

Mark Russinovich, CTO and technical fellow of Microsoft Azure writes that: Our vision is to transform the Azure cloud into the Azure confidential cloud, moving from computing in the clear to computing confidentially across the cloud and edge. We want to empower customers to achieve the highest levels of privacy and security for all their workloads.

Cloud platform providers endorsed and began integrating CCCs requirements into their product roadmaps as early as 2019, when the CC was formed. Whats guiding cloud platform providers is the goal of providing their customers with the technical controls necessary to isolate data from cloud platform operators, their operators, or both.

Microsofts Azure confidential computing is considered an industry leader because their DevOps teams designed the platform to go beyond hypervisor isolation between customer tenants to safeguard customer data from Microsoft operator access.

CIOs and CISOs have identified to VentureBeat what theyre looking for when it comes to a baseline level of performance with confidential computing. First, remote attestation needs to be proven in live customer sites with referenceable accounts willing to speak to how they are using it to check the integrity of the environment. Second, trusted launch workflows and processes ideally need to be cloud-based, in production, and proven to validate virtual machines starting up with authorized software and continuous remote attestation to check for customers.

Martin G. Dixon, Intel fellow and VP of Intels security architecture and engineering group writes that, I believe the zero trust concepts shouldnt stop at the network or system. Rather, they can be applied down inside the silicon. We even refer to infrastructure on the chip as a network or network on a chip.'

Part of that vision at Intel included the need for attestation to become more pervasive and portable to fuel confidential computings growth, starting at the silicon level.

To address this, the company introduced Project Amber, whose goals include providing independent attestation, more uniform, portable attestation and improved policy verification.

With the introduction of Project Amber, Intel is taking confidential computing to the next level in our commitment to a zero trust approach to attestation and the verification of compute assets at the network, edge and in the cloud, Greg Lavender, Intels CTO said at the companys Intel Vision conference last year.

He continued that Intel is focused on extending attestation services in the cloud data center in the edge computing environments to provide unprecedented security. The Intel Software as a Service offering Project Amber is a trusted service solution that will provide organizations with independent verification and trustworthiness of customer assets no matter where they run.

Getting silicon-based zero trust security right needs to start with TEEs hardened enough to protect sensitive data at rest, in transit and in use. Migrating zero trust into silicon also strengthens authentication and authorization, taking identity and access management (IAM) and privileged access management to the hardware level, which makes it harder for attackers to bypass or manipulate authentication systems and improves the security of confidential computing environments.

Additional benefits of moving zero trust into silicon include encrypting all data and ensuring a higher level of data integrity and applying zero trust principles to data encryption and authentication. With zero trust frameworks requiring continuous security configuration and posture validation for all users and devices, supporting monitoring in silicon will reduce the overhead on cloud platform performance.

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Securing cloud tech stacks with zero trust will drive growth of confidential computing - VentureBeat

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