Cloud Hosting

Page 2,083«..10 20..2,0822,0832,084 2,085..2,090 2,100..»

How the cloud can improve your marketing measurement – The Drum

May 21, 2022 | Author: admin

Cloud computing is part of a modern marketing tech stack, but what does it mean for marketing measurement? Acxioms Scot Richardson, head of data science strategy and visualization, discusses the key benefits of the cloud when it comes to attribution and what marketers need to consider.

Im not a big fan of the word measurement.

Why? Because for some, it implies a one-and-done activity, and marketers too often see it that way meaning they do measurement simply for measurements sake. The campaign is over, the results are analyzed, and the process grinds to a halt with the output from a report.

But measurement was never supposed to be the end goal. It was only ever supposed to be a calibration step in the wider process of optimization. Measurement should be about taking results and acting on them. That report should be used to guide better decisions and drive improvement. The whole process should empower brands to take wasted spend off the table, re-invest it in tactics that are working or in identifying new opportunities; ultimately, maximizing return on investment, all while campaigns are in-flight.

Now, from its new vantage point in the cloud, marketing measurement can finally fulfill its promise. There is an opportunity to put measurement at the center of an optimization process that allows marketers to continuously get better, faster, smarter throughout a campaign. The cloud can deliver on the promise of measurement through its combination of connectivity, speed, and scalability.

One of the biggest barriers to improvement is marketers not knowing what to do with the results of measurement, not knowing how to implement learnings. But connectivity across the cloud ecosystem makes it far easier to pass information right back into the platforms that are actually delivering the marketing signal. Connecting solutions that are already in the cloud is relatively simple, and allows a freer flow of data, in addition to making it easier to go back to market with new audiences and optimized marketing tactics.

We often talk about the democratization of data in the cloud, but this on its own doesnt lead to better results. It must go hand-in-hand with the democratization of the toolsets marketers need to put that data to work in the right way and drive optimization. With these toolsets accessible in the cloud, businesses can choose appropriate and familiar solutions, with pre-built integrations, to help their end users gain access to data, generate insight, and take action.

The ability to build measurement and optimization processes around data and solutions that are already in the cloud lowers the barrier to marketing improvement. It also shortens the cycle for improvement through continuous optimization, setting businesses up with the capabilities they need to maximize performance and get the most out of every interaction throughout the customer journey.

The traditional campaign measurement cycle is slow to say the least. After the planning phase, creative development, and audience selection, campaigns are put in market and we wait. And we wait some more. After that long wait, during which no improvement is possible, the campaign results come in and a report is run. If any action is taken on the results of that report (and its a big if), learnings are only implemented weeks if not months after the fact.

The cloud totally changes this situation. It enables monitoring of in-market campaigns as fast as data is available which with the sizable pipes of cloud infrastructure is pretty darn fast. Marketers can access reporting and interactive visualization tools for real-time campaign measurement, and can optimize media against objective measures, across multiple channels. These solutions can be automated across the entire pipeline, so they become lights-out processes that deliver as fast as the data is cycling, and boost ROI while campaigns are running.

In addition, the cloud enables marketers to be far more agile and respond to continually changing environments. Imagine, for instance, a brand running a campaign in Google AdWords. With competitive bidders continually changing and evolving their own strategies, AdWords is a dynamic, living environment, and an approach that works today may be totally ineffective tomorrow. In the cloud, brands can understand what is working in the moment and course-correct in real time, ideally through automated processes, to make best use of spend.

And of course, this real-time measurement and optimization needs to be backed up with robust and reliable infrastructure. With cloud data centers all over the globe supporting multi-region solutions, it doesnt matter if there is an issue at one center. With redundancy and a seamless failover environment, measurement and optimization processes can continue to run day and night, without interruption.

In the past, measurement was restrained by capacity issues, and the fear of pipelines failing because there wasnt enough memory or the specified cluster wasnt big enough.

But the cloud brings the ability to auto-scale as the data dictates, especially when adopting a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model. This includes scaling horizontally, to account for increases in the volume of data coming in, and vertically to layer in more resources to deal with that data and solves a multitude of problems. Always-on, expandable solutions take away the concern that there wont be enough capacity to handle a problem, because there is always more available.

Along with scalability comes increased flexibility. In the cloud, its simple for marketers to start with one measurement use case and then simply add more, as and when they need them. This flexibility makes measurement more accessible and means marketers can get started at a relatively low cost, as they only pay for what they use.

This flexibility also extends to data sources, with marketers able to bring data from a huge variety of different places such as other cloud providers, websites, and API calls. They can also deliver the resulting insights whether thats a new bidding strategy or a next best offer back to a wide range of platforms to drive action. The incredible flexibility enabled by cloud environments opens up endless opportunities for marketing measurement and optimization.

The cloud means marketing measurement is no longer a standalone activity and puts it right where its supposed to be at the center of a wider optimization process and in close proximity to the marketing platforms that feed on its insights. By moving measurement to the cloud, marketers can better understand the impact of their campaigns in the moment. With performance optimization integrated in the pipelines, they can continually optimize their investment to achieve the best possible results.

Original post:
How the cloud can improve your marketing measurement - The Drum

Cloud Security Alliance Provides C-level Executives With Best Practices for Deploying Smart Contracts Within an Organization – Business Wire

May 21, 2022 | Author: admin

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the worlds leading organization dedicated to defining standards, certifications, and best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment, today released Best Practices for Smart Contract Security Hyperledger Fabric. Drafted by the CSA Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Working Group, the report aims at providing C-level executives and other stakeholders with an overview of the benefits, challenges, and opportunities for deploying smart contracts within an organization.

Specifically, the paper provides an overview of the hyperledger smart contract ecosystem, the whys, whens, and hows of threat modeling when working with smart contracts, an overview of common vulnerabilities, and guidance on best security practices. It also includes an Accord Project hyperledger fabric and trade finance use case.

Smart contracts offer some of the highest level of encryption currently available, meaning users can be confident in the security and authenticity of their transactions, said Hillary Baron, research analyst and program manager, Cloud Security Alliance. Increasing numbers of enterprises are taking advantage of the myriad benefits smart contracts afford, however, as these contracts become more detailed and robust, the more surface area is exposed to risk. Its imperative, therefore, that practitioners deploying legal smart contracts should understand the risks associated with their execution.

Smart contracts, essentially business logic running on a blockchain, can be as simple as a data update or as complex as executing a contract with attached conditions, and can be divided into two types, namely those that:

After reading the paper, stakeholders, including C-level executives interested in learning more about the corporate benefits of smart contracts and technologists responsible for deploying hyperledger-based smart contract solutions, will have a deeper understanding of the many legal, regulatory, and security considerations that must be considered when using any smart contract.

The Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Working Group works to produce useful content to educate different industries on blockchain and its proper use, as well as define blockchain security and compliance requirements based upon different industries and use cases. Individuals interested in becoming involved in Blockchain/Distributed Ledger future research and initiatives are invited to join the working group.

Download Best Practices for Smart Contract Security Hyperledger Fabric.

About Cloud Security Alliance

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is the worlds leading organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. CSA harnesses the subject matter expertise of industry practitioners, associations, governments, and its corporate and individual members to offer cloud security-specific research, education, training, certification, events, and products. CSA's activities, knowledge, and extensive network benefit the entire community impacted by cloud from providers and customers to governments, entrepreneurs, and the assurance industry and provide a forum through which different parties can work together to create and maintain a trusted cloud ecosystem. For further information, visit us at http://www.cloudsecurityalliance.org, and follow us on Twitter @cloudsa.

Is It Too Late to Buy IBM Stock? – The Motley Fool

May 21, 2022 | Author: admin

Technology stocks have been battered in 2022, but tech veteran IBM (IBM -0.91%) managed to resist that trend. After the stock hit a 52-week low of $114.56 last November, it rebounded and hovers around $133 at the time of this writing.

IBM's rise is attributable to a multi-year effort to transform its business, including spinning off its managed IT infrastructure services into the newly formed, publicly traded company Kyndryl last year. This was followed by an outstanding first-quarter earnings report this year.

With IBM's transition work behind it, have investors missed the investment opportunity? There's cause to believe the company offers more upside. Here are the reasons that point to a bright future for Big Blue.

Image source: Getty Images.

IBM spent years shifting its focus toward the growing cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) industries. The companyacquired Red Hat, a leading hybrid cloud computing company, in 2019. It promoted its head of cloud services, Arvind Krishna, to the CEO position in 2020, and completed the spinoff of Kyndryl last November.

IBM's transformation is now complete, and with Q1 being the first full quarter after the Kyndryl separation, investors can see how well the revitalized IBM is performing. Big Blue's Q1 revenue was $14.2 billion, up from $13.2 billion last year when adjusted for the Kyndryl spinoff.

The company's core offering is its hybrid cloud computing platform, which delivers a mix of a public cloud for cost savings and an on-site, or private, cloud for the storage of sensitive data, such as financial records. The hybrid cloud industry is forecasted to grow from an annual revenue opportunity of $56 billion in 2020 to $145 billion by 2026.

IBM is successfully capturing its piece of this industry. The company's hybrid cloud revenue for the trailing 12 months was $20.8 billion, a 17% year-over-year increase.

IBM's excellent Q1 results are just the start. With the hybrid cloud industry's expansion serving as a tailwind, IBM expects revenue to continue growing by about $3 billion per year from 2022 to 2024.

IBM isn't reliant solely on its hybrid cloud platform. Additional growth opportunity lies in its AI solutions. Big Blue has been working in the AI field for decades, and its current capabilities are being applied in a variety of scenarios. McDonald's is using IBM's AI to test an automated drive-through.

AI is infused in many parts of IBM's offerings. It's used in the company's cybersecurity products to dynamically recognize cybersecurity threats, in IBM's automation-related solutions, and to help analyze mountains of data for customers. IBM saw year-over-year Q1 revenue growth in each of these areas: 8% in security, 5% in its automation division, and 4% in its data and AI segment.

IBM also has a large consulting business, which helps customers select and implement IBM's technical solutions. This segment's Q1 revenue was $4.8 billion, a 17% year-over-year increase, which followed last year's 10% revenue growth.

Only the company's infrastructure segment, which sells computing hardware, saw Q1 year-over-year sales drop 2% due to the division's current IBM z15 mainframe servers nearing the end of their product cycle. The new IBM z16, the first to include a specialized AI chip, was unveiled in April with sales expected to ramp up over the coming months.

Its transformation means the new IBM offers investors a potent combination of revenue growth and a high-yield dividend, about 5% at the time of this writing.

While other companies such as Walt Disneyeliminated dividend payments after the coronavirus pandemic triggered widespread lockdowns, IBM maintained its track record of dividend payments, which stretches back to 1916. The company even raised its dividend last month for the 27th consecutive year.

IBM's dividend will remain secure for years thanks to the company's ability to generate free cash flow, which IBM expects will hit a cumulative total of $35 billion from 2022 to 2024. This factors in 2022 free cash flow coming in toward the low end of its forecasted $10 to $10.5 billion range.

This year's impact on free cash flow comes from IBM's suspension of its business in Russia following the attack on Ukraine. Although comprising less than 1% of IBM's revenue last year, the company's business in Russia was a high-margin operation, so the shutdown cuts more deeply into IBM's profits and cash flows.

Even so, IBM's overall business possesses the ingredients to continue expanding revenue and maintaining the level of free cash flow needed to fund both its growth and its dividend. For instance, Big Blue recently added the U.S. Department of Education as a hybrid cloud client, while its consulting division's customers include all of the top ten banks, national governments, telecoms, and automotive companies.

With the new IBM's era just beginning, now is a good time to invest in this tech stock to capture the revenue growth coming over the next few years -- while enjoying a hefty dividend, to boot.

New programme on AI and cloud services to build local ICT talent ecosystem – The Straits Times

May 21, 2022 | Author: admin

SINGAPORE - Mid-career workers who wish to upskill and enhance their employability in the infocomm and technology (ICT) sector can tap a new course on artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud services.

This course, under the SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme (SCTP) which is supported by SkillsFuture Singapore, is open to fresh graduates too.

It was officially launched during a joint announcement between Chinese multinational technology firm Huawei's ICT Academy and Singapore Polytechnic at the Huawei Singapore Partner Summit 2022 on Friday (May 20) at Marina Bay Sands.

The first run of the course, conducted over four months, will commence with 15 participants.

Singapore Polytechnic aims to conduct two classes this year, and hopes to expand these to three in 2023 and 2024. In total, it aims to train up to 120 participants in the next two years.

SCTP, introduced during Budget 2022, replaces two national schemes, SGUnited Skills and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways - Company Training programmes, which expired on March 31.

SCTP began on April 1 and offers highly subsidised, industry-oriented training courses to help mid-career workers secure jobs in sectors with good hiring opportunities.

Singapore Poly has been recognised as a Huawei ICT Academy partner since 2020. The partnership covers the areas of pre-employment training, continuing education and training, ICT competitions and bootcamp programmes.

Mr Foo Fang Yong, chief executive of Huawei International, said: "Building a sustainable pipeline of qualified local tech talent is imperative as Singaporepavesits way into the future.

"Huawei, as a technology enabler, will continue bolstering our longstanding relationship with various local institutes of higher learning to further cultivate and grow local talent to become the leaders of our digital future."

Huawei's ICT Academy has been striving to build a healthy ICT talent ecosystem in Singapore in order to address the shortage of local ICT professionals.

Since 2019, it has forged strong alliances with nine local institutes of higher learning.

Over the past three years, the academy has trained more than 2,000 Singaporean students and certified more than 30 lecturers.

Participants in the new course will learn essential and fundamental skills in AI and cloud computing industries.

They will also be certified in five domains -computer networking, Python programming, AI, cloud servicesand storage solutions.

These modules will prepare participants for various jobs offered by Huawei and its solution partners, including AI engineer, cloud architect and storage engineer.

Eligible participants should at least hold a diploma which certifies them with basic knowledge in cloud computing, computer systems and networking.

Applicants with qualifications outside of the specified fields will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Interested applicants can apply via this website.

Go here to see the original:
New programme on AI and cloud services to build local ICT talent ecosystem - The Straits Times

What Are Altcoins? What Investors Need to Know – Finance Magnates

May 21, 2022 | Author: admin

WhatIs an altcoin?

Inthe crypto world, altcoin stands for alternative coins and is simply a termused for any cryptocurrency other than bitcoin. So, that makes Ethereum, thecryptocurrency with the second largest market cap an altcoin as much as the3,000 ranked cryptocurrency.

Altcoinsare not required to be different from bitcoin as each altcoin will have itspreferred consensus mechanisms, such as proof-of-stake or proof-of-work. Forexample, bitcoin is the oldest cryptocurrency and uses the original validatormethod of proof-of-work, which is used by many altcoins today. Proof of work isresource-intensive and time-consuming, pushing more investors towards proof ofstake coins, allowing them to contribute to the blockchain.

However,altcoins do try to differentiate themselves from bitcoin through new technologylike smart contracts, PoS, or different tokenomics. Some aspects betweenaltcoins and bitcoin will always stay the same, such as peer-to-peer systems,which are embedded into the philosophy of cryptocurrency.

Sincethe beginning of cryptocurrency, with bitcoin as the spearhead, the market hasgenerally revolved around the price of bitcoin, with altcoins following itspumps and dips. Altcoins often come from bitcoin, tending to follow bitcoins'overall trends. Some of this matching can be put down to investors usingbitcoin as a major market indicator, but some altcoin graphs are similar tobitcoins that it becomes hard to ignore.

Keep Reading

However,as bitcoin dominance steadily decreases and more of the crypto market cap iseaten up by bitcoin, we start to see more independently priced altcoins, notexactly following bitcoins trajectory. We can put this phenomenon down to twomajor factors:

Simplyput, no. The term altcoin encompasses a massive group of coins, all providingdifferent utility to the crypto sphere, the term is used to differentiate themfrom bitcoin.

Cryptocurrencyis still a very new asset class, so each cryptocurrency project has its owncoin which investors buy into and often use inside of the ecosystem. Forexample, HIVE is used to navigate the platform. Later down the line, we shouldexpect major altcoins to take over as the main coin used over multipleprojects, as there is simply too much volatility for so many different altcoinsto be viably used in the future.

Remember: Altcoins can be part ofseveral categories at once.

Stablecoinshave come into existence to try and counteract the extreme volatility that thecrypto market faces. Investors can hold some value in stable cryptocurrency,without having to convert it into fiat, while waiting for the next investmentopportunity, or the perfect entry.

Examplesof altcoins would be USDT (Tethered to the US dollar, or USDC). Stablecoins arepegged to the value of a fiat currency or other more stable commodities such asgold to help hold their value.

Also,stable coins help investors get money into exchanges, without having toinstantly buy a more traditional cryptocurrency.

Utilitytokens act as a way of payment for services or to participate in an ecosystem.Each ecosystem will usually have its own unique utility token that is notmineable.

Awell-known example of a utility token is Filecoin, used to provide storage toother blockchains. The most famous example is Ethereum.

Atype of stable coin fresh in the mind of most crypto investors, meme coins aredescribed by the name, memes. Examples would be dodge coin or the recentspeculation on SHIB, based on Elon Musks dog.

Typicalattributes of a meme coin include a rapid surge in price over a short period oftime, lack of utility, and often shilled and advertised by crypto influencersor celebrities on platforms such as Twitter.

Memecoins have become rife with scams once people saw the massive potential thatcomes from playing with investors' FOMO.

Securitytokens are the closest cryptocurrency comes to traditional stocks and shares.Those buying security tokens will have shares in a company that participatesor does business on a blockchain.

Securitytokens help to validate ownership of a certain asset, providing greatersecurity than before to owners and their assets. However, when a user ownstheir own keys they are at risk of permanently losing access to the asset, asno centralized body can help them regain it.

Altcoinswhich are mining based use PoW (Proof of Work) as a way to generate new coins,the method that bitcoin uses. As mentioned before this is resource-intensiveand many altcoins are moving over to a PoS model, allowing users to participatein the blockchain themselves.

Thealternative is to have a project with pre-mined coins, which requires initialcapital to get off the ground. Coins are usually distributed during an ICO, orinitial coin offering, where investors pay Bitcoin, Ethereum, or fiat for apre-arranged amount of the essentially worthless coin. ICOs are naturally riskyas there is no guarantee these coins will ever be worth anything, having neverbeen traded before.

XPRis a massive example of a successful pre-mined coin, firmly sitting in the top10 coins by market cap.

Currently,bitcoin has a market dominance hovering around 40%, with Ethereum second justunder 20%. For an altcoin to ever flip bitcoin, we would need to see an alreadyprominent coin such as Ethereum really explode in the coming years.

Bitcoinwas the first cryptocurrency and will always be in the hearts of cryptoinvestors as the unbreakable, decentralized, permissionless blockchain, anexample for all future altcoins to follow.

Manyexperts suggest that Ethereum is capable of flipping bitcoin, but will rely ona successful Ethereum 2.0 release, executing the promises that were made aboutfaster transactions and cheaper transaction fees (Gas Fees).

However,to successfully flip Bitcoin or even Ethereum, the coin must defeat the problemof scalability, making it accessible to billions, such as Cardano.

Bitcoinhas had an early bird advantage over all other cryptocurrencies, so only timewill tell if an altcoin topples the Satoshi Tower.

Obviously,Bitcoin does not provide a solution to every problem trying to be solved bycryptocurrencies, so Altcoins are a necessity to solve the shortcomings ofBitcoin and provide actual utility across thousands of different sectors andmarkets. A task that no singular coin could finish.

Altcoinsare absolutely essential for this stage in the cryptocurrency ecosystem,providing investors with a massive choice of projects to invest in and allowingdifferent projects to show off their potential utility and use-cases while wegrow in the adoption phase.

Timewill slowly weed out useless altcoins as cryptocurrency becomes more heavilyadopted and the strongest altcoins will emerge and most likely become staplesas utility tokens across many ecosystems.

Altcoinsencompass almost all cryptocurrencies in the market, meaning as much as theyare a necessity, many come with their flaws, or are suffering from a volatilemarket. Here are the main dangers presented by altcoin investing and what youshould look out for:

Market sentiment is arguably the mostpowerful indicator in the cryptocurrency markets as massive bearish or bullishswings are common. Volatile cryptocurrencies are the most dangerous to holdduring a bearish sentiment, as there are zero guarantees they will even recover50% of their original price, especially if real-world utility is low, such asmeme coins.

Just because an altcoin has utility, does notmean the price will reflect it. We are still too early for mass adoption,meaning most utility speak is around the potential utility, making thecryptocurrency vulnerable to a massive drop in value.

Many altcoins operate on extremely low marketcaps, possibly trapping an investor's liquidity forever as trades are rare.

Do not get fooled by the term altcoin, anycoin that is not Bitcoin is an altcoin, even meme coins made by anyone withabsolutely zero value.

Thehonest truth that most altcoin investors do not want to hear is: that most, almostall altcoins, will not survive the next ten years. To see this as evidence, weonly must look back a few years at the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capand see which ones are still there. Many projects have simply vanished out ofexistence, which will happen for our current set of altcoins now, only thestrongest will survive.

Mostanalysts predict a consolidation around the top ten, fifty, or whatever theoptimal amount of strong altcoins are needed for their utility and real-worlduse cases.

Altcoinswill always be around and only time will tell which ones survive. The mostpractical advice one can give on altcoins is to simply look for projects which yousee surviving past the adoption phase, based purely on speculation, and assessthe future utility that is possible, and what real-world problems they aretrying to solve.