Page 213«..1020..212213214215..220230..»

Attackers evade detection by leveraging Microsoft Graph API – SC Media

Attackers were observed evading detection by leveraging the Microsoft Graph API used by developers to access resources on Microsoft cloud services.

In a May 2 blog post, Symantec researchers said attackers are drawn to Graph API because they believe that executing their activities on known entities such as widely used Microsoft cloud services are less likely to raise suspicion.

This technique was brought to light in October 2021 when Symantec reported on the Harvester group, a nation-state-backed espionage operation that targeted South Asia organizations.

The researchers said in addition to being inconspicuous, its also a cheap and secure source of infrastructure for attackers because basic accounts like Microsoft OneDrive are free.

Graph API was most recently used in an attack against an organization in Ukraine, where a previously undocumented piece of malware used Microsoft Graph API to leverage Microsoft OneDrive for command-and-control (C2) purposes. Symantec said the new malware found in Ukraine was named BirdyClient or OneDriveBirdyClient by its developers because references to both names were found in its code.

Sophisticated actors such as APT28, APT29, and others have adopted the use of Microsoft Graph API in their operations because of several inherent features that make it an effective means for evading detection and facilitating malicious operations, explained Callie Guenther, senior manager of threat research at Critical Start, and an SC Media columnist. Guenther said this method offers a stealthy, effective, and resilient way to control compromised environments, extract valuable information, and maintain persistence in target networks with reduced risk of exposure.

Microsoft Graph API is a legitimate, widely used interface that provides access to various Microsoft cloud services, including Office 365 and Azure services, said Guenther. By using this API, attackers can blend their malicious communications with normal, legitimate traffic, significantly reducing the likelihood of their activities being detected as anomalous or malicious. This is a classic example of living off the land, where attackers use built-in tools and services to hide their activities.

Attackers use Microsoft Graph API to hide their malicious activities and make them appear as legitimate traffic, explained Eric Schwake, director of cybersecurity strategy at Salt Security, thus making it difficult for traditional security tools to detect such activities. Schwake added that attackers can also use Microsoft's cloud infrastructure for C2 communication, which further conceals their activity as Microsoft services are often trusted.

Graph API's rich functionality provides attackers with a powerful toolkit, and compromised credentials can offer easy access to sensitive data, said Schwke. Unfortunately, many organizations lack visibility and control over their API usage, making it challenging to identify and prevent such misuse.

Read more from the original source:
Attackers evade detection by leveraging Microsoft Graph API - SC Media

Read More..

Cloud Computing Firm Appian Stock Nosedives After Q1 Print, What’s Going On? – Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) – Benzinga

Appian CorpAPPNreported fiscal first-quarter 2024 revenue growth of 11% year-on-year to $149.84 million, marginally beating theanalyst consensus of $149.76 million.

AdjustedEPS loss of 24 cents missed theanalyst consensus loss of 16 cents.Thestock price plunged close to 20%after the results.

Total subscription revenue increased 19% year over year to $117.7 million.Professional services revenue was $32.1 million, down 11% year over year.

Outlook:Appian expects second-quarter revenue of $140.00 million $144.00million, up by 10%13% Y/Y against theconsensus of $145.25 million. It projects an adjusted EPS loss of 34 cents to 28 cents versus the 0.29 cents consensus loss.

Thecompany reiterated fiscal 2024revenue of $615.00 million $617.00 million, up by 13% Y/Y, below the consensus of $615.75 million. It projects adjusted EPS loss of $(0.85) $(0.79) (prior $(0.73) $(0.66)), against theconsensus loss of $(0.68).

Appianstock gained over 1% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the stock viaFirst Trust Nasdaq Artificial Intelligence And Robotics ETFROBT andFirst Trust Cloud Computing ETFSKYY.

Price Action:APPN shares traded lower by 20.10% at $29.35 onthe last check Thursday.

Photo via Shutterstock

2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Read the original post:
Cloud Computing Firm Appian Stock Nosedives After Q1 Print, What's Going On? - Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) - Benzinga

Read More..

Top Cloud Computing Projects in 2024: Elevate Your Knowledge – Simplilearn

Cloud computing powrs our digital world. Cloud computing projects ar now proplling businsss, from startups to Fortun 500 companies, into an ra of unparallld agility, scalability, and innovation. This shift isn't about convninc; it's about rshaping how we stor, procss, and utiliz data, mpowring ntrpriss to innovat fastr, optimiz rsourcs, and driv unparallld businss growth.

Cloud computing rfrs to the dlivry of computing srvicssrvrs, storag, databass, ntworking, softwar, analytics, and morvr th intrnt (th cloud). Ths srvics offr fastr innovation, flxibl rsourcs, and conomis of scal, transforming th way businsss oprat and dlivr srvics. It is lik a digital powrhous whr you can do amazing things without nding your suprcomputr. It's all about using th intrnt to accss powrful computrs, storag, and softwar that liv far away in giant data cntrs. Imagin having a magical toolbox full of tools for running programs, storing fils, and doing complete tasks, all a click away. From straming movis to storing photos, businsss running hug wbsits to doctors storing patint rcords - it's this invisibl cloud that maks all it possibl, changing th way w us tchnology vry day.

Cloud computing projects dmand a blnd of tchnical prowss and adaptability. Skill in programming languags lik Python, Java, or C#, coupld with a dp undrstanding of ntworking, scurity protocols, and databas managmnt, forms th bdrock of ths ndavors. Morovr, a knack for problem-solving, an ability to navigat through dynamic nvironmnts, and a continuous larning mindset ar indispnsabl traits in th vr-volving landscap of cloud computing projcts.

Cloud computing projcts, oftn rfrrd to as cloud-basd projcts, ncompass a divrs spctrum of innovativ ndavours lvraging th wr f cloud infrastructur. Ths initiativs, brimming with crativity and tchnical prowss, mbody th cutting dg of technology, offring a myriad of cloud computing projct idas that span industris and solutions.

This project rvolutionizs data managmnt by harnssing cloud infrastructur. Offring scalability and accssibility, cloud storage scurs fils whil nabling samlss sharing and rtrival, catring to divrs organizational nds for fficint data handling.

A crucial fact of cloud computing, this project nsurs data rsilinc and continuity. Employing rdundancy and cloud-basd backups, it safguards against disastrs, minimizing downtim and data loss.

This projct mpowrs businsss by lvraging cloud capabilitis to crat scalabl, scur, and usr-cntric onlin storfronts. It optimizs transactions, harnssing th agility of cloud computing to nhanc customr xprincs.

This project harnsss cloud technology to scurly stor, manag, and analyz snsitiv halthcar data. It nsurs complianc, facilitats introprability, and nabls ral-tim accss to critical patient information.

Samlssly intgrating IoT dvics with cloud infrastructur, this project unlocks th potential of connctd dvics. It nabls ral-tim data analysis, rmot monitoring, and facilitats automatd actions based on IoT snsor inputs.

Transforming communication, this project dlivrs ral-tim mssaging srvics via th cloud. It nsurs scalability, ncryption, and multimdia support, catring to divrs communication nds.

This project facilitates rmot larning utilizing cloud capabilities. It offers scalabl infrastructur, multimdia support, and collaborativ tools, transforming ducation dlivry.

By lvraging cloud computing, this project nabls high-prformanc gaming xprincs. It allows for straming, scalability, and accss to a wid array of gams without havy local hardwar rquirmnts.

Rdfining workspac flxibility, this project offrs virtualizd dsktop nvironmnts via th cloud. It nsurs scur accss, cntralizd managmnt, and samlss usr xprincs.

This project mploys advanced analytics to driv insights from larg datasts by utilizing cloud rsourcs. It nabls data-drivn dcision-making, forcasting, and trnd analysis for nhancd businss stratgis.

Addrssing complxitis in multi-cloud nvironmnts, this project provides a unifid platform to manag multipl cloud srvics. It stramlins oprations, optimizs rsourc allocation, and nhancs govrnanc.

Lvraging cloud infrastructur, this projct dlivrs samlss vido confrncing xprincs. It supports high-quality vido, collaboration faturs, and nsurs accssibility across dvics.

This project nabls dvloprs to build and run applications without managing infrastructur by rvolutionizing computing paradigms. It lvrags cloud providrs' srvrlss offrings for cost-fficint and scalabl solutions.

Transforming customr rlationship management, this cloud-based project lvrags cloud capabilities to cntraliz and optimiz customr data. It nabls prsonalizd intractions, analytics-drivn insights, and scalabl CRM solutions.

Combining cloud and IoT tchnologis, this project nabls ral-tim nvironmntal data collction and analysis. It supports sustainabilityefforts by providing actionabl insights for nvironmntal monitoring and consrvation.

This project simplifies the migration process and assists in moving applications and data to the cloud samlssly. It nsurs minimal disruption, scalability, and optimization of rsourcs during migration.

The world of cloud computing is brimming with opportunities that can unlock innovation and propel your career to new heights. By embracing cloud-based projects, you can transform the way businesses store data, streamline operations, and connect with people around the world. These projects serve as the building blocks of a smarter, more efficient digital future. And with a Post Graduate Program in Cloud Computing, you can be at the forefront of this exciting field. By gaining expertise in designing, planning, and scaling cloud implementations, you can take your career to the next level and make a meaningful impact on the world.

Cloud computing projects are crucial because they transform how businsss operate in today's digital world. Thy offr flxibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness, allowing companies to innovat and grow without hfty investments in physical infrastructur. Ths projcts nabl accss to advancd tchnologis, making tasks asir, fastr, and mor fficint, ultimatly driving progrss and succss across industris.

Bginnrs can start on cloud computing projects by starting with foundational knowledge and gaining hands-on xprinc. Thr ar various larning rsourcs, tutorials, and ntry-lvl projcts tailord for bginnrs. With ddication and a larning mindset, bginnrs can stadily build their skills and confidence in handling cloud computing projects.

Choosing a cloud computing project involves considering your interests, the industry you are passionat about, and the specific problem you aim to solve. Start by xploring diffrnt projct idas and thir potential impact. Assss your skill st and comfort with various cloud tchnologis. Bgin with managabl projcts alignd with your intrsts and gradually xpand to mor complx ons as you gain xprinc and confidnc in th fild.

Ys, cloud computing projects oftn involv using specific tools and platforms. Some popular ons includ Amazon Wb Srvics (AWS), Microsoft Azur, Googl Cloud Platform, Dockr, Kubrnts, and srvrlss framworks lik AWS Lambda. The choice of tools depends on the project requirements, th cloud service providr, and your familiarity with th platform. Familiarizing yourself with these tools can significantly aid in ffctivly xcuting cloud computing projects.

More here:
Top Cloud Computing Projects in 2024: Elevate Your Knowledge - Simplilearn

Read More..

AWS, Microsoft, Google Continue to Invest in Cloud as Demand Grows in AI Era – ITPro Today

So far in 2024, there has been no slowdown at all for the big three cloud computing giants as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are all generating more money in the cloud than ever before.

The three cloud vendors recently reported earnings results, with all of them extending multiyear streaks of continued revenue growth. On April 25, both Google and Microsoft reported results.Google Cloud revenue came in at $9.57 billion in Alphabet's first-quarter fiscal 2024 for a 28% year-over-year gain. Microsoft's cloud revenue was $35.1 billion, up 23% year-over-year.

Related: Your Cloud Strategy Is Now Your AI Strategy, Too

Rounding out the big three on April 30, Amazon Web Services (AWS) reported revenue of$25 billion, a 17% year-over-year gain.

Related: AI Quiz 2024: Test Your AI Knowledge

"There is much for cloud providers to be cheerful about, with the three market leaders all seeing their growth rates increase substantially over the last two quarters," John Dinsdale, chief analyst at Synergy Research Group, commented. "Going forward, we forecast that there will continue to be strong annual growth, with the market set to double in size in four years."

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key driver of growth for all three of the big cloud providers, as it was over the course of the previous year.

While AI is leading to new demand in the cloud, it is also leading to bigger deals from customers for Microsoft.

"Overall, we are seeing an acceleration in the number of large Azure deals from leaders across industries, including billion-dollar-plus, multiyear commitments announced [in April] from Cloud Software Group and the Coca-Cola Company," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during the company's earnings call. "The number of $100 million-plus Azure deals increased over 80% year over year, while the number of $10 million-plus deals more than doubled."

During Alphabet's earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai also talked a lot about the power of AI in driving the cloud forward.

In addition, he noted the long list of new features and services that Google Cloud has rolled out recently.

"In cloud, we have announced more than 1,000 new products and features over the past eight months," Pichai said. "At Google Cloud Next, more than 300 customers and partners spoke about their generative AI successes with Google Cloud, including global brands like Bayer, Cintas, Mercedes Benz, Walmart, and many more."

At AWS, executives for the last several years have been saying cost optimization was driving the move to the cloud. That's no longer the case in 2024.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said during his company's earnings call that companies have largely completed the lion's share of their cost optimization and have turned their attention to newer initiatives.

"Before the pandemic, companies were marching to modernize their infrastructure, moving from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud to save money," he said. "The pandemic and uncertain economy that followed distracted from that momentum, but it's picking up again companies are pursuing this relatively low-hanging fruit in modernizing their infrastructure."

The continued demand is also driving the need for AWS to spend more money to build out data centers and additional capabilities.

"We expect the combination of AWS' reaccelerating growth and high demand for genAI to meaningfully increase year-over-year capital expenditures in 2024, which given the way the AWS business model works is a positive sign of the future growth," Jassy said. "The more demand AWS has, the more we have to procure new data centers, power, and hardware."

About the author

Go here to read the rest:
AWS, Microsoft, Google Continue to Invest in Cloud as Demand Grows in AI Era - ITPro Today

Read More..

OUTSCALE, a Dassault Systmes Brand, Announces the Strategic Acquisition of Satelliz, Consolidating its Leadership … – Dassault Systmes

SAINT CLOUD, France - April 29, 2024 - In a continuous pursuit of innovation and excellence, OUTSCALE, a Dassault Systmes brand, today announced the acquisition of Satelliz, a company specialized in the development and operation of Kubernetes services, bolstered by its 24/7 management expertise. This strategic acquisition marks a significant milestone for OUTSCALE, enhancing its position as a Cloud technology leader with new capabilities in container orchestration with Kubernetes.

With Satelliz, OUTSCALE expands its managed services offering, integrating highly available and secure Kubernetes solutions. This advancement demonstrates its commitment to innovation and competitiveness, directly addressing the increasing needs for flexibility, efficiency, and security of modern enterprises. The integration of Satelliz's unique capabilities will enable OUTSCALE to offer 24/7 managed Kubernetes services, delivering significant value to its customers.

New Kubernetes capabilities: Towards accelerated Cloud transformation

The acquisition of Satelliz by OUTSCALE heralds a new era for customers, allowing them to directly benefit from the agility of Cloud Computing without the complexities traditionally associated with infrastructure management. Satelliz's managed solutions, combined with OUTSCALE's expertise, facilitate simplified application management in a dynamic market context.

By 2026, according to Gartner, 75% of container instances will be deployed in public Cloud environments, up from 50% in 2023,* thus driving the adoption of Kubernetes as a standard for container orchestration. This growth underscores its crucial role in modernizing IT infrastructures and the imperative for businesses to adapt quickly to remain competitive.

Increased agility and security for users

Through this initiative, customers will benefit from a fully managed Kubernetes infrastructure, enabling them not only to meet current scalability and high availability needs effectively but also to prepare for artificial intelligence / machine learning workloads.

"This capability is crucial for businesses seeking to innovate and fully leverage the potential of data. Furthermore, OUTSCALE's Kubernetes-optimized platform anticipates the need to support containerized offerings from software vendors, thus offering flexibility and openness to new integration and collaboration possibilities. This approach ensures not only optimal performance and unprecedented service continuity but also strict compliance with data sovereignty regulations in France and Europe," said Philippe Miltin, CEO, OUTSCALE, Dassault Systmes.

Commitment to excellence and innovation

This acquisition aligns with Dassault Systmes' long-term strategy to provide secure and sovereign Cloud services. By integrating Satelliz's solutions, OUTSCALE reinforces its commitment to offering enriched experiences, catalyzing cybergovernance, and accelerating digital transformation for organizations.

Read more:
OUTSCALE, a Dassault Systmes Brand, Announces the Strategic Acquisition of Satelliz, Consolidating its Leadership ... - Dassault Systmes

Read More..

Microsoft cant keep up with demand for AI in the cloud for now – CIO

Even with a largely captive customer base, Microsoft is unlikely to resort to price hikes as a way to manage demand, at least in the short term, analysts said.

With immature technologies such as generative AI, Microsoft and its competitors face challenges accurately forecasting changes in demand, according to digital services firm West Monroes lead of high-tech and software practice, Dhaval Moogimane. While occasional discrepancies between capacity and demand may persist, it is unlikely to manifest as a protracted or systemic issue that would lead to price hikes, Moogimane said.

Instead, said Shimmin, Microsoft and other hyperscalers will likely resort to other tactics to manage demand, such as downgrading response times for customers paying less or making use of batch inferencing, a process in which predictions are made, stored, and later presented on request. This can be more efficient than online or dynamic inferencing, where predictions are generated in real time.

More:
Microsoft cant keep up with demand for AI in the cloud for now - CIO

Read More..

Cloud Native: How Ampere Is Improving Nightly Arm64 Builds SitePoint – SitePoint

Just before KubeCon NA 2023, in Chicago, the CNCF announced a new project to help CNCF projects create arm64/ Ampere runners to make their nightly native arm64 builds more secure, more efficiently use resources, and be much faster.

The problem was three-fold. According to the GitHub documentation, running GitHub Self-hosted Runners for an open source project is unsafe, due to side effects that can be left over after the build. And while this, in and of itself, is enough for the CNCF Projects to need a better way to do their nightly builds, the builds were often over-provisioned, thus wasting community resources, as well as being poorly configured.Thus, the Project builds took too long to be completed within the 6-hour window.

The CNCF, Ampere Computing (the arm64 server chip maker), and Equinix (the hosting company) reached out to OpenFaaS, the creator of Actuated, to see what could be done.Eight projects were initially chosen for the first round of the project.

Two months into the project, Dave Neary Director of Developer Relations at Ampere Computing, sat down with Chris Aniszczyk, CTO of the Linux Foundation, Ed Vielmetti, Developer Partner Manager for Open Source at Equinix, and Alex Ellis, CEO of OpenFaaS, to discuss the project, why it was created, what was done, and how it is running.

Here are some of the results of the projects Dave Neary posted in Ampere arm64 server community and discussed by the team:

Watch the video for more details on this innovative project.

Join our worldwide developer community forum at community.amperecomputing.com.

We invite you to learn more about our developer efforts, find best practices, and gain insights at developer.amperecomputing.com.

Link:
Cloud Native: How Ampere Is Improving Nightly Arm64 Builds SitePoint - SitePoint

Read More..

Tech leaders crave ‘peace of mind’ with AI in the cloud – Fortune

Morningstar chief technology officer James Rhodes says that as much as 90% of the financial service companys cloud spending goes to Amazon Web Services.

Microsoft is a very distant second, with about 7%, and Google Cloud accounts for the rest. But when it comes to artificial intelligence products and services, Morningstar is betting big on Microsofts OpenAI.

We didnt double down on our majority cloud provider, says Rhodes. Microsoft is well positioned with out-of-the-box services available today, so that you can get up and running quickly.

As the major cloud providers are also in the business of offering AI products to enterprises like Morningstar, a key decision thats emerged is whether companies should stick to their cloud providers when creating their AI ecosystems, or perhaps work with another partneror even multiple partners.

I do think that at the high end of the market, theyre going to be multi-cloud, thats just their reality, says Spencer Kimball, cofounder and CEO of database startup Cockroach Labs. And why would they change that for AI? I think theyll embrace it even more.

In deciding on OpenAI, Morningstar evaluated the terms of use from the offerings available in the market, because the company was concerned about how the data it would send over to a provider would be used. It felt Microsoft was further than the rest in clarity as to what it would do with the data and how it may be fed back into the models.

Microsoft had been clear with Morningstar that the companys data would only be captured for debugging purposes and purged after 30 days. That gave Rhodes peace of mind.

I do think what happened was Microsoft was kind of really ahead with the enterprise use case, says Rhodes. Honestly, I kind of felt like Amazon and Google were asleep at the wheel.

Last year, when Morningstar launched the companys AI chatbot, called Mo, it paired its investment research library with Microsoft Azures OpenAI service.

Cloud computing and enterprise software provider Appian took the exact opposite approach to Morningstar. AWS is the companys primary cloud provider and the pair are collaborating closely on AI too. We already had a great relationship, so we are diving in, says founder and CEO Matt Calkins.

In April, Appian announced it signed an agreement with AWS to support the companys new private AI tool. Appian has been an advocate for private AI, which it says represents three core values: models must be trained exclusively on a companys own data, that data remains firmly under an organizations control, and the AI models are unique and never shared.

The tie-up with Amazon Bedrock will give Appian the ability to host large language models within certain compliance boundaries that customers set, and then privately customize those models. The cloud-based machine-learning platform Amazon SageMaker will allow Appians clients to create, train, and fine tune those AI models using only their own data.

Staying within one ecosystem is easier, says Calkins, who acknowledges that the prior relationship with AWS gave it a leg up on AI. Provided they didnt mess it up, we were probably going to pick them. We have such a good history with them.

Kimball says the cloud providers are extremely different from what they are offering with regards to AI, at least currently. It is vastly different between the clouds, he says. The convergence isnt there.

Larger firms will likely juggle a few different AI offerings, which would mirror their approach to cloud. But for smaller companies, going all in on one cloud and adding AI products and services could result in better affordability and the ease of working within one ecosystem. At the smaller end, I think the argument around simplicity and discount can hold sway, says Kimball.

Brian Raymond, the CEO and cofounder of Unstructured, recently raised $40 million from Nvidia, IBM, and Menlo Ventures, among others. The startup that sits at the start of the AI data journey, it ingests and pre-processes unstructured data including emails, documents, images, and video into formats that can be ready for use with foundation models.

Unlike cloud, when, in the early years, switching providers could be costly, moving among AI companies is simple and inexpensive. It is like fast fashion, says Raymond. There are extraordinarily low switching costs across models, and so almost no vendors lock in.

Raymond sees two different AI strategies emerging. Theres vertical AI, which focuses on applications that could serve a specific industry, like healthcare or travel. And horizontal AI, which can enhance processes like cybersecurity or customer support for any sector.

Youre seeing these cloud service providers pursuing both vertical strategies as well as horizontal strategies simultaneously, in order to hit different market segments, says Raymond.

ACI Worldwide operates with a hybrid cloud strategy, due to the nature of the payment system companys business. It has generative AI production products running in Microsoft Azure and AWS, with Google still in the early days.

Chief Technology Officer Abe Kuruvilla says the company recently rolled out Microsofts AI-powered chatbot, partly because it would be easy to deploy, but also due to the fact that it was part of ACIs existing license. Its fairly cost-effective, says Kuruvilla. You can see each of these providers doing add-on services for incremental costs.

But hes wary of overspending. Kuruvilla says businesses need to keenly monitor some of their AI spend and ensure the return on investment and productivity gains are clear. ACI is currently testing out Copilot for Microsoft 365 and expects to make a decision on it by June. But the per-user cost will be a factor in where it may be deployed.

We are piloting that; we have a couple hundred people using it and continuing to receive feedback, says Kuruvilla. More importantly, we are monitoring utilization.

View post:
Tech leaders crave 'peace of mind' with AI in the cloud - Fortune

Read More..

27500 ‘hidden’ near-Earth asteroids discovered using Google cloud – Earth.com

A remarkable collaboration between astronomers, data scientists, and Google Cloud has uncovered a staggering 27,500 previously unseen asteroids. Many of these space rocks lurk surprisingly close to our own planet. The discovered asteroids mark a significant advancement in our understanding of the solar system, paving the way for a more comprehensive planetary defense strategy.

Pinpointing asteroids in the vast cosmic expanse is a complex challenge.These celestial objects are often small and dim, making them difficult to distinguish against the tapestry of stars.

Their subtle movements require careful tracking over time. Additionally, other celestial phenomena can mimic the appearance of asteroids, necessitating further analysis for confirmation.

Traditional observation methods rely on powerful telescopes and extended observation periods.Astronomers must meticulously scan the night sky in search of faint points of light that may represent asteroids. This process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, requiring significant resources and expert analysis.

Failing to detect even a relatively small asteroid carries substantial risk.An impact from an undetected asteroid can have significant consequences, potentially causing widespread damage or even regional devastation depending on its size and trajectory.

This underscores the importance of ongoing efforts to locate and track asteroids, especially those with orbits that put them on a potential collision course with Earth.

THOR (Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery) is an innovative algorithm developed by the B612 Foundations Asteroid Institute.It is a specialized software system designed to efficiently analyze massive amounts of astronomical data, searching for the telltale signs of asteroid activity.

THOR meticulously examines vast archives of astronomical images.Instead of relying solely on new telescope observations, THOR leverages the wealth of existing data, uncovering asteroids that may have been overlooked in prior analyses.

The algorithm possesses the ability to pinpoint and track potential asteroids with a remarkably high degree of accuracy. This accuracy allows astronomers to distinguish asteroid candidates from other celestial objects with greater confidence.

Moreover, THOR excels in efficiency.A key advantage of THOR is its ability to determine whether a moving point of light represents an asteroid within our solar system using only a limited number of observations. This minimizes the need for extensive follow-up observations, saving valuable time and telescope resources.

Google Clouds vast resources empowered THORs breakthrough.The sheer computational power provided by Google Cloud was essential for THORs success. Processing huge datasets and running complex algorithms requires significant processing capacity.

This is an example of what is possible, says Massimo Mascaro, a technical director for Google Clouds office of the CTO.Mascaros statement emphasizes the transformative potential of cloud computing in scientific research. It opens up possibilities that were previously limited by computational constraints.

THORs analysis of 1.7 billion points of light is a testament to cloud capabilities.The ability to sift through such a massive dataset within weeks showcases the speed and scalability cloud computing offers.

Without the resources of cloud computing, meticulously analyzing the NOIRLab image archive would likely have taken significantly longer potentially years. This delay could hinder timely asteroid discovery and impede the development of planetary defense strategies.

This is the key to protecting the Earth from being hit by asteroids: knowing where all these are, emphasizes Dr. Ed Lu, former NASA astronaut and executive director of the Asteroid Institute.

The discovery of previously hidden asteroids marks a major advancement in mapping our solar system.Each identified asteroid adds a crucial piece to the cosmic puzzle, providing us with a more complete understanding of the objects and potential dangers within our solar neighborhood.

A comprehensive map is essential for proactive planetary defense.Knowing the location and trajectories of asteroids is fundamental to identifying potential threats to Earth. With accurate mapping, scientists can calculate collision probabilities and develop early warning systems.

Additionally, mapping enables the development of deflection strategies.If we detect an asteroid on a collision course, a detailed map of the solar system will be crucial for planning any necessary deflection missions.

This could involve strategies such as nudging the asteroid off course with a spacecraft or altering its surface properties to change its trajectory.

This successful endeavor demonstrates the tremendous potential of combining traditional astronomy with the power of data science, cloud computing, and cutting-edge analysis tools.

The B612 Foundation is already exploring ways to integrate Googles advanced AI technologies into THORs operation. This could potentially revolutionize the process even further, automating the verification of asteroid candidates and making large-scale asteroid discovery incredibly efficient.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, soon to become operational in Chile, will flood the astronomical world with new data. Scientists are eager to adapt the THOR algorithm to tackle this unprecedented influx of information, accelerating our efforts to chart the solar system and proactively protect our home planet.

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

See the article here:
27500 'hidden' near-Earth asteroids discovered using Google cloud - Earth.com

Read More..

Utilizing Your VMware Migration to Redesign Your Infrastructure – ITPro Today

You've chosen to migrate from VMware. Now you need to decide exactly how to do it.

One approach is simply to migrate to an alternative platform that lets you run virtual machines (VMs) in the same way you did with VMware, except using a different hypervisor.

Related: Guide to Migrating From VMware to Hyper-V

Another is to think more creatively by re-evaluating your entire infrastructure and workload strategy. This is more effort, but it may deliver greater value in the long run.

This article explores that latter VMware migration option. It explains why you might want to treat VMware migration as an opportunity to redesign your infrastructure strategy, and how to do it.

Related: How VMware's Controversial Product Changes Could Impact SMBs

To start, let's say a bit more about the two types of VMware migration options described above.

The first option is what you might call "mere migration." It involves simply taking the VMs you currently have running in VMware and moving them to a different hypervisor. You'd have to learn some new tools, and you might have to convert VMs to a different format. But you wouldn't be making major changes to the way your infrastructure is designed or how your workloads operate.

The other approach could be labeled infrastructure redesign. If you take this route, you don't simply lift and shift your VMs into a different hypervisor using the same type of infrastructure. You might instead move on-premises VMs into the cloud. Or you could evolve into a hybrid cloud model where some VMs run on-prem while others are hosted in the cloud, all the while being managed through a central control plane.

Redesigning your infrastructure as part of VMware requires more work than simply lifting and shifting VMs into a VMware-like platform, of course. So why would you opt for this route? The main reason is that it's a way to turn what would otherwise be an obligation into an opportunity.

If you're like many folks considering migrating away from VMware, you're probably doing so in a reactive instead of proactive way. You're concerned about what VMware's acquisition by Broadcom may mean for the VMware products and platforms you use, and so you feel forced to migrate to an alternative.

But what if, instead, you embraced VMware migration as a proactive way to improve the efficiency or scalability of your infrastructure? That's arguably the healthier approach to VMware migration. Businesses shouldn't view migration as a retreat from a platform they've used for years; they should envision it as an opportunity to build an even better infrastructure strategy.

Now that we've gone over why you might want to redesign your infrastructure architecture as part of a VMware migration process, let's talk about how you do that.

The first step is deciding which type of infrastructure architecture to migrate to. Do you want to get all of your VMs into the cloud so you no longer have to manage on-prem infrastructure? Is your goal to implement a hybrid cloud so you have more flexibility about where workloads run?

Or maybe you want to make an even bigger change, like refactoring your VM-based apps so they can run as microservices on a platform like Kubernetes which you could also deploy both on-prem or in the cloud, but which would give you more scalability than you'd get from conventional on-prem or cloud-based infrastructure.

Next, you need to acquire the actual infrastructure to support the new type of setup you intend to build. If you're moving into the public cloud, infrastructure acquisition may be as simple as deploying new VMs using a service such as Amazon EC2 or Azure Virtual Machines. Alternatively, if some or all of your workloads will remain on-prem, you'll want to make sure you have adequate servers to support them.

Before migrating workloads, you'll likely want to build a control plane that will allow you to manage your new environment in an efficient way. Ideally, the control plane will be centralized so that it can support all parts of your new architecture.

If you're shifting to a hybrid architecture, one way to implement a central control plane is using cloud vendors' hybrid cloud services, such as AWS Outposts or Azure Stack. An alternative is to adopt a third-party vendor offering like Nutanix NC2, which gives you a control plane that is not linked to a particular cloud platform.

Finally, move your actual workloads. The details of the migration process will vary depending on which new environment or infrastructure setup you're targeting, and migration can be a lot of work if you have to move each VM separately. However, it's likely that the vendor you've chosen to provide your control plane offers migration tools for moving VMware workloads into their platform, which can simplify migration in many cases.

Ultimately, migrating from VMware (or any platform, for that matter) shouldn't only address the challenges you face today. You should also think about your longer-term goals, and how migration can serve them. Treat migration as a way to add new value, not just keep doing what you were already doing.

About the author

Visit link:
Utilizing Your VMware Migration to Redesign Your Infrastructure - ITPro Today

Read More..