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Cloud is a dynamic technology, and enterprises need to be flexible to keep up.

But before they successfully adopt the latest trends in cloud computing -- ranging from containers to continuous monitoring -- enterprises first face a number of challenges. David Linthicum, a TechTarget contributor and SVP of Cloud Technology Partners, a cloud consultancy company in Boston, explores top cloud trends, their effect on enterprise IT teams and more in these five podcasts with cloud experts. Read on and tune in to know what to expect.

With the proliferation of cloud services, enterprises want to take advantage of new offerings and better prices at any time. Unfortunately, the more dependent an enterprise becomes on a particular cloud provider and its native services, the harder it is to move applications.

Lock-in risks are high in cloud -- not just with vendors but also with models. With a private cloud, enterprises can be locked into their own design, and in public cloud, they can become dependent on add-on services. Any type of lock-in will result in high prices, according to Marten Mickos, CEO at HackerOne, a provider of vulnerability tracking software.

Many believe one of the latest trends in cloud computing -- containers -- could reduce these lock-in risks through the promise of portability. Containers continue to rise in popularity because they can make it easier to move applications from one cloud platform to another. But there's a catch: Many of the cloud providers' container management services, such as Azure Container Service, Google Container Engine and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud Container Service, pose lock-in risks of their own.

"Docker and container management and orchestration solutions have made portability vastly easier, but as soon as you start availing yourself to the special services of whatever platform you're on, you're hooked," Linthicum says.

As public cloud adoption continues to rise, some enterprises question whether private cloud is dead. Others, however, believe that private cloud is alive and well, as certain compliance, cost and security requirements still fuel deployments.

Compliance is tricky, and certain requirements and standards restrict some enterprises to a private cloud. Others are reluctant to migrate to public cloud because of potentially higher costs and previous investments in an on-premises data center. In addition, there can be high costs associated with training and hiring staff to maintain a public cloud deployment.

"There is no magic button on the side of the server that you press that makes it suddenly cloud-capable. It's going to require software infrastructure, hardware infrastructure [and] operational skills," says Bernard Golden, CEO of Navica, a cloud consulting firm.

Before you make your final decision about migration -- either public or private -- review what applications you currently run and what you want to run in the future. If compliance is still an issue, consider hybrid or multicloud models.

Hacking is a growing threat and large businesses, such as Target and Home Depot, have been victims of malicious attacks. It is time for enterprises to go on the offensive and adopt ongoing monitoring and testing practices to ensure their data is secure.

"Hacking is a business now," says Zohar Alon, CEO and co-founder of Dome9 Security Ltd., a provider of cloud management as a service. "When the other side can benefit from it financially, [and] quite easily now with bitcoin, it's not surprising to see those [hacking businesses] emerge [and see] ransomware all over the place."

In addition, one of the latest trends in cloud computing is serverless architectures, which bring new security risks. Because of a serverless application's design, enterprises can't secure it with the same encryption or identity access management practices they are used to. To reduce risk, they should also ensures serverless functions don't have more permissions than they need, Alon says.

Once an enterprise runs applications in the cloud, they generally want those apps to keep running -- which is where backup and recovery come in. But some of the latest trends in cloud computing, such as the internet of things, increase the amount of data floating around. This has some IT teams rethinking their backup and recovery strategies to maintain availability in case of an outage.

For example, some enterprises have replaced strongly consistent databases, such as MySQL, with eventually consistent databases, such as Apache Cassandra, says Tarun Thakur, co-founder and CEO at Datos IO, a data protection software provider. These databases are more distributed in nature and can offer more scale.

Airlines such as Delta, JetBlue and United, experienced data center outages that affected operations. It is important to have a backup and recovery plan in place to prevent major disruptions as one system fails over to another. IT teams should learn from these high-profile outages -- namely, that, even as they adopt cloud and other new services, they shouldn't "compromise what is needed to keep ... applications and business running all the time," Thakur says.

Some of the latest trends in cloud computing -- such as hybrid and multicloud models -- have forced vendors to reevaluate their services and ask whether they meet enterprise needs. In many cases, the easiest way for them to fill out their portfolios is to partner with or acquire other companies.

A notable example of this is Amazon Web Services (AWS) and VMware, whose partnership enables VMware's software-defined data center software to run on AWS. Enterprises benefit from these deals because of simplified integration, but often in these situations, one vendor makes out better than the other.

"AWS gets to sit back and watch the meter go higher and lock in to more VMware install base and, perhaps, put in an advantage over what Microsoft can offer," says Dana Gardner, president and principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions.

In 2013, IBM acquired SoftLayer to strengthen its cloud platform. To differentiate itself from the top public cloud providers, IBM continues to focus its efforts on hybrid cloud, as well as machine learning, artificial intelligence and other higher-level services. With more cloud models and technologies, Linthicum and Gardner agree that we will continue to see more partnerships and acquisitions in the future.

Artificial intelligence services expand in public cloud

Consider Azure Functions for your serverless needs

Are enterprises ready for machine learning in cloud?

Original post:
Five podcasts to catch up on the latest trends in cloud computing - TechTarget

In a competitive market, two is better than one: Microsoft and Box have struck a deal to partner on cloud-computing technology, despite the fact that they are competitors, the companies announced on Tuesday.

Both Box and Microsoft, through its platform Azure, offer online storage services for customers. Box allows users to share and stash files such as documents, videos, or other types of data. Microsoft's Azure cloud-computing applications offer similar services and the company also provides a technical foundation companies like Box can use.

The two companies will work to integrate their products and sell combined services. What's more, Box will offer its products on Microsoft's cloud-computer service and will use Microsoft's artificial intelligence technology, Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie told The Wall Street Journal.

Under CEO Satya Nadella's leadership, Microsoft is working more with rivals instead of ignoring them. "This is an example of where Microsoft has really changed over the past three or four years," Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the company's cloud and enterprise group, told The Wall Street Journal.

Box has been working with Microsoft in other capacities -- a little more than a year ago, the two struck an agreement to make Box's tools run more smoothly with Microsoft Office. "We have to build the best brand," said Levie, who was Inc.'s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013. "And we have to develop our site around the enterprise. If you don't become the company that rallies developers in the ecosystem, you don't get to have the network effects."

See the rest here:
Microsoft Is Working With Its Rival to Power Up on Cloud Services - Inc.com

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The world recently witnessed the WannaCry attack. This threat is a wake-up call to everyone that the danger of cybercrime is exponential.

While we need to be ready to see global attacks of this nature increase, the technology that is required to combat these hazards exists now. From vulnerability detection and anti-virus, device and network monitoring, to management tools and data backup, businesses remain in a never-ending battle to stay current as these threats become more complex.

The key is to combine modern technology solutions,both preventative and reactive, so that protecting critical information systems and data is easily implemented and managed.

Estimates put the number of countries affected by the WannaCry strain of ransomware at more than 100, with Russias Interior Ministry and the UK National Health Service being seriously affected. Effective security tactics rely on two core concepts a focus on avoiding exposure and then forcefully responding and defeating the threat when it happens.

The key term here is when because new strains of ransomware will always be developed to exploit newly-discovered bugs.

Formulate and then implement a resolution so that the impact is minimal.With a single PC, this could be isolating the device from the network to inhibit the infection from spreading, followed by wiping the machine, re-imaging, and then restoring the files and folders.

For a large, disparate organisation, this may involve taking numerous machines offline to immediately reduce the risk of the virus spreading, identifying, and resolving problem endpoints, followed by performing an audit and taking action to ensure every portion is patched and protected.

The success of responding to and being prepared for an attack depends on controlling the situation. First, besure to have a continuous approach to patch management, using an RMM solution to automate delivery of the latest operating system on all devices.Utilize web filtering solutions that protect users visiting malicious sites.Deploy a continuously updated and current anti-virus (A/V) solution to all managed desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices.

In addition, adopt other security solutions based on your needs and inform your team on behavioural best practices. Lastly,implement a backup and recovery solution with anenterprise-grade file sync and share (FSS) solution which can be used to help quickly recover from an attack.

While the number of victims targeted across the globe continues to grow and ransomware becomes more sophisticated, there are ways to fight back. Stay updated, informed, and aware, and your organisation can avoid becoming the next prey for the cybercrime criminal.

See more here:
Why it is time to accept that cybercrime is a real danger - Cloud Tech