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IBM Gives AIX Some Of The Integration Spice Of IBM i – IT Jungle

April 17, 2017 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Sometimes I just have to laugh. One of the best things about the IBM i platform, and the thing that truly separates it aside from its sophisticated single memory storage architecture is the fact that it is an integrated system that is easy to deploy and even easier to administer. So many functions of the system are automated that companies that dont want to hire database experts can do a very good job of coding applications and running their business with far fewer techies than other platforms require.

The same has never been said of AIX, and it certainly cannot be said of Linux when it comes to running traditional transaction processing systems. (Although I definitely concede that new container-based application systems running with Docker containers on top of Linux go a long way toward automating and securing the entire application workflow from development to testing to deployment to tweaking to redeployment to eventual retirement.) Companies deploying on AIX and Linux rarely assemble an entire application stack for transactional systems from a single vendor, although it can be done from IBM with the AIX stack coupled with PowerVM and PowerVC and DB2 and from Oracle with its eponymous Linux and database. We know that the Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution includes MySQL, MariaDB, and MongoDB, but that is not the same thing as getting enterprise-grade support for the databases that is comparable to the operating system and middleware stack that Red Hat has brilliantly and successfully assembled and turned into a multi-billion support business. Microsoft, of course, can sell you a complete stack with Windows Server, Hyper-V virtualization, SQL Server database, and Visual Studio development tools.

We got a chuckle out of an announcement that IBM made in conjunction with an AIX business partner called Vendita that essentially creates a Unix-based AS/400 style system on the four-socket Power Systems E850C system, which does not support IBM i just like its predecessor Power E850 system. The Power E850 was rolled out in May 2015 using Power8 processors and the Power E850C came out in October 2016 with some hardware and packaging enhancements and a focus on cloudy workloads but no Power8+ chip. (Technically, there has been no Power8+ chip, as we have discussed in the past.) In announcement letter 117-030, IBM is partnering up with Vendita, which is based in Toledo, Ohio, to make it easier to deploy and manage database servers running the combination of AIX and Oracle, which can be a might cranky at least by the integration standard of the OS/400 and IBM i platform.

The offering being resold by IBM puts a layer of software called the Database Cloud Server on top of a four-socket Power E850 system with anywhere from 24 to 48 Power8 cores running at 3.65 GHz and equipped with 512 GB minimum of main memory. The software stack includes AIX Enterprise Edition, the top-end PowerVM Enterprise Edition logical partitioning hypervisor, and Cloud PowerVC Manager, which is IBMs homegrown implementation of the OpenStack cloud controller for AIX, Linux, and sometimes IBM i environments. The key part of the Vendita software is called Master Automation Sequencer and it is used to provision and manage Oracle database management systems; the Vendita stack also includes add-ons to AIX that include the Git repository, the BASH shell scripting language, and the Python programming language that is popular these days for back end as well as front end stuff. The setup does not include licenses to Oracle databases themselves, so you have to buy them either through IBM or Oracle directly, and the flagship Oracle 12c Enterprise Edition is preferred.

This Vendita stack will be available from IBM starting April 21, and the sales pitch will be somewhat familiar to the IBM i faithful:

Yup. Thats an AS/400 approach and sales pitch if I ever saw one.

There are a few interesting things about this Vendita deal. First, it doesnt support DB2 or Informix, the two databases sold by Big Blue itself. The latter not being supported by Vendita is not much of a surprise, considering IBM has not done much with Informix since it acquired it years ago and particularly since there are rumors that IBM will soon announce the end of life of Informix products. (We cant vouch for these rumors.) If IBM was going to resell the Vendita stack, you would think it would wait until it had a DB2 variant out the door first, but perhaps it cannot wait and perhaps the market has told IBM that what it really wants is Oracle on the database.

The second peculiar thing relates to the cost and the value of such integration of the database and the automation. IBM has always been clear that this automation is worth something, and in fact worth a lot and therefore why IBM i platforms and their predecessors command a hefty premium over Windows and Linux stacks. (The gap is not always large, and sometimes it is absurdly huge, particularly with anything but the most modest Power Systems iron.) The funny bit here is that if you look at the list price for the Vendita tools on the Power E850C system, it is zero. Yup, IBM is giving it away, presumably with a reseller agreement. This, we think, sends precisely the wrong message. Clearly, the Vendita software has a cost and provides a value, and not outlining that makes it seem like it does not have a value at all. I was excited to actually see such pricing precisely because it would allow us to quantify the value of database integration and automation. But alas, no such luck.

What Vendita does say, and what we found particularly interesting, was that by using the management tools for Oracle databases that it has created, customers who might otherwise have to buy Oracles Real Application Clusters (RAC) database clustering can get by using logical partitions and its tools on PowerVM, and adds that if you take into account the cost of onsite startup and provisioning consulting and licensing of separate storage servers for Oracle database engines, then customers might shave as much as 25 percent off the cost of an Oracle deployment.

That sounds like a pretty good reason to try to do the same thing with DB2 on AIX and Linux to us. It also sounds like IBM can make the same case with the actually integrated IBM i platform, and as we have said time and again, we surely do wish IBM was pitching the Power E850 and then the Power E850C as an IBM i platform rather than making customers choose between a high-end two-socket Power S824 and a four-socket (and much more expensive) Power E870C. Such a box might not bring in a lot of new customers to the IBM i fold, but it sure might help keep a bunch of them there rather than being pushed to an Linux/Oracle or Windows/SQL Server platform by an upper management that probably doesnt know how to quantify the differences between the platforms.

And so, we say once again. What IBM i needs to do is prove that integration has a value one we all know is there and quantify it and show it. Hell, even brag about it a little.

The Deal The Power 850C Implies For IBM i Shops

Private Big Iron Power8 Clouds To Puff Up With IBM i

Sundry April Power Systems Announcements

Is There No Midrange In The IBM i Midrange?

Thoughts On The Power E850 And I/O Contraction

Power9 Gets Ready To Roll In Systems In 2017

Tags: Tags: AIX, IBM i, Linux

Secrets Of IBM i Magic Act Revealed

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Bitcoin Price Weekly Analysis BTC/USD Top Formed – NEWSBTC – newsBTC

Bitcoin price may have made a short-term top near $1240 against the US Dollar, but dips remain supported in BTC/USD in the near term.

Bitcoin price may have made a short-term top near $1240 against the US Dollar, but dips remain supported in BTC/USD in the near term.

There was a solid increase in Bitcoin price, as it moved above $1200 against the US Dollar. The price started an upside move, and broke a couple of resistance levels like $1160 and $1185 to set an uptrend. The best part was a close above the 100 simple moving average (H4) at $1165. Moreover, the price was also able to break the 1.618 extension of the last decline from the $1120 high to $889 low. It ignited a sharp upside move and the price moved above $1200.

A new monthly high was formed near $1239 from there the price started correcting lower. The price has corrected lower, and broken a bullish trend line at $1224 on the 4-hours chart. This is a short-term bearish sign, and may call for more losses. At the moment, the BTC/USD pair is trading near another bullish trend line at $1190. It is acting as a support along with the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $889 low to $1239 high.

Moreover, the 100 simple moving average (H4) at $1160 is waiting to act as a support if the price moves down further. In my view, the price is under a short-term correction mode, but remains supported as long as above $1165.

Looking at the technical indicators:

4-hours MACD The MACD is currently flat.

4-hours RSI (Relative Strength Index) The RSI is struggling to hold the 50 level.

Major Support Level $1160

Major Resistance Level $1220

Charts courtesy SimpleFX

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GDAX Bitcoin Price Briefly Crashes to US$0.06 after System Maintenance – newsBTC

It is evident glitches like these can occur at any given time.

It doesnt happen often bitcoin exchanges cause a massive price glitch. For some reason, the GDAX exchange briefly listed bitcoin at US$0.06 per BTC. This event occurred right after the exchange came back from scheduled maintenance. Luckily, this price drop did not affect global bitcoin trading all that much. During times like these, it is good such a problem occurs on a smaller exchange.

A lot of traders were surprised last night when looking at the GDAX bitcoin price chart. During a brief moment, the BTC/USD price dropped by 99.9%. Keeping in mind how this trade revolved around 100 BTC in volume, there was a brief panic among traders. As a result, bitcoin was valued at US$0.06 before returning to its normal price. A rather interesting event, to say the least.

It is worth noting GDAX had undergone scheduled maintenance just prior to this incident. However, rather than waiting for order books to be depopulated, market executions were resumed immediately after. That allows for traders to buy and sell bitcoin at unprecedented rates. In this case, those who scooped up bitcoin at US$0.06 will be more than pleased. None of the other bitcoin exchanges emulated this price behavior, though.

One thing to keep in mind is how this drop affects the weighted bitcoin average. A lot of websites use GDAX to compute futures index prices. Such a drop to US$0.06 messes up the index quite a bit, to say the least. As a result of the drop, the bitcoin price index briefly dipped to US$888.48. Unfortunately for BitMEX users, some positions have been liquidated in the process. The exchange will refund all affected users, though.

It is evident glitches like these can occur at any given time. It remains unclear why GDAX did not repopulate the order book before resuming trading, though. It is possible this is just a one-off event, although it is worth keeping an eye on moving forward. Futures exchanges using average prices for their index will be affected by these incidents if they ever occur again. Moreover, if this problem repeats itself, the bitcoin price may effectively go down as a result.

Header image courtesy of Shutterstock

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Bitcoin is Now Larger Than Some Fiat Currencies in Europe & Americas in Market Cap – CryptoCoinsNews

The user base and market cap of bitcoin are larger than most fiat currencies of small countries in Central America, Africa and Europe. The next step for bitcoin is to surpass the market cap of reserve currencies, to establish itself as the global currency used by mainstream users and general consumers.

The truth is, bitcoin as a technology is not capable of surpassing the value or user base of reserve currencies as of yet. Various scaling issues have to be addressed and solutions must be implemented. One of these solutions is Bitcoin Cores Segregated Witness. If both the on-chain capacity and two-layer solutions of bitcoin are expanded and improved, bitcoin will be able to compete with larger fiat and reserve currencies of the world.

Still, the bitcoin network has demonstrated a significant rate of growth in terms of market cap and user base. Most notably, Blockchain, a popular bitcoin wallet platform, recorded over 6 million new users in the past 12 months. Other competing wallet platforms such as Coinbase have also shown a rapid growth rate, with the Coinbase wallet platform serving over 6 million users.

Coinbase and Blockchain alone are currently serving nearly 20 million wallet users. Apart from these regular day-to-day users, there exists many investors in regulated bitcoin exchange and trading platforms such as BitFlyer, Bitfinex and Bitstamp that hold bitcoin as an investment.

According to an infographic provided by a user of a bitcoin online community, the userbase of bitcoin is larger than many countries including Norway and Finland. The market cap of bitcoin is higher than the majority of fiat currencies in the world. Bitcoin has a higher market cap than the currencies of the following countries:

Mongolia, Bolivia, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Laos, Sudan, Senegal, Nigeria and more. The full list of countries can be seen in the infographic shown below:

Bitcoin, as noted in Satoshi Nakamotos original white paper, was designed and introduced to operate as a peer to peer electronic cash system. Due to its high fees and relatively long confirmation times however, since 2015, bitcoin has begun to operate as digital gold. In order for bitcoin to appeal to the masses, it needs to be able to handle small payments that are cheap, secure and fast. In other words, for bitcoin to surpass the value of reserve currencies and obtain a massive user base, it has to refer back to Nakamotos original vision of bitcoin.

Technologically, bitcoin is not there yet. The open source development community of bitcoin is working toward adding a settlement layer on top of bitcoin so that it can operate as both digital gold and settlement network. Technologies like Segwit, Lightning and Tumblebit are all designed to add that second layer of infrastructure to handle small payments for day-to-day users.

In a way, the comparison digital currencies such as bitcoin to fiat currencies or reserve currencies that are actively utilized by their users on a daily basis could be incoherent. However, if bitcoin is used as a digital cash system as Nakamoto outlined in 2009 in the future, then this comparison could be more relevant.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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Welcome to the Future of CryptoCurrency – OneCoin OneLife

OneCoin OneLife Networks mission is to enable a global community of web users to take active part in using and improving new, cutting edge digital products and services. Aim to increase the quality of life of members using the ONE Ecosystem. To provide alternative and equal access to practical and relevant financial education to people worldwide. Ignite a Natural Financial Evolution. Invite opportunities for Economic Growth and create new market opportunities.

Note: OneCoin OneLife neither investment company, nor investment intermediary and do not sell any investment.

What is One?

OneCoin is one of the latest cryptocurrencies that has headquarters in Europe and carries out its operations worldwide. It heavily focuses and relies on the vital markets like Europe, Africa, India and other Asian countries, especially the southeastern region. The onecoin cryptocurrency has regional offices all over the global and its fast expansion is mainly due to its increasing number of traders. In fact, One aims to have over one million traders worldwide and issue approximately 2.1 billion coins in the system.

The founders of one coin digital currency believe that they have built much more than just an electronic currency. In order to make One unique and more successful than any of its peers, the founders have devised a whole new, comprehensive method that will help traders benefit from One as well as bring profits to the founders. The main components of OneCoin are as follows:

OneCoin are selling educational packages and give the MAs an opportunity to apply the knowledge about the cryptocurrency into practice by providing them some promotional tokens which give access to the mining pools but not guarantee that and how many coins will be received.

Tokens provided when activate the particular package are promotional ones and give the opportunity to IMAs to apply their knowledge about cryptocurrencies they have acquired from our online education into practice.

Remember: No one buys OneCoins or tokens. What is cryptocurrency?

Connect with a global family of more than 3.0 MILLION members

Mobile Application Builder

Future Plane: So What are you waiting for Register Now For Free Onelife onecoin Account.

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Cryptocurrency Market by Size, Share & Types – 2023

Select Country Afghanistan (+93) Albania (+355) Algeria (+213) American Samoa (+1684) Andorra (+376) Angola (+244) Anguilla (+1264) Antarctica (+0) Antigua and Barbuda (+1268) Argentina (+54) Armenia (+374) Aruba (+297) Australia (+61) Austria (+43) Azerbaijan (+994) Bahamas (+1242) Bahrain (+973) Bangladesh (+880) Barbados (+1246) Belarus (+375) Belgium (+32) Belize (+501) Benin (+229) Bermuda (+1441) Bhutan (+975) Bolivia (+591) Bosnia and Herzegovina (+387) Botswana (+267) Bouvet Island (+0) Brazil (+55) British Indian Ocean Territory (+246) Brunei Darussalam (+673) Bulgaria (+359) Burkina Faso (+226) Burundi (+257) Cambodia (+855) Cameroon (+237) Canada (+1) Cape Verde (+238) Cayman Islands (+1345) Central African Republic (+236) Chad (+235) Chile (+56) China (+86) Christmas Island (+61) Cocos (Keeling) Islands (+672) Colombia (+57) Comoros (+269) Congo (+242) Congo, the Democratic Republic of the (+242) Cook Islands (+682) Costa Rica (+506) Cote D'Ivoire (+225) Croatia (+385) Cuba (+53) Cyprus (+357) Czech Republic (+420) Denmark (+45) Djibouti (+253) Dominica (+1767) Dominican Republic (+1809) Ecuador (+593) Egypt (+20) El Salvador (+503) Equatorial Guinea (+240) Eritrea (+291) Estonia (+372) Ethiopia (+251) Falkland Islands (Malvinas) (+500) Faroe Islands (+298) Fiji (+679) Finland (+358) France (+33) French Guiana (+594) French Polynesia (+689) French Southern Territories (+0) Gabon (+241) Gambia (+220) Georgia (+995) Germany (+49) Ghana (+233) Gibraltar (+350) Greece (+30) Greenland (+299) Grenada (+1473) Guadeloupe (+590) Guam (+1671) Guatemala (+502) Guinea (+224) Guinea-Bissau (+245) Guyana (+592) Haiti (+509) Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands (+0) Holy See (Vatican City State) (+39) Honduras (+504) Hong Kong (+852) Hungary (+36) Iceland (+354) India (+91) Indonesia (+62) Iran, Islamic Republic of (+98) Iraq (+964) Ireland (+353) Israel (+972) Italy (+39) Jamaica (+1876) Japan (+81) Jordan (+962) Kazakhstan (+7) Kenya (+254) Kiribati (+686) Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (+850) Korea, Republic of (+82) Kuwait (+965) Kyrgyzstan (+996) Lao People's Democratic Republic (+856) Latvia (+371) Lebanon (+961) Lesotho (+266) Liberia (+231) Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (+218) Liechtenstein (+423) Lithuania (+370) Luxembourg (+352) Macao (+853) Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of (+389) Madagascar (+261) Malawi (+265) Malaysia (+60) Maldives (+960) Mali (+223) Malta (+356) Marshall Islands (+692) Martinique (+596) Mauritania (+222) Mauritius (+230) Mayotte (+269) Mexico (+52) Micronesia, Federated States of (+691) Moldova, Republic of (+373) Monaco (+377) Mongolia (+976) Montserrat (+1664) Morocco (+212) Mozambique (+258) Myanmar (+95) Namibia (+264) Nauru (+674) Nepal (+977) Netherlands (+31) Netherlands Antilles (+599) New Caledonia (+687) New Zealand (+64) Nicaragua (+505) Niger (+227) Nigeria (+234) Niue (+683) Norfolk Island (+672) Northern Mariana Islands (+1670) Norway (+47) Oman (+968) Pakistan (+92) Palau (+680) Palestinian Territory, Occupied (+970) Panama (+507) Papua New Guinea (+675) Paraguay (+595) Peru (+51) Philippines (+63) Pitcairn (+0) Poland (+48) Portugal (+351) Puerto Rico (+1787) Qatar (+974) Reunion (+262) Romania (+40) Russian Federation (+70) Rwanda (+250) Saint Helena (+290) Saint Kitts and Nevis (+1869) Saint Lucia (+1758) Saint Pierre and Miquelon (+508) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (+1784) Samoa (+684) San Marino (+378) Sao Tome and Principe (+239) Saudi Arabia (+966) Senegal (+221) Serbia and Montenegro (+381) Seychelles (+248) Sierra Leone (+232) Singapore (+65) Slovakia (+421) Slovenia (+386) Solomon Islands (+677) Somalia (+252) South Africa (+27) South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (+0) Spain (+34) Sri Lanka (+94) Sudan (+249) Suriname (+597) Svalbard and Jan Mayen (+47) Swaziland (+268) Sweden (+46) Switzerland (+41) Syrian Arab Republic (+963) Taiwan, Province of China (+886) Tajikistan (+992) Tanzania, United Republic of (+255) Thailand (+66) Timor-Leste (+670) Togo (+228) Tokelau (+690) Tonga (+676) Trinidad and Tobago (+1868) Tunisia (+216) Turkey (+90) Turkmenistan (+7370) Turks and Caicos Islands (+1649) Tuvalu (+688) Uganda (+256) Ukraine (+380) United Arab Emirates (+971) United Kingdom (+44) United States (+1) United States Minor Outlying Islands (+1) Uruguay (+598) Uzbekistan (+998) Vanuatu (+678) Venezuela (+58) Viet Nam (+84) Virgin Islands, British (+1284) Virgin Islands, U.S. (+1340) Wallis and Futuna (+681) Western Sahara (+212) Yemen (+967) Zambia (+260) Zimbabwe (+263)

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Dataguise Strengthens Sensitive Data Governance in the Cloud with Support for Google Cloud Storage – insideBIGDATA

Dataguise, a leader in sensitive data governance, announced that DgSecure Detect now supports sensitive data detection on Google Cloud Storage (GCS). Integration with GCS extends the range of platforms supported by DgSecure Detect, which helps data-driven enterprises move to the cloud with confidence by providing precise sensitive data detection across the enterprise, both on premises and in the cloud. With DgSecure Detect, organizations can leverage Googles powerful, simple, and cost-effective object storage service with a complete understanding of where sensitive data is locatedan important first step to ensuring data protection and privacy compliance.

DgSecure Detect discovers, counts, and reports on sensitive data assets in real time within the unified object-based storage of GCS. The highly scalable, resilient, and customizable solution precisely identifies and summarizes the location of this data, down to the element level. DgSecure allows organizations to comb through structured, semi-structured, or unstructured content to find any data deemed sensitive by the organization. The range of sensitive data that is discoverable by DgSecure Detect is nearly unlimited using the solutions custom sensitive data type definition capabilities.

Sensitive Data Detection Capabilities for Google Cloud Storage:

These new capabilities enable enterprises from a range of industriesincluding finance, insurance, healthcare, government, technology and retailto gain accurate insight on where sensitive data resides in GCS so it can be protected properly. DgSecure helps organizations comply with regulatory mandates for PII, PHI, and PCI data, such as the European Unions General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and other data privacy and data residency laws.

With support for GCS, Dataguise provides broad cross-platform support of sensitive data detection within the industrys most popular data repositories and platforms, both on premises and in the cloud, said JT Sison, VP, Marketing and Business Development, Dataguise. Demonstration of DgSecure Detect at Google Cloud Next will be the first public display of the technology, and we invite attendees to meet with Dataguise and Google regarding this innovative solution.

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Cloud Adoption Datamation – Datamation – Datamation

For individuals, deciding to use a cloud computing service often requires nothing more than signing up with an email address. For enterprises, however, cloud adoption can be a much more complicated process.

In any organization, a number of key groups will be involved in the cloud adoption process: business managers, the CIO and other executives, IT program managers, solutions architects, application developers, IT security staff, IT operations personnel and many others. Those people all have different perspectives, and getting them all to agree can be challenging, to say the least.

Before they fully embrace cloud computing, those key stakeholders need to have a thorough understanding of the potential business benefits and risks. They should examine how other organizations in their industry are leveraging the cloud, and they need to conduct a thorough business analysis to make sure that it makes sense for them from a financisal perspective. They need to learn about the technologies involved and make vendor, product and service choices that make sense for them. They need to consider their current IT landscape and decide which parts to change and which parts to leave as they are. And they need to make sure they are following best practices to maximize their chances of success.

Its a complicated process with a lot of moving parts, but organizations need to move very quickly if they want to keep up with their competitors.

By most estimates, cloud adoption is skyrocketing. According toIDC, spending on public cloud computing alone will likely increase 24.4 percent in 2017 to reach $122.5 billion. And the same firm forecasts that spending on private cloud infrastructure will grow 16.6 percent this year.

Many, many different vendors have published studies showing that somewhere between 90 and 100 percent of enterprises now use at least one cloud service. And most of those organizations are increasing their use of the cloud over time. The Skyhigh Cloud Adoption and Risk Report for the fourth quarter of 2016 found that the average organization now uses 1, 427 different cloud services, a 23.7 percent year-over year increase. It said, "The average employee actively uses 36 cloud services at work, including nine collaboration services, six file sharing services, and five content sharing services (e.g. YouTube, Flickr, etc.)."

Source: Skyhigh Cloud Adoption and Risk Report Q4 2016

The report also found that cloud adoption is more mature in some industries than in others. Not surprisingly, technology companies use the most cloud services 2.033 on average. Manufacturing (1,837 services), business services (1,771 services) and energy companies (1,587 services) also use many different cloud services, while the typical government agency accesses just 944.

Source: Skyhigh Cloud Adoption and Risk Report Q4 2016

And some types of applications are better candidates for cloud migration than others. For 2017, the reports suggests that analytics, data storage and data management are some of organization's highest cloud adoption priorities.

Overall, the clear trend is toward more cloud usage, and enterprises that delay cloud adoption or move too slowly run the risk of missing out on the benefits enjoyed by their competitors.

From a business perspective, organizations that adopt cloud computing experience a number of benefits that could help them outperform the competition:

Although most organization determine that the potential benefits of cloud computing make it worthwhile, cloud adoption does carry some risks:

Once you have made the decision to move ahead with cloud adoption, experts recommend a number of best practices that offer the best chances for success:

Involve key stakeholders early. If your cloud adoption project is going to achieve the business that you hope to obtain, you need to get buy-in from key personnel early on. In many cases, that will mean involving the CIO and other C-level executives, as well as influential IT managers. It's also important to gather input from the people who will be using the cloud within your organization.

Make sure everyone involved understands the reasons and goals behind your cloud adoption. The cloud offers a number of different benefits. Make sure you clarify which benefits are most important to your organization and put that information in writing. If, for example, your company is primarily interested in increasing agility, you may make different decisions regarding cloud deployment models and vendors than if your key goal is improving availability while securing customer data. Having these goals written down will help keep everyone on track and give you useful criteria for measuring the success of your initiative.

Build a business case for your cloud adoption that includes TCO and ROI analysis. Before you get final approval to move ahead with your cloud project, you're probably going to need to provide management with a firm estimates about costs. Most cloud computing vendors have tools that can help you generate these numbers. In many cases, it will be helpful to do both a total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) analysis for the various vendors you are considering.

Determine which of your current applications are suitable for migration to the cloud. Most enterprises use a number of legacy applications, and not all of these applications will be suitable for migration to the cloud. Depending on their architecture, programming language and dependencies, it may be less expensive to continue running them on your existing systems, or you may want to consider replacing some with new cloud-based apps. Many organizations choose to start their cloud initiative not by migrating apps but with a brand-new app. This allows them to take a "cloud-first" approach to the design.

Analyze your security and compliance needs. Make sure that you understand the data protection steps necessary for your initial cloud project and any other applications you know that you want to run in the cloud in the future. You may find that it is necessary to take a hybrid cloud or multi-cloud approach in order to provide the level of security you need. Knowing that in the beginning can help you make better choices about which vendors and tools to use.

Define your governance structure."Shadow IT" is one of the biggest headaches associated with cloud computing. If they can, employees will begin using consumer-focused cloud services with or without the blessing of IT. Make sure you have procedures and technologies in place to assure the security of your data, applications and networks and to prevent staff from using services that could expose you to risk.

Begin with a pilot project.Rather than move all of your legacy applications to the cloud at once, most experts suggest that organizations start small. Deploying just one cloud-based service can give you a chance to learn from mistakes and help smooth the process of future rollouts. Often, enterprises begin by moving their development and testing environments to the cloud before they deploy any cloud-based applications in production.

Select and test technologies meant to simplify the cloud adoption process.Vendors offer a host of tools and services that can make it easier to create new cloud-based applications or to migrate your legacy applications to the cloud. Investigate tools that might sense for your needs, keeping in mind the overall goals of your cloud adoption project.

Scale your cloud adoption efforts.Once you have completed a successful pilot project, it's time to take what you learned and apply it to more use cases. After they begin their cloud adoption process, organizations often find that it is economical to use the cloud for more applications than they had originally intended.

Many different vendors offer cloud adoption, management and migration services. Some of the better-known enterprise vendors include the following:

To learn more about cloud adoption, check out the following resources:

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Alphabet’s Verily shows off health-focused smartwatch – Ars Technica UK

Alphabet's Life Sciences division, called Verily, is giving the world a peek at its health-focused smartwatch. The Google sister company introduced the "Verily Study Watch" on its blog today, calling it an "investigational device" that aims to "passively capture health data" for medical studies.

Many wearables technically capture health data with simple heart-rate sensors, but Verily's watch aims to be a real medical device.The blog post saysthe devicecan track"relevant signals for studies spanning cardiovascular, movement disorders, and other areas." The Study Watch does this by usingelectrocardiography(ECG) and by measuringelectrodermal activity and inertial movements.

The Study Watch beams this datato Verily's cloud infrastructure for all sorts of big-data analysis. Study Watch seems to be the Verily hardware platform of the future, with the company saying the watch will be used in several studies being run by Verily and its partners. The company specifically said the watch would be used in "Baseline Study," a Verily project that aims to measure what a healthy human looks like, and the "Personalized Parkinson's Project."

With the goal of Study Watch to be an unobtrusiveway to collect medical data, battery life is a concern. Verily promises "a long battery life of up to one week" for the device. The "always-on" display seems to be e-ink, which ispractically a requirement for any watch with a week-long battery life. Verily alsogave the watch enough storage to keep "weeks' worth of raw data" encrypted on the device, removing the need to frequently sync with cloud servers. There also isn't much in the way of user features: Study Watch displays the time and date, and that's it for now. The watch is capable of getting over-the-air software updates, though, so the interface might change.

There's no word on price, as the Study Watch is "not for sale." It's just something that will be given out to participants in Verily's medical studies.

This post originated on Ars Technica

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Ranking the best encryption apps for journalists – IJNet (blog)


IJNet (blog)
Ranking the best encryption apps for journalists
IJNet (blog)
As journalists increasingly see the need to keep communications private, many are turning to apps that enable encrypted messaging. But how do you know if the app you chose actually does the job? We share some advice about key features from staff ...

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