Global Cloud Computing in Automotive Market 2020 Industry (Covid-19 Impact) Size, Share, Trend and Forecast 2025: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft…

Posted on by

Cloud Computing in Automotive Market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, geography, end-users, applications, market share, COVID-19 analysis, and forecast 2020-2025. The predictions estimated in the market report have been resulted in using proven research techniques, methodologies, and assumptions. This Cloud Computing in Automotive market report states the market overview, historical data along with size, growth, share, demand, and revenue of the global industry.

Global Cloud Computing in Automotive Market study with 100+ market data Tables, Pie Chat, Graphs & Figures is now released by Adroit Market Research. The report presents a complete assessment of the Market covering future trends, current growth factors, attentive opinions, facts and industry-validated market data forecast until 2025.

Get sample copy of Cloud Computing in Automotive Market [emailprotected] https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/981

The research report on Cloud Computing in Automotive Market provides a comprehensive analysis of the market status and development trend, including types, applications, growth, opportunities, rising technology, competitive landscape and product offerings of key players. Cloud Computing in Automotive Market report covers the present and past market scenarios, market development patterns, and is likely to proceed with a continuing development over the forecast period. Cloud Computing in Automotive Market report provides in-depth statistics and analysis available on the market status of the Cloud Computing in Automotive key players and is a valuable method of obtaining guidance and direction for companies and business enterprise insider considering the Cloud Computing in Automotive market. It contains the analysis of drivers, challenges, and restraints impacting the industry.

Top Leading Key Players are:Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform

Read complete report with TOC at: https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/industry-reports/cloud-computing-in-automotive-market

The segmentation chapter allows readers to understand aspects of the Global Cloud Computing in Automotive Market such as types, available technologies, and applications. These chapters are written in a way that describes years of development and the process that will take place in the next few years. The research report also provides insightful information on new trends that are likely to define the progress of these segments over the next few years.

Global Cloud Computing in Automotive market is segmented based by type, application and region.

Based on Type, the market has been segmented into:

Based on Application, the market has been segmented into:

Regional and Country- level Analysis Cloud Computing in Automotive market of different geographical areas are studied deeply and an economical scenario has been offered to support new entrants, leading market players, and investors to regulate emerging economies. The top producers and consumers focus on production, product capacity, value, consumption, growth opportunity, and market share in these key regions, covering

Cloud Computing in Automotive Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America Europe Asia-Pacific South America Middle East and Africa

Stakeholders Benefit:1. Analysis of emerging trends, and key market dynamics.2. Comprehensive analysis of products and segmentation.3. Competitive analysis and key strategies followed by the key players in the market.4. PEST and Poster analysis, and many more.5. COVID-19 Impact detailed analysis.

Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Ask to Our Industry Expert @ https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/981

About Us:Adroit Market Research is an India-based business analytics and consulting company. Our target audience is a wide range of corporations, manufacturing companies, product/technology development institutions and industry associations that require understanding of a markets size, key trends, participants and future outlook of an industry. We intend to become our clients knowledge partner and provide them with valuable market insights to help create opportunities that increase their revenues. We follow a code Explore, Learn and Transform. At our core, we are curious people who love to identify and understand industry patterns, create an insightful study around our findings and churn out money-making roadmaps.

Contact Us:Ryan JohnsonAccount Manager Global3131 McKinney Ave Ste 600, Dallas,TX 75204, U.S.APhone No.: USA: +1 972-362 -8199 / +91 9665341414

More:

Global Cloud Computing in Automotive Market 2020 Industry (Covid-19 Impact) Size, Share, Trend and Forecast 2025: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft...

Cloud Computing Market Worth $765.6 Billion By 2027 | Grand View Research Inc. – MENAFN.COM

Posted on by

(MENAFN - GetNews) As per the World Economic Forum, the fourth industrial revolution will be characterized by a fusion of technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet of things, and cloud computing. AI and cloud computing will complement each other along with IoT to improve technology and catalyze growth. Organizations across various verticals are proactively integrating cloud computing with these evolving technologies.

The globalcloud computing marketsize is expected to reach USD 765.6 billion by 2027 , expanding at a CAGR of 14.9%, according to a new study conducted by Grand View Research, Inc. Cloud services are being increasingly adopted by businesses, due to their cost-effectiveness, service-related flexibility and real-time service catering nature. It is also making its mark in medium and small enterprises and is experiencing more demand due to increasing number of these small-scale enterprises all over the world. Moreover, technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning will complement cloud services to boost the organizational growth across industries.

COVID-19 Effect

COVID-19 has affected the work culture in a big way. There is a general shift towards work from home culture due to lockdown situations all around and it has proved to be a novel boosting factor for the cloud computing market. Also, nowadays, companies are looking at cloud technology as something that can boost their efficiency while lowering their cost of running the business. Although these two factors have provided a big push to adoption of cloud computing, security issues are something that are considered an obstacle. With rising adoption of cloud services and work from culture, security issues have also increased and companies are striving towards reducing its occurrence and minimizing the losses. New technologies and firewalls are coming up to make online services safer and more secure, which will ensure healthy online environment for the businesses.

'Would you like/try a Free Sample Report Click the linkbelow: [To enable links contact MENAFN] ___________________________________________________________________________________________

At present, cloud services have been utilized across various industries and most of the organizations are relying on IT resources to conduct their day to day work. In fact, governments are also making a move towards cloud services and helping generate growth for the market. Some of the important sectors the cloud computing market caters to are:

Infusion of Big Data is something that is extremely important to foster market growth as it will lead to replacement of traditional data warehouses by cloud computing technology, due to their incapability to manage and analyze the volume, veracity and variety of Big Data. This will help in creating a good demand in the market, leading to higher growth rate.

Cloud computing market report highlights:

Inquiry Before Buying: [To enable links contact MENAFN] __________________________________________________________________________________________

Major Market Players:

Some Recent Developments:

Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report versions like North America, Europe, or Asia.

If you need specific information, which is not currently within the article, we will provide it to you as a part of customization.Explore the BI enabled intuitive market research database, Navigate with Grand View Compass, by Grand View Research, Inc.

Media Contact Company Name: Grand View Research, Inc. Contact Person: Sherry James, Corporate Sales Specialist - U.S.A. Email: Send Email Phone: 1-415-349-0058, Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Address: 201, Spear Street, 1100 City: San Francisco State: California Country: United States Website: [To enable links contact MENAFN]

MENAFN] alt="" width="1px" height="1px">

Follow this link:

Cloud Computing Market Worth $765.6 Billion By 2027 | Grand View Research Inc. - MENAFN.COM

Managing the Impact of Cloud Computing – The CPA Journal

Posted on by

Cloud computing is in the vanguard of a global digital transformation. This article looks at how to identify cloud computing opportunities and operationalize cloud activities. It also defines the stakeholders involved in the enterprises risk management strategy and shared responsibility model. Finally, the article provides advice on how to manage the disruption caused by the adoption of cloud computing.

***

A fourth Industrial Revolution is underway globally; a digital revolution driven by the rapid, wide-scale deployment of digital technologies, such as in high-speed mobile Internet capabilities, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. Cloud computing is at the vanguard of this transformation. As a result, organizations of all sizes, sectors, and geographies have substantially and rapidly increased their use of cloud computing. According to Gartner (2019), more than one-third of organizations see cloud investments as a top-three priority. The public cloud services market is projected to reach a staggering $266 billion in 2020.

One driver in this proliferation and widespread use of cloud computing is the current digital transformation. In a 2016 address, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella advanced this enduring description of digital transformation: becoming more engaged with their customers, empowering their employees, optimizing how they run their business operations and transforming the products and services they offer using digital content. Such benefits from a cloud computing perspective include managing and outsourcing costly and difficult-to-update and -manage in-house IT infrastructure; streamlining and scaling storage, software, and application support; increasing speed and processing; reducing costs. As a result, organizations of all sizes, geographies and sectors, including CPA firms and their clients, are developing their own private cloud or purchasing public cloud services from cloud service providers (CSP), such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS.

While such potential benefits are compelling, market intelligence reveals that cloud computing exacerbates risks and creates new and unexpected risks. For example, a cloud security breach exposed the names, addresses, and account details of as many as 14 million U.S.-based Verizon customers. In this context, one can only imagine the potential cloud-related cybersecurity breaches and service failures that may emerge from the unexpected disruption and rapid transformation to remote working caused by the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. On the one hand, workers unexpectedly transitioning to remote working have been enabled in part by cloud computing to immediately, rapidly, and seamlessly access necessary data, software, and applications. On the other hand, such an unanticipated disruption and rapid transformation has exacerbated existing risks and created new risks as workers access data from remote locations; for example, breaches in data confidentiality, unauthorized access, and system availability failures.

This disruptive cloud paradigm raises questions from the corporate boards, managers, regulators, and assurance providers concerning cloud strategy, performance, risks, and controls. Such questions include: the scope and location of cloud activities; the implications of dependency on a web of cloud solution provider (CSP) vendors; reputation, intellectual property, financial statement and market trust vulnerabilities; global jurisdiction regulatory compliance; as well as the adequacy of risk management, cybersecurity, audit, and change management. This article looks at cloud computing opportunities, risks, and resiliency strategies, including enterprise risk management, CPA firm assurance, and change management.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as a means for enabling on-demand access to shared pools of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage applications, services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released. In simple terms, the cloud is a massive cluster of super-sized servers housed in locations scattered around the globe (i.e., cloud farms). Cloud farms are operated by CSP vendors such as Amazon AWS; these vendors provide a range of hosting services.

Some organizations are adopting a cloud-first strategy for new systems or when replacing systems. Popular cloud deployment models include private clouds, public clouds, hybrid clouds, and community clouds;Exhibit 1defines each model. Popular CSP cloud services include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS);Exhibit 2defines each service. Pay-as-you-go (i.e., when customers are billed based on their levels of usage) is a popular pricing model.

Cloud Computing Services Deployment Models, per NIST

Three Primary Models of Cloud Services, per NIST

Cloud computing also changes organizations. According to Deloitte (2020), Executives extend the enterprise every time they use a cloud service, outsource a business process, or otherwise spread operations beyond the traditional four walls of their organization. In a cloud computing context, this extended enterprise creates a complex web of distributed, interconnected, and interdependent shared-responsibility participants, including employees (i.e., first party), customers (i.e., second party), vendors, and their hired subcontractors (i.e., third, fourth, and fifth parties).Exhibit 3depicts this web of extended relationships.

Extended Enterprise: Web of Data Sharing and Cloud Computing

The cloud also democratizes and decentralizes IT activitiesthat is, non-IT employees are capable of developing applications and given the authority to contract directly with CSPs outside of the centralized IT procurement process.

Cloud-driven changes, such as the following, also impact the CFO organization.

The cloud also exacerbates existing risks, creates new and unexpected risks, and stretches the limits of governance, risk management, cybersecurity, internal audit, assurance, and change management. For CPA firms and their clients, this cloud disruption requires a what-can-go-wrong analysis.

As far back as 2013, McKinsey warned, Large institutions, which have many types of sensitive information to protect and many cloud solutions to choose from, must balance potential benefits against, for instance, risks of breaches of data confidentiality, identity and access integrity, and system availability. More recently, IDC (2018) reported that 50% of security professionals spend most of their time securing the cloud. In 2019, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) advanced their top-11 cloud security threats.Exhibit 4presents the CSAs 11 threats.

Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Top 11 Threats to Cloud Computing (2019)

In spite of such warnings, recent cloud-breaches such as the following continue to emerge:

In 2019, Gartner advanced the following predictions concerning cloud security:

The wave of breaches suggests cloud computing is risky; exacerbating risks (i.e., known-knowns), creating new risks (unknown-knowns), and unforeseeable risks (unknown-unknowns). For example, consider the following service availability and cyber-risks associated with the geographic location of cloud servers a company is relying on:

Sector-level regulations will play an important role in contributing to addressing such risks. For example, a customized set of standards has been developed under the umbrella of the U.S. Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) to authorize the use of cloud services. HIPAA regulations that focus on governing cloud resources offered by a CSP are another sector example. The HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules establish important protections for individually identifiable health information when created, received, maintained, or transmitted by a HIPAA-covered entity or business associate (e.g., a CSP). For example, CSP-related SLAs should include provisions that address HIPAA-related requirements, including system availability and reliability; backup and data recovery; the manner in which data will be returned to customers after service use termination and security responsibility; and use, retention, and disclosure limitations.

Regulatory compliance alone will not suffice. To mitigate risk, an organization should conduct a holistic, enterprise-wide what-can-go-wrong analysis, including an analysis of cyber-security risks and a single-point-of-failure risk analysis associated with their cloud ecosystem. A what-can-go-wrong analysis posits the question: Are CPA firms and their clients prepared to respond to cloud risks?

Cloud computing disrupts organizations, calling into question its impact on governance, compliance, risk management, cybersecurity, audit and change management.

The KPMG Audit Committee Institute highlighted understanding technologys impactwith a reference to cloud computingas one of their seven items to consider for the audit committees 2020 agenda. In this context, an organization needs transparency into the nature, scope, and location of CSP vendors and the performance of their cloud activities. The board, senior management, and CPAs should ask the following questions:

While these questions may seem fundamental, market intelligence suggests that some organizations are unclear about the nature, scope, and locations of their cloud activities.

One reason for this is shadow IT activities. This refers to empowered employees scattered throughout the organization that are adopting cloud services under the radar of the IT department. According to Gartner, most organizations grossly understate the number of shadow IT applications already in use. A continuously updated inventory of the current state of organization-wide cloud activities is essential for conducting a holistic analysis of cloud performance and risk.

The linkage of objectives and risks is a foundational premise of enterprise risk management (ERM) frameworks. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines risk as effect of uncertainty on objectives. For cloud computing, such objectives may include privacy, availability, productivity, reliability, compliance, cost transparency, and cost savings. The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) ERM framework, Enterprise Risk Management Integrating Strategy with Performance,DNS:https://www.coso.org/Documents/2017-COSOERM-Integrating-with-Strategy-and-Performance-Executive-Summary.pdfmakes explicit the linkage of performance objectives and risk.

An ERM approach can also contribute to cyber-resiliency; the ability to rapidly and fully recovery from system failures and security breaches. In a 2020 financial service industry report, Thomson Reuters identified cyber-resiliency as a key regulatory risk, asserting that, senior individuals need to ensure cyber-risks are expressly included in the range of risks considered, and the board is prepared to discuss the actions taken to ensure all possible has been done to embed cyber-resilience throughout the firm. The organizations incident response plan, including plans for incident-handling and information-spilling response, should be an integral part of cyber-security policy and an ERM analysis. In summary, an ERM analysis that integrates cloud computing can contribute to cloud performance; managing cloud risk; rapid, timely, and proper incident response; change management; and resiliency.

An ERM analysis will also assist CPA firms and other assurance providers with identifying and assessing risks and controls, as well as the nature, timing, and extent of audit and attestation procedures selected.Exhibit 5presents an example of ERM analysis.

Sample Enterprise Risk Management (ERM): Cloud Risk Analysis

Cloud computing is disrupting CPA firms, their clients, and the traditional norms of the external audit and quality control. In its 20202021 Strategy Plan, the AICPA Auditing Standards Board (ASB) addressed this issue: Rapid developments in technologies are having a profound effect on audit and assurance engagements, including the use of automated tools and techniques and changes in how engagement teams are structured and interact. In Initiative D: Keep our standards relevant in a changing environment, the ASB commits to monitoring the use of innovative technologies and determining whether the standards in place for the acceptance of clients and service performance are appropriate.

Cloud computing impacts CPA assurance providers in a range of waysfor example, obtaining an understanding of the audit clients cloud environment; identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement (RMM); defining the role to be served by System Organization Control (SOC) reports; assessing the impact of the clients and the firms cloud computing activities on the firms compliance with GAAS Quality Control (QC) Standards.

Audit clients are increasingly moving some or all of their accounting systems and financial statement data to public clouds. This cloud transition introduces complexity, disruption, and risk.

For example, a cloud computing environment often integrates third-party CSPs and potentially fourth-party sub-contracted CSPs (Exhibit 3) into the clients accounting system and control environment. Such a complex web of CSPs results in shared responsibilities between the client and CSPs for financial accounting data, cybersecurity, internal controls over financial reporting (ICFR), service organizations control (SOC) reporting, and assurance services.

Such material changes to the control environment and accounting system require auditors to obtain an understanding of the companys environment and risks as a basis for assessing the risk of material misstatement (RMM) of the financial statements, as prescribed by PCAOB Auditing Standard (AS) 2110.

A prudent starting point for obtaining a preliminary understanding of a companys cloud environment and risks is the analysis of the inventory of audit client cloud activities, including the nature and extent of third- and fourth-party CSP vendors and any material changes in such arrangements during the period under audit. The audit client will be the primary source for obtaining an understanding of the current state of the cloud. Market intelligence suggests, however, that some organizations may not have an up-to-date current state analysis of its cloud activities. If documentation does not exist, this will impact (i.e., increase) RMM and may require additional audit procedures (e.g., walkthroughs), specialized cloud audit skills, and higher audit fees.

SOC for Service Organizations are internal control reports on the third-party services provided by an outsourcing service organization (e.g., CSP). AICPA SOC Reports are subject to standards AT-C section 320 and SSAE 18. The following SOC Reports are available in this category: SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, and SOC for Cybersecurity.Exhibit 6defines each report.

Exhibit 6 Types of AICPA SOC Reports

For audit clients with material cloud computing operations, the selection of report type, as well as the right to conduct such services will be based upon a range of factors, including the type of the assurance service and the audit clients cloud footprint, as well as the web of third- and fourth-party CSP vendors and shared control responsibility agreements and the terms of service-level agreements (SLA) with CSPs.

One of the six elements of the AICPA quality control (QC) standards deals with client acceptance and retention, requiring consideration of whether the CPA firm is competent to perform the engagement and has the capabilities, including time and resources, to do so. Another element is associated with human resources, requiring the CPA firm have sufficient personnel with the competence and capabilities to perform engagements in accordance with professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements. To comply with these QC audit standards in a cloud computing assurance engagement, CPA firms will need to assess the demand for, and timely availability of, the necessary specialized skills.

Another important element of the AICPA QC standards covers new client acceptance and retention of existing clients. Such QC considerations include the following:

A CPA firm will need to make selective changes to accept cloud computing-related engagements, such as training staff, securing subject experts, and protecting the privacy of client data accessed through the client and their CSP clouds and stored on the CPA firms clouds.

The emergence of cloud computing and the incipient digital transformation of business is having a profound impact on the traditional techniques and services provided by CPA firms. Organizations adopting or leveraging cloud computing should obtain a continuous update of their inventory of cloud activities, including the nature, scope, and locations of their cloud activities; conduct a holistic, enterprise-wide, what-can-go-wrong analysis, including cybersecurity risks and single-point-of-failure risks associated with their cloud ecosystem; and perform an analysis of cloud computing resiliency, including an ERM analysis of cloud performance, security risk, and change management risk. CPA firms adapting to digital disruption and transformation must obtain an understanding of the implications of cloud computing on their clients business and control environment; analyze risks of material misstatement and cybersecurity risks; assess cloud controls; and manage cloud-informed changes to the CPA firms QC processes and compliance.

Meredith Stein, CPA, leads the NIH Risk Management Program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Md. The views expressed are her own and do not necessarily represent the views of the NIH or the United States Government. She began her career with KPMG.

Vincent Campitelli, CPA, is a consultant to the office of the president of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Seattle, Wash., serving as an enterprise security specialist with a focus on cloud computing. He is formerly a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Steven Mezzio, PhD, CPA, CISA, CISSP, FSAI, is a professor of accounting and the executive director of the Center for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the Pace University Lubin School of Business. He is also a former partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Read this article:

Managing the Impact of Cloud Computing - The CPA Journal

What serverless computing enthusiasts like about serverless, and how they use it – ZDNet

Posted on by

What are serverless computing's most enthusiastic users getting out of the technology, and how are they getting there? They appreciate the ability to implement event-driven architecture, and to support their API deployments. However, they wish serverless had more portability, and would like to have greater local control of features and debugging tools.

These are some of the takeaways from the currentServerless Community Survey, coordinated by the tirelessJeremy Daly, hosted and posted on the GitHub site. In serverless computing, all back-end work such as scaling, capacity planning and maintenance operations is handled in an automated fashion, typically by a public cloud provider, so, in theory, all a developer has to worry about is writing or integrating code for the business problem. Of course, one can argue that the term "serverless" is off, since there is always a server somewhere doing something, but that's another discussion.

By its very nature, this survey is conducted among a self-selected group of serverless proponents, so its focus is on trends and preferences among those already well-ensconced within the serverless world. Accordingly, when asked about the maturity of their serverless efforts, 40% of the 582 respondents indicate their maturity level was "high," that they are "all in on serverless." Another 22% report their embrace is "medium," that they are "transitioning to serverless."

Amazon Web Services emerges as the far-and-away front-runner in this space, cited by 72% as their public cloud computing choice. Microsoft Azure follows at 18%, and Google Cloud Platform with 13%. Accordingly, 61% report employing AWS Lambda for Function as a Service, or FaaS, which, along with managed services, form the core of serverless. Another nine percent use Azure Functions.

The most positive aspect of serverless technology is its ability to enable deployment of event-driven architectures, as cited by 28% of respondents. Lowered cost of resources to build and support applications follows with 21%, as does the ability to quickly scale applications as needed (21%). The main issue respondents have with the technology is a relative lack of portability, cited by 23%. When asked to write in the features they feel are missing from today's serverless offerings, IT professionals provided a long wish list. The missing features leading the list include best practices, better debugging, cold-start management, greater ease of use, local development, and greater monitoring.

If anyone is wondering if serverless computing can be supported within private clouds, this survey puts to rest any of those lingering thoughts. Serverless is clearly a public cloud play. Close to half of those responding to the question on public versus private, 46%, report that a majority of their production workloads utilize serverless (either through FaaS or managed services) in a public cloud environment, but barely five percent indicate this is the case with on-premises environments. A majority, 73%, report absolutely no serverless workloads even touch their internal infrastructures.

The serverless proponents in this survey are a very busy and prolific bunch. Close to one-third of those responding to the question of volume, 29%, say they now have more than 100 serverless functions in production. The sweet spot, however, is still in the sub-100 range: 26% have between 11 to 50 serverless functions now running in production, and 21% have 50 to 100 instances.

While serverless is being applied to both greenfield and brownfield applications, IT professionals are more inclined to leave their existing legacy applications go for now, the survey also shows. Seventy-five percent answering this question say it is "very likely" their organizations will be building a greenfield serverless application in the next 12 months, versus 34% indicating this is the case for their brownfield applications.

Deploying REST APIs is cited as the most prevalent use case for serverless computing, as seen among close to half of respondents to the survey (47%). Supporting business logic is cited by 33%, as is single-page applications. Another 31% deploy serverless in support of their DevOps initiatives.

Survey data is available for download from the site as an Excel spreadsheet or in CSV format.

See the original post:

What serverless computing enthusiasts like about serverless, and how they use it - ZDNet

3 cloud computing stocks riding the hype wave – ForexLive

Posted on by

Mass gatherings were drastically reduced and working from homebecame the practice for quite a while now. Due to the coronavirus emergency, aheavier number of consumers rely on cloud computing services to get thingsdone. Cloud-based solutions are pumping up to provide the necessities of peoplefor remote collaborations, video and audio conferencing, online classes,gaming, and e-commerce amid the pandemic. Big data and cloud computing playcritical roles in the healthcare industry as the combat against the viruscontinues.

The immense demand in the cloud-computing space provided robustdevelopments in stock prices for this sector. Here are3 cloud computing stocksto watch out for.

MICROSOFT

Microsoft is a key player in the cloud infrastructure sector,contributing 18% market share from 16% last year. According to Microsoft CEOSatya Nadella, they move ahead of other cloud providers by having more datacenter regions, with Mexico and Spain being the recent additions. Last quarter,Microsoft gained 29%in intelligent cloud segment revenue to $12.3 billion. It has a $13.7 billion free cash flow in therecent quarter, increasing 25% year over year.

MSFT.US is up by 35% YTD, SimpleFX WebTrader

MSFT.US is moving above the 50-, 100-, and 200-day SMAs sinceApril. It increased by 1.16% on Thursday, touching a fresh new high at $216. Itis currently up by about 35% this year to date and climbed by 9.7% from thepast week.

NVIDIA

NVIDIA is not letting others get ahead easily. This multinationaltech giant delivers GPUs to well-known cloud providers, resulting in massivesales growth. Its data center revenue blew up to $2.99 billion this year fromonly $339 million in 2016. The total sales in this segment increased by 80%from the year earlier and reached a total of $1.14 billion in the Q1 FY2021.NVDA.US is trading at $415.09 as of writing and isup by over 70% thisyear to date.

NVDA.US is up by over 70% this year, SimpleFX WebTrader

The recent acquisition of Mellanox, a leading supplier of computernetwork products based on InfiniBand and Ethernet technology, will be a bigboost for NVIDIA's data center scope. With this, NVIDIA's expected Q2 revenueclimbs to about $3.65 billion.

ALIBABA

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd shares (BABA.US) reached a fresh 52-weekhigh on Thursday at $268.00. This is after Needham's Vincent Yu, an Alibaba analyst,revealed a "buy" rating with a target of $275.

According to Yu, Alicloud gains from gigantic shifts to the cloudby enterprises and government agencies. Alicloud is a market leader in Chinawith about 46% market share. The multinational tech company plans to allocate$28 billion over 3 years in cloud infrastructure.

Alibaba shares gain 20.62% YTD, SimpleFX WebTrader

Alibaba is also at the top of the e-commerce market with itsJuhuasuan and Taobao Deals attracting more consumers as a provider ofcompetitively priced goods. BABA.US has gained 20.62% this year to date and isup by 10% from the past week.

Want to trade the hottest stocks? Join us at SimpleFX's Summer Trading Cashback Promo andearn up to 2000 USDT cashback! Trade any of more than 170 instruments on July2-August 31 to qualify. The higher your trade volume on these dates, the higherrewards you collect.T&C apply. Give your trading plans a boost with up to 500x leverage. Thereare more reasons to trade this summer.Don't get left behind!

View post:

3 cloud computing stocks riding the hype wave - ForexLive

Coronavirus threat to global Good Growth Opportunities in Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) Market – Owned

Posted on by

Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) Marketreport covers the COVID 19 impact analysis on key drivers influencing market Growth, Opportunities, the Challenges and the Risks faced by key players and the Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) market as a whole. The complete profile of the worldwide top manufacturers like (Cloudflare, IBM Cloud, Oracle, Salesforce, Google, ServiceNow, Apache Stratos, Windows Azure, AWS, OpenShift, Plesk, Zoho Creator, Red Hat, VMware, SAP) is mentioned such as Capacity, Production, Price, Revenue, Cost, Gross, Gross Margin, Sales Volume, Sales Revenue, Consumption, Growth Rate, Import, Export, Supply, Future Strategies, and The Technological Developments that they are making are also included within this Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) market report. The historical data from 2012 to 2020 and forecast data from 2020 to 2026.

Get Free Sample PDF (including full TOC, Tables and Figures)of Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS)[emailprotected]https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=2643852

In-Depth Qualitative Analyses Include Identification And Investigation Of The Following Aspects: Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) Market Structure, Growth Drivers, Restraints and Challenges, Emerging Product Trends & Market Opportunities, Porters Fiver Forces.

Scope of Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) Market:Since the COVID-19 virus outbreak in December 2019, the disease has spread to almost 100 countries around the globe with the World Health Organization declaring it a public health emergency. The global impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are already starting to be felt, and will significantly affect the Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) market in 2020. COVID-19 can affect the global economy in three main ways: by directly affecting production and demand, by creating supply chain and market disruption, and by its financial impact on firms and financial markets. The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought effects on many aspects, like flight cancellations; travel bans and quarantines; restaurants closed; all indoor events restricted; over forty countries state of emergency declared; massive slowing of the supply chain; stock market volatility; falling business confidence, growing panic among the population, and uncertainty about future. This report also analyses the impact of Coronavirus COVID-19 on the Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) industry. Based on our recent survey, we have several different scenarios about the Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) YoY growth rate for 2020. The probable scenario is expected to grow by a xx% in 2020 and the revenue will be xx in 2020 from US$ xx million in 2019. The market size of Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) will reach xx in 2026, with a CAGR of xx% from 2020 to 2026. With industry-standard accuracy in analysis and high data integrity, the report makes a brilliant attempt to unveil key opportunities available in the global Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) market to help players in achieving a strong market position. Buyers of the report can access verified and reliable market forecasts, including those for the overall size of the global Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) market in terms of revenue.

On the basis on the end users/applications,this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, shipments, revenue (Million USD), price, and market share and growth rate foreach application.

Large Enterprises SMEs

On the basis of product type, this report displays the shipments, revenue (Million USD), price, and market share and growth rate of each type.

Video Communication Paas Cloud Telephony Paas Web and Mobile Optimization Others

Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Ask to Our Industry[emailprotected]https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=2643852

Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) Market Regional Analysis Covers:

The Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) Market Report Can Answer The Following Questions:

Contact:

ResearchMozMr.Rohit Bhisey,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email:sa[emailprotected]

Browse More Reports Visit @https://bit.ly/2Sepby2

View original post here:

Coronavirus threat to global Good Growth Opportunities in Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) Market - Owned

WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF: Explosive Growth And Solid Timing – Seeking Alpha

Posted on by

WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF (NASDAQ:WCLD) owns a diversified portfolio of companies with extraordinary growth rates and offering exposure to exponential opportunities over the long term. Cloud computing stocks were already thriving before the pandemic, and recent developments are accelerating the adoption of these technologies in many cases.

Cloud computing stocks are still expensive from a valuation perspective, but it is very hard to put a fair value estimate on companies benefiting from accelerating demand and abundant room for further growth. When the quality of the business is so good, the fair price is hard to assess.

WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF is in a strong uptrend, and it has recently pulled back from overbought levels. For investors with moderate risk tolerance who are looking to gain exposure to many of the most promising growth companies in the market, this could be a good entry point to start buying the cloud computing ETF in small size.

The cloud computing revolution is not only transforming the software industry, but it is also having a major impact across all areas of the economy and our lives. The transformative impact of the cloud still has enormous room for growth in the years ahead, and demand is even accelerating in many areas due to the pandemic.

Source: WisdomTree

The business model is exceptionally attractive. Companies in cloud software generate recurrent revenue, attractive growth rates, and huge gross profit margins. This combination of recurrent revenue from customers and abundant potential for long-term growth is practically impossible to find in other sectors.

Aggressive investments in R&D and marketing generally take a toll on operating margins, so most of these companies are reporting losses at the operating level on a GAAP basis. However, for investors who can look beyond the short-term numbers and into the long-term potential, this should be no reason to stay away from cloud stocks.

The table below shows the top 10 positions in WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF. These names account for nearly 30% of the portfolio, so the fund is well diversified.

Source: Seeking Alpha

Depending on the specific companies and their market niches, some of these names could be hurt by declining corporate spending during the pandemic and the recession. However, many of the companies in the portfolio also benefit from accelerating adoption for all kinds of cloud technologies in areas such as communications, productivity, digitalization, online content, and online commerce, to name a few examples.

In the words of Twilio (TWLO) CEO, Jeff Lawson, during the company's earnings conference call:

While we wouldn't have wished it this way, in many ways, Twilio was built for this. Our platform provides three things the world needs, digital engagement, software agility, and cloud scale. Technologies such as messaging, email, voice and video have enabled many parts of the economy to continue working, while keeping its participants safe. Moving quickly, building prototypes and iterating as our needs evolve has been critical for nearly every kind of organization. That's the essence of agility. And Twilio has enabled organizations to reimagine many of their communications workloads in days and weeks, not months and years.

The portfolio of WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF has a high proportion of relatively young companies in the software sector. This provides superior performance in terms of both revenue growth and gross profitability. Not only in comparison to the market in general and growth stocks, in particular, but also when measured against the larger and more mature software companies.

Source: WisdomTree

Source: WisdomTree

Looking at the price chart over the past several months, WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF has been in a strong uptrend, and it has pulled back considerably within that uptrend over the past three days. The ETF is nowhere near oversold, but it is not too overbought either at current prices, and the uptrend remains intact for the time being.

In order to assess the timing for an entry in WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF from a quantitative perspective, we can take look at the instrument through the ETF Timing Algorithm. This is a quantitative ranking system that places different ETFs in order based on momentum and trend indicators. The factors that go into the algorithm and their respective weightings are available below.

The algorithm looks for ETFs that are delivering consistently high momentum metrics across different time frames: The past 3 months, the 3 months periods 3 months ago, and so forth. Winners tend to keep on winning more often than not in the stock market, and there is plenty of statistical research proving that capitalizing on momentum can be a powerful strategy for superior returns.

However, the algorithm also gives a negative weight to one-month momentum. The main idea is looking for consistent strength across different timeframes but also giving a negative weight to short-term momentum in order to look for assets that are not too overextended in the short term.

The chart below shows the historical returns for ETFs in different ranking segments versus the 60/40 benchmark. ETFs with a high ranking tend to significantly outperform the benchmark, and there is a direct relationship between the ETF Timing ranking and performance.

Data from S&P Global via Portfolio123

WisdomTree Cloud Computing has a timing ranking above 98, meaning that the ETF is in the top 2% among thousands of ETFs ranked in the comparison. The instrument has unquestionable strength over different time periods, and it fits the description quite well if you are looking to buy assets in an uptrend but not too overbought in the short term.

Momentum is a double-edged sword, and assets that deliver big gains on the way up can many times be the same ones that deliver big losses on the way down. A position in WisdomTree Cloud Computing necessarily carries substantial volatility, for better or for worse.

The stocks in the portfolio are also relatively expensive when looking at traditional valuation ratios such as price to sales or enterprise value to EBITDA. Companies with superior growth prospects obviously deserve above-average valuations, and valuation ratios should always be assessed for each specific company in the context of other return drivers, considering not only the price tag but also the quality of the business.

However, it is fair to say that demanding valuations is a major risk factor for investors WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF. At these prices, there is not much room for error, and the stocks in the portfolio could suffer serious drawdowns if the companies fail to deliver in accordance with growth expectations.

Valuation risk cannot be avoided in these kinds of companies, but it makes sense to manage it via position size. Cloud computing stocks are generally very volatile, so you don't need to build big positions in these names in order to benefit from rising prices when they work out well.

It can make sense to consider buying WisdomTree Cloud Computing in a small size at these prices, always keeping some cash on the sidelines to buy more, in case there is any correction and valuations become more attractive.

It is important to keep in mind that risk is not only what you buy but also how much you buy. Having a moderately-sized exposure to a diversified group of high-growth stocks in the cloud computing segment makes a lot of sense when considering the potential reward versus the risk over the years ahead.

A subscription to The Data Driven Investor provides you with solid strategies to analyze the market environment, control portfolio risk, and select the best stocks and ETFs based on hard data. Our portfolios have outperformed the market by a considerable margin over time, and The Data Driven Investor has an average rating of 4.9 stars out of 5. Click here to get your free trial now, you have nothing to lose and a lot to win!

Performance as of July 14, 2020

Disclosure: I am/we are long FSLY, DOCU, TWLO, CRWD, PYPL, SQ, CRM. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Additional disclosure: I own several of the stocks in the WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF portfolio, and I may initiate a position in WCLD over the next 72 hours.

Here is the original post:

WisdomTree Cloud Computing ETF: Explosive Growth And Solid Timing - Seeking Alpha

Platform economy: Indian telecom operators opportunity to monetize the cloud business – ETTelecom.com

Posted on by

An interview with Ryan Perera, Vice President & Country Head, Ciena Communications, India.

What is the state of the Public Cloud market in India?

India is emerging as a key hub for public cloud-based services in Asia. Indias public cloud market is dominated by three webscale players: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Boston Consulting Group (BCG) values this market around USD$3 billion in 2020, and estimates the market to grow by 25% CAGR to USD$8 billion by 2023. In our perspective, Indias public cloud infrastructure includes regional data centres owned by webscale players, as well as more than 100 others distributed across the country, that are either network-neutral data centres or owned by telecom service providers.

Traditionally, webscale players have been dominating the public cloud service offerings in system infrastructure services (i.e. IaaS, including compute instances, storage databases, etc.), application infrastructure services (i.e. PaaS, including containers, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, etc.) and software services (i.e. SaaS for various applications). Now webscale players are expanding IaaS services coverage on networking solutions for enterprises (i.e. cloud VPN, accelerators, cloud SD-WAN, IoT, private LTE/5G, and multi-vendor network orchestration).

Webscale players forays into such networking and telco solutions are mainly driven by the promise of 5G. When I speak to customers and others in the industry, it is widely believed that the next battleground for webscale players is 5G. For example, Microsoft recently made their intentions clear with their acquisitions of Affirmed (vEPC, 5gc) and Metaswitch (vIMS). Google Cloud Platform announced their three-pronged telco strategy that focuses on monetising 5G edge computing solutions, reimagining the customer journey with data and AI, and subsequently helping operators improve internal operations efficiencies. Google Cloud Platform is also extending their Anthos hybrid multi-could platform to support telecom operators.

Telecom operators in India have also started their own telco cloud journey. Although these efforts initially were started to support their own internal network function virtualisation (NFV) initiatives, these operators now see a big opportunity to play a critical role in the delivery of cloud services in India as well.

What are the roles of webscale players and telecom operators in edge computing in India? As digital services for various vertical markets expand with applications where latency becomes critical for cloud computing services, it is only logical to also bring compute closer to where the data is generated. Hence were seeing a surge in interest for edge computing across the world, including in India. Indias leading edge use cases are likely to be media processing, telemedicine, video surveillance, manufacturing, and a myriad of immersive applications such as AR/VR and gaming.

All three leading webscale players have launched their edge solutions Azure Stack; AWS Outpost, Wavelength, Local Zone; Google Anthos which cover on-premises colocations with telecom operators and private zones. It is expected that many of these edge offerings could be commercially launched soon in India in partnerships with telecom operators.

Telecom operators are expected to enter into strategic partnerships with multiple webscale players. For these operators to deliver the low-latency services promised by 5G and edge computing, close partnerships with the webscale players will be needed, so they can monetise connectivity as a platform to broaden and enhance their competitive advantage.

What is the importance of the platform economy for Indias telecom operators?Despite massive capital investments in 3G and 4G, pressures on average revenue per user have resulted in no meaningful profitability returns to date. 3G and 4G deployments in India have instead been more about capturing and holding onto market share to later monetise. Fortunately, 5G promises to deliver more than just higher speed connectivity. This is pushing telecom operators towards reinvigorating a platform economy for the business ecosystem, to better monetise their investments. Bundling of services has not proven profitable during 3G and 4G eras, so rather than pursuing that as a strategy, you will see telecom service providers offering differentiated 5G services priced at different levels.

What role will fungible pools of distributed cloud computing play in Indias telecommunication ecosystem?

According to Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2019 by Stanford University, insatiable demands from both consumer and business sectors are doubling compute requirements in less than every 4 months. Therefore, compute processing and storage capacity can no longer keep up with Moores Law. Amidst this growth, Connect Networks are expected to play a more critical role than ever before to efficiently use compute processing resources. For example, tightly coupled distributed computing across a set of edge data centers in the metro network, with well-engineered connectivity, has the promise to deliver fungible pools of distributed cloud computing to meet webscale players edge cloud service capacity and performance metrics. This is good news for telecom operators, who can now enable the right type of connectivity for edge cloud service needs.

Telecom operators have a great opportunity to put their strengths to work by monetizing quality of experience in connect platforms by way of Network Slicing, coupled with new consumption and charging models.

While the concept behind network slicing is not new, it is to be understood as the ability to custom fit network connectivity to application needs over a common shared network. Recent technical advancements specifically the advent of Segment Routing (SR), cloud-based controllers and open platforms with APIs for webscale players and application providers to collaborate in a business ecosystem have made mass implementations of network slicing possible. For example, currently, a service provider might approach monetization as a single connectivity model simply based on speed, up-time, or both. In the future, this same service provider could enable a matrix of API driven platform slices to meet a few different application requirements and target quality of experience. The set of monetization options could be, as example, four slices and with on-demand or schedulable time windows.

Go here to see the original:

Platform economy: Indian telecom operators opportunity to monetize the cloud business - ETTelecom.com

Venture capital firms bank on a sustained shift to the cloud – Sydney Morning Herald

Posted on by

"If you look at SafetyCulture, Culture Amp, and Canva is probably the best example of it, they are all built on the cloud," he said. "A lot of these companies are seeing (the shift to the cloud) accelerate as a result of the coronavirus pandemic."

Meanwhile, Airtree Ventures partner James Cameron pointed to the growth of online cloud computing training provider A Cloud Guru, which reached $116 million in revenue this year, as a good example of how tech startups can make the most of the rush to the cloud.

A Cloud Guru teaches people how to use cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform and has taught two million users since launch in 2015.

"It really has been the right time and right place (for the business) to enjoy that explosive growth," Mr Cameron said.

"They are sitting at this mega trend and of the tailwinds they have got behind them one is online education and the second is the shift into digital reskilling, then there's also the shift in the general software development world to the cloud."

A Cloud Guru co-founder and chief executive Sam Kroonenburg said remote working has been a key catalyst for the shift to the cloud.

A Cloud Guru co-founder and chief executive Sam Kroonenburg. Credit:Eamon Gallagher

"I think the world has a mandate to move to the cloud and this is a major shift that is happening across the world globally," he said. "Companies are wanting to move away from managing their own infrastructure, they want to have the flexibility to send their workforce home and COVID-19 is just accelerating that trend."

Mr Kroonenburg said he expected this shift to continue even after the pandemic is over.

"It is a long term systemic change," he said.

Loading

Paul Bassat, co-founder of Square Peg, said migration to the cloud was one of the key themes the venture capital firm was focused on, pointing to its investments in Israeli data centre infrastructure startup Excelero and cloud storage infrastructure startup Lightfix.

"We are essentially seeing pretty much all businesses are going to move to the cloud, we are 20 to 30 per cent into that journey so there's still a long way to go here," he said.

More:

Venture capital firms bank on a sustained shift to the cloud - Sydney Morning Herald

IBM strikes multi-year alliance with EY; one goal is to boost Red Hat cloud – WRAL Tech Wire

Posted on by

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK Fresh off a partnership agreement with Verizon to push edge computing, 5G and more, Big Blue also has signed a deal with global professional services firm EY. A major goal is to help customers speed up digital transformation and also utilize Red Hat OpenShift in hybrid cloud computing.

NotedArvind Krishna, IBMs Chief Executive Officer:

Expanding this global alliance bolsters our ability to bring our hybrid cloud and AI capabilities to clients. The EY organization is a leader in driving large and complex client transformations. Combining EY teams breadth of industry and regulatory knowledge, technology capabilities and longstanding strategy and business consulting leadership, with IBMs powerful technology and Red Hat OpenShifts open hybrid cloud portfolio, will play a key role in accelerating our clients journeys to the cloud.

COVID-19 is driving IBM, IT industry to deliver faster edge computing

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal was announced Friday.

Carmine Di Sibio, EY Global Chairman and CEO, said the partnership is built on providing differentiating and transformational business value for clients. As organizations learn how to adapt to todays new normal, leveraging the cloud, AI, analytics and other technologies have become increasingly important. IBM is a proven leader in hybrid cloud and AI, and together were developing innovative solutions to help provide the sustainability and resiliency that assist clients to operate and lead today, and in the years to come, as they reframe their future amidst an unpredictable and rapidly evolving environment.

According to the announcement:

IBM owns Raleigh-based Red Hat and employs several thousand people across North Carolina.

IBM, Verizon team up for 5G effort aiming to accelerate business solutions

Read more:

IBM strikes multi-year alliance with EY; one goal is to boost Red Hat cloud - WRAL Tech Wire

Bennett University offers BCA Program focussed on Data science and Cloud computing skills – Times of India

Posted on by

World is experiencing changes across various facets of life personal and professional, at a speed never seen before. Everywhere we look we see that technology seems to be involved in most of our day to day activities. In such a scenario it becomes more important than ever to prepare the students for the future of work and fulfil their passion to excel in developing cutting edge computer applications. Bennett University believes that it can help many such aspiring students in moving ahead on the path of making their dreams come true. Hence the university has launched the Bachelors in Computer Application (BCA) Program with specializations in the most sought after fields BCA (Data Science) and BCA (Cloud Computing & Cyber Security), from the Academic year 2020-21.

Students will be doing three certifications out of Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, Data Science. Web Technologies and Artificial Intelligence. With one certification each year, students will be ready to jump to work for the industry without any additional training requirements from the Industry.

Key focus of the program will be Industry ready curriculum with special focus on Futuristic technologies combined with core skills. Lot of emphasis is being given to change the adoption curve of new technologies, so that students can match with the skills required by the employers. Bennett University aims to be the educating and equipping students to become the Most preferred potential employees for any corporate.

The key to choosing these specializations and the skills that they will give to the students is that these skills are not just limited to IT industry, when it comes to work or jobs. Every company or industry that deals with Data now or in the future will always need the experts in Data Science to churn their data to give the critical insights that would define and re-define the businesses.

Similarly as we look around every or any corporate or industry seems to be moving to usage of Cloud storage and thus every company or industry that has IT usage will need experts in the field of Cloud technology and Cyber Security because where there is huge amounts of data there is always the risk of security of the Data. Data is the true treasure of any company or Industry and hence Data security is Critical.

Early adoption of technology will be one of the key Mantra which is being facilitated through Professional Certifications which has been integrated with the regular curriculum. Computer Science and Engineering Department is known for its world class faculty and enabling dream jobs for the students. Industry and Corporates have set up various Center of Excellence in Bennett University, which makes it a landmark for prospective students. University has established Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Robotics and Automation, Cybersecurity to name a few. Customized trainings, workshops, hackathons, competitions, student clubs and CXO series gives a definitive edge to the overall personality of the student to flourish in their careers.

Customized skills will be the defining characteristics of the program, which means that every student matters to us and can have flexibility in choosing the electives as per her / his passion.

Disclaimer: Content Produced by Bennett University

Read more:

Bennett University offers BCA Program focussed on Data science and Cloud computing skills - Times of India

2 Top Tech Stocks to Buy During the 2020 Coronavirus Recession – Motley Fool

Posted on by

If you have a job or a steady income from other sources, it can be easy to sometimes forget the United States is in a recession. After all, you have money coming in and the S&P 500 index has largely, though not entirely, recovered from its steep drop that began in mid-February triggered by the worldwide spread of COVID-19. (In 2020, the S&P 500 has returned 0.9% through July 17.)

It's not wise, however, to bury your head in the sand to some hard facts. In the last couple of months, the U.S. unemployment rate has been higher than at any time since the Great Depression and the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening in this country. This is extremely troubling from several aspects, including an economic one.

Another stock market drop is entirely possible, if not likely, in my opinion. This does not mean that long-term investors should stop investing in the market. It's well-established the stock market is the best passive way to grow wealth over the long term. It does mean, however, you should be particularly selective.

One class of stocks that investors should currently favor are the stocks of larger and profitable companies in the broad technology realm.Two top companies in this sphere that should continue to thrive even if the economic environment worsens are e-commerce and cloud computing giant Amazon.comand graphics processing unit (GPU) leader NVIDIA.

Image source: Getty Images.

Company

Market Cap

Forward P/E

Projected Annualized5-Year EPS Growth*

YTD 2020 Return

10-Year Return

S&P 500

Data sources: Yahoo! Finance and YCharts. Data as of July 17, 2020. P/E = price-to-earnings ratio. EPS = earnings per share. YTD = year to date. *Wall Street's consensus estimate.

Amazon a tech stock? The company generates more of its profits from its cloud computing service, Amazon Web Services, the market leader in the public cloud space, than it does from its e-commerce business. So, its stock is arguably at least as much a tech stock as a consumer goods stock.

Amazon is quite diversified, so buying its stock is kind of akin to buying a basket of stocks -- perhaps large e-commerce and cloud computing service stocks, and smaller stocks focused on smart-home tech, grocery retailing, healthcare, digital advertising, and more. This diversification should continue to enable the company to weather -- and even thrive during -- tough economic climates.

In 2020, Amazon's e-commerce revenue is getting a notable boost from the COVID-19 crisis because people worldwide have flocked to online shopping. Existing online shoppers have increased the amount of shopping they do online, while folks who have never shopped online have begun doing so. This acceleration in the shift from shopping at brick-and-mortar stores to online should prove to be a lasting one, in my opinion.

Wall Street expects Amazon to grow earnings at an average annual rate of 34% over the next five years. The company has a good track record of beating analysts' earnings expectations, and there's no reason to believe it won't continue to do so.

NVIDIA is also solidly diversified, and has both consumer- and enterprise-focused businesses. In the consumer realm, it's the market leader in discrete GPUs used to make graphics cards for desktop computer gaming. In fiscal Q1 2021, its gaming platform accounted for about 44% of its total revenue. Computer gaming is a worldwide growth market, thanks largely to the explosion in popularity of esports and the improving quality of video games.

Many hard-core or semi-hard-core gamers won't easily give up spending money on their favorite hobby. So, this market is likely to prove more resilient to economic downturns than most consumer discretionary markets.

In fiscal Q2, gaming is poised to be dethroned as the company's largest platform by revenue. NVIDIA's acquisition of networking specialist Mellanox Technologies, which closed on the first day of fiscal Q2, should result in its data center platform becoming its largest platform. In fiscal Q1, this business accounted for 37% of the company's total revenue.

Data center has been NVIDIA's fastest growing platform in recent years. Growth is being driven by the widespread shift to cloud computing and the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by entities of all sizes. Spending on AI isn't likely to let up, even if the economy worsens. Investing in AI capabilities is a must for most types of companies if they want to remain competitive. This is more true now than ever, as the pandemic has accelerated the shift toward doing many things remotely -- such as working, shopping, and "visiting" a healthcare provider. AI capabilities are needed to enable many remote services and functions.

Read more from the original source:

2 Top Tech Stocks to Buy During the 2020 Coronavirus Recession - Motley Fool

Pandemic shockwave shatters cultural barriers to cloud adoption – Daily Trust

Posted on by

We all know about the inertia associated with starting something new, about comfort in the known, and about resistance to change.

We have inertia in starting something, and when we finally start, we have inertia in stopping what we have started, and are unwilling do something different. Great physicists recognize this tendency of humans and nature, motivating Isaac Newton to create his First Law of Motion back in the days at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. Yet change is inevitable, and the most successful leaders and businesspeople might as well be those who welcome change with open arms, as an integral part of human experience.

But why do people fear change? I am sure psychologists have fine theories, but for the rest of us, fear of consequences is usually the reason for our unwillingness to change. The fear that the change might create problems for us and make our lives less comfortable. Why fix it when its not broken is a common refrain. As a result, we wait until rapid and formidable disruptions of our lives happen before we enact change. These disruptions could come in the form of massive illness, near-death experience, or even the death of a loved one. For example, I cannot begin to tell you the changes I made in my life following the death of my mother 18 years ago. Some of the changes were things I should have been doing in the first place before my mom died. But when the shockwave of her death arrived, I had no more excuses and nowhere to hide! This is one reason why perfectionism can be very undesirable it does not allow for nimbleness.

My generation essentially started the business of applying hardcore computer simulations to solve engineering problems about 35 or so years ago. Since the 1990s, I have been part of the development and/or management team of a few commercial software packages that solve engineering problems in the mechanical and aerospace engineering field. A significant part of our challenge a few decades ago is the unwillingness of folks to try out the new technologies that we had introduced. Engineering is too risky, and folks would rather opt for physical experiments than vaporware. That is, until they cannot no longer sit on the fence. This is certainly the story of cloud computing today. People dragged their feet until COVID-19 landed. Kurt Marko puts this nicely in his 30 April 2020 article in diginomica.com: disruptive events (of COIVD-19) cut through personal and bureaucratic inertia to catalyze changes at a rate seemingly impossible during placid times. Indeed, the DXC survey documents such behavioral friction in the form of employee foot-dragging and management indecisiveness as prime impediments to digital transformation strategies.

Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive disruption in the lives of virtually every person on earth: sudden deaths by the hundreds of thousands as weve never seen in this generation; and airlines, oil companies, hotel chains, and the recreation enterprise seeing their businesses decimated and stocks dumped. But the pandemic has also created business opportunities in other areas, for people who are positioned to, and are adept at, cashing in.

The pandemic lockdowns have caused people to find alternatives to in-person learning, which invariably implies online learning. Well, people also work from home during the pandemic lockdowns. Of course, there are the digital native companies (such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon), for whom the shift to remote working is relatively seamless well, provided they are set up to use cloud facilities. For the everyday business, sustaining operations in the age of the pandemic could represent nightmare that could test the survivability of the entity. The successful ones will probably be those who have been able to expeditiously adapt their operations via accelerated cloud adoption. Managers may need to upskill in crisis management, and cloud-first model may be unavoidable for some businesses. Companies simply must enable an increasingly mobile workforce. In the words of Emil Sayegh on 6 March 2020 in forbes.com, A widespread epidemic validates the need for the maintenance of corporate functionality based on cloud technologies.

Of course, this column in Daily Trust has covered a lot on Cloud Computing since its inception in 2011. In fact, the maiden article, which is based on cloud computing, was written at a time when Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsofts Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) were at infancy. In terms of the market share of cloud infrastructure, AWS, Azure, GCP and Alibaba are the leaders, with respective percentage shares of 32.4, 17.6, 6, and 5.4.

The prospect of cloud deployment in the age of the COVID19 pandemic has been summarized in cloudcomputing-new.com on 17 April 2020: Stores that still use traditional web hosting are likely to experience downtimes as they run out of network resources to handle the drastic increases in traffic. Cloud hosting solutions are highly scalable, so a sudden rise in traffic is unlikely to disrupt business. Additionally, cloud hosting providers are more equipped and experienced in dealing with cyber-attacks. They can protect their servers from DDoS, hacking, and other threats better than organizations that operate on-site servers. This means that cloud solutions help minimize instances of downtimes brought about by cyber-attacks. (DDoS stands for distributed denial of service.)

Related

The rest is here:

Pandemic shockwave shatters cultural barriers to cloud adoption - Daily Trust

Elon Musk claims his Neuralink chip will allow you to stream music directly to your brain – The Independent

Posted on by

Elon Musks mysterious Neuralink startup is working on a brain-computer interface that will allow wearers to stream music directly to their brain, the technology entrepreneur has claimed.

Mr Musk, who also heads SpaceX and Tesla, is set to reveal new information about the mysterious startup next month but has been slowly releasing details over Twitter in recent days.

Responding to computer scientist Austin Howard, Mr Musk confirmed that Neuralinks technology would allow people to listen to music directly from our chips.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

He also said that Neuralink could help control hormone levels and use them to our advantage (enhanced abilities and reasoning, anxiety relief, etc.).

Since its founding in 2016, Neuralink has only held one major public presentation about how the technology will work.

Speaking at the 2019 event, Mr Musk said the firm was working on a sewing machine-like device that would provide a direct connection between a computer and a chip inserted within the brain.

The technology could will first be used to help people suffering from brain diseases like Parkinsons, but the ultimate aim of Neuralink is to allow humans to compete with advanced artificial intelligence, he said.

The process of having the chip fitted will be similar to Lasik laser eye surgery, according to Mr Musk.

A robot designed by Neuralink would insert the 'threads' into the brain using a needle

Neuralink

A fully implantable neural interface connects to the brain through tiny threads

Neuralink

Trials of Neuralink's fully implantable neural interface system will begin in 2021

Neuralink

Neuralink says learning to use the device is 'like learning to touch type or play the piano'

Neuralink

A robot designed by Neuralink would insert the 'threads' into the brain using a needle

Neuralink

A fully implantable neural interface connects to the brain through tiny threads

Neuralink

Trials of Neuralink's fully implantable neural interface system will begin in 2021

Neuralink

Neuralink says learning to use the device is 'like learning to touch type or play the piano'

Neuralink

One part of it will involve a neurosurgical robot, which fits flexible threads into the brain connected to a tiny implantable computer chip.

A research paper detailing the device claims that a single USB-C cable will provide full-bandwidth data streaming to the brain.

Neuralink has 11 job postings listed on its website, offering roles for a mechanical engineer, a robotics software engineer, and a histology technician.

Over the weekend, Mr Musk made a request for people with specific expertise in wearables.

If youve solved hard problems with phones/ wearables (sealing, signal processing, inductive charging, power management, etc.), please consider working at [Neuralink], he tweeted.

Neuralink says learning to use the device is like learning to touch type or play the piano (Neuralink)

Earlier this month, Mr Musk hinted that Neuralinks chip will be able to cure depression and addiction by retraining the parts of the brain responsible for these afflictions.

Trials have already been carried out on animals and human trials were originally scheduled to take place this year, though details are yet to be made public.

More information is set to be announced on 28 August.

See more here:

Elon Musk claims his Neuralink chip will allow you to stream music directly to your brain - The Independent

Elon Musks Boring Company confirms use of Tesla Model S, X, and 3 in new Loop – Electrek

Posted on by

Elon Musks Boring Company has confirmed the use of Tesla Model S, Model X, and Model 3 in its upcoming new Loop.

With several projects getting closer to reality, the Boring Companys vision is starting to become clearer.

Musk has admitted that he started the company as a joke before it actually became serious and secured some major transportation projects.

The goal was always to build tunnels, but the Boring Company changed its strategy a few times when it comes to the transportation system inside the tunnels.

Now with the Las Vegas conventional Center Loop on track to be completed in the next few months, The Boring Company has been releasing more details about what it has been calling a Loop.

The goal has been to use electric vehicles with autonomous capabilities enabling them to travel fast inside narrow tunnels.

For the Las Vegas project, it was already confirmed that they would use Tesla vehicles, but they never confirmed which ones or even if they would be existing Tesla vehicles or they are building a new vehicle especially for that purpose.

Now The Boring Company has updated its FAQ section on its website and released about information about the vehicles it plans to use in its Loop:

Loop is an all-electric, zero-emissions, high-speed underground public transportation system in which passengers are transported via compatible Autonomous Electric Vehicles (AEVs) at up to 150 miles per hour through Main Artery Tunnels between stations. AEVs are Tesla vehicles (Model S, 3, and X) that operate autonomously within the Loop system.

The startup has also released several new concept images of three different Boring Company station designs: surface stations, subsurface stations, and subsurface open-air stations.

Considering these concept images and the references to Model S, 3, and X are coming just as the company is working to complete the Las Vegas project, its likely going to be the system they plan to develop for this project.

The Boring Company is planning to complete the project by the end of the year.

I am glad to finally see images of a full station, which hasnt been clear until now.

As for the Tesla vehicles, that was to be expected, but there are still a few interesting questions.

For example, since those vehicles are going to be operating completely autonomously within the tunnels, should they even have a steering wheel?

Also, this might only be for the Las Vegas project.

Weve heard from a San Bernardino County official last month that Tesla is making a 12 passenger electric van for the Boring Companys project in the region though Tesla never confirmed the news themselves.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

See the original post:

Elon Musks Boring Company confirms use of Tesla Model S, X, and 3 in new Loop - Electrek

In Market: Me and Elon Musk: Birds Tweeting of a feather – fortworthbusiness.com

Posted on by

There was a big worldwide computer hack on Wednesday, July 15. Im sure you heard about it.

A breach in Twitters security allowed hackers to break into the accounts of leaders and technology moguls in one of the worst attacks in recent years. The ruse discovered Wednesday included bogus tweets from former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked.

Oh yeah, there was that one. Also, one of my social media platforms was hacked. Yep, me and Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos were just four peas in a pod. Their pods just happen to be slightly more upscale than mine.

My hack was a pretty familiar one. A friend request went out to people that I was already friends with, including a photo from my page. A few connections, in a weak moment, clicked on the request and received a message from some fourth or fifth world country where life is cheap but they do have internet cafes.

My hackers were smart enough not to ask a journalists friends for loads of bitcoin, but it was some sort of scam where they could weasel their way into friends accounts and probably send out more fake friend requests and on and on and on. Makes you sort of long for the days of the honest bank robber who walks in and demands money from a teller.

After I learned of the hack, I immediately notified the social media company and they went into a flurry of action. Or maybe I should say they went into a flurry of inaction. Basically, they sent me to a web page that said I should change my password. Whoopee, what technical geniuses they are. No wonder we surrender all individual rights to them. As a social media company, they promise connections with people the world over, but if you want to connect with them, well thats a different story. They want their Wizard to stay cloaked in mystery. Or they just couldnt be bothered. Too busy tinkering with their algorithms to squeeze another dollar from their system. Meanwhile, they sell your personal stats to any gangster around the world sitting in an internet caf and eventually hack you.

So, I changed my password, which I wont remember until the next time I get hacked. It gave me little sense of satisfaction.

Yeah, this so-called modern world has some serious bs to deal with. I remember the early days of the personal computer industry when people thought this new technology was going to change the world all for the better. And then when the world was connected, it was going to be even better. We would have more understanding among people of different races, creeds and colors as the lines of communication would remain open. Promises, promises. The automobile was going to take us everywhere, too, except for the fact were all stuck in traffic.

Yeah, promises. I just posted a story about people who believe that high-end furniture seller Wayfair is some kind of front for child sex trafficking. Back when I was a kid, you heard that kind of stuff on off days on talk radio and it didnt get much further than that. Now? People treat that kind of information like it is some deep, dark secret that they tell everyone about. Particularly at Thanksgiving dinner. Weve gotten more paranoid, maybe because we know these companies know so much about us. Or that well say something that gets us canceled.

As to that other hack on Wednesday, the FBI said it is investigating and said the high-profile accounts appear to have been compromised in order to perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud.

Twitter said the hackers used social engineering to target some of the companys employees and then gained access to the accounts. The term refers to taking advantage of human nature via phishing attacks, tricking people into downloading malicious software or compromising them by offering something in return for information. Twitter did not say how its employees were compromised.

The attackers sent out tweets from the accounts of the public figures, offering to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to an anonymous bitcoin address.

Cybersecurity experts say such a breach could have dire consequences since the attackers were tweeting from verified, globally influential accounts with millions of followers.

If you receive a tweet from a verified account, belonging to a well-known and therefore trusted person, you can no longer assume its really from them, said Michael Gazeley, managing director of cybersecurity firm Network Box.

Reacting to the breach, Twitter swiftly deleted the tweets and locked down the accounts to investigate. In the process it prevented verified users from sending out tweets for several hours. Bob Sturm of KTCK The Ticket radio station in Dallas is a big verified user of Twitter. The lockdown kept us from getting the latest sports news from Bobs big sports brain.

Twitter said Thursday it has taken significant steps to limit access to internal systems and tools. User passwords did not appear to have been compromised, Twitter said, so its not necessary for users to reset them. Oh, and Twitters stock price fell 39 cents on Thursday because of the hack.

As for me, I posted a note on my site, telling my friends not to pay attention to the fake friend request. I also requested my friends to raise a glass of wine, whiskey or Dr Pepper and toast our friendship virtually with a salud!, which is Spanish for to your health.

As to the people who hacked me? Im comforted by the fact that I live in a place with great Mexican food and they dont. And Im toasting them, too, with words that are the complete and total opposite of salud.

This report contains information from the Associated Press.

Go here to see the original:

In Market: Me and Elon Musk: Birds Tweeting of a feather - fortworthbusiness.com

Twitter accounts of Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Apple, Uber, Kanye West and others hacked in cryptocurrency scam – 9News

Posted on by

Twitter accounts belonging to Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Apple, among other prominent handles, were compromised and posted tweets that appeared to promote a cryptocurrency scam.

"Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time," Mr Gates' tweet said, promising to double all payments to a Bitcoin address for the next 30 minutes.

A spokesperson for Twitter said the company is looking into the issue.

The sheer number of prominent accounts impacted made it arguably the biggest security incident in Twitter's history.

A hack like this is particularly concerning not just because of any financial scam that can be run, but because so many world leaders use Twitter - and some, like US President Donald Trump, use it to announce major policy decisions.

A hack that took over an account belonging to one of those leaders could have devastating consequences.

Last year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's account was hacked, raising concerns about whether any account on the platform can truly avoid being compromised.

The mechanism by which that hack occurred was fixed by Twitter after Mr Dorsey's hack and there's no reason to believe it is to blame here.

"We can confirm that this tweet was not sent by Bill Gates," a spokesperson for Gates told CNN Business.

"This appears to be part of a larger issue that Twitter is facing. Twitter is aware and working to restore the account."

"Like many others, our @Uber account was hit by a scammer today," the company tweeted.

"The tweet has been deleted and we're working directly with @Twitter to figure out what happened."

Within minutes of the tweets being posted, a bitcoin account that appeared in some of them showed more than 320 transactions and received more than $113,000.

Here is the original post:

Twitter accounts of Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Apple, Uber, Kanye West and others hacked in cryptocurrency scam - 9News

International Space Station from Earth: Perfect sighting for Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Delhi tonight | What to know – India Today

Posted on by

Did you know the International Space Station is among the easiest-to-spot extraterrestrial objects? After the Sun and the Moon, the International Space Station is the third brightest object in the sky and so, quite easy to spot. All spotting the International Space Station requires is a cloudless sky and timing -- the space station should be flying over your city at a visible enough angle a few hours after sunset or before sunrise.

The latter of the two requirements -- timing -- will be fulfilled tonight for the cities of Rajkot and Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Jaipur in Rajasthan, and Delhi. In fact, it's going to be as perfect as it can be.

Tonight, the International Space Station will be flying over these cities at an angle of nearly 90 degrees, i.e. the ISS will pass right over your head, giving you the perfect opportunity to get a sighting of the International Space Station in the sky.

This, by the way, is not as rare as you'd think. And, if you live in cities other than the ones mentioned above, fret not. But before we talk about the whys and hows of these two points, let's go through a brief guide on spotting the International Space Station tomorrow.

When will International Space Station be visible?

In Rajkot and Ahmedabad, the International Space station will 'rise' at around 8:35 pm Tuesday. In the other cities -- Jaipur and Delhi -- this will take place closer to 8:37 pm.

Viewing International Space Station: Where can I see it?

The ISS will begin rising from the southwest horizon, i.e. if you're standing facing the South, the space station will appear somewhere to your 1-2 o'clock.

How much time will I have?

Six minutes. That's how long the International Space Station will be visible in the skies of Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Delhi.

How will the International Space Station look like?

The International Space Station is the third brightest object in the sky (Photo courtesy: Dave Walker)

Like we told you earlier, the ISS is the third-brightest object in the sky. It will appear like a star, but much brighter, and will be seen flying by like an aeroplane, but much faster.

If you're in the cities mentioned above, you will basically see a bright, star-like object rising from the horizon, darting across the night sky, passing right over your head, before dipping and 'setting' into the opposite side of the horizon.

WHY ONLY THESE CITIES?

Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Delhi are simply the cities that will have the best possible view of the ISS Tuesday night, with the space station passing above your heads. Towns and cities located within an 80-km radius of these places will also have a similar view.

Others located a little far off, such as Vadodara, Indore, Agra, Dehradun and Chandigarh will also be able to view the International Space Station; it's just that ISS won't pass directly overhead and will be seen at an angle.

Other cities will get their turn in the future, like we explain in the section below.

NOT A RARE EVENT

The International Space Station orbits around the Earth approximately 16 times a day. What this means is that there are plenty of opportunities to spot the ISS in the sky. All you require is cloudless skies and the space station passing over your city at a comfortable angle, sometime after or before sunset.

What does that mean? Think of the horizon being 0 degrees and a point in the sky right above your head being 90 degrees. The ISS can appear at any angle between these. Nasa says that the best possible angle to view the ISS is 40 degrees or more since that will ensure obstructions such as tall buildings don't get in the line of your sight.

The International Space Station seen flying in the night sky (Photo courtesy: Wayne Boyd)

It is also important that the ISS passes over your city a few hours after or before sunset. This ensures that enough sunlight bounces off the space station for it to be visible in the night sky.

Sounds extremely difficult to calculate, right? Which is why Nasa does it for the world. The space agency has a website -- Spot The Station -- dedicated to tracking the movements of the International Space Station and telling you the best suitable time to view the ISS in the coming week.

So, while Mumbai will be missing out on viewing the International Space Station Tuesday night, it will be able to see the spectacle -- at the same overhead angle -- early Thursday morning later in the week.

Of course, you won't be able to capture images like the ones we've shown you above with your smartphone, but it will be quite a sight to actually see.

Read the original post:

International Space Station from Earth: Perfect sighting for Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Delhi tonight | What to know - India Today

Comet NEOWISE and International Space Station over central Indiana – WTHR

Posted on by

This comet can be seen without a telescope or binoculars, but it's much easier to spot by magnifying with those tools.

INDIANAPOLIS Another clear evening and overnight in central Indiana will be the perfect backdrop for sky-viewing and there will be plenty to see.

Each passing night the Comet NEOWISE progressively gets higher in the northwest horizon.

This comet can be seen without a telescope or binoculars, but it's much easier to spot by magnifying with those tools.

If you're trying to watch the night pass you'll want to look northwest around an hour after sunset and the 90+ minutes following.

Tuesday morning provides another perfect opportunity for comet viewing in the northeastern horizon.

Eric Teske of Noblesville and Dean Hockney of Kokomo were both able to capture NEOWISE early Monday morning. The time to look is approximately between 4 - 5:30 a.m.

In addition to the comet, the International Space Station will make several flyovers in the coming days as central Indiana is firmly in its orbit.

A great opportunity to see a six-minute flyover tonight between 10:48 PM - 10:54 PM.

This will be followed by four six-minute flyovers Tuesday, most of which should be clear for viewing. Good luck!

See the original post here:

Comet NEOWISE and International Space Station over central Indiana - WTHR

Should we forgive Lauren Southern? – The Spectator USA

Posted on by

As a society, we have become exceptionally bad at forgiveness. How much does anyone really deserve? Are they remorseful? What if theyve changed? We barely know where to start anymore.

But now that social media has been around for long enough that people who rose to infamy early on have, in many cases, had enough time to grow up, its important to decide how we judge others. So, when Lauren Southern a free-speech activist or an alt-right neo-fascist, depending on your source returns to the public eye seeking to revive meaningful, sane conversation, how should she be treated?

Southern, a long-haired, blonde Canadian, rose to prominence when in 2016 she legally changed her gender to male in Ontario in less time and with less paperwork than your average health check-up takes. Her rejection of feminism, her pro-Trump advocacy, and her opposition to Islamic immigration solidified her place among the pantheon of outspoken alt-right darlings such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Paul Joseph Watson.

For a long time, Southern flirted with the unpleasant extremes of this movement. In February 2018 she was cautioned by police for handing out flyers in the English town of Luton bearing the slogan Allah is Gay. The previous year she had been detained by the Italian coast guard for attempting to stop a boat carrying shipwrecked migrants to shore.

In 2019, however, something appeared to change. Just after the release of her surprisingly thoughtful and nonpartisan documentary about immigration, Borderless, Southern suddenly disappeared from the public eye. On June 19 this year she posted on her YouTube channel a 17-minute video entitled Why I left, and why Im back. She has, in her words, taken the real-life pill (I hope she never uses this awful phrase again), and in her absence she not only went back to university but also got married and had a son. Now, she wishes to break away from the culture of entertainment and hot-take politics and return to public life making objective documentaries that tell the human story of complex political issues.

***Get a digital subscription toThe Spectator.Try a month free, then just $3.99 a month***

This perfectly reasonable announcement prompted a vicious response from her former fans and allies on the radical right, who felt betrayed. Look down the comment section of her video and you will see innumerable accusations of covert financial profit, admonishments that she should stick to being a mother, and perhaps the most common: Its too late for nuance the mob will come after you either way. Her one-time ally, Paul Joseph Watson, vomited out indefensible abuse at her on Twitter, calling her a fraud and an e-thot before bragging how thirsty she was for him in one of the most embarrassing Twitter displays of the past year.

Others have given Southern a chance. In an interview with Mikhaila Peterson this week Southern spoke about how unhealthy it is for 19-year-olds (as she then was) to become known worldwide for contentious political activism. When ambitious, intelligent but naive young people stumble into political tribes that demand ever-greater allegiance, stifling all shifts of opinion borne out of maturity, we must ask where the blame lies.

Did Lauren bring this all upon herself? Perhaps. I have no time for people who distribute stupid, inflammatory leaflets in Islamic neighborhoods such behavior does as much damage to the cause of proper conservatism as anybody on the radical left. But if Southern changed by becoming a mother and mellowed by experience; if she now seeks to return to the public eye with a more compassionate and thoughtful politics well, good on her, I say. I wish more people would do the same. Shes attractive, too.

Follow this link:

Should we forgive Lauren Southern? - The Spectator USA