Daily Archives: November 28, 2021

The modern cloud computing platform dates back to the year 2006, although it was invented in the late 1960s by J.C.R Licklider, the usage of these services became prominent since 2006. Due to increasing advancement in modern technologies and usage of the internet. Cloud computing has come a long way and still, theres more to go due to the dynamic environment in the emerging technologies.

So, what exactly is cloud computing and why businesses are rushing towards this platform, and how this can be a game-changer to the current business market.

Cloud computing refers to the delivery of on-demandcomputing services over the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis. In simple terms, the user can store all the data over the internet by using cloud storage services unlike in the traditional forms like hard disk, pen drive, etc.

Before the era of cloud services, businesses had to maintain on-premise data servers to store and manipulate the data, which has more drawbacks and these drawbacks are filled by cloud services. So how on-premise and cloud services vary from each other.

These cloud computing services will provide easy and effective solutions on which businesses can rely and expand their services and platform. They can maintain a competitive edge over others, and cloud services can be used by individuals too over the internet.

There are two types of cloud computing models namely

In Deployment Model again there are threetypes of models known as

Here, cloud infrastructure is available to the public and is owned by a cloud provider.

Examples like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, Sun Cloud, and IBMS BLUE CLOUD can be taken.

Here the cloud infrastructure is maintained by a single organization and can be managed by the company itself or a third party and can be on-premise or off-premise.

Examples like AWS, VMware can be taken.

Here, this cloud has both the characteristics of a public and private cloud.

Examples like government agencies can be taken.

In the service model again there are three types of models known as

If an organization needs a virtual machine,then IAAS can be opted for. Here, most of the users can be IT administrators. Examples: AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google.

If a company needs the platform to build the software products,then PAAS can be opted for. Here most of the users can be software developers.

If a company requires the final product or doesnt want to maintain any IT equipment, then SAAS can be opted for. Here, most of the users can be end customers. Examples: Microsoft Office 365, Google apps.

There are abundant benefits of cloud computing and businesses are rushing towards these services in order to ease their approach towards complex services. However, there are disadvantages of a cloud, like a security breach, hijacking, and external sharing of data. But here the advantages of the cloud definitely outweigh the disadvantages and cloud services can provide more than they are supposed to.

Due to the ongoing pandemic since 2020 and during these unprecedented times, the progress of the economy has a serious toll from COVID-19. However, things are slowly coming back to normal, and work from home (WFH) is still practiced by many of the organizations employees.

During these times cloud usage by both organizations and individuals has increased rapidly since most of the employees are using the cloud platforms to perform various duties.

Since more than half of the world is on the cloud platform, start-ups and various new emerging companies are rushing towardscloud computing engineeringto expand their base and to reach the corners of the world. Personal computers and laptops sales were hiked during the pandemic which led to an increase in expenditure incurred by computer chip makers by 20 to 30%. On the bright side can be that due to the cloud computing availability the climate crisis is having the least negative impact on it due to less pollution.

As we already discussed above, there are IAAS, PAAS, and SAAS. The future can be more than 100 million times fasterdue to the availability ofQuantum Computing As A Service (QaaS).However, this is already in the market in its initial stages and the companies which provide this are IBM Q, AWS, and Google.Quantum computers are 100 million times faster than the current classic computers and can solve mysteries by using Qubits,unlike BITSwhich are used by current computers.

It is estimated that $1 trillion to be spent on cloud computing over the coming decade and the new conceptof containerizationis being provided by various companies likeKubernetes.Itcan avoid vendor lock-in periodand this containerization can be completely serverless.

Nevertheless, due to dynamic emerging technologies in the market, it can be estimated that cloud computing can increase to unexpected heights and will be a boosting career opportunity.

Cloud computing as a career opportunity can be the next best thing one could do and throughcloud computing trainingone can learn these skills. There are many platforms like Great Learning where one can master every IT-related and emerging technologies course and gain abundant skills.

Cloud computing has come a long way and still, there is much more which can add to the future regarding this technology advancement. There can be advanced serverless quantum computing hubs where the mysteries of the universe can be decoded, and space highways can be calculated very accurately for the space travel to other planets like Mars and Venus.

https://radixweb.com/blog/cloud-computing-is-an-ace-of-spades-streamline-your-business

https://builtin.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing-examples

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cloud-computing-market-234.html#:~:text=The%20cloud%20computing%20market%20is,progressively%20adopting%20cloud%20computing%20services.

https://financesonline.com/cloud-computing-statistics/.

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Increasing Importance Of Cloud Computing In Businesses - GISuser.com

When the demands of a cloud-dependent company exceed the capacity of a single cloud, several cloud providers may be required. The arrival of Cloud 1.0 introduced lower IT costs and on-demand service availability. However, it is fair to say that the globalisation of cloud services has not been without its fair share of difficulties. To lessen the challenges and reduce cost, Joint Cloud can be the way forward. Lets see what exactly it is and how organizations can absorb the benefits offered by this technology.

Cloud technology behemoths have begun to collaborate in order to expedite the go-to-market cycle and capitalize on each others unique selling points. Its a partnership between cloud service providers that will help joint clients with their migration capabilities and application operations across various cloud platforms. Competitors Oracle and Microsoft recently formed a partnership that combines their strengths and provides the best of both worlds. Similarly, tech company Avaya recently announced a collaboration with Microsoft to develop a joint cloud communication solution.

Joint Cloud is a modern computing platform that encourages developers to design cross-cloud services through software-defined interaction and cooperation across different cloud service organizations. Furthermore, container platform automation capabilities handle multi-cloud access, providing enterprises with a compelling solution to work with various cloud providers, infrastructure, and cloud types.

Aron Brand, the CTO of CTERA, explained this new age phenomenon as a new generation of computing model which facilitates providing cross-cloud services through integration and cooperation among different cloud providers. While this term is currently used mostly by academia, some of the required components of joint cloud computing already exist in the commercial sector, said Brand.

Take for example the concept of a global file system, which creates a single namespace, globally accessible file system, overlayed on multiple object storage providers which can be located in different clouds, regions and operated by different service entities. A global file system eliminates vendor lock-in by allowing transparent data movement across cloud providers; enables boundless storage capacity, while providing comprehensive control over and visibility into this global distributed data. Using the global file system as a foundation, service organizations can develop federated applications that span heterogeneous clouds and data centers, including edge devices, he added.

From our point of view Joint Cloud Computing is an extension of what we would call a multi-cloud strategy, commented Sathya Sankaran, COO of Catalogic Software. The current discussion around joint cloud computing/multi-cloud is all about building infrastructure that makes it easier to communicate between applications running on different clouds, migrate loads (data and applications) between various clouds, and manage loads in various clouds, he said.

See More: AI Summit Silicon Valley 2021: Top Highlights & Insights from AI Experts

Even though its a decade-old phenomenon, the year 2021 has further accelerated the growth of Joint Cloud computing, helping it become one of the most trending cloud computing technologies of the year. Lets look at some of the recent developments in this space.

Thales and Google Cloud have partnered up to establish Joint Cloud offering in France together

Thales and Google Cloud collaborated in October to co-develop a French hyperscale cloud product. With this new service, French businesses and government agencies will have access to all of the capacity, security, agility, and autonomy that the two entities respective technologies have to offer.

Google Cloud and Genesys expand their Joint Cloud Contact Center

The two companies recently announced their partnership on new AI, deep learning, and data analytics applications. They have a number of objectives in mind. Automating customer service, providing predicted customer satisfaction, and AI-driven verification are just a few examples. Besides, the plans include creating new conversational routes that use Google Search, Maps, and other tools.

Woori Financial modified Joint Cloud platform to speed up their digital transformation

The joint cloud infrastructure has supposedly assisted in advancing the companys digital innovation since its deployment in February. It optimally manages the groups IT assets and cloud space, enhancing the divisions synergy in digital-based companies.

At times, cloud-dependent organizations require more than just one cloud provider as the needs surpass the capacity of a single cloud. We see events like Black Friday that demand tens of thousands of times more resources than normal days, straining a solitary cloud vendor, which is either unable to provide the requested resources or must provide IT resources based on access demand. This might result in higher costs and lower IT resource use, which contradicts cloud computings primary purpose of increasing IT resource utilization.

The advent of Cloud 1.0 has enabled reduced IT costs and on-demand availability of services. But, it wont be wrong to state that there have also been certain challenges with the globalization of cloud services. In a research conducted by IEEE on JointCloud, a few challenges associated with Cloud 1.0 were identified. These were:

See More: Top Security Considerations for Transitioning from Private to Public Cloud

Both academia and industry have begun to examine partnerships amongst independent public cloud providers to overcome these difficulties. Cloud 2.0s core element is cooperative cloud computing, which removes the barrier between numerous clouds. Lets look at some of the benefits that make Joint Cloud a perfect fit for organizations.

With the increasing expansion of data buffers and the heterogeneity of customer tastes, one cloud provider can scarcely meet all of their needs. Joint Cloud is an effective way to coordinate autonomous cloud peers to deliver a high-level of storage service. However, the storage services must strike global balances between accuracy and consistency under various conditions and needs by exploiting resources that are scattered across diverse cloud peers.

Paul Repice, VP of sales, Datadobi said, Gone are the days where enterprises rely on one single storage vendor for their data. Today, 92% of organizations either have a multi-cloud strategy in place or are moving in that direction, and over 80% of large enterprises have already adopted a hybrid cloud infrastructure. These trends make sense because the pandemic encouraged global enterprise companies to adopt effective, proven cloud technologies offered by market-leading brands due to the lack of need for sudden infrastructure spending. The availability of cloud-based file storage offered a cost-effective, quick fix and an apparent win-win for businesses under pressure to adapt on the fly.

To make the change back to the office smoother, organizations must work with vendor-neutral solutions that can handle the scale and complexity of large storage environments in 2022. When evaluating a particular vendor, IT teams need to check the compatibility with hyperscalers, preserve data integrity throughout any data management projects, and make sure that the vendors offer access to a comprehensive support team. With these building blocks in place, organizations can make the best use of cloud and on-premises storage in the long term.

Joint Cloud computing is a new research project spearheaded by Chinese institutes to address the computing challenges associated with various clouds. Customers diversified and changing cloud resource needs are fulfilled by Joint Cloud through delivering virtual cloud resources (VC). The Joint Cloud users may use an internet browser to write, debug, and execute activities in their work environment without worrying about minimal issues like framework deployment, setup, and parameterization. This working environment is based on a customized VC that offers the most appropriate resources from the underlying clouds. This architecture might smoothly traverse different clouds, allowing apps to elastically scale out and utilize fresh resources from third parties to deal with load demand issues.

Over the last several years, there has been a tremendous surge in corporate investment and expanding research interest in the Internet of Things. The synergy between traditional cloud and edge cloud is already underway to give quality service to varied consumers, spurred by the application demand from the Internet of Everything in the future. However, because of the high marginal operating and maintenance expenses, traditional clouds must continue to collaborate. JointCloud computing is a new computing paradigm that supports collaboration within heterogeneous clouds. JointCloud intends to make it easier for many cloud vendors to work together to deliver effective cross-cloud services. Also, it is cost-effective because it focuses on vertical cloud resource integration and horizontal cloud vendor collaboration.

The first edition of cloud computing (Cloud 1.0) is gradually being phased out in favor of the second (Cloud 2.0). The novel JointCloud efforts, which were lately financially backed by Chinas Ministry of Science and Technology as part of the National Key Program for Cloud Computing and Big Data, is the latest generation of computing paradigm for Cloud 2.0 that enables businesses to customize cross-cloud services.

JointCloud aspires to bring together key cloud providers in China and those from across the world to create a joint cloud network. Unlike previous Cloud 2.0 projects such as SuperCloud and InterCloud, JointCloud is the initial stride toward creating an expanding community where all cloud providers may utilize the specified service infrastructure to deliver deep cooperation, and customers can design services above the virtualized cloud.

There are plenty of opportunities for vendors to help multi-cloud customers, but we dont see the big managed cloud providers doing much to help customers, other than enabling their management consoles to manage infrastructure in other clouds (thus putting their management tools on top), says Sankaran from Catalogic Software.

We do note that its in their interest to keep customers locked in rather than have their services totally commoditized. We dont see enthusiasm for a push on standards and tools for joint cloud computing. Although thats not to say that some industry standards couldnt eventually help here. We think Kubernetes and containerized workloads will also help to some extent, because it provides somewhat of a standard platform layer.

Do you think Joint Cloud computing will become commonplace in the coming years? Let us know on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. Wed love to hear from you!

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Joint Cloud Computing: How Can Organizations Benefit From This New Trend? - Toolbox

As we enter 2022, the pandemic continues to exact a terrible toll in both human and economic terms. But one side effect of this crisis helped healthcare move forward dramatically: We experienced a decades worth of technology adaptation and adoption in the space of mere months.

Tools and technologies that had been lingering (or languishing) on the fringes of the industry moved from the periphery to the core of healthcare IT practically overnight. High-speed research and epidemiology infrastructure, remote work and telemedicine systems, models for rapid vaccine development and deployment all suddenly became pressing public-health necessities. And all were enabled by harnessing the cloud to support integrated operations, data science, and massive on-demand computational needs.

If theres any silver lining to this historically bad event, its courtesy of the cloud. The past two years really opened our eyes to what is possible in healthcare when you invest in innovation and unleash it with agile technologies. I forecast more cloud-powered healthcare progress on the horizon in three key areas:

Vaccine R&D

The game has changed when it comes to vaccines. Before the pandemic, mRNA vaccines had been in development for roughly three decades but were consistently stymied by hesitancy and preference for the status quo. Covid response forced that technology over the finish line, and its success is going to impact more than coronavirus propagation. It is already encouraging emboldened approaches to other huge threats to human health.

Vaccine development and deployment is going to go from a years-long activity to a months-long activity with mRNA technology. And were going to need new regulatory frameworks to handle that speed. In the U.S., the only reason we were able to get Covid vaccine shots in our arms so quickly was because the FDA issued emergency authorizations both research-and-development timeframes and the standard process for clinical trials are typically much longer and more arduous. But sizable scientific groundwork had already been laid for messenger RNA technology, which supported and enabled accelerated action. More importantly, that action proved the speed and efficacy with which we can safely deploy new vaccines.

Assuming we can fashion a regulatory framework update that addresses this change in capability, I think were going to start to see more rapid development of vaccines against known pathogens trials are already in the works against certain cancers, against malaria, and against HIV. We will also be able to more quickly respond to future pandemics.

Covid-19 has already killed more Americans than the infamous Spanish Flu of 1918. It wont be the last pandemic. This is going to happen again, but were starting to grasp the power of our new tools for facing future threats. To wield them, we require a significant upgrade in the agility of our development and IT models because we are going to need the ability to manage more clinical trials much more quickly than we did in the past. The cloud is proving crucial in that process. Its time to flex and adjust. And Im excited about how cloud technology can help speed both regulatory innovation and clinical trial innovation in support of this mission.

Telehealth unleashed

As the pandemic unfolded, telehealth usage skyrocketed, fueled by physical distancing needs and responsive regulatory/reimbursement modifications. According to McKinsey, In April 2020, overall telehealth utilization for office visits and outpatient care was 78 times higher than in February 2020. Once again, existing but underutilized technology was quickly scaled with the aid of cloud power to meet unprecedented demand. Though usage stabilized by summer, telehealth claim volumes consistently maintained nearly 40-times their pre-pandemic numbers. The convenience factor has staying power. The ability to not have to go to your doctor to go to your doctor is not going to go away.

Further enhancing and extending telehealth and telemedicine applications is one of many cloud-based IT opportunities stirring the health sector to explore new directions. For example, virtual care is great because it enables timely access to health care professionals from afar, but it doesnt let them touch you. They cant look in your ears, swab your nose, or take your blood pressure. So secondary and tertiary services will start to advance in parallel as telemedicine matures.

Home-based health monitoring devices will quickly find new and more medically integrated applications, for example. And a redefined role for tech-savvy home health workers may also emerge, with nurses and aides becoming the eyes and ears of the doctor at the other end of the telemedicine session. Picture a distributed set of health care professionals who meet patients at home while they jointly communicate with the physician back in the office, or visiting nurses utilizing a whole set of connected equipment for monitoring patients at home and feeding results back to their doctor remotely.

Such services would be convenient for everyone, but theyd really shine in populations that do not have any easy access to care. Consider the plight of rural Americans who have to drive for hours to get to their nearest medical facility. Advancing technology can help. In addition to near-limitless cloud capacity, 5G is upgrading the prime limiting factor in addressing rural populations with telehealth bandwidth. Coupled with Starlink, Boeing, and Kuiper among others racing to establish satellite broadband, ubiquitous connectivity for virtual care is imminent. This is great news for the American farmer, but also for the indigenous Brazilian facing a 14-day walk to the nearest medical facility. Truly global accessibility to virtualized healthcare with that combination of technologies is about to begin, and well start to see real applications as soon as next year.

Making data make a difference

Another meaningful inroad we can expect in the coming year is the blending of historically disparate healthcare-related datasets for much more insightful decision making. The dream is precision medicine and were getting closer to realizing it. Typically, we have clinical data in a repository, we may have genomic data in a repository, and we might also have behavioral health data in a repository. But the ties between them all often remain elusive. Historically, those data sets are held separately. Melding them together creates a more holistic viewpoint, and cloud-based healthcare IT enables that amalgamation. Assuming good care coordination, the treatment team gets a much better ability to address all of the things that are happening with the patient instead of distinct elements.

Consider breast cancer treatment, where certain genetic sequences are starting to inform care. As the medical community explores cloud-based molecular modeling, combined with genetic insight and clinical insight into a particular patients condition, they can forego the sledgehammer approach and start to build a customized treatment program for a particular person based on all those combinations of factors. In the past, housing the enormous datasets required for such capabilities was very expensive. And the amount of computing power necessary to actually do that work was also very expensive. But thats no longer the case. Cloud power is eminently affordable, which mitigates the cost barrier and makes it all feasible. Working on unthinkably large datasets and integrating them with massive amounts of computing power, unleashing millions of trained machine-learning models to inform clinical decision making in real time that factor in all of these elements that make up a person this will enable significantly better clinical outcomes. Were going to be able to attack disease progression as its happening in an individual patient, as well as how it happens statistically across a diverse population.

Technologists in the healthcare sector tend to spend their days focusing on the Hows to keep the health system up and running and moving forward. As we anticipate a new year, its good to reflect on some of the amazing Whats that have already been accomplished, and prepare for those coming into view. Most importantly, we should never lose sight of the Whys that give our work purpose. Now and into the future, amazing advancements in human health are made possible with cloud power directed by amazing information technology professionals.

Photo: shylendrahoode, Getty Images

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Forecasting cloud-powered progress in 2022 - MedCity News

It's easy to identify the reasons an organization would transition to the cloud. The concepts and practices necessary to accomplish a cloud migration, however, can be difficult to grasp.

Every organization's experience with the cloud will be unique depending on exactly which types of cloud resources it uses and what it deploys on them. Nevertheless, the seven practices discussed here help to establish a foundation to plan an efficient, low-risk migration to the cloud.

Before planning a cloud transition, it's important for businesses to identify which benefits they seek to gain. The most common reasons to move to the cloud include the following:

The importance of each of these factors to a particular business will vary. For example, a retailer whose applications see significant seasonal fluctuations in usage may value scalability more than a company that uses the cloud to host internal, line-of-business applications whose usage is relatively steady.

A transition to the cloud is often difficult for various reasons:

These benefits can be maximized -- and challenges simplified -- by adhering to practices that make successful cloud transitions easier to achieve.

A transition to the cloud becomes much easier when all stakeholders are on board. They include the technical practitioners, who will set up and manage cloud environments, as well as management, who should support the migration to the cloud and the temporary and permanent expenses that come with it.

Other employees, too, should understand why the business is moving to the cloud. As users, they should learn how cloud computing will benefit them, which ways applications will become easier to use and how there will be a learning curve. Business leaders should prepare clear answers to questions like these before embarking on a cloud transition.

Given the vast number of cloud services available -- from VMs and containers, to object and block storage, to IoT device management and beyond -- businesses should identify upfront which cloud services they plan to deploy. Otherwise, they may end up running more types of services than they can effectively manage at once. They may also fail to determine in a systematic way which cloud services are the best fit for their workloads.

The right services will vary from one workload and business to the next. In general, businesses should consider factors such as how much each type of cloud service costs, how hard or easy it is to deploy workloads on the service, how the service can be monitored and managed, and how a particular service might create security risks.

Organizations should know that certain workloads may be better left out of a cloud environment. Some applications, for instance, depend on local networking configurations that could be difficult to replicate in the cloud. Other apps may need direct access to bare-metal hardware, which is harder to find -- and more costly -- in the cloud.

Early in a cloud transition is the best time for a business to identify which applications won't work well off premises. Plan steps to modify those applications to suit a cloud environment, or alternatively, commit to keep those applications out of the cloud.

The cloud presents specific security challenges. Because cloud environments are connected to the internet by default, it is easier for attackers to locate and exploit cloud resources. Cloud environments can be complex, and even small misconfigurations, such as accidentally allowing public access to a sensitive storage bucket, can have large security implications.

Businesses should assess how they will mitigate these security risks as part of their cloud transition plan.

Cost models, too, can change dramatically in the cloud. Cloud computing enables an organization to pay as it goes, which simplifies cost management in one respect. That said, a business needs to consider costs related to a transition to the cloud. For example, a provider will assess egress fees when a customer moves data out of a cloud environment, and customers may face fees for using a provider's monitoring and security tools.

For these reasons, it's important to perform a detailed assessment to learn how much each type of cloud service and resource will cost and then to seek ways to control those costs.

A business should specifically identify who within their organization will be in charge of the cloud environment. Who can launch new cloud resources? Will the entire organization share one cloud environment, or will each business unit or team have its own account? Do changes to the cloud environment need to be documented in a certain way?

Answering questions like these before a formal transition to the cloud begins should help to ensure that the business has a consistent plan to manage its cloud environment responsibly.

Cloud environments almost always change over time. Businesses may migrate applications from one type of cloud service, such as VMs, to another, such as Kubernetes. They may move more workloads from on premises to the cloud. They may expand from single-cloud architectures to hybrid or multi-cloud configurations.

It's impossible to anticipate every change ahead of time, of course. But organizations can at least create a roadmap that identifies -- in general terms -- how they expect their cloud strategy to evolve over time. For instance, the roadmap might specify that the business plans to launch a single cloud at first, and two years after that date, it will begin evaluating multi-cloud options.

Every cloud transition is unique, but an organization can get ahead of many of the challenges that complicate cloud migrations. The secret is to systematically evaluate key factors, such as which cloud services to use, how to assign cloud resources to different parts of the business and how to grow a cloud environment over time. Additionally, organizations also should keep abreast of broader trends that are driving cloud migrations, which might influence future cloud decisions.

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How to transition to the cloud: 7 best practices - TechTarget

There was a time when supercomputers were available only to a handful of organizations, mostly governments, public research facilities and scientific bodies. The rise of cloud computing and the widespread availability of sophisticated cloud workload management (CWM) tools have reduced the barrier of entry considerably.

Only last week, YellowDog, a CWM specialist based in Bristol, United Kingdom, assembled a virtual supercomputer using its proprietary platform - and at its peak, which lasted about 10 minutes, the system had mustered an army of more than 3.2 million vCPUs.

While it was nowhere as powerful as Fugaku, that was enough to propel it into the top 10 of the world's fastest supercomputers, at least for a few minutes.

(PSA: by the way, we are going to update our Black Friday web hosting deals and Black Friday website builder deals page at least once per day till Cyber Monday)

The provisioning, which was done on behalf of a pharmaceutical company, helped run a popular drug discovery application as a single cluster. Back of the envelope calculation puts the raw cost of the project at about $65,000.

That's accounting for 33,333 AWS 96-core c5.24xlarge instances. This is one of a number of instances used during the run (essentially similar to bare metal servers or dedicated servers) and it costs $1.6013 per hour. So that's $53,376 per hour or $57,824 to account for the entire length of the session (65 minutes in all).

"With access to this on-demand supercomputer, the researchers were able to analyze and screen 337 million compounds in 7 hours. To replicate that using their on-premises systems would have taken two months," said Colin Bridger from AWS.

What's extraordinary is that this sort of firepower is available to anybody who can afford it. And it is based on the sort of hardware that runs our cloud computing world: web hosting, website builders, cloud storage, email services among others.

CWM platforms have evolved over the years to develop algorithms and machine learning capabilities to choose the best source of compute, regardless of its origin or type.

For example, one cloud provider may have the cheapest spot compute, but the algorithm wouldn't select it if it were unavailable in the territory set by the customer, or if there weren't actually a sufficient number of servers of the required instance type available within that cloud provider. In this case another source of compute would be chosen. Clever indeed!

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One of the world's largest supercomputers lived for only 10 minutes - TechRadar

For cryptocurrency investors thinking long term, Ankr (CRYPTO:ANKR) may be one of the best crypto plays in the market right now. An emerging force in decentralized finance (DeFi), Ankr has been making some serious gains lately. In fact, ANKR is up about 40% during the past month.

Ankr has a great deal to offer investors. This blockchain network allows cloud-computing providers to offer underutilized resources to users requiring cloud infrastructure.Cloud-computing providers are rewarded in ANKR tokensas compensation.

Additionally, there are other greatbenefits users receive on the Ankr network. Let's dive into why this is a top cryptocurrency on my watch list right now.

Image source: Getty Images.

The cloud-computing world is relatively well-defined, and just a handful of large players dominate the market. With such an oligopolistic structure, pricing power resides mainly with cloud-computing providers. This is great for someone who owns Amazonstock, but not so great for companies or users requiring cloud infrastructure.

Ankr seeks to change all that. This network takes existing underutilized hardware from cloud-computing providers and rents it out. In exchange for ANKR tokens, cloud-computing companies can maximize the use of their computing power. Wastage is a big deal in every sector, and Ankr helps minimize this issue to a great extent.

The idea of maximizing underutilized assets happens to be a very eco-friendly endeavor. Of course, not all blockchains are environmentally progressive. Much has been made about how much energy Bitcoin consumes every year. (Hint: almost as much power as the entire country of Thailand.)

Ankr has found a way to create utility for end users. This blockchain network aims to do so by using what already exists, rather than adding to the energy-consumption problems plaguing this sector.

Back to the decentralized piece of the equation. Decentralization is a buzz word in crypto for a reason. By cutting into the centralized market power of a few companies controlling any one sector, blockchain projects like Ankr aim to democratize pockets of the economy (and maybe the whole economy, one day).

At a high level, these goals sound idealistic and unattainable. However, the implications of Ankr's cloud-computing potential are immense.

Most centralized cloud-computing services have a single or just a few points of failure if various central locations lose power. For decentralized cloud-computing players like Ankr, this risk is minimized. By using a decentralized network of providers, Ankr can offer network stability and relatively low-cost cloud-computing services to companies looking for decentralized options.

As demand for decentralized solutions increases, Ankr could see increased adoption drive the value of its network higher. Therefore, those banking on the value of ANKR tokens as representative of the value its ecosystem creates may consider ANKR an intriguing growth option.

After all, this is a network that's looking to find novel solutions to modern problems. There's a lot investors should like about that.

Besides the cloud-computing angle (which I think is really something), Ankr also provides unique value in how investors stake tokens. Staking refers to putting up ones tokens or locking them into a given blockchain protocol to allow validation of transactions. People who stake their tokens typically receive interest in the form of additional tokens.Accordingly, this is a passive income opportunity many crypto investors are looking to get into.

However, Ankr provides an intriguing way for investors to stake tokens while putting up much smaller capital investments to do so. How?

Ankr's StakeFi product lets investors put up as little as 0.5 Ether to earn staking rewards. Currently, 32 ETH are required to stake on Ethereum's (CRYPTO:ETH) beacon chain. This would require the equivalent of more than $125,000, at present.

The platform does this by utilizing synthetic derivatives to essentially limit the amount of initial capital investors need to put up. Similar to options in the stock market, Ankr is becoming a revolutionary force in this growing area of decentralized finance.

Sure, Ethereum is moving toward Ethereum 2.0, which is likely to streamline its staking process substantially. However, delays in the move to Ethereum 2.0 have persisted. For now, Ankr has an opportunity to expand its market share in this emerging DeFi category.

Cryptocurrency investing is inherently risky, and Ankr is no exception. This crypto network faces the same systemic risks and competitive environment as its peers.

However, Ankr is creating some real-world value with its network. The fact that companies can utilize Ankr's protocol to maximize their return on assets while providing decentralized cloud-computing services to users is impressive. Additionally, I think there's a lot to like about Ankr's DeFi potential.

The ANKR token is one that represents a blockchain with a tremendous (and growing) value right now. Accordingly, I'm watching this is token closely.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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3 Reasons to Buy Ankr - Motley Fool

Petaling Jaya: Green Packet Bhd and Tencent Cloud have jointly committed to building a cloud computing business that will utilise a minimum of 2,000 servers by the end of the third year of operations.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Green Packet said that Tencent will leverage on its global customer base while Green Packet will leverage on its local Malaysian customer base to build the cloud computing services business.

Last August, Green Packet announced an exclusive collaboration with Tencent Cloud to set up a jointly built cloud ecosystem in Malaysia.

Green Packet had said then that it had initially committed to investing RM100mil on infrastructure for a total of 600 servers and the provision of software solutions.

Last August, Green Packet announced an exclusive collaboration with Tencent Cloud to set up a jointly built cloud ecosystem in Malaysia.

It also said that the total investment in this collaboration could add up to between RM300mil and RM500mil over the next three years.

Green Packet will be responsible for the setting up of the infrastructure in Malaysia and promoting Tencent Clouds ecosystem of software solutions, while Tencent Cloud will be providing the actual cloud computing service from its global reach of customers.

Green Packet had also said then that the collaboration comes with a joint revenue model for 10 years and it is expected to contribute significantly to Green Packets bottom line over the coming years.

Malaysias cloud market is growing rapidly with an estimated compounded annual growth rate of 13% from 2020 to 2024.

The growth in the cloud computing market has been fuelled by the Covid-19 pandemic as more businesses sought to digitalise their operations.

Tencent Cloud is the fifth largest player worldwide in the cloud computing space.

It is well known for its social media platforms, online video streaming and broadcasting technologies, mobile payments and gaming platforms.

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Tencent and Green Packet firm up cloud deal - The Star Online

The Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) and Microsoft have announced a partnership to help digitally transform the manufacturing sector by harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud technologies, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The partnership will explore end-to-end manufacturing solutions in the digital era, including capabilities that seamlessly connect people, assets, workflow, and business processes, empowering organisations to be more resilient. It will also highlight security, as investments are increasingly being made in building risk management and compliance solutions.

As a strategic partner to the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit, Microsoft will participate in the fourth edition of the Summit (#GMIS2021) to share best practices as a global leader in digital transformation and cloud computing to support organisations in upgrading their businesses, increasing their productivity, driving innovation, and evolving ecosystems.

Sayed Hashish, General Manager of Microsoft UAE, said: The rapid transition to remote work caused a spike in adoption of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools. Manufacturing companies have been gradually moving toward data-driven automation, IoT, machine learning and AI, and 2020 has shown just how critical those capabilities are. At Microsoft, we are fully committed to empowering manufacturers in making these transitions to digital, through cutting edge offerings such as Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing as well as our focus on research through initiatives such as Manufacturing Core, which focuses on innovative ideas and technological solutions to make manufacturing more efficient and competitive.

Following the launch of its data centres in June 2019, Microsoft has accelerated digital transformation in numerous ways in the UAE. The availability of local cloud regions has enabled every organisation to address data residency and governance requirements, while cloud regions, based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, have accelerated the UAEs digital agendas by enabling job creation, entrepreneurship and economic growth across the country and the wider region. The spread of cloud computing would not be possible without data centres, which store and connect vast amounts of data points around the globe.

A pre-pandemic study by PwC has revealed that 91% of industrial companies are investing in digital factories, but only 6% of all respondents describe their factories as fully digitised. However, the potential opportunity is immense, with an expected annual growth rate of 17.9%, the cloud computing market is projected to reach USD791.48 billion by 2028. As companies around the world continue to transition from remote work to hybrid solutions, security remains a number one concern that can be addressed through a comprehensive cloud security strategy before transitioning to cloud services.

#GMIS2021 will explore the significance of digital transformation as a springboard to prosperity, as well as industrialisation in a post-pandemic world and the role of digital technologies amid the challenges and opportunities within the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Summit will organise a special session on digital mobility, with a focus on the shift from working from home to working from anywhere.

Badr Al-Olama, Head of the GMIS Organising Committee said: Cloud storage and file-sharing services are increasingly offering tremendous value to enterprises as they bring flexibility, scalability and cost savings. In an ever-changing digital landscape, such technological advancements are crucial. We are delighted to welcome Microsoft as a partner and look forward to jointly highlight solutions and opportunities in the field for businesses to continue to grow in a safe and digitally-savvy environment.

#GMIS2021 was part of the six-day GMIS Week that runs from 22 to 27 November. The GMIS Week includes the Global Prosperity Conference and the Green Chain Conference exploring alternative and renewable energy on 24 November, and country-focused conferences in partnership with the UK, Australia, and Italy on 24 and 25 November. Throughout the week, the Summit is also running an exhibition to highlight the UAE governments Make it in the Emirates campaign, a first-of-its-kind initiative to encourage local and international investors, developers and innovators to benefit from the facilities and incentives offered by the countrys industrial sector.

Participants can register to attend the GMIS Week at https://gmisummit.com/registration. The programme agenda is available at https://gmisummit.com.

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Microsoft Partners With the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit To Fast-track Digital Manufacturing Through Cloud Computing - Al-Bawaba

By Robert Belgrave, CEO of Pax8 UK

As things shift into the ever growing world of cloud computing, talks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration to enhance cloud performance continues at an accelerating rate. Combining AI and cloud technology is beneficial to varying degrees, nevertheless, there is still some additional progress to be made across the challenges that technical developers are facing for a more cohesive integration.

Cloud computing alone allows companies to be more flexible whilst also providing economic value when hosting data and applications on the cloud. With AI generating analytical data insights, it plays an important role in its enhanced capabilities in data management. However, it begs the question, can AI and cloud unification streamline data efficiently and what other benefits can arise from this integration?

Cloud and AI integration

As increasingly more enterprises are choosing to invest in cloud technology, there has been a noticeable difference throughout company structures, where workflow has become more streamlined. It is clear that cloud computing as a whole, offers more agility by having all information readily available online. Data can be shared instantly between various devices, among multiple people. AI offers a whole new layer to optimising work systems, and data analysis through formed patterns, providing solutions for better quality of service for customers.

This optimisation is extremely important due to the amount of data that the cloud possesses. Focusing on workflow enhancements in particular through this integration process improves both productivity and mitigates errors in data processes. The cloud holds company information, plus the data from each employee, and with new information coming in each day, it is important to be able to command it in the most flexible and agile way that drives the digital transformation of the organisation.

Due to the financial and personal sensitivity such organisations carry, thoughts also turn to the question of integration effectiveness and how well it can protect privacy when companies are continually at risk of security breach. What many fail to realise, however, is that the cloud itself has very secure measures which block malicious web traffic through its extensive cloud firewall. An AI system heightens this protection detecting fraudulent activity based on its analytics, and anticipating cyber attacks before they even occur. In other words having both AI and cloud technology is akin to having the ultimate superteam protection during online activity.

The expansive digital age

In this current digital age, AI has the potential to greatly impact businesses across all sectors, and investing in this kind of technology is at the forefront of business operations. When considering all the techniques of AI utilities, it is estimated that between $3.5 trillion and $5.8 trillion could be generated annually across 19 countries, simply by integrating AI into the workspace. It has been predicted that cloud computing could be able to self-manage once AI tech advances and becomes more sophisticated. This means that the system would be able to monitor and manage any issues that arise and fix the issues itself, which would in turn, allow technical developers to focus their attention on bettering the strategic value of the company rather than system repairs. This results in a unique and powerful combination that companies can use to their advantage.

Lowering costs is a feat that every business around the globe is trying to achieve, and with cloud technology and AI integration, it can become reality. These automated solutions simplify tasks immensely, eradicating the need for manned data centres within organisations. Costs are also cut in research and development, as the AI/cloud integration can do those tasks at no additional cost.

Integration issues and ethics

While the cost effective benefits of merging AI with cloud technology has many companies smiling, it calls into question the ethics behind employee security. There have been many utterances in the past of AI replacing human workers which has been continually dispelled over time, nevertheless, it does not stop workers from being concerned about their positions in the future.

With optimisation on the tip of enterprises tongues, and a lessened need for workers in positions that operating systems can do better, fasting and with fewer errors, concerns are justified. It is the role of employers to assure their employees that these systems are there to work alongside them to increase work efficiency and to understand that its not there to replace human ability, but to augment it.

There are also concerns regarding the privacy of the AI/Cloud systems. As previously stated, it is a wonderful tool to secure online systems to prevent fraudulent activity but can it be too secure? Some of the data analysis can result in false positives, accusing consumers incorrectly and inconvenience them by the same system designed to help them. Errors like these show that human monitors are still required to ensure cases like these are few, and are able to correct these mistakes when they do occur.

AI and cloud technology is merging worth it?

AI and cloud technology evolving side by side can change the way people communicate and interact with technology on the whole. While there are concerns on how much value AI can truly deliver if there isnt sufficient quality data available that is both structured and complete, when adequate data is on hand, the integration of these technologies can reduce the complexity of system processes, and aid with understanding better courses of action to take.

Having technology helping to create new innovative ideas to improve upon the market not only benefits the enterprises utilising it, but also the consumers who may rely on the result of these ideas. Society is ever evolving and with AI cloud technology, the world can continue to propel itself deeper into the technological age.

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Smart Cloud: What role will AI play in the evolution of cloud technology? - Global Banking And Finance Review

Paris, France November 25, 2021 Atosexpands its recently announced Atos OneCloud Sovereign Shield initiative by extending its existing partnership with OVHcloud, with new combined offerings and joint research and development. The two European cloud leaders will provide a market-leading sovereign cloud solution for large French organizations.

Both companies have an ambitious plan for the coming months and years, which builds on their previous commitment to create a trusted cloud solution for French organizations. This combination maximizes Atos global strategic initiative Atos OneCloud and its recently announced Atos OneCloud Sovereign Shield, which supports the digital and data sovereignty needs of governments and industries worldwide, and combines them together with OVHclouds innovative public cloud solution based on sovereign European infrastructure.

Market-leading sovereign cloud solutions

OVHcloud and Atos will set-up a Public Cloud solution to be rolled out in Atos datacenters in France to offer a best-in-class 100% European cloud platform, leveraging OVHcloud Datacenter as-a-Service to enable IaaS and PaaS capabilities, combined with Atos bare metal, cybersecurity, and decarbonization solutions.

Atos customers will get access to hybrid cloud configurations through combining OVHcloud Public Cloud with the Atos Digital Hybrid Cloud solution for Private Cloud.The joined offering will allow customers to benefit from public cloud capabilities, fully sovereign cloud management services, complete regulatory compliance, and world-class cybersecurity protection.

A joint initiative has been launched to investigate how OVHcloud customers in France will also benefit from the Atos datacenters footprint, to offer its customers cloud solutions close to their activities. With more than 20 years of experience building datacenter facilities, manufacturing servers, and operating an extensive catalog of IaaS and PaaS services, OVHcloud offers various Datacenter as-a-Service solutions. Companies that must respond to strategic, economic, technological, or operational sovereignty issues, whether local or European, can control their technology by leveraging Datacenter-as-a-Service on and off premise, allowing them to define how to operate and deploy their cloud.

Augmented by Atos OneCloud Sovereign Shield solutions and OVHcloud's SecNumCloud qualification, this partnership creates a unique trusted cloud service. This approach is completely unique on the market as it combines both Atos and OVHcloud products and services, addressing public sector and defense requirements for true sovereign solutions while creating new levers for clients, to accelerate their transformation to the cloud.

Atos Quantum computing simulator collaboration and shared Decarbonization ambitions

In addition, Atos and OVHcloud are collaborating on new joint R&D initiatives for future evolutions of their platforms:

OVHcloud will contribute to Atos commitment to deliver Decarbonization Level Agreements by providing carbon emission reporting for sustainable cloud computing, including the joint Atos and OVHcloud solutions.

In the same logic, OVHcloud customers will be able to directly access the Atos MyC02Compass carbon data platform to accelerate their net-zero ambitions. Atos MyC02Compass provides carbon data management and reporting across a wide range of digital technologies and all scopes of customers carbon footprint.

We are delighted to expand our partnership with OVHcloud to provide a sovereign cloud offering for our French customers. Working with OVHcloud, we will reinforce the uniqueness of Atos OneCloud Sovereign Shield portfolio by creating a 100% European cloud solution for French organizations. This is a great step in that we are now, finally, able to offer SecNumCloud qualified OVHcloud solutions to our customers, said Pierre Barnab, Interim co-CEO and Head of Big Data and Security, Atos.

We are happy to work with Atos and to bring together our sovereign solutions to provide our customers with more and more secure alternatives for their business. Atos best-in-class datacenters, cybersecurity and critical systems products will enable us to enrich our portfolio. Both companies are strengthening their collaboration and it brings additional value to our customers. said Michel Paulin, CEO, OVHcloud.

Atos and OVHcloud are both founding and current Board members of GAIAX, the European Association for the future cloud-edge infrastructure in Europe. More about the Atos-OVHcloud collaboration. More about the Atos-OVHcloud partnership.

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About Atos

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 107,000 employees and annual revenue of over 11 billion. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing, the Group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 71 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonized digital for its clients. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), listed on Euronext Paris and included in the CAC 40 ESG and Next 20 Paris Stock indexes.

The purpose of Atos is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.

Atos Press contact

Lucie Duchateau lucie.duchateau@atos.net - +33 7 62 85 35 10

About OVHcloud

OVHcloud is a global player and Europes leading cloud provider operating over 400,000 servers within 33 data centres across four continents. For 20 years, the Group has relied on an integrated model that provides complete control of its value chain: from the design of its servers, to the construction and management of its data centres, including the orchestration of its fibre-optic network. This unique approach allows it to independently cover all the uses of its 1.6 million customers in more than 140 countries. OVHcloud now offers latest generation solutions combining performance, price predictability and total sovereignty over their data to support their growth in complete freedom.

OVHcloud Press contact

media@ovhcloud.com

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Atos and OVHcloud strengthen their partnership by leveraging Atos OneCloud Sovereign Shield - GlobeNewswire