Category Archives: Cloud Computing

Youre surrounded by it.

You cant send an e-mail without touching it.

You cant watch your favorite streaming series without welcoming it into your home.

You dont know where youre going, but its tracking your every move and telling you to turn left.

It is the cloud, and whether you realize it or not, it has probably taken over your digital life.

But what is the cloud actually?

The cloud is a system of millions of hard drives, computer servers, signal routers and fiber-optic cables.

These elements are, in a way, like the water droplets, ice crystals and aerosols that make up a true cloud.

They are nebulous. They are constantly shifting. But they are in close connection with one another over large distances of space and time.

The clouds true purpose is to float unseen all around us, silently, creating ever present connectivity.

And just like a real cloud, it can bring benefitsand danger. The cloud is making services more affordable and accessible to people all over the world. It helps businesses update products for their customers and enables remote work across industries. But it also opens us up to behavior tracking at each and every Web site we visit. It can put our virtual privacy in the hands of tech giants. And should the cloud ever fail, our increasing, mostly unknowing dependency on it will become painfully clear.

To understand why, lets take a step back to the early days of the cold war with the Soviet Union.

After the Soviets beat the Americans to space in 1957, the U.S. Department of Defense decided it needed to work harder on research and development. The following year, it formed the Advanced Research Projects Agency. That agency would create the rough draft of the Internet a decade later. It was called ARPANET, and it connected four university computers via telephone lines.

ARPANET was the offspring of a novel and controversial view of computers championed by engineer and psychologist J.C.R. Licklider.

In 1962 Licklider, known as Lick, was put in charge of the agencys Information Processing Techniques Office. And with his budget, he advanced a view of these machines that was very different from that of his peers.

Lick didnt believe in building new computers for every project. Instead he wanted to consolidate resources into a network of thinking centers that individuals could access as needed. This vision, which became the basis for ARPANET and later the Internet, is the premise of cloud computing.

When you access data on the Internet, youre actually requesting files from a server. The files are broken into tiny packets of information, which may travel together or take completely different routes back to your device, where theyre reassembled. The particulars may get a bit complicated, but all that really matters is that youre connected to the network.

One of the firstvisual representations of a network as a cloud comes from 1971.

The previous year, telecom giant AT&T introduced Pittsburgh to the Picturephone, a kind of early videoconferencing system. It was meant to run over digital systems and phone lines. In 1971 Irwin Dorros, then at the companys Bell Telephone Laboratories, published a schematic of the system.

It showed a couple of cloudlike shapes that would tie together the hardware neededeven if Dorros didnt know which computers or phone lines would be working together at any one time.

By the early 1990s, engineers had gotten used to referring to the Internet this way. But the idea of cloud computing really went mainstream in the 2000s. In March 2006 Amazon launched its first cloud-based service as part of its Amazon Web Services, or AWS.

Initially, Amazon just planned to build a platform to help other companies set up online shops. But it quickly started to recognize that many of the tools and databases it was building could be useful outside of e-commerce.

Amazon began renting out server space and database tools that allowed companies to launch and maintain applications much more cheaply than starting from scratch. For instance, Zillow, the online real estate Web site, uses AWS to store 100 terabytes of house pictures and data rather than maintaining the necessary servers itself.

Using an outside server can be safer than managing your own, because its much less likely to overload, and many of these servers will back up your files for you. Most cloud computing services also come with optimization tools to handle traffic spikes and lulls, and many have data centers around the world, making sites load faster for international users.

The cloud can also give you access to more computational power than you can easily get on your own, letting you effectively use a supercomputer from your smartphone.

Cloud services generally fall into three categories: software, platforms and infrastructure.

Cloud-based software are just applications that run on the Internet so users dont have to download anything. This category is especially popular for widely used programs such as the instant messaging platform Slack or the file sharing app, Dropbox.

Next, cloud platforms, such as Googles App Engine, are digital environments that developers build their software to run on.

Last, cloud infrastructure provides server space that a customer manages remotely.

Consolidating the digital world onto a few powerful servers is extremely efficient. And the cloud brings us unprecedented connectivity. Its the basis for the Internet of Things, in which embedded sensors connect physical objects such as farm vehicles or building thermostats to the Internet. Once connected to the cloud, all of these things can act autonomouslydoing work for us without human intervention.

But while the cloud can make our jobs more efficient and our lives more flexible, we pay for those privileges with our data and security. With every action we take online, we hand personal information to companies trying to maximize how much they can profit on us. Many Web sites and apps regularly track our digital movements and sell those data to marketers. Cloud service providers can also collect data from applications built on their servers. This is often done to monitor efficiency, but some worry the data could be abused.

As we connect more of our daily lives to the cloud, we become reliant on a network that controls everything from who we meet on dating apps to whether our credit cards work.

We also lose sight of how fragile the system is. The cloud only exists because of physical parts, such as paper-thin fiber-optic wires that are easily damaged and degrade over time. And when software issues from a company youve never heard of can knock huge chunks of the Internet offline, its hard not to wonder if weve made a bad bargain.

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What is 'The Cloud' and How Does it Pervade Our Lives? - Scientific American

The FBI seizes alleged ransomware gang members funds, a cloud computing security report from Google and more malware found in the Android store.

Welcome to Cyber Security Today. Its Wednesday, December 1st. Im Howard Solomon, contributing writer on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com.

The FBI continues to make some progress against ransomware groups. According to the Bleeping Computer news service, the feds seized bitcoin worth just over $2 million in August from a digital wallet in Texas. The money is allegedly traceable to attacks carried out by the REvil ransomware gang. The digital wallet allegedly belongs to a resident of Russia.

Separately, a report from the NCC Group says the use by ransomware gangs of the double extortion tactic is going up. In October there were 314 double-extortion victims around the world, an increase of 65 per cent over September. Double-extortion is stealing some data and threatening to release it to the public or sell it to other crooks in addition to encrypting the rest of an organizations data. The report also notes that one threat actor, dubbed SnapMC, doesnt bother encrypting data. It only steals data and holds it for ransom.

Cloud computing has several advantages for IT departments. One is that they dont have to worry about rushing to install security updates. The cloud application provider Gmail, Salesforce, Microsoft 365 finds bugs and installs updates fast. However, organizations still have to make sure their systems arent vulnerable to misconfigurations and other errors by employees. In its first cloud threat intelligence report Google says many successful attacks on applications are caused by poor cyber hygiene and a lack of basic security controls. What kinds of problems can happen? Looking at its own service, the report says 86 per cent of compromised Google Cloud Platform instances were used for stealing compute cycles for cryptocurrency mining. Other abuses of Google Cloud included using resources to scan targets, to launch cyberattacks and to host malware. Forty-eight per cent of compromises were blamed on customer accounts that had either no password or a weak password. Another 26 per cent of compromises were due to vulnerabilities in third-party software that organizations installed themselves. One piece of advice Google offers for better security of its cloud customers applies to users of any cloud service: Employees should have to use two-factor authentication for logins. Google also provides a range of security services such as web scanning, a security command center and other capabilities. When IT departments look for cloud providers they should ask if similar services are available and what they cover.

Ive said before that Google makes good efforts to keep malware out of the Android Play store. However, cyber crooks try just as hard to squirm past defences. A report this month from a Dutch cybersecurity company called Threat Fabric shows how some groups do it. They create mobile apps that include a dropper. A dropper is a small piece of code that calls back to a crooks server to download malware onto a victims device. The small size of the dropper code makes it hard to detect. Researchers at Threat Fabric recently discovered 11 apps in the Play store able to infect victims Android devices with dozens of pieces of malware aimed at stealing bank login passwords. Threat Fabric believes the malware has been downloaded over 300,000 times. As is often the case these bad apps pretend to be utilities like QR code scanners, PDF scanners, cryptocurrency apps and fitness trainers. Crooks know that many people love finding new apps to play with on their smart phones. Always remember that when you want to download an app. Be sure from reading reviews and talking to people you trust that an app is trustworthy.

Thats it for now Remember links to details about podcast stories are in the text version at ITWorldCanada.com.

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Cyber Security Today, Dec. 1, 2021 - The FBI seizes alleged ransomware gang member's funds, a cloud computing security report from Google and more -...

We think thatVeeva Systems stock (NYSE: VEEV), a cloud-computing company focused on pharmaceutical and life sciences industry applications, currently is a better pick compared to Boston Scientific stock (NYSE:BSX), despite Veeva being the more expensive of the two. Veeva trades at about 23x trailing revenues, compared to just 5x for Boston Scientific. We are comparing these two companies given their similar operating income levels.

Both the stocks have underperformed with mid-single-digit growth year-to-date, compared to 22% growth for the broader S&P 500. While Boston Scientific saw a fall in demand for medical devices and supplies during the pandemic, due to fewer surgical procedures, Veevas business expanded with increased adoption of digital communication channels. In fact, Boston Scientifics revenue declined 8% during the pandemic, while Veevas revenue expanded a solid 28%. However, there is more to the comparison. Lets step back to look at the fuller picture of the relative valuation of the two companies by looking at historical revenue growth as well as operating margin growth. Our dashboard Boston Scientific vs Veeva:Similar Operating Income; Which Stock Is A Better Bet?has more details on this. Parts of the analysis are summarized below.

1. Veevas Revenue Growth Has Been Better

2. Veeva Is More Profitable

The Net of It All

Now that nearly 60% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, with overall economic activity picking up, the demand for medical devices and supplies is likely to rise going forward, boding well for Boston Scientific. For Veeva, a broader shift to digital communication is likely to pave way for continued growth for the company.

That said, Covid-19 is proving more difficult to contain than initially thought, due to the spread of more contagious virus variants and infections in some of the geographies, including Europe, are higher than what they were a few months back. The concerns around Omicron have spooked the markets at large with one confirmed case in the U.S. as well. If there is another large spike in Covid-19 cases from the new variant, it will disrupt economic recovery and impact sales as well as earnings growth of many companies. This may result in pressure on margins in the near term, especially for Boston Scientific.

Wondering how Boston Scientific peers stack up? Check out Boston Scientific Stock Comparison With Peers to see how BSX stock compares against peers on metrics that matter. You can find more such useful comparisons on Peer Comparisons.

What if youre looking for a more balanced portfolio instead? Heres ahigh-quality portfoliothats beaten the market consistently since the end of 2016.

[1] Month-to-date and year-to-date as of 12/2/2021[2] Cumulative total returns since 2017

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This Cloud Computing Company Is A Better Pick Over Boston Scientific Stock - Trefis

Amazon Web Services is considered the market leader in cloud computing because of its dominance in the infrastructure space, such as computing power and storage services that enable other applications.

But it still lags behind its biggest competitors, like Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle, in one major piece of cloud computing: business applications, more broadly called software as a service, or SaaS.

In a recent survey of this sector bySynergy Research Group, five companies Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe, Oracle, and SAP accounted for over 50% of the market. AWS, meanwhile, failed to crack the top 20.

"For SaaS, AWS is more of a channel to market for software vendors rather than a SaaS provider in its own right," John Dinsdale, Synergy's chief analyst and research director, told Insider.

For AWS, it's a big market to miss out on. The market for business applications, including everything from Microsoft Office 365 and Salesforce sales and marketing software to Zoom's videoconferencing app, is forecast to be the largest segment among all cloud services, reaching $145.4 billion in 2022,according to Gartner.

Amazon is aware of this. For years, the company has tried to build and grow its own applications business, across email, word processing, and video conferencing, to name a few. But those efforts have so far failed to gain traction, both internally and externally, as Insider previously reported.

To solve this, Amazon recently discussed the idea of acquiring a more high-profile software company to make a splash. Among the list of companies discussed was HubSpot, the $40 billion marketing software maker, as Insider previously reported.

"We have several applications that are very large successes," Amazon's representative wrote in a statement to Insider, highlighting Amazon WorkSpaces and Amazon AppStream, which support tens of thousands of active customers. "Others are earlier in their journey, but we continue to believe they have meaningful potential."

Do you work at Amazon? Contact the reporter Eugene Kim via the encrypted messaging apps Signal or Telegram (+1-650-942-3061) or email (ekim@insider.com). Reach out using a nonwork device.Check out Insider's source guidefor other tips on sharing information securely.

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Amazon Way Behind Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle in Cloud Software - Business Insider

Are You Getting the Most Value from Your Data in the Cloud?

By Marc Linster

It may be tempting to hire a large cloud computing provider that markets itself as a one-stop shop with a huge menu of offerings, including the choice of database. Temptingbut a potentially bad idea.

Although the cloud has become an equalizer giving all users access to the same infrastructure and technology capabilities, it can also flatten out competitive differentiation. This is because youre giving control of your datayour most important business assetto a generalist that specializes in infrastructure, not databases.

The Danger of Giving Up Control

Your database is the information store of your business, and it underpins every asset you want to inspect, analyze, and make better. Its the tool thats essential to informing a smart strategy, developing potential new revenue streams, and maintaining not just infrastructure agility but also business agility so you can react quickly to volatile market conditions.

In an era of increasing digitization of customer interactions, trusting your database to a generalist cloud vendor is risky because youre handing over not just control of your IT infrastructure but also how you manage and extract value from your data. Especially for demanding workloads and digital capabilities that are part of your market differentiation, you must trust that your vendor understands the technology that you need to support the intricacies of your business. Your vendor must also continuously improve the data-management capabilities of its technology to help you maintain your competitive edge and to enable you to move fully to the cloud.

Love Your Data

Data is the new oil. Data is the new gold. Youve heard the clichs, but its true that data offers power. That power doesnt reveal itself easily and needs to be protected. (As the computer scientist Kurt Bollacker has said, Data that is loved tends to survive.) If you really cherish your data and see your organization as being or becoming data-enabled or data-driven, then it makes sense to show your data some love.

You cant treat your database as a commodity line item, so you need to have a high-quality innovative product backed up by immediately accessible experts who know the technology because they built it. That way, any questions, problems, or new needs can be addressed fast. If you work with a specialist database provider, you can expect support for:

In a globalizing economy where technology is lowering barriers to entry and commoditizing products and services, competitive differentiation is becoming ever more reliant on data and how well your company uses it to identify opportunities and engage with customers.

Certainly, this use of data is helping accelerate the move to the cloud. But at EDB, we are seeing companies reconsidering their cloud-migration strategies, especially when it comes to recalibrating which data-management capabilities they require. This reconsideration is not just about reducing infrastructure and IT expenditure costs; it also is about making data in the cloud work harder for business outcomes.

In the days before the cloud, different partners might have supported different aspects of your on-premises data-center infrastructure. Today, if you want to extract the most value from your applications, moving to the cloud does not remove that need. Data is your differentiator, so it is critical for your cloud provider to have the specialized skills and knowledge you need to manage and drive innovation in your database stack. Without such strategic partnerships, you might limit how much you can capitalize on your data to drive competitive advantage.

EDB offers the first fully managed PostgreSQL database in the cloud with compatibility for Oracle database technology. Learn how EDB can help your organization deploy your most demanding applications to the cloud.

Marc Linster is chief technology officer at EDB.

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Are You Getting the Most Value from Your Data in the Cloud? - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM EDB - Harvard Business Review

Paper offers recommendations for choosing, planning, and deploying cloud-native key management systems when organizations want to or must import key material

SEATTLE, December 02, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the worlds leading organization dedicated to defining standards, certifications, and best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment, today released Cloud Key Management System with External Origin Key. Written by the Cloud Key Management Working Group to help organizations optimize such business outcomes as security, agility, cost, and compliance, the paper provides general guidance for choosing, planning, and deploying cloud-native key management systems (KMS) in cases where organizations either want to or must import key material (e.g., keys, vaults, secrets, policies) from an external source.

"A cloud service providers KMS often has strong ties to its other cloud services, and this same cloud-native KMS using EKO can be used with a customers on-premises technologies and cloud services from other providers. Unsurprisingly, integrating a cloud KMS with an organizations assets spanning traditional private data centers, as well as private and public cloud services in various geographic locations presents a host of challenges," said Paul Rich, co-chair of the Cloud Key Management Working Group and one of the papers authors. "Its our hope that after reading this document, program and project managers who have been tasked with leading their organization through the selection, planning, and deployment stages of cloud-native KMS using EKO will be able map considerations to their organization."

The guidance addresses the technical, operational, legal, regulatory, and financial aspects of leveraging a cloud-native KMS using external key origin (EKO) for each of the three stages of the lifecycle (choosing, planning, and deploying). Each aspect is broken down into further considerations and their accompanying justifications. Because cloud-native key management systems using EKO are relatively new, there isnt a large repository of best practices from which to draw. This guidance, therefore, combines best practices drawn from experience with traditional key management systems, cloud services in general, and cloud-native key management systems.

Story continues

For further reading, Key Management in Cloud Services: Understanding Encryptions Desired Outcomes and Limitations provides the foundation for the choice of cloud KMS pattern and general guidance for using KMS whether the KMS is native to a cloud platform, external, self-operated, or yet another cloud service. Additionally, Recommendations for Adopting a Cloud-Native Key Management System provides more specific guidance for choosing, planning, and deploying cloud-native key management systems.

The Cloud Key Management Working Group aims to facilitate the standards for seamless integration between cloud service providers and key broker services. Those interested in participating in future research and initiatives involving cloud key management are invited to join the working group.

Download Cloud Key Management System with External Origin Key now.

About Cloud Security Alliance

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is the worlds leading organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. CSA harnesses the subject matter expertise of industry practitioners, associations, governments, and its corporate and individual members to offer cloud security-specific research, education, training, certification, events, and products. CSA's activities, knowledge, and extensive network benefit the entire community impacted by cloud from providers and customers to governments, entrepreneurs, and the assurance industry and provide a forum through which different parties can work together to create and maintain a trusted cloud ecosystem. For further information, visit us at http://www.cloudsecurityalliance.org, and follow us on Twitter @cloudsa.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211202005230/en/

Contacts

Media Contacts Kristina Rundquist for the CSAkristina@zagcommunications.com

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Cloud Security Alliance Issues Guidance to Help Organizations Optimize Business Outcomes When Using Cloud-native Key Management Services with External...

Pune, India, Dec. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global Industrial Cyber Security Market size is excepted reach to reach USD 29.41 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 8.2% during the forecast period. The integration of cybersecurity solutions and advanced cloud services by various industries will spur opportunities for the global market during the forecast period, states Fortune Business Insights, in a report, titled Industrial Cyber Security (ICS) Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Component (Product, Software and Services), By Security Type (Network Security, Cloud Application Security, End-point Security, Internet Security, and Others), By Industry (Process Industry and Discrete Industry) and Regional Forecasts, 2020-2027. The market size stood at USD 15.84 billion in 2019.

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The emergence of COVID-19 has brought the world to a standstill. We understand that this health crisis has brought an unprecedented impact on businesses across industries. However, this too, shall pass. Rising support from governments and several companies can help in the fight against this highly contagious disease. There are some industries that are struggling, and some are thriving. Overall, almost every sector is anticipated to be impacted by the pandemic.

The Report Lists the Key Companies in the Market:

We are making continuous efforts to help your business sustain and grow during COVID-19 pandemics. Based on our experience and expertise, we will offer you an impact analysis of coronavirus outbreaks across industries to help you prepare for the future.

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The report on industrial cyber security incorporates essential understandings of the market, all-inclusive data about prominent players, distinguished facts and figures, latest developments, key drivers and restraints, along with imperative information about dominant regions. Moreover, the report also provides a brief study regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the industry.

Increasing Acceptance of AI-based Industrial Robots to Bolster Growth

The growing implementation of cloud-based ICS-as-a-service and industrial robots across manufacturing and industrial plants will contribute positively to the markets growth. According to the International Federation of Robotics, in 2018, there were around 125.6 thousand industry robots deployed across the automotive industry, 105.2 thousand deployed across the electronic industry, and 43.6 thousand deployed across the metal and mining industry worldwide. Similarly, as per the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) report, in 2018, around 422,000 industry robots shipped globally. Cybersecurity solutions secure industrial robots from cyber-attacks, thus supporting smooth operations. Moreover, governments heavy investments in cybersecurity will foster the market's healthy growth in the forthcoming years. For instance, in May 2017, the Singaporean government declared an investment for four years (2017 2021) of around USD 1.76 billion in economic strategies. This investment includes the advancement of various Cybersecurity Agency (CSA) of Singapore.

Investment Plans of Prominent Companies to Uplift Market Amid Coronavirus

The coronavirus has adversely affected the IT sector around the world, consequently hampering the market. However, noteworthy companies are focused on investment strategies to improve the market scenario. According to IDC, worldwide IT spending is expected to decline by 2.7% due to COVID-19. Moreover, the expenditure on infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and cloud computing tools is projected to increase in the near future. For instance, in May 2020, Rockwell Automation, Inc., announced that it has acquired Kalypso, LP., software delivery and consulting organization. The company intends to provide control products and solutions using Kalypsos abilities to develop security solutions. Moreover, the temporary closure of manufacturing facilities, industrial plants, factories, and other industries has restricted the market's expansion.

Quick Buy Industrial Cybersecurity Market Research Report:https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/104557

Implementation of Cloud-Based Security Solutions to Boost Growth in the Asia Pacific

The market Asia Pacific is expected to rise excellently during the forecast period due to existing companies in China, India, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and other ASEAN countries. The heavy investments in cloud-based security applications will contribute positively to the growth of the market in Asia Pacific. The emergence of new companies coupled with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will foster the healthy development of the market in Asia Pacific. Europe is expected to expand radically during the forecast period owing to the rising investment for secure IT infrastructure across industries. For instance, according to UBS Group AG, in Europe, the estimated electric vehicle revenue is likely to reach around 6.33 million units by 2025.

Key Development:

August 2019: Cisco System Inc., an American multinational technology conglomerate headquartered in San Jose, California, completed the acquisition of Sentryo, a Lyon, France-based company. Sentryo offers cybersecurity solutions and asset visibility for industrial control systems (ICS).

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Industrial Cyber Security Market: High Investment in Infrastructure as a Service and Cloud Computing Tools to Augment Growth During Coronavirus -...

Article byGigamon A/NZ general managerGeorge Tsoukas.

These days cloud security is more trusted than ever. According to a recent study in a survey of 2,000 IT leaders from around the globe, nearly 85% of respondents said that they trust cloud security practices as much as, or more than, those associated with their on-premises data infrastructures.

Counterintuitive though it may seem, the reality is that in most cases, data is actually more secure when it is maintained offsite. Cloud computing eliminates the dangers associated with on-site threats (disgruntled employees, break-ins, disasters and regional emergencies, and so on).

At the same time, cloud vendors tend to take a more proactive approach to keep security measures fully patched and up to date, often well beyond standards maintained by individual organisations.

As such, cloud computing is enjoying a golden age of trust and capability. This is why it's all the more important to recognise that cloud security isn't infallible. There are still gaps in cloud security, and the first step to closing those gaps is identifying them.

What are the major problems of cloud security? A solid cloud infrastructure brings with it a number of advantages.

In addition to the obvious benefits associated with unrestricted availability (authorised users can access their cloud solutions at any time, from anywhere in the world) and improved collaboration (having a single, centralised set of cloud-based tools empowers team members to connect easily and share information), cloud computing is also capable of improving data capture and analysis, reporting, business continuity and resilience, and scalability.

Given the current business environment, these are essential factors in retaining a competitive edge. But let's not discuss the strengths of the cloud. Instead, let's focus on some of its potential weaknesses.

Modern problems in cloud security, though not as obvious as the fears when the cloud first began to gain prominence, can still represent a clear danger to businesses and their customers.

Taking a closer look at several gaps in cloud security and considering how these dark clouds may be casting a shadow on organisations can help understanding.

The inability to replicate on-prem security and compliance models is a serious issue. When people operate within the cloud, they play on someone else's field and have to abide by their rules.

While cloud vendors implement effective security solutions, these are seldom the same as those in which organisations have already invested significant time and energy in creating. So what happens to those security investments when a business switches to the cloud? In many cases, they risk being lost, along with essential data visibility.

This issue also extends to concerns with compliance models. Data compliance is a major issue, with new and upcoming legislation taking an ever-more-aggressive approach to ensuring safe and ethical data practices.

Non-compliance with regulatory measures may result in serious consequences, including fines, jail time for company executives, or even the forced dissolution of the offending company.

Unfortunately, issues related to data compliance in the cloud can be difficult to define fully, but even when data is managed entirely by cloud vendors, the business assumes at least a portion of the liability.

And when the organisation has almost no say in what compliance models are being implemented, it also has little control over the outcome.

Modifying cloud apps to meet security controls is a difficult process. The gaps in cloud security extend into cloud applications, and cloud apps may not be designed to meet the security standards of the organisations that depend on them.

While it may be possible to modify or extend some applications for improved security, doing so is generally a time-consuming, expensive and highly complex task.

If a business does not have access to the available resources, expertise or funding to modify cloud apps to meet security controls, then organisations may find themselves looking for other options.

All the previous points come together to create this final gap in cloud security. Because many organisations recognise all the issues, full cloud adoption may be slowed, lessened, or even completely halted. This can result in a less effective cloud security posture.

Security and compliance solutions

In many (or possibly most) cases, a company's data and reputation are still safer in the cloud than they would be if they were confined strictly to on-premises solutions.

That said, those gaps in cloud security should not be overlooked. To help ensure optimal data protection in the cloud, organisations need optimal cloud visibility.

Selected technology can provide unfiltered visibility into any private or hybrid cloud infrastructure, giving more control over everything that happens to assets in the cloud.

It enables users to eliminate many blind spots that stand in the way of optimal cloud security and experience. Organisations can see exactly how their data is being handled.

With visibility-as-code, essential monitoring can be embedded directly into cloud automation, easily scaling up or down to match users' needs.

With improved visibility comes increased control. Organisations are able to migrate their entire existing security posture directly to the cloud and ensure that investment in on-premises solutions and essential compliance frameworks becomes part of a complete cloud security plan.

Visibility also extends to cloud applications, delivering a reliable, easy and inexpensive way to connect cloud apps with your proven security controls.

In other words, advanced solutions are closing the most prominent cloud security gaps, enabling users to blow away the dark clouds blocking the view of their data.

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Dark clouds on the horizon: How to close the gaps in cloud security - SecurityBrief Asia

SUNNYVALE, Calif.andCAMBRIDGE, U.K.,Dec. 2, 2021 Hosting the worlds most comprehensive set of freely available and up-to-date molecular data resources,EMBLs European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)announced today it has chosen Google Cloud as a strategic cloud partner.

As part of a new, comprehensive, five-year partnership, EMBL-EBI will tap Google Clouds innovative technologies and global infrastructure to accelerate the pace of service delivery to its global user community, which includes research labs, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and more.

EMBL-EBI hosts a range of open data resources for the life sciences community, spanning genomics, proteins, chemical data, and more. These data resources are freely and openly available for anyone to use, similar to a digital public library. This approach supports open science and speeds up scientific discovery on a global scale.

EMBL-EBI will use Google Clouds cloud infrastructure and services to accelerate the processing of data from the community, providing more value for researchers and stakeholders, and delivering new insights through EMBL-EBIs data resources.

The partnership between Google Cloud and EMBL-EBI aims to:

The use of cloud infrastructure will support EMBL-EBIs goals, and will not change researchers access to EMBL-EBI data. The global research community will continue to have open access to the institutes data resources and tools. The data hosted by EMBL-EBI will continue to be stored in the institutes data centers and will remain accessible via existing methods indefinitely. Over time, copies of selected data may be stored and processed in Google Cloud, in compliance with EMBLs internal data classification and data protection policies, and leveraging Google Clouds advanced data protection capabilities. All data stored on Google Cloud by EMBL-EBI remains under EMBL-EBI control and delivery.

Steven Newhouse, Head of Technical Services, EMBL-EBI said:Google has an incredible network of life science expertise as well as infrastructure services that provide a tremendous opportunity to work together to help speed up scientific discovery. Were excited about the possibilities that Google Clouds secure, flexible, and connected infrastructure can provide to EMBL-EBI to enable our services to be accessed globally.

Mark Palmer, Head of Public Sector, EMEA, Google Cloud, commented:As we continue our work with customers in the research space, the impact of cloud computing becomes increasingly clear. As part of this new partnership, we have the opportunity to accelerate research by providing EMBL-EBI with high performance computing solutions that will provide researchers with the tools and compute to drive more effective and efficient research.

About Google Cloud

Google Cloud accelerates organizations ability to digitally transform their business with the best infrastructure, platform, industry solutions and expertise. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Googles cutting-edge technology all on the cleanest cloud in the industry. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.

About EMBLs European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)

TheEuropean Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)is a global leader in the storage, analysis and dissemination of large biological datasets. We help scientists realise the potential of big data by enhancing their ability to exploit complex information to make discoveries that benefit humankind.

We are at the forefront of computational biology research, with work spanning sequence analysis methods, multi-dimensional statistical analysis and data-driven biological discovery, from plant biology to mammalian development and disease.

We are part of EMBL and are located on the Wellcome Genome Campus,Cambridge UK, one of the worlds largest concentrations of scientific and technical expertise in genomics.

Funding

As part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the majority of EMBL-EBIs funding comes from the governments ofEMBLs member states. EMBL-EBIstechnical infrastructure development is also supported by capital investment fromUK Research and Innovation (UKRI). EMBL-EBI is extremely grateful to its funders for their continued support in helping the institute develop its technical infrastructure, which is crucial for making biological data freely and openly available to the international scientific community.

Source: Google Cloud

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Google Cloud Selected by EMBL-EBI as Strategic Partner to Accelerate the Pace of Research - HPCwire

From SaaS to IaaS to PaaS, the application of cloud computing has now become universal

If you want to sell something, the most important thing to focus on is the business model. And if you want to sell your products or services online, then you need a web portal that supports a business process that goes from taking the request,delivering the product and collecting the payment. Twenty years ago one would have to set up a technical team to manage all the computer infrastructure. However, that is no longer the case.

With Cloud Computing, you only have to subscribe to a service provider to obtain the hardware and operating system that your software needs. This lets you focus on the core business problem and not worry about computer infrastructure which will reside in a datacentre in your country or somewhere else. And the pricing for this mix of hardware product and service is based on how long the computers are used, the type of hardware and how much data is stored etc.. In other words, Cloud Computing brings the utility model to computer infrastructure: like electricity, we only pay for how much we use. Cloud computing business had a valuation of $370 billion in 2020 and it reflects how critically important Cloud Computing is to any business that uses software. Almost 50% of all corporate data is stored in the Cloud.

At the heart of Cloud computing are two vital technologies: virtualisation which lets computer resources be shared through multiple virtual machines; and network that lets data requests flow to and from the datacentre or the Cloud through the Internet. It needs to be noted that resource sharing and utility computing have existed in some form for many years. A good example is the IBM mainframe which accepted job requests and allocated computing resources. But the difference with Cloud computing is that hardware resources are distributed across multiple locations and there is a diverse choice of software that is available to consumers. Mainframes typically were high power computers but Cloud computing offers more computing power with commodity hardware and more choice of software pre-installed as per our demand.

This model of utility computing is called pay-as-you-go and it is the same principle behind Software as a Service (SaaS). With SaaS, a software user is charged based on how many transactions a customer makes and the volume of those transactions, instead of a flat fee. An example is Google Photos where a customer pays based on the giga-bytes that is required to store photos. Other popular examples are Zoho applications and Google Applications. SaaS model is now present in various complex businesses. Even Cloud Computing services like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, work on the principle of SaaS but because they offer Infrastructure, they are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) if we order hardware with minimal software, or Platform as a Service (PaaS) if we order hardware with more than minimal software installed on it.

When software is built and run on the Cloud, depending on where the servers (ie, the computer infrastructure) are located, the response time will differ. To provide quick responses especially when customers are present in multiple geographies (think Google or Amazon or IRCTC), it is prudent to host the Cloud in multiple locations. This is called Edge computing. By Cloud we refer to the same datacentre and network circuits that are used by multiple customers including possibly our business competitors. It is also called public Cloud. In contrast to this is the private Cloud where geographically distributed hardware are cordoned off virtually such that the computing resources are allotted only to one customer. A recent trend is to manage data security issues by using hybrid Cloud: the extremely vital, private information is stored in the private Cloud while the less critical data is stored in the public Cloud.

Cloud Computing unleashes unlimited computing resources and to use these resources to the fullest, new software development paradigms need to be adopted. For example, the recent trend known as Cloud native development is developing software that runs on multiple parallel threads or can automatically request for extra servers when demand is high and turn off servers when demand is low.

In order to automate launching new servers, managing them, running software in them, scaling them down etc. automation software like Terraform is used. These are called Infrastructure-as-a-service software. There are many solutions built around infrastructure failing over to a back-up, spawn new virtual machines called containers and ensure High Availability etc.. These solutions all come under the umbrella called Devops (Development and Operations).

When Cloud Computings potential is used well, one can launch rich features faster and put customers on cloud nine.

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Running business on Cloud - The Hindu