Cloud Computing Archives

Against prior popular belief, cloud computing a boon for professional IT jobs

February 19, 2014

Remember years ago when the prevailing thought was that the proliferation of cloud computing would decimate professional IT jobs? As the folks at VMware point out in a recent blog post, just the opposite appears to have happened: Never before have opportunities for IT professionals been greater. IDC, for one, predicts cloud spending will reach $100 billion over the coming year. Add to that the fact that employers have been on an unstoppable IT hiring binge over the past three years – Career Builder, an employment firm, says software developer jobs alone have increased 12% since 2010. In the course of compiling press releases and client profiles, numerous organizations have told Online Tech that moving to our encrypted, enterprise-class cloud has freed up their own IT staff to spend more time on projects with a greater direct impact on the success of the business. Back to the post from VMware (Online Tech uses their fault tolerant hosts in its next-generation cloud architecture), they claim “the rise of the cloud-powered enterprise not only means greater opportunities for IT professionals, but for their bosses and business colleagues as well.” They say cloud computing has elevated the role of IT leaders to full-fledged…

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Social Media Grows Customer Trust for Cloud Computing Industry

October 30, 2013

Before there was Twitter and LinkedIn, companies felt that it was better to hide bad news from customers. Airlines wouldn’t tell passengers why there was a delay. Hosting companies wouldn’t tell you about an outage or when dial up lines wouldn’t work. Now with the adoption of social media, companies are becoming more transparent and sharing all types of company news or information – good or bad. The cloud computing and data center industry is no different. In this video, Yan Ness discusses how social media has impacted cloud computing providers. With the introduction of social media, customers were allowed to speak with one another without the company’s permission. It put companies on the defensive. Once someone had a bad experience, he or she told everyone. So companies had a choice to make. Be more transparent and less secretive or remain quiet and let their customers do the talking. In the beginning, the data center industry was scared of being more open. They thought it would cause a lot of problems. But what it did was tighten the trust level between customers and companies. For those companies that decided to jump in the “social media sandbox” and started to use…

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Why Authentication is the Answer to Your Cloud Worries

August 22, 2013

The following is a guest blog from Ann Arbor-based Duo Security‘s Security Evangelist, Mark Stanislav: A recent article from Forbes titled, “Is Your Investment In Security Really Worth It?”, called into question whether or not the money spent for information security was having impactful returns for the investments being made. Kindly enough, the author reached out to various information security vendors for their rebuttals to this unflattering portrayal of security vendors as taking more than they were contributing back to their clients. One of the responses was from the CTO of Qualys who aptly noted, “Perimeter defenses (“hard shell, soft center”) and signature-based malware programs have lost much of their effectiveness over the last few years.” This thought of course isn’t revolutionary for anyone who’s invested time and resources into cloud computing or mobile devices during the past decade. With a changing threat landscape that no longer has single-vendor networking stacks or applications from a handful of software companies, the effort to provide adequate security is becoming increasingly challenging. The question then becomes, where should you spend your money for a high return on security investment? It was determined through a survey by IDG that, “42% of cloud-based projects are eventually…

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Financial Industry Increases Private Cloud Spending in 2013

August 15, 2013

AmericanBanker.com reports that a recent survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers indicates that 71 percent of financial service executives intend to invest more in cloud computing this year, an increase of 18 percent from 2012. Another 50 percent intend to invest in private cloud infrastructure, including virtualized storage and network equipment. The reason for the increase is greater security and reliability of the cloud environment by cloud vendors. With encryption of data at rest and in transit, the enterprise cloud is secure enough to support confidential financial data and mission-critical applications, vital to the health of a financial company. For those outsourcing their IT, 64 percent responded that they viewed data security as an extremely serious risk to their organization. When it came to the three most important reasons for choosing an external private cloud service provider for their IT infrastructure, financial executives responded: Access superior technical skills to satisfy new requirement Faster delivery of IT solutions for business requirement Reduce total cost of IT department With an outsourced cloud service provider, their investment is in their people, critical infrastructure and up-to-date technology to provide enterprise-class, fast-performing clouds. The financial industry is not in the IT industry – by outsourcing their IT,…

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Ensuring Cloud Vendor Security Transparency in the Age of Data Breaches

August 2, 2013

Gartner recently released recommendations for gaining transparency into cloud software as a service (SaaS) contracts – including emphasis on annual security audits and certification by a third party to verify a cloud vendor’s operating/product security. Gartner also recommends that contracts allow for an option to terminate the agreement in the event of a security breach if the provider fails on any material measure. Gartner’s report, Cloud Contracts Need Security Service Levels to Better Manage Risk reveals that 80 percent of IT procurement professionals will remain dissatisfied with SaaS contract language and protections that relate to security over the next two years. “We continue to see frustration among cloud services users over the form and degree of transparency they are able to obtain from prospective and current service providers,” said Alexa Bona, vice president and analyst at Gartner. So how can you maintain complete transparency into your cloud service provider’s ability to provide ongoing secure services? The following is relevant to cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers that may offer services to other software as a service (SaaS) providers: Check compliance audit reports. The list of security audits that should be conducted by an independent third-party auditor at least annually…

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Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Security, Reliability & Availability Desired

July 26, 2013

According to a recent survey by IT research firm Neovise as reported by CIOInsight.com of over 800 IT decision-makers in the U.S., enterprise cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is the most widely adopted form of cloud computing. Thirty-seven percent of organizations use private, on-premise IaaS, while 35 percent use private, off-premise IaaS clouds. Another 37 percent use public IaaS clouds. When it comes to the importance of enterprise private cloud attributes, security for sensitive data is rated as highly or somewhat important, at 93 percent of respondents. For concerns around security, check your cloud provider’s dates and reports of independent audits, including SSAE 16, SOC 2, HIPAA (for healthcare) and PCI DSS (for ecommerce and retail). Or, ask for a tour of their facilities to verify their physical, administrative and technical security safeguards. A close second in desired private cloud attributes is better provisioning (91 percent) and third, advanced management (87 percent). Ask your cloud provider what kind of access they give your organization for control – typically they will provide a web portal you can log into and use to start, stop, and take snapshots of your servers. Ninety-four percent surveyed reported cloud application usage included disaster recovery,…

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Cloud Computing Drives Infrastructure as a Service & Data Center Growth

April 4, 2013

A recent article by CIO.com reports on the growing trend of outsourcing IT infrastructure to service providers – according to the IDC, service providers currently account for 13 percent of new data center space, with projected growth to be more than 30 percent by 2017. The State of Michigan’s Mi-Cloud initiative saw the consolidation of data centers and the widespread use of the cloud across its agencies for increased efficiency and lowering costs. Shifting mission-critical applications to service providers means lightening the workload in-house, an effective way to streamline workflows. The CIO article reports that staffing is one of the reasons why CIOs are transferring data center operations to third-party hosting providers – the concern is around staffing personnel with the needed skill-set to manage, update and maintain technical environments. Partnering with a hosting provider means clients can benefit from their investment in the needed professional certifications and training, as well as benefit from the available technical support. Cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is the fastest-growing segment of the cloud market, having grown 42 percent in 2012, and projected to grow to $131 billion in 2013, according to Gartner. But according to CIO.com, 72 percent of users lack the…

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Michigan Growing in Supply/Shipping Industry

March 25, 2013

There’s been quite a bit of talk around Michigan as an incredibly fast-growing IT state. What you may not have heard as much about, is the prospect of Michigan blossoming into a very effective shipping hub for North America. I know that seems strange. A peninsula doesn’t really strike anyone as the ideal place to concentrate shipping and logistic processes throughout the rest of the country. However, it’s got some real perks, as explained within a Forbes article written earlier this week. The first of which is the traffic already running through the area. The Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron and the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit are the busiest US-Canada border crossings in the country. Michigan also has access to four deep water ports, as well as the Canadian National Railway. Then there’s the win for business efficiency. Jim Smiertka of Prima Civitas Foundation explained to Forbes, “If you go through Chicago, your freight will be delayed five days. In Michigan, it would take one day.” Chipping four days off of cargo transportation can mean a very noticeable difference in a business’ bottom line. I’d be interested to see a business owner argue with that. Let’s not forget possibly…

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State of Cloud Security: Vetting Applications and Cloud Providers for Compliance and Security

March 15, 2013

The latest report from the Ponemon Institute, located in Traverse City, Michigan, sought to analyze trends in cloud computing security among organizations that use software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Only half of organizations are assessing the effect of the cloud on the ability to protect confidential information, and similarly, 51 percent are concerned about the security of cloud computing resources, per usual. Only 43 percent of organizations audit or assess cloud computing resources before deployment. While vetting cloud computing providers for security may seem time-consuming, organizations should ask if their cloud infrastructure as a service providers (IaaS) can provide an updated audit report of their services and data center facilities. What types of audits should you look for in a cloud computing/data center provider? SSAE 16 The Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 replaced SAS 70 in June 2011. A SSAE 16 audit measures the controls relevant to financial reporting; it verifies that the controls and processes set in place by a data center are actually followed. There are two types: Type I – A data center’s description and assertion of controls, as reported by the company. Type II – Auditors test…

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Cloud Computing Apps Featured at the 2013 North American International Auto Show

January 17, 2013

Yesterday, Online Tech and Comcast Business Class co-hosted a luncheon at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) that included a brief performance by acrobats and talk about cloud computing applications powering high-tech vehicles, many of which were showcased at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan. As we wrote about in our press release, Michigan Automotive Innovation Takes Flight with Cloud Computing, apps are working to deliver better consumer experiences and support critical manufacturing processes. Online Tech co-CEO Mike Klein delivers a talk about how the cloud is changing the auto industry. In-car apps, as can be seen above, include the ability to access real-time data on navigation and insight into any current obstacles, including car crashes or other traffic delays. One example is the Lexus dashboard that also lets you browse local landmarks and tell you how far away they are from your current location. Customizable settings allow your car to become as personal as your smartphone. Cloud computing allows access to all of these data-rich features that create a unique driver experience. Similarly, the trend in mobile computing and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) in the workplace relies on the cloud for secure and reliable access to big…

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