Enterprises are moving more and more applications to the cloud. Gartner predicts that the bulk of new IT spending by 2016 will be for cloud computing platforms and applications and that nearly half of large enterprises will have cloud deployments by the end of 2017.1 The far-reaching impact of cloud computing is summarized in a recent McKinsey report on disruptive technologies: "Cloud technology has the potential to improve productivity across $3 trillion in global enterprise IT spending, as well as enabling the creation of new online products and services for billions of consumers and millions of businesses alike."2 For many organizations, moving applications that can tolerate brief periods of downtime to the cloud is a straightforward decision with clear benefits. However, concerns about how to provide high availability and disaster protection in the cloud may mak... (more)

Two Giant Economies Provide Experiment to “Free and Unfettered” Internet

In my previous blog I contrasted the latest net neutrality developments in the EU with the situation in the U.S. Neither decision will settle the argument and the two camps will continue to debate the topic for the foreseeable future. On both sides of the argument and the ocean, believers state with conviction that their way is the right way, leading to a healthier Internet industry and benefits for all. One camp takes the view that Internet openness and neutrality means that telecom service providers should not be restricted from managing Internet traffic and, if they feel it i... (more)

Deliver Your Apps Without a Hitch Through Automated Change Validation

DevOps Summit Early Bird Savings here! Maintaining lower development environments can become an unbearable headache. Changes to an application, service or API are seldom completely testable, leaving us to discover broken code when it's too late. This lack of visibility into application dependencies severely limits early code validation, which has a direct impact on delivery cycles. While traditional methods of Change Management, Test Data Management and Test Scheduling have failed, there's now an opportunity to finally deliver on the vision of always available, always configured... (more)

Common Gotchas: Cloud Security Problems to Avoid

Cloud computing security can be a conundrum. The point of using the public cloud is to outsource certain infrastructure and application needs to third party providers, after all. How can you secure your data once it leaves your perimeter and your control? As puzzling as it may seem, there is hope. Luckily for organizations looking to adopt the cloud, securing sensitive information outside the corporate perimeter isn't as daunting (or as impossible) as it may appear. Technologies exist to enable cloud computing security strong enough for companies to remain in compliance while taki... (more)

Social Login: The Right Solution for Your Business?

What have you done online today - checked LinkedIn? Facebook? Twitter? Opened and sent business emails? Used business apps? Every business employee also has a private life - and it's becoming increasingly difficult to keep the two separate. Rather than ignoring the growing role of social media in your customers' and employees' lives, many businesses are starting to take advantage of it. One way to do this is through social login. Social login is a way to use social network credentials to create accounts on other sites or applications. From a business perspective, you may decide to... (more)