April 15, 2014

DRaaS pricing lifts the burden of backup responsibilities
Disaster recovery is a topic as old as data centers themselves, but emerging technologies and applications are giving it new life. In particular, disaster recovery as a service, based in the cloud, enables small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to protect their IT infrastructure without breaking the bank. That's the focus of this month's Modern Infrastructure cover story, which explores the benefits of DR in the cloud, or DRaaS. DR sites used to be reserved for only deep-pocketed companies and IT teams, but the cloud has been a great equalizer when it comes to disaster recovery.


Large Scale Scrum (LeSS) @ J.P. Morgan
Before the adoption of LeSS the teams in Securities were under mandate to adopt certain core building block components. For example all datastore interaction utilised an internal proprietary framework which abstracted the application tier from datastore specific functionality. This API layer was private code owned by a central team. The result was that if any team found a bug or needed a change they would need to persuade the central team to prioritise the work and wait (often, a long time) for the next release cycle. But, after adopting LeSS with feature teams and a more internal open source or collective code ownership approach, a more progressive stance was adopted.


Boom time for digital technologies as CEOs make IT investment top priority for 2014
"If you look at that period from 2003 - 2008, the five year economic boom period before we have a crash, at that point the talk was about offshoring, outsourcing and ERP standardisation projects. In that boom period IT in the business was generally being kept under control, put a lid on, even cut. "There was a sense that IT was a hygiene factor. That you needed to have it but it wasn't differentiating. People had bought into the idea that IT was something of a commodity, that's why we did all that offshoring and outsourcing.


Making room for risk in high-performing companies
Chobani, a relative newcomer in the yogurt industry, is a prime example of differentiation through disruption. One of Chobani’s innovations is a manufacturing process that involves recycling a whey byproduct as supplemental feed for its local farms. This helps foster sustainability as part of a commitment to the environment and the communities Chobani serves. Over time, many growing enterprises will seek to derive more value from their existing systems. This is where the process improvement journey begins. But once those processes are in place, many businesses lose room to maneuver.


Developer Details How He Built Software-Defined Networking App
Pearce, a veteran of 20 years of programming communications and networking technology, has primarily used C++ and C and admitted he didn't have a lot of experience with Java, required for the SDN programming. Pearce particularly noted he had some difficulty using the Maven project management tool, with which he had little experience. He encountered many challenges along the way, he said, but was able to produce a functioning example app on time, with help from some friends more experienced in the technology to smooth over the rough spots.


Farm machines produce privacy concerns, guidelines underway
"Virtually every company says it will never share, sell or use the data in a market-distorting way--but we would rather verify than trust," farmer Brian Marshall of the AFBF told the U.S. House Committee on Small Business in February (as reported in a post in AgProfessional). "The data would be a gold mine to traders in commodity markets and could influence farmland values," writes Karl Plume at Reuters. "While there are no documented instances so far of data being misused, lengthy contracts packed with open-ended language and differing from one supplier to the next are fueling mistrust."


Why Your Resident Loudmouth is a Big Asset
Expressive employees are your best secret weapon. They are natural leaders and passionate about improvement. So, enlist their help. Put them in charge of committees, seek their advice, and use their insights to make your company better. You will probably find that they start becoming less of a loudmouth as you treat them differently. After all, the best way to make someone stop pushing so hard is to remove the force of resistance. While opinionated and confident employees’ methods can sometimes be problematic, their intentions are often good.


New cloud service uses big data sources to improve emergency response
A platform like TIES can help to make the escalating explosion of online information more useful, Dodge said. "The problem with intelligence is that, 10 years ago, there wasn't enough to make good decisions. Now there is too much information," he said, adding that TIES allows users to take data, pull it into one location and then act on it. "What would have once taken hours and multiple people sorting through multiple sources to find vital information can now be done by a single analyst to put together a security or response plan to address top threats," he said.


USB Type-C: Simpler, faster and more powerful
In fact, the upcoming Type-C plug just might end up being the one plug to rule them all: A single USB connector that links everything from a PC's keyboard and mouse to external storage devices and displays. "The Type-C plug is a big step forward," says Jeff Ravencraft, chairman of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the organization that oversees the USB standard. "It might be confusing at first during the transition, but the Type-C plug could greatly simplify things over time by consolidating and replacing the larger USB connectors."


SparkCognition: Let machines address security threats
According to Husain, the MindSpark platform is built on patent-pending Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning techniques that enable cognitive capability. He pointed out that MindSpark — when exposed to security data — finds patterns of attack, identifies vectors, models attacker behavior, and much more. Husain also said that MindSpark aggregates its learning at a faster pace than any human or legacy software system. What it learns — the statistics models and base operational data — is offered as a cloud service.



Quote for the day:

"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching." -- Satchel Paige


No comments:

Post a Comment