European Businesses Ill-Prepared for EU General Data Protection Regulation

by Posted in Industry Insights & News

European Businesses Ill-Prepared for EU General Data Protection Regulation

European businesses are inadequately prepared for looming EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to data virtualization and masking company Delphix. The company has released survey results which show a widespread lack of understanding about the GDPR regime set to come into effect in June 2018.

Well over half of UK businesses have little to no familiarity with the tools recommended for GDPR compliance. Even if Britain is no longer part of the EU when the new regulations come into effect, UK companies, like those from around the world, will still need to be compliant to handle EU citizens’ data.

RELATED: European Union’s First Cybersecurity Law Gets Green Light

Among UK companies, one-fifth say they have “no understanding” of GDPR, and another 42 percent say they have “looked into some aspects” of the regulation, but not the recommended pseudonymisation tools. (“Pseudonymisation” is defined in the GDPR as “the processing of personal data in such a way that the data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information.”)

Two of five German companies have studied the regulations but are having trouble understanding them, and only 21 percent say they fully understand the requirements.

French companies are relatively confident in their knowledge, but 38 percent saying they understand regulations they will have to meet in two years should still be concerning to the industry and those who regulate it.

SEE ALSO: The Post Safe Harbor Era: New Opportunities for Service Providers

“When it comes to protecting personal information, data masking and hashing represent the de facto standard for achieving pseudonymisation,” Iain Chidgey, VP International at Delphix said in a statement. “Take the unprotected personal information that is often freely available in the non-production environments that are used for software development, testing, training, reporting and analytics. By replacing this sensitive data with fictitious yet realistic data, businesses can neutralise data risk while preserving its value. Data masking irreversibly transforms sensitive data to eliminate risk and allows organisations to demonstrate compliance with the pseudonymisation requirements in the GDPR.”

The survey showed that roughly one-third of data held in France is masked, compared to a quarter of that held in the UK and Germany.

A fear of project delays was the most common reason given for not masking data (36 percent), just ahead of lack of control of data (34 percent). The survey also showed that while responsibility for data protection is held at the C-level, plans vary as to which specific role will take on the responsibility, and most businesses surveyed have neither a chief data officer nor a chief privacy officer.

As far back as the beginning of 2015 concern began to mount about corporate preparedness for new regulations. The challenges could create risk for companies and consumers, but also an opportunity for service providers.

Source: TheWHIR

Aligned Data Centers And Plexxi Partner

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Aligned Data Centers And Plexxi Partner

Aligned Data Centers and New Hampshire-based Plexxi have announced that they have partnered to deliver an integrated network and data center alternative that can be consumed as a service. The partnership provides the ability to provision data center capacity and connectivity as an on-demand utility.

Data centers and networks today are large upfront investments that require customers to predict future IT needs and either become barriers for growth or are underutilized. In fact, Gartner reports that as much as 50% of data center capacity goes unused. Aligned Data Centers offers cloud providers and enterprises with unique “plug-and-play” pods that are dynamically provisioned to deliver on-demand agility per application. These pods can scale IT resource requirements from a single rack environment to thousands with ease without having to predefine rack space and network capacity requirements. The platform adjusts to dynamic rack loads, significantly increasing the speed by which cloud players can expand and adjust to growth. Aligned’s platform can accommodate up to 10 times the power density of traditional data centers.

“The compliment between our technology platforms is significant and disruptive,” said Aligned Energy CEO Jakob Carnemark. “Cloud players need data center infrastructure that is as agile and frictionless as provisioning servers, storage and software. Our partnership solves for this by allowing customers to provision infrastructure capacity to align with application needs, significantly reducing stranded capacity and improving speed.”

“Aligned Data Centers re-invented traditional data center architecture,” said Plexxi CEO Rich Napolitano. “They’ve built the world’s first true application-defined data center from top to bottom, including power, space and cooling that adjusts based on customer application requirements and densities. This has never been done before, and truly revolutionizes the cost model of building reliable data centers. IT executives are looking to drastically reduce energy consumption in their data centers, and this partnership enhances Aligned’s transformative pay-for-use model.”

In November 2015, Aligned opened its ultra-efficient, next generation data center in Plano, Texas. Construction is well underway on their second in Phoenix, Arizona, which will be one of the largest multi-tenant data centers in Arizona, capable of offering both high-availability and high-efficiency while guaranteeing an industry-leading 1.15 PUE and reducing water consumption by as much as 85% through its patented technology.

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Romonet’s Files Patents For New Analytics Platform

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Romonet’s Files Patents For New Analytics Platform

Romonet has announced it is filing for a number of new patents for the next phase of its data center intelligence platform, utilizing the applications of Machine Learning. The company is known as the leader in data center analytics and this development enhances the value of Romonet’s already patented solution.

“We have been working on advanced data handling and Machine Learning algorithms for over a year, focusing predominantly on enhancing our solution to learn and become as proficient as our human data scientists are today at identifying anomalies, and tracking down the cause behind the symptom. This capability provides powerful operational and business insight into data center systems and component level performance,” said Liam Newcombe, Romonet’s co-founder and CTO.

Having modeled, collected data and analyzed hundreds of data centers in the past eight years, Romonet’s platform has an incredibly detailed and expansive data archive on how facilities of every size perform under different climate, environmental, energy, IT and commercial factors.

While the use of Machine Learning applications is not new, Romonet’s platform is the first to combine metered data, Machine Learning, simulation and predictive analytics.         

“In our case, teaching the machine is much faster as we feed it pre-cleansed and calibrated data to recognize and learn patterns, incorporate additional data from outside sources, and teach the software to suggest causes and recommended actions from previously learned results,” continued Newcombe.

Like Google, Amazon, Cisco, and Netflix, who already use Machine Learning to personalize services and business intelligence, Romonet’s industry-leading platform is revolutionizing the booming global data center market.

With Romonet, Hyperscale and Multi-Tenant Data Center (MTDC) operators are improving the services they provide to their customers while strengthening financial management through investment, cost and margin analysis. Enterprise data center owners, whose facilities, while core to service delivery, are also a drain on profitability, are rationalizing their investments, accurately planning a hybrid (owned, colocated, and cloud) strategy years into the future, and improving their ability to make socially responsible decisions that impact the environment, shareholders and employees.

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Advantech Releases IoT Device Management Software Platform

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Advantech Releases IoT Device Management Software Platform

Advantech has launched its new WISE-PaaS/RMM version 3.1, an IoT device management software platform. WISE-PaaS/RMM 3.1 is an open standardized IoT software platform for users by applying MQTT, a standard and popular IoT M2M protocol for device and server communication.

WISE-PaaS/RMM 3.1 comes with more than 100 RESTful APIs including, account management, device management, device control, event management, system management, and database management. RESTful APIs create new web services and help integrate functions and data with their management tools. Furthermore, WISE-PaaS/RMM 3.1 will release WISE-Agent source code as open source. WISE-Agent software works on the device side, helping customers to develop their own applications. WISE-PaaS/RMM highly enhances connectivity for hardware, software, devices and sensors, and helps customers to transform their business to include IoT cloud services.

Centralized Management for Big Data Visualization

Based on WISE-PaaS/RMM 3.0 for remote device monitoring and management, version 3.1 offers centralized management and a dashboard builder for data visualization. Customers can develop dashboards to monitor and manage all their connected devices. WISE-PaaS/RMM 3.1 is also integrated with Node-Red which is a “drag and drop” logic editor tool for users to access data and features in WISE-PaaS/RMM 3.1 for device flow and action control management.

High Availability for Large Scalability

To provide a stable and reliable centralized management platform, WISE-PaaS/RMM 3.1 includes server redundancy whereby devices can have direct connection with the security of a back-up server if the main server loses connection. This is designed to make sure data and services auto-sync between the main server and the back-up server. WISE-PaaS/RMM 3.1 also provides a hierarchical server, which supports the main server and sub-server structure at the same time. Users can use the sub-server for local device management and use the main server to collect data from local servers in order to disperse the load on the main server.

Sensor/Device Connectivity for Data Acquisition

To connect devices and consolidate data acquisition, WISE-PaaS/RMM 3.1 provides a handler structure in WISE-Agent for users to extend data acquisition capability to connected devices. Customers can develop routines based on sample code Advantech provides to create handlers for their own devices and application scenarios. Advantech provides two data bases (MongoDB and PostgreDB), SQL and no-SQL, for data storage and easy management.

WISE-PaaS/RMM 3.1, Open Standardization in IoT Software Platform

With WISE-PaaS/RMM 3.1, customers can collect data from devices, equipment, sensors and software, shorten development time and reduce development resources. It helps customers develop new IoT application models and it also integrates with Advantech’s IoT Gateway Starter Kit, a ready-to-run package with pre-configured hardware, platform services (WISE-PaaS) and Microsoft’s Azure service certification.

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Telstra Acquires Readify, Adding Enterprise Cloud App Expertise

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Telstra Acquires Readify, Adding Enterprise Cloud App Expertise

Australian telecom Telstra has acquired software developer and Microsoft services provider Readify, according to an announcement on Monday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Readify builds apps for customers, but also has a Microsoft focus, and has helped build some of the largest Azure implementations in Australia. Readify architects, implements, and supports products like SharePoint and Office 365, and has received several awards from Microsoft.

SEE ALSO: Vocus to Buy Australian Fiber Network, Projects for $637 Million

“As we know, apps and software in general are playing an increasingly important role in businesses. Readify is recognized globally for its innovative software solutions and will further help us create software-led digital transformations with our customers,” Telstra Executive Director Global Enterprise and Services, Michelle Bendschneider said. “Readify will provide application development and data analytics services, nicely complementing Kloud’s existing services. It will enable Telstra to add incremental value to customers in enterprise cloud applications, API-based customisation and extensions as well as business technology advisory services.”

Readify acquired Huegin Consulting in September, and its team includes 160 software developers and about 40 other staff. The announcement seems to imply that they will be integrated with the Telstra team, which has been the company’s tendency over a string of recent local acquisitions.

Australian cloud companies Telstra has acquired since 2013 include migration provider Kloud in January of this year, network integrator and consultancy O2 Networks, information security, data management, and network integration company Bridge Point Communications, and unified communications and call center technology integrator NSC.

Telstra acquired the Singapore and Hong Kong-based data center and submarine cable network operator Pacnet for nearly $700 million in early 2015. It subsequently broke the company up and sold its holdings in Singapore and Thailand for $4.4 million. The company also invested in Chinese cloud storage firm Qiniu early in 2016, and has been ramping up its cloud capabilities to serve not just its domestic market, but the whole region.

To that end, Telstra launched a multi-cloud managing gateway in April.

Source: TheWHIR

Alibaba's Cloud Unit Brings on Microsoft Veteran to Lead Big Data Team

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Alibaba's Cloud Unit Brings on Microsoft Veteran to Lead Big Data Team

Alibaba’s cloud computing unit has hired Microsoft veteran Jingren Zhou to lead its big data and artificial intelligence research teams, who develop platforms to help customers analyze big data, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

While at Microsoft, Zhou worked on the Bing search infrastructure team and big data unit as its chief scientist. At AliCloud, he will lead teams in Hangzhou, Beijing, and Seattle, according to the report.

SEE ALSO: Baidu Creates Own Indexes to Paint Picture of China’s Economy

AliCloud now has 500,000 paying customers for its cloud services, which is expected to grow with the demand for cloud services in China. China’s cloud computing market will reach $20 billion by 2020, up from $1.5 billion in 2013, according to Bain & Company.

According to the WSJ, while AliCloud’s valuation of $39 billion is less than half of Amazon’s at $91 billion, Morgan Stanley said that AliCloud could become one of Alibaba’s most significant value drivers by 2020, with its revenue expected to grow 24 percent by March 2017.

Last summer, Simon Hu, the president of AliCloud said that its goal was to overtake Amazon in four years, “whether that’s in customers, technology, or worldwide scale.”

In May, Alibaba partnered with Japanese telecom SoftBank to launch cloud computing services in Japan based on AliCloud.

Source: TheWHIR

European Union's First Cybersecurity Law Gets Green Light

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European Union's First Cybersecurity Law Gets Green Light

By Jonathan Stearns

(Bloomberg) — The European Union approved its first rules on cybersecurity, forcing businesses to strengthen defenses and companies such as Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. to report attacks.

The European Parliament endorsed legislation that will impose security and reporting obligations on service operators in industries such as banking, energy, transport and health and on digital operators like search engines and online marketplaces. The law, voted through on Wednesday in Strasbourg, France, also requires EU national governments to cooperate among themselves in the field of network security.

SEE ALSO: UK Cybersecurity Budgets Fail to Match Growing Threats: Report

The rules “will help prevent cyberattacks on Europe’s important interconnected infrastructures,” said Andreas Schwab, a German member of the 28-nation EU Parliament who steered the measures through the assembly. EU governments have already supported the legislation.

Network-security incidents resulting from human error, technical failures or cyberattacks cause annual losses of 260 billion euros ($288 billion) to 340 billion euros, the EU Parliament said, citing estimates by the bloc’s agency for network and information security.

READ MORE: Brexit and Europe: Business as Usual

Source: TheWHIR

Microservices: What They Mean and How They Impact the Channel

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Microservices: What They Mean and How They Impact the Channel

“Microservices” is fast becoming one of the newest buzzwords that IT decision makers need to know as DevOps redefines modern software application delivery. Here’s a primer on what microservices mean and how the concept is affecting the channel.

If you’re a programmer, you’re probably already familiar with the idea of microservices. As the term implies, the concept centers around breaking down software into small parts that interact with one another in modular ways.

If that sounds like the design principles behind Unix-like operating systems, or object-oriented programming, it’s because it is. Microservices are really just an expansion of these programming practices into a broader context.

But now, in the modern, DevOps-centric application delivery landscape, microservices are at the center of everything.

Microservices and the Channel

So that’s what microservices mean if you’re a programmer. But what about people who simply work with software but don’t write it?

For the channel as a whole, microservices introduce a new calculus to the way companies develop and integrate software. In particular, microservices mean that:

  • Software components are more interchangeable than ever. Gone are the “monolithic” software architectures of the past, which made integration difficult. With microservices, it’s easy for vendors to break software down into small parts and arrange those parts in different combinations in order to build integrated products.
  • Software delivery is faster. One of the chief selling points of a microservices architecture (and of DevOps in general) is that it speeds up software development and delivery by making it continuous. The result is an expectation on the part of partners and customers that products will be released early and often, rather than according to the lengthy, delay-prone development schedules associated with “waterfall” software development.
  • Partners have more choices. Because microservices break software stacks down into many small, interchangeable parts, organizations have more choice than ever when deciding which partners and products to work with. If you’re designing a vertical product offering, you can easily build in a database from one partner and a Web server from another, for example. Plus, by using Continuous Integration platforms, you can quickly change which languages or frameworks you work in or support, without revamping your entire product.

Like the cloud (a concept that has existed since the days of virtual terminals) or IoT (alsonot a new idea), microservices are not at all a new concept. But they have become crucial to the way software is built and delivered. And they fuel a more flexible channel landscape, in which partner opportunities are not constrained by rigid software design.

Source: TheWHIR

IDG Contributor Network: What matters more: Controlling the Internet's wiring, or its data? Both

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IDG Contributor Network: What matters more: Controlling the Internet's wiring, or its data? Both

In an interesting move, Facebook and Microsoft have forged an alliance to lay a new fiber optic cable under the Atlantic Ocean. Putting aside the environmental concerns this raises for many (including those of us inhabiting islands), it also raises questions about how control of the Internet — and the data belonging to its users — is basically a prize in a multi-strand tug of war involving technology companies and broadband service providers from here to Spain and back.

So, why does it matter who controls the building of Internet infrastructure? How does that relate to who controls user data? And what’s the implication for businesses that rely on Internet technology to deliver their products and services?

Google — part of Alphabet, Inc. — organizes the world’s data and, it could be argued, knows more about the average person than the average person knows about their closest friends and relatives. The company also accounts for more than 10 percent of all advertising spend globally. In holding the most information on, in, and about the Internet, Google could be the most powerful company on the planet.

Google also is involved, through one of the Alphabet companies, in the delivery of Internet services. The company has been experimenting with and investing in satellite and balloon technology (Project Loon) that could deliver Internet access to even the remotest regions of Earth — just as its existing Google Earth satellite project delivers images of those same regions, as well as eerily accurate photography of addresses such as your own.

Skyscape Announces OpenStack Support As Part Of Launch Of Next-Generation Platform

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Skyscape Announces OpenStack Support As Part Of Launch Of Next-Generation Platform

Skyscape Cloud Services Limited has announced the availability of OpenStack powered services to fully leverage the capabilities of its next-generation cloud platform. Skyscape has chosen to deploy OpenStack in order to support its UK Public Sector customers who have to comply with government policy which states open standards must be used when procuring ICT and delivering any new ICT solutions to ensure all government ICT assets are inter-operable.

Skyscape is dedicated to UK Public Sector organisations and its Cloud Native Infrastructure (powered by OpenStack) is designed specifically to support these organisations as they transition to digital and embrace an agile DevOps/WebOps culture to develop cloud native applications, which improve public services, increase agility, drive innovation and reduce costs. Skyscape’s assured OpenStack capability will accelerate digital transformation across the UK Public Sector by providing a truly open source platform that’s familiar to developers and meets government requirements for open standards.

OpenStack has established itself as the open standard cloud platform on which developers are able to build agile and elastic digital solutions, offering portability between on premise, private and public cloud environments. As OpenStack supports multi-cloud deployments, it removes any reliability on a single provider. This means UK Public Sector organisations no longer need to be ‘locked-in’ to proprietary platforms, instead they can manage pools of computing resource spread across different platforms as one and fully embrace cloud with maximum efficiency.

“We believe that OpenStack perfectly complements our existing platform and assurance capabilities to provide an end-to-end solution for the delivery of cloud services to further assist the UK Public Sector in its digital transformation,” said Simon Hansford, CEO of Skyscape Cloud Services. “This is why our new next-generation cloud platform will be the first to offer OpenStack compatible services for the exclusive use of the UK public sector, enabling us to provide an open source and portable cloud environment that maintains the levels of security, flexibility and value for money that our customers have come to expect.”

The Skyscape platform is built upon a fully packaged and tested OpenStack distribution, backed by a global specialist in open source software and standards. Unlike some other OpenStack cloud service providers, Skyscape is committed to using enterprise grade components from its partners such as Cisco and EMC to ensure it provides the highest level of platform availability and reliability. In addition, it’s committed to delivering the innovation developed by the OpenStack community; at launch its platform will be based on the Liberty release of OpenStack but it will quickly move to become one of the first UK public cloud providers to offer the latest release of OpenStack – Mitaka.

Skyscape’s OpenStack deployment enhances the company’s unique capabilities, including assured connectivity to Government networks, including the Public Services Network (PSN) and N3 health care communities. Its OpenStack platform will also remain optimised for OFFICIAL and OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE, with all data held across Skyscape’s two UK data centres.

Hansford continued, “Four years on from the launch of our first platform on the G-Cloud Framework’s debut iteration, the public sector is maturing and we’re seeing more complex requirements for genuine big data projects and multi-cloud deployments. Our next-generation OpenStack compatible platform will help our public sector customers liberate their cloud infrastructure and accelerate innovation, while also ensuring they comply with Government policy concerning open standards.”

Source: CloudStrategyMag