The document discusses lessons learned from Texas' Pilot Texas Cloud Offering project. It provides an overview of cloud computing and describes the goals and structure of the pilot project. Key lessons learned include: 1) Not all applications are well-suited for the cloud. 2) The variety of cloud services and needs creates complexity but also opportunities. 3) Costs can be managed through choices like pricing models but vary between providers and offerings.
Exploring Cloud Computing Technologies For GIS (Location Based) ApplicationsChristopher Blough
Online GIS applications can be delivered using cloud computing platforms which provide Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS) resources. An introduction to essential cloud computing concepts and considerations will be reviewed in addition to a presentation of public sector industry trends involving other cloud hosted technologies related to GIS applications. The presentation will feature examples of cloud hosted GIS applications at federal, state, and local government levels including the City of Novi\'s ArcGIS Server 10 deployment using a public cloud hosting provider.
Exploring Cloud Computing Technologies For GIS (Location Based) ApplicationsChristopher Blough
Online GIS applications can be delivered using cloud computing platforms which provide Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS) resources. An introduction to essential cloud computing concepts and considerations will be reviewed in addition to a presentation of public sector industry trends involving other cloud hosted technologies related to GIS applications. The presentation will feature examples of cloud hosted GIS applications at federal, state, and local government levels including the City of Novi\'s ArcGIS Server 10 deployment using a public cloud hosting provider.
Guddu Kumar. “A Review on Data Protection of Cloud Computing Security, Benefits, Risks and Suggestions” United International Journal for Research & Technology (UIJRT) 1.2 (2019): 26-34.
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) is an open access online peer reviewed international journal that publishes research and review articles in the fields of Computer Science, Neural Networks, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Plastic Engineering, Food Technology, Textile Engineering, Nano Technology & science, Power Electronics, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computational mathematics, Image processing, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, VLSI Testing & Low Power VLSI Design etc.
The recent surge in cloud computing arises from its ability to provide software, infrastructure, and platform services without requiring large investments or expenses to manage and operate them. Clouds typically involve service providers,
Infrastructure / resource providers, and service users (or clients). They include applications delivered as services, as well as the hardware and software systems providing these services. Our proposed framework for generic cloud collaboration allows clients and cloud applications to simultaneously use services from and route data among multiple clouds. This framework supports universal and dynamic collaboration in a multicloud system. It lets clients simultaneously use services from multiple clouds without prior business agreements among (CSP) cloud service providers, and without adopting common standards and specifications.
Profit Maximization for Service Providers using Hybrid Pricing in Cloud Compu...Editor IJCATR
Cloud computing has recently emerged as one of the buzzwords in the IT industry. Several IT vendors are promising to offer computation, data/storage, and application hosting services, offering Service-Level Agreements (SLA) backed performance and uptime promises for their services. While these „clouds‟ are the natural evolution of traditional clusters and data centers, they are distinguished by following a pricing model where customers are charged based on their utilization of computational resources, storage and transfer of data. They offer subscription-based access to infrastructure, platforms, and applications that are popularly termed as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and SaaS (Software as a Service). In order to improve the profit of service providers we implement a technique called hybrid pricing , where this hybrid pricing model is a pooled with fixed and spot pricing techniques.
An study of security issues & challenges in cloud computingijsrd.com
"Cloud Computing" is a term, which involves virtualization, distributed computing, networking and web-services. It is a way of offering services to users by allowing them to tap into a massive pool of shared computing resources such as servers, storage and network. User can use services by simply plug into the cloud and pay only for what he uses. All these features made a cloud computing very advantageous and demanding. But the data privacy is a key security problem in cloud computing which comprises of data integrity, data confidentiality and user privacy specific concerns. Most of the persons do not prefer cloud to store their data as they are having a fear of losing the privacy of their confidential data. This paper introduces some cloud computing data security problem and its strategy to solve them which also satisfies the user regarding their data security.
A FRAMEWORK FOR SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE SELECTION AND PROVISIONINGIJCNCJournal
As cloud computing is increasingly transforming the information technology landscape, organizations and
businesses are exhibiting strong interest in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings that can help them
increase business agility and reduce their operational costs. They increasingly demand services that can
meet their functional and non-functional requirements. Given the plethora and the variety of SaaS
offerings, we propose, in this paper, a framework for SaaS provisioning, which relies on brokered Service
Level agreements (SLAs), between service consumers and SaaS providers. The Cloud Service Broker (CSB)
helps service consumers find the right SaaS providers that can fulfil their functional and non-functional
requirements. The proposed selection algorithm ranks potential SaaS providers by matching their offerings
against the requirements of the service consumer using an aggregate utility function. Furthermore, the CSB
is in charge of conducting SLA negotiation with selected SaaS providers, on behalf of service consumers,
and performing SLA compliance monitoring
I want to thank everyone who attended this presentation at AFCOM Data Center World Fall 2011 in Orlando, FL.
Studies show the number of data centers deploying virtual cloud computing will rapidly increase in the next five years. Other studies show that the number of Internet attacks and their level of sophistication will also grow significantly. This session identifies approaches to reduce the risk of business disruptions resulting from inadequate virtual security controls in a data center. It will cover utilizing best practices for security configurations, measuring information security status, and making rational decisions about security investments.
Connect with me if you have any questions or need additional information.
Please favorite this if you like it. I look forward to seeing you again soon.
Regards,
Hector Del Castillo
http://linkd.in/hdelcastillo
Compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is critical for any enterprise IT departments. This requires a set of 12 cloud-based apps including infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). With Amazon Web Services (AWS) as an environment, we offer a guide to the key considerations for PCI DSS compliance
Cloud computing of late has become the new buzz word joining the ranks of terms including; grid computing, utility computing, virtualization, clustering, etc. However the problem is that everyone seems to have a different definition..
Cloud Net providers of business telephone services have put together a breif presentation on their products and services.
Cloud Net provide telephone systems, business phone systems, commercial phone systems, business phone, phone systems, business telephone
The Cloud Portfolio was created to bring all of your financial reporting needs under one umbrella. The portfolio contains all the essential financial information you would need to fulfill your SAS 115 requirements. Moreover, it is accessible from any device with an internet connection which allows the financial reporting team to achieve Berkeley's ambitious sustainability efforts.
Guddu Kumar. “A Review on Data Protection of Cloud Computing Security, Benefits, Risks and Suggestions” United International Journal for Research & Technology (UIJRT) 1.2 (2019): 26-34.
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) is an open access online peer reviewed international journal that publishes research and review articles in the fields of Computer Science, Neural Networks, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Plastic Engineering, Food Technology, Textile Engineering, Nano Technology & science, Power Electronics, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computational mathematics, Image processing, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, VLSI Testing & Low Power VLSI Design etc.
The recent surge in cloud computing arises from its ability to provide software, infrastructure, and platform services without requiring large investments or expenses to manage and operate them. Clouds typically involve service providers,
Infrastructure / resource providers, and service users (or clients). They include applications delivered as services, as well as the hardware and software systems providing these services. Our proposed framework for generic cloud collaboration allows clients and cloud applications to simultaneously use services from and route data among multiple clouds. This framework supports universal and dynamic collaboration in a multicloud system. It lets clients simultaneously use services from multiple clouds without prior business agreements among (CSP) cloud service providers, and without adopting common standards and specifications.
Profit Maximization for Service Providers using Hybrid Pricing in Cloud Compu...Editor IJCATR
Cloud computing has recently emerged as one of the buzzwords in the IT industry. Several IT vendors are promising to offer computation, data/storage, and application hosting services, offering Service-Level Agreements (SLA) backed performance and uptime promises for their services. While these „clouds‟ are the natural evolution of traditional clusters and data centers, they are distinguished by following a pricing model where customers are charged based on their utilization of computational resources, storage and transfer of data. They offer subscription-based access to infrastructure, platforms, and applications that are popularly termed as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and SaaS (Software as a Service). In order to improve the profit of service providers we implement a technique called hybrid pricing , where this hybrid pricing model is a pooled with fixed and spot pricing techniques.
An study of security issues & challenges in cloud computingijsrd.com
"Cloud Computing" is a term, which involves virtualization, distributed computing, networking and web-services. It is a way of offering services to users by allowing them to tap into a massive pool of shared computing resources such as servers, storage and network. User can use services by simply plug into the cloud and pay only for what he uses. All these features made a cloud computing very advantageous and demanding. But the data privacy is a key security problem in cloud computing which comprises of data integrity, data confidentiality and user privacy specific concerns. Most of the persons do not prefer cloud to store their data as they are having a fear of losing the privacy of their confidential data. This paper introduces some cloud computing data security problem and its strategy to solve them which also satisfies the user regarding their data security.
A FRAMEWORK FOR SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE SELECTION AND PROVISIONINGIJCNCJournal
As cloud computing is increasingly transforming the information technology landscape, organizations and
businesses are exhibiting strong interest in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings that can help them
increase business agility and reduce their operational costs. They increasingly demand services that can
meet their functional and non-functional requirements. Given the plethora and the variety of SaaS
offerings, we propose, in this paper, a framework for SaaS provisioning, which relies on brokered Service
Level agreements (SLAs), between service consumers and SaaS providers. The Cloud Service Broker (CSB)
helps service consumers find the right SaaS providers that can fulfil their functional and non-functional
requirements. The proposed selection algorithm ranks potential SaaS providers by matching their offerings
against the requirements of the service consumer using an aggregate utility function. Furthermore, the CSB
is in charge of conducting SLA negotiation with selected SaaS providers, on behalf of service consumers,
and performing SLA compliance monitoring
I want to thank everyone who attended this presentation at AFCOM Data Center World Fall 2011 in Orlando, FL.
Studies show the number of data centers deploying virtual cloud computing will rapidly increase in the next five years. Other studies show that the number of Internet attacks and their level of sophistication will also grow significantly. This session identifies approaches to reduce the risk of business disruptions resulting from inadequate virtual security controls in a data center. It will cover utilizing best practices for security configurations, measuring information security status, and making rational decisions about security investments.
Connect with me if you have any questions or need additional information.
Please favorite this if you like it. I look forward to seeing you again soon.
Regards,
Hector Del Castillo
http://linkd.in/hdelcastillo
Compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is critical for any enterprise IT departments. This requires a set of 12 cloud-based apps including infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). With Amazon Web Services (AWS) as an environment, we offer a guide to the key considerations for PCI DSS compliance
Cloud computing of late has become the new buzz word joining the ranks of terms including; grid computing, utility computing, virtualization, clustering, etc. However the problem is that everyone seems to have a different definition..
Cloud Net providers of business telephone services have put together a breif presentation on their products and services.
Cloud Net provide telephone systems, business phone systems, commercial phone systems, business phone, phone systems, business telephone
The Cloud Portfolio was created to bring all of your financial reporting needs under one umbrella. The portfolio contains all the essential financial information you would need to fulfill your SAS 115 requirements. Moreover, it is accessible from any device with an internet connection which allows the financial reporting team to achieve Berkeley's ambitious sustainability efforts.
The template will provide a vendor-neutral Cloud computing strategy development framework that will accelerate the definition and validation of a robust Cloud computing strategy for any organization interested in adopting Cloud computing for their enterprise.
El Cloud computing nos permite ofrecer servicios a través de Internet de una forma rápida y sencilla. Ofrecemos Cloud Services, de forma auto-escalable y elástica que nos permite centrarnos en el negocio, ahorrar costes, facilita la innovación y aporta un time to market menor.
IBM SmartCloud e SoftLayer: il Cloud senza compromessi
Una soluzione IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) appropriata può fare la differenza per superare la concorrenza con idee innovative.
Per massimizzare la velocità e l'agilità del cloud, IBM offre una vasta gamma di soluzioni Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) e oltre 100 applicazioni Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) e funzionalità Business process-as-a-Service (BPaaS) con la sicurezza, la disponibilità e la flessibilità necessarie per rispondere alle esigenze di innovazione delle aziende
Capgemini Cloud Assessment - A Pathway to Enterprise Cloud MigrationFloyd DCosta
Capgemini Cloud Assessment offers a methodology and a roadmap for Cloud migration to reduce decision risks, promote rapid user adoption and lower TCO of IT investments. It leverages pre-built accelerators such as ROI calculators, risk models and portfolio analyzers and provides three powerful deliverables in just six to eight weeks:
Imaginea's take on how an organization can seamlessly migrate to Cloud. Aligning your IT strategy accordingly and move to cloud step by step is explained here.
From the server room to the board room, there is a lot of talk about “the cloud” — and for good reason. The cloud offers organizations — and their information technology (IT) staffs, in particular — a number of important benefits ranging from increased efficiencies to scalability. Taking advantage of these benefits requires understanding the various cloud models available and how they can best meet your organization’s specific needs.
ANALYSIS OF THE COMPARISON OF SELECTIVE CLOUD VENDORS SERVICESijccsa
Cloud computing refers to a location that allows us to preserve our precious data and use computing and
networking services on a pay-as-you-go basis without the need for a physical infrastructure. Cloud
computing now provides us with powerful data processing and storage, exceptional availability and
security, rapid accessibility and adaption, ensured flexibility and interoperability, and time and cost
efficiency. Cloud computing offers three platforms (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) with unique capabilities that
promise to make it easier for a customer, organization, or trade to establish any type of IT business. We
compared a variety of cloud service characteristics in this article, following the comparing, it's
straightforward to pick a specific cloud service from the possible options by comparison with three chosen
cloud providers such as Amazon, Microsoft Azure, and Digital Ocean. By using findings of this study to not
only identify similarities and contrasts across various aspects of cloud computing, as well as to suggest
some areas for further study.
cloud computing is a growing field in computer science. This ppt can help the beginners understand it. contains information about PaaS, Iaas, SaaS and other concepts of Cloud Computing.It also contains a video on cloud computing.
Get Started Today with Cloud-Ready Contracts | AWS Public Sector Summit 2017Amazon Web Services
In this session, we provide an overview of existing cloud-ready contracts, such as cooperative, federal, and state directed contracts, and walk through steps on how to choose the right one for your procurement. We compare various cloud-ready contracts by identifying scope, end-user eligibility, and primary service offerings to help you make the right choice for your mission needs. Learn More: https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/
Three Strategies to Accelerate Your Agency's Migration to the CloudGov BizCouncil
Federal agencies have tough decisions to make as they move past the low-hanging fruit and start migrating older and more interconnected systems to the cloud.
Best cloud computing training institute in noidataramandal
TECHAVERA is offering best In Class, Corporate and Online cloud computing Training in Noida. TECHAVERA Delivers best cloud Live Project visit us - http://www.techaveranoida.in/best-cloud-computing-training-in-noida.php
Cloud Computing: Business Trends and the Challengesidescitation
The purpose of this paper is to provide information
to businesses interested in cloud computing. First we define
cloud computing and discuss the different service and
deployment models from a business standpoint. Then we move
into business cases for the cloud and the strengths of each
service and deployment model. We follow this up with business
attributes that tend to drive a cloud adaption and the effects of
cloud on business IT. The last section reveals the challenges
of cloud computing ranging from security concerns and legal
issues, to negotiation of an adequate service level agreement.
This is basically about the hybrid cloud and steps to implement them, starting from what is cloud, hybrid cloud to its implementation. Hybrid Cloud is nowadays implemented by many organisations and transitioning a traditional IT setup to a hybrid cloud model is no small undertaking. So, one should know about it and how it is implemented.
Cloud computing holds the promise of elevating IT within the enterprise by addressing the need for rapid service delivery.
Today, clouds can be implemented in a variety of ways: private, public, and hybrid.
This combination places IT in the unique role of being a service broker, enabling it to provide a range of service delivery options. This allows applications and data to be placed in the appropriate locations based on unique business requirements.
This benchmark is the result of the collaboration between Burstorm and Rice University and uses a high degree of automation. The scope of the first benchmark is seven suppliers across three continents with a total of 96 different instance types. The benchmark was executed every day, for at least 15 days. The results are normalized to a monthly pricing model to establish the price-performance metrics.
Cloud Computing is an information technology gold rush. Everything from social media and smart phones to streaming video and additive games come from the cloud. This revolution has also driven many to wonder how they can retool themselves to take advantage of this massive shift. Many in IT see the technology as an opportunity to accelerate their careers but in their attempt to navigate their cloud computing future, the question of what type of training, vendor-neutral or vendor-specific, is right for them
The Federal government today is in the midst of a revolution. The revolution is challenging the norms of government by introducing new ways of serving the people. New models for creating services and delivering information; new policies and procedures that are redefining federal acquisition and what it means to be a federal system integrator. This revolution also lacks the physical and tangible artifacts of the past. Its ephemeral nature, global expanse and economic impact all combine in a tidal wave of change. This revolution is called cloud computing.
Since announcing its “Cloud First” policy in 2010, the Federal government has correctly identified cloud computing as a way to reduce costs and improve the use of existing assets, and has accordingly prioritized its adoption. It has also taken judicious steps to protect Federal networks from nefarious cyber-attacks and promote the dissemination of best practices for cybersecurity. The Federal government has also embraced mobility as a means to conduct work from any location. But until now, the implementation of these initiatives has been fragmented and lacked coordination across Federal agencies. This paper offers a framework for integrating these programs in a way that enables the Federal government to realize the economic, technological, and mission-effectiveness benefits of cloud services while simultaneously meeting current Federal cybersecurity
requirements. It advocates shifting from a compliance-based cybersecurity paradigm to
one that is risk-based and focusing on how to most effectively secure their implementation of cloud services.
GovCloud Network, LLC helps its clients develop and execute mission and business strategies to leverage the parallel and global nature of cloud-based services. We employ our technology, strategy, digital publishing and social media expertise across three lines of business- Business Strategy & Design, Digital Publishing & Social Media and Education.
Improving Cybersecurity and Resilience Through Acquisition Emile Monette GSAGovCloud Network
When the government purchases products or services with inadequate in-built “cybersecurity,” the risks created persist throughout the lifespan of the item purchased. The lasting effect of inadequate cybersecurity in acquired items is part of what makes acquisition reform so important to achieving cybersecurity and resiliency.
Currently, government and contractors use varied and nonstandard practices, which make it difficult to consistently manage and measure acquisition cyber risks across different organizations.
Meanwhile, due to the growing sophistication and complexity of ICT and the global ICT supply chains, federal agency information systems are increasingly at risk of compromise, and agencies need guidance to help manage ICT supply chain risks
@AgileCLoud_ICH Presentation - 20140521 US Navy OPNAV - Capt Christopher PageGovCloud Network
Assured C2 sets conditions for Navy commanders to maintain the IT- enabled ability to exercise C2 authorities across the sea, land, air, space, and cyberspace domains in heavily contested or denied operating conditions.
Navy must continue to clearly define and manage capability-based Assured C2 requirements and resources, and align those requirements and resources with JIE/IC ITE through the IDEA
The primary beneficiaries of the effort to deliver Assured C2 capabilities are the requirements stakeholders: USFF, USPACFLT, and USFLTCYBERCOM subordinate commanders who execute Navy’s warfighting mission in all domains.
Agile Cloud Conference 2 Introduction - John BrennanGovCloud Network
Develop and open and inclusive cloud service brokerage environment that provides the Government the capability for rapid acquisition of proven innovative technologies on a fee for service basis
To the maximum extent possible leverage what already exits versus custom development to include incorporation of industry standards and a consistent implementation environment
DoD Business Capability Lifecycle (BCL) Guide (Draft)GovCloud Network
BCL is tailored for the rapid delivery of enterprise business capability. It combines multiple, disjointed oversight processes into a single process. It recognizes that technology rapidly evolves and changes, and consequently, BCL mandates rapid capability delivery – within
eighteen months or less of program initiation. BCL is outcome-based, and modeled on best commercial practices. The process allows for the fact that not all solutions are purely technical. The entire DOTMLPF (Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership
and education, Personnel and Facilities) spectrum of potential solutions are considered.
Intrusion Detection on Public IaaS - Kevin L. JacksonGovCloud Network
Cloud computing is driving the business of information technology today.
“A recent Gartner survey on the future of IT services found that only 38 percent of all organizations surveyed indicate cloud services use today. However, 80 percent of organizations said that they intend to use cloud services in some form within 12 months, including 55 percent of the organizations not doing so today.“ (Gartner, Inc, 2013)
As companies rush to adopt cloud, however, information technology (IT) security sometimes seems to be an afterthought.
The goal of this paper is to provide a survey of the current state of IT security within public cloud infrastructure-as-a-service providers. After first providing a cloud computing overview, the paper will focus on the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) deployment model, the typical home of IaaS intrusion detection components. The Gartner Cloud Use Case Framework will then be introduced as it will also serve as the framework for this survey. An in-depth review of public cloud intrusion detection studies, options and expert observations will then follow. The paper will then offer the authors conclusions and cloud computing IDS recommendations for enterprises considering a move to the cloud.
A Framework for Cloud Computing Adoption in South African GovernmentGovCloud Network
Technology adoption is always a critical concern in organizations (private and public). South African government experienced this encounter when adopted Open Source Software (OSS) with the objective to reduce ICT services costs among others. The implementation of OSS in SA government has faced several challenges such as user resistance, human factor, support and funding. As a result of these challenges cost reduction has not been fully achieved. Cost reduction issue ultimately affects implementation of other government programmes such as those who yields job creation, better education, and improving health, etc. The potential alternative to address the same objective as aimed by OSS is Cloud Computing adoption. Cloud Computing promise to offer the SA government more advantages OSS. This study explore the feasibility of Cloud Computing adoption as an alternative to enable cost reduction, effectiveness and efficient of IT services in SA government as was aimed by OSS initiative.
Le nuove frontiere dell'AI nell'RPA con UiPath Autopilot™UiPathCommunity
In questo evento online gratuito, organizzato dalla Community Italiana di UiPath, potrai esplorare le nuove funzionalità di Autopilot, il tool che integra l'Intelligenza Artificiale nei processi di sviluppo e utilizzo delle Automazioni.
📕 Vedremo insieme alcuni esempi dell'utilizzo di Autopilot in diversi tool della Suite UiPath:
Autopilot per Studio Web
Autopilot per Studio
Autopilot per Apps
Clipboard AI
GenAI applicata alla Document Understanding
👨🏫👨💻 Speakers:
Stefano Negro, UiPath MVPx3, RPA Tech Lead @ BSP Consultant
Flavio Martinelli, UiPath MVP 2023, Technical Account Manager @UiPath
Andrei Tasca, RPA Solutions Team Lead @NTT Data
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
1. LESSONS LEARNED
Pilot Texas Cloud Offering
Cloud Computing Overview
Cloud computing is an emerging form of delivering information technology (IT) services via convenient,
on-demand network access instead of through an organization’s own technology infrastructure.
Government organizations are using cloud computing solutions as a way to obtain IT capabilities that are
flexible, have lower costs, and are quick to implement. In some cases, there is an element of self-service
associated with using cloud services.
Cloud computing provides the same access to IT resources—such as email, databases, servers, storage,
application software, development tools, and desktop services—as solutions that are procured and
maintained on premises. In many cases, cloud computing reduces the need for organizations to incur
capital expenses associated with procuring, implementing, and maintaining on-premise resources in
exchange for services that are funded with operating expenses.
While the adoption of cloud computing is still relatively low in the public sector, the underlying service
delivery model dates back to the advent of mainframe computing. Instead of buying or leasing
equipment and hardware for payroll and billing, organizations shared centralized computing resources
on an as-needed basis to save on costs.
Cloud computing is enabled through virtualization of IT resources such as computing, storage, network,
and software. Virtualization enables the creation of logically partitioned IT resources that share a set of
physical resources. These virtual resources are then designed and created through web-based user
interfaces that enable simple, quick, and automated provisioning of these resources. Virtualized
resources become cloud resources when these resources can be defined and managed for specific
organizations and made available with ongoing self-service ability to manage the virtual resources and
leverage on-demand access (i.e., public or private Internet). Cloud resources are also centralized, but
shared by many groups and organizations to effectively increase use of the physical resources allocated,
which can help to reduce overall costs.
There are currently three different deployment models for cloud: public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid
cloud.
• In a public cloud, the provider delivers common IT capability in a shared environment with great
scalability. Demand from multiple customers with similar requirements are pooled together to
optimize physical resources. Access is via an on-demand public network capability, such as the
Internet.
• In a private cloud, IT resources are dedicated and customized with the capabilities, resources, and
administration required by a specific organization. Access is generally through a secured or
managed network. Private clouds require a data center location, IT physical resources,
virtualization, and operations team support. A virtual private cloud is characterized by having a
specific capacity in a public cloud carved out and dedicated to a particular organization and made
available through a secured, managed virtual network.
Texas Department of Information Resources | ww.dir.texas.gov August 2012 | Page 1 of 13
2. Lessons Learned
Pilot Texas Cloud Offering
• In a hybrid cloud, the provider blends both private and public cloud features together, with
combination preferences usually driven by a particular market niche or consumer group based on
an application or system that has partial needs for highly secure or non-virtual resources.
Types of services provided through the cloud include
• Software as a service (SaaS) – delivers applications, such as email, customer relationship
management, and collaboration software.
• Platform as a service (PaaS) – delivers an application framework that supports design and
development, testing, deployment, and hosting. PaaS enables organizations to develop custom
applications on one platform, but then easily deploy to many hosting environments that support
the same platform based on various pricing and service level agreement (SLA) models supported
by the instance of that platform environment.
• Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) – delivers computing hardware, storage, networking, and other
managed services such as backup, monitoring and virtual private network (VPN).
Pilot Texas Cloud Offering
Given the growing significance and maturity of cloud-based services, the Department of Information
Resources (DIR) determined it was necessary and timely to gain a deeper understanding of all facets of
cloud-based offerings within the public-sector context. Cloud services are generally expected to offer
reduced cost and increased efficiency for government organizations. However, the relative uncertainty
of the contractual and operational components of cloud services has been a barrier to broad adoption in
government.
To develop real and meaningful cloud experience, DIR pursued a pilot, or trial, project aimed at
institutionalizing the knowledge needed to successfully enable broad adoption. The Pilot Texas Cloud
Offering (PTCO) project focused on infrastructure as a service, but many of the lessons learned can be
generalized for government agencies adopting any cloud offering.
The PTCO project was designed to allow a small group of agencies to choose a virtual private cloud-
based infrastructure as a service from a marketplace of service providers made available by a cloud
broker. This approach was selected as it maximized the opportunity to produce the broadest spectrum
of experiences for customers. The cloud broker helped to normalize the multiple services available,
creating an “apples-to-apples” comparison in pricing and functionality as much as possible. In addition,
the cloud broker provided a single, unified web interface for end users to design, procure, provision,
monitor, and govern the services. The PTCO allowed DIR and the pilot agencies to a gain a greater
understanding of cloud infrastructure offerings for state government and document options and issues
with provider selection, pricing, access security, data security, credentialing, provisioning time frames,
service levels, service remedy options, terms of use, billing models, interoperability, mobility, scalability,
capacity management, provider compliance, and monitoring and licensing.
Participating agencies used both large and small applications to investigate the appropriateness of cloud
infrastructure hosting for the public sector. Some applications are currently available to the public in
production mode while other applications are in development and testing phases. Pilot agencies
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included the Office of the Secretary of State, the Texas Water Development Board, the Texas
Department of Transportation, and the Texas Department of Information Resources.
Cloud providers were initially chosen by their standing in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. The terms and
conditions were approved by the customers and Savvis, Terremark, Amazon, and Vintage IT Services
provided services.
Contractual and technical support was provided by Vintage IT Services and Gravitant, the cloud broker.
Gravitant’s self-service web portal, Texas Cloud Self-Service Portal (TCSP), allowed participating agencies
to manage and support all phases of the engagement from solutioning to provisioning, operations and
capacity management, and decommissioning. Gravitant also provided extensive architecture and
solution support. Gravitant, as the cloud broker, established, negotiated, and governed the reseller
agreements with the individual cloud service providers. They maintained a catalog of services, line
items, and prices associated with each provider, which enabled them to facilitate cloud provisioning
across multiple providers—a key feature for government agencies.
Figure 1: PTCO model
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PTCO Lessons Learned
Early pilot adopters moved forward with trial and error, figuring things out one step at a time and
refining operations based on actual experience. The purpose of this document is to share the collective
experiences and lessons learned from the pilot participants. The list of lessons learned resulted from
individuals asking and answering questions in the dynamic and collaborative environment created for
use during the PTCO.
1 – Not all applications are appropriate for the cloud
Some might consider choosing to use cloud computing as a large, complex, all or nothing decision. A
more appropriate perspective is considering how cloud infrastructure could contribute to the
development life cycle of individual applications and the role it might play in an overall IT portfolio
strategy.
In general, the cloud environment should be considered for applications that
• require rapid deployment,
• are approaching a technology refresh and/or the end of contractual obligations to a legacy
environment,
• have variable storage needs,
• need bursting capability,
• use virtual servers rather than physical servers (the reliability, performance, or security of
dedicated servers are considerably more expensive when procured through the cloud), or
• are based on federal funding with “cloud first” recommendations.
2 – Variety of services and variety of needs create complexity
Migration to cloud infrastructure shares common issues with the technical migrations that have come
before it. For example, the migrations from mainframes to PCs and from standalone PCs to distributed
networked PCs affected the connectivity, compatibility, and ability of hardware, middleware, operating
systems, and databases. Each of these migrations were complex and required architecture and design
solutions to work effectively.
In the cloud, as with any hosted infrastructure solution, each requirement has the potential to introduce
configuration challenges that are usually overcome through technical troubleshooting. In cloud
computing, the cloud service provider may provide subject matter expertise to ease and speed up the
troubleshooting.
In general,
• the older, more patched, and complicated an application, the more complex the migration to the
cloud infrastructure will be;
• deploying the newest releases of an operating system or VMware may require updates to
databases or middleware that are not yet available from third-party vendors;
• multifaceted integrations with other systems increases the complexity of cloud migration; and
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• a cloud broker can play a critical role in helping agencies screen their applications for cloud
feasibility and prioritizing cloud migrations accordingly.
3 – Variety of services creates opportunity to solve a variety of needs
The variety of services and business models in a cloud infrastructure offer organizations a wider variety
of tools for solving problems. For example, cloud infrastructure may help in satisfying a need for
immediate (emergency) consumption, resolving a situation for the short-term while a long-term solution
is developed separately, and freeing up physical infrastructure for repurposing. Specifically, the
flexibility of cloud infrastructure offerings allow an organization to
• Stand up an application quickly. For example, the Secretary of State’s office was able to stand
up www.votetexas.org, a mobile-enabled, interactive information website built to assist Texans
with the complexities of redistricting and voter participation, within two weeks of beginning the
sourcing and procurement effort. This was a mission-critical, highly visible, and advertised website
that was urgently needed to support the 2012 Texas primary elections. It included a solution
design, pricing, approval workflow, provisioning, and system monitoring of the site—all governed
from a single web portal.
• Develop and test multiple applications in a flexible environment that cannot impact or be
impacted by the production environment.
• Respond to recurring peak business demands with “bursting” rather than investing in bandwidth
and infrastructure that is underutilized in non-peak periods.
• Host large, publicly accessible datasets separate from more sensitive information to free up
capacity while strengthening and simplifying security requirements.
4 – Costs differ among providers and within each provider’s offering
Cloud model comparison is difficult due to the variables in product offerings, including the business
models, service levels, and package inclusions. For example,
• Some providers offer full IT stacks (hardware and software infrastructure, middleware platforms,
application system components, and turnkey applications), while others are bare bones offerings
with an a la carte menu for each add-on required.
• Technical integration and licensing capabilities vary with each provider (e.g., Active Directory
integration, VPN connectivity, Oracle licensing). In some cases, organizations can opt to rent
software instead of buying licenses, with renting being inexpensive for short-term need but
expensive for long-term need.
• Some business/pricing models assume 24/7/365 availability while others offer “power down when
not in use” or “pay by the drink” options more suited for use with development or testing sites.
• Pricing an application architecture deployment design for a particular provider can be a time-
consuming process due to low-level pricing models that have to be aggregated for each solution.
Even after provisioning, costs are not fully predictable and can vary month to month. This can
cause difficulty within government organizations that need to be able to predict monthly, or at
least annual, expenses.
• Some of these challenges are addressed by cloud brokers through side-by-side provider
comparisons and aggregating the contractual or service elements of the offering across the
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participants. Cloud brokers also translate capacity requirements into provider line items, thus
allowing for accurate estimation of cloud cost.
• Payment terms can differ greatly and may not always align with statute. It is critical to understand
the payment terms associated with a service. For example, can the provider accept purchase
orders? Can the provider submit invoices? Can the provider accept payment in arrears? Can
service credits be refunded or applied to future services?
5 – Cloud services may not mean managed services
Cloud utilization does not eliminate the need for system and operating system administration expertise,
whether that expertise is available in-house or procured as a value-add service to help architect the
solution. Specifically,
• The cloud requires expertise in areas such as software licensing, database integrations, Active
Directory integration, firewall rules, VPN connectivity, and network requirements. Existing
expertise in these areas help, but new skills are required to know what various cloud service
providers can offer or support in each of these areas. Each provider offering may have unique
constraints that affect the ability to deploy a complete solution for a particular application.
• Because so much of the emphasis of cloud services procurement and provisioning is on speed,
agility, and flexibility, the fundamentals can easily get lost. Security processes and procedures,
business continuity and disaster recovery checklists, rosters of qualified back-up personnel, etc.,
may need to be updated frequently to document changes made possible with the cloud.
Customers cannot assume that the cloud services providers will be able to comply with the level of
business continuity required, for instance. Appropriate governance processes must be in place to
manage these fundamentals and ensure all of an organization’s application needs are met.
6 – Costs can be managed through cost model choice
Cloud services providers offer various pricing models for consuming their services. Depending on
customer needs, the different pricing models provide choice and flexibility. For example,
• On-demand or pay-as-you-go pricing models provide hourly-based pricing for virtual resources
based on various combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and network capacity. These are billed
after the resources have been provisioned and allocated for a designated time.
• Subscription pricing models (also known as monthly package pricing or reserved instance pricing)
involve a pre-payment for some fixed capacity (in terms of hours and/or capacity units). This could
be a monthly or yearly subscription for the fixed capacity whether it is used or not. The advantage
is lower per-hour or per-capacity pricing than the on-demand model since it is pre-paid.
• Reserved capacity (also known as virtual private dedicated capacity or utilized capacity) pricing
models define a specific total amount of CPU, memory, storage, and network capacity that is
dedicated and always available to the customer. Virtual machines (VM’s) can then be allocated in
this total capacity, but the allocation can exceed the total dedicated capacity. Then, only the run-
time use of the VM is considered against the reserved total capacity. If all of the VMs allocated use
more than the total reserved capacity, then it is considered to “burst” and have additional cost.
This model has the advantage of providing consistent pricing on a month-to-month basis. In
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addition, this model provides flexibility for allocated VMs, which may have low utilization, without
incurring additional cost.
In addition, customers should consider the following factors for the most cost-effective cloud services:
• The provisioning cycle is fast. Provisioning may happen in hours or days, rather than weeks or
months. For many services, the meter starts running as soon as the infrastructure is provisioned,
not when the customer configures or deploys it. Therefore, it is important to have a review and
approval cycle for an application architecture deployment prior to the actual provisioning. Cloud
service providers typically do not provide any review or approval cycles, but this can be a function
of a cloud service broker.
• Customers have the ability to manage their cloud services to maximize best value, i.e., turning
off servers while not in use, etc. These operations can be scheduled and automated based on
certain policies such as demand or system usage.
• The ability to manage costs to the hour or minute provides flexibility and control for the
customer, but also lessens remedies should prices be contested.
• Leasing vs. owning places the expense in the operational budget rather than in the capital budget.
• Most cloud services have a pay-in-advance approach while governments are used to paying upon
delivery. State government payment laws are not consistent with the payment requirements of
the cloud providers, which are typically based on the needs of the private sector. It is critical to be
on the same page as the provider regarding invoice timing, charge timing, and payment timing.
Not all providers understand public sector constraints and they may have to change their billing
models to accommodate public requirements.
• Using cloud services is not always cheaper and, depending on the application requirements, a
lower cost solution might be available. For example, Texas Data Center Services costs were
comparable to cloud provider costs in situations where the application did not require a lot of
storage.
• In many cases, the cloud broker serves as the means to regulate payment across the different
entities.
7 – Vendors are learning, too
Cloud services providers and cloud services brokers are simultaneously developing, negotiating,
documenting and redeveloping every component of their working business model. The field of cloud
services provisioning is so dynamic that terms and conditions, SLAs, and support collateral have very
short life cycles of their own. At the same time, breakthroughs to any issue or barrier may occur at any
moment.
Vendors are learning that
• The rapidity of change in all cloud service offerings has required cloud service brokers to be in a
constant, hands-on education and support mode. To accommodate the very large potential
market of government IT, cloud service brokers especially must find a scalable way to keep up with
and integrate the changes in the services they broker.
• Cloud providers may have little experience with government procurement methods, standards,
regulations, and nomenclature.
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• Legacy environment business models assigned a company representative to each agency or large
application. This representative knew agency personnel, system expectations, system limitations
and was also aware of agency goals.
• Customers may or may not have the skills to perform technical activities through a self-service
model and need to consider the impacts of either outsourcing or training.
8 – Fine print still applies
Each cloud service provider has specific terms and conditions that may not accommodate government’s
rules and regulations. Government procurement includes IT, legal, contract, and financial review and
approval requirements. Customer organizations must establish a process and include time in the
procurement cycle for ensuring that terms are consistent with their rules and regulations.
Specifically,
• Rules, regulations, policies, and funding sources may have strong preferences regarding the
location of hosted environments and support centers that are not compatible with cloud business
models; data retention requirements may exceed standard storage timeframes common in cloud
hosting environments; and government organizations’ security requirements may not be updated
to include cloud standards.
• Cloud brokers add value but also add another level of terms and conditions. All parties must
understand what is offered, what is covered through the marketplace, and what extra costs are
(e.g., solutioning or assisting with a technical integration issue might be an additional service).
• The cloud has its own terminology. This terminology may be used differently by each provider,
which complicates contract issues and procurement options (e.g., reserved capacity vs. utilized
capacity).
9 – Security is a factor
Security is an important element of cloud services, and the type of cloud solution chosen, whether
public, private, or hybrid, impacts the security levels controlled by the customer.
Many of the security risks associated with the use of cloud computing can be managed and prevented. It
is incumbent on the agency using cloud services to be proactive in taking the necessary security
precautions. Some ways to manage risks are to:
• Design for virtual private networks with private IP addresses, client-to-site and site-to-site VPNs,
firewalls, and secure protocols
• Monitor security controls
• Tighten identity and access management
• Virtualize anti-malware
• Provide ongoing validation of security controls
• Be aware of data state and location – know the location of data, processing, and backup
• Update and maintain rules, regulations, and policies that impact cloud solutions
• Test applications for vulnerabilities and patch vulnerabilities if necessary
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Conclusion
The pilot has already provided a viable roadmap for future cloud deployments and will be used in any
future procurement. Customers are pleased with the pilot and the PTCO will continue through the end
of August 2013 so the program can continue to reveal lessons about cloud offerings.♦
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Glossary
Bursting – allows cloud services to exceed planned or allocated thresholds when capacity is maximized
Cloud broker – an intermediary between cloud providers and consumers that make it easier for
consumers to choose, provision and maintain cloud services that best suit their needs
Cloud first– federal policy to achieve operational efficiencies by adopting “light” technology and shared
services
Logically partitioned – a subset of a computer platform or components of a computer platform,
virtualized as a separate logical computers or computer components or a single physical instance
subdivided into multiple logical instances
Magic Quadrant – proprietary research tool developed by Gartner Inc. to monitor and evaluate
companies in a technology market
Virtual Private Network (VPN) – technology for using the Internet or another network to connect
computers to isolated computer networks that would otherwise be inaccessible
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Acknowledgements
Customer Contributors
The pilot participants should all be commended for recognizing the importance of offering insight to
government organizations that may adopt services offered through the cloud. Thank you to the
following state agencies that participated in the PTCO and provided content for this document:
• Department of Information Resources – David Smith, Robert Ott
• Office of the Secretary of State – Scott Brandt, Frosty Walker
• Texas Department of Transportation – Mitch Pope, Kevin Wagner
• Texas Water Development Board – Lisa Petoskey, Darryl Lindgens
Partner Contributors
Thank you to the following private partners that participated in the PTCO and provided content for this
document:
• Gravitant – Manish Modh, manish.modh@gravitant.com, 512-535-7399
• Vintage IT Services – Steve Hanes, sahanes@vintageits.com; 512-481-1117,
Alex Ladwig, aladwig@vintageits.com, 512-481-1117
• Savvis – Jim Gallina, jim.gallina@savvis.com, 630.854.8290
• Terremark – Wendell Elms, welms@terremark.com, 214-629-9799
• Amazon
DIR Contributors
Jennifer Buaas, Vivian Cullipher, Janet Gilmore, Todd Kimbriel, Robert Ott, Ellen Pate, Lorie Ramirez,
Joanne Severn, David Smith, John Van Hoorn, Jay Wilbur
Contact
For questions about this report, contact
Janet Gilmore
Assistant Director, eGovernment Services
Texas Department of Information Resources
janet.gilmore@dir.texas.gov
512-463-8447
Published by
Texas Department of Information Resources
300 West 15th Street, Suite 1300 | Austin, TX 78701 | 512-475-4700
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