Presidential Commission on Cloud Computing: What you need to know

The experience shows that the synergy between various business methodologies and information technologies does not happen spontaneously. It must be architected for guiding the use of methodologies, technologies and tools together.

The presentation will discuss how several modern technologies (systems approach, enterprise architecture, digital, microservices, blockchain, explicit coordination and predictive decision-making) can be combined together to achieve an organisation which is defined by software. Thus such an organisation will systematically and agile adapt for new business challenges.

Speaker's bio:
Alexander Samarin wrote his first software program in the year 1973. He obtained a PhD (in computer graphics) in the year 1986. He has worked for a variety of international clients in Switzerland, UK, France, Australia and Africa. He specialises in architecture, implementation and evolution of enterprise-wide solutions with the holistic use of enterprise architecture, business architecture, BPM, SOA, ECM, IT governance and IT strategy. In October 2009 he published a book “Improving enterprise business process management systems”. Since August 2013 he works as an architect for achieving the synergy between strategy, good business practices and disruptive digital technologies for digital systems.

In this, the sixth entry in the “Everything You Wanted To Know About Storage But Were Too Proud To Ask,” popular webcast series we look into some of the nitties and the gritties of storage details that are often assumed.

When looking at data from the lens of an application, host, or operating system, it’s easy to forget that there are several layers of abstraction underneath before the actual placement of data occurs. In this webcast we are going to scratch beyond the first layer to understand some of the basic taxonomies of these layers.

In this webcast we will show you more about the following:

•Storage APIs and POSIX
•Block, File, and Object storage
•Byte Addressable and Logical Block Addressing
•Log Structures and Journaling Systems

It’s an ambitious project, but these terms and concepts are at the heart of where compute, networking and storage intersect. Having a good grasp of these concepts ties in with which type of storage networking to use, and how data is actually stored behind the scenes.

Join us on July 6th for this session. We look forward to seeing you there!

Check out the Q&A blog: http://sniaesfblog.org/?p=636

Smart Cities is one of the essential endeavours right now. Smart Cities use many existing and emerging information technologies, Smart Cities must change lives of many people and each Smart Cities programme and project is a daunting task. Therefore Smart Cities must be considered as a system which perfectly delivers its desired capabilities.

This presentation will discuss how several modern techniques, such as systems approach, standardisation, reference architecture, patterns, explicit security, can be combined to enable world-wide cooperation and coordination in delivery of various Smart Cities.

Speaker's bio:

Alexander Samarin wrote his first software program in the year 1973. He obtained a PhD (in computer graphics) in the year 1986. He has worked for a variety of international clients in Switzerland, UK, France, Australia and Africa. He specialises in architecture, implementation and evolution of enterprise-wide solutions with the holistic use of enterprise architecture, business architecture, BPM, SOA, ECM, IT governance and IT strategy. In October 2009 he published a book “Improving enterprise business process management systems”. Since August 2013 he works as an architect for achieving the synergy between strategy, good business practices and disruptive digital technologies for digital systems.

Urban mobility has always been about moving people from location to location through motorized personal or public transport. However, the proliferation of sensors, smartphones and intelligent high bandwidth networks are compelling towns & cities around the world to re-think urban mobility and consider technology enablers to drive towards a vision of “smart” mobility. Furthermore, the fundamental assumptions underpinning mobility are being challenged.

The Internet Of Things (IoT) has been touted as a promising technology enabler to deliver on a vision of smart mobility. We will examine the current state of IoT ecosystems, IoT enabled smart mobility efforts across the globe and help delineate the architectural considerations and cross-industry industry collaboration that would be essential to successfully deliver on smart mobility initiatives. A simple use case around a town/city smart mobility service will be used to illustrate our approach.

With the boom in IoT, it is a transformational trend that will shape the future of business. Many firms see big opportunity in IoT uses and enterprises start to believe that IoT holds the promise to enhance customer relationships and drive business growth by improving quality, productivity, and reliability on one side, and on the other side reducing costs, risk, and theft. In this webinar, we discuss some of the top trends in IoT including those on security, mobility and connectivity.

Learn how to securely configure host settings and Docker Engine.

Docker allows teams to increase the speed and scale that they can deliver software. As a result, adoption rates for docker are accelerating as more organizations are looking for ways to innovate faster.

As you move down the path to containers, it is important to note that an out-of-the box installation of just about any Linux distribution is capable of running the Docker daemon and Docker containers, but it will leave your host exposed to many security and performance concerns if not configured properly.

Join us for this webinar to learn how to:
- Configure host settings to harden and protect it from unauthorized access
- Install and configure a Docker Engine with minimal attack surface
- Ensure that the host has the necessary integration with existing enterprise systems like SIEM and enterprise directories

Every IT organisation is under pressure to deliver services as efficiently as possible, utilising infrastructure and services that may have a significant impact on the financial position and results of the organisation

Historically, cloud technology has made reference to the potential benefits of transferring costs from the balance sheet (capex) to the income statement (opex). However, an unintended consequence has been that few, if any, cloud related costs could be capitalised. This may not be the desired outcome for all organisations and the capitalisation of certain types of cloud technology maybe preferred, or even required by accounting standards. This session explores this area and what key considerations can be given to the capitalisation of cloud.

As part of the successful “Everything You Wanted To Know About Storage But Were Too Proud To Ask” series, we’ve discussed numerous topics about storage devices, protocols, and networks. As we examine some of these topics further, we begin to tease out some subtle nuances; subtle, yet important nevertheless.

In Part Sepia, we’re going to take a look at some of the terms and concepts that affect Storage Architectures as a whole. In particular, we’ll be looking at those aspects that can help or hinder storage systems inside the network:

•Encapsulation versus Tunneling
•IOPS vs Latency vs Jitter
•Quality of Service (QoS)

Each of these topics has a profound impact on storage designs and performance, but they are often misunderstood. We’re going to help you become clear on all of these very important storage concepts so that you can grok storage just a little bit more.

After the webcast, check out the Q&A blog at http://sniaesfblog.org/?p=629

Interview in partnership with BrightTALK, The Stack and Cloud Industry Forum
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BrightTALK discussed with Naveen Miglani, CEO and co-founder of SplashBI, the relationship between BI and digital transformation.

Among topics covered:

1. What is the future of BI?
2. What are the implications of AI and machine learning on BI?
3. What's the impact of digital transformation in the BI sector and vice versa?
4. What can organisations do today to best prepare for all the changes?
5. What are the key challenges for businesses in adopting and implementing a BI solution?
6. What's the role of IT now in a self-service BI environment?
7. Where are we seeing the most ROI when purchasing a BI reporting tool?

About the speaker:
Naveen Miglani is the CEO and Founder of Splash Business Intelligence and EiS Technologies. Naveen has more than 25 years of industry experience, including corporate strategy, service offerings, and business intelligence. Prior to joining EiS Technologies, Naveen held leadership roles at GE Energy and Oracle Corporation, as well as worked across many departments, including IT, Management, Business Development, Marketing, and Finance. Naveen holds a BS in Engineering and an MBA with a major in Information Systems and International Business from Mercer University.

Interview in partnership with BrightTALK, The Stack and Cloud Industry Forum
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In this conversation, Alex and Frank are revealing the results of the annual research performed by Cloud Industry Forum in regards to the current state of digital transformation in the UK.

The discussion covers the importance of cloud for digital transformation, as well as other "a ha" moments to expect in 2017.

Interview in partnership with BrightTALK, The Stack and Cloud Industry Forum
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Scott Cairns, CTO of T-Systems, discusses with Frank Bennett, what are the challenges and opportunities in the telecommunication industry.

Some topics discussed:
- How do AI and machine learning disrupt the industry
- What is the future of IoT
- Security in IoT
- Next industries to be disrupted
- How home will look like in 5-10 years
- How car industry will change in 5-10 years
- The most promising applications of VR and AR in the future

Interview in partnership with BrightTALK, The Stack and Cloud Industry Forum
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We interview Ray O’Farrell (Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer, VMware) & Richard Munro (CTO Cloud Services, EMEA, VMware) to find out what they think about the digital IT revolution and what is the role of CTOs and CIOs in this regard.

Among topics discussed:

- What are the main prerequisites for digital transformation? Is there such a term as “being ready or not” for digital transformation?
- How can companies pursue digital transformation in case they don’t have a strategic expertise in house nor any experience in platform building?
- Does the type of cloud define the way digital transformation is going to progress or digital transformation defines the cloud strategy that the enterprise should adopt?
- How does DevOps and Containers fit into the digital transformation process? How do they contribute to innovation?
- What are the best reality checked strategies to accelerate transformation?

Interview in partnership with BrightTALK, The Stack and Cloud Industry Forum
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In this interview Christopher Wroath, Director of Digital Transformation, NHS Education for Scotland, shares with us the lessons he has learned from his digital transformation experiences and how his current job is different from all the other ones he had in the past.

Among topics discussed:
- The story behind NHS digital transformation
- Differences between digital transformation in public and private sectors
- Triggers for digital transformation
- Stages of digital transformation
- Barriers to a successful digital transformation
- Culture need for digital transformation

About the speaker:

Christopher is a digital leader working in the Scottish NHS to transform a disparate and complex information landscape into a single unified environment putting individual members of the NHS and social care workforce at the centre of delivery. Defining and delivering the NHS Education for Scotland (NES) vision for a comprehensive digital transformation by implementing dynamic change through innovative and agile approaches to technical, cultural and organisational challenges by leading the design and in house build of the NES Digital Platform.

Interview in partnership with BrightTALK, The Stack and Cloud Industry Forum
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In this discussion, Nigel Williams, IT Evangelist at Commvault, described what it means to drive digital transformations in the cloud.

Among topics discussed:

- Digital transformation struggles
- Cloud computing contribution to the digital revolution
- Top 5 enterprise cloud priorities to help with digital transformation
- The criteria for a smart cloud strategy
- Backup/recovery challenges in digital transformation
- And others

About the speaker:

Nigel Williams is an IT Evangelist and responsible for Marketing in EMEA at Commvault. Prior to his current role, he held the same position at OpenText and a variety of senior positions at EMC/Legato and EMC/Documentum. Nigel has over 25 years experience in Information Management and is a keen industry watcher. He holds an Honours Degree in English Literature and also studied Electronic Engineering as part of his entry to the IT industry."

Interview in partnership with BrightTALK, The Stack and Cloud Industry Forum
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In this in-depth discussion about the future of cyber security, Daniele Catteddu, CTO of Cloud Security Alliance, analyses the following topics:

- Changes and trends in the threat landscape
- Leading prevention technologies against cyber attacks targeting IoT
- Protecting critical infrastructure with AI and machine learning
- Yahoo breach lessons
- The most overlooked area of cyber security
- Main security challenges in digital transformation

About the speaker:
Daniele Catteddu is an information security and risk management practitioner, technologies expert and privacy evangelist with over 15 of experience. He worked in several senior roles both in the private and public sector. Daniele is member of various national and international security expert groups and committees on cyber-security and privacy, keynote speaker at several conferences and author of numerous studies and papers on Risk Management, Cyber Security and Privacy.

Currently he is the Chief Technology Officer, at Cloud Security Alliance, where he is responsible to drive, on a global scale, the adoption of the technology strategy roadmap within key CSA lines of business: Research, Membership Services, Standards, Education and Products. He identifies technology trends, global policies and evolving social behavior and their impact on information security and on CSA’s activities.
Daniele leads the product management for CSA and chairs the Futures Advisory Committee.

Interview in partnership with BrightTALK, The Stack and Cloud Industry Forum
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Rik Ferguson, VP of Security Research at TrendMicro, joined us for a video interview to discuss the following trending topics:

- The evolution of attack vectors in the past years
- Antwerp Seaport shipping container system hack and what can we learn from it
- What to do when hit by a ransomware attack
- Cyber security and Brexit
- Cyber security and the Russian hack of the US election
- The most overlooked area of cyber security that professionals should concentrate on
- Leading prevention technologies against ransomware
- Ransomware of Things
- Security challenges in digital transformation

About the Speaker:

Rik Ferguson, Vice President of Security Research at Trend Micro, is a Special Advisor to Europol EC3, project leader with the International Cyber Security Prevention Alliance (ICSPA), Vice Chair of the Centre for Strategic Cyberspace & Security Science and advisor to various UK government technology forums. In April 2011 Rik was inducted into the Infosecurity Hall of Fame

As a presenter at global industry events such as RSA, Mobile World Congress, InfoSecurity, Virus Bulletin, RUSI and the e-Crime Congress, Rik addresses the challenges posed by emerging technology and online crime. He is frequently interviewed by the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Channel 4, Sky News and Al-Jazeera English and is quoted by national newspapers and trade publications throughout the world.

Rik writes the Countermeasures blog and is the lead spokesperson for Trend Micro, he also writes regular columns for CIO, ZDNet, T3 and several other European publications. In this position, Rik is actively engaged in research into online threats and the underground economy. He also researches the wider implications of new developments in the Information Technology arena and their impact on security both for consumers and in the enterprise.

Interview in partnership with BrightTALK, The Stack and Cloud Industry Forum
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Jez Back, Senior Manager in Cloud, Deloitte, joined BrightTALK for an interview to share what enterprises are doing right and wrong with cloud deployment.

Among topics discussed:

- Main obstacles/challenges with cloud deployment
- Strategies for accelerating cloud deployment
- Security in the cloud
- The stages of cloud deployment
- One advice that CIOs should remember when planning cloud deployment

About the Speaker:
Jez is a cloud technology specialist and technology platforms & mobility SME, creating ecosystems of alliance partners to drive value in business transformations; with a proven record of delivering outstanding results in diverse high-pressure environments for 10 years in the technology sector.