KuppingerCole Blog

Back in February (oh, how time flies! Just to think that it was right before the  beginning of the  COVID-19 pandemic…) I wrote a blog post looking at Oracle’s ambitious plans for developing  its  cloud strategy and expanding  its  worldwide infrastructure footprint. The post was titled “ Will 2020 Be the Year of Oracle Cloud? ” and just five months later the company has already demonstrated that it  does not just  finally  have   a  promising  vision for Oracle Cloud, but also a...

It looks like the whole world is currently talking (at least, tweeting) about the latest large-scale Twitter hack. High profile accounts of the likes of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos, as well as companies like Apple or Uber, were suddenly promoting a cryptocurrency scam. At first, they referred to a specific crypto-related website, but as it was quickly taken down, the hackers switched to spreading multiple Bitcoin addresses, asking people to send money to them to get a double amount of their investment back. Even though this type of scam is nothing new and...

There are ongoing discussions from high-level expert groups from the EU Commission about what regulation of Artificial Intelligence – particularly the algorithms that process data – will look like. There is a high priority to not only create alignment with the GDPR but to add flexibility for future advancements so that a baseline level of data protection is always provided, even as new AI applications are implemented. There are many elements of the GDPR that are particularly worth looking closer at regarding algorithmic models for recommendations, predictions, and...

Informatica just announced that they agreed to acquire Compact Solutions, a vendor of Enterprise Metadata Management with engineering and professional services being based out of Krakow, Poland. Compact Solutions core product is MetaDex, which enables full end-to-end visibility of data flows, especially around some complex data sources, and thus helps organizations in understanding, tracking, managing, and protecting data flows and increasing efficiency in their broader data and analytics landscape as well as making more efficient use of their data. Metadata Management: Knowing your...

Before there were PAM solutions everyone was given access to privileged accounts with little regard or control as to who had access to them, when they had access and what they did with that access. As security breaches started to rise and compliance regulations were written it was obvious that manual processes and home-grown approaches to manage privileged access weren't enough to secure your organization. First PAM solutions solved issues but were too inflexible That's when privileged management solutions popped up in the market. There were solutions for password management and...

If anyone in any organization was in any doubt about the importance of having a Disaster Operations Plan, that has surely changed since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some organizations have coped better than others, but every organization should either be working on developing a Disaster Operation Plan or on improving the one they already have by identifying where the plan did and did not work well. Design a plan based on resources you already have A Disaster Operation Plan is a crisis-specific plan that builds off what an organization should already have in place. The...

Many security product vendors are now offering CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) as part of their portfolio - so what is CSPM and why might you need it?  In their race towards digital transformation, organizations are using cloud services to accelerate the development of new apps and improve efficiency. This provides many important business benefits but also increases the challenges of ensuring cyber-security and regulatory compliance. CSPM solutions are intended to provide a way to identify and control some of these risks.  They supplement CASBs (Cloud Access...

Modern and hybrid operating models, Software-as-a-Service, regulatory requirements, working from home, various types of internal and external users, and the phenomenon of BYOD (bring your own device) are challenges we have to face today. Such challenges are constantly emerging, which demands a flexible approach. Often these flexible requirements result in many specific sub-solutions for particular problems. This causes the company to have no central overview of which services, which devices, and which applications are used and for what purpose. To challenge the internal IT teams even...

Several major players in the facial recognition market – IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft – have halted all sales of facial recognition technology (FRT) to police departments in the United States. Each of these companies made a statement regarding technology’s relationship to public safety. IBM CEO Arvind Kirshna sent an open letter to several US Senators and House Representatives, stating “IBM no longer offers general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software. IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology…for mass surveillance,...

AI-based conversational interfaces developed plenty of hype for use cases within marketing, sales, and service management. Various types of solutions are on the market, offered by both small start-ups and large, international, established enterprises. More than a hype Conversational interfaces experienced hype in 2016, followed by some disillusionment in the next years, as many solutions were technical gadgets rather than delivering real value. This is about to change, as many solutions are more mature now - and implemented as a part of digitalization projects within marketing,...