Blog by Mike Small

Blog
Windows 10: How to Ensure a Secure and Private Experience
by Mike Small
Together with many others I received an offer from Microsoft to upgrade my Windows 7 desktop and Windows 8.1 laptop to Windows 10. Here is my initial reaction to successfully performing this upgrade with a specific focus on the areas of privacy and security. As always when considering security the first and most important step is to understand what your requirements are. In my case – I have several computers and I mainly use these with Microsoft Office, to use the internet for research and to store personal ‘photos. My main requirements are for consistency and...
Read More
Blog
Security and Operational Technology / Smart Manufacturing
by Mike Small
Industry 4.0 is the German government’s strategy to promote the computerization of the manufacturing industry. This strategy foresees that industrial production in the future will be based on highly flexible mass production processes that allow rich customization of products. This future will also include the extensive integration of customers and business partners to provide business and value-added processes. It will link production with high-quality services to create so-called “hybrid products”. At the same time, in the US, the Smart Manufacturing Leadership...
Read More
Blog
From Hybrid Cloud to Standard IT?
by Mike Small
I have recently heard from a number of cloud service providers (CSP) telling me about their support for a “hybrid” cloud. What is the hybrid cloud and why is it important? What enterprise customers are looking for is a “Standard IT” that would allow them to deploy their applications flexibly wherever is best. The Hybrid Cloud concept goes some way towards this. There is still some confusion about the terminology that surrounds cloud computing and so let us go back to basics. The generally accepted definition of cloud terminology is in NIST SP-800-145. According...
Read More
Blog
EMC to acquire Virtustream
by Mike Small
On May 26th EMC announced that it is to acquire the privately held company Virtustream. What does this mean and what are the implications? Virtustream is both a software vendor and a cloud service provider (CSP). Its software offering includes a cloud management platform xStream, an infrastructure assessment product Advisor, and the risk and compliance management software, ViewTrust. It also offers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) with datacentres in the US and Europe. KuppingerCole identified Virtustream as a “hidden gem” in our report: Leadership Compass: Infrastructure...
Read More
Blog
Risk and Governance in Analytics
by Mike Small
There is now an enormous quantity of data which is being generated in a wide variety of forms. However this data, in itself, has little meaning or value; it needs interpretation to make it useful. Analytics are the tools, techniques and technologies that can be used to analyze this data into information with value. These analytics are now being widely adopted by organizations to improve their performance. However what are the security and governance aspects of the use of these tools? For example Dunnhumby which was created in 1989, by a husband and wife team, to help businesses better...
Read More
Blog
AWS Announces Machine Learning Service
by Mike Small
AWS has recently announced the A mazon  Machine Learning  s ervice – what is this and what does it mean for customers?   Organizations  now  hold enormous quantities  of data  and more  data  in a wide variety of forms  is rapidly being generated .  Research has shown that organizations that base their decision making and processes on data are more successful than those that do not.  However  interpretation and analysis is needed  to  transform  this data  into useful...
Read More
Blog
Migrating IT Infrastructure to the Cloud
by Mike Small
Much has been written about “DevOps” but there are other ways for organizations to benefit from the cloud. Moving all or part of their existing IT infrastructure and applications could provide savings in capital and, in many cases, increase security. The cloud has provided an enormous opportunity for organizations to create new markets, to experiment and develop new applications without the need for upfront investment in hardware and to create disposable applications for marketing campaigns. This approach is generally known as DevOps; where the application is developed and...
Read More
Blog
Organization, Security and Compliance for the IoT
by Mike Small
The Internet of Things (IoT) provides opportunities for organizations to get closer to their customers and to provide products and services that are more closely aligned to their needs. It provides the potential to enhance the quality of life for individuals, through better access to information and more control over their environment. It makes possible more efficient use of infrastructure by more precise control based on detailed and up to data information. It will change the way goods are manufactured by integrating manufacturing machinery, customers and partners allowing greater product...
Read More
Blog
Where is my Workload?
by Mike Small
One of the major challenges that faces organizations using a cloud or hosting service is to know where their data is held and processed. This may be to ensure that they remain in compliance with laws and regulations or simply because they have a mistrust of certain geo-political regions. The location of this data may be defined in the contract with the CSP (Cloud Service Provider) but how can the organization using the service be sure that the contract is being met? This question has led to many organizations being reluctant to use cloud. Using the cloud is not the only reason for...
Read More
Blog
A Haven of Trust in the Cloud?
by Mike Small
In September a survey was published in Dynamic CISO that showed that “72% of Businesses Don’t Trust Cloud Vendors to Obey Data Protection Laws and Regulations”.  Given this lack of trust by their customers what can cloud service vendors do? When an organization stores data on its own computers, it believes that it can control who can access that data. This belief may be misplaced given the number of reports of data breaches from on premise systems; but most organizations trust themselves more than they trust others.  When the organization stores data in the cloud, it has to trust the...
Read More
Previous … 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … Next