Server sprawl is a problem that can plague any large or complex computing environment. The issue can start small with a developer standing up a test instance of a database that gets forgotten after a few weeks or months. In addition to the monetary expense of the licensing necessary to run the instance, it probably has been added to backup or monitoring schedules. This leads to unnecessary work that wastes storage space and computing cycles. It also adds pointless complexity to the task of managing the environment efficiently.

Cloud sprawl is the uncontrolled proliferation of cloud instances, servers, or providers. A lack of visibility and control over cloud resources is the main reason behind cloud sprawl. An understanding of what resources are contracted for and being used productively is vitally important when trying to minimize cloud sprawl. Without this knowledge, enterprises will wind up spending more than they need to for their cloud presence. 

The virtual nature of cloud computing makes it easier for organizations to lose track of what systems they have, who uses them, and where they are located. Multiple departments can be using different cloud solutions that are incompatible, resulting in additional work as teams struggle to coordinate information and use it across the organization. Lack of internal communication rests in redundant services and more wasted time and money.

Teams can get lazy due to the ease with which new systems can be set up. Freed from the hardware constraints enforced by physical servers, developers might be tempted to just add new instances and neglect decommissioning dormant systems. Workloads can be left running long after they are no longer needed. Virtual servers can multiply without management’s awareness until it’s time to pay their cloud providers.

Actions to Reduce Cloud Sprawl

Several actions can be taken to help reduce the negative effects of cloud sprawl. Performed regularly, they can help control the costs and complexity of an organization’s cloud computing environment. 

• Audit and inventory cloud resources to gain visibility into current and historical usage patterns. Tracking how cloud resources are being used across the enterprise can identify specific departments that are using unapproved solutions. Analyzing historical usage trends can uncover growth areas resulting from inefficient server decommissioning practices. Even if no evidence of sprawl is unearthed in the inventory process, it can be instrumental in estimating provider costs and eliminating unpleasant surprises when bills are due.  

• Centralized change management procedures can help curb the spread of redundant solutions and shine a light on server commissioning and decommissioning inefficiencies. Having members from all departments involved in the change approval process provides additional opportunities for unnecessary resource requests to be curtailed.  

• The popularity of hybrid and multi-cloud environments further complicates the underlying factors leading to cloud sprawl. A unified management platform that provides visibility into all aspects of the environment is crucial for using cloud resources effectively. A consolidated view of all cloud resources allows informed judgments to be made regarding the issues that result in sprawl and inefficiencies.  

A sprawling environment can temper the advantages of the cloud. It’s in an organization’s best interests to keep a tight reign on cloud usage and reduce sprawl to get the most out of their cloud partnerships. 

Everywhere you go these days, you are likely to meet people talking about “the cloud.” This term seems to be more widely used in corporate settings now more than ever. Maybe it is all because of its impact on organizations and the potential to change the business environment. As you might have heard or read, AI provides better storage, enhances data security, flexibility, and collaboration, and improves workflows for all organizations, both small and large. This is why you should consider implementing cloud in your company regardless of the size.

Inside the noise of enthusiasts and cloud computing crusaders that the cloud allows you to do this and that cloud computing initiatives are challenging for many organizations. It is not as easy as some people say it.

Here are a few snags that you can hit in your cloud efforts:

• Too many expectations

Due to so much hype, many organizations get too excited about what the cloud can do. A study by Aptum reports that 99% of the respondents found the cloud as crucial to their overall success. Most of the respondents stated that technology is crucial for their business continuity. The coronavirus pandemic has made many organizations shift their operations to the cloud as they discovered the importance of this technology on collaboration. Although it is true that cloud spurs collaboration, enhances creativity, agility, business continuity, and saves the cost of operations, the anticipated benefits do not always meet the expectations. Some organizations end up reaping less than what they expected. Only a few of these organizations end up benefiting, while the excitement of others will be short-lived.

• Security issues

Security has always been one of the areas of concern for organizations. Although lack of expertise is equally critical, there has always been a hot debate around data security. Since 2018, security has been one of the biggest snags in the implementation of the cloud. Like anything connected to the internet, it is no longer about if but when your organization will suffer from data breaches or cyberattacks. Storing data in the cloud means that you will no longer see where your information is stored or processed. With this in mind, always have contingencies to ensure business continuity even when you face cyberattacks.

• Managing and containing costs

The next snag that you are likely to encounter in your cloud efforts involves costs. In most instances, migrating to the cloud can save your organization money in the long run. It allows you to easily ramp up processing capabilities without investing in modern expensive data centers. Businesses can access on-demand pay-as-you-go services from public cloud providers. While these services are flexible, you may face challenges in defining and predicting services required and their costs. Although the costs may be low initially, they may spiral as you find out other hidden costs you never factored in. Fortunately, there are many ways you can consider to keep your costs in check. For example, you can conduct financial analytics and regular reporting and enforce policies that govern your expenditure.

• Migration issues

Migration is one of the biggest cloud computing challenges you are likely to face in your cloud initiatives. Although migrating applications is a straightforward process, many challenges may come up when moving an existing application. This is one of the problems you must factor in when thinking about your organization's cloud initiative. 

Clearly, if you plan to migrate to the cloud, you have some issues that you must think about for success to be attained. Cloud is not something that you think about overnight and implement. Rather, you need a strategic approach, proper management, and professionals' involvement that will help reduce possible risks, flaws, or high costs.

In the age of cloud computing, bad actors can access many targets than ever. They can also access many tools that they can use in their activities more than ever before. As such, security in this age is a priority. Cloud Security Report 2020 indicates that the security challenges encountered in the cloud include misconfiguration, unauthorized access, insecure interfaces and account hijacking. The attacks on cloud platforms vary based on different aspects from mundane to new sophisticated attacks that are conducted using powerful tools.

Here are some cloud computing challenges we can expect to see in 2021:

• Expect more Kubernetes compromises

Kubernetes compromise became a leading area of concern in cloud computing in the past year.  An example is TeamTNT, responsible for the theft of AWS credentials. The same outfit is responsible for the development of methods that take advantage of misconfigurations of Kubernetes. Hackers are taking advantage of the evolving Kubernetes to look for holes and misconfigurations that are yet to be discovered by the security professionals to cause problems. As Kubernetes matures, expect hackers to continue taking advantage of misconfigurations. Expect more Kubernetes compromises in 2021 and beyond. 

• Scarcity of IT expertise

A survey by Cloud Security Alliance on the adoption practices indicates that about 34 percent of companies avoid the cloud because their employees lack knowledge and expertise to manage cloud computing initiatives. As many organizations migrate to the cloud, lack of IT expertise to operate the cloud will continue being one of the greatest challenges. Despite the increasing number of graduates and professionals in this area, their number will not address a large number of organizations that continue embracing cloud computing.

• Insider threats

Trusting employees has always been advocated by HR professionals. However, some employees take this trust for weakness, while most businesses take trust too far. Every organization must always vet its employees to ascertain where their loyalty lies and identify behaviors that may be detrimental operations. Despite the vetting of IT employees, insider threats will continue being the primary concern of organizations in the future. According to Intel, insider threats are responsible for 43% of all compromises. Although some are accidental, almost half are intentional. Organizations should rethink access management and vet those who must be allowed into their systems. The rising number of insider threats means that only those that need the systems to complete their responsibilities will be granted access.

• DoS attacks

Although cloud security has come a long way in terms of its benefits, it is not without concerns on security threats. Denial-of-service attacks can make systems stop working unexpectedly, which is a significant security threat. While some DDoS attacks are less sophisticated, others can have far-reaching consequences to service provision by cloud computing companies. As hackers and hacking tools continue becoming more sophisticated, DoS attacks targeting cloud service providers will face a challenge in addressing the problem. Cloud providers will become a bigger target for malicious attacks of this kind as more businesses and operations move to the cloud. According to Verisign, IT services hosted in the cloud were the most targeted areas by attackers in the past year. This is expected to continue into 2021.

Although cloud providers should expect more cloud security-related challenges from now on, these issues are not insurmountable. With the right cloud security strategies in place, forethought and technology, companies can get the best from moving their operations to the cloud. As such, security solutions must be integrated into the cloud security strategy. Assets should be protected 24/7 from possible attacks from bad actors with end-to-end security, including deploying DDoS mitigation measures at both the network and application levels.

The recent discovery of the extensive Solar Winds hacking incident once again focused attention on the difficulty of securing enterprise data resources in the cloud. Thousands of customers had their networks breached by malware hidden in monitoring software. It appears that the cyberattack was perpetrated by a coordinated team of Russian hackers and the full extent of the intrusion will not be known for many months. Though this is one of the most egregious recent examples of a successful hack, it is certainly not the only one.

While the cloud has simplified some aspects of IT management such as capacity planning and storage, it has complicated the process of securing computing assets in two distinct ways. The shared nature of security in the cloud and the increased number of potential gaps or oversights make it difficult to protect enterprise information. Here are some suggestions that can help protect your company’s cloud environment.

Knowing Your Role in Cloud Security

A full understanding of how cloud security is shared and implemented is necessary for each provider and model an organization uses. Substantial differences in responsibility are associated with different cloud models. Some providers may perform a larger or smaller part in protecting your systems. 

An illustrative example can be seen in the way Microsoft defines the shared security responsibilities customers can expect when engaging them as their provider. Depending on if an organization is using an SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS solution, the responsibilities for certain aspects of security may shift from customer to provider. Some security elements are always the customer’s responsibility. 

Customers are always responsible for protecting accounts, identities, data resources, and devices. This includes traditional computing platforms as well as mobile devices. Conversely, Microsoft assumes responsibility for the physical hosts, networks, and data centers that it provides to its customers. 

Gray areas exist surrounding the security of applications, network controls, and operating systems. In SaaS solutions, security is performed by the provider, while it is the customer’s responsibility when the IaaS model is employed. When PaaS solutions are in play, both customer and provider share the task of providing security. This is where the majority of cloud security issues occur and where organizations need to have a full understanding of what they need to do to protect their cloud resources. 

Locking all the Doors

The cloud increases the number of attack vectors exponentially. The theoretical ability to access cloud resources from any mobile device results in an environment where each device needs to be secured from use by unauthorized actors. It’s convenient for the account team to access the sales database from their iPads, but can also be very dangerous. A lost or stolen device can compromise vast quantities of corporate data.

Another characteristic of cloud services is that access is required by the provider’s staff while performing administrative duties. This introduces an additional population of potentially malicious actors with the ability to mishandle data or engage in more harmful activities such as introducing malware to an environment. It is extremely hard to eliminate these risks. Robust monitoring can help identify anomalies that may indicate misuse of enterprise cloud resources.

Maintaining security should be the top priority of any organization that takes advantage of cloud computing resources. It’s a complicated task, but one that is essential to the safety of the enterprise data assets stored in the cloud. 

Almost every organization today seems to have embraced cloud computing. This has been occasioned by the advancements that have been made in this area. While the cloud has shown tremendous opportunities, there are various benefits and risks of cloud migration, that you need to consider. Here are the risks and benefits:

Benefits

• Scalability

Cloud services are offered based on demand capacity taking advantage of the pay-as-you-go model. This means that when your company grows due to seasonality, operations will not be affected. Unlike the on-site systems, that depend on the infrastructure that has already been installed, you can increase or downsize any time. For instance, when a business experience high levels of traffic in their existing plan, they can change their plan to accommodate the new traffic.

• Reduced cost

Another major benefit of migrating to the cloud is the reduced costs that can be experienced by organizations. By moving to the cloud, companies can significantly save a lot of money, especially in the long-term. Remember that the cloud does not involve purchasing any on-premise hardware or any upfront investment. Instead, you just buy a specific plan, and you are done. With this, you avoid costs such as those associated with the purchase and operating of servers, electricity costs, and management.

• Increased collaboration

In the modern business environment, collaboration is fast becoming an area of competitiveness that every organization seeks efficiency. Due to this, many companies have increasingly started investing in cloud computing to boost their collaboration efforts. Cloud can be accessed over the internet from anywhere, and employees can work together regardless of the location constraints. Documents and files and be accessed simultaneously and can also be updated in real-time.

• Security

Security is one of the biggest misconceptions of the cloud. In reality, however, one of the benefits of moving to the cloud is improved security. Cloud service providers have the best and strictest security infrastructure and expertise needed in the current era. Cloud providers make cybersecurity their main priority, making the cloud more secure than on-site systems.

Risks

• Speed

For any modern organization, speed is a highly critical factor. As such, a business must never lose speed to be efficient. Unfortunately, speed is a limiting factor for some organizations when it comes to cloud computing. If your organization has applications, databases, or software that requires fast speeds that are above average, the cloud might not meet these needs. The good thing, however, is that cloud service providers often allow testing before migrating your operations.

• Lack of expertise and adequate knowledge

Migrating to the cloud requires the right expertise and people with adequate knowledge. Without this, you will not be able to realize the full potential of the cloud, and migration itself might not be a success. Proper migration requires putting the right systems in place and the right knowledge of these systems. Although the team in your organization may have the necessary expertise on physical hardware, the cloud technology might be too complicated.

• Legal issues and restrictions

The next risk to migrating to the cloud is legal restrictions. Before moving to the cloud, one must first understand if any legal restrictions may deny them an opportunity to migrate. For example, government contractors may not be allowed to put their data in the cloud, making it necessary for them to use on-site solutions for their operations. Some of the common regulations include PCI and HIPAA. Although some cloud service providers have been certified to handle PCI and HIPAA, it still presents a significant risk that cannot be denied.

Whether you are a techie or a professional in a different area that is not related to IT, cloud computing is impacting your job one way or another. This technology has been praised by tech evangelists as a solution to many business problems. It has been tipped to possess the capabilities of turning fortunes of many organizations, both small and big around. Since this technology will impact work in different ways, knowing more about it and becoming savvy can advance your career and may earn you more salary and respect.

Here is what you need to know about cloud computing if you want to land our dream job.

1. Skills of innovation and vision

This is the most critical and often overlooked area by cloud computing enthusiasts and experts. Unlike what many people believe, cloud computing is more than simply changing storage from in-house to a remote location or monthly charges that come with doing so. Instead, it starts with understanding the needs of the business and the potential of this technology on your operations. You need to understand how to embrace this technology and run simulations on new promotions to find out what suits you. Compare what the technology brings and how it compares with using on-site methods.

2. Possess business communication, project management, and leadership skills

The primary reason for choosing cloud over on-site is to enhance operations and improve the business in general. For this reason, anyone working in a cloud company must learn and understand critical business communication skills needed to run operations in an organizational setup. Also, you should have leadership and management skills because these are crucial in pitching and selling cloud services to the customers and managing projects across the organization. Leadership skills allow you to handle projects, both simple and complex, and provide direction in high priority and special projects. With the right business skills, you will be able to recommend the best technological alternatives to clients and evaluate developments in the cloud in comparison with the changes in the business landscape.

3. Have negotiation skills

In the modern business landscape where the customer has the final say, negotiation skills are no longer an option. This is also the case in the cloud computing world where customers must be convinced into accepting to use the services of a given vendor. As an enthusiast who would like to join the industry, you must have the right skills. As an employee, you will be responsible for negotiations, managing relationships with the customers, tracking issues, troubleshooting, and reporting various things. These skills are crucial in explaining to the customer service-level agreements, answering questions on service interruptions, and asserting the advantages of investing in your company’s solutions.

4. Planning skills, and be analytical

Cloud computing solutions are always required to address the needs of each business. This can be achieved by developing flexible solutions that will fit into the needs of each customer regardless of the industry. As a person planning to find a job in a cloud service providing firm, you must have analytical, planning skills and architectural skills, which will enable you to understand problems that a customer needs to be addressed and come up with a viable solution. The same skills will allow understanding of the business needs and translate them into technical requirements.

5. Be technically proficient

This is the last and the most critical skill you should possess to land a job in a cloud company of your choice. Every professional who consumes, manages, or provides cloud services must be technically savvy. You must be proficient in areas such as software engineering and specifically in the development of cloud applications. You must also be knowledgeable in network administration and management and, at the same time, possess cybersecurity skills.

Though only in its nascent stages, the value of cloud infrastructure to robots is key for both deployment (encompassing development, configuration, and installment) and operation (maintenance, analytics, and control). With the popularization of mobile robotics in a wide range of verticals, it will become necessary to utilize the computing power of cloud infrastructure to store and manage the vast troves of collected data as well as to train more advanced algorithms used to power robot cognition.  ABI Research, a global tech market advisory firm, forecasts the robot-related services powered by cloud computing will reach US$157.8 billion in annual revenue by 2030.

“Since 1961, most commercial robots have been wired or tied to external infrastructure for movement. The next generation of robot deployments will be increasingly mobile, tied to cellular and WIFI connectivity, will consume vast troves of data in order to operate autonomously, and will need effective management through real-time measurements for performance, status and operability,” said Rian Whitton, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. Several cloud service providers, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, have begun collaborating with robotics developers, while start-ups like InOrbit target cloud-enabled operations for the first major deployment of mobile service robots.

“The journey of the robot industry from one of individual vehicles and units, to fleets and larger systems, is being driven by its wider incorporation into the IoT ecosystem. However, it would be a mistake to suggest robots will simply fit in with devices, individual sensors, and stationary machines as part of the wider IoT ecosystem,” Whitton points out. Robots are increasingly sophisticated systems themselves, with multiple sensors and highly advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) competencies, and are also expected to move around and act within the world, generating huge amounts of data relative to other machines. “To suggest the cloud alone can provide the computing power to operate these machines is naïve, especially during the slow transition to 5G. Onlookers should instead conceive of adaptable edge-cloud systems that focus on quality over quantity when it comes to robotics operation, data processing, and analysis,” Whitton adds.

The cloud robotics opportunity, defined as Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) revenue for robotics operations combined, will grow from US$3.3 billion in 2019 to US$157.8 billion in 2030, accounting for 30% of the robotic industry’s total worth. On its own, this represents a huge opportunity for start-ups, many of which are beginning to expand on their mission to enable developers to accelerate their go-to-market strategy and to help end-users and operators’ access and manage the ever-increasing fleets of robots. This new robotics ecosystem will be dominated by three subcategories of companies, namely robot developers that move up the value chain and become solution providers, third-party IoT and cloud platform providers focused on best-in-class software solutions, and Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud. Those focusing strictly on hardware will lose relative worth and will require partnerships or bold strategies to become solution providers. This can be exemplified by companies like Universal Robots and Fetch Robotics, who have incorporated software and maintenance services into their offering.

“The market is incredibly nascent at present. ABI Research expects consolidation with the most successful robot solution providers and the CSPs expanding their relative influence on the market to take place within the next decade,” says Whitton. The cloud robotics technology is split between vertical innovations, such as developing superior navigation systems, which increase the possibility of what robots can do, and horizontal innovations that expand access and scalability. “Cloud computing represents the most important horizontal innovation for the robotics industry, to date, and will further enable vertical innovations like swarm-based intelligence, autonomous mobility, and advanced manipulation to be deployed at scale,” Whitton concludes.

These findings are from ABI Research’s Cloud Robotics application analysis report. This report is part of the company’s Industrial, Collaborative & Commercial Robotics research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights. Based on extensive primary interviews, Application Analysis reports present in-depth analysis on key market trends and factors for a specific technology.

As businesses continue discovering the benefits that cloud computing can present with regard to efficiency and profitability, the use of cloud technologies continues to skyrocket. In the US for example, at least 70 percent of companies, whether public, private, or hybrid use cloud computing according to research done by IDG in 2016.

Owing to the evidence of the impact of cloud computing which has been seen over time, people are no longer talking about why cloud computing should be adopted. Rather, they now talk about how they can move operations and services to the cloud. These are the issues you need to consider before migrating to the cloud:

1. Make sure your cloud applications are an improvement to the on-premise applications you already have

Every business’ intention is to have systems that are better than what they already have in order to compete favorably in a highly competitive business landscape. This is no exception when migrating to the cloud. Your new cloud systems must give you the competitive edge you need as you cannot afford to lose anything when migrating to the cloud.  Ensure that you only pay for what you will use to avoid duplication and costs. You should ensure that you change everything to meet the shifting demands by improving the efficiency of your systems.

2. Decide where and what processes to start with

Moving to a cloud is not something you start and finish once. Rather, you need to have a concrete plan that involves moving operations in phases to avoid total disaster in case of a failure. Since it is new technology, it requires a phased approach where simple business processes are moved first and lessons learned from the previous phase applied to the next one. For a company that has subsidiaries or branches, you can start with one branch and scale your deployment to other branches.

3. Manage compatibility and interoperability with other vendors

Interoperability is perhaps one of the leading areas of concern when migrating to the cloud. As you select your cloud vendors, one of the leading areas you should investigate is compatibility of architecture and applications with other vendors. Incompatibility can cost your business a lot and can be the cause of problems when you want to migrate to another cloud service provider. You should also address integration issues that can create separate silos and affect operations.

4. Ensure the strategy of your vendor aligns to your company’s business strategy

Failure to align cloud strategy to business strategy remains the single most challenging area for many organizations and ends up jeopardizing everything. Before you commit to a cloud vendor, take your time to acquaint yourself with the architectural requirements of the service provider. Ensure that the service provider you choose offers all the capabilities that a company needs such as reporting options, budgeting features, and planning options as well as regulatory compliance. Most importantly, ensure that the vendor has integration and security strategies that can be verified by other businesses. Furthermore, inquire the investment of the vendor on future technologies such as blockchain, machine learning and IoT all of which signify intentions of the company to adapt to the future as you would always want your company to do.

IBM is helping bring Delta Air to the Cloud, reports WRAL.

Delta Air Lines is moving to the public cloud thanks to a new deal inked with IBM.

Read the article on WRAL 

According to ZD Net, companies are still trying to put cars into the cloud, but why.

Back in 2018, Elon Musk's SpaceX put the first car in space. A flurry of press releases suggest that the (surely simpler?) race to put cars -- and carmakers -- into the cloud is far from over.

Read the article on ZD Net

According to Cloud Wars, Microsoft is bettings its Cosmos database will help them surge ahead of Oracle. 

Microsoft is expecting major growth in its cloud-native Cosmos database as customers rip and replace their more-expensive and less-flexible “legacy” databases, a Microsoft executive said last week.

Read the article on Cloud Wars

Oracle is offering a hybrid cloud service that brings the cloud to the edge, reports IT Pro Today.

While many workloads are headed to the public cloud, there is still a clear need for hybrid cloud technologies, according to Oracle.

Read the article on IT Pro Today

Taking advantage of the benefits of cloud computing is not restricted to organizations operating in the private sector. In the United States, local, state, and federal governments make extensive use of public cloud resources. As is customary for all types of government contracts, some assessments and approvals must be obtained before the offerings of a cloud service provider (CSP) can be used by specific agencies. Government contracts can be very lucrative and service providers who want a piece of the business need to demonstrate that their products meet all requirements surrounding security and functionality.

All CSPs that wish to do business with the U.S. federal government need to be assessed and approved by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). The program’s goal is to protect the data of U.S. citizens when it is in the cloud and is the most rigorous security framework in use by the government. 

FedRAMP was created to address the problem of different and potentially conflicting requirements for each agency working with cloud providers. FedRAMP provides standard security baselines and processes that simplify the process of obtaining cloud services for both providers and government agencies. Once a CSP achieves FedRAMP approval for an offering, it is listed in the FedRAMP Marketplace to gain visibility across the government.

Navigating the FedRAMP Authorization Process

CSPs that want authorization to provide services to federal agencies need to follow a process comprised of three complementary phases.

In the pre-authorization phase, CSPs should complete FedRAMP training which includes modules that define the baseline security plan. Education can be accessed via online courses, webinars, or in-person training events. A request from the CSP will result in a consultation with government subject matter experts set up by the FedRAMP Program Management Office (PMO). To successfully get through this phase of the authorization process, a CSP needs to: 

• Document agency interest in their offering and establish partnerships with agency customers.
• Establish a partnership with an approved third-party assessment organization. 
• Ensure that the service implements the required security controls.

During authorization, a CSP is responsible for developing a package that includes the completion of the System Security Plan. The plan is then assessed by the third-party assessment organization and findings are presented to the CSP for remediation. When all risks have been successfully addressed, the CSP attains authorization and status as a FedRAMP authorized vendor.

In the post-authorization phase of the process, the CSP is required to provide monthly monitoring deliverables to the agency using its service. Failure to provide these documents can result in the service losing its authorization.

The purpose of FedRAMP is to eliminate any confusion regarding the ability of individual agencies to use cloud services. By publishing authorized services on the FedRAMP Marketplace, the authorization process only needs to be done once for each offering. Once approved, it can be used with confidence by any federal agency that wants to use the service. 

This appears to be an example of government working efficiently by reducing the duplicate work that would ensue from individual agencies or departments authorizing CSPs. In a subsequent post, we will take a closer look at the FedRAMP Marketplace and the agencies that use its authorized services. 

The thirst for convenient and scalable computing power has led many organizations to make use of cloud delivery models. This has resulted in a booming worldwide market for cloud computing that is expected to top $350 billion by 2022. With this kind of money in play, the competition to attract customers among cloud providers is fierce. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are two transformative technologies that are gaining traction in many areas of scientific research and business analytics. The cloud offers a platform from which organizations of all sizes can access the level of computing power necessary to conduct research and make effective use of these disciplines. Consequently, major cloud providers have bolstered their portfolios with cutting-edge products designed to attract companies interested in AI and ML.

Developing new solutions or delivering advanced functionality to popular platforms is one way a vendor can stand out against its rivals. A method of gaining a competitive advantage that is enjoying increased popularity among large providers is the use of custom-built hardware that is designed to optimize their software offerings. Let’s take a look at some of the hardware solutions and innovations that cloud vendors are employing to provide enhanced capabilities to their customers. 

Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) are a prime example of hardware dedicated to processing the workloads demanded by AI applications. These are custom-built chips designed specifically to provide the power required by AI systems. The chips are often favored over more traditional graphics cards for the higher speeds they offer. 

Google has developed an infrastructure option called Cloud TPU Pods that use server racks packed with TPUs. They are configured with either 256 or 1,024 TPUs and the larger configurations offer speeds that approach those of supercomputers. The company powers its popular search engine and Google Translate with TPU pods. 

Amazon Web Services’ Graviton processors are custom built by the company using 64-bit ARM Neoverse cores. The processors offer cost-efficient scalability for general-purpose, compute-optimized, and memory-optimized EC2 instances. Second-generation Graviton processors provide an improved price-performance ratio over x86 chips for diverse workloads such as video encoding and CPU-based machine learning. Security is enhanced with always-on 256-bit DRAM encryption, allowing developers to run native cloud applications securely.

Microsoft’s Project Olympus is an open-source solution that incorporates hardware and software modules to create a holistic rack architecture. Project Olympus is part of the Open Compute Project which is releasing technical information to the developer community that may help even the playing field in the server industry. 

The schematics offer a well-defined starting point upon which manufacturers can build custom hardware solutions. Servers built under the auspices of Project Olympus will be infused with high debugging and testing capabilities that will help isolate intermittent and hard to duplicate problems. 

As the computing world’s requirements for faster and more efficient processing continues to grow, the cloud-tech giants will continue to evolve their solutions to meet the demand. The immense resources they wield ensure that when the need calls for it, the financial cost of employing custom hardware will not be an obstacle.

The coronavirus pandemic has altered the strategies of many companies, including their spending. This change has tipped the scale in favor of remote technologies, that are now being adopted massively as work turns from office to working from home. With the revenues of many businesses now suffering from the virus, many organizations are trying their best to limit costs as much as possible. This has seen most of them opting for remote work solutions, changing shifts, and putting some staff on unpaid leave to reduce the cost of business. With all these, the cloud appears to be seeing an increase in expenditure as the acquisition of cloud-based solutions increases. Cost is always a major driver for many migrations, but most companies poorly understand it in the beginning.

For startups, it is okay for them to see the value of cloud when they have used non in the past, but when they are still using old systems and legacy software, finding out the potential cost of moving to the cloud is not that easy. However, with the speed of modern business and the rapid response to the coronavirus pandemic, that is aimed at enabling millions of employees to work remotely, it is now clear that living in the world without cloud technology will not be easy in the modern era.

No time in history has exposed many industries than what we are experiencing today. The pandemic has shown the need for IT resources, that are always available led by the cloud. Even with the virus affecting most operations, the cloud has continued to show the reason why people are finding it useful for businesses. As the damage of coronavirus continues affecting office-based operations in different companies, cloud computing is turning out to be the refuge that these businesses look for at such a time of need. Companies are now relying heavily on technology to keep going. According to a report by Flexera, more than 20 percent of companies spend more than $1 million every month on the cloud. This is expected to double in the next 12 months, where projections found that companies will spend up to 47% on average to grow cloud. The report by Flexera based on a survey of 750 decision-makers and users also point out that companies are 23% over the budget. The respondents, however, noted that they are wasting 30% of their cloud expenditure.

Even with the pressure from the coronavirus, companies must devise a way of managing their cloud expenditure. There is a need for a balance between responding to the effects of the pandemic and keeping the expenditure reasonable. Although spending on all other IT categories will go down this year due to the suspension of operations, cloud technologies will still make the most. Companies will need a way of supporting their on-premise resources and improve the working experience of remote employees. The problem, however, is what is needed, and for how long since the time that the pandemic is expected to be over is not known. However, companies must use data from mid-March up to now and project what is required and what is not. Also, this information can help the forecast of what goes up and what will go down.

With the costs going up, companies must employ new tactics to stay on top of the expenses, most of that are unpredictable. Despite the cost management being challenging, as shown by Flexera because of the complexity and difficulty in usage forecasting, businesses should consider monitoring their spending usage and spending daily. They should also ensure that unused workloads are taken down to reduce the cost of operations in such a time when spending needs to be limited as much as possible.

As many industries reevaluate their go-to-market strategies amid the pandemic - not every business is suffering. Take for instance streaming video on-demand (SVOD) subscriptions like Netflix and Disney+ who have seen an increase in viewership as people are mandated to stay home due to Covid-19. But will streaming services see a depletion of subscribers once people venture outdoors again and are all SVODs doing well in this time of uncertainty?

Where other SVOD services have failed to grow (I’m looking at you Quibi), Disney+ wasted no time -amassing nearly 55 million subscribers in just six months. The streaming service that rolled out in November already has more subscribers than Hulu who clocks in at around 32 million.

Netflix which is still the leader in streaming services has a whopping 182.8 million subscribers. During their earnings call in April- Netflix reported that they had 23% more subscribers than this time last year earning $5.7 billion dollars in revenue. While many analysts wonder if these new subscribers will stay once the pandemic is over – at least one Bank of America analyst doesn’t think they should be worried. Nat Schindler told Yahoo Finance,  “We anticipate the step-up will result in a permanent increase in penetration for Netflix's subscriber model and see its low price-point and staple nature supporting healthy fundamentals performance in a recession, even after stay-home orders are lifted.”

While many SVOD services have seen a rise in viewership – what happens when the pandemic is over? Does it really make sense for a family of four to keep subscriptions to all of the available services? The market is getting tight and eventually families will have to make sacrifices as to which streaming services to keep.

In a survey of 1,000 viewers who have more than two SVOD subscriptions, FLIXED found that out of the main streaming services (Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Apple TV+), viewers would most likely drop Apple TV+ over any of their other memberships. Like Disney+ - Apple TV+ debuted in November 2019 but unlike Disney+ met little to no fanfare. The platform that costs just $4.99 doesn’t seem to resonate with viewers as 36% of those surveyed said that they would most likely not renew their subscription to Apple TV+. While Apple has yet to reveal how many subscribers they actually have – analysts put the number at around 30 million – but many of those subscribers are getting it free for the first year. Analyst Toni Sacconaghi of Berstein told the Financial Post that one of the reasons Apple TV+ has fallen short is because it was "failing to resonate with customers, perhaps due to its limited content offerings."

Like Apple TV+ - Quibi – a much hyped streaming services that delivers shows that are 10 minutes or less to a subscriber’s phone has also failed to resonate with audiences. Debuting in March- Quibi only has 3.5 million subscribers (1.7 million who are considered “active”). While many could blame the series of blunders (not allowing users to share clips online, only available for Android phones)-  owner Jeffrey Katzenberg blames the pandemic – the same pandemic that is helping other SVOD services excel. "I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus,” he told The New York Times. 

As Covid-19 continues to keep people at home – subscribers will flock to Streaming Video On-Demand services for entertainment. In a convoluted market – not all streaming services will succeed. If the current number of subscribers are any indication - Netflix will continue to reign while SVODs like Apple TV+ and Quibi could be in big trouble.