Factoids about the Cloud Battles
March 10, 2020
DarkCyber noted “Stress Test the Cloud: Alibaba Cloud, AWS, Azure, GCP.” The write up presents “factoids” and observations based on these factoids in a helpful way. Here are the points which captured DarkCyber’s attention:
The cloud will be the way of the future in computing. The meltdown of Robinhood’s trading platform was pegged on stress. When a cloud system is stressed, it may and will fail.
Amazon Web Services
- “Amazon’s e-commerce business is the market leader in the U.S., Europe, and close to number 1 in India”
- “AWS is very much battle-tested and constantly “stressed out” by its parent company’s core e-commerce operation. It has moved all of its businesses onto AWS, and off of other systems like Oracle, after a multi-year effort.”
- Amazon’s businesses are generally not prone to unexpected spikes in traffic, which happens more to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Weibo.”
Amazon’s system may not be optimal for surprise spikes.
Alibaba Cloud
- “Alibaba’s core e-commerce business has many similarities to Amazon’s…”
- “This accomplishment is well-deserved; Alibaba has basically created and survived the mother of all stress tests.” The reference is to the large volume of sales on Singles Day.
- “Alibaba Cloud’s technical and operational expertise can certainly be applied in regions outside of China, but only until there’s customer demand and the data centers to serve it.”
Alibaba dumped American vendors as part of its journey.
Google Cloud
- “Google has arguably the only, truly global infrastructure, because its services and users are global.”
- “Google‘s services cannot anticipate traffic spikes, unlike a planned shopping holiday, and must be ready wherever, whenever it happens.”
- “Google’s products do not naturally lead to processing many complex transactions, like online shopping orders, offline delivery, or payments.”
Google can accommodate stress, but it’s not so good in Amazon-style transaction complexity.
Microsoft Azure
- “None of these [Microsoft] businesses have to be “always on”, in the same way that an e-commerce marketplace or a search engine needs to be on.”
- “Azure is still doing amazingly well from a revenue and market share standpoint. This success has more to do with Microsoft’s years of experience in selling products into large enterprises and aggressively moving users of its non-cloud license-based products onto the same products that are now on-cloud and subscription-based. Microsoft is very good at being “enterprise ready”, but not that good at being “Internet ready”.”
- “It [Microsoft] has by far the most number of Single-AZ Regions, which has led to outages and issues that could’ve been avoided with a multi-AZ design. Multi-AZ Region is the default in AWS, GCP, and most of Alibaba Cloud.”
Microsoft is good at sales, not so good at the cloud.
Net Net
Alibaba is darned good. At any time the company can push into other markets and create some pain for the American companies it seems.
Stephen E Arnold, March 10, 2020
Amazon Versus Microsoft: JEDI in Play?
March 7, 2020
DarkCyber spotted a story in Stars and Stripes titled “Judge Says Amazon Likely to Succeed on Key Argument in Pentagon Cloud Lawsuit.” The source appears to be the Bezos-owned Washington Post. That fact may provide some context for the story.
The main point in the write up seems to be:
A federal judge has concluded that a bid protest lawsuit brought by Amazon over President Donald Trump’s intervention in an important Pentagon cloud computing contract “is likely to succeed on the merits” of one of its central arguments, according to a court document made public Friday [March 6, 2020].
The article states:
In an opinion explaining her reasoning, Campbell-Smith sided with Amazon’s contention that the Pentagon had made a mistake in how it evaluated prices for competing proposals from Amazon and Microsoft. She also concluded that the mistake is likely to materially harm Amazon, an important qualifier for government contract bid protests.
What’s missing from this story? Detail for one thing.
Several observations:
- Planners for the JEDI program are likely to experience uncertainty
- Regardless of the ultimate decision, time to implement newer systems is being lost
- The cost of the procurement process for JEDI will climb and, at some point, may become larger than the program itself.
Net net: Government procurement remains an interesting and impactful process. Procurement just keeps grinding its procedural mechanisms, delivering “efficiency.”
Stephen E Arnold, March 7, 2020
Honeywell: The Quantum Computing Thermostat Company
March 5, 2020
Yeah, that’s a bit of rural Kentucky humor. Honeywell is in four businesses and a fifth apparently has been added: Quantum computing. If you think Honeywell and recall the user friendly thermostat in your home, you are not thinking about the future, government contracts, breaking computing barriers, and putting technology pretenders like IBM, Google, and dozens of other companies in their place.
The Honeywell he CommercialPRO 7000 Programmable Thermostat is fantastic, according to Honeywell. For an entertaining experience, ask a friend to set the temperature for 4 pm today. This is a TikTok viral video DarkCyber believes.
To refresh your memory, DarkCyber wants to point out that Honeywell was once based in Wabash, Indiana. The firm generates about $40 billion a year from:
- Aerospace
- Building technologies
- Materials
- Safety productivity systems.
Now Honeywell is in the quantum computing business, according to the Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2020, edition. You may be able to locate the story behind a paywall at this link.
Honeywell has enjoyed a number of government contracts, and the firm is one of the leaders in smart controls and weapons management technology. In 1955, Honeywell teamed with Raytheon in order to compete with IBM. By the mid 1960s, Honeywell was one of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs of Computing. (Unfamiliar with this bit of digital history, Bing or Google may turn up some relevant hits, but I would recommend microfilm of the Minneapolis newspapers from this era. Don’t let your Bermuda shorts get in a bunch as you explore the innovations of Burroughs, Control Data Corp., GE, NCR, RCA, and my personal fave Univac.
Honeywell does a significant amount of computing and software/systems development. The firms owns a number of high technology business; for example, a radiation detection firm and has a stake in Zapata Computing.
Zapata says here:
We are the deepest bench of quantum scientists in the industry. Our founders helped create the field of near-term quantum algorithms including the invention of VQE, the progenitor of variational quantum algorithms.
The company’s approach relies on quantum charge coupled device (QCCD) architecture. The approach uses a technology called “trapped ions.” The idea is that useful work can be done due to leveraging mid circuit measurement. The idea is to insert a dynamic “if” based on the state of the calculation at a point in time. IonQ and Alpine Quantum Technologies also use the method. For some details, do a patent search for “trapped ion”. The background of US5793091A (assigned to IBM) provides some helpful information.
What business opportunities does Honeywell envision for its quantum computer? Here’s a selection gleaned from the PR blitz Honeywell launched a short time ago:
- Landing more customers like JPMorgan, Chase, and Company
- Speeding up financial calculations
- Creating new trading strategies (high speed trading?)
- Materials science applications (heat shields, stealth coatings?)
- Run Monte Carlo simulations (nuclear fuel analyses, risk and fraud analyses?)
The Honeywell quantum computer will be bigger than IBM’s quantum computer.
Interesting business play because Honeywell has a deal with Microsoft to plug the Honeywell technology into the Azure cloud.
The coverage of Honeywell’s announcement reveals the hyperbole associated with quantum computing. DarkCyber interprets the assertions as the equivalent of an athlete’s pre-season exercise routine. Progress may be made, but the effort can only be judged when the “star” is on the field and in the game.
Until then, the buzzword sells expectations, not a solution to a here-and-now problem. One has to admire Honeywell’s PR generating capability.
Stephen E Arnold, March 5, 2020
Microsoft Azure: Search, Artificial Intelligence, and Some Mystical Magic
March 3, 2020
DarkCyber spotted “Microsoft Announcements on Azure Artificial Intelligence.” The article is a summary of assorted Microsoft Azure assertions. Note that the article did not offer any information about Cortana’s and Windows 10 search semi-failure to thrill its users. But Azure is different. Microsoft does Azure better than Windows 10 updates… sometimes.
There were several highlights in the article.
First, Azure has artificial intelligence. The approach is open, interoperable, workflow, and “easy adaptation.” Is this way certified Microsoft Azure professionals are buying new houses and fancier automobiles?
Second, Azure does machine learning. The idea is that there are agents, applications, a machine learning model engine, support for R, and an enterprise edition. DarkCyber does not know a single person running Azure to make life better, faster, and cheaper except Azure consultants. But the big assertion is that Azure’s ML “delivers a unified data science experience.” DarkCyber wonders, “Does this include Outlook attachments?”
Third, Azure has updated some of its “old” features. There’s nothing like constant improvement like the flow of Windows 10 updates, uninstalls, and reinstalls. Now Azure does better decision making. Sentiment analysis has more deep learning and natural language processing. The system can do image analysis, and its has some of that Cortana goodness which has been repositioned in Windows 10 because it was so darned wonderful.
Fourth, Azure does knowledge mining. Azure does cognitive search. Azure recognizes forms.
The showcase client is a publishing company. The Atlantic has gone all in on the Azure systems. Another happy camper is AutoTrader.ca. Plus Archive 360 is tickled with the ability to use Azure cognitive search quickly and cost effectively. Yep, DarkCyber believes this was a smooth, easy implementation.
If you doubt that Microsoft is number one, read the article. If not, you will enjoy some of the ironies. How many search systems does Microsoft offer? How many of them are super? Who remembers Fast Search & Transfer?
Yep, super search the Azure way. It’s just like using Word’s numbering feature or figuring out PowerPoint backgrounds.
Stephen E Arnold, March 3, 2020
Google: Feeling the Competitive Heat
February 28, 2020
Google, DarkCyber assumes, thought that Microsoft’s decision to convert the Chrome browser into Credge was a victory. “Google Is Now Warning Millions Of Microsoft Edge Users To Switch To Chrome: Here’s Why” tries to explain Googley thinking.
We learn from the capitalist tool:
Google has been found “abusing user agents,” the identifying code that enables websites to identify the browser type and version, to detect and warn Microsoft Edge users visiting the Chrome web store that when it comes to extensions they should switch to Chrome. The reason for the warning is that Microsoft Edge doesn’t integrate with the Safe Browsing protections Google uses to remove threats—so when an extension presents a risk, Google can’t act in the same way to protect users.
Is this the only reason?
DarkCyber thinks a bit of context will explain some of the Googley thinking.
Consider Google and Amazon.
Google does not like Amazon, especially when Amazon stepped away from solely being a retailer to offering software services to customers. Google wants some of Amazon’s cloud business, so they are telling retailers to chuck Amazon and check out their tools. ZDNet rolls out the gossip in the article, “Google’s Pitch To Retailers: We’ll Help You, From Search To Supply Chain.”
At the National Retail Federation, Google introduced retailers to a new line of tools available via its cloud. The tools range from product discovery, supply chain optimization, and hybrid application management. Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud CEO, explained that the retailers who innovate with their business plans are the most successful. Google wants to grab these forward thinking retailers with new tools like:
“Among the new offerings for retailers is a new tool called Google Cloud Search for Retail, which Google is piloting now and will introduce to the broader market throughout the year. The tool helps retailers improve search results for their own websites and mobile apps using cloud AI and Google Search algorithms.
Kurian’s blog post also served as a reminder to retailers that they can buy Google Ads to surface their products when customers use Google’s many consumer tools like Search, YouTube, Shopping, Google Assistant or Maps.
We noted:
Google also announced Google Cloud 1:1 Engagement for Retail, a set of best practices that can help retailers build data-driven strategies for personalized customer services. This should make it easier for customers to use Google’s BigQuery data analytics platform to build personalization and recommendation models.
That is just the beginning! Google is also developing a Buy Optimization and Demand Forecasting service that assisted retailers plan and manage supply changes. There is also a new retail version of Anthos, Google’s platform for managing services on site or the cloud environment. It will allow retailers to roll our and manage applications across all stores.
What happens if we try to add 1 + 1. DarkCyber thinks that the task reveals several facets of Googley thinking:
- Microsoft has lots of Windows 10 users who just use Credge. The browser works, is there, and why hunt for a different way to look at Web pages. But what if Credge gets traction on a mobile phone? What if Microsoft, the long time drone target of the Google, gets eyeballs on Android devices? Yep, those victory cheers are likely to become verbal and physical tics.
- Amazon is selling ads. Selling lots of ads is not good for the Google, a company for more than 20 years has had one revenue stream of significance. The Google wants to put some sand in the fuel tank of Bezos bulldozer. Thus, Googley behavior dictates action.
- Google itself faces a problem few companies have: Indexing the Web and changes to Web pages is expensive. How does one cut costs when Microsoft may blindly wreck havoc in the browser revenue flow or put a dent in the quite robust mobile ad business? How does Google protect existing ad revenue and possibly cause the Bezos bulldozer to go down for an engine overhaul? Aggressive actions seems to be the order of the day.
If DarkCyber steps back or in the lingo of a University of Chicago philosopher “go up a meta lever”, the actions of today’s Googlers reflect some changes which may give pause. Marketing has never been a Googley strength. Now it has to be competitive marketing. Is Google’s marketing elegant? Yeah, not too elegant.
Can Google control costs without further compromising its search service, its wonky innovations, and its increasingly contentious employee-management interactions?
DarkCyber finds the Credge and Bezos bulldozer “plays” interesting and entertaining.
Stephen E Arnold, February 27, 2020
Microsoft: More Excitement from the Outfit Which Ships Wonky Windows 10 Updates
February 24, 2020
China is worrisome, because the country keeps quiet and is quick to cover up anything that projects a negative light. Other facts about China include that it loves foreign money and advanced technology. The technology bit becomes worrisome, especially with a recent report from Tom’s Hardware: “Report: Microsoft Shared Cortana, Skype Recordings In China With Few Protections.” Like every large company, Microsoft wants Chinese dollars, so the company shared recordings from digital assistants to train the speech recognition with contractors. The Guardian reported that Microsoft shared these recordings with China minus security safeguards.
The source came from a former Microsoft contractor who listened to the recordings on his personal laptop. Microsoft apparently emailed URLs, emails, and passwords to contractors to access Cortana and Skype recordings. If they are only recordings used to train speech recognition, why is this alarming? All of China’s Internet traffic is filtered through a government blockade. So all of Microsoft’s Skype and Cortana recordings were inadvertently accessed by the Chinese government. But…
“But it gets worse. The Guardian reported that Microsoft generated the usernames and passwords used to access this system. The usernames were said to follow “a simple schema,” which suggests they would have been fairly easy to guess, and the password was “the same for every employee who joined in any given year.” Contractors were allowed to work from home, too, without direct supervision.”
Some people can figure out how to abuse brilliantly crafted systems, but wonky stuff. Hasta la vista, data. Microsoft released a press release that stated the recordings were fewer than ten words, no one had access to longer conversations, they always observe the highest privacy standards, and they have updated their privacy standards. In other words, Microsoft failed and Chinese contractors outsmarted their system.
Microsoft and other companies working with Chinese contractors and other foreign entities can do better to protect sensitive material. Now about those Windows 10 updates.
Whitney Grace, February 24, 2020
Twitch: A Big, Juicy Target
February 16, 2020
Videogame streamers are some of the Internet’s most popular celebrities and most people have never heard about them. PewDiePie is the reigning streaming king and YouTube is his domain, but dozens of other gamers vie for his throne from the land of Twitch. The San Francisco Gate examines the streaming craze and how tech corporations are trying to hone in on the profits, “Game On: Tech Giants Vs. The Kind Of Streaming.”
Both Facebook and Microsoft have attempted to snag a piece of the streaming profit pie, but nothing rivals Twitch. Twitch started as a startup in San Francisco that Amazon purchased for $1 billion in 2014. Twitch now controls 76% of video game streaming on Europe, North America, and South America. While most people are not aware of the popularity of video game streaming, it is an importance facet in the $180 billion gaming industry and it makes more money than movies and music.
Microsoft is eager to take on Twitch and the company hired one of Twitch’s biggest streamers, Tyler Blevins aka Ninja for an undisclosed amount of amount. Microsoft wants Blevins to promote its streaming service Mixer, but he did little to raise Mixer’s users in 2019. Mixer only accounts for 3.2% of the streaming market, while Twitch continues to grow. Hiring Blevins was not enough for Microsoft, although it was a good move:
“Mixer has been growing steadily since it started, said Ben Decker, head of gaming services at Microsoft, and now has more than 30 million monthly active users. But to really compete with Twitch, which has reported that it has 140 million monthly users, Microsoft needs to do more than spend a few million dollars on a star streamer, said Doron Nir, chief executive of StreamElements. When it comes to having a streaming platform, this is a billion-dollar game,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot more from Mixer to really take away from the enormous audience that Twitch has.”
Nir said he didn’t believe the deal for Blevins was bad for Mixer. It still brought widespread media attention and put it in the conversation. And Microsoft was not discouraged, bringing over Michael Grzesiek, a professional gamer known as Shroud, and Cory Michael, a streamer who goes by King Gothalion, from Twitch.”
Other tech giants are attempting to steal some of Twitch’s success, but Twitch remains strong and will continue to dominant for the time being. There is room for streaming platforms like Mixer and other emerging rivals to join the market, but they will need to bring something new and unique like Twitch did.
Whitney Grace, February 16, 2020
The Clouds in UAE: Amazon Not Mentioned
February 13, 2020
Here’s the big reveal in the write up titled “Microsoft Sees Room for Growth Opportunities for All Cloud Providers in UAE.”
The US technology giant [Microsoft] offers three main clouds – Azure, Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics 365.
Three clouds. Well, Google has 10 chat apps. So much for efficiency, federation, and distributed architectures.
Other factoids in the write up, in DarkCyber’s opinion, are:
- The growth for Microsoft and “all” is PaaS or Platform as a Service.
- Competition is good, presumably among members of the oligopoly players in the “cloud”
- Alibaba has a cloud data center in the UAE
- The intelligent edge is a reality. What’s an intelligent edge? Hey, no need to explain this bit of verbal frippery.
- There are more than 1,000 technologies on Azure. Can anyone list these? DarkCyber cannot.
The write up does not mention the other outfit near Microsoft. But Amazon has some operations in the UAE, Bahrain, and other countries in the area as well.
The write up toots Microsoft’s tuba and Oracle’s flute.
Yep, useful marketing packaged as “real” analysis. But three “main clouds”?
Stephen E Arnold, February 13, 2020
Amazon: Some Trouble Down Under?
January 29, 2020
DarkCyber noted “Case Study: Why the Australian Electoral Commission Migrated to Microsoft Azure.” On the surface, the write up is another PR output. When considered in terms of the competition between Amazon and Microsoft for juicy non commercial jobs, the article provides a check list of what’s lacking in Amazon AWS. DarkCyber identified these “advantages” for the Redmond brain trust which finds questionable methods for altering a user’s Windows 7 machine amusing. (This black screen incident provides a reminder that PR check points may not match a firm’s actual behavior.)
Here are the upsides for Azure, presumably without a black screen on Luddites’ Windows 7 computers:
- Quick turn around
- Publicly exposed APIs
- API management tools
- API creation tools
- Real time information feeds
- Ability to create an “express route” for speedy data communications
- Zero failure
- Ability to support self service from users
- A customer or user service portal
- A much loved integrator.
What was the deciding factor? The much loved vendor it seems.
Does Amazon match up on these check points? Sure.
Marketing presentations are one thing. The much loved vendor is another.
Stephen E Arnold, January 29, 2020
Irony, Outrage, Speculation: Amazon Rings the PR Gong
January 23, 2020
Remember the Gong Show? The host was an alleged government asset. The content of the show was humans performing. The focus was on humans who sang, dance, and cavorted in weird, sometimes incredible ways. The result? The host rang a gong. The performer, hooked by a big old person cane, found himself or herself dragged from the camera’s eye.
The elements of the program:
- Alleged government connections
- A ranking system for wild and crazy performances
- The big humiliation with the old person’s cane.
I thought of the Gong Show as I worked my way through dozens and dozens of write ups about the hacking of a mobile phone used by Jeff Bezos, the motive force of Amazon. You know Amazon: The online bookstore, the operator of the S3 leaking buckets, and policeware vendor.
The most interesting reports swirl around what Vice encapsulates in the article “Here Is the Technical Report Suggesting Saudi Arabia’s Prince Hacked Jeff Bezos’ Phone.” The report reveals
that forensic investigators found a suspicious file but no evidence of any malware on the phone.
Interesting, but not as fascinating as the assertions about who allegedly compromised Mr. Bezos’ mobile, when the alleged data sucking took place, and when the content was spirited away, how the compromise actually was implemented, and where those data went.
DarkCyber finds it interesting that fingers are pointed at countries, some government officials, Facebook’s always-interesting WhatsApp software, and at NSO Group, a company certain media outlets frequently reference. (NSO Group may be one of the specialized software vendors getting more publicity than Star Wars’ films.)
In our DarkCyber video news program, we devote almost two full minutes to the problems information technology managers face when implementing cyber security.
The Bezos Affair presents an opportunity to confront an unpleasant reality: Security is difficult.
The real time monitoring, the smart cyber defenses, the companies creating policeware, and the methods available to actors—each of these underscore how vulnerable individuals and organizations are.
The speculation, however, does little to make clear how protections can be achieved. In fact, the coverage of the Bezos Affair has reduced the coverage of what may be an even more egregious security lapse explained in “Microsoft Blames Itself for Customer Support Data Leak.” The “misconfiguration” error exposed 250 million customer records.
One gets the coverage, a world leader is implicated, an Israeli company is cast in a negative light. These are real time “real news” factoids. But the loss of 250 million customer records by Microsoft, the possible vendor for the US Department of Defense, is ignored.
Why are these problems commonplace? The answer, which we provide in our January 28, 2020, video, is provided. That answer is going to be a surprise. You can view the video program on the Beyond Search / DarkCyber blog by clicking the video promo image. No ads, no sponsors, no outside influencers, and no odd ball “You may also like.”
Stephen E Arnold, January 23, 2020
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