Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS Differences
October 18, 2016
With so many options for cloud computing, it can be confusing about which one to use for your personal or business files. Three of the most popular cloud computing options are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. Beyond the pricing, the main differences range from what services they offer and what they name them. Site Point did us a favor with its article comparing the different cloud services: “A Side-By-Side Comparison Of AWS, Google Cloud, And Azure.”
Cloud computing has the great benefit of offering flexible price options, but they can often can very intricate based on how much processing power you need, how many virtual servers you deploy, where they are deployed, etc. AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud do offer canned solutions along with individual ones.
AWS has the most extensive service array, but they are also the most expensive. It is best to decide how you want to use cloud computing because prices will vary based on the usage and each service does have specializations. All three are good for scalable computing on demand, but Google is less flexible in its offering, although it is easier to understand the pricing. Amazon has the most robust storage options.
When it comes to big data:
This requires very specific technologies and programming models, one of which is MapReduce, which was developed by Google, so maybe it isn’t surprising to see Google walking forward in the big data arena by offering an array of products — such as BigQuery (managed data warehouse for large-scale data analytics), Cloud Dataflow (real-time data processing), Cloud Dataproc (managed Spark and Hadoop), Cloud Datalab (large-scale data exploration, analysis, and visualization), Cloud Pub/Sub (messaging and streaming data), and Genomics (for processing up to petabytes of genomic data). Elastic MapReduce (EMR) and HDInsight are Amazon’s and Azure’s take on big data, respectively.
Without getting too much into the nitty gritty, each of the services have their strengths and weaknesses. If one of the canned solutions do not work for you, read the fine print to learn how cloud computing can help your project.
Whitney Grace, October 18, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Big Data and Visualization: The Ham and Eggs of Analysis
October 14, 2016
i read “Big Data Is Useless without Visual Analytics.” (Nope, I won’t comment on the fact that “data” is a plural.) The main point of the article is that looking at a table is not as easy as looking at a graphic, preferably Hollywood style, presentation ready visualizations. If you want to see a nifty visualization, check out the Dark Trace three dimensional, real time visualizations.
The write up informed me:
Visualizations are valuable because they display a lot of data in an easy-to-understand visual format that works well for our visually-oriented minds.
Okay. A lot. Good.
I learned that “data mining is too complicated for most uses of Big Data.”
No kidding. Understanding and making justifiable decisions about data validity, math with funny symbols, and numerical recipes which make the numbers conform to the silliness taught in university statistics classes. These are difficult tasks for avid Facebook users and YouTube content consumers to deal with.
I understand. Some folks are just really busy.
The write up explains that Excel is not the proper tool for real information analysis. Never mind that Excel remains a reasonably popular chunk of software. Some Excel lovers write memos and reports in Excel. That’s software love.
So what’s the fix?
Surprisingly the write up does not provide one. But there is a link which allows me to download a report from my pals at IDC. You remember IDC, right? That is the outfit which tried to sell my content on Amazon without my permission and without having a agreement with me to publish my research. If you have forgotten what I call the “Schubmehl play”, you can get some of the details at this link.
Nice write up. Too bad it lacks useful content on the subject presented in the headline. But what else does one expect these days?
Stephen E Arnold, October 14, 2016
Labor Shortage of Cyber Security Professionals
October 13, 2016
It’s no surprise that hackers may be any age, but that teenagers could cause 60 million pounds worth of damage to a corporation is newsworthy, regardless of age. The Telegraph published an article, From GCHQ to Google: the battle to outpace hackers in the cyber race, reporting on this. A 15-year-old boy hacked the TalkTalk computer network stole personal data, including financial information, of 157,000 customers. This comes at a time when the UK government announced plans to invest £1.9 billion in cyber security over the next five years. We also learned,
No amount of money will help overcome one of the greatest difficulties in the security industry though: the lack of skilled people. By 2019 there will be a global shortfall of 1.5 million security professionals, according to ISC Squared, a security certification and industry education body. And the numbers could in fact be significantly higher, given that there are already more than 1 million cybersecurity positions unfilled worldwide, according to a 2015 Cisco report. Heading up the government’s move to train more cyber defenders is spook agency GCHQ, which sponsors academic bursaries, runs summer camps and training days, holds competitions and has created a cyber excellence accreditation for top universities and masters programmes. The intention is to spot talent in children and nurture them through their education, with the end goal being a career in the industry.
The problem of for any rocketing industry ready to blast off always seems to boil down to people. We have seen it with big data in all of it’s forms from electronic medical records to business analytics to cyber security. It seems industry is most fertile when people and technology work best stride-by-stride.
Megan Feil, October 13, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Need a Low Cost College Degree? Dark Web U Is for You
October 11, 2016
The lawless domain just got murkier. Apart from illegal firearms, passports, drugs and hitmen, you now can procure a verifiable college degree or diploma on Dark Web.
The Next Web in an article Dark Web crooks are selling fake degrees and certifications for the price of a smartphone REPORTS:
Cyber criminals have created a digital marketplace where unscrupulous students can
purchase or gain information necessary to provide them with unfair and illegal
academic credentials and advantages.
The certificates for these academic credentials are near perfect. But what makes this cybercrime more dangerous is the fact that hackers also manipulate the institution records to make the fake credential genuine.
The article ADDS:
A flourishing market for hackers who would target universities in order to change
grades and remove academic admonishments
This means that under and completely non-performing students undertaking an educational course need not worry about low grades or absenteeism. Just pay the hackers and you have a perfectly legal degree that you can show the world. And the cost of all these? Just $500-$1000.
What makes this particular aspect of Dark Web horrifying interesting is the fact that anyone who procures such illegitimate degree can enter mainstream job market with perfect ease and no student debt.
Vishal Ingole, October 11, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
MCMC: No, Not a Musical Trend
September 28, 2016
If you wonder why a Grand Canyon exists between the people who offer point-and-click statistical analysis and the folks who “do” the math, you will want to read “Markov Chain Monte Carlo Without All…” When you read the source document, keep in mind that selecting an icon and generating a report is like using an automatic teller machine. Punching buttons delivers an output. The inner workings of the system are not visible. User friendly, embedded business intelligence systems are like the chrome trim on a door stop.
Stephen E Arnold, September 28, 2016
HonkinNews for September 27, 2016, Now Available
September 27, 2016
This week’s HonkinNews video tackles Yahoo’s data breach. Stephen E Arnold reveals that Beyond Search thinks Yahoo is a hoot and tags the company Yahoot. Plus, HonkinNews suggests that Oliver Stone may want to do a follow up to Snowden. The new film could be “Marissa: Purple Sun Down.” Other stories include Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s opportunity to see the light with Dr. Michael Lynch’s Luminance. The video explains puppy bias and comments on Harvard’s interest in sugar and fat. You can view the seven minute video at https://youtu.be/64rJdlj4Lew.
Kenny Toth, September 27, 2016
Text and Data Analysis: Cyber Profiling for Everyone
September 22, 2016
Cyber security experts are taking a leaf out of The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit and are profiling cyber criminals. However, the parameter here used for profiling is just one – language.
In an article titled #CloudSec2016: Cybercrime Underground by Geography that appeared in the Info Security magazine, the author says that –
Rather than categorize by country, McArdle categorized “the big three cybercrime undergrounds” by language. He considers Russian-speaking countries; English-speaking countries; and China, to be the most notable.
Robert McArdle of Trend Micro who has been quoted in the article states that –
The Russian – and I refer to all Russian-speaking countries, including the Ukraine – cybercrime underground is the oldest and most mature. They’re cybercrime pioneers, with most threats starting in Russia and then moving elsewhere.
In the US, three cyber-attacks occur every minute, 170 every hour and 1.5 million every year. Total loss suffered due to such cybercrimes is around $400 billion per year, a staggering figure.
However, here in rural Kentucky we try not to generalize; for example, pundits who suggest that cyber-crimes emanate from Russia or Russian speaking countries. The cyber underground is very active in US too where teens have been arrested for breaking into Federal agencies’ servers.
Unlike conventional crimes, forensic profiling has never been attempted on cyber-criminals. We think cyber profiling is a freight train rolling down high speed rails.
Vishal Ingole, September 22, 2016
Gleaning Insights and Advantages from Semantic Tagging for Digital Content
September 22, 2016
The article titled Semantic Tagging Can Improve Digital Content Publishing on Aptara Corp. blog reveals the importance of indexing. The article waves the flag of semantic tagging at the publishing industry, which has been pushed into digital content kicking and screaming. The difficulties involved in compatibility across networks, operating systems, and a device are quite a headache. Semantic tagging could help, if only anyone understood what it is. The article enlightens us,
Put simply, semantic markups are used in the behind-the-scene operations. However, their importance cannot be understated; proprietary software is required to create the metadata and assign the appropriate tags, which influence the level of quality experienced when delivering, finding and interacting with the content… There have been many articles that have agreed the concept of intelligent content is best summarized by Ann Rockley’s definition, which is “content that’s structurally rich and semantically categorized and therefore automatically discoverable, reusable, reconfigurable and adaptable.
The application to the publishing industry is obvious when put in terms of increasing searchability. Any student who has used JSTOR knows the frustrations of searching digital content. It is a complicated process that indexing, if administered correctly, will make much easier. The article points out that authors are competing not only with each other, but also with the endless stream of content being created on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Publishers need to take advantage of semantic markups and every other resource at their disposal to even the playing field.
Chelsea Kerwin, September 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
There is a Louisville, Kentucky Hidden Web/Dark Web meet up on September 27, 2016.
Information is at this link: https://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Hidden-Dark-Web-Meetup/events/233599645/
HonkinNews for September 20, 2016 Available
September 20, 2016
Stories in the Beyond Search weekly video news program “HonkinNews” include LinkedIn’s censorship of a former CIA professional’s post about the 2016 election. Documentum, founded in 1990, has moved to the frozen wilds of Canada. A Microsoft and Nvidia sponsored online beauty contest may have embraced algorithmic bias. Google can write a customer’s ad automatically and may be able to alter users’ thoughts and actions. Which vendors of intelligence-centric software may be shown the door to the retirement home? The September 20, 2016, edition of “HonkinNews”, filmed with old-fashioned technology in the wilds of rural Kentucky is online at this link.
Kenny Toth, September 20, 2016
Lousy Backlog? Sell with Interesting Assertions.
September 19, 2016
If you are struggling to fill the sales pipeline, you will feel some pressure. If you really need to make sales, marketing collateral may be an easy weapon to seize.
I read “Examples of False Claims about Self-Service Analytics.” The write up singles out interesting sales assertions and offers them up in a listicle. I loved the write up. I lack the energy to sift through the slices of baloney in my enterprise search files. Therefore, let’s highlight the work the brave person who singled out eight vendors’ marketing statements as containing what the author called “false claims.” Personally I think each of these claims is probably rock solid when viewed from the point of view of the vendors’ legal advisers.
Here are three examples of false claims about self service analytics. (For the other five, consult the article cited in the preceding paragraph.) Keep in mind that I find these statements as good as the gold for sale in the local grocery in Harrod’s Creek. Come to think of it the gold is foil wrapped around a lousy piece of ersatz chocolate. But gold is gold sort of.
Example 1 from Information Builders. Information Builders loves New York. The company delivers “integrated solutions for data management.” Here’s the item from the article which contains a “false claim.”
Self-service BI and analytics isn’t just about giving tools to analysts; it’s about empowering every user with actionable and relevant information for confident decision-making. (link). Self-service Analytics for Everyone…Who’s Everyone? Your entire universe of employees, customers, and partners. Our WebFOCUS Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics platform empowers people inside and outside your organization to attain insights and make better decision.
I see a subject verb agreement error. I see a semicolon which puts me on my rhetorical guard. I see the universal “everyone”. I see the fact that WebFOCUS empowers.
What’s not to like? Information Builders is repeating facts which I accept. The fact that the company is in New York enhances the credibility of the statements. Footnotes, evidence? Who needs them?
Example 2 from SAP, the outfit that delivered R3 to Westinghouse and Trex to the enterprise search market. Here’s the “false assertion” which looks as solid as a peer reviewed journal containing data related to drug trials. Remember. This quote comes from the source article. I believe absolutely whatever SAP communicates to me. Don’t you?
This tool is intended for those who need to do analysis but are not Analysts nor wish to become them.
Why study math, statistics, and related disciplines? Why get a degree? I know that I can embrace the SAP way (which is a bit like the IBM way) and crunch numbers until the cows return to my pasture in Harrod’s Creek. Who needs to worry about data integrity, sample size, threshold settings, and algorithmic sequencing? Not me. Gibraltar does not stand on such solid footing as SAP’s tool for those who eschew analysts and does not want to wake up like Kafka’s protagonist as an analyst.
Example 3 from ZoomData, a company which has caught the attention of some folks in the DC area. I love those cobblestones in Reston too.
ZoomData brings the power of self-service BI to the 99%—the non-data geeks of the world who thirst for a simple, intuitive, and collaborative way to visually interact with data to solve business problems.
To me this looks better than the stone tablets Moses hauled down from the mountain. I love the notion of non geeks who thirst for pointing and clicking. I would have expressed the idea as drink deep of data’s Empyrean spring, but I am okay with the split infinitive “to visually interact” because the statement is a fact. I tell you that it is a fact.
For the other five allegedly false assertions, please, consult the original article. I have to take a break. When my knowledge is confirmed in these brilliant assertions, I need a moment to congratulate myself on my wisdom. Wait. I am an addled goose. Maybe these examples really are hog wash? Because i live in rural Kentucky, I will step outside and seek inputs from Henrietta, my hog.
Stephen E Arnold, September 19, 2016
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
