Borjes was a surrealist who could see societal trends despite his blindness.
Microsoft Displays Its Amazon AWS Neutralizer
November 5, 2019
I read about Microsoft’s victory over the evil neighbor Amazon. What was Microsoft’s trump card, its AWS neutralizer, its technology innovation?
The answer may have appeared in “Microsoft Unveils Azure Arc, Aiming to Fend Off Google and Amazon with New Hybrid Cloud Tech.” Here’s the once closely-held diagram.
Like most AWS-hostile diagrams, it includes three features which customers like the Pentagon and other entities desire:
- The ability to integrate multiple clouds, on premises computers, and edge computers into one homogeneous system. (Latency? Don’t bring that up, please.)
- The Azure stack in one’s own computer center where it can be managed by an Azure-certified staff with the assistance of Azure-certified Microsoft partners. (Headcount implications. Don’t bring that up, please.)
- An Azure administrative system which provides a bird’s-eye view of the client’s Azure-centric system. (Permissions and access controls. Don’t bring that up, please.)
Microsoft has rolled out a comprehensive vision. The challenge is that Amazon and Google have similar visions.
Microsoft may want to check out Amazon’s security and access control technology. But that’s a minor point for a company which struggles to update Windows 10 without disabling user’s computers.
Great diagram though. Someone once observed, “The map is not the territory.” And then there is the increasingly relevant Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges who wrote:
Nothing is built on stone; All is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.
Stephen E Arnold, November 4, 2019
Severless Framework: Good or Bad?
October 21, 2019
For any readers who have wondered whether the Serverless Framework is a good option for them, blogger Einar Egilsson provides a case study in his post, “Serverless: 15% Slower and 8x More Expensive.” Egilsson explains exactly what he tried and why Serverless was less than helpful, for his purposes at CardGames.io anyway. He describes his original setup, how he approached the shift (using this tutorial), how he tested the performance, and, last but not least, the pricing involved. See the write-up for all those details. The post concludes:
“I’m sure there are cases where API Gateway and Lambda are better than Elastic Beanstalk. I guess our use case is just not one of them. Maybe if you’re using API Keys, rate limiting and other stuff API Gateway provides then it makes sense to pay 3.50$ for a million requests. For us it would have been better if we could just put a normal load balancer in front of Lambda. As far as I know that’s not possible, API Gateway is necessary for http access to Lambda. But even if we were just paying for Lambda, at 10$ a day we would be paying 300$ a month instead of 164$. We have a lot of requests, but each request does very little, it’s basically one database call per request. Maybe heavier requests that use more compute time would be better served with Lambda, where you pay per 100ms of compute time. Below is a report for one request, you can see we’re using 3.50ms of compute time and being billed for 100ms, which seems like a big waste. Finally, I’m not trying to bash API Gateway, Lambda or serverless in general here, just showing that for some workloads they are a lot more expensive than boring old EC2 and Elastic Beanstalk. So that’s what we’re sticking with.”
Since the original was posted, Egilsson has amended it. Apparently, he learned a lot from the comments about what he could have done better—like using an Application Load Balancer instead of the API Gateway and upgrading to a newer instance type, for example. The software is still not right for his site, he notes, but at least he can admit, with good humor, where he went wrong.
Cynthia Murrell, October 21, 2019
Cloudy Enough Already
October 18, 2019
Cloud services have quickly become the norm, but businesses stand to lose money if they implement them without a good plan. IT ProPortal reports, “Business Are Wasting Millions on Unused Cloud Services.” Writer Sead Fadilpaši? cites a recent report from the European Insight Intelligent Technology Index that polled 1,000 European businesses. He writes:
“The report states that more than $36 million are being spent on cloud services a year. Out of that number, almost a third (30 per cent – $10.9m) gets spent on services that end up not being utilised.
When managing how they spend their money on cloud-based services, the respondents have identified three main challenges, which include determining best-fit workloads for public, private and hybrid clouds, planning and allocating budget for cloud consumption, and a lack of visibility of used services at the cst centre, workload and application level.
“‘Cloud continues to be a mission-critical enabler for agile and digital business, but it needs the right approach,’ commented Wolfgang Ebermann, President, Insight EMEA. ‘A robust operating model, that provides oversight and continual optimisation of cloud environments, is critical. Under-utilised technology has been a problem for decades, so it’s not surprising to see the problem spread to the cloud. However, by putting the right controls in place, organisations can optimise cloud consumption and ensure they only pay for services they are using.’”
The report also indicates businesses will continue to invest in new technologies, largely to put the best tech in the hands of their talented employees. That makes sense—but to avoid wasting money, companies must take the time to implement these tools efficiently.
Cynthia Murrell, October 18, 2019
Algolia: Cash Funding Hits $184 Million
October 15, 2019
Exalead was sucked into Dassault Systèmes. Then former Exaleaders abandoned ship. Algolia benefited from some Exalead experience. But unlike Exalead, Algolia embraced venture funding with cash provided by Accel, Point Nine Capital, Storm Ventures, and Y Combinator, among others.
DarkCyber noted “Algolia Finds $110M from Accel and Salesforce for Its Search-As-a-Service, Used by Slack, Twitch and 8K Others.” The write up reports that the company has “closed a Series C of $110 million, money that it plans to invest in R&D around its search technology, including doubling down on voice, and further global expansion in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.”
The write up adds:
Having Salesforce as a strategic backer in this round is notable: the CRM giant currently does not have a native search product in its wide range of cloud-based services for enterprises, instead opting for endorsed integrations with third parties, such as Algolia competitor Coveo. The plan will be to further integrate with Salesforce although no products to speak of as of yet.
The challenge will be to go where few search and retrieval systems have gone before.
Some people have forgotten the disappointments and questionable financial tricks promising search vendors delivered to stakeholders and customers.
With venture firms looking for winners, returns of 20 percent will not deliver what the sources of the funds expect. The good old days of a 17X return may have cooled, but generating an 8X or 12X return may be a challenge.
Why?
In the course of our researching and writing the enterprise search report in 2003 to 2006 and out and our subsequent work, several “themes” or “learnings” surfaced:
- Good enough search is now the order of the day; that is, an organization-wide search system does not meet the needs of many operating units. Examples range from the legal department to research and development to engineering and the drawings plus data embedded in product manufacturing systems to information under security umbrellas with real time data and video content objects. Therefore, the “one solution” approach dissipates like morning fog.
- Utility search from outfits like Amazon are “good enough.” This means that a developer using Amazon blockchain services and workflow tools may use the search functions available from Amazon. Maybe Amazon will buy Algolia, but for the foreseeable future, search is a tag-along function, not a driver of the big money apps which Amazon is aiming toward.
- Search, regardless of vendor, must spend significant sums to enrich the functions of the system. Natural language processing, predictive analytics, entity extraction, and other desired functions are moving targets. Adding and tuning these capabilities becomes expensive. And it the experiences of Autonomy and Fast Search & Transfer are representative, the costs become difficult to control.
DarkCyber hopes that Algolia can adapt to these research factoids. If not, search and retrieval may be rushing toward a disconnect between revenues, sustainable profits, and investor expectations.
The wheel of fortune is spinning. Where will it stop? On a winner or a loser? This is a difficult question to answer, and one which Attivio, BA-Insight, Coveo, Elastic, IBM Watson, Lucidworks, Microsoft, Sinequa, Voyager Search, and others have been trying to answer with millions of dollars, thousands of engineering hours, and massive investments in marketing. I am not including the search vendors positioned as policeware and intelware; for example, BAE NetReveal, Diffeo, LookingGlass, Palantir Technologies, and Shadowdragon, among others.
Worth monitoring the trajectory of Algolia.
Stephen E Arnold, October 15, 2019
Cloudera Bids to Be the Next Gen Anti Financial Crime Platform
October 10, 2019
DarkCyber read “Moving Towards the Next Gen Financial Crimes Platform.” The essay, which is two parts information and three parts marketing collateral, presents a diagram of the Cloudera anti financial crime platform. The phrase “financial crime platform” could be interpreted as the airfield for dispatching a range of malware attacks, a position in which some cloud vendors find themselves either wittingly or unwittingly. In this DarkCyber article, I will refer to the Cloudera vision as an anti financial crimes platform, hopefully to make clear that the cloud vendor is not a bad actor.
In DarkCyber’s view, there are three main points about Cloudera’s enterprise focused solution. Silos of information are a problem, and Cloudera will sweep across organizational data silos, at least that’s the idea. Here are points DarkCyber noted:
- The focus is on the enterprise, not on a wider scope; for example, a bank, not a number of FBI field offices, each of which operates more or less autonomously
- Smart software (artificial intelligence, machine learning, et al) are used at the edge to provide necessary signals about activity warranting further analysis by more numerical recipes
- The solution can accommodate innovations either from Cloudera or from partners.
Cloudera includes a diagram of what the solution’s broad outlines are. Here’s the illustration from the Cloudera article:
Working from right to left, data are ingested by Cloudera. The content goes into an enterprise data store. A suite of financial crime “applications” operate on the data in the Enterprise Data Store and its modules. At the right hand of the diagram analytical tools (maybe like Tibco SpotFire?), business intelligence systems, and Cloudera’s Data Science Workbench allow authorized users to interact with the system.
Cloudera’s article includes this statement:
With CDP as the foundation, intelligence gaps are mitigated by a holistic enterprise view of all customer and financial crime-related data (holistic KYC), systems, models and processes. You will also be able to tighten the loop between detecting and responding to new fraud patterns. CDP also supports open-source advances to ensure that your teams are able to experiment with and adopt the latest technologies and methods, which helps to mitigate technology and vendor lock-in. The diagram below illustrates the Cloudera Data Platform and its various components for enterprise management. [Emphasis in the original source]
Several observations are warranted:
- Vendor lock is an organic consequence of putting one’s egg in one cloud-centric basket. Although it is possible to envision a system which accepts enhancements, the write and the diagram do not include a provision for this type of extension. DarkCyber posits that restrictions will apply.
- The diagram has “financial crime applications” without providing much “color” or detail about these policeware components. One key question is, “Will these policeware applications run “on Cloudera” or on some other system; for example, IBM cloud which delivers Analyst Notebook functions?”
- The write up does not provide information about restrictions on data; for example, streaming data from telephone intercept systems.
- Information about functional components, application programming interfaces, and programmatic methods for the platform are not provided. DarkCyber understands the need for economy in writing, but a table or a list of suggested links would be helpful.
Why is Cloudera making this play?
DarkCyber hypothesizes that Cloudera realizes Amazon’s “as is” capabilities pose a substantial threat. Cloudera wants to stake out some territory before the Bezos bulldozer rolls through the policeware market.
Stephen E Arnold, October 9, 2019
Ah, the Cloud: The Risks of Subscription Software
October 9, 2019
DarkCyber is amused when articles about the wonder of cloud-provided subscription software is presented as a real benefit to users. The team was intrigued with the information in “Adobe to Deactivate Accounts for All Venezuelan Users Due to US Sanctions.”
The write up reported:
US software giant Adobe is canceling all subscriptions and deactivating all accounts for Venezuelan users as part of its efforts to become compliant with sanctions imposed by the Trump administration over the summer.
The accounts go dead which means Photoshop, Illustrator, and other Adobe app users in Venezuela have to find alternatives.
ZDNet states: “Because of the White House’s sanctions, users aren’t eligible for refunds either.”
Developers of software which can be installed on a user’s computer may find this announcement heartening.
DarkCyber wants to point out:
- The cloud based service is a variation on old school time sharing. Users have limited control under certain circumstances.
- Government actions can have more impact when centralized services comply with mandates.
- Subscriptions’ benefits may not be tilted toward users.
The cloud has other attributes as well; for example, monitoring and control.
DarkCyber’s view is that the modern computing environment is becoming increasingly interesting. Those dependent on cloud based solutions may want to consider having a Plan B.
Stephen E Arnold, October 9, 2019
Amazon and Its Dark Edge
September 5, 2019
Later this year, I will make available a free essay about Amazon. Those who want the document will have to provide an email address and some other information. The essay is titled “Dark Edge.”
I am mentioning this because Information Age published “Is the Cloud and AI Becoming Two Sides of the Same Coin?” Despite the wonky subject-verb in the title, I noted a couple of points in the write up which raise issues discussed in “Dark Edge.”
First, the basic idea is that if a company embraces the cloud, smart software comes as part of the deal. That’s a good point, but it does not go far enough. In fact, most of the cloud vendors don’t think beyond generating more revenue than they did the previous quarter and figuring out how to take advantage of the dazed and confused companies trying to “reinvent” themselves. We noted this statement:
perhaps it’s time we realized that the AI and cloud computing industries are not mutually exclusive.
Yes, time. Just past time.
Second, we circled these two statements:
“Cloud adoption is motivating enterprises to undertake more proofs of concept in their firms with AI because it’s easier than ever before to get started,” said David Schatsky, managing director at Deloitte LLP.
According to Schatsky, this path is also becoming more attractive to enterprises as cloud providers continue developing AI offerings to business functions, without big upfront costs.
Easy. Cheap.
Key points.
There are a number of questions which the write up sidesteps; for example:
- What constitutes a win for a cloud platform? More revenue? Market share? More developers?
- What are the downsides for a digital environment which reflects the “winner take all” trajectory of outfits like Facebook, Google, Netflix, etc.?
- How quickly will one the integration of the cloud and smart software become the norm for computing, apps, and enterprise solutions?
Dark Edge will address these. Watch for the essay later this year, which assumes I will have some time to assemble our research when I am tromp around a Neanderthal disco.
Stephen E Arnold, September 5, 2019
Amazon AWS: Almost Perfect Cloud Failover Engineering
September 4, 2019
DarkCyber noted a tweet from Andy Hunt. The tweet stated:
Amazon AWS had a power failure, their backup generators failed, which killed their EBS servers, which took all of our data with it. Then it took them four days to figure this out and tell us about it.
We also noted this write up: “Strangelove Redux: US Experts Propose Having AI Control Nuclear Weapons.” Assume Amazon continues to make headway in the US government. What happens if an Amazon glitch occurs at a critical time?
Just an idle question.
Stephen E Arnold, September 4, 2019
NSO: More PR Excitement, Facts, or Bloomberg Style Reporting?
July 20, 2019
I read the Financial Times’ write up about NSO Group. The title is a show stopper: “Israeli Group’s Spyware Offers Keys to Big Tech’s Cloud.” (Note: You may have to pay money to view the orange newspaper’s online “real” news write up.
There’s a diagram:
There’s a reminder that NSO is owned by an outfit called “Q Cyber.” There’s information contained in a “pitch document.” There’s a quote from Citizen Lab, a watchdog outfit on cyber intelligence firms and other interesting topics.
What’s missing?
- Information from a Q Cyber or NSO professional. A quote or two would be good.
- Statements from an entity which has used the method and obtained the desired results; for example, high value intel, a person of interest neutralized, the interruption of an industrialized crime operation, or something similar
- Scanned images of documents similar to the Palantir Gotham how to recently exposed by Vice, a zippy new news outfit.
Think about the PR problem the revelations create: NSO gets another whack on the nose.
Think about the upside: Visibility and in the Financial Times no less. (Does NSO need more visibility and semantic connections to Amazon, Apple, or any other “in the barrel” high tech outfit?)
Outfits engaged in cyber intelligence follow some unwritten rules of the road:
First, these outfits are not chatty people. Even at a classified conference where almost everyone knows everyone else, there’s not much in the way of sales tactics associated with used car dealers.
Second, documentation, particularly PowerPoints or PDFs of presentations, are not handed out like chocolate drops for booth attendees who looked semi alert during a run through of a feature or service. Why not whip out a mobile device with a camera and snap some of the slides from the presentation materials or marketing collateral? The graphic is redrawn and quite unlike the diagrams used by NSO type cyber intel outfits. Most trained intelligence professionals are not into “nifty graphics.”
Third, cyber intel companies are not into the media. There are conference organizers who snap at people who once worked as a journalist and made the mistake of telling someone that “before I joined company X, I worked at the ABC newspaper.” Hot stuff New York Times’ stringers are stopped by security guards or police before getting near the actual conference venue. Don’t believe me. Well, try to gate crash the upcoming geo spatial conference in Washington, DC, and let me know how this works out for you.
Fourth, why is NSO acting in a manner so different from the other Israel-influenced cyber intelligence firms? Is Voyager Labs leaking details of its analytic and workflow technology? What about Sixgill’s system for Dark Web content analysis? What’s Webhose.io doing with its content and expanding software suite? What’s Verint, a public company, rolling out next quarter? NSO is behaving differently, and that is an item of interest, worthy of some research, investigation, and analysis.
For the established cyber intel firms like NSO, assertions are not exactly what sells licenses or make BAE Systems, IBM, or Raytheon fear that their licensees will terminate their contracts. How many “customers” for NSO type systems are there? (If you said a couple of hundred, you are getting close to the bull’s eye.) Does publicity sell law enforcement, security, and intelligence systems? Search engine optimization specialists are loco if they think cyber intel firms want to be on the first page of a Google results page.
Consider this series of bound phrases:
Cat’s paw. Bloomberg methods. Buzzfeed and Vice envy. A desire to sell papers. Loss of experienced editors. Journalists who confuse marketing with functioning software?
These are the ideas the DarkCyber team suggested as topics an investigator could explore. Will anyone do this? Unlikely. Too arcane. Too different from what problems multiple systems operating on a global scale present for one method to work. Five Eyes’ partners struggle with WhatsApp and Telegram messages. “Everything” in Amazon or Apple? Really?
Net net: Great assertion. How about something more?
Stephen E Arnold, July 20, 2019
The Cloud, SaaS, PaaS, and CaaS: Old Wine, Newish Bottles
June 27, 2019
I read in SaaStr, a blog whose name I have no idea how to pronounce, “SaaS Unicorns vs New Categories.” The information in this post is a list of “100+ public SaaS companies and unicorns.” What’s interesting about the list is that “70 percent” of the entries are recycled software. How is this possible? The obvious answer is that a new name, a strong elevator pitch, and investors looking for a big pay day seems to work magic.
A couple of observations:
- A rose by any other name is still a rose. What hack said that?
- The cloud is a version of time sharing; that is, forget the computer on every desk. The network is the computer. Who said that crazy thing?
- Who cares? What me worry? Who said that?
Net net: Innovation is moving in the direction of cereal. New box, new slogan, and new colors. Same stuff: Pressed genetically modified grain. The staff of life goes digital.
I use three, maybe four applications each day. I have used these same digital tools since I got my hands on my own terminal at Halliburton Nuclear in 1972, maybe 1973. True, I couldn’t carry it around.
The innovations have less to do with the functionality and more to do with convenience, economies of scale, and short attention spans. Just the view from Harrod’s Creek.
Wine now comes in tubes. Great innovation but not much of an improvement over clay jars used thousands of years ago. Just like timesharing.
Stephen E Arnold, June 27, 2019
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