Protecting Digital Data Eggs with Multiple Clouds
February 20, 2020
Rumor has it the CIA has finally begun the procurement process to update its cloud technology, we learn from Inventa’s article, “The CIA Wants to Upgrade its Cloud Tech Without DoD’s JEDI Drama.” Though we’re told an agency spokesperson refused to confirm the plan, we imagine the CIA is eager to avoid the Iowa App syndrome. Writer surbhi suspects the CIA is reluctant to comment because it wishes to avoid the sort of spotlight that was cast last year on the Pentagon’s JEDI cloud procurement process. According to Nextgov, though, the agency has released its draft RFP, expects proposals to be in this spring, and plans to make a decision by September.
The article notes that, about a year ago, the CIA’s Directorate of Digital Innovation put forth its C2E (or Commercial Cloud Enterprise) plan. Though some specifics seem to have changed since that announcement, it likely still represents a commercial contract worth tens of billions of dollars. That impression is reinforced by the plan outlined last summer by the Director of National Intelligence, “The Strategic Plan to Advance Cloud Computing in the Intelligence Community” (PDF), which emphasizes:
“Information is exploding in volume and velocity and challenging our ability to expeditiously collect, analyze, and draw conclusions from disparate data sets. Additional manpower will not close the resulting gap; we must leverage leading edge technology. The future IC cloud environment presented herein will effectively function as a force multiplier to enhance our effectiveness and address mission challenges.”
The write-up reminds us:
“The CIA was an early adherent of the cloud when it chose Amazon to build a $600 million private cloud in 2013. … The Atlantic called it a ‘radical departure for the risk-averse intelligence community’ in a 2014 article. Cloud technology has certainly evolved in the seven years since the CIA last did this exercise, and it makes sense that it would want to update a system this old, which is really ancient history in technology terms. The CIA likely sees the same cloud value proposition as the private sector around flexibility, agility and resource elasticity, and wants the intelligence community to reap the same benefits of that approach. Certainly, it will help store, process and understand an ever-increasing amount of data, and put machine learning to bear on it as well.”
Putting the available digital eggs in one rucksack may not be prudent.
Cynthia Murrell, February 20, 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
Amazon Finds a Home in the UK
January 10, 2020
Just a quick item about Amazon Web Service contract size. “Home Office Reinforces Commitment to AWS with £100m Cloud Hosting Deal” makes clear that a UK government entity has not been won over my Microsoft Azure. The write up reports this information:
“The award of the public cloud hosting services contract to Amazon is a continuation of services already provided to the Home Office,” a departmental spokesperson told Computer Weekly. “The contract award provides significant savings for the department of a four-year term.” The Home Office is renowned for being a heavy user of cloud technologies, and is – according to the government’s own Digital Marketplace IT spending league table – by far the biggest buyer of off-premise services and technologies via the G-Cloud procurement framework.
The contract is significant because it suggests that other Five Eyes’ participants will be exposed to the AWS approach.
For Amazon staff working on the contract, there may be some meetings at Clarendon Terrance. London taxi drivers know where that is. No digital map needed.
Stephen E Arnold, January 10, 2020
Google: We Can Be Avis, National Car Rental or an Off Airport Outfit Too
December 18, 2019
Quite a goal. Google wants to beat Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud. Err, isn’t Google a cloud centric outfit, or at least since it morphed from the cutesy Backrub into the behemoth it is today? What if Google doesn’t think it is a cloud business? Hmm.
The answer, of course, is Googley. Google has waffled a bit. The phones, the home helpers, and the mouse pads. But the company operates “out there”, from data centers in regular buildings to wonky containers which can be towed to a location where power is cheap and skills are hard to come by.
A series of stories is zipping around about Google’s new desire to become the big dog in cloud computing. Just like the PR program featuring Jeff Dean, the Google is starting to realize that it may have more in common with the low rent business of scalping tickets than with high technology outfits changing the way business does business.
That’s an interesting thought because it runs counter to the received wisdom that Google is the font of technology. Like the fountains in Rome, lots of work is needed to keep the fountains spouting water. Tourists don’t see Rome’s plumbing, and for good reasons.
The goal of knocking off Amazon and / or Microsoft (love that lawyer conjunction, don’t you?) will be achieved by 2023. That works out to 24 months. Microsoft’s NT project turned into a death march, and I think this goal is likely to follow the same trajectory.
First, Amazon and Microsoft are not standing still. Good old Microsoft is working overtime to make Azure stable and semi-coherent. How many search engines does one desktop software company need? How many analytics solutions? How many servers? These are questions Microsoft engineers are rushing to answer. The airplane is aloft, and making adjustments to an engine when the plane in in flight can be difficult when it has to operate in a hybrid mode and the ground stations can be crashed by a software update. Cool?
Plus, Amazon is moving along a different trajectory. The company is engaged in a multi front war, and it is less and less a cloud company. That bookstore in Nashville and the undoing of FedEx make clear that not even a mid tier state like Tennessee is exempt from the Bezos bulldozer.
Second, Google has not been particularly adept at sticking with projects over time. Examples range from the social media attempts, to the Alon Halevy semantic tools, and to some as simple as messaging services. The culture of incompleteness is a hurdle. Managers can fiddle with incentives and tweak the hiring processes. But the company is a bit like a flotilla of sailboats generally heading toward port when a bad storm presents itself. Everyone knows where to go, but there may be some delays. Delays when trying to knock off Amazon and Microsoft may not be desirable.
Third, there are lots of other companies which want to be the Avis and National to the Uber business. Oracle, down but not out. IBM, a bit of a clueless geriatric but still capable of surprises like its sales success in India, and dozens upon dozens of other companies.
Net net: The write up “Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud” is useful, but it contains one telling statement:
Google shifted headcount growth to its cloud platform sales and engineering teams.
What’s going to be the Google equivalent of Windows 10 updates which don’t work, arrive late, and kill some data? If it is ad systems, Amazon is going to get the best location in the airport to serve rental car customers.
Stephen E Arnold, December 18, 2019
WWAD: What Will Amazon Do?
December 4, 2019
Silicon Angle published “Commentary: Andy Jassy Aims to Reinvent Amazon Web Services for the Cloud’s Next Generation.” The story carries the subtitle “In an exclusive one-on-one conversation, Amazon’s cloud chief reveals how he views the future of the cloud, the competition, market shifts, customer demands and controversies.”
Several statements in the write up warranted an orange highlight:
- It’s time to embrace the next cloud wave or get crushed by it.
- The cloud has completely “flipped the business and startup model on its head.”
- “Enterprises realize that if they want to be successful, sustainable companies over time, they can’t just make small, incremental changes,” he said.
- The “vast majority” of organizations pursuing a multicloud strategy tend to pick a predominant provider and then, if they feel like they want another one, either because there’s a group that really is passionate about them or they want to know they can use a second cloud provider in case they fall out of sorts with the initial cloud provider, they will. Jassy went on to say that for customers implementing multiple clouds the workloads are split between a primary and secondary cloud more like 70/30 or 80/20 or 90/10, not 50/50.
- “Companies are going to want to eliminate network hops and find a way to have the compute and the storage much more local to the 5G network edge.”
- Next year roughly 82% of all new workloads will run Linux.
Net net: Crushing is part of the game plan. The interview is a component of the AWS re:Invent PR push. Prime stuff, not Grade A, but okay for consumption by Amazon shoppers.
Stephen E Arnold, December 4, 2019
Secure Data? Maybe after a Data Loss?
November 27, 2019
Amid discussions of data breaches, one huge source of risk is often overlooked. Information Management warns us about “Unstructured Data: The Hidden Threat in Digital Business.” Writer Bernadette Nixon believes too many companies look at only their structured data when they plan security—sources like databases, spreadsheets, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, the prevalence of unstructured data in business is growing, and procedures for securing it are not keeping up. Nixon writes:
“Unstructured data has become an integral part of how organizations conduct digital business. It’s often what enables an easier, faster customer experience. For example, would you rather fill out generic forms detailing your car’s damage or instantly share an image with an insurance agent? For convenience, we are all likely to opt to share unstructured data with an organization and businesses will continue to incorporate it into processes for exactly that reason. To that end, it’s no surprise that Gartner predicts that, by 2022, 80 percent of all global data will be unstructured. With the growth of unstructured data comes the unfortunate truth that it is much more difficult to control and secure than structured data. If an employee is taking information in the form of unstructured data and inputting it elsewhere, they might store the original document or picture on a local file share or leave it in an email as an attachment. Within one organization, the process for handling documents could vary across employees and teams and it’s entirely likely that management has no idea this is taking place.”
In order for organizations to plug this security gap, Nixon has some suggestions. Make it a priority for the IT department to secure unstructured data right away, before an issue comes up. Determine just what unstructured data is on hand and where it is stored, keeping in mind this might differ from one department to another. Finally, delineate clear, standardized procedures for handling and storing this data from the time it enters the system to the time it is destroyed. Ideally, as much of this workflow would be automated, saving time, removing responsibility from individual workers, and ensuring the process is followed correctly.
Cynthia Murrell, November 27, 2019
HPE: Missed? Hybrid What?
November 27, 2019
I read “HPE Misses Q4 Revenue Targets, Sees Decline in Hybrid IT Group.”
I noted this statement:
the company continues to see declining revenue in several business lines.
But there is a bright spot, according to an objective money expert type:
Analyst Patrick Moorhead noted that HPE’s growth in strategic areas like Aruba Services and Apollo is indicative of a positive long term revenue strategy. “For HPE, I believe the future is all about its differentiation and execution in the hybrid cloud and ‘everything as a service’ about which I am optimistic,” said Moorhead.
The future? More cost cuts? Nope. The HPE future is Kubernetes.
Some observations:
- Misses, declines, yada yada. One point: progress is slow
- Excitement.Excitement HPE?
- Outlook? Sure, predict the future of HPE. No problem. Just guess.
Net net: A troublesome report from management making management decisions which appear to cause shares of HPE to drop. Yikes.
Stephen E Arnold, November 27, 2019
Cloudy Question? There Is Gravity?
November 14, 2019
Reverse course now, bosun! After all that hype, organizations are rethinking the wisdom of remote storage. InsideBigData reports, “Companies Are Bringing Data Back from the Cloud. Now They Need a Place to Put It.” They call it “cloud data repatriation.” According to tech research firm IDC, last year 80 percent of organizations they surveyed repatriated workloads, and many expect to pull half their cloud apps to private or on-premises storage in the next two years. After racing to the cloud for several years, why the sudden U-turn? Because public clouds are not all they were puffed up to be. Guest writer and storage expert Shridar Subramanian explains:
“As well as being costly to store in the cloud, it often proves both slow and costly to download data sets from the cloud when they’re needed on-prem. The cloud also has a history of being too slow and costly for the transmission of edge data, such as unstructured data produced by the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This unstructured data is growing at hyper speed. Indeed, IDC predicts that the total of the world’s data will increase from 33 zettabytes in 2018 to 175 zettabytes by 2025 and that 80 percent of that data will be unstructured. Those are head-spinning numbers and companies, understandably, are struggling to keep up. … All this unstructured data presents large storage and security challenges. At first, when cloud storage rose to prominence, organizations thought the answer was to move the vast majority of their data—both structured and unstructured—to the cloud. However, these same organizations soon figured out that the cloud is not only more expensive than they thought, it is also hard to access in a timely fashion when they need specific data, due to the cloud’s inherent latency.”
Rather than abandon the cloud altogether, though, organizations are going with a hybrid approach—keeping some data and apps in the cloud and some locally. And, yes, that means figuring out where to put it all. Subramanian lists some points to consider before making the move. Storage solutions should be secure, of course, and highly scalable to keep up as data grows. This means they should have the capacity to add as many drives as needed at any moment, without downtime. Ideally, they would also include analytics to help decide which information should remain close at hand and which would be better kept in the cloud.
Cynthia Murrell, November 14, 2019
How to Create Solutions in Software: The Cloud and More
November 8, 2019
DarkCyber is working on a white paper. This white paper is about Amazon AWS and its products/services for LE and intel professionals. Don’t worry, the white paper will be free to those affiliated with an enforcement organization.
In that white paper, DarkCyber’s team includes a diagram with layers. One of the reviewers of the paper told a team member:
Layers. What’s AWS? A birthday cake?
We talked about our diagram and the notion of layers. One person talked about “Layers in Software: From Data to Value.” The article included this diagram, which is different from the illustration in the DarkCyber white paper, but it conveys the same message. Here’s the Jessitron image:
The main idea is explained this way:
Feature teams need to do everything, from the old perspective. But that’s too hard for one team — so we make it easier.
This is where Developer Experience (DevEx) teams come in. (a.k.a. Developer Productivity, Platform and Tools, or inaccurately DevOps Teams.) These undergird the feature teams, making their work smoother. Self-service infrastructure, smooth setup of visibility and control for production software. Tools and expertise to help developers learn and do everything necessary to fulfill each team’s purpose. Internal services are supported by external services. Managed services like Kubernetes, databases, queueing, observability, logging: we have outsourced the deep expertise of operating these components. Meanwhile, internal service teams like DevEx have enough understanding of the details, plus enough company-specific context, to mediate between what the outside world provides and what feature teams need. This makes development smoother, and therefore faster and safer. We once layered by serving data to software. Now we layer by serving value to people.
This is a useful explanation. It applies to Amazon’s approach to the LE and intel sector. There is a twist in the Amazon digital river of products and services. That’s to be expected.
What is that twist?
The white paper will be out one the reviewers complete their inputs.
Stephen E Arnold, November 8, 2019
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