Cloud Security
Avanade | November 06, 2023
Avanade launches an AI-based platform, "Avanade Cloud Impact", to unlock up to 50% of cloud spend.
The platform generates insights on IT estate risks and opportunities by analyzing cloud consumption patterns.
Avanade offers a free cost optimization workshop to clients interested in adopting an AI-first approach.
Avanade, a leading Microsoft solutions provider, launches a new platform, ‘Avanade Cloud Impact’, designed to help businesses establish an AI-ready digital core and unlock funding for innovation. The platform uses AI and machine learning to analyze industry, business, and technical data sources, providing tailored modernization insights for companies on their cloud journey. It has already saved Avanade clients up to 50% of their cloud spend.
The platform works by analyzing cloud consumption patterns and comparing them with various data sources to generate insights on a wide range of risks and opportunities across an IT estate. These insights can include modernization recommendations and cost-benefit analyses. Avanade Cloud Impact can deliver information about data egress cost spikes, application redesign options, and achieve up to 50% cloud cost savings while quantifying sustainability benefits, all without the need to make any code changes.
Andrew Stahel, Regional Applications and Infrastructure Solution Area Lead, Avanade Australia, emphasized the importance of AI in today's business environment and the need for businesses to rethink what the cloud can do for them. He expressed excitement about the potential of the Avanade Cloud Impact platform to help Australian businesses harness the true potential of AI by strengthening their digital core.
Merrie Williamson, CVP, Azure Infrastructure, Digital and App Innovation, Microsoft, also expressed enthusiasm about the new platform and its ability to provide deep insights and recommendations that accelerate value for Azure customers.
While Avanade's new platform, ‘Avanade Cloud Impact’, promises to unlock up to 50% of a business's cloud spend and provide tailored modernization insights, it does come with potential drawbacks. The platform's effectiveness is heavily dependent on the quality and accuracy of the data it analyzes, and incorrect or incomplete data could lead to misleading insights. Additionally, there may be a learning curve associated with understanding and effectively utilizing the insights generated by the platform. Furthermore, the platform might not be suitable for all types of businesses, particularly those with unique or complex cloud consumption patterns.
However, the benefits of the platform are significant. It can lead to substantial cost savings and help businesses make informed decisions on their cloud journey. The use of AI and machine learning allows the platform to handle large amounts of data and provide comprehensive insights. Plus, Avanade offers a free introductory cost optimization workshop, providing additional support for businesses adopting an AI-first approach.
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Cloud Security
PR Newswire | October 23, 2023
In the last decade, organizations have begun building and deploying cloud applications at an unprecedented pace, and there's no sign of slowing down. According to Gartner, 65% of application workloads will be optimized or ready for cloud delivery by 2027 — up from 45% in 2022.
Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) today reimagined how enterprises approach cloud security with the industry's first integrated Code to Cloud intelligence introduced as part of the Prisma® Cloud Darwin release. Today marks a "Darwin moment" for cloud security as Prisma Cloud pushes organizations to evolve beyond single point solutions and adopt a holistic approach that provides a single source of truth.
While the cloud offers exceptional agility and efficiency, it introduces major security risks that have become increasingly widespread — 80% of security exposures are found in cloud environments, according to the company's Unit 42 Threat Intelligence team, which can result in large-scale breaches. These rising cloud attacks and the velocity of cloud application development are outpacing the speed at which security teams can protect their organizations.
Current approaches for code-to-cloud security are siloed, with the average organization relying on six to ten tools for securing cloud infrastructure alone. Having disparate security tools leads to an incomplete security posture and creates a massive operational burden for security teams. With its new Code to Cloud intelligence, Prisma Cloud — the industry's most complete cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) — offers a single trusted place that connects insights from the developer environment through application runtime for security teams to contextualize alerts and pinpoint remediations. This intelligence effectively prevents risk and stops breaches while enhancing the end-user experience and improving developer and security team collaboration.
"The only way to secure applications from code to cloud is by fending off risk from entering the development pipeline and preventing breaches of applications in production. This can only be achieved through an intelligent CNAPP platform like Prisma Cloud that gathers intelligence throughout the application lifecycle so security teams can precisely trace vulnerabilities and misconfigurations back to their origin in the source code. Prisma Cloud's Darwin release simplifies cloud security and improves productivity and collaboration across code, infrastructure, and runtime security."
Ankur Shah, senior vice president, Prisma Cloud, Palo Alto Networks
In many organizations, the ratio of developers to security professionals can be 100 to 1, resulting in understaffed teams. The current approach of working in silos does not guarantee comprehensive code to cloud security. This gap will widen as developers increasingly use AI to write and deploy code more quickly. Prisma Cloud, now with Code to Cloud intelligence, fosters collaboration between developers and security professionals by linking production security issues to specific remediation recommendations in code.
Melinda Marks, practice director, Enterprise Security Group, said:
"Today's reality is we face a cybersecurity skills shortage, especially in cloud security, while organizations are increasingly leveraging cloud services for faster application development to best serve customers and drive business results. At the same time, we have a rapidly evolving threat landscape increasingly targeting cloud workloads. So, it's crucial to invest in an effective security solution that supports increased development productivity from code to cloud to enable security teams to optimize security risk mitigation and protect their applications to enable business growth."
Chris Bogaards, vice president of IT security, Global Atlantic Financial Group, said:
"Our greatest challenge before Prisma Cloud was gaining clear visibility into what was occurring in our cloud applications and what security alerts to prioritize. Our developers freely create applications with a myriad of tools not knowing what risks they're introducing into the organization. With Prisma Cloud, we now have a simple, yet comprehensive view across our entire application portfolio to understand what vulnerabilities we have, which ones to prioritize and how to fix them." Watch Global Atlantic Financial Group's customer testimonial.
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Cloud Storage
Hitachi Vantara | October 11, 2023
Hitachi Vantara unveils Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform One, a hybrid cloud data platform for streamlined data management in public and on-premises environments.
The solution tackles generative AI and data expansion with a unified architecture and AI-driven stack, eliminating data silos for critical tasks.
Hitachi Vantara simplifies data management and partners with T-Systems North America to optimize cloud journeys, launching in early 2024.
Hitachi Vantara, a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., unveiled its latest innovation, Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform One, a hybrid cloud data platform designed to address the complex challenges of modern IT infrastructure. This single data platform streamlines the management of various data types, including block, file, object, and mainframe data, enabling flexible consumption across public cloud and on-premises environments.
In response to the evolving landscape of generative AI, cloud technology, and the explosive growth of enterprise data, this strategic move comes at a crucial time. Many organizations are struggling with overburdened data infrastructure and hybrid cloud setups, as reported by a recent study. It's easier to manage mission-critical workloads at scale with Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform One because it has a single architecture that handles block, file, object, cloud, mainframe, and software-defined storage workloads. All of these are managed by a single AI-enabled software stack.
This revolutionary approach eliminates data silos and empowers businesses with a reliable and flexible data foundation that allows them to access the data they need, when and where they need it.
Dan McConnell, senior vice president, product management for storage and data infrastructure, Hitachi Vantara, reportedly remarked,
Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform One marks a significant milestone with our infrastructure strategy. With a consistent data platform, we will provide businesses with the reliability and flexibility to manage their data across various storage environments without compromise. The design, development, and construction of Virtual Storage Platform One, with a focus on reliability, security, and sustainability, further enhances the impact for our customers.
[Source – CISION PR Newswire]
Their partnership with T-Systems North America has played a pivotal role in assisting organizations in optimizing their cloud journeys. Mauro Guzelotto, VP of Cloud Services at T-Systems North America, describes Hitachi Vantara's Virtual Storage Platform One as the ‘next evolution of sustainable infrastructure.’
This new solution offers organizations efficient management of workloads and data resources, including cloud self-service, intelligent workload management, and integrated copy data management. By consolidating their entire storage portfolio into a cohesive platform, Hitachi Vantara provides a transformative solution that simplifies data management and enhances data accessibility for organizations grappling with data complexities.
Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform One is set to roll out its capabilities in early 2024, with additional offerings throughout the year. This marks a significant step towards achieving data clarity and agility in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
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