Explore the pros and cons of cloud computing

searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com | March 30, 2020

The immense variety of cloud computing services available today would stun even the visionaries at Amazon who reinvented the concept of rentable infrastructure for the internet era almost 15 years ago. The industry's powerful innovations have created a rapid pace of technological growth that is divided into three sub-categories IaaS,PaaS and SaaS with hundreds of services spread across scores of vendors.Nonetheless, when most enterprise IT operations teams think of cloud computing, they gravitate towards IaaS and SaaS. This is because many organizations turn to cloud services to improve IT efficiency, flexibility and responsiveness to changing business needs. PaaS, which is targeted at developers, is far less popular than the other two categories.In order to familiarize themselves with technology basics, users should understand the pros and cons of cloud computing, popular use cases, as well as the major players in the current IT market and how they influence other vendors.AWS initially launched with three services that are still core to its portfolio: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Simple Queue Services (SQS). Over its first decade, AWS regularly improved the capabilities and purchase flexibility of each service and vastly expanded its range of infrastructure services. These additions include container clusters, serverless functions, block and network file storage, multiple SQL and NoSQL databases, network and content delivery systems, as well as a host of monitoring, management and security features.

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Intentionally establishing a multi-cloud strategy is a powerful way to modernize your IT infrastructure and accelerate the velocity of your business. Selecting the best multi-cloud solution for your organization should begin with an internal assessment that evaluates your goals and required capabilities. Use this IT executive bu


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Cloud Infrastructure Management

CoreWeave and VAST Data Join Forces to Build the Data Foundation for a Next Generation Public Cloud with NVIDIA AI

GlobeNewswire | September 27, 2023

VAST Data, the AI data platform company and CoreWeave, a specialized cloud provider powering many of the world’s leading generative AI efforts, today announced a strategic partnership that will further CoreWeave’s mission to deliver highly scalable and performant cloud infrastructure for AI and accelerated compute workloads. CoreWeave has selected the VAST Data Platform, the world’s first data platform designed for the AI era, to build a global, NVIDIA-powered accelerated computing cloud for deploying, managing and securing hundreds of petabytes of data for generative AI, high performance computing (HPC) and visual effects (VFX) workloads. CoreWeave did extensive research and testing before selecting VAST Data to power all of its data centers. The VAST Data Platform has the necessary scale, performance, and multi-tenant enterprise AI cloud capabilities required to power the massive AI and LLM training and inference applications that are now transforming everything from business, to science, to society itself. CoreWeave’s customers demand the most secure and scalable solutions on top of the industry’s fastest and most flexible infrastructure to keep their data safe," said Michael Intrator, CEO and co-founder of CoreWeave. We’re delighted to partner with VAST Data to deliver a multi-tenant and zero-trust environment purpose-built for accelerated compute use cases like machine learning, VFX and rendering, Pixel Streaming and batch processing that’s up to 35 times faster and 80 percent less expensive than legacy cloud providers. This partnership is rooted in a deep technical collaboration that will push the boundaries of data-driven accelerated computing to deliver the world’s most optimized AI cloud platform. Through their joint partnership CoreWeave and VAST Data are leveraging NVIDIA technology to engineer a new data platform architecture for large-scale, end-to-end data pipelines and deliver next-generation data services for AI workloads. To support this, the VAST Data Platform boasts an enterprise network attached data store that is certified for use with NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD and eliminates tiers and infrastructure silos to make large scale AI simpler, faster and easier to manage at virtually limitless levels of scale and performance. “Since our earliest days, VAST Data has had a single vision of building an architecture that could power the needs of the most demanding cloud-scale AI applications," said Renen Hallak, Founder and CEO of VAST Data. "We could not imagine a better cloud platform to realize this vision than what we’re creating with CoreWeave. We are humbled and honored to partner with the CoreWeave team to push the boundaries of modern AI computing and to build the infrastructure that will serve as the foundation of tomorrow’s AI-powered discoveries.” About VAST Data VAST Data is the data platform software company for the AI era. Accelerating time-to-insight for workload-intensive applications, the VAST data platform delivers scalable performance, radically simple data management and enhanced productivity. Launched in 2019, VAST is the fastest-growing data infrastructure company in history. For more information, please visit https://vastdata.com and follow VAST Data on Twitter and LinkedIn. About CoreWeave Founded in 2017, CoreWeave is a specialized cloud provider, delivering a massive scale of GPU compute resources on top of the industry's fastest and most flexible infrastructure. CoreWeave builds cloud solutions for compute-intensive use cases — machine learning and AI, VFX and rendering, life sciences, the Metaverse, and real-time streaming — that are up to 35 times faster and 80% less expensive than the large, generalized public clouds. Learn more at www.coreweave.com.

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Cloud Security

Lacework Unveils Cloud Security Community to Unite Customers and Peers

Lacework | September 07, 2023

Lacework, a trailblazer in data-driven cloud security, has introduced an innovative community platform, expanding its arsenal of cutting-edge technical resources. This dynamic community is a hub for Lacework's customers, support teams, and fellow cloud security experts. The Lacework Community is a multifaceted network comprising discussion forums, comprehensive documentation, a knowledge base, immersive events, and educational resources. Members are empowered to delve into a wealth of documentation through the platform's federated search or initiate unique discussions to glean insights from Lacework experts and industry peers. Jay Parikh, CEO of Lacework, said they were always looking for new ways to help their customers succeed and that the community would connect them with their peers and partners to learn and share faster and more broadly. He also added that customers would experience a new level of support from Lacework through the discussions, documentation, and engagement. Key features accessible to users of the Lacework Community include: Discussion Forums: Covering a broad spectrum of Lacework and cloud security topics Knowledge Base: Hosting numerous articles addressing common support issues How-to Guides: Curated by Lacework's Customer Success Architects Product Updates: Summarizing monthly releases and offering in-depth feature insights Networked Events: Featuring daily office hours and marketing events Integrated Documentation: Housing thousands of articles indexed for seamless federated search functionality John Turner, Senior Security Architect at LendingTree, said that things changed fast in the cloud security world and that companies faced new daily threats and tactics. He also noted that quick learning and peer feedback could significantly affect any company's security posture. He added that Lacework's community would provide that critical input and elevate the cloud security conversation. The Lacework Community is now open to both existing customers and potential prospects. Lacework is a platform providing comprehensive cloud security, including threat detection, anomaly identification, and compliance management across multi-cloud systems, workloads, and Kubernetes. However, it faces challenges for a few users as visibility is lacking and compliance-related metrics and IAM security control could be improved. IAM security management controls and detection of deviations and misconfigurations are critical, but have yet to be developed in Lacework. There is no data governance or data visibility. About Lacework Lacework, a data-driven cloud security platform, automates security at scale with its Polygraph Data Platform. This platform uniquely collects, analyzes, and correlates data across AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes, pinpointing crucial security events amid vast data streams. Clients rely on Lacework for revenue growth, safer product launches, and consolidated security solutions. Lacework strengthens cloud security, enabling faster innovation by scaling with an organization's dynamic cloud data, including code, identities, containers, and multi-cloud infrastructure. It offers security and development teams prioritized insights on significant risks.

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Cloud Security

Tenable Acquires Ermetic to Boost Cloud Security with CNAPP and CIEM

Tenable | September 11, 2023

Tenable Holdings, Inc. is strengthening its focus on cloud security through the acquisition of Ermetic Ltd., a cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) company specializing in cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM). This strategic move aims to enhance Tenable's Exposure Management Platform by providing improved risk visibility, prioritization, and remediation solutions for both cloud and on-premises environments. Ermetic's CNAPP offers comprehensive contextual analysis, simplifying the identification of critical issues like privileged access to exposed, vulnerable workloads. The integration of Ermetic's capabilities into Tenable One will broaden Tenable's offerings for hybrid environments, addressing the complex challenge of managing identity-based threats in the cloud. According to the Cloud Security Alliance's 2022 Top Cloud Threats report, identity-based threats are a top concern in cloud security. Tenable's acquisition of Ermetic seeks to simplify the process of understanding access risks and permissions in the cloud, making it more accessible for security professionals with varying levels of expertise. “We will have an opportunity to put additional market-leading cloud security capabilities into the hands of tens of thousands of customers,” said Amit Yoran, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tenable. “Together, we will be able to deliver a holistic view of the modern attack surface and help organizations reduce exposure and risk, using identity as an essential foundation,” he further added. [Source: Globe News Wire] The combined offerings of Tenable and Ermetic will include a unified CNAPP solution for asset discovery, risk analysis, remediation, and compliance, as well as a robust CIEM solution for managing human and service identities in cloud infrastructure. The integration will provide context-aware risk prioritization across all cloud and on-premises resources and simplify the remediation process. The acquisition, valued at approximately $240 million in cash and $25 million in restricted stock and RSUs, is expected to close in early Q4 2023. Tenable will finance the cash portion of the acquisition using existing funds. However, Ermetic's financial results in Q4 2023 are not anticipated to significantly impact revenue or billings but are expected to increase non-GAAP operating expenses by $4–6 million. The combination of Tenable and Ermetic is poised to offer unparalleled visibility and value in managing cloud environments, simplifying the complexity of cloud security management. About Tenable Tenable is a prominent player in the computer and network security industry, headquartered in Columbia, MD. With a global footprint, the company serves approximately 40,000 organizations worldwide, including Fortune 500 giants, Global 2000 firms, and government agencies. Leveraging its renowned Nessus vulnerability expertise, Tenable offers a pioneering platform for comprehensively securing digital assets across various computing platforms. Its specialties encompass vulnerability management, continuous network monitoring, compliance, and a range of security solutions for web applications, containers, the cloud, industrial technology, IoT, and more.

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Cloud Infrastructure Management

Britain's TSB Bank Selects Lacework for Enhanced Cloud Protection

Lacework | September 25, 2023

Lacework, the data-driven cloud security firm, has been selected by TSB Bank, a prominent British banking institution, to safeguard its cloud infrastructure. TSB Bank's decision to choose Lacework as its cloud security provider demonstrates its commitment to protecting sensitive data and ensuring the highest level of security for its customers. With Lacework's expertise in data-driven security solutions, TSB Bank can confidently rely on their cloud infrastructure being safeguarded against potential threats and vulnerabilities. TSB's Chief Information Security Officer, Paul Branley, expressed his excitement about the development, stating that the Lacework Polygraph data platform would transform the way their security teams operate. He mentioned that it would enable their developers to concentrate on value-added tasks while also substantially reducing security alerts. TSB, a longstanding player in the banking sector with over two centuries of heritage, is serving over five million customers through various channels, including digital, phone, and branches across the UK. With a growing digital business, TSB needed a unified cloud security platform to support its multi-cloud landscape. Lacework will facilitate secure and innovative cloud scaling, eliminating vulnerabilities across various cloud configurations and applications. Andreas Schneider, Field-CISO at Lacework, reportedly mentioned, Partnering with Lacework, TSB will be able to reduce complexity in their tool landscape, and our anomaly detection will allow them to embed security at any speed and scale." [Source – Cision PR Newswire] Lacework's platform will enable TSB to automate audit and compliance processes while seamlessly integrating into DevOps and CI/CD pipelines, ensuring security acts as an enabler of innovation velocity. The adoption of Lacework’s technology by TSB Bank may entail integration challenges, risks related to automation, and uncertainties about real-world effectiveness that could affect TSB's security strategy. TSB Bank's selection of Lacework promises improved cloud security, enhanced developer focus, and support for its multi-cloud landscape, with automation and integration into DevOps pipelines to boost innovation. About Lacework Lacework, a leading cloud security company, offers innovative and scalable solutions for robust cloud security. Their flagship product, the Polygraph Data Platform, automates security processes, providing comprehensive risk insights for security and development teams. Lacework's unique ability to analyze data across AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes environments is a significant advantage for businesses worldwide. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, Lacework excels in breach detection, audit and compliance, and container security.

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Spotlight

Intentionally establishing a multi-cloud strategy is a powerful way to modernize your IT infrastructure and accelerate the velocity of your business. Selecting the best multi-cloud solution for your organization should begin with an internal assessment that evaluates your goals and required capabilities. Use this IT executive bu

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