It's been a year or so since I last caught up with Komprise, the data management vendor that was founded by Krishna Subramanian, a well-respected Silicon Valley veteran who has successfully founded, built, merged and acquired businesses -- both as founder/CEO of a startup backed by tier-one VCs and as corporate development leader at Sun.Her previous startup, Kaviza, was focused on eliminating the cost and complexity of my personal pet hate, virtual desktops, and -- notwithstanding my distaste for the space -- was acquired by Citrix in 2011. Subramanian then did her obligatory two years of duty within Citrix before embarking on her new thing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The technology industry is perhaps the biggest user (some might say abuser) of buzzwords. Who can recall the scene on HBO's comedy "Silicon Valley" where startup after startup tried to show just how hip they were by detailing their focus on social, mobile and local? We had SoLoMo, MoLoSo, LoSoMo and every other combination under the sun.The reality is that, 9 times out of 10, buzzwords mean nothing other than giving potential customers the ability to tick another box on their assessment forms.So I was a little skeptical when ExtraHop -- a vendor that offers organizations the ability to monitor all of the traffic occurring across their networks -- pitched me on its new SaaS offering that, according to the company, has lots of machine-learning goodness on tap.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Ever since cloud computing was introduced a decade or so ago, there has been much gnashing of teeth and wailing about the security risks that the cloud introduced. Back in the old days, these arguments were pretty simple and revolved around control. Since then, however, as cloud adoption has become more widespread, we have had more nuanced views about cloud risks.
But still, there are those traditional IT folks who balk at the very mention of the cloud. To them, cloud is anathema that is diametrically opposed from their stated objective of delivering the best outcome with the highest levels of safety for the business.
Of course, many people would suggest that a significant proportion of those bemoaning the risks of the cloud are actually bemoaning the fact that their career prospects look less rosy in a cloudy world, and that it is self-interest that drives this message.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM’s Watson cognitive computing platform is almost a victim of its own fame. Watson famously beat all-comers to win the Jeopardy game show a few years ago. At the time, the general public (helped, it has to be said, by IBM’s marketers) assumed the win was an indication that, in short order, smart computers would be everywhere and intuitively making the right decisions in every situation.+ Also on Network World: IBM's Watson wants to do your tax returns +
Since the Jeopardy win, however, IBM seems to have had a hard time finding good market fits for Watson. This isn’t a criticism of IBM in any way. The reality is that while many consumer brands apply artificial intelligence (AI) to their products (think Amazon book recommendations, Google maps smart routing or Apple's Siri) most existing examples have been from those companies building AI tools themselves. There are far fewer examples of enterprises leveraging a third-party cognitive platform to build into their own applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
ForeScout is a security company that specializes in giving organizations agentless visibility and control of both traditional and IoT devices connected to the network. That's probably super-interesting if you're a IT security practitioner, but if you're not, you're probably stifling a yawn about now.
But remember, if you will, that the first planned IPO of 2017 -- that of AppDynamics -- got canceled very much at the last minute when the company was acquired by Cisco. So given we're yet to see a 2017 IPO, and that ForeScout is rumored to have confidentially filed its documentation for an IPO recently, anything newsy from ForeScout's HQ gets a little more interesting.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
ForeScout is a security company that specializes in giving organizations agentless visibility and control of both traditional and IoT devices connected to the network. That's probably super-interesting if you're a IT security practitioner, but if you're not, you're probably stifling a yawn about now.
But remember, if you will, that the first planned IPO of 2017 -- that of AppDynamics -- got canceled very much at the last minute when the company was acquired by Cisco. So given we're yet to see a 2017 IPO, and that ForeScout is rumored to have confidentially filed its documentation for an IPO recently, anything newsy from ForeScout's HQ gets a little more interesting.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
ZeroStack is an IT management vendor. More specifically, it provides tooling that lets organizations turn bare-metal (i.e., physical) servers into cloud infrastructure. Basically ZeroStack -- like cloud platforms from OpenStack, Microsoft and others -- wants to make physical infrastructure work like the public cloud.
ZeroStack offers the operating tools and the self-service platform that helps customers make decisions about capacity planning, troubleshooting and optimized placement of applications. On top of that, ZeroStack offers a Bitnami-like integrated app store that allows organizations to offer their end users a "one-click" installation of popular applications onto their cloud platform. Finally, ZeroStack is integrated with public clouds to offer migration between on-premises and public cloud infrastructure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A trend that has grown over the past decade or so to become pretty much the default view of infrastructure is to “software-ize” functionality that was formerly the domain of specialist hardware.It all started (arguably) with the idea of virtualization. Instead of needing a physical server for every task, software would allow numerous virtual servers to run on a piece of physical kit. The upshot of virtualization of servers was that far greater efficiencies could be generated, and utilization rates went from being dismal to almost absolute. All good outcomes if you’re worried about the economics of technology.+ Also on Network World: Is infrastructure relevant in a software-defined world? +
But it wasn’t just compute that got this dose of software goodness. Next came storage, then networking. And seemingly the sky is the limit as to what parts of infrastructure can be made virtual. (And in the next realm of innovation, we have serverless computing where, in effect, stuff happens without even having to think about servers—physical or virtual. But that’s another story.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I sit on a number of not-for-profit and commercial boards of directors. I am lucky in that I have a pretty good understanding of how their technology landscape can introduce risks into the business. As someone who spends much of his time in the tech world, I can bring this knowledge and awareness into the companies I work with.
But that isn't the usual way things work. Most boards of directors are made up of individuals who have little or no awareness of their organization's technology footprint and the impacts it can have when something goes wrong. This is the problem space that TechDemocracy, a global cyberrisk assurance solution provider, is trying to solve with its Intellicta platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s interesting seeing how much money technology vendors spend on surveys that (at least most often) justify their own existence. It would be easy to be cynical about them, but beyond the self-serving aspects of it all, the data these surveys generate is interesting as a general “state of the nation” assessment.A good case in point is Thales' new Data Threat Report (pdf). Thales is a huge vendor that employs over 60,000 people across 56 countries. With multibillion euro revenue, it makes sense for the company to increase the perception that it is a thought leader in its field. And Thales' field is a big one. It is a systems integrator, equipment supplier and service provider in the aerospace, transport, defense and security markets. A major part of the company's offering lies around cybersecurity. This report is, therefore, very much in its wheelhouse.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s interesting seeing how much money technology vendors spend on surveys that (at least most often) justify their own existence. It would be easy to be cynical about them, but beyond the self-serving aspects of it all, the data these surveys generate is interesting as a general “state of the nation” assessment.A good case in point is Thales' new Data Threat Report (pdf). Thales is a huge vendor that employs over 60,000 people across 56 countries. With multibillion euro revenue, it makes sense for the company to increase the perception that it is a thought leader in its field. And Thales' field is a big one. It is a systems integrator, equipment supplier and service provider in the aerospace, transport, defense and security markets. A major part of the company's offering lies around cybersecurity. This report is, therefore, very much in its wheelhouse.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Software testing has always been “a thing.” It has always been necessary to test the various aspects of the software solutions that enterprises create before putting them out in the wild.But the thing that has changed is that software is now incredibly more pervasive than it has ever been before. There are orders of magnitude more software solutions than at any time in the past. Add to that the fact that the complexity of software is always increasing, and you have a real challenge from the perspective of testing.So, it should come as no surprise to see an increasing number of tools and solutions that aim to solve the testing issue—from crowd-sourcing platforms that allow the “wisdom of the masses” to help worth an organization’s testing process to platforms that offer to “automate” all or part of the testing process.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cloud. Despite all the hype about it being super easy, being self service and having a low on-ramp, the reality is service providers often still need to help organizations with the move to the cloud.You can tell an area is getting widespread attention when the large consulting firms start pricking up there ears. And so it is with cloud computing, where we have seen over the past few years the large consulting firms (both the “big four” accounting firms and the more traditional IT consulting firms) building out cloud computing service offerings—either from within or via strategic acquisitions of service providers.+ Also on Network World: Cloud adoption soars, but integration challenges remain +
A good example of this came in 2015 when Accenture acquired Cloud Sherpas, a Salesforce and Amazon Web Services (AWS) consulting partner that had grown rapidly over the preceding years via a number of acquisitions and mergers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I’ve been following Cumulus Networks almost since its inception. The company was co-founded by J.R. Rivers, something of a legend in the networking space. Cumulus Networks’ raisan d’etre was to provide an open source operating system (eponymously called Cumulus Linux) that organizations could install on different networking hardware devices and, in doing so, gain all the benefits of software-defined networking (SDN) without any of the hassles of proprietary and locked-down software.It was a compelling story (at least for this commentator). And given the credibility that Rivers bought to the table, I was sold.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I’ve been following Cumulus Networks almost since its inception. The company was co-founded by J.R. Rivers, something of a legend in the networking space. Cumulus Networks’ raisan d’etre was to provide an open source operating system (eponymously called Cumulus Linux) that organizations could install on different networking hardware devices and, in doing so, gain all the benefits of software-defined networking (SDN) without any of the hassles of proprietary and locked-down software.It was a compelling story (at least for this commentator). And given the credibility that Rivers bought to the table, I was sold.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I’ve been following Cumulus Networks almost since its inception. The company was co-founded by J.R. Rivers, something of a legend in the networking space. Cumulus Networks’ raisan d’etre was to provide an open source operating system (eponymously called Cumulus Linux) that organizations could install on different networking hardware devices and, in doing so, gain all the benefits of software-defined networking (SDN) without any of the hassles of proprietary and locked-down software.It was a compelling story (at least for this commentator). And given the credibility that Rivers bought to the table, I was sold.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dome9 Security, a cloud infrastructure security and compliance vendor, announced today that it is offering native support for the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.This is interesting because until now, Dome9 had strongly pushed an Amazon Web Services (AWS) story. The reasons for that are clear: AWS is the 1,000-pound elephant when it comes to cloud infrastructure, greatly eclipsing all other vendors in terms of market share. But reliance on a single vendor is risky, and the number of third-party vendors at AWS’ recent re:Invent conference that looked uncomfortable at AWS announcements shows the folly of being completely tied to one platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dome9 Security, a cloud infrastructure security and compliance vendor, announced today that it is offering native support for the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.This is interesting because until now, Dome9 had strongly pushed an Amazon Web Services (AWS) story. The reasons for that are clear: AWS is the 1,000-pound elephant when it comes to cloud infrastructure, greatly eclipsing all other vendors in terms of market share. But reliance on a single vendor is risky, and the number of third-party vendors at AWS’ recent re:Invent conference that looked uncomfortable at AWS announcements shows the folly of being completely tied to one platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Nyotron today launched its cybersecurity product in the U.S. Nothing too exciting about that, but the history of the company’s founder might pique your interest.Nir Gaist is the sort of over-achiever that one either worries hugely about or admires greatly (or probably both in equal measure). Nyotron’s CEO and founder, Gaist started programing at the age of six. (Which leads me to ask, what took him so long?) In 2008, he and his brother Ofer Gaist, now COO, started Nyotron as a penetration testing company. Before founding the company, and as a departure from his buddies who were probably playing Candy Crush or something, Nir hacked an Israeli service provider, which was so impressed with his skills it ended up hiring him. From there, he went on to test telephone systems, online banking protocols, ATMs and more for the largest banks in Israel. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Nyotron today launched its cybersecurity product in the U.S. Nothing too exciting about that, but the history of the company’s founder might pique your interest.Nir Gaist is the sort of over-achiever that one either worries hugely about or admires greatly (or probably both in equal measure). Nyotron’s CEO and founder, Gaist started programing at the age of six. (Which leads me to ask, what took him so long?) In 2008, he and his brother Ofer Gaist, now COO, started Nyotron as a penetration testing company. Before founding the company, and as a departure from his buddies who were probably playing Candy Crush or something, Nir hacked an Israeli service provider, which was so impressed with his skills it ended up hiring him. From there, he went on to test telephone systems, online banking protocols, ATMs and more for the largest banks in Israel. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Ben Kepes