Infrastructure teams need multi-cloud networking and security guardrails

Public cloud migration long ago wrested control over digital infrastructure from network and security teams, but now is the time for those groups to retake the initiative. Cloud operations and DevOps groups will never cede ground, but they will welcome self-service networking and security solutions that provide guardrails that protect them from disaster. Cooperation between traditional infrastructure teams and cloud teams is even more important as enterprises embrace multi-cloud architecture, where complexity and risk are increasing. In fact, my research has found that security risk, collaboration problems, and complexity are the top pain points associated with multi-cloud networking today.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Gartner: IT spending to climb 8% to $5.1 trillion in 2024

Driven primarily by cloud and cybersecurity investments, worldwide IT spending is projected to total $5.1 trillion in 2024, an increase of 8% from 2023, according to the latest forecast from Gartner.The software and IT services segments will see double-digit growth in 2024, largely driven by cloud spending, according to Gartner.Global spending on public cloud services is forecast to increase 20.4% in 2024. The source of growth will be a combination of cloud vendors’ price increases and increased utilization, just as it was in 2023, wrote John-David Lovelock, a distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner.Cybersecurity spending is also driving growth in the software segment. Roughly 80% of CIOs reported that they plan to increase spending on cyber/information security in 2024, according to Gartner’s 2024 CIO and Technology Executive Survey.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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IBM service uses DNS to deliver multicloud connectivity

IBM is rolling out a new DNS-based service that will let customers securely control connectivity between distributed multicloud environments.NS1 Connect is one of the first fruits from IBM’s acquisition of DNS specialist NS1 earlier this year. The service is aimed at helping organizations set up the best connection between clouds and end users to deliver applications optimized for performance, cost, security and availability.Core to the NS1 Connect package, which will be available Oct. 17, is traffic-steering technology that intelligently distributes DNS traffic across the network. DNS is often described as the Internet’s phone book, working in the background to match the names of web sites that users type into a search box with the corresponding IP address.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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IBM X-Force: Use of compromised credentials darkens cloud security picture

As connectivity to cloud-based resources grows, cybercriminals are using valid, compromised credentials to access enterprise resources at an alarming rate.That’s one of the chief findings of the IBM X-Force Cloud Threat Landscape Report, which also found a 200% increase (about 3,900 vulnerabilities) in cloud-oriented Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) in the last year.“Over 35% of cloud security incidents occurred from attackers’ use of valid, compromised credentials,” wrote Chris Caridi, strategic cyber threat analyst with IBM X-Force, in a blog about the report. “Making up nearly 90% of assets for sale on dark web marketplaces, credentials’ popularity among cybercriminals is apparent, averaging $10 per listing – or the equivalent of a dozen doughnuts.”To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Google’s Cross-Cloud Network service aims to simplify multicloud networking

Google Cloud has added a new service that promises to make it easier for enterprise customers to securely network multiple cloud-based resources.The Cross-Cloud Network service consists of new and existing Google Cloud technology and includes a partner ecosystem to help organizations develop, build and support distributed enterprise applications across clouds.“We know that 70-plus percent of our enterprises are going to adopt multicloud. [The] idea behind Cross-Cloud Network is that today many organizations operate bespoke networks with turnkey security to connect to those clouds that are operationally complex to manage and build, thereby resulting in a much higher total cost of ownership and soaring costs,” said Muninder Sambi, vice president and general manager of networking for Google Cloud. “They set up private data centers to connect and secure the hybrid workforce to access cloud and on-prem resources and manage multiple CDN clouds to accelerate web apps. All of this can also lead to an inconsistent security posture and drives up total costs,” Sambi said.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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IBM wants drag-and-drop connectivity for hybrid cloud applications

IBM is developing a SaaS package to help enterprises securely network heterogenous environments, including edge, on-prem and multicloud resources.The IBM Hybrid Cloud Mesh is a SaaS service that implements a virtualized Layer 3-7 environment to rapidly enable secure connectivity between users, applications, and data distributed across multiple locations and environments, according to Andrew Coward, general manager of IBM’s software defined networking group. In a nutshell, Hybrid Cloud Mesh deploys gateways within the clouds – including on-premises, AWS or other providers’ clouds, and transit points, if needed – to support the infrastructure, and then it builds a secure Layer 3-7 mesh overlay to deliver applications, Coward said. At the application level, the exposure to developers occurs at Layer 7, and the networking teams see Layer 3 and 4 activities, Coward said.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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IBM’s mainframe operating system upgrade will embrace AI

IBM said this week it will soon roll out an AI-infused, hybrid-cloud oriented version of its z/OS mainframe operating system.Expected in the third quarter, z/OS 3.1 will  support technologies intended to enable deployment of AI workloads co-located with z/OS applications, IBM said in a customer preview letter.The new OS will work best with the newest version of the Big Iron, the z16, but it will support z14 models and above, IBM says.The z16 includes an AI accelerator built onto its core Telum processor that can do 300 billion deep-learning inferences per day with one millisecond latency and includes what IBM calls a quantum-safe system to protect organizations from anticipated quantum-based security threats.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Data center networking trends to watch for 2023

Hybrid and multicloud initiatives will continue to shape enterprise IT in 2023, and the impact on data-center networking will be felt across key areas including security, management, and operations. Network teams are investing in technologies such as SD-WAN and SASE, expanding automation initiatives, and focusing on skills development as more workloads and applications span cloud environments.“The most important core trend in data centers is the recognition that the hybrid cloud model – which combines current transaction processing and database activities with a cloud-hosted front-end element for the user interface – is the model that will dominate over time,” said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp. and a Network World columnist. The industry is seeing a slow modernization of data center applications to support the hybrid-cloud model, Nolle says, “and included in that is greater componentization of those applications, a larger amount of horizontal traffic, and a greater need to manage security within the hosted parts of the application.”To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Ransomware attack knocks Rackspace’s Exchange servers offline

Cloud services and hosting provider Rackspace Technology acknowledged Tuesday that a recent incident that took most of its Hosted Exchange email server business offline was the product of a ransomware attack. The company shut the service down last Friday.It was not, initially, clear what had caused the outage, but Rackspace quickly moved to shift Exchange customers over to Microsoft 365, as this part of the company’s infrastructure was apparently unaffected.Rackpsace offers migration to Microsoft 365
Rackspace said today that there is “no timeline” for a restoration of Exchange service, but it is offering Exchange users technical assistance and free access to Microsoft 365 as a substitute, though it acknowledged that migration is unlikely to be a simple process for every user. Rackspace said that, while the migration is in progress, customers can forward email sent to their Hosted Exchange inboxes to an external server, as a temporary workaround.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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