August 04, 2023

Cloud may be overpriced compared to on-premises systems

Public cloud computing prices have been creeping up because they are offered by for-profit companies that must generate a profit. Running a public cloud service is costly, and the billions invested over the past 12 years must show investors a return. That’s why prices have been increasing, not to mention the additional value cloud providers can offer, such as integrated AI, finops, operations, etc.?At the same time, the cost of producing hardware, such as traditional HDD storage, has dropped to a new level of confusion. Now it’s a viable alternative to cloud-based storage systems. Thus, it’s not just a quick decision to pick cloud computing over traditional hardware now. ... Again, this is about being entirely objective when looking at all potential solutions, including cloud and on-premises. Cost being equal, cloud computing will be the better choice nine times out of 10, but now that the prices are very different, that may not be the case.?If you’re the person making these calls, you must consider all aspects of these solutions, including future criteria.?

Leveraging Cloud DevOps to drive digital optimization and maximizing cloud benefits

Organizations need to consider several factors to ensure a successful implementation that delivers desired business value. They must begin by identifying the business drivers and putting in place a change management program. They must train or upskill their employees and focus on the structural and process changes required to foster collaboration between different functions. Companies must define measurable goals and KPIs and establish governance after considering the prevailing technology landscape and the future roadmap. . They must know and assess their existing infrastructure and portfolio, their requirements, the current challenges they face, the right cloud mix that’s appropriate to their needs, and so on. They must plan their resources and identify their security needs to ensure Cloud DevOps can meet these requirements. ... The success of Cloud DevOps can be measured along four primary dimensions – efficiency, agility, reliability, and quality.

Spatial Data Science: The Basics You Need to Know

“Spatial data science is data science on geospatial data -- location data, navigation data, GPS data, any data that is geocoded,” Kobielus explained. “Geospatial data science builds on and extends the capabilities of geographic information systems.” ... When asked about principal use cases for spatial data science, Kobielus suggested several possibilities. “A core and mainstream enterprise application for spatial data science has been address management. Customer information management needs to be integrated with permanent addressing which then is geocoded so that as your customers move around you always know what their actual address is.” Other possible uses include determining optimal locations for things such as retail outlets or manufacturing facilities, optimizing supply chain logistics, tracking inventory, personalizing user experiences on mobile devices, allowing businesses to provide targeted content, and indoor applications to help organizations optimally arrange things within warehouses or other indoor spaces.

Forecasting Team Performance

A useful technique is systems mapping. To do it, you first, identify qualitative factors and situations affecting your organization. By qualitative, I’m referring to what you can't see on a neat dashboard or chart — the things that only come up in casual 1:1 calls with people, or in water cooler conversations and healthy retrospectives. Next, think about second-order effects. These are the consequences of those qualitative factors, which have further implications and so on. Researchers have shown that second-order effects are a big blindside of the human brain; we think in terms of linear cause-and-effect and so often miss significant domino-effect repercussions. One way of making sure you’re sensitive to these second-order effects is to talk to people that have been in the organization for a long time. They're often the people who are most eager to share the types of stories that will help you draw connections between seemingly unrelated situations.

When Do Agile Teams Make Time for Innovation?

The unintended side effects of shorter sprints and sprint commitments can be devastating for creativity and breakthroughs. Teams that feel pressured by time or fear of failure aren't going to feel safe to experiment. In the absence of psychological safety, innovation recedes. It's critical that agile teams push back against this pressure to deliver and never fail. A recent Harvard Business Review article on psychological safety said, "In essence, agile’s core technology isn’t technical or mechanical. It’s cultural." Or as Entrepreneur.com put it, “Your company needs an innovation culture, not an innovation team. You don't become an innovative company by hiring a few people to work on it while everybody else goes through the motions” As agilists, we must fight to establish experimentation as part of our company culture. Companies that value innovation empower self-organizing teams to try new things, encourage (and fund) continuous learning and improvement, solicit and act on feedback and ideas, and emphasize collaboration and communication.

Microsoft attacked over ‘grossly irresponsible’ security practice

Yoran said the so-called shared responsibility model of cyber security espoused by public cloud providers, including Microsoft, was irretrievably broken if a provider fails to notify users of issues as they arise and apply fixes openly. He argued that Microsoft was quick to ask for its users’ trust and confidence, but in return they get “very little transparency and a culture of toxic obfuscation”. “How can a CISO, board of directors or executive team believe that Microsoft will do the right thing given the fact patterns and current behaviours? Microsoft’s track record puts us all at risk. And it’s even worse than we thought,” said Yoran. “Microsoft’s lack of transparency applies to breaches, irresponsible security practices and to vulnerabilities, all of which expose their customers to risks they are deliberately kept in the dark about,” he added. A Microsoft spokesperson said: “We appreciate the collaboration with the security community to responsibly disclose product issues.?

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