F5's State of Application Services Survey

Since 2015, F5 has been surveying the tech industry to learn the key issues surrounding application deployment and delivery. Again for 2020, we’d love to understand your company’s current application architectures to help shape F5’s application services strategy. We will be taking responses until Oct 10, 2019.

If you are interested in taking the survey, please continue to this link:
https://f5.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0JJY1SQZyiufT7v?URL_SOURCE=F5DevCentral

RSA2013: F5 RSA Security Trends Survey

I review the key findings from the F5 RSA Security Trends Survey. On Tuesday, February 26, F5 conducted a survey on the exhibit show floor during RSA 2013. Conference attendees were asked two initial qualifying questions about their role within their organization and how much their job involves the management and implementation of security to ensure the validity of the survey results. More than 150 qualified respondents were then asked a total of four questions surrounding security trends.

The survey revealed that organizations are struggling to keep pace with the changing face of security. Virtualization, BYOD and shifts in IT infrastructures and applications along with the complexity of attack types are driving new threats. IT admits that these threats are beyond the scope of traditional safeguards. As such, IT reports that their general security readiness is subpar.

 

ps

Related:

• RSA2013: Aloha from RSA
• RSA2013: Find F5
• RSA2013: Gimme 90 Seconds Security Edition
• RSA2013: Partner Spotlight – Websense
• RSA2013: Partner Spotlight – Quarri
• F5′s YouTube Channel
• In 5 Minutes or Less Series (23 videos – over 2 hours of In 5 Fun)
• Inside Look Series
• Life@F5
• Also this week, check out: Mobile World Congress – Day 1 & Mobile World Congress – Day 2

Technorati Tags: f5,rsac,rsa,rsa2013,psilva,video,survey

The Exec-Disconnect on IT Security

Different Chiefs give Different Security Stories.

A recent survey shows that there is a wide gap between CEOs and Chief Security Officers when it comes to the origin and seriousness of security threats.  They differ on how they view threats to IT Infrastructure  and remain far apart on how to best address an issue that according to analyst reports, costs organizations more than $30 billion annually.  The survey of 100 CEOs and 100 CISO (or other C-levels with security responsibility), shows that the discrepancy is often due to lack of communication.  36% of CEOs said that they never get a security report from their CISO and only 27% receive updates on a regular basis.  Is it the CISO that doesn’t report back or the CEO that is not interested?  Let’s look at some more data.

The CISO felt that the biggest threat was from internal (their employees) due to lack of education and attention while the CEO felt that the biggest threat was from the outside, such as phishing attacks.   Thus, 61% of CEOs said they did have enough time and resources to adequately train the staff on how to mitigate threats while Only 27% of CISOs felt the same.  It’s opposite day.  When asked if their IT systems were ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ under attack without their knowledge, 58% of CISOs said yes while only 26% of CEOs agreeing.  The chasm grows.  What percentage of each, do you think, said they were very concerned about their IT systems getting hacked?  30 seconds on the clock, please.  Don’t peek.  Only 15% of CEOs and ‘only’ 62% of CISOs are anxious about breaches.  15%?  That’s it?  Maybe they have great confidence in their security team…or, they don’t have the information.  65% of CEOs admitted to not having the sufficient data needed to interpret how security threats translate to overall business risk.  Wow, the very day-to-day operations.  Granted, the CEO is further removed from the specific threats and how they are handled but there is clearly a distance between how each views threats and the company’s ability to successfully mitigate them.

Lack of interest or lack of understanding/information?  Probably both.  An old adage was that a great boss hired people who were good at the things he/she wasn’t so good at.  Surround yourself with those who know their areas better.  Or maybe there is a culture that you don’t alert the top unless it’s dire, critical or unstoppable.   Communication or interest, it is evident that the C-suite isn’t really talking about these critical business issues especially when 3 times as many CEOs worried about losing their jobs following an attack than did CISOs.

ps

References

• SECURITY: A LACK OF CEO INSIGHT OR CEO INTEREST?
• CEOs Lack Visibility Into Origin and Seriousness of Security Threats
• Talking About Security Bores the Boss, Survey Shows
• Myth or Fact? Debunking 15 of the Biggest Information Security Myths
• The CEO/CISO Disconnect Infographic

Technorati Tags: F5, security research, botnet, threat landscape, Pete Silva, security, business, technology, cloud,compliance,regulations, web,internet

Connect with Peter:	Connect with F5:

Has The Sky Cleared on Cloud Security?

Last year I embarked on a blog series, lead by my trusty advisor CloudFucius, that evolved into an exploration of the numerous cloud computing surveys, reports, statistics and other feelings about the technology.  At the time, 4-5 surveys a week were being released covering some aspect of cloud computing and security was cited as the biggest hurdle in almost 90% of the surveys.  I also found that availability, control and a general lack of understanding were also drivers in challenges to cloud adoption.   Almost 6 months have passed since the last CloudFucius entry and I wanted to see if the same fears were still lingering or at least, were the current surveys reporting the same concerns from a year ago about Cloud Computing.

First up, is UK based technology publication, Computing.   Working with Symantec.cloud, they surveyed 150 IT decision makers and learned that as more companies embrace Cloud Computing, they are finding that the cloud solutions meet or beat, not only their expectations but also their own existing in-house solutions.  While on-premise security solutions might be adequate today, as the security threats evolve, the cloud providers may have the advantage over time due to the infrastructure investments in advanced filtering and detection along with 24/7 trained staff.  Last year, availability and uptime also emerged as concerns and today there is great interest in the contractual SLAs offered by cloud providers since it often surpasses what they are capable of in-house.  Resiliency and disaster recovery across multiple data centers can ensure that if there is an outage in one location, the customers can still access their data.  Management and control still create some anxiety but many IT teams are happy to abdicate routine maintenance, like OS patching and hardware upgrades, in exchange for management SLAs.  Now that the hype of cloud services has passed and many providers are proving themselves worthy, it is now becoming part of the overall IT strategy.  As the perceived threats to data security in the cloud dwindle, trust in the cloud will grow.

The Cloud Connect Conference in Santa Clara also released a survey during their gathering.  In that one, elasticity and speed of deployment were the top motivators to using cloud services.  Elasticity or the flexibility to quickly add or reduce capacity, can greatly influence the availability of data.  These folks however were less motivated by improved security or access to the provider’s IT staff.  Their top concerns were data privacy and infrastructure control.  I do find it interesting that last year the term ‘security,’ which can encompass many things, was the primary apprehension of going to the cloud while today, it has somewhat narrowed to specifically data privacy.  That too can mean several things but areas like outsider’s physical access to systems doesn’t seem to worry IT crews as much any more.

When it comes to our school/educational system, Panda Security released a study that focused on IT security in K-12 school districts.  Like many companies, they must deal with unauthorized user access, malware outbreaks and admit that IT security is time and resource intensive.  They do believe however that the cloud can offer security benefits and improve their overall infrastructure.  91% see value in cloud solutions and are planning to implement over the next couple years with 80% saying improved security was a main reason to deploy cloud-based security.

Finally on the consumer front, GfK Business & Technology surveyed 1000 adults about cloud services and storing content in the cloud.  With all of our connected devices – cell phone, computer, tablet, etc. – there will be a greater demand to move data to the cloud.  Not real surprising, less than 10% of the consumers surveyed fully understand what the cloud actually does.  The know of it, but not what it accomplishes.  With what you don’t understand comes fear.  61% said that they were concerned about storing their data in the cloud and almost half said they would never use the cloud unless it was easy to store and retrieve data.  As businesses begin to feel content with the cloud, they then need to both educate and communicate cloud benefits to their consumers.

So it does appear like comfort with the cloud is beginning to take hold and as cloud offerings mature, especially around security, err ah, I mean data privacy solutions, the fear, uncertainty and doubt from last year is starting to loosen and it sure seems like greater adoption is on the horizon.

And one from Confucius: They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

ps

Resources:

• CloudFucius Closes This Cloud Canon
• Content security in the cloud - no longer hot air
• Cloud-based IT Security at a Tipping Point
• Reader Forum: The importance of cloud computing in mobile security
• Panda Security Study Reveals 63 Percent of Schools Plagued by IT Security Breaches at Least Twice a Year
• Cloud computing: What it can do for you and your business
• Just Don't Call It A 'Cloud'
• Defining enterprise security best practices for self-provisioned technology
• What do security auditors really think?
• Private Cloud Computing No Safer than Public Cloud
• Survey Shows Businesses Interested, But Still Conflicted, About The Cloud
• Cloud Computing Has the Power to Enhance Consumer Data Consumption, But Obstacles Hinder Greater Short-Term Adoption

Technorati Tags: F5, infrastructure 2.0, integration, cloud computing, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, cloud, cloud survey, infrastructure 2.0, web, internet

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Identity Theft: Good News-Bad News Edition

So which would you like first? 

Javelin Strategy & Research said identity theft incidents were down 28% in 2010 (vs. 2009) according to their latest consumer survey.  This is the lowest level since 2007 and about 3 million less victims than in 2009.  They partially attribute this to a decline in industry reported data breaches going from 604 (221 million exposed records) to 404 (26 million exposed records) in 2010 along with economic conditions, better security measures and busts by law enforcement playing a major role.  If you have an existing credit card account, there’s good news on that front also – fraud from existing credit cards was down 38% ($14 billion) compared to 2009 ($23 billion).  New account fraud, where the victim might not have any idea than an account was opened in their name, took top honors in types of fraud with $17 billion siphoned.  ‘Change in physical address’ was the No. 1 method of account takeover reported by victims.

Don’t drop the confetti yet, however.  While the overall numbers look encouraging, the devil is in the details as the cliché goes.  Even thought the overall numbers are down, the consumer out-of-pocket expense to resolve ID fraud went from $387 per incident to $631 in 2010 – a 63% increase.  Because criminals are using more clever ways to steal you data, you have to spend more time fixing the issue and the costs can grew.  Your friends and family are also sticking it to ya. ‘Friendly Fraud,’ when someone you know steals your info, increased 7% with 41% of this batch saying their SSN was stolen.

They also found a correlation between retail sales and identity fraud.  When sales are up, fraud is down and when sales are down, fraud goes up, says James Van Dyke, founder of Javelin Strategy & Research.  He feels that when the economy is doing well and people can make purchases with their own money, they are less likely to steal.  Add to that, better security measures are in place and people are more aware of identify fraud, thus they keep a better eye on questionable transactions.  Another bad sign is that while credit card fraud has dropped, debit card fraud went from 26% to 36% in a year.  This could be due to more people using debit cards rather than credit for purchases but also due to debit’s lower level of protection when it comes to fraud. Some would question the validity of the survey since it is a ‘self-report’ telephone survey and bank data would argue that fraud is actually up in many areas.  There are many more intriguing tidbits in the report and you can check out Javelin’s report with a couple interesting charts here.

ps

Related:

• Identity Fraud Fell 28 Percent in 2010 According to New Javelin Strategy & Research Report
• Survey: Consumers say ID theft down 28%
• ID theft down 28 percent U.S. in 2010 – survey
• Statement from the Identity Theft Assistance Center on Report Citing Significant Decrease in Identity Theft
• Synthetic Identity Theft: The Silent Swindler
• Identity Theft Roundup
• The New Wallet: Is it Dumb to Carry a Smartphone?
• Dumpster Diving vs. The Bit Bucket
• Got a SSN I can Borrow?

Connect with Peter:	Connect with F5:

Technorati Tags: F5, infrastructure 2.0, integration, cloud connect, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, intercloud, cloud, context-aware, infrastructure 2.0, automation, web, internet, cybercrime, security, holiday shopping, identity theft, scam, email, data breach

The Best Day to Blog Experiment - Day 3

If you missed the past two days, welcome to The Best Day to Blog Experiment; you are now a participant.  For the first time readers, I’ve come across many stories about when is the best day/time to get the most readership exposure from a blog post and I figured I’d do my own little brief, non-scientific experiment.  The idea is to blog everyday this week, track the results and report back next week.  Thanks for becoming a statistic.  Yesterday, I noted that it was important to have a good opening line to grab your readers, yet I’ve repeated this exact opening 3 days in a row.  I’m wondering if this will have any influence on the results.  I guess that’s part of the test – follow the rules, break the rules and see what happens.  I’m now on Day 3 of the experiment and so far Day 1 (Monday) actually got some good traction and Day 2 (Tuesday) is trending well with a 6.5% jump in visits over Monday.  Bounce Rate and Time on Site are also in the positive day over day.  I’m tweeting the post(s) a couple times a day to catch folks all over.  I do this sometimes, especially if I post late in the day – I’ll tweet the link out early the next morning hoping to catch readers who might have missed it the previous afternoon or re-tweet late in the day if I’ve posted very early.  Oh and by the way, I really want to thank those of you who are playing along at home – without you, I’d have no data. 

Welcome to Wednesday, hump-day, mid-week and originally Woden’s Day, for the Anglo-Saxon god Woden.  Wednesday is also a very good day to post a blog according to a few reports and it happens to be one of the more likely days that a reader would comment.  Like Tuesday, posting mid-week allows readers to find the entry even if they miss the initial syndication.  I’ve read that both Tuesday and Thursday are the best days to post a blog, so sitting in the middle of the two should garner results, right?  Lorelle VanFossen, who writes about blogging says that sometimes it isn’t about when you post but it’s about when the most people visit your blog.  She notes that while certain days do draw more viewers in general, knowing when the best day/time to post is more about understanding which day of the week your traffic levels will be highest and making sure content is available during those times or; post your ‘most poignant’ content during that window.  Another interesting angle is that we train our audience when to show up, so the actual day might not matter.  If you blog every day and your readers have been trained to watch for it daily, when you miss a few days without notice, folks wonder what happened.  I’ve mentioned that I usually post either on Tuesday or Wednesday and I’m guessing that is when my readers ‘look’ for content.  It makes sense then, that a post on Friday probably won’t (and it hasn’t) gain views since my regular readers are not looking for it then.  If they do come across it, it might not get the depth or engagement since the weekend is right around the corner.  I’ll be watching for that 2 days from now.  It’s interesting so far that what started as a simple test to determine the best day to blog, has generated more observations and additional questions along the way – meaning, things I didn’t consider at the start are becoming interesting to watch as this moves along.

The recurring part that’s also been fun is adding ‘Songs about the Day’ as a theme during this blog experiment – thinking it might be the one consistent part that ties this series together.  All week, I’ve used The Y! Radish’s blog about ‘songs with days in the title’ and am going to once again ‘lift’ his list for songs about Wednesday. 

Top 10 Songs About Wednesday

   1. Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. - Simon & Garfunkel
   2. Ash Wednesday - Elvis Perkins
   3. Wednesday - Tori Amos
   4. Wednesday Week - The Undertones
   5. Wednesday - Drive-By Truckers
   6. Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting - Charles Mingus
   7. Wednesday Morning - America
   8. (April) Spring, Summer, And Wednesdays - Status Quo
   9. Wednesday Night Waltz - Chet Atkins
   10. Wednesday Week - Elvis Costello

and my favorite Wednesday song: It's Only Wednesday – Crash Kings

ps

Related:

• The Best Day to Blog Experiment - Day 1
• The Best Day to Blog Experiment - Day 2
• Business Blog: What Is The Best Time Of Day To Post?
• When is the Best Time and Day to Publish a Blog Post (2008 update)

twitter: @psilvas

Technorati Tags: blog,social media,monday,music,statistics,blog traffic,web traffic,best day to blog,best day to publish,analytics,silva

The Best Day to Blog Experiment–Day 1

Welcome to Monday, typically the day most workers dread but with that extra hour of sleep yesterday, you’re amazingly refreshed aren’t you?  I don’t mind the ‘practice Sunday’ for the spring forward event but wonder with the fall back, what if you waited and changed the clocks on Sunday eve – how early everyone would be for work!  But I digress.  Also, Welcome to The Best Day to Blog Experiment; you are now a participant.  I toyed with The Great Blog Experiment, but ‘great’ might be stretching it.  Nevertheless - I do hope to get some decent data to report back next week.  I’ve read various stories about when is the best time and day to get the most readership exposure from a blog post.  Now of course, content plays a big role in what readers are interested in but, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve found that something I think is awesome, sometimes doesn’t always translate to a huge pick up in the blogosphere.  So I figured I’d do my own little brief, non-scientific experiment to see.  I’m curious that way.  I’ll probably just use Google Analytics to track trends.  The idea is to blog everyday this week and track the results.  I normally only blog once or twice a week so this will be interesting – not like Mrs. MacVittie who can crank out 9 or 10.  You go Lori!  Maybe I’ll ask her to compare data when this is done since she does have a wide readership.  We participate in a lot of social media activities here at F5 and like most SM conscious companies, we analyze our content and look to ways for increasing our reach.

Statistically speaking, Monday is not a bad day to post a blog.  I would have thought that Monday might be challenging to get an audience since folks are focusing on the work week, catching up on things that got left behind the previous week and going through email.  It might also be a time when people are looking for stories or solutions to the things they need to complete that week.  You might also be checking your favorite blogger, one that you read often or subscribe to since it is part of your weekly reading anyway.  As far as times, some feel that after lunch (Pacific Zone) is one of the best times to post.  It’s toward the end of the day out East and maybe those West-coasters need some reading dessert before cranking out the afternoon.  The other thing about Monday is depending on your worldwide audience, Monday might be their 2nd day of work for that week since some countries start the work week on Sunday.

Well, that’s about it for Day 1 and I’m really not sure yet what I’ll write tomorrow, except that I was thinking of including the best songs about the particular post day – yeah, maybe that’ll generate traffic.  So, here are the top 10 songs about Monday according to The Y! Radish, who also says that the average person will experience 4040 Mondays in their life.

• I Don't Like Mondays - The Boomtown Rats
• Blue Monday - New Order
• Monday Monday - The Mamas & The Papas
• New Moon On Monday - Duran Duran
• Monday – Wilco
• Long Monday - John Prine
• Manic Monday - The Bangles
• Monday Monday Monday - Tegan and Sara
• Blue Monday - Little Milton
• They Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday's Just As Bad) - T-Bone Walker
• and my addition, Monday Morning – Fleetwood Mac

ps

Related:

• When is the Best Time and Day to Post on Your Blog?
• Best Day to Blog
• Bit.ly, Twitter, Security & You
• The State of My Blog Address

twitter: @psilvas

Technorati Tags: blog,social media,monday,music,statistics,blog traffic,web traffic,best day to blog,best day to publish,analytics,macvittie,silva

CloudFucius Closes This Cloud Canon

Well, this is the 27th entry (26 not counting the intro) in the CloudFucius Series and what an interesting ride!  What started out as a cloud version of the 26 Short Topics about Security series, soon turned into an exploration of the numerous cloud computing surveys, reports, statistics and other feelings about the technology.  I also intended to investigate areas of cloud computing that I was not so familiar with and there were a few areas that I was able to dig further – like Radio and the NFL.  Readers really seemed to like the ‘CloudFucius’ notion and while this is the last of this series, CloudFucius is not retired.  We’ll bring him back from time to time to help decipher some of those cloud surveys.  Another interesting tid-bit is that a few weeks into the series, someone from the Pacific Northwest actually created a twitter handle @cloudfucius.  It wasn’t me but I had great interest in that, as you can imagine.  I tried contacting them several times and then within the last week or so, the account disappeared.  If you are out there, give me a shout!!  Lastly, I included a real Confucius quote in each entry since his words seem to resonate when it comes to cloud computing.

What did I learn?  While I would notice various cloud surveys during my weekly perusal of the internet, I didn’t realize that there are/were so many, so frequently.  Some weeks, literally 4-5 surveys would be released covering some aspect of cloud computing – adoption, budget, compliance, deployment, effectiveness, fears, guests, hijacking, insiders, justification, PKI, litigation, management, networks, open standards, public vs. private, questions, reliability, social media, IPv6, user experience, virtualization, gaming, control, vendors and security just to name 26.  Security is cited as the biggest hurdle in almost 90% of the surveys but I also found that availability, control and a general lack of understanding are also drivers in challenges to cloud adoption.  I also wondered if ‘security’ is the real culprit or are IT professionals just answering with that to keep the assets in-house and under their control.  I bet a little of both.  The ease of shoving stuff to the cloud has made anyone with a office cube an instant IT administrator.  That has brought challenges too.  Those who have touched the clouds, clearly see and recognize the benefits and continue to move more assets to the cloud.  Those who haven’t, are hesitant or risk averse.  And then there’s the group who are either testing or investigating ways to take advantage of the flexibility, scalability, cost savings and agility.

This final entry wouldn’t be complete without some reporting on the most recent cloud surveys.  Hubspan reported that 64% said that 'moving to the cloud for applications, infrastructure, integration and other solutions is a strategic direction for their organization and department.'  Main reasons for not moving to the cloud are lack of understanding the benefits and IT having their own way of doing things.  Finally some honesty.

CA Technologies recently found in their Mainframe - The Ultimate Cloud Platform? survey that '79% of IT organizations consider the mainframe to be an essential component of their cloud computing strategy.'  The kicker is that they are having trouble finding and retaining skilled mainframe professionals.  44% of surveyed companies said they are "grappling" with staffing issues to manage and maintain their production systems.
A new TechTarget survey of more than 800 IT pros found that SMBs are not convinced that Private Clouds are beneficial.  Virtualization Decisions 2010 survey shows that while large organizations might be building and experimenting with cloud technologies, almost two-thirds  said they have no plans to try the private cloud model.  They have enough to do and with smaller budgets, they don’t have the luxury of experimenting with  new technologies.  Also, unlike most surveys, security was not the major barrier.  The number 1 reason was that they really didn't need a couple key components – metered usage and department chargeback – 35% said so.  Complexity and skilled staff also keep them from adopting.

And just to magnify the TechTarget survey, a new Harris Interactive poll of more than 200 IT pros at large enterprises indicates a 'much broader adoption of cloud computing, and shows accelerating momentum behind developing private cloud infrastructures.'  89% said that private clouds are the next logical step for organizations already implementing virtualization.  With this one, we’re also back to citing Security as the main barrier – 91% are concerned about security issues in the public cloud, with 50 percent indicating security as the primary barrier to implementation.

So the survey results are in and more will arrive this week, next week, next month and into the foreseeable future as long as there are questions surrounding the cloud.  I do think I covered a good portion of the survey data available over the last couple months so if you need to research cloud statistics or if you missed any CloudFucius columns, here they are in order:

The CloudFucius Series

• CloudFucius Has: Déjà Vu and Amnesia…
• CloudFucius Councils: Cloud’s Love/Hate Relationship
• CloudFucius’ Road Trip: Oracle Open World
• CloudFucius Confused: Cloud Costing Companies?
• CloudFucius Is: Ready for Some Football
• CloudFucius Goes Off…to VMworld
• CloudFucius Repeats: Money (Really) Moving to the Cloud
• CloudFucius’ Money: Trickles to the Cloud
• CloudFucius Counts: Cloud Outages
• CloudFucius Corners: The Coin Operated Cloud
• CloudFucius Investigates: The Comeback Cloud
• CloudFucius Asks: Will Open Source Open Doors for Cloud Computing?
• CloudFucius Tunes into Radio KCloud
• CloudFucius Dials Up the Cloud
• 99 Blog Posts on the Wall...
• Connecting to a Cloud while Flying thru the Clouds
• CloudFucius Shares: Cloud Research and Stats
• CloudFucius Listens: F5’s Cloud Computing Solutions
• CloudFucius Combines: Security and Acceleration
• CloudFucius Inspects: Hosts in the Cloud
• CloudFucius Wants: An Optimized Cloud
• CloudFucius Ponders: High-Availability in the Cloud
• CloudFucius Hollers: Read All About, F5’s On-Demand IT
• CloudFucius Wonders: Can Cloud, Confidentiality and The Constitution Coexist?
• CloudFucius Says: AAA Important to the Cloud
• CloudFucius Says: Blog Series, Good Idea

And one from Confucius: The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.

ps

The CloudFucius Series: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

Resources:

• Survey Shows Cloud Is a Strategic Direction for Most Companies
• Mainframes Essential to Cloud Computing: Survey
• SMBs still unsold on private cloud
• Businesses will migrate to the cloud for IT delivery over the next five years, a survey indicates
• Cloud Computing Survey Reveals Widespread and Accelerating Enterprise Adoption of Private Clouds
• Mobile, cloud computing to dominate software apps, IT deliveries in next 5 yrs, says survey
• Security still an issue for cloud customers

Technorati Tags: F5, infrastructure 2.0, integration, cloud computing, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, cloud, context-aware, infrastructure 2.0, web, internet
twitter: @psilvas

CloudFucius Councils: Cloud’s Love/Hate Relationship

I’m afraid so….let’s get more!  I don’t like it and….here’s a check.  I’m not safe….but I need another.  I’m so sick of you….give me a big hug.  As I’ve mentioned on a few occasions, it seems like a new cloud computing survey gets released on a weekly basis and often the results make me want to scratch my head.  One says that cloud is growing and folks love the benefits while another claims fears are holding companies back and cloud adoption could be in trouble.  We really need The Cloud Computing Love/Hate Relationship Survey with conditional type questions like: If all your fears were removed, would you jump head first?  Surveys can always be tricky – the way the questions are asked, in what context, the questions themselves and of course, the actual respondents answering the questions.

Now to the data.  First up, we got the 2010 State of Cloud and Virtualization Survey conducted by Zenoss, a privately held company and the corporate sponsor of the cloud-based networking/management project Zenoss Core.  Responses came from the 207 members of the Zenoss Open Source community and comprised of IT management, generalists, and network operators.  Security was the number one hindrance, with management and monitoring as the other top concerns.  When asked for reasons for using virtualization technology, 43% favored the flexibility and another 33% liked the hardware savings.  The overall number one goal of using virtualization was cost savings (64.7%) followed by deployment control.  Almost 71% said they wanted a tool that managed all their infrastructure rather than a solution that just focused on virtualization.

Next is Gartner’s survey that focused primarily on budgets and spending on external IT resources, specifically IT spending trends and spending on cloud computing.  This was a worldwide survey covering 40 countries and questioned 1,587 respondents who managed IT budgets (CIOs, IT VPs, IT directors, IT managers, etc).  484 of those also answered detailed questions about their plans for cloud computing.  39% said they have allocated IT dollars specifically for cloud computing.  A third was a continuation of last year’s budget, another third said this was additional spending new to the budget and 14% said the additional spending was being taken from a different budget category in the previous year.  Of those with budget allocated, 46% indicated that they plan on increasing the use of cloud services from external providers.  More respondents (43%) said the spending would go toward private/internal clouds than external/public use deployments (32%).  Overall, 10.2% of IT budgets are expected to be spent on external cloud service providers – a shift from traditional data center assets to utility services in the cloud.

Another recent survey, this one conducted by PhoneFactor, asked more than 300 information technology professionals from a variety of industries about the role of security in cloud computing adoption.  This survey also asked about their organizations’ current and planned use of cloud computing, what perceived benefits are driving adoption, along with which concerns are limiting embracement.  Overwhelmingly, security was the top concern with 73% saying such.  Compliance (54%) and Portability/Ownership of Data (48%) came in with silver and bronze.  42% said that security concerns have prevented their adoption of cloud computing, 30% unsure and only 28% bragged that security was not a deterrent.  Of the security concerns, preventing unauthorized access to company data was the biggest hurdle.  According to the survey, encryption (84 percent), multi-factor authentication (81 percent), and intrusion prevention (80 percent) are vital to securing the cloud.  On the positives, reduced cost (65 percent), scalability (62 percent), and rapid implementation (50 percent) make cloud computing attractive to organizations.  Another positive sign is that 87% affirmed that they are planning to at least evaluate the use of cloud services.

Lastly, in a survey from Sterling Commerce (an IBM Company) and conducted by Edge Research, looked at the business concerns of 301 IT, sales and supply chain decision makers in the manufacturing and logistics industries.  This one was more about the economic environment and managing volatility within the supply chain.  The main focus in 2011 will be focusing on implementing solutions that are more precise and automated, allowing them to reduce risk.  Pertaining to cloud computing, the survey uncovered that manufacturers will continue to invest in cloud computing with 60% of respondents already implementing cloud solutions and 36% implementing two or more cloud solutions.  Survey results revealed that order management, supply chain visibility and warehouse management are the most commonly used cloud solutions among manufacturers today.

All these surveys show that while there is a huge interest in cloud services and companies understand and in many cases are realizing the benefits; concerns about security, control and management are holding some back.  Most seem to be testing the waters with less than critical business applications and are anxious about the future.  Anxious both in terms of anticipation and fear.  They want it…but need some issues ironed out.  They see the benefits….yet some risks are too great.  They love the design….but hate the color.  Certainly, many obstructions are related (or at least that’s what they say) to security, I also wonder if that many of the security responses might have to do with the fear giving up control themselves.  They cite ‘security’ since that will help them keep control.  To quote a colleague, ‘it’s going to take a while for cloud to take hold.  It’s got a toe in the door right now….and that’s a little toe.’

And one from Confucius: Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.

ps

The CloudFucius Series: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

Related:

• 2010 State of Cloud and Virtualization Survey
• Report: 2010 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Survey
• Infographic: The State of Cloud Computing
• Gartner Survey Shows Cloud-Computing Services Represents 10 Percent of Spending on External IT Services in 2010
• Gartner Survey Reveals How the Cloud Is Changing IT Budgets
• Cloud computing service spending increases: Gartner
• Security a Big Concern for Cloud Computing
• Security Is Stunting Adoption of Cloud Computing
• Survey Finds Cloud Security Lacking
• New Survey Reveals Reliance on Manual Processes Puts Customer Relationships at Risk
• CloudFucius Confused: Cloud Costing Companies?
• CloudFucius Shares: Cloud Research and Stats
• CloudFucius’ Money: Trickles to the Cloud

Technorati Tags: F5, integration, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, cloud, context-aware, web, internet

twitter: @psilvas

CloudFucius Confused: Cloud Costing Companies?

You heard that right.  Yeah, I know – wasn’t cloud computing supposed to save money?  All that economies of scale, pay-as-you-go, shared infrastructure, reduced CapEx and OpEx and so on has gotten real cloudy according to a recent survey.  Research company Vanson Bourne, commissioned by Compuware, found that large European companies are losing £600,000 a year due to poor performance of cloud based applications – that’s close to $1 Million USD!  These are e-commerce sites and Internet based business applications.

They surveyed 300 European IT Directors and found that 57% are slowing down, stopping or even shutting down cloud based applications until they can solve this issue.  They noted that while many organizations have large investments in cloud based systems, cloud performance management may hamper or slow the adoption rate moving forward.  84% said that they expect more accurate SLAs than simple availability especially with business critical apps.  Many respondents have experienced degraded performance to their site when a neighboring customer has a huge surge in demand.  There is finite resources available and when one customer grabs a bunch of it, everyone else can suffer. 

Organizations need to look at end to end performance from an end user perspective and not just what the cloud provider is telling them.  There are many variables when determining availability and sometimes it’s difficult to determine if it’s the cloud provider, the customer’s own infrastructure or the Internet itself.  Compuware's Richard Stone said, "Security concerns are obviously still important but it's clear that performance is now becoming the 'day in, day out' business inhibitor that has to be solved,"…"The good thing is people are aware of the issue and understand that the end-user experience can't be compromised."  In another recent survey from Gomez, statistics show that almost one-third of consumers will abandon a slow site within 1 or 5 seconds.  I could relate this to an impatient society but I’d have to include myself.  That same survey found that 39% said speed rather than functionality was more important to a web site.

And one from Confucius: Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.

ps

The CloudFucius Series: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

Related:

• Cloud performance issues costing firms €600,000 a year
• Companies struggling with cloud performance
• Cloud apps cost firms £500,000 a year in poor performance
• New Survey From Compuware Gomez Reveals Consumers Will Quickly Abandon Slow Websites
• Network Optimization Won’t Fix Application Performance in the Cloud
• Cloud Testing: The Next Generation
• Cloud Lets You Throw More Hardware at the Problem Faster
• CloudFucius Combines: Security and Acceleration
• The Cloud Computing – Application Acceleration Connection

Technorati Tags: F5, infrastructure 2.0, integration, cloud connect, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, cloud, context-aware, infrastructure 2.0, automation, web, internet, blog

twitter: @psilvas 

CloudFucius Repeats: Money (Really) Moving to the Cloud

Ever wish you saved a blog title for that ‘perfect’ eye-catcher?  Well, I do.  Last week I wrote about some cloud surveys talking about how financial institutions are using cloud services titled: CloudFucius’ Money: Trickles to the Cloud.  I get to this week’s weekly entry and Ka-Chow (with apologies to Lightning McQueen) that would have been the perfect title to this entry.  Oh well, as to not be included in the Department of Redundancy Department Hall of Fame, I had to be a little creative with something slightly different.  And for all of you looking at the title and wondering, ‘Did this guy just copy his last blog entry?’  I can assure you, this is all new material so let’s get to it.

Have you seen the news?  Cloud Computing Ranks High on Fujitsu's M&A Shopping List; HP, Dell in Bidding War for Cloud Computing Provider; 6fusion is hiring after raising $3 million; and Nimbula raises $15M to expand cloud service.  I guess we’ve moved slightly past the ‘early adopter’ stage and right into the ‘gimmie more’ stage.  Throughout the CloudFucius series, we’ve tried to investigate the various surveys showing cloud computing movement and hindrances along with learning about areas we were not so knowledgeable.  It’s almost following the same pattern as 26 Short Topics About Security where I filled the entries with stats, surveys, stories, suggestions and as Don MacVittie commented, ‘a link fest’ of articles.  I tried to present multiple sides of the story, especially with surveys virtually contradicting themselves when it comes to cloud computing.  They want it, they are hesitant; looking into it, waiting until it’s mature; cost saver, virtual sprawl; we’ve deployed, what the heck is it? 

What is intriguing to me, errr CloudFucius, is that I had always thought – both my impression and what analysts have said – that cloud computing will never take over the world but is simply another option for IT with various benefits.  Right now, that’s exactly what it is.  With the announcements above, it sure seems like a lot of providers and investors feel that it’ll be a much larger force within the technology industry.  Almost every technology company, including F5, are providing some sort of services that ‘play’ in the cloud.  Many of us have also been to trade shows where the vendor booth is touting some ‘cloud’ connection and you look at them and go, ‘huh?’  How does that ‘enable’ cloud computing?  ‘Ummm, we use the cloud to do this, that or the other thing.’

How will it all turn out?  Who knows at this point.  Did you expect the level of technology we have today, 10 years ago?  Did you expect RF chips in the underwear you are purchasing?  Did you expect common thieves going to a cloud to steal your info?  Did you think you’d be able to surf the net on an airplane?  Maybe we thought it *might* happen at some point, but we are living it now.  ♫ Meet George Jetson……♫

And one from Confucius: Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

ps

The CloudFucius Series: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Related:

• Nimbula raises $15M to expand cloud service
• HP, Dell in Bidding War for Cloud Computing Provider
• Cloud Computing Ranks High on Fujitsu's M&A Shopping List
• Cloud Acquisitions Change Competitive Landscape
• Storm's A-Comin': 10 High-Profile Cloud Acquisitions And What They Mean
• Report: Cloud IT Ideal for Testing Innovative Ideas
• The future cloud should fend for itself
• Ready or not, cloud is coming
• 4 out of 5 Folks Not Quite Sure What the Cloud Is
• Connecting to a Cloud while Flying thru the Clouds

Technorati Tags: F5, infrastructure 2.0, integration, cloud connect, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, intercloud, cloud, context-aware, infrastructure 2.0, automation, web, internet, blog

twitter: @psilvas