Cloud load balancing means distributing computing resources and workload in a computing environment. Load balancing enables enterprises to manage workload and applications easily. This entails allocating resources among an array of computers, networks, and servers.

With Cloud load balancing, enterprises can achieve higher levels of performance with lower cost. Cloud load balancing gives you the advantage of scalability and rerouting workload as per the demand. It also enables health checks of cloud applications.

Choosing between IBM Cloud and Google Cloud can be difficult. Nonetheless, we are here to make things easier. Keep reading to know more and make the right choice for your business needs.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Google is famous for its cloud platform, which proves to be ideal for enterprises. Their cloud platform is very developer-friendly.

What makes Google a good option is their App Engine product, which ensures and provides agile development. Besides, you get features like compute, storage, networking, and others.

The only con is that they have limited services as compared to its competitors.

Pricing:

In terms of pricing, GCP is famous for its cheap prices. You can use cloud resources on a per-second usage tier. This offers much value to the users. Moreover, there are good additional offers in the first few months.

If you are wondering why to choose Google Cloud – then its budget is affordable, and the cloud services are powerful.

IBM Cloud

IBM cloud goes toe-to-toe with Amazon Web Services.

However, it falls short in some ways. It offers the necessary features required for custom applications.

IBM Cloud is great for blockchain applications like Google. They have awesome customer support like Google Cloud. Setup and deployment are very easy as Google.

However, the biggest con is that the IBM cloud has a very strict security protocol, which needs careful setting up.

Pricing:

The payment is tier-based and there are two payment modules. You can pay as you go and you have the subscription model.

If you are looking for a competitive service, then go for IBM.

Hope this article helps you decide which is best for your needs.

According to CSA or Cloud Security Alliance, more than 70% of the businesses in the world operate via the cloud.

Cloud storage comes with benefits like lower costs, automatic software updates, higher flexibility, increased collaboration. Cloud storage gives users the freedom to access data and work no matter where they are. Even with convenience, some security issues come with it. It may come as a surprise, but as many as 90% of agencies using cloud storage have concerns about the security of cloud storage. These concerns often center around the vulnerability to hacking. Malicious hackers can get into accounts and breach data security. To get a broader picture of the risks here are some concerns most people express:

1. Data Breach

Cloud storage and computing is a relatively new phenomenon and has existed for some years. One important question that often pops up is “Is it safe to store data online rather than on the premises or in-house?”

According to a study titled “Man in Cloud Attack,” more than 50% of the IT and security professionals believe that the security of their organization is low. They have taken fewer measures to ensure their security.

2. Hijacked Accounts

The implementation and growth of the cloud in organizations have led to a new issue – hijacked accounts. Hackers have succeeded in taking over accounts and the data in them. They can steal and use employees’ credentials to login and access the sensitive information stored over the cloud.

3. Insider Threats

It may seem unlikely, but sometimes, people from inside your organization become a threat. They use unauthorized access to access and misuse sensitive information e.g. customer credentials and financial forms.

4. Malware Injection

When the wrong kind of people attack cloud-stored data, they can inject malware or embed codes that become “invalid instances” and run on SaaS cloud servers. This can cause malicious code to cause problems on the cloud server.

5. Cloud Services Abuse

With the increased use and expansion of cloud storage and cloud-based services, small and large enterprises have been hosting a huge amount of data. Illegal software, digital properties, hackers, and outsiders can easily spread malware and access data. The risks of stolen data also involve pirated versions of data e.g. music, books, videos, etc.

6. Insecure APIs

Application Programming Interfaces tend to give users the option to customize their experience. APIs can be a risk to cloud security due to their nature. However, they are an authentic solution for most businesses, because they provide encryption, controlled access, and are authentic.

7. Data Loss

When there is a malicious attack, there is the risk of losing data stored on the cloud. Besides, even if there is a natural disaster, the service provider can lose its entire data. This instance can prove devastating for businesses that do not have a backup or recovery plan.

Conclusively, to make the most out of cloud storage, it is important to take necessary measures against these concerns. Business owners should build strategies to protect their data.

Thanks to modern technology, cloud computing offers flexible and innovative ways of providing for and managing business enterprises. It makes managing big data analysis and IT-based applications easier. The main goal of using cloud computing is to make data constantly available, ensure scalability, and to meet client requirements. Cloud Federation a heterogeneous and multi-cloud environment, which consists of cloud infrastructure. It aggregates different service providers and offers insight into interoperative issues.

Before addressing the issues in Federation Cloud Computing, we need to shed some light on how it works and what it is, and its advantages when used right.

Interconnected Cloud Service

Cloud Federation is an interconnected cloud service provider, which operates based on certain standards. It offers a multi-provider infrastructure and makes sharing and collaboration easier across the organization. There are legislative constraints when it comes to the location of data storage. Cloud Federation aims to provide legislation compliant services for customers.

Using Cloud Federation, cloud service providers interconnect their infrastructure to ensure better resource sharing. The service provider applies federation regulations as well.

Advantages of Cloud Federation

• Access to data and resources worldwide
• Rise in fault tolerance, which serves as insurance against the providers
• Prevention of vendor-lockin situations
• Enhanced manageability
• Improved data management
• Security and privacy
• Interoperability and federation
• Adaptability and virtualization
• Energy efficiency
• Programming models

Types of Cloud Federation

There are two types of Cloud Federation:

• Horizontal federation – This takes place at one level of the cloud. For example – application stack.

• Vertical federation – This takes place at multiple levels.

Note that cloud service providers voluntarily connect with Cloud Federation and its infrastructure. This allows them to share their resources following standard regulations.

When multiple clouds are used, there is no voluntary interaction or sharing of cloud infrastructure.

Problems Faced by Federated Cloud Brokers

The problems that brokers and cloud service providers often face are managing and providing the following federated cloud systems:

• Interface: Different cloud service providers have different APIs, infrastructure, and prices. It is important to initiate an open cloud computing interface to provide a common application programming interface.

• Networking: It is possible to locate different network architectures. However, to interconnect these machines, there will be a need for physical networking and steady IP address schemes. The sensitivity of running strategic information remotely can be a major concern.

• Resource Heterogeneity

A different cloud service provider offers a different virtual machine. Each machine varies in its capacity to process and store data. Usually, cloud owners may consider purchasing the latest model without retiring the old model, creating heterogeneity.

Conclusion

Cloud Federation is a new technology and few people are aware of it. They know a little about its impact on the future of cloud storage and servers. Nonetheless, Cloud Federation has a great influence on how the application and resources of computing are developing in the modern era. We have discussed how this technology works and explained the issues users may face. While handling these issues may seem rather difficult at this stage, there will be improvements in the coming days as more organizations begin to adopt it.

Over the past few decades, cloud computing and modern technology have led to the revolutionization of how we collect data, process it, and store it. Small and large business enterprises are moving their infrastructure to the cloud in recent years, because of two main reasons: massive storage capacity and accessibility. Encrypting the data keeps it secure – and therefore, managing secure data is something you need to be familiar with.

Although there have been improvements in maintaining data security in recent years, it’s still far from satisfactory. Data centers keep valuable and sensitive information, which is why they need to implement firm security protocols, both virtually and physically. Once data centers can implement a good architecture to protect their data, they can be safe and implement their security policies. You need to consider different parameters before selecting which data centers are right for your needs. In this piece, we will address what data center security should entail and how you can make sure your data remain safe on the cloud.

What is data center security?

By definition, a data center is a facility where organizations can store large amounts of data. These facilities have a robust IT infrastructure, designed to ensure the safety of data at different points. Organizations storing data at these data centers can organize, process, and store their data, and recover, backup, and do more with the data no matter where they are, and at any time. Data centers store critical data, which is why they have to ensure security at a high level to protect their users.

Factors that Govern the Effectiveness of Data Centers

There are three things that matter:

• Physical security
• Restricted and managing access
• Setting up tested security protocols and measures

Each of these components comprises different elements, which ensure the effectiveness of one another. All of these can ensure maximum security, surveillance, and access to locations remotely, and ensure multiple authentication protocols. Together they ensure a high level of security and compliance with security policies. Before selecting a data center, make sure you look into how they ensure security and whether they implement best practices to protect data.

5 Best Practices That Ensure Data Center Security

Having addressed the basics of data center security, now let us address five best practices that you can look out for to ensure maximum virtual and physical security. It is not possible to list all the best practices, so we have selected the top 5, which are as follows:

Appropriate Physical Data Center Security

For proper physical data security, one must look out for certain factors. The main concern one must have is the facility architecture. The offices must be independent, to keep limited access and protect the data. The windows and walls must be bulletproof, there must be few windows, and personnel should guard each corner of the building against threats. The environment generally must be secure.

Monitor and Restrict Access

One major threat to avoid is human error. Data centers must ensure that the personnel who have access to the data are trained and do not have access to key assets without proper authorization. Unauthorized personnel should not be able to enter or access the restricted rooms, nor gain control of any server. There must be layers of security protocols that can be both digital and physical, such as the use of biometrics, retinal scans, etc.

Efficient Network Security

Network security is more of a virtual protocol. It involves using technology and different tools to ensure the security of data. Networks must have proper firewalls setup, there must be intrusion detection systems, and ways to monitor and inspect the traffic. This is necessary to keep hackers out. Most data centers also use ACLs (Access Control Lists) to make their defenses robust and impenetrable.

Data Protection (Encryption and Monitoring)

It is not possible to separate data security from data center security. To ensure protecting one or both, it is necessary to encrypt the data, especially during transfer. It is also important to monitor the data all the time and maintain regular backups. The use of strong passwords is also highly recommended.

Latest Technologically Advanced Infrastructure

It is necessary to ensure the data center uses the latest technology and there is no redundant infrastructure. Redundancy means leaving data sensitive or liable to threats like hackers. There must also be minimal downtime to prevent risks of losing firewalls and protective measures. Using the latest technology can also ensure there are fewer human errors.

Conclusively, the right data center would ensure implementing all the best practices and infrastructure to manage and protect data across the entire facility.

In recent days, the usage and sale of digital devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc., have increased exponentially. These devices connect to other mobile devices allowing users to share and access data and applications on the go, anywhere, and at any time. The traditional infrastructure is a thing of the past now. Managing data has become costly and is not as easy as it once was. The rapid growth in internet usage worldwide has led to cloud computing, which offers a means of managing data of any size and variety.

Cloud computing introduces ways of providing new resources through the internet based on hardware ownership and storage location. Now, users of cloud computing do not own its infrastructure, rather the service providers own it. This gives rise to some privacy and security concerns by users.

The Cloud computing domain is very broad. It is almost impossible to address all its components in this article. However, since we are mainly interested in the data staging issues in cloud computing, we will focus on them alone. It is important to mention that as organizations and individuals store more-and-more information on cloud storage, more security breaches and privacy problems are arising. Storing sensitive data on the cloud is not always advisable.

Classifying Data Security Issues

The most common and important concern when it comes to data security is the technology uses for its storage. In an uncontrolled environment such as Cloud Computing, ensuring acquiring the right technology for data security has become very challenging. One needs to distinguish and identify the security risks associated with IT infrastructure and the risks caused by using cloud computing.

Generally, the risks associated are open, shared, and distributed environments.

To analyze the associated risks, we must separate the existing problems and those raised due to cloud computing.

When one outsources data to cloud infrastructure, it becomes more vulnerable than data stored on a traditional infrastructure (local server). There are three reasons for this:

1. The data is on the provider’s infrastructure
2. There are different users’ data also stored on the same physical infrastructure
3. The data is easy to access via the internet

This classification is based on three aspects of cloud computing:

1.  – Single cloud characteristics
2.  – Cloud data life cycle
3.  – Data security attributes.

Data Issues Based on Cloud Characteristics

There is no doubt that the cloud infrastructure is different from traditional infrastructure. There are some benefits that come with these differences, just as there are inconveniences coming along with it. Below are some of the benefits and inconveniences based on the main characteristics of cloud computing:

Leased Infrastructure

In this case, the cloud infrastructure does not belong to the user. It belongs to the service provider. Users are not purchasing the hardware dedicated to their data storage, but as leasing it from the provider. The advantage of this infrastructure is that users get storage at an affordable cost. The main inconvenience here is that the users lose control of their data when there is a breach in security.

Open Infrastructure

Access to this infrastructure is via the internet. The main advantage of this is ubiquitous access to services. The main inconvenience is that there are multiple entry portals.

Shared infrastructure

This is a shared cloud infrastructure that is unlike the traditional infrastructure.

Elastic Infrastructure

The users of this cloud can scale the resources up or down based on their needs. In other words, this infrastructure varies with the user’s demand. This form of cloud computing scales to the demand. The main advantage of this form of infrastructure is resource optimization. The con is risk associated with resource reallocation.

Virtualized Infrastructure

This is the basic concept supporting cloud computing. It is more of a virtual machine rather than a physical one. The pros of this are optimized infrastructure, and the con is that it is associated with classical problems of virtualization.

Distributed Infrastructure

The distribution of this infrastructure is based on global geography. The pros are increased storage capacity and computing, while the cons are maintenance and management of the infrastructure.

Some other risks to data due to these infrastructures include:

• Data-in-transit
• Data-in-use
• Confidentiality
• Integrity
• Availability

The Solution to Data Issues and Risks

The best way to elude these issues is by protecting the stored and transmitted data by encrypting it. Data security solutions depend on parameters like data type and data size.

Double 11 is Alibaba’s biggest promotion. It has become one of the most important days for most eCommerce websites, among them is Alibaba.

The Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) last year reached as much as RMB 268.4 billion.

Over the years, to maintain its supply chain and to meet the demands of people, Alibaba has partnered with merchants worldwide.

The merchants deploy products customers are likely to purchase at a local warehouse.

From a technological perspective, the competition involves the use of big data and AI capabilities.

To succeed with Double 11 Alibaba resorted to using big data and computing power.

They have algorithms running that can predict the styles, price ranges, and categories. The big data includes Elasticsearch, Hologres, and Graph Compute.

Merchants must know which products are more likely to sell and plan their supply chain to determine the best approach to achieve a cost-performance ratio.

Then, they can deploy goods at local warehouses to bring them closer to the customers. Therefore, using big data and AI for Double 11 and similar special days proves to be a very good approach.

Alibaba’s central data warehouses are on MaxCompute. This product currently has 100 thousand servers at 10 centers spread across the globe. Overall, using big data and AI has made managing big sales easier for Alibaba.

When we thought that the internet is the best development, the Internet of Things became the next big thing.

Cloud Integrated iOS is the Future. Everything is becoming automated.

Here are the top 5 iOS app development trends to look out for in the future.

1 – Cloud integrated iOS apps

These apps run on the cloud and allow companies to store a lot of data. This increases their effectiveness and productivity.

2 – ATS offers better security in apps

Preventing hackers from stealing personal data is one of the main concerns of iOS app developers.

3 – Wearable and IoT

The increasing popularity of iOS apps, iPhones are leading to an increased focus on the latest technologies that help revolutionize the industry. The recent HomeKit by Apple is IoT driven and has a lot of prospects.

4 – Chatbots

Chatbot technology is taking over customer support from various industries. Chatbots offer a lot of benefits as they work 24/7, minimizing customer wait time.

5 – iBeacon Technology

This is another rising iOS app development trend bound to grow in the future. These beacons are wireless transmitters that send signals via the Bluetooth technology.

The benefits of cloud-integrated iOS apps are endless. Make the most of it.

Some of the most popular names in public cloud services are Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. So, which one for you is right? Let’s talk about what each provider brings to the cloud table and the key differences between them to help you take the decision.

Integration

AWS: Amazon has become better linked with the open source community, so that more open source integrations such as Jenkins and GitHub are available through this platform. Linux servers are also friendlier.

AZURE: Azure provides native support for such applications if you use Windows developer software such as VBS, SQL server, and Active Directory. For example, you need to currently log in Office 365 or Azure SQL instances with the same AD accounts. For .net apps, Azure is fantastic too. Microsoft hasn’t always followed the paradigm with respect to open source, but Azure catches up – now companies can run Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Apache Hadoop clusters in Azure.

Computing Power

AWS: Users choose size, power, memory capacity and number of video machines and select from various regions and areas for the launch.

AZURE: Azure users choose the machine-equivalent Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) to build a VM. Microsoft, the consumer or a third party may pre-configure VHD. The number of cores and the memory should be specified by the user.

Storage

AWS: AWS is provided with temporary storage when an instance is started and removed once it’s is complete. You can have block storage, which can be separate or attached to a case, just as hard disks. S3 provides database storage, and Glacier data archiving facilities. This supports relational, NoSQL, and big data databases.

AZURE: Azure provides temporary D drive storage, Page Blobs for file storage of VMs. Block Blobs and files are also used to store objects. Azure supports relational databases; Azure Table and Azure HDInsight NoSQL and the big data. It also provides recovery platform, import export and azure backup for further archiving and recovery.

Network

AWS: Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is supported by Amazon so that users can build independent networks in the cloud. A user can build sub-networks, tables of path, private IP addresses and network gates in the VPC.

AZURE: Microsoft provides Virtual Network (VNET), which allows users to build remote and sub-networks, route tables, specific IP address ranges and network gateway. Both companies offer solutions to extend the cloud and firewall option to the on-site data center.

Orchestration and containers

AWS: Amazon is continuously investing in satisfying requests for new services, which results in more mature analytical services. (ex AWS Elastic Map Reduction Hadoop Support). They have added tools and features for machine learning for IoT and allow customers to build mobile apps or create high- performance computer environments according to their specific needs. It also gives Docker support.

AZURE: Microsoft also has a good record of meeting new demand, and offers support from Hadoop to Azure HDInsight. The 2016 Windows Server includes Docker functionality for Windows and Hyper-V containers alike. The platform is able to run Windows or Linux containers which makes Amazon a great competitor.

User Friendly

AWS: More functionality and configurations are available from Amazon, if you want to know the system. AWS provides lots of support and benefits IT sector, versatility and configuration, and allows many integrations from third parties. Yet AWS has a curve of learning.

AZURE: Azure would be easier to use out of the box if you are a Windows admin because it is a Windows platform that needs nothing new to understand. Windows servers with cloud instances can be integrated easily on the screen to create a hybrid environment. Azure works well with software such as SQL and Active Directory.

Conclusion

AWS and Azure have several similar features, such that one cloud service doesn’t automatically have to be “better” or “better” than the other. All depends on what the business wants. Whatever service you decide to contact, you can benefit from an over-the-top cloud solution to meet your business needs.