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5 Tips for Staying in Compliance With the GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one of the most sweeping corporate regulations coming down the pipeline. The measure was adopted by the European Commission and is set to go into effect May 25, 2018, and its purpose is to standardize rules for data collection, storage, and use, and then apply those rules across the European Union.
Abiding by the size and scope of GDPR rules is proving to be a challenge, particularly on such a short timeline. Companies of all sizes and across industries are scrambling to catch up, and much of their focus in on securing the cloud technologies that now house the lion’s share of data.
A study of preparedness highlights just how many companies are lagging behind. Only 1 percent of cloud providers managed data in a way that complies with stricter GDPR standards. The most common deficiencies had to do encryption keys and secure password enforcement. Slightly better are the 7.2 percent of cloud providers with adequate SAML integration support, but this does not change the fact that the vast majority of companies cannot comply with the GDPR.
How Your Business Could Benefit From Adopting Hybrid Cloud Solutions
Over the last few years, we have seen a significant increase in adoption of cloud computing technology. These patterns demonstrate a great opportunity for innovation amongst businesses, especially those looking for more flexible and secure infrastructure solutions, which can be found in hybrid cloud solutions.
Analyst firm Gartner found that cloud computing ranks among the highest on its disruption scale and has become a $246.8 billion industry as of 2017. These services will only continue to grow in popularity and will act as a necessary enabler for future disruptions.
Although some businesses remain skeptical of cloud computing, the infrastructure has proven to enhance or replace all parts of a business’s IT environment while promoting improved efficiency, the opportunity for expansion, and greater flexibility.
Hybrid cloud solutions work by combining both public and private cloud infrastructures, providing greater flexibility for companies that are looking for hosting resources and as well as the ability to run classified applications privately while maintaining SaaS and IaaS on a public cloud.
Besides increased flexibility, there are a few other notable benefits of hybrid cloud solutions include:
Top Predictions for the Cloud Industry in 2018
The cloud has gone from being somewhat of a novelty to an essential part of doing business today. As of 2017, almost 80 percent of companies are running some form of workload in either a public or private cloud. It’s unlikely that this trend of growth will abate anytime soon, and the decline in data center development supports this assessment.
Currently, data centers make up 62 percent of IT spending according to research firm IDC, while public and private cloud spending combined accounts for the other 38 percent of the market. By 2020, however, cloud spending is expected to rival data center spending — meaning the cloud is becoming more popular while data centers are declining in popularity.
It’s relatively easy to discern that the cloud is going to continue gaining momentum. Making predictions about what’s on the horizon is a bit more complicated, but by looking at current trends, we can determine certain characteristics that will prove critical to the cloud industry in 2018.
LeaseWeb Launches in the UK: The Importance of a Global Presence
The LeaseWeb decision to launch our company in the UK is driven by a few strategic considerations. As a global provider of cloud infrastructure solutions, we serve many customers who are using our services in different locations across the globe. We have seen a growing demand for UK-based infrastructure from our existing customers, which we decided to address as their strategic infrastructure business partner.
In addition to this growing demand, we see a vast opportunity. The UK is still the largest market in Europe for cloud services, with significant growth rates for the next few years. The London Internet Exchange has for many years been a crucial pillar of the internet, and LeaseWeb is delighted to have a local presence in London in addition to strong positions in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Washington DC, Singapore, and Sydney.
5 Ways to Protect Your Company from DDoS Attacks
As an online business, you have the responsibility of ensuring the safety of your customers’ hard-earned money from DDoS attacks. Unfortunately, hackers are making it harder to fulfill that responsibility. Verizon’s 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report found that the e-commerce industry falls victim to cyberattacks more than any other industry. In some cases, hackers are looking to extort money from your company. In others, they’re coming at your business as a form of industrial sabotage.
One of the most common strategies used to carry out these intrusions is a distributed denial of service attack. Digital Trends reported that the frequency of DDoS attacks increased by threefold in 2016. These attacks typically take on one of three forms: protocol, volume-based, or application layer attacks. Each uses a different method to overload your network, but the results are the same: chaos.
Sizing Up the Threat
To put the threat of DDoS attacks in context, just imagine if the online component of your business were disabled for hours, minutes, or even seconds. Depending on the size of the company, this loss of service could cost as much as $250,000 per hour — maybe more.
7 Strategic Considerations for ISV Cloud Strategy
As more and more organizations become familiar with the cloud, they are moving towards buying software as a services (SaaS) based on actual usage. In fact, it is predicted that SaaS will become the dominant software consumption model by 2018. According to Gartner, as this occurs the steep decline in maintenance fees will translate into a total revenue loss of up to 40% for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). This means that ISV’s priorities are shifting, leading to changes in their current operating models.
Having been in the software industry for many years, I have seen first-hand what it means to transform from a traditional license and maintenance fee model to a subscription based SaaS. Through numerous discussions with ISVs with regard to transforming their business, what I’ve found is that while there is no single right approach, there a few common themes that always arise. What follow are 7 strategic considerations to keep in mind.
1. Should I build my own cloud?
Building your own cloud means that you have to invest substantially in infrastructure and in developing new capabilities. If your business has the scale to build a cloud in a cost-efficient way, including access to the technology, budgets, and the skilled resources to maintain the infrastructure, it can definitely be an opportunity. However, if you lack the scale of a larger enterprise, building a cloud solution probably won’t provide a competitive advantage, so it’s worth outsourcing to a partner who can meet your current needs and scale with you as you grow. Read the rest of this entry »
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