Category: Cloud Hosting

Bank of England mulls future regulatory oversight over Ethereum … – Ledger Insights

Post author By Dr Hoster
Post date December 27, 2022

This week theBank of Englandpublished ablog postsummarizing its analysis of the governance of public blockchains. It asks how one should govern a blockchain that becomes a critical piece of financial infrastructure. The focus was on permissionless blockchains and, for now Ethereum, although it notes that it does not consider the blockchain as critical. Yet.

In the traditional financial system, critical financial infrastructure is regulated to deliver an appropriate level of responsibility, accountability, and control, says the blog post. So, there is a question as to what appropriate regulatory oversight of a blockchain could entail, were it to become a more critical piece of infrastructure in the financial system.

It pointed to the Ethereum Merge, a highly risky move from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake to secure the network. Frankly, its hard to criticize the transition at a technical or process level, and one has to question whether conventional institutions could have handled it better.

However, thats not what the Bank is concerned about. It wants to know what would have happened if something went wrong. Who would have taken responsibility and would be accountable for the financial loss? Wed hazard an answer on the loss: the token holders.

The Bank also mentioned that the UK is looking to extend responsibilities to critical third parties involved in the financial sector, such as cloud hosting companies.

Many in the crypto world are concerned that the move from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake makes the network more susceptible to oversight.

On the flip side, the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision also has concerns about permissionless blockchains. Digital securities are treated (more or less) in the same way as conventional securities for Basel III risk assessments. These lower risk crypto-assets are classified in Group 1 compared to cryptocurrencies that fall under the higher risk Group 2.

Last week the Basel Committee published thefinal version of the crypto-asset rules. It states, The Committee will continue to reflect on whether the risks posed by cryptoassets that use permissionless blockchains can be sufficiently mitigated to allow for their inclusion in Group 1 and, if so, what adjustments to the classification conditions would be needed.

Digressing from the Banks blog post, wed like to point to other networks that have been free from oversight. And how there could also be new permissioned blockchain networks that also become powerful and are not directly regulated.

Take the example of SWIFT. It isnot a payment systemand hence is not covered by conventional payment regulations. You read that correctly. At a technical level, SWIFT simply transmits messages across its network. It doesnt actually make any payments. As a result, until 1998, it had a free pass from regulators. At that point, the central banks concluded that it was too large and important and hence needed to be overseen by central banks as a critical service provider.

And thats how the Bank would view Ethereum if it became critical.

As a side observation, the choice of how a blockchain network is structured is critical to its ability to grow unencumbered by regulation.

Take the example ofFnality, the permissioned payment network backed by 17 financial institutions. Its chosen path is to have an omnibus central bank account, where its shareholder banks deposit money which is then tokenized for on-chain payments. This choice is the result of the goal to create a single liquidity pool that a bank can use for several applications and platforms.

However, as a result,Fnalityhas to get clearance from every central bank in any jurisdiction in which it plans to operate. Thats a slow painful process. It is already designated as a systemic payment provider in the UK, and the Bank of Englanddelayed its planned 2022launch.

In contrast, SingaporesPartior, in which JP Morgan is one of four founding shareholders, does not have a central bank account. Instead, its the network operator in which banks have nodes. So its far more like SWIFT. As a result, Partior is going to be able to expand relatively quickly.

Thats not to say the Partior route is better than the Fnality route. Theyre both targeting interbank payments but with different priorities.And in both cases, if something went wrong, the legal liability would be clearer compared to Ethereum.

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Bank of England mulls future regulatory oversight over Ethereum ... - Ledger Insights

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The UAE’s economic horizons broadened in 2022, and more is in prospect – The National

Post author By Dr Hoster
Post date December 27, 2022

At the 2015 World Government Summit, President Sheikh Mohamed said: We think and plan for the next 50 years, and for the benefit of next generations, by building a diversified, solid and sustainable economy that does not depend only on traditional resources, and opens promising prospects that contribute to strengthen the foundations and capabilities of the nation.

Since those words nearly eight years ago, our national aspirations have been continually refined into focused, actionable plans, resulting in new trade and investment records as we chart a new, accelerated economic development path.

But while huge progress has been made, this is a nation that looks at achievements as milestones on a journey of continuous improvement. We are always looking at what comes next. This month, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, launched the governments new national vision, We The UAE 2031, saying that the country will maintain its position as an economic destination and focus on strengthening the UAEs economic partnerships with the world and consolidating its development model".

The ambition of the words is matched by the scale of the numbers involved. Over the next nine years, we aim to double the gross national product to Dh3 trillion ($810 billion), raise the value of non-oil foreign trade to Dh4 trillion, raise non-oil exports to Dh800 billion and increase the tourism sectors contribution to GDP to Dh450 billion.

We are confident we can get there. The total value of the UAEs non-oil trade between January and September this year reached Dh1.6 trillion, a near-20 per cent rise from the same period in 2021. Exports are climbing as a percentage of total trade, and the third quarter non-oil trade broke previous records, topping Dh580 billion. The UAEs foreign trade agenda is delivering unprecedented results and it encourages us to stretch for more.

Our status as a major trade hub is at the heart of our economic ambition. In 2022, we signed our first Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with India (Cepa), the worlds fastest-growing economy, and soon to be the worlds third largest, which has helped propel bilateral trade to $38.6 billion in the first nine months of 2022 almost exactly double the figure recorded in the same period of 2020.

We have also concluded Cepas with Indonesia, the worlds seventh-largest economy in terms of GDP, and Israel, the start-up nation that is home to a dynamic advanced technology ecosystem.

Advanced negotiations are under way with a number of other fast-growth economies, too, which will significantly affect trade volumes, exports and GDP.

We continue to pursue Cepas with nations in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America and position ourselves as a driver of a newly invigorated Global South, and a fulcrum between East and West. We are a global market and the gateway to the worlds fastest-growing economies.

Importantly, this activity is helping to attract new investments, new businesses, and new talent to the UAE.

No, You Havent Won a Yeti Cooler From Dicks Sporting Goods – WIRED

Post author By Dr Hoster
Post date December 27, 2022

Congratulations: Youve been chosen for a Yeti Hopper M20 Cooler. Youve been chosen many, many times. Its right there, in your inbox.

The email is from Dicks Sporting Goods. Never mind that it reads asDicks Sporting Goods, minus the apostrophe, orDicks SportingGoods, orDicks SPORTING Goods. Search for Dicks in your Gmail and youll find it. Search for Dicks on Twitter andwell, something else might come up. But then youll see them, the complaints from people who, like you, have been getting incessant emails from Dicks Sporting Goods about the Yeti Hopper M20. The emails urge the receipts to click the link and claim their prize.

You should not click on any part of this email. The Dicks Sporting Goods/Yeti Hopper Cooler contest isnt legitimate, and it does not originate from the sporting goods brand. Its a phishing scam, something that most of us have encountered at some point in our online lives.

But its an especially pernicious form of spam, one that has circumvented some of Googles robust anti-spam tools for Gmail. Google has acknowledged that this spam campaign is particularly aggressive. A security research firm that has been closely tracking this latest batch of spam told WIRED that the techniques being used are fairly novel, and point to a future in which more email spam could slip past even the most sophisticated anti-fraud systems.

We train [machine learning] models to look at all of the different elements of an email and decompose it, and for a brief period of time, that actually worked well in stopping spam, says Ryan Kalember, executive vice president of cybersecurity strategy at Proofpoint, a US-based security firm. But unfortunately, there are some effective ways to get around that. Whats happening now is, all the fancy machine-learning models just dont see where the bad stuff is in the emails, because of some clever redirection.

People who liberally use the Report Spam & Unsubscribe tool in Gmail might think that would put an end to the Yeti cooler emails; mark an email as spam enough times, and eventually it will go away. That hasnt worked in this case. Justin Watkins, a popular YouTuber,tweeted in frustration about this back in September, begging Google to fine-tune its filters and send the Yeti Hopper emails to spam after receiving the emails for several consecutive months. Its a cat-and-mouse thing, Watkins tells me. Ill mark it as spam and itll, like, disappear for a week, and then Ill get two or three a day again.

What the email spammers are doing now, according to Kalember, is creating a scheme where machine-learning models dont actually get to the point where they see the bad stuff in the email. Theyre using what he calls an HTML anchor technique, which is relatively rare. This differs from the old-school, well-worn ways for scammers to slip past spam filters, which might include rotating which cloud hosting service theyre using, or creating a URL redirect, where the person opening the email clicks on the link and is redirected to several other places on the web before they land on the malicious site. The new spam campaign relies on something more interesting, says Kalember. (Assuming you find email spam interesting and not infuriating.)

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No, You Havent Won a Yeti Cooler From Dicks Sporting Goods - WIRED

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Banking’s Future Requires Greater Confidence About The Cloud … – International Banker

Post author By Dr Hoster
Post date December 27, 2022

By Damon Clarke-Sutton, Director, UK Finance,Telehouse

Banks and financial institutions are among the most regulated organisations in the free world and are encouraged to take the question of risk extremely seriously.

This precautionary principle extends to IT architectures where the notion of if it aint broke, dont fix it holds sway. Change equates to risk and risk is something banks need to manage carefully. The penalties are high for breaches of regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, MIFID II, and Basel III. The burdens of ensuring the highest levels of data security in line with regulatory requirements cause many banks to be reluctant to make any significant infrastructure or technical changes.

Yet in the contemporary climate of digital disruption, excessive conservatism threatens to be the undoing of any incumbent organisation. Irrespective of all the challenger brands entering the market, many of which were born in the cloud, changes in demand mean banks simply cannot afford to stand still. No organisation can.

The pressures for cloud-adoption

Banks own finance departments continue to put pressure on IT to expedite achievement of the cost-benefits from migration to cloud infrastructure. At the same time, banks must adapt their IT to meet another powerful business imperative the need to collaborate effectively with fintech innovators and niche solution-providers from all over the world. Many of these organisations are native to the cloud and provide their solutions as-a-service.

Far-reaching changes in consumer and business behaviour also demand that financial institutions have a robust infrastructure that enables them to adapt quickly and with maximum effectiveness. Covid-19 demonstrated the critical importance of organisational agility, which can be achieved with more flexible IT architectures. Every bank must be capable of change and those not continuously transforming will soon find themselves left on the side-lines.

The After you approach

Despite these obvious requirements and pressures, many banks prefer to sit back and wait and learn from competitors mistakes before embarking on significant digital transformation initiatives. Hesitation about fully embracing cloud is not down to a lack of will. In fact, many have already begun to modernise their outdated Legacy IT environments and switch to the cloud for scalability and reliability. On average, financial organisations now place 39 per cent of their IT infrastructure in the cloud according toTelehouse Research, projected to rise to 44 per cent within the next five years. Progress is patchy, however and many banks are only at the start of their transformation journey.

On-premises environments and poor cyber-security

Their biggest challenge is still security. While banks want to reap the benefits of cloud, no CTO or IT Director is willing to opt for a move that could open the organisation up to more threats and end a promising career. The penalties can indeed be high and regulatory compliance must be the top priority, making many reluctant to implement significant infrastructural or technical changes.

However, many finance professionals still have excessive faith in traditional on-premises infrastructure, failing to grasp how it can actually increase exposure to sophisticated cyber-attacks. Cloud security has advanced in leaps and bounds in recent years, with leading cloud providers investing heavily in a multitude of measures like zero trust verification, data encryption and access controls to ensure secure connections and full visibility of the data stored in each cloud environment.

Hybrid IT for banks the benefits

One of the major misconceptions among non-specialists in the financial world is that cloud migration means shifting all the assets, applications and systems to the cloud. A cloud-only approach, however, is rarely suitable.

Rather than plunging head-first into the cloud, banks need to explore the practicalities and benefits of adopting more hybrid approaches, for example with cloud and colocation. This allows institutions toidentify and take the right level of risk and establish what to outsource, when and how. The major advantage of hosting IT infrastructure in a colocation data centre is that financial institutions can control the migration process, stay on top of regulatory requirements and keep costs under control.

The benefits of running a hybrid IT architecture run much further. Through the deployment of a combination of cloud and colocation environments, banks can create a more resilient and secure foundation for growth, significant improvements in customer experience and the creation and development of new services. This is crucial as the retail and commercial banking markets continue to evolve in many directions and competition increases. Competitor organisations with leaner IT have higher levels of agility and can more easily pivot and adopt new solutions to meet changes in market demand or amplify their attractiveness to customers.

Cloud and colocation for big data analytics and AI

To increase market-share in such a challenging environment where customers demand more connected and personal experiences, incumbent banks need watertight IT infrastructure and faster cloud-adoption, even if it is not a total embrace of the cloud. With the current outdated legacy infrastructure, banks will continue to face the limitations of high costs, lack of flexibility and inability to respond rapidly to technological advances such as machine learning or artificial intelligence.

Shifting to modern hybrid environments, by contrast, will enable financial firms to realise all these benefits and progress faster with digital transformation strategies and innovation initiatives. A combination of colocation and cloud facilitates adoption of the latest technologies so banks can compete more effectively with digitally native players. Colocation can better support the computing requirements, data processing needs and real-time analysis that AI applications require, which in turn, can translate to firms adding new and attractive services more swiftly.

Colocation data centres can also provide access to leading cloud providers like Microsoft Azure and AWS, and enable financial firms to benefit from connected ecosystems of partners while extending network reach and reducing latency (the time it takes for a data packet to make the round trip between designated points). For AI and ML applications, low latency is often a make-or-break requirement.

5G mobile connectivity is often seen as an important piece of infrastructure for retail banking, enabling many new smartphone-based services for consumers. However, as is typically the case with any new wireless communications technology, the volume of data will rise significantly over time, putting more stress on backbone networks. To succeed, organisations must rapidly ingest and process data and this depends on having a connected, secure, scalable, flexible, resilient and low latency IT infrastructure.

Once a bank has the right balance between cloud and colocation, however, it can achieve innumerable fruitful collaborations with service providers (and regulators) to help future-proof processes, operations and business models. In the UK there are obvious advantages to choosing a data centre partner on the edge of the City, for example. Proximity means being able to conduct real-time big data analysis at low latency to improve the speed of transactions and online services, and ultimately, the entire customer experience.

What banks should aim for in cloud and colocation

While recognising no two organisations are alike, it is possible to say banking institutions and financial services providers should be aiming for at least a 50 per cent migration to the cloud to prevent them from being left behind. IT leaders within organisations should be working to ensure they have uninterrupted cloud access and highly reliable power provision so they can offer their boards peace-of-mind that key data, such as personal consumer information can be accessed securely at all times by employees.

The responsiveness that comes from fast access to data and analytics, allied to flexible infrastructure, will open financial institutions to a new level of opportunities in the era of truly digital banking and hyper-personalised microservices. Banks will have frontline access to more advanced analytics, enjoy greater resilience, and new business-critical connections that boost long-term growth. Overcoming cloud-anxiety to mature their infrastructure will improve business performance from top to bottom and create a greater appetite for innovation that will ultimately shape a brighter future for the sector.

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Banking's Future Requires Greater Confidence About The Cloud ... - International Banker

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Free and Open-Source Alternatives to Microsoft Planner – It’s FOSS

Post author By Dr Hoster
Post date December 27, 2022

Microsoft Planner is a tool that lets organizations help manage teams using a kanban-style board and more options.

Of course, it is not an open-source solution and cannot be accessed using a personal account. You need an Office 365 subscription and are invited to an organization to access Microsoft Planner.

While it is a popular task management and team collaboration platform, it is not for everyone. So, here, let me highlight some free and open-source alternatives to Microsoft Planner. Furthermore, these options can also act as an open-source alternative to Asana, Trello, and Notion.

Note: You will find both hosted and self-hosted tools among the options listed.

Focalboard is an open-source project and task management software by Mattermost. Yes, it is backed by one of the best open-source Slack alternatives, which makes it an interesting option.

It is a self-hosted solution and is also bundled with Mattermost. So, you can download and install it on your server or use the Mattermost cloud edition to access the board feature.

You can get started for free with the cloud edition. However, you can self-host it if you want more control and customization options.

Additionally, there is a desktop edition, and it should be suitable for single users to help manage individual tasks.

To explore more about it, head to its GitHub page.

TaskBoard is a simple approach to task management with a straightforward user interface and essential features.

It is a self-hosted option but way easier to set up than other implementations. It does support essential user management and some customization options.

The key highlight for being a simple option is that it has no external dependencies.

Unfortunately, it is no longer being actively maintained due to a lack of maintainers, but you can still try it or head to its GitHub page to lend some help.

Taiga is a fantastic alternative to Microsoft Planner by the creators of Penpot (open-source Figma replacement).

You can self-host and use it for free with all the customization abilities or control. If you want convenience, the cloud version is free to get started. But, if you need commercial support, you must opt for a premium plan.

It features a Kanban board and supports a scrum framework for agile development teams. You can explore its GitHub page to know all about it.

WeKan is a Trello-like open source kanban board that lets you self-host it on your system. A Snap package is available for Linux, but you must follow its setup instructions.

You can add rules to automate task management and import things from the Trello board. It can be set up using Docker desktop on your computer or get it running on your server.

Planka is yet another project that tries to mimic the Trello board and offers real-time updates.

It is built using React and Redux. You get a limited set of features, which should be helpful for most simple use cases.

You can find instructions to deploy it on your server with or without Docker on its GitHub page.

Kanboard is a simple project management software that utilizes the kanban style to manage and organize tasks/projects.

A straightforward user interface and a simple installation procedure. One should have no issues self-hosting Kanboard.

It is actively maintained. However, you may not see big feature additions regularly. So, if you want the basic feature set and stability for your project management requirements, Kanboard can be a good fit.

Explore its GitHub page to know more.

Unless your organization or team has a strict requirement to use Microsoft products, it is easy to find a Microsoft Planner replacement.

There are multiple options when it comes to open-source alternatives, and some proprietary services do better than Microsoft as well. So, you might want to evaluate your priorities and consider data privacy/transparency as one of the factors in choosing a Microsoft Planner replacement.

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Free and Open-Source Alternatives to Microsoft Planner - It's FOSS

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Who is Funding ChatGPT and OpenAI? – Goosed.ie

Post author By Dr Hoster
Post date December 27, 2022

Welcome to the mysterious world of ChatGPT, where artificial intelligence and humour collide. But who is funding this wacky machine-learning experiment? Is it the government? A group of rogue hackers? Or maybe a group of mischievous monkeys with a knack for coding?

Well, the truth is (drumroll please)

Right, so theres no conspiracy here. You can even ask ChatGPT itself and it will tell you whos funding it. Or at least who is funding OpenAI, the company that built it.

OpenAI is a research organization that focuses on the development and promotion of friendly artificial intelligence. OpenAI was founded in 2015 by a group of entrepreneurs, researchers, and philanthropists, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and Wojciech Zaremba.

OpenAI has received funding from a variety of sources, including private investments, grants, and partnerships with organizations and companies. Some of the investors and partners that have supported OpenAI include Microsoft, Reid Hoffmans charitable fund, Khosla Ventures, and Infosys.

In addition to these private sources of funding, OpenAI has also received support from government agencies, such as the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This support has allowed OpenAI to conduct research and development on a wide range of AI-related projects, including natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning.

On the website, they state that OpenAI is governed by the board of the OpenAI nonprofit, comprised of OpenAILP employees Greg Brockman (Chairman and President), Ilya Sutskever (Chief Scientist), and Sam Altman (CEO), and non-employees Adam DAngelo, Reid Hoffman, Will Hurd, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner, and Shivon Zilis.

Investors include Microsoft, Reid Hoffmans charitable foundation, and Khosla Ventures.

In terms of daily costs, a figure of $3 million has been circulating on social media over the past few days. Unfortunately, there is no solid number known. That estimate is just that an estimate, based on AWS calculations for cloud hosting and processing costs.

This would be problematic for a start given their funding. If being heavily backed by Microsoft, I would expect to see OpenAI using Azure Microsofts cloud platform, not AWS which belongs to Amazon.

Im sure well learn a lot more about ChatGPT, the people behind it and how much it costs. But for now, what worries me

Ads To Pay The Bills

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Who is Funding ChatGPT and OpenAI? - Goosed.ie

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Quantum data centers might be the way of the future – TechTarget

Post author By Dr Hoster
Post date December 27, 2022

Quantum computing is one of the shiniest new developments in IT. And now, it is starting to gain traction -- but the extent to which it filters into the world of data centers has yet to be seen.

Money is flowing into quantum and its role is emerging. Last November, IDC published its forecast for the worldwide quantum computing market that projects customer spending for quantum computing will grow from $412 million in 2020 to $8.6 billion in 2027. Their thesis is that continued breakthroughs will drive performance and lead to wider adoption.

Superposition and entanglement are concepts that drive quantum computing's appeal because they increase potential computing power, in contrast to the way that on/off or one/zero states define classical computing.

Fred Chong, chief scientist for quantum software at ColdQuanta, said that there is an exponential increase of computing power with every qubit added to the computation that exploits these properties.

"They allow n qubits to simultaneously represent 2n numbers; digital computers can only represent one of those numbers at a time," he said.

Quantum processing units could be very good at simulating physics and chemistry, optimizing problems such as logistics, or even certain kinds of machine learning. Jason Larkin, a researcher at the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), said organizations are actively experimenting to find potential applications of the technology.

"IBM is already installing quantum computers," Larkin said. "For example, they partnered with Cleveland Clinic where they are planning to combine quantum computing with quantum sensing technologies."

And while acknowledging the complexity and challenges inherent in quantum, Larkin said there is a unique power of the technology for applications like probing the electron structure of molecules.

"It is also supposed to be a domain where things can be done in real time that take exponential amounts of time in classical computers," he said.

Despite IDC's predictions and Larkin's enthusiasm, others are skeptical and do not see any immediate future for quantum computing in typical data centers.

Franz Franchetti, an electrical and computer engineering professor at CMU, draws a hard distinction between "real" quantum computing and the devices being marketed or close to market.

"They are adiabatic or noisy intermediate-scale quantum and not real, scalable quantum computers," Franchetti said. "I would assume that such experimental devices will show up at cloud providers but more as experimental systems to show how good the provider is."

Likewise, Franchetti believes it is too early for a clear architecture to emerge, though he admits that the software layer is now "reasonably standardized." However, with current quantum computing devices, their applications are limited.

Mark Acton, a data center consultant based in the U.K., said hosting quantum computers may be a difficult hurdle for enterprises in the short term. The future of quantum computing will depend on how the technology evolves and how easy it becomes to host in a more standard data center. The supercooling requirements for quantum compute mean that traditional data centers are not set up to host this equipment yet, he notes.

"The only place that quantum compute is being based currently is in purpose-built areas that are effectively research facilities," Acton said. "Quantum computing in its current and near-term future iteration will augment digital computing by being extremely fast and extremely efficient at some types of calculations and predictions, but will almost certainly not replace digital compute for more mundane applications and simple transactions."

The future of quantum computing will depend on how the technology evolves and how easy it becomes to host in a more standard data center.

The commercial data centers that are being built today will be around for 20 to 30 years and they are not currently being designed to host quantum computing, according to Acton. Instead, it is more likely that quantum will go into specially designed or significantly refurbished data centers, but that is largely dependent on the degree to which the developing architectures require cryogenic cooling and other special equipment for operations.

"There are competing quantum technologies and architectures," Acton said. "Until we have a more standardized approach and consistent delivery model, quantum compute is likely to be based in bespoke data centers," which are purpose built and unique to quantum requirements rather than traditional commercial data centers.

Vendors currently offering commercial products or quantum applications include Artiq, Sinara, Zapataand IBM. Some of the other organizations dabbling in quantum, according to IDC, include startup IQM, quantum hardware startup Atos, Pasqal and Nvidia's cuQuantum Appliance and cuQuantum software development kit. Outside of the U.S., the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking is funding the High-Performance Computer and Quantum Simulator hybrid project.

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Quantum data centers might be the way of the future - TechTarget

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Jennifer Gates Is On ‘Cloud 9’ About Baby Shower Hosted By Mom … – The Blast

Post author By Dr Hoster
Post date December 27, 2022

Soon-to-be mom, Jennifer Gates, expressed appreciation as she got everything she desired when she attended her baby shower.

The elite equestrian is the eldest daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda Gates. However, Jennifer attended Stanford University, where she maintained her horseback riding career regardless and got to meet her husband, Nayel Nassar, who has a passion for equestrianism too. They tied the knot back in October of the previous year, and they are expecting their first child together.

After the couple confirmed the news of their pregnancy in November, fans figured out a baby shower for Jennifer was around the corner. Eventually, she gave her hundreds of followers insight into what that day looked like for her.

The 25-year-old seized the opportunity to share pictures on her Instagram that captured the efforts her mother and professionals put into the event. The first snap showed Jennifer in a peach-decorated room, standing in a burgundy gown while she held her baby bump as she looked down. Also, a little part of the Christmas tree lit up brightly was in view with lots of wrapped boxes at its foot.

The following image was pleasing to the eyesight; it featured a long hallway with multiple stunning chandeliers and elevated nude curtains from the ceilings that were parted to show the full size of the well-decorated tree at a small distance from the camera.

Somewhere else in those pictures dedicated to her baby shower was a precious moment when Jennifer was seated, looking away from the camera and smiling with her hand on her lap that displayed her wedding ring. She expressed her overwhelming emotion in her caption writing:

Still on cloud 9 after this baby shower Thank you to all the people who have given me and baby girl so much love from near and far and @melindafrenchgates for hosting this incredible evening. Our hearts are all so full.

The billionaire daughter shouted out the event planner in the concluding parts of her caption. She wrote, Also thank you to all creatives and wonderful people who put together this very special event-your talents continue to amaze me!

The host, Melinda, commented to build on her daughters feelings; it read, It was a perfect evening. Love you!. Likewise, the famous designer that was a significant part of the Gates eldest daughters wedding ceremony shared a comment saying, What an amazing love story that continues..XXv

Undoubtedly this excitement about the baby shower was anticipated as even the father and mother of the 25-year-old swelled with love when their daughter made her pregnancy public. In November, The Blast reported how Bill and Melinda reacted to Jenifers pregnancy announcement.

The mum of the 25-year-old raved in the comment section of her daughters post with the words, I couldnt be more excited to meet this little one and watch you two become parents. Still over the moon with the information, she reposted the delightful picture to her Instagram story.

On the other hand, the techie Billionaire father showed tremendous excitement as he reposted the announcement on his Instagram stories with the remarks PROUD .

As mentioned earlier, Jenifer and Nassar got married last year. The extraordinary ceremony occurred at the Gates family farm in Westchester, New York. The Blast shared details on the fairytale wedding ceremony.

The said event began on October 15 with just immediate families in attendance for the Islamic marriage. The main wedding event occurred the following Saturday in an open-air themed ceremony where the corona vaccine advocate walked his daughter down the aisle.

The belle of the ball dripped up in a long-sleeve off-white gown designed by Vera Wang. The groom looked good-looking in a well-tailored Armani tuxedo with a simple flower worn on the lapel of his jacket that matched his wifes bouquet.

Harry Hudson performed the song Yellow Lights, which the lovely couple danced to as their guests enjoyed a savory dinner. The satisfied bride shared on her Instagram a snapshot from the instant she and Nassar walked down the aisle with the words, My Universe.

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Jennifer Gates Is On 'Cloud 9' About Baby Shower Hosted By Mom ... - The Blast

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Building security resilience in a hybrid workplace – The Tech Panda

Post author By Dr Hoster
Post date December 27, 2022

It started as a necessity during the pandemic and has now become a permanent fixture in most organizations. We are talking about the concept of remote working, which was a blessing for companies struggling to maintain a semblance of business continuity during the Covid-induced lockdowns in India and worldwide.

Though the pandemic is now in the rearview of most enterprises, remote or hybrid working continues to remain popular with companies and employees. And this does not always include their home but expands to resorts, coffee shops, airports, etc.

Recent global C-level research by LinkedIn found that 82 per cent of business leaders believe that hybrid working is here to stay for the longer term.

Another PwC survey May 2022 highlighted that almost a fifth (19 per cent) of the surveyed employees intend henceforth to work entirely remotely, whereas 37 per cent prefer a hybrid pattern, while just 22 per cent want to return to an office full-time.

Two divisions in every organization try their best to stay ahead of these trends and ensure that work goes, as usual, irrespective of where the employee works; the human resource and IT departments.

The challenge for the IT team is that irrespective of where the team works fromin the office, remotely or a hybrid mix of the twothey need to be aware of all hidden security risks that can potentially interrupt normal business operations.

While a hybrid workplace brings some security risks, many organizations embrace it because it also gives them operational benefits. Incidentally, the shift towards remote or hybrid workplace dynamics is when many companies realized the benefits of having a seamless endpoint security system in place. Simply put, endpoint security safeguards every end-user device, including desktops, laptops or mobile phones, from cyberattacks.

Pre-pandemic, most employees worked on devices connected to the companys network and were behind security layers on a secured VPN connection. Now, they are using their own devices, like mobile phones, connected to any available network, making them susceptible to attacks by malicious actors.

Working remotely outside an organizations secure perimeter could also result in poor working habits that exacerbate security risks. This includes using unsanctioned personal devices, which could cause data loss, unauthorized data sharing and even opening the gateway for cyberattacks.

Needless to say, it is more challenging to take care of remote employee security than to manage any on-site endpoints. Tech teams are kept on their toes, devising additional security measures to stay one step ahead of their nemesis, the cyber attackers. So, whether it is changing security policies, preventing the leakage of sensitive company information through personal employee devices or implementing systems that can monitor these endpoints without impacting performance, they are constantly on the go.

There are many facets of a hybrid workplace, and it is not limited to the physical presence of the employee or their device for work purposes. One can also consider how companies transitioned to the cloud, even in the pre-pandemic era, to ensure seamless and efficient business activity.

It all started with the advent of the public cloud and the foray of giants like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. However, Covid-19 accelerated this shift to the cloud, be it a standalone or a hybrid multi-cloud infrastructure.

McKinsey states that by 2024, most enterprises expect $8 out of every $10 they spend on IT hosting to be in a public or private cloud environment. Research company Adapt also predicted that the share of IT storage and processing in the public cloud will rise to 47 per cent by 2023, an increase of 10 per cent over current levels.

However, some stumbling blocks continue to dot many organizations migration to the cloud network. Right on top of the list is economics, as they have to pick and choose which workloads they want to migrate based on its priority and need for instant accessibility.

In addition to evaluating the cost and time needed for migration, they need to look for options that allow them to adhere to certain regulatory compliance norms. This process is most evident in certain industries like the BFSI and Energy and Power sector, where specific data cannot leave the country due to data sovereignty and localization policies. This can be a massive challenge for cloud migration since these servers are often based outside of India.

Similarly, a company could have some tightly integrated legacy systems that are very difficult to move to the cloud without disrupting the existing workflow.

This is where organizations have realized one thing when it comes to the cloudthey cannot adopt a one-size-fits-all approach because it might not deliver the benefits they seek, especially in a hybrid environment. They need a solution that maps and matches their specific requirementand is scalable for future growth.

Most CISOs and CIOs are now seeking a complete protection solution that protects workloads and endpoints. They need it to work in real-time with precision in threat detection and an ability to be cloud-agnostic.

With the expansion of the threat landscape, they seek access to greater cross-surface visibility and an enterprise-grade prevention, detection, response, and hunting solution that is equipped to take real-time action across endpoint, cloud and identity management.

Fortunately, they can bank on brands like SentinelOne, an autonomous technology company, and its Singularity Platform. This system can instantly defend against cyberattacksperforming at a faster speed, greater scale, and higher accuracy than possible from any single human.

Already reputed brands like Aston Martin, Samsung, Havas, TGI Fridays, the State of Montana, Norwegian Airlines and Energy NOV have put their faith in the company to eliminate internal and external threats in an evolving world. Based on its Storyline technology, SentinelOnes Singularity XDR helps enterprises monitor, track, and contextualize all data across all enterprise endpoints, clouds, and identities.

In a world where economic uncertainty is now a reality, organizations demand higher ROI from their technology investments, particularly operational staples such as cybersecurity. They want these solutions to deliver unparalleled operational value, time-to-value and ROI and SentinelOne is all set to extend that.

Choosing a brand that will tick all these boxes will ensure peace of mind and also give better yield on their investment, all while securing the network.

Guest contributor Diwakar Dayal is the Managing Director & Country Manager for SentinelOne, India & SAARC, an autonomous cybersecurity platform company. Any opinions expressed in this article are strictly that of the author.

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Building security resilience in a hybrid workplace - The Tech Panda

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Managing Ediscovery In The Cloud: Practical, Ethical and Technical … – JD Supra

Post author By Dr Hoster
Post date December 17, 2022

In this excerpt from our white paper on managing ediscovery in the cloud, we explain the basics of the cloud and its biggest benefits in ediscovery. Click here to download the full white paper.

As early pioneers of cloud computing in legal tech, the cloud has always been an integral part of Nextpoints business model. Now, many providers are making the switch to the cloud, and more and more law firms are embracing ediscovery in the cloud. Even if youve used cloud services for a long time, you may have never stopped to consider why is the cloud the best solution? And if youre looking to adopt cloud technology or switch to a new provider, its important to understand the fundamentals of the cloud and why its the only ediscovery solution for modern litigators.

The greatest upside is that cloud providers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Rackspace can invest billions of dollars each year in research and development of cloud platforms, providing more robust services and security than any company or law firm can hope to provide. Thanks to those investments, SaaS ediscovery systems cost about 35 percent less than solutions that are hosted in-house.

Nearly 60% of businesses transitioned to the cloud in 2022, and this trend is expected to continue. The benefits that are enticing businesses to adopt cloud computing include:

Thats the power of cloud computing, but it is also part of the challenge cloud computing poses for law firms. So much data is being created in todays networked and super-massive computing environments that it will quickly overwhelm litigation. Law firms struggle to process and review gigabytes of data, while many types of litigation routinely involve multiple terabytes of information. The cloud is creating a tsunami of digital evidence, but it is also the only cost-effective solution to meet the challenge it has created.

Why Cloud Ediscovery?

Ediscovery is ideally suited to maximize the benefits of cloud computing. The volume of electronic data is such that when a legal matter arises, a law firm or corporate counsel can suddenly be faced with a mountain of electronic data, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to process in-house or with the service of outside consultants. Then theres licensing fees, software installation, hardware costs, and consulting fees all of which make ediscovery costs spiral out of control. As law firms and their clients become increasingly distressed by these kinds of bills, the Software-as-a-Service model promises to cut many of these needless costs by providing an all-in-one processing, stamping, reviewing, and production platform.

The bottom line is that litigation software built for local networks simply cannot cope with exploding volumes of digital data. The right ediscovery cloud platform offers low-cost data hosting, built-in processing functionality, and levels of security no on-premise solution can match.

Security: The Real Danger is Doing it Yourself

In considering on-premise versus cloud solutions, firms that host sensitive client data on-premise are likely to find that they themselves are the greatest security risk. A network hosted on-premise can afford very little in the way of network security beyond what can be found in an off-the-shelf network appliance. Even more problematic, on-premise systems (and private cloud systems in a single facility) offer nothing in the way of physical security or environmental controls beyond what is found in a typical office building. The fact is, many local networks are managed from a supply closet or backroom that anyone with access to an office can enter.

Organizations that rely on local, on-premise solutions often have to fall back on unsecured and archaic mechanisms to move and share data, including mailing it on disks. And depending on the size of an organization, on-premise networks lack redundant storage and backup; if a disaster strikes, data is likely lost forever. The largest and most reputable cloud providers have redundant data centers with robust physical security dispersed across the country, or even the planet.

For example, Amazon Web Services data centers have extensive setback and military grade perimeter control berms as well as other natural boundary protection. Physical access is strictly controlled both at the perimeter and at building ingress points by professional security staff using video surveillance, state of the art intrusion detection systems, and other electronic means.

Now compare that to the security of on-premise servers, your typical hosting providers server room (private cloud), or to that of any other company whose primary business is not data security. The safest bet for your clients data would be to utilize one of the leading cloud infrastructure providers when moving ediscovery data to the cloud. But whichever ediscovery provider you choose, be sure to do some hard comparative research.

Cloud platforms give users control over large data sets, including permission-based access and security roles that are supported by the highest levels of security. Thats because large cloud providers have built-in encryption and security protocols backed up by large teams of security experts with real-time monitoring tools. When considering a cloud ediscovery service, find out the levels of security your provider has in place. Make sure they are taking advantage of the cloud platform in all phases of transmission and data storage, including:

Scalability: Big Data is Here

In the 1970s Bill Gates was telling people, No one will need more than 637 kilobytes of memory for a personal computer. Today, personal computers ship with 2 terabyte hard drives.

Organizations today love data. Modern businesses are finding new and interesting ways to generate and use it. The growth of data is clobbering business IT environments, our federal government, federal court system, and pretty much any data-driven business. For example, it took Nextpoint 13 years to reach our first petabyte of data. (Thats 1,000 terabytes.) After that, it only took two years to add a second petabyte, and the exponential growth has only continued.

In special circumstances, like a data-intensive ediscovery matter, the computational requirements grow exponentially with the amount of data. This is particularly true in heavy processing, indexing, and analytics-based tasks like native file processing, near-dupe identification, and search functionality. Because cloud computing platforms have virtually unlimited ability to scale up for big jobs, reviewers can use advanced analytic tools to analyze data that would break most computer systems.

Law firms may be tempted to throw more hardware at large data challenges, but when clients that used to provide several gigabytes of data for discovery are now delivering terabytes of structured and unstructured data for review, a few new computers cannot address the problem. Thanks to cloud computing, computing power is now a commodity that can be accessed as needed.

Accessibility: Multi-Party Case Management

Hosting documents in the cloud makes it possible to effectively review huge data collections with reviewers working simultaneously in locations around the world. Data is easily kept organized and there is more control over the review process.

Many matters today involve similar documents and data sets. The cloud gives companies the ability to store a document set, along with the appropriate privilege codes, redactions, and stamping so that it can be accessed in future matters that may arise. They can allow data sets to be reused and accessed by new parties as appropriate.

Cloud platforms offer the ability to reduce duplicative efforts by multiple parties on cases with similar issues, facts, discovery, and relevant case law. There are so many actors involved in multidistrict litigation in different jurisdictions, with differing internal technology environments, it is critical that the solution selected encourages collaboration among co-counsel.

Mobility: Working on the Road

There was a time when a lot of companies pretended BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) was just a fad, and that employees should remain tied to applications and data stored on their desktop in a cubicle. The pandemic upended this mentality, and the cloud allowed applications and data to be device independent, freeing the workforce to work wherever and however they needed.

With SaaS services, users can securely access the data from anywhere an internet connection is available. When selecting a cloud platform, make sure it is natively accessible via all devices and OSs including including Macs, PCs, iPads, iPhones, and

Android mobile devices.

The Cloud is the Only Answer for Ediscovery

These are the considerations to take into account when assessing the cloud for ediscovery. According to a 2022 report from ACEDS, 38% of firms still use on-premises technology for ediscovery, while 14% use a hybrid cloud solution, and 43% are fully in the cloud. A huge percentage of firms are moving to the cloud each year, but there is still a sizable number of attorneys working with technology not equipped for todays information-rich litigation environment.

There are obvious ethical obligations and technical issues to take into account when moving client data to a cloud repository or transitioning to a new cloud provider. Check back for our next post on cloud-based ediscovery to see all the questions you need to ask when interviewing potential vendors. If a vendor can satisfy these demands, your firm will be able to deliver data processing power, data security, and a cost savings that old-school review software cannot hope to match.

Managing Ediscovery In The Cloud: Practical, Ethical and Technical ... - JD Supra

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