July Cloud Forecast

Keep watch on the ransomware radar, even small companies are experiencing repercussions from these attacks!
In early July, the US information technology firm, Kaseya, was the subject of a recent ransomware attack. Kaseya is a company that provides software tools to companies that handle behind the scenes work for companies who are too small to support their own tech departments. This ransomware attack on Kaseya impacted between 800 and 1,500 companies on 5 continents from around the world. This attack impacted everyone from dentist offices in the US, to grocery stores in Sweden, and to kindergartens in New Zealand. Fred Voccola, the CEO of Kaseya, even said that they “aren’t working with massive critical infrastructure” but yet, they were still impacted by this increasing trend of ransomware attacks.

Attacks affecting small businesses like these prove that there is never a company “too small” to need security over their data. Data security is becoming more important than ever, and the cloud is becoming the industry standard as people are feeling the growing pains of these new threats. eCloud prioritizes security in every way and we are sufficiently prepared to be able to fortify your data protection in the cloud.

  Source: Reuters

Low Pressure System Heading this Way at Stanley Black & Decker

Pressure in this weather system is decreasing as Stanley Black & Decker are putting data management at the center of their digital acceleration.

Stanley Black & Decker CIO, Rhonda Gass, did an interview with a columnist from CIO and provided some really interesting information about how her data management has progressed and how her role as a CIO is changing over time.

Black & Decker is transforming their digital technologies from the inside out, which Gass broke down into 4 main categories. The first being e-commerce, especially considering the increase of online selling and buying due to the pandemic. The second category is the resurgence of the DIY and outdoor product space as people have found themselves at home more and itching for a project. The third category is their security business, specifically health and safety, but also including data security as well. Finally, Black & Decker’s fourth category is what they are calling “Industry 4.0” which involves “…deploying digital expertise in manufacturing solutions for connected machines”. 

One of her biggest recommendations is understanding the importance of leverage. Gass also discusses the importance she places on having a cloud integration platform that supports having multiple cloud providers. In this interview, she provides interesting insights to what goes into trying to digitally innovate a large global company like Black & Decker. Click through on the link for the transcript of the edited version of this interesting interview!

Sources: CIO.com

The Sun is Shining as Cowen Mid-Year Research summarizes Public Cloud trends

The sun has decided to come out and shine on this really interesting research report from Cowen Research. This report, titled “Public Cloud IX: Cloud Migration continues apace”, summarizes survey results from 654 US respondents about growth and trends within the industry. 

An intriguing aspect that this report highlights the impact of the pandemic on the industry. Cowen found that the pandemic pushed people to move to the cloud quicker than expected given the new found necessity of being able to work from home. This trend is clearly a positive for the industry, and it seems as though these moves to the cloud are here to stay. More companies are finding priority in having flexibility and being able to come up with and adapt to data solutions quickly, which the cloud provides. 

This report also highlights that AWS and Azure are very much in the “driver’s seat” in the public cloud sphere. While AWS and Azure bounce back and forth with most revenue, most familiarity, etc., it is very clear that those two providers are pushing the industry more so than other cloud providers. This summary only scratches the surface of all of the interesting information Cowen reported on, so make sure to check this report out for a multitude of more information!

SOURCE: COWEN RESEARCH

Turbulence arises as Microsoft and Amazon go after a Pentagon Deal.

Things are getting turbulent and shaky as the Department of Defense changes gears with their cloud computing contract. 

The Department of Defense canceled their $10 billion contracts with Microsoft after Amazon expressed interest in securing that contract. The contract got canceled after Amazon filed a lawsuit against the decision to give Microsoft the contract back in 2019. The acting CIO, John Sherman, is after a solution to come quickly, but he would expect to see Amazon and Microsoft both ending up with contracts at the end of the day. 

This contract is nicknamed the “Jedi” contract (Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure Cloud) and it was designed to shift the Pentagon away from old computer systems and to a singular cloud system instead. We are interested to see where this contract journey goes and we hope you’ll follow along as well!

SOURCE: Cloud Computing News

ALL THINGS JULY!

July is a time to celebrate many things, but the name “July” actually has an interesting origin. July was named after Julius Caesar all the way back in 44 BC. July used to be called “Quintilis” since at that time, it was the fifth month of the year. Caesar was born in that month, so Quintilis was the one picked to be renamed in this Roman Emperor’s honor. Interestingly enough, August was also named similarly, after Augustus Caesar in 8 BC!

We here at eCloud hope that everyone is having a fun and safe July!

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