Tag Archives: Cloud Professionals

Forecast of Fog: How Fog Computing Could Make an Impact

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When it comes to the Internet of Things, connectivity is the name of the game.

Connectivity is, in fact, the appeal of a related technology that could represent another evolution in the same vein as the cloud. In fact, it even has a similar weather-based name to go along with it.

In terms of purpose, this new concept, dubbed “fog computing,” is essentially identical to the cloud; it is still intended to allow users to store and retrieve files without the need for a costly server infrastructure. However, the difference lies in the way the data is handled. Fog computing creates a “fog” of data; scattered packets that don’t contain the whole of any file.

This approach makes it much more difficult for attackers to steal information. Any attempts to retrieve files illegitimately only allow for access to one part of the data, giving attackers a garbled, incomplete mess. This is because, unlike cloud computing, fog computing involves a network of smaller servers, called fog nodes, that distribute packets of data. Nowhere in the fog network is any file stored in its entirety.

The other advantage of fog computing is that the decentralized fog nodes enable data to be closer to the businesses that need to access it. The disadvantage of the cloud is that data still has to travel from servers to wherever it’s needed, reducing performance. Fog computing bypasses some of these concerns and enables faster data retrieval. In fog computing, data centers are smaller, easier to place, and ideally as widespread as possible.

In fact, some fog nodes are so small that they can be placed anywhere that they can connect to the network. Power poles, vehicles, and even oil rigs can host fog nodes and widen the network. Ideally, fog-enabled devices are situated at the edge, right where data is needed immediately. With this larger, less centralized network, doors open to monitor new types of data, particularly as it relates to machine to machine communications. Fog computing allows data to be analyzed and acted upon in seconds.

It’s the ideal marriage of the cloud and the Internet of Things, two concepts that have gained a lot of ground among technology and data experts in the last several years. Cloud computing, though certainly a disruptive technology, has faced scrutiny for the security issues associated with sending raw data over the Internet, particularly if sensitive data is subject to regulation. Its fog-based counterpart offers an approximation of cloud capabilities with the accessibility of IoT devices.

However, the cloud is not going away anytime soon. Fog computing is a great complement to the cloud, but does not process massive amounts of historical data the same way that the cloud does. Plus, with fog computing being an emerging technology, its capabilities may not surpass the cloud in many cases. For now, it offers businesses the opportunity to improve their data infrastructure without replacing any cloud services they might already be using.

In the future, we will see fog computing delivering valuable data that can help make business and technology more efficient and interconnected. The OpenFog Consortium is a collaboration between a number of high profile organizations, including Intel, Cisco, and Microsoft, with the intent of promoting widespread fog computing usage. After all, like other IoT devices, fog computing becomes much more effective the more devices that are integrated into the network.

The New CIO

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The New CIO by Scott Maurice

The Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey is the largest IT leadership survey in the world. Now in its 18th year, this year’s survey includes the perspectives of 3,352 CIOs and technology leaders across 82 countries.

The 2016 survey results have a lot to say on the evolving role of today’s CIO. Most importantly, we see a number of statistics supporting a trend many have identified in tech for the past several years: CIO’s are increasingly expected to play a bigger role in the overall digital strategy and profitability of the company, not just in “keeping the lights on.”

As CIO’s are becoming more strategically, rather than operationally minded, how they work, who they collaborate with, and what skills are most important to the role also begin to change. Here are some of the key findings from the report.

CIO’s priorities are shifting from saving money to making money.

Survey results found that the CEO is now the most likely role within a company to “own” digital, at 21 percent. With the majority of CEO’s (63 percent) also now believe that IT projects should focus on making money, rather than the traditional role of saving money (37 percent), it makes sense that more CIO’s (34 percent, a 10 percent increase over last year) are now reporting directly into the CEO. Rather than having IT function within its own bubble, prioritizing operational efficiency over anything else, the CEO and CIO are increasingly expected to work side by side in making core business decisions about the digital landscape of the company.

According to those surveyed, the importance of increasing operational efficiencies has dropped noticeably over the last four years (by 16 percent) including an astounding 27 percent drop in the importance of delivering stable IT performance (once the foundation of a CIO’s role.)

Moreover, CIO’s are actually pretty happy with this shift, with 87 percent of CIOs working under a CEO (rather than COO or CTO) reporting job fulfillment (the highest of any group.)

CIO’s are working more cross-functionally.

The time a CIO is spending internally focused on managing IT specific goals is reducing while the time they spend working with colleagues from different departments and even customers are increasing. 40 percent of CIOs surveyed said they spend at least one day a week working outside IT.

This trend is even more apparent in smaller businesses, where CIO’s are more than five times as likely to spend the majority of their time working on external-facing projects such as developing stakeholder relationships and growth strategies, instead of traditional IT functions like systems and infrastructure.

As KPMG International global CIO Advisory Service Network Lead Lisa Heneghan explains, this data “supports the view that the role of the CIO is becoming more strategic – there is a need for CIOs to talk business strategy and provide a platform to enable this.”

Adam Woodhouse, Director of CIO Advisory at KPMG, argues that the rise of specialized digital roles such as the CDO (chief digital officer) and the CTO has given CIOs “a jolt to recognize that to be relevant and support growth they cannot focus on their own world in isolation.”

CIO’s must become agile.

Even though a CIO’s emphasis is shifting away from straightforward operational efficiency, this doesn’t mean CIO’s can skimp on their technical expertise. In fact, 39 percent of respondents believe there’s a huge skills shortage in big data and analytics functions, up from 36 percent the year before. And almost two-thirds (65 percent) of CIOs say they believe a lack of talent in these areas will prevent their organization from keeping up with the pace of change, a 10 percent increase in just 12 months.

“It is a given that the lights must be kept on, but we have seen from the survey an increasing emphasis on supporting business growth, and agility is fundamental to this,” Woodhouse explain.

The cloud is a ‘core element’ of driving an agile methodology (a principle based on failing fast and learning from every error.) 69 percent of large organizations surveyed reported expecting to make a ‘significant’ investment across infrastructure, platform, and software as a service in the next three years to increase agility.

“When we asked what steps CIOs are taking to make their business more agile, there was the obvious top answer of implementing agile methodologies, but a clear second place was given to implementing SaaS solutions.”

“The role of the CIO is becoming less defensive and more proactive in stimulating debate on what technology can bring to the organization and benefit its customers,” Heneghan claims. “Therefore I see the relationship becoming more balanced and the dialogue two way, rather than the CIO always responding to requests or issues.”

Albert Ellis, CEO, Harvey Nash Group says, “Whilst the Harvey Nash / KPMG CIO Survey reveals the CIO is enjoying unprecedented influence, it also shows the role is being stretched in many directions. From grappling with an increasing cyber security threat, to working with the board on innovation and digital transformation, CIOs in 2016 are dealing with a more varied range of challenges than ever before, many of which are far, far away from traditional IT. Adaptability, influencing skills and an ability to keep a clear head in uncertain times are becoming increasingly important business skills for today’s CIO.”

CIO’s are outsourcing more, and it’s not just to save money.

Typically, companies outsource to save a few bucks. This year’s survey supports a fundamental change in the reason companies, and especially IT, outsource: respondents claim their primary motivation is a demand for certain skills and flexibility.

Not only are their motivations changing, but so are their budgets. In fact, half of CIOs (50 percent) say they will increase their investment in outsourcing this year, up by four percent from 2015. And 10 percent of CIO’s at small organizations will rely on contingent staff for more than three quarters of their team (five times higher than the rate CIOs at large organizations.)

The influence of the CIO will continue to grow.

Some reading this report may initially wonder if the job role of the CIO is becoming redundant as more digital focused, C-suite executive roles (i.e. CDO) are created, but the report squashes this worry. The proportion of CIOs sitting on the executive board or senior leadership committee is actually at its highest level in 11 years, with more than two thirds (67 percent) of respondents expecting the strategic influence of the CIO to go up in 2016.

As for what 2017 will bring, Woodhouse sees no reason this trend should slow down. “I expect the strategic importance of the role to continue to increase, and as such we will see CIOs spending even greater amounts of their time outside of the traditional fortress [of] IT,” he claims.

“We know that cloud adoption will continue to develop and this needs to be integrated with business strategy to truly drive differentiation – I will be interested if skill shortages in this area hamper CIOs delivering,” he adds. “We also absolutely expect to see an increase in the adoption of digital labour strategies which may displace the broader ‘digital’ strategy question.”

In summary, Heneghan adds, “We are on the cusp of a significant development in the 4th Industrial Revolution. This is driving new demands on the CIO and we are seeing the evolution of a ‘Creative CIO’ who is both a technology and business strategist, and a business model innovator. This Creative CIO is moving away from ‘keeping the lights on’, to enabling the business to create value.”

Why Your Tech Employees Keep Quitting

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Why Your Tech Employees Keep Quitting by Scott Maurice

Retention is a huge issue for most tech related companies right now. Even Google’s tech employees only stay at the company for about a year on average, according to the most recent PayScale report on employee turnover.

Sure, tech jobs are a plenty, and these employees are constantly being presented with new opportunities to get their next raise or promotion somewhere else. But that’s not the real reason they’re leaving.

It’s also true that a lot of today’s tech jobs are occupied by millennials who have shown the world by now that they aren’t interested in the rigid 9-5 jobs of generations past. They feel no impulse to stick around a job for 5 years just to “pay their dues” before they can move up. But that’s also not the reason tech employees are quitting so quickly.

If you want to understand why tech employees leave their jobs, you need to understand what these employees are looking for in a job in the first place. Most of these people didn’t get into tech just for the pay. They got into it because they are intrigued by solving complex puzzles, they like to completely immerse themselves in their projects, and they relish in seeing their work have a greater impact on the world.

Chances are if your tech team keeps bailing before even hitting the year mark, your organization is guilty of one or more of these.

The job is boring.

Tech people hate routine, maintenance focused work, especially when it can/should be automated. Busywork is bad for anyone’s morale, but tech people especially have a harder time justifying their time to themselves when they feel they aren’t contributing anything unique to the process.

Repetitious tasks like deploying code to servers should be delegated to a machine, so your staff can focus their energy on problems that require them to use more of their brainpower. If you have staff repeating a mechanical task every day/week, figure out if you can find a technical solution.

Moreover, investing in automation, when it’s fueled by a business model that monetizes it with an economy of scale, allows organization to have more financial agility. In a truly cloud enabled economic model, employees can focus their time on work that truly matters. Your business, therefore, benefits from both a humanitarian and revenue objective standpoint.

They lack a greater purpose.

Millennials especially have shown the world that they are a socially conscious generation. They care about where their products come from and how they are made, they care about preserving the environment and global warming, and they believe in sustainable practices. When young tech workers don’t feel like their work is improving the world around them, they aren’t going to understand the true impact of vacating their job.

One reason these employees can feel disconnected from a greater purpose, even if they work at a nonprofit dedicated to saving blind puppies, is that when you are relegated to a desk all day it’s hard to see the impact of your work really come to fruition. One of the best ways to help tech employees internalize impact of their work and increase their personal fulfillment with their job is by having them meet the customers and clients who appreciate them so much. When they get to not only hear, but see, interact with, and build relationships with those whose lives they affect, they are much more likely to feel connected and stay at their jobs.

They aren’t being treated as individuals.

Some people like to have music play while they work. Others need dead silence to focus. Some people learn by doing and others learn by taking notes first and then trying on their own. Some people don’t need any supervision (and even resent too much oversight), while others get distracted easily and need help directing their creative energy. Each person is different and deserves to be treated well for exactly who they are.

The problem with treating everyone uniformly is that you fail to praise the individual. When people don’t feel they are appreciated for their own uniqueness, they also tend feel they are more replaceable. If you can’t treat your employees as the unique people they are, they are going to try to find someone who can.

Their manager can’t manage.

One of the top reason people leave their jobs is because of their manager. Just because someone is exceptional at code doesn’t mean they will make a great leader. Managing a team of diverse human beings from different backgrounds who have different career and personal goals, lifestyles, opinions, expertise, etc. while directing them towards a common goal is a huge task for anyone. Managers need to understand how to empower employees, encourage innovation, cultivate collaboration, mediate disagreements, act on good ideas, deliver good/bad news, and more. If you aren’t investing enough in developing your managers, your employees aren’t going to feel you’re investing in them either.

Final Thoughts

It’s true that some of your tech employees may just be leaving for the boost in pay, but the majority are leaving because of a deeper dissatisfaction with the job they’ve been tasked with. People in general want to feel challenged to grow, fulfilled when they rise to the occasion, appreciated as an individual, and supported by their organization. Provide these tenants of a quality job, and you’ll find that your tech employees will stick around for a lot longer.

 

The Top 5 Cloud Skills You Should Acquire in 2016

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The Top 5 Cloud Skills You Should Acquire in 2016 by Scott Maurice

LinkedIn recently cited Cloud and Distributed Computing as the number one skill that can get you hired in 2016.

LinkedIn members with skills like Hadoop, HBase, and Hive listed on their profiles increased dramatically from 2014 to 2015, making it jump from not even being rated (due to a low number of members adding these items to their profiles) to the #1 spot in 2015, and the best skill to get you hired in 2016.

As cloud computing has become a technological cornerstone for businesses across the globe, employer demand for cloud professionals has exploded. In 2015 alone, there were an estimated 18 million cloud computing jobs globally, according to WANTED Analytics.

Of those 18 million, 3.9 million of those jobs are in the U.S., with 384,478 in IT alone. And according to WANTED Analytics, the median salary for IT professionals with cloud computing experience is $90,950, and the median salary for positions that pay over $100,000 a year is $116,950.

Basically, it’s a great time to be working in cloud solutions, so let’s breakdown this flourishing industry into five popular skills required of the modern cloud professional.

Migration

It takes longer for some companies than others to get up to date with the latest tech standards. Millions of businesses are still in the process of planning and executing the migration their on-premise infrastructure. This means there is still a significant demand for professionals with the skills to facilitate the process.

If you’re put in charge of overseeing this migration, you will need a sound knowledge of the different cloud deployment models available to businesses. You’ll also need to understand the existing infrastructure of the organization you’re working with and the knowledge of how to map applications and workloads running on existing servers and relocate them to their cloud equivalent.

Looking for a course you can take to learn the ins and outs? Try Microsoft’s Private Cloud certification, Specialist certification in Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, and MCSA: Windows Server 2012 course (which can be deployed across both public and private cloud offerings.)

Security

According to RightScale’s 2016 State of the Cloud Report, security is a top concern for companies using cloud-based platforms.

The top challenge cited for companies was is lack of resources/expertise (i.e. there’s a high-demand for skilled workers!) which remains a consistent concern across the levels of experience these companies have working in the cloud—experience was divided into 3 subcategories: Cloud Beginners, Cloud Explorers, and Cloud Focused. The second most important challenge (especially to Cloud Beginners): Security.

Security was ranked as the #2 challenge by Cloud Beginners (35 percent), the #4 challenge by Cloud Explorers (28 percent), and the #5 challenge by Cloud Focused users. While security concerns decrease as a challenge as users gain cloud experience, it is still a crucial concern for companies across the board.

To develop your cloud security skills, then (ISC)2’s Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) certification is for you.

Database Querying Languages + Platforms

The amount of data that we create today is almost incomprehensible. Each day, in fact, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, but this explosion of data is a very recent one. In fact, 90% of the data in the world today has been created in just the last two years. But all that data is meaningless unless it can be analyzed and accurate conclusions can be drawn from it.

Companies need employees with the skills to thoughtfully and meaningfully draw insights into their customers, the market, and their products as well as the ability to store and manage this data. This is where learning a database querying language and an associated database platform come in.

SQL is by far the most important language to learn, and there are courses all over the web that offer lessons in this. Start out with Codecademy, and from there you can see if you need to supplement other courses.

Popular database platforms include Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle Database, and open-source platforms like MySQL, Hadoop and MongoDB. Oracle has their own certification courses, as does Microsoft. MongoDB provides their own MongoDB University and Oracle provides MySQL training. Cloudera can help you learn Apache Hadoop.

Linux

More than 25% of servers powering Azure are Linux based, which means there’s a very high demand for cloud professionals with Linux expertise in the market right now. Microsoft has been increasingly working in the open-source market, which means the demand is only set to grow.

Learn how to design, architect, build administer, and maintain Linux servers with the Linux Foundation Certified Systems Administrator course. Microsoft also offers a MCSA: Linux on Azure course that will help you develop the skills to create cloud-enabled Linux solutions that take advantage of the full potential of the Azure platform.

Programming languages

Everyone knows that developers are always in hot demand, and working in the cloud has only allowed developers to build, deploy, and manage applications more efficiently. Companies need talented developers to manage these efforts. Languages like Python, Perl and Ruby have become more popular in recent years, but traditional languages like .NET, Java, and PHP continue to have high demand.

Again, Codecademy is a great resource for learning many of these languages, and their courses are free.

Conclusion

As the world moves more and more into the cloud, the need for cloud professionals is only set to grow. No matter if you’re looking to make a career change, shift, or simply increase your value as an employee for a potential raise or promotion, learning these skills will make you invaluable to your employee and the team you’re working in. Don’t miss out on this essential technology shift that’s taking place all over the world.