On Cloud

It's not too much to say cloud has changed the way the world works. However, challenges such as data issues, economic concerns, and cloud complexity still remain--and are imperative for companies to solve. Those that do will be well poised to define the future of cloud.

The cloud space is ever-changing, and 2019 was no exception. Top trends included AI, Kubernetes, and cloud-complexity. 2020 promises more complexity, exploding AI/ML use, and business taking the lead on driving cloud expansion.

Despite being a relatively new practice, DevOps is already experiencing big changes. New disciplines, consolidation among vendors, and competition to introduce new, better technologies are making DevOps an exciting place to be right now--and in the future.

IoT has revolutionized the capabilities of countless consumer products. Now, Deloitte has introduced Smart Factory Fabric powered by AWS, a suite of services designed to revolutionize IoT and help manufacturers reimagine their business.  

Machine learning has revolutionized analytics, yet it still has untapped potential. This year at AWS re:Invent 2019, AWS introduced new ML offerings, as well as a collaboration with Deloitte, to help companies enhance their ML capabilities, make them more secure, and speed up implementation.

At AWS re:Invent 2019, AWS introduced new, exciting, and evolutionary products and services in the cloud space. There's lots of buzz around IoT, machine learning, and 5G, making companies smarter—and helping developers move more operations to the cloud.

Despite the strong imperative to digitally transform, many companies still struggle with it. One strategy is to adopt a cloud-native mindset that leverages AIOps and shifts DevOps bottlenecks left to re-think software development, delivery, and deployment in a cloud-native world.

As the panoply of cloud vendors and products grows ever larger, so does the configuration and management complexity of the cloud. For many companies, this complexity can reduce the value of their cloud-computing investments. In this episode of the podcast, David Linthicum and guests, Intel's Lisa Davis and Deloitte's Doug Bourgeois, discuss ways companies can tackle cloud complexity and leverage m...

There's little doubt of the value of agile and DevOps, but many companies still struggle to innovate with IT. It's often because they're stuck in a project management paradigm. One solution is to focus on product value streams and measure the business value delivered by software.

DevOps is a boon to software development and delivery, but companies sometimes struggle to get DevOps right. Most often, it's a people, rather than a tooling issue. Successful DevOps takes the right people and leadership, and a view from a product, rather than a project, lens.

Many companies struggle with technology in general, and cloud migration in particular. What's needed is a fresh perspective—a new look at how to accelerate what's possible. Savvy companies understand that to be able to drive increased value, they should increase diversity in the tech workforce. They also recognize the need to better understand and navigate the massive disruptions and cultural chan...

Cloud architectures are incredibly complex and, often, it's all but impossible to predict and prevent failure scenarios. Enter the ascendant discipline of chaos engineering, which aims to discover cloud failure points, in in-production systems, before they become disasters.

Increasingly, companies are realizing that their cloud migration journey is defined as much by their culture as by their technology choices. Indeed, effectively managing the seismic changes that come with cloud computing is key to enabling a successful cloud adoption strategy.

Companies often struggle to develop efficient cloud-native application environments. Frequently, it's because they haven't implemented product-oriented, enterprise-ready application delivery methods. Those that can make the shift, however, can reap enormous benefits.

As DevOps matures, and the "shift-everything-left" philosophy gains ascendancy, there's a movement to automate all—or most—phases of testing. However, there are some critical functions that may resist automation. In fact, contrary to the "automate-everything" impetus, human testers won't ever go away. Indeed, human testers need to be more involved, and earlier in the development process. In this p...

The current hype cycle is all about 5G and its tremendous promise. That promise may be fulfilled someday, but right now the IoT and edge technologies are helping organizations across all industries revolutionize their business and view most technologies through an as-a-service lens.

Yes, there's complexity in the cloud journey, but that doesn't mean that the cloud isn't the place to be now, and in the future. As cloud adoption rises, it's important to understand which apps are right for the cloud and to manage complexity to make cloud adoption easier.

Because of its flexibility, Kubernetes is delivering on the promise of PaaS for cloud app deployment. However, container management is complex, and there are often gaps with orchestration engines. Companies that manage Kubernetes effectively, though, can reap the benefits--especially at the edge.

Many organizations are wowed by new cloud tecnologies and deploy them to solve specific issues. Instead of getting the magic bullet they hope for, sometimes they only add to their cloud complexity. However, one key to cloud success is a sound strategy that drives business value.

The tax function has historically been reluctant to fully embrace the cloud. However, regulatory demands, coupled with the need to gain more information security and deeper insight into performance, is pushing them to adopt the cloud. The payoff for companies that make the leap can be huge.

Developing scalable, efficient cloud architectures requires fresh thinking. Infrastructure as Code, along with other tools like Kubernetes--when properly managed--can help companies create robust cloud architectures that produce more value from their cloud journey.

The cloud's value proposition is almost limitless, but as deployments become more complex, cloud complexity can degrade that value. To manage cloud complexity effectively, leading practices include increasing agility while focusing on improved governance, automation, and data architecture.

Where DevOps meets security you get DevSecOps, but are companies doing it right? If not, how can they avoid the seven deadly diseases of DevOps?

Despite rapidly growing cloud adoption, mainframes remain at the core of IT for many large companies. Migration from mainframe to the cloud can be challenging, but the right strategy and tools can ease the transition and bring tremendous benefit.

When applications fail to live up to their promise, technology isn't always the culprit. Often, the failure is a result of ineffective teamwork. To combat the problem, successful companies are building better teams and improving communication throughout the DevOps process.