Cloud conundrums and legacy systems: Should they stay or should they go?

Survey after survey has shown that IT and business leaders have had to drastically rethink priorities, strategies and spending in the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic. The survey that our company conducted in October has showed that technology spending hasn’t taken a terrible hit: in fact, 60% of IT leaders report that they have either significantly or moderately increased their IT budgets in the last six months. Other research from 2020 has mirrored those findings.

Yet...

10 December 2020 | Architecture

How SaaS companies can build on their popularity with a good digital marketing strategy

With the Covid-19 pandemic forcing firms to allow more home and remote working, SaaS offerings are seeing large subscription increases. Recent figures reported by market research company Technavio suggests the global SaaS market could grow to over $60 billion in 2023.

So what happens when a working vaccine becomes available - which according to recent media reports is on the horizon - and people can resume their normal working routine at the office? How can SaaS firms ‘seize the...

17 November 2020 | Best Practice

Charting a path toward digital transformation in the face of uncertainty: A guide

Covid-19 has accelerated years-long digital transformation initiatives for enterprise teams into a span of months.

But digital transformation in business today isn’t just about supporting a remote workforce. We can’t continue to rely on in-person engagement for any business processes. Digital-first operations for employees, customers, partners, and suppliers are no longer merely a differentiator; it’s table stakes for surviving during the pandemic economy and...

12 November 2020 | Best Practice

Palo Alto Networks warns of ‘critical’ IAM misconfigurations potentially worth millions

Cloud misconfigurations continue to cause major headaches for organisations - and a recent report from Palo Alto Networks has uncovered an identity and access management (IAM) flaw that could have been worth 'millions.'

The finding appears in the security provider's Cloud Threat Report 2H 2020. The disclosure (28 pages, PDF, email required) came about after the Unit 42 cloud threat intelligence team - the research arm of Palo Alto - was contacted by a customer requesting a test of...

8 October 2020 | AWS

Digital transformation strategies: Should shaken SD-WAN confidence lead to WAN acceleration?

Analysis Before the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown struck, the predictions for software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) were glowingly positive. A Cato Networks IT survey forecasted strong growth for the technology, as buyers want to replace their multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) with a nimbler and more affordable alternative. However, the survey finds a need to consider the demands of digital transformation, and arguably now the changes in working practices, to avoid undermining...

29 September 2020 | Architecture

Gartner analysis: To face new realities, tech CEOs need to bounce forward

Any crisis is significant, but the impact of a global health crisis affects every part of a business’ operations and its employees. Unlike an economic recession or the disruption created by a new technology, COVID-19 brought an immediate event that changed how we think and work at the most fundamental levels. Today tech CEOs are moving into the second phase of their COVID-19 response – they’ve regained their operational footing and are refocusing on new customer...

28 September 2020 | Best Practice

How to build the talent pipeline to close the cloud security skills gap

When it comes to the security skills gap, cloud security skills continue to be the most sought after – and the hardest for organisations to fill. As cloud computing continues to be an essential part of business continuity and productivity with more organisations preparing for remote work over the long term, leaders must find new ways to fill this critical talent gap.

The need for cloud security skills is increasing

Cloud adoption was already growing rapidly, but that growth...

17 August 2020 | Best Practice

Lessons learned: Engineering productivity best practice during Covid-19

Case study The world became a different place during Covid-19 and how we work, communicate and collaborate has been redefined - possibly forever. Our company has a distributed team across the US and India for development and operations. When “shelter in place” hit the entire world, we were not sure how we would be able to execute our projects, customer commitments, and day-to-day operations. Most of our engineers rarely worked from home and in India. Some even left their homes to be...

15 July 2020 | Best Practice

Using agile development practices to improve team performance: A guide

As the world braves a global pandemic, organisations are continuously adapting to working remotely. While teams are working hard to stay productive during these difficult times, there is still a learning curve to acclimate to the current remote setup – a setup which now involves sharing workspaces with spouses, roommates and even rambunctious kids.

From my experience as a software developer all the way through my current role as a CTO, I’ve encountered a variety of work styles...

10 July 2020 | Best Practice

Beyond the catch-all ‘solution’: The quest for smarter – yet simpler – IT

IT can be both complicated and confusing. Some of this is unavoidable, but a lot of what confuses is unnecessary, not least our TLA obsession (that’s Three Letter Acronyms to you and me!) plus the everyday use of jargon at the expense of clarity.

Arguably the biggest villain, however, is a tendency to call every product a solution regardless of whether it solves a problem or not. This is a tendency made all the worse by customers and vendors willing to buy into this extra layer...

26 June 2020 | Best Practice