Data Foundry Blog - Insights

Many business functions have shifted online in recent months. Between social distancing protocols, quarantine, and protective measures, the remote workforce is stronger than ever and more dependent on connectivity and networking.

Many companies underfund their business continuity and disaster recovery plans, not realizing several hours of downtime can cost them hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars. Every company’s DR strategy and budget should be based on their unique requirements, not a cookie-cutter plan. The best way to approach spending on disaster recovery efforts is to first understand your compliance requirements, if you have any, and then calculate your cost of downtime per hour. Once you have an idea of what that number is, you’ll have a better understanding of the ROI on different approaches to disaster recovery. In this blog post, we’ll look at average downtime risk based on availability, and we’ll take a look at how much companies typically allocate for their DR budgets.

In the past decade, software defined networking (SDN) has evolved from an ultra-hyped set of emerging technologies expected to revolutionize interconnected networks to a formidable, trusted solution offered by vendors from Cisco to VMWare. And it’s growing at a steady pace, with a projected market worth of more than $12 billion in 2022, according to a report by IDC.

Edge computing and edge data centers are buzzwords popping up in IT publications all over the Internet, but what do they really mean? Edge computing is more straightforward, and has been simply defined as “data processing power at the edge of a network instead of in a cloud or a central data warehouse.” However, edge data centers are being defined in a variety of ways followed by outrageous claims that this new data center concept will “blow away the cloud.” Your preferred definition will likely depend on your industry. Here are 5 widely communicated ones to broaden your perspective.

According to the 451 Alliance, SaaS (Software as a Service) is the most widely adopted type of cloud service, used by 70% of companies. This is followed by Iaas (Infrastructure as a Service) via the public cloud, which is currently utilized by 46% of companies. As the use of cloud storage and cloud applications continues to increase, there is a growing demand to connect directly to the cloud, that is, without traversing the public Internet.

A Permanent Denial of Service attack, or a PDoS attack, is denial of service via hardware sabotage. One method of conducting a PDoS attack is commonly referred to as phlashing. During such an attack, an attacker bricks a device or destroys firmware, rendering the device or an entire system useless. In this scenario, the victim has no other choice than to repair the device or buy a new one to restore operations. PDoS attacks have been a known possibility for several years, but these tactics haven’t yet gained traction with hackers. Our partner Radware, a leading cybersecurity firm, predicts in their 2017 Global Application & Network Security Report that this type of attack will be on the rise this year.

In the digital age when nearly every business and industry is powered by sophisticated technology, updates are a fact of life. Software developers are constantly releasing new versions of their solutions while hardware manufacturers are consistently seeking new ways to improve their products.

IT professionals are responsible for making sure all their organization’s hardware, software and network resources are running optimally and well-secured. However, keeping up with your IT infrastructure can be challenging — especially if, like many organizations, you have a hybrid infrastructure model. Fortunately, IT infrastructure monitoring tools can provide the insight you need to monitor resources across your environment to ensure everything is working as it should.

No matter your definition of edge computing, the purpose is to bring processing power closer to the devices that communicate with it. For the purpose of this blog post, “the edge” is any storage or processing equipment that is not in a data center, i.e. computer equipment or machinery in your office, warehouse, or factory that stores or processes data from computers or network-enabled devices nearby.

Over the past few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed the way nearly every industry transmits, collects and uses data — and the oil and gas industry is no exception.

Energy companies who’ve invested in this new technology are enjoying cost savings, better-streamlined processes, more accurate forecasts for demands and other crucial advantages. And that’s likely why global IoT in the oil and gas market is expected to reach nearly $40 billion by 2023, according to a report from BIS Research.