IT

Cloud Security 2018

In a Forbes article earlier this year, Oracle’s Jeff Erickson listed 5 strategic priorities for chief security officer in 2018. Since the CSO can no longer keep employees and IT resources safe behind firewalls, they have to create new initiatives to keep their data and IT systems secure. Prioritizing the following 5 tasks can help organizations grow and keep an open understanding of risks.

  • Integrating security into development – embed security practices into the development lifecycle so developers do not treat security as optional
  • Automate IT processes to protect data – security alert overload for csos
  • Regulation & reporting – “almost as important as protecting the data is showing that you’re protecting the data”
  • Give your CEO and board clear security metrics – create easily understandable metrics
  • Protect the brand – when/if hackers strike, the hit to your brand rep could be more costly than the system outage, as we’ve seen with too many companies lately

The reality for current Chief Security Officers is the risk of a breach, from an article on Oracle.com based on “Strategic Priorities for CSO’s”. If CSO’s want to keep their company safe, they must be proactive and define appropriate technologies and processes to ensure security is embedded, says Akshay Bhargava, VP of Oracle. He explains how vital clear communication is within the business, across all levels of the organization. Not only should you (and your company) be proactive to protect your data, but you should also prepare for the worst, creating a plan of action in case a breach occurs.

In yet another intriguing blog article based off Oracle, principal analyst Alan, writes about if companies can trust cloud security in 2018. Since SO much of your cloud-based data is sensitive, you must protect it that much more. Who isn’t worried about getting hacked? Nowadays no one is safe. Which is why we can no longer rely on someone else doing it, we must protect our clouds and be proactive.

In a recent survey where 450 businesses were surveyed, 87% said they have a cloud orientation, which shows trust in the organization. 20% said the cloud is more secure than their on-premises environment, and 21% believe the cloud is less secure. 46% of respondents say between ¼ and ½ of their data is in the cloud. The more software is automated, the fewer human errors can ruin the system configurations. In the study, 84% say they are committed to increasing levels of security automation in their companies.

To conclude, the cloud shows a bright future for security in companies. As Akshay Bhargava, vice president of the cloud business group at Oracle says, “Hope for the best, plan for the worst.”

Why does your company need a consultant?

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Why do YOU need a business consultant? To provide solutions to specific challenges, to constructively criticize, to facilitate new systems, to implement new business ideas, or to bring in an experienced outsiders evaluation and point of view? Maybe your company is working on a challenging problem or project and needs an unbiased opinion. Our consultants will not let you down.

A company normally comes to consultants because they are great at these 5 things:

  • Separating people from the problems
  • Focusing on interests, not positions
  • Generating a variety of possibilities
  • Creating evaluation criteria
  • Solving problems

Consultants generate options before deciding. Sometimes clients jump to conclusions because they have been in the industry for many, many years, or because “it has always been done that way”. Consultants are more willing to start with a blank white sheet of paper and begin brainstorming.

Consultants are really good at generating options because they spend the time getting the data and really thinking through the problems at hand. At the beginning of a project, consultants look at all potential scenarios, and look for hypotheses everywhere.

▪  They brainstorm new ideas; at this stage no ideas are ruled out

▪  They interview people up & down the org chart

▪  They keep asking “why” until they get to the core reason

▪  They dig until they get to the root causes and find out what the real drivers are

▪  They reach out to industry experts who know the larger trends

It’s very common for consultants to structure multiple options for the client to choose from. This acknowledges that there are multiple potential solutions, but there are trade-offs.  It really depends on the clients’ time frame, appetite for risk, budget, and opinion. There is often 1 primary recommendation, but multiple implementation options.

There are many different types of consultants, whether you’re a small or big company, there is someone out there who will help you get to where you want to be. Here at Fidelis Companies, we specialize in Engineering, BioPharma, and IT. SiteSuite came out with 4 main types of consultants:

  1. Specialist – world class capabilities in selected area
  2. Game changer – game changing answers that no one else can provide
  3. Vendor – adequate performance + low cost + no hassle
  4. Total solution provider – total package from a reliable supplier

Flash Memory Summit

3D_XPoint_DieThe Flash Memory Summit is the only place where you will hear the people making these products happen! Network with companies and people that will create the next generation of hardware and software.  The main companies who participated in the Flash Memory Summit include: SK Hynix, Seagate, Sandisk, HP, PMC-Sierra, NetApp, Toshiba, Violin Memory, and Cadence. 

Last week, Fidelis Companies’ Engineering Practice Lead, James Roberts and Engineering Recruiter, Mary Helen Corrigan, attended this conference in California, where over 6,500 attendees and 100 exhibitors were in attendance, proving that memory and storage markets are booming. The most notable “buzz” the Fidelis team heard at the educational conference was regarding Micron’s new X-Point Memory. Link to the exciting new technology and check it out: https://www.micron.com/about/innovations/3d-xpoint-technology

The conference covered a variety of topics and sessions:

  • Half-day seminars on: error-correcting codes, PCI Express, NVMe, and SSDs introductions
  • Full day forums on: flash memory-based architectures, NVMe and PCIe SSDs, and controllers
  • Half-day forums on enterprise SSDs, enterprise caching, enterprise applications, PCIe power budgets, virtualization, client caching, data centers, and PCIe storage

There were at least six major companies with exhibits that are target companies where we find/recruit ASIC, FW, Applications & Technical Marketing talent for our engineering team’s best customer. We attended the conference to find new engineering talent and to explore new business. There were many companies that were new to us, which isn’t surprising since we worked our first search assignments for storage-related development a little over a year ago. Our goal is take advantage of the new technologies and add memory related searches to our offerings.

Most of their time at the conference was spent checking out different companies and technologies, gathering personal info on people to call back upon their return to the office, and networking around the exhibit hall.

Reflecting back on the conference, they have numerous takeaways:

  • Retrieved around 150 names of engineers and technical marketing professionals from target companies for future networking
  • Learned more about the storage and memory technologies and markets (i.e. XPoint)
  • Met people in person that they’ve known over the phone for years, and started building new relationships