As the Internet evolves, hackers are now able to anonymously target
millions of people in sophisticated, always-changing ways — even going
so far as to hijack baby monitors in children’s rooms. The frequency of
targeted cyber attacks nearly doubled last year. But who is blocking them? And where are the attacks coming from?
YouTube Video
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Cloud Set to Burst in India
With its low barriers to entry and ability to handle large numbers of customers, cloud computing is enticing many of the country's 50 million startups and small businesses.
By Laurence Cruz
Indian online ticketing giant BookMyShow.com
grew out of a simple idea hatched by three vacationing friends: What if
you could buy movie tickets online? But simple can be incredibly
powerful—especially in a country with 100 million people accessing the
mobile Internet via smartphone. Spurred by Indians’ love affair with
movies and growing tech-savviness, BookMyShow.com has since grown to add
tickets for concerts, plays, expos, and more recently Formula 1 racing
and India’s other national passion, cricket. In 2008, the company broke
the 1,000-tickets-in-a-day barrier. In July 2011, it sold 100,000
tickets in a single day, and a year later sold more than 2 million
tickets in a single month.
“The kind of demand they see everyday is huge,” says Shradha Sharma, founder of Bangalore-based YourStory.com,
which promotes India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. “And the reason
they’ve been able to do all this is because they are on cloud.”Cloud computing in India is set to skyrocket. Tech research company IDC put the cloud market in India at $688 million in 2012 and expects it to hit $3.5 billion by 2016—a five-fold increase. Shradha says all the big corporations in the country already run at least part of their business in the cloud. And she says a growing number of smaller companies are joining the trend, led by success stories like BookMyShow.com, its bus ticketing counterpart redBus and many others.
Cloud Appeal
The appeal of the cloud for startups and small businesses is clear. Cloud computing lets them outsource computer programs and functions like data processing and storage away from local devices to a network of remote servers (“the cloud”). These resources can then be accessed from anywhere on-demand via connected devices such as smartphones, tablets and PCs—great for companies that want to get up and running fast, need to scale quickly and/or don’t have a big IT budget.
Shradha says the cloud holds particular allure for Indian entrepreneurs, many of whom share a frugal mindset that favors things like pay-as-you-go, comparative shopping and learning from other companies’ case studies. It’s a mindset that has led many small and midsized businesses to prefer pirated or copied software over paying full price.
“But cloud allows software vendors to sell useful, legitimate, high-end tools on a SaaS (software-as-a-service) pay-as-you-go model, or a mixed freemium model,” Shradha says, referring to the popular tiered pricing strategy that includes free and premium services.
The cloud also puts otherwise-pricey big data and analytic capabilities within reach of startups. The combination of social media and mobile cloud allows startups to set up an online presence, market themselves, sell services and/or content, and mine analytics to help with development of future customers and/or products. All of which, Shradha says, has helped propel startup acceleration in the cloud era past the startup growth rate of the pre-cloud dotcom-boom era of the late 1990s. Today, India is home to more than 10,000 technology-based startups, with up to 8,000 new ones sprouting every year—an effective growth rate of 25 percent to 30 percent, according to YourStory.com.
Barriers to Cloud Adoption
But the cloud boom is just getting started. Of the roughly 50 million startups and small and mid-sized businesses in India, Shradha says the vast majority—43 million—are traditional small businesses that are not even online.
“That’s a huge market,” she says. “There’s a huge opportunity for them to go online and start interacting online.”
Some of the factors keeping these companies offline are technical—access, reliability and security, for example. Only 1.1 per every 100 inhabitants has access to fixed broadband in India, which ranks 122 in the world for fixed broadband penetration, according to a 2013 report by the Broadband Commission. Compare that with 41.9 per 100 people for top-ranked Switzerland.
As fixed broadband connectivity increases, cloud adoption is expected to follow. But Indians aren’t waiting around. Many of the country’s 900 million mobile subscribers use mobile phones to access cloud resources. And venture capitalists have taken note.
“In the mobile app space is one of the biggest areas they’re looking at, both from an innovation perspective and in terms of reaching the mass Indian user base,” Shradha says.
There are also non-technical barriers to cloud adoption. According to Intuit India survey results shared recently on Bloomberg TV, Indians resist cloud adoption due to perceptions around cost and affordability, a lack of skilled labor available to small businesses and concerns about return on investment (ROI). That said, a recent IDC survey of 473 respondents, 200 of which were small organizations, showed a huge willingness to adopt cloud technology.
“At least in the startup space, people are very eager and hungry to adopt,” Shradha says.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Many B2B and B2C startups have taken the leap into the cloud with great results, especially in certain sectors. They include companies like HealthcareMagic, Neurosynaptic and Drishti Eye Centre in the healthcare space; FrontalRain Technologies and Cropin Technology in the agri-tech space; Indix, Aurus Network and Flipkart in the big data analytics, education and e-commerce spaces, respectively; and many more in the tech, media, ERP and finance spaces.
“All these spaces are seeing a lot of innovation,” Shradha says.
She adds that, when it comes to shopping for a cloud provider, Indian entrepreneurs are extremely value-conscious and keenly aware that one size doesn’t fit all. Some are very focused on the support that’s available. Others—especially in data-heavy analytics companies—are focused on security. Still others want open source offerings from their cloud provider. And they’re willing to shop around to get what they want.
“If they see a greater value, they don’t mind shifting to another platform,” Shradha says. “And that’s what’s very exciting about startups—they’re ready to explore.”
And in India, with its 1.2 billion inhabitants, the cloud offers so much to explore.
“The change is happening very fast,” Shradha says.
# # #
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Monday, June 16, 2014
What the Exponential Power of the #InternetOfEverything Means for Smart Connected Cities
Wim Elfrink | June 16, 2014 at 7:00 am PST
Barcelona, Amsterdam, Nice, London and New York are arguably some of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities. However, they have more than glamorous fashions, exquisite cuisine and vibrant nightlife in common. All are connecting things, such as cars and trash cans, to the Internet, making their cities work more efficiently.
As the Internet of Things continues to grow and connect things, and the explosion of big data, cloud and mobile devices change our landscape, it’s important to emphasize that a connected life is more than just smart appliances. As more things, people, and data become connected, the power of the Internet (essentially a network of networks) grows exponentially.
This is what we call the Internet of Everything (IoE) – the network effect of bringing together people, process, data and things—to create better social, environmental and economic outcomes in businesses and communities.
Recently, I wrote about how innovative cities, like Copenhagen, and the surrounding districts of Albertslund and Frederikssund are taking decisive action to reinvent themselves with the latest network infrastructure linked to the Internet.
Here’s a closer look at a few examples of the Internet of Everything in action in cities all over the world:
Thirty years ago, there were just 1,000 connections to the Internet throughout the world. Today, with the help of app-centric infrastructure, sensors and mobile devices, there are about 13 billion connections, and this is still just 1 percent of what’s possible. The economic opportunity to connect the unconnected totals $19 trillion, comprising $4.6 trillion for the public sector, two-thirds of which can be realized by cities.
In 2020, we expect 50 billion things to be connected to the Internet, which will still be scratching the surface of what’s possible.
We know that data is doubling every two years, and according to IDC the digital universe will expand to 44 zettabytes, or 44 trillion gigabytes, annually by 2020. That’s even more staggering when you consider that today 90 percent of data is dark – it is only viewed once or not at all.
However, this explosion of data and apps – when properly optimized – presents unprecedented opportunities to better manage resources and improve quality of life. By embracing the Internet of Everything, cities across the globe can are lead the way toward a more sustainable world. Will your city be next?
Be sure to follow @CiscoIoE and join the conversation, #InternetOfEverything.
Additional Resources:
Barcelona, Amsterdam, Nice, London and New York are arguably some of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities. However, they have more than glamorous fashions, exquisite cuisine and vibrant nightlife in common. All are connecting things, such as cars and trash cans, to the Internet, making their cities work more efficiently.
As the Internet of Things continues to grow and connect things, and the explosion of big data, cloud and mobile devices change our landscape, it’s important to emphasize that a connected life is more than just smart appliances. As more things, people, and data become connected, the power of the Internet (essentially a network of networks) grows exponentially.
This is what we call the Internet of Everything (IoE) – the network effect of bringing together people, process, data and things—to create better social, environmental and economic outcomes in businesses and communities.
Recently, I wrote about how innovative cities, like Copenhagen, and the surrounding districts of Albertslund and Frederikssund are taking decisive action to reinvent themselves with the latest network infrastructure linked to the Internet.
Here’s a closer look at a few examples of the Internet of Everything in action in cities all over the world:
- In Albertslund, work already has begun on the Danish Outdoor Light
Lab (DOLL), which will become a showcase for smart lighting. Nearly 40
competing outdoor light solutions converged onto one open network will
provide enormous potential to cut costs and consumption while improving
public safety.
- In the Frederikssund district, just 25 miles from downtown Copenhagen, the greenfield City of Vinge has one of the greenest and most innovative master plans in Europe, setting the groundwork to be carbon neutral from the outset. Underpinning this goal are plans for an application-centric infrastructure that connects people, data, processes and things – the perfect example of the Internet of Everything.
- And in the Copenhagen municipality itself, smart lighting, parking, water management, smart grids and more all to be converged onto one network, and powered by sensors everywhere, will improve sustainability, resiliency and overall livability.
- Barcelona’s Born District, a bustling neighborhood of restaurants, shops and boutiques uses a customized network for reports on temperature, noise, humidity, particle-concentration and more, providing an overview of the city’s overall “livability.” The information is then relayed to city “situation” rooms, allowing officials to detect levels that are outside of set thresholds and improve on them.
- In London and other parts of the UK, the Internet of Everything is causing city and government administrators to begin thinking long-term about energy consumption and their manufacturing industry. Facing a looming energy shortfall and poised to take its place as an international manufacturing hub, the UK is taking full advantage of the reach of the Internet of Everything as it works to solve infrastructure and economic challenges.
Thirty years ago, there were just 1,000 connections to the Internet throughout the world. Today, with the help of app-centric infrastructure, sensors and mobile devices, there are about 13 billion connections, and this is still just 1 percent of what’s possible. The economic opportunity to connect the unconnected totals $19 trillion, comprising $4.6 trillion for the public sector, two-thirds of which can be realized by cities.
In 2020, we expect 50 billion things to be connected to the Internet, which will still be scratching the surface of what’s possible.
We know that data is doubling every two years, and according to IDC the digital universe will expand to 44 zettabytes, or 44 trillion gigabytes, annually by 2020. That’s even more staggering when you consider that today 90 percent of data is dark – it is only viewed once or not at all.
However, this explosion of data and apps – when properly optimized – presents unprecedented opportunities to better manage resources and improve quality of life. By embracing the Internet of Everything, cities across the globe can are lead the way toward a more sustainable world. Will your city be next?
Be sure to follow @CiscoIoE and join the conversation, #InternetOfEverything.
Additional Resources:
- View the interactive map, The Internet of Everything in the Public Sector
- Listen to the recent NPR interview: A Connected Life Means More Than Just Smart Appliances
- Read the recent blog: Copenhagen Gets Greener with the Internet of Everything
5G Networks and Backhaul
Humair Raza
- edited
We are in the midst of major 4G
rollouts and more than half of the world population have not even
tasted the supersonic LTE networks, yet we see a lot of industry talks
on the topic of 5G networks. So let us shine our crystal balls and see
what 5G networks are all about all the while addressing some of the
burning questions related to this topic.
In what ways will 5G be different than 4G?
In live deployments LTE have reached peak rate of more than 100Mbps, the lab setups claim to touch the true 4G bar of 1Gbps in low mobility scenarios. We have enough of the speed claims attached to 4G that one can argue that 5G is not all about raw speed, rather the focus will be on reducing the latency and increasing the availability to replicate or even exceed wireline experience.
On the radio side a non-cellular architecture based on soft cells or phantom cells is being proposed which would allow a complete separation between the control and user plane. Therefore UE will be served through a macro site for signaling and control whereas the data will be routed through the nearest small cell. To achieve peak rates of 10Gbps the use of mmWave spectrum is being considered as an alternative to the current sub 3GHz spectrum for 3G and 4G. Finally the use of full duplex radio technology doubles the capacity and allows a base station to simultaneously Tx/Rx with a UE.
There are a number of other feature and architecture enhancements that will make 5G much more machine friendly network. Whereas 4G brought a boon to the mobile video consumption, 5G is more about mission critical tactical communications. Rather the 5G nirvana is for the network to provide app specific dynamic resource allocation to allow a wide spectrum of use cases to coexist in peace.
Will 5G be more secure than 4G?
We only hope! There is no doubt that frequency and intensity of threats are increasing with the wider adoption of mobile broadband. LTE security architecture was designed with the inclusion of SecGW to protect unencrypted S1 and X2 interfaces. However a large number of operators are still on the borderline regarding the role of SecGW. One thing is for sure that for 5G threat vectors will grow exponentially with IoT use cases as a vast majority of consumer devices will not have the state of the art security design. In other words it is much easier to hijack a toaster than a smartphone.
Based on the expected number of devices on 5G, IPv6 will be the default addressing scheme. Even though an end-end routable IPv6 environment solves number of issues with the current NAT based schemes, but will require state-aware intelligence to distinguish legitimate sessions from the attacks originated from IPv6 cloud.
Will SDN and NFV play a critical role in 5G?
Use cases being talked about for 5G are very diverse, low BW, high-availability, low-latency M2M traffic on one end to very high BW video immersion traffic on the other end. Services offered to these new classes of “things” will be very diverse as well, demanding the programmability, personalization and agility of Hi-IQ networks. SDN and NFV will be key technologies to enable these objectives. NFV has already started inroads even in 4G networks through vEPC and Cloud RAN architectures, these architectures will be further enhanced and streamlined to handle 5G requirements.
What about backhaul for 5G?
4G/LTE attempted to create a flat-IP architecture. However, the backhaul still mostly remained hub-and-spoke as X2 interface was not widely implemented. With LTE-Advanced there is a revised interest in X2 interface or a meshed backhaul architecture to implement CoMP, eICIC and other RAN enhancements.
With evolution to 5G, RAN architecture is becoming very disruptive, non-cellular design with complete separation of control and user planes, full duplex radios with in-band backhaul, high density radio footprint to name a few. With the inclusion of SDN and NFV there will really be no distinction between backhaul and mobile core. Eventually there will be one Hi-IQ IP transport network connecting “things” to the apps in the cloud. As 5G will become “un-cellular” so will 5G-backhaul become “un-backhaul”.
(from: http://forums.juniper.net/t5/Industry-Solutions-and-Trends/5G-Networks-and-Backhaul/ba-p/243528)
In what ways will 5G be different than 4G?
In live deployments LTE have reached peak rate of more than 100Mbps, the lab setups claim to touch the true 4G bar of 1Gbps in low mobility scenarios. We have enough of the speed claims attached to 4G that one can argue that 5G is not all about raw speed, rather the focus will be on reducing the latency and increasing the availability to replicate or even exceed wireline experience.
On the radio side a non-cellular architecture based on soft cells or phantom cells is being proposed which would allow a complete separation between the control and user plane. Therefore UE will be served through a macro site for signaling and control whereas the data will be routed through the nearest small cell. To achieve peak rates of 10Gbps the use of mmWave spectrum is being considered as an alternative to the current sub 3GHz spectrum for 3G and 4G. Finally the use of full duplex radio technology doubles the capacity and allows a base station to simultaneously Tx/Rx with a UE.
There are a number of other feature and architecture enhancements that will make 5G much more machine friendly network. Whereas 4G brought a boon to the mobile video consumption, 5G is more about mission critical tactical communications. Rather the 5G nirvana is for the network to provide app specific dynamic resource allocation to allow a wide spectrum of use cases to coexist in peace.
Will 5G be more secure than 4G?
We only hope! There is no doubt that frequency and intensity of threats are increasing with the wider adoption of mobile broadband. LTE security architecture was designed with the inclusion of SecGW to protect unencrypted S1 and X2 interfaces. However a large number of operators are still on the borderline regarding the role of SecGW. One thing is for sure that for 5G threat vectors will grow exponentially with IoT use cases as a vast majority of consumer devices will not have the state of the art security design. In other words it is much easier to hijack a toaster than a smartphone.
Based on the expected number of devices on 5G, IPv6 will be the default addressing scheme. Even though an end-end routable IPv6 environment solves number of issues with the current NAT based schemes, but will require state-aware intelligence to distinguish legitimate sessions from the attacks originated from IPv6 cloud.
Will SDN and NFV play a critical role in 5G?
Use cases being talked about for 5G are very diverse, low BW, high-availability, low-latency M2M traffic on one end to very high BW video immersion traffic on the other end. Services offered to these new classes of “things” will be very diverse as well, demanding the programmability, personalization and agility of Hi-IQ networks. SDN and NFV will be key technologies to enable these objectives. NFV has already started inroads even in 4G networks through vEPC and Cloud RAN architectures, these architectures will be further enhanced and streamlined to handle 5G requirements.
What about backhaul for 5G?
4G/LTE attempted to create a flat-IP architecture. However, the backhaul still mostly remained hub-and-spoke as X2 interface was not widely implemented. With LTE-Advanced there is a revised interest in X2 interface or a meshed backhaul architecture to implement CoMP, eICIC and other RAN enhancements.
With evolution to 5G, RAN architecture is becoming very disruptive, non-cellular design with complete separation of control and user planes, full duplex radios with in-band backhaul, high density radio footprint to name a few. With the inclusion of SDN and NFV there will really be no distinction between backhaul and mobile core. Eventually there will be one Hi-IQ IP transport network connecting “things” to the apps in the cloud. As 5G will become “un-cellular” so will 5G-backhaul become “un-backhaul”.
(from: http://forums.juniper.net/t5/Industry-Solutions-and-Trends/5G-Networks-and-Backhaul/ba-p/243528)
Unleash Branch Innovation with Cisco Intelligent WAN and Akamai Connect
Unleash Branch Innovation with Cisco Intelligent WAN and Akamai Connect(Live webcast June 17, 2014, at 10 a.m. Pacific Time/1 p.m. Eastern Time)Call it the perfect storm. Most IT organizations are centralizing applications in the public or private cloud to gain efficiencies, but this is increasing WAN traffic as branch office users access these remotely. Meanwhile, business managers are driving branches to increase productivity and customer engagement with performance-sensitive, data-heavy web and media applications, putting even more pressure on bandwidth-constrained WANs. Adding bandwidth is one option, but most organizations have no additional WAN budget for this. Fortunately, Cisco and Akamai have partnered to develop a far more efficient solution: Cisco Intelligent WAN with Akamai Connect. This 60-minute webcast will show you how this innovative solution provides the next-generation WAN performance you need today without massive bandwidth upgrades. See how it optimizes the user experience for your branch office employees and customers, regardless of device, connectivity, or location. Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst of ZK Research, will discuss the IT trends and end-user demands driving the need for this solution. Experts from Cisco and Akamai reveal how the Cisco® Intelligent WAN with Akamai Connect provides true last-mile optimization, enabling your branch offices and remote locations to:
Live Q&A IncludedDuring the live webcast, Cisco experts will also be available to answer your questions. Be sure to join us and learn how Cisco Intelligent WAN with Akamai Connect can solve your WAN performance challenges. |
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Agenda |
Topics to be discussed include:
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| (from: http://tools.cisco.com/gems/cust/customerSite.do?METHOD=E&LANGUAGE_ID=E&SEMINAR_CODE=S20685&PRIORITY_CODE=000448644) |
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