We are heading deep into the digital transformation era
and becoming more anchored to our smartphone devices and
laptops/systems now more than ever. Thanks to the work-from-home
environment that we are embracing for the past 2 years, almost
everything has become digital and accessible from your smartphone. You
name it and we have it, be it office work, online education, shopping,
meetings, doctor’s appointment, so much more has become digitized since
the lockdown. As of 2021, the Indian smartphone market has reached a
whopping 173 million units.
According to a report, Indian smartphone
users on average spend around 4.8 hours daily on their phones browsing
through various apps. The growth of mobile applications is growing
rapidly and vastly. As for businesses to stay on top of their game, they
are constantly adapting to the latest technology trends in the application development
zone. A user’s attention span is very fragile and for businesses to
ensure continuous entertainment is a must. The globally mobile apps
market is high in demand and is expected to pique in 2022. According to a
report, by 2025 the global revenue of the mobile apps market is
expected to reach around $613 billion.
With so much potential and growth,
organizations are going all-in to provide a smooth experience for their
users. Businesses are investing heavily into creating mobile apps to
offer their products and services and continuously innovating in line
with the latest trends to provide a quality user experience. Developers
and engineers the key players in the making of these apps are thoroughly
aware of the ever-evolving market demands. Businesses and software
developers are investing time and money into understanding and analyzing
the needs and patterns of the target market and are working on
strategies to meet those demands with the help of the latest technology.
The arrival and wide acceptance of advanced technologies like AI, ML, Big Data, Blockchain, and more have made cloud computing
a pivotal force in the digital transformation of various industries.
Within a short period, cloud computing has become a priority of most
organizations. The pandemic has further raised the demand because
organizations of all sizes started adopting cultures like work from
home, remote management, and more.
But, the phenomenon of cloud computing is not that new for sectors like IT, Finance, and e-commerce as they have been using cloud-based products
for a long time and are benefiting from it now. Amidst all this
transformation, there still are sectors like the manufacturing industry
that are coping with the scenario and have a long way to go to utilize
the full potential of cloud computing and with the pandemic not showing
any signs of immediate halt, no industry would want to get hampered
again with any possibility of lockdowns.
In that case, the coming year can be
crucial to get that required business boost and achieve the set business
milestones. As far as the stats are considered, according to a report
by Nasscom, enterprises’ spending on cloud computing is expected to rise
to $7 Bn by 2022. Another report by Market research future states that
the manufacturing sector is forecasted to attain $111.9 Bn worth of
cloud computing investment by 2024. These stats are evident enough to
signify the increasing demand and speedy adoption of cloud computing-related services
in the manufacturing sector. Apart from this, the FDI inflows in India
in the previous decade make it clear that the demand from the
manufacturing and the IT sector in the country is further going to rise,
hence the sector needs to be future-ready in that sense.
The road ahead of cloud computing in the manufacturing sector
Talking about the manufacturing sector,
the key always has been to fulfill speedy delivery of larger orders
& requirements all being affordable and flexible at the same time.
These needs of the industry can be fulfilled by cloud computing, as for
the sector, connectivity of all different elements of every section,
right from procurement to production and later to storage, is a key
requirement. In that case, manufacturers can utilize various cloud
services to streamline everything and stay connected with the end
consumers at the same time. Yes, there is a significant rise in the
number of manufacturers using a combination of public and private clouds,
and the demand is on the rise. Then for those looking out for or
planning to incorporate cloud computing in their business flow, they
couldn’t have asked for a better time than now, and staying back will
result in missing out on targets a big time.
Big data does not generate value for you. The generation of value is
when we create insights that generate tangible results for the business.
However, creating big data projects do not constitute simple tasks.
There are many technologies, but the challenge of integrating a very
diverse collection of structured and unstructured data is not trivial.
The complexity of the work is directly proportional to the variety and
volume of data that must be accessed and analyzed.
A possible alternative to this challenge is the creation of data lakes,
which is a repository where it stores a large and varied amount of
structured and unstructured data. The massive, easily accessible
repository built on date (Relatively) inexpensive computer hardware is storing “big data”.
Unlike data marts, Which are optimized for data analysis by storing
only some attributes and dropping below the level aggregation date, the
data lake is designed to retain all attributes, so especially When You
do not know what is the scope of data or its use will be.
It is a new terminology, so there is no consensus as to its name.
Some call data hub. We adopt the date lake which is most used term.
Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing
are considered the two most advanced technologies in a single theme.
Today, AI is becoming an indispensable component across every industry
vertical, ranging from industries like Hospitals to Tourism. It is also
proven that AI can be formulated to mimic a human and his behavior
exactly.
As per an online source, it is estimated that the overall AI market will be valued at $60 billion by 2025. The market was valued at $2.5 billion towards the completion of 2017, making it the fastest emerging technology market.
This market segment’s significant growth
will be driven by AI empowering Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing is an
engine to extend the scope and impact AI can have in the bigger market.
The rise of Cloud computing has been
seen as a critical factor in building up all business areas, and the
name ‘Cloud-local’ is worn as an image of respect. For newer
organizations, the ability to move directly to the Cloud infrastructure
has enabled them to surpass their rivals, tremendous quantities of whom
have fought in the undertaking to incorporate Cloud into their unusual
legacy structures.
With the outbreak of COVID-19, Digital Transformation has created an overwhelming buzz across the business world including the BFSI
sector. Digital players in the finance industry have resolved the
customer’s struggle to get access to the funds. Technological
innovations have paved the way for new services disrupting the
traditional ones.
Transforming the traditional banking
processes, fintech has emerged to be the most effective lending channel.
Easing the common person’s struggle to get access to funds, fintech has
unlocked various opportunities to trap the huge volumes of substantial
customer databases leading to a strong digital foundation.
What is the Role of Digital Lending Platforms in the Growth of the Indian Economy?
India being one of the fastest-growing
economies, Fintech platforms are scaling up at a greater position.
Delivering a wide range of market opportunities for both innovative and
traditional lenders, the new-age lending platforms have catered to a
large segment of online banking customers.
The COVID-19 induced lockdown pushed the
business world to embrace Digitalization to compete in the Digital
World. FinTech’s have enabled transparency of financial requirements and
services catering to convenient access eliminating the need to visit
bank branches.
In few IT groups, Software Defined Networking (SDN)
is still viewed as a hypothetical idea or vaporware to a great extent.
Even though SDN is valid multiple fields, the truth is that we now have
few circumstances where SDN can be utilised – and you will be able to
see several cases in the coming years. What was previously just another
buzzword expressed by IT marketing experts, has now transformed into a
practical idea which most of us can make use in organization networks.
Who can precisely derive the benefits from SDN deployments today?
There are many factors playing an important role in answering this
question. For one, a small portion of your network architecture must be
fit for utilising software-defined technologies or can be redesigned to
permit such centralised orchestration.
The widest areas where SDN can be applied today is either inside the
datacenter or at the WAN control. While it’s feasible for SDN to loosen
up completely to the access layer, few networks have suitable hardware
in access closets. In any case, that shouldn’t prevent us from
considering practical uses. What’s more is once your next network
recharge comes around, you will be prepared to take benefits of SDN
capacities that are arid.
The Digitization boom has picked up in
the past 2 years and seen phenomenal growth over the past decade and so
with it, we have witnessed the exponential growth of Data. Since
everything is digital now the concern of cyber threats
has also increased. Enterprises and businesses have begun to invest
heavily into developing tactful cyber security plans with tested tools,
applications, and human resources as well to ensure the utmost safety of
data. As we dive into understanding what is a Cyber-attack surface and how we can reduce it, let’s establish the basics of a cyber-attack and how to identify a cyber-attack surface.
Understanding of Attack Surfaces
Data is growing rapidly and will
continue to flourish as we move closer to the depths of digital
transformation. To ensure the full security and safety of this crucial
data, organizations across the globe have been taking major steps in
terms of cyber security plans and measures.
Ransomware, Cyberattacks, Malware, Phishing, etc. are some popular
attacks known to everybody. Gaining unauthorized access to a system to
leak, destroy or cause any kind of damage to the data is prominently the
intention carried out by hackers overall. About 92% of malware attacks
are carried out by emails and this has been on the rise for over a
decade now. As of June 2021, around 6 lakh cyber security incidents took
place in the country. More than 15,000 Indian websites have fallen prey to these attacks and suffered. The year 2020 itself has recorded over 1.16 million cyber security cases,
which was 3 times higher than that recorded in 2019. Organizations that
suffer such cyber-attack incidents take weeks to recover their losses
of data and funds.
Any application that parses XML input
can become prey for an XXE (XML External Entity) attack. An XML parser
of a weak configuration is more vulnerable to such attack because it
becomes open to threats when it processes the XML input having a
reference to an external entity. An XXE attack can leak some
confidential data, DOS (denial of service), port scanning of the machine
having a parser, and forgery in server side request, having severe
impacts. An XML document has a standard, and its version 1.0 defines the
term ‘entity’ that refers to a storage unit of a particular type
The entities are of different types like
the parameter parsed, or external general entity (abbreviation –
‘external entity’) can dereference (access) remote and local content
through a system identifier. An XML processor accesses the URL/URI to
while processing the external entity. Later on, the XML processor
substitutes the named external entities at all occurrences by the
content accessed by the system identifier. If the data in the system
identifier has some infections, then the XML processor can reveal any
confidential information after dereferencing this infected data.
Usually, this sensitive information is not accessible by the
application, but due to the attack, it gets vulnerable. Similar external
resource insertion attacks are possible where the use of external
stylesheets, schemas, DTDs (Document Type Definition), etc. is made
The attacks can comprise and reveal
local files having sensitive data like a user’s private data or
passwords by utilising files like relative paths or schemes in the
system identifier. A hacker can use the trusted application to hinge at
other internal systems, probably showing other confidential content; by
initiating a CSRF attack for any one of the insecure internal services
or through HTTP(S) requests
Netflix has grown as a dominant company
from a DVD-renting website with mere 30 employees to a universal
streaming service with more than 38 million subscribers. It has been
generating annual revenue of approx. $11 billion and has significantly
changed the way entertainment is served. Netflix is a major user of
cloud having 38 million subscribers from over 40 countries; streaming a
monthly content of several billion hours.
Besides
that, it generates a service from the history of users to show them
which shows they could watch as per the study of their personalised
likings. Similarly Amazon Prime has also been a provider of entertaining
shows since 2007 and music services since 2012. This has been possible
due to strong cloud support.
Netflix has a content-delivery platform,
titled as Open Connect which manages the pairing relationships with all
the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to the movies and shows reach out
to all the end users.
Being one of the largest group of cloud users, Netflix has learned some lessons from its several functions.
With
the current digital era, it may feel like migration from legacy systems
to the cloud is an effortless task, just similar to drag and drop, but
it is not. After all, migration to the cloud is not just a task of
uploading every single thing on a cloud! It demands accurate transfer of
the complete data without any loss. Many organizations have experienced
a failure during migration activities. You might succeed in the primary
move, but you may sure-shot face some issues post-migration that will
cost a lot to your organization. So, why is it so difficult? And, why is
it still so essential that you should migrate to the cloud? We will see
ahead.
on from legacy systems to cloud is an
effortless task, just similar to drag and drop, but it is not. After
all, migration to the cloud is not just a task of uploading every single
thing on a cloud! It demands accurate and lossless transfer of all the
data. Many organizations have experienced a failure during migration
activities. You might succeed in the primary move, but you may sure-shot
face some issues post-migration that will cost a lot to your
organization. So, why is it so difficult? And, why is it still so
essential that you should migrate to the cloud? We will see ahead.
As we all know that cloud computing and cloud hosting
is becoming popular day by day and at the same time, the myths and
misconceptions about “cloud computing and cloud hosting” is growing
among common end-users, by considering the network primarily as a means
of transmitting information.
“Cloud” is based only on “Software”
Theoretically, it is quite possible to build a cloud over the
industry-standard servers (x86) and intelligent software, combining
multiple virtual devices, and obtain a “cloud”. But in fact, far from
it, for various reasons such as, maintaining adequate performance
(specialized ASICs or dedicated hardware resources), ensuring
compatibility (to install drivers for each new x86 platform), or control
functions (HIPPA, PCI-DSS, departmental isolation, etc.) are not all
system developers that have abandoned the use of allocated hardware
resources for specific elements of their data centers. In principle, the
inevitability of some components of the virtualization computer
environment is obvious.
Therefore, the market leaders producing the equipment, for example,
Nexus 1000v, which ensures the transparency of the bandwidth of virtual
machines at the level of network security technology with a
built-VN-Link, providing a mobile network. And also a virtual security
gateway and vWAAS. In some cases, clients choose the virtual device. In
other cases, they prefer a combination of hardware and software
resources, such as control points before the Nexus 1010v. All of these
unified network services provide a standard set of things to share
hardware and software resources to system designers .
The dawn of Digital Transformation marks
the beginning of a technological revolution. This decade is all about
connecting people to smart devices and transforming the way business is
done. As we step into the digital era, smart cities, smart homes, smart
retail, smart farming, connected cars, connected wearable devices, and
connected healthcare is gaining popularity. Surely, the Digital era
brings a connected life for Indians with a connected society. In the
technological rat race, the Internet of Things (IoT)
has become an important trend transforming the Indian industries. It
has the potential to bring in the next industrial revolution serving not
just humans but humanity.
The IoT cloud platform stores huge data
generated by the sensors, websites, and applications enabling real-time
solutions, responses and analytics. As the world turns increasingly
digital, IoT has unlocked its potential to change interactions between
humans and machines thus transforming lives. As the world is getting
smarter day-by-day, a variety of industries plan to embrace IoT over the
coming years. An official data reveals, 70% of organizations have
adopted or plan to adopt IoT solutions by the end of 2020.
