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The latest version of the OpenAI language model system, GPT-4, was officially launched on March 13, 2023 with a paid subscription. Overall, GPT-4 appears to be more functional, responsive, and secure than GPT-3 or GPT-3.5. However, since Microsoft's Bing Chat uses the GPT-4 language model and the company has faced many complaints and criticisms about some of Bing Chat's strange responses, it's fair to say that these limitations dampen any expectation that GPT-4 represents an immediate "revolution".

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, admitted in an interview that some users will be unhappy when the GPT-4 comes out, because it won't contain anything revolutionary. However, we believe the technology is on the right track and its capabilities across multiple business areas have the potential to both advance and transform a variety of industries. We are now in a time where opinions about AI development vary widely and are now being challenged by individuals and even AI experts.

What does the tool offer?

Image processing

The latest model, unlike GPT-3.5, accepts input of both text instructions and graphics. For example, users can enter a hand-drawn sketch into the AI ​​chatbot, which turns it into a usable web page.

The image processing function can also be used by companies:

- Improving customers' buying experience through customized visual searches and recommendations.

- Increase chatbot interaction to improve customer service.

- Improve your material and quickly flag offensive photos.

- Adding captions and improving accessibility in other ways.

Processing longer texts

The context window of large language models like GPT is limited. This context window is very restrictive as GPT makes it difficult to generate an entire novel at once.

The long form mode of the new GPT-4 model offers a context window of 32,000 tokens (52 pages of text). That's significantly more than the 2,049 tokens offered by the old GPT-3 API (three pages of text).

For example, you can enter a website's URL in GPT-4 and ask it to perform text analysis and generate interesting long material. Or you ask them to evaluate a 30-page lawsuit that you provide them with.

In addition, organizations can use GPT-4 to assess business planning, uncover vulnerabilities in cybersecurity systems, provide cost-effective medical diagnostics, and analyze financial data. The ability to follow the "system" message, which allows you to direct the model to behaving differently was one area where GPT-4 was particularly improved. With this you can ask GPT to do a similar task as a software engineer to improve the performance of the model.

Factual answers

According to OpenAI, GPT-4 is said to be more secure and responsive than previous versions. In the company's tests, it was "60% less likely to invent something".

However, there are certain limitations. Like its predecessors, GPT-4 is still capable of confidently providing "hallucinating" facts and committing several logical errors. This is problematic because consumers can assume that the model is correct in most cases.

I advise organizations to put in place reliable procedures to verify and validate data in GPT-4 generated content before publishing or distributing it to get around this.

Another limitation is the ignorance of developments after September 2021. Users are thus deprived of the most recent data. Those responsible in the companies must be aware of this possibility in order to be able to use the latest update efficiently.

How can companies use this technology?

In order for companies to compete with this or a similar AI technology, they need to build a team with deep AI skills to optimize the use of the tool. To compete in this AI-driven world, companies can do the following:

1. Stay up to date: As a company, keep an eye on the latest GPT-4 developments. To improve your overall performance, you're constantly experimenting with new features to see how you can get more accurate answers and integrate them into your business processes.

2. Prioritize users: Any customer-centric company places the highest value on the user experience. Therefore, make sure your AI chatbot has a simple, user-friendly interface that provides users with useful information. You can improve chatbot responses by using user feedback.

3. Check your work: Based on your clues, GPT-4 can generate accurate answers. With his improved mathematical skills, he is able to interpret results from data sheets. Have them examine papers and code to see if there are ways to improve your finished output.

Current events:

On March 29th, in an open letter warning of possible dangers to society and humanity, Elon Musk and a group of artificial intelligence specialists and business executives are calling for a six-month freeze on development of systems more powerful than the recently released one GPT-4 by OpenAI. They want to ensure that there is enough time to ensure that these systems are secure and do not harm the security of society and its infrastructure.

"AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can bring profound risks to society and humanity."

"Powerful AI systems should only be developed when we are sure that their impact is positive and their risks manageable."

A number of authorities are already working to regulate high-risk AI tools. The six months proposed by the industry experts will be used by governments to develop security protocols and AI governance systems, and to refocus research to ensure AI systems are more accurate, safer, more trustworthy and more loyal. They also want to prevent the spread of disinformation and the potential for creating false narratives on certain issues that could be picked up by the AI ​​systems. However, several people also liken the AI ​​industry to temporary hype, arguing that both the potential and the threat posed by AI systems are massively overstated.

The IT industry is constantly changing, and in order to keep up with it, companies need to stay current. Whether it's about security or management, it's always important to secure the next hire in a beneficial manner.

If you're looking to expand your IT practice or strengthen your existing teams, don't hesitate to contact one of our many specialised consultants who have IT industry experts waiting for their next opportunity.

In my time recruiting for Franklin Fitch, I’ve largely specialized in server-specific roles. Whether it’s been cloud architects, storage architects, virtualization engineers, or others, I’ve enjoyed learning about the technology. One of the components of the technical discussion that I’ve enjoyed having the most with my candidates is the difference between on-premises and cloud infrastructure systems.

Obviously, there are even hybrid cloud solutions for specialized security measures – these are especially present in healthcare storage solutions. On the whole, I thought it would be an interesting topic to explore and dive into: the differences in these infrastructure types.

On-premises infrastructure refers to a company's IT resources and systems that are hosted and managed in-house, while cloud-based infrastructure refers to a company's IT resources and systems that are hosted and managed off-site, typically by a third-party provider. Both options have their own set of advantages and disadvantages, and the right choice for a company will depend on its specific needs and goals.

One major advantage of on-premises infrastructure is that it gives a company full control over its IT resources and systems. This can be particularly important for companies that handle sensitive data or need to adhere to strict regulatory requirements. With on-premises infrastructure, a company can implement its own security measures and have full visibility into how its systems are being used. Additionally, an on-premises setup can be more predictable in terms of costs, as a company can more accurately budget for hardware, software, and maintenance expenses.

However, on-premises infrastructure also has several disadvantages. For one, it requires a significant upfront investment in hardware and software, which can be expensive. It also requires a dedicated team to manage and maintain the systems, which can add to labor costs. Additionally, on-premises infrastructure can be inflexible, as it is difficult to scale up or down quickly in response to changing business needs. Finally, on-premises systems are vulnerable to physical disasters, such as fires, floods, or power outages, which can disrupt business operations.

Cloud-based infrastructure, on the other hand, offers a number of advantages that make it attractive for many companies. For one, it is typically more scalable and flexible than on-premises infrastructure, as companies can easily add or remove resources as needed. This can be particularly useful for companies with fluctuating workloads or that are growing quickly. Cloud-based infrastructure is also generally more cost-effective than on-premises infrastructure, as companies only pay for the resources they use and do not have to worry about the upfront costs of hardware and software.

In addition, cloud-based infrastructure can be more reliable than on-premises systems, as it is typically backed by robust infrastructure and redundancies. This means that companies can experience fewer outages and downtime, which can be critical for businesses that rely on their systems to operate. Finally, cloud-based infrastructure is generally easier to manage, as it is the responsibility of the third-party provider to maintain and update the systems.

However, cloud-based infrastructure also has its own set of disadvantages. One major concern is security, as companies are entrusting their data to a third party. While reputable cloud providers have robust security measures in place, there is still a risk that data could be accessed or compromised. Additionally, while cloud-based infrastructure is generally more cost-effective than on-premises infrastructure, it can still be expensive, particularly for companies with large or complex workloads. Finally, companies may have less control over their systems with cloud-based infrastructure, as they are relying on the provider to manage and maintain the systems.

In conclusion, both on-premises infrastructure and cloud-based infrastructure have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. The right choice for a company will depend on its specific needs and goals. On-premises infrastructure offers full control and predictability but requires a significant upfront investment and is vulnerable to physical disasters. Cloud-based infrastructure is more scalable, flexible, and cost-effective, but carries security risks and may be less customizable. It will be intriguing to see what the larger trends will be regarding which industries chose to move into the cloud or on-site with the traditional options.

We have experienced remarkably high volatility over the past three years, including supply chain disruptions, historically high inflation, geopolitical unrest, and of course an unprecedented worldwide pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns.

It has never been more difficult for many business leaders and entrepreneurs to navigate this environment. Fortunately, new technological solutions are being developed in concert with these issues to support forward-thinking executives in positioning their firms to succeed in the tumultuous years to come.

Knowing the top tech trends expected for 2023 is probably the most important step you can take to make sure your company is prepared for near-term success. After all, if you don't start preparing your business for the newest technological advancements as soon as the year starts, you'll already be behind!

In light of this, let's examine some of the major technological trends for 2023 as identified by Gartner Research, and consider how you may use them to prepare your company for a better, more prosperous future.

1. Digital Immune System

The past few years have seen an unparalleled focus on risk, both in the physical and digital world. Cybersecurity concerns are increasingly acute, as data breaches and other cybersecurity concerns are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Fortunately, methods for protecting against online criminals, spammers and other unwanted online pests are improving in sophistication as well. Through observation, automation and the latest developments in design, a robust digital immune system can significantly mitigate operational and security risks.

As the utility of these tools becomes more established, expect to hear many more questions about the health of your organization’s digital immune system in the year to come, and what you’re doing to strengthen and protect it.

2. Applied Observability

The 2010s saw an abundance of tools and methods of capturing more data than anyone knew what to do with. Thus, with seemingly endless quantities of client data now available, it’s likely that the next step will be toward creating new uses for data that’s been collected.

Applied Observability uses Artificial Intelligence to analyze and make recommendations for greater efficiency and accuracy based on an organization’s compiled data. It optimizes data implementation by placing more value on use of the right data at the right time for rapid response based on confirmed stakeholder actions, rather than intentions. This can lead to real-time operational improvement, and a tangible competitive advantage for your business.

3. AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (AI TRiSM)

We’ve all heard a lot about AI over the past several years, but believe it or not, many industries are still in the early stages of AI implementation.

With the focus on risk throughout every industry post-pandemic, it’s no surprise that AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (AI TRiSM) will be a major focal point in the tech space next year. AI TRiSM combines methods for explaining AI results, new models for active management of AI security, and controls for privacy and ethics issues, all in support of an organization’s governance, reliability, security, and overall health.

4. Industry Cloud Platforms

Cloud adoption has been a major component of digital transformation for over a decade, and 2023 will almost certainly prove to be another year for more sophisticated, industry and organization-specific cloud adoption strategies. By combining SaaS, PaaS and IaaS with customized functionality, Industry Cloud Platforms may prove to be the most consequential step toward cloud adoption to date.

5. Platform Engineering

As adoption grows and digital platforms mature, expect to see an increased emphasis on customization. That’s what platform engineering offers: a set of tools and capabilities that are developed and packed for ease-of-use. For development teams and end-users alike, this could mean increased productivity and simplified processes.

6. Wireless-Value Realization

We’re still only beginning to scratch the surface of the value gained by the integration of wireless technology through a broad, interconnected ecosystem.

In the coming years, we’ll see wireless endpoints that are able to sense, e-charge, locate and track people and things far behind traditional endpoint communication capabilities. Another step towards optimization of collected data, wireless-value realization networks provide real-time analytics and insights, as well as allowing systems to directly harvest network energy.

7. Superapps

Combining the features of an app, a platform and a digital ecosystem within a single application, superapps offer a platform from which third parties can develop and publish their own miniapps. An end user can activate micro or minapps within the superapp, allowing for a more personalized app experience.

8. Adaptive AI

Using real-time feedback to new data and goals, adaptive AI allows for quick adaptation to the constantly evolving needs of the real-world business landscape. The value provided by adaptive AI is apparent, but implementing these systems requires automated decision-making systems to be fully reengineered, which will have a dramatic impact on process architecture for many companies.

9. Metaverse

As noted above, you’re likely familiar with the term “metaverse” by now thanks to Mark Zuckerberg. However, if the lackluster performance of Meta’s stock is any indication, you’re one of the many who has yet to be sold on the benefits of the metaverse.

Regardless, metaverse technologies that allow for digital replication or enhancement of activities traditionally done in the physical world should certainly not be dismissed. There is far too much at stake, and the possibilities are far too intriguing for too many people to write off metaverse technologies quite yet, even if the pilot versions fail to impress.

10. Sustainable Technology

Until recently, the tech world has been single-mindedly fixated on boosting the power of new technologies. But as tech becomes increasingly integrated into every facet of our lives, we’re seeing new investments in energy efficient tech and tech that promotes sustainable practices.

Emissions management software and AI, traceability and analytics for energy efficiency are all allowing both developers to build sustainability-focused tech, and allowing business leaders to explore new markets and opportunities for sustainable growth.

To say that cloud adoption has been accelerating might be an understatement. Enterprises want the speed, agility, simplicity, and lower costs that the cloud offers. The days of running a costly data center are long gone.

Despite the fact that IT managers appreciate the benefits of the cloud, surveys reveal that a genuine concern for many businesses is vendor lock-in—being forced to stay with a vendor who no longer meets their needs. And with each passing year, this anxiety increases, which can prevent you from moving with the agility and quickness you need to succeed.

What is the greatest method to alleviate these concerns?  Implementing a multi-cloud approach.

Businesses used a variety of database providers even before the cloud was established. This approach is nothing new; we are simply transferring it to the cloud.

There's a good chance that your company already employs cloud computing for IT infrastructure updates, automation, cybersecurity, and other functions. However, you are not required to choose a certain cloud server or provider. In fact, you can use multi-cloud solutions for your business and benefit from them for years to come.

Nevertheless, implementing and optimising many clouds can be challenging, especially if you don't have a strategy in place beforehand. Let's examine a straightforward yet efficient three-step process for moving to several clouds today to avoid severe issues.

Step One: Map Your Cloud Zoning Policy

Create a map of your cloud zoning strategy and plan as your first significant step. In a word, the cloud zoning decisions you make can affect your obligations, expenses, and even how well the multi-cloud configuration will ultimately work.

The processes and apps that will operate on each specific cloud server or provider are mapped out as part of your cloud architecture. In essence, you choose what must run on numerous clouds at once, what data must be transferred between clouds, and what applications are locked into one cloud.

Want an example? A cloud zoning policy may specify whether you should maintain your data analytics and web browsing on the same cloud servers or with different cloud providers.

Regardless of whether you put everything up yourself or use a service, you should outline your cloud zoning rules. In the latter situation, providing a read-to-go zoning map will facilitate the service's work and reduce the likelihood of errors and/or hiccups.

How to Determine Optimal Cloud Zoning

It can be challenging to determine how to best utilise cloud zoning. Identifying your specific areas of focus is the most effective approach to do this. Instead, think about how your multi-cloud approach will actually benefit your company.

Say you want to ensure that your service is always available for your customers or visitors, even in the event of a service interruption or a data breach. In this situation, you can configure your cloud zoning strategy to distribute the data load evenly among several clouds at once.

Or, say you want to guarantee that your users are accessible worldwide, 365 days a year. In that situation, you can configure your cloud zoning regulations to ensure that users can access your information or websites whenever they want from any location in the world.

In essence, decide what is most important to your business and what you want from multi-cloud optimization, then zone your cloud apps and rules in accordance.

Step Two: Architect the Multi-Cloud Environment

The multi-cloud environment's architecture is the next crucial step. This entails taking a close look at the environment's high-level design and building a solid base for multi-cloud servers.

At this point, you should at least have a rough understanding of how your company will expand and how the multi-cloud architecture will help it meet its resource requirements. You must be aware of:

• The locations where your apps for data science and machine learning should be

• The market that your product application targets

• The location of your data warehousing

• Location of the cloud security server

• How each of those processes develops in conjunction with the others

Cloud-agnostic projects and apps don't need to be portable; instead, they can rely on managed services or proprietary IT infrastructure from your company. You need to identify these projects and apps during the architecture phase of a multi-cloud setup.

How to Set Up an Ideal Multi-Cloud Environment

You should adopt a flexible and containerized approach to get the most out of a multi-cloud environment. This not only saves money but also enables you to configure your multi-cloud system as adaptable as possible.

You may collaborate with almost any infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider if you construct or plan your multi-cloud architecture so that it is flexible and containerized. As a result, you are free to choose between different cloud hosts or service providers as needed, depending on your budget or other considerations.

Make sure you conduct extensive forecasting to achieve this. You need to determine how much data storage you'll need for computing, how many databases use your business will need, how many computer nodes you'll probably need, and so on.

Additionally, containerization in a multi-cloud setup makes it less likely for other servers or processes to fail as a result of a ripple effect if one goes down.

Step Three: Prep for Contracts and Forecast Costs

Taking care of the financial side of the multi-cloud transition for your company is the final phase. Along with projecting expenditures, you need to get ready for contracts and commitments. Forecasting is essential during this stage because you'll be choosing different cloud services and getting ready for contracts.

As a result, you need to be aware of how flexible your budget is in comparison to your infrastructure needs. You must specifically match the costs to each multi-cloud forecast and create a budget for your total resource and financial consumption. Basically, you should be aware of:

• How much you’ll likely spend on multi-cloud processing and services
• Whether you need specific features, such as website monitoring tools
• Whether your budget can take that forecasted strain

If your response to the third question is "no," you might need to choose a more reasonably priced option or change the design and zoning rules of your multi-cloud system. You won't encounter a crisis scenario where you already have your multi-caught environment up and operating but can't pay for it, requiring you to scurry as a result, if you project costs in advance.

Minimize Commitment Risk

Fortunately, there are strategies to reduce commitment risk and prevent financial catastrophes. You can, for instance, use variable commitment alternatives like those offered by AWS or commitment buy-back guarantees. These include computer savings schemes, which have relatively low savings rates and use cloud resources globally.

Of course, you can and should also exercise very rigorous budgeting and accounting. You'll have a better idea of how much money and other resources you really need once you make sure that your commitment costs and savings are attributed to the correct services, server resources, applications, etc. This will help you avoid overcommitting to a provider who is too expensive and giving them an unreasonable amount of money.

When you carefully arrange your application migrations between various providers, you can further reduce the risk of commitment. Budgetary expenditures may rise sharply if moving programs and data between providers takes longer than expected or encounters unforeseen difficulties. As a result, you must ensure that your migrations are simple and rapid, or that a cloud service provider gives assistance during this time (possibly as part of a deal to get you to sign with them in the first place).

Wrapping Up

As you can see, switching your business to many clouds just takes a few months. Even if you flawlessly execute the aforementioned processes, keep in mind that your commitments, performance, and prices won't be optimised to their fullest extent. However, with the correct planning and preparation, you can position your business for long-term success and the advantages of using several clouds.

You will receive more help and support throughout this process from the correct cloud services provider, and you will be able to utilise the extra resources swiftly and simply from a multi-cloud configuration.

Virtualization is a process of creating a virtual environment. It enables users to run different operating systems on a same computer. It creates a virtual (rather than physical) version of an operating system, a server, or network resources. Virtualization can be considered as part of a broader trend in IT environments that will govern themselves based on perceived activity and utility computing in many organisations. The most crucial goal of virtualization is to reduce administrative tasks while improving scalability and workloads. However, virtualization can also be used to improve security.

In today's work context, virtualization offers numerous advantages. Running many workloads allows physical server resources to reach their full potential. Operating system instances are able to be divorced from the underlying hardware and move freely between several hosts in a cluster setup without causing any negative consequences.

High-availability mechanisms that were never before possible, such as the ability to restart virtual machines on a separate server if the primary host dies, are now possible. By abstracting the network from the underlying physical network switches, wiring, and other devices, virtualized networking provides many of the same benefits to network traffic.

In this article, we will see how virtualization technology is improving security by means of innovative ways security problems and challenges are being met with virtualized solutions.

Security is of Primary Concern

Organizations today are quickly recognising how critical security objectives are, regardless of the project or business activities involved. However, security is being scrutinised more than ever before, particularly with regard to technology infrastructure. Large-scale, high-profile data breaches that make significant news headlines are not the type of attention that companies want. Ransomware attacks that disrupt business-critical systems are equally alarming. Today's businesses must have a razor-sharp focus on security concerns and how to effectively address them.

With any plans to integrate new technologies or go forward with new infrastructure, security cannot be an afterthought. It must be built into the project as a required component to ensure that essential aspects of the security thought process are not overlooked. The virtualization era has altered the way businesses think about security and privacy. Many of the security boundaries that existed in the strictly physical world have been broken down because to virtualized technology.

After installing new technology, many companies consider the security concerns. Virtualization has numerous advantages, making it simple to sell in IT architectures. Virtualization can help you save money, improve business efficiency, reduce maintenance downtime without disrupting operations, and get more work done with less equipment.

The following are the few ways to minimize risk and improve security through virtualization:

Sandboxing

Sandboxing is a security strategy that isolates running applications from untrusted third parties, vendors, and websites. It's commonly used to run untested code or programmes. Sandboxing's major purpose is to increase virtualization security by isolating an application to protect it from external malware, destructive viruses, and stopped-running apps, among other things. Put any experimental or unstable apps in a virtual machine. The remainder of the system is unaffected.

Since your application can be attacked maliciously while running in a browser, it's always a good idea to run your apps in a virtual machine. Virtualization and sandbox technology are closely related. Virtual computing provides some of the advantages of sandboxes without the high cost of a new device. The virtual machine is connected to the Internet rather than the corporate LAN, which protects the operating system and apps from viruses and other malicious threats.

Server Virtualization

Server virtualization is the process of dividing a physical server into smaller virtual servers in order to maximise resources. The physical server is divided into many virtual environments by the administrator. Hackers nowadays frequently steal official server logs. Small virtual servers can run their own operating systems and restart independently thanks to server virtualization. Stable and compromised programmes are identified and isolated using virtualized servers.

This sort of virtualization is most commonly found on web servers that offer low-cost web hosting. Server utilisation manages the complex aspects of server resources while enhancing utilisation and capacity. Furthermore, a virtualized server makes it simple to detect dangerous viruses or other harmful items while simultaneously safeguarding the server, virtual machines, and the entire network.

Network Virtualization

Network virtualization combines network hardware and software resources, as well as network functionality, into a single virtual network. Virtual networks, which use network virtualization, reduce the impact of malware on the system. Furthermore, network virtualization produces logical virtual networks from the underlying network hardware, allowing virtual environments to better integrate.

Isolation is an important feature of network virtualization. It allows end-to-end custom services to be implemented on the fly by dynamically combining various virtual networks that coexist in isolation. They share and utilise network resources received from infrastructure providers to operate those virtual networks for users.

Segmentation is another important element of network virtualization. The network is divided into subnets, which improves performance by reducing local web traffic and enhancing security by making the network's internal network structure invisible from the outside. By generating single instances of software programmes that serve many customers, network virtualization is also utilised to develop a virtualized infrastructure to fulfil complicated requirements.

Desktop Virtualization

This lets users to generate, change, and delete photos while also separating the desktop environment from the computer that is used to access it. Administrators may simply manage employee computers with desktop virtualization. This protects people from attacking computers with viruses or gaining illegal access.

Additionally, the user gains additional security from the guest OS image for the desktop environment. Such environment allows the users to save or copy data to the server rather than the disk, thus making desktop virtualization more secure option for networking.

To Conclude:

On the security front, virtualization is possibly one of the most effective strategies that businesses can use to combat harm and criminal intent. These principles demonstrate how virtualization can help your firm reduce risk and increase security.

Regular upgrades and vulnerability scans are required for all technology-based systems (virtualization included) to reduce the chance of weakness, and the adoption of hardened virtual machine images is strongly recommended.

Jira and Microsoft Azure DevOps are two of the most popular project management platforms for DevOps professionals.

Many tools and techniques are used by developers to manage and track an IT project. The most commonly used tools are Azure DevOps and Jira. Azure DevOps is a collection of development tools that can be used by developers and software teams. Jira, on the other hand, is a project management tool that can be used by software teams to manage various tasks.

Azure DevOps is a collection of Microsoft Inc.'s cloud-hosted DevOps services. It also includes a number of tools that can be used with any coding language and on any platform. It enables you to manage various test plans via the web, code versioning via Git, and solution deployment to a wide range of platform's CI/CD systems. Furthermore, it is a tool for applying the DevOps lifecycle to a business process.

Atlassian created Jira, a project management tool that aids in the tracking of bugs, issues, and other project processes. Jira Software, Jira Core, and Jira Service Desk are among the services available. All of these serve different functions for various users. It is now more than just an application; it is a platform with a suite of products built on top with customization capabilities. Furthermore, customers can select the services and products that best suit their needs from a wide range of options.

Below, we'll look at the similarities and differences between Azure DevOps and Jira to help you decide which software is suitable for you.

Azure DevOps :
Azure DevOps is a set of cloud services that includes collaboration tools that work on any platform, as well as a tool that helps businesses execute the DevOps lifecycle. It gives you a ready-to-use framework for converting your idea into software. It comes with Agile tools to help you manage your tests, version your code with Git, and deploy projects to cross-platform platforms. Visual Studio Team Service (VSTS) was the previous name for Azure, which provided a better software development lifecycle with current services.

Features of Azure DevOps :

• It provides a dashboard in which projects can be managed.
• It integrates with Git to provide versioning of code.
• Tools provide better code representation.

Jira :
Jira is a project management programme created by Atlassian, an Australian startup, in 2002. It's a robust application that helps with issue tracking, bug tracking, and numerous project management processes. Jira has evolved into more than an issue tracking platform for organisations, supporting Agile development or general task development, and the majority of apps are now built on top of it. It caters to a wide range of clients and offers Jira Core, Jira Software, and Jira Service Desk as well as other versions of the product.

Features of Jira:

• Provides numerous business templates for the management of tasks.
• It supports many add-ons which make different software integrate easily.
• It supports more than 10 languages which are widely used in organizations

Head-to-head comparison: Jira vs. Azure DevOps

Cloud service

There are cloud and server versions of Jira and Azure DevOps. Jira is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), whereas Azure DevOps is hosted on Microsoft Azure. Server versions are only required for customers that have higher security requirements or who demand complete data control for special collaboration needs or other purposes.

Customizable dashboards

Users can personalise the dashboards in both DevOps services to display the information that is most relevant to their projects. Different tools are referred to as gadgets in Jira. The Azure DevOps team offers a similar collection of tools called widgets. These modules are quite similar and may be readily added to highlight what information is most crucial when users first log in, as their names suggest. Custom filtering of each gadget or widget is also possible with both DevOps tools.

Product Road mapping

For a long time, Jira has had built-in roadmaps, and these tools are really well optimised and developed out. This capability was just added to Azure Devops, although it is not as integrated as it could be because it requires two distinct programmes, Feature Timeline and Epic Timeline, both of which are accessible as DevOps plugins on the Microsoft Marketplace.

If product roadmapping is a major priority for you, Jira easily outperforms Azure DevOps. Jira's DevOps functionality is more integrated and easy to use than Azure DevOps.

Jira vs. Azure DevOps: Which is the better DevOps tool?

Jira obviously outperforms the competition in terms of customisation and scalability. Jira is the more flexible of the two due to its ability to add services on the fly within projects, as well as other features. With these additional customising options and possibilities comes a more difficult learning curve. Azure DevOps is the preferable tool if you merely want to get something up and running quickly. Jira, on the other hand, will provide the tools required for those who know exactly what they require.

In terms of traceability, Azure DevOps takes the lead. The traceability capabilities in Azure DevOps reveal relationships between work items from the beginning to the finish of a deployment.

Both of these project management systems are nearly identical, with the only meaningful differences being built-in roadmapping, traceability, and extensive search capabilities. If one of the aforementioned functions is a key priority for you, then making a decision based on that need should be simple. Aside from those essential responsibilities, these two systems should suffice for the vast majority of project management teams.

Cloud computing has existed for nearly two decades. Cloud computing has grown in popularity among IT and business professionals over the years. Businesses are more aware than ever before that cloud computing is the way of the future and want to incorporate it into their operations. Public cloud services from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others are seeing a major rise in usage as the pandemic validates the necessity for cloud. According to Gartner, this trend will continue, with public cloud services expected to rise by more than 18% in 2021 and continue to grow at a steady rate through 2024.

What is the Cloud?

The cloud, in simple terms, is a collection of servers that host databases and software and are accessible over the internet. These servers are spread across the globe in data centres. Businesses can reduce the need for duties like server maintenance and administration by using cloud computing. Cost effectiveness, security, ease of management, scalability, and reliability are all advantages of cloud platforms.

The epidemic of COVID-19 has accelerated cloud migration. Many businesses have already made the switch to cloud platforms and are seeing increased productivity and profitability, and others are starting to gradually shift.

What's the bottom line? Digital transformation and cloud migration are critical in today's complex business world.

What is a Private Cloud?

A private cloud is one in which the servers are owned by and dedicated to only one business (referred to as the user or tenant). A private cloud can be developed on-premises, using hardware that you control and operate, or hosted by a third party in a data centre. The fact that the servers are inaccessible to other users is the most important distinguishing feature.

The owner is in charge of server management and maintenance, as well as future capacity and performance planning to suit organisational needs. Long lead times are frequently required for provisioning extra hardware and services (power, broadband, cooling, and so on) to satisfy future demand. It's popular among businesses that manage sensitive data and value the adaptability and scalability it provides.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Private Cloud

A private cloud, like any other technology, has advantages and disadvantages. A private cloud can provide a better level of security and service to industries with highly specialised demands, such as government and defence. Companies outside of these areas may nevertheless benefit from a private cloud if they have data-intensive customers in highly secure fields.

Here are some other vital advantages that are offered by the private cloud:

Security- Since organisations can physically secure their servers and access data through private networks, private clouds provide a high level of security.

Control- Private clouds give businesses the freedom to control their data and customize their core architecture as they want. It also makes monitoring easy and effective.

Customization and Reliability- The private cloud allows organisations to customize the components of their infrastructure in order to improve performance. Private clouds can also be trusted and are incredibly reliable.

Performance- Public clouds suit companies with powerful computing needs since they offer space for upgrading the infrastructure.

Latency is Minimal- Because resources are closer to users, data stored in an on-premises private cloud may be served rapidly, avoiding latency (i.e. delays in data transfer).

Despite having a plethora of advantages, the private cloud has its own dark side. Here are some disadvantages of private clouds:

Cost- Private clouds are expensive compared to public clouds. Components such as software licenses, hardware, network infrastructure, and labour costs contribute to the increased costs.

Maintaining and Deploying- The business needs to hire a qualified team to maintain the infrastructure which increases the cost of operation. However, you can overcome this challenge by hiring a managed cloud service provider to do the heavy lifting.

Limited Remote Access- Due to its security-first approach, remotes access is limited, which tends to reduce performance in some cases

What is Public Cloud?

A public cloud is a cloud architecture provided by third-party cloud vendors via the public internet that shares resources among multiple unconnected tenants. This strategy allows businesses and developers to have affordable access to high-performance computers, storage, infrastructure, and software.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Public Cloud

Using a public cloud as well as private cloud storage has advantages and disadvantages. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages can help you decide if the public cloud is right for you.

Here are some other vital advantages that are offered by the public cloud:

Cost-Effective. In contrast to building a data centre, you do not need to invest money upfront to accommodate public cloud; you can use pay-per-use model.

Fast setup. Further, most public cloud services are designed to be easy to start, though there are exceptions.

Reliability. Public cloud platforms are reliable because backup data centres are always there in the event of failure.

Scalability and stability – Public cloud services allow you to scale up and down as needed, and they are simple to set up and manage.

Here are some of the disadvantages and challenges you may face when using the public cloud:

Security Limitations — This is the main concern for businesses that want to integrate cloud computing into their workflow.  Defence contractors and banks, for example, may require a higher level of security protection. A private cloud makes it easier to meet these security standards.

Limited customization capabilities and poor technical support: The public cloud's multi-tenancy prevents users from personalising certain components. In addition, most public cloud providers provide inadequate or no technical support, which might limit performance.

Latency. Most businesses don't care about fractions of a second, but in other industries, even little delays in transferring or retrieving data to and from the cloud can cause performance issues.

Hybrid Cloud

You don't have to choose between a private or public cloud; you can also adopt a hybrid cloud strategy. The presence of various deployment types (public or private) with some form of integration or orchestration between them is referred to as hybrid cloud.

A hybrid cloud makes sense in a number of situations:

To improve disaster recovery time: A hybrid cloud is a solid solution for storing backups and using them in a disaster recovery situation for firms that value speed and dependability. In this case, the strategy is to have a "warm disaster recovery" service on standby in case of a calamity and then switch to it when needed.

To comply with legal obligations: Some laws compel you to keep data within a certain geographical footprint. One method to achieve these needs is to use a hybrid cloud.

For data-intensive tasks: Companies or departments that operate with significant amounts of large files, such as media and entertainment, can benefit from a hybrid cloud strategy. They can use on-premises technology to get fast access to huge media files and use a scalable, low-cost public cloud provider to store data that isn't accessed as frequently—archives and backups, for example.

Choose the Best Cloud Model for Your Needs

Both models have advantages and disadvantages and work differently in different contexts The most essential aspects in choosing a cloud for most businesses and organisations will be affordability, accessibility, reliability, and scalability. Your type of organisation, laws, budget, and future plans will determine whether a private or public cloud, or a combination of both, is the right answer for your needs. The good news is that there are numerous options to suit almost every use case or budget.

If you're looking to hire into your team within the cloud space or looking for a role within this industry, please contact one of our team to find out more.

Cloud computing is massively on the rise in the current day and age. In fact, 81% of companies with 1,000 employees or more have a multi-platform strategy. 

Cloud technology has redefined the way in which companies store and share information. It has transcended the limitations of using physical devices. 

Cloud Technologies provides many benefits such as better scalability, better storage options, better collaboration with remote users and highly affordable for a lot of companies. 

But what does the future of cloud technology look like? 

Matt Riley CEO & Co-Founder of Swiftype commented “A decade from now, every business will be operating primarily from the cloud, making way for more flexible — yet more productive and efficient — ways of working. Hardware won’t be the problem in a decade — software will.” 

The future is bright for cloud computing. Analysts at IDC estimate that the field will evolve rapidly in the coming years, with almost 75% of data operations carried out outside the normal data centre. Moreover, 40% of organizations will deploy cloud technology, with edge computing becoming an integral part of the technological setup. Also, a quarter of end-point devices will be ready to execute AI algorithms by the year 2022. 

Cloud Computing trends on the rise - automation 

The automation tools available to us have proved to be very important when it comes to addressing errors in business processes, meanwhile streamlining them to generate fruitful results. 

For instance, developers can make changes to their websites hosted on the cloud before going live. If anything goes wrong, they can restore an older version of the website without affecting the sales process or user experience. As soon as the website goes live, it starts getting traffic. 

Opting for cloud means there will be more data consumption involved. Managing applications and routine tasks can become tedious. Developers can use automation to get rid of the manual process they have to use to carry out daily operations. 

Serverless paradigm 

The serverless paradigm is the next revolution in waiting, according to the CTO of Amazon. The concept of serverless paradigm relates to the fact that it facilitates cloud to execute a code snippet without any hassles for the developers. 

Using this approach developers can divide software into chunks of code to upload on cloud to address customers’ desires, thereby delivering valuable experience. This practice ensures faster release cycle for software. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has already started using the serverless paradigm to its advantage. 

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As cloud computing continues to make inroads in enterprise worlds, all stakeholders are looking forward to the evolution of the model. As things stand today, almost every significant innovation such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, AR/VR, robotics, and IoT rely on cloud computing technology. 

It’s not just computational power, networking speed, or storage capacity that makes cloud computing great. Those are just operational metrics that better technology would eventually change and replace over time. The real value of technology is what it does, not what it’s made of.

Microsoft launched Windows 11 on the 5^th of October 2021 as a free upgrade. Throughout the previous 3 months, I have had many interesting discussions with candidates on whether Windows 11 is as good as it has been made out to be. Throughout this article post, I will discuss some of the benefits and disadvantages of Windows 11 and everything you need to know to make the decision on whether it's time to upgrade.

Microsoft has made it clear that Windows 11 is available to all. There is no additional cost associated with installing Windows 11. However, it is not available to everyone because the update is only compatible with a Trusted Platform Module 2.0 and an Intel Core 8th generation processor that was released in 2017. As a result, most PCs older than four years will be unable to download the update. Since Windows 10 will only receive one upgrade per year until 2025, when it will be retired, this is a major issue for businesses using older technology. Companies have only three years to change their computer hardware as a result of this.

Despite the fact that the update is difficult to obtain, it has its advantages. For gamers, it features automatic HDR, which enhances the vibrancy of game pictures, and direct storage, which allows the graphic card and the Solid State Drive (SSD) to communicate more quickly.

Additionally, given Microsoft has chosen a new MacOS-style taskbar, it should be easier for MacOS users to navigate Windows 11. Unlike MacOS, which allows you to pin the task bar to any of the four corners of the screen, Windows 11 only allows you to pin it to the bottom, which could be inconvenient. Furthermore, customers have been perplexed by the fact that they are unable to see their live programmes on the task bar, making navigating more difficult.

As well as the new tool bar, Windows 11 will also come with a “Microsoft Chat” App, very similar to iMessage and Facetime from Apple. The Chat App uses the users Phone Number or Email-ID to enable the chat feature.

One of my favourite new features will be the various Window Sizes; by that, I mean that Windows 11 has "Snap Layouts" that allow you to have multiple applications or documents open on your screen at the same time. As someone who works in a second language, I find that online dictionaries are my closest friend. Having a dictionary and a document open on the same screen at the same time will help tremendously. Individuals will be able to get more work done as a result of this feature, as they will be able to view a greater variety of jobs they are working on.  Home office plays a key part in our working lives at the moment with not all of us having access to multiple screens, “Snap Layouts” provides us with an alternative. On the other hand, having more tabs open may lead to more distractions because you are not focused on a single job.

"Edge Browser" is the preferred browser for Windows 11. Sleeping tabs are available in this browser, allowing you to save memory and Central Processing Unit (CPU) usage. This means you have the ability to re-open the apps you had the previous time you turned on your computer. This has the advantage of allowing you to pick up just where we left off, but it also implies that if we want to start fresh the next day, we must ensure that all apps are closed at the end of the day.

I am really excited to be able to use the new Windows 11. I look forward to using the new taskbar, the “Snap Layouts” and the setting to have my last opened applications open again when I start in the morning. 

Once again, social media platforms are facing calls to tighten regulations on their platforms, following the hurl of racial abuse to members of the England football team. After losing to Italy in the final of the Euro 2020, certain players received swarms of abuse on social media, which critics say lies in the hands of these platforms to regulate.

London Mayer Sadiq Khan directly called on social media platforms to ‘act immediately to remove and prevent this hate’.

What kind of responsibility do these platforms have to prevent the spread of hate? Is there a way to leverage automation and machine learning to make this job easier?

Traditional media in the UK has an agreement with regulator Ofcom that makes them accountable for any form of abusive response to content. For example – a racist comment left on a BBC News article – the BBC would be accountable.

Ofcom doesn’t have this agreement with social media platforms because they aren’t considered to be publishers or broadcasters. These platforms remain self-regulating, so the question of accountability remains a grey area.

The difficulty these tech giants face is the huge volume of user-generated content, which swamps the efforts of human moderators employed by these platforms. It’s not expected that human moderators can sift through every piece of content, as soon as it’s posted, to see if it contains hate. The solution has to be automation.

We can already see social media platforms utilising automation to prevent misinformation around COVID-19. For example, Instagram immediately fags any content that contains information about COVID, and points users to the World Health Organisation for accurate advice. Critics have suggested this same technology be used to detect racist and abuse content.

Automation is already built into the algorithm in this way, such as a blanket banning of certain hashtags and words. But it can only do so much. Automation is currently unable to understand context, nuance, different cultures, etc. A certain emoji may not be offensive if said to one person, but when the context is different, the intention also changes. Instances such as this is where automation fails.

So what is the solution? Stopping trolls from posting hate on these platforms is of course, the ideal solution. But alas, an impossible ask. The more likely solution will take time – develop automation technology that is intelligent enough to detect the context of hate. Until then, there remains some power in the hands of users to report hate content when they see it. 

written by Evangeline Hunt

Several major websites went down on Tuesday morning, following a software bug on cloud-computing company Fastly.

Fastly said the bug was triggered by a customer configuration change.

The outage lasted 49 minutes, affecting some popular websites including Amazon, the Guardian, Reddit and even the UK gov website.

The problem originated with the cloud – more specifically the content delivery network (CDN) operated by Fastly. The Fastly CDN is a global network of servers, used by organisations to deliver content as quickly as possible (oh the irony).

Fastly were quick to recognise, apologise and resolve the issue. ‘This outage was broad and severe’, said Fastly’s Senior Vice President of Engineering and Infrastructure, Nick Rockwell. ‘We’re truly sorry for the impact to our customers and everyone who relies on them.’

Although the global outage was dealt with quickly, it does highlight how dependent many organisations are on cloud services and service providers.  

This didn’t turn out to be a cyberattack this time. But it does raise the question as to what would happen to any of these providers if they fell victim to a cyberattack. The consequences would be far worse than a 49-minute outage.

As we approach the halfway point of 2021, it’s a good time to reflect on the trends that were predicted for the year. Most of us were relieved to say goodbye to 2020. A year full of uncertainty and change. Not all of them were bad – the past year pushed engineers into a new way of collaboration to build, deliver and manage IT Infrastructure.

This digital transformation has become crucial for business success. As a result of the challenges of the past year the following DevOps trends have gained more attention:

1. In 2021 Service Mesh has increased and become one of the key components of the dedicated infrastructure layer built into an app as that’s how parts of an application can share data with another. Service mesh is used to facilitate service-to-service communications between services. Due to factors from choosing particular tools, people will be forced to use them. This means, as tools become a more and more inseparable part of other solutions, more service mesh will be used. On top of that, it will provide the features and standards within each application and therefore represent the platform for ALL kinds of applications.

2. DevSecOps is gaining more importance, ensuring security for businesses of any sizes as working with cloud-based technology is becoming part of our daily workspace. Vulnerabilities and security gaps need to quickly be noticed, detected and diminished by the DevSecOps team.

3. Kubernetes is an open-source container-orchestration system for automating computer application deployment, scaling, and management. It was originally designed by Google and is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. The use of Kubernetes continues to grow in 2021 as they are needed to build complex cloud-native infrastructures for automating computer applications. As these are difficult to understand, in 2021, cloud operators and practitioners create new supporting tools and will benefit the tech community. These tools focus especially on data science, visibility and secret management.

4. AI & ML driven DevOps approach: nowadays, traditional organisations need to handle a massive amount of data that is being generated with immense speed, variety and volume. To be able to analyze and compute this data of any scale and size, organisations work with AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (machine learning) as they are the boosters to transform the workflow of teams. ML helps to understand where blockages or capacity issues that occur in the delivery lifecycle and therefore improves developing, deploying, delivering and managing applications properly.

5. Observability or monitoring is the question. As systems are transforming into more complex, cloud-native and open source microservices running on Kubernetes, more engineers will be mindful of observing and monitoring the application to identify and respond to outages and events. This deeper insight into downtime is an approach to monitor, analyse, trace events to investigate the specific causes and pinpoint the impact on the company. 

Excited for the second half of 2021? Well, if you weren’t yet, then you should be now. The fact that DevOps is the best solution to increase quality, save time and money for companies hasn’t changed. But still, a new era is well underway in this cloud-centric and all-digital world. Therefore, upgrading and integrating techniques and tools are required for the rapidly changing market needs.

written by Sophie Finsterer

Businesses around the world are waving goodbye to datacentres in favour of the cloud, in order to innovate and grow to meet demand. As an IT infrastructure professional, having experience/certifications within cloud is going to make you more employable as cloud computing continues to rise in popularity.

AWS, Microsoft Azure and GCP are the three biggest cloud platforms used globally. IT professionals looking to upskill themselves should consider training in one of these three platforms – but which one will be the most valuable? We ran a poll on LinkedIn to ask that question – the results are as follows.

What is your preferred public cloud platform?

AWS = 55%
Azure = 38%
GCP = 8%

(218 people surveyed)

It’s no surprise that AWS gained the most votes – it is the market leader and the oldest established cloud service. According to Canalys, AWS owns 31% of the market as of July 2020 – with Azure at 20% and GCP at 6%. This is to be expected considering the seven-year head start that AWS had without any real competition.

But AWS isn’t just the oldest cloud provider, it also has the most services to offer. Its enterprise-friendly features make AWS a solid option for large organisations – such as Netflix, AirBnB, Nike and the Royal Opera House.

Microsoft’s Azure is closing the gap towards the market leader as it builds up its platform. It gets a lot of business from tech companies that already have a relationship with Microsoft, or who already use their programs such as Office365 or Teams. Microsoft can make it easy for these companies to transition to the cloud seamlessly, which is an attractive feature.

While Azure initially struggled to work with open source technologies, this has recently changed with around half of its workloads running on Linux.

GCP is the “new kid on the block”, which explains why it came in third in our poll. Yet it appeals to certain companies due to its strengths in big data, machine learning projects, and cloud-native applications. Despite this, Google has more work to do if it wants to compete with the likes of AWS and Azure.

So which cloud platform should you consider upskilling yourself in as an infrastructure professional?

‘AWS is still the market leader and the most popular, but Azure is catching up and so many businesses partner with Microsoft that it will make you really employable if you have skills in Azure’, says our Cardiff Consultant and cloud expert Gareth Streefland. ‘Plus, it’s probably the most approachable for engineers starting out with cloud.’

Upskilling yourself on any platform will improve your employability and job prospects. If you are experienced in cloud computing and are looking for new opportunities, feel free to get in touch – we would be happy to help.

Can you see a shift occurring in the preferred public cloud platform as time goes on? Or will AWS remain the market leader for the foreseeable? We would love to hear your thoughts.

When starting out in IT Recruitment you are confronted with numerous job titles that sound very similar at first but have distinct differences when you take a closer look. So, I found myself asking the question: “What’s the difference between a System Administrator and a System Engineer?”

What is a system administrator?

The branch of engineering known as system engineering is responsible for the conceptualisation, design, development, and technical administration of various systems or computers. A system engineer is someone who works with many teams and experts to create an effective system that will produce the desired results.

In this multidimensional digital environment, they play a crucial role and frequently collaborate with the project manager. A system engineer will be deeply knowledgeable about contemporary systems and networking and will be involved in every stage of the systems' development.

Here are some major duties and roles of the System Engineer:

• From an architectural standpoint, aiding the entire development process entails planning, designing, and budget forecasting.
• Maintaining up with industry standards and taking notes on the procedure and other tools used during development for upcoming improvements
• Designing a perfect system based on the customer’s or project manager’s recommendation.
• Conducting the total system analysis while maximizing the output considering the program syntax, structure, etc…

Top Skills and Tools Needed for Systems Administrators

As one of the most versatile roles working with computers and servers, Systems Administrators can set themselves up for success by gaining experience within a wide range of software and tools they might be called upon to utilize. These include:

• Microsoft Office 365
• Programming and Scripting Languages like Python, HTML and Javascript
• Structured Query Language (SQL) to support with database management
• Cloud technology, such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon Cloud Services. 

What is a system engineer?

A System Administrator is an Admin who administers and maintains the System, as the name suggests. The abbreviation for the system administrator is Sysadmin. The system administrator is concerned in the continuing maintenance of those systems and networks, whereas the system engineer focuses on developing and building systems.
They oversee system security, uptime, and make sure that needs align with available funds. A bachelor's degree in IT or software engineering is required to work as a system administrator. And you should continue to advance your technological knowledge.

Roles & Responsibilities of a System Administrator

• The major duty of the System Admin is to provide support to the individual users which include internal employees and external customers
• As a sysadmin, you are required to troubleshoot or fix any issues in the system operation
• He/She is mostly involved in the documentation process
• Continuously monitors the system and security functions of the system.
• System Admins should ensure the proper backup and recovery plan
• Check the compatibility of the system and make recommendations to the system engineer
• Database management, patching, and installations

Top Skills and Tools Needed for Systems Engineers

The technical elements of IT are a must-have for any Systems Engineer, in addition to the skills that come with leading a cross-functional team. Some of these top skills include: 

• Linux operating systems and UNIX
• Windows Server 
• Project planning methodologies such as Agile, Scrum, Jira and Kanban
• Computer Science Principles
• Proficient coding ability
• Ability to communicate with multiple stakeholders
• Strong leadership skills

Here are the key differences between a system engineer and a system administrator:

• System engineers focusing on creating and improving systems
• System administrators manage the on-going support of a system
• System engineers use these stages in work - task definition, conception, design, and implementation
• System administrators manage and support systems through user administration, maintaining systems, documenting operations, backing up or recovering files, security administration, and data and network administration
• System engineers have higher salaries than system administrators

In short, a system engineer is a creator, and a system administrator is a manager. Both technical positions involve a close relationship and in small organizations, a single person does both jobs.