# Clouve Inc.

> Empower your business with our innovative products and drive rapid growth.


## Posts

### Introducing Clouve’s New Features: A Smarter Way to Build, Distribute, and Scale Business Applications

The world of business applications is evolving rapidly. Developers need a streamlined way to share their innovations, while businesses want secure, reliable, and scalable solutions they can trust. At Clouve, we bridge that gap with our Bring Your Own Application (BYOA) model and enterprise-grade infrastructure.



Today, we’re excited to announce new features designed to empower developers and businesses alike. From effortless app submissions to AI-powered customer support, here’s how Clouve is redefining the business applications marketplace.



1. Application Submission: A Seamless Path to the Marketplace



Bringing your app to market should be simple—not a maze of approvals and complex deployments. With our new application submission portal, developers can directly submit their apps for consideration on the Clouve Marketplace.



Our submission process is designed to be transparent and developer-friendly. You focus on building great apps—we handle the publishing, infrastructure, and customer reach.







2. Secure Hosting & Distribution with Clouve’s Container Registry



Security and reliability sit at the heart of every deployment. That’s why Clouve now offers its own enterprise-grade container registry, ensuring that every app is packaged, hosted, and distributed safely.



This registry is fully integrated with the Clouve ecosystem, meaning businesses can deploy applications without friction—confident that their apps are secure, up-to-date, and ready to scale.



3. Rigorous Review Process: Quality You Can Trust



Not every app makes it to the marketplace—and that’s by design. Every submission undergoes a rigorous review process by Clouve’s dedicated team of evaluators.



We assess applications on three pillars:




Security: Ensuring apps follow best practices and protect data.



Performance: Confirming apps run reliably under real-world conditions.



Usability: Delivering intuitive, user-friendly experiences.




This process ensures that businesses exploring Clouve can adopt applications with confidence.



4. Marketplace Availability: Discover, Install, and Scale



Once approved, applications are published instantly to the Clouve Marketplace, where businesses can browse, discover, and install with ease.



Our marketplace is more than just a catalog—it’s a gateway to highly available, scalable, and secure infrastructure. Applications are deployed seamlessly, giving businesses the confidence to focus on growth rather than worrying about downtime or performance.



5. Ongoing Support: AI + Human Expertise



Technology adoption doesn’t end at installation. That’s why Clouve backs every deployment with 24/7 AI-powered support.



Our AI help desk handles inquiries instantly, with the option to seamlessly escalate to human experts when needed. Businesses get peace of mind knowing that help is always available—without additional costs or delays.



Why This Matters



For developers, Clouve removes friction from publishing, hosting, and distributing applications—while providing access to a global customer base.



For businesses, Clouve offers a vetted marketplace of applications that are secure, scalable, and always supported.



Together, these features reinforce Clouve’s vision: to be the most trusted, developer-first, business applications marketplace in the industry.



Get Started Today




Developers: Submit your application to the Clouve Marketplace and share your innovation with the world.



Businesses: Explore the Marketplace to discover and deploy applications tailored to your needs.




Clouve is building the future of business applications—and we can’t wait for you to be part of it.

### Clouve Revolutionizes Self-Hosting for BlueSky Users: Launch Your PDS Server in Just 2 Clicks

The modern web has seen a surge in decentralized platforms that prioritize user autonomy, privacy, and control over personal data. BlueSky, powered by the AT Protocol (Authenticated Transfer Protocol), is leading this movement, enabling users to create their own Personal Data Server (PDS) as a foundation for a decentralized social ecosystem. While the benefits of self-hosting are abundant, the process can sometimes be daunting, requiring technical expertise and considerable setup time. Clouve has stepped in to revolutionize this experience, making it possible for BlueSky users to deploy their PDS servers with unparalleled ease—just two clicks.



This article dives deep into how Clouve has streamlined the self-hosting process, why this is a game-changer for BlueSky enthusiasts, and how you can leverage this innovation to take control of your digital identity.







Understanding BlueSky and the AT Protocol



Before delving into Clouve's role, it's crucial to understand the architecture that underpins BlueSky. At its core, BlueSky operates on the AT Protocol, a groundbreaking framework for building decentralized social platforms. Let’s explore its key components:




Personal Data Servers (PDS): These servers allow users to host and control their data. Rather than relying on centralized platforms, PDS ensures that you retain ownership and control over your identity and content. Learn more about PDS.



Decentralized Identity (DID): The protocol supports decentralized identity systems, ensuring you can manage your online persona across various platforms without relying on traditional centralized systems. Explore decentralized identity.



Data Repositories: These act as storage hubs, holding user-generated content and interactions. The AT Protocol ensures data is transferable, secure, and portable. Understand data repositories.



Interoperability with the Lexicon: This schema defines communication between applications, ensuring smooth data exchanges across diverse platforms. Discover the lexicon.




While these elements collectively create an empowering environment for users, setting up a PDS server traditionally required some level of technical acumen. That’s where Clouve steps in.







Clouve: Simplifying Self-Hosting with the BYOA Model



Clouve’s Bring Your Own Application (BYOA) model is designed to empower developers and users alike by offering a seamless hosting solution. For BlueSky users, this means a streamlined pathway to deploy a PDS server without grappling with the complexities of traditional self-hosting.



Why Choose Clouve for BlueSky Self-Hosting?




Simplicity: Deploying a PDS server on Clouve is as easy as clicking twice. Forget manual configurations, lengthy installation guides, or server maintenance woes.



Scalability: Clouve’s infrastructure is robust and scalable, ensuring your PDS server performs optimally as your network grows.



Integrated Help Desk: Clouve offers 24/7 AI-powered and human-assisted support, making troubleshooting and management effortless.



Enhanced Security: With built-in measures to safeguard your data, Clouve ensures your PDS server is secure from potential vulnerabilities.



Affordability: Clouve offers cost-effective hosting solutions, removing financial barriers for users eager to join the decentralized web revolution.








How Clouve Makes Self-Hosting Effortless



Clouve has turned what was once a technically demanding task into an intuitive process. Here’s how it works:




Pre-Configured Environments: Clouve’s platform offers pre-configured server environments tailored for BlueSky’s PDS requirements.



Automated DNS Configuration: Whether you’re using Clouve’s DNS services or an external provider, the setup is automated, saving you time and effort. Learn more about DNS setup.



One-Click Deployment: The platform is designed with user-friendliness in mind, allowing you to deploy your PDS server with a single click.



Integration with BlueSky: Clouve ensures seamless integration with BlueSky, including identity verification and data repository management.



Comprehensive Guides and Tutorials: Clouve provides step-by-step instructions and video tutorials, ensuring even beginners can navigate the process effortlessly.








Step-by-Step Guide: Deploying a BlueSky PDS Server Using Clouve



Step 1: Sign Up on Clouve



Create an account on Clouve’s platform. You’ll gain access to a dashboard designed specifically for managing BlueSky PDS servers.



Step 2: Choose Your Hosting Option



Select the pre-configured BlueSky PDS option. Clouve offers multiple plans to suit your needs, whether you’re an individual user or managing a larger community.



Step 3: Configure Your Domain



Clouve allows you to use its DNS services or connect your own domain. This step is straightforward, with an automated setup wizard guiding you through the process. For more details, check out this tutorial on deploying with any DNS provider.















Step 4: Click and Deploy



With everything configured, all it takes is two clicks to deploy your PDS server. Clouve handles the backend operations, ensuring your server is live in minutes.



Step 5: Connect to BlueSky



Once your server is up and running, integrate it with your BlueSky account. This step ensures your PDS server is recognized and operational within the BlueSky ecosystem.



For a detailed walkthrough, watch this tutorial on deploying a BlueSky PDS with Clouve.



















Benefits of Self-Hosting with Clouve for BlueSky Users



1. Full Data Ownership



By hosting your PDS server with Clouve, you retain complete ownership of your data. This aligns with the core philosophy of BlueSky and the AT Protocol, prioritizing user autonomy.



2. Enhanced Privacy



Self-hosting ensures your data is not stored on third-party servers, reducing exposure to potential data breaches or misuse.



3. Customization



Clouve’s platform offers flexibility, allowing you to customize your PDS server to meet your unique requirements.



4. Interoperability



With Clouve’s seamless integration with the AT Protocol, your data remains portable, enabling smooth transitions between platforms.



5. Community Building



By hosting your own PDS server, you can create a community-centric space, free from the constraints of centralized platforms.







Why Clouve is a Game-Changer for the Decentralized Web



Clouve’s innovation goes beyond simplifying self-hosting. It empowers users to actively participate in the decentralized web revolution, breaking down barriers to entry and fostering a more inclusive digital ecosystem. Here’s why this matters:




Democratizing Technology: Clouve makes advanced technologies accessible to everyone, regardless of technical expertise.



Promoting Decentralization: By lowering the technical barrier, Clouve accelerates the adoption of decentralized platforms like BlueSky.



Fostering Innovation: Developers can focus on creating groundbreaking applications without worrying about infrastructure challenges.



Building Trust: With Clouve’s robust security measures and reliable infrastructure, users can trust their data is in safe hands.








Conclusion



Clouve has redefined what it means to self-host in the decentralized web era. For BlueSky users, deploying a Personal Data Server has never been easier. With just two clicks, you can take control of your digital identity, data, and community.



The AT Protocol and its components—identity, data repositories, and the lexicon—lay the foundation for a decentralized future. Clouve complements this vision by providing a user-friendly platform that bridges the gap between technical complexity and user empowerment.



Ready to join the revolution? Watch these tutorials to see how simple it is to create your own PDS server with Clouve:




Deploy a BlueSky PDS using Clouve



Deploy a BlueSky PDS using any DNS provider




Take the leap with Clouve and become a pioneer in the decentralized web today.

### How to Clone an Application or Bundle in Clouve

Cloning applications or bundles is an essential feature that allows developers and administrators to duplicate their work efficiently. Whether you're looking to create a backup, set up a testing environment, or replicate an application for scaling purposes, Clouve makes the cloning process straightforward and user-friendly. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the steps to clone an application or bundle within Clouve.



Why Clone an Application or Bundle?



Before diving into the steps, it's important to understand the benefits of cloning:




Testing and Development: Create a sandbox environment to test new features without affecting the production application.



Backup and Recovery: Maintain a backup copy of your application or bundle for quick recovery in case of issues.



Scaling: Duplicate applications to distribute load and improve performance.



Customization: Create variations of an application for different clients or use cases.




Prerequisites




Clouve Account: Ensure you have an active Clouve account with the necessary permissions to clone applications or bundles.



Existing Application or Bundle: Identify the application or bundle you wish to clone.




Step-by-Step Guide to Cloning















Step 1: Log In to Clouve




Access Clouve: Open your web browser and navigate to the Clouve login page.



Enter Credentials: Input your username and password.



Two-Factor Authentication (if enabled): Complete any additional security steps to access your account.




Step 2: Navigate to "MY APPS"




Locate the Sidebar: On the left side of the dashboard, you will find a sidebar with various options.



Click "MY APPS": This will display a list of all your existing applications and bundles.




Step 3: Find the Application or Bundle to Clone




Browse Your List: Scroll through your applications or use the search function to locate the desired item.



Confirm Selection: Ensure that you've selected the correct application or bundle by checking its details.




Step 4: Click the "Clone" Icon




Identify the Clone Icon: Next to each application or bundle, there are several action icons. The clone icon typically looks like two overlapping squares or a copy symbol.



Click the Icon: Select the clone icon adjacent to the application or bundle you wish to duplicate.




Step 5: Confirm Cloning Action




Confirmation Dialog: A pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm the cloning action.



Review Information: Double-check the application or bundle details to avoid cloning the wrong item.



Click "PROCEED": If everything is correct, click the "PROCEED" button to initiate the cloning process.




Step 6: Monitor Cloning Progress




Redirection to Cloning Page: After confirming, you'll be redirected to a new page dedicated to the cloning process.



Progress Indicators: You'll see a progress bar or status updates indicating the cloning stages.



Notifications: Clouve may send notifications upon completion or if any issues arise during the process.




Step 7: Access the Cloned Application or Bundle




Completion Confirmation: Once the cloning process is complete, a success message will appear.



New URL Generation: The cloned application or bundle will have a newly generated URL.



Access and Verify: Click on the new URL to access the cloned application and verify that it functions as expected.




Post-Cloning Considerations




Update Configurations: Adjust any environment-specific settings, such as API keys, database connections, or environment variables.



Rename Cloned Item: For better organization, rename the cloned application or bundle to reflect its purpose.



Set Permissions: Configure access controls to ensure that the appropriate team members can access the cloned item.



Test Thoroughly: Conduct a comprehensive test to ensure all functionalities are working correctly in the cloned environment.




Tips for Effective Cloning




Regular Backups: Use cloning as a method for regular backups to safeguard against data loss.



Environment Isolation: Keep cloned testing environments isolated from production to prevent unintended interactions.



Documentation: Document the cloning process and any changes made post-cloning for future reference.



Resource Management: Be mindful of the resources consumed by cloned applications to optimize performance and costs.




Troubleshooting Common Issues



Cloning Failure




Insufficient Permissions: Ensure you have the necessary rights to clone applications or bundles.



Network Issues: Check your internet connection if the cloning process fails to initiate or complete.



Contact Support: If problems persist, reach out to Clouve support for assistance.




Cloned Application Malfunctions




Configuration Errors: Verify that all configurations have been updated correctly post-cloning.



Dependency Issues: Ensure all dependencies and integrations are properly set up in the cloned environment.




Advantages of Clouve's Cloning Feature




Efficiency: Save time by duplicating complex applications without rebuilding them from scratch.



Consistency: Maintain uniformity across different environments, reducing the risk of discrepancies.



Scalability: Easily scale your applications by deploying multiple instances to handle increased load.



Flexibility: Experiment with new features or updates in a safe environment without impacting live applications.




Frequently Asked Questions



Can I Clone an Application or Bundle Multiple Times?



Yes, you can clone an application or bundle as many times as needed. Each clone will operate independently, allowing you to create multiple environments for various purposes.



Will Cloning Affect the Original Application?



No, cloning creates an exact copy without altering the original application or bundle. All settings and data remain intact in the original.



Is There a Limit to the Number of Clones I Can Create?



Clouve may impose limits based on your subscription plan or resource availability. Check your account details or contact support for specific information.



How Secure Is the Cloning Process?



Clouve employs robust security measures to ensure that the cloning process is secure. Access controls and permissions help prevent unauthorized cloning.



Conclusion



Cloning applications or bundles in Clouve is a powerful feature that enhances productivity and flexibility. By following the simple steps outlined in this guide, you can efficiently duplicate your applications or bundles for various purposes such as testing, scaling, or backup. Remember to consider post-cloning configurations and best practices to maximize the benefits of this feature.



Harness the full potential of Clouve's cloning capabilities to streamline your development and deployment processes, ensuring your applications are robust, scalable, and ready to meet your users' needs.



Additional Resources




Clouve User Guide: Explore detailed documentation on other features and best practices.



Community Forums: Join discussions with other Clouve users to share insights and solutions.



Customer Support: Contact Clouve's support team for personalized assistance.




Get Started Today



Don't let manual duplication slow down your workflow. Leverage Clouve's cloning feature to accelerate your development cycle and maintain consistency across your applications. Log in to your Clouve account and start cloning today!

### Clouve Introduces AI Assistant for Instant App Support: Here's How to Use It

In today's fast-paced digital world, waiting for support can hinder productivity and dampen user experience. Recognizing this, Clouve is thrilled to announce a groundbreaking feature: you can now interact with our AI assistant for instant support with any installed app. This innovation is set to redefine how users interact with applications and handle deployments, making assistance readily available at your fingertips.



Why Instant Support Matters



The realm of app development and deployment is intricate, often posing challenges that require immediate attention. Traditional support channels, while effective, can sometimes be time-consuming due to ticket backlogs and limited availability of support staff. Instant support bridges this gap by providing:




Immediate Assistance: No more waiting in queues; get answers when you need them.



Enhanced Productivity: Quick resolutions mean you can focus on what matters most.



Improved User Experience: A seamless support process enhances overall satisfaction with the platform.




Introducing Clouve's AI Assistant



Our AI assistant is designed to provide you with real-time support, ensuring that you have the resources and guidance necessary to navigate any challenges with your apps or deployments. Whether you're a seasoned developer or a newcomer, the AI assistant adapts to your level of expertise, offering personalized assistance.



Key Features of the AI Assistant




24/7 Availability: Access support anytime, anywhere.



Contextual Understanding: The assistant can reference previous interactions and app histories.



User-Friendly Interface: An intuitive chat box makes communication straightforward.



Efficient Problem-Solving: Get precise answers and solutions quickly.
















How to Use the AI Assistant for Instant Support



Getting instant support with our AI assistant is a straightforward process. Follow these simple steps to get started:



1. Navigate to the App or Deployment You Need Help With



Begin by logging into your Clouve account and accessing the dashboard. From here:




Locate the specific app or deployment you're experiencing issues with or need assistance on.



Click on the app to open its detailed view.




2. Click on the 'Support Ticket' Tab at the Top of the Page



Within the app's detailed view:




Look for the 'Support Ticket' tab situated at the top navigation bar.



Click on this tab to proceed to the support section dedicated to that app.




3. View Previous Chat History (If Available)



Upon entering the support section:




You'll see a chat box interface.



Any prior interactions or support chats related to the app will be displayed here.



Reviewing past conversations can sometimes provide immediate answers to your query.




4. Type Your Inquiry into the Chat Box Regarding the Deployment



To seek assistance:




Click on the input field within the chat box.



Clearly and concisely type out your question or describe the issue you're facing.



Provide as much detail as possible to enable the AI assistant to understand and address your concern effectively.




5. Receive Prompt Assistance from Our AI Assistant



After submitting your inquiry:




The AI assistant will process your question.



You'll receive a prompt response with guidance, solutions, or follow-up questions if more information is needed.



Engage in the conversation until your issue is resolved or you have the information you need.




Benefits of Using Clouve's AI Assistant



Integrating the AI assistant into your workflow offers several advantages:



Immediate Problem Resolution



Time is of the essence, especially when dealing with app deployments. The AI assistant provides instant answers, helping you overcome hurdles without delay.



Personalized Support Experience



The assistant takes into account your previous interactions and app history, tailoring responses to suit your specific context and needs.



Resource Optimization



By handling common queries and issues, the AI assistant allows our human support team to focus on more complex problems, ensuring efficient use of resources.



Accessible Anytime, Anywhere



Whether you're working late nights or across different time zones, the AI assistant is always available to help.



Tips for Effective Communication with the AI Assistant



To maximize the efficiency of the AI assistant, consider the following tips:




Be Specific: Clearly state your issue or question, including any error messages or unusual behavior you've observed.



Use Relevant Terminology: Utilize specific terms related to your app or deployment to help the assistant understand your query better.



Provide Context: Mention any recent changes or actions you've taken that might be relevant to the issue.



Ask One Question at a Time: This helps the assistant focus on resolving each issue thoroughly before moving on to the next.




Real-World Scenarios Where the AI Assistant Can Help



Troubleshooting Deployment Errors



If you encounter an error during deployment, simply describe the error message to the AI assistant. It can provide insights into common causes and suggest steps to resolve the issue.



Understanding Feature Functions



Need clarification on how a particular feature works within your app? Ask the assistant for an explanation or guidance on utilizing the feature effectively.



Optimizing Performance



If you're looking to improve your app's performance, the assistant can offer tips and best practices tailored to your specific deployment.



Future Enhancements



At Clouve, we're committed to continuous improvement. The AI assistant is built on a learning algorithm that evolves with each interaction. Future updates aim to:




Enhance Conversational Abilities: Making interactions more natural and intuitive.



Expand Knowledge Base: Incorporating more data to handle a wider array of queries.



Integrate Multilingual Support: Catering to a global user base with support in multiple languages.




Security and Privacy



We understand the importance of security and privacy in handling your data:




Data Encryption: All communications with the AI assistant are encrypted to protect your information.



Privacy Compliance: We adhere to strict privacy policies to ensure your data is handled responsibly.



User Control: You have control over your chat history and can delete conversations if desired.




Feedback and Support



Your experience with the AI assistant is invaluable to us:




Provide Feedback: After your interaction, consider leaving feedback to help us improve the assistant's performance.



Contact Human Support: If the AI assistant is unable to resolve your issue, you can escalate the matter to our human support team directly from the chat interface.




Conclusion



Clouve's AI assistant is more than just a support tool; it's a companion designed to enhance your journey with our platform. By providing instant, personalized assistance, we're empowering you to tackle challenges head-on and make the most of your apps and deployments.



We invite you to explore this new feature and experience the difference it makes in your workflow. As always, we're here to support you every step of the way.



Get started today and let Clouve's AI assistant be your guide to seamless app management and deployment!







For any additional questions or feedback, feel free to reach out through our official contact channels.

### How to Manage Organizations and Users in Clouve: A Comprehensive Guide

In today's digital landscape, efficient organization and user management are crucial for businesses of all sizes. Clouve, a leading platform in organizational management, offers robust features that allow you to add organizations to your account, manage users within those organizations, and even authorize users from other organizations to access your resources. This comprehensive guide will walk you through these features step by step, ensuring you make the most of what Clouve has to offer.



Table of Contents




Introduction to Clouve's Organizational Features



Adding an Organization to Your Account

Step 1: Accessing Your Profile



Step 2: Navigating to "My Organizations"



Step 3: Adding a New Organization





Adding Users to Your New Organization

Step 1: Accessing the Users Section



Step 2: Switching Organizations



Step 3: Creating a New User





Authorizing Users from Another Organization

Step 1: Navigating to the Correct Organization



Step 2: Adding an External User



Step 3: Confirming Access Rights





Best Practices and Tips



Conclusion








Introduction to Clouve's Organizational Features



Clouve is designed to simplify the way you manage organizations and users within a single platform. Whether you're overseeing multiple departments within a company or collaborating with external partners, Clouve's intuitive interface allows for seamless integration and management.



Key Features:




Multiple Organization Management: Easily add and switch between different organizations within your account.



User Management: Add users to organizations, assign roles, and manage permissions.



Cross-Organization Collaboration: Authorize users from other organizations to access your resources, fostering collaboration and efficiency.
















Adding an Organization to Your Account



Adding a new organization to your Clouve account is a straightforward process. Here's how you can do it:



Step 1: Accessing Your Profile




Navigate to the Left Bar: On your Clouve dashboard, you'll find a navigation bar on the left side of the screen.



Click on “Profile”: This will take you to your personal profile settings, where you can manage your account details.




Step 2: Navigating to "My Organizations"




Select the “My Organizations” Tab: At the top of your profile page, you'll see several tabs. Click on “My Organizations” to view and manage your organizations.




Step 3: Adding a New Organization




Press “Add Organization”: You'll find this button typically located at the top right corner of the "My Organizations" page.



Fill in the Required Details: A form will appear asking for specific information about the organization.

Organization Name: Enter the official name of the organization.



Contact Information: Provide an email address and phone number.



Address: Include the physical address if applicable.



Description: Optionally, add a brief description of the organization.





Click on “Add” to Confirm: Once all the details are filled in, press “Add” to create the new organization in your account.




Tips:




Double-Check Information: Ensure all details are accurate to avoid confusion later.



Use Official Details: If adding a professional organization, use official contact information and names.








Adding Users to Your New Organization



After creating an organization, the next step is to add users who will be part of it.



Step 1: Accessing the Users Section




Go to the Left Bar: Return to the main navigation menu on the left side.



Select “Users”: This will display a list of all users in your currently selected organization.




Step 2: Switching Organizations




Use the Drop-Down Menu: At the top left corner, there’s a drop-down menu that shows the current organization.



Select the Desired Organization: Choose the new organization you've just added from the list.




Step 3: Creating a New User




Click “Add User”: Typically found at the top right corner of the Users page.



Fill Out the Required Details:

First Name and Last Name: Enter the user's full name.



Email Address: This will be used for login and communication.



Role/Position: Assign a role such as Admin, Manager, or User.



Permissions: Set the appropriate access levels.





Click “Add” to Create the User: Finalize the process by clicking the "Add" button.




Tips:




Assign Appropriate Roles: Be mindful of the permissions you grant to ensure security.



Notify the User: Inform them that they've been added so they can set up their account.








Authorizing Users from Another Organization



Clouve allows you to grant access to users from other organizations, facilitating cross-organization collaboration.



Step 1: Navigating to the Correct Organization




Switch Organizations if Necessary: Ensure you're in the organization where you want to authorize access.




Step 2: Adding an External User




Go to the Users Section: Navigate to the Users page as before.



Click “Add User”: Begin the process of adding a new user.



Enter the User’s Email: In the required field, input the email address of the user you wish to authorize.

Auto-Fill Feature: If the user already has a Clouve profile with another organization, their first and last names will automatically populate.





Review the Details: Ensure the auto-filled information is correct.




Step 3: Confirming Access Rights




Set Permissions: Assign the appropriate access levels for this user in your organization.



Press “Add” to Confirm: Finalize the authorization by clicking “Add”.




Tips:




Communicate with the User: Let them know they've been granted access to your organization.



Review Permissions Regularly: Ensure external users have only the access they need.








Best Practices and Tips



To make the most out of Clouve's organizational features, consider the following best practices:



Maintain Updated Information




Regularly Update Organization Details: Keep contact information and descriptions current.



Monitor User Activity: Periodically review user lists to ensure only active members have access.




Use Clear Naming Conventions




Organization Names: Use official names to avoid confusion.



User Roles: Clearly define roles and responsibilities within the organization.




Security Measures




Strong Passwords: Encourage users to use strong, unique passwords.



Two-Factor Authentication: Enable 2FA if available for added security.



Regular Audits: Conduct regular audits of user permissions and access rights.




Foster Communication




Internal Messaging: Use Clouve's communication tools if available to keep everyone informed.



External Users: Clearly communicate expectations and guidelines to users from other organizations.




Leverage Support Resources




Help Center: Utilize Clouve's help center for tutorials and FAQs.



Customer Support: Reach out to Clouve's support team for any issues or questions.








Conclusion



Managing organizations and users effectively is essential for collaboration and productivity. Clouve provides a user-friendly platform to streamline these processes, allowing you to focus on what matters most—growing your business and achieving your goals.



By following this guide, you should now be able to:




Add Organizations to Your Account: Expand your Clouve account to include all relevant organizations.



Add Users to Organizations: Populate your organizations with team members, assigning roles and permissions.



Authorize External Users: Grant access to users from other organizations, facilitating collaboration.




Remember to regularly review and update your organizations and user permissions to maintain security and efficiency. With Clouve's powerful features at your fingertips, managing complex organizational structures has never been easier.



Get started with Clouve today and take control of your organizational management!







Disclaimer: This guide is based on features available up to October 2023. For the latest updates and features, please refer to Clouve's official website or contact their customer support.

### How AI And Automation Define The Future Of Work

In a world where technology-driven systems are on the rise, the key to success is winning the race to digital transformation. Many companies are investing in automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to work smarter, improve efficiency, productivity, service delivery, and the quality of business results.



Today, AI is more than just a long-term source of innovation for businesses. It delivers rapid business value especially when it comes to process automation and capitalizing on new revenue streams. When we talk about automation, it encourages us to redefine the way we work. Consider how we can replace repetitive and time-consuming processes, especially those that do not rely on human judgment, with smarter, more efficient software to accelerate operations. 



Or, how about leveraging automation for accessing and processing large databases to extract actionable insights that improve decision-making and contribute to better outcomes? Combined with AI, automation pushes the boundaries of what machines can do. For instance, it is common to see autonomous vehicles on roads and automated check-outs in grocery stores. We can owe much of this progress to advancements in software, sensors, and smart devices. 



Machine Learning (ML) algorithms also augment AI by offering insightful business intelligence (BI), and even MI-driven automation helps in the following areas:




Predicting what purchase e a specific customer is most likely to make.



Automating customized targeting of digital marketing ads.



Examining warranty information to detect quality issues in manufactured products.



Zeroing in on transactions involving credit fraud.




AI and automation incorporate cognitive functions and efficiencies that prepare your business for the future of work. Let’s further explore this.



Robotic Process Automation



Automating physical and digital tasks is a common practice these days especially in financial services or back-office business activities. RPA is more high-end as compared to business-process automation resources. This is because of the code on a server that functions as a human inputting and extracting information from computing systems. There are many possibilities of doing so, such as: 




Reaching into systems to update records and handle customer communications.



Sending data from e-mail and telecommunications systems into records that update client files with service additions.



Streamlining activities such as updating CRM systems, setting up customers in billing systems, and feeding data into sales metrics. 



Inputting and processing claims in healthcare or insurance with low chances of error. You can also save unnecessary expenses by using the tech to detect exceptions that fail to comply.




Multiple (RPA) tools are available in the market to automate large-scale tasks, whether apps run on the web, desktop, or in a virtualized setup. You can also enable automation around apps including email, PDF, databases, and more. 



Let’s study a couple of examples. If you operate an IT help desk, you know how boring and time-consuming the job can be sometimes. RPA reduces your workload by handling simple and repetitive issues. You can also use bots to run daily diagnostic tests of your IT systems and help IT stay ahead of any potential technical gaps or issues. 



The second common use case is data migration and forms processing. You may require your users to draw relevant information from legacy systems to make data available for newer systems. An RPA solution supports this manual process without the risk of bringing about any human error. Also, when you need to convert paper forms into digital, RPA reads the forms and feeds data into the system, freeing up time for your human resources to focus on other strategic initiatives.







Driving Value



Running a business means consistently adding value that benefits you in the long run, and automation paves the way to achieving this. Here’s how:



For Enterprises



RPA frees employees to participate in the latest training programs, improve existing skill sets, pick up new skills, and use both creativity and analysis capabilities to generate revenue. 



For Users



In this fast-paced, digitally-driven world, everyone must bring their A-game. So, why not let automation tools do the job? Use them to support your in-house functions involving IT, HR, finance, marketing, and sales, or up-skill and re-skill your staff to stay relevant.



For Customers



The customer services industry requires professionals to be at their best, and this is where smart automation strategies are useful. These can range from anywhere between keeping track of agent desktops to deploying customer-facing chatbots and employing automated self-service technologies. You can then free up your staff from handling tier-1 support requests and assign them to more challenging customer-related tasks.



Next, let’s come to AI use cases, starting with personal and home assistants. Popular assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Home operate on a natural language interface, enabling users to communicate with the device for tasks and responses. Brands are consistently working to improve the standard of query recognition and most devices can now identify users simply through their voice. Even financial services are utilizing ‘my voice is my password’ for telephone banking to deliver a seamless end-user experience.



These assistants leverage ML to understand your behavior and provide relevant options based on your habits, preferences, and tendencies. They learn what you prefer and tailor their analytics or recommendations accordingly. When you use them often, they get to know you better and become smarter in order to effectively meet your demands. From these developments, we can safely say that AI is the future. Soon, they will assume control of our home lives and make things easier for us. This can range from organizing our schedules more efficiently and ordering our groceries when the fridge is empty to getting immediate medical attention if need be.







Research And Development (R&D)



Using AI as a mechanism of innovation is the best decision you can ever make. It offers an in-depth understanding of virtually every industry, including government, healthcare, financial services, science, research, engineering, and more. At the same time, it analyzes massive amounts of data with remarkable efficiency and accuracy. For the best outcomes, combine AI with ML to create unique solutions that you may have never come across before. These two technologies unlock the door to amazing discoveries as well as product and service developments that maximize profitability. Let’s look at two fields in which you can implement R&D with AI:



Manufacturing



Why not use data analytics at every level of the manufacturing process from supply chain management (SCM) to inventory tracking? Leverage predictive intelligence to anticipate customer demand and scale up production during busy seasons or scale down as necessary. You can also use sensors on equipment to predict maintenance requirements. AI dynamically identifies red flags in manufacturing processes before any issues arise that can potentially break your budget. What’s more, machine vision is another feature that supports QA and QC processes at manufacturing facilities.



IT



AIOps is the foremost experience your business may have when implementing AI across your organization. As per Gartner, AIOps effectively applies Data Science and ML to address IT difficulties. In this context, you can utilize AI for system log file error analysis and evaluating systems management functions to automate everyday processes. These capabilities enable your IT team to proactively identify problems and resolve them to eliminate the possibility of downtime. AIOPs proactively boosts system performance and services as IT infrastructure that supports businesses become more sophisticated (and complex for non-tech savvy companies) today.



Conclusion



Grow your business with AI and automation. Work with an IT consultant who can offer proper guidance on budget-friendly solutions that do not present integration challenges especially when it comes to implementing process automation. Understand the efficiency and productivity of AI, and conduct cost-benefit analysis (CBA) before making a decision. 



At Clouve, we help both startups and enterprises with use cases ranging from cloud computing and DevOps to automation. If you are not sure where to begin, our experts can help. Simply reach out to us and will offer custom designed and engineered solutions based on your unique business model. 

### Maximizing Cost Savings with Expertise

The cloud has become an essential part of modern business operations. It provides businesses with access to scalable and cost-effective computing resources, storage, and networking infrastructure. However, not all businesses have the expertise to manage cloud infrastructure effectively. Outsourcing cloud-related tasks to experts who have experience dealing with the different services offered by cloud service providers can help maximize cost savings and provide other benefits. In this article, we will explore the benefits of outsourcing cloud-related tasks to experts.




Cost Savings




One of the main benefits of outsourcing cloud-related tasks to experts is cost savings. Cloud experts can help businesses optimize their cloud infrastructure to reduce costs. For example, they can help businesses choose the right cloud service provider and pricing plan based on their needs. They can also help businesses reduce wastage by identifying and eliminating unused resources. In addition, cloud experts can help businesses automate their cloud infrastructure to reduce the need for manual intervention, which can save time and money.




Increased Security




Security is a critical concern for businesses that use the cloud. Outsourcing cloud-related tasks to experts can help businesses ensure that their cloud infrastructure is secure. Cloud experts have the knowledge and experience to identify security risks and implement appropriate security measures. They can help businesses with tasks such as configuring firewalls, setting up access controls, and monitoring for security threats.




Scalability




Another benefit of outsourcing cloud-related tasks to experts is scalability. Cloud experts can help businesses scale their cloud infrastructure to meet changing business needs. They can help businesses set up auto-scaling, which automatically adjusts the number of resources based on demand. This can help businesses avoid overprovisioning, which can result in wasted resources and increased costs.




Expertise




Outsourcing cloud-related tasks to experts gives businesses access to the expertise they may not have in-house. Cloud experts have experience working with different cloud service providers and can help businesses choose the right provider and services based on their needs. They also have the knowledge to optimize cloud infrastructure for performance, cost, and security. This can help businesses avoid costly mistakes and ensure that their cloud infrastructure is running efficiently.




Focus on Core Business Activities




Managing cloud infrastructure can be time-consuming and complex. Outsourcing cloud-related tasks to experts can free up time for businesses to focus on their core activities. This can help businesses improve productivity and focus on growth. Outsourcing cloud-related tasks to experts can also help businesses avoid distractions and stay focused on their core competencies.




Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity




Disaster recovery and business continuity are critical for businesses that rely on the cloud. Cloud experts can help businesses develop and implement disaster recovery and business continuity plans. They can help businesses set up backup and recovery systems, test the systems, and ensure that they are working as expected. This can help businesses avoid downtime and ensure that they can recover quickly in the event of a disaster.




Access to Latest Technologies




Cloud service providers are constantly introducing new technologies and services. Outsourcing cloud-related tasks to experts can help businesses stay up-to-date with the latest technologies. Cloud experts can help businesses evaluate new technologies and services and determine if they are appropriate for their needs. They can also help businesses implement new technologies and services quickly and efficiently.




Compliance and Regulatory Requirements




Compliance and regulatory requirements can be complex and challenging for businesses that use the cloud. Outsourcing cloud-related tasks to experts can help businesses ensure that they are meeting all compliance and regulatory requirements. Cloud experts have the knowledge and experience to identify compliance and regulatory issues and implement appropriate solutions.




Better Performance




Cloud experts can help businesses optimize their cloud infrastructure for performance. They can help businesses identify bottlenecks and optimize resource allocation to improve performance. They can also help businesses choose the right cloud service provider and services based on performance requirements.




24/7




In conclusion, outsourcing cloud-related tasks to experts can provide businesses with numerous benefits, including cost savings, increased security, scalability, expertise, focus on core business activities, disaster recovery, access to latest technologies, compliance with regulatory requirements, and better performance. However, not all businesses have the resources or expertise to manage cloud infrastructure effectively. This is where Clouve comes in.



Clouve provides businesses with the tools and expertise that only big corporations can afford. They have experience working with different cloud service providers and can help businesses choose the right provider and services based on their needs. They also have the knowledge to optimize cloud infrastructure for performance, cost, and security. By outsourcing cloud-related tasks to Clouve, businesses can focus on their core activities, improve productivity, and achieve cost savings. They can also ensure that their cloud infrastructure is secure, compliant, and running efficiently. Overall, Clouve can be a valuable partner for businesses looking to maximize the benefits of outsourcing cloud-related tasks.

### How to Improve Your Software Delivery Processes

In the fast-paced world of technology, DevOps has become an essential part of modern software development. DevOps is a set of practices that combine software development and IT operations to improve software delivery efficiency and quality. However, implementing DevOps in-house can be challenging, and this is where outsourcing comes into play.



Outsourcing DevOps tasks to experts in that field has many benefits. First, outsourcing DevOps allows companies to focus on their core competencies. By delegating the responsibility of DevOps to a specialized team, businesses can allocate their resources to other areas that are critical to their operations.



Second, outsourcing DevOps tasks to experts ensures that the latest technologies and best practices are employed. DevOps experts keep themselves updated with the latest technologies, tools, and methodologies. They have experience working on different projects and can provide valuable insights that can improve the overall efficiency and quality of software delivery.



Third, outsourcing DevOps tasks can help reduce costs. Setting up an in-house DevOps team can be expensive, as it requires hiring and training personnel, purchasing hardware and software, and building infrastructure. Outsourcing DevOps eliminates these costs and provides access to a skilled team of professionals already equipped with the necessary tools and infrastructure.



Fourth, outsourcing DevOps tasks can lead to improved security. DevOps experts have in-depth knowledge of security protocols and can implement them to protect data and systems from cyber-attacks. They also conduct regular audits to identify potential vulnerabilities and take necessary actions to mitigate them.



Finally, outsourcing DevOps tasks can lead to improved scalability. DevOps experts can scale resources up or down per the project's needs, ensuring optimal software delivery. This is particularly useful for businesses that experience fluctuations in demand.



In conclusion, outsourcing DevOps tasks to experts in that field can benefit businesses. It can help them focus on their core competencies, access the latest technologies and best practices, reduce costs, improve security, and enhance scalability. With these advantages, outsourcing DevOps can give businesses a competitive edge in the market and improve their overall efficiency and productivity.



Clouve is a leading provider of DevOps outsourcing services, specializing in delivering high-quality software solutions to businesses of all sizes. With a team of experienced DevOps professionals, Clouve offers a wide range of services, including infrastructure management, continuous integration and delivery, automation, cloud migration, and more. Clouve's experts have extensive knowledge of various technologies, tools, and methodologies, ensuring their clients receive the most up-to-date and effective solutions for their needs. Additionally, Clouve offers flexible engagement models, allowing businesses to choose the level of involvement that best suits their requirements. With their expertise and dedication to customer satisfaction, Clouve is the perfect partner for businesses looking to outsource their DevOps tasks and improve their software delivery processes.

### News Announcement: Clouve Is Soon To Become Solution-Focused

That’s right. With the release of our newest application model by the end of this year, things are changing for the best.



Previously, Clouve offered Cloud IT support, consulting, and automation services via tickets sold to our clients based on a monthly subscription fee.



The focus in this service model was primarily on the tickets. The basic monthly plan included a fixed number of 5 tickets, while the more advanced plans offered 20, 35, and 40+. 



After going through a lot of customer feedback, we’ve realized this structure didn’t offer any flexibility at all. For many clients, purchasing 5 tickets when only one is needed to deploy a single solution was a wasteful investment.



Furthermore, we’ve noticed that many Clouve visitors were more engaged in playing around with an actual solution after its deployment, as opposed to filling the ticket form with long descriptions of what they needed.



And because Clouve is all about turning complex IT issues into elegant and efficient solutions that work for our clients, we knew we had to change our processes to adapt to these growing customer demands.



That’s when the new application release comes in. In this model, the main focus revolves around the offered solutions, as opposed to the tickets. Clients can purchase a single solution, while still being able to open tickets if they need to report an issue or request an additional service.



This structure provides our clients with greater flexibility in choosing only the solution that they need, along with the required support to keep it up - all offered as part of a single subscription.



How Are We Different From Our Competition



It’s simple. As opposed to many of our rivals that sell one-solution packages, we provide dedicated IT expert help and support with every single solution plan, completely free of charge. This means your tedious DevOps tasks will be taken care of as your chosen solution is being deployed, without additional costs to your budget.



These complimentary services include:



Data migrationData backup/restoreConfiguration of a dedicated domain nameBasic solution customization



In addition, one of the many advantages of hosting on Clouve’s infrastructure is its ability to auto-scale depending on the client’s needs.



What Does The Future Hold For Clouve?



We’re thrilled to announce that we’re planning to allow clients to deploy their own solutions to Clouve’s infrastructure sometime in the near future. 



We also intend to grow our offered solutions list to be able to accommodate clients’ growing needs. In addition to all that, we’re looking to expand the infrastructure to more geographical regions. 



Keep tuned in for more updates!

### If DevOps Bots Were Superheroes [Infographic 2021]

Have you ever wondered how AI-driven DevOps bots would look like if they had been superheroes? Yeah, that thought probably never crossed your mind.



Well, here at Clouve we like to have a good time sometime. Which is why we've produced this fun little infographic below. It'll guide you into the 3 types of DevOps bots and the awesome functions a.k.a superpowers each has.







Want to use this infographic on your blog or share it on social media? Feel free to do so, just don't forget to link back to this URL :)

### AWS vs GCP vs Azure: Comparing Scalability, Availability, and Monitoring Capabilities

Scalability and availability are arguably the two most essential buzzwords in the cloud market today. Both clients and providers diligently advocate for highly scalable and available platforms – emphasizing their significance in choosing the right service provider for you.







The three major cloud providers have had runaway success because they have manipulated cloud resources to excel in the critical metrics of scalability, availability, and monitoring. Advancing these capabilities of their platforms, they have been able to allure the biggest names in the world economy and have constructed a cloud empire.



Cloud services are analyzed based on the above-mentioned primary abilities, ensuring customers have a fast, secure, and reliable infrastructure worthy of an investment. 



Let's explore what scalability, availability, and monitoring offer clients that are shifting to the cloud.







Scalability



Scalability is essentially the measure of the extent to which a piece of infrastructure can be expanded to cater to more users on your application. This ability underlines how efficiently your provider responds to your application’s dynamic requirements.



As the load on your application increases, you automatically require greater performance and resources to maintain functionality. How effectively these needs are met determines how scalable your cloud service is.



Scalability is classified into two types, namely, vertical and horizontal.



Vertical scaling also referred to as ‘scaling-up, means adding more power (CPU, RAM, SSD) to the infrastructure that is hosting your application. This type of scalability is easier to achieve. However, it is only a short-term solution, for there is a limit to how much power can be added to a single server until it becomes unfeasible. Moreover, it fails to account for downtime scenarios.



On the other hand, horizontal scaling also referred to as ‘scaling-out, is a must-use technology.



Scaling-out means adding more servers to the hosting infrastructure to spread the load of the hosted application – which essentially explains how the concept of clusters works.



Clusters are a group of interconnected nodes (servers) running in parallel to achieve a unified goal. This way, the increased load on the application can be distributed across multiple host servers, making it scalable.



This type of scalability is more complex due to its distributed nature but is the pith of cloud platforms today.







High Availability 



Availability refers to the uptime of any cloud service. No infrastructure is perfectly immune to failure or downtime, whether due to technical issues or scheduled maintenances. Therefore, the ability to continue operating with no stoppages is a vital feature to have with your service provider.



Having many available servers permits the infrastructure to host your application despite the failure, or shutting down of specific components within the structure itself.



Up-times are usually estimated with the number of 9's in the figure for up-time percentages. For example, an up-time of 99.9% depicts that the system might only face outages for a combined maximum of 8.76 hours in a year.



Availability incorporates the concepts of redundancy, monitoring, and failover. Through redundancy, the system utilizes additional components mimicking critical elements of the infrastructure, that are acting as backups.



The data that is running through monitoring is collected to lookout for failure. Consequently, failover allows the routing of the application to a redundant component, making sure your program is always running.







Monitoring



Monitoring involves obtaining remote real-time application information to oversee the application's performance and hosting infrastructure for better service. It ensures the efficient running of the program on the cloud.



Monitoring policies are the implementation of strategy between the infrastructure management and configuration management.



Some key attributes of monitoring systems include assessment and evaluation of resource utilization, validating servers and their response times, database management, availability, updates, and security to foresee possible issues.



Let’s delve deeper into the detailed services provided by the ‘Big 3’ regarding these features.







Scalability



Amazon Web Services (AWS)



AWS has been one of the pioneers of cloud platforms and is the largest cloud provider in the world today. Their infrastructure is highly scalable and provides their users with a significant number of options with many scaling features.







AWS provides users with the greatest number of services coupled with a dynamic array of alternative packages. Their policy of pay-as-you-go plans also allows you to pay for the services you only use.



That being said, AWS's load balancers tend to be flooded with requests and require advance subscriptions for more seamless service due to its demand.







Azure



Microsoft’s Azure is second to AWS in popularity and is a challenging competitor in the market.



When it comes to scalability, Azure primarily offers built-in auto-scaling mechanisms designed for typical scenarios; however, users have the luxury of creating custom scalability implementations.



Autoscaling allows adding resources to handle load increases and saves money by removing resources that are sitting idle.











Google Cloud Platform (GCP)



GCP, a quickly rising giant, also offers its clients state-of-the-art scalability features. GCP provides autoscaling to add or remove Virtual Machine instances through a managed instance group, similar to Azure. It simply requires users to define the autoscaling policy, and the scaling is self-regulated depending on the load.







GCP’s billing by the minute policy takes it to an extreme of pay-as-you-go policy. Google Compute Engine's load balancers are reported to be the most efficient, and GCP allows scaling of massive data applications in swift amounts of time. However, it lacks various services available compared to AWS and Azure, making it slightly less enterprise-ready.







High Availability



Amazon Web Services (AWS)



AWS being a household name provides its users with a highly available cloud infrastructure. Amazon instills the capabilities of Elastic Load Balancing, a massive network of availability zones, and auto-scaling features to ensure minimal downtime of services.



AWS is prevalent in 81 availability zones (each consisting of self-sufficient data centers) spread across 25 geographic regions globally, making it the most widespread cloud service provider.



This, coupled with the ability to balance load requests between instances contained in separate availability zones, ensures that clients receive continuous uptime of guaranteed 99.99% monthly.



Amazon also guarantees a staggering 99.999% per-year availability on their S3 storage service with SoftNAS, a state-of-the-art software-defined network to assign storage.



Azure



Dominating with massive infrastructure, Azure currently has 39 regions worldwide, each having a minimum of three availability zones – accounting for over 200 physical data centers.



In addition to a large number of availability zones, Azure allows customers to set up Availability Sets to ensure minimal downtime in case of maintenance or hardware failure.



Availability sets allow users to run a virtual machine (VM) with more than one replicated copy on different hardware in the same availability zone.



Essentially, availability zones protect customers from entirely compromised data centers, while availability sets offer to safeguard from hardware failures within a datacenter. Azure offers 99.99% of uptime per month.



Azure also offers the service of Region Pairs which enables a VM to run on different availability zones with one or more replicated copies. However, these availability zones will always be within the same geographical region.



Google Cloud Platform (GCP)



Racing to expand its infrastructure, GCP has managed to cover around 27 regions worldwide and have a total of 82 availability zones for the time being. Each zone consists of multiple clusters of physical machines, and Google's Compute Engine preserves an abstraction layer between its availability zones and clusters.



GCP provides its users with managed instance groups - a collection of virtual machines grouped to serve a singular purpose. These instance groups can distribute the load over multiple virtual machines through a load balancer, and permit the creation of a group spread over various zones in the same region, similar to Azure's model.



GCP offers a monthly uptime of 99.99% as well.



Check out our recently published blog post that explores global infrastructures in more depth.







Monitoring



While several third-party monitoring services are available for all cloud service platforms, below is a summary of dedicated monitoring services and features of the three discussed vendors:







Amazon Web Services (AWS)







Azure











Google Cloud Platform (GCP)







Closing Words



All three service providers have set up a very competitive market and comprehensively cater to all the key capabilities required for reliable and efficient cloud infrastructure.



AWS tends to own the bragging rights in the industry because of its role as a pioneer in cloud technology. However, this is far from being a decisive factor, for the services provided by all three do not differ significantly.



Talking about scalability, AWS and Azure seem to provide packages better suited for enterprises, but Google, with its leaps in big data analytics, provides data-extensive services like no other.



GCP's extreme pay-as-you-go packages for small-scale users tend to be slightly cost-effective than Amazon’s and Microsoft’s.



AWS boosts the vastest physical infrastructure to date, with Azure a very close second and GCP catching up rapidly. Still, in practicality, this tends to have little effect on the availability of services.



Finally, when it comes to monitoring and assisting capabilities, AWS has a large pool of associated third-party services, with GCP being the second most popular platform for businesses. Azure tends to rely on its monitoring service as it is favored for enterprise relations.



Conclusively, trade-offs are a critical factor in deciding your cloud provider and depend focally on the features required by individual businesses.



In another post, we worked hard to produce an in-depth pricing comparison of the Big 3 cloud providers.



Are you still spending fortunes on maintaining your IT infrastructure on the cloud? Here at Clouve, we eliminate the high costs associated with your DevOps needs by providing you with comprehensive cloud managed services for a fixed monthly fee. 



Sign up for your FREE 90-day access to Clouve's cloud experts here.

### Your Small Guide To Security and Data Encryption For Cloud

In 2016, 68 million accounts of Dropbox users were compromised. The attacker took advantage of a poorly kept employee password to gain access to emails and passwords from exposed accounts that were created in 2012 and earlier. 



The data was available on the dark web for sale until it was picked up by several tech and security publications.







While cloud storage is convenient and gives access to data anywhere, anytime, regardless of the device you’re on, cloud storage security is a matter of grave concern to organizations. 



Storing data in the cloud means your confidential files and sensitive data are exposed to new forms of risks. Data stored on the cloud is outside of the limits of many safeguards used to protect sensitive data in your company’s data center. 



Therefore, when it comes to cloud storage, organizations have to take additional steps to secure it beyond the basic security measures offered by cloud storage providers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.



Cloud Storage Security Is a Shared Responsibility



Both cloud vendors and users share responsibility for cloud storage security. While cloud storage providers protect your data from intrusions and data thefts, enterprises are supposed to supplement those features with added security measures to strengthen cloud data protection and restrict access to sensitive information.



CSPs can do little to protect your sensitive data against unauthorized access if your employees were being reckless. You must therefore educate your staff about the potential risks they may unwillingly expose your organization’s data to. 



Cloud storage providers offer data protection solutions to companies. These solutions grant complete visibility and policy-based control over how data can be moved to and from the cloud. The practice ensures only authorized data leaves your organization and only upon approval from a conducting party. 



At the end of the day, it is up to the business whether they want to impose these firmer shields around important data on top of what the cloud storage providers offer already. 



Nonetheless, it must be stated that another layer of defense can save your data if the provider experiences a security breach.



Choosing a Cloud Storage Security Solution



When choosing a cloud storage security solution, an organization should ensure that it provides continuous monitoring and visibility to all forms of data interactions with the cloud storage. It should provide granular control over movements of files filtered to user-agent and operating system events. 



The leading cloud vendors also extend data protection measures to the data stored by the process of encryption. Encrypted data is cryptographically locked to a private key and cannot be decrypted unless this private key is made available.



Importance of Data Encryption 



Cloud storage providers ensure not only the integrity and availability of data but also its confidentiality. That is, even in the case of a breach when the attacker has gained access to your credentials, your data would still be encrypted and thus incomprehensible.



That’s right. Data encryption protects the privacy of your stored information by rendering it incomprehensible to anyone lacking access to the “key” to unlock it. 



Think of it like this. Encrypted data looks like a long stream of random characters:



Encryption is critical to the privacy of your data, but it’s still not a comprehensive solution to all of your security problems. 



The best security practices take a multi-layered approach:



The data must be secured end to end:




Data encryption is key to user authentication, data integrity, digital signatures, and non-repudiation.




The data must be encrypted in transit and rest:




Data encryption at transit is the basis to secure communication between two parties. 



Data encryption at rest is all about maintaining the confidentiality of the stored data. 




As it can be seen, security is no longer a luxury but a necessity. It is also no longer a concern solely to your Chief information Security Officer (CISO), but rather the accountability of every IT professional. 



Now, let’s see how data encryption works with cloud storage providers.



Data Encryption in the Cloud



When you are talking about storing data away from your data centers to cloud storage repositories including Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Azure Blob Storage, it is imperative to understand they are only accountable for securing their cloud storage infrastructure from intrusion and data thefts. 



Major cloud storage vendors employ enterprise-grade security and thus are, virtually, impregnable. 



A person disguising as an employee may still gain access to your data, decrypt it, and push it to their server without the vendor raising any flags. To counter this, cloud storage vendors provide tools to restrict access control and monitor data going out of your storage account. 



For this article, we’ll restrict the scope to only data-at-rest encryption. Cloud service providers employ TLS for encrypting data in transit. TLS is an open protocol and thus doesn’t vary much from vendor to vendor.



When it comes to data at rest, each cloud storage provider brings-in its cryptographic approach, including encryption techniques, private key management, and ciphers. 



All-in-all, there are two sides to encryption: Server-side and Client-side.



Server-Side vs. Client-Side Encryption



With server-side encryption, data isn’t encrypted until transferred to the recipient - in this case - the object storage service. Fortunately, all major cloud vendors offer server-side encryption with some dissimilarities in implementation details, especially in regards to the storage of private keys. 



With client-side encryption, data is encrypted at the sender’s end, and before being transferred to the recipient - in this case also the object storage service. Again, all major cloud storage providers allow for client-side encryption with some degrees of variations.



Pros and Cons of Data Encryption in the Cloud



Data encryption is vital in today’s world that is experiencing increasing incidents of cybercrimes. 



Data encryption is also crucial from the confidentiality opinion. If your company requires your stored information to be unavailable to anyone outside your organization, then the optimal way would be to protect your data with end-to-end encryption.



Moreover, high-risk data like medical and financial records must be encrypted all the time, being accessible to only authorized people within your enterprise.



Some advantages and drawbacks of data encryption in the cloud are as follows:



Pros of Data Encryption



Improved Data Security



The data is at higher risk while it is being moved from one place to another. And that’s when encryption is necessary the most. Encryption works either at the transport level or rest, thus decreasing the risk of getting attacked by third parties. 



Confidentiality



Confidentiality is the chief reason data encryption is used, as it aids to lock privacy and sensitive information while lowering the chances of data theft and fraud. 



Reliability



Data encryption guards your valuable data resources against cybercriminals. While the encrypted data is not resistant to cyber frauds and attacks, the data owners can certainly identify any malicious occurrences to their information at any time, which provides them with better odds to take a primary action. 



Compliance



Encryption is one of the most secure techniques to store and move the data as it conforms to the rules and regulations imposed by various federal laws such as FIPS, FISMA, HIPAA, or PCI/DSS. 



Cons of Data Encryption



While cloud security and data encryption have been confirmed as the most efficient way to protect your valued info, they have their share of limitations:



Cumbersome Data Recovery



Data Encryption is a prodigious way to guard your sensitive information. One of the drawbacks however is that it sometimes becomes harder to claim your stored data due to controlling data access tools. 



Security bugs



One chief obstacle to data encryption is that it only provides partial security to the data which is already in transit.



Data transfer charges



Data Encryption can become an expensive matter because it needs highly sophisticated systems to preserve the encrypted data. The systems must also be scalable enough to upgrade which adds to the costs involved. 



Whether you want to secure your business data with cloud encryption is solely up to your organization’s discretion. Notwithstanding all the limitations, data encryption in cloud storage is indeed a requirement.



Data Encryption and Public Cloud Vendors



All major cloud players such as Amazon AWS S3, Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, and Google Cloud Storage, employ a common set of symmetric and asymmetric encryption techniques to secure users’ data and provide server and client-side encryption. 



When it comes to the common symmetric and asymmetric encryption techniques in modern public cloud storage solutions, AES-256 and RSA respectively are pretty much the standards. 



Below is a side-by-side comparison of encryption-at-rest across the three providers’ object storage services. As you may expect, the robustness of the service and the diversity of options are strongly correlated with the age of the cloud provider.



Amazon S3 Azure Blob StorageGoogle Cloud StorageServer-Side EncryptionYes Yes YesClient-Side EncryptionYes with client encryption providedYes with client encryption providedAllowed but no client encryption providedSymmetric Key Encryption● AES-256 GCM  ● Used for both key encryption and data encryption with SSE-S3, SSE-KMS and Client-Side Encryption (both options) ● Used for data encryption with SSE-C● AES-256 ● Used for data encryption with both Server-Side and Client-Side Encryption ● Can be used for key encryption with Client-Side Encryption● AES-256 GCM ● Used for both key and dataencryptionAsymmetric Key Encryption● RSA ● Can be used for key encryption with Client-Side Encryption (using client-side master key)● RSA ● Used for key encryption with Server-Side encryption (both options),and with Client-Side EncryptionCan be used for Client-Side Encryption, but no integrationEnvelope encryptionUsed for all options except SSE-CUsed for all options Yes



                                                                                    Key Management



Amazon S3Azure Blob StorageGoogle Cloud StorageCustomer Stored and ManagedYes for SSE-C and Client-Side Encryption using client-side master keyYes for Client Side Encryption● Yes for Server-Side Encryption with customers-supp lied KEK ● Can be used for Client-Side Encryption but no integration providedCloud Provider Stored and Customer Managed (Using their own KMI)Yes for SSE-C and Client-Side Encryption using client-side master key (Using CloudHSM)No-Cloud Provider Stored and Customer Managed (Using cloud key management service)Yes for SSE-KMS and Client-Side Encryption using KMS-managed CMKYes for Server-Side Encryption with customer-managed keys and Client-Side Encryption (Both using Azure Key Vault)-Cloud Provider Stored and ManagedYes for SSE-S3 Yes for Server-Side Encryption with service-managed keysDefault encryption method



Is Cloud Storage For Me? What Are My Options?



If you run a data-centric business with various locations and employees, then most certainly, anywhere and anytime accessibility matters to you more than anything. 



In this scenario, storing data in your organization’s on-prem infrastructure is not an ideal option as opposed to storing it in the cloud.



Fortunately, all cloud vendors offer decent options with top-of-the-line security measures built-in. Major CSPs employ industry-standard encryption techniques to secure your data both on the client-side and server-side. 



When it comes to data security in cloud storage solutions, breaches and data thefts are often the faults of administrators managing your organization’s storage accounts or untrained IT staff.



With strong permission management, monitoring support, and access control, you can avert those risks by limiting access to sensitive pieces of information in your cloud storage. 



Amazon with its S3 storage bucket makes access control with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) much easier. With AWS IAM your admin can independently manage user permissions and grant granular permissions to your employees.



Google Cloud IAM and Microsoft Azure IAM extend the same functionality to Azure Blob Storage and Google Cloud Storage, respectively. 



Being in the game for a longer time, Amazon’s AWS S3 and IAM tend to be more sophisticated in terms of tweaks available, giving you unparalleled ways to customize the settings best to your organization’s security policy.



However, Microsoft’s Azure Blob Storage is also a wise choice if you’re already subscribed to other Microsoft Enterprise services like Microsoft 365 Enterprise. The level of integration Microsoft offers is still unmatchable by other cloud storage solutions in the market. 



Google Cloud Storage is also a viable contender if you are a medium or small-sized enterprise.   



But surely, without knowledge, experience and expertise, choosing the right fit for your business might present itself as an overwhelming and challenging task. This is why using the help of cloud experts can significantly alleviate the various stumbling blocks and hurdles on your cloud migration journey.



And that's what Clouve was build for. 



Clouve is a subscription-based online IT Helpdesk Software that provides premium IT outsourcing services with our dedicated team of cloud experts that are ready to resolve your DevOps issues, 24/7.



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### On-Prem Servers Vs. Cloud-Based: What Should You Choose?

To move to the cloud or remain on-premises? That is certainly the key question that bothers many companies as they ponder on how to most efficiently manage their databases.







With data becoming the very center of business operations, organizations are more closely focusing on how they choose to store, manage and process this key asset. 



Firms that struggle to find the right fit for their data needs often find themselves struggling or falling behind their competition simply because they are unable to meet the expectations of their customers.



Many enterprises fail to leap into the cloud and instead rely on their on-prem infrastructures and applications. An even greater number of organizations, however, are migrating their applications to the cloud every year. Major service providers such as Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure have all experienced huge growth.



But is the cloud always the optimal solution? On-prem tools might not be the best option for a majority of businesses, but in particular scenarios, this type of infrastructure might work better for database hosting and management.



In this article, we will look into both of these solutions, list their main differences and multiple pros and cons in addition to other factors you should keep in mind as you decide which option is the best fit for your enterprise needs.



The On-Prem Solution



On-premises are usually defined as a combination of hardware and software infrastructural setup that is both deployed and ran within the confines of your organization’s premises.



In this scenario, the user has full control over the infrastructure. That’s because your data stays within your private network, with your IT team being the only one with access to the database. 



We’ve discussed on-prem so much during our past posts, you might want to take a look at some of them here, and here.



Whether an organization decides to keep its applications on-prem or in the cloud, data security will always be of crucial importance.



For some businesses that operate in highly regulated industries, deciding might be easy. Having all data located within organizational servers and IT infrastructure without any third parties can be a deciding factor in those scenarios. 



However on-prem environments also have drawbacks, mainly associated with costs of management and maintenance, which usually run significantly higher than with cloud computing solutions.



On-prem setups require extensive amounts of software licenses, hardware, equipment, and of course, IT staff to support and manage any issues that may arise. 



The Cloud Solution



While the on-prem environment entails in-house hosting by the user, a cloud environment features a third-party provider taking on this responsibility. 



This allows organizations to efficiently scale up or down depending on their overall usage and growth, in addition to conveniently paying for services on an on-demand basis.



Thanks to virtual technology, cloud-based servers are capable of hosting users’ applications offsite. This translates into no capital expenses whatsoever, as well as an ability for companies to regularly backup data, and only pay for resources that they use.



A cloud environment is especially appealing to organizations that plan global expansion, as this kind of technology allows businesses to connect with customers and partners seamlessly and efficiently. 



In addition to that, cloud computing offers instant provisioning due to everything already being fully configured. Hence, new software that integrates into your environment will be ready to use right after your business has subscribed. 



Instant provisioning eliminates time spent on configuration and installation, allowing users to access their applications immediately.



Cloud Vs. On-Prem Servers: Key Differences



Both of these environments bring unique advantages to the table, however, you won’t be able to determine which solution is the right fit for your business unless you spend time closely studying both.



Some of the key differences that weren’t already discussed above and that you might want to analyze before choosing between on-prem and cloud are:



Cost



On-Prem: Setting up hardware infrastructure requires a hefty initial investment, in addition to ongoing equipment replacement expenses. Not to mention maintenance and operating costs that organizations incur regularly.



Cloud Computing: In comparison to the on-prem solution, a cloud service is certainly more cost-effective in the majority of cases. Setting up, running, and maintaining your cloud infrastructure is significantly faster and cheaper. 



Despite this, it’s important to note that in some scenarios the costs of both solutions might not be that different at all. For instance, on-prem infrastructure requires higher initial investments but, if spread over the full life cycle of the system, the costs are similar to the ones incurred in some cloud infrastructures. 



Essentially, it all comes down to the needs of individual organizations - that is, the specific services and space required by businesses, and the variety of cloud service plans offered by their vendors.



Security



On-Prem: Data security is one of the most essential requirements of any enterprise that deal with customer and staff information.



A traditional on-prem environment is generally regarded as more secure due to it being within organizational boundaries, that is, in-house. 



However, there are still multiple measures and strategies that companies need to undertake to fully maintain the security of their databases in these scenarios. 



Cloud Computing: Cloud ERP systems present very low risks of software or hardware malfunction that can result in hefty data loss. 



As organizations opt to move to the cloud, their data security concerns are fully taken over by cloud service providers, which provides a level of convenience and comfort.



Mobility



On-Prem: Third-party support is required to access on-prem ERP systems via mobile devices or remotely in most cases. This sometimes negatively affects productivity and efficiency within the organization.



Cloud Computing: A cloud environment certainly offers more flexibility and mobility in this case. Data can be securely accessed through any device, with a strong internet connection in place. 



This feature allows company staff to be employed remotely, resulting in higher productivity and engagement.



Hybrid Cloud



A popular approach used by many companies is a hybrid cloud. 



A hybrid cloud is a solution that provides organizations with a combination of on-prem, public cloud, and private cloud services. Hybrid offers much flexibility as it allows workloads to shift between public and private clouds at times when costs and capacity fluctuate. 



Enterprises usually host their most sensitive data and applications in a private cloud, while placing their most critical workloads in public clouds.



The main benefit that hybrid cloud has to offer is increased agility. Since organizations have a strong need to adapt to changes and alter directions accordingly, some of them might want to mix private clouds, public clouds, and on-prem resources to acquire the agility that would lead to a stronger competitive edge.



While cloud adoption is currently widespread, many businesses have their reasons to stay within their on-prem infrastructures or use a combination of both. Risk mitigation, control, and cost are some of the main drivers in the cloud vs. on-prem discourse.



For enterprises that operate at a higher scale, a hybrid cloud model offers the flexibility to use public cloud services during high usage periods without the need to invest in additional infrastructure. 







A brief outlook onto some of the pros and cons of each solution are as follows:



Cloud Storage - Pros




No capital investments




Cloud storage is an operational expense as opposed to on-prem which is considered a capital investment. 



Because cloud storage is fully taken care of outside of the organization’s premises, there is no need for hefty capital expenses, making this option attractive to many.




Regular Backups




It’s easier to backup data on the cloud than on-prem. Cloud-based servers offer the convenience of seamless access to the information, allowing users to minimize risks of data loss as well.




Scalability




Cloud computing technologies are built to scale up and down depending on users’ specific needs. To do so, companies would only require to upgrade or downgrade their plans at any point in time. And because cloud services are provided on a subscription basis, making these changes doesn’t require lengthy processes.




Deployment




Deployment of cloud software can be done in a matter of days or even hours, due to internet connectivity.




Security




The security measures provided by CSPs are in most cases significantly superior to those maintained by companies on-prem.



Cloud - Disadvantages




Internet Dependency




One of the main drawbacks of using cloud storage is its dependency on a reliable and fast internet connection. If, for instance, the connection is slow, accessing data and files can become a challenging experience. 




Third-Party Concerns




When companies migrate to the cloud, they entrust their data and applications to be managed and hosted by cloud service providers. This might pose some risks, like unauthorized access and data loss. 



To avoid issues like these, it is recommended to discuss security procedures and practices, as well as methods of encryption of data in transit and at rest with your cloud vendor before you make your cloud move.



On-Prem - Advantages




No Internet Dependency




One of the strongest advantages of on-prem storage is certainly the fact that users are not required to have an internet connection to access their data. 



That being said, most businesses still rely on the World Wide Web to conduct operations at this time and age. What differentiates on-prem from a cloud solution is its provision with an internal network that is widely accessible without an internet connection.




Greater Security




Unlike a cloud environment, where users are somewhat vulnerable to third parties, on-prem storage is fully restricted and is only accessible by authorized personnel. 



The data stays protected and inaccessible to those outside the internal network in part because it’s not stored online.



An on-prem infrastructure might be a great option for businesses that handle extremely sensitive data, like those in the financial sector.




Control Over Server Hardware




An obvious advantage of an on-prem solution is the total autonomy that it offers its users. Companies upgrade their servers by themselves, instead of having to go through a service provider every time. The ability to modify servers’ hardware can provide businesses with greater customization and flexibility for their storage needs.



On-Prem - Disadvantages




Extra IT Support Costs




On-prem infrastructure requires extensive investments in human resources. Naturally, you will need IT staff to manage and maintain your servers. 



The extra expenses of hiring, training, and employing additional team members can hence take a significant toll on your company’s budget.




Industry Compliance




Unlike a cloud environment, where the responsibility to comply with government regulations rests mostly on the shoulders of the service provider, things are a little different for those operating on-prem.



If your business falls within a strictly regulated industry such as health care or finance, it is fully your responsibility to abide by the regulations put forward by local and federal authorities. 



And from expenses on audits and potential fines to extra duties that your employees would have to take on - compliance can surely become costly in the long-run.




Low Scalability




One of the drawbacks of an on-prem environment is its limited scalability. As a company’s needs change with more or less storage space required, most businesses find it challenging to scale their on-prem servers quickly enough. 



That’s because on-premises storage requires users to install new hardware and invest in manpower to build new systems, as opposed to a cloud-storage where companies can simply select plans that suit them best.



Migrating From On-Prem To The Cloud: What You Should Know



A growing number of businesses are actively migrating their data and applications to the cloud mainly because of several limitations seen within the traditional on-prem environment. 



If you’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon too, there’s certainly a lot to keep in mind during your migration journey. 



Foremostly, this strategic decision comes with its own set of challenges and hence must align with the rest of your organizational processes to be successfully implemented.



Data migration is one of the most challenging parts of your cloud migration journey. The location of a company’s data has the power to significantly affect the performance of its applications, and moving data to the cloud when data access methods are still on-prem can also impact that same performance. 



Some strategies for data migration are:




Establishing and using a bi-directional syncing mechanism between your cloud and on-prem databases. You can then remove the on-prem database once you have successfully moved all the data to the cloud





Using an on-prem database with a one-way syncing mechanism to a cloud-based database, allowing your consumers to only connect to the on-prem version. Further on, you can disable access to the on-prem version and establish your cloud-based version as the main database





Using an expert cloud data-migration service




Whatever route you choose in planning for your data move, ensure to not underestimate the complexity and importance of this process.



Failing to invest adequate time and energy into your migration plan might result in your cloud adoption journey failing to meet your company’s expectations. 



And remember, whether you’re moving on your own, or using the help of professional cloud experts, ensure to understand well what solution makes the most sense for your implementation!



Why Clouve?



Because deploying your IT department to the cloud should be affordable. 



Clouve is a subscription-based platform that makes it easy for businesses to use cloud expert services, tools, and support cost-effectively. 



See how Clouve works for your business. Sign up today for a 90-day free trial, no commitments.

### Everything You Need To Know About Serverless Computing In 2021

In 2021, the serverless paradigm shift presents exciting opportunities to organizations by providing a simplified programming model for creating cloud applications, and by abstracting away most operational concerns. 



Major cloud vendors such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are already in the game with their respective offerings and there is no reason you shouldn’t board the train.







Serverless computing is redefining the way organizations develop, deploy, and integrate cloud-native applications. According to an industry report, the market size of serverless computing is expected to reach $7.72 billion by 2021. A new and compelling paradigm for the deployment of cloud applications, serverless computing is at the precipice of enterprise shift towards containers and microservices.



The “Pay-As-You-Go” Backend 



Serverless computing turns the backend into ‘pay-as-you-go', which means you are only billed when somebody accesses one of your backend services. Moving your backend from a server-full to serverless computing is like switching your data plan from monthly to per-byte billing.



The phrase ‘serverless’ is a little ambiguous because at the end of the day backend services are still hosted on a server somewhere.  In serverless computing, the server storage and infrastructure affairs are conducted by the vendor so that developers don’t have to get into server chatters.



2021 Is The Year Of FaaS



All major providers of serverless computing offer several types and tiers of database and storage services to their customers. In addition, all major cloud players such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google offer Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) platforms with their serverless offerings.



Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) is a “serverless” way to run modular bits of code on the network edge. FaaS allows developers to write and deploy a piece of code anytime, which can then be run upon event triggers. An event could be a user clicking Submit at the bottom of a web form. Serverless computing makes it easy to scale your application and is a cost-effective way to deploy microservices.



With FaaS, developers can build applications in a modular architecture, making the application code more scalable without having to devote resources to supporting the underlying backend. 



Serverless Addresses Problems With Traditional Cloud Models



Organizations going serverless with their backend services are billed by their serverless vendor based on their compute consumption and do not have to reserve and pay for a fixed amount of bandwidth or number of servers as the service is auto-scaling with the incoming demand.



In the initial days of web development, developers had to own or rent physical hardware to run and test their application code. Running production applications was another nightmare because now they had to keep those servers running during the lifecycle of the application. Cloud computing and virtualization brought much-needed relief to web developers. 



Now they could rent virtual servers from a cloud vendor according to their needs. The problem was they still had to over-purchase to keep up with traffic spikes or their application would break down. Except, much of the server space they were paying for was going to waste. Cloud vendors introduced auto-scaling compute models to mitigate the problem. However, auto-scaling in response to an unsolicited spike in traffic (such as a DDoS Attack) could turn quite expensive. 



Serverless addressed most limitations brought by traditional cloud models and the typical client-server implementations. No doubt, serverless is growing faster than most cloud models.



Serverless Computing Looks A Lot More Promising In 2021



According to RightScale's report, serverless computing grows at a compounded annual growth rate of 75%. With the ability to reduce costs, operational complexities, and DevOps disparities, serverless is likely to further grow at a steady pace in the coming years.



Among various reasons to choose serverless computing for application deployment, “flexibility in scaling” remained the number one. 



In Codingsan’s State of Serverless Report 2020, 63% of participants stated flexibility in scaling as their reason for serverless computing followed by speed of development, decreased need for system administration, and cost-effectiveness at 55%, 54%, and 53% respectively. Scalability, cost-effectiveness, and speed of development are likely to remain major drivers to serverless computing adoption in 2021, too.



Being the market leader in the cloud computing, Amazon AWS captures a whopping 87% market share in 2020 according to the report. Microsoft came a distant second with its Azure Functions capturing 16% market share. Amazon Lambda is expected to continue its huge lead in 2021 and many years to come although Google and Microsoft are catching fast with their serverless offering.



When it comes to programming languages preferred for building functions in serverless computing, Node.js still takes a formidable lead over the next popular programming language in the serverless domain - Python. 



Node.js captures the attention of 77% of developers. Python is catching up fast but it is likely Node.js will remain the preferred language in the near future.



Serverless Is The Most Exciting Thing In Cloud Computing Right Now



No More Server Management



Although 'serverless' computing takes place on servers, developers don’t have to worry about their existence at the time of application deployment. 



Your serverless vendor manages it on your behalf, which decreases the investment required in DevOps, outlays, and time developers take to build and expand their applications. Applications would no more be constrained by server capacity or compute power.



Pay-As-You-Go Backend



As with a 'pay-as-you-go' data plan where you are billed only for the amount of data consumed, in serverless computing, developers are billed only when the application code is executed. 



And application code only executes when backend functions are run in response to an event. The code auto-scales according to the demand and provisioning remains dynamic, accurate, and instantaneous. 



On the other hand, in 'server-full' computing such as AWS EC2’s, developers have to pre-plan how much server capacity they are going to use and then buy that capacity, whether they will use it or not.



Serverless Computing Means Scalability



Imagine if airlines could disappear, appear planes in and out of thin air, increasing the fleet size during the holiday season, and shrinking the fleet size during the off-peak seasons without ever taking the loss in fleet operational costs. This is what serverless applications are capable of.



Serverless applications upscale, downscale according to the current demand. Serverless computing allows applications to go from hundreds of compute instances to just one and vice-a-versa in a matter of seconds to accommodate complex demand curves. Serverless vendors employ algorithms to start, run, and end those instances as needed using containers. 



Consequently, serverless applications can handle millions of concurrent requests or a single request with the same throughput. 



Quicker Deployments And Updates



Serverless infrastructure doesn’t need complicated backend configurations to make an application work. Developers may upload entire backend code at once but going one function at a time makes a lot more sense. A serverless application is a collection of functions managed by the vendor rather than one large, unmanageable monolithic block of cumbersome code. 



When it comes to releasing updates, patches, and fixes, developers can get away by only altering the affected functions. Likewise, they can add new functions to reflect a new application feature. 



Edge Locations Reduce Latency



Serverless applications are not hosted on the origin server but at various edge locations of the vendor’s infrastructure. In response to demand, the closest edge location triggers the event and the function. Edge computing reduces latency because now requests don’t have to go all the way up to an origin server. 



Serverless Computing Should Reduce The Cost For Most Use Cases



Serverless architectures are most efficient at reducing the costs of applications with uneven usage. If at peak periods your application alternates between instances of little to no traffic, then renting server space for a fixed period of time won’t make sense. Paying for an always running, available server space is uneconomical when you would be only using it for a fraction of renting period.



However, inconsistent usage is not consistent with most application scenarios. For example, if you’re a content delivery network (CDN) provider, then your applications need to run extended workloads such as video transcoding, image compression, video on demand, etc. These batch jobs mean your applications would be running most of the time and serverless computing won’t be practical unless you don’t mind paying aggravated cloud bills.



Serverless computing is not practical in every scenario and as emerging cloud technology, it is bounded by limitations. Nevertheless, serverless vendors are hard at work to make serverless the universal way of building and running applications.



Serverless Is Still Not The “Go-To” Method Of Application Deployments



Serverless Computing Hinders Security Audits



Serverless vendors abstract most operational concerns from the users including the security ones. This layer of abstraction prevents internal and independent security audits on your DevSecOps practices. Some jurisdictions mandate independent security verifications for applications handling personal or sensitive data like EMRs and SSNs. If that is the case, serverless computing is not up for you yet.



In addition, serverless vendors tend to run application code from multiple applications on a single server. Multitenancy means your applications and that your competitors could be now neighbors on the same piece of physical hardware. Multitenancy is not much of an issue if your serverless vendor follows security best practices. 



Again, finding whether they are following those practices or not is subjective since there is no way to verify the claims. 



Moreover, multitenancy may impact the performance of your application if the multi-tenant servers are misconfigured. Misconfigured servers are much more likely to expose your customers’ data to a cybercriminal. 



Fortunately, most serverless vendors sandbox functions properly, have capable infrastructures, to begin with, make use of proven workarounds.



Performance May Take A Backseat



Serverless applications are triggered in response to an event, which means they have to cold-start every time there is a trigger. A cold start degrades performance by extending the application start time. 



Serverless vendors mitigate these performance bottlenecks by employing a powerful infrastructure and a bunch of workarounds.



Vendor Lock-Ins: A Harsh Reality



With your serverless vendors controlling every aspect of your backend services, you’re inevitably locked to the vendor during the lifecycle of your application. You may need to switch your vendors for a variety of reasons. 



Serverless computing services from major vendors like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure are easier to migrate because they are written in platform-agnostic programming languages like NodeJS and Python and employ service workers’ API.



The Market Of Serverless Computing



In addition to serverless offerings from Amazon Web Service and Microsoft Azure, serverless computing is an upcoming yet thriving market among other cloud computing vendors. Although together with Azure Functions, Cloud Functions, and AWS Lambda pretty much own the serverless market, there is still a lot of scope for additional players if they could standout. 



For example, Knative, deployed on top of Kubernetes clusters, is a promising open-source project in direction of multi-vendor serverless computing. Oracle Functions and IBM Cloud Functions are offered on the top of an open-source project too. Moreover, Firebase still has a niche following of developers. Further, Cloudflare workers allow low latency serverless computing with edge locations.



Serverless ProvidersDifferentiating FactorsOracle FunctionsBased on the open-source Fn project.Microsoft Azure FunctionsDevOps workflow and the Azure Pipelines service for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).Google Cloud FunctionsCloud Functions can be triggered by events from existing Google Cloud Platform resources or even Google Assistant.AWS LambdaIntegration with broad AWS cloud portfolio.Cloudflare WorkersIntegration with broad AWS cloud portfolio.KnativeMulti-vendor open-source effort based on Kubernetes.IBM Cloud FunctionsBased on the open-source Apache OpenWhisk project.



Serverless Is A Disruptive New Force



Serverless computing is a natural evolution from traditional cloud computing, but the former is still in infancy as a technology to replace its older cousin. While the pros are already outnumbering cons, the use-cases of successful serverless applications are still scant. Only a handful of major corporations are invested in the technology to drive adoption and raise confidence. 



No doubt, serverless as a technology still has lots of holes to fills. The limitations are showstoppers to widespread adoption of serverless architecture for application development. 



One thing certain, competition is at an all-time high and serverless vendors don’t want to leave any stone unturned. The advances made to their respective serverless offering in the past years is groundbreaking and builds the ground for a true serverless world. The year 2021 is sure going to be an exciting one!



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### Infrastructure As Code: What You Should Know

One of the “hottest” things in DevOps right now is Infrastructure as Code. What it is and how it works - we explore below.







What Is IaC?



Infrastructure as Code or IaC is simply put, all about treating your infrastructure like databases, servers, and networks the same way you’d treat your application mode. 



Traditionally, managing IT infrastructures was a highly complex process. For instance, system admins were required to manually manage and configure virtually all software and hardware necessary for applications to be executed successfully.



In recent years, trends like cloud computing have completely revolutionized and disrupted these processes, providing new ways for enterprises to develop, design, and maintain their IT infrastructures.



A key component in the growing concept of DevOps is certainly Infrastructure as Code.



IaC blurs the line between an application and the environment in the same way DevOps melds developers and operations teams into a single entity.



With IaC, it’s easier to edit and distribute configurations, because infrastructure specifications are essentially codified and documented. 



By deploying infrastructure as code, you can divide it into several modular components that can be further combined in various ways through automation. Handling IaC also prevents issues like unexpected code changes. 



It’s true - IaC helps teams to consistently and efficiently automate their infrastructure deployment process - but this method is far from being just about automation. It foremostly enables tight collaboration around infrastructure provisioning and configuration between dev and ops.



Further on, IaC allows DevOps teams to test applications much earlier in the development cycle. 



Teams can work together with a set of tools and practices to deliver applications and supporting infrastructures faster and at a higher scale.



Why IaC Matters?



IaC is important because, without it, managing infrastructure can become a rather fragile, disorganized, and complex process. 



In this scenario, system admins manually connect to cloud providers and typically use web dashboards or API to provision new resources and equipment. However, this manual workflow fails to provide a full view of the application infrastructure. 



Admins might sometimes manually make changes to a certain environment and then later forget to do the same on the other. And that’s what results in an environment drift.



Cloud infrastructure drift later becomes a costly business waste. Failures and bugs arise as teams build against a development or staging environment and later find that their production environment is in fact out of sync. This further leads to even more time lost as teams investigate what went missing.



Infrastructure as Code helps to solve this problem. It brings more visibility to manual system administration and allows all team members to oversee and edit infrastructure data. 



The principle of idempotence is really what drives the solution. 



Idempotence refers to a property in computer science where the result of either applying operations once or multiple times has the same effect.



Idempotency is achieved either by an automatic configuration of an existing target, or complete discretion of such target and a recreation of a new environment instead.



The deployment command ensures to set the target environment into the very same configuration that is detailed in the provisioning script. This is precisely how teams will end up with the same configuration regardless of what the environment’s starting state was.



Mutable Or Immutable Infrastructure?



A crucial step that has to be carefully reviewed when deciding to implement IaC as a solution is whether to establish an immutable or mutable infrastructure.



Mutable infrastructure can be easily modified and updated after being originally provisioned. It provides Dev teams with the ability to make ad hoc server customizations to more closely fit application requirements. 



That being mentioned, mutable infrastructure also reduces the ability to maintain consistency between deployments, which can result in the infrastructure version being more difficult to track.



Hence most Infrastructure as Code environments are implemented as immutable, meaning these infrastructures cannot be altered once provisioned. 



If for any reason, an immutable infrastructure requires to be changed, it will have to be replaced with a new infrastructure. And because new infrastructures can be easily spun up on the cloud, this option presents great feasibility and practicality.



What Are Some Of IaC Common Tools?



There are plenty of open-source IaC tools currently available. However, the most commonly adopted are Terraform and Ansible.



Terraform is a notable provisioning and infrastructure orchestration tool that empowers engineers to automate the provisioning of on-prem and cloud-based infrastructures.



This instrument works with all giant cloud service providers and allows provisioning applications written in all languages.



Ansible is an open-source project by Red Hat that was created to help companies deploy applications, manage configurations and automate provisioning. 



Ansible allows users to create “playbooks” using YAML configuration language to specify the desired state of infrastructure and further have the tool do the provisioning for the user.



Ansible is a popular option for Kubernetes deployments and automating the provisioning of Docker containers.



Indirect Or Direct Automation?



Eli Feldman, CTO at EPAM Systems says that considering the language of written routines is essential when attempting to follow proper IaC practices. That essentially means identifying the type of automation required as either indirect or direct.



Direct automation routines are meant to only automate the infrastructure and hence are written in Descriptive Scripting Language. They’re broadly applicable to any type of application.



Indirect automation, on the other hand, is geared towards specific types of applications that are required to support ongoing changes in their infrastructure environment. 



To summarize it all, the type of automation used as part of an IaC strategy wholly depends on the type of infrastructure used by your company. And the type of infrastructure is informed by the type of deployed applications. In most scenarios, however, direct automation will be usually the choice. 



Why Choose IaC?



Implementing Infrastructure as Code can help lower management overhead costs, avoid deployment inconsistencies and significantly increase developer productivity, among many other advantages.



Take a look at some of them:



Risk Minimization



One of the strongest sides of IaC is its ability to not only automate the infrastructure setup process but also serve as a form of documentation to instantiate the said infrastructure at any point in time. 



Another obvious advantage is its capability to standardize the infrastructure setup process that results in a decreased possibility of deviations and errors.



Infrastructure as Code additionally acts as a sort of insurance in those scenarios where your knowledgeable IT staff like lead engineers leave the company.



Typically, once a deployment protocol is edited by an engineer, it can be later difficult to identify the exact adjustments that were made.



With IaC however, code can be easily version-controlled, which allows all changes to the server configuration to be properly documented, tracked, and even tested. This means issues with new setup configurations can be identified and corrected faster, easier, and with considerably less risk of failure.



Great Savings



IaC automates the infrastructure deployment process, which allows IT staff to spend less time on manual work and instead focus on executing high-value tasks. 



Besides, Infrastructure as Code eliminates the need for multiple administrational roles within a data center such as in areas of storage management, computing, and networking. This significantly cuts overhead costs.



Further on, the IaC script is capable of automatically spinning down unused environments, saving companies on cloud computing costs.



Faster Speed



The fact that Infrastructure as Code allows running scripts that can spin up infrastructure architecture means users can efficiently deploy virtual servers, launch pre-configured databases, storage systems, network infrastructures, and any other cloud services at their need.



By running code, these processes are performed faster and easier for development, staging, and production environments.



Improved Efficiency in Software Development



IaC essentially shifts all power to the developer. 



With this approach in place, cloud architectures are seamlessly deployed in multiple phases to ensure the software development cycle is efficient.



As infrastructure provisioning is more consistent and reliable, developers can focus more on application development. 



And with IaC’s scripting capabilities, developers are empowered to only script once, and further use that code on multiple occasions, thus boosting productivity and efficiency.







What To Look Out For



As with most approaches, some drawbacks need to be considered as a company moves to an IaC environment. 



Some of these are:



Dependency On Coding Language



Due to the nature of the IaC environment, it might be more difficult to adapt and learn without developer knowledge on hands. 



Some of the coding languages used for Infrastructure as Code are HashiCorp (HCL), Ruby, JSON, YAML, and others. 



Naturally, the shortage of expertise in these skills can greatly hinder the potential that IaC can bring to your organization, which is why it’s crucial to ensure you have a developer bench ready before moving to IaC.



Extra Security Assessment



The legal security processes and tools you currently have in place might not be sufficient for an Infrastructure as Code environment.



You might find yourself manually checking if the provisioned resources are fully operational and are appropriately used by the right applications.



This is all because IaC is significantly more dynamic than your existing provisioning processes and thus requires advanced security steps to ensure complete governance.



Risk Of Manual Changes



Ensuring no one makes manual changes is another hurdle that you’ll find yourself running into as you implement IaC in your organization.



As mentioned earlier, it might be comforting to think you’ll make manual edits here and there, and then just update the scripts later on when you have time. 



But the “later on” part might never happen. And that would be problematic. 



Remember, once manual changes are made in the environments, they will start to diverge immediately, resulting in your team efforts going to waste. 



You certainly don’t want that to happen!



A Long Learning Curve



All in all, the Infrastructure as Code approach does have a steep learning curve, especially for those companies that lack the knowledge and experience. 



Ops teams for instance might find IaC adoption somewhat difficult because this environment requires knowing how to create infrastructure in scripts.



But once the implementation and learning take place, the potential and advantages of IaC certainly outweigh the obstacles.



Final Thoughts



Infrastructure as Code is a powerful concept that can be used to enhance your infrastructure with some great capabilities like consistency, ability to collaborate, and traceability.



IaC’s primary goal is to avoid configuration drift and reduce the risk of human error while allowing DevOps engineers to focus on their primary tasks. 



Infrastructure as Code defines the end state of infrastructure, as opposed to defining a series of stages to be executed. Tools like Terraform and Ansible can be run multiple times against an infrastructure, producing the same desired effect.



Besides, IaC approach can speed up and simplify your infrastructure provisioning process, as well as help to save time and cut costs.



Even though the advantages of IaC are numerous, challenges are also present. It is, therefore, crucial to understand and analyze your company’s needs and goals well before you decide to embark on the IaC adoption journey.



One thing is sure, however: Infrastructure as Code is a disruptive tool that is gradually changing the way DevOps engineers and developers write and deploy software. And as the trends show, this powerful instrument is not going away anytime soon.



Why Clouve?



Because deploying your IT department to the cloud should not cost a fortune.



Clouve helps your business to reap the benefits of the cloud by providing expert support tools and services used by large corporations, but for a fraction of the cost.



Clouve offers complete coverage of your cloud environment from cloud migration, monitoring, maintenance, and troubleshooting, to AI-driven automation tools and reliable support.



You can learn more about what Clouve has to offer by getting in touch with us today.

### 4 Must-Have Tech Solutions In 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of technological advancements in industries including healthcare, research, government agencies, and financial services. New products and service developments are helping individuals and enterprises adapt to the new normal. With fast change and progress, there are certain technologies you should implement to assist your business in 2021 and beyond. 



Artificial Intelligence



AI is not new but a top tech trend that will become an even more valuable tool when it comes to helping us interpret and understand the world around us. Applications in AI are increasing both in functionalities and benefits. For example, Google Home integrates AI to offer assistance for everyday needs including scheduling calls, creating calendar events, making grocery lists, etc. Even in healthcare, the information that providers collect and analyze determines the success of efforts in containing the COVID-19 spread. Let’s find out how.



Healthcare



Known for its speech and image recognition efficiencies, robo-readers, chat tools, ridesharing applications, and smartphone personal assistants, AI can do so much for us. It uncovers actionable insights to predict the demand for healthcare services, allowing authorities to make more informed decisions regarding resource utilization and deployments. 



Business



Companies leverage AI solutions to identify evolving patterns of customer habits and behavior by analyzing real-time data, personalizing client experiences, and maximizing ROI. E-commerce will continue to boom in digital markets as buyers and sellers interact online while following social distancing guidelines. To enable all this, AI will create new opportunities in development, testing, technical support, and maintenance so that business operations never come to a halt. 







Robotic Process Automation 



Recently, RPA gained significant attention in the corporate world as it utilizes application user interfaces to navigate CRM and ERP systems and service management tools. While similar to what a human can do, smart robots and machines work with greater efficiency and precision to deliver the best outcomes.



Let’s consider an example. Intelligent robots are proving to be useful especially in assisted living residences where caregivers interact with those most vulnerable to infection, such as the elderly or disabled. It is not about completely replacing the care and human interaction factors. Rather, these smart machines can open innovative mediums of communication including 24/7/365 access to in-house assistance and providing companionship when face-to-face interaction is not safe or recommended. They also help with data processing and migration, medical bill processing, eligibility automation, reporting, and patient record storage. 



Advantages



Lower Costs



Task automation allows businesses to achieve at least 20-30% in cost savings. Also, RPA bots and virtualized environments do not replace current IT systems. Instead, they eliminate the rate of human errors to prevent business losses.



Time-Saving



RPA software eliminates repetitive and time-consuming processes in administrative, manufacturing, financial, and similar sectors. It delivers more accurate intelligence information and offers real-time access to data with in-depth reporting and analytics.



Streamlined Internal Processes



Businesses outline straightforward governance policies to leverage RPA, AI, and ML. This facilitates seamless internal reporting among teams, greater visibility into operations, and increased productivity. 



Superior Customer Experience (CX)



Investing in RPA frees up your resources, giving them more time to focus on front-line activities like providing great customer service and after-sales support. 



Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality



These technologies utilize headsets or glasses to directly project computer-generated imagery into a user’s field of vision. The primary difference is VR immerses one in an environment while AR enhances the environment. While experts commonly use them for gaming purposes, they are even popular in training such as simulation software that militaries around the world use. Today, there are many use cases for both VR and AR as we expect them to play a more integral role in 2021.



Apart from gaming, training, marketing, sales, and post-injury rehabilitation, one can use either of the two or both in multiple fields. Examples include training surgeons, improving marketing campaigns, organizing exhibits at museums to offer an immersive experience, etc. 



Where Are They Useful?



The list is almost endless, but let’s look at a couple of examples. In terms of COVID-19, VR and AR will help us avoid potentially dangerous scenarios that present a threat of viral transmission. AR solutions proactively provide warnings if we happen to approach any COVID-19 red zones. The tech even implements basic measures such as reminding us to wash our hands for 20 seconds when we touch surfaces. Even AR-powered devices issue alerts when they sense that we have touched our faces without washing our hands first. 



That is not all. With these solutions, healthcare professionals can remotely perform medical diagnoses and examinations to provide better patient care. Opticians can leverage sophisticated VR tools remotely to perform eye tests while AR enables customers to browse glasses on offer. With AR, customers can see what specific glasses would look like on their faces without having to physically visit shops. 



With governments announcing lockdowns everywhere, the challenge for providing quality education is real. Luckily, AR and VR do not require students to do their work in crowded classrooms where the likelihood of transmission is high. Instead, schools and colleges can use both VR and AR to empower learners to learn at the pace they are comfortable with. This facilitates an interactive and enriching experience that also improves critical retention. 







Cloud Computing



We know the benefits of cloud computing, but here’s an interesting fact. The tech will accelerate recovery from COVID-19 in 2021 by becoming increasingly agile, adaptive, and responsive. For instance, before the outbreak, developers commonly used container and serverless functions to create new applications and modernize existing ones. By 2021, there will likely be a rise in the worldwide demand for public cloud container and serverless services, along with multi-cloud container development platforms.



How are these developments possible? Companies will increase the use of cloud serverless to implement functions in the cloud ‘on-demand’. They will have the space to focus on the main product without the anxiety of operating, managing, or maintaining servers. 



COVID-19 has shed further light on the cloud’s USP. The freedom to choose from multiple flexible, cost-efficient and on-demand cloud models ensures business continuity as WFH programs become necessary. This will see more companies move toward digital transformation solutions that will help them work smart, boost efficiency, and productivity. Further growth in SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS will be driven by the need for remote end-users to access secure, high-performance infrastructure through cloud-native apps. 



Conclusion



There is no limit to what technology can do for individuals and enterprises. As they continue to evolve, now is the right time to choose what best suits your business so that you can reap the rewards in the long run. 



Want to position yourself for success? You are at the right place. At Clouve, we offer top-tier cloud, DevOps, and automation solutions, perfect for both startups and enterprises. We will work according to your business model to effectively meet your requirements. You can read the rest of our posts here and get in touch with our team for further details.

### What Digital Transformation Means For Your Business

Businesses put themselves on the path to success when they implement digital transformation solutions and best practices. ‘Digital transformation meaning’ is a common question on the Internet because many people do not know what it is and why it matters. Let’s see its relevance for your business.



You remain in your comfort zone if you continue to run your business traditionally in a world of digital solutions. It is all about realizing that you have outgrown legacy systems. Imagine yourself at the tipping point where you manage a project for a high-profile client, and you face multiple challenges. Your ordering and billing systems are far from smooth, not to mention the unorganized accounting processes. There are silos in practically every department, as well as shipping and inventory challenges.



What does all this mean? To stay relevant and competitive, you must embrace digitalization as automation and machines become increasingly common. Start by reviewing your business model, systems, processes, and workflows. Doing so will ensure that DX has a positive impact at every level of your company.



Now, let’s understand the meaning of DX before we look at what it does for business growth and revenue.



What Is Digital Transformation?



Primarily, DX integrates information, mobile, and computer technologies into all areas of business operations to secure the future of work. The intent is to ensure infrastructure flexibility, scalability, and reliability in the long term. Your company goes beyond benefitting from better collaboration and innovation. You uncover modern ways of engaging with your customers and capture actionable insights from data.



So, how do you connect the dots, and what’s in it for you? Let’s have a look.







Superior Customer Experience (CX)



‘Customer experience is king’. As tech developments continue to improve how businesses interact with customers, it comes as no surprise that the latter will consistently have high expectations. These range from having low prices, unlimited product choices, and quick delivery, to great after-sales support.



Meeting customer demands is the secret sauce to surviving and thriving. Part of delivering great CS is speed because everyone expects ‘on-demand’ which is not always easy to achieve. So, startups or enterprises that embrace DX have greater chances of designing and digitizing customer journeys. They can tap into rich customer data and use it to draw actionable insights that place CS at the forefront, making every digital touchpoint worthwhile. They can:



Identify each client by name.Study purchase history to understand customer interests and preferences.Suggest products based on past customer purchases along with the best deals.Track other historical data related to their interactions with the company.



Better Data Analysis



DX enables businesses to monitor metrics and analyze real-time information they gain through digital marketing initiatives. This offers greater visibility into operations which helps optimize strategies and processes. For example, a sales professional can leverage AI software to interact with their enterprise information systems for report generation and analysis. Or, they can use an add-on for Salesforce for transparency into a sales pipeline. 



A finance expert in the same company can utilize the add-on to conduct a forecast based on existing sales deals in the pipeline. Complete CRM services such as Salesforce can import information to create dashboards, documents, and reports to further assist users.



The idea is that when all teams have access to project data, they can brainstorm and exchange ideas more efficiently. Utilizing data-based insights paves the way to hyper-personalization that utilizes Artificial Intelligence (AI) and real-time information for dynamic marketing. Ideally, combine data like customer information, market research, and social media analytics to guide your DX journey. Then, optimize the data for analysis, and fully integrate it for Business Intelligence (BI) purposes. Make the most of data explosion by using BI tools to convert it into meaningful information. 



Improved Flexibility & Collaboration



DX allows startups and enterprises to free themselves from restrictive and inconvenient legacy systems by utilizing sophisticated, scalable options. Relying on outdated technologies that require manual input jeopardizes operations because this leads to bottlenecks when workloads spike. This can create problems when users address service requests, process claims, provide technical support, or carry out other business functions.



It is easier to integrate modern processes and software to connect various aspects of a business rather than siloing data by task or team. So, when a function is complete, modern systems connect the next function or data and push it forward to its destination, all without manual intervention. This involves individual teams and functions utilizing tech solutions to optimize operations, or even experiment with previously unexplored business strategies.



For instance, your Customer Support team uses a new digital tool to determine customer satisfaction while your Finance department leverages fintech applications to streamline global transactions. By breaking down silos, DX does not limit changes to individual business units. It transforms the entire company and brings departments together towards achieving mutual goals. 







Increased Profitability



According to Acquire, a recent survey by Deloitte reveals that 45% of organizations reporting a favorable business outcome of DX also communicated greater net revenue. Ultimately, the goal of running a business is to generate revenue and maximize ROI. With rising competition and continuous transformation of the modern workplace, investing in digital platforms and upgrades is a feasible first step.



Let’s consider an example. If you are a DevOps engineer, you will use lean and agile methods to accelerate speed-to-market or implement Continuous Improvement strategies for improving product and service quality. These measures will improve your company’s image and favorably impact your bottom line. If you adopt end-to-end DX, you can increase revenue as you get to capitalize on untapped markets and sales channels. 



This is not all. When you introduce digitalization, your employees get to acquire new skills through knowledge and training programs. These include Big Data analytics and AI/ML-guided decision-making, applying IoT in marketing campaigns, syncing data management and security protocols, etc. In turn, they improve productivity and maximize long-term profitability for all stakeholders.



Conclusion



Digital transformation can do so much more for your business than what you have read in this article. The opportunities and possibilities are endless, so knowing where to begin is essential. Regardless of your company’s vision for the future, our experts at Clouve can custom design and engineer cloud-based, DevOps, and automation solutions that complement your DX project plan. Whether you are an SMB or enterprise, we effectively manage your digital workplace program. 



From collaboration tools, remote access, AI, analytics, to multiple-point solutions, we offer full coverage. Feel free to ask us any questions you may have.

### What’s The Big Deal with Multi-Cloud Infrastructure?

In the past couple of years, multi-cloud adoption is becoming increasingly popular. So popular it seems, that even AWS has finally eased its ban on the use of the term last year.







In a recent survey, Forrester found that a staggering 86 percent of selected IT decision-makers have confirmed utilizing a multi-cloud approach as the main strategy at their organizations.



And it’s not surprising. 



Multi-cloud architecture truly empowers enterprises to effectively disperse their workloads across several cloud environments. This brings in a number of lucrative benefits, including great savings and significant risk mitigation associated with using single cloud environments. 



Multi-cloud infrastructure, many even argue, is the future of enterprise IT.



With so many advantages to utilizing this strategy, one might wonder: is multi-cloud the optimal solution for my organization?



Whether it is or isn’t depends on a plethora of factors, including whether your company has enough resources and skills to create a successful deployment using a number of cloud service providers. 



In this article, we’ll explore the endless possibilities of multi-cloud, as well as some of its drawbacks. In doing so, we’ll try to answer the ultimate question: does your business really need a multi-cloud infrastructure?



The Basics Of Multi-Cloud



The terms “multi-cloud” and “hybrid-cloud” are sometimes interchangeably used, although each of these has a slightly different definition.



A hybrid-cloud is, simply put, an environment where more than one cloud platform that delivers an application or service, is being deployed. 



A multi-cloud architecture, by contrast, has a much deeper strategic emphasis on how organizations use multiple cloud service providers to meet their goals. 



This approach combines different cloud types, including private, public, and even edge clouds; the goal here is to achieve security and cost savings, all the while mitigating the risks of using a single cloud platform. 



The Benefits of Multi-Cloud



Freedom of Choice



Let’s be honest: enterprise IT is extremely dynamic, making it almost impossible to predict which type of cloud is the optimal fit for your workloads and business needs. 



For instance, when cloud vendors provide support and integration for various platforms, they constantly revise the offered capabilities. 



But with a multi-cloud approach, enterprises are able to freely utilize offered cloud resources without compromising their choices. This strategy offers an array of cloud options fit to solve numerous business needs, thereby boosting return optimization on cloud service investments.



Adieu To Vendor Lock-In



Vendor lock-ins happen when an enterprise is overly dependent on its existing cloud provider, unable to switch over to another vendor for multiple reasons ranging from contract commitment to high costs associated with the change.



We made sure to discuss the drawbacks of vendor lock-ins in our previous articles. 



Taking advantage of a multi-cloud approach minimizes a company’s dependencies on a singular cloud service provider. And because vendor lock-in is much feared by many organizations, this benefit holds extra value.



Optimal Security



It’s well known that data security is one of the biggest concerns for companies considering their cloud move. 



After all, giving up substantial control over sensitive data and applications might result in rather unfortunate incidents like cyberattacks and data loss. In fact, we explore more of data security concerns during your cloud migration in our blog post here.



And although with considerable planning and strategy, data security risks can be significantly minimized, many businesses are still reluctant to adopt the cloud due to fear of the unknown. 



Vendors, on the other hand, are unable to change this mindset without supplying adequate transparency and visibility over their public cloud infrastructures, which they haven’t yet started to do. 



This is where utilizing a multi-cloud strategy might be beneficial. Although costly, this solution is indeed promising, in the sense that it empowers businesses with better visibility and transparency into their IT resources. 



A multi-cloud approach allows enterprises to maintain a combination of cloud platforms, otherwise known as the hybrid cloud. 



With this option, organizations are able to keep their most sensitive data and applications in the private cloud, ensuring optimal levels of security, all the whilst running their regular workloads in more cost-efficient public cloud environments.



The Drawbacks of Multi-Cloud



Every complex strategy has its drawbacks, and multi-cloud is no exception. 



One of the main concerns of adopting this infrastructure is, ironically, its proneness to more risk. 



With a multi-cloud approach, organizations usually need to have stable visibility into every of their cloud platforms for monitoring and tracking. Security needs to be guaranteed in these separate environments where tools and resources might differ greatly. 



A tool that provides a unified and consolidated overview of all your clouds is usually the solution. 



But even then, a multi-cloud approach requires a much closer observation as the tools that protect deployments and workloads in each of the existing cloud environments are always going to be slightly different, rendering your data and applications more vulnerable unless a more comprehensive approach to security is implemented.



CONCLUSION



A multi-cloud infrastructure can mean an array of things that can be discovered as your business and your cloud ecosystem both evolve. 



In deciding whether to implement a multi-cloud strategy or not, however, it’s crucial to closely assess your current capabilities, needs, and resources. 



If a decision to implement is taken, the key would be to remain fully flexible during the adoption, to ensure reaping all advantages of such an opportunity, while not forgetting to closely mitigate possible risks along the way.



Why Clouve



At Clouve, we’re supporting companies in their cloud migration journeys. We empower our clients with an efficient team of dedicated cloud experts, DevOps automation tools, day-to-day tasks coverage, and everything else in between. 



Learn more about the value Clouve brings to its customers by reaching out to us.

### How Cloud Analytics Works And Its Benefits

Cloud computing, along with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Natural Language Processing (NLP), are redefining the way we interact with analytics platforms. What implications does this have for businesses, and how can you benefit?



Did you know?



According to Impact Networking, 46% of enterprises identified and created new products and revenue streams by utilizing analytics. Also, more than 90% of marketing and sales professionals say that cloud analytics helps them get their work done.



What About Cloud Analytics?



This model shifts data processing and storage operations to a remote public or private cloud network. It simplifies and streamlines the process of collecting and analyzing insights to aid decision-making in time and mission-critical scenarios. This option is ideal for companies with budget limitations or those that do not prefer an on-premise data storage solution. It also works for businesses interested in scaling operations quickly without incurring high IT costs as on-premises hardware tends to be expensive.



How Cloud Analytics Work



It works via a software system that an Internet platform hosts. The system operates on servers in data centers which tech corporations regularly update with the latest hardware. These servers support both data center hardware and cloud-based analytics solutions, making information accessible almost immediately. 



Data processing occurs on a public or private cloud to eliminate on-premises compute and storage expenses and maintenance. Businesses leverage tools on cloud analytics solutions to assess large databases. Using proprietary algorithms, the systems then clean, process, and interpret the information to present actionable insights through data visualization. 



You can choose from a variety of methods to deploy cloud analytics, including the popular hybrid model. This involves keeping operations like data storage or analysis on-premise while keeping others on the cloud to enhance performance and cut costs. It is a feasible choice for balancing projects and workloads. As an example, you can use the public cloud to handle computing or storage spikes during busy seasons and the private cloud to keep sensitive apps inside your corporate network. 







Uses Of Cloud Analytics



To begin with, cloud analytics tools offer remarkable flexibility and versatility as compared to other IT solutions. For instance, on-premise solutions are generally custom-built which translates into higher expenses if you buy extra storage. 



Many companies also utilize cloud analytics for web traffic and social media. In the case of websites, understanding the information available with cloud-hosted business intelligence (BI) solutions fine-tunes the user experience or addresses any pain points that customers come across. Next, social media tools enable businesses to make decisions instantly and visualize campaign performance in real-time. 



What about data warehousing? Cloud-based data warehouses allow businesses to gather, scrub, and prepare information for analysis as soon as it flows in. This leads to improvements in business functions. You can even use tools ranging from operational reporting and business dashboards to analytic applications and reporting. 



How To Choose



Selecting the best cloud analytics platforms requires proper R&D and an in-depth understanding of your business goals. This is because not all platforms are the same, so before making a purchasing decision, identify the solution likely to pay off the most in the long run. The formula is straightforward because you only have to consider the following: 



Security



While almost every CSP encrypts data as it travels across a network, some do not secure information when it sits in storage. Ideally, invest in a platform that encrypts data both ‘in transit’ and ‘idle mode’. The solution should also have more granular access controls for users with access privileges and audit efficiencies that identify who accesses what information. These measures will strengthen data integrity and governance across your company as well as protect you from unauthorized breaches.



Scalability



The availability of pay as you go cloud analytics means you only invest in the resources you consume. You can also add data analysis and storage capacity when necessary. This effortlessly scales data processing and storing via insights that accurately reflect the ever-evolving market landscape. 



Interface



Today, conducting data analysis on mobile devices is common, so make sure the platform you go for incorporates an intuitive and responsive interface. This should not be difficult as cloud apps are becoming more mobile-friendly especially as a part of analytics strategies.



Integration



A good cloud architecture should integrate in real-time with your systems for boosting performance, easing maintenance, and staying up-to-date on the latest developments.







Benefits



Artificial Intelligence



Cloud-based analytics leads the way to the future integration of AI in business operations. By having a digital data infrastructure in place, you establish the foundation for advanced tools that service providers will eventually introduce to the market.



To further explain, let’s consider a manufacturing factory where tracking information related to machine performance is essential. Manufacturers already have access to tools and resources that monitor and upload data to a cloud analytics solution. Once they upload the information, intelligent algorithms proactively process it and learn about the machine. 



So, when computing experts create more advanced AI and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, cloud-based analytics platforms will be capable of learning independently. This will help predict future outcomes more accurately as users already have access to the information they previously collected. Companies can then boost efficiency and reduce unexpected downtime especially during uncertain times where guaranteeing revenue is crucial.



Better Functionality



Cloud-based analytics demonstrates its true value by providing end-users with improved functionality. Users receive more accessibility and value when a platform uploads data to services that work across the Internet. This makes it easier for organizations to manage data smartly and represent it in various business contexts that reap tangible results.



Tackles Silos



You achieve cross-organization data integration by capitalizing on cloud analytics. Utilizing data via a cloud analytics platform offers everyday metrics and insights that offer a competitive advantage. Also, the information you store and analyze in the cloud not only makes it easier for your end-users to access data and share insights without delay. It supports seamless communication, collaboration, and decision-making to maximize profitability. 



Collaboration



You receive a safe, centralized space where all your team members can collaborate. This offers complete transparency and visibility, especially in your analytics projects. You can capitalize on this opportunity to evaluate and ensure the quality of the analytics your staff leverages. Moreover, users can simply download data and conduct their analyses in programs such as Microsoft Excel. 



Data Consolidation



Ask anyone about BI, and they will tell you that it is an integral part of running a digital business. Cloud BI and analytics solutions can extract information from integrated apps throughout your IT infrastructure that you can then use for data mining and analysis. 



Conclusion



If your startup or enterprise is yet to benefit from cloud analytics, now is the right time to begin. As we move towards digitization, revisit, and rethink your strategy. Do you want to work smarter, improve efficiency and productivity, and maximize revenue? If so, the only way is to expand your business capabilities by spending on affordable, state-of-the-art technologies, and the cloud is a great place to start.



We hope you enjoyed this article. Please feel free to read the rest of our posts here. Our experts are always here to help you with your business case, be it DevOps, automation, cloud computing, technical support, or IT maintenance. Getting started is very simple. Just send us a message, and we will be happy to assist you.

### 4 Reasons Why You Need A Solution-Focused Partner In Your Cloud Migration Journey

Many industry leaders agree on one thing today: moving to the cloud is no longer simply an alternative. It’s not a question of if, but rather of when. So how exactly do you plan for an effective cloud adoption? Having the right people and tools to help you in this journey might be the ultimate answer.







Indeed, businesses generally fail their cloud migration for several reasons. For instance, in a survey of IT professionals, one of the main factors that contributed to a not-so-smooth cloud adoption was the lack of knowledge and understanding of advanced planning for such a move. 



Giant cloud providers such as AWS and Microsoft Azure consistently expand and enhance their service offerings. With such an array of options, the process of choosing the right architecture, service and model is also becoming complex. 



After all, cloud implementation is an enormous journey that requires hundreds of smaller puzzle pieces to work together before the final picture is envisioned. All these interdependencies have to be mapped in perfect timing to ensure business interruptions are avoided and all applications are successfully made cloud-ready.



And as a business, to create a comprehensive cloud implementation plan that would guide the company in this journey is virtually impossible without expertise and vast experience in this field.



That’s where solution-focused cloud consulting firms come into play.



The rapid growth and expansion of cloud services has led to a completely new sub-industry consisting of cloud experts that thrive to offer intelligent solutions to businesses moving into the cloud. 



These companies emerged for the main purpose of helping businesses attain maximum performance, security and availability through architecting their cloud infrastructures.



Cloud-strategy consulting firms are in high demand on the market, partially due to the steadily growing trend of various companies adopting the cloud. 



But do you need a solution-focused partner in your cloud migration plan? 



We explore 4 reasons why you probably do, below.



Reason 1: Superior Expertise



A robust cloud infrastructure is a crucial element in every software and data reliant business. 



And it’s always tempting to think that your current IT team might efficiently handle your company’s cloud computing needs without the involvement of external professionals. 



While it’s true that your IT department may certainly have the right expertise and knowledge to handle your on-prem needs, the same cannot be said for cloud computing.



Cloud computing is a relatively new technology that requires advanced levels of knowledge and proficiency. And a cloud consulting partner can give you exactly that. 



These firms only specialize in providing you with efficient cloud solutions and support services, so you can rest assured that your cloud needs are fully taken care of.



For instance, one of your cloud partner’s many tasks is to regularly advise you about planning, engineering and cloud architecture. 



The expertise and experience consulting firms have in this area will offer your business with a distinctive competitive advantage. That’s because enterprises can avoid massive capital expenditures on their hardware by turning their infrastructure expenses into operational costs, making a positive cash-flow position a much sooner reality.



That might explain the massively increasing number of born-on-the-cloud startups these days.



Reason 2: Strengthened Data Security



It’s not surprising that one of the largest concerns about cloud computing is indeed data security. This is an often-discussed topic so we made sure to explore it in more depth in our recent blog post here. 



Data breaches, cyber attacks, insider threats - compromised user data can have a tremendously negative impact on any business. That’s when a consulting firm is especially helpful. Your cloud expert partners will work with you to ensure that all security patches to your applications are appropriately implemented. They understand the ins and outs of cloud-based data security as their specialty and will be your point of assistance and troubleshooting (as part of their services) if anything goes wrong. 



That’s because cloud consulting firms understand very well that maintaining the integrity of your data is of key importance for your business.



Reason 3: Reliable Client Support



The best solution-focused cloud consulting partner that you’ll find will always provide a highly efficient support system to take care of your cloud needs. This is a critical component of their service offering.



Take Clouve, for instance. With an all-round support system that includes assistance with migration from hosted infrastructures and selecting the right deployment architecture for your business, to monitoring, troubleshooting and maintenance in your day-to-day tasks - we cover it all. 



Reason 4: Significant Savings



Another huge benefit that results from working with a specialized cloud expert is your ability to consistently optimize expenses. 



Let’s get back to Clouve for the sake of another example. We offer a convenient pay-as-you-go ticket system, meaning you only pay for the services that you need by purchasing ticket subscriptions, either monthly or annually, with no commitments or hidden clauses.



This allows you to significantly cut costs that could result in hiring additional IT employees for instance. With Clouve, you are guaranteed to have access to a team of cloud experts whenever you need us.



Conclusion



With several consulting firms ready to help you, it’s crucial to find the right fit. You need a solution-focused partner that will understand the connections between your business needs and your cloud goals, and align them if needed. 



A great cloud consulting firm will provide you with flexible and intelligent solutions, helping you thrive in the newest cloud computing environment that you’ll find yourself in.



Why Clouve?



Because our mission is all about harvesting the power of the cloud to solve complex IT problems both efficiently and effectively. 



Get in touch with us to find out more.

### 3 Things You Need To Know Before Going Cloud-Native

So you’re considering cloud-native adoption? Identifying your goals and objectives in this journey is crucial, or else you might risk throwing your resources away.







It’s true to say that the last decade has been dominated by cloud computing. With a plethora of services and tools that keep rising in number every year, deploying data and workloads in the cloud is no more an alternative. On the contrary, cloud computing is now a major driver of innovation that keeps expanding its borders with every new development.



This might be one of the reasons why enterprises all over the globe are moving their applications entirely to the cloud and are increasingly embracing cloud-native environments. 



Despite this growing trend, a transition to a cloud-native approach might become an overwhelming journey, especially if there is no thorough research and evaluation performed beforehand.



And this is true in part because the idea of moving to cloud-native can mean different things to various segments within an organization. 



The whole process requires unique considerations from different groups of stakeholders, be it key decision-makers like CIOs, or staff within finance and IT departments. 



All parties must stay on the same page in terms of how the organization will benefit from a cloud-native approach and what the roadmap to this goal looks like. 



What are some of the things you and your team should be aware of when considering a cloud-native adoption? We explore exactly three major points below.



What Exactly is Cloud-Native?



The cloud-native architecture consists of several components, including:




Microservices



Containers



Service Meshes



Immutable Infrastructure




All these components usually work in tandem, but it is certainly possible to utilize them separately and independently of each other as well.



That being said, microservices remain to be at the very core of cloud-native. Usually packaged into containers, each microservice runs a separate function, be it communication, application execution, or implementation of capabilities when deployed.



Cloud-native applications are extremely dynamic. They can be easily and efficiently altered when updates to microservices are performed and have the unique ability to move from one cloud to other thanks to containers. 



The cloud-native architecture allows applications to efficiently scale in and out, making this environment an attractive option for enterprises that consider adopting the cloud.



Advantages Of Cloud-Native Adoption



Better Cost Optimization



Cloud-native computing offers several valuable advantages including auto-scaling, elastic computing, and metered billing. When utilized effectively, these features help enterprises move away from the increased costs of un-scalable infrastructure and instead towards considerable savings. 



Other ways costs are optimized is through reduced downtimes and increased resilience.



Reliability and Security



Businesses are in a crucial need to continually innovate by adding new features to their established applications, simply because competition never sleeps. 



What this also means is that organizations require a sophisticated architecture that can handle frequent changes without jeopardizing existing operations.



The fact that cloud-native architecture is based on loosely coupled microservices helps to significantly reduce security and operational threats of massive failures. 



Increased Agility



Another benefit lies in the ability of cloud-native architecture to power up applications in a way that allows the latter to stay highly available and to be constantly updated by Dev teams without any considerable downtimes.



Development teams can address end-user requests more efficiently thanks to the abilities of cloud-native applications. So increased agility and velocity are certainly key characteristics.



DevOps & Cloud Native 



It’s true to say that adopting cloud-native applications and architecture comes with a major cultural change as well. For instance, following DevOps standards and principles is crucial for cloud native apps. 



This also means that the whole system can work efficiently and seamlessly only if operation and development teams collaborate more closely, with development teams running applications on the cloud platform as operation engineers handle automation, development, and operations.



CONCLUSION



Unsurprisingly, cloud-native applications are one of the main reasons why giant tech brands such as Pinterest, Amazon, and Facebook are gaining a competitive advantage in their industries. 



All that being said, it is important to understand that the complex procedure of creating cloud-native apps goes far beyond merely choosing the right tools. Your team is also a crucial component in this process. 



So, to “cloud-native” or not to? 



The ultimate decision will have to be based on several factors, assessments, and evaluations. But despite the complexities, one thing stays true: if implemented the right way, cloud-native can have a tremendous positive impact on your digital transformation journey. 



Why Clouve? Our ultimate goal is all about harvesting the power of the cloud to create efficient and intelligent solutions for our clients. 



We help your business to reap the benefits of the cloud by providing tools and services to help you succeed. 



Our services range from complete coverage of your cloud environment including cloud migration, monitoring, maintenance, and troubleshooting, to reliable support, and sophisticated automation tools. 



Learn more about Clouve by getting in touch with us today.

### Top 3 AI Trends For 2021

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most useful technologies today as it shapes a new way of life. New jobs arise from AI innovation and we expect the platform to redefine how businesses operate. Practically every industry, including healthcare, education, finance, and digital signage, benefits from AI that promotes the use of Machine Learning (ML) and Big Data analytics.



AI and ML are changing the way we live and run businesses on a large scale. Given how enterprises are showing a growing interest in digital transformation, AI has emerged as a promising technology. Look how Google Home, Amazon’s Alexa, and Apple’s Siri have improved our everyday lives. These inventions will inspire even greater developments in the coming years, with AI leading the way.



If you are a tech expert or enthusiast, you know that AI goes beyond automating manual business workflows and enabling cost-savings. “What’s next”, you ask? Let’s explore three of the biggest Artificial Intelligence trends to look forward to in 2021.



AI-Driven Decision Making



Governments and health authorities are working together to enhance data accumulation, aggregation, and analysis when it comes to addressing uncertain times like the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists are using AI-inspired solutions to conduct experiments and publish findings that can assist people. Researchers have come up with more sophisticated Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms to search through the wealth of information we have. These practices contribute further to communications, data analysis, and advancements in medicine.



For instance, healthcare experts use AI programs to diagnose certain illnesses with at least 90% accuracy. Big Data enables doctors and nurses to identify COVID-19 patients and hot spots. Professionals have created smartphone applications and thermal cameras to measure patient temperature and gather useful data.



Also, what about leveraging data analysis and predicting results in hospitals and clinics? AI and ML solutions offer meaningful insights into human health and recommend preventive steps to stop the spread of diseases. If you explore the market, you will come across AI watches that even help doctors monitor their patients’ health remotely. 



Other industries also utilize AI and Big Data to drive success. Marketing has transitioned from single article purchases to subscription and tier-based systems especially in the SaaS sector. Tiered systems encourage customers to buy products that meet their needs and budget. This practice is on the rise because of the information companies collect across marketing platforms using AI. 



Moreover, marketing, sales, and customer services use Big Data to make better marketing decisions and solve challenging problems. For instance, businesses utilize data to target the right audience. AI, along with IoT, analyzes information to enhance customer experience. These practices gather and optimize data about every customer. Companies can use technology to predict a client’s next action, such as making a purchasing decision or craft a promotion that is sure to deliver results. 



Not to mention how smart machines and self-teaching algorithms will help us rethink and revisit our business strategies and priorities. All this will further increase in 2021 as companies look to streamline workflows, work smart, improve efficiency, and address customer pain points more effectively. 



According to Oberlo, a 2019 Gartner study reveals that by 2021, AI will drive around 15% of customer service interactions around the world. This represents a huge 400% increase from 2017 statistics. These numbers give us food for thought and are certainly worth taking into account.







AI-Powered Chips



The rising investments in AI solutions introduce the need for processors that are quick enough to process data that these solutions require. Even advanced CPUs cannot keep up with the processing speed that AI needs to perform activities involving ML, NLP, computer vision, object detection, facial recognition, and speech recognition. This is where AI-enabled chips matter.



AI-powered chips can deliver the processing speed that CPUs cannot. It enables us to increase efficiency and tackle straightforward tasks within seconds while simplifying complex assignments. The reason is AI chips can perform more computational functions per unit of energy. Researchers also develop these chips to enable advanced calculations, query processing, and predictive analytics that AI algorithms demand. 



Why are businesses interested in AI-enabled chips? Notably, AI software operated on graphical chips with a high capacity for parallel processing. With time, experts discovered that they can architect microchips with powerful features for Deep Learning and optimize them for use in high-performance industries. If you conduct R&D on these microchips, you will see that they integrate massive amounts of data such as images, text, and language.



What does this leave us with? We can safely say that AI is rapidly advancing at both the software and chip levels. Companies are rapidly integrating AI into their systems, making the technology more accessible to developers who can apply it to data and applications. For instance, cloud providers like Google, AWS, and Azure embedded and extended their AI products for both public and hybrid cloud deployments. If others do the same, they can increase accessibility to computing power and algorithms that incorporate AI into mobile devices, smart speakers, ERP software, etc.



AIOPs



The IT operations landscape is evolving with AI at the forefront. Businesses are looking to increase efficiency and productivity by implementing more automation so they can focus on addressing complex problems and business challenges. In 2021, AI will continue to automate repetitive work and save time. 



Let’s come to AIOPs which is shifting from one data type to multiple data type algorithms. It all started when experts applied AI, ML, and statistical analysis methods to a single data type which was either logs, metrics, or transactions. In 2021, we can expect data scientists to innovate AI algorithms for multiple datasets. This means examining logs, metrics, and transaction information together, understanding how they correlate, and what signals professionals can filter for fast troubleshooting. 



At the start of 2020, employees across the globe had no choice but to work from home on short notice due to COVID-19. For many businesses, the new reality is remote work, and this is where they have to modify their IT infrastructure accordingly. If we talk about AIOPs, it does not matter where your employees perform their job duties. Once it puts an algorithm into use, it accepts the input data, draws business intelligence (BI), and outputs the optimized value. Remote work becomes easier to manage with productivity levels remaining consistent.



Also, organizations require smarter algorithms to predict challenges related to employee productivity or the customer experience of using a product remotely. These translate into different data sources that become difficult to analyze due to the massive volume of information. AI can help by automating the complicated processing of disparate data streams that anticipate problems before they take place. 







The list does not end here. AIOps will become more common in IT observability solutions, starting from the customer experience that defines business performance and value. This metric indicates how well your clients are interacting with your business or engaged using your products. Then, you have user productivity that outlines how productive your employees are with the proper tools and technologies. The last, and perhaps the most important, is your digital infrastructure that connects the customer experience and user productivity to a unified platform. If these elements do not go hand in hand, then you will have insufficient transparency or visibility into business performance.



Another benefit of AIOPs is it effectively combines security and IT operations to identify infrastructure performance issues and prevent cybersecurity vulnerabilities in real-time. AIOPs features will become more mainstream within company products, especially SaaS monitoring solutions. This will allow companies to extract valuable insights and new opportunities without incurring high R&D costs. 



Conclusion



At Clouve, we offer the latest cloud, DevOps, and automation solutions that see your business through to completion from beginning to end. Please contact one of our experts today to change the future of work and maximize productivity as well as profitability. 

### The Pros & Cons Of Adopting Kubernetes in 2021

Since open-sourced by Google, Kubernetes has become the de-facto standard to container orchestration, drawing us closer to an ideal DevOps world. 







Enterprises are adopting Kubernetes to increase agility, shorten software delivery cycles, and accelerate digital transformations. They, of course, want to harness the full potential of Kubernetes but for a technology that is still relatively young, these benefits don’t come without their own set of tradeoffs. 



In a nutshell, it is about identifying those challenges to make the most of the technology.



What would be the possible advantages and drawbacks of adopting Kubernetes next year? We explore below.



Production Deployments vs. Security Concerns



Production deployments are getting stronger



With all sorts of attention Kubernetes is receiving, it’s easy to forget how relatively young the technology is. But thanks to a massive community, Kubernetes is maturing at a pace unheard of before. 



Enterprises are hence moving their production workflows to this orchestration platform, driving its adoption at an all-time high. 



In VMWare’s State of the Kubernetes 2020 survey, half of the participants are running at least 20 Kube clusters or around half of their containerized workloads on Kubernetes. 



Initial containerization adopters who relied on a container orchestration tool other than k8 (a.k.a. Kubernetes) have already learned their lessons and are looking for the first exit. 



Simply put, they want to adopt Kubernetes, and they want to do it now. 



The platform, no doubt, had tide flowing in its direction with K8 production deployments reaching all-time highs.







But security concerns are inhibiting the momentum



Early adopters in enterprise space rushed to adopt Kubernetes and associated technologies for their obvious advantages while overseeing the tradeoff—application security. 



For a DevOps-centric organization, there are too many advantages to see through: faster development cycles and quicker deployment schedules, bug fixes and patches, accelerated deliveries, and competitive advantage.



Enterprises have finally realized that despite the extensive list of benefits, they cannot realize the full potential of Kubernetes with security threats looming around. 



According to StackRox’s recent report, 44% of the IT decision-makers surveyed admitted to delaying an application release due to potential security concerns. This is indeed a worrisome figure. 



After all, watching nearly half of participants slowing down or halting Kubernetes deployment into production because of one or more security concerns is bad even in 2020. 



One might even wonder - what is the whole point of Kubernetes if it can’t be taken into production? No doubt, the situation is getting better as increasingly more enterprises are beginning to entrust Kubernetes in production. 



2021 is off to a great start already.



Multi-Cloud Deployments vs. Vendors Lock-Ins







Multi-cloud deployments are on a rise



Businesses seem to have learned the potential limitations of running all of their Kubernetes instances or managed Kubernetes clusters on a single cloud vendor. 



Enterprises are more likely to adopt a multi-cloud approach as they mature with their Kubernetes strategies and add more details to it. 



StackRox’s other recent survey indicates that 35% of its participants are filling their Kubernetes approaches to multiple public clouds. 



If we’re discussing cloud-only container deployments (keeping hybrid aside), 27% of respondents are running Kubernetes on multi-clouds while 13% are on a single cloud.



But Vendor lock-ins remain a reality



Although the multi-cloud approach to Kubernetes deployments is set to take off, a single cloud approach is still the dominant force. 



After all, multi-cloud deployments grew year over year but still trail behind single-cloud deployments by a sizable margin. Going back to StackRox’s survey, 35% of its participants said yes to multiple public clouds, while 51% of them were running their Kubernetes deployments on a single cloud. 



At a time when an open-source world seems like a reality with the world’s tech giants like Microsoft strongly vouching for the movement, vendor lock-ins might threaten to limit the full potential of what new possibilities and developments in cloud computing have to offer.



Some can argue that while cloud vendors are making big promises in this direction, there is still a little to be seen in action. For now, a single cloud approach seems like a safe bet with large consequences albeit a few organizations are at work to make cloud interoperability a reality.



Multiple Stakeholders vs Complex Decision Making



Kubernetes Benefits Multiple Stakeholders



Kubernetes delivers clear benefits for several groups of stakeholders. For instance, it is loved by operations and development teams alike. Even security and testing guys look at it with great promises.



Resource efficiency is a big responsibility for Ops while every developer dreams about committing each build and see it in action. Security teams wish to see DevSecOps become mainstream, and quality analysts want 'testing' to keep moving ‘left’. 



Kubernetes is, perhaps, the only solution that operations, development, security, and testing teams can agree on. Again, committing faster builds, controlled IT spending, top-notch application security and continuous testing is the holy grail of the cloud era. 



But decision-making gets more complicated



Naturally, as the number of stakeholders increases, so does the complexity of decision-making. Going back to VMWare’s survey, 40% of respondents blamed internal alignment as a hindrance when choosing a Kubernetes distribution. 



Unmistakably, k8 brings operators, developers, and other stakeholders together, but for many organizations, it is a little more complicated. When a business doesn’t make amendments at the structural and cultural level, these problems tend to arise.



In 2021, businesses might tend to increasingly seek consulting partners with Kubernetes expertise to streamline decision-making and offset the experience gap within their IT environments.



On-Premise Deployments vs Resources Gap



On-premises Deployments Dominate Kubernetes



While Kubernetes is made to sound synonymous with cloud-native operations, its deployments in major enterprises are not public clouds. 



Despite so many iterations, Kubernetes remains as flexible of technology as it was five years ago. It runs on the public cloud as efficiently as on hybrid or an on-prem data center. 



For enterprises that prefer to avert risks that they might be exposed to on the public cloud, Kubernetes presents itself as an ideal alternative when deployed on existing infrastructure until ready to move. 



Put simply, Kubernetes will deliver you the same agility regardless of where you have decided to deploy it.



When discussing containerization, Toptal's recent article on service meshes as a tool might be a useful read.



Kubernetes is a victim of its own success



Kubernetes is a victim of its own success. It’s growing faster than the resource and skill pool can keep up. 



And with Kubernetes becoming the enterprises' darling, the resource gap will only widen. On top of the internal skills shortage, the barrier to entry is another letdown. 



All in all, Kubernetes presents a steep learning curve, making challenging for organizations to train inexperienced staff. 



Despite these hurdles, more enterprises are likely to make a jump to managed Kubernetes services from their in-premise location to overcome the resource gap in 2021. 



Regardless of what the next year brings us, one thing is sure:  as a powerful and disruptive tool, Kubernetes indeed opens up a world of possibilities for organizations small and large in scale alike.



What’s your cloud strategy for 2021? 



Our cloud experts are here to help you select the most suitable deployment architecture for your migration. 



With our tailored support and a variety of solution-focused tools, Clouve has got you covered from A to Z when it comes to all of your cloud needs!



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### Big Data And Cloud Computing For Business Success

Technology delivers the benefits of improved efficiency, productivity, innovation, streamlined operations, and centralized IT. What particularly modernizes infrastructure is the availability of Big Data from customer databases, transaction systems, real-time sensors, and social media. At the same time, the cloud transforms SMBs and enterprises with high performance, security, and managed services. 



According to GlobeNewswire, data accounts for growing cloud computing traffic and mobile data traffic. It is also responsible for increasing the use of AI and IoT which support Big Data analytics.



We can see that Big Data and cloud computing stand out because of the possibilities and opportunities associated with both platforms. So, what is the link between the two, and how are they useful for us? Let’s find out. 







Relationship Between Big Data & Cloud Computing



Big Data analyzes large datasets to enhance insights and decision-making. There are 5Vs to remember:




Volume




This is the foundation of Big Data and refers to the amount of data that businesses collect daily. We can relate this to IoT which looks at how interconnected devices across the globe have led to an explosion in the volume of readily accessible information.




Velocity




Businesses need data to flow quickly and as close to real-time as possible to aid decision-making and attain a competitive edge. So, the speed with which users can process and examine data to convert it into useful information is crucial.




Variety




This refers to the data flow rate in the system and the types you can collect may be diverse. They can range from structured data you find in databases to unstructured content such as images, videos, tweets, and more. Examples are smartphone GPS technology, in-house devices, and what people say on social networks.




Veracity




How authentic is the data you collect, and can you trust it to do the right thing? Is the information credible enough to extract insights from, and should you make decisions based on these metrics? You require reliable tools and strategies to separate poor quality or inaccurate data before processing anything, considering how many sources it comes from. 




Value




Simply gathering data is not enough because it needs to generate insights that add value to a business in some way or contribute to ROI. This is where analytics play an even more integral role. For instance, if you are in the E-commerce sector, identifying and customer shopping habits from Big Data is a form of value for your company. Similarly, a medical specialist would find it useful if they can use the same to monitor health conditions. 



You are probably thinking about how cloud computing fits into the picture. When you draw data on a large scale, you have to figure out advanced methods of processing and examining this information which will call for infrastructure upgrades.



Let’s say you add extra capacity to your in-house data warehouse or power up additional servers to address evolving analytics demands. Even then, your IT infrastructure may still need more work. Now, assume your Big Data goes to the cloud through flexible, scalable, and cost-effective methodologies. What’s next?



Technical Perspective



Cloud computing benefits for business become more meaningful when we discuss Big Data analytics. The scalability of the cloud helps deploy data-intensive apps that drive business analytics. Also, cloud computing optimizes connectivity, communication, and collaboration between teams by streamlining data sharing and increasing access to relevant analytics.



Let’s take the example of a supply chain company in which optimizing the SCM process and monitoring defects are key concerns. Things become easier when data is readily available. Its insights can also help in initiatives such as increasing customer engagement or capitalizing on opportunities for cost reduction, profitability, as well as strategic investments. Use an agile cloud solution to complement Big Data, and you can easily achieve all these goals.







Application



Big Data and the cloud offer business value in the long run, making them sustainable platforms to invest in. Cloud computing typically leverages SaaS to seamlessly process information. Utilizing an intuitive console that examines specialized parameters and commands is an option, but you can also leverage your site’s UI to perform the relevant functions. This paves the opportunity to bring other technologies into the equation, including cloud-based VMs, containers, database management systems, as well as AI and ML efficiencies. 



For instance, network-based systems often produce Big Data in a standard or non-standard format. In the case of a non-standard format, a CSP may recommend AI or ML tools to standardize the data. Then, you can use the cloud to realize the full potential of the data, including searching, editing, and storing it for actionable, repeat insights.



This is not all. You can even use PaaS and IaaS. PaaS providers integrate Big Data solutions into their services to reduce the difficulties one encounters with managing independent software and hardware components. This is useful in situations where companies have to deal with gigabytes or terabytes of data. 



In terms of IaaS, you can attain huge cost-savings by utilizing the cloud. In this context, Big Data facilitates access to unlimited computing power and storage. Small and medium businesses particularly benefit from this because CSPs handle the costs of managing basic hardware.



Imagine a situation in which you only have Big Data just waiting for you to derive value from it. Using only PCs to analyze large databases would either be nearly impossible for unfeasible because of the delays it can cause. With the cloud, everything changes. You can use cutting-edge infrastructure while spending on only the resources you consume. Furthermore, Big Data powers cloud app development. Without Big Data, fewer cloud-based apps would exist, and similarly, cloud-based apps often accumulate Big Data to accelerate the digital economy. 



Conclusion



We are excited to see what the world of technology will bring us next, and we want your business to be at the forefront of the latest developments. 



For premium DevOps and cloud solutions that integrate easily into your startup or enterprise environment, we are the best partner to work with. From beginning to end, we understand your unique project requirements and create a technology roadmap that works for you, within your budget. Just get in touch with us and we will be more than happy to connect with you.


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