Developing in the Cloud with COBOL

REMOVE THE Barriers, DEVELOP In The Cloud. University of North Texas (UNT) has a joint venture with IBM. its graduates get high-paying jobs with major US corporations that have COBOL based applications running within their data centers.  Many years ago COBOL went out of the department’s Business Computer Information Systems (BCIS) curriculum because it was thought of as an outdated technology. Then, a few years ago they added it back in as two one semester electives at the suggestion of their advisory committee. As you may expect, this class teaches the full cast of characters needed to be a successful COBOL programmer including the IBM mainframe operating system, Job Control Language (JCL) and, of course the COBOL programming language. It was a win for the university’s corporate business partners because they had the ability to hire highly qualified college graduates who were willing and able to program in COBOL. It was also a win for IBM, who is helping create the next generation of COBOL programmers. Today with Heirloom' s Elastic COBOL PaaS, Developers in any location can provision a development or deployment platform on the cloud within minutes. Heirloom' s Elastic COBOL is a high-quality cost- effective platform that erases major commercial and technical barriers that exist with outdated solutions, so that high-value trusted business applications can fully & seamlessly participate in contemporary software stacks & cloud computing platforms. Elastic COBOL, is the application platform that can recompile commercial, on-line and batch workloads into Java source-code so they execute 100% Java applications. This means you can now move beyond tactical re-hosting and closed proprietary platforms, and instead deliver your applications onto an open platform that is increasingly the strategic choice for many enterprises. It is smart choice too, because JAVA has already established itself as de facto engine for cloud computing platforms.

What is next for Cloud Computing?

What is next for Cloud Computing? "Introduction of Cloud of Clouds or Intercloud: This represents a new model for cloud computing services, based on the idea of combining many different individual clouds into one seamless mass in terms of on-demand operations. The intercloud would simply make sure that a cloud could use resources beyond its reach by taking advantage of pre-existing contracts with other cloud providers. More implementation of OpenStack: OpenStack software delivers a massively scalable cloud operating system. It is an open source infrastructure as a service (IaaS) initiative for creating and managing large groups of virtual private servers in a cloud computing environment. The goals of the OpenStack initiative are to support interoperability between cloud services and allow businesses to build cloud services in their own data centers. One of the greatest selling points of OpenStack is its incredible flexibility and versatility. Big data as a service (BDaaS) is a term typically used to refer to services that offer analysis of large or complex data sets, using the cloud-hosted services. Similar types of services include software as a service (SaaS) or infrastructure as a service (IaaS), where specific BDaaS options are used to help businesses handle what the IT world calls big data, or sophisticated aggregated data sets that provide a lot of value for today’s companies. Recently, IBM announced a new business unit for launching Watson-based cloud computing service named asWatson Discovery Advisor to help researchers from different fields who want to analyze the gigantic volumes of data to find out the result pattern for developing the research ideas. This platform is based on IBM Watson, the cognitive computing system available through the cloud..." More on >>

How green is the iPhone 6

"Unfortunately, Apple haven’t sorted out solar screens just yet, which would allow iPhone 6 owners to be a walking energy source. There was certainly a bit of disappointment about that… ... "But, let’s face the music here, for all of Apple’s environmentally responsible claims, there isn’t yet such a thing as an eco-friendly phone, especially one without an easily replaceable battery. However, reducing toxic chemicals used in the production, and in the product itself, is a good step by Apple, as such chemicals are a huge environmental problem should mobiles end up in landfills at the end of their life (p.s don’t throw out your Apple products or any mobiles for that matter, recycle them!!!). So to conclude, we wouldn’t call the new iPhone 6 ‘green’, but perhaps it will be Apple’s ‘greenest’ smartphone yet." 1 Million Women

Top 10 facts about private cloud

"Cloud is an essential component of every enterprise tech management strategy in today’s era of empowered employees and customers, but sifting through market noise to design a robust cloud strategy isn't easy. Your developers and business leaders are going around you to the public cloud because they value the autonomy, agility, and productivity they get from cloud services, not because it is cheaper. Your private cloud objectives should align to the experience they desire. Can you achieve greater cost efficiencies by operating a private cloud?  Yes, private clouds come with a long list of associated benefits (for example, scalability, cost savings, and developer enablement). However, most of these benefits are not inherent to all cloud deployment types and strategies. Why do enterprises struggle with private cloud? Technology management teams must become a credible cloud services provider and adjust their view of the business to that of a free-market customer. This transition isn't easy. The natural tendency of internal technology management teams is optimisation and cost-saving prioritisation rather than using cloud as a new technology to accelerate business success." >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Forrester: Top 10 facts about private cloud

How secure is the Cloud - iCloud security breach - nude pictures

On August 31, 2014, a collection of almost 200 private pictures of various celebrities—mostly consisting of females, and with many containing nudity, were posted on theimageboard 4chan, and later disseminated by other users on websites and social networks such as Imgur, Reddit and Tumblr. The images were believed to have been obtained via a breach of Apple's cloud services suite iCloud. Apple later confirmed that the people responsible for the leak had obtained the images using a "very targeted attack" on the user names, passwords, and security questions associated with certain iCloud accounts. The event was met with a varied reaction from the media and fellow celebrities, who felt that the distribution of the images was a major invasion of the privacy of their subjects. Some of the allegedly depicted subjects of the images also questioned their authenticity. The leak also prompted increased concern from analysts surrounding the privacy and security of cloud computing services such as iCloud—with a particular emphasis on their use to store sensitive, private information. Response from Apple "Apple Media Advisory "Update to Celebrity Photo Investigation "We wanted to provide an update to our investigation into the theft of photos of certain celebrities. When we learned of the theft, we were outraged and immediately mobilized Apple’s engineers to discover the source. Our customers’ privacy and security are of utmost importance to us. After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet. None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud® or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved.  "To protect against this type of attack, we advise all users to always use a strong password and enable two-step verification. Both of these are addressed on our website at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4232."         SOURCE >>