It is virtually impossible to safeguard an enterprise’s digital assets or to scale the IT infrastructure unless the organization seeks support from a third party vendor. These IT partners include the entire gamut ofhosting service providers, cloud vendors, colocation services, or managed service providers to name just a few.
The disruptive forces in an IT environment have given rise to a number of challenges as well as new opportunities. Every enterprise under the sun is prone to get disrupted by these forces. This has transformed the process of purchasing third party services as influencers and decision makers adopt in-depth research before zeroing in on a prospective IT partner.
Buyers have forced third-party service providers to adapt to a new world order they govern. Conventional sales and marketing concepts have gone for a spin due to myriad of disruptive forces that include selective consumption, search engines, mobile and other hand held devices, and social media platforms.
Interruptive ads and campaigns, targeted at common consumers with the help of sales and marketing tools, are causing them to experience fatigue. This includes unwelcome ads, spam emails, unsolicited messages, and many other campaigns. The sheer exhaustion and frustration of consumers have led to the development of smart tools that block such ads and messages to protect consumer’s right to digital privacy.
Modern audiences have been empowered by innovative tools. such as spam blocking applications, caller identification, true caller applications, satellite radio, and DVRs, just to name a few, allowing them to thwart aggressive marketing campaigns.
This has resulted in the entire gamut of colo providers, hosting services, managed service providers and cloud vendors having in accepting the bitter truth that they are no longer in control of the sales process as the target audiences have shut their doors on them. This is primarily due to the fact that the adoption of these tools and their influence has extended from Business to Consumers to Business to Business or B2B.
Well before the decision makers or influencers are about to roll out the process of sales conversion, almost seventy percent of the decision making is already over. This leaves hardly any space for influencers to exert their opinions.
Surviving the cold environment of hosting business
The hosting business can be a harsh and uncaring environment, making survival a challenge. To succeed, businesses need to focus their efforts on attracting the right customers through thorough client identification and strategic visibility tactics.
This brings us to the importance of avoiding costly mistakes that are listed below.
Putting all eggs in a single basket
Very often it is observed that providers of colocation, managed, and cloud services follow a single point agenda of using one strategy for lead generation or customer identification. This includes either the Pay per Click campaign or Search Engine Optimization.
There will be extensive implementation of retention, account differentiation, sales cycle acceleration, and lead generation. We should properly distribute the entire volume of the budget so that it properly covers all factors.
Lack of foresight
There is hardly any point in progressing ahead unless one knows the point of destination. It is naïve to follow fancy objectives including followers and other vanity metrics. An agenda which is influenced by personal ego can lead you nowhere. This underlines the significance of valuable objectives. These objectives include revenue growth, improvement of the bottom-line, sales cycle acceleration, client acquisition, and more.
Using a uniform strategy for all clients
There is hardly any sense in bundling all your clients into a single group and then targeting them with a similar marketing strategy. The days of packing sales directors and CIOs into a single category of small business are over. Modern prospects demand individual or fragmented attention without any trace of semi-relevant approach.
This is because in a modern environment there are more targeted campaigns than you could have imagined and every single marketing campaign is an a la carte offering that takes into consideration individual needs and tastes.
Non-alignment with sales and marketing
There were instances that prompted sales teams to criticize marketing teams as mere revenue guzzlers and marketing teams terming sales guys as unduly overpaid and lazy individuals. In the face of the hosting industry’s brutal competition, seize the advantage by securing your target audience’s attention first.
While solos used to be the norm, modern marketing demands collaboration between sales and marketing.
Failure to focus on distribution and promotion
Proper utilization of resources is a must. This allows for effectively attaching significance to the promotion and distribution of content. Organizations are devoting half their resources to creating content. The other half goes towards getting that content seen by the right audience.
Not getting early attention
Early discovery by relevant prospects is crucial for your sales team to successfully engage customers. You need to be present during the entire sales process to improve your chances of striking deals.
Did you know that, as per a VMware report, about 87% of enterprises use two or more clouds? It can be due to a range of reasons from developer preferences to the demand for specific cloud-native service. Needless to say, multi-cloud is the most common and crucial IT structure.
Numerous IT leaders believe that multi-cloud will soon be a norm for large organizations. Although this approach offers a world of benefits, we can’t overlook the complexity of its landscape. The good news is one can easily translate from cloud complexity to cloud coherency with just a few workload optimization techniques.
Centralized Orchestration Tools
Managing workloads across various cloud providers involves navigating diverse infrastructures, services, and operational nuances. Without a centralized approach, organizations may face issues such as resource inefficiency, inconsistent deployment processes, and difficulties in enforcing governance and compliance standards. It is where centralized orchestration tools come to the rescue.
Kubernetes
Kubernetes, often referred to as K8s, stands out as a leading open-source container orchestration platform. Its ability to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications is invaluable in a multi-cloud setting. By leveraging Kubernetes, organizations can ensure consistent deployment across various clouds, facilitating seamless workload mobility and resource utilization.
go4hosting’s Kubernetes helps users unify development and operations while building and delivering scalable apps quickly. It offers robust and flexible solutions for optimizing workloads across different cloud environments. By leveraging containerization and automation, you can achieve enhanced performance, scalability and cost efficiency in your cloud infrastructure.
Terraform
Terraform empowers teams to embrace Infrastructure as Code, offering a unified approach to provisioning and managing infrastructure. In the context of multi-cloud, Terraform’s declarative syntax allows for the creation and modification of resources across different cloud providers. It not only ensures consistency but also provides a foundation for efficient workload optimization as infrastructure requirements evolve.
Cloud Management Platforms (CMPs)
Cloud Management Platforms serve as the linchpin in centralized orchestration. It offers a unified interface for managing resources across diverse cloud environments. These platforms, such as AWS Control Tower or Azure Arc, enable organizations to enforce policies, automate workflows, and optimize workloads seamlessly. By consolidating management tasks, CMPs contribute to improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness in a multi-cloud ecosystem.
Standardization and Interoperability
Organizations strive for optimal performance across multiple clouds. Achieving this demands a strategic approach to workload optimization, with a key focus on standardization and interoperability. By doing so, they not only ensure efficient resource utilization but also position themselves to adapt and thrive in the evolving landscape of cloud computing. The path to peak efficiency lies in the seamless integration of diverse workloads facilitated by a commitment to industry standards and interoperable solutions.
Standardization
Standardizing your workload management processes lays the groundwork for seamless interoperability. By adhering to industry standards, organizations can streamline operations and enhance collaboration between different cloud environments. It not only simplifies the integration of diverse workloads but also facilitates the efficient utilization of resources.
Standardization ensures that applications and workloads are designed to function consistently across various cloud providers. This approach minimizes compatibility issues, reduces downtime, and ultimately contributes to a more stable and predictable cloud environment.
Interoperability
Interoperability is the linchpin in achieving a harmonious multi-cloud ecosystem. It enables the fluid movement of workloads between different clouds. Thus allowing organizations to leverage the strengths of each provider without being confined to a single platform.
Strategic workload optimization demands interoperability solutions that transcend the barriers of vendor-specific technologies. APIs, containerization, and orchestration tools become pivotal in creating an environment where workloads can seamlessly migrate, scale, and interact across diverse cloud infrastructures.
Integration of Standardization and interoperability offers a world of benefits:
1. Cost Efficiency
Standardization and interoperability enable organizations to avoid vendor lock-in. Thus promoting healthy competition among cloud service providers and driving down costs.
2. Flexibility and Scalability
A strategically optimized workload is more adaptable to changing business needs. Interoperability empowers organizations to scale resources dynamically. It ensures that workloads perform optimally under varying conditions.
3. Enhanced Reliability
By adhering to standardized practices and leveraging interoperable solutions, the reliability of workloads improves. It translates to reduced downtime and a more resilient IT infrastructure.
4. Risk Mitigation
Standardization mitigates the risks associated with proprietary technologies. Organizations can future-proof their operations by adopting technologies and processes that are widely accepted in the industry.
Risk Management and Compliance
In the ever-evolving multi-cloud environments, achieving peak performance demands more than just technical prowess. A crucial aspect of strategic workload optimization is risk management and compliance.
Strategic workload optimization in a multi-cloud scenario is akin to a delicate balancing act. While efficiency is paramount, organizations must also navigate the intricacies of risk management and compliance to safeguard sensitive data and adhere to regulatory frameworks.
Risk Management
The multi-cloud landscape introduces a spectrum of potential risks, ranging from data breaches to service disruptions. Strategic workload optimization involves identifying and mitigating these risks proactively. It requires a comprehensive risk management strategy that assesses vulnerabilities, anticipates threats, and implements measures to ensure data integrity and confidentiality.
Organizations must adopt a risk-aware mindset, understanding that the distributed nature of multi-cloud environments amplifies the importance of robust risk management practices. Regular audits, threat assessments, and incident response plans become integral components of an effective risk mitigation strategy.
go4hosting’s monitoring and logging tools, coupled with robust threat detection and threat emulation capabilities, form a formidable arsenal for effective risk management. Our monitoring tools deliver real-time visibility into the infrastructure’s performance. Thus enabling prompt identification of anomalies and potential issues. Detailed logs contribute to efficient root cause analysis, aiding administrators in swiftly resolving problems and minimizing downtime.
Advanced threat detection tools analyze user behavior and network activities, flagging unusual patterns or deviations for immediate attention. Security-focused log analysis further enhances threat detection by monitoring logs for suspicious activities or unauthorized access attempts.
go4hosting’s threat emulation involves simulating real-world attack scenarios to identify vulnerabilities. By proactively assessing security posture and conducting security simulations, organizations can patch or mitigate potential weaknesses before they become exploitable.
Compliance
In the era of stringent data protection laws and industry-specific regulations, compliance is non-negotiable. Strategic workload optimization must align with these regulatory frameworks. It ensures that data handling practices meet the required standards.
By standardizing processes and implementing interoperable solutions, organizations can streamline compliance efforts across diverse cloud providers. It not only reduces the burden of adherence but also enhances the organization’s credibility by demonstrating a commitment to regulatory compliance.
Did you know that go4hosting is HIPPA, SOC1, SOC2 and SOC3 certified?
The intersection of optimization, risk, and compliance offers
Proactive Risk Mitigation: Strategic workload optimization involves identifying potential risks and implementing proactive measures to mitigate them. This approach safeguards the organization against unforeseen challenges.
Regulatory Alignment: By integrating compliance considerations into workload optimization strategies, organizations can navigate the complex regulatory landscape without sacrificing operational efficiency.
Data Resilience: Optimization efforts must prioritize data resilience. Redundancy, encryption, and secure data transfer mechanisms contribute to a resilient multi-cloud environment. It can withstand unforeseen challenges.
Continuous Monitoring: Effective optimization requires continuous monitoring of workloads for both performance and compliance. Automated tools and real-time analytics play a crucial role in maintaining this balance.
Dynamic Workload Placement
In dynamic multi-cloud environments, the key to unlocking peak performance lies in strategic workload optimization. Central to this optimization is the art of dynamic workload placement – a sophisticated approach that leverages real-time insights to ensure workloads are precisely positioned for optimal efficiency.
Dynamic workload placement involves the intelligent allocation of workloads across various cloud resources based on real-time conditions, performance metrics, and cost considerations. Unlike static placement, this dynamic approach allows organizations to adapt to changing demands, ensuring that workloads are always situated where they can thrive.
Performance Optimization
Dynamic workload placement enables organizations to capitalize on the strengths of different cloud providers. By analyzing current conditions, workloads can be strategically placed to utilize resources that offer the best performance at any given moment.
Cost Efficiency
Beyond performance, dynamic placement optimizes costs by leveraging cloud resources that are currently the most economical. This adaptive approach ensures that organizations are not only getting the best performance but also the most value for their cloud investment.
Scalability
Workloads are not static entities. They fluctuate in demand and complexity. Dynamic workload placement allows for automatic scaling, ensuring that resources are allocated and deallocated as needed, maintaining optimal performance even during peak usage periods.
Fault Tolerance
Placing workloads dynamically enhances fault tolerance. In the event of a cloud service outage or degradation, workloads can swiftly and automatically migrate to alternative, stable environments, minimizing downtime and ensuring business continuity.
The effectiveness of dynamic workload placement relies on real-time data and analytics. Continuous monitoring of performance metrics, cost trends, and resource availability empowers organizations to make informed decisions on workload placement. Automated tools and intelligent algorithms play a crucial role in this process, ensuring agility and responsiveness.
At go4hosting, we offer our clients a highly scalable cloud environment that adjusts to their unique client needs. We aim to offer you a service that is built for growth at a pocket-friendly price. Our pay-as-you-go model ensures that you only expend the resources you use, ensuring your utmost satisfaction.
My Two Cents
As industries evolve and centre around the cloud, a multi-cloud strategy emerges as the next game plan for many organizations. A VMware report states that about 95% of organizations believe that businesses that don’t adopt a multi-cloud approach risk failure.
Acknowledging that the journey to a multi-cloud environment is challenging, at go4hosting, we are committed to assisting you in navigating the intricacies of multi-cloud heterogeneity. Our focus is on ensuring seamless workload optimization, efficient operations, and robust security across diverse cloud environments.
The era of a single-cloud approach is fading, and a multi-cloud strategy is imperative for staying competitive. Don’t risk stagnation – leverage the power of multi-cloud to enhance flexibility, resilience, and performance.
Autonomic Computing- an idea introduced by the former vice president of research, IBM, Paul Horn, at Harvard University in March 2001. It is a visionary computing concept that aims to create self-managing and self-healing computer systems. It signifies the self-managing traits of distributed computing resources that recognize and understand any change in the system while taking appropriate corrective actions automatically without human intervention. This technology has evolved over the years. Over this period, it has been influenced by advancements in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and cyber-physical systems.
What Exactly is Autonomic Computing?
The concept of autonomic computing is inspired by the human body’s autonomic nervous system, which regulates body processes. The goal is
to
reduce the complexities of computer system management
improve self-healing,
foster self-optimization,
boost self-organization,
cultivate self-security.
Autonomic computing has the potential to remove flaws from cloud computing and enable intelligent, adaptive behaviors within systems. Thus allowing them to autonomously respond to changing environmental stimuli. It encompasses self-managing systems that can make flexible decisions, continuously inspect and optimize their own systems, and react to stimuli independent of human consciousness.
The architecture of autonomic computing includes essential components such as autonomic elements and autonomic managers, which enable the system to anticipate resource demand and perform self-healing, self-optimization, and self-protection. The interaction styles performed by sensor and effector operations include sensor healing state, sensor receive-notification, effector perform-operation, and effector call-out-request. This concept can be applied to various areas, such as IT infrastructure management, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.
Overall, the operational mechanism of autonomic computing is designed to create self-managing systems. It can operate with minimum human intervention, similar to the autonomic nervous system in the human body.
Characteristics of Autonomic Systems
Autonomic computing aims to develop computer systems capable of self-management, adapting to unpredictable changes while hiding intrinsic complexity to operators and users. IBM has illustrated four areas of autonomic computing as:
1. Self-Configuration
The system must be able to configure itself automatically according to the shifts in its environment. It should be able to add new components, configure its components, get rid of old or faulty ones, and reconfigure them without human interference or intervention.
2. Self-Healing
An autonomic system must have the property to repair itself. It should be able to identify faulty components, diagnose them using a corrective mechanism, and heal itself without damaging or harming any other system components.
3. Self-Optimization
According to IBM, an autonomic system must be able to perform optimally and ensure its performance is always at the highest level. It is also known as an autonomic system’s self-adjusting or self-tuning property.
4. Self-Protection
An autonomic system must be able to detect and identify various attacks on it. Moreover, it should be able to protect itself from security and system threats and maintain its security and integrity.
These characteristics make autonomic computing systems adaptive and self-managing. As a result, it can handle unpredictable environmental changes.
Comparative Analysis of Autonomic Computing and Cloud Computing
Cloud computing and autonomic computing are two distinct paradigms in the same field. The former is a model for delivering computing resources as services over the Internet. The latter is a concept that aims to increase reliability, autonomy, and performance. Each has advantages and challenges, and the choice between them depends on the organization’s or individual’s specific needs. Here is a comparative analysis of the two:
Cloud Computing
Autonomic Computing
Delivers infrastructure, platform, and software as services over the Internet.Allows consumers to start with small resources and increase them when needed, eliminating the need for advanced planning.Key challenges include the need for automated and integrated resource management.
Enables systems to adapt to changing environments and manage themselves automatically.Focuses on increasing reliability, autonomy, and performance.Key challenges include the need for scientific and technological advances. It also necessitates the new software and system architectures to support effective integration.
How Does Autonomic Resource Provisioning Work in Cloud Computing?
Autonomic resource provisioning in cloud computing involves using automated techniques to allocate and release computing resources based on the current demand. It is achieved through control MAPE loops, hybrid approaches, and MAPE-K loops, which enable automatic resource allocation and scheduling decision-making.
The elasticity of cloud computing allows for dynamic requests and the relinquishing of computing and storage resources. It helps boost user experience and reduce servicing costs. The Autonomic Resource Provisioning and Scheduling (ARPS) framework has been developed to provide decision-making capabilities for resource provisioning and scheduling in cloud platforms. It utilizes auto-scaling techniques to add or remove resources on the fly automatically. Thus maintaining optimal user experience while paying only for what has been consumed.
Benefits of Using Autonomic Computing in Cloud Infrastructure
The benefits of using autonomic computing in cloud infrastructure are significant. Autonomic computing brings self-managing characteristics to distributed computing resources, adapting to unpredictable changes while hiding intrinsic complexity from operators and users. Five key benefits of leveraging autonomic computing for cloud infrastructure include:
1. Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Autonomic computing decreases maintenance costs and deployment time while increasing the stability of IT systems through automation. Businesses can utilize the autonomics concept for automated purchase of reserve capacity, according to their needs. Moreover, the automated workload movement from one cloud provider to another will also boost cost efficiency.
2. Increased Efficiency
Autonomic systems can automatically provision and configure resources, improving performance and scalability. Businesses can utilize autonomic cloud computing to increase the machine type of workload employed to support non-horizontally scaling workload operations.
3. Self-Healing and Self-Optimizing Capabilities
Autonomic computing provides self-repairing and self-optimizing capabilities. It can lead to increased stability and reduced downtime. Automated data migration to another region can support the business service level agreements (SLAs). It can be further used for storage backup from one medium to another.
4. Security and Resilience
Businesses can benefit from the autonomic cloud system to change the endpoint or network security to the points that conform to established business policies. Autonomic systems can detect, identify, and protect themselves against various types of attacks, enhancing the overall security of the cloud infrastructure.
5. Automation and Reduced Human Effort
Autonomic computing reduces the need for human intervention in managing systems, leading to reduced human effort and operational costs. With its assistance, businesses can automate the shutdown of long-running or idle resources to support their business policies.
My Two Cents
The danger wasn’t considered real when IBM shared its vision of the impending software complexity management. There was research on the same; however, its impact on the industry was limited until cloud technologies came into the picture.
Autonomic computing is a valuable addition to cloud infrastructure. Businesses wouldn’t require extra resources to optimize cloud infrastructure’s cost, usage, or security. It will be executed automatically in accordance with business policies. By automating the management of IT resources and enabling self-adaptive systems, autonomic computing can help businesses and organizations achieve greater efficiency and agility in their cloud computing environments. It offers businesses a hassle-free and cost-effective cloud experience- the ultimate aim of go4hosting.
There aren’t many people aware of what Virtual machine is all about. Though with some free VM hosting out there, the trend has experienced a change, there still remains a large group completely unaware of the term. The trend is not the same among web administrators whom we have seen counting Virtual Machines (VM) as one of the vital organs of app and website development.
A Virtual machine can be exceptionally rewarding, provided you know the “where and how?” of its implementation.
Virtual Machines
Before I started tech-blog, I wrote reviews for a number of software trial-running them on my powerful computer that I had assembled over time. A lot of software that I tested were Beta-released programs and my machine often ran into a number of glitches that sometimes took a few weeks to resolve. It was then that I came to know about virtual machines. Though it has been more than a decade, I still find VM an essential tool as an individual.
A virtual machine basically creates a sandboxed environment within another environment. This allows the new environment to run as if it were an independent one; neither is the host machine able to detect that its resources have started to be utilized elsewhere.
This was one aspect that we all exploited – or to be appropriate, utilized, to our advantage. Virtual machines allowed me to create a parallel platform, co-existing with the host Operating System, to test-run applications. As a result, my computer rarely ran into glitches. Though I was invaded by malware once while trying to run an application, I could use my host machine without noticing any tangible difference.
Free VM hosting – potential as a business tool
There is a lot that you can do, even with a free VM hosting. Most providers are not very prohibitive of the services that free clients avail, though they may have some hidden conditions.
Cost-effectiveness
To say that VM hosting costs nothing would be way too optimistic, but it definitely saves pennies. Companies, especially the new ones, are constrained with funds and do not spend extra money on anything. Setting up a new machine to run a software shall bring down a bolt of lightning upon them, given the cost linked to it.
A wiser move would be to use an existing server with enough free space to accommodate the virtual machine.
Better utilization of resources
I was, at one point, astonished to learn my computer only used 25-30% of its processing capabilities, even though I had spent years of earnings building such a high RAID configuration. I felt cheated in an industry dominated by artifice.
Given that you pay for the complete hardware and not for the utilized 25%, the remaining resources should also be worked on in other tasks. Deploying a virtual machine will engage the hardware with additional applications and the resources will be utilized more efficiently.
Security measures
I deliberately ran an application infected with malware once while in a virtual system. Though there existed several advanced malware, then, that could break into the host from the VM, I was pretty sure this malware wasn’t one from the lot. I was eager to know the damage it (malware) was capable of inflicting when concealed within an application. The host machine worked fine, but my VM environment was totally destroyed. Even if I had run the infected program on my host machine, the virtual environment would have remained unaltered.
Many organizations deploy virtual machines to safeguard data from theft – be it cyber or physical. VMs provide an added layer of security that can have its own firewall and filters, snowballing the security to two-fold in the process.
Eased moving
There is no other platform that facilitates moving files as easily as virtual machines do. This allowed me to use my files every time my system ran into errors. All documents in a virtual environment are stored under a single file, which can then be copied and played in a virtual environment on a different machine. A regular operating system has numerous files within various directories; then there are sub-directories, .dll’, extensions, and various other files. This allows little scope for running in an external machine as all the data is to be copied in the exact same order, and at the top of it the external machine could run into bugs trying to boot these files up.
Limitations while running a VM
If you aren’t able to establish a virtual environment on any machine, here are some key considerations to be made while doing so:
Amount of resources free
If there are enough free resources, setting up a VM is not going to be much of an issue. However, machines crammed up with tasks do not have enough free CPU, or even if it has some free resource, the applications will run painfully slow post-deployment of a virtual environment.
Performance dip
One thing I noted with my high-end computer was that every time I added a virtual environment, my pre-existing applications shied from performing the way they used to before the deployment of VM. The truth is indeed, true. With a VM, the server is handling more tasks running concurrently, skewing the efficiency with which it ran. Though when running idle with a VM, there wasn’t much notable difference, it was almost insignificant, given the servers in an organization are never idle and are up to 24 hours a day.
Cloud-ready but not without cost
What has made VM a vigorous IT tool is that it comes tailored for future-ready cloud computing, but they have not achieved this without the cost. Organizations are compelled to move to cheap cloud computing and compromise on key attributes like security and reliability themselves. (or) Cheap cloud computing forces organizations to compromise on key attributes like security and reliability. (In this active voice version, the subject “organizations” is performing the action.) This adoption of cheap cloud server defeats the whole philosophy behind cloud – to make servers reliable and secure.
Advanced threats
When I look back to our college days, there were not as many threats as there are today. Though threat detection and elimination tech have gained some momentum now, cyber attackers have up-ed their game, too. I recently came across an individual in my forum who tried running a Trojan-infected program that broke-in to his host system and wrecked his machine.
Virtual environments are still as secure as they were back then, only the threats have advanced a bit.
Is VM an organization-worthy tool?
Virtual machines are not new to organizations, and have enjoyed their share of preferences over physical servers. Companies do not spend a penny extra on anything, especially on acquiring resources that pre-exist. As in my case, I used virtual environment to save money, organizations deploy a virtual environment to utilize their current server to its potential before establishing a new one.
The more machines there are, the more staff need to maintain them and the cost increases. One of the reasons why cloud servers are so fondly adopted is that cheap cloud computing is a nouveau solution to servers, and requires no additional workforce on the organization’s end.
How can individuals reap benefits out of VM?
You can split your desktop into two or as many parts using several VM applications that are available for free. You can run discontinued software or games by launching an older version of a compatible operating system. Or if you want to run a malware for fun, or out of curiosity, you can do that, too. If there are files you want to hide/backup, a virtual machine application will inevitably come to you.
Some popular programs to choose from are: Parallels Desktop, Oracle VM VirtualBox, and VMware Workstation Player.
Round-it-up
It is always better to try your hands with technology before committing yourself to one completely. We offer free VM hosting that you can try dabbling with at the start. If you’re still unsure of how Virtual machines can benefit you, you can contact our support staff here.
In terms of popularity among users across the globe, Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress are the most sought after Content Management Systems. The CMS contributes to the structural stability of the World Wide Web by building vital components for all websites.
As hackers thrive on loopholes and vulnerabilities inContent Management Systems, one needs to assess the level of preparedness in the face of an impending attack by cyber criminals. In fact, the popularity of CMS is directly proportional to its vulnerability to cyber attacks.
It is hardly surprising as to why the developers of Content Management Systems pay significant attention to securing these systems in the wake of perpetually existing online threats. Open source communities back the development of Content Management Systems, which is a feature they all share.
These solutions rely on add-ons as well as extensions to support core code to facilitate additional attributes. Every CMS solution has a unique approach as far as the security of the system is concerned. Although these platforms differ from each other in terms of security features, they share a common scripting language in addition to sharing conventional database management systems.
We take a look at the major security aspects that influence the use of three of the most popular content management systems.
WordPress
The popularity of CMS breeds hacking attempts. This statement aptly explains why WordPress is the most vulnerable CMS option. To further add to vulnerability of WordPress, there is a severe dearth of experts in the security team that includes a measly number of 25 engineers for the millions and millions of websites running on WordPress CMS.
The most important issue impacts boosts vulnerability of CMS platforms to hacking attempts is the presence of entry points that exist due to a large number of extensions and plug-ins that belong to third parties. More than 55 percent of WordPress vulnerabilities can be traced back to these entry points.
In spite of the fact that members of paid WordPress services are provided special attention, the threat of online attacks still persists. VIP clients of paid WordPress hosting are looked after by team of security experts that undertake through review of code to identify weak areas.
In addition to this the experts are also able to provide valuable guidance to mitigate maintenance related expenditure and chances of major disrupting events. Users will also receive valuable guidance regarding best practices and measures to update their platforms to keep hackers at bay.
Joomla
The only hardcore Content Management System among all major solutions discussed in this article, Joomla CMS, presents a steep learning curve due to its inherent complexities. Joomla is not meant for users who are looking for DYI solutions.
Joomla hosting provides a large volume of documents that instigate users to rely less on the system and perform special tasks to enhance security of their CMS platform. While configuring Joomla, there is always a possibility of creating loopholes despite its core being designed to be seamlessly secure.
Joomla provides a huge assortment of information to step up security measures and thus makes up for the excruciatingly inadequate security teams that include only thirteen personnel.
Drupal
Drupal’s seriousness regarding security of its platform reflects in its dedicated server hosting team of security professionals that comprises of developers who volunteer their expertise in securing the complex and huge volumes of content being handled by tech savvy users of Drupal Content Management System.
Large government and mission critical sites rely on Drupal CM for their security, making it clear that Drupal CM’s security credentials are robust. Major organizations consider Drupal to establish their online applications due to its capability of facilitating the management of critical data online. The majority of security experts and consultants to government organizations are unanimous about the security attributes of Drupal CMS hosting platform.
Drupal is the most scalable platform as compared with Joomla and WordPress CMS platforms and this establishes it as the perfect solution for large and complex sites that can be further expanded to accommodate larger volumes of information. Drupal allows seamless management of online information.
Statistical overview
The team of Drupal CMS has been successful in mitigation of vulnerabilities that were as high as 75 in the year 2008. In comparison to this, the latest figures put the total vulnerabilities in the last two years to just 29. This underlines the string will to keep vulnerabilities under control.
Cross-site scripting has caused most of the vulnerabilities in WordPress as well as Joomla CMS. On the other hand, Joomla has been dealing more with attacks of SQL injection as well as flaws in the execution of codes.
In conclusion
After studying the nature and incidence of vulnerabilities, one can conclude that Drupal is a far more reliable Content Management System as compared with Joomla or WordPress.
Switching to the cloud can be advantageous for businesses with dynamic needs and to keep pace with the constantly evolving digital scene. According to studies by Garner, this shift is likely to contribute to greater than a trillion in IT expenses at the turn of this decade. Managed cloud service providers are in great demand because they help organization to use the cloud optimally. They keep applications and critical data stored in a secure way.
Why should you avoid low-cost hosting solutions?
While you will find many third parties keen to offer these same benefits, you will notice that there are many differences in their services too. This makes it difficult to find the best solution for your needs. When you decide to settle for the low priced plans, you end up getting poor quality of service. There are frequent downtimes and loss of data. So, more and more businesses are gradually realizing the need to step away from hosting providers which offer low-cost solutions but compromise on performance.
What hosting plans are best suited for your website?
In this age of cutthroat competition amongst cloud vendors, there are even those which offer packages for throwaway prices. They promise to offer unlimited disk space and domains with their plans; the truth is, you will not be able to get these when you really need them. A possible reason for this is that many vendors use shared hosting. In this environment, the vendor shares its resources with many other businesses. So, if any of the other businesses has more activities on its site, it tends to over-use the resources. This consequently affects your site’s functioning and you may even go offline as a result. So, what actually started off as a way to reduce costs may end up costing you heavily in terms of your business reputation.
When you choose to sign up for virtual private servers, you find that you have more control over the server as compared to shared hosting. You are capable of handling unprecedented traffic peaks. This is possible as less numbers of users share the space. However, businesses will continue to compete against one another for these resources every time there is a traffic surge. While this is a far better option compared to shared hosting plans, it may not work that well when you start to get huge volumes of incoming traffic. Moreover, in VPS hosting, if the physical server collapses for some reason, all the virtual servers on it will automatically crash. So, when a business is really determined to score ahead of its competitors it is better to sign up for managed cloud hosting solutions which guarantees uptime and enhanced user satisfaction.
How can a managed cloud hosting provider help?
When you get managed cloud solutions, you will be provided with a single tenant infrastructure. This implies that you are isolated from traffic in other sites and not limited by hardware. Managed cloud hosting providers will allow you to configure the server to suit your specific needs. So, you get infinite flexibility and you can cater to fluctuating business demands and workloads.
In managed cloud hosting, resources are provided for a single client exclusively. So, there is no fight over resources like CPU or disk space with neighboring websites. This makes managed cloud services ideally suited for businesses which need additional capacity because of their dependence on multimedia applications.
When you choose managed solutions, you can expect to get very high service levels, better performance and higher reliability. This is perfect when you must scale up your resources to deal with sudden traffic surges.
Managed cloud hosting providers will have an experienced and capable technical team. Using their expertise, it is possible to customize the server to cater to the needs of any business. At the same time, the organization can use the resources optimally.
With managed cloud hosting, businesses enjoy superior capabilities for handling security. There are much lower chances of data getting affected by viruses and malware. This is because there are no chances of malicious activities happening in neighboring sites which can affect your site and slow it down.
There can be no definite answer as to which hosting solution is the best. Depending upon your needs, you should choose a provider. All said and done, a managed cloud service provider turns out to be the best possible option for companies that are aspiring for better performances, higher reliability and constant availability. Managed hosting is supposed to be more economical as well as with on-site hosting; you will be forced to bear ongoing IT costs for repair and maintenance purposes. Managed hosts will maintain complete control of the network, troubleshooting all technical issues as and when these occur. They carry out routine updates to make suredata security is not compromised. Choosing managed solutions is a wise decision as your data will always be backed up in some other location. You will not have to worry about instances of data loss.
You might have thought about what is cloud server hosting and how does it work? This post will give you an update about it in brief.
Cloud hosting services offer hosting over virtual servers that pull the estimating resources from comprehensive basic networks of physical web-based servers.
Usually, customers will knock into the service as long as it is required, based on their demands at any concerned stage. This will even result in financial savings as customers will solely have to do payment for what they utilize, and since they will access it at any instance of time, users do not have to spend for extra capability.
What is meant by Cloud Server Hosting?
Working of Cloud Server Hosting
Public Cloud
Several instances of cloud hosting entail the usage of public cloud structures; hosting across various virtual servers which pull the resource from a set of several virtual servers out there.
The similar public networks are utilized to send their information; information that is manually collected over the basic shared servers that built the cloud resource
Such public clouds can entail various safety measure to assure that the information is held private and will meet all the installations
Private Cloud
Private clouds are highly fit where encryption and privacy is much of importance.
Private clouds utilize ring-fenced resources, like servers as well as networks, whether situated across site or along with the cloud server provider.
Comparing Hosting service over Individual Servers:
Cloud hosting is a substitute for various hosting websites across individual servers (be it dedicated or even shared servers) and will be examined as an expansion of the notion of clustered hosting where those websites are hosted over numerous servers. With the usage of managed cloud hosting, although, the connection of servers which is utilized is huge and usually pulled from several data centres in varied regions. With available cloud hosting options, businesses are growing exponentially. Some instances of our cheap cloud server hosting will fall in the category of both Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) as well as Platform as a Service (PaaS) classes.
PaaS
The customer is even offered with the software-based environment, over which clients will reach directly to installation and development of the web-based application
Simpler to utilize in comparison to the IaaS feature
Ideal for those who are not so technically efficient
IaaS:
The customer is precisely offered with the respective virtualized hardware resource over which clients will install their preferred software-driven environment before constructing their web application
More personalized, hence accurate for businesses with complicated IT model
Ideal for experienced IT experts
Advantages and Features
RELIABILITY: Instead of getting hosted across an individual physical server, cloud hosting is provided over a virtual division that pulls its resource, like disk space, from a broad framework of basic physical servers. If a single server becomes offline it is going to have null effect in terms of availability, as various virtual servers can consistently draw resource from the left structure of servers.
PHYSICAL SECURITY: The basic physical servers are yet located inside data centers and thus various security measures which those features execute to avoid users accessing or interrupting them.
SCALABILITY: Resource is accessible within real time requirement and is not restricted to the physical capability of a single server. If a customer’s website, for an instance, requires an additional resource from the concerned hosting interface because of a spike under visitor traffic and the execution of latest operations, the resource is used smoothly.
UTILITY STYLE COSTING: The customer will solely do payment for what they really utilize. Various resources is accessible for spikes in requirement.
FLEXIBLE LOAD BALANCING: Load balancing is a software-driven feature and will, hence, be immediately measurable to reply to dynamic requirements.
Things you require from a robust cloud platform:
Automated vertical or horizontal scaling,
Broad selection of software stacks as well as technologies
Docker containers assistance
Intelligent orchestration of resources
Higher availability
Pay money for actual utilization
DevOps automation
Intuitive as well as customer-friendly UI
Self-supplying access
High marketplace with 1-click deployment of famous applications, add-ons, and even Docker containers
The Elastic Cloud
Go4hosting cloud measures the applications simply without any physical interference. In this manner customers do not have to pay extra for unutilized resources and without any requirement for making it highly complex adjustments or infrastructural architectural transformations.
Auto Vertical Scaling
Configure high RAM and CPU for every server. Our Cloud is going to adjust various resources (CPU and RAM) to provide the present requirement of their application.
Auto Horizontal Scaling
Configure the triggers for adding and eliminating website or application server nodes within their present environment. The server nodes can enhance or reduce in according to the defined triggers.
Traffic Distributor
Configure smart workload balancing of server nodes to accelerate working of requests, reduce client’s response delay and manage higher requests without any kind of failures.
High Availability (HA)
Allow session duplication for their cloud to copy the data center over various cloud examples within the similar cluster utilizing multicast. Node failure within the cluster is not going to impact their services.
Our Service
We are an award-winning platform and we offer cheap cloud server services. We even deliver public cloud framework however with dedicated network free-of-charge thus designing it in a private style. If you want to discover more about us, please visit Go4hosting website and speak to our experts today!
The only thing that is constant is change and it cannot be more evident than the adoption of newer technologies in the face of new trends in the domain of IT. Trends including open standards converged systems, and bi-modal IT can appear to be overwhelming. This underlines the necessity of preparing to meet the challenges of new changes that are being discussed here.
Challenges of multi-cloud commitments
The overall scenario in cloud computing and data centers in 2024 will be influenced by the continued growth of investments and an aggressive adoption factor of multi-cloud environments by a plethora of organizations. In fact, multi-cloud environments are set to become new normal in the year to come. There is going to be a shift from a single cloud service orientated businesses to public cloud services that would of dual-source nature to bypass vendor lock-in.
This will lead to newer challenges for data center service providers in terms of offering productive and easy solutions across several clouds. In the absence of such capabilities, true benefits of enterprise deployments in terms of greater efficiency cannot be availed.
Storage to be more short-lived
Growth in popularity of virtual as well as augmented reality, coupled with machine learning and artificial intelligence is expected to continue in 2024. These sources focus more on the results of analysis and not the data per se. This will reduce the importance of data storage for long term basis. Such practice of storing data will be not only impractical but will also be unnecessary. Since the importance of such data is going to be only momentary, it will not impact the overall growth of data storage requirement. Hence 2024 will not see much of data storage growth in spite of a massive growth in data generation.
CDNs to become leaner
There is an urgent need for present Content Distribution Networks to be replaced by more flexible and economical solutions that would be easy to deploy and operate. Do it Yourself CDN can be a great alternative in this perspective. These less expensive solutions can be built by leveraging software-defined architecture and public clouds. These will reduce the use of traditional and turn-key cloud CDN solutions that are highly expensive and complicated. Many organizations will achieve expertise in building their own CDNs that would be cleaner and simpler than the traditional CDNs.
Due to the amazing flexibility and ease of information sharing, hybrid clouds will be implemented in more and more organizations. Cloud solutions help enterprises adapt to their growing needs of business strategies. Integration of public and private cloud capabilities will have to be prioritized to deal with some of the issues that are being currently faced by a couple of organizations trying to acquire hybrid cloud architectures. The issues including protection and monitoring of data that is moving across different clouds need to be addressed more aggressively.
Greater need for security
With a growing reliance on cloud-based applications and the adoption of different service models of clouds, cybersecurity will assume greater significance in the ensuing year. Right now IT professionals attach more importance to need for skilled IT workforce in cloud technology rather than the requirement of cybersecurity personnel.
Cloud service providers will have to play a larger role in helping their client organizations set up infrastructure, security, and management tools for attaining the best possible performance of their cloud solutions. The responsibility of deployment and management of cloud will have to be shouldered by the new workforce. In 2024, the success mantra will be how to make the cloud work for you.
Optimization of cloud costs
In the initial stages of cloud adoption, many organizations were more focused on getting their services up and running. The maturing of cloud computing it was felt that the cost of cloud applications deserve to be optimized. This is highlighted by several studies that indicate a hesitant attitude of many enterprises in terms of cloud adoption due to impediments of costs.
Obviously, enterprises will have to search for solutions that can bring down the operating costs of cloud hosting services. The New Year 2024 will witness growth in a number of companies that offer economical cloud services. Optimization of cloud costs can be achieved by automated workload shutdown, integration of cost management tools with infrastructure, and shifting of inactive as well as active storage volumes.
Monetization of metadata
Organizations that are engaged in managing distributed systems are collecting huge volumes of metadata by default. The relevance of such meta data that deals with data will be appreciated by more and more companies who would use it for monetization. Client organizations can analyze this metadata for obtaining deeper insights. Customer insights generated by analyzing metadata can help organizations chalk out plans for new campaigns, product launches, and so forth.
Emergence of everything as software defined
The abstraction of the control plane from hardware is an important parameter of software-defined everything including servers, networking, storage, and even data centers among others. The real impact of software-defined components will be felt during the year 2024 since these are currently witnessing maturity.
To compare performances of cloud servers often benchmarks are used. Standardized benchmarks are used mainly for getting a wide range of comparison metrics. However, it is found to be more practical if one compares the performance of actual tasks undertaken by servers. So, the real test is to find out how much time you will be able to save if you run an app’s automated scripts on a stronger cloud hosting server.
To do this, it is necessary to compare performance of the Standardized Droplets and Optimized Droplets. The test application to be used to understand this is the React Boilerplate app. This contains a wide set of test scripts and since the tests are rather CPU-intensive, execution time has been selected as the comparison metric for these two Droplet configurations.
As default environment, a Standard $40 Droplet is used which has been configured with 4 CPUs, 8GB memory and 160GB SSD storage. For comparison purposes an Optimized $40 Droplet is chosen which is configured with 2 dedicated CPUs, 4GB memory and 25GB SSD storage. Both these Droplets run Ubuntu 16.04. Following the initial installation, the CPU architecture is verified by lscpu to create a basic firewall. Node.js is installed using PPA; the Node.js packet manager is needed for executing test scripts. Then the React Boilerplate is installed by cloning react-boilerplate repository. The utility program time is used for measuring time needed to execute the scripts. At first the Droplet performance in running this app’s test suite is compared with default settings through the time npm test. Since npm uses frameworks which can use all kinds of processors a single CPU comparison is also carried out to understand effect of CPU upon the performance.
When worker nodes are matched to the number of CPUs on a server, the fastest execution times can be obtained. The tests carried out reveal that the Optimized Droplet outperforms the Standardized Droplet in every test. When you compare cloud servers to improve the price-to-performance ration it is therefore necessary to test apps which you are planning on running on the servers besides comparing the standard benchmarks. When calculating the execution timings of the app’s automated tests, it was found out that the results improved when the Optimized Droplet is being used. When you have applications which perform in a similar manner and which do not use all CPUs, it is better to opt for the Standard Droplet as it has more memory. But when you run tests sequentially the Optimized Droplet will work faster. For computer-intensive apps using a single CPU this is an important to consider because it is wise to opt for the Optimized Droplet which comes for the exact price as Standardized Droplet. When your app runs in clustered mode with a definite number of CPUs, you can optimize price-to-performance by using the Standardized Droplet which has higher RAM, SSD storage and CPU compared to less numbers of high-end CPUs. For maximizing the price-to-performance of applications it is wise to test different Droplet configurations to calculate the execution timings of the tasks which you run on your web servers.
Although film studios may be eroding into oblivion, producers seem unperturbed. Producers are neither pessimistic nor dejected because they are open to changing with the changes around them. When they see new media creators profiting from newer avenues, they are willing to convert their conventional studios to try out the new technologies too. Revenues can be generated from other settings and new technologies such as cloud computing are helping to cut down movie production costs dramatically.
Cloud hosting India has evolved as the lifeline for sinking profit margins in Hollywood. The cloud is coming up with apps which are being offered to users without the hassle of going through long-term contracts. These new techniques, even if some of them are found to be disruptive, are establishing a far better connection between movie producers and viewers. Content creators now have the chance to come closer to their target audiences. Since the audience now has the option to use these technologies on a variety of devices, the old and new movie producers are being able to market their content better.
How can the cloud help movie creators?
Businesses typically turn to the cloud to cut down on their operational costs. Maintaining an IT infrastructure drains their finances and hiring IT staff to run this set-up is also very expensive. Without a superior IT team and infrastructure, businesses will make huge losses because of outages and equipment failures. So, a migration to the cloud is actually a wise decision in terms of cost-savings. More importantly, the cloud will allow these businesses to improve their productivity, lessen the infrastructure problems, eliminate downtimes, and reduce overheads.
The times have changes and unlike earlier when DVDs would rope in more than $20 billion every year, the sales have now come down to only $6 billion. The introduction of Blu-Ray discs did nothing to salvage the crisis. But Hollywood has now realized that buyers who have actually stopped buying these discs will be more likely to buy digital copies of films. The new sales patterns are not very encouraging and raise pertinent questions as to whether buyers will indeed spend to own digital films. Since digital sales have not been able to make up for the big losses, number of films being made has also sharply declined. Till now, movies studios were not really encouraging their buyers to buy movies online. Renting movies was more popular amongst the Americans. Today, studios are asking their buyers to purchase the movies digitally so that they can own them.
Hollywood has recently started a project to restore this industry to its cash-rich history. Besides Disney, almost all the big names like Sony Picture, Universal and Warner Brothers are supporting this project. The venture is called Ultraviolet and it is being backed by big retailers like Best Buy, by mobile phone makers like Nokia and IT groups like HP and Intel. The companies backing Ultraviolet stand to make huge profits if it is successful. In that case, the consumer will start to buy movies more and this will be a huge boost for the studios. The movie studios feel that the project will convince viewers to buy movies in digital versions. This will be possible when they can remotely stream the movies from cloud servers. Cloud streaming is found to be more attractive than downloading movies on hard discs. The main reason for this is that video files tend to occupy much space.
With Ultraviolet, buyers will have their own lockers and they can buy movies and stream these from clouds to any device, whether a smartphone or laptop. Studios are confident that this will increase sales. The best part about streaming from the cloud is that you can watch the movies on any device and also at any time. With rentals, you would have had to finish watching a movie within a specific time period like 24 hours or 48 hours. The problem with owning digital films earlier was that it could not be viewed on different devices. Moving films from one device to another was impractical. So, sales were not high at first. But with the cloud, this problem disappears. Buyers are open to buying films if they can watch these from any device. So, people who may have bought electronic copies can now share these with their loved ones many miles away through cloud hosting technologies. Since Hollywood will not be selling its movies in electronic formats, there will be even more profits as there are minimal distribution costs.
Today, Netflix has as many as 25 million subscribers. While most buyers are in the US, it is being launched in other countries too.
Looking for cloud hosting or want to know more about our services? Call us at 1800-212-2022 or Drop us a mail at [email protected].
The domain of information technology (IT) keeps on changing with innovative developments, leaving a huge impact in the manner in which the business is operated. In fact, the rapid transformation in information technology has overshadowed the performance of many traditional business management approaches and methodologies. For instance, the arrival of cloud server hosting has revolutionized the business landscape and it is reported to create new opportunities for enterprises, irrespective of size and business nature.
There is a revelation that most businesses are adopting cloud server hosting to manage productivity applications including email, document creation and sharing, and calendars. These companies use cloud computing in order to get respite from investing time and money required to run and maintain software on their own computers. It is interesting to note that businesses achieve innovation, agility and scalability soon after the deployment of cloud computing technology, thus promoting greater connectivity for the end user from virtually anywhere, anytime with support of the Internet.
Every business wishes to deliver file sharing and unified communications from the cloud with the support of the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. This is because the services of cloud server hosting are rendered by a service provider and as a result, the enterprise can get the leverage to focus on its core business function rather than allocating resources to meet IT infrastructure needs.
According to reports, adoption rate of cloud server hosting among small and mid-level businesses is projected to higher than that of large enterprises. The analysis isn’t astounding, perceiving that ease of access to advanced software and enterprise-based applications without spending on purchasing and maintaining them paves the way for relatively smaller businesses to go at par with larger companies in terms of productivity, service delivery capability, and sales and profit.
The advantages associated with cloud hosting are manifold, beginning with cost savings. The main savings are a result of the absence of capital expenditure to purchase a software or hardware. Besides, companies also reap the benefits of lower administrative costs, improved utilization of resources, fast and easy implementation, pay as you use model, improved service quality and disaster recovery while adopting cloud server hosting.
With its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT had gained worldwide attention. Although it was not the first model of generative AI, it brought a hasty curiosity among the crowd. People were in awe of software that could provide them with quick answers, craft content and assist in coding programs. But, after a year, one question has been bugging the experts: is the current generative AI framework secure and reliable?
AI tools like Deepfake, where one can create convincing images, videos and audio hoaxes, have proved to be a dangerous aspect of generative AIs. In 2020, multiple hoax videos of US President Joe Biden were circulated, where he was portrayed in exaggerated states of cognitive decline. These videos were intended to influence the election. Unfortunately, it is one of the few incidents that highlighted the perils of generative AI. If actions are not taken to regulate the capabilities of AI, it can unleash nightmarish scenarios.
Generative AI: The Dark Side
Generative AI has been hailed to be revolutionary, changing the way we work. However, experts are voicing out about the dangers it brings to the world. The hoax videos of US President Joe Biden, as discussed above, are just the tip of the iceberg: AI has the power to alter your perception.
Social Manipulation
We trust everything we see and hear. But what if a false narrative created by generative AI distorts the reality you perceive? What if someone created a fake video of a terrorist attack that never happened? Imagine the chaos it will create among the public.
Deepfake and AI voice changers are infiltrating the social and political spheres. They are employed to create realistic audio clips, videos and photos and even replace one image with another. In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a video of Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelensky was released, where he was asking his troops to surrender, creating confusion in warfare.
The power of generative AI to share misinformation and war propaganda and socially manipulate situations can create a nightmarish scenario in the world. Those days are not far when we won’t be able to distinguish what’s real and what’s not.
Generating Misinformation
Have you ever reviewed the terms of use of ChatGPT? It clearly warns the user that the generated information might not be accurate and they must follow due diligence.
“Artificial intelligence and machine learning are rapidly evolving fields of study. We are constantly working to improve our Services to make them more accurate, reliable, safe and beneficial. Given the probabilistic nature of machine learning, the use of our Services may, in some situations, result in incorrect Output that does not accurately reflect real people, places, or facts. You should evaluate the accuracy of any Output as appropriate for your use case, including by using human review of the Output.”
Even Google Bard admits it shortcoming:
A research by Stanford University and UC Berkeley points out the clear difference between two versions of chatGPT (GPT-3.5 and GPT-4)
“We find that the performance and behavior of both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 can vary greatly over time. For example, GPT-4 (March 2023) was reasonable at identifying prime vs. composite numbers (84% accuracy) but GPT-4 (June 2023) was poor on these same questions (51% accuracy). This is partly explained by a drop in GPT-4’s amenity to follow chain-of-thought prompting. Interestingly, GPT-3.5 was much better in June than in March in this task. GPT-4 became less willing to answer sensitive questions and opinion survey questions in June than in March. GPT-4 performed better at multi-hop questions in June than in March, while GPT-3.5’s performance dropped on this task. Both GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 had more formatting mistakes in code generation in June than in March. We provide evidence that GPT-4’s ability to follow user instructions has decreased over time, which is one common factor behind the many behavior drifts. Overall, our findings show that the behavior of the “same” LLM service can change substantially in a relatively short amount of time, highlighting the need for continuous monitoring of LLMs.”
The above terms of use and studies reveal the need to double-check every piece of information generated by AI.
Data Privacy
Did you know that AI also collects your data to customize the user experience and train the model? It raises data privacy and security concerns. Where is the collected data stored, and how is it used?
Mr. Zoe Argento, co-chair of the Privacy and Data Security Practice Group at Littler Mendelson, P.C., in an article for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), called out the risks of generative AI and data disclosure concerns, “The generative AI service may divulge a user’s personal data both inadvertently and by design. As a standard operating procedure, for example, the service may use all information from users to fine-tune how the base model analyzes data and generates responses. The personal data might, as a result, be incorporated into the generative AI tool. The service might even disclose queries to other users so they can see examples of questions submitted to the service.”
Several cases have been reported where healthcare professionals enter patient information into the chatbots to generate reports and streamline processes. It leads to exposure of sensitive data to a third-party system that may not be secure. Moreover, the collected data may not even be safe from other user’s access. In 2023, chatGPT allowed some of its users to see titles from other active users’ chat history. Thus raising privacy concerns.
Ethics and Integrity
Not only political figures, journalists, and technologists, but even religious leaders are also raising the alarm about the dangerous consequences of generative AI. In a 2019 Vatican meeting, Pope Francis warned against the AI circulating tendonitis opinions and false data. “If mankind’s so-called technological progress were to become an enemy of the common good,” he added, “this would lead to an unfortunate regression to a form of barbarism dictated by the law of the strongest.”
Hoax images and videos, hurting religious sentiments, can create a tense environment in the nations.
Responsible Generative AI Framework: Pillar of Supports
Aren’t the above facts alarming?
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, the importance of ensuring responsible and ethical use of generative models becomes paramount. It is based five key principles:
1. Transparency
Transparency stands as a foundational pillar in responsible AI. It involves providing clear insights into how generative models operate, the data they use, and the decision-making processes behind their outputs. Transparent AI systems empower users and stakeholders to understand, challenge, and trust the technology. This transparency extends not only to the technical aspects of the model but also to the intentions and objectives driving its development.
2. Accountability
Accountability is another critical principle that underpins responsible generative AI. Developers and organizations must take responsibility for the impact of their AI systems. It includes acknowledging and rectifying any biases or unintended consequences that may arise during deployment. Establishing clear lines of accountability ensures that, in the event of issues, there is a framework for addressing them, promoting a culture of continuous improvement.
3. Fairness
Fairness in AI is a multifaceted challenge. Generative models, like other AI systems, can have inherent biases present in their training data. It is imperative to recognize and rectify these biases to avoid perpetuating discrimination or reinforcing existing societal disparities. Striving for fairness involves not only addressing bias in the training data but also in the design and deployment of AI systems, ensuring equitable outcomes for diverse user groups.
4. Privacy
Privacy is a paramount concern in the age of AI, and responsible generative AI must prioritize safeguarding user information. Developers should implement robust privacy-preserving measures, ensuring that generated content does not inadvertently disclose sensitive information. Striking the right balance between the utility of AI and the protection of individual privacy is essential for building trust in generative AI applications.
5. Say No to Biased Training Data
Avoiding biased training data is a fundamental aspect of responsible AI development. Biases in training data can result in discriminatory or undesirable outputs from generative models. Developers must carefully curate and preprocess data to minimize biases and continuously assess and address any emerging issues during the model’s lifecycle. A commitment to unbiased training data is central to creating AI systems that align with ethical standards and societal values.
Cloud: Establishing Foundation for Responsible Generative AI
Since generative AI relies heavily on computing power and lightning-fast handling of large datasets, cloud servers can be an exceptional platform to create generative AI.
In November, 2023 TCS announced its ties up with Amazon Web Service to launch generative artificial intelligence practice. It will focus on using responsible AI frameworks to build a comprehensive portfolio of solutions and services for every industry.
Are you wondering how cloud can help in creating a responsible generative AI framework? Let’s find out!
Data Security and Privacy
A responsible generative AI framework must prioritize data security and privacy. Cloud hosting can ensure the same by implementing robust security measures and creating a secure environment for handling sensitive data. Moreover, compliance certifications, access controls and encryption provided by cloud servers can help AI developers build and deploy models in a secure and ethically responsible manner.
Transparency and Accountability
Another crucial aspect of responsible generative AI framework is transparency and accountability. Cloud servers offer monitoring and logging tools that enable developers to track the behavior of generative AI models throughout their lifecycle. This transparency not only aids in identifying potential biases or ethical concerns but also empowers developers to address issues promptly, aligning with responsible AI practices.
Ethical Considerations
Integrating ethical considerations into the AI development process is simplified by the accessibility and versatility of cloud services. Developers can leverage pre-built ethical AI tools and frameworks available on cloud platforms, streamlining the implementation of fairness, interpretability, and accountability measures. This ensures that ethical considerations are not an afterthought but an integral part of the AI development workflow.
Regulations
The responsible use of AI also involves complying with regulations and standards. Cloud providers often invest in achieving and maintaining compliance certifications for various regulatory frameworks. This facilitates the adherence to data protection laws, industry standards, and ethical guidelines, reinforcing the responsible deployment of generative AI models.
Collaborations
Collaboration is another aspect where cloud computing enhances responsible AI development. Cloud platforms provide a collaborative environment, allowing teams to work seamlessly on AI projects regardless of geographical locations. This facilitates knowledge sharing and diverse perspectives, contributing to the identification and mitigation of ethical challenges in generative AI.
My Two Cents
Generative AI has influenced industries worldwides. It has automated tasks, enhanced user experience and improved content creation. It has streamlined workflows and opened up new possibilities. However, its perils can’t be ignored.
Responsible generative AI is the need of the hour. With the rising cases of scams and hoax videos leading to financial and reputational damages, it is important to create a framework that aligns with human ethics and values. An unbiased, fair and accountable AI will help foster trust among users and negate negative consequences.
Since AI heavily depends on the cloud, the latter can serve as a pillar of support for the development of a responsible artificial intelligence framework. Integrating go4hosting’s cloud services with generative AI, like GPT-3, can transform your business by offering scalable computing resources and advanced language capabilities. It can streamline operations, automate repetitive tasks, and provide personalized user experiences, ultimately contributing to increased productivity and innovation in your business, all the while ensuring integrity, safety and unbiasedness.
Remember, generative AI demands accountability at every step, from the developer to the user. Together, we can create a secure technological environment for the upcoming generation.
Have questions?
Ask us.
By continuing to use and navigate this website, you are agreeing to the use of cookies Find out more.
