Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Learn How To Buy Cloud From GovLoop & ViON


"Government IT managers must accept that cloud computing services are services, not the purchases of technology. This usually represents a fundamental change in how technology is acquired and managed. Since the transaction doesn’t involve any physical entity, procedures and processes associated with the inspection, acceptance, inventory and management of IT may not apply. New parallel policies that apply to virtual the delivery of virtual services must, instead, be developed and put in place."

Do you know how to buy cloud?
  • What are the common procurement misconceptions?
  • What key terms you need to be looking for in a cloud?
  • What are the common cloud procurement mistakes and how do we avoid them?
  • How do we write cloud computing procurements?
  • What are the different types of cloud and what are the best procurement methodologies for each?
  • What is FedRAMP and what does it mean to me?
http://direct.govloop.com/Cloud-procurement?utm_source=Sponsor&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=GovCloud

Date: Thursday, February 19, 2015 
Time: 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM ET
Location: Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel
999 Ninth St, NW
Washington, DC 20001


( This content is being syndicated through multiple channels. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of GovCloud Network, GovCloud Network Partners or any other corporation or organization.)


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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

A VETS 360 BENEFIT - LATINO FILM INDUSTRY POST OSCAR PARTY

 
 GUESS WHO SUPPORTS 
VETS 360?



You can support them too at the:
THE OFFICIAL LATINO FILM INDUSTRY POST OSCAR PARTY

https://www.facebook.com/LatinoFilmIndustryThe Veterans 360 mission is to support our young combat veterans as they integrate into civilian life. In line with their four pronged approach (engagement, education, employment, and healing), and to help veterans get the skills necessary to obtain employment with a solid future, they leading the way with emerging technology courses.

 

 

Vets360 Will Offer Two Exciting Courses 

In Q1 2015

  • Cloud Technology Course: 6 weeks—virtual & classroom—Information Session Jan 22nd, Class starts beginning of March—actual date TBD
  • Certified Ethical Hacker: 8 weeks—virtual & classroom course—graduate with a CEH credential –Information Session Mid-February. Class starts late March 2015

I would like to thank the Latino Film Industry for their generous support of Veterans 360. 

The Official Latino Film Industry Post Oscar Party
February 22, 2015, 7pm-4am

Proceeds Benefiting "Veterans 360"
VETERANS 360 | VETERANS 360 IS A REGISTERED NON PROFIT 501(C) 3 #45-3713823
http://vets360.org/




http://vets360.org/


Featuring Celebrity DJ's: DJ Mike Ski Degracia & DJ Mijangos
Includes Food & Beverages
Craft Services Provided By Celebrity Chefs:
Chef Jeff Roberto, Chef Keoni Simmons
Chef Bob & Chef Dave Fults

Must Be 21 Years and Older

Special Celebrity Appearances that include
Film,Music & MMA
Total Combat MMA Will Be In The House

For Invitations and Tickets
Contact LFI at: LatinoFilmIndustry@gmail.com
or: info@LatinoFilmIndustry.org
 

Press Passes Available-Please Contact Us To Submit Credentials
Corporate Sponsorship & Media Sponsorships are available upon vetting.

Event Location

http://www.muselifestylegroup.com/WEB/playhousenightclub/epk/#/Home-01-00/


The Playhouse Hollywood Blvd. West Hollywood CA
6506 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90028

( This content is being syndicated through multiple channels. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of GovCloud Network, GovCloud Network Partners or any other corporation or organization.)

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Cloud Musings
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2012)



Sunday, January 18, 2015

South Asia’s Biggest Tech Event - “Digital World 2015”



 I am proud and honored to announce that I have been added as a speaker at SouthAsia’s biggest tech event “Digital World 2015” , 9th - 12th February, 2015 at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center Dhaka, Bangladesh. 
The event will also be attended by the Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina along with local and International Ministers. Digital World 2015 will:
  • Showcase achievements of Bangladesh in ICT
  • Provide a platform for free-flow of ICT related ideas where global ICT think tanks share their thoughts resulting in enriching Bangladesh's Knowledge and guiding toward achieving Vision 2021.
  • Showcase of tangible achievements (in terms of Software Products and IT Enabled Services) of Bangladesh in ICT sector; and
  • Provide an ICT knowledge and idea sharing platform
500,000 attendees are expected to enjoy the five specific zones:
http://www.digitalworld.org.bd/home
  • BASIS Softexpo - Although over the last couple of years BASIS SOFTEXPO has drawn significant attention than any other ICT events, it is still important to remind the audience about the purpose of BASIS SOFTEXPO.
  • E-governence Expo - The use of ICT in government services has seen mentionable progress in last few years, which was highlighted in this event. The different ministries exhibited E-Services provided by the government. They highlighted the development of different Government Sectors towards the goal to achieve a "Digital Bangladesh".
  • Mobile Innovation Expo - As smart phones gained tremendous popularity among people, Bangladesh is getting attention from global smartphone industry as an emerging innovator of smartphone related software. App development is a brilliant example that has brought many successes for Bangladesh in recent years. This was one of the key attractions of this year's event.
  • BPO Expo - Through rapid move toward digitization and Bangladesh is the new destination for outsourced jobs. Economic labor is a plus for Bangladesh to get outsourced jobs. How this opportunity can be nurtured effectively to get the optimum benefit was agenda in this year's event.
  • e-Commerce Expo - As E-Governance facilitates ecommerce, our country has seen tremendous growth of ecommerce sites in last couple of years. This was another area of attention of this year's event.
http://www.digitalworld.org.bd/registration



ICT is the backbone of any digital initiative as it covers the vast area of information technology, communication technology and the telecommunication technology. ICT is also a combination of physical backbone and intellect. Computer systems, network machineries, software, wire and wireless connectivity systems, broadcast hardware and many other hardware and accessories are the physical backbone. The trained human behind the backbone are the intellect. Digital Bangladesh is an Idea that includes the IT use for management, administration and governance to ensure transparency, accountability and answerability at all levels of society and state. To materialize the idea of digital Bangladesh, development of countrywide backbone and expected number of human recourses are the basic needs.

Despite having 50 years of history the government has only from 1997 started the process of developing a national ICT strategy. In 2002 Bangladesh identified ICT as a "thrust sector” as it represents potential for quick wins in reforms, job creation, industry growth, improving governance and facilitating inclusion, and it has high spillover effects to other sectors. Today, in Bangladesh, the overall IT sector (excluding telecoms) is small, valued at $300 million, with IT/ITES claiming 39% ($117 million) of that value. The overall IT/ITES industry has enjoyed a high growth rate of 40% over the last five (5) years and this trend is expected to continue.

Media coverage at this event will include:
  • More than 22+ TV channel;
  • More than 100+ print and online media; and
  • Over 200,000+ Social media fans.
Please contact me through Twitter at @Kevin_Jackson or LinkedIn.

( This content is being syndicated through multiple channels. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of GovCloud Network, GovCloud Network Partners or any other corporation or organization.)

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( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2012)



Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Fear Hackers? First invest in an IT security culture change


by
Kevin L.Jackson


 With all the news these days about cyberterrorism and hacking the cloud may seem like the last place you would want to put your precious information. Pew Research has even suggested that cyber-attacks are likely to increase. Some 61% of over 1600 security expert respondents to a recent survey said “yes” that a major attack causing widespread harm would occur by 2025, according to the Pew Research study. The cold hard fact, however, is that fear of the cyberterrorist and hackers, while definitely valid, is mostly misplaced.  I hold this contrarian view, because when you pull back the curtain on many of the recent breaches, you’ll likely see a mirror!


In a recent case, sensitive data including passwords seem to have been stored in the clear which is against all recommended best practices. There also may have been significant involvement from a company insider.  Focusing on application hacks, some of the most devastating have been due to a failure of the application developers to follow some basic best practices for application development.  Another important fact is that most of these breaches were not on cloud service providers.  These successful attacks were on enterprise built and managed IT infrastructures.


Our failure to protect our information and data is mostly due to our less than focused attitude towards cybersecurity.  Policies, procedures and processes play an important part in preventing security incidents but more is needed.  Every organizational employee must realize that they could be an entry point for hackers and be aware of their individual actions.  IT professionals must follow industry standard best practices for application development, network configuration, system configuration, etc. Many of which have gone through multiple iterations over the years. Everyone must also be proactive in their identification and response to cyber threats.  What I am describing is the need for a cultural change.


Creating a risk-conscious and security-aware culture is key to protecting an organization’s information infrastructure and data assets, risk management expert John P. Pironti wrote in 2012 ISACA Journal article. Business leaders must begin viewing information security as a benefit, rather than as an obstacle, and employ threat and vulnerability analysis – rather than fear and doubt – to drive adoption of points of view and controls
So let us first focus on changing our IT security culture. That will give us the edge we need in order to prevail over the cyber underworld.  We also must adopt a “trust-but-verify approach to monitoring and oversight of organizational and employee activities”. This would involve the adoption and expansion of automated security control point monitoring and reporting.  This, in fact, is a strength of any well designed and implemented cloud computing platform.


(This post was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. To learn more about tech news and analysis visit Tech Page One. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are our own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies.)




Cloud Musings
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2012)