5 simple steps to controlling cloud access

How IT can bring order and accountability to public cloud usage without getting in the way of progress

Every technology success story is also a story of unintended consequences. Take virtualization, for instance. Virtualization gave us unprecedented utilization of hardware resources. It transformed a provisioning process that used to take months into one that now takes minutes. It gave us flexibility and speed that was once unimaginable and formed the core foundation of the public cloud and private cloud platforms so prevalent today.

However, with that speed and access to public clouds came the ability to circumvent established processes, also known as “shadow IT.” Today line-of-business teams simply swipe credit cards on public cloud providers to get the self-service, on-demand provisioning they can’t get from their internal IT departments. 

Cloud anarchy is shadow IT’s better-behaved cousin. You’ll find it in IT shops that centralize cloud accounts that get passed around among different line-of-business teams, so that at least the accounting funnels through one place in the IT bureaucracy. In truth, IT typically doesn’t have much control over who is deploying what or where. Instead of per-team or per-individual usage line items, IT only sees the final bill.

Among the strengths of a cloud management platform is that it can apply the governance IT needs without sacrificing the flexibility and speed the business demands. Line-of-business teams get that highly prized self-service, on-demand provisioning, and IT can anoint specific applications -- like those passing security audits -- and dictate who is allowed to access the applications and from where. Add metering and billing to keep track of who is spending what, and IT gets accountability without hampering line-of-business agility.

What does such governance look like? Here are five ways to implement governance of public cloud usage that successfully avoids cloud anarchy:

Google will let you navigate around your phone, hands-free

Need to use your Android phone but your hands are tied up? A new voice feature from Google can help.

Voice Access, currently in beta status, allows you to move around the screen, jump to other screens and open apps through your voice. You can utter specific commands, such as "Open Chrome" or "Go home." Voice Access also places numbers next to icons and other objects on a screen. So you can say the number associated with an item to access it.

Smartphones play a vital role in helping people communicate, find information and manage their lives, all with a few taps. But people with disabilities can sometimes feel cut off from the technology designed to help us.

Voice Access is part of Google's effort to make its phones more accessible to people with disabilities that prevent them from using their hands or seeing the screen clearly. Apple has its own iPhone technology called VoiceOver, which reads whatever you tap on the screen, a helpful option for people who are blind or visually impaired.

"We recently launched Voice Access Beta, an app that allows people who have difficulty manipulating a touch screen due to paralysis, tremor, temporary injury or other reasons to control their Android devices by voice," Google said in a blog post Monday.

Those who want to try Voice Access Beta are out of luck for now. The program is apparently full. The Voice Access page says: "At this time, the testing program has enough testers and isn't accepting more users."

Voice Access joins other Google features designed for people with disabilities. Google Docs users can create and edit documents using their voice. Google Chromebooks include a screen reader called ChromeVox that helps people use text-to-speech software to navigate the screen. The next version of Android will offer a Vision Settings screen through which you can manage the font size, display size and other attributes.

Source: Cnet

Use Facebook Messenger to send and receive money

It's a little-known fact that Facebook's chat app can also make like PayPal.
Here's how to set it up.
Remember when Facebook Messenger broke out of Facebook proper? A lot of users, including yours truly, were seriously irked. Why did we have to switch to entire different app just to chat with a Facebook friend?
Turns out Facebook had bigger plans for Messenger, including voice calls, chat bots, chess games and -- who knew? -- mobile payments.
It's true: You can use the Facebook Messenger app to send and receive money, PayPal-style.

Well, not quite -- Messenger payments require a debit card on both ends of the transaction. But there's no cost to use the service, which offers PIN-based protection and "industry-leading security," according to Facebook. Here's how to get started:

Add a debit card to Facebook Messenger so you can send and receive money.

VMware goes after Outlook with Boxer email app for AirWatch

VMware launched a new version of the Boxer iOS app for companies using VMware to manage their employees' mobile devices

It seems like every major tech company needs to have an email app these days, and VMware is no exception. The company launched a new version of the Boxer iOS app today for companies using VMware to manage their employees' mobile devices.

Make sure your online accounts get deleted when you die

Not everyone wants to leave this earth with their online accounts being managed by relatives and next-of-kin, or just floating around on the Internet forever. If you're the kind of person who likes your privacy -- even in death -- you should probably make some plans to have all of your online and social media accounts nuked when you pass away.

Some services, such as Google and Facebook, let you set up your eventual account deletion before you get anywhere close to death. Other services will keep your account forever unless an immediate family member or the executor of your estate requests it be removed. Here's how to make sure all your loose ends are tied up, and that nobody ever gets hold of your top-secret/possibly incriminating emails and Twitter direct messages.

'It's prehistoric!' Today's teens react to Windows 95

Teens give Windows 95 a spin and learn about a time when dial-up Internet and patience were required to run a desktop computer.

Way before we all had easy-to-use laptops and Wi-Fi, there were desktop computers that used Windows 95.

Those of use who still remember using Windows 95 might recall how long it would take computers to boot up and the sweet sounds of a modem connecting to the Internet.

In this latest "Teens React to Technology" video from new-media production duo Benny and Rafi Fine (also known as The Fine Brothers), we see today's teens try to figure out how to use a computer running Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system.

"Windows 95 had its 20th anniversary last year, so we got our hands on an old system and showed it to teenagers who were not even alive in 1995," Benny Fine told. "The results, were pretty great and also makes you feel quite old."

Teen actor Karan Brar, age 17, guest stars on the episode. Brar is best know for his roles in "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" films and the Disney Channel TV series "Jessie" and "Bunk'd."

When Brar first turned on the old computer to get started he commented in the video, "Everything looks so dull and ancient."

Some highlights of the video include a teen thinking this was the first computer ever made, complaints of how long it takes to boot up, not understanding how to get to the Internet without Wi-Fi, and not knowing what a modem is. 

"It's scary to think that Wi-Fi is like so vital to us now," Morgan, age 19, said in the video. "If you go somewhere and they don't have Wi-Fi, that's the worst thing that can ever happen to you."

While it's easy to mock the teens in the video for not knowing how to use the kind of computers that many of us older folks were used to back in the day, that doesn't mean they don't appreciate the tech relic placed before them.

"Those who know technology should know something beyond the current, they need to know part of the past," Ethan, age 18, said in the video. 

Trying out Windows 95 sparked an interesting discussion about how technology has evolved.

"One teen reminded us all we may be upset with them for taking this old tech for granted, but it's not their technology," Fine added. "We may have felt the same way about things 20 years older than us when we were teens."

Source: Cnet

Google Docs adds automatic outline feature

It's now easier to navigate lengthy documents with Google Docs on the Web and Android.

I use Google Docs for all of my writing, from CNET blog posts and other writing for work to quick lists and tried-and-true recipes. I opened up Google Docs this morning to start my daily labor to find an outline panel on the left side of my document. It had recognized the bold headers in my document and used them to create an outline that I could use to jump to different parts of my document without needing to scroll. It's a convenient time saver for browsing through lengthy documents.

If Google Docs doesn't offer this new feature upon your next visit, you can enable it by going to Tools > Document outline. The Outline panel sits to the left of your document and lets you jump to different spots with a single click.

Parody site drags Reddit 1,000 years into the future

Nobody can truly see into the future, but a spoof website imagines what popular social news and discussion site Reddit would look like 1,000 years from now and it sure feels real.

Reddit3016 takes a deep dive into a world where Mars is populated, people slice genes for fun, and pocket whales are the hot pet trend. The look is spot-on, right down to the light-blue banner across the top.

Reddit3016 is thick with inside jokes. There's a post noting that subreddit category /r/cringe is now /r/ShameSingularity. Cringe is known as a hotspot for people who want to share their most embarrassing moments. In 3016, it becomes known as the place where "all humiliation across the universe will be transcendentally absorbed, experienced and shared in total."

On Reddit3016, the world of Star Wars is real. There's a subreddit called "/r/DebateAJedi" and there's a reference to a future Netflix called Holoflix acquiring the rights to the Bible and creating a Boba Fett crossover.

How to easily toggle alerts in Skype chats

Getting annoyed with alerts from one of your Skype chats? There's a fast way to turn them off.

Skype's group conversations are a convenient way to stay in touch with family, friends, or coworkers from your computer. But sometimes the constant stream of blips and beeps for new messages can be frustrating if you need to focus on another task.

Disabling notifications for all chats means you may miss something important if you also use Skype for work. And leaving a group conversation means you can't catch up on what was said later. Luckily, there's a quick way to disable alerts on a group-by-group (or individual) basis, and still get notified if someone mentions you by name. Here's how:

Note: For Mac users, these commands are available, but do not work consistently, according to Skype support.

Toggling alerts

• Open the chat window you want to disable alerts for. This can be a group or individual chat.
• Type /alertsoff, then press Enter. You will not see a confirmation message, but alerts for this chat are now disabled and no notification counters will appear on the Skype icon.
• When you want to enable alerts for the chat again, simply type /alertson. Again, you will not see a confirmation message.

Trigger word alerts

After turning off alerts, you can set up trigger words that will still alert you when mentioned in the chat.

• If you type /alertson [yournamehere], you'll be notified and your name will be highlighted.
• You can expand on this trigger by adding more words with spaces between them. So if your name is David and you like talking about basketball, you can use /alertson david basketball.

Now you won't have to hear every alert, just the ones pertaining to you or your interests.

Source: Cnet

Get Gmail features for Yahoo and Outlook accounts on Android

Gmail may not be the only email provider you use, and that's why Google added the ability to access other email accounts through their app. Unfortunately, those non-Gmail accounts didn't gain access to the features that make Google's version of email so great. Now Google is changing that by letting you Gmailify your Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail/Outlook.com accounts.

So what exactly is Gmailify? It's a shorthand version of forwarding your email from other services to Gmail. That way, Gmail can offer you some of its best features. Here's some of the perks you can expect, according to AndroidPolice, and how to set it up:

• Better spam protection
• Sorting into Gmail categories
• Advanced search capabilities
• Itineraries appearing in Google Now

Note: This feature is rolling out in Gmail version 5.11. If you are not on this version yet, you can download and install it from APKMirror.

The cloud and the Internet of things are inseparable

The Internet of things requires the cloud to work, and the cloud will evolve to better serve IoT

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week featured plenty of cloud-related announcements from a wide variety of companies. Indeed, most new devices, from refrigerators to cars, have a massive cloud-based back end. The cloud components of these technologies are becoming more systemic. Indeed, the cloud is assumed.

More and more, people expect everything to be connected. No matter if it’s a washer and dryer, a refrigerator, or a car, they all communicate or will communicate with cloud servers. Why? Companies that make these devices understood early on that it does not make sense to keep all the smarts and storage in the device itself, and these devices must be instantly upgradable for them to have long-term value. Think about your TV service or smartphone updates. That's how cars and thermostats -- and eventually everything else that’s electronic in your home -- are beginning to work.

However, there are downsides to all this connectivity -- security, for one. Although I don’t mind my TV getting hacked, I am concerned about the connected car I’ll be driving. Worse, I’m not seeing a focus on security by manufacturers. It’s going to take a few close calls for the industry to wake up and understand that anything connected must come with well-defined and well-implemented security.

We’ll see a lot of growth in cloud-based services for devices in the next few years, much of it from Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft, plus some from purpose-built clouds that device developers may share or use exclusively. We’ll see growth in compute and storage services to support these devices, and we'll see upgrades in communications networks, including higher-speed cellular systems that will rival the pace of home networks.

Keep in mind that this is not some future development. It’s happening right now. Look at the number of devices that are connected to your Wi-Fi hub at home as evidence that we’re undergoing a major change in how we use technology. This change cannot happen without the use of cloud services. And the explosion in cloud-enabled devices is one more reason cloud-based systems usage will explode in the next several years.

Source: InfoWorld 

Picking a public cloud? Think beyond AWS, Google, and Microsoft

No single cloud provider is likely to meet all your needs, so don't try to force-fit everything to one 'solution'

I often get this question: "Which public cloud should we go with?" That is, should the questioner's company go with Google, Microsoft, or, more likely, Amazon Web Services?

The right answer depends on many, many factors, and the answer is never a single public cloud platform. (Few people appreciate that response.) 

What you should be after is an architecture, or what many people call a stack. Let's say you have 2,000 enterprise applications that, if moved to the cloud, will likely drive more value, such as reduced total cost of ownership or increased business agility.

Twitter CEO to developers: We messed up

At the Twitter Flight conference, Jack Dorsey attempts to set a clean slate with disgruntled developers

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, speaking at the Twitter Flight conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, apologized for the company’s subpar relationship with developers and stressed the need for an open dialog.

Developers have led the way in innovating with Twitter, Dorsey said. “Developers took our service from day 1 and made Twitter [have] a much more global reach.” He cited applications that enable a plant that tweets when it wants water and a pothole that tweets to local officials when a vehicle runs over it.

Cloud backup: Don't rely on your provider alone

Cloud providers take care of your data, even in disaster. But you shouldn't leave the job solely to them

You've moved data to the cloud. Now it's time to talk about disaster recovery -- how to build a resilient system that can recover from catastrophic failure.

Amazon Web Services, for example, says its S3 service "is designed to deliver flexibility, agility, geo-redundancy, and robust data protection." To IT, that means the system is fault-tolerant, managing the resiliency needs for you. ("Geo-redundancy" means that, if a center goes down, another center in another part of the country or world will pick up the load. You should never miss a beat.) 

If AWS and other public cloud providers include a certain amount of resiliency services, does that mean your data is safe? For the most part, it is. Public cloud providers take great pains to see that data is not lost -- ever.

Why the boring Android M is good news for IT

The few changes at worst do no harm to IT and in some cases may make things a little easier or safer

IT likes systems to be stable and not change, which is why it took a decade for most enterprises to begin replacing Windows XP with Windows 7, and why Windows 10 may not get widespread enterprise adoption until 2020. But in mobile, the major OSes change every year, and IT has much less control -- often, no control -- over what OSes are in use.

So, Google's Android M, announced yesterday, is a comforting update for IT. Android M is a minor update to Android 5.0 Lollipop OS that was announced a year ago, was formally released in November, and began appearing on mainstream devices only in February. It should have few, if any, implications to IT when it ships this fall and starts showing up on mainstream devices next winter.

Google to shut down Helpouts on April 20

The Internet giant says its video tutorial service isn't growing fast enough.

Google says its video tutorial service wasn't growing fast enough.

Google announced Friday it is shuttering Helpouts because the 1-year old video tutorial service isn't growing as fast as the company wants.

"The Helpouts community includes some engaged and loyal contributors, but unfortunately, it hasn't grown at the pace we had expected," reads a blog post about the shutdown.

How to add Dropbox files to Gmail messages

The new Dropbox for Gmail extension gives Chrome users an easy way of attaching cloud files.

 

Want to share a Dropbox link with someone? There are many ways to go about it, but most of them involving a fairly clunky procession of finding, copying and pasting links.

If you're a Chrome user and a Gmail user, however, Dropbox sharing just got a whole lot quicker. The new Dropbox for Gmail extension for Chrome lets you preview and send Dropbox files and links without clicking away from your composition window. Here's how to get started:

Download your YouTube videos in their original resolution

Want to move your YouTube videos to another service but don't have backups? Skip downloading the low-resolution ones from your account and use this method instead.

YouTube is a great medium for sharing your videos with friends, family or the world in general. However, if you want to post your videos elsewhere, you'll need to keep copies on your hard drive. If you don't have backups, you could download them from YouTube, but you'll get lower-resolution copies of your videos. As a solution, the Digital Inspiration Blog recommends skipping YouTube's video downloads and using Google Takeout instead. Here's how:

Java seeks stronghold in networking for Internet of things

The proposed Kona Project would define Java APIs for use on embedded devices

Java could play a bigger part in networking for the Internet of things. The Kona Project, proposed on openjdk.java.net this week, would define and implement Java APIs for networking technologies and protocols commonly used in IoT.

When you wish upon a cloud: 3 cloud hopes for 2015

Sadly, these enterprise cloud predictions need to come true, but won't happen any time soon

It’s that time of year again, as PR people reach out to tell me about their client’s 2015 cloud computing predictions. Are you sitting down? Most revolve around whatever technology they sell. Shocker, right?

Here are three cloud computing predictions for 2015 that have no chance of coming true, though they should.