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Category Archives: cloud

cloud migration

Cloud Migration: 5 Things You MUST Consider

Cloud migration is a daunting process for any company. So in this new (no-nonsense) post, we outline the five key things you MUST consider when migrating to the cloud.

Let’s begin.

#1 Perform a comprehensive discovery process

Cloud migration is challenging. You need to understand the cloud requirements of your company to mitigate a seamless migration.

To do that, you need to perform a discovery process. This can help you get answers to:

  • What are the gaps in your current process? 
  • What problems can you solve with cloud migration? 
  • How much money will you spend on top of your current costs?
  • What features on your platform can you take advantage of?

Do it correctly, and you can develop a new architecture with a bottom-up approach to networking and security. And in doing so, thrive in the public cloud environment.

For the discovery process to work, you’ll have to take into consideration dependencies and the milestones you want to achieve.

cloud data migration

Dependencies

Your dependencies shouldn’t be an afterthought. So, you need to make them a key factor from the beginning.

  • Do you have multiple data connections?
  • If so, where do they connect? And who has access to them?
  • Will the same services be available in a private or public cloud offering?
  • When migrating SaaS-based systems, will users have to change their behavior?

If employees leave the office and the direct connection, you then work with a different type of connection and a different source of traffic.

You end up with more mobility, but also greater security requirements, especially when it comes to data sharing and data compliance.

Decide what level of resiliency you need, and make sure the cloud migration service you’re considering can support it, or you’ll need to augment it on your end.

Milestones

Be it on-premise to cloud migration, or cloud-to-cloud migration, setting up milestones is key.

Without clear goals for your cloud migration activities, how will you know what you have achieved? And whether you have achieved anything at all? 

At the same time, it’s essential to align those expectations with your business goals and set a timeframe within which you’ll have to reach those milestones.

Be realistic when building milestones. Look at performance, workflows, traffic patterns, and user satisfaction.

Monitoring platforms can help you set up benchmarks and data sets from where you can see if the cloud integration is a success as you reach each milestone.

#2 Business Drivers

How will your public or private cloud migration align with business drivers? What are the success markets that you have identified?

Consistency is key here, so you’ll need to focus on matching the functionality of the cloud with specific business drivers.

Here are a few things you’ll need to consider when aligning your cloud migration strategy with your business goals:

Reducing risk

What is the risk strategy? SaaS solutions should reduce some of the risk, but you’ll still need good cybersecurity.

If you’re switching from an on-premise to a private cloud, what is the cybersecurity outlook then? Have you evaluated the security of the SaaS providers? Do vendors pose a risk?

Add risk assessment to your cloud migration review, if you haven’t already.

cloud migration services

Quick wins

What is the time-to-market? Are there fast and achievable goals? Quick wins?

Cut back on operational risk by creating a series of mini-projects that prove the cloud works and deliver quick wins.

Agility

How lean and agile is your company? Will the new cloud environment empower and support the goals? What is the long-term strategy?

The cloud solution should do more than just cut costs. Cloud migration should transform your company into a better and more flexible version of itself.

#3 Best Practices

We’ve prepared a cloud best practices checklist that can help your cloud migration efforts:

Understand the framework

When deploying the new cloud framework, evaluate your company’s standards, approaches and processes involved in building or deploying new remote technologies.

Choose a provider that’s a good fit to your framework and that can customize it to your specific needs.

Implement cloud controls correctly

To do this, you’ll have to know your current tech infrastructure and inventory. This will enable you to monitor the infrastructure and policies.

Layer your security

There is no oneway solution to security. That’s why you’ll need to take a layered approach during the cloud migration, especially when working in an SaaS-based environment.

That’s because as you start reaching milestones, new endpoints to cloud SaaS targets will emerge; traffic patterns will change; past network perimeters will erode a little.

Having policies and practices to deal with those endpoints will raise security and give you the best level of protection during your migration to the cloud.

#4 Identity Management

A big part of security is how you track accessibility for in-house and outside users across assets and networks.

You need a centralized overview of who is logging in, when, where, how are they accessing the system, and what exactly they are accessing.

ID management is a way of having every app include multi-factor authentication that hinges on conditional access. This can extend your firewall to and around remote users and devices.

migration in cloud computing

#5 Find the Right Partner

Finally, for a successful cloud migration, you’ll need the right partner.

A trusted cloud and IT managed service provider can: 

  • Guide you through cloud migration
  • Facilitate a smooth transition
  • Highlight the value of add-ons and extra features
  • Help you mitigate security risks and identify vulnerabilities

That’s where Demakis Technologies steps in.

With our managed IT services, tech experts can help you with all of this and seamlessly complete the entire cloud migration process together with you.

For more information, CONTACT US and one of our professionals will get in touch with you to answer all your questions and help you get started.

IT Budget

Planning Your IT Budget for 2022: 5 Things to Consider

In this post, we’ll explain how you can plan your IT budget for 2022 and five key things you’ll need to consider investing in next year.

So if you still haven’t locked in your IT spending for 2022, you’ll find this article very helpful.

Let’s begin.

#1 Moving to the Cloud 

Moving data and key business activities to the cloud will continue to be a top priority in your IT budget for 2022. 

Cloud technology proved to be critical for business resilience in 2020 and 2021, due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Continuing to invest in the cloud will provide your organization with high availability and agility in case another global disruption occurs.

In fact, in 2021, nearly all organizations started using at least one public or private cloud.

AWS, Azure and Google remain the top three public cloud providers. 

Another thing to consider is the hybrid cloud

We are seeing more and more businesses adopt the hybrid cloud approach (using both private and public cloud) because it ensures:

  • Streamlining application workloads to scale
  • Continuous and uninterrupted operations automation
  • Reduced traffic paths between remote workers and the apps they use
  • Improved end-user experience

So it’s worth taking the time to consider multi-cloud strategies, as well.

preparing the IT budget

#2 Security

When planning the IT budget, double-down on cybersecurity

In fact, investing in security upgrades is one of the top initiatives among IT leaders in 2022. 

Why? 

Because of the rising risk of cybersecurity threats in 2021. 

Attacks like Ransomware and Phishing scams won’t stop in 2022, yet they have a negative impact on your business, regardless of its size.

Make sure you are compliant with the latest updates of the NIST or ISO standards, as well. 

Keeping track of this may seem complicated, so 2022 may be a good time to outsource security and hire a cybersecurity expert. (If there’s room in your IT budget, of course)

#3 Remote working 

Like most companies in 2020 and 2021, you’ve had to transition to remote work. You’re not the only one:

In the next five years, experts expect nearly 41 million U.S. employees will be fully remote.

In 2022, your IT spending should reflect this trend in three ways:

  • Evaluating and changing current remote policies
  • Evaluating and changing current technology
  • Investing in key additional tech stacks

First, you probably already have policies in place to manage remote work. But it may be that they are now almost two years old.

Setting aside additional resources to re-evaluate them and optimize them before the end of the year is a smart IT investment for 2022.

It’s the same story with technology. This is the perfect time to make an assessment of the tech stacks your remote workers use and operate on.

New remote solutions may provide better or more affordable collaborative and time management tools that your employees can get on board with in 2022.

Finally, it’s worth investing in new technologies, especially in the area of backup and recovery, as well as cloud networking and security.

#4 Managed Services

In 2022, the landscape will be ideal for contracting managed IT service providers. So it may be finally worth outsourcing your tech services and support to outside experts.

Having a managed services provider (MSP)  benefits businesses in so many ways. But, the main benefit is that it allows teams to focus on their core objectives. 

MSPs also offer an array of services that are customizable, and which may reduce your 2022 IT spending if you outsource it to a professional provider.

planning the IT budget

#5 Networking

Lastly and most importantly,  IT budgets should include networking. Companies have realized the huge potential of the network. 

The network enables: 

  • New ways of working by
  • Connectivity to business-critical servers
  • Providing the basis to support business across countries
  • Adopting newer connectivity technologies

Get Help from a Trusted IT Specialist

As we all know, Covid-19 threw budget planning off track. 

You’re probably not really sure how to cut your IT budget.

Of course, first you need to calculate how big or small your IT budget is. 

Even if you have an adequate IT budget, you still have to prioritize where to invest it. 

This process can be extremely overwhelming. The best thing to do is to hire a specialist. 

At least, that’s easy. You just found one!

We at Demakis Technologies provide a comprehensive range of services.

This also includes cybersecurity, data backup & recovery, cloud solutions, managed services and networking

Firebase Cloud Messaging

A Quick Guide to Firebase Cloud Messaging

This article explores firebase cloud messaging (FCM) and the reasons why you should consider implementing firebase messaging in your company. 

Specifically, we’ll explore:

  • What FCM is
  • How it works
  • The various types of FCM
  • And how to set it up

So if you’re looking to streamline messaging and notifications across your company and operations, you’ll enjoy this article. 

Let’s get started. 

What Is Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM Notifications)?

cloud messaging

Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) is a cross-platform service that is available for free.

It handles message sending, routing, and queueing between server and mobile client applications. 

FCM is a Google Play Services-based replacement for Google Cloud Messaging (GCM), which has been removed as of 2018.

How Does Firebase Cloud Messaging Work?

FCM allows software developers to send cloud push notifications to end-users through the application programming interface (API).

Push notifications save battery life, and that is why they are popular on mobile devices while pull notifications poll the developer’s server for new information and can drain a device’s battery.

When using push notifications, the cloud service acts on the app’s behalf, connecting to the mobile device only when new notifications are available.

To send and receive messages using FCM, you’ll need two things:

  • A trusted environment or server to build, direct, and send messages from 
  • An Android, iOS, or Web client app to receive messages from.

Types of Firebase Messaging

Each type serves a different purpose and contains different information.

Notifications

This form facilitates the delivery of arbitrary text and images to users, thereby increasing user involvement. 

You can remind users/developers of something important by using a specific header and text with the context that contains information about what happened. 

It grants access to information about an application.

Data

This is the Firebase response to a user or developer request that includes a date. 

In essence, this form is used with the additional custom data elements and information.

Hybrid

The use of this form is determined by the state of an app. 

If it is running in the background, the app will receive the new data when the user taps it.

When both payloads are ready for use, the information will be available in the foreground.

The behavior of clicking varies depending on the form.

Why Should You Consider Firebase Messaging?

firebase messaging

Firebase gives you the ability to send notifications across platforms for free. 

Here are some of the reasons why you should consider using firebase messaging:

#1 You can send messages to any device

Firebase cloud messaging connects your core servers and devices in a dependable and battery-efficient manner.

That is allowing you to send and receive messages and notifications for free on IOS, Android, and the Web.

#2 Better targeting

Firebase Notifications is a serverless notifications solution with a web console that allows anyone to send notifications to specific audiences based on Firebase Analytics insights.

You can target messages using Firebase based on predefined segments or create your own demographic segmentation and behavior patterns.

#3 You can customize notifications

Deliver notification messages instantly or at a later time in a user’s local time using firebase.

You can use it to send custom data, set priorities, sounds, and even track custom conversation events, among other things.

How to Setup Firebase Messaging and Notifications?

To begin, click the Setup Firebase Cloud Messaging button. 

You will be able to connect to Firebase or add FMC to your app from this screen. 

Both offer automatic project setup for projects on your console. 

Messages/notifications may behave differently depending on whether the application is running in the background or the foreground. 

You must use the Firebase Service in the foreground (when receiving data elements). 

This allows you to override the callbacks for on Messages Received and undeleted messages/notifications.

You can use the system tray to run background apps.

To send firebase push notifications, you can use the Send Notification/message API.

Open the Firebase console link to send notifications from it. 

It will take you to your dashboard, where you can see your projects. 

Go to Cloud-Messaging by clicking on the project. You can access previous notifications from there. 

You can also use the Create Your First Notification button to write different texts and add information. 

cloud push notifications

You should also fill out the delivery date field.

After you’ve finished configuring FCM Push Notifications, you can see if it works by sending FCM message test notifications from Firebase Console.

Having trouble setting up firebase cloud messaging?

We can help you with that!

At Demakis Technologies, we specialize in IT services, network architecture, and digital technology.

Our team of experts provide 24/7 managed IT services that cater to all the tech needs of your company.

CONTACT US to reach out to a professional and get a quote on what you actually need us to do for you.

fog and edge computing

Edge Computing vs Fog Computing

In this post, we will cover the basics of fog and edge computing, the difference between them, as well as the main benefits of both computing principles.

Let’s begin!

What Is Edge Computing?

Edge computing is a distributed framework where client information is processed as close as possible to the original data sources such as local edge servers or IoT devices.

Today only 10% of data is being processed outside of the data center, but the number is projected to grow to 75% by 2025.

There are many applications of edge in IoT.

Some types of edge computing are:

  • Edge cloud computing
  • Mobile edge computing
  • Edge intelligence (combination of edge and artificial intelligence)

How Does Edge Computing Work?

cloud msp

Edge computing technology places servers and storage where the data is, and it often requires specific gear to collect the data locally and to process it.

The gear is usually deployed in protective enclosures to avoid damage from moisture, temperature extremes, or else.

The processing phase consists of analyzing data to spot business intelligence, and only relevant results are sent to the main data center.

How Does Edge Computing Benefit IT?

Let’s go over the 3 main benefits of edge computing for IT:

Data Sovereignty

Transferring large amounts of data is not just a technical challenge. When data travels across national boundaries, it can cause issues related to privacy, data security, and other legal problems.

Edge computing keeps data close to the source and inside the boundaries of prevailing data laws such as GDPR and CCPA

This way, raw data is processed locally, and sensitive data is secured before it is sent to the primary center, which might be located in a different jurisdiction.

Autonomy

Edge computing is helpful on sites with unreliable connectivity due to environmental factors, e.g. ships at sea, oil rigs, deserts, and more. 

In such situations, edge computing does the work on-site and saves the data so it can transmit it to the central point when connectivity is back.

When data is processed locally, the amount of information that needs to be sent can be significantly reduced.

Security

Edge computing also helps add an extra layer of data security.

Even though cloud providers provide IoT services, enterprises are still concerned about the safety of data when it starts moving back from the edge to the cloud or the data center.

With IoT edge computing, the data traveling back to the cloud can be protected through encryption. Edge deployment can also be secured against hacker attacks and malicious activities.

What Is Fog Computing?

Fog computing definition is very similar to edge computing. It moves and expands the idea of cloud computing to the network edge, which is ideal for IoT and other apps that need interactions in real-time.

How Does Fog Computing Work?

Fog computing uses local devices called fog nodes and edge devices. 

When the data is collected by IoT beacons, it is sent to nodes close to the source, instead of the cloud. The data is analyzed and filtered locally, which allows faster processing.

Some of the devices that can serve as edge devices are:

  • Cameras
  • Switches
  • Routers
  • Controllers
fog and edge computing

Why Is Fog Computing Important for IoT?

Take a look at 3 main benefits of fog computing in IoT:

Latency

Latency issues disrupt network connections in bigger computing networks.

With fog computing, there is no need to send information to the cloud for processing. Removing cloud latency issues from data procedures significantly increases efficiency. 

You can still use the cloud for storage, but there is no need to use it for processing.

Flexibility

Fog computing allows you to distribute network resources to a large number of users and locations. 

Also, fog computing is easily scaled up or down. You can quickly add or remove nodes, depending on your current needs.

With fog networking, you can move computing resources with ease. 

Reduced Bandwidth

Cloud computing normally requires a lot of bandwidth, especially if your devices are constantly moving data back and forth.

When you handle the data locally and eliminate constant cloud communication, you can increase your network power.

Both your network and devices will perform on a higher level if the bandwidth used by cloud computing is reduced.

Edge Computing vs. Fog Computing: What’s the Difference?

The main difference between edge computing and fog computing is the computing power and the intelligence are located.

  • Fog computing brings all the intelligence to the LAN level of network structure where the data is processed either in a fog node or in an IoT gateway.
  • Edge computing takes the intelligence, the communication operations, and the processing power directly to the devices themselves.
fog and edge computing managed

The Future of IoT

IoT is constantly growing, and the industry is in need of efficient ways of managing data processing and transmission. 

The number of IoT devices is projected to grow to 75 billion by 2025. 

One way to meet the demand for growing connected devices is to introduce cloud edge and fog computing which all offer unique solutions to many IoT challenges. 

Merging edge and fog computing with IoT is an efficient way of satisfying many application requirements that IoT enterprises are faced with and to easily scale in times of growth.

If you love reading about new cloud technologies and the IoT, visit Demakis Technologies and follow our blog.

growth in saas

Growth in SaaS

Today, we are taking a look at the state of Saas (Software-as-a-Service). Specifically, we’ll explain the recent growth in SaaS industry. We’ll address:

  • The reasons why SaaS is growing
  • What the benefits of SaaS for your company are
  • The latest Saas industry trends
  • The future of SaaS in the next few years.

Let’s begin!

Why is SaaS growing?

The number and type of users of SaaS products have increased rapidly. Companies of all shapes and sizes see SaaS as an affordable, agile and modern solution for their digital transformation. But let’s get into more detail and examine some of the main reasons why that’s happening:

saas market trends

Security and reliability

Having your own server handling your customer’s valuable data requires a huge investment, especially if you want it to be reliable. An easy way to ensure the security, reliability and efficiency of those systems is to use outside services like Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure cloud.

Subscription-based pricing model

The subscription-based pricing model of SaaS solutions is also rapidly changing the way companies consume software. It takes a lot less upfront capital to subscribe to a SaaS product than to purchase on-premise software or a license to use it. It’s also more sensible especially for smaller businesses to pay a monthly fee, which opens up the SaaS market to greater demand and growth.

Multiple SaaS solutions

A single SaaS solution is not enough for large-scale projects. But luckily, companies can integrate this type of software with APIs, for example.

Multiple SaaS solutions can then provide users with a diverse set of resources to address different demands. As a result, organizations effectively get access to the necessary features and functionality for the end-user. But that also means businesses are now using more than one software solution, which is additionally raising the rate of growth of the SaaS industry.

SaaS Industry Trends

Now, let’s take a look at some of the biggest trends in the SaaS industry at the moment:

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Businesses are learning that having AI to analyze data can free their staff up to spend more time with customers. SaaS combined with AI capabilities enables these companies to get better value from their data, but also to automate and personalize their services, and improve overall security.

Machine learning is another fast-growing trend. Netflix’ personalized content suggestions are a prime example of machine learning in SaaS-type models. And these innovations are just the beginning.

machine learning netflix saas

Vertical SaaS

Vertical SaaS providers offer the possibility of adapting features according to the demand of your company or industry. Vertical SaaS provides more flexibility and upselling opportunities, while effectively addressing customer needs. Examples of vertical SaaS include healthcare analytics software and modern logistics analytics.

Data security

Moving processes to the cloud comes with new security concerns. That’s why SaaS is focusing more on data security and protection, and cybersecurity in general. We’ll see this trend grow in the next few years as there will be more SaaS companies exclusively built around the need to ensure data security, privacy, and protection.

Cloud Growth: SaaS vs other cloud services

Cloud services are probably the brightest part of the future of SaaS. Despite all of the disruptions in the last few years, the growth of the SaaS industry remains steady thanks to cloud computing.

The recent anti-COVID-19 measures like social distancing, for example, were only possible thanks to cloud technology which allowed businesses to adapt to a new remote environment.

But all SaaS solutions are cloud-enabled systems. This means businesses can use the cloud to expand the functionality of their systems and extend it far beyond the initial offer.

Future trends in cloud computing

Growing worldwide public cloud spending

Organizations dominating the enterprise software world —such as IBM, Oracle, Microsoft — will likely maintain their market share for enterprise software products because the number of customers using SaaS is growing. Gartner expects worldwide public cloud spending by end-users to grow to $304.9 billion by 2021.

future trends in cloud computing

Multi-Cloud And Joint Cloud

This year we’ll see the beginnings of multi-cloud and joint provider cloud offerings, as providers realize they can partner up to accelerate launches, according to Park. The Oracle-Microsoft interconnect relationship that started in June of 2019 is an example of a relationship that could be expanded, said Young.

Serverless Cloud

According to Derek Swanson, going serverless is the next evolution of application architecture. He noted that the serverless interface on the cloud will become the interface developers interact with the most in the next few years.

What’s the future of cloud computing?

Since companies are finding new ways to organize, process, and present data, we can expect cloud computing to become an integral part of our lives.

“The future of cloud computing will most likely represent a combination of cloud-based software products and on-premises compute to create a hybrid IT solution that balances the scalability and flexibility associated with cloud and the security and control of a private data center.’’, said Michael Corrado, from Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

If you already use SaaS solutions to automate your business operations and processes, managed services can help you further streamline your architecture and its usability.

Please contact us or visit Demakis Technologies to see how we can help you optimize your digital transformation and raise the efficiency of your tech architecture.