#abovethecloud
The RSTOR Blog: Thoughts, opinions and insights from the cloud experts at RSTOR
A Bold New Look for RSTOR
Since our inception, RSTOR has been driven by a mission to disrupt the cloud industry with products that challenge preconceptions, delight customers and radically improve every part of the cloud stack. Let me state unequivocally that RSTOR products, services and...
Accelerating Insights to Action – Part V
Here are 10 recommendations for developing strategies to reduce delays in data integration and management and increase business value through faster BI and analytics. Deliver more timely data and recommendations to users. Organizations need to modernize the paradigm...
Accelerating Insights to Action – Part IV
In our business engagements we’ve often asked managers and IT personnel what would improve if their organizations increased investment in technologies that support delivery of true real-time data, including data streams. Most indicate that actionable information in...
Accelerating Insights to Action – Part III
In the previous two posts in this series I focused on the organizational and cultural items required to become a faster and more insightful data company. In the next two posts I will outline technology trends that we at RStor are seeing in companies actively...
How CPRA impacts California and US data privacy law
If passed by voters in November 2020, CPRA will add additional provisions designed to strengthen the state’s data privacy program. The initiative will likely have broad-ranging commerce effects given California’s large consumer population and position as the largest...
Accelerating Insights to Action – Part II
In this second in a series I take a look at the organizational and cultural changes required to speed up data insights. Through AI-driven augmentation, BI and analytics solutions are evolving to offer recommendations about data sets users might explore, visualizations...
Upgrades to RSTOR Space
RSTOR Space now features a data superpositioning enhancement that serves as a cloud-based, intelligent edge caching technology. Anyone who understands the quantum physics concept of superpositioning (atoms can simultaneously be in more than 1 state at a time) or...
Accelerating Insights to Action – Part I
In prior blog posts I've mentioned the speed of data/information movement and the speed of information in decision making. While these are two entirely different things they are very often interrelated. You will also hear me mention that today every company is a data...
RStor, Successfully Pioneering Smart-Working in Italy Even Before the Pandemic
“Work from home is not real work” Last week, a candidate for the software engineer position confessed that his employer had sent him this message and it was the last straw that convinced him to start looking for a new job. Italy’s small- and medium-sized enterprises,...
After The Cloud Wars Are Over Then What?
Part of my role in marketing is identifying trends and determining what happens when the trend plays out. As digital transformation progresses and accelerates, and as businesses continue their move to the cloud, what happens once everyone is in the cloud and digital...
Disrupting Cloud Business Models and Avoiding the Seven Deadly CSP Sins
Let's look at cloud pricing for services offered by the major CSPs. Google’s N1 standard machine’s price is just $0.01 per hour for batch processing. Azure asks a miniscule $0.00099 per gigabyte to store data for a month in its archival storage tier. Amazon...
What’s the recipe for surviving the pandemic-triggered downturn?
In a previous post I wrote about how the pandemic has obliterated most data models and so building a predictive model to forecast how it will all shake out would be next to impossible. No one can say for sure when the pandemic emergency will begin to subside. No one...
The Sudden Shrinking of Big Data
It's hard to imagine that we went from normal business discussions in January, to discussing toilet paper shortages in March to discussing social unrest in June. Talk about living in interesting times. Being in the cloud services business we are seeing a data world...
Immutable cloud storage for regulated technology
In a prior blog post I pointed out that staying compliant involves not only accurate reporting, but also secure and immutable storage of data. Today we will explore the drivers within a regulated industry especially the financial sector. So what are some of the best...
Data Immutability in Cloud Storage
Data is the currency in our digital society, and the loss of it can cause panic or serious consequences. We have all read articles about businesses, movie studios, hospitals and even police departments losing data due to human error or ransomware attacks. A major US...
Disrupting All Industries
Like many of you, I sometimes utilize milestones as an opportunity to measure progress or change. A few weeks ago I crossed my one year mark with RStor. Like many companies I was issued a company t-shirt when I joined and the message on the shirt is "RStor The...
Tips for remote team management
For the second installment in our working remote series I am suggesting four key areas to keep in mind as remote working has become the normal part of our business. Build Team Trust You cannot function properly if you’re not able to keep in regular contact with...
Tips for conducting successful video calls
Still, there were many things that we have learned over the past months and as a company we are happy to share our experiences, tips, and tools with any interested party. In this first post in a series we will share a few simple and common tips related to video...
Common Uses of Cloud Data Services in the AGV Market
The next three years will see an explosive growth in connected cars; and this year, 2020, it is expected that 98% of all new cars being sold will be connected. The growth is fueled by ubiquitous mobile networks plus government-required connectivity. Autonomous...
Addressing the Elephant, or the Black Swan, in the room
There are many business responses to black swan events but two of the more common responses are 1) learn and adapt and 2) tough it out and return to business as usual. In light of recent events the second approach may not be a survivable option as Covid-19 will most...
The case for testing your Disaster Recovery System
Introduction Cloud-based DR has grown in popularity the last few years as companies have looked for lower-cost alternatives to running a conventional DR set up at a remote datacenter or colocation center housing replacement systems. Most organizations have a disaster...
5 Steps to Creating a Strong Compliance and Data Governance Practice
Implementing Compliance and Governance Privacy regulations are increasingly rigorous, and organizations can’t ignore them. Leading the way are Europe’s GDPR, the United States’ Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the CCPA, which PwC...
Protect Your Data With End-to-End Security
All aspects of data storage, including architecture, implementation, and operation, must center on protecting your data in transit and at rest. This should be part of a multilayered security strategy that considers both current and new security threats. Your...
Incorporating Data Protection, Availability, and Retention with a 3-2-1 Strategy
Cloud infrastructure can fail, accidental data deletions can occur, a multitude of other human errors can happen, and malicious attacks can occur resulting in data loss, data inconsistencies, and data corruption. That’s why any cloud data storage platform must...
Enabling A Data Infrastructure for Autonomous Guided Vehicle (AGV)
Advanced infrastructure and the processing of large data sets will play a critical role in the growth and advancement of the AGV market The next three years will see an explosive growth in connected cars; and this year, 2020, it is expected that 98% of all new cars...
Deploying a Digital Infrastructure is Key to Unlocking Data Value
Actions you can take today to unlock and maintain value in your data A Digital infrastructure is key to gaining valuable insights in the data life cycle and expanding business opportunities in many of today's evolving industries. Any Innovation in Digital...
A Navy SEAL’s Guide To Leading Through Adversity
Over the last three months, an invisible enemy has reminded us of how fragile and deeply connected we are in this world. Covid-19 has changed everything. We find ourselves in an increasingly ambiguous and highly-distributed environment. For me, the current...
Getting Familiar with the California Consumer Privacy Act
Basics of the California Consumer Privacy Act On January 1, 2020, most larger companies or organizations doing business in California were required to comply with the state’s privacy legislation that establishes a legal and enforceable right of privacy for...
Understanding FIPS
A steady cadence of attacks has made security a priority for governments and companies wishing to work with the federal government must now comply with federally mandated security standards. At RStor we take security to heart and will examine data security related...
Preparing your data for Cybersecurity in the Financial Services Industry
Financial services institutions are continuously innovating in order to offer differentiated digital experiences. Simultaneously those same institutions are deploying advanced nonintrusive security capabilities. Success across innovation and security reduces churn and...
Selecting a Data Storage Platform in an Era of AI and Analytics
As we look ahead to the remainder of 2020 and the new decade, what will be the conversations around data and cloud storage? Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) continue to become mainstream technologies and more companies are incorporating the...
Understanding GDPR
GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) significantly changes how both EU-based companies and companies doing business in the EU handle their data. If you are preparing for GDPR compliance or any type of data privacy, there are a few data governance...
Egregious Cloud fees and a library solution
An enterprise with multiple cloud vendors is known as a multi-cloud environment. Multiple compute options encourage agility and data potential for the end-user. IBM is reinforcing a multi-cloud world by partnering with Silicon Valley startup, RStor. The natural...