IT Trends & Technology

The Internet of Things (IoT), which applies to the internet-connected devices we use on a daily basis, is evolving. New terms are being coined to keep up with the growth of IoT, from the Internet of Everything (IoE), which extends the definition of IoT to include people, processes, data and things, to the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), which includes remote patient care devices. According to Gartner, the number of internet connected devices has outpaced the number of humans on Earth, at 8.4 billion, revolutionizing industries and business practices.

The democratization of the cloud within the enterprise has freed operational costs, productivity, and innovative possibilities across departments that have formed the basis for digital transformation. The downside is, that freedom has led to unchecked cloud sprawl that is hampering security and cost containment. In fact, 53 percent of all cloud users and 64 percent of mature cloud users estimate that 30 percent of cloud spend is wasted, according to the RightScale 2017 State of the Cloud Report.

Although the progression from a hybrid to a multi-cloud strategy is steadily increasing, it remains a challenging process for many businesses. In fact, fewer than half of organizations have a multi-cloud strategy, according to a Business Cloud News survey.

While most businesses understand the importance of cloud computing to digital transformation and having an agile business, the cloud can only perform as well as the business’s network infrastructure. For businesses preparing to embark on a cloud strategy, aligning the network to the needs of the cloud is the first step to ensuring that the strategy is optimally realized.

First National Technology Solutions (FNTS) has attained a gold Cloud Platform competency, demonstrating a “best-in-class” ability and commitment to meet Microsoft Corp. customers’ evolving needs in today’s mobile-first, cloud-first world and distinguishing itself within Microsoft’s partner ecosystem.

Having discovered the advantages of the cloud, many enterprises are now taking a multicloud approach, implementing a mix of public, private, and hybrid cloud architectures in their efforts to make computing more efficient and available.

Public and private clouds each have their advantages—and limitations—tied to issues of cost, scalability, and manageability. IT leaders are increasingly seeking a “best of both worlds” solution by adopting hybrid cloud infrastructures.

First National Technology Solutions (FNTS), an IT managed services provider, announced it will begin offering Database as a Service (DBaaS) cloud computing and managed services due to rising demand from businesses that want to deploy new databases quickly, securely and at a fraction of the cost of infrastructure-intensive projects.

A database can be one of the most important assets a business has to run its applications and operations. First National Technology Solutions can host database infrastructures in the cloud to streamline business operations, allowing companies to focus on other aspects of their business without having to monitor their own data.

According to RightScale’s 2017 State of the Cloud Report, 58 percent of enterprises now have a hybrid cloud architecture, with the numbers going up. A hybrid cloud architecture enables companies to maintain control of an internally managed private cloud while relying on the public cloud as needed.

Did you know that by 2020 almost a quarter (24 percent) of the “total addressable IT market will be cloud”? That’s Gartner, Inc.’s prediction in the 2017 Planning Guide for Cloud Computing.

With the continued maturity of the public cloud, and the aggressive adoption of cloud services across all industry verticals, companies are feeling the pressure “to build and invest in cloud-first strategies and architectures.” But the hybrid cloud computing puzzle can turn into a nightmare without key management strategies. Here are four that will help ensure success.

Designing a hybrid cloud model for your unique organizational needs is crucial for your company’s overall success.

In fact, it’s one of the most important to-dos in your day-to-day business. A recent study by IDG Research found that 88 percent of respondents believe hybrid cloud capabilities are critical to enabling the digital transformation of businesses, while 73 percent agree these models forge a path for digital business in their own organization.

The cloud is growing in popularity in the digital world, and more businesses are taking advantage of cloud-computing strategies to stay relevant and competitive. The cloud is a network of servers that allows companies to provide services in an efficient and cost-effective way. At First Technology Solutions (FNTS), we are seeing an increasing number of companies leveraging server consolidations by moving to the cloud. Not embracing the cloud is becoming a competitive disadvantage for companies, and if they aren’t already using the cloud as part of their strategy, they are already behind one of the fastest growing IT trends.

Desktop anti-virus software is still an important component of a defense-in-depth posture and aids in keeping endpoints secured, but the vast majority of protection focus has shifted to securing information stored online, primarily on infrastructure in cloud environments. Because of the shift, precautions and safety measures need to be taken into consideration.

First National Technology Solutions (FNTS), a leading provider of cloud services, has partnered with Pivotal to help businesses build and deploy brand new, cloud-based applications with innovative technology that is fast, affordable and secure.

Pivotal Cloud Foundry—the industry-leading cloud-native application platform—is now available in First National Technology Solutions’ cloud environment. This gives developers the ability to use modern technology to rapidly create, deploy and test the next generation of business-ready applications without having to invest in their own costly hardware. FNTS gives developers full visibility and control over their applications. Developers are free to update their apps instantly and securely, using a pay-as-you-go system.

According to Pivotal, more than 30 percent of Fortune 100 companies utilize Pivotal Cloud Foundry. Garmin, Ford, General Electric, Verizon and Home Depot are just a handful of the notable businesses that have transformed into software-driven companies with the help of Pivotal Cloud Foundry. Pivotal Cloud Foundry also is used by six of the ten largest carmakers; seven of the top ten banks; and half of the 10 largest insurance companies, according to Fortune.

Whether you’ve used it for work or personal use, chances are you have stored data in the cloud. The average company uses about 1,427 cloud-based services, according to Skyhigh Networks. Electronics with an internet connection can send volumes and different varieties of data to the cloud. Making sure that data is protected as it is sent to the cloud is the focus of a newer concept coined by Cisco as fog computing—also known as edge computing.

The fog is an extension of the cloud that provides security to real-time data produced in the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including routers, mobile devices, IP video cameras, switches, controllers, servers, surveillance cams, computer chips and set top boxes. First National Technology Solutions (FNTS) specializes in the best of breed cloud technology and data center services and has the ability to support fog solutions. FNTS partners with respected companies like Cisco, EMC and IBM, which currently offer tools to facilitate fog computing. The fog, which consumes less time and bandwidth than the cloud, monitors and analyzes data close to where it was generated and then determines if the data should stay in the fog or be transmitted to the cloud or other centralized locations. The fog analyzes data faster than the cloud, which speeds up business processes and response times.

Fog computing is most prevalent in environments where a lot of processing power is required. It is a faster alternative to carrying the traffic across a core network. For example, on a second by second basis, you may be polling tens of millions of IoT devices—the fog is the ideal solution for workloads that require raw processing power. The data is processed on the edge of the network with a number of fast devices, while other data and business intelligence applications move on to the cloud. The edge devices handle the majority of the day-to-day interaction with IoT devices without adding needless congestion to the network core.

The fog is being used in several industries as way to increase security and make services more efficient. Fog computing allows companies to monitor their equipment in real-time so they can detect issues instantly and perform maintenance. The fog also allows companies to initiate actions faster, whether it’s locking a door, turning on lights or sounding an alarm. The data is processed at the source so it isn’t sent back and forth to a data center. Data that is time sensitive can be sent to the fog in real-time so it can be controlled and action can be initiated within a millisecond. Data that isn’t time sensitive can be sent to the cloud, which analyzes and stores the data long- term.


According to Cisco, by 2020, an estimated 50 billion “things” will be connected to the internet. Massive quantities of big data from that amount of devices would require vast amounts of bandwidth to move to the cloud where it is stored. The fog provides benefits to businesses because employees can work more quickly while also keeping their data secure before, during and after it migrates to the cloud. The less distance that data has to travel, the more secure it is. The fog also has cost benefits. Using it conserves less bandwidth which also can free up the network for other uses and prevent failures and delays since there is less data movement in the network.

As managers and IT teams work to make their business operations more efficient, they’ll leverage the fog and its benefits. The fog is the future of cloud computing, and there are opportunities to grow and expand fog solutions at FNTS.