IT Trends & Technology

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.

Storing apps and services in the cloud is a growing trend for businesses, and keeping that information secure is becoming easier to do with a new service that acts as a gatekeeper, which can extend a company’s security policies outside of their own infrastructure.

Maintaining a competitive edge is important in today’s technology environment. Organizations can lose out to competitors if they fail to keep up with advances in technology. According to a recent report by the International Data Corporation (IDC), by 2020, 50 percent of the world’s top businesses, known as the Global 2000, will see the majority of their business depend on their ability to create digitally-enhanced products, services and experiences. IDC predicts that worldwide investment in digital transformation initiatives will reach $2.2 trillion in 2019, almost 60 percent more than in 2016.

Since there is more pressure on companies to decrease expenses—while simultaneously trying to bolster productivity and revenue—it has never been more important for them to find smart and affordable IT solutions to facilitate the digital transformation. Digital transformation means leveraging the opportunities that come with new technology and optimizing them to grow a business and make it more efficient.

Is your business thinking about taking on a mobile development project? Mobile apps can make or break a business in the digital world. Before investing the time and money, there are several things for developers to take into consideration to get the most out of their app and to get the development right the first time.

First National Technology Solutions (FNTS), headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, offers cost-effective cloud services to businesses that are interested in deploying mobile applications. In business for more than 20 years, FNTS is a leading provider of flexible, customized hosted and remote management services to companies nationwide.

Mobile device users may never get a perfect customer experience when using apps because content that may look great on iOS may look terrible on an Android device. Since there is such a wide variety of pixel counts, screen sizes and functionality, mobile developers start off by trying to accommodate too many variations, or not enough. Developers typically target the top four to five mobile devices and versions they want their app to be compatible with.

The business of unstructured data: effectively store and managed large amounts of data.

In a typical organization, 80% of data is in an unstructured form; meaning it either does not have a predefined data model or it is not organized in a predefined manner (i.e. database or application).

With data sprawl increasing and big data  there are optimal solutions for managing and storing this data in an effective manner.

First National Technology Solutions (FNTS), is excited to announce the addition of Microsoft Azure public cloud to its growing list of cloud computing services.  As IT demands continue to shift across all industries, FNTS is dedicated to meeting the needs of individual enterprises today and aligning with their strategic growth plans for the future.  The addition of Microsoft Azure serves to validate our mission of helping customers stay on the cutting edge of technology adoption and usage.

Many companies, regardless of size, are migrating to Office 365 for a variety of reasons - to support a mobile workforce, address security concerns, provide collaboration solutions and lower support costs with an always up to date application model.  Here are a few things to keep in mind as you begin your migration to the Microsoft Office 365 application.

Whether human error, natural disaster or hardware failure; outages and downtime can leave a lasting mark on technology providers and customers involved.  When an outage occurs on a large scale it gathers the attention and even empathy from many in the IT business.  See how the IT industry reacts to one of the most recent nationwide outages in this recap from IT Jungle.  https://www.itjungle.com/2017/03/06/ibm-cloud-providers-react-amazon-s3-outage/ 

Last week FNTS announced the addition of Microsoft Office 365 to its cloud services offering.  With FNTS and Microsoft Office 365, organizations can work smarter and faster from any device, anywhere, any time.