Cloud Computing: Evolution in the next year or so.

Cloud computing has been developing rapidly since the term was coined in 2006. It’s played an integral role in the transformation of many businesses over the last decade, particularly valued for the reliability, scalability and versatility that cloud technology brings compared to traditional dedicated servers. And this race to the cloud will only gather pace as technology matures.

Having the ability to understand, evaluate and implement cloud computing is crucial for today’s business leaders, regardless of whether they operate in IT or not. As business needs evolve, so too does cloud infrastructure. There has been a strong growth within the private and hybrid cloud computing market, and in the next twelve months we can only expect that the technology will gain further importance and adoption. Research company IDC’s findings back this prediction up, by pointing out that a year ago traditional data centres accounted for 62 per cent of IT infrastructure spending, while public cloud captured 23 per cent and private cloud, 15 per cent. Illustrating a rapid shift, IDG predicts that by 2020 data centres will represent 50 per cent of the market, with public cloud forming just under a third of the market and private cloud making up 20 per cent. In simple terms, data centres’ importance is diminishing, while public and private cloud technology’s value and usability is growing and gaining traction. As the current cloud landscape is changing, what can we expect from this market in 2018?

Hybrid cloud computing will gain traction

Going back to basics, a hybrid cloud enables businesses to use a combination of different cloud model types. For example: a public cloud with a private cloud, or one private cloud with another one, or one public cloud with a second public cloud. Some businesses see hybrid cloud use as a way to deal with IT demand peaks, while others view it as a central management experience. Many companies tend to start working with hybrid clouds to complement their present investments. For instance, as most businesses usually use a sliding scale for what aspects of their operations are most crucial, some would place the less valuable or security-demanding areas in the public cloud. Meanwhile, other aspects that need more control and safety would be directed to the private cloud within that hybrid cloud space. This way, they can control and oversee their operations and systems management. With the increasing adoption of hybrid cloud computing, we will see the market grow steadily.

While last year was important for experimenting and learning about the technology, cloud vendors will continue to crystallise their strategies throughout this year. One vivid example is Microsoft’s launch of private cloud platform Azure Stack, the purpose of which is to mirror the Azure public cloud. Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services partnered with platform virtualisation giant VMware, to offer a new hybrid cloud extension. Further, Oracle and IBM now have their own hybrid cloud offerings. These are only a few examples of how, as major cloud vendors’ strategies are gelling, they will gain momentum as their clients continue to seek the best ways to manage their public and private clouds.

Another important development will be the optimisation of connections to the cloud. Very few companies use only one cloud model – many have both public and private clouds. This means that if a business uses a hybrid cloud, it can certainly benefit from access to an optimised network connection to that cloud. This need has led to a growth in the interconnection providers market, known as multi-clouds, and as hybrid cloud computing becomes popular, businesses will need to prioritise creating, maintaining and optimising such connections.

The emergence of multi-clouds

With the increased exploration of hybrid cloud, people will also start turning their heads to emerging options such as multi-clouds, which are naturally evolving from hybrid cloud use. Multi-clouds enable the use of multiple cloud computing services in a single infrastructure. For example, a company can use separate cloud providers for its infrastructure and software services, or it can use a number of infrastructure providers for a variety of workloads. This is when multi-cloud architecture comes into play, as it enables businesses to increase their cloud operations’ availability. So, if one of the cloud vendors in the architecture is experiencing a problem, the business can switch workloads from it to a different vendor’s infrastructure.

There are a number of reasons why multi-clouds will become increasingly powerful and valued. They enable the complete integration of all the prevalent public clouds like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. They also optimise multi-cloud management into one sole activity, by allowing a wide-ranging cloud network to exist in a single platform. Furthermore, multi-clouds enable the automation of IT networking, which makes it easy to connect to and switch between public and private clouds. More importantly, centralised cloud networking management enables a business to access, control, analyse and trace faults in all its cloud resources in one unifying place. This can bring business optimisation and increased efficiency – and what business doesn’t want that?

All of this means that the emergence, and eventually adoption, of multi-cloud computing focuses on connectivity and therefore brings more relevance to networking and to the easier ways of managing networks. Having looked at the emerging cloud options and the changing landscape, we also need to consider the reasons why more enterprises turn to cloud providers.

The hyperscale of cloud providers

Amazon, Microsoft and Google’s cloud infrastructure is on such a large scale, that we talk about them as a hyperscale cloud, as opposed to a mere cloud. While they offer a hosting service that is safe, scalable and global, they are also constantly innovating and collaborating, ensuring that they’re experiencing immense growth because of it. Hyperscale providers are in a features arms race, the latest battleground being the creation of machine learning and artificial intelligence platforms, steadily revolutionising these spaces. Over the next twelve months we can be certain to observe a further consolidation of their services, with hyperscale providers building platforms that are easy to consume and reduce operational costs. This will naturally lead to decreasing cloud expenditure as these become more mature, more accessible and easier to work with, driving a further decline in traditional computing.

Companies’ digital transformations have come a long way, but as cloud platforms continue to innovate and as machine learning and artificial intelligence become increasingly efficient, businesses need to carefully evaluate what is right for them long term. This is not a decision that can just be taken by the IT team any more. Consequently, many organisations, wondering where to start, turn to managed service providers accredited by hyperscale cloud providers, as they can design and deliver bespoke cloud computing solutions that are tailored to an organisation’s specific needs. Using the help of a trusted expert and solution-led infrastructure company is often the best way to solve a business challenge with technology, and to be safely guided through the journey to the cloud.

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Emerging Web Design Trends 2018.

Simply having a website isn't enough in 2018. Take a look at the web design trends you'll need to stand out this year.

Web design's a fast moving industry. With so many factors at play, from new tech to changes in consumer tastes, there's a lot of moving parts to it.You need to know what you're doing before you dive in if you're going to create something you and your users can get any value out of. In today's article, we'll be looking at some of the biggest web design trends of 2018. With these in your arsenal, you'll be at the top of your web design game.

But why take our word for it? Get in touch with us, today, for more on how you can take your online presence to new heights, this year.

In the meantime, join us, as we look at what's going down in web design trends for 2018!

Mobile-first

In April this year, Android has officially overthrown Windows as the primary web-browsing trend out there. While it is true that tablets and desktop devices still have higher conversion rates, smartphones dominate the Asian market, which is currently becoming one of the greatest trading hubs in the world. Therefore, in order to approach the ever-growing demographic of mobile users, you might want to further invest in making your website mobile-first.

On the other hand, it is a known fact that about 90 percent of the time on their smartphones people spend on apps, rather than on browsers. This is what made some people question whether investing in mobile-optimization is even worth the effort. Still, considering how little effort and investment this idea may yield, as well as how great of an ROI it brings, going with mobile-first design indeed seems like a win-win scenario.

Authentic content

Another thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that the online audience values authenticity above all else. This especially takes prominence when it comes to the issue of images and illustrations. You see, using a generic image to back your content may be fairly successful but it will never have the impact of an image taken especially for that situation. With about 1.3 billion websites out there, it is getting harder and harder to appear unique, so tailoring your content to appear as a single-purposed might just be the tool that can win over your audience.

Hand-crafted design

Earlier on, we addressed the issue regarding the ever-growing websites out there. With the number constantly on the rise, it is getting harder and harder to distinguish yourself in a positive way. Sure, going for a free template might seem like a more frugal choice but how can you quantify losses you will endure due to the fact that your website appears generic? The truth is that when it comes to web design there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. This is also why web design veterans from Bapple focus on hand-crafting high-performance business websites, in order to create a unique impression on your audience.

Homepage videos

According to one conversion-rate statistic, including an introduction video before offering your audience a CTA (call-to-action) button can increase your conversion rate by 144 percent. This is why so many companies nowadays decide to use this tactic on their very homepage. One major drawback of this tactic is a fact that the video needs to be of a high-production value, which makes it quite costly to produce. First of all, you need a great script, an adequate gear and someone with either great editorial skills or at least a naturally gifted orator on your retainer. This is also what makes so many websites outsource this function, which is also quite expensive.
Check out two of our latest clients who use home Page Videos

RhythmHealth Clinic
MasalaMantra

Daring shapes and colours

Finally, even in the era where minimalism and flat design seem as predominant forces, going with daring shapes and colours does have its advantages. The perfect example of this is the trend of brutalism which draws inspiration from the Soviet-era Eastern Europe architecture. Odd and unpredictable geometrical shapes dominate the landscape of brutalist web design, as well as colour combinations that even some of the most experienced web designers wouldn’t even dream of.

The key here is to attract the attention of your website’s visitors at any cost. Surprisingly enough, this design trend which so many professionals deem as ‘ugly’ manages to succeed where all other trends have failed. So, if we are speaking of results only, brutalism is definitely not a force to be reckoned with and not an idea you should outright dismiss.

As you can see, with these few revolutionary ideas at your side, you have all the tools necessary to start making your mark in the digital world. Keep in mind that even though some of these trends may give you great immediate results, there is no guarantee that they will still be valid for several years or even months. The key to survival, therefore, rests on your ability to adapt to the newly changed circumstances in the world of web design. Luckily, succeeding at this daunting task will be more than worth your while.

Typography

Where and how to use your lettering. Just because it's a classic design issue, doesn't mean it's not still incredibly important. The size and shape of typography are as big of a concern in 2018 as they've ever been.Companies the world over are incorporating bold fonts that make a statement into their home and landing pages.The idea is to balance this out with simplistic, clean content. The bold typography serves as an anchor, instead of pelting the user with giant letters, with the smaller font toning it down, nicely.

If you're looking for web design trends to help you stand out in 2018, start with typography.

Micro-interactions

As the user experience becomes more sophisticated, people need simple functions, more than ever. They also want to know, quickly, when something changes On desktops and mobile, we see micro-interactions as web trends becoming increasingly popular.

These are single-use animations, buttons and design elements that affect the way users interact with a website.

Examples of micro-transactions include:

Drag refresh, which allows mobile users to pull down on your site to refresh it easily.

Like and unlike buttons, which give users a short, easy window in which to comment on your posts or features.

Hover animations, which display information about different sections of your site.

Scrolling graphs, which allow users to see whatever piece of information they want to look at right now, without taking up the entire screen.

These micro-interactions help to make your site more intuitive for the user to navigate.

Improved Navigation

As we move into the end of the year, we see web design trends of 2017 starting to drop off the design elements of their past. One field where this is quite obvious in navigation.

Specifically, the hamburger menu. Originally introduced to remove information off of a website's homepage, the hamburger menu has been around for years.

The three-lined menu icon found in the top corners of many mobile websites are a great space saver, but they have one very obvious drawback:

They add to the number of clicks a user needs to get to whatever it is they're looking for.In website design, more clicks are almost always worse. Many websites are starting to shift over to a single bar menu at the top of the screen instead of this classic design element, and have been for some time.

Expect to see fewer hamburgers in 2018, but, also, new takes on the classic design. After all, the hamburger menu was designed to save space, and it does that well. It makes sense that designers would want to keep it around, albeit with some improvements. Navigation doesn't need to be kept in the foreground of a website, either.

It's become popular to use pop-out toolbars and hidden menus for maneuvering around a site. This keeps the site clean, showing off all the hard work you've put into your design while giving the user a full range of controls over what they want to do.

A word of caution on this idea: make sure you keep your tools obvious, even when they're hidden. It doesn't help to tidy up your landing page by moving the buttons out of the way if nobody can find them.

Conversational Interfacing

AI's not exactly a new concept. Everything from operating systems to video games has been aping the idea since before the turn of the millennium. What you need to know about AI web design trends in 2018, though, is that they're slowly becoming more common than they've ever been. It all comes down to communication. People are using websites like Facebook and Slack to communicate via text more and more.

And, with bots becoming more realistic every year, sales automation is set to become fully automated sooner rather than later. What does this change about the design of your website? Not much, practically, but it should influence how you think about what you include in that design.

Conversational bots are a useful tool for setting yourself apart, especially if you use them to address the actual needs of your users. Incorporating machine learning into the way these bots operate is a great way to give yourself a competitive edge, design wise.

360 Videos and VR

2016 was a good year for VR. Hemingway Editor Increased virtual reality development and marketing saw sales of headsets and apps skyrocket. More people began using this tech than ever before, bringing it into the mainstream. With the launch of the refined Hololens in 2017 and improvements in WebVR support, 2018 doesn't show any signs of slowing this trend.

And then there's the question of 360 videos. With big name sites like YouTube leading the way in VR and 360-degree video support, the tech still hasn't reached a lot of the lower-rung websites. Browser-based VR experiences are set to become the next big thing in web design trends, this year. Make sure you're ready for when it does.

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Resize the label column in Gmail

By default, Gmail doesn’t offer a lot of customization options aside from its themes, display density and inbox tabs. You cannot really adjust or resize some of its elements like its label columns and message details panel. Fortunately, there are ways to overcome these limitations.

HOW TO RESIZE THE LABEL COLUMN IN GMAIL IN CHROME

• To get started, simply download and install a free browser extension/Gmail add-on called “Gmail label column resizer”.
  
• After installing the said extension, just go ahead and open a new tab and then log in to your Gmail account. If you’re accessing Gmail via Chrome Incognito, then you need to make sure that the Gmail label column resize is also allowed to run in your browser’s Incognito window.
  
• After logging in to your Gmail account, take a look at the divider that separates your inbox or email messages from your email labels.

• Place your mouse cursor over the divider. To adjust the size of the left panel, simply left-click, hold and drag your mouse away or closer to your email labels.
  
  Adjust away !
  
  

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Google Docs Phishing

Google Docs Phishing Campaign.

Gmail users beware: a very convincing, very deceitful, phishing scam has been making its way around the Internet. The scam targets Google Doc and Google Drive users with a lookalike login page designed to steal your username and password.

The Google Docs phishing scam is a textbook example: it aims to trick you into handing over sensitive login details, and it does exceptionally well. The scam starts with an email referring to an “important document” stored on Google Docs. Clicking on the link in this message will take you to what appears to be a Google Docs login page—but it’s not. This fake login page allows scammers to collect your username and password for their own malicious use.

Unfortunately for Gmail users, the page in this case is remarkably convincing—emulating Google’s typical login page. And here’s the clincher: because this scam is hosted on Google’s servers (the scam is, after all, a public folder on Google Drive) it effectively sidesteps one of the more reliable ways to detect a phishing scam. Generally speaking, phishing URLs are one or two characters different from the official website that they’re masquerading as. To top things off, because the scammers were hosting this attack on Google’s servers, the URL appears to be secure.

This attack on Google Doc users is especially troubling as Google uses a single login across all of their services. If the scammers successfully obtained login credentials for your Google Docs, they’d also be able to access your email, Chrome browsing history (including searches), YouTube account, and perhaps even be able to make purchases through the Google Play store if you’ve previously registered your payment information.

Despite the sophistication of this scam, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. After its discovery earlier this week, Google has successfully removed the phishing pages. They’ve also stated that their “abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofing from happening again.”

While this particular attack seems to have been vanquished, phishing scams in general are on the rise. By being aware of how these scams operate, and how to detect them, you’re well on your way to protecting yourself from the Internet’s many bad guys.

Follow the steps below to help avoid falling victim:

• Double check your URL address. Most of the time, a phishing URL will have some reference to the entity it’s pretending to be, but with some form of variation. For example: www.google.com will take you to Google; www.googl.e3921.com (as an example) will take you to a crash page—but it could also take you to a phishing scam website. That being said, do be aware that the scam described above uses a legitimate Google URL and could trick even the most thorough of skeptics.
  

• Don’t send banking or login information via email or text. Professional services will never ask you to send sensitive information over email or text messages. They just don’t. At the bare minimum, they’ll ask you to sign into your account on their website (remember to check the URL) in order to address any sensitive information. If you’ve received an email asking for transmittal of financial or login details via email, you’d be wise to delete it.
  

• Watch the links. Be wary of linking on links sent to you over email, text message or social media sites. Most are harmless, but the ones sent to you by someone you don’t know, or a business that you didn’t sign up for, could send you to a malware-infested site.
  
• Install comprehensive security software. As always, practice caution, and protect yourself online with comprehensive security services like McAfee LiveSafe. It will help block spam and dangerous email, as well as guard against malware and viruses on your PCs, Macs, smartphones and tablets.

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Digital Design

Digital Service Design.

Delivering human-centred service excellence across every digital touch-point.

Customers interact with my business in so many different ways – how can I deliver the best results across their whole experience?

Digital Service Design aims to understand how your customers (or users) engage with your organisation and services or products, with a view to creating experiences and services which create maximum engagement and value creation. By aligning the customer journey across the entire omni-channel ecosystem, we can identify areas where digital enhancements are able to deliver better services, customer experiences, and ultimately improved business performance.

Digital Service Design involves a detailed analysis of the way that customers and users interact with your organisation and all the processes (internal and external) which relate to that interaction. It takes into account every touch-point along the customer journey, including the manner in which that contact is made (for example, what kind of device is likely to be used, or where that customer is likely to be when they make that contact).

Our comprehensive Digital Service Design process helps improve or develop new services to support your organisation and stakeholders in achieving your objectives. Our human-centred approach works by combining a thorough understanding of your customers, your processes and your business, and applying best practice user experience design, behavioural psychology and game science to deliver a detailed Service Blueprint.

2Create360

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