FedRAMP – Best DevOps

Ubuntu Pro launched for Google Cloud with instant access to mission-critical security patching

anil — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 06:29:48 +0000

Source:-https://www.vanillaplus.com/

Canonical and Google Cloud have launched Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud. This is a new Ubuntu offering available to all Google Cloud users. Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud reportedly allows instant access to security patching covering thousands of open source applications for up to 10 years and critical compliance features essential to running workloads in regulated environments.

Google Cloud has long partnered with Canonical to offer innovative developer solutions, from desktop to Kubernetes and AI/ML. In the vein of this collaboration, Google Cloud and Canonical have created a more secure, hardened, and cost-effective devops environment; Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud for all enterprises to accelerate their cloud adoption.

“Enterprise customers are increasingly adopting Google Cloud to run their core business-critical and customer-facing applications,” says June Yang, VP and GM, compute, Google Cloud. “The availability of Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud will offer our enterprise customers the additional security and compliance services needed for their mission-critical workloads.”

Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud is a premium version of Ubuntu focusing on enterprise and production use. It provides developers/administrators with a secured devops environment, addressing Security, one of the fundamental pillars for all IT systems. It is based on standard Ubuntu components, but comes with a set of additional services activated out of the box, including:

Patching of high and critical CVEs for Ubuntu’s universe repository, which covers over 30,000 packages, including Node.js, MongoDB, Redis and Apache Kafka, to name a few.
A 10 year maintenance commitment (For 18.04 LTS onwards. The maintenance period for Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS is 8 years.)
Live kernel patching, which offers VM instances increased security and higher uptimes.
Officially certified components to enable operating environments under compliance regimes such as FedRAMP, HIPAA, PCI, GDPR, and ISO.
Features to be available in H2 2021: Certified FIPS 140-2 components; security dashboard for Security Command Center, Managed Apps and more.
All the standard optimisations and security updates included in Ubuntu.
Ubuntu Pro for Google Cloud at work
Gojek has evolved from a ride-hailing company to a technology company offering a suite of more than 20 services across payment, e-commerce, and transportation. Through their applications, they’re now serving millions of users across Southeast Asia.

“We needed more time to comprehensively test and migrate our Ubuntu 16.04 LTS workloads to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, which would mean stretching beyond the standard maintenance timelines for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. With Ubuntu Pro on Google Cloud, we now can postpone this, and in moving our 16.04 workloads to Ubuntu Pro, we benefit from its live kernel patching and improved security coverage for our key open source components,” according to Kartik Gupta, engineering manager for CI/CD & FinOps at Gojek.

To help customers get better visibility of cost and money savings, Ubuntu Pro for Google Cloud embeds a transparent and innovative approach to pricing. For instance, Ubuntu Pro will be 3-4.5% of your average computing cost, meaning the more computing resources you consume, the smaller percentage you pay for Ubuntu Pro. Customers can purchase Ubuntu Pro directly through GCP Console or Google Cloud Marketplace for a streamlined procurement process, enabling quicker access to these commercial features offered by Canonical.

Azure Databricks Achieves FedRAMP High Authorization On Microsoft Azure Government

anil — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 05:34:56 +0000

Source:-https://aithority.com

Databricks, the Data and AI Company, announced that Azure Databricks has received a Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High Authority to Operate (ATO). This authorization validates Azure Databricks security and compliance for high-impact data analytics and AI across a wide range of public sector, industry, and enterprise use cases.

FedRAMP is a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud services as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The ATO was granted by the FedRAMP Joint Authorization Board (JAB) which consists of representatives from the Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the General Services Administration (GSA).

At Veterans Affairs, we included Azure Databricks as part of our Microsoft Azure Authority to Operate (ATO),” said Joseph Fourcade, Lead Cyber Security Analyst, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Enterprise Cloud Solutions Office (ECSO). “When Databricks received FedRAMP High approval, we were able to move quickly to inherit that same Azure ATO and approve Azure Databricks for production workloads. Timing couldn’t have been better, as we have been working with a number of VA customers implementing Databricks for critical programs.”

Numerous federal agencies are looking to build cloud data lakes and leverage Delta Lake for a complete and consistent view of all their data,” said Kevin Davis, VP, Public Sector at Databricks. “The power of data and AI are being used to dramatically enhance public services, lower costs and improve quality of life for citizens. Using Azure Databricks, government agencies have aggregated hundreds of data sources to improve citizen outreach, automated processing of hourly utility infrastructure IoT data for predictive maintenance, deployed machine learning models to predict patient needs, and built dashboards to predict transportation needs and optimize logistics. FedRAMP High authorization for Azure Databricks further enables federal agencies to analyze all of their data for improved decision making and more accurate predictions.”

“We are excited to add Azure Databricks to our portfolio of services approved for FedRAMP at the high impact level in Azure Government,” said Lily Kim, General Manager of Azure Government at Microsoft. “Azure Government provides the most trusted cloud for mission-critical government workloads. FedRAMP High approval for Azure Databricks enables government customers to build fast and reliable data lakes for innovative new use cases, such as risk management and predictive analytics.”

With this certification, customers can now use Azure Databricks to process the U.S. government’s most sensitive, unclassified data in cloud computing environments, including data that involves the protection of life and financial assets. From personalized healthcare and education to space exploration and energy research, Azure Databricks enables organizations to accelerate new innovation while minimizing risk when working with highly sensitive, private and public sector data.

With FedRAMP, organizations have a consistent way to evaluate the security of cloud solutions using NIST and FISMA defined standards. FedRAMP offers several levels of assurance and Azure Databricks has met all of the requirements for authorization for the highest degree of assurance. Azure Databricks joins many other Azure services with the FedRAMP High authorization, enabling public sector, enterprise and industry vertical customers to create and deploy cloud-based applications with confidence.

Google Cloud and STS to Automate U.S. Navy Maintenance Inspections Using AI and ML Technology

DM Team — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 05:34:10 +0000

Source:-prnewswire

WASHINGTON and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Google Cloud and Simple Technology Solutions (STS)—a Google Cloud partner and small business specializing in multi-cloud solutions for the federal government—today announced they are working with the U.S. Navy to modernize the maintenance and repairs inspection process for Navy vessels and facilities.

STS will use Google Cloud artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies on inspection drone-captured images to detect, prioritize, and predict its maintenance needs. The work was awarded to STS as a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research project due to the technology innovation and potential for commercialization.

The U.S. Navy currently spends billions per year on maintaining and repairing its fleet of vessels and other platforms like aircraft and facilities. It is a largely manual, labor-intensive process. STS will train Google Cloud AI and ML models on tens of thousands of images to identify corrosion as part of the first phase with the Navy. Using imagery and Google AI/ML technologies, STS will seek to drastically reduce the labor burden and safety risk associated with maintenance inspections.

How it works:

STS will leverage public domain and inspection drone images to build a high-quality AI/ML model using Google Cloud AutoML, a simple, secure, and flexible ML service that allows organizations to build custom vision models.

STS will collaborate with the U.S. Navy corrosion subject matter experts to label and train the data using Google Cloud’s AI Platform Data Labeling Service.

STS will iteratively train and validate the model using custom inspection drone flight data, which will be uploaded using Google Cloud Storage for processing. The models will continually improve and update themselves based on the newly ingested data.

“This is about automation, saving time and money, and keeping inspectors out of harm’s way,” said Aaron Kilinski, chief technology officer, STS. “The initial goal for Phase I is to build a model that detects corrosion in drone images with a very high degree of accuracy. The ultimate goal, however, is to move from detection to prediction by expanding the subjects and sensors, and eventually integrating with Navy systems. We selected Google Cloud AutoML because it allows our engineers to train and test high-quality models quickly. Google Cloud provides an unrivaled degree of specification to meet tough business objectives in compliance with FedRAMP High.”

“The manual inspection of Navy ships and vessels is a time-intensive, costly process that can drive up costs and slow down deployment,” said Mike Daniels, vice president of Global Public Sector, Google Cloud. “We’re proud to work with the U.S. Navy and empower them with Google Cloud technology to transform corrosion inspections for greater efficiency and safety.”

Google Cloud has previously worked with customers in a wide range of industries to support AI-enabled object detection for maintenance and safety, from helping power company AES assess damage to its hundreds of wind turbines, to working with the City of Memphis on automatically detecting potholes in city streets.

Simple Technology Solutions (STS) is an 8(a) & HUBZone company specializing in multi-cloud engineering and applied AI/ML. STS delivers automated (everything-as-code), scalable, and secure solutions in all layers of the cloud technology stack. They are expert at leveraging and augmenting cloud native services to maximize business and mission value, and apply a library of proven, cloud-agnostic accelerators to reduce application migration, provisioning, and team onboarding timelines. In 2019 STS was voted a “Best Place to Work” by Washington Business Journal, ranked #429 on the Inc 500 list and #2 on G2Xchange’s list of fastest growing private companies – D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Delaware.

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