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The Perfect Combination For Identity Management

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The Perfect Combination For Identity Management

By combining biometrics and blockchain, organizations can improve identity management.

Leveraging blockchain technology can sort out many identity management issues ranging from privacy risks to long waiting hours for document verification that can be easily addressed.

Be it the airport, workplace, or the banks, we are asked to provide our ID proofs just so often. Identity verification is not just commonplace but an important protocol across various services and sectors. Even though we all know that the identity verification process is carried out as a safety measure, we do not quite like it. For example, the tight security at airports, right from entering the airport to boarding a flight, has so many steps to identity verification. We are expected to reach airports an hour earlier just so we can get done with the verification in time. Security officers ask for IDs, verify them, and carry out the required verification process. Realizing the need for a positive, seamless, and pleasant flying experience, the airlines and airport authorities are tapping in the potential of biometrics. 77% airports will include biometrics for identity management in the next three years. Not only airlines but also workplaces have implemented biometrics for identity verification. Today, most of the organizations have a biometric device installed at their entrance that scans the physical features of the employee for verification.

The news on cyber frauds has shaken banks across the world, forcing them to think of solutions that would allow them to sit back and relax. Hence, banks today have switched to a frictionless and hassle-free verification process, which is, biometrics. Apart from biometrics, digital signatures are also one of the commonly used identity verification mechanisms. We provide credit card details for making online transactions. But before the payment, we are asked to verify our identity by entering the authentication code that is sent to our mobile phones. So OTPs are also a popular option for verification.

Different types of identity verification systems are used by different sectors. These identity verification processes require a strong platform that ably manages the data, claimer authentication, and defines access to resources too. When the conversation is about security, transparency, and most importantly, trust, one of the best technologies that could provide promising results is blockchain. Biometric and blockchain is expected to redefine the way identity and access management will operate in the near future.

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Determining the Problems with Current Identity Management Models

The current identity management, model is based on the cloud. The identity data collected via biometrics is stored in a centralized cloud storage platform. In today’s time where all the information about customers is stored on a centralized cloud-based storage system, it gives a good opportunity to hackers for stealing the sensitive data. No matter how strong the security is, hackers manage to get hold of the data easily. Also, as the data is stored on a centralized database, third-party vendors come into the picture, which further increases the complexity and interferes with the privacy of data owners. In the case of online transactions, an identity management system typically involves the:

  • End user

  • Service provider

  • Identity provider

  • Control party

With too many stakeholders coming into the picture, the complexity, privacy, and security risks are heightened. Hence, there is a need to replace the current identity management models with a more, secure, efficient, and transparent identity management model. And blockchain fits really well into these requirements. Why? What is so special about blockchain?

Tapping the Potential of Blockchain

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Technically, blockchain offers a decentralized ledger that stores the data after the participant proves her identity. The technology uses strong encryption algorithms that make it super robust and secure. In simpler words, if a blockchain participant wishes to store the transactional data on the blockchain network, then she has to first input a validation code. Without entering the required code, the participant cannot store or access any data.

So, blockchain eliminates the complex traditional transactions, making it simpler for the sender and the receiver. As the traditional transactions involve third-party vendors for verification and authentication, the risk of data alteration and breach also increases. But with blockchain, worry no more! With blockchain, the participants on the network enjoy instant authentication with low transaction costs, no stress of middlemen, and high processing power.

Identifying the Role of Blockchain in Identity Management

We live in a digital world, where most of our personal life details can be found in some corner of the web. But, the question is do we really want our data to be viewed by just anyone? No, right? The data on our identity when stored on the cloud is at high risk of getting hacked. We may have no information on who, how, and where our data is being used. The sad part about this digital era is we don’t even know where our data is lying because we cannot access it. Some third-party enterprises are entitled to access, share, and control our data at their discretion.

With the help of blockchain, we would get complete control on who views, accesses, and shares our data. The problem of go-betweens gets eliminated, which is where most of our problem gets solved. No central power will rule the data. The transactions will be happening between the valid participants only. We can opt whom to provide access to. Every single activity will be reflected on the chain. Also, once the information is stored on the ledger, it remains forever. So, blockchain provides immutability too!

Combining Biometrics and Blockchain for Identity Management

Technology has revolutionized almost every aspect of our lives. From solving significant problems like cybersecurity threats to comforting our lives, technology has helped us tremendously. Earlier we had to provide our ID proofs for identity verification, But today biometrics is being heavily used instead. Technologies are making our life more convenient, no doubt. But, as new technologies emerge in the tech space, hackers try even harder to carry out their malicious activities. Similar is the case with biometric identity verification. The prying eyes of hackers are set on the cloud, where the biometric data is stored.

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However, when one technology fails to offer its 100%, there is always another technology ready to fill in the lacuna created. And so enters blockchain technology! Blockchain and biometrics can be clubbed together to possibly fix all problems with the existing identity and access management systems. Don’t you think, blockchain and biometrics were meant to be together, like a pair made in heaven?


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Next-gen chips, Amazon Q, and speedy S3

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AWS re:Invent, which has been taking place from November 27 and runs to December 1, has had its usual plethora of announcements: a total of 21 at time of print.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given the huge potential impact of generative AI – ChatGPT officially turns one year old today – a lot of focus has been on the AI side for AWS’ announcements, including a major partnership inked with NVIDIA across infrastructure, software, and services.

Yet there has been plenty more announced at the Las Vegas jamboree besides. Here, CloudTech rounds up the best of the rest:

Next-generation chips

This was the other major AI-focused announcement at re:Invent: the launch of two new chips, AWS Graviton4 and AWS Trainium2, for training and running AI and machine learning (ML) models, among other customer workloads. Graviton4 shapes up against its predecessor with 30% better compute performance, 50% more cores and 75% more memory bandwidth, while Trainium2 delivers up to four times faster training than before and will be able to be deployed in EC2 UltraClusters of up to 100,000 chips.

The EC2 UltraClusters are designed to ‘deliver the highest performance, most energy efficient AI model training infrastructure in the cloud’, as AWS puts it. With it, customers will be able to train large language models in ‘a fraction of the time’, as well as double energy efficiency.

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As ever, AWS offers customers who are already utilising these tools. Databricks, Epic and SAP are among the companies cited as using the new AWS-designed chips.

Zero-ETL integrations

AWS announced new Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon Relational Database Services (Amazon RDS) for MySQL integrations with Amazon Redshift, AWS’ cloud data warehouse. The zero-ETL integrations – eliminating the need to build ETL (extract, transform, load) data pipelines – make it easier to connect and analyse transactional data across various relational and non-relational databases in Amazon Redshift.

A simple example of how zero-ETL functions can be seen is in a hypothetical company which stores transactional data – time of transaction, items bought, where the transaction occurred – in a relational database, but use another analytics tool to analyse data in a non-relational database. To connect it all up, companies would previously have to construct ETL data pipelines which are a time and money sink.

The latest integrations “build on AWS’s zero-ETL foundation… so customers can quickly and easily connect all of their data, no matter where it lives,” the company said.

Amazon S3 Express One Zone

AWS announced the general availability of Amazon S3 Express One Zone, a new storage class purpose-built for customers’ most frequently-accessed data. Data access speed is up to 10 times faster and request costs up to 50% lower than standard S3. Companies can also opt to collocate their Amazon S3 Express One Zone data in the same availability zone as their compute resources.  

Companies and partners who are using Amazon S3 Express One Zone include ChaosSearch, Cloudera, and Pinterest.

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Amazon Q

A new product, and an interesting pivot, again with generative AI at its core. Amazon Q was announced as a ‘new type of generative AI-powered assistant’ which can be tailored to a customer’s business. “Customers can get fast, relevant answers to pressing questions, generate content, and take actions – all informed by a customer’s information repositories, code, and enterprise systems,” AWS added. The service also can assist companies building on AWS, as well as companies using AWS applications for business intelligence, contact centres, and supply chain management.

Customers cited as early adopters include Accenture, BMW and Wunderkind.

Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

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HCLTech and Cisco create collaborative hybrid workplaces

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Digital comms specialist Cisco and global tech firm HCLTech have teamed up to launch Meeting-Rooms-as-a-Service (MRaaS).

Available on a subscription model, this solution modernises legacy meeting rooms and enables users to join meetings from any meeting solution provider using Webex devices.

The MRaaS solution helps enterprises simplify the design, implementation and maintenance of integrated meeting rooms, enabling seamless collaboration for their globally distributed hybrid workforces.

Rakshit Ghura, senior VP and Global head of digital workplace services, HCLTech, said: “MRaaS combines our consulting and managed services expertise with Cisco’s proficiency in Webex devices to change the way employees conceptualise, organise and interact in a collaborative environment for a modern hybrid work model.

“The common vision of our partnership is to elevate the collaboration experience at work and drive productivity through modern meeting rooms.”

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Alexandra Zagury, VP of partner managed and as-a-Service Sales at Cisco, said: “Our partnership with HCLTech helps our clients transform their offices through cost-effective managed services that support the ongoing evolution of workspaces.

“As we reimagine the modern office, we are making it easier to support collaboration and productivity among workers, whether they are in the office or elsewhere.”

Cisco’s Webex collaboration devices harness the power of artificial intelligence to offer intuitive, seamless collaboration experiences, enabling meeting rooms with smart features such as meeting zones, intelligent people framing, optimised attendee audio and background noise removal, among others.

Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: Cisco, collaboration, HCLTech, Hybrid, meetings

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Canonical releases low-touch private cloud MicroCloud

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Canonical has announced the general availability of MicroCloud, a low-touch, open source cloud solution. MicroCloud is part of Canonical’s growing cloud infrastructure portfolio.

It is purpose-built for scalable clusters and edge deployments for all types of enterprises. It is designed with simplicity, security and automation in mind, minimising the time and effort to both deploy and maintain it. Conveniently, enterprise support for MicroCloud is offered as part of Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro subscription, with several support tiers available, and priced per node.

MicroClouds are optimised for repeatable and reliable remote deployments. A single command initiates the orchestration and clustering of various components with minimal involvement by the user, resulting in a fully functional cloud within minutes. This simplified deployment process significantly reduces the barrier to entry, putting a production-grade cloud at everyone’s fingertips.

Juan Manuel Ventura, head of architectures & technologies at Spindox, said: “Cloud computing is not only about technology, it’s the beating heart of any modern industrial transformation, driving agility and innovation. Our mission is to provide our customers with the most effective ways to innovate and bring value; having a complexity-free cloud infrastructure is one important piece of that puzzle. With MicroCloud, the focus shifts away from struggling with cloud operations to solving real business challenges” says

In addition to seamless deployment, MicroCloud prioritises security and ease of maintenance. All MicroCloud components are built with strict confinement for increased security, with over-the-air transactional updates that preserve data and roll back on errors automatically. Upgrades to newer versions are handled automatically and without downtime, with the mechanisms to hold or schedule them as needed.

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With this approach, MicroCloud caters to both on-premise clouds but also edge deployments at remote locations, allowing organisations to use the same infrastructure primitives and services wherever they are needed. It is suitable for business-in-branch office locations or industrial use inside a factory, as well as distributed locations where the focus is on replicability and unattended operations.

Cedric Gegout, VP of product at Canonical, said: “As data becomes more distributed, the infrastructure has to follow. Cloud computing is now distributed, spanning across data centres, far and near edge computing appliances. MicroCloud is our answer to that.

“By packaging known infrastructure primitives in a portable and unattended way, we are delivering a simpler, more prescriptive cloud experience that makes zero-ops a reality for many Industries.“

MicroCloud’s lightweight architecture makes it usable on both commodity and high-end hardware, with several ways to further reduce its footprint depending on your workload needs. In addition to the standard Ubuntu Server or Desktop, MicroClouds can be run on Ubuntu Core – a lightweight OS optimised for the edge. With Ubuntu Core, MicroClouds are a perfect solution for far-edge locations with limited computing capabilities. Users can choose to run their workloads using Kubernetes or via system containers. System containers based on LXD behave similarly to traditional VMs but consume fewer resources while providing bare-metal performance.

Coupled with Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro + Support subscription, MicroCloud users can benefit from an enterprise-grade open source cloud solution that is fully supported and with better economics. An Ubuntu Pro subscription offers security maintenance for the broadest collection of open-source software available from a single vendor today. It covers over 30k packages with a consistent security maintenance commitment, and additional features such as kernel livepatch, systems management at scale, certified compliance and hardening profiles enabling easy adoption for enterprises. With per-node pricing and no hidden fees, customers can rest assured that their environment is secure and supported without the expensive price tag typically associated with cloud solutions.

Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

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Tags: automation, Canonical, MicroCloud, private cloud

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