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The Public Cloud Trust Deficit – What can CIO do to bridge it?

Public Cloud the power of accessing files from anywhere and on any device brings more scalability & effectiveness among employees or peers at very low cost. Public Cloud services include services like file sharing, e-mail, server hosting, and online office applications. Public Cloud services are basically for those who don’t really require a high level of infrastructure. But this doesn’t stop SMEs and big enterprises to use Public Cloud for their professional or official use. In fact some of the organizations are using public cloud services to make their daily operations more efficient.

Maximum CIOs says that security and controlling of public cloud is a big concern for them. Security factor is actually different for each company. For example a Government organization who handles individual’s documentation may have different sets of security protocols from Petroleum Company. So the decision of outsourcing the IT services to cloud provider is very crucial for a CIO. Because what works for an organization may not necessarily work the same for another. While considering the public cloud services the potential benefits are important but it is almost important to keep security objectives in mind.

But Public Cloud may provide some of the secure and scalable benefits, such as:

  • Department wise:
    CIO can easily avail public cloud services as per the department’s need. As public cloud / hybrid cloud services are offered as the way you use them and how much you use them. So easy to get ownership department wise.

  • Platform:
    Cloud computing is much more different from the traditional way of computing. Cloud as a platform enables a lot of automation and ease in your work. CIOs need to worry about managing the configuration control, security patches, system maintenance & fault management etc.

  • Resources Availability:
    With ultimate recovery and backups procedures cloud will never let your application down. Due to no geographical restriction, it becomes more robust. So, it’s more reliable where you want 0% downtime.

  • Mobility:
    Public cloud structure is actually designed in a way that you can use it from anywhere and on any device. You can log in from a smartphone and from your office PC too

These benefits also requires more monitoring and controlling for your data. As CIO is unaware from where he is accessing his file or where the image or backup of a VM is lying. There are a few recommended activates which you can perform with your public / hybrid:

  • CIOs should refer or check SLAs first before adopting public cloud. Even though Public Cloud SLAs have many term which are non-negotiable, leads to very less visibility and increase more security constraints.

  • To enhance the security, control and backup there are few third party tools available. Which CIOs can deploy in their hybrid/public cloud to get everything in single pane solution.
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Never Run out of Resources by Taking Charge of VM Sprawl

When monitoring a virtualized environment, it’s important to understand the various performance issues & bottlenecks that may arise. As most virtual admins know, VM sprawl doesn’t occur over night, rather over a period of time and for a number of reasons.

For example, as a Virtual Admin, create VM’s based off of demand and can do so very easily, especially since new hardware isn’t required. When the number of VM’s increases within your infrastructure, it can lead to a lack of resources, performance issues, bottlenecks, or worse…VM sprawl.
The key to address these issues is to focus on resource utilization because if not properly allocated, ROI can even be affected. Provided below are a few areas virtual admins can focus on to better utilize their resources and avoid VM sprawl:

Zombie & Idle VMsare allocated a certain amount of resources, however with them being idle, these resources aren’t being utilized. In turn, other VM’s are affected due to their lack of resources. Signs of zombie & idle VMs:
– No recent login by users. For example, when employees leave an organization, their VM will become idle
– No recent file modification, as users aren’t using the VM
– Check when last powered on or off
By eliminating these VMs you can reclaim the wasted resources.

Rouge VMs are allocated a share of resources, yet they continue to consume additional resources. In turn, these VMs grow faster than they’re supposed to. Rogue VMs are one of the major causes for latency. You should drill down further to understand why these VMs grow at such a rapid rate. By checking their historical data & you can determine the reason for these changes and remediate accordingly.

Over allocated VMsconsume a lot of resources that aren’t needed by the end-user or client. It’s recommended to right size all your VMs. Look out for VMs which have under utilized CPU, memory, and storage. Analyze their historical consumption to understand the cause for over allocation in a VM and if it will be permanent.

VM Sprawl doesn’t happen overnight and it is not easily noticeable. VM Sprawl becomes a performance issue and bottleneck over a period of time. Some recommended solutions to overcome performance issues from VM sprawl:

– Don’t allocate too much memory and other resources. Go through with software or an application manual, assign resources per the recommendations given by the vendor.
– Allocate single vCPU at first, add more later on if needed.
– Monitor & delete VMs that are no longer needed to reclaim wasted resources.
– Don’t create snapshot of each VM. It is recommended to archive VMs so you can save storage space.
– Keep a historical log of configuration changes to track what changed the performance graph.
– Chargeback or showback to understand the cost of each VM.
– Check with business groups to understand the need for creating a VM.
– Define rules for maximum number of VMs allocated to an individual/user/department.

By utilizing these few tips on resource utilization you will be able to avoid VM sprawl. While these tips are useful, it is recommended to implement a modern virtualization management tool to make it easier to identify & control VM sprawl. You will be able to monitor and account for all resources being used. In turn, you will be eliminate bottlenecks in VMs.
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Add “Smart-Art” to be more smart in your presentation

SmartArt helps you in creating high impact, professional diagrams. We can use it to focus visual message that you want to display or communicate to the audience.

So, PowerPoint is the base for SmartArt which not only represent the data or diagram the way you want even gives much more eye cool effect which makes the presentation to deliver information according to the audience.

So, let’s see how we do it:

–        Open the PowerPoint and navigate to “Insert” tab
–        In the Insert Tab click on SmartArt button.



–        A new window will open from which you can select the SmartArt which you need in your presentation as per the requirement.


–        Under “Type your text here” type your list of information that you want reflect in your diagram or flowchart.
–        Click on “Design” tab and then select colors and styles from the available galleries to make your diagram looks more cool.


–        Within the design tab you can find enormous number of options to style your SmartArt Graphics.
(this reflects 3D based style for the SmartArt)


(Give Color styling to make it looks more cooler or eye catchy)

So, through this styling diagrams doesn’t looks like your normal hand written diagrams but they will more treated like a picture in your presentation.
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Increase “Undos” in Microsoft PowerPoint or Office Suite

We do mistakes a lot while working and mistakes always makes us learn a lot. But computing gives we pleasure to edit the mistakes. While designing the Presentations we always have the issue with the numbers of level of undo for the PowerPoint. This is one the major issue we use to face in our daily life for creating presentations.

But when we keep Undoing our work we maximum time don’t count the number of level of undo we did. The default value is actually 20 in Microsoft PowerPoint for undoing the work and this limit is actually editable so, you can increase or decrease the limit according to your requirement.

Here I’ll show how we do it:

With Microsoft PowerPoint open, click on “File” button. 

Then click on “Options”.



Then window will appear like this.


Click on the “Advanced” tab given there in the left pane of it. 



Then window will appear something like this.



Then change the value on “Maximum number of Undos:” option.



Note: Default level value is 20 for Undos but Minimum you can give 3 and Maximum you can give 150

With the help of increase or decrease in the level of undoing makes or work more convenient and accurate. A presentation looks good when they don’t hold any mistake in them whether in terms of designs or in terms of animations we provide in it. We can learn from mistakes only when we do correction in them and undo is the way to correct our mistakes to keep learning from the mistakes. This thing not applies with our presentations but anything we do in our life.

So, keep doing mistakes, keep undoing them without thinking of leveling and keep getting learn from your mistakes. 
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What’s new in Hyper-V Generation – 2 VMs?

Microsoft launched Generation 2 VMs with Windows Server 2012 R2 but they are still compatible with Generation 1 VMs which likely called as ‘legacy VMs’. Generation 1 VMs are the normal VMs running on Hyper –V which uses BIOS-based boot architecture, whereas Generation 2 VMs use UEFI-boot based architecture and available only on Windows Server 2012 R2.

Generation 2 VMs provide a simple hardware model, supports UEFI firmware & many of the legacy devices have also removed. In Generation 1 VMs same virtual hardware was assigned, whereas Generation 2 will be having new functionalities which are:

  • PXE boot via standard network adapter:
    In generation 1 if there was a requirement to have remote installation for the guest operating system using PXE (Pre-boot execution Environment), the legacy network adapter was supposed to install. In generation 2 legacy network aren’t available so PXE boot can only be performed by the standard network adapter.
  • Boot from SCSI Virtual Hard Disk or DVD:
    In Generation 2, VMs are enabled to boot from virtual SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) controller. Virtual IDE (Integrated Device Electronics) controllers aren’t available in Generation 2 VMs. So, attached OS VHDX can be benefited by having SCSI or VHDX features.
  • Secure Boot is enabled by default:
    Generation 2 VMs have Secure Boot by default in nature which help in preventing unauthorised firmware, operating systems and UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) drivers from running at the boot time. But Secure Boot can be disabled after creating the Virtual Machine.

The minimum requirements for the Generation 2 VMs are: Windows Server 2012 or R2 and 64 bit Windows 8 & 8.1.

On Microsoft Hyper-V an Admin can run both generations of VMs even though now Hyper-V will ask first which generation you want to create. Basically Hyper-V Generation 2 doesn’t support all Hyper-V supported guest Operating Systems. So, the Operating System, which isn’t compatible to Generation 2 those need to be installed on Generation 1 VMs.

When it comes to performance VMs boot will be 20% (approx.) faster & OS installation will be around 50% faster in comparison to Generation 1 VMs. But there will be not much difference in overall performance for VMs. 

Benefits:
There are benefits that Generation 2 VMs provide such as these VMs performs faster OS installation because OS installation enables from PXE network. Another advantage is, these VMs boots faster and a subset of Integration components is available to the VM during power-on.

Limitations:

Limitations are also there with Generation 2 VMs as they only support VHDX virtual hard-drive format. Generation 1 VMs can convert to a VHDX format to use in the Generation 2 but then you cannot further convert it to some other format. All OSs aren’t supported by Generation 2 VMs, you can’t install old version of OSs in them. There are a lot more drawbacks and limitations associated with Generation 2 VMs

  • Only new OSs are supported on Gen 2 VMs. 
  • No boot from an iSCSI LUN if you need to then use Gen 1 VMs only. 
  • The secure boot option is only with Gen 2 VMs. 
  • No support for the legacy network Adapters. 
  • No support for vFloppyDrives. 
  • No support for IDE Controllers
May be in the next release of Hyper-V we might not see these limitations or drawbacks in the Gen 2 VMs
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Use Mobogenie SDK to get profitable share & increased downloads

India has seen an endless development in the scene of developers on portable stage. With the diagram of cell phone clients climbing regular, there is additionally an ascent in the developers for these stages. One such illustration is Android and the tremendous designer group around it in India.
Despite the fact that we do have a ton of developers in India dealing with Android stage, very little of them has seen a business accomplishment with their work as of recently. Versatile application commercial center and biological community Mobogenie is all prepared to change the current state of adaptation and syndication held by Google Play Store. Mobogenie has presented another open stage for developers. Utilizing this stage, developers can now straightforwardly submit their applications to Mobogenie and even screen exercises and adaptation reports.


To utilize this administration, developers must sign up on the stage. In the wake of enrolling, they can submit their applications for survey and malware look out for Mobogenie application commercial center. Developers must incorporate Mobogenie SDK to have the application on the Mobogenie application commercial center. The better piece of this activity is, the benefit offering degree. While Google keeps up a 3:7 model for income offering on Play Store, Mobogenie is giving a premium 2:8 models to the same, to ensure better benefits for developers. Alongside that, Mobogenie is additionally offering 10,000 ensured download to timely riser registrants.

With in excess of 440 million clients, Mobogenie can’t be overlooked as an approaching application biological system on Android. By giving less demanding techniques, checking devices and a premium income offering model, they are most likely not going to go unnoticed among the huge Android developers group. Learner developers are the ones who will benefit most from this administration, exceptionally school understudies.
Mobogenie Developers Portal: http://developer.mobogenie.com/ 
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Syncing iOS TestStudio Projects online from device or iOS Simulator

TestStudio for iOS also gives you flexibility to Sync your projects with test cases online. Even though you can do syncing from n no. of devices to the online portal. Some of the things required, are:

  • Subscription of TestStudio for iOS web portal: my.teststudio.com
  • Telerik Account, if you don’t have create one.
  • iOS device or iOS simulator installed with Telerik TestStudio for iOS (to installation check here)
So, when you have recorded tests on your device or simulator then and have all the steps and reports you can sync it to the TestStudio Web Portal to share with your team on my.teststudio.com. Here, i’ll show you now how you can sync and share the tests with your team.
First, record the required test for more information on that please read my last blog post. After when you complete your tests and creating projects. On the home screen of TestStudio for iOS click or tap on ‘Settings’:
Then settings in Settings navigate to ‘Web Portal’ Option, as shown below:
Now, log in with the your telerik account, on which you want to sync your project:
After logging in come back to the project’s listing page, and click or tap on Sync button on the Bottom left:
After when the syncing is complete now go the Test Studio Web Portal and login with the same telerik account which you configured on your iOS device or simulator. Then, there are your all the projects listed in tile view on the portal, to add some more contributor to the portal, just go and click on + button just beside Contributor:

Then this new window will come up to add the e-mail and message to your contributor.

Even though if you click on a project it, will show you the whole report, as shown below like one of the case got fail on my device and now me & contributor can check where the test has got failed:
So, this is how, you can sync & collaborate through TestStudio to make your product or app more accurate and bug free.
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Creating Projects & Recording Tests on TestStudio for iOS

In my previous post Configuring or Deploying ‘Telrik TestStudio for iOS’ on iOS Simulator on XCode Mac showed you how to deploy TestStudio Extension on iOS Simulator. But now it’s time to perform, creating projects and recording test cases for the automation.

When you open the TestStudio on iOS Simulator first there are 2 options on the home screen:

  • Testing
  • Settings
Select testing and navigate to next page from where you actually need to create the new Project.
Here you can select the big Circular icon in the middle or +Add button in the Right Bottom of the simulator. After Navigating, give a new name to the project and click on Save on the Top-Right in simulator.
Now, from here you need to add test name & test type (Web App test or Native App test), which need to be test.
So, to add new app type & test click on the big Circular icon in middle or click +Add button in Right Bottom. Then you’ll be navigated to page where it will ask you to add a Web App or a Native App.
So, here I am adding a Demo_test as a test name and selecting Web Test as I need to test an WebApp and then click on save.
After saving now you are ready to do recording for the app test. From the given below screen shot of simulator:
So, now you can record your test cases by clicking on the big Circular icon of Steps in Middle or by clicking Record button in Bottom Left.
So now start recording test and if you want to give a target to add a task click on the + button in bottom middle to add:
So, when you add task, you have to select whether you are testing for verification or for action.
Select according to the requirements you have, like in this give below case I am selecting Verifications to Verify Attribute Value.
Now here give a case on which attribute you want to verify, like here I am checking on the basis of image source.
Now pause the recording and navigate to recorded steps by clicking on small steps icon in right bottom of the iOS Simulator. Now here are all the your steps which you have recorded to perform your test or tasks.
So here now you can play your record, add some other tasks & can get result reports as well. 
This how you can keep on testing your iOS apps in simulator with a few clicks which will give you better and accurate results to increase the performance of your app.
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Configuring or Deploying ‘Telrik TestStudio for iOS’ on iOS Simulator on XCode Mac

Telerik TestStudio is an automation testing tool for all phase which a tester requires. Test Studio automates functional, load & performance testing to improve and fasten up the tester’s job. TestStudio is also available for iOS you can install it on your iOS Devices: iPhone, iPad & iPodTouch via App Store.

So, installing or deploying TestStudio on iOS Simulator is also available. But before that you need to have:

  • Apple Mac installed with Latest version of XCode
  • Telerik Account which you can easily make with filling a form or can connect with Microsoft Account or Gmail too.
  • A bundle file (Test-Studio-for-iOS-2-5.dmg) which contains: XCode Workspace, Test Studio Extension, Test Studio demo app for iOS Simulator.  (Note: You need to be logged in from your Telerik Account to download this file)
Let’s deploy TestStudio on iOS simulator, with a very few simple steps:
Step 1: Extract all the files in folder from Test-Studio-for-iOS-2-5.dmg
Step 2: Locate TestStudio for iOS folder in Finder extracted from the DMG file. 
Step 3: Open TestStudioSimulator folder:
Step 4: Open Terminal and give the location of TestStudioSimulator folder
Step 5: When TestStudioSimulator folder is Open in Command Terminal, now run this python file with given below command:
python installteststudioinsimulator.py
Step 6: Now this Python will install TestStudio Extension in iOS Simulator and in terminal it will show you ‘Installation Complete’ message.

Step 7: Now Open xCode and start the iOS Simulator and check whether Test Studio Extension for iOS is installed properly. Just Navigate to XCode > Open Developer Tools > iOS Simulator

Now you can proceed with checking and start playing with TestStudio on iOS Simulator.
(here you can see the TestStudio icon in iOS Simulator)
(Starting up of TestStudio for iOS in iOS Simulator)
(TestStudio’s first page after opening in iOS Simulator)
Now start deploying TestStudio for iOS in iOS Simulator & iOS Devices and keep testing Apps to know their performance, function & load for more improvements in your apps.

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Turn any 2-D shape into 3-D Object [PowerPoint 2010]

We interact with the objects around us; there are enormous numbers of them. But every object has its own shape. Through which we identify and understands the use of these shapes and objects in our daily life. So, while getting them on to the big screen we want to make sure that these shapes should look like the real object which we use in our daily life.

PowerPoint provides us the better solution for these shapes to convert them into real life object which means we can convert a 2D shape into 3D Object for better representation. This makes user or audience understand your thoughts or point of information which you want to deliver through your presentation.

Here’s how we do it: Continue reading “Turn any 2-D shape into 3-D Object [PowerPoint 2010]”