A Great Week: Edition 6

A Great Week: Edition 6

Hello Friends,

Share some interesting points across 6 topics.

#1: The monetization of this fantastic web game is coming. Why? The New York times just bought it.

I expect the monetization of this game around the corner. It was fun while it lasted. ☺️

#2: The largest DDoS attack was just foiled. Do you know big it was?

3.46 Terabytes per second. Microsoft foiled this DDoS Attack in Nov 2021. This attack was pointed at an Azure Customer in Asia and is considered the largest DDoS attack and originated from 10,000 sources and multiple countries across the globe. Phew! Read this interesting page from Microsoft/Azure

#3: Cloud is natively secure, but you still need to apply the controls. This Server exposure with 3TB of records reminds us one more time

3TB of Airport employee records were found exposed on Securitas's inappropriately secured AWS S3 Bucket. Ironically, Securitas is a Swedish company that provides on-site guarding, electronic security solutions, Risk management, and safety services.

Could this not have been caught proactively?

Could this not have come under the preview of a cloud security assessment?


#4: Comparing the Cloud costs by using the wrong metric. Here are the factors credited with blowing up the Cloud business case

We often compare cloud services and their prices with a narrow focus which may not even matter in long term. Enterprises can take better & strategic decisions by associating a long-term timeline.

  • Pricing models & their complexity can throw every price calculator out of the window. Data volume, duration of use, data transfer rate, compute capacity used, regions, and instance type- There are too many variables. Furthermore, factors like data egress fees are hardly taken into account when building cloud business cases. These can also work as a vendor lock if you are dealing with huge data volumes.
  • Overprovisioning is easy on the cloud. More than 50% of the companies on the cloud are seeing spending going into ideal workloads or overprovisioned resources.
  • Reserve Instances prices can be mouth-watering when compared to on-demand prices. Committing to a 1-year or a 3-year RI without a clear strategy only means paying for unwanted resources.

#5: Disruption in the Pharmacy business is here

I am closely watching Mark Cuban's Cost Plus drug company which is slated to disrupt the US Pharmacy business. It is a nightmare scenario for giants like CVS, Walgreens coming true, who have ruled this segment. Insurance & healthcare is a mess in America with an opaque system and these sky-high costs can render people bankrupt. Cost Plus is promising price transparency and the costs of drugs are set to fall. This unfolding saga will have eCommerce, Supply chain distribution, Technology, Compliance and Business disruption all rolled into one.

#6: Book Talk

  • I am impressed by how practical is "The art and business of online writing" by Nicolas Cole. There are a lot of real examples from From posts that have received hundreds and thousands of views. Nicolas cole self-published this book and it has done well. Great ideas spread. I would recommend buying this in a paperback format so you can keep it on the desk and reference time and again.
  • I am currently reading "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook" by Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary is one of the best mentors on the cross-section of social media and Marketing. He has kept a tab on the evolutions of the platform but also how to get and keep attention. He eats his own dog food, and that is why Gary is one of the top Influencers on any social media channel. In this book, he focuses on converting prospects into buyers after creating a ton of value for them.

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