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Well, if the cat wasn’t out of the bag before this, it is now. On February 22, 2018, Bank of America made some startling (if not obvious) statements about digital currencies, including cryptocurrencies, in a filing provided to the SEC.
“Clients may choose to conduct business with other market participants who engage in business or offer products in areas we deem speculative or risky, such as cryptocurrencies,” the bank said in the filing. “The widespread adoption of new technologies, including internet services, cryptocurrencies and payment systems, could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our existing products and services,” it said. “Emerging technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, could limit our ability to track the movement of funds. Our ability to comply with these laws is dependent on our ability to improve detection and reporting capabilities and reduce variation in control processes and oversight accountability.” Cryptocurrency is at an interesting crossroads. On the one hand, crypto has outperformed even the wildest expectations for it as an asset class thus far. However, it will never perform to its full potential until it develops far wider acceptance as a payment method in the larger regulated economy. Instead of viewing cryptocurrency as a threat, larger corporations should be examining how they can be the first to bring this new, volatile asset class “mainstream”. In response to the explosive demand for miner colocation hosting services, MDI Access has launched MDI Mines --- a premier plug n’ play cryptocurrency mining colocation service. Every kw rented from MDI Mines comes with the following amenities:
 Rumors are swirling that Equinix will Buy Infomart later this month. In Montreal, eStruxtture is finalizing a deal to take over Kolotek. What does this mean? Well, that M&A activity in 2017 was not a fluke. Expect this trend to continue at least through Q1 and Q2 of 2018.
 In October, 2017, Equifax revised its estimates upwards on how many victims had been hacked. Fortune Article. If that was not bad enough, Equifax disclosed to the Senate Banking Committee that the breadth of information compromised in the hack was larger than previously reported. Consumer Reports Article. “This is a demonstration of the broad array of personal information that Equifax holds about nearly every American, and a reminder of the need for individuals to protect themselves following the breach,” says Anna Laitin, director of financial policy at Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports. “If consumers haven’t yet put a freeze on their credit report, now is as good a time as any to do so.”
Michael Rechtin (Partner, Baker McKenzie) and John Heiderscheidt (AFCOM Chicago, Host) shares the insights he developed from leading a risk assessment study of Data Centers across dozens of European jurisdictions. They also discuss M&A activity and non-disclosure agreements in the U.S market.
Presenters: John Heiderscheidt (Host, AFCOM Chicago Chapter President), Sarah Markey (AFCOM, Membership Director)
Episode 10: Sarah Markey (Association Director, AFCOM) and John Heiderscheidt (Chicago AFCOM Chapter, Host) wrap up the first season of "Data Discourse". They preview what’s ahead for AFCOM in the new year. Listen to learn the new AFCOM membership benefits and member resources coming in 2018.  On December 29, 2017, The Enterprisers Project published 15 predictions for tech in 2018. Enterprisers Project Predictions. Multiple predictions relate to AI – artificial intelligence – and cloud solutions. Two stand out.
Seth Noble, Founder of Data Expedition, Inc., predicts “a consolidation of best practices” for cloud migration will result in a customer-centric cloud solution paradigm rather than the current vendor-centric paradigm. This prediction seems intuitive, but it ignores a larger issue brewing under the surface --- cloud migration is not a sure bet to reduce OP EX. For every several IT groups moving to a cloud model, one will migrate back from cloud solutions to a colo or on-prem operation. The second prediction comes from Rich Rogers, SVP, IoT product engineering, Hitachi Vantara, who believes data centers will be “fully autonomous” operations. “IoT and AI will enable data center issues to be root-caused and resolved automatically by software.” While it is nice to dream of a world where the facility manager controls the data center through “voice technologies” from “any location”, don’t bolt for the beach just yet. Even if AI and IoT were capable managing a data center without the need for human assistance, the data center industry is simply too risk / change averse for a seismic “full autonomy” shift to happen in 12 short months. It’s reasonable to expect this kind of shift, but not at the pace Rogers’ rosy view envisions. If you’re in the tech industry, you’ve probably heard the terms “cryptocurrency” (i.e. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple) and “Blockchain” this year. Do those terms sound new and intimidating? A lot of people think so. You can learn about cryptocurrency here: cryptocurrency explained and blockchain explained. The question is, where does it go from here?
In terms of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin will continue to be the dominant digital asset in the market place. It’s meteoric rise to $20,000.00 has tapered a bit, but don’t expect Bitcoin to disappear in 2018. For the tech crowd, it may be Blockchain that has more of a long-term disruptive impact. Shares of UPS jumped .3 percent on news that the company had launched an initiative to adopt Blockchain technology to manage its trillion dollar shipping business’ logistics system. UPS to transition to Blockchain. Salesforce’s Chief Digital Analyst and HuffPost contributor Vala Afshar believes “Blockchain will disrupt every industry. HuffPost article. It’s too early to tell if Afshar is clairvoyant, crazy, or somewhere in between. But with the hype and buzz surrounding this nascent technological phenomenon, expect to hear more about it in 2018. |
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