Gain the practical knowledge you need to plan, design, deploy, and manage mixed cloud and on-premises IT management systems. Drawing on his experience as senior principal software architect at CA Technologies, Marvin Waschke lays out the nuts and bolts of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)—the 5-volume bible of standard IT service management practices that is the single most important tool for aligning IT services with business needs. Many enterprise IT management applications, and the ways they are integrated, come directly from ITIL service management requirements. Types of integration include integrated reporting and dashboards, event-driven integration, device integration, and application data integration. Enterprise integration depends critically on high performance, scalability, and flexibility. Failure to integrate applications to service management requirements results in such wryly anticipated spectacles as the annual crash of the websites of Super Bowl advertisers such as Coca-Cola and Acura. Waschke weighs in on the debate between those who advocate integrating "best-of-breed" applications and those who favor a pre-integrated set of applications from a single vendor. He also rates the strengths and weaknesses of the major architectural patterns—central relational databases, service-oriented architecture (SOA), and enterprise data buses—for IT integration of service management applications. He examines the modifications to traditional service management that are required by virtualized systems of datacenter management and application design. Clouds present special problems for integration. How Clouds Hold IT Together details solutions for integration problems in private, community, and public clouds—especially problems with multi-tenant SaaS applications. Most enterprises are migrating to the cloud gradually rather than at one go. The transitional phase of mixed cloud and on-premises applications presents thorny problems for IT management. Waschke shows the reader how to normalize the performance and capacity measurements of concurrent traditional and cloud resources.

We live in a world of optical marvels - from the commonplace but beautiful rainbow, to the rare and eerie superior mirage. But how many of us really understand how a rainbow is formed, why the setting sun is red and flattened, or even why the sky at night is not absolutely black? This beautiful and informative guide provides clear explanations to all naturally occurring optical phenomena seen with the naked eye, including shadows, halos, water optics, mirages and a host of other spectacles. Separating myth from reality, it outlines the basic principles involved, and supports them with many figures and references. A wealth of rare and spectacular photographs, many in full color, illustrate the phenomena throughout. In this new edition of the highly-acclaimed guide to seeing, photographing and understanding nature's optical delights, the authors have added over 50 new images and provided new material on experiments you can try yourself.

Science in the context of the seven days of creation presented in the Bible. This textbook uses activities to reinforce scientific principles presented.

Now in paperback: the runaway British bestseller that has cloudspotters everywhere looking up. Where do clouds come from? Why do they look the way they do? And why have they captured the imagination of timeless artists, Romantic poets, and every kid who's ever held a crayon? Veteran journalist and lifelong sky watcher Gavin Pretor-Pinney reveals everything there is to know about clouds, from history and science to art and pop culture. Cumulus, nimbostratus, and the dramatic and surfable Morning Glory cloud are just a few of the varieties explored in this smart, witty, and eclectic tour through the skies. Illustrated with striking photographs (including a new section in full-color) and line drawings featuring everything from classical paintings to lava lamps, The Cloudspotter's Guide will have enthusiasts, weather watchers, and the just plain curious floating on cloud nine.

Discover the most prevalent cyber threats against individual users of all kinds of computing devices. This book teaches you the defensive best practices and state-of-the-art tools available to you to repel each kind of threat. Personal Cybersecurity addresses the needs of individual users at work and at home. This book covers personal cybersecurity for all modes of personal computing whether on consumer-acquired or company-issued devices: desktop PCs, laptops, mobile devices, smart TVs, WiFi and Bluetooth peripherals, and IoT objects embedded with network-connected sensors. In all these modes, the frequency, intensity, and sophistication of cyberattacks that put individual users at risk are increasing in step with accelerating mutation rates of malware and cybercriminal delivery systems. Traditional anti-virus software and personal firewalls no longer suffice to guarantee personal security. Users who neglect to learn and adopt the new ways of protecting themselves in their work and private environments put themselves, their associates, and their companies at risk of inconvenience, violation, reputational damage, data corruption, data theft, system degradation, system destruction, financial harm, and criminal disaster. This book shows what actions to take to limit the harm and recover from the damage. Instead of laying down a code of "thou shalt not" rules that admit of too many exceptions and contingencies to be of much practical use, cloud expert Marvin Waschke equips you with the battlefield intelligence, strategic understanding, survival training, and proven tools you need to intelligently assess the security threats in your environment and most effectively secure yourself from attacks. Through instructive examples and scenarios, the author shows you how to adapt and apply best practices to your own particular circumstances, how to automate and routinize your personal cybersecurity, how to recognize security breaches and act swiftly to seal them, and how to recover losses and restore functionality when attacks succeed. What You'll Learn Discover how computer security works and what it can protect us from See how a typical hacker attack works Evaluate computer security threats to the individual user and corporate systems Identify the critical vulnerabilities of a computer connected to the Internet Manage your computer to reduce vulnerabilities to yourself and your employer Discover how the adoption of newer forms of biometric authentication affects you Stop your router and other online devices from being co-opted into disruptive denial of service attacks Who This Book Is For Proficient and technically knowledgeable computer users who are anxious about cybercrime and want to understand the technology behind both attack and defense but do not want to go so far as to become security experts. Some of this audience will be purely home users, but many will be executives, technical managers, developers, and members of IT departments who need to adopt personal practices for their own safety and the protection of corporate systems. Many will want to impart good cybersecurity practices to their colleagues. IT departments tasked with indoctrinating their users with good safety practices may use the book as training material.

Two of the most important developments of this new century are the emergence of cloud computing and big data. However, the uncertainties surrounding the failure of cloud service providers to clearly assert ownership rights over data and databases during cloud computing transactions and big data services have been perceived as imposing legal risks and transaction costs. This lack of clear ownership rights is also seen as slowing down the capacity of the Internet market to thrive. Click-through agreements drafted on a take-it-or-leave-it basis govern the current state of the art, and they do not allow much room for negotiation. The novel contribution of this book proffers a new contractual model advocating the extension of the negotiation capabilities of cloud customers, thus enabling an automated and machine-readable framework, orchestrated by a cloud broker. Cloud computing and big data are constantly evolving and transforming into new paradigms where cloud brokers are predicted to play a vital role as innovation intermediaries adding extra value to the entire life cycle. This evolution will alleviate the legal uncertainties in society by means of embedding legal requirements in the user interface and related computer systems or its code. This book situates the theories of law and economics and behavioral law and economics in the context of cloud computing and takes database rights and ownership rights of data as prime examples to represent the problem of collecting, outsourcing, and sharing data and databases on a global scale. It does this by highlighting the legal constraints concerning ownership rights of data and databases and proposes finding a solution outside the boundaries and limitations of the law. By allowing cloud brokers to establish themselves in the market as entities coordinating and actively engaging in the negotiation of service-level agreements (SLAs), individual customers as well as small and medium-sized enterprises could efficiently and effortlessly choose a cloud provider that best suits their needs. This approach, which the author calls “plan-like architectures,” endeavors to create a more trustworthy cloud computing environment and to yield radical new results for the development of the cloud computing and big data markets.

Can you still have a home if you don't have a house? In the spirit of The Truth About Jellyfish and Fish in a Tree comes a stunning debut about a family struggling to find something lasting when everything feels so fleeting. Always think in threes and you'll never fall, Cora's father told her when she was a little girl. Two feet, one hand. Two hands, one foot. That was all Cora needed to know to climb the trees of Brooklyn. But now Cora is a middle schooler, a big sister, and homeless. Her mother is trying to hold the family together after her father's death, and Cora must look after her sister, Adare, who's just different, their mother insists. Quick to smile, Adare hates wearing shoes, rarely speaks, and appears untroubled by the question Cora can't help but ask: How will she find a place to call home? After their room at the shelter is ransacked, Cora's mother looks to an old friend for help, and Cora finally finds what she has been looking for: Ailanthus altissima, the "tree of heaven," which can grow in even the worst conditions. It sets her on a path to discover a deeper truth about where she really belongs. Just Under the Clouds will take root in your heart and blossom long after you've turned the last page. "[A] heartbreaking yet hopeful story of a family searching for a place to belong." --Publishers Weekly "[A] thought provoking debut about the meaning of home and the importance of family."--Horn Book Magazine

Wild with Child is a unique collection of true stories by parents who boldly head out into the wilderness with kids in tow (or in the lead, as the case may be). These stories run the gamut of adventure: winter camping, climbing, spelunking, field research, skiing, llama trekking, fishing, hunting, and searching for pirate treasure with children of all ages. Readers should bundle up before they strike out into the Rocky Mountains with Mark Jenkins, whose idea of quality time with the kids is camping in a snow cave. Leslie Leyland-Fields shares deep gratitude as her brood safely migrates to an Alaskan island by bush plane. Maleesha Speer confides her personal evolution as she awakens to the wonder of her unborn child in bear country. Whether just beginning the course of wild parenting or looking back at the trail they've taken, these writers aren't willing to accept Disneyland as the final frontier. Even the most civilized among them insist that their children grow up feeling grass between their toes and sun on their skin. It’s a healthy heritage, giving kids a steady set of bearings, making them strong, and helping them rise to challenges.

Evidence and logic are lacking in many areas of public debate today on hot-button issues ranging from dietary fat to vaccination. In Science Under Attack, Dr. Alexander shows how science is being abused, sidelined or ignored, making it difficult or impossible for the public to form a reasoned opinion about important issues. Readers will learn why science is becoming more corrupt, and also how it is being abused for political and economic gain, support of activism, or the propping up of religious beliefs. To illustrate how science is being ignored and abused, the author examines six different issues and the way they are currently discussed: evolution, dietary fat, climate change, vaccination, GMO crops and continental drift. In his research, he has gone back to the original source wherever possible rather than quoting second-hand sources, adding a degree of accuracy and nuance often missing. The controversial assertion that science does not support the conventional wisdom on climate change should be of particular interest. Alexander shows that the scientific evidence for a substantial human contribution to climate change is actually flimsy, and he demonstrates the fallacy of comparing the strong link between smoking and lung cancer to the much weaker connection between human activity and global warming.

Cloud computing is the most significant technology development of our lifetimes. It has made countless new businesses possible and presents a massive opportunity for large enterprises to innovate like startups and retire decades of technical debt. But making the most of the cloud requires much more from enterprises than just a technology change. Stephen Orban led Dow Jones's journey toward digital agility as their CIO and now leads AWS's Enterprise Strategy function, where he helps leaders from the largest companies in the world transform their businesses. As he demonstrates in this book, enterprises must re-train their people, evolve their processes, and transform their cultures as they move to the cloud. By bringing together his experiences and those of a number of business leaders, Orban shines a light on what works, what doesn't, and how enterprises can transform themselves using the cloud.