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Tag: accenture

  • Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities

    Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities

    devopsy.kinsta.cloud is now providing a weekly DevOps jobs report through which opportunities for DevOps professionals will be highlighted to better serve our audience.

    Our goal in these challenging economic times is to make it easier for DevOps professionals to advance their careers.

    Of course, the pool of available DevOps talent is still relatively constrained, so when one DevOps professional takes on a new role it tends to create an opportunity for others.

    The five job postings shared this week are selected based on the company looking to hire, the vertical industry segment and, naturally, the pay scale being offered.

    We’re also committed to providing additional insights into the state of the DevOps job market. In the meantime, for your consideration:

    Indeed.com

    MasterCard
    O’Fallon, Missouri
    Principal DevOps Engineer
    $160,000 to $202,000

    Dice.com

    ITC Federal
    Remote
    Technical Lead – DevOps
    $130,000 to $150,000

    SimplyHired.com

    JP Morgan Chase
    Jersey City, New Jersey
    AWS DevOps Software Engineer
    $128,500 to $180,000

    LinkedIn

    Accenture Federal Services
    Springfield, Virginia
    DevOps Services Specialist
    $122,600 to $198,800

    CareerBuilder.com

    NextZen Tek Solutions
    Alpharetta, Georgia
    Azure DevOps Lead
    $120,000 to $170,000

  • Accenture Cloud Simulation Platform Advances DevOps

    Accenture Cloud Simulation Platform Advances DevOps

    Accenture has launched a cloud simulation service through which DevOps teams can better determine which workloads will run best on different cloud computing environments.

    Kishore Durg, growth and strategy lead for cloud at Accenture Technology Services, said myNAV is a cloud service created by Accenture that leverages machine learning algorithms and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI) to leverage a knowledge base Accenture developed during its decade-plus working on cloud projects. DevOps teams can leverage that expertise without requiring Accenture personnel onsite to account for deployment variables such as technology infrastructure, types of application workloads, data, operational models and even business outcomes before committing to a specific cloud computing platform, he said.

    DevOps teams can also employ myNAV to engage in canary testing of application workloads, Durg added.

    DevOps teams employing myNAV are guided through a three-step process that starts with scanning and assessing the existing infrastructure, application and data landscape to recommend the most appropriate cloud architecture. An AI engine developed by Accenture then accesses a knowledge base curated by Accenture to come up with a recommended enterprise architecture. Finally, simulation and testing tools are applied to make sure the IT environment will scale as required.

    At the end of the process the DevOps team is presented with a bill of materials that resembles the bill of materials that might be presented when building a house, said Durg.

    Despite commodity pricing models, not all cloud computing platforms are created equal. Various attributes of application workloads lend themselves better to different attributes of cloud computing platforms. It’s not uncommon for IT organizations to find themselves rolling back applications from a cloud platform after encountering performance issues or discovering that cost of running a specific type of application on a cloud exceeded their available budget.

    Durg said 3-D visualization tools make it a lot easier to determine which cloud platform to employ and derive the maximum value from that investment by ensuring the cloud environment chosen is optimized for that application workload. Accenture research suggests that as many as two-thirds of organizations are not getting the maximum value from their cloud investments, he noted, and most of those issues stem from the cloud platform being poorly configured, added Durg.

    Whether by accident or deliberate, most IT organizations are employing multiple clouds to build and deploy applications, but their cloud platform selection process is often haphazard. Developers often default to the cloud platform that is easiest for them to access, which could create cloud platform lock-in. Cloud simulation platforms make it easier for the entire IT team to better appreciate the trade-offs in selecting one cloud platform over another.

    Of course, most IT teams would like to unify the management of multiple clouds under a single console through which they can more easily play one service provider off against another using a hybrid cloud computing model. Until that day arrives, however, most IT organizations will find it advantageous to know as much as possible about any cloud platform before making a decision they may come to regret.

    — Mike Vizard

  • Accenture Launches myNav, Cloud Platform to Help Enterprises Navigate the Cloud Landscape

    myNav assesses, designs and simulates cloud solutions to accelerate business transformation

    NEW YORK; Nov. 26, 2019 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today launched myNav, a cloud platform that helps organizations design and simulate different cloud solutions to identify the ones that best fit their specific business requirements.

    Identifying the right cloud solution can be complicated, as there are multiple cloud providers and cloud models, including public, private, multi and hybrid. Further, many companies spend significant time and money migrating applications and data centers to the cloud only to find that the applications don’t always operate optimally. Accenture research shows that nearly two-thirds of companies are not seeing the expected benefits from their cloud migration initiatives.

    myNav evaluates multiple variables — including an organization’s technology infrastructure, applications, data, operational model and business outcomes — to identify the right solution for enterprises, then simulates it at scale to confirm its viability and refine the business case. By providing a customized roadmap, myNav enables organizations to maximize the return on their current and future cloud technology investments. For example, myNav recommends the application transformation approach for clients to accelerate their innovation in the cloud.

    “We built myNav based on our knowledge repository of more than 30,000 cloud projects and over 80 industry solutions deployed worldwide in nearly every industry,” said Bhaskar Ghosh, group chief executive of Accenture Technology Services. “myNav uses this repository to simulate optimal and scalable cloud architectures and solutions. By providing a more informed view and a calibrated cloud strategy for business transformation, myNav helps clients compete more effectively in today’s data-driven, cloud-enabled economy.”

    myNav provides a recommended cloud target through a three-step process:

    • Scanning and assessing the client’s existing infrastructure, application and data landscape and recommending the most appropriate cloud architecture and solution;
    • Using an automated artificial intelligence (AI) engine to interact with Accenture’s library of collective cloud expertise and recommend an enterprise architecture and solution; and
    • Simulating and testing the scaled-up model of the client’s recommended cloud solution to identify the value and help build the business case for an optimal solution for their business requirements.

    “Enterprises need solutions to not only ease their initiatives of ‘migrate to and transform in the cloud but also bring certainty in their cloud journey,” said Yugal Joshi, vice president at Everest Group. “They are struggling in deriving value from cloud as they are not able to deeply assess what will work for them. As multi-cloud strategies become increasingly important, enterprises will need to have better migration approaches to ensure ROI from cloud initiatives. The key is to bring conviction in cloud adoption by learning from other adopters, leveraging advanced data insights, and creating contextualized cloud adoption strategies that can predict and guide what will work, what will not, and what are the changes needed for a transformative cloud journey.”

    Unique in the market, myNav is the only platform that enables organizations to discover, assess, design and simulate end-to-end cloud solutions at scale.

    Accenture has supported cloud computing projects for 80% of the Fortune Global 100 across 68 countries and has trained more than 84,000 professionals on cloud technologies and architectures. The company has been innovating in cloud technology for a decade and holds more than 300 granted patents and pending applications across its global cloud portfolio.

     

  • Accenture Aims to Infuse AI into App Testing

    Accenture Aims to Infuse AI into App Testing

    Accenture plans to infuse greater amounts of artificial intelligence into application development testing following its acquisition of Real Time Analytics Platform Inc., which provides tools that make use of machine learning algorithms, neural networks and natural language processing (NLP) to analyze every stage of the software development life cycle.

    Kishore Durg, senior managing director and growth and strategy lead for Accenture Technology, the IT services arm of Accenture, will incorporate the AI technologies developed by Real Rime Analytics Platform into the Accenture Touchless Testing Platform, which is a suite of open source and proprietary testing tools that Accenture has infused with advanced analytics and cognitive computing technologies.

    Durg said Accenture is committed to automating application testing using AI technologies to help organizations increase the productivity of application development teams. At a time when organizations are investing in a broad range of digital transformation projects, the rate at which applications can be built, tested and deployed has become a critical issue.

    Most organizations on their own won’t be able to aggregate enough data to drive machine learning algorithms and neural networks to drive a meaningful AI model. Those models require access to massive amounts of data to be trained to identify potential issues within any application. Because of the size and scope of the projects Accenture works on, organizations that employ its service can benefit from all the data that Accenture can bring to bear to train AI models, Durg noted.

    The quality of the data used to train those AI models is also as important as the amount of data, added Durg. Accenture has the resources required to cleanse data before it gets fed into an AI model, as well the expertise needed to eliminate any biases that might get built into any algorithm being applied to that data, he said.

    As AI continues to evolve, it won’t be long before every application incorporates some form of an AI model. Each of those models not only needs to be trained, but they also need to be updated continually—and eventually replaced by more sophisticated models as more data becomes available. In effect, that requirement will create a need to extend DevOps processes to how AI models are incorporated within an application.

    At the same time, it’s clear that large swaths of DevOps processes involving, for example, application testing can be increasingly automated using a variety of machine learning and network networks, also known as deep learning algorithms.

    In theory, that should accelerate the rate at which applications are developed and deployed, while testing processes that are augmented by AI technologies should result in applications that are more secure, as many more vulnerabilities will be discovered long before an application gets deployed in a production environment.

    In fact, the inclusion of advanced algorithms across a DevOps toolchain might accelerate adoption of DevOps processes. After all, most IT organizations today have embraced DevOps unevenly largely because of the complexity involved. AI technologies one day soon may eliminate that issue altogether.

    — Mike Vizard

  • The Industrial Internet of Things Still More Promise Than Reality

    The Industrial Internet of Things Still More Promise Than Reality

    New survey finds while the majority of executives expect big things from the Industrial Internet of Things they’re not quite yet prepared.

    The Industrial Internet of Things holds enormous promise to transform business in how they manage their manufacturing processes, streamline their supply chains and directly service their customers. But, to date, that’s all it has largely been: a promise. According to a survey-based report released today by the BPI Network, there is broad consensus that the Industrial Internet of Things will provide significant value in the years ahead, but few organizations are ready to capitalize on the Industrial Internet of Things.

    The report, “The Impact of Connectedness on Competiveness,” conducted by the BPI Network in conjunction with the CMO Council, Penton’s IoT Institute and The Nerdery. Based on an international survey of roughly 350 executives, the report includes insights from companies such as Airbus, Balfour Beatty, Embraer, Philips Lighting, GE, Whirlpool, LafargeHolcim, TVH, Hitachi and more.

    Some statistics and predictions cited in the report are staggering: The business consultancy Accenture predicts that the Industrial Internet of Things will be incremental to the global economy to the tune of $14.2 trillion by the year 2030. GE, meanwhile, estimates the Industrial Internet of Things will improve its manufacturing productivity by 1 percent. And according to Juniper Research, there will be more than 46 billion connected Internet of Things by 2021—a 200 percent increase from last year.

    But at the same time, executives are skittish. “We really don’t know what our long-term strategy should be,” said Dave Murray, head of thought leadership for the BPI Network, in an interview with devopsy.kinsta.cloud. “We haven’t thought through how this is going to change our business models. We don’t have the talent, in terms of you know, technology integration, and data integration, and analytics, to get the job done.

    “I think there is a certain amount of concern of falling behind,” he added. “I think a lot of companies are just starting to incrementally experiment and are starting primarily with their own products. For instance, equipment manufacturers are integrating sensor technology into their products to improve uptime, and preventative and predictive maintenance.”

    Top findings in the report include:

    • Fifty-two percent of executives at large enterprises and 41 percent of executives at all companies expect the Industrial Internet of Things to have a significant or major impact on their industry within three years.
    • Some 55 percent of all executives say the Industrial Internet of Things is gaining adoption within their industries, including both pilots and larger-scale adoption.
    • However, just 1.5 percent of executives at large companies say they have a “clear vision with implementation well underway,” while another 57 percent are either beginning implementation, have pilots underway or are committed and in the planning stages.
    • New products and services lead as the area most companies say they will focus their Industrial Internet of Things investments (35 percent), followed by customer touch points (29 percent), and manufacturing (23 percent).
    • More cost-efficient operations (47 percent), product and service differentiation (36 percent) and improved customer engagement and satisfaction (34 percent) are seen as the top benefits of the Industrial Internet of Things.
    • Security and data privacy are seen as top concerns by executives, followed by the cost and complexity of Industrial Internet of Things adoption and the need for new management and workforce skills and training.

    While most of the executives interviewed, 62 percent, see the Industrial Internet of Things as a rising competitive necessity and are very interested in embracing the Industrial Internet of Things for their business—yet only 9 percent of respondents said industry peers are aggressively pursuing adoption.

    Finally, one of the most surprising, if not startling, aspects of this survey is the finding that less than 2 percent of those surveyed said that they have a clear strategic vision with implementation underway. “I think what we’re going to see is that adoption is going to be incremental,” said Murray. “It can’t happen all at once. They don’t have it figured out. They don’t have the skills and technologies in place to make it all happen, but they are starting to implement and I think that [implementation] will just grow over time,” he said.

    — George V. Hulme

  • Survey: Fed gov cloud success hinges on DevOps

    Survey: Fed gov cloud success hinges on DevOps

    A new survey out last week by MeriTalk and Accenture Federal Services shows that the federal government is on the cusp of finally putting its money where its mouth is with regard to cloud and that DevOps will play a big role in the transformation. In fact the government’s cloud success may hinge on DevOps.

    The survey looked at perceptions of federal IT managers familiar with their agencies’ cloud progress. Many of them report difficulty in gaining cloud momentum, in spite of the fact that 66 percent believe that their agency needs to move IT services to the cloud faster to meet mission and constituent needs. Fewer than half of Federal agencies have made process or policy changes to facilitate successful transitions to the cloud, only 30 percent have made necessary cultural changes and just 28 percent have made organizational changes. What’s more just 12 percent of Feds report their departments have all the tools they need for a cloud transformation.

    However, 57 percent believe DevOps holds the key to help them succeed in the cloud and 63 percent say DevOps will help them speed up application delivery and migration. As things stand, only one in ten respondents believe that developers and administrators are highly collaborative in the Federal setting and only 5 percent say their agency has fully deployed DevOps patterns.

    “A DevOps model brings software engineering, quality assurance, and IT operations together as an integrated team,” stated Tim Hoechst, Accenture Federal Services’ chief technology officer (CTO).  “Federal agencies can start up new projects more quickly, improve resource utilization, and reduce downtime – ultimately driving the innovation needed for real change.”

    Respondents are hopeful of that vision, with 60 percent reporting they see DevOps in their agency’s future. Approximately one-third say they’ve already started adopting the model or plan to do so within a year.

    But it’s not clear whether this is pie-in-the-sky hopefulness for a silver bullet or a real commitment to DevOps. A big red flag from the survey was that some of the same barriers to Federal cloud adoption are those that typically stand in the way of DevOps transformations. For example 40 percent of Feds said fear of change and inflexible practices have stood in the way of their cloud efforts.

    Over half of respondents say they will need to train current personnel to implement DevOps, and 40 percent say DevOps success depends on incentivizing changes in culture to make it happen. Meanwhile 41 percent believe they’ll need to establish a new vision for the future to make DevOps possible.