May 30, 2018 in News, Tips and Tricks

HYPERCONVERGENCE BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION

HYPERCONVERGENCE BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION

Virtual desktop infrastructure (or VDI) has been an intriguing idea for a long time. We look at the pros and cons of VDI and whether the emergence of hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) will finally make implementing virtual desktops feasible.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is one of those tantalizing technologiesthat looks great on paper, but hasn’t gained much traction over the years for a variety of financial, technical, cultural, even philosophical reasons.

However, a relatively new framework called hyperconvergence, which combines compute, storage and networking in a single data center appliance, could breathe new life into VDI by reducing the cost and complexity associated with a VDI rollout.

The argument in favor of VDI, also known as desktop virtualization or thin-client computing, makes perfect sense.

What if enterprise IT could get off the expensive and time-consuming cycle of replacing desktops and laptops every two or three years, then constantly dealing with patching, updating and maintaining those devices?

And what if it could essentially eliminate the possibility of endpoint data loss?

With VDI, the operating system and all applications are hosted on virtual machines (VMs) running in a secure data center. Companies save on hardware costs by deploying inexpensive thin clients, repurposing old desktops or taking advantage of the BYOD movement and having employees buy their own devices.

Data is not at risk because the virtual desktop doesn’t have a hard drive. VDI offers the benefits of centralized management. And VDI enables employees to securely access their virtual desktops at any time from any location on any device.

How VDI works

VDI requires an end user device, network connection and VMs located in the data center. Typically, the virtualized desktop is equipped with nothing more than flash memory and a display protocol client like Microsoft’s RDP, VMware’s PCoIP or Citrix’s HDX.

In the data center, IT administrators create pools of identically configured VMs for specific job functions. When an end user establishes a session, the connection broker assigns the session to an available virtual desktop from the appropriate pool.

There are two ways to operate VDI. Persistent VDI provides each user with their own desktop image which is saved for future use. Non-persistent desktops revert to their original state each time a user logs out.

VDI Pros and Cons

VDI promised to be a huge money saver, but adopters discovered that VDI didn’t reduce costs, it just shifted them. Instead of spending money on new desktops, companies had to upgrade the network to provide the reliability and user experience that employees expected.

Companies then had to add expensive storage and compute power to the data center. And VDI required re-architecting data center assets in order to handle VDI-specific situations like the daily login storm at 9 a.m.

Management is another area where VDI’s purported benefits proved to be somewhat illusory. The notion that IT could create a “golden image” of the end user desktop and update or patch thousands of desktops with one click sounds great.

And it works in specific use cases, such as employees who can do their job entirely within the parameters of that standard desktop image, in call centers, warehouses and retail locations, or with contractors.

But in most other circumstances, real life is a lot messier and less controllable. You have employees with their own devices, running a variety of operating systems. Some employees rely on a legacy or customized app to get their job done. And even employees in the same department might have their own specific mix of applications.

There are two other big cons for VDI. If the VDI server goes down or if the connection to the VDI server is interrupted, nobody works. Second, with VDI, employees can’t work offline because nothing is stored on the device.

Technologically, VDI is easier to deploy today that it has ever been thanks to a range of factors including better graphics, faster chips, cheaper storage, reliable broadband and easier VM deployment and management.

But trying to impose centralized control runs counter to the personalization and customization that employees have come to expect. Imagine telling a Millennial that if they come to work for your company, they won’t be able to use their preferred cloud-based productivity apps or work offline while on a plane, even on their own device.

VDI and the Cloud

Cloud computing has cast a shadow over VDI in a number of ways. First, VDI was originally based on companies having an on-premises data center, but enterprises are increasingly moving their data centers to the cloud, or at least moving to a hybrid cloud model.

You could certainly run VDI from the cloud, but that creates new security, connectivity and cost issues.

And many applications don’t live in an on-premises data center or even in cloud-based servers. For example, for companies that have moved to or are thinking about moving to Office 365, those email and productivity apps live in Microsoft’s Azure cloud. So, how does that affect the golden image?

Beyond that, what makes cloud computing attractive to enterprises is that it’s all about agility and flexibility. Employees want the freedom to take out a credit card and quickly access a new cloud-based app or switch from one productivity app to another. And what about commonplace, on-the-fly situations where somebody wants you to join a WebEx and download a presentation or grab a document from their Dropbox folder?

So, there’s certainly a practical and philosophical side to the question of whether VDI is the right fit for your company or at least which subset of workers would be appropriate for a VDI scenario.

VDI vs. DaaS

One alternative to an enterprise IT department running its own VDI deployment is Desktop-as-a-Service or DaaS. In the DaaS scenario, companies hand control of their desktops to a cloud services provider.

With hosted desktops, you don’t need to own data-center servers or storage at all. And the DaaS provider takes care of patching, maintaining and updated applications. Outsourcing desktop virtualization to the cloud can provide flexibility, mobility and general ease-of-use for users and administrators.

Of course, DaaS has its own potential downsides. You’re giving up control over your data and trusting a third-party to protect your information. You’re relying on the cloud-services provider not to have an outage that prevents employees from working. And software licensing is an issue with DaaS.

VDI and HCI: Hyperconvergence may be the answer

VDI has been around in one form or another since the `90s, so it’s fair to ask: If VDI hasn’t taken off by now, when will it?

The answer may lie with a relatively new framework called hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), which combines hypervisor, compute, storage and networking in modular building blocks. HCI can also include backup, replication, cloud gateway, caching, WAN optimization and real-time deduplication.

HCI can cut costs in several ways. First, buying an HCI appliance with all of the data center components already bundled is less expensive than buying those pieces individually. HCI delivers simpler management, automated updates, reduced maintenance costs and faster, easier scalability.

HCI vendors are specifically targeting their appliances at the VDI market and some are offering automated VDI deployments.

For companies concerned about the security of their endpoints or looking for an alternative to the traditional desktop lifecycle, VDI on HCI is something to consider.

This story, “Hyperconvergence breathes new life into desktop virtualization ” was originally published by Network World.

May 29, 2018 in News, Tips and Tricks

INCOME TAX SAVING: NEW TAX RULES WHICH WILL HELP YOU SAVE TAX IN FY2018-19

INCOME TAX SAVING: NEW TAX RULES WHICH WILL HELP YOU SAVE TAX IN FY2018-19

As the new financial year has already begun, people have started mulling over where to invest and how to save tax during this year. Here are the key tax changes which may impact your cash flows and investment decisions for FY2018-19.

Benjamin Franklin had rightly said that only two things are certain in this world – death and taxes. So, while there can’t be any escape from taxes, particularly if someone has taxable income, everyone tries to save as much tax as possible. As the new financial year has already begun, people have started mulling over where to invest and how to save tax during this year. However, saving the maximum tax is not possible without looking at the changes introduced in the Union Budget 2018. So, let us review the key tax changes which may impact your cash flows and investment decisions for the financial year 2018-19:

1. Standard Deduction for Salaried Individuals and Pensioners

The Finance Act, 2018 re-introduced standard deduction of up to Rs 40,000 for salaried taxpayers. Such deduction is allowed in lieu of the current transport allowance of Rs 19,200 (Rs 1,600 p.m.) and reimbursement of medical expenses of Rs 15,000 p.a. The net benefit for the employees already claiming a deduction for transport allowance and medical reimbursement will be Rs 5,800 (Rs 40,000 – Rs 19,200 – Rs 15,000).

“It is important to note here that pension received for past employment is also taxable as salary. Therefore, the benefit of standard deduction will also be available to pensioners. Till now pensioners were not allowed any exemption for transport allowance or medical reimbursement. Therefore, it will result in additional Rs 40,000 tax- free income for all pensioners,” says Chetan Chandak, Head of Tax Research, H&R Block India.

2. Enhanced deduction u/s 80D

Earlier, an individual was allowed a maximum deduction of up to Rs 30,000 in respect of expenditure incurred by him for the medical insurance for himself, his spouse or children. He was also allowed additional deduction of up to Rs 30,000 for the expense incurred for the medical insurance policy for his parents. The deduction of Rs 30,000 was restricted to max Rs 25,000 if the insured persons were less than 60 years of age.

“In case the assessee himself or his/her spouse or any of his/her parent was 80 years or more and was not covered under any insurance policy, then the deduction u/s 80D he/she was allowed to claim for the medical expenditure incurred on the health of such a person was Rs 30,000. The Budget 2018 extended this benefit to all senior citizens (i.e. 60 years and above),” says Chandak.

Also, this limit has now been increased to Rs 50,000 from the existing Rs 30,000 in case of all senior citizens (i.e. above 60 years). In a nutshell, an individual taxpayer can claim a maximum deduction of up to Rs 1 lakh under Section 80D if he or his family members and his parents are 60 years or above.

A summary of deduction allowable under Section 80D is explained in the table given below:

Further, in case of single premium health insurance policies which cover more than one year, the deduction shall be allowed on a proportionate basis for all those years for which health insurance coverage is provided, subject to the specified monetary limit.

3. Deduction limit under section 80DDB raised to Rs 1,00,000

This deduction u/s 80DDB is allowed to an individual or HUF taxpayer who pays for the medical treatment of critical illness for himself or any other family member. At present, this deduction is allowed up to Rs 80,000 for the very senior citizen, up to Rs 60,000 for the senior citizen, and Rs 40,000 in any other case.

The Budget 2018 has raised the limit of deduction under this section to Rs 1,00,000 for all senior citizens (i.e. any one above 60 years in age). There is no change in the deduction allowed for expenditure incurred in any other case. i.e. for person who is below 60 years of age.

4. Bank interest up to Rs 50,000 will be tax exempt for senior citizens

A new section 80TTB has been introduced from AY 2019-20 which allows deduction of up to Rs 50,000 to any senior citizen (above 60 years) having interest income from deposits with banks or post office or co-operative banks. Aggregate interest earned on saving deposits and fixed deposits will be eligible for deduction u/s 80TTB up to Rs 50,000.

“No deduction under section 80TTA shall be allowed to the senior citizens claiming the benefit u/s 80TTB starting AY2019-20. Further, the corresponding amendment has been proposed in section 194A to provide that no tax shall be deducted at source from payment of interest to a senior citizen up to Rs 50,000,” says Chandak.

5. Enhanced Tax Benefit on Gratuity

Gratuity received on retirement or on becoming incapacitated or on termination or any gratuity received by the widow of the deceased employee, children or dependents was till now exempt up to Rs 10,00,000 as per the recent changes in the Gratuity Act. This exemption will be enhanced to Rs 20,00,000. So the taxpayers who are going to retire or receive gratuity starting 1st April 2018 will be able to claim higher exemption.

6. NPS withdrawal exemption extended to non-employees

Any amount received by an employee from the National Pension System (NPS) either on closure or opting out from the scheme is exempt up to 40% of the total accumulated balance in his NPS account at the time of withdrawal. Till now this exemption was not available to non-employee account holders. The Budget 2018 has extended the said benefit to all NPS subscribers.

7. No capital gains tax if the variation in stamp value and the actual consideration is up to 5%

Earlier, if a taxpayer sold an immovable property for a consideration which was less than the value adopted by the Stamp authorities, then the stamp value was deemed as the actual sales consideration. “This treatment resulted in higher amount of capital gains even if the seller had not actually gained anything due to such higher stamp valuation. Further, such difference in the stamp value and the actual consideration disclosed by the parties was also taxed in the hands of the buyer. This resulted in hefty double taxation,” says Chandak.

In order to minimise hardship in case of genuine transactions, now no adjustments shall be made in a case where the variation between stamp duty value and the sale consideration does not exceed 5% of the sale consideration.

Source – financialexpress.com

May 27, 2018 in News, Tips and Tricks

Xiaomi’s Mi Credit offers instant loans up to Rs 1 lakh to MIUI users in India

Xiaomi’s Mi Credit offers instant loans up to Rs 1 lakh to MIUI users in India

Expanding its portfolio of value-added internet services, Xiaomi has launched its own instant lending platform Mi Credit in India. The platform lists financial loan providers that MIUI users can access to apply for quick loans.

MIUI users can avail personal loans from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 lakh from the only loan provider listed on Mi Credit, Kreditbee. Xiaomi claims that loans can be initiated in 10 minutes through Mi Credit with simple KYC verification. All loan verification and user information input is done on the partner platforms, while Mi Credit only lists loan providers.

“Xiaomi provides internet services to give our users a complete mobile internet experience, and MIUI functions as an open platform for us to deliver our wide range of internet services, such as content, entertainment, financial services and productivity tools. The connectivity between our devices and the seamless integration between hardware and internet services enable us to provide our users with better user experience. Mi Credit is another big step in bringing an important internet service to India and we trust that our users would be able to truly benefit as the service becomes more sophisticated,” said Manu Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi.

Notably, Kreditbee is the only loan provider listed on the Mi Credit. While Xiaomi’s lending platform is exclusive to MIUI users, Kreditbee on its own is available acorss the Android ecosystem via its mobile application, and is expected to make an appearance on the iOS platform some time soon. Thus, even non-MIUI users can also avail loans from Kreditbee.

All that is to know before getting a loan from Kreditbee

Kreditbee calls itself an instant personal loan platform for young professionals which offers them salary advance up to Rs 1 lakh with different repayment tenures. The first is personal loan between Rs 1,000 and Rs 9,900 which has to be repaid within 15 days of the loan processing date. The next is a short-term personal loan starting from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The loan repayment tenure varies from 30 days to 90 days, depending on the loan amount.

The Mi Credit website lists the monthly interest rate at 3 per cent for loans up to Rs 1 lakh from Kreditbee. “For 15-day loan products from Rs 1,000 to Rs 9,900, we charge a flat interest at 1.48 per cent (annualized interest rate: 36 per cent per annum). For 30-90 day loan products from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh, we charge an annualized interest rate of 36 per cent per annum,” Kreditbee says.

Kreditbee also charges a processing fee ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 1000 depending on the loan amount. This processing fee is deducted up front from the loan amount and before it is disbursed to the loan applicant’s account.

Source by

May 25, 2018 in News, Tips and Tricks

BEST ANTIVIRUS: KEEP YOUR WINDOWS PC SAFE FROM SPYWARE, TROJANS, MALWARE, AND MORE

BEST ANTIVIRUS: KEEP YOUR WINDOWS PC SAFE FROM SPYWARE, TROJANS, MALWARE, AND MORE

7 Credit Card Charges You Must Know About

Credit cards can be a boon when used judiciously as they entitle you to advance credit and great rewards. But if you’re careless with your card use, you could incur charges, penalties and a hefty interest rate.

To ensure that you use your card smartly and not get overcharged, make sure you are aware of some crucial charges associated with credit cards.

Joining or Annual Fee

While many credit cards come free of cost, i.e. no joining fees and perhaps exemption from annual fee for a particular period, the ones with bigger rewards and benefits generally tend to have a joining fee. Some may waive off the joining fee for the first year but may have it from the second year. Sometimes these charges are waived off if one spends up to a threshold specified by the bank.

Interest and Finance Charges

Most credit cards offer a 50-day interest-free period to pay for all spends. Some premium cards have finance charges regardless of where and when the card is swiped. But once the interest-free period passes, banks will levy an interest/finance charge to be borne by the customer if the full payment is not made on time.

Cash Withdrawal Charges

Credit cards also allow you to withdraw cash from ATMs. This option should be exercised only in emergencies. While there’s an interest-free period for all other credit card transactions, the interest rate applies immediately for cash withdrawals. If you withdraw cash in an emergency, repay it as soon as possible to avoid the hefty interest rate.

Over Limit Charge

There is a charge if you breach your credit limit and cash withdrawal limit. For instance, if your credit limit is Rs. 1 lakh but you have spent Rs. 1.25 lakhs on the card, be prepared to pay a charge. Normally a percentage of the excess spend is charged as penalty. So make sure to keep track of your spending and if you think you need to make a big purchase deposit the deficit amount by cash to the card if necessary.

Late Payment Charges

A late payment on your credit card bill can be disastrous in many ways. Firstly, your credit score gets affected, and secondly, you have to pay a late fee each time you are late in paying dues. While some banks charge a standard late fee, some charge a percentage of the amount due as late fee. Some may even charge an additional fee if your ECS for the credit card payment gets rejected.

In case you don’t have the full amount to repay your card, make sure to at least pay the minimum amount due, in order to avoid the late payment penalty.

Foreign Transaction Fee

Whenever a credit card is used for foreign transactions, whether online or at a point of sale, the bank levies a foreign mark-up fee. It ranges anywhere between 1.5 per cent and 5 per cent depending on the bank and the card. Cash withdrawals abroad are charged at a higher rate that card swipes. So when abroad you can carry enough cash or get a travel card to avoid these charges.

Balance Transfer Fee

A balance transfer is when you pay off the balances on existing credit cards or loans by transferring them to another credit card account. While many high value cards allow this free of cost, in some cases you may be charged a fee to complete the balance transfer – typically a percentage of the transfer balance. It is basically an expensive way to move money from one account to another, rather moving debt from one account to another, and you must avoid getting to this point by repaying your debts in a timely manner.

Source by:-ndtv

May 24, 2018 in News, Tips and Tricks

What’s Next In Autonomous Cloud Services: Analytics, Integration, And Development

What’s Next In Autonomous Cloud Services: Analytics, Integration, And Development

“Why doesn’t software manage itself?”

That’s the question his team asked about seven years ago, Oracle president Thomas Kurian told journalists at a recent briefing at the company’s headquarters in Redwood Shores, California. In 2018, the answer is now “It does,” in the form of Oracle’s autonomous cloud services.

Earlier this year, Oracle launched the world’s first autonomous data warehouse and pledged to add self-driving, self-securing, and self-repairing capabilities across its cloud platform services. Now, three more autonomous services have come on line: Oracle Autonomous Analytics Cloud, Oracle Autonomous Integration Cloud, and Oracle Autonomous Visual Builder Cloud. Powered by machine learning, these services perform tasks like patching and optimizing without human intervention, lowering operating costs and freeing IT teams, DevOps engineers, cloud architects, and even citizen developers to focus on more creative work.

• Oracle Cloud trial: Get 3,500 hours free

“For every $1 spent on developing software, companies spend $3 on administering software,” Kurian said. With a vision of reducing this burden and freeing up time for more inspiring activities, Oracle started a four-phase project. “First, let software install itself, and do patches and backup. Second, let software take care of capacity management, adding servers on the fly,” Kurian said. “Third, let software tune itself, observing how queries run on the database, then indexing. Fourth, let it do health management: If the system is not looking healthy, take corrective action.”

These industry-first autonomous systems can also help reduce security risk because systems are patched automatically, rather than waiting for a person to schedule time to do that. “Embedding AI and machine learning in these cloud services will help organizations innovate in revolutionary new ways,” said Amit Zavery, executive vice president of development for Oracle Cloud Platform.

Three New Services: Analytics, Integration, and Development

All the autonomous services built on Oracle Cloud Platform reduce human labor, automatically upgrade and patch while running, and scale up or down without downtime (self-driving). They protect from malicious activity and automatically encrypt all data (self-securing). And they boast 99.995% availability, or less than 2.5 minutes of downtime per month (self-repairing).

Beyond that foundation, each of these three new services has been optimized for its audience.

Oracle Autonomous Analytics Cloud, for example, helps business users uncover insights by asking questions without having to write complex queries. Analytics Cloud converts the questions into backend queries using natural language processing, then creates rich visualizations of the answers. All the while, it’s learning from those interactions in order to proactively suggest insights and reveal hidden patterns.

With Oracle Autonomous Integration Cloud, machine learning can help integrate the thickets of systems companies run on—a problem that is only getting thornier. “The problem we’re solving is to make it easy to map those end points quickly,” Zavery said. “We will figure out what schema maps to what other schema in your SaaS applications. We provide a lot of pre-packaged connectors, so customers don’t have to do a lot of that coding.” Most impressively, Autonomous Integration Cloud learns from crowd-sourced data of all executed integrations and then makes visual recommendations of how to connect objects across different systems.

And finally, there’s the challenge of feeding the beast: Keeping up with the insatiable demand for new mobile and web apps. Oracle Autonomous Visual Builder Cloud makes it easier for developers and business users alike to deliver cross-platform mobile applications written in JavaScript and HTML, with code generated via WYSIWYG tooling including Oracle JET, Swagger, and Apache Cordova. Visual Builder Cloud Service also has autonomous capabilities to eliminate repetitive tasks so you can focus on designing, prototyping, and releasing your app. Simply name your server and click the button, and VBCS configures a database, host, and full development platform. Publishing a mobile app is just as simple: All it takes is one click to package the code for iOS and/or Android.

• Find out more about Oracle Cloud Platform autonomous services 

Will professional developers want to use such a visual coding tool? Oracle believes the productivity of visual coding will pay off for serious coders, now that Visual Builder Cloud Services lets developers add their own custom code to achieve richer behaviors. “While VBCS automatically generates code for you, the code is directly accessible for the developers—they can go in and enhance and modify it,” said Shay Smeltzer, director of product management for Oracle. “Basically, a professional developer can think of Autonomous VBCS as a platform that removes the boring part of coding and lets them focus on the more challenging part of development: implementing unique functionality for their organization.”

Make AI Do the Mundane

Oracle announced earlier this month that it plans to release more autonomous services later this year focused on mobile and chatbots, data integration, blockchain, security and management, and additional database workloads, including OLTP.

And expect more autonomous tools to help developers. “We are looking into leveraging more AI to help remove mundane tasks,” said Smeltzer. “So for example, one of the ideas we are working on is being able to scan an image with a conceptual design of a page and generate the HTML to implement it for you.”