Category: Knowledge

Cloud (Storage) Wars!

The term “storage wars” has taken on a new meaning. It has shifted literally from the ability to keep one’s belongings in physical containers to having one’s data stored and managed in the digital realm.

A question often asked is whether the (Internet) cloud is infinite. The answer is both a yes and no.

The top four cloud tech companies are endlessly engaged in a silent market share war. It is a tough choice as they all offer millions of gigabytes in storage. We can only attempt to investigate to what extent is there an abundance of storage when we ‘run out’.

The “Cloud” as explained in our previous blog, is a series of backed-up servers scattered across the globe.

Consequently, in terms of availability of storage, it is just a matter of where (location) a datacenter can be run and at what its maintenance costs are.
The answer to how infinite is the cloud, therefore, boils down literally to a cost, rather than a capacity issue for cloud-storage providers (CSPs).

The main CSPs vying for a market share in the paid cloud storage subscriptions are Google, Microsoft (Azure), Amazon, and IBM.

There are also smaller yet significant players such as Box, Dropbox, Tresorit, and Barracuda. A quick online search on their websites will reveal what they can offer you.

Similarly, the pages of any one of the smaller companies will give some comparisons of each cloud storage offer (bundles).

We will, however, focus on the major ‘players’ and summarize their offerings based on offers for both individuals and small to large enterprises.

What to look out for

Some of the key features to look for when storing data in the cloud include Encryption at rest and in transit, as well as end-to-end encryption; 2-Step Verification, HIPAA Compliance.

Other factors to consider are the actual server location, ability to sync any folders, and perform selective Synchronization.

There are also key offerings such as offering the ability to edit files on mobile devices. For businesses, the ability to remotely wipe mobile devices, perform file-versioning, and other useful features for data management.

As a business, if the above-mentioned features are not in your cloud solution, you better look into switching away.

While you can technically run your own cloud, it would require a full-on IT team. That or a very good support system to assist in its maintenance and administration.

It is for this very reason that a SaaS(and Hybrid)-approach to storage is preferred by many medium to large enterprises.

4 of the most popular CSPs

Google

Weaponry:

A standard (personal) GoogleDrive starts from 15 GB in size and comes when you open a Google email account. This is a standard with most Android-powered mobile phones which require a Gmail account to register the phone.

It is a convenient way to store and access your pics, videos, and files across multiple devices or back them up in case of a hard drive crash.
If you do not mind the inconvenience of having several logins, you could get away with multiple drives giving you 15 GBs each.

There is, however, a drawback as there is no such a thing as a free lunch – the level of security and compliance features naturally are little to almost none. Additional storage can also be purchased with different upgrade plans, which may come with more add=ons such as extra file encryption.

When it comes to their business offering, their Team Drive is available with the G-Suite bundle. One can upload 750 GB of data per day and up to a total of 5 TB in size. Team Drive can contain a maximum of 100,000 files and folders, however, this limit can be increased upon request.

The basic package including the more advanced security costs $5 per user per month and gives you 30 GB for storage and collaboration.

A full comparison of available storage plans

Tactical strengths:

The ease of accessing and using the drives via strategic partnerships such as Android provides them with a growing market share. As it is cloud-based and not linked to physical devices, you can access your GoogleDrive using a Mac computer as well.

There are growing talks of incorporating Artificial Intelligence <AI> into the data management systems. They are currently building a full AI Center in Accra, Ghana. This will help bigger companies manage, access, and organize their stored information faster and with more purpose.

They have recently launched a set of new cloud storage tiers under the branding Google One. This comes with revised pricing and storage options: 15 GB: remains Free; 100 GB costs $1.99/month; 200 GB $2.99/month and 2 TB $9.99/month.

Potential weakness/es:

Google is a latecomer when it comes to offering business solutions and still battles with the stigma of being a free service and thus associated with inferior quality.

The integration with Office applications is still something they struggle to get right. Not many are fans of Googlesheets.

Most non-Microsoft platforms will have this compatibility problem.
They also run into a few data syncing problems ever so often, especially with the free storage. Google offers full 24/7 customer and technical support with their products. More aggressive advertising and pricing of their business offerings now serves to hopefully alleviate this issue for them.

How Google bounces back from a hefty EUR 4,34 billion fine for colluding with Android will determine if they survive the storage war. This especially if they will be now forced to allow other CSPs to offer services on mobile devices.

Amazon

Weaponry:

One of the first cloud solution providers to offer eCommerce and Business-to-Business (B2B) offerings. Amazon and its Amazon Web Services (AWS) have come a long and calculated way from just offering/selling books online.

They are actually seen as a formal threat and a direct (more superior) competitor to Microsoft’s cloud (equivalent) offering – which we touch on next.
Most of this comes from a robust and apparently the world’s largest global cloud infrastructure.

Based on this, its cloud storage, dubbed Amazon S3, works on a “pay as you use” basis while its free tier starts you off on 5GB of storage. Thereafter you pay in increments based on the storage class you fall under.

So the first 50 TB will cost $0.023 per GB per month and then the next 450 TB will cost $0.022 per GB per month and so on.
This is practical for businesses that do not have a limit to storage space but scale up and down very quickly based on their operations.

Tactical strengths:

Amazon’s storage platform gives users and businesses alike the ability to geographically store and move data with the highest levels of encryption. In addition, one can use data analytics on your data without moving the data into a separate analytics system.

Amazon Athena additionally provides anyone who knows SQL on-demand query access to vast amounts of unstructured data. As with Google, AI incorporation along with Alexa would facilitate this even further.

Other notable benefits offered include open workflows, Hybrid-cloud storage capability, powerful APIs, and easy and reliable access to many Third-Party vendors & Partners.

Naturally, you get access to its AWS Marketplaces. It also has a strong compliance adherence including HIPAA/HITECH, EU Data Protection Directive, and FISMA.

Comparison of the various storage classes available.

Potential weakness/es:

Its primary offering of consumer goods and online delivery will make it prone to any bad press received if that arm of operations does not work well.

Further expansion into areas like streaming TV via Amazon Prime and cashless stores might result in a jack of all trades expert in none phenomenon. They are, nevertheless, handling all well so far.

Microsoft

Weaponry:

The “go-to” tech company for word-processing software as well as operating systems. This software giant like Amazon is branching into many products.

They now offer games, server hosting software, applications, an online store for all its devices, software, services, and of course, storage.
Its Azure platform powers certain parts of Nasa and utility giant Schneider Electric to mention a few clients. Its purchase works similarly to Amazon via ‘pay-as-you-use’ terms.

Storage users need to have a .Net Framework and SQL installed to use the storage. For those looking for quick storing solutions without building heavy infrastructure, they can adopt the cloud completely.

With the launch of its online services (Microsoft 365), it has had to repackage a portion of its Azure platform to cater to small to mid-sized businesses.

These include functional/specific bundles such as OneDrive (personal), OneDrive for Business, and Sharepoint (powerful storage and content management tool).

The online version of the Sharepoint starts at $5.00 per user per month for a rather limited 1 TB per organization. Thereafter, users can purchase more in 1 GB increments of 12 to 16 (US) cents depending on the total (storage space) size ordered.

Tactical strengths:

Also early adopters of AI (Machine Learning) and recently, the Blockchain (Blockchain Workbench), Microsoft is providing its developers with more and better reasons to use its storage space for practicality.
Like their online storage offers on Office 365, Azure storage packages are also quite structured and well categorised.

There are specific functions such as a database server-data management system. Then there is one for application running services, and others to handle rest-based object storage (Blob Storage).
Lastly, they offer storage to help perform computations and process events (Functions).
These bundles are all provided free for the first 12 months and then range from $0.002 per GB to about US 0.20c per million executions.

They have a good Partner system to help distinguish and provide support for the best storage package based on one’s immediate needs.

To bolster their growing Marketplace, they recently also purchased a business that deals with OpenSource (GitHub). This enables more freedom for developers to manipulate the software on their platform.

For a comparison of the storage types via Azure and pricing for each, click here.

Potential weakness/es:

People have found its pricing a little to steep on the storage side and so keeping market share will be tough. Many new smaller CSPs offering cheaper per GB rates.

They can only counter this by offering more products that require their storage (compatibility-wise).
Some other cumbersome restrictions like users being only able to upload 20 000 files at once or the actual file-size limit might not bode too well with heavy cloud data users.

They also don’t have as many APIs as Google or Amazon does, but these are growing by the day.

IBM

Weaponry:

Probably the first of the CSP batch that provided cloud computing. It therefore has had the experience of honing ways of storing and retrieving data for larger businesses. International Business Machines (or IBM) can be considered as the grandfather of data storage.

As with the other CSPs, there is a free offering called the “Lite plan” consisting of a single IBM Cloud service instance with storage up to 25 GB/month.
Paid storage is staggered, per consumption and based on complex costing tiers based on location, storage class, and resiliency choice.

Storage charges start from $0.09 for up to 50 GB down to $0.014 for 500+ TB on what they call the Cross-Region Flex plan.

For more insight into the complex costing table, visit the IBM storage pricing page here.

Tactical strengths:

Their security is their biggest pride and strength and makes them a firm favourite for large companies and potentially governmental institutions.
The fact that they do not actively advertise as much as Google or Microsoft is telling. They clearly need to provide high secrecy and protection for their existing clients.

One such feature unique to the way data is stored on their cloud servers is using Information Dispersal Algorithms (IDAs). This helps to separate data in unrecognizable “slices” that are distributed across datacenters.

So basically the complete copy of the data resides in any single storage node, and only a subset of nodes are available in order to fully retrieve the data on the network. This is similar to how peer-to-peer sharing or data encryption works.

And speaking of heavy encryption, they have allegedly recently also started on the Blockchain and are experimenting with a particular Cryptocurrency to enable ease of payments. This in the light of IBM with its Watson platform looking to become more of a cloud-based data operating system.

Potential weakness/es:

IBM relies too much on its reputation as a forerunner for tech and cloud-based computing. It has earned that title for several decades before the likes of Google and Amazon barged in.

They might lose out on market share once the newer CSPs start to offer more robust products and compliance services like theirs.

Their high security and complex system come at a premium so designed for or rather restricted to wealthy companies essentially. The hosting option (main server locations) looks limited and restricted to geographical areas primarily in the US and EU.

Be wary of clandestine terminology such as ‘unlimited archiving/storage’ even with a paid subscription. This usually refers to storing data at rest and not the ability to constantly and unlimitedly sync files.

Another salient factor to compare would be the number of files that you can upload or sync at the same time.
This will be relevant for larger companies that need to upload large files and by large, we mean 10 GB files (2 and a half HD DVDs’ worth of content) and upwards.

Making a choice

At the end of the day, your decision to take on a faction in the storage war should be based on your priorities. You simply match it to what each of the companies is offering taking your budget into consideration of course.

You may need to consider running a combination of two or more of them.
Some larger companies offer storage as a “must-have” with hosted email or something as basic as purchasing a new smartphone.

You will, however, have to ask yourself a few more pressing questions around functionality, data security, and compliance before taking it up.

Or you can simply not accept the offer or disable it in cases where it is presented as a freebie!

18 July 2018
Great PC Phone Plug-ins for your CRM & ERP tools

Before deciding to purchase a top CRM solution like that of Microsoft Dynamics, many companies are left to question the said CRM’s integration capabilities — specifically, whether the Microsoft Dynamics Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) integration is user-friendly.

Find out the benefits, how to do PC (VOIP) phone integrations and what is on offer by a top supplier here: Practical CRM & ERP integration tools

27 June 2018
Banking made easy!

The sexy looking N26 Metal card is available (for now) in Germany, Austria, France, and Italy!

Read about what this Fintech / savvy online bank is about and has to offer.
via Your portable ATM

19 June 2018
How would you like to be served?

The thought of “servers” and “hosting” are rarely things you consider on a daily basis. If you are not an IT or a software architect, then probably not at all.

For the mentioned professionals, however, these decisions are critical to the operations of a business however large or small.

There is a fine line between how (and where) your software systems are used. This line has become thinner because of evolving cloud technology and automation.

Sourcing and deploying the right IT architecture could therefore help your business stay afloat, or sink without.

Communication is key

The most effective mode of communication in any business (other than verbally or telephonically) is still electronic mail (E-mail).

It is effective because it helps you get a time-stamp and a reference point when it comes to the documentation of your conversations. This is important tool when it comes to your legal obligations and commitments.

Emails are, therefore, something that should not be taken for granted!
We consequently send, receive emails with attachments through various devices. All this without a second thought as to how this happens.

After all, this is the job of the IT-guys, right?

Well quite rightly so. They often clash with their management and board of directors for funds to keep this going without compromising operations. Emails are crucial not only from a daily functional point of view but from security but also the compliance facet.

Defining servers

Your company’s IT infrastructure: Emails; File-servers; Databases (CRMs and ERPs) and other communication tools are commonly managed on-site on systems referred to as ‘on-premise’ solutions.

These are managed by computer-like CPUs that look like the standard boxes that you plug your monitor and keyboards. They, however, have a lot more processing power and storage than your average desktop and are called Servers.

Your servers naturally must be kept cool because of the heat they generate from being on all the time. As you can imagine, built-in fans are far from being enough to cool them off!

There an array of server types. Each of them is designed to run the tasks of your mail exchanges, file storage, and the storing/deploying of remote PC operating systems. Others handle your databases and other dedicated functions.

You would need to have the licensed software to operate each server providing unique services. This makes it quite an expensive outlay if you have all of the abovementioned requirements!

Servers are not irreplaceable and can overheat, get corrupted, or crash like a hard-drive (or a NAS server system). You, therefore, need to be maintain them at a cost to your business via your IT department.

Depending on the amount of data and complexity, the maintenance is outsourced to specialized IT companies or software license providers.

Cloud-computing

In the early 2000s, ‘the cloud’ or ‘cloud computing’ became a new concept. It is basically a very large set of high-end servers equipped with software to manage all the tasks mentioned above. It is usually offered as a service under a single (monthly or annual) subscription.

So basically, you are renting the service of a server as opposed to owning it. Renting, just like with property or cars, relieves the user of all the costs of maintaining the product in question.

This sort of rental service offered by cloud service providers is now known as Software as a Service (SaaS). This also saves you from purchasing any hardware let alone paying for the extra electricity bill to cool a server room.

According to Quora.com, the main difference between a cloud and a datacenter is that a cloud is an ‘off-premise’ form of computing that stores data on the Internet.

A Datacenter, on the other hand, is an on-premise set of hardware that stores data within an organization’s local network.

As an IT professional, you constantly face the burning question of whether to go for a solution that will relieve you of mundane tasks – like server maintenance. Naturally, you would also want a solution that facilitates the daily administering of user-profiles, data archiving, and backups. But to what costs then?

Deciding on which to go for

There are many pros and cons when it comes to the hosting of your company’s data on a local server as opposed to having it run via the cloud. There is also a massive array of choices and bundles between the top cloud service providers.

Cloud service providers have several data centers used as backups. So your email hosting may have several servers in different locations to serve that function. This curbs the risk of your data getting lost, unavailable, or hacked.

Naturally, Datacenters are kept highly secure in undisclosed locations globally. Google is known to have one of its datacenters floating on a massive container ship somewhere over the Atlantic ocean.

Maintenance

Maintaining a server is expensive as you require massive cooling systems. Some smarter companies like Microsoft, are now taking to the deep oceans for that function.

When it comes to email hosting or the storage of your files in the cloud only five large multinational corporations’ names come to mind. Microsoft, Oracle, Google, IBM, and Amazon.

These companies however bear the burden of maintenance, while providing just the service you require on a subscription basis.

Setting up an on-premise solution, in contrast, can be a tedious exercise and an expensive one. This is more applicable to smaller companies that do not have large IT budgets.

Licensing your server is no child’s play either!

Having to decide on costs versus functionality will determine how to license your server. This would be either per-server, per virtual machine needed, or per processor core and then you need CALs). If you don’t believe it, just have a look at this licensing guide!

An example

To illustrate the difference, let’s say you have an outlay of a hundred thousand dollars to acquire the software licenses for three years. This compared to a cloud-hosted package that performs the same function over the same timeframe.

You can then piggy-back off companies like Amazon and Microsoft’s security services, which then costs eight thousand dollars monthly ($96k annually).

So, within three years of using the cloud, you would have reached the $100K cap that would be spent only for licenses. You would have also saved with an extra $188K in additional services.

This is a portion of what you would have been spent on maintenance, technical support, security, upgrades, and updates.

These figures are rudimentary, but the long-term savings are noticeable as cloud service providers tend to provide value-add solutions when pricing their bundles.

Microsoft recently launched its Microsoft 365 package which includes an upgrade to the latest operating system (Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise). This is something you would have had to source and pay for separately.

Stress relievers

Software deployment and the administration of user accounts is cloud-based. This means you can do this conveniently and remotely from your PC, laptop, tablet, or even your smartphone!

This means as an IT professional, you will now have more time to oversee more important issues like data security and overall IT policies. Better yet, you would have the time to investigate ways to automate and improve your systems.

This is possible without the inconvenience of running from PC-to-PC to install operating systems, Office software, or manage mailboxes.

Remote desktop services of an on-premise server were a step in this direction – but are a pain to set up. So, you can view the cloud as an evolution of remote-desktop services.

Infrastructural setbacks

The only (and potential) hindrance to using cloud services naturally would be the availability of good and cheap broadband (Internet connectivity).

Without both, the justification for running your business fully on the cloud would not stick. Some businesses, especially in developing countries, go endure desperates attempts to adopt the cloud.

They use what is known as hybrid-systems: a combination of cloud and on-premise solutions.

If you operate in a country without forward-thinking government officials that facilitate broadband availability, you will suffer the most.

Like an old, car, outdated hardware and software can lead to costly services (out-of-date and warranty solutions). This leads to you having heftier maintenance fees and support costs by third-party IT professionals.

The old rhetoric of ‘not trusting the cloud’ is now one of the past. Cloud services often outperform on-premise solutions when it comes to high-end security software and data protection. This is because of the obvious economies of scale involved in setting up expensive security software.

The level of security has to be the digital equivalent of Fort Knox. This especially if you are dealing with sensitive data such as financial, legal services, healthcare, and educational institutions.

Your company would need a system that will keep all such data secure and data compliant.

Data is now treated as a commodity. There is now a subsequent need to trade and value it. We now have Blockchain-based solutions like IOTA to facilitate your payments. This while keeping data encrypted, decentralized, and safe.

In the advent of the new GDPR laws, some companies will still opt to keep and maintain their servers internally. By doing this, however, you might lack the transparency and tools needed to show your consumers how you handle their sensitve data.

16 June 2018
Already GDPR-ed Out?

Well, it didn’t take long. Less than a full week in fact, for the first GDPR-related court cases to surface against social tech giants Facebook and Google.

It was as if lawyers were just waiting to pounce on them for their apparent failure to protect our rights as online users. This pertains specifically to issues relating to data privacy and the sharing of private details mainly with third-party marketers.

How Facebook stores and shares your data has been clarified by several intense inquiries in the US and recently in Europe. This is where the law is set to benefit users of the social media platform in that geospatial area of the world.

The said lawsuit, however, focuses on the opt-out clause that forces you to make a choice to comply or leave. The claimant is a privacy campaigner. He has made the Billion-Euro complaint on behalf of several users; seemingly a challenge to Facebook.

Additionally, he has launched a separate suit against Google, accusing them of “pressurizing” users into accepting their data collection policies.
This ‘comply and accept or get thrown out’ clause could leave you without your routine dose of social media consumption. Such a clause is thus deemed unfair.

It could cost Facebook a lot if they get their way based on the terms stipulated in the new law. The social media giant could be fined up to a few billion or a sizeable fraction of their earnings in punitive damages.

The aim of the new law

The passing of the new regulation on May 25^th, 2018, better known as the General Data Protection Regulation {GDPR} has been a long time coming.

Despite the warnings of the “kick-in” of the regulation, many are unprepared for it. Some of the reactions to the law include confusion, anxiety by both large and small firms alike, and plain comical hysteria!

Non-compliance now carries heavy fines and penalties, up to 20 million euros for anyone operating within the EU borders.

So, what then, is the big fuss about GDPR?

Well, it boils down to a right that has since the launch of the Internet to the mainstream, been waivered and overlooked. Gaining CONSENT to use your data for anything other than the reason you went public on the Internet is very crucial.

This has become a contentious issue as many companies have over the years, unscrupulously benefited from data acquired (mined) – without your consent. Facebook only brought this into the spotlight recently.

You can read more about data mining here

Ad: Web, Network & App Scanner

Who needs compliance?

If you hold a folder, database of clients whether online or on your internal server, you would have to comply with the rules which stipulate full disclosure. This includes who you share your details with, and how the information is tracked, shared, and kept secure.

Furthermore, research in March this year showed that only 39% of the Fortune 500 companies in the UK and 47% had GDPR compliance taskforces.

Another UK firm commissioned study found that our buying behaviours are heavily influenced by we perceive our data is being handled by companies.

The consent given to use your basic information cannot be taken for granted – even in the medical environment.

German doctors’ practices, in the wake of GDPR, are manually making you sign consent forms. Doctors are now required to fully disclose who they share your contact information with.

How to be compliant

There are simple ways you can stay GDPR compliant. One method is to adopt an attitude of embracing it rather than just complying with it. You can be transparent with your customers by doing the following:

Add a cookie bar to your website. You can also add a clause/paragraph to that effect (website disclaimer) in your ‘About Us’ section.

Similarly, you must state clearly on any opt-in forms. Newsletters and any forms where their data is collected, used, and passed onto other third-parties must be announced. State clearly who they are and which data they have access to.

You then need to give your customer the option to select what they want to share. Even if such data may not be necessary for them to receive services from you.

Constantly review your relationships with third-party affiliates and partners to ensure that they are also complying with the law.
They could be jeopardizing your data compliance efforts – as Cambridge Analytica did with Facebook.

The last and most challenging step requires the action of what is promised above. This means an upgrade of your internal software to include security/encryption.

GDPR compliant software

You can obtain full compliance by using a GDPR-compliant package like Office 365 Enterprise E3. This package has email software specially designed for those of you dealing with sensitive client’s data that need to be kept for long periods. Litigation hold, heavy archiving features; as well as basic email encryption are all included.

You can add supplementary encryption software such as Azure Information Protection as an extra layer of security. This helps you to safeguard emails and stored data from being lost, compromised, or accidentally shared.

All said and done it is likely that if you are a bigger firm, you would either need to create the position of a data security officer internally. If your lawyers are not up to date with digital laws, however, you can simply outsource the service.

This should help make you become fully compliant thereby having to avoid issues with the data compliance authority altogether.

1 June 2018
The fuss about trade disputes
What does a small-scale farm-holding, two presidents, some tech companies, and their respective local currencies all have in common?

The answer might be obvious if you have been paying attention to the so-called trade war between China and the US in the news lately.
But why is it of concern and what are the far-reaching implications for the rest of the world?

Active involvement in international trade is a vital sign of your country’s financial health and boosts its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced in a country. From raw materials (input costs) to value-added (assembly and skilled labour costs) to come up with final goods or services.

And though “domestic” implies that this refers to your country’s internal economy, the contributions can be extended from a services perspective.

This occurs when your country places emphasis on or relies on income from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to help boost its economy via its GNP. GNP is a similar measurement but slightly different from GDP as it incorporates.

Importance of trade

Fact is, all our goods and services come from unit price or costs that arise from the initial extraction of raw materials.

These then undergo production leading to the product or service of intrinsic value for both local and international (via exports) consumption.

An ideal situation for your country is to export more than it imports to maintain a positive balance of trade. So basically more money flowing in than out.

The trade surplus is then plowed into your economy via the fiscal budget. It can supplement a shortage of funds raised from domestic taxes.
The opposite, which isn’t always a bad thing, (trade deficit) would have to be managed and nursed like any other loan.

The US has often criticized Germany for exporting a lot (cars, trains, and machinery) but not importing much. This is deemed not being ‘fair’ in trade practice. But trade itself arises from market forces, priorities, and consumer demand.

We all love a BMW, Audi, and Mercedes Benz. So these German-made products will always be in demand compared to US car makes.
Who you chose to trade with gives rise to favourable balance of trade if you are engaged in a trade agreement or a trading bloc.

Why this is also a big deal

The demand for your country’s goods and services will directly impact the strength of its local currency. More trade means more of your currency is required to pay for goods and so its value goes up.

A strong local currency leads to stronger purchasing power for its citizens and residents. Comes in handy when you plan things like holidays, purchase goods online, invest or just send cash abroad as gifts.

So, you can see why a strong Dollar or Euro is always favoured and why sometimes drastic measures are taken to keep it that way.

“A higher demand for your country’s products has a direct positive impact on its currency and exchange rate”

A quick glimpse of the world in terms of the input costs for goods and services gives it a competitive edge when it comes to trade.
- US – intellectual property, services, weaponry.
- Germany – steel and engineering machinery giving rise to high performing automobiles.
- Many African countries – mineral resources such as oil, tobacco cocoa, and precious stones.
- Israel – military intelligence.
- South America – agricultural produce.
- India – IT and customer services.
- China – agriculture, building/(manual) labour, and of late technology.
The beef with China

The technology that China (no.2 on the list) offers the rest of the world is the subject of hot debate. The alleged theft of US intellectual property for tech gadgets and software by China.

This is one of several unfair trade practises and motives for why the US recently decided to start imposing heavier (punitive) tax-like increases on multiple goods imported by China.

These extra costs, referred to in trade terms as import tariffs, have a spill-over effect on the costs of production.

China then reciprocated by hitting the US with tariffs (on agricultural produce) causing the trade war that drives each country to protect its own economy.

The higher input costs naturally, lead to the price of your product going up and reducing its competitive advantage and demand. Higher input costs can also affect your local labour force for the worse too.

Factories, multinational corporations, and industries such as farms (both commercial and subsistence) will have to cut the cost of labour. In worse cases which we have seen, workers are laid-off in a heartbeat to stop or prevent accounting losses.

These factors would have hopefully been taken into consideration by the respective leaders before pulling the tariff triggers. Acting with emotions rather than looking at the far-reaching implications is irresponsible.

Have the talks of the trade war impacted productivity and the global trade economy? So far it’s just the stock markets (securities and commodities) reacting. Only time will tell.
22 April 2018
Piggybacking on company shares

It is clear that the business of share trading and its intricacies still create a dark cloud for many of you. This is, however, a rather unnecessary element of sophistication.

It is only fair to, therefore, delve in and break it down by discussing not just the way to trade, but the whole point of it.

While trading may seem like something only smart people engage in, this is, however, not the case.

What are shares?

The first thing to understand is that shares (referred to as stocks) entitle the holder to have part ownership in a company.

So, if you own a share in, Amazon, Manchester United, or a Cryptocurrency company like Ripple – you literally OWN a part of that company.

You are basically co-owning with other stakeholders of the company. This with the hopes that the people who run it will increase the monetary value of your shareholding by making the company a success.

Now your share will determine what level of control (decision-making) you have when it comes to the company’s operations.

Naturally, owning just one, ten, or even 1000 shares of Amazon (a hefty $1400 each today), still does not entitle you to have a say in how it is run.

As the majority shareholder, you would probably be the company owner (chairman/founder) or one of its board of directors. To gain such a majority shareholding and full control of a company, the minimum number of shares you would need would be 51% of all shares issued. Good luck obtaining that many!

The rationale for issuing shares

But let’s take a further step back and unravel why shares are issued in the first place. Your company (hopefully) has value because of its ability to generate revenue. This makes it a constant target for investors in a capitalistic market. Wealthy individuals carefully monitor its value to brace for a potential takeover or for just a piece of the pie.

To get listed on a stock exchange your company will decide how much of its equity to publicly issue as shares. You can even issue shares to raise more capital to help grow your business.

This form of equity will be backed against your total assets (and its debts) on the balance sheet. So hypothetically, a company with 100 Euros worth of assets and liabilities has 100 Euros worth of (owners) equity.

This basically enables you to determine its net worth at a given point in time.

The easiest way to remember this is through this basic accountant’s formula:

Total Owner’s Equity (OE) = Assets (A) + liabilities (L).

The shares are accounted for in the OE and are issued in denominations based on various factors. This helps to provide you with an indication of the relative strength (or weakness), or potential growth rate of the company.

What do they tell us?

The (snapshot) total value of the company is thus determined by its share price multiplied by total number issued. This is referred to as its market capitalization. There are several other measures and tools to evaluate the general health of a company.

Rising share prices, though always good, does not always necessarily mean that the company is great value for money. This is because share prices can also be undervalued or overvalued.

Shares for large companies are naturally offered in millions and via an initial public offering (IPO) from as little as one cent (penny stock), or much more (depending on its valuation). Thereon, it can rise astronomically to what was quoted for Amazon earlier.

Where to get them

The open market or local bourse is where you can buy and sell shares at specific times depending on side of the world it is located.

Obtaining shares come with additional costs (brokerage fees, commission, interest payments in cases of leverage buying, etc.). Depending on the terms and conditions in the overall market (regulations), but more specifically, on the company or broker offering you access to shares.

A good company share will also give you a return on an annual dividend. This is basically a share of the company’s profits over and above its share price.

It is a good idea to include high dividend-yielding shares like Coca-Cola, in your trading portfolio – if you can afford them.

Influencers

Once you purchase your stake in the company, you will naturally, even if you don’t have a controlling say in how the company is operated, take a keen interest in the company’s activities.

Everything it does whether internal operations or outside for that matter, will have an impact on its valuation.

Naturally, investors follow the age-long rule of common sense: buy when the price is low. If you missed the IPO and the price dips, you can always get in at a good (low) price. The stock market runs like a rollercoaster – you just need the right time to hop on!

“Unless a company goes belly-up, a share-stock price that is going down is actually going up – in the long run.”

Obviously, the price (trend) is not always upward and one must be prepared to weather such storms. You shouldn’t have to be continuously focusing on the price after thorough due diligence on your chosen company.

Read more about Due Diligence here

Choosing a good stock and leaving it to work is the best advice you will get. This is because you can become emotionally attached to the performance of the shares and that can affect your mood.

There are also a lot of trading tools to help prevent a total meltdown if the company folds-up. This can be due to external factors like fraudulent scandals or government intervention. Keep tags now and then – this is important.

The recent events and scandal faced by Facebook saw it lose a significant amount (billions of dollars) in it the value of its share price.

Read more about investing here.

Short-selling of shares/stocks

There are also ways to “have your bread buttered both ways” in investing. This is where the concept of short-selling comes in.

So, while we all inclined to bet on a company’s stock to go up – there are groups of investors who bet the other way. They have the hopes (based on indicators) that the price will rather drop.

This seemingly dubious form of trading is perfectly legit but comes, naturally, with an even higher level of risk. If the price increases in favour of all ‘normal’ long-term investors – the short position starts losing money. You may even have to fork out more to cover the amount borrowed to make the short-sell in the first place.

Short-selling is, therefore, if you are inexperienced and ill-informed!

So, you “buy” or rather borrow (leverage) the future value of the share/stock price usually at its apparent peak and hope that it will drop. You will continue to profit from the bet by as much as the share price continues to drop.

Earlier in the year, one such investor dubbed “50 Cent” bagged 200-million-dollars in a major shorting stint.

Shorting a stock is a complex, risky but highly lucrative method of balancing out a portfolio. A seasoned trader will, therefore, have several positions including some “buy” and “sell” positions on their chosen shares.

You should have various mechanisms (take profits and stop losses) set in place to execute their trades based on those positions.

Naturally, you wouldn’t just short a stock if you didn’t know something about what factors were to lead to a sharp/large drop in the share price.

But getting this right is often an exercise that straddles a fine line between being well-informed and intuitive and blatant insider trading.

The bigger picture

So, in summary, shareholding generally occurs when you acquire a stake in a business. You can own intellectual capital, founding rights, or be s a funder/seed investor to help start the business.

So why do companies issue out shares to the public again you might still ask?

Think of share listing as a way for your company to hold itself publicly accountable. is the ultimate branding weaponry in its arsenal and quest to exponentially increase its profits.

24 March 2018
Peer-to-peer service

History has taught us that a fully centrally controlled government system fails completely – well, in the long run.

The idea of a communistic system has its merits and could still work in some sectors of our economies. It, however, omits the very thing that was provided to us as human beings – choice.

Knowledge is empowering – but the power to do the things you would like to do effortlessly without fear of error.

This shared knowledge emanates from scientific, biological, or financially proven theories and tests.

They can help you make the right investments. Such as saving money on the best deals, obtaining rights to social benefits, travel to great destinations. Or simply just helping other people achieve their personal and spiritual goals.

Monopolistic behaviour

Those that cling onto knowledge though, serve their interests alone and should not be revered but rather shunned for power-hogging.

Sadly, some governments monopolize access to information, basic services, resources, and even education to create an artificial demand for ´their services’.

This forms the basis of a centrally controlled or outright communistic state.
In business, this is a common practice of a monopoly to control the price of their good or service as they are the only ones providing it.

The quality of that good or service, however, can and will be determined by them and them alone!

Can you imagine then, based on the previous sentence, a situation that only governments have this power to dictate a basic service such as healthcare or education for you?

Scary thought and if you look at most developing countries, the evidence of this is overwhelmingly sad.

But we are not here to talk about the governments as there would be several cases to point out and this is not a political platform.
Case in point, the concept of a centrally controlled system nevertheless is less efficient and prone to failure to disseminate the very items it sets out to provide.

Deploying software by a global firm like IBM, via a centrally stored-located server would be absurd because the infrastructure of the recipient regions or end-users might not be well equipped to handle it.
So one begs to question, why would you do it for social services for instance?

Decentralized systems

Decentralizing a system can improve efficiency because it gives options to get the best quality possible. It also removes power from one or a few providers and shares it equally amongst other stakeholders.

This way all will stand to mutually benefit from a working system indirectly rather than just the state collecting monetary compensation or tax and deciding what to do with it alone.

Centralized systems can learn from the blockchain to efficiently provide services.

Let’s take the now “illegal” peer-to-peer file-sharing and downloading software such as eDonkey/eMule (developed by Microsoft).
Or take BitTorrent for example you could with them, build together any file by downloading “bits” of the file by many connected servers or PCs (peers).

This system leads to faster downloads and allows one to source from the best quality of the available digital bits to get the data to form the e-book, music track, or movie that you were after.

Leaving your download running would enable others to get the files you have already amassed (you reciprocally upload the files). The cycle continues until everyone acquires the same great quality file from the best ‘seeds’.

Downloading from a sole server for the same product, on the contrary, could crash the server.

Let’s not forget the delays due to operational differences in time-zones, or complete failure to download if the file source is corrupted or the file quality is bad.

Application of decentralized systems

Naturally, the entertainment industry put a stop to this because it meant that people could attain their copyrighted material.

Many fines and warnings were dished out to individuals as well as companies hosting the sharing servers.

You can, however, still access them via carefully planned entry gateways to hide your IP address using VPNs. Those of you who are IT experts can use (old-school) backend protocols like FTP.

BitTorrent -> Bitcoin…Torrent -> Tor ..anyone seeing a pattern here?

There is now even a new digital currency designed to help artists curb piracy and reward the artists for their work.
Such protective software is already in the pipeline thanks to blockchain technology.

Decentralizing services such as money transfers in the advent of Cryptomania removes power from regulated financial institutions. They tend to charge high fees for sometimes slow and error-prone services because they can.

Conclusion

So, swiftness and security are a prime reason for the adoption the Blockchain technology. Everything else such as the price of digital alternative coins or ‘altcoins’ boils down to basic supply and demand for it.

Governments and other institutional service providers can take a leaf out of the blockchain technology tree and its true intention.

The aim is to decentralize the provision of a service to give everyone access to it. This will reduce associated costs of using it and improve efficiency!

28 January 2018
Forex on steroids!

With all the negative and positive commotion surrounding the Crypto market – it still begs the question, for those still curious. What does it take to engage in the trading of Cryptocurrency?

And by trading, we are not referring to the price speculation in a portfolio as one would with the price of a company’s shares or even CFDs.

We are rather referring to trading it as a commodity against other ‘Cryptos’ in a properly regulated online market setting. Similar to how a Foreign Exchange (Forex) market operates.

As with trading traditional fiat currencies, the price is purely determined by good old supply and demand for the currency and monitored by the availability versus volume traded.

It is therefore just a medium between traders where they can set limit orders to buy/sell Bitcoins for a certain price.

So, in the true approach of Debunqed, we will decipher crypto-exchange trading by looking at what you need to do to get into it, and what you stand to gain.

Here are the quick steps:

The first step would be to open a secure Crypto wallet to physically purchase (own) some altcoins. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin are the main coins offered by Crypto wallet providers.

They hold the most value and can thus be broken down into smaller denominations (Altcoins). The same way the dollar is used as the main exchange for other fiat currencies. This example helps to put things into perspective.

Make sure you do your research into which wallet you will use. Obviously, if you are mining a certain Cryptocurrency you would naturally purchase them directly from that software provider of the Altcoin.

Using Ripple mining as an example, the platform is supplied by RippleNet and naturally, it follows that the Ripple company mines all the volume and controls its supply.
Getting the digital currency into a wallet can be a quick exercise.

It can take as quickly as between 5 – 20 minutes via a peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace connecting buyers with sellers like at Paxful.

Make sure you deal with reputable sellers. This wallet provider rates suppliers based on how reliable they are so only deal with sellers of the highest ratings.

The actual purchase (mostly conducted via online chat) can be made via a Credit/Debit Card, online banking or convenient money transfer facilities like (Europe-based) N26 Bank, Skrill or PayPal.

You can even purchase and send gift cards from Amazon for instance, to the seller (to the value of the currency being purchased) for the seller to release the Altcoins.

Security and storage

The actual coins are stored as an alpha-numeric key code – with the currency value in the wallet once acquired.

This after the wallet-broker takes a small fee for the transaction. This code/key needs to be kept secure – backed up online and offline (highly recommended). This is possible on special flash-drive (Crypto wallet) like the Trezor or a Ledger Nano. The device would hold the deposit key if you were transferring it to another wallet or to an exchange to trade.

Time to go shopping!

Finding a good exchange

The next step would be then to source a robust and user-friendly platform to trade your newly acquired currency on.

The best cryptocurrency exchanges would allow you to swap fiat currency such as dollar/euro for the digital currency directly. Naturally, you can trade one digital currency for another as well.

There are quite a few to choose from so it is good to read the reviews. You should then select one based on the number of deposit/withdrawal methods, the fee structure level, number of countries served, availability of security tools and features.
The last aspect is a huge determining factor: exchanges can be prone to hacking, or loss from outages. Lastly, their margins and exchange trading functions are good to observe too.

For serious and equally secure trading, you will likely need to use an exchange like Binance that requires the user to verify their ID before being opening an account. Make sure you have all your documents ready and up to date!

Trading

When it comes to the actual trading, let’s take a scenario where two people want to sell an altcoin but not for the market price. One sets a limit order for lower and the other for a slightly higher price. So, the best price to purchase Bitcoins, in this case, would be the median of the two prices.

If the buyer wants to purchase more than one altcoin, they will continually take the lowest price available. By doing this, the “price” of the altcoin will increase as the lower-price sell orders are no longer available.

You will then, as with Forex, purchase pairs of where you think your digital currency will be stronger against another e.g. BTC (Bitcoin) vs XRP (Ripple).
This combo would look like this on the exchange: BTC/ XRP – 0.00011960. What this means is that one Ripple coin is worth that much Bitcoin for instance.

The little details

This type of trading, like commodities or forex, requires constant attention and the monitoring of prices. But there are tools that can also help you set prices and have the trades auto-execute.

So, a platform which provides such tools conveniently allows you the time to do other important things. Like paying attention to your spouse, formal job or family and friends. That would be ideal.
If you have the cash, time, expertise and financial clout, it is even possible to run your own Crypto Exchange!

This is another benefit of a decentralized currency system that will allow you to earn some cash by charging for the usage of your robust platform.
Well, this may be until the fiscal authorities’ crackdown on all of the platforms with restrictive legislation.

Finally, like many platforms that provide opportunities to purchase something, the software must be stable and be cost-effective to use.

ADVERT

21 January 2018
The Big ‘Crypture’

I’m not quite sure if anyone has given some careful thought – in the heat of this ‘Crypto mania’. More specifically, have you ever considered the ramifications of the blockchain and its impact on the global economy?

This is an attempt to perform a calculated prophecy, based on the conversations we’ve had with like-minded visionaries.

An introspection into this ‘much-talked-about technology’ has led to endless possibilities.

Presently, every Tom, Anastasia, and Patel are pursuing short-term gains. You are all probably investigating ways in which they too can “cash in” by investing in new digital currencies.

This frenzy is mainly driven by how some of the altcoins are performing in value. Some digital coins are rising as much as 1000% in a ‘Crypto bull-run’. But the real appeal for digital “currencies” comes from the security, speed, and cost of transactions they facilitate.

A case for Cryptos

Most of you are understandably looking at it solely from an investment point of view – after all, greed never sleeps.

Also, let’s not forget the anonymity it affords one – great for criminals and money launderers. Because of the increased risk, monetary authorities and regulatory bodies will make a case for tighter controls.

They may even push for the outright banning of this new currency altogether.

Retail banks, are currently entrusted with the movement of your funds (electronic transfers) and are governed by economic monetary policy. This happens under the watchful eye of big brother – the Reserve Bank.

These commercial banks are the “primary targets” so to say of the blockchain. They were, therefore, the first to react by investing or attempting to start up their own blockchains.

Such projects, however, prove to be expensive and still risky ventures given that no-one knows the source and destination of the blockchain.

Banks are nevertheless having to either make quick decisions about whether they get on board or partner with developers of Cryptos such as Ripple).

We also look at other financial institutions such as credit lending facilities and money transfer institutions. They are also are naturally in partnerships with the banks. They, however, stand to get wiped out by the blockchain if you think about it.

Really, who would want to cough up a 10% commission or a transfer fee for money sent abroad to your family? You could simply use something like IOTA which, by the way, is as a Crypto hovering around 3-5 USD (at time of publishing) per unit.

It is capable of transacting very quickly and securely with no transaction fees!

And how so you may ask? Those details are listed clearly on their respective websites.

Peer review functionality

It is the belief that the plan for Cryptos’ was to enable anyone to have access to a shared (decentralized) peer-to-peer type service that enables the secure transacting of literally – anything!

You can look at the blockchain working in the same manner as BitTorrent or E-Mule (for those who remember that far back). In the way, that data, albeit mostly bootlegged music, videos, and software, was distributed and downloaded on the web.

“Blockchain is essentially a quick peer-to-peer transaction of digital currency”

The value of Cryptocurrencies is now driven by how well it works as a system. You must look more closely at the added value it can offer society from a functional, practical, convenient, and of course, cost-saving perspective.

A real threat?

So, what does that then mean for companies like Visa, Mastercard, or even a digital banking app like PayPal?

You can also imagine the implications for investment banks and their traders. That is if markets such as the very volatile foreign exchange (Forex) are completely abandoned and substituted by Cryptos.

There are now many an exchange for Cryptos in the appearing monthly.
You will be able to switch or trade Bitcoin for Ethereum, Litecoin, IOTA, or Ripple.

Handy if you need them quickly for a specific transaction, country, or product that accepts digital currency.

More practical uses of Crypto

The purpose of ‘Cryptos’ running on the blockchain is, therefore, to change the way we transact and pay for goods and services.

The aim was to make it a ‘form of exchange’ but also to provide the resources for you to “mine” and own them. This can be an alternative income generator alleviating the need for job creation. It can also be a substitute vocation for those you who were perhaps made redundant by automation and AI.

So, once you mine the currency (provided you have the infrastructure and pay the overheads), you can use it to get the things you need or must pay for.
Your electricity bill, for example, can then be processed and paid for directly from an IOTA-holding wallet.

Speaking of electricity, we came across a very insightful article (referenced in the resource section) focusing on the impact of energy consumption that global rampant mining will cause the price of electricity and the environment.

Coupled with the switch to electric cars this could surely force you to invest in better ways to generate electricity. That is if we are to maintain sensible levels of sustainability.

Whether the price of electricity goes up or down will be determined by how quickly energy providers globally will be able to meet this surging demand.

We can surely be in a position to observe the upcoming impact on electricity consumption from next year.

More and more of the global population are beginning to mine altcoins for themselves.

As we head into the festive season and bonuses are being paid out, be responsible for how you splash out. Do your research first – even if it means waiting a year to see how it all plays out.

22 December 2017

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