Grazed from BDLive. Author: Jack Nicas.

While the increasing use of encryption helps smartphone users protect their data, another sometime-related technology, cloud computing, can undermine those protections. The reason: encryption can keep certain smartphone data outside the reach of law enforcement. But once the data is uploaded to companies’ computers connected to the internet — referred to as "the cloud" — it may be available to authorities with court orders.

Major cloud-computing suppliers, including smartphone providers such as Alphabet ’s Google, Microsoft and Apple, routinely comply with court orders and search warrants to turn over data that in many cases would have been harder for law enforcement to obtain had users kept it solely on their devices...

Sphere 3D Corp., a containerization, virtualization and data management solutions provider and parent company of Overland Storage and Tandberg Data, today announced encouraging initial results from its Microsoft Azure joint marketing campaign. In-market tactics launched in late November 2015 were directed to a control portion, subset of its dedicated customers that use its SnapServer and SnapScale on-premise storage solutions. The campaign entices them to augment their existing solutions with Sphere 3D's SnapCLOUD  - a cloud-based data storage product which is available from the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. The campaign has already resulted in over 100 SnapCLOUD customer deployments, meeting 40% of the target goal for the original 90-day period.    

Grazed from PlanetBiometrics. Author: Editorial Staff.

Apple has patented a method for iPhones to store fingerprint information, upload to the cloud, and then download it on another iPhone. The patent “Finger Biometric Sensor Data Synchronization VIA A Cloud Computing Device And Related Methods" was published by the USPTO on December 17, 2015, reports Slash Gear.

Filed in August, this envisioned process would allow Apple devices to collect fingerprint information, as they do today, but also upload that information to the cloud for storage. Previously, Apple has shied away from storing biometric data in the cloud – and its security policy states: “An image of the fingerprint itself is never actually retained...

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Hitachi Data Systems announced today that TMC, a global, integrated media company, has named Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere as a 2015 Cloud Computing Storage Excellence Award winner, presented by TMC's Cloud Computing Magazine. The Cloud Storage Excellence Award recognizes companies that have introduced or improved cloud storage solutions. The award honors vendors who provide unsurpassed cloud storage, as well as storage efficiency for their customer base.

"Congratulations to Hitachi Data Systems for its ability to show maturity and expansion of the cloud storage market through innovation and product quality," said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. "We are pleased to present HCP Anywhere with a Cloud Storage Excellence Award for its commitment to advancing cloud storage solutions."...

Grazed from ITProPortal. Author: Sujain Thomas.

Keeping data safe is important. The task is hard to start and even harder to manage, but it must be done. Anyway, if you are finding data management to be difficult, then you are probably using the wrong equipment. Technology has made it possible for you to store billions of records effortlessly without spending a fortune in the process. Personal data storage should not be a problem. The main problem often lies in the storage of business data. For every business, data is a crucial asset. Businesses that do not keep records of their customers or marketing campaigns are always bound to fail at some point.

Proper data storage

There are many ways that you can store your data nowadays. There are flash drives of large capacity, memory cards, hard drives and humongous-capacity servers available for your use. It all depends on how much space you need. However, storage of data on the ‘cloud’ is the most popular practice nowadays...

Grazed from IBM.

IBM today announced new innovations to its IBM Spectrum Storage family of software-defined storage to help clients improve storage management, data security and reduce data costs as they deploy new technology to support cognitive and other data-driven applications across hybrid cloud environments. 

IBM Spectrum Storage is designed to help clients securely embrace the explosive growth of data and support both traditional and next generation applications. New features to improve security and cost-effective management of large amounts of data and storage, include:

Grazed from Commvault.

Commvault, a global leader in enterprise data protection and information management, has today announced that PFD Food Services, the largest privately-owned food distributor in Australia, is using Commvault to ensure the protection and high availability of its strategic data assets in its journey to the cloud.

To support business growth and respond to the changing demands of the industry, PFD sought to modernise its data management strategy and information infrastructure, ensuring speed and flexibility.

"Food distribution is a fast and often unforgiving business; there is a narrow window to match supply and demand for customers, while the market is fiercely competitive," said Richard Cohen, Chief Information Officer of PFD. "We have to do everything we can to give ourselves that competitive advantage, which means the free flow of strategic business information. Systems downtime is simply not an option."

The modernisation of the food distributor's data management strategy has coincided with the establishment of a second data centre, acting as a source for essential back-ups, decreasing the risk significantly. The data centre also operates as a corporate hot site, providing rapid up-to-the-minute failover if required.

Grazed from CIO-Today. Author: Shirley Siluk.

A new team feature for easier collaboration on Dropbox is rolling out to both Basic and Pro users over the coming week, the company said Monday. The feature, available today, is designed for the more than 60 percent of users who primarily employ Dropbox for work.
Among the new collaboration tools is a team folder option that creates a single, centralized location for members of a work group to "meet" and share documents online.

Each team member will have automatic access to any new files added to that team folder. Dropbox's new team feature also enables users to create groups within work teams, and to add new members to those groups at any time. Adding new members automatically gives them access to all the documents in that group's folders...

Read more from the source @ http://www.cio-today.com/article/index.php?story_id=112001UV5F3K

Grazed from StorageAsia. Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud computing is being touted by many, especially vendors, as the path to take as businesses grow. Cloud advocates say that the elasticity that cloud provides is difficult to replicate in on-premises networks and sooner than later, businesses will be considering using services in the cloud.

Major vendors are developing data centers in many countries to alleviate concerns regarding the data leaving the country. However, the benefits of using services in the cloud usually out perform any concerns. In an interview with Networks Asia, Aravindan Anandan, Consulting Systems Engineer, Asia Pacific, Barracuda Networks (India) Pte Ltd. talks about the benefits of cloud computing and its role in storage management, such as disaster recovery and backup...