Grazed from PCMag. Author: Michael J. Miller.

Cloud Computing took center stage at last week’s Code Conference as the heads of many such companies talked about how their products were evolving in a cloud-first world. In particular, the heads of Salesforce, Workday, Dropbox, Uber, Twitter, and Wal-Mart talked about how their businesses are changing in a world increasingly driven by cloud services.

One of the most interesting sessions involved Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri, who discussed the shift to cloud computing. Bhusri talked about how big shifts in computing only happen every 10 to 15 years, with the previous move being the change from mainframes to client-server computing. We are now three to four years into a 15-year cycle during which everyone will eventually move to the cloud, he said…

Grazed from NextGov. Author: Editorial Staff.

HP Enterprise Services announced a new secure private cloud solution designed specifically to ease and accelerate government agencies’ migrations to the cloud. HP’s latest roll-out, Helion Managed Private Cloud for Public Sector, offers agencies a managed, dedicated private cloud that allows federal, state and local governments to implement shared service models across their many departments.

Additionally, the managed private cloud allows agencies or departments to act as IT brokers through the use of a Web-based portal where resources like computing can be monitored and charged back through. Helion was designed with the “unique security requirements” of the government in mind, including the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, known as FedRAMP, at the moderate impact level; Federal Information Security Management Act, or FISMA high; the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, privacy rules; and the Defense Information System Agency Enterprise Cloud Service Broker impact Level-5, according to Jeff Bergeron, Chief Technology Officer for HP U.S. Public Sector…

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: Shawn Drew.

There is little doubt that the cloud is on the rise, but in order to best take advantage of it over the long term, IT professionals require a bit more specificity when it comes to where the cloud will be within the next few years. Some new cloud computing predictions that focus on where the technology will be in the near future can help IT managers and executives properly prepare for this technology revolution.

Cloud Computing Predictions

At this point, it seems that just about every IT department has at least looked into the cloud. Many have already decided to shift some aspects of the data center there, but others may be taking a more methodical approach, waiting for some certainty before committing assets to adoption. While this is usually a smart path, delaying cloud adoption could be a big mistake given where the technology is headed, as summarized in a collection of cloud computing predictions in a recent MSPmentor article…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Ewan Spence.

With the introduction of Continuity for OSX Yosemite and iOS 8, not only has Tim Cook given Apple users a coherent platform from mobile phone and tablet to laptop and desktop, he has given Apple an opportunity to be number one in the battle for cloud storage and cloud computing services.

The top level statistics for OSX are impressive. The install base for Mac grew by 12% (compared to a 5% decrease for the PC market), and 40 million copies of OSX Mavericks have been installed. That?s more than 50% of the potential audience, and drew a humorous comparison to Windows 8’s 14% adoption…

Grazed from LiveMint. Author: Editorial Staff.

Apple Inc. introduced new health and connected home features for the software powering the iPhone and iPad, laying the groundwork for a busy second half of the year as the company seeks to rev up its growth. Apple released new mobile software, called iOS8, at its annual developer conference in San Francisco.

The software includes HealthKit, which lets people monitor their health and acts as a data hub for fitness apps, and HomeKit, which includes home automation elements so people can control locks, garage doors and lights from their devices. Apple company also showed products for storing and sending files—iCloud Drive and Maildrop—and an updated version of its Mac OS dubbed Yosemite…

Grazed from TheVarGuy. Author: Michael Cusanelli.

Cloud service provider Evolve IP is the latest company to achieve VMware (VMW) vCloud Powered validation, giving the company the full support of VMware’s popular virtualization and cloud computing technology. The designation officially gives Evolve IP’s cloud services the backing of VMware and its virtualization and cloud computing technology.

As a current member of the VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP), Evolve IP provides vCloud Powered service to its customers across a common platform that supports VMware’s existing applications set as well as application mobility from the company. With the inclusion of vSphere and vCloud Director, Evolve IP said it will be able to provide its customers with more options to virtualize their infrastructures…

Grazed from MSPMentor. Author: Editorial Staff.

eFolder recently participated in the HTG Vendor Peer Group meeting in Cedar Rapids, IA, at the headquarters of Great America Financial. The highlight of the meeting was the partner panel, where we brought together a panel of three business principals from the local MSP and VAR community. The Vendor Peer Group itself is made up of about 20 IT vendor personnel.

In our recent panel, one partner made a very astute observation: “Cloud computing is not do-it-yourself computing.” The context for the quote was a conversation around Office 365 and client perceptions around ease of use and complexity of the cloud. The largest IT vendors such as Microsoft and Google have successfully marketed the promise of the cloud to clients and users. These vendors have marketed the cloud as affordable, easy, and secure. The reality is far more complex. And this is good news for the IT channel…

Grazed from ITBusinessEdge. Author: Michael Vizard.

Data storage used to be relatively simple, in the sense that it was generally all in one location. But with the advent of cloud computing, data is now stored both inside and out of the enterprise. Looking to help IT organizations get a better handle on all the storage, Zadara Storage has created a storage-as-a-service offering based on the open source OpenStack cloud management platform that makes it easier to manage storage systems deployed both on premise and in the cloud.

Noam Shender, vice president of business development for Zadara Storage, says the Virtual Private Storage Array (VPSA) can be deployed on premise, in a managed hosting environment and in the cloud. Regardless of where the VPSA is deployed, Shender says a unified console allows IT organizations to manage petabytes of flash and magnetic storage systems as a single service via RESTful application programming interfaces (APIs) that Zadara exposes…

Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) today announced that it has made a strategic investment in Cloud Theory, a technology consulting firm specializing in cloud-based solutions, to expand its product offering with customized Salesforce software for alternative asset managers. Cloud Theory’s FundEngine solution was designed and built in partnership with the Blackstone Innovations team, and offers a turn-key, client-facing customer relationship management ("CRM") system for alternative asset management firms that is built on top of the Salesforce platform, an industry leader in cloud computing and CRM software.

FundEngine customizes the general purpose Salesforce platform and tailors it for alternative asset management business development, fundraising and client relations, as well as fund management, due diligence and research management. FundEngine also integrates with leading industry vendors, back office systems and fund administrators…

Grazed from InsideCounsel. Author: Juliana Kenny.

Big data’s growth and usage is both benefitting and befuddling businesses. As many are still yet coming to terms with what Big Data means, how it works, and the kinds of technologies needed to fully take advantage of what it has to offer, companies that are embroiled in legal cases face particular disadvantages. The storage and archiving practices of old — and the storage of particular amounts of data to prepare for legal issues — are no longer sufficient for businesses that need to be courtroom-ready.

Already, the need is clear for new methods of collecting and archiving large sets of data including social-based content. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined Barclays $3.75 million in December 2013 for failing to preserve many of its required electronic books and records from at least 2002 to 2012. The records include order and trade ticket data, trade confirmations, blotters, account records and others. Since the failures were prevalent throughout the firm’s business areas, Barclays could not determine whether all of its electronic books and records were maintained in an unaltered condition…