Grazed from BusinessCloudNews. Author: Jonathan Brandon.

Research commissioned by Microsoft and published Wednesday suggests nearly half of organisations using cloud services have moved beyond initial pilot phases, and 32 per cent of enterprises articulating and implementing clear cloud computing strategies within their organisations despite concerns around data protection and security. But the findings also suggest that pervasive concerns around security, while certainly a challenge for cloud service providers and enterprises, may also be a boon for other players.

The research, which includes interviews and survey responses of over 2,000 IT decision-makers working in business of all sizes in eleven countries reveals that over 45 per cent of those that participated claim to be well beyond the pilot phase of implementing cloud services within their organisations…

Grazed from CircleID. Author: Peter JH Van Eijk.

The number one concern cited for avoiding cloud computing is security. And there is a reason for that. Cloud providers have demonstrated some spectacular failures in the past, including Amazon’s near total shutdown of an entire region, Dropbox’s authentication snafu, and innumerous cloud providers that go belly-up.

However, in the long run, cloud computing is destined to become more secure than in-house IT. I will briefly describe two dynamics in the industry that point in that direction, with substantiating evidence. First, good cloud providers are getting better, as they have more staff available to do security, and bigger economies of scale, allowing them to sustain more security processes…

Grazed from Syncplicity. Author: PR Announcement.

Syncplicity announced a new release of its Syncplicity Business Edition that now offers full and seamless support for Google Docs™. With this latest release, Google Apps™ customers can now synchronize any desktop file such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat PDF, JPEG, ZIP, CAD and other files with Google Docs.

Syncplicity’s unique seamless synchronization means users can now have the choice to create and edit their files in their favorite application, such as grammar checking a file in Microsoft Word and then collaborating on that same file in Google Docs. In addition, through Syncplicity, users with files in Google Docs benefit from centralized management and backups, instantaneous synchronization across multiple computers, policy-controlled sharing and collaboration, and offline, anywhere access…

Grazed from SysCon Media. Author: Gilad Parann-Nissany.

In 2008, the size of the cloud computing industry was $46 Billion. That is more than the GDP of Costa Rica! Think it’s a lot? Ready to jump on the cloud security bandwagon? That was 2008! In 2014, the size of the cloud computing industry has more than tripled to $150 Billion – almost the GDP of New Zealand. NOW are you ready?

Besides the fact that everyone else is doing it, migrating to the cloud just makes good business sense. Whether you select a private cloud, a public cloud, or some hybrid of the two, cloud computing is just more powerful than traditional datacenters. There are several reasons for this. First, the reduced capital costs of IT infrastructure – no need for hardware, software, and manpower (and training) to manage them. Also, there is the improved accessibility, effectiveness, flexibility and scalability of the cloud…

Grazed from Peak10. Author: Ken Donoghue.

There is strong evidence that cloud computing and cloud storage will experience big growth spurts this year. The cloud has more to offer than ever before, and competition among providers for mindshare is producing highly differentiated products with real appeal to businesses of all sizes and types, particularly in the mid-market.

Three contributors stand out. The cloud offerings have matured mightily over the past few years, particularly in the area of security and compliance, making the cloud more attractive all around. Maturity in the cloud storage arena has been accompanied by a massive expansion in data generation and data analytics; it all has to go somewhere…

Grazed from Computing. Author: Graeme Burton.

A shortage of appropriately skilled staff is holding back organisations’ cloud computing initiatives, according to panellists at Computing’s IT Leaders’ Forum. Potential staff with the right mix of skills, or who can fit into the new categories of skills required to keep organisations’ cloud initiatives running smoothly – including the ability to challenge suppliers in terms of their offerings, architecture and cost – will be in high demand for the foreseeable future.

Rocco Labellarte, CIO at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, described it as "bloody hard" to get the right people in. The borough is in the process of shifting some 350 organisational applications to the cloud and, therefore, the kinds of skills required of its IT department is changing…

Grazed from IBTimes. Author: David Gilbert.

It may sound like an oxymoron, but small computing is getting big and big computing is getting small. And it is going to be the combination of these two "mega-trends" which will be key to the success of wearable technology and lead to everything and anything around us becoming connected.

The continued miniaturisation of computing will allow us to turn anything into a computer while being able to connect directly to a vast cloud computing infrastructure will make these devices more powerful than ever before. Intel’s chief futurist Steve Brown believes that technology – and computing specifically – becoming smaller and smaller is "the key thing that is now allowing us now to think about computers becoming wearable."…

Grazed from Lifehacker. Author: Editorial Staff.

Last week a new set of privacy principles regarding the handling of personal information came into effect. The changes relate to how businesses handle, use and store personal information. While there are significant changes with a number of benefits for individuals, there have been some misconceptions in the industry with regards to privacy in the cloud that I’d like to address. Here are the top 5 myths that I’ve seen about privacy in the cloud.

1. Use of cloud computing is the biggest privacy risk factor

The notion that the use of cloud computing is the biggest Privacy risk factor that Australian businesses need to worry about is simply untrue. Ponemon Institute’s Survey on Data Security Breaches revealed that 69 per cent of serious data leaks were due to employee activities or errors. So a lack of internal policies and controls, direct marketing activities, poorly trained staff, stolen laptops and offshore call centres are all bigger risks than cloud computing. While Australian companies need to be wary of the new legislation and how it affects their IT infrastructure, the direct business benefits of cloud far outweigh these alleged risks…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

Fusion PPT, a recognized strategy and technology consulting firm, announced today that CEO Michael Biddick will be a featured guest speaker on The Enterprise Cloud Site monthly Radio Show to share his advice about “Strategies for Success With Your Hybrid Cloud.” Biddick will join The Enterprise Cloud Site community as a guest on the show on at 1PM ET on Thursday, March 27th, 2014. Biddick, an expert in the field of cloud computing who has authored a book on “Federal Cloud Computing” and written over 50 articles on cloud-related topics, will provide his insight on how to make a hybrid cloud work for your organization and what organizations are really doing with hybrid clouds.

The cloud-enabled enterprise is continuously and rapidly evolving, challenging established IT providers, and transforming IT as we now know it. Rather than asking whether it is a good idea to move to the cloud, for many organizations it is now a matter of when to move, and how to utilize the cloud’s abundant resources to increase productivity and outpace competition…

Grazed from CIO. Author: John Grady.

In today’s technological landscape, it’s not unusual to hear about putting your files “in the cloud.” Everyone seems to be doing it, from personal exchanges to business transactions. In simple terms, cloud computing takes the old system of running programs and saving files onto a computer’s hard drive, and makes it Internet-based instead.

For businesses of all sizes, running your operations and applications using the cloud is becoming increasingly popular for a number of reasons, especially because it saves money, it’s fast and easy, and it is available almost anywhere with an Internet connection. However, there are many other benefits for companies looking to make a change in the way they do business. Here are the top six reasons why you should consider using cloud computing for your enterprise:..