Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Anita Karve.

Sharing files and collaborating in the cloud are old news. DropBox, SkyDrive, Google Docs and many more cloud-based service providers have made it possible to store files, sync them, and make them accessible to others. But one company is thinking outside the box (pun intended) and going beyond simple file sharing and collaboration. Box is making its first foray into the applications space with Box Notes, a tool that lets users capture and share ideas securely from anywhere in real-time.

And "securely" is the key word here. Box has distinguished itself from the rest of the file-sharing pack by offering very high security levels for its services. With 256-bit AES encryption, intrusion detection systems, redundant backups, uninterruptible power and more, Box has become the go-to cloud-based sharing service among enterprises. It boasts 180,000 corporate customers, including most of the Fortune 500…

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Alexandra Levit.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think twice about the little things. That’s how I get into trouble, because it’s the little things that make a big impact when they slip through the cracks. Whether it’s a forgotten follow-up call to a customer or a lost password, you can’t afford to let the little things slow you down. Fortunately, when life is moving faster than ever and our primitive human brains can’t catch up, there are some terrific SaaS organization applications to help out.

LastPass: If you’re like me, your poor password management is a disaster waiting to happen. While it’s certainly easier to use the same password all the time, or passwords that are extremely simple to remember, it’s definitely not safer. When you have a password service like LastPass, you only have to remember one master password. By typing in that master password, you are able to log in automatically to any website with saved login credentials. And LastPass syncs passwords in the cloud so all of your devices will display the same information…

Grazed from GlobalNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Logentries, a new cloud-based service provider for collecting and analyzing huge quantities of machine-generated log data, has received $10 million in Series A financing and has named Andrew Burton as president and CEO. Unlike costly log management alternatives that require advanced technical skills to use, Logentries utilizes a unique collective intelligence model to transform otherwise difficult-to-consume log data into actionable business and operational insights. Logentries will use the funds to accelerate product development and aggressively drive a go-to-market strategy. The financing round was led by Polaris Partners, along with Floodgate, Frontline Ventures, and RRE Ventures. Floodgate is a new investor joining the other firms that provided $1 million seed money in 2012.

"With big data transforming businesses of all kinds, Logentries lets customers focus on the data that matter most – the less than 1% of log entries that contain the game-changing information that’s hidden among the other 99%," said Andrew Burton, president & CEO, Logentries. "I’m excited to join the Logentries team where our goal is to harness the power of log data and make it accessible to anyone."…

Grazed from OutSystems. Author: PR Announcement.

OutSystems today announced general availability of its cloud application platform as a service (PaaS). The OutSystems Platform is the only PaaS available as a cloud, on-premises or hybrid solution that generates standard Java and .NET applications with fully automated DevOps support. By extending its popular on-premises platform to the cloud, OutSystems is raising the bar for the PaaS market, making it exceedingly easy for IT organizations to build, deploy and manage enterprise-class web and mobile applications in any environment.

“We have delivered highly complex and scalable enterprise web and mobile applications faster than we ever thought possible,” said Rogério Campos Henriques, CIO of Fidelidade, the largest insurance operator in Portugal. “The OutSystems Platform as a PaaS offering will be an amazingly powerful solution for companies that need to deploy and maintain enterprise-class applications more effectively. And the ability to bring the platform back on-premises or deploy a hybrid approach avoids the cloud lock-in.”…

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Ellen Messmer.

Cisco and Intel say that companies wanting to make use of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds should be aware that controls exist for keeping virtual workloads on servers within country borders. This idea of “trusted geolocation in the cloud” is of growing importance because many countries have laws about how can data about their citizens can be moved outside the country if at all, and businesses have their own reasons to restrict movement of data to certain places.

Cisco solutions architect Kenneth Stavinoha and Intel senior enterprise technologist Paul Yates recently spoke on the topic during a panel discussion at the ISC2 Conference in Chicago, along with HyTrust CTO Hemma Prafullchandra. The three advocated one type of geolocation method that can be set up through the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security chip, which is based on a Trusted Computing Group standard…

Grazed from ThoughtsOnCloud. Author: Abhi Deshmukh.

Did you know that the latest IBM 2013 Cyber Security Intelligence Index study indicates that an average organization sustains about 1,400 security events like SQL injection, spear phishing and URL tampering, per week? In addition, a recent study by Gartner indicates that most software as a service (SaaS) contracts do not adequately cover security aspects of the service.

Security

If you are a SaaS provider, you will need to check if your development team has implemented secure engineering practices in the design and code. I’d like to share a list of top 10 security issues that you should address to make sure your SaaS application is secure. This list has been curated by The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). The 2013 list includes the top 10 wide spread security vulnerabilities that most web applications face. The following is a brief listing of the top 10 security issues (by OWASP) that your SaaS offering should address:..

Grazed from Network World. Author: Brandon Butler.

The Cloud Security Alliance has updated its Cloud Control Matrix (CCM), which is designed to help organizations vet the security credentials of cloud service providers. The CCM provides recommendations of best practices for securing the cloud. It covers a wide variety of areas, from data center, hardware and application security, to business continuity and vulnerability assessment. The third version of the CCM, released last week, includes guidelines for five new categories: mobile security; supply chain management, transparency and accountability; interoperability and portability; and encryption and key management.

Mobile was a natural area to focus new security best practices on because it’s becoming a popular use case for the cloud, says Sean Cordero, co-chair of the CCM Working Group that helped create the guidelines. The mobile best practices cover not only how cloud-based services are accessed via mobile devices, but also how software like mobile device management (MDM) tools are delivered through an SaaS offering…

Grazed from TopHosts. Author: Cliff Boodoosingh.

Jelastic Inc., a leading provider of an advanced and scalable Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and winner of the prestigious Duke’s Choice Award, today announced the release of its new mobile application which offers remote access to the Jelastic cloud management system. The application was developed specifically for enabling Java and PHP developers to significantly boost workday productivity from any location. Jelastic’s Mobile App is available now and can be downloaded free of charge at the iTunes Store.

The Jelastic Mobile App is an ideal addition to the company’s web admin panel. Using this console, users can conduct a number of critical functions, including:
– Viewing and monitoring environments in Jelastic
– Viewing the current status and resource consumption for each environment
– Changing the state of any Java/PHP environment: (i.e. stop a cloud environment that is currently not in use in order to decrease resource consumption, and re-activate the environment as needed)
– Tracking a balance and viewing billing history…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

PaaS provider Corent Technologies is working with Dell Services to enable independent software vendors (ISVs) to migrate their existing on-premises applications to SaaS offerings. The two companies are aiming to provide ISVs and enterprises with a complete suite of cloud application migration services based around Corent’s SurPaaS platform.

Corent and Dell are offering the migration services to joint customers to provide scalability, speed to market and cost savings through the conversion of apps from single to multi-tenant to be hosted on private clouds. This includes to Dell Cloud Dedicated Service, but also the public clouds being offered by Dell Cloud Partner Program members. It’s not limited to partner-owned public clouds, though…

Grazed from CloudTimes. Author: Saroj Kar.

Cloud computing services are increasingly moving into the future in health care. However, the protection and security of private data are two of the main reasons why the healthcare sector is generally slow to adopt new technologies. Market researchers at MarketsandMarkets assume that the health care industry will invest $5.4 Billion in Cloud Computing by 2017.

The “Healthcare Cloud Computing (Clinical, EMR, SaaS, Private, Public, Hybrid) Market – Global Trends, Challenges, Opportunities & Forecasts (2012 – 2017)”, published by MarketsandMarkets, analyzes and studies the major market drivers, restraints, and opportunities in North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World. According to the report, Market researchers estimate that last year at least 4% of total health care are changed into the cloud. This year, this share is expected to grow to 20.5%…