Grazed from ITNews. Author: PR Announcement.

The Debian Project has released the finalised version 7.0 of its latest free operating system distribution, with tools to set up private clouds built into it. Code-named Wheezy, Debian 7.0 provides testing packages for the open source OpenStack cloud operating system, and also the Xen Cloud Platform enterprise server virtualisation and cloud computing platform.

This enables Debian users to set up small OpenStack clusters with two or more servers, and also try out virtualisation with XCP. It is now also possible to run 32 and 64 bit software packages on the same machine, through the multiarch support in Debian 7.0. There is now support for booting with the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface or UEFI that replaces the older BIOS computer hardware start-up code. Secure Boot, a controversial security feature in newer UEFI-based PCs that prevents the installation of operating system code not signed with a private Microsoft cryptographic key, isn’t yet supported however…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Michael Venables.

I’ve been using Chrome OS since the Chromium project was in beta, when I tested out the CR-48 for the Chromebook pilot testing program. This time, I took about two months to completely road test the Chromebook Pixel, Google’s latest hardware for Chrome OS. I tested the ‘cloud laptop’, with the help of my son in two natural computing environments: work and school. For this review, my testing focused on what you can do on the Chromebook Pixel, using apps on Chrome OS to complete everyday computing (and not so everyday development) tasks. During two months of testing, I used the Chromebook Pixel for my writing work, and my son used the unit for his school work.

Hardware Features
The review unit I tested was the version with LTE capability. Out of the gate you have a 64 GB solid state drive. One of the issues pointed to with Chrome OS is that you have no control over your local data, because you are using a “glorified browser,” but this is not the case. Although the whole proposition of Chrome OS points away from local storage, the immediate plus for the user is that you have plenty of local storage for your data: 32 GB and double that on the LTE model…

Grazed from PR NewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Four years after becoming the first account reconciliation/financial close software provider to successfully complete a SAS 70 (now Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 or SSAE 16 SOC 1) audit, the internationally recognized standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to set guidelines for auditors to use in order to objectively assess the internal controls of service organizations, BlackLine Systems is now also first in its space to successfully complete a SOC 2 Type 2 examination – adding even greater focus on controls related to the security and availability of the BlackLine Financial Close Suite, and demonstrating the operating effectiveness of these controls over the entire period of the audit.

"In today’s global economy, service providers must prove that they have sufficient controls and safeguards in place when they host or process data belonging to their customers. Using a provider like BlackLine, that has met the requirements and criteria of the SOC 2 Type 2 examination, should be a non-negotiable factor," said Chris Kradjan, a partner with Moss Adams LLP, the tax, accounting and consulting firm that conducted the BlackLine audit. "The SOC 2 Type 2 audit sets providers like BlackLine apart from the rest."…

Grazed from TechCrunch. Author: Ingrid Lunden.

T-Mobile, fresh from the completion of its merger with MetroPCS and new NYSE listing, is now sharpening its focus on new customers and new products, beginning with small businesses and cloud-based, software-as-a-service phone deals. We’ve been passed a letter that T-Mobile is sending out to a selection of small companies (copied below), targeting those with 20 or fewer employees and offering them free business phone service for the remainder of 2013, with half price on phone services in 2014. The plan, called Business Connect, also has a dedicated website.

This looks to be a direct competitor to other hosted services like those offered by 8×8 and RingCentral, which effectively offer small businesses a cloud-based solution that gives them telephony features like voicemail, CallerID, conference bridges and other features that have been hallmarks of services for larger companies…

Grazed from MidSize Insider. Author: Contel Bradford.

Imagine a cloud network as a stack of layers, each of which is akin to a consumption and delivery model for various IT needs. Those needs may be accommodated by solutions that range from software applications to physical hardware that supports storage requirements. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platforms are two such stacks that can deliver substantial benefits when implemented by midsize companies.

SaaS Solutions as Part of the Cloud Stack

SaaS providers offer enterprise-level applications such as CRM programs to help businesses streamline their organizational processes. They also offer applications that facilitate communication and collaboration, support social business endeavors, and provide valuable insights into marketing performance. The availability of such a wide range of applications lets businesses move many of their network operations to the cloud and reap the advantages of a more flexible environment…

Grazed from Sophos.  Author: Paul Ducklin.

IBM just released an open source software package called HELib.  The HE stands for homomorphic encryption.  Although it doesn’t sound terribly sexy or impressive, HELib is actually an interesting and important milestone in cryptography.  HE is also a surprisingly relevant topic right now, with our ever-increasing attraction to cloud computing.

Bear with me, and I’ll try to explain.  Imagine that I am your cloud provider, and I keep databases online for you.  Imagine also that I am a security-conscious vendor, so I keep all your data encrypted, both when I serve it up to you, and when I save it to disk.  That’s about as good as it gets these days from a cloud security perspective…

Grazed from Business2Community.  Author: Ali Aldrich.

Small businesses are often aware of the advantages offered by cloud computing services, such as low upfront costs, flexible access to software and inexpensive data backup. Still, they may have questions about getting started. Common questions and concerns include how to choose the right cloud applications, how to use the applications and the security of their data when stored in the cloud, according to an article on the SmallBusiness.co.uk website.

The terminology of cloud computing is still evolving, as is often the case with new technology, and competing terms can create confusion among new users. For example, a business owner may be familiar with the idea of “online backup” (automatically backing up business data to secure servers via an Internet connection) but not realize that “cloud backup” is simply another name for the same process…

Grazed from CloudTimes.  Author: Saroj Kar.

Cloud computing is catching on in business, but not all alike, as recent reports say. For example, the firm RightScale that mediates between users and public cloud services announced the latest analysis on the issue and found that 75 percent of respondents are using the cloud to some extent.

Companies with more than 1000 employees seem to be a little further before small businesses when it comes to adopting cloud computing. About 77% of these large companies have adopted cloud against 73% for companies with fewer than 1,000 employees…

Grazed from PeakColo.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Although public cloud vendors first pioneered the infrastructure-as-a-service hosting model, the private enterprise IaaS cloud represents its future. Companies increasingly want to leverage the scalability and flexibility inherent in cloud environments without having to worry about the security and latency issues inherent in public hosted settings. As a result, businesses are more frequently adopting dedicated hosting environments for their IT infrastructure, Giridhar Lakkavalli, head of vmUnify solutions at Mindtree, wrote in a recent CRN UK guest post. 

Part of the issue was that public hosting environments became victims of their own popularity. Lakkavalli wrote that as more businesses opted to place their IT infrastructure in the cloud, the amount of space and speed available on a given server dwindled. Unless the public cloud provider was able to provision more processing power and dedicated servers to one client – which is never a given in shared settings – companies were not able to have the ideal hosted solution in place. As a result, a cloud service provider able to offer dedicated server space and connections became a far more attractive option to many organizations…

Grazed from Technorati.  Author: Adi Gaskell.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Microsoft announced the demise of webmail stalwart Hotmail.  The plan was to migrate users over to a new Outlook.com service.  Microsoft announced this week that the migration was completed yesterday and that 400 million people are now active users of the new service.  They went on to say that 150 petabytes of email data was migrated as part of the transition in the past six weeks alone.

The company also revealed that it will be adding a couple of new features to Outlook.com.  The first is called SMTP Send, which will make it easier to send mail from different email accounts.  The second is a much better and deeper integration with SkyDrive…