Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Joe Panettieri.

AVG CloudCare, an antivirus and security management console for SMBs, continues to expand its portfolio of services for VARs and MSPs. The latest offering features a commercial edition of AVG Remote IT and AVG Email Security Services. AVG CloudCare is the free cloud-based administration platform with "pay-as-you-go" services for channel partners and their end customers. More than 1,000 partners use the platform, which launched in October 2012.

In some ways, the AVG strategy resembles that of GFI Software, which develops the GFI Max cloud portfolio for MSPs. Admittedly, the market for cloud-based security services is saturated with rival offerings. But AVG has been busy extending and expanding its own suite of cloud services for partners. The AVG suite now supports:…

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Lyndsey Nelson.

It’s not just about cutting costs, cloud computing can also help your employee’s productivity and collaboration levels, even if they’re in pajamas. Now I know we all heard about Marissa Mayer’s recent ban on Yahoo employees working from home, but she had the data to support her choice. Please don’t take my comment as accordance with her decision, I firmly believe providing employees the opportunity to work at home is an essential policy companies should have.

However, if you’re concerned about eventually experiencing Yahoo’s low productivity levels, don’t fret too much. If you invest in cloud computing platform for your business and equip your employees with the right applications, you will never encounter the mess Mayer had to clean up. So What Is Cloud Computing Collaboration? Before I launch into the benefits, some of the ways you can use cloud computing for collaboration identified by BizAnytime.com are:…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Joe Panettieri.

AppNeta, which offers a cloud-based IT performance management platform, has raised $16 million in Series C funding. The company’s core goal under CEO Jim Melvin: Empowering partners and customers to monitor end-user experience, network performance and application performance.

AppNeta’s revenues have grown 150 percent in the past year — though the company has not disclosed actual figures. AppNeta’s channel program now includes 400 partners that support cloud services for end-customers. The company claims its cloud platform supports:…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

Do you want to get more visibility into how your customers’ end-users are interacting with Salesforce Cloud? A new tool from Knoa Software might be able to help with that. The company launched Knoa Experience and Performance Management (EPM) for Salesforce Sales Cloud and Salesforce Services Cloud, bringing its network, hardware and infrastructure performance management product to the Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) realm.

According to Knoa, EPM provides "a clear view of how users actually interact with the Salesforce Cloud applications," which should provide some insight into how they’re using Salesforce and perhaps give IT administrators or channel partners some idea of how to fine-tune apps or tweak environments to improve performance and apps usage…

Grazed from Foreign Policy. Author: John Reed.

Web commerce giant Amazon is apparently building a cloud-computing network for the CIA. Trade publication Federal Computer Week has reported that the agency will pay the online retail pioneer up to $600 million to develop its own private cloud over the next decade.

This would make plenty of sense. Amazon is well-known for providing cloud-computing services to the private sector, and government agencies dealing with classified information are pushing to adopt cloud services as a way of consolidating thousands of network "enclaves" that are hard to defend. The Pentagon, for example, is building what it says will be a defendable, upgradable network, known as the Joint Information Environment…

Grazed from MarketResearch.com. Author: Editorial Staff.

MarketResearch.com announces publication of "Global Infrastructure: Cloud Computing Insights," a whitepaper that takes a dive deep inside the ever-changing world of the cloud computing industry. "Global Infrastructure: Cloud Computing Insights" is a unique addition to contemporary business How-To literature. In clear, engaging detail, it explores the breadth of capabilities inherent in cloud computing and how a company can integrate them into their business strategy and infrastructure.

With the increase in the number of SmartCloud solutions, the trend is moving toward pay-per-use content delivery. Companies are now in a better position for mining Big Data analytics from electronic devices. From cloud-gaming to mobile platforms, the landscape is wide open and full of growth potential. This whitepaper will provide perspective on the enormous growth potential made possible through cloud computing…

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Jeremy Geelan.

Saas, IaaS, PaaS. Cloud computing is growing at a breathtaking speed and is the fastest-growing means by which technology companies offer their products today. Regardless of the industry, cloud computing is revolutionizing the way companies manage their applications and data processing, while simultaneously being one of the least understood.

However, before companies go flying in the clouds, they need to be aware of the significant legal risks and implications associated with cloud computing. The upcoming session by Dan Pepper at 12th Cloud Expo | Cloud Expo New York [June 10-13, 2013], "Managing Legal Risks in Cloud Computing", will examine how cloud computing can be adopted and the dangers avoided on a practical level…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Mikael Ricknäs.

Microsoft has released a number of enhancements to Windows Azure that will make it easier to deploy and manage Hadoop clusters and integrate more mobile apps with the cloud platform. To simplify the roll out of big data applications, Microsoft is offering a public preview of the new HDInsight service for Windows Azure, according to Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president in Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business. HDInsight lets users deploy, manage and use Hadoop clusters running on Windows Azure, he saidin a blog post.

Users with a Windows Azure account can request access to the preview and once that has been granted create a cluster from within the Windows Azure Management Portal. A storage account is also required and in the current version of the preview it must reside in the East U.S. region, according to Guthrie. A new installation will take a few minutes to create and as part of the process users need to configure the necessary virtual machines that will make up their Hadoop cluster, Guthrie said…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Charles Babcock.

Cloud computing is barely old enough to separate out a few pioneers who have made outstanding contributions to it. InformationWeek made its first attempt to do so Nov. 26, 2012, pulling 10 names off a long list of potential cloud leaders and explaining why they made the select group. Now we’re calling out another group of people whose contributions have frequently matched those of the first 10, but who have tended to labor a step back from the limelight or sometimes even in the shadows.

They include an open-source programmer, an industry consultant, entrepreneurs, authors, public speakers and software strategists. For the most part they are individuals, but we wanted to start off by looking at a team of pioneers: the Rackspace OpenStack team. No single individual at Rackspace is responsible for the company deciding to launch the OpenStack open source project — several individuals played important roles…

Grazed from The Guardian. Author: Emily Wight.

Here on the Small Business Network a range of experts have been keen to point out the benefits of cloud computing to small business owners. For a start, our bloggers have written about the numerous benefits of this technology, such as how it allows staff to work remotely and more flexibly. Andrew Brewerton from EVault explained how the cloud allows users to back up and synchronise their data, ensuring whoever accesses it is viewing the most up-to-date information. Elance Europe’s Kjetil Olsen highlighted the range of web tools that help make paperless collaborative working the norm.

Chris Harding from The Open Group also explained how outsourcing IT to the cloud reduces the need for specialist skills and frees managers to concentrate on the core business. An increasing number of companies and individuals are taking note of these benefits. Cloud computing is on the rise, with estimates that the industry is headed for 30% annual growth worldwide. This is why we thought it would be useful to find out more about this trend in a live Q&A session. We have asked a panel of experts to join our discussion to offer their insight and opinions on what cloud computing can offer SME owners…