Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Mark Eisenberg.

The Gartner Hype Cycle is a powerful tool for understanding where new technologies are with regard to their acceptance in the mainstream. And Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing, 2012 report raises some interesting — and often confusing — points for cloud computing adoption.

There is a big difference between the description of phases of the cycle on the curve, such as "Trough of Disillusionment," and the report’s table of contents, which labels sections by describing the transition between phases. The curve shows Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) on the upslope of the trough, yet Gartner places it in a section titled "Sliding in to the Trough." This creates two very different perceptions…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Euan Harris.

I watched with interest recently an interview with NetSuite CEO, Zach Nelson on Bloomberg TV. During the interview Nelson stated his belief that retail wasn’t dead and that Apple had shown the way to all retailers with regards customer experience. Nelson also stated that in his mind, retail would be the next industry to be “disrupted by the cloud”. In this blog I will examine some of the reasons why retailers might look to the cloud for business management systems that help to grow their business.

Customer Experience

Retailers are faced with a battle on two fronts, being squeezed by the need to cut costs at the same time as customers are demanding an increasingly better experience. They expect an ‘omnichannel’ shopping experience where they can interact with a brand through any channel and receive a consistent experience across the board. They want to be able to shop anywhere, on any device and be able to receive merchandise anywhere, hence the rise of offerings such as ‘click and collect’…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

It’s become a truism to say that data is the new gold –but that doesn’t mean there are easy answers about where to store this gold. For now, many corporate customers will hold back on full cloud computing adoption until they’re convinced that they can move their data off a given cloud as easily as they put it there in the first place. Face it: fear of vendor lock-in is not limited to the on-premises IT world and it’s time enlightened vendors get this problem in hand.

The advent of cloud computing should make it easy to mix and match services from multiple vendors within a cloud and to let data flow in and out of parts of the clouds as needed. But that’s not necessarily the reality now…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Juan Carlos Perez.

Microsoft will upgrade on Wednesday its existing Office 365 cloud email and collaboration suites for businesses, as well as introduce new bundles, growing even more the list of Office 365 editions, which some analysts and users had already termed somewhat confusing.

The components of the Office 365 suites for businesses, like the Web-hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint and Lync, are getting upgraded to the latest 2013 code base of the products. In addition, Microsoft is introducing three new configurations of the suite. Office 365 ProPlus, which had been previously announced, includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, InfoPath, Access and Lync. Customers can download it from Microsoft data centers and install it on up to 5 Windows PCs or Macs. It costs $144 per user, per year if bought as a standalone suite…

Grazed from WSJ. Author: Steve Rosenbush.

Good morning. For many CIOs, the main decision about moving at least some of their IT infrastructure to the cloud is no longer if, but how. We’re not talking about simply moving noncore business apps like email to the cloud. We’re talking about moving computing power and storage to the cloud. It may seem like the products in this quickly growing market are all the same, but they aren’t. That’s what CIO Journal’s Tom Loftus learned when he called three vendors–Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc.–and asked them to explain what they have to offer customers in the way of infrastructure and platform services.

Loftus’s main conclusion: “Amazon and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft provide customers with certain amenities that Google’s new offering, at the moment, does not.” Don’t miss his report–including the survey that clarifies how these three companies structure agreements with customers…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Abdul Salam.

I have talked about security in cloud computing many times before, explaining why it is just as safe as conventional networking security, even citing its benefits over the conventional. However, there are many who still find cloud computing security lacking.

Individuals which still worry about cloud security, are those that fall under the financial institution category like banks, brokers, lenders and the like. They do not trust third party cloud computing providers and vendors, at least not with their most sensitive information and data. They might use cloud computing for some things like websites and applications that they think they can risk security with, but they would never consider parting with direct access of their financial and other similar data. The biggest reason behind this is simpler than most would imagine as it has something to do with numbers and probability, thought they probably would not admit it is something as basic as that and would rather cite some technical issue like migration and data integrity…

Grazed from USAToday. Author: Edward C Baig.

Here’s what you thought you knew about Google’s Chromebook laptops: They’re designed for Internet computing and are known for plain designs and bargain-basement prices. The former is still true. You’re supposed to be connected to the Internet when using a Chromebook, at least a good chunk of the time. But the latter is now only partially the case. You can still purchase an Acer Chromebook in the Google Play store for a mere $199, or spend $50 more for a Samsung model.

But the new Chromebook Pixel laptop that began shipping this week is not only beautiful, it fetches $1,299 for a Wi-Fi-only model. The Pixel that I tested is even pricier, a $1,449 model that complements Wi-Fi with fast LTE cellular service from Verizon Wireless. It ships in April…