Grazed from WashingtonPost. Author: Editorial Staff.

Art Liscano knows he’s an endangered species in the job market: He’s a meter reader in Fresno, Calif. For 26 years, he’s driven from house to house, checking how much electricity Pacific Gas & Electric customers have used. But PG&E doesn’t need many people like Liscano making rounds anymore. Every day, the utility replaces 1,200 old-fashioned meters with digital versions that can collect information without human help, generate more accurate power bills, even send an alert if the power goes out.

“I can see why technology is taking over,” says Liscano, 66, who earns $67,000 a year. “We can see the writing on the wall.” His department employed 50 full-time meter readers just six years ago. Now, it has six…

Grazed from IOL. Author: Rob Hastings.

All personal information stored by British internet users on major “cloud” computing services including Google Drive can be spied upon routinely without their knowledge by US authorities under newly-approved legislation, it can be disclosed. Cloud computing has exploded in recent years as a flexible, cheap way for individuals, companies and government bodies to remotely store documents and data. According to some estimates, 35 per cent of UK firms use some sort of cloud system – with Google Drive, Apple iCloud and Amazon Cloud Drive the major players.

But it has now emerged that all documents uploaded on to cloud systems based in the US or falling under Washington’s jurisdiction can be accessed and analysed without a warrant by American security agencies…

Grazed from GovTech. Author: Editorial Staff.

Government agencies are often slowed down by the bureaucracy, creating challenges for pushing forward new ideas that could improve IT operations. In a keynote speech presented at Defining the Cloud for Government, a conference held Wednesday, Jan. 30, in Sacramento, Calif., Brian David Johnson (pictured above), Intel’s futurist and director of future casting and experience research, said it’s crucial for government agencies to think well into the future when planning technology implementations. According to Johnson, cloud computing and big data will figure prominently into that future.

During opening remarks, Carlos Ramos, secretary of the California Technology Agency, said the agency plans to move some applications into a private cloud because he believes cloud computing is the future. He added that government is so reliant on technology that policies and programs “don’t have a prayer” without the use of the cloud. But how can governments look a decade or more into the future?…

Grazed from ComputerWeekly. Author: Archana Venkatraman.

Capacity management is the most underestimated problem of cloud computing, says Morgan Stanley executive director for IT strategy Evangelos Kotsovinos. Evangelos Kotsovinos is leading cloud computing strategy and execution at Morgan Stanley. “One of the main reasons for using cloud computing services is to get efficiency and cost savings. And maximum IT efficiency on the cloud comes from good capacity planning and management,” Kotsovinos said at the Cloud Expo Europe 2013 event. But it is still the most overlooked and underestimated aspect of the cloud, he said.

Many enterprises move to cloud computing without a detailed capacity management strategy because cloud platform is seen as infinitely elastic, where capacity can be purchased as and when needed. But buying resources on the cloud instantly can be expensive and enterprises can mitigate that cost by planning for capacity in advance and avoiding over- or under-provisioning, according to Kotsovinos…

Grazed from MyHostNews. Author: PR Announcement.

A media representative for ToggleBox.com, a cloud hosting services provider, today announced the company won the ‘Cloud Computing’ Editors’ Choice Award for January 2013. To celebrate winning the award, the company’s executive leadership team is currently running a $100,000 giveaway special available to a limited number of new customers. The ‘Cloud Computing’ Editors’ Choice Award was issued by FindMyHost.com which is an industry leading online magazine. FindMyHost.com publishes hosting industry news and maintains a staff that writes reviews of hosting companies throughout the world. Mr. Richard Guzzo, a vice president at FindMyHost.com said, “We’re all very familiar with ToggleBox so we weren’t surprised when it was nominated. They have a great admin team and a superior customer service department.”

“I’ve been using Togglebox for several years and I wouldn’t dare switch to another hosting company. I once had to forget about a website and I’ve had too many bad experiences with other hosts. So far Togglebox is doing pretty good and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”…

Grazed from TechZone360. Author: Peter Bernstein.

One of the real values of coming to TMC’s ITEXPO Miami is capturing the insights of industry experts and visionaries in real-time. The truth is you never know when someone or several of them are going to capture the essence of what is going on in our industry, and do so in a way that really get the juices flowing and social media humming. Such was the case for the featured panel of Day One’s afternoon session, Battle for the Cloud: The Future of Cloud Computing. Let’s start with a rare gathering on one stage of the following:

• Lisa Pierce, Managing VP, Unified Communications, Network Systems and Services Research Team
• IBM, Mike McCarthy, Vice President of Cloud Computing Services
• Citrix, Peter Ulander, VP Product Marketing
• Microsoft,Skip Chilcott, Senior Product Marketing Manager
• HP, Kiran Bellare, Director Product Marketing Cloud Services
• Cisco, Roberto D. De La Mora, Sr. Director Unified Communications…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research "Cloud Computing Market In Healthcare Industry (IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, CIS, NCIS, PACS, EMR, RIS) – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2012 – 2018," the global cloud computing market in the healthcare industry was valued at USD 1.82 billion in 2011 and is expected to reach USD 6.79 billion by 2018, growing at a CAGR of 21.3% from 2012 to 2018.

This report provides the market estimate and forecast in terms of revenue for the global cloud computing market in healthcare industry. A detailed analysis of the market trends, current scenarios and future trends from 2012 to 2018 is available in the report. The market is analyzed by using concepts such as market dynamics including drivers, restraints and opportunities along with their impact analysis and market attractiveness analysis…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

Centrify has released the 2013 version of its Centrify Suite security and compliance solution. Centrify Suite 2013 has been outfitted with new features around advanced privilege user management and auditing for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows systems, designed to help organizations more quickly meet compliance requirements and mitigate risks from threats affecting both their on-premise and cloud-based systems.

According to Centrify, these latest additions to the security and compliance product will help businesses reduce their operating costs across all of their systems and platforms. Achieving security best practices is no easy task, and businesses continue to struggle with keeping the bad guys out while allowing their trusted users in. Although point solutions exist for privilege management for Windows, UNIX and Linux, Centrify claims its updated product is the first to provide privilege management across all platforms…

Grazed from IBTimes. Author: David Gilbert.

Businesses are completely ignoring a growing problem facing their organisations as cyber criminals look to target increased security flaws as operations move to the cloud. Cloud computing was one of the buzzwords of 2012, gaining widespread adoption among individuals, SMEs and major corporations all around the world. It is going to make our lives easier while saving us millions of pounds at the same time.

However, one issue which is being ignored by the vast majority of organisation is security, with a Pricewaterhouse Coopers survey from last year showing that more than three quarters of respondents across a range of companies believed cloud computing did not increase their security risk. A belief shattered by a report published this week by security firm Imperva which highlights just how easy it is for even one of the world’s largest online companies to be hacked and have sensitive consumer data stolen…

Grazed from The Guardian. Author: Chris Harding.

The latest market forecasts for cloud computing are predicting 30% annual growth in the industry, as more and more people adopt the latest technology to store information in a virtual space. But cloud computing isn’t just for data, you can also use it to run applications and software remotely, without being tied to one computer.

For a small businesses, outsourcing IT to the cloud lowers the need for specialist skills and frees managers to concentrate on the core business. It may cost slightly more than in-house IT, but this is often outweighed, as it can sometimes enable a small company to take a "big company" approach to problems by increasing efficiency…