Grazed from eWeek. Author: Robert J. Mullins.

Windows Server 2012 Day is finally here, as Microsoft officially launches the server operating system that’s been in development for four years and is geared to serve the current needs of IT for secure but reliable access by workers to corporate data and applications regardless of their location and type of device they are using.

Microsoft experts from the Server and Tools businesses delivered a live streaming presentation Sept. 4, doing a deep dive on Windows Server 2012 features in the data center, in the development and deployment of applications and in the delivery of what the company calls “people-centric IT.”…

Grazed from PR NewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, announced today it plans to withdraw its applications to trademark the term "social enterprise."

For nearly two years, salesforce.com has evangelized the term "social enterprise" to describe how social and mobile cloud technologies empower companies to connect with customers, partners, and employees in entirely new ways. When salesforce.com applied to trademark the term in the IT sector earlier this year, members of the social sector expressed concern that it would cause confusion around the meaning of the term. The social sector, including both non-profits and for profits, define the term "social enterprise" as organizations that apply commercial strategies to improve human and environmental well-being such as reducing poverty or improving education…

Grazed from CRN. Author: Jack McCarthy.

With the channel buffeted by changes brought about by cloud computing, partners often look to vendors for support as they try to transform their business. In turn, vendors need to respond by placing more emphasis on programs that can help partners and win their loyalty, according to a report from analyst firm Forrester.

"Cultivating partner loyalty today is a complex, multifaceted endeavor, one that warrants a new vision incorporating new approaches to partner enablement," says the report, titled "Reinforcing Channel Partner Bonds In the Era of The Cloud," by analyst Tim Harmon…

Grazed from Smart Data Collective. Author: Paul Barsch.

As more companies turn to cloud computing, social media and online selling platforms to avoid spending budgets on infrastructure, it is also likely that they are sharing a key business enabler—behavioral data. So what happens when your cloud-based provider shifts from providing infrastructure or a platform for your business to actually competing with you?

Online business Zynga understands while they develop games such as Farmville, Mafia Wars and others that run on Facebook’s platform, it’s also not far-fetched that Facebook could get into the profitable business of gaming. In fact, Zynga is turning away (though not completely) from Facebook to also support games for Google plus and other social/mobile platforms…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

On Tuesday, Netflix put source code for its Eureka mid-tier load balancing technology onto Github so that other Amazon Web Services users can tweak it for their own use. This isn’t the first time Netflix has filled voids in the AWS stack.

Pretty soon we’re going to need a score card to track the increasingly complex Amazon-Netflix relationship. As Amazon dives deeper into streamed video on its own, Netflix, which runs its video streaming business on Amazon Web Services, is getting more proficient at plugging gaps in Amazon’s cloud platform…

Grazed from CircleID. Author: Paul Budde.

There have been some interesting developments in cloud computing over the last year.

For over five years our position has been that we acknowledge the enormous economic advantages that cloud computing has to offer, but at the same time recognise that the risk of losing control over data and IT systems is, at this stage, too great for most companies and governments to start utilising the cloud advantages in a serious way.

Traditionally cloud computing has been more successful in the consumer market — companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and many others have basically moved all of their IT activities into the internet cloud. The economic advantages are very clear as most of these services are free for the users; obviously they would not have been developed if they involved the use of the expensive traditional IT structures. ‘Free’ is a magic password for the consumer market and literally billions of people are using these companies via cloud-based services…

Grazed from Secure Business Insight. Author: David Grimes.

The easiest way in IT to stop a new technology or solution from being implemented is to play the security card.

As soon as someone mentions concerns around a new IT solution not being ‘secure’, the project will immediately come to a halt. Since cloud infrastructure and cloud computing first entered conversations within the enterprise sector, concerns about the security of cloud quickly became the biggest barrier to adoption.

As with security for any other technology solution– past, present or future – creating a security strategy and plan must be one of the first considerations for enterprise organisations. While choosing a service provider that can enforce strong security procedures and measures in the cloud is an important step, enterprises need to continue to take an active role in their own security and risk management…

Grazed from PR NewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Adaptivity, a leading provider of Software Accelerating IT Transformation, announced today the release of its Blueprint4Cloud™ platform, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application that assists users in making the right cloud computing planning and design decisions. This new platform will allow customers considering cloud services to rapidly quantify the demands of their business applications and select the right cloud infrastructure solutions to support them.

"Today is a major milestone for Adaptivity" said Matt Barrington, President and COO of Adaptivity. "Our methodologies and software platforms have been providing immense value to our large enterprise partners and clients for years. With today’s launch of our Blueprint4Cloud platform we are now able to deliver our fact-based cloud decisoning analytic capabilities to a much broader audience at a very affordable price point. This software will allow companies of any size to successfully plan their transition to the cloud."…

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: Chrissie Klinger.

A lot of businesses are using cloud services in an effort to save money. Some businesses, though, are starting to realize how much money cloud computing could cost them if the government started taxing everything they were doing in the cloud. WBUR reported that Massachusetts’ top tax official, Amy Pitter, stated the ‘cloud’ is an "evolving area of the law." A recent public letter signed by Pitter described the state’s policies on which cloud services are taxable and which are not. Fortunately for businesses, storing data in the cloud on services like iCloud and Google Docs, is currently not considered taxable in Massachusetts, but what about other states?

Last year at this time only a handful of states were even looking at taxing any cloud related product or service, now more than half of the 50 U.S. states are exploring how to tax cloud services, including SaaS. At this time, the U.S. government expects cloud services to fall under current tax laws, allowing each state to determine tax implications and guidelines. Unfortunately, as states start to develop guidelines they are beginning to realize this might lead to new federal laws and regulations due to the complexity of cloud computing…