Grazed from IT Business Edge. Author: Carl Weinschenk.

At best, mobile technology provides a robust set of applications and network platforms that are the next best thing to being in the office. But, for some workers, the next best thing isn’t quite good enough. These workers need platforms that are equal to what they use in the office.

The industry is not quite there yet, but it is getting close. Yesterday, I blogged on Gartner’s perception that social media, cloud computing, the “ubiquity of information” and mobile technology is creating a new reality…

Grazed from BetaNews. Author: Ian Lewis.

It’s the Next Big Thing. Any vaguely IT-related person just has to say something like “computing is moving to the cloud” and everyone nods their heads wisely. And so it is with Office 2013. I’ve been using the Public preview of Office since it appeared two weeks ago, and I have to say I like it; and I also like the much more straightforward integration with Skydrive and Sharepoint. But there’s still no way I’m going to change my default habit of local saving and working to using the Cloud as my primary storage. And here’s why.

There are several aspects to this, and the first two are most revealing of the way in which people sitting in Redmond, Wash., Cupertino, Calif., or most other major corporations live in a different world from the rest of the population of this little blue planet of ours.

Top of the list are power — meaning electricity, availability, reliability and security. I live and work in a town about 40 miles from London — not exactly in the wildernesses of a developing country — but (for local reasons, and that’s exactly the point) we still experience a handful of power cuts every year. Some of them are only momentary, usually just long enough to restart any computers, but a few winters ago, we had one which lasted several days…

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Maureen O’Gara.

Windows 8 was released to manufacturing Wednesday morning, a hallelujah moment for Microsoft that nowadays means OEMs and manufacturing partners are getting the final code on which Microsoft’s future depends.

The new "re-imagined" operating system, with what Microsoft calls "thousands of new features," won’t get to the broad market on PCs and online for another three months, October 26 to be precise.

Developers with MSDN and TechNet subscriptions will get access to the code and the new Visual Studio on August 15 and companies with Software Assurance licenses will follow on August 16. Volume customers without the license will get it September 1…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

Virtual Internet, a leading managed web host since 1996, has launched a new product to assist with the management and utilisation of cloud computing.

The team at Virtual Internet have announced the new product called Virtual Datacentre [http://vdc.vi.net ], a simple control panel that allows users to launch multiple cloud servers automatically from 15 locations around the world within an instant and without having to deal with other suppliers.

Patrick McCarthy, Managing Director of Virtual Internet, has been very upbeat about launching the new datacentre: "We found that what our customers were really after was a control panel that not only let them manage their current servers, but also enabled them to launch a new VPS simply and quickly, without having to begin a new contract. So that’s what we’ve built!"…

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Maureen O’Gara.

AMD has poached the director of Apple’s mobile-focused Platform Architecture Group Jim Keller, credited with architecting several generations of the ARM-based chips found in the iPad, iPhone, iPod and Apple TV.

It will be Keller’s second go-round at AMD. He was there years ago working on the Athlon 64 and Opteron 64 processors that featured the world’s first native x86-64 bit architecture, a scheme Intel was forced to follow.

He also co-authored AMD’s HyperTransport specification and the x86-64 instruction set…

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Maureen O’Gara.

NetApp and flash storage start-up Fusion-io are going to create software-defined "solutions using server-side flash and caching software products when used in conjunction with the NetApp Virtual Storage Tier."

They are "collaborating on low-latency, high-performance solutions for compatibility between the Fusion ioMemory platform and NetApp’s Data ONTAP operating system, as well as key caching solutions, including NetApp Flash Cache, NetApp Flash Pool and Fusion-io caching software."…

Grazed from MarketWatch. Author: PR Announcement.

Cloud computing promises low cost of entry and fast return on investment, but that ROI can fall short of expectations if hidden costs are left out of the equation. A new white paper from global IT association ISACA, "Calculating Cloud ROI: From the Customer Perspective," shows the true costs of cloud migration and offers a practical framework for calculating ROI.

The free paper outlines five hidden costs that enterprises may not anticipate when moving to cloud-based services:

— Bringing services back in-house due to stricter data privacy laws

— Implementing measures to mitigate risk…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Nathan Eddy.

The biggest concerns of IT decision makers dealing with public clouds are the loss of corporate data and control of data, a reflection of the known threats and risks of data leakage into the public cloud, according to a survey of more than 150 chief information officers (CIOs) conducted by storage services specialist Mezeo Software.

Results suggest the worry factor over data leakage onto the public cloud was high, with more than 80 percent of respondents rating their concern as an eight or higher on a scale of one to 10, with 10 representing the most worried. Compliance and data availability were also highlighted as concerns, but were considered less worrying than data leakage. For the most part, survey respondents were not as concerned about data theft. However, no one believed their organization was exempt from data leakage to public clouds…

Grazed from ComputerWeekly. Author: Vishy Narayan.

"Over recent years, cloud computing has taken the IT industry by storm, with businesses swept along by the promise of a flexible, scalable, secure storage environment. However, as the cloud frenzy settles, IT teams are being brought back down to earth with the realisation that a speedy implementation isn’t enough. What they really need for the long-term success of their cloud projects is to establish the same governance and management processes that currently apply to their traditional IT systems. And, this is where the industry has come against a big stumbling block, as currently businesses simply don’t have the tools or systems in place to facilitate this.

As a result, there is a real danger that the investment that has already gone into these cloud projects will go to waste, or even worse, that businesses could be putting themselves at risk, for example if an incomplete view of an enterprise’s cloud network means they fail to comply with a key regulation. While every business wants to choose and maintain the best cloud infrastructure possible, and for the lowest cost possible, the truth is that they simply lack the time and resource to do this without help…

Grazed from IT Evolutionary Transition. Author: Tim Crawford.

Cloud computing has turned the technology world on it’s head. Some argue this is a bad thing. However, I believe it is a great thing and something we need. For some time, businesses have requested more and more from IT organizations. Several years back, cloud computing came about and provided a significant opportunity for IT organizations and the businesses they serve. However, cloud is not just a change in technology.

New Paradigm

With significant changes in innovation come changes in the way we think. Cloud is no exception. It presents a new way for delivery of services. For IT organizations, this means changing who delivers the services. It means thinking differently about how services are delivered and how relationships are maintained. Further, the fundamental nature of the relationship has changed too from transactional to value. Even within the technology realm, the focus moves from operational to integration. There are many more changes that must be considered when introducing cloud-based solutions…