Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Sourya Biswas.

For several years now, a Microsoft certification has opened doors to IT employment throughout the world. Whatever be the platform or application, a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) has found life easier on the job market. Almost every year we hear about a new contender to the title of youngest MCP, with the recent death of Pakistani prodigy Arfa Karim grabbing international headlines.

Now that cloud computing is set to rule the IT landscape and create millions of jobs worldwide (See: Cloud Hiring Reaches New Heights  and Cloud Computing to Fuel Job Creation in High Tech Industries, says London School of Economics), it isn’t a surprise that Microsoft has decided to revamp its certification program to address these developments…

Grazed from eReleases.  Author: PR Announcement.

Cloud computing is the IT trend du jour, and the term has spawned a variety of definitions and promises from different “experts.” With its new version of the semYOU Cloud Office (www.semyou.com), scheduled to be launched in late May, app computing system semYOU is taking users beyond the hype by offering businesses a comprehensive, flexible cloud-based enterprise office system based on software-as-a-service.

Now businesses that need software for human resources, project, task, scheduling management and more can gain access to required applications by simply pointing and clicking. The new semYOU Cloud Office is a complete software infrastructure for small or large companies that want to be flexible, are working globally and collaborate with different partners worldwide…

Grazed from IT News Online.  Author: PR Announcement.

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, will outline the next stage of its Helix Nebula European cloud computing project at the Cloud Computing World Forum (www.cloudwf.com) on 12 and 13 June, with the aim of increasing participation in the scheme.

The Helix Nebula ‘Science Cloud’, was launched earlier this year to explore the use of commercial cloud computing services within European science organisations.

A number of cloud industry leaders are already involved in the project including HP, Intel, Oracle and Siemens. However, CERN is now looking for wider participation across the IT industry, in a bid to develop innovative solutions to be used by the global community working on the vast amounts of data created by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Gery Menegaz.

How do you know if cloud computing makes sense for your organization? And if it makes sense for your organization what sort of services should you buy into? Even though cloud computing is everywhere, is being offered by all the major technology players, and all agree you need it, definitions vary.

Cloud Computing refers to the delivery of infrastructure components and services. Its name is derived from architecture diagrams where a cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet. A cloud is used to abstract and represent the complex infrastructure environment.

The components that are housed in the cloud on the diagram are client devices, servers and data centers. Client devices include mobile devices, think and thick computers. While the data center in the cloud are defined as servers or collections of servers, for small organizations the cloud may represent a portion of a server. Being able to provide a portion of a server, or storage space, called ‘capacity on demand’ is one of the hallmarks of cloud computing…

Grazed from ITWeb.  Author: Nadine Arendse.

A global study by Microsoft shows that Malaysian and global small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are realising business and security benefits by adopting cloud services, CIO Asia reports.

Speaking in Kuala Lumpur on 22 May, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing GM Adrienne Hall said the new study in five geographies showed that SMEs are realising IT security, efficiency and cost-saving benefits from using cloud services…

Grazed from PC Quest.  Author: Anil Chopra.

This time, cloud computing formed the third highest project type in the Best IT Implementation Awards for companies with <1000 employees (first two being business process mgmt/automation solutions and business apps (ERP, CRM, SCM, etc). Since IT penetration amongst Indian SMEs is still fairly low, these two project types are likely to remain there for a very long time. But with growing cloud adoption, it’s important to understand why SMEs should consider it. Here are five reasons to do so, in no particular order of priority.

1. Anytime, anywhere access from any device: A cloud based solution is accessible from anywhere and nowadays, from any device. This can be a boon for your sales team, as they get flexibility to work from anywhere, and don’t necessarily have to come back to office to lodge their daily calls. In one of the IT projects we received, the company took back laptops from its sales force, and gave them smartphones loaded with an order processing app, which was linked to a cloud based application for real-time data processing…

Grazed from PRWeb.  Author: PR Announcement.

Kognitio, driving the convergence of Big Data and Cloud Computing through in-memory analytics, and Advanced Visual Systems (OTCPK: AVSC), the developer of innovative data visualization software that presents diverse forms of data as innovative and easily understandable graphic representations, today announced a strategic partnership to deliver superior insight to corporate and OEM end-users delving into advanced business intelligence, predictive analytics and next-generation decision support systems.

The two companies will focus the new partnership on vertical industries such as advertising, consumer behavior and social media. Kognitio’s in-memory analytical platform will be paired with AVS’ advanced data visualization application programming interface (API), allowing clients to exploit extremely complex data and visualize the results in ways that reveal previously undetectable patterns, trends and anomalies…

Grazed from Cloud Ventures.  Author: Editorial Staff.

A popular application that you can source from your Cloud provider is Microsoft Sharepoint, which you can also of course obtain from Office 365.

The key way to approach these tools is with ‘Social Computing’ in mind, simply meaning the use of social media web sites, like those of Facebook or Linkedin, for your own corporate purposes.

These are faster and more popular than any other IT tool and so can greatly improve internal staff collaboration and productivity, that overall can be described as ‘Agile Cloud Working‘ best practices…