Grazed from PR NewsWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Fasthosts’ ‘Cloud Attitudes’ study, conducted by IDC, has found that 60 per cent of UK businesses still do not leverage any type of cloud-computing service and so miss out on benefits such as increased performance, scalability, and cost savings. Taking the example of storage, whilst a pleasing 82 per cent of firms recognise the need for data back-up off-site, only 16 per cent are using a flexible cloud-based storage option for this. Over two thirds (69 per cent) have no plans to explore cloud-computing in this way.

A key finding of the research is that a total of 1 in 5 companies suspect they will side-step cloud-computing all-together. The study suggests that performance, scalability and cost benefits are not widely known by UK business users. A key reason for reluctance to embrace new cloud computing technologies is a lack of staff expertise, with 1 in 4 firms admitting this is a primary concern for them…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Paula Rooney.

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Check Point(R) Software Technologies Ltd. /quotes/zigman/60511/quotes/nls/chkp CHKP -0.57% , the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, today announced its security gateways are now available to customers through Amazon Web Services, enabling organizations to extend their security to the cloud with a full range of protections, or Check Point software blades, such as Firewall, Intrusion Prevention, Application Control, URL Filtering and many more. With a few simple steps, customers can easily deploy a Check Point virtual appliance — a security gateway for virtual environments — in the Amazon Cloud to activate protections that prevent network attacks and data breaches, while enabling secure connectivity in dynamic cloud computing environments.

As the adoption of cloud computing brings enterprises many benefits, including business continuity, flexible computing power and cost savings, businesses are increasingly leveraging the cloud to spend less time managing IT resources, and more time focusing on core business objectives. To keep an organization’s infrastructure and business secure, organizations must enforce the appropriate levels of protection both on premise and in the cloud…
 

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcment.

Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, today announced that the Wyse Xenith zero client has been named a top technology product for K-12 educators by District Administration and eSchool News. For the second year in a row, a Wyse cloud client solution has been named to District Administration’s annual Top 100 Products feature. The December 2011 issue of District Administration highlighted the Wyse Xenith zero client built for Citrix HDX. The Wyse Xenith also received the same recognition in eSchool News Readers’ Choice awards appearing in the January 2012 edition.

As education budgets are dwindling and human resources are scarce, schools and universities all over the world are looking for better and more efficient ways to manage their computing resources and rid themselves of the security, sustainability and manageability problems of personal computers. Wyse’s complete line of cloud client and virtualization solutions have become the secret weapon in network administrators’ arsenal for creating a computing infrastructure with a lower total cost of ownership, improved reliability, simplified management, and enhanced security…

Grazed from CIOL.  Author: Milind Khirwadkar.

Cloud computing generally gets equated with IT infrastructure.  Today, it is considered to be ‘the new deployment model for software applications’ which offers benefits like pay-as-you-go, on demand usage and scalability.

How is the development community affected by the trend? Two key paradigms emerge and are impacting software makers. First, developing for the cloud, which is more about bringing cloud enabled applications to market. Second, developing in the cloud, this focuses on using the cloud for dev/test of applications. The article explains important touch points between cloud computing and software development and their implications under both paradigms…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Polkast, a revolutionary new service that lets users securely connect to their PC directly from their mobile devices, announced today it is transforming personal cloud computing with its new PC-to-PC Access feature. Polkast is filling an important gap in the market with this pioneering file virtualization system. Users can now easily connect multiple computers directly, providing complete access to all of their files, no matter where the files are stored. The PC-to-PC Access feature is part of the upcoming Pro Version, which is geared toward business users who want to connect multiple computers and create their own secure personal cloud.

The new PC-to-PC feature transcends typical cloud services and negates the need for online cloud sync and storage. It addresses any security concerns associated with storing data on a third party server, i.e. cloud storage provider. It also resolves any speed, compatibility or reliability issues commonly associated with cloud computing. It is the ideal solution for anyone who wants anytime access to their digital content while keeping their files within their own environment and control…

Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: David Linthicum.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in late October, would allow the Department of Justice and copyright holders to seek court orders to block payment processors and online advertising networks from doing business with foreign sites accused of infringing copyright.

If this thing passes, we could see court orders that bar search engines from linking to the allegedly infringing sites. Or most interesting, it would require domain name registrars to stop resolving queries that direct traffic to those sites — and even require Internet service providers to block subscriber access to sites accused of infringing.

As you may expect, nobody likes this act due to the potential for abuse. Indeed, in the last 30 days we’ve seen the Internet in an uproar. This includes a movement to boycott Go Daddy, which has now changed its tune on SOPA from supporting to not supporting…

Grazed from CloudPro.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Grazed from CompuTeach.  Author:  Derek Oldman.

New titles for IT jobs are emerging as more companies adopt cloud computing on a large scale, industry experts have claimed.

Al Delattre, global industry lead for technology at recruitment firm Korn/Ferry International, told Computerworld.com that firms are starting to hire professionals who can oversee a complete cloud strategy.

This has led to the creation of new job titles such as cloud transformation officer and director of cloud transformation…

Grazed from ExpertClick.  Author: Allen Falcon.

In response to the growing number of small and mid-size businesses frustrated with "Big Tech" solutions, Cumulus Global announced it is formally and actively supporting the Occupy Google Apps Movement. Small businesses throughout New England and across the United States are joining a new branch of the Occupy movement focused on protesting against "Big Tech". Big Tech vendors burden small and mid-size businesses with extra features and extra costs without delivering additional value. Occupy Google Apps encourages small and mid-size businesses to shed their "Big Tech" burden and move to Google Apps for Business and other cloud computing solutions.

"Small and mid-size businesses drive the economy and job creation, yet the big IT vendors treat small business like unwanted pets", notes Allen Falcon, CEO of Cumulus Global and support of the Occupy Google Apps movement. "These vendors punish SMBs with unnecessary complexity and costs." …