Grazed from CNet.   Author:   Jason Parker and Jaymar Cabebe.

While software may not be the glitziest of categories on display at CES, there’s still plenty to be excited about as we prep for the 2012 event. From artificial intelligence to home integration, apps are definitely on the rise. Also, expect the cloud and health care to emerge as topics yet again.

Forecast: Cloudy
Though this was on many prediction lists last year, we expect cloud computing to really hit its stride beginning with announcements at 2012’s Consumer Electronics Show. Now that Apple’s iCloud and other services have found creative (and successful) ways to store data in the cloud, expect to see more companies getting in on the action. As more data gets spread out to all your devices, the industry moves ever closer to the long-predicted marriage of television and Internet. Having every type of content on demand is even closer than you might think…

 

Grazed from NextGov.  Author: Bob Brewin.

Congress has thrown a roadblock into the Defense Department’s plans to consolidate many of its data centers into facilities operated by the Defense Information Systems Agency or the military services.

In the fiscal 2012 Defense Authorization Act passed last week, lawmakers directed Defense Chief Information Officer Teri Takai to develop a plan to use commercial cloud computing services instead of DISA’s. Language tucked into the military construction section of the act asked Takai to submit a plan by April 1, 2012, for "migration of Defense data and government-provided services from department owned and operated data centers to cloud computing services generally available within the private sector."

The Pentagon in November announced it had adopted a "DISA first" strategy for data center consolidation, which it expects to generate $680 million a year in savings starting in 2015. Defense shuttered 55 data centers at the end of September — three more than planned — and the Army expects to close 185 data centers by 2014…

Grazed from National Mortgage Professional Magazine.  Author:  Editorial Staff.

Automated underwriting and loan pricing technology provider PriceMyLoan has released LendingQB, a 100 percent Web-based mortgage lending platform. "With LendingQB, we believe we are doing more than just providing a ‘cloud computing’ loan origination system,” said Binh Dang, LendingQB’s managing partner."We believe we are fundamentally changing the way that lenders use technology."

Since 2004, PriceMyLoan has been providing lenders with advanced technology to automate the underwriting and pricing of their loans. Over the past seven years, PriceMyLoan has had the unique opportunity to work closely with their clients and carefully observe their utilization of technology…

Grazed from CenterBeam.  Author:  Editorial Staff.

With the rise of what PCWorld calls "the app internet," companies using cloud computing will have to cater to personal smartphone and tablet users more than ever before in 2012. As reported by PCWorld, Forrester said that this app internet is ushering in a new generation of computing technology.

"Forrester calls out what we’ve been observing for some time in the mobile computing category," according to ReadWriteWeb. "The first trend here is that enterprise mobile platform strategy is going to change due to personal device momentum. In short, users will increasingly be bringing their own phones and expecting to use them. Forrester notes, correctly, that this will continue to be a problem for asset management and security."…

Grazed from BrainYard.  Author: David F. Carr.

Seeking to strengthen its cloud computing and enterprise social networking products, Telligent acquired Leverage Software in a transaction that closed Monday.

Dallas-based Telligent and Leverage Software of San Francisco are both private companies competing in the social software marketing with Jive Software, which just went public, as well as larger companies like IBM. Earlier this year, Forrester Research ranked Telligent’s enterprise social networking software among the top four platforms for social collaboration, competitive with Jive, IBM, and NewsGator. Telligent is best known for its software for hosting Web communities, which is where its business started.

Telligent CEO Patrick Brandt said Leverage Software’s strength is in enterprise social networking delivered as software as a service (SaaS)–something closer to the service offered by Yammer. Leverage also brings a strong customer base, including companies like Wells Fargo, Stanford University, and Home Depot, he said…

Grazed from Windows IT Pro.  Author:  Michael Otey.

Grazed from Channel Economics.  Author: Larry Walsh.

The Los Angeles cloud adoption of Google Apps was intended to clear the way for more efficient and cost-effective use of technology. Instead, it’s turned into a smog bank and now serves as a lesson for how security and compliance issues could hinder the adoption of services provided by Google, Microsoft and other cloud providers.

Beginning in 2009, Los Angeles intended to improve collaboration and reduce communication costs for its 30,000 municipal employees by replacing its legacy Novel GroupWise email system with Google Apps. Google reseller partner Computer Science Corp. (CSC) led the deal, which was heralded as the model for government cloud adoption to come.

Novel didn’t take the lost account lying down and sued. That’s when the real problems came out. The lawsuit had a minimal impact, but it did force all sides to review security and compliance requirements. As it turns out, Google Apps does not comply with the FBI’s security requirements for connecting to the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), a clearinghouse of law enforcement data administered by the Department of Justice…

Grazed from CodeStone.  Author: Victoria Browne.

Firms will increasingly use cloud computing solutions via their mobile devices over the coming years, it has been predicted.  Independent information provider Visiongain believes some $45 billion (£29 million) will be generated in revenue by mobile cloud computing products by 2016.

It suggested the market is now starting to evolve and is due to undergo a "rapid growth stage" shortly…

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

Expecting high growth, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), the investment fund he largely owns, have put $300 million in Twitter.

A canny investor, the insanely rich prince, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, bought into Apple when it was down on its luck and the newly returned Steve Jobs was borrowing money from Microsoft to keep the lights on. He also bought into Citigroup, when the bank needed it, on a cold call from the Carlyle Group and owns a piece of General Motors.

The announcement Monday said the investment in Twitter was the "result of several months of negotiations and comprehensive due diligence." Described as a "strategic stake," it is thought to amount to 3.6% of the company based on an assumed valuation of $8.4 billion, but nobody knows…

Grazed from New York Times.  Author: Quentin Hardy.

The hard-nosed competition for billions in corporate software spending is heading for an improbable showdown: Will the boss “like” that product prototyping cost projection?

Last week Salesforce.com, a leader in cloud-based corporate software, bought Rypple, a little-known outfit that specializes in creating and observing what is called “the social enterprise” — which uses things like Twitter posts, status badges and Facebook-esque likes to set goals, manage teams and recognize performance.

Rypple is at the far end of a movement to sell companies on the idea that the modern worker, armed with a cellphone and a tablet computer, having access to a nearly infinite amount of computing power in the cloud at all times, is a new kind of beast. Just as our social lives have changed because of Twitter and Facebook, the argument runs, so too must our working lives change…