January 21, 2011 Off

Data management ‘can make moves to new legislation simple’

By David
Grazed from Experian QAS.  Author: James Glass.

Companies in New Zealand may have found it difficult to implement the changes in tax legislation that were introduced in October last year, so one publication has suggested outsourced data management could help smooth the transition.

NZ Business magazine has considered the options for organisations struggling with vast amounts of payroll data and has stated that software updates and new resources could be the answer.

January 21, 2011 Off

Phasing applications into the public cloud

By David
Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Gregory Machler.

Where does a 500-million-dollar, mid-sized company go to implement cloud computing? Where should they begin? How should a company phase its deployment in order to reduce risks?

January 21, 2011 Off

GoGrid rolls out private cloud service

By David
Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Nancy Gohring.

GoGrid has rolled out a hosted private cloud offering, designed to offer customers the benefits of the public cloud on dedicated hardware.

The company joins other vendors, including Unisys, in offering hosted private clouds, a relatively new label that some observers are skeptical of.

January 20, 2011 Off

Risk Assessments Can Help Allay Cloud Concerns

By David
Grazed from IT Business Edges.  Author: Ann All.

Several months ago I wrote a post in which I opined that good IT service management practices could help companies ease their transitions from on-premise to cloud computing. In particular, establishing a service catalog, one of the foundational recommendations of ITSM, should make it easier to determine which internal services are good candidates for migration to the cloud and help ensure a smooth transition for those that are selected, I wrote.

 

January 20, 2011 Off

Mobile cloud services to emerge in 2011

By David
Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Kevin Kwang.

According to Nitin Bhat, partner at research house Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific, the world is becoming more Web-connected than ever before, and will drive the number of connected devices sold globally from 6 billion in 2011 to 80 billion in 2020. Connected devices include smartphones, tablets, televisions and smart grids, Bhat said during a media briefing here Thursday to reveal the research firm’s 2011 ICT predictions.

January 20, 2011 Off

Cloud Application provider Zoho adds accounting to cloud suite

By David
Grazed from IT Wire.  Author: Stephen Withers.

Zoho Books includes the usual features such as invoicing, reminders, payment gateways (including PayPal, Google Checkout, and Authorize.net), expenses, cheque and credit card accounts, and reporting.

Less common features include multi-currency capabilities, real-time collaboration (two users are included in the $US24/month subscription; additional users cost $US5/month).

January 20, 2011 Off

Cloud computing switch ‘needs proper planning’

By David
Grazed from Experian QAS.  Author: Neil Hill.

Businesses that are planning to make use of cloud computing applications should make sure they have the right structures in place for such changes to be carried out in a successful manner.

James Hall, marketing director at infrastructure optimisation company Teneo, told the Channel Web site that organisations need the correct strategies when moving to the cloud.

"Enterprises that transfer some of their IT infrastructure on to the cloud without proper planning will find they have merely spread their IT problems beyond their own office walls," he said.

January 19, 2011 Off

Government IT to the cloud: private-sector lessons

By David
Grazed from Government Computer News.  Author: Glenn Weinstein.

With his “25-Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management,” in December 2010, federal CIO Vivek Kundra sent shock waves through the IT world by announcing a “cloud-first” policy for the federal government.

Writing in clear, non-bureaucratic prose, Kundra showed that a new era is dawning in federal government IT.