With its innovative solution, ownCloud is one of the leading providers of software for secure data exchange (Enterprise File Sync & Share) and is progressively gaining market share. Today, the company announces that in the first half of 2017 order intakes have seen a steep increase of more than 65% when compared to the previous year. In German-speaking countries, growth was even significantly higher with the growth rate at over 100%. In the first half of the year, more than 100 companies signed new, many multi-year, subscription contracts for the ownCloud solution. The company sees an increasing demand for secure private cloud solutions as the main driver for this growth.  The most prominent new customers are coming mostly from the technology and financial services sectors.

"This strong and stable growth shows that the developers of ownCloud continue to do an excellent job and that our focus on data sharing in the private cloud as a secure alternative to public cloud services meets market requirements. The secret to success lies in the combination of outstanding software and a qualified, professional service. This is also reflected in an outstanding renewal rate. Over 90% of our customers are renewing their contracts with us year over year," says Tobias Gerlinger, CEO of ownCloud. "We are very pleased that we are also seeing an increasing demand in the international markets, especially in the US. This will help us to accelerate our pace of growth in the upcoming months."

Grazed from InfoTech. Author: Robert Best.

Cloud computing has had an historically positive effect on business technology. Since it exploded onto the scene the business world has been captivated by the Cloud. 63% of UK businesses are planning to move their entire IT estate to the cloud soon per the Cloud Industry Forum. Still a third of businesses are still not taking advantage of the cloud.

“If someone asks me what cloud computing is, I try not to get bogged down with definitions. I tell them that, simply put, cloud computing is a better way to run your business.” Marc Benioff, Founder, CEO and Chairman of Salesforce, from Nerido. The Cloud is cost effective because it offers better tech at lower prices. That tech makes your business more agile and more secure…

Grazed from InformationAge. Author: Nick Ismail.

Companies that adopt cloud within their organisation can release products quicker, protect their customer data from security threats, and achieve economies of scale at a faster rate than companies with traditional IT environments. However, the shared nature of cloud computing also means that there is a real possibility that organisations could face security threats after they move to the cloud. This article will cover a few of the most common cloud security threats and explain what steps you can take to protect your business online.

Data breaches

Recent data breaches such as WannaCry and Petya have shown that the cloud isn’t completely immune to threats that traditional company networks face. Data breaches that involve sensitive company information is especially problematic for businesses, and can even lead to significant fines and lawsuits…

Read more from the source @ http://www.information-age.com/major-factors-impacting-cloud-security-123468244/

Grazed from TheRegister. Author: Editorial Staff.

Western Digital Corporation has bought Upthere, a consumer data storage startup with its own public cloud. Upthere was founded in 2011 by director Bertrand Sarlet, VP for business development Alex Kushnir, and Roger Bodamer. CEO Chris Bourdon joined Upthere as VP products in August 2012 after being Apple’s senior product line manager in the Mac OS X area.

He was promoted to CEO in December 2015 when Bodamer left. Sarlet worked at Apple from 1997 to 2011, and was previously at Steve Job’s NeXT. The company, based in Redwood City, CA, stores users’ data – photos, videos, documents and music – in its own data centre and says this about its core technology:..

Read more from the source @ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/29/wdc_buys_public_cloud_storage_startup/

Grazed from CBR. Author: Tom Ball.

At VMworld 2017, VMware and AWS announced the news that VMware Cloud is now available on AWS, with the original bond forged between the companies in October 2016. The VMware software-defined data center has joined AWS Cloud, enhancing customers’ abilities to run applications by breaking down barriers in cloud migration.

This move targets the enhancement of processes within enterprise IT, boosting the efficiency of processes by providing an all-encompassing environment. VMware will be in charge of this new capability in terms of its delivery and the on-demand sale of the service. Increasing interest has been noted regarding organisations across the industries looking to engage with AWS Cloud in the same way, using AWS in sync with their own offerings in a neutral environment…

Read more from the source @ http://www.cbronline.com/news/cloud/hybrid/vmware-cloud-aws-goes-live-bolsters-hybrid-cloud-security/

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: David H Deans.

Much of the initial interest in cryptocurrencies centered around their potential as alternatives to fiat currencies. Now attention has shifted to the upside potential of open distributed ledger technologies known as blockchain. A clear indication of blockchain’s increasing maturity is how the emerging fintech sector, which was once dominated by tech start-ups, is becoming crowded with leading IT platform providers — many of whom are developing their own offerings.

The market leaders have been involved in collaborative ventures and consortia. As an example, IBM unveiled Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) for developers back in February 2016 that’s based upon the Hyperledger Fabric. Meanwhile, market demand is growing rapidly across vertical industries…

Grazed from NewsBytes. Author: Editorial Staff.

It has been an inverse relationship till now. The more the content, the harder it is to manage it. However, with artificial intelligence and machine learning, it is, perhaps, possible to tackle the content management problem head on. It is ironic, considering the fact that Content Management Systems were created to solve the enterprise content organization problem that we used to face earlier. Here’s more.

Why is the change needed?

With the massive increase in the volume of data, the management of it via traditional methods becomes cumbersome and often faulty. AI and machine learning tend to give their best performance when their algorithms are handling massive amounts of data. This is being touted as the possible solution. This method may, in fact, change the way we manage content from now on…

Read more from the source @ https://www.newsbytesapp.com/timeline/Science/10202/56014/ai-will-add-value-to-archived-data

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Editorial Staff.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is already revolutionizing domains such as manufacturing, automobiles and healthcare. But the real value of IIoT will be realized only when Machine Learning (ML) is applied to the sensor data. This article attempts to highlight how ML augments IIoT solutions by bringing intelligent insights.

Cloud computing has been the biggest enabler of connected devices and enterprise IoT. Cheaper storage combined with ample computing power is the key driver behind the rise of IIoT. Though it was possible to capture data from various sensors and devices, customers found it prohibitively expensive to store massive datasets…

VeloCloud Networks, Inc., the Cloud-Delivered SD-WAN company and an Elite VMware Technology Alliance partner, today announced that it will be showcasing its Cloud-Delivered SD-WAN next week during VMworld 2017, demonstrating the benefits of VeloCloud SD-WAN operating on VMware for both Enterprises and Service Providers, including how VeloCloud delivers differentiated performance, reliability, and quality of experience for a variety of applications.

VeloCloud will specifically demonstrate its interoperability with VMware’s NSX platform and the ease with which the NSX Edge can be included in the VeloCloud SD-WAN overlay with a single click. These demonstrations will take place in VeloCloud’s booth Number 123.

VMware, Inc., a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility, today announced that leading analyst firm IDC has named VMware as the market share leader in both worldwide cloud systems management and datacenter automation software based on 2016 revenues. VMware topped both categories for the fourth year in a row.

"These industry reports validate our commitment to delivering a comprehensive, enterprise-ready cloud management platform that enables organizations to gain a major competitive edge," said Ajay Singh, senior vice president and general manager, Cloud Management Business Unit, VMware. "Delivering on our vision for the future of infrastructure has afforded us to maintain the leadership position in both cloud systems management and datacenter automation. Being recognized by IDC is an honor, and we look forward to continued collaboration with our customers to meet their evolving cloud management and automation demands."