Grazed from Microsoft. Author: Bret Grinslade

We are pleased to announce the public preview of Microsoft Azure Analysis Services, the latest addition to our data platform in the cloud. Based on the proven analytics engine in SQL Server Analysis Services, Azure Analysis Services is an enterprise grade OLAP engine and BI modeling platform, offered as a fully managed platform-as-a-service (PaaS). Azure Analysis Services enables developers and BI professionals to create BI Semantic Models that can power highly interactive and rich analytical experiences in BI tools (such as Power BI and Excel) and custom applications.

To better understand the adoption, drivers and implications of an increasingly cloud-centric world, ServiceNow commissioned a survey of 1,850 mid- to senior-level managers. It was a global study, evenly split among IT leaders, line-of-business management and DevOps professionals.

The 2016 Cloud Computing Tipping Point research revealed three significant findings: 

As part of the company’s ongoing mission to innovate and improve the speed and efficiency of OpenStack deployments, Pure Storage has developed solution offerings with other companies, including Cisco Systems and Breqwatr, Inc. These solutions ensure customers seeking to deploy cloud services no longer have to choose between future cloud deployments and today’s infrastructure. In fact, customers can easily deploy OpenStack today and be operational almost immediately.

SaltStack, the creator of intelligent orchestration software for the software-defined data center, announced the availability of SaltStack Enterprise 5.0 as the industry’s first intelligent orchestration platform for the software-defined data center. SaltStack Enterprise 5.0 is powered by Salt open source software but now offers a completely new graphical user interface made possible by the new SaltStack Enterprise API.

SaltStack Enterprise 5.0 delivers unprecedented scalability, security, visibility and usability to enterprise DevOps and IT operations organizations looking to unlock the full power of Salt orchestration and automation. SaltStack becomes the first systems management software vendor to deliver event-driven automation for natively integrated configuration management, infrastructure security and compliance, cloud and container control, and DevOps orchestration. The result is the most intelligent and scalable IT systems automation platform built for modern infrastructure and application requirements.

Grazed from Meritalk. Author: Eleanor Lamb.

When Tony Summerlin, senior strategic adviser at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), helped write the first Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), he said he envisioned the program as a much quicker and sleeker version of what it is today.

Summerlin, who spoke at a panel at ServiceNow’s Now Forum on Oct. 26, said his goal was to draft a plan that would accelerate people to the cloud. Instead, it turned into a 1,500-page bureaucratic exercise that he said “wasn’t the point” of the document. According to Summerlin, speed is one of the biggest challenges to Federal initiatives across the board, not just in the application of FedRAMP…

Grazed from USAToday. Author: Elizabeth Weise.

Wall Street is bullish on Amazon, with some suggesting its stock could hit $1,000 in the not too distant future. Rising e-commerce sales, growing Prime memberships and further expansion of its cloud service AWS are expected to provide solid results when the Seattle company posts its third-quarter financial results Thursday after the markets close.

Analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence anticipate Amazon (AMZN) will report revenue of $32.654 billion and a profit of 82 cents per share. That compares with 17 cents in the year-earlier period. Amazon’s third-quarter guidance was net sales of between $31.0 billion and $33.5 billion…

Grazed from ChannelPartners. Author: James Anderson.

Partners have mixed opinions about whether cloud computing has improved their relationship with end users and vendors. CompTIA’s annual State of the Channel survey offers an in-depth look at the changing growth areas, business models and concerns that solution providers are encountering in 2016 in the upcoming years.

The study found that optimism for the channel is essentially unchanged from last year, with 63 percent of respondents saying they are hopeful for the industry. But the overall sentiment of positivity and confidence comes alongside angst that surrounds cloud computing and vendor-partner relationships. Let’s take a look…

Grazed from Phys.org. Author: Editorial Staff.

Microsoft launched a new consumer offensive Wednesday, unveiling a high-end computer that challenges the Apple iMac along with an updated Windows operating system that showcases three-dimensional content and “mixed reality.” The US tech giant announced its first desktop computer, called Surface Studio, a $3,000 high-end “all-in-one” device that aims at creative professionals, a segment dominated by Apple.

“We’re creating a new category that transforms your desk into a creative studio,” Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said at the unveiling in New York. With a large, 28-inch (71-centimeter) hinged touchscreen display touted as “the thinnest desktop monitor ever created,” Surface Studio adds to the Microsoft lineup of tablet and laptop devices for the premium segment…

Read more from the source @ http://phys.org/news/2016-10-windows-d-two-dimensional.html#jCp

When it comes to disseminating sensitive patient information between healthcare providers, there is always some room for doubt as to whether or not that information will remain safe and secure during the transmission and storage of any data. This is a reasonable fear and one that perhaps hasn’t been adequately addressed, however, there are other fears of working in the Cloud in terms of patient privacy and the potential for loss of data.

Some of those fears are unfounded and others can leave room for doubt. Since health informatics is still in relative infancy, these fears are common among healthcare providers. In fact, a healthcare informatics masters degree is one of the newer careers in IT as it applies to healthcare and one that was instituted specifically to address these concerns and to provide a vehicle for the safe storage and delivery of patient information between providers.

"For the first time, users have a solution that protects data in a holistic manner, regardless of where the data comes from or where it’s going," said Mike Fey, Symantec president and chief operating officer. "We are moving quickly to integrate our solutions and deliver a combined product portfolio to deliver integrated cyber defense solutions across customers’ entire IT environment. Symantec is uniquely positioned to bring market-leading solutions, fed by the largest threat intelligence network, to offer unprecedented protection to the cloud generation."