Grazed from CBR. Author: James Nunns.

Salesforce has again decided to splash the cash in order to boost its portfolio this time with the acquisition of productivity software maker Quip. The deal, which will be for $582 million in stock, will add to Salesforce’s portfolio a number of programs for creating documents and spreadsheets.

Quip’s products are designed for collaboration using mobile devices, something which should be a boost to the CRM vendor as it looks to advance its mobile offering. Another angle to the deal is that Quip is a competitor of Microsoft Office and Alphabet’s Google Docs…

Grazed from SecurityIntelligence. Author: Preethy Soman.

Organizations around the world understand the importance and the challenges of cloud adoption, and they continue to adopt the technology at a fast pace. Gartner predicted that the cloud market in India will reach $3 billion by 2017, which represents an almost fivefold increase from 2012.

Challenges of Cloud Adoption

On one hand, while cloud promises to change the way businesses run, it also presents significant challenges relating to information security and privacy. Organizations need to understand that, in addition to cost reduction and the ability to move from one licensing model to another, the major drivers behind cloud adoption should be transformation and innovation…

Grazed from NorthumberlandNews. Author: Editorial Staff.

A federal proposal for the use of cloud computing makes it clear that the most sensitive data the government keeps about Canadians won’t be allowed to leave the country. Only information the government deems "unclassified" — meaning it’s unauthorized release carries little, if any material or physical harm to the government or individual Canadians — will be allowed to cross the border, bound for cloud computing servers in other countries, under the government’s newly released cloud computing strategy.

When data does leave the country, it must be encrypted, says the strategy that has been in development for more than a year. Sensitive personal information on Canadians like social insurance numbers and top secret government data will remain on cloud servers in the country so the federal government maintains "sovereign control over its data," the strategy says…

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Frederic Paul.

Cloud computing has been on a roll for a while now, and instead of slowing down, it just keeps speeding up. Last week, for example, the cloud hit the accelerator big time, as demonstrated by a pair of key developments:

First, Amazon announced record quarterly results for Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS simply blew through its Q2 numbers, hitting $2.9 billion in revenue, which was up more than $1 billion from the same quarter in 2015. Yes, quarterly revenue increased by a billion dollars in just one year…

Grazed from Information-Age. Author: Ben Rossi.

There is a certain irony in the fact that, for all its rhetoric of innovation and sophisticated technology, digital transformation ultimately relies on that most basic and capricious of forces: human intelligence and habit.

The digital transformation agenda has largely focused on the strictly technical elements of making these kinds of big changes. This is understandable: the technicalities of digital transformation are complex, and there’s such a wide host of different options that guidance is necessary just to make sense of the landscape…

Grazed from Gartner. Author: Editorial Staff.

More than $1 trillion in IT spending will be directly or indirectly affected by the shift to cloud during the next five years, said Gartner, Inc. This will make cloud computing one of the most disruptive forces of IT spending since the early days of the digital age.

"Cloud-first strategies are the foundation for staying relevant in a fast-paced world," said Ed Anderson, research vice president at Gartner. "The market for cloud services has grown to such an extent that it is now a notable percentage of total IT spending (see Table 1), helping to create a new generation of start-ups and "born in the cloud" providers."…

To the majority of the world, today is just another day; perhaps a little extra exciting because it’s a Friday. But, in the world of IT, today is THE day, System Administrator Appreciation Day! The role of a SysAdmin is perhaps one of the most behind the scenes, yet tremendously important jobs out there, and today is the one day SysAdmins are brought into the spotlight and recognized for being "heroic men and women who, come rain or shine, prevent disasters, keep IT secure and put out tech fires left and right," as stated on SysAdminDay.com.  

Recognizing the important role SysAdmins play in their own businesses, industry leaders and vendors across the board are weighing in on the 17^th Annual "holiday."

Grazed from Nasdaq. Author: Editorial Staff.

Oracle Corp. agreed to pay $9.3 billion for a cloud-computing pioneer that counts Larry Ellison as a major investor, using its second-largest acquisition to try to catch up in a key area where it has lagged.

Oracle said it is paying $109 a share in cash for NetSuite Inc., a 19% premium to the company’s closing price Wednesday of $91.57. The deal is raising questions about the role of Mr. Ellison, Oracle’s chairman, who is the biggest shareholder in both companies…

LogMeIn and Citrix Systems announced that the companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement for LogMeIn to combine with Citrix’s GoTo business in a deal valued at approximately $1.8 billion.  The deal will enable Citrix to focus on its other products, including XenDesktop and XenApps.

Back in November, Citrix announced that it would spin off its GoTo family of products as a separate company.  By combining the spinoff with a merger, the transfer will be tax free for Citrix in a move known as a "Reverse Morris Trust."

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.  According to officials with both companies, the deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, will create a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business with a diverse product portfolio and greater resources to drive innovation.