Grazed from EnterpriseAppsTech. Author: James Bourne.

This week has been a fascinating one for tech anniversaries. Nine years ago to this day, the first iPhone was released – a story of its own, of course – but perhaps as importantly for enterprise working, this week marks five years since the release of Office 365. From relatively humble beginnings as cloud versions of various Microsoft on-premises services in 2011, the product has become the “bedrock” of Microsoft’s corporate strategy, according to David Lavenda, co-founder and VP product strategy of harmon.ie, a Microsoft collaboration vendor.

“It has evolved over time into a comprehensive cloud platform,” Lavenda tells Enterprise AppsTech, noting functions such as its AI-influenced ‘network graph’ which ties up a lot of the suite and gives intelligence based on content and social interactions. This usage is documented in a report harmon.ie released this week on how Microsoft ecosystem partners are moving to the cloud…

Grazed from MSPMentor. Author: Aldrin Brown.

Rapid adoption of cloud computing appears to be a seminal event in the IT world, with managed services providers (MSPs) torn about whether to expect new, lucrative revenue models, or watch customers flock to self-service offerings that eliminate the need for third-party providers. That’s the portrait of the industry painted by the 5th annual Trends in Managed Services report, released today by CompTIA, the Computing Information Technology Industry Association.

According to the survey of 400 MSPs, VARs, systems integrators and IT consultants, “cloud computing” was the top concern keeping them up at night, with 62 percent of respondents agreeing with the assertion. At the same time, cloud is seen by MSPs as a top opportunity driver for the future…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Katherine Noyes.

The digital transformation imperative is becoming increasingly urgent for companies large and small, and SAP wants to help. On Wednesday, the ERP giant set its sights squarely on SMBs with an updated app that’s been enriched with analytics and other key features. Originally announced last year, SAP Business One 9.2 is the latest version of SAP’s ERP app for small and medium-size businesses, and it’s now generally available both on-premises and in the cloud.

Built on SAP’s Hana database platform, the updated software includes better forecasting capabilities thanks to the inclusion of predictive analytics. Equipped with those tools, SMBs can better forecast product demand, improving their material requirements planning and helping them prioritize, SAP said…

Read more from the source @ http://www.computerworld.com/article/3090070/cloud-computing/saps-erp-app-for-small-biz-gets-an-overhaul.html

Grazed from PointandBeyond. Author: Jeff Bertolucci.

Cloud computing efficiency is helping data centers reduce energy consumption across the U.S. According to the new United States Data Center Energy Usage Report, their electricity usage only increased by around 4 percent from 2010 to 2014 — a significant improvement over the 24 percent increase from 2005 to 2010 and the nearly 90 percent jump from 2000 to 2005. Even better, the report notes data center energy usage should remain constant through 2020. These energy savings are happening as there is a dramatic rise in demand for data center services nationwide.

Cloud Computing Efficiency Matters

In addition to better cloud computing efficiency, several technologies are driving these trends. According to Computerworld, the most conspicuous change may be the slow growth in the number of servers operating in data centers. For instance, while shipments of new servers to data centers continue to rise, the growth rate has fallen steadily over the past 15 years:..

Read more from the source @ http://pointbandbeyond.com/news/cloud-computing-efficiency-lowers-energy-use-in-data-centers/

Grazed from Euraipjournals. Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud computing provides a convenient and on-demand access to virtually unlimited computing resources. Mobile cloud computing (MCC) is an emerging technology that integrates cloud computing technology with mobile devices. MCC provides access to cloud services for mobile devices. With the growing popularity of cloud computing, researchers in this area need to conduct real experiments in their studies.

Setting up and running these experiments in real cloud environments are costly. However, modeling and simulation tools are suitable solutions that often provide good alternatives for emulating cloud computing environments. Several simulation tools have been developed especially for cloud computing. In this paper, we present the most powerful simulation tools in this research area…

Grazed from LinkedIn. Author: Karl Kvalvik.

I was speaking with an anonymous insider in Dell and it sounds like Dell is finalizing it’s acquisition of VMWare.

Dell’s acquisition of EMC, sell off of it’s software divisions, and now the rumored acquisition of Vmware with it’s vCloud Air cloud technology; It certainly appears as though Dell is ramping up to contend with Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon AWS…

Read more from the source @ https://www.linkedin.com/groups/61513/61513-6152989464831549444

Grazed from EJInsight. Author: Raymond Tsoi.

Cloud computing is now seen essential for businesses to improve their cost-efficiency and scalability. But there is a debate going on as to which functions should be transitioned to the cloud, and what it means for the companies in terms of data security and other aspects. To provide some insights on the issue, EJ Insight presents the views of Krupal Raval, senior vice president (finance) at Digital Realty, a data center operator which has a wide range of clients including financial services firms, manufacturing enterprises and IT services entities.

Q. Can you tell us how cloud computing is driving innovation in the finance industry?

A: Cloud computing offers characteristics that can support the exchange of information and provide the infrastructure needed for financial services firms looking to implement technologies. Especially in the finance industry, due to the nature of the data hosted in the data center, it is imperative to ensure that their business-critical IT infrastructure remains up and running 24/7. Any interruption in connectivity for financial institutions’ critical systems could be catastrophic to the business and its customers…

Read more from the source @ http://www.ejinsight.com/20160629-how-businesses-and-investors-can-ride-the-cloud-computing-boom/

Grazed from SmallBusinessTrends. Author: Shubhomita Bose.

When it comes to cloud computer adoption, it turns out many small businesses still do things the old fashioned way. A recent survey released by Brother International, a global supplier of office equipment, further highlights this trend. According to the survey, 58 percent of small businesses’ regular work tasks require employees to be physically present in the office.

This could mean it’s impractical for these small business employees to be away. Or, just as likely, it could mean they lack the technology that could make collaboration and access to company data from elsewhere possible. The study also reveals that 91 percent have the standard office equipment — printer, scanner, copier or fax machine — and that 43 percent of this group use the printer in the office more than 10 times per day…

Apart from sounding like a secret military organisation from an American disaster movie that both starts and then has to fix the monster-destroying-New-York thing, unified communications also sounds like a massively jargon-esque business buzzword… and it kind of is. But don’t let that distract you from what it actually stands for and how it might just revolutionise your business.

What is it?

It really is what it says on the tin; it unifies your communications… simple, huh? In a nut shell it gathers together your instant messaging, emails, phones, voice conferencing, desktop sharing, voicemails, SMS, faxes and the tech-y things that even I don’t understand fully. You may be thinking that if you already have all of these things why would you need a software (or collection of software) that monitor all of them? There are other perks as well. Read on for more information…

Grazed from MISAsia. Author: Jason Teo.

Did you know that 70 percent of the companies that were once on the Fortune 1000 list in 2003 have now vanished? In fact, analysts predict that over the next three years, at least one-third of the top 20 companies in every industry will be equally disrupted if they do not move fast enough. So what is the cause of this disruptive trend?

According to our 2016 Global C-Suite study, 77 percent of the CIOs interviewed, attribute this disruption to the influence of new technologies. While they believe mobile solutions, cloud computing and the Internet of Things will continue to have the most significant impact on their organisations over the next three to five years, over 60 percent of them think cognitive computing could revolutionise businesses as well…