Grazed from BDLive. Author: Jack Nicas.

While the increasing use of encryption helps smartphone users protect their data, another sometime-related technology, cloud computing, can undermine those protections. The reason: encryption can keep certain smartphone data outside the reach of law enforcement. But once the data is uploaded to companies’ computers connected to the internet — referred to as "the cloud" — it may be available to authorities with court orders.

Major cloud-computing suppliers, including smartphone providers such as Alphabet ’s Google, Microsoft and Apple, routinely comply with court orders and search warrants to turn over data that in many cases would have been harder for law enforcement to obtain had users kept it solely on their devices…

Grazed from Economist. Author: Editorial Staff.

THE future is already arriving, it is just a question of knowing where to look. On Changshou Road in Shanghai, eagle eyes may spot an odd rectangular object on top of an office block: it is a collection of 128 miniature antennae. Pedestrians in Manhattan can catch a glimpse of apparatus that looks like a video camera on a stand, but jerks around and has a strange, hornlike protrusion where the lens should be. It blasts a narrow beam of radio waves at buildings so they can bounce their way to the receiver. The campus of the University of Surrey in Guildford, England, is dotted with 44 antennae, which form virtual wireless cells that follow a device around.

These antennae are vanguards of a new generation of wireless technologies. Although the previous batch, collectively called “fourth generation”, or 4G, is still being rolled out in many countries, the telecoms industry has already started working on the next, 5G. On February 12th AT&T, America’s second-largest mobile operator, said it would begin testing whether prototype 5G circuitry works indoors, following similar news in September from Verizon, the number one…

"In 2015 there was a proliferation of data breaches and inadvertent exposures, affecting organizations across every vertical," said Manolo Gonzalez, Head of Alliance Partner Ecosystem at CloudLock. "We couldn’t be more thrilled to join forces with such a highly-respected authority on cyberthreats to address these emerging risks. We look forward to enhancing the impact of our collective cybersecurity expertise for our customers across the globe and expanding our relationship with FireEye in the areas of malware prevention and threat intelligence."

"Being able to deliver a consistent, secure and reliable computing experience across any device at any time is a service promise few channel partners have been able deliver on until now," said Scott Markley, senior vice president of sales, itopia. "Our new user friendly Cielo Suite gives channel partners the flexibility and control to move their clients’ on premises applications, infrastructure and workspaces to whatever cloud infrastructure they choose — whether it’s public, private or a combination of the two. Tailor-made for service providers, the Cielo Suite is the only true end-to-end WaaS solution on the market." 

Grazed from BNA. Author: Dennis Garcia.

All law firms continue to face a highly competitive marketplace for legal services. Embracing leading technology like cloud computing provides law firms with opportunities to differentiate their firms and better serve their clients as the cloud can help law firms save money, be more collaborative, increase productivity, and enhance the security of client information – assuming a law firm is working with a trusted cloud provider.

However, since cloud solutions can involve entrusting sensitive client data with a third-party cloud provider, concerns may arise regarding the legal ethics associated with a lawyer’s use of the cloud. Fortunately, a growing number of US state legal ethics organizations – more than twenty in total and the latest being Tennessee from last September – have rendered opinions generally clarifying that lawyers can ethically use cloud solutions (or similar technology) so long as they exercise “reasonable care” in protecting their client’s information…

Grazed from USAToday. Author: Mike Snider.

IBM is raising its medical profile with the $2.6 billion acquisition of health care data firm Truven Health Analytics. The deal, the tech giant’s largest under CEO Ginni Rometty, brings Truven’s health care data cache to IBM’s Watson Health unit and its cloud computing medical data platform. The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Truven has its own cloud-based data system encompassing more than 8,500 health care systems, hospitals, employers and government agencies.

This makes IBM’s fourth major health data acquisition in less than 12 months, totaling more than $4 billion, the company said. It acquired cloud-based health care intelligence firm Explorys in April 2015, health management software firm Phytel a month later, and medical imaging provider Merge Healthcare in October 2015. IBM (IBM) shares were up nearly 6% to $133.55 Thursday…

Grazed from eSchools. Author: Bridget McCrea.

It’s no secret that being able to access enterprise applications and other types of software online—in a 24/7/365 environment—beats having to install, maintain, and upgrade individual applications across multiple desktops and laptops. Especially when maintaining software at school, classroom, teacher, and individual student levels is such an arduous task.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or “cloud computing” has helped districts and schools streamline their applications while at the same time introducing new challenges to the mix—such as online privacy and security concerns. These and other obstacles aside, cloud computing has been growing in popularity lately due to its low entry costs, short installation/implementation times, and the fact that it lessens the burden on schools’ IT teams when it comes to software maintenance and upgrades…

Through the partnership, applications delivered by next generation VDI 2.0 from Workspot will be available in record time using Algiz Technology’s virtualization process. Compared to traditional packaging which delivers one or two applications per day, Algiz can automatically process up to 250 applications per day ready to stream to target desktops. Now core products such as Microsoft Office and Google Chrome which are included in virtual workspaces delivered by Workspot can be quickly complemented by user-specific applications.