Grazed from InformationAge. Author: Ben Rossi.

Big data is to the information age what the steam engine was to the industrial revolution. From expanding user intelligence to improving operational efficiencies, big data has revolutionised market places. IDC predicts that by 2020 we will create 44 zettabytes, or 44 trillion gigabytes, of data annually. To transform big data into information that drives business value it needs to be analysed. Unsurprisingly, crunching big data requires seriously big compute and a solid infrastructure to support it.

The data boom

Our insatiable desire for data insights did not begin with big data. If we look back to the 90s tech boom, business intelligence (BI) tools were the new big thing. BI allowed organisations to report and analyse company data, but unfortunately these systems were confined to dedicated data warehouses running specialist servers. As a result, conducting BI was too expensive and technical for the majority of enterprises.

See more at: http://www.information-age.com/technology/cloud-and-virtualisation/123459765/big-data-cloud-where-next#sthash.PyXDoyGM.dpuf

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Mike Vizard.

Everywhere anyone turns these days business executives are using terms such as digital or service economy interchangeably, while the more technically inclined often tend to refer to the same business phenomenon as the API Economy. Regardless of what you call it, there is clearly a massive hunger for to deliver multiple forms of digital content around products and services that can be easily monetized.

Whether it’s a car or a turbine, every company that makes something is trying to figure out what digital services can be created that enhance the existing customer experience. The challenge that most of those organizations face is that most of them don’t have any mechanism in place to actually do any of that…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Mike Vizard.

For as long as anyone cares to remember the biggest inhibitor to cloud adoption has been concerns about security. In fact, when it comes to security the primary enemy has always been integration. By definition, the greater the number of points of integration there are the less secure something is. From an IT security perspective cloud computing, of course, is the ultimate form of integration.

But as much as integration might be part of the problem it’s also a big part of the solution. The more integrated security technologies become the more effective IT security solutions become inside and out of the cloud. For that reason, many IT security vendors are taking advantage of well-documented application programming interfaces (APIs) to drive a wave of alliances that go well beyond the basic marketing agreement…

Read more from the source @ http://talkincloud.com/cloud-computing-security/rising-cloud-security-challenge

Grazed from FCW. Author: Zach Noble.

Sometimes less is more. Sometimes more is more. Sometimes you just don’t know which will be which ahead of time – and flexibility is king. Producing 20 terabytes of data every day, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a prime example of the need for flexibility.

And through its Big Data Project, NOAA’s bringing private-sector ingenuity to bear on the age-old problem: How can government get its work into the hands of the people who want it? Making data public is embedded in NOAA’s history, but that doesn’t mean the organization is fully equipped to disseminate that data on its own, Alan Steremberg, NOAA’s big data-focused Presidential Innovation Fellow, said at AFCEA Bethesda’s June 30 Data Symposium. Steremberg would know…

Read more from the source @ http://fcw.com/articles/2015/07/02/flexible-cloud-computing.aspx

Grazed from Bloomberg. Author: Virginia Postrel.

Starting a technology company has become much cheaper and easier in recent years. Businesses can contract out functions, from cloud computing to e-mail list management, that once would have required in-house equipment and expertise. Amazon Web Services, for instance, boasts that more than “a million active customers in more than 190 countries” are using its hosting services instead of relying on their own servers.

Now some of those customers suddenly can’t pay their bills — not because they don’t have the funds but because the Greek government won’t let their money leave the country. Just as individual Greeks are losing access to Apple’s iCloud, as the Athens staff of Bloomberg News recently discovered, so companies are finding themselves cut off from services critical to their ongoing operations…

Read more from the source @ http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-07-02/greece-s-problems-extend-to-the-cloud

Grazed from AboveTheLaw. Author: Nicole Black.

Cloud computing used to be a foreign concept to many lawyers, but these days most lawyers are working in the cloud whether they know it or not. Cloud computing offers so many advantages over traditional on-premises software — including convenience, mobility, flexibility, affordability, and 24/7 access — that it’s hard to avoid using cloud computing for work-related purposes.

That’s why so many lawyers start using cloud computing services like Dropbox to share documents — oftentimes after being prompted to by other lawyers involved in a case — without even realizing they’re collaborating on documents in the cloud. But not all lawyers stumble into the cloud unknowingly…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Nishant Kadian.

Cloud Computing is the hottest issue among IT intellects of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs). Like any other computer-orientated technology, Cloud Computing has some misconceptions and myths that often kick-start arguments among the two opposing groups: Cloud Supporters and Cloud Opponents. Both of these groups have their own ideology and reasons for their stand on this issue. Within those ideologies remain some serious myths that are miles apart from practical facts, but which have an effect on their overall business.

For SMBs aiming to grow, making smart decisions is crucial and that demands factual thinking. So, if you are in a dilemma over Cloud adoption, you must consider all perspectives before choosing to use Cloud technology or not.. To reach the correct conclusion, decision-makers for SMBs must stay away from these myths…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: James Bourne.

Cloud usage is rocketing amongst UK business users – but the final decision making falls to the head of IT or the chief information officer in almost three in five (59%) cases, according to latest research. The research, from cloud hosting provider Cobweb Solutions, shows more organisations are turning to cloud for all their business needs, with UK cloud penetration reaching a high of 84%.

78% of businesses are using more than one cloud-based service, figures which correlate with a recent Forrester survey showing 84% of UK companies rely on two or more cloud providers, compared to Singapore (76%) and the US (62%). Half of respondents expect to eventually move their entire IT estate to the cloud…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: James Bourne.

Everyone is looking for that silver bullet which makes their cloud implementations a success. It’s little wonder that events such as Cloud World Forum and Cloud Expo are at the forefront of executives’ minds. At Cloud World Forum in London last week, MongoDB VP strategy Kelly Stirman spoke of five directions in which the industry is changing, and how companies can make their cloud success a reality: embrace failure, double down on ops, and pick your partners wisely.

Rule number one, Stirman argued, was to embrace failure. To be able to embrace failure, you need to iterate quicker. “Today, customers expect applications faster,” he tells CloudTech. “When you wake up in the morning, you look for apps to have been installed on your phone, and to do that people need to embrace a more iterative project development lifecycle…

Grazed from Bloomberg. Author: Aaron Ricadela.

Salesforce.com Inc. plans to invest more than $1 billion in Germany over the next five years as the company seeks to add customers in industries including automobile manufacturing and machine building, Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff said. “There’s no more exciting technology market in the world than Germany,” Benioff said in a keynote address at the company’s customer conference in Munich on Thursday.

Manufacturers need to transform “otherwise they will be Uberized out of this world,” he said, referring to Uber Technologies Inc., whose car-hailing application has disrupted transportation markets around the world. As the technology industry undergoes a once-a-decade shift in how companies buy computing power, Benioff’s software company has attracted takeover interest, fueling a 19 percent rise in the San Francisco-based company’s market value this year…