Grazed from WSJ. Author: Steven Rosenbush.

Two powerful tech trends—3-D printing and cloud computing—are coming together. And that might make it a lot easier for small companies to get into the manufacturing game. There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about small companies rushing to adopt 3-D printing, taking advantage of the ability to turn computer-generated designs into physical objects.

Yet even though the technology can crank out items more cheaply than traditional manufacturing, for many small firms the investment is too big: Higher-end printers that produce finished products can cost thousands or even millions of dollars, and require specialized skills to use. Enter a new batch of cloud-based services—such as Shapeways, Cubify, i Materialize and Sculpteo—that offer to do the 3-D printing for small businesses…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Joe McKendrick.

With the summer season rapidly descending upon those in the northern hemisphere, it’s time to kick it down a notch and engage in some less stressful pursuits than running a business — namely, reading up on cloud computing. Let’s face it, there will be cloudy days through the summer, so why not get into a cloud frame of mind?

With that in mind, here are some of the works that really help clarify and cut through the confusion on what cloud computing is and can be. These are all works published over the past few years that document the cloud story:…

Grazed from PRWeb.

EasyStreet Inc. has brought to market a new type of cloud computing solution engineered for unrivaled speed and scalability. The EasyStreet Extreme Performance Cloud Computing solution is ideal for situations where access to data has to be quick such as supporting website visitors and data-driven applications. Working with leading products from SanDisk Corporation and Dell Inc., EasyStreet now deploys private clouds with a storage system capable of ten times the performance of a traditional disk system and three times the performance of an all-flash system using the same computing resources. Clients can take advantage of environments that are easy and fast to deploy and are also simpler to maintain. The performance realized with this solution ensures a predictable application response even under heavy utilization.

DealerPeak is one of the first clients to take advantage of this solution and has seen impressive results. DealerPeak supplies solutions to hundreds of automotive dealerships nationwide including the Ron Tonkin Family of Dealerships. The DealerPeak applications provide customer, sales, inventory, and service data to sales staff as well as prospective customers…

Grazed from NetworkAsia. Author: Editorial Staff.

A study of 232 global IT executives this year has revealed that a vast majority of organizations (87%) are concerned with the security and privacy of corporate data in cloud deployments. The survey, titled “Preparing for next-generation cloud: Lessons learned and insights shared”, was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and sponsored by Hitachi Data systems.

Responses also indicated that outages and failures of public cloud implementations were twice as likely to occur when compared to private cloud. Almost half of the respondents indicated the biggest risk of a failed implementation to be loss of customer data. The report found that while cloud computing has delivered many benefits, cloud adoption also continues to challenge even the most nimble of companies. Other highlights include:…

Grazed from PCTechMag. Author: Ephraim Batambuze III.

Cloud storage is one of best innovations in the tech space. It brings the convenience to everything. Instead of copying crucial documents to flash drives or burning them to disc, you stick them in the cloud where they can easily be accessed any time. Cloud-based storage knows when you’ve updated a file and updates its copy accordingly.

Cloud computing is getting stronger by day and this is being facilitated by price wars and continuous upgrading of various cloud storage services. Below is a comparison of Mega, Dropbox, Google drive and One drive…

Read more from the source @ http://pctechmag.com/2015/05/mega-vs-dropbox-vs-onedrive-vs-google-drive/

Grazed from ITWorldCanada. Author: Danny Bradbury.

Cloud-based communications provider Switch Communications just landed $35m in funding, highlighting a growing interest in the online communications and collaboration market. The series C financing follows an $18 million B-round for Switch Communications, which provides cloud-based unified communications and phone systems.

The funding round for the San Francisco-based firm was led by Amasia Associates, with Felicis Ventures, SoftBank, Work-Bench Ventures and previous investors Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures. The deal might signal good fortunes for companies selling cloud-based telecommunications, but companies are still showing themselves to be wary of the cloud, especially when it comes to mission-critical infrastructural applications…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Andrew Froelich.

Hate is a powerful word. Yet, it accurately describes how IT professionals feel about cloud computing. They’re not screaming it from the rooftops, or starting protests in social media, but there’s a quiet level of vitriol we hear whenever we speak with IT professionals about the cloud in our daily conversations, at industry conferences, and in other settings.

Yes, cloud computing can cut costs (if done properly). Yes, cloud computing can improve economies of scale. And yes, cloud computing can streamline IT processes. Despite these and other clear-cut benefits, there are many infrastructure administrators who find enough problems with cloud computing that they end up loathing the whole concept altogether…

Grazed from TechPageOne. Author: Daniel Newman.

We are in a world that knows no bounds. Technology is driving the growth engine, helping small companies become large enterprises faster than ever before. Companies like Uber and Airbnb quickly grew from humble startups to major market players in their industries. What catapults their growth? It’s that these brands have an eye for the future. This insight works in their benefit. However, it’s not just what you know about the future; it’s also prepping for the future. This sets a future-ready company apart from ones that are not…

Focus on the next, not just the now

To #BeFutureReady, an enterprise needs to be constantly looking to see what lies ahead. Everybody can see what’s directly in front of them, but how many know what’s coming up next? Technology allows us to see further into the future, but it’s also a moving target. Traditionally, companies purchase the latest tech every five years. Now, businesses need to keep their ears firmly to the ground to get the latest tech trends before competitors…

Read more from the source @ https://powermore.dell.com/technology/what-future-ready-enterprise-means-to-me/

Grazed from ITProPortal.  Author: Florian Malecki.

Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) keeping a tab on John Moody’s bond credit rating. In the world of IT however, how can a CIO or IT decision maker (ITDM) rate the efficiency of an IT security implementation?

IT security is one of the main concerns for ITDMs with recent attacks such as Shellshock and Heartbleed and others affecting organisations globally. Therefore ITDMs are taking steps to protect the corporate network from threats of all sizes. However, as it stands security is still at risk from internal and external stand point…

Grazed from Business2Community.  Author: Matthew Langham.

Toyo Ito once said, “architects have made architecture too complex”, and highlighted the need “to simplify it and use a language that everyone can understand”. This balance must be struck in other areas to enable effective communication between company and customer.

A survey conducted by the Six Degrees Group (6DG), however, found that people think IT professionals use more jargon than bankers, lawyers and politicians combined, raising the question of how businesses globally can talk about technical concepts clearly, while ensuring that new terms do not confuse others?…