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?…

Grazed from TechnologyTell.  Author: Kayla Matthews.

The Obama administration has included $3.5 billion in grid modernization in its budget for the 2016 fiscal year. On top of that, the smart grid IT market is expected to double by 2024 and the future for implementation of smart grid technology is all but certain, with cities like Austin, Chicago and Sacramento leading the way.  Here’s a bit more about smart grids and how they could improve life as we know it:

Smart Technologies – A Brief History

The formal move toward an intelligent grid started in 2002, when the Electric Power Research Institute proposed a research project called IntelliGrid. Eighteen months later, IntelliGrid Architecture was born and the first smart grid architecture was available for power distribution.  The focus of the new architecture was on the following four areas:…

Read more from the source @ http://www.technologytell.com/gadgets/159759/smart-grids-101-connectivity-future/

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Larry Dignan.

Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft were the top four most innovative companies, according to a survey of technology and business decision makers.  The findings via Tech Pro Research’s IT Innovation Report 2015: Top companies, key tech drivers, and biggest roadblocks illustrate how the enterprise vendor pecking order is being revamped by the cloud.

Meanwhile, respondents from larger companies say their established vendors are falling short on innovation. However, Cisco and IBM both had strong innovation showings in our survey…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Sean Michael Kerner.

Cisco is one of the leading participants in the open-source OpenStack ecosystem and is also helping encourage others to participate. At the OpenStack Summit here, Lew Tucker, vice president and CTO of cloud computing at Cisco, discussed the company’s cloud efforts, including OpenStack and intercloud, in a video interview with eWEEK.

Cisco first officially joined the OpenStack effort in 2011, during the OpenStack Bexar release cycle. Tucker currently serves as vice chairman on the OpenStack Foundation’s board of directors…

Grazed from FranchiseNews.  Author: Michael Smith.

Microsoft officials have dropped their bid for ownership over global cloud computing company Salesforce following Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff’s price tag request of $70 billion.

Salesforce officials were offered a $55 billion package by their counterparts, but declined the offer. The San Francisco-based company is still under negotiations for a future buyout…