Grazed from Business2Community.  Author: Ian Moyse.

2015 is rumoured as the tipping point for cloud. For the last four to five years, we have heard that cloud (Internet-delivered solutions) is about to go mainstream, however, this year it is not the hype, but real user benefits that are driving adoption

What do I mean by this. Well people are not going out looking for cloud-based solutions (“I want some cloud”), instead they are looking for a solution to a real problem. Some users are unknowingly using a cloud-based solution (either in their business or personal lives) and are quickly seeing the benefits. Take for example Dropbox, a free tool for sharing (large) files across devices seamlessly, easily and from anywhere, where users adopt it from a need that it solves and not because of the technology factor behind it or because of any cloud hype…

Grazed from ITBrief.  Author: Catherine Knowles.

In order to stay ahead of the game, businesses need to keep pace with the rapid evolution of cloud computing, leverage cloud investments to connect with customers and employees, and seize opportunities available from cloud technology, says KPMG.

KPMG, the global advisory organisation, has released its 2014 Cloud Survey Report, and shares insights on cloud computing for today’s businesses.
A primary finding of the survey is that, "Cloud has clearly come of age. Driven by the demand for speed, flexibility, scale and anywhere access, consumers have fully embraced a cloud-enabled world…

Grazed from VCCircle. Author: Anuradha Verma.

California- and Bangalore-based WAN optimisation and cloud computing startup Aryaka Network Inc has secured $16 million (Rs 100 crore) in funding from existing investors led by Nexus Venture Partners with participation from Trinity Ventures, InterWest Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures and Presidio Ventures.

The firm will use the money to scale up its sales infrastructure as it has seen rapid demand for its family of network and application acceleration as-a-service offerings, it said. “The funding will allow us to support large global partners, who are excited about adding Aryaka’s capabilities to their traditional WAN offerings. We are positioned to achieve faster market growth and sustained profitability,” said Ajit Gupta, founder and CEO at Aryaka…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Colin Barker.

IBM and The Weather Company want to use big data, the cloud, and the Internet of Things to improve weather forecasting for businesses. As part of a new deal between the companies, The Weather Company will shift its massive weather data services platform to the IBM Cloud and integrate its data with IBM analytics and cloud services.

The deal reflects how competition in the cloud market is heating up too: The Weather Company is a close partner with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Bryson Koehler, the CIO/CTO for The Weather Company, told ZDNet: "I believe in the multi-cloud story and believe that any serious cloud-based business or application needs to be built in a cloud-agnostic way."…

Grazed from ITWorldCanada. Author: Don Sheppard.

Net neutrality has been in the news a lot lately, but there’s much less discussion of its relationship to and impact on cloud computing (or, for that matter, the Internet of Things).

Recent developments in net neutrality

On February 26, 2015, the FCC in the United States ruled in favor of “net neutrality” by reclassifying broadband access as a telecommunications service and applying Title II (common carrier) of the Communications Act of 1934 to Internet service providers (ISPs). FCC decision FCC-15-24A1, a massive 400 page document, was released publicly on March 12th. The lawsuits, which were fully anticipated, are already starting to be filed.

According to the Public Knowledge website states (I would have thought this also applies to organizations and applications, not just individuals!):..

Grazed from MidsizeInsider. Author: Shawn Drew.

The cloud is an established technological force, recognized for its superior ability to transform a business. Help desk software and CRM solutions have both proven to be powerful tools, yet new research shows that the uptake on cloud-based help desk solutions remains slow. IT managers at midsize businesses are beginning to understand just how effective a cloud-based help desk solution can be and look beyond the market trends to find ways to better deliver technological assistance to their employees and customers.

The State of Help Desk Software

A new report from Software Advice finds that ticket management, reporting and analytics and chat integrations all rank highly as critical functionalities driving businesses’ investment in modern help desk solutions, according to Biz Report. Despite these needs, investment in the help desk appears to be somewhat stagnant, with half of the survey respondents claiming they have no plans to alter their current help desk investment…

Grazed from Bloomberg. Author: Jack Clark and Sarah Frier.

A creator of Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud-services operation has joined Twitter Inc. to help keep its website running smoothly. Chris Pinkham started as a vice president of engineering at the social-media service in January. San Francisco-based Twitter has been reworking its engineering department to help the company expand and release products more quickly.

The company promoted Alex Roetter last May to be head of engineering with a mandate to improve the site’s performance. Twitter used to crash so often that it had a Fail Whale icon, an image of little birds attempting to lift a large cetacean, it could trot out with an apology to users when their pages wouldn’t load. Pinkham led cloud development at Oracle Corp. after the database company acquired his startup, Nimbula Inc., in 2013…

Grazed from WhaTech. Author: Editorial Staff.

In a relatively short span of years, the concept of cloud computing services received high attention as an integral part of an enterprise’s IT strategy. The global cloud computing services market was once valued at US$79.60 billion in 2011 and was further projected to grow at a CAGR of 23.21% to reach a market value of US$148.9 billion by 2014.

These services have revolutionized and introduced new ways of how IT delivers services and how the customers access applications, information, and business services. A cloud computing service is the most popular buzz in the internet market today. Known to deliver hosted services through internet, the concept is still considered as naïve – but is so far generating tremendous interest and growing business among several users in the world…

Grazed from InfoSecurity. Author: Andy Kimble.

As technology advances, companies are increasingly turning to cloud-based solutions to solve the challenges posed by the increasing costs of traditional infrastructure. However, cloud-based solutions pose their own challenges, particularly where personal data is being stored or accessed from the cloud.

The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) governs the processing of personal data in the United Kingdom by data controllers. A data controller is an organization that (either alone, jointly or in common with other persons) determines the way in which personal data is, or will be, processed. A data processor is an organization that processes personal data on behalf of a data controller…

Grazed from CCI. Author: Paul Evans.

Cloud backup has been around for more than a decade. It’s one of the most mature applications of cloud technology and has become a common feature of the business landscape due to its reliability, efficiency and automation capabilities. Today, the cloud backup market is fairly saturated, offering businesses and consumers a wide range of services to choose between. Consequently, there are a number of factors to take into consideration when choosing a backup services provider. Asking the right questions will help you to differentiate between consumer-focused and business grade services and will ensure the service chosen meets your own specific needs.

1. Performance and Versatility

Contrary to popular belief, implementing an enterprise cloud backup service will enable a business to reduce its backup times by minimising the total volume of data being transferred to the backup platform on a daily basis. Advances in file scanning, data compression and deduplication, driven by competition, means that today’s leading cloud backup service providers are able to offer businesses much faster backups and often more rapid restores than traditional methods such as tape…