Grazed from New York Post.  Author: James Covert.

What would Steve Jobs do if he were still alive and well at Apple?  Aspiring tech tycoons might better ask: What would Steve Jobs do if he were still alive and someplace else?

That’s the advice from John Sculley, the legendary Pepsi exec who famously fired Jobs from Apple — only to be ousted himself a decade later after increasing the company’s revenues tenfold…

Grazed from ITProPortal.  Author: Sue Trembley.

In January 2012, new EU rules designed to create a secure and unified landscape for the collection, use and retention of data were announced.  The changes in regulation were based in part on consumer research undertaken two years earlier and aimed to reflect growing concerns around online data privacy, the evolving digital landscape and globalisation.

The new rules would give individuals greater control over their personal data, make businesses more accountable for that data – with stricter requirements for protection and penalties around data breaches, for example – and commit EU member states to a set of consistent, legally-enforced regulations and rigid definitions…

Grazed from LawBlogs.  Author: Mike Nonaka.

On February 7, 2013, the Payment Card Industry (PCI) council released a supplement to the payment card industry data security standards (PCI-DSS) on the use of cloud technologies and considerations for maintaining PCI DSS controls in cloud environments.  The supplement is intended for merchants, service providers, assessors, and other entities in evaluating the use of cloud computing in the context of PCI DSS.

The supplement considers “cloud computing” to mean a model for enabling on-demand network access to a shared pool of computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or cloud provider interaction…

Read more from the source @ http://www.lawblogs.net/go/pci-council-releases-pci-dss-cloud-computing-guidelines

Grazed from BusinessStandard.  Author: Editorial Staff.

"Our industry does not respect tradition. It only respects innovation," Satya Nadella said in February 2014 when he was appointed chief executive officer of Microsoft. After 39 years, the company Bill Gates co-founded had come to be perceived as an out-of-touch behemoth that relied too much on its Windows operating system and failed to move into new markets, like mobile.

Key products such as Microsoft Office – the suite of applications that includes Word and Excel-had been designed around Windows, with only parts converted to work on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android systems. Nadella’s accession would be a chance to reorient the company, getting it to introduce products that looked outside Windows and to develop new business models…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Derrick Harris.

A few years ago, there was a shift in the world of machine learning.  Companies, such as Skytree and Context Relevant, began popping up, promising to make it easier for companies outside of big banks and web giants to run machine learning algorithms and to do it at a scale congruent with the big data promise they were being pitched.

Soon, there were many startups promising bigger, faster, easier machine learning. Machine learning became the new black as it became baked into untold software packages and services — machine learning for marketing, machine learning for security, machine learning for operations, and on and on and on…

Grazed from ITProPortal.  Author: Ian Barker.

It’s no surprise that more and more organisations are using the cloud, but the latest State of the Cloud report from RightScale throws up some interesting trends.  The company surveyed 930 technical professionals across a broad cross-section of organisations about their adoption of cloud computing.

Among the findings are that a vast majority, 93 per cent, of organisations surveyed are running applications in the cloud or experimenting with infrastructure-as-a-service. In addition 82 per cent of enterprises now have a hybrid cloud strategy, up from 74 per cent in 2014…

Grazed from CloudIntelligence.  Author: Editorial Staff.

The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) today announced that Cobweb Solutions, one of the largest independent cloud solutions providers in Europe, has become the latest Cloud Service Provider (CSP) to join the growing roster of members.

Established in 2009, the Cloud Industry Forum is the industry body that aims to improve standards and education in the cloud industry. CIF provides transparency through certification via a Code of Practice to endorse credible online CSPs, and assists end users in determining the information to enable them to adopt cloud services…

Grazed from USA Today.  Author: Marc Saltzman.

If you’re reading this article – perhaps on a smartphone, tablet or laptop — chances are you’ve wrestled with how to best protect your digital information on those devices.  That is, with all the important files you likely have, you might be unsure whether to rely on one of the many "cloud" services available today or an external hard drive?

The answer? Both.  Consider an online and offline solution — to protect all the documents, photos and other files on all your computing devices — as they each have their distinct benefits and drawbacks…

Grazed from TechTarget.  Author: Robert Sheldon.

With all the licensing troubles that can come with hosting Windows desktops in the cloud, some companies — and vendors — are looking to Linux operating systems instead.

VMware plans to offer a Horizon View client for Linux, and Horizon DaaS, formerly Desktone, has had a hosted Linux option for years. Citrix is planning a similar strategy for XenDesktop and XenApp with Linux Virtual Apps and Desktops. These two big-name virtualization vendors putting attention on Linux shines a spotlight on the OS…

Grazed from Bloomberg.  Author:  Katie Benner.

Activist investors — you know, the guys with pitchforks and torches — have attacked enough tech companies recently that both sides have found it more efficient to settle into an uneasy co-existence: Corporate watchdogs and businesses in transition, or, depending on whom you ask, carpetbaggers and prey.

Activists are pretty open about the levers they’ll pull to make a stock move higher. They’ll fight for goals that include some combination of new management, stock buybacks, dividends and divestitures. Companies saddled with entrenched leadership and a slew of poorly-paired businesses under a single corporate umbrella — but sitting atop piles of cash — have spent the last few quarters pow-wowing with lawyers, crisis PR firms and consultants to prepare for activist broadsides…