Grazed from StrategicSourcerer.  Author: Editorial Staff.

In the practice of indirect procurement, purchasing software to support various departments and operations is a concern those in charge should take quite seriously.  However, the consideration grows much more complex in regard to big data analytics. According to a 2013 report conducted by SNS Research, global investment in data analysis solutions is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent between 2014 and 2020.

This technology comes in many forms, and iterations are often constructed to befit the needs of certain verticals, such as manufacturing or health care. For instance, a business specializing in qualitative data analysis tools may deliver solutions through cloud computing, a practice known as software-as-a-service.  Listed below are three steps procurement officers should follow when surveying big data analytics tools…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Dan Kusnetzsky.

Jerome Lecat, CEO of Scality, spoke with me about his view of the future of software defined storage and how enterprises should be thinking about it now. Scality believes that enterprises should start thinking about and planning for tools that could, in the company’s words, "route data to and from individual users in the most scalable, efficient way possible."

Scality developed Scality RING that is designed to address the growing challenge enterprises face in dealing with rapidly growing, huge (petabyte scale) storage requirements that include both structured and non-structured data. Here’s how the company describes RING:   The RING is a software-based storage that is built to scale to petabytes with performance, scaling and protection mechanisms appropriate for such scale. It enables your business to grow without limitations and extra overhead, works across 80% of your applications, and protects your data over 200% more efficiently at 50-70% lower cost…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Zack Whittaker.

Huawei expects demand in its cloud computing, big data, and smart devices areas to push sales up 15 percent to $46 billion in 2014.  The company’s chief executive Ken Hu said in a message on the technology giant’s website that the company had "seized these opportunities, continued to focus on our pipe strategy, streamlined management, and maintained effective growth."

Hu added that the company had undergone internal efficiency savings, including restructuring three business units.  The Shenzen, China-based company’s chief executive, who shares the position with two other senior staffers on a rotating basis, said its cloud strategy continues to do well thanks to partnerships with SAP and Accenture…

Grazed from HCPLive.  Author: Jared Kaltwasser.

Cloud computing is fast becoming an indispensable tool for mid-sized healthcare organizations, even though only two-thirds of those organizations say they’re “very confident” the data is safe.  The findings come in a survey by Dell Inc., which polled 2,038 information technology decision-makers at public and private mid-sized healthcare firms.

About 43% said they’re using private cloud storage solutions, and another 43% said they use a hybrid cloud solution. Of those using the cloud, nearly half, 46%, said their biggest incentive to use the cloud is that it enables them to better allocate their IT resources. Thirty-nine percent said the biggest benefit is cost savings…

Grazed from SiliconAngle.  Author: Suzzane Kattau.

In 2015, more companies will migrate their compliant data to the cloud, there will be more cloud-targeted attacks by hackers or countries, and more U.S. cloud computing companies will deal with increasing European privacy regulations. This is all according to Ariel Dan, Executive VP and co-founder of Porticor Ltd., a cloud encryption and cloud security solutions provider for enterprises and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Dan’s predictions about enterprise cloud are all part of our second annual Technology Predictions series in which industry experts share their predictions with us about the hot tech trends that they think will take center stage in 2015. We’ll be sharing all of their predictions with you over the next couple of days. Read on for more from Dan…

Grazed from SCMagazine.  Author: Tony Morbin.

Last year’s slew of criminal data breaches made it clear that the perimeter has fallen and the privacy of our data is at risk – whether that be passwords and credit cards or celebrity pictures and corporate secrets, while government agencies from China, Russia and the west continue to demonstrate vast intelligence surveillance capabilities.

One of the most effective responses for corporations, governments or individuals is to take a data- centric approach using encryption, potentially making data useless to intruders, or at least, raising the cost of access.  Late last year SC Magazine UK editor in chief Tony Morbin interviewed Alan Kessler, president and CEO, Vormetric, to get an industry view on issues in the commercial encryption market…

Grazed from TechCrunch.  Author: Deven Parkh.

The great Danish physicist Niels Bohr once observed that “prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” Particularly in the ever-changing world of technology, today’s bold prediction is liable to prove tomorrow’s historical artifact. But thinking ahead about wide-ranging technology and market trends is a useful exercise for those of us engaged in the business of partnering with entrepreneurs and executives that are building the next great company.

Moreover, let’s face it: gazing into the crystal ball is a time-honored, end-of-year parlor game. And it’s fun.  So in the spirit of the season, I have identified five big data themes to watch in 2015. As a marketing term or industry description, big data is so omnipresent these days that it doesn’t mean much. But it is pretty clear that we are at a tipping point…

Grazed from CloudTech.  Author: Ofer Hendler.

High-profile security breaches have dominated the headlines in 2014. Two notable examples over the last few months, the Apple iCloud and Dropbox breaches, have revealed a juicy target for attackers: user credentials.

Rather than try to hack into the application itself like iCloud, Dropbox, Salesforce, or Amazon Web Services (AWS), an easier and much more feasible approach to gaining access to sensitive data, celebrity photos, or whatever else an attacker is after, is through stolen user credentials…

Grazed from VentureBeat.   Author: Jordan Novet.

Amazon Web Services, the leader in the market for public cloud infrastructure, is getting ready to release its latest server slices to developers the world over.

The C4 instances, first announced in November, will launch in seven regions, according to a blog post that went out in an RSS feed but is now unavailable online.  The C4 instances run on Intel Xeon E5-2666 v3 (Haswell) chips customized exclusively for Amazon, according to the blog post, written by Amazon Web Services chief evangelist Jeff Barr…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Trey Hedden.

The cloud — the most ambiguous, overhyped and overused term in the IT industry. It’s like a modern day Wild West where it is so hard to discern the difference between the tiny firms based in a foreign country and the reputable, reliable and trustworthy ones we would want to entrust our reputation to.

It is nearly impossible for most of us to determine the firms you can trust, what products actually work and what providers are properly capitalized to the point where we can trust them with our clients. We simply don’t have the staff of accounting, legal and technology experts to do a detailed analysis of firms and offerings — and then keep up with the market to ensure the best solution now remains the best going forward…