Grazed from Fortune.  Author: Michal Lev-Ram.

In the wake of the announcement of Windows 10, we talk to Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise group.

Much has already been written about Microsoft’s new Windows 10 and the reintroduction of its long-lost Start button after the company unveiled its updated flagship operating system on Tuesday morning. The new OS may provide a much-needed advance over its predecessor, Windows 8, but it is unlikely to restore Microsoft  MSFT -0.52%  to its former glory as the operating system of choice for computing devices—certainly not in an era where tablets and smartphones have largely supplanted the PC in terms of attention…

Grazed from NewsWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Award-winning cloud services provider SherWeb today announced the highly anticipated official launch of its Performance Cloud, which has been available on a limited basis since May. Included in this announcement is SherWeb’s most recent industry benchmarking data comparing SherWeb’s public cloud solution with that of Google, Amazon and Rackspace. SherWeb’s UnixBench score of 2178 versus Amazon’s 1444 for overall server performance makes SherWeb’s on-demand cloud servers by far the fastest among market leaders.

The long-time hosting provider says its new Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution fills a major void in the market and that channel demand has been particularly strong. Unlike competing offers, SherWeb’s Performance Cloud Servers do not make enterprise or SMB end-user organizations compromise performance for cost, or vice versa…

Grazed from Computing.co.uk.  Author: Sooraj Shah.

"Curiosity" and a willingness to learn new skills will be key for IT staff who want to remain in demand as organisations make the leap to cloud services.  That is according to a number of IT decision makers, who were speaking on Computing‘s Question Time, a live set of webinars focusing on how the role of the CIO is changing as cloud services become more widely adopted.

One of the supposed reasons why many IT teams have been slow to embrace cloud services is that they feel they might be signing their own redundancy notices. Tony Morgan, executive architect at IBM, believes that those managing the service desk will be most at risk.  But he urged IT employees to become more flexible, building up their business-facing skills, in particular, in order to reduce the risk of facing the axe…

Grazed from PCWorld.  Author: Joab Jackson.

Earlier this month, Microsoft quietly appointed software architect Mark Russinovich as chief technology officer for its Azure cloud computing platform, formalizing a role he’s been executing for the past several years.  It was a smart appointment not the least because it may help ease any remaining concerns of system administrators reluctant to take on Microsoft’s cloud platform as part of their job duties. Among the Microsoft faithful, Russinovich has serious geek credibility. If Russinovich is behind the gears at Azure, it must be O.K.

Russinovich has long been one of the most popular speakers at Microsoft’s Build and TechEd technical conferences, thanks to his clear, cogent explanations of the company’s technologies. Russinovich joined the company in 2006, after Microsoft purchased his enterprise software company, Winternals Software, which offered a line of Windows repair tools that many found superior to Microsoft’s own…

Grazed from ComputerWeekly.  Author: Clive Longbottom.

As cloud computing becomes more pervasive, the cost seems to be tumbling. This is great news to organisation taking their first steps into using public cloud services – or is it?  In many ways, yes it is. Hardware costs are coming down, and modern tools are enabling more cloud functions to be automated, eliminating costs in physically managing the cloud with error-prone humans.

Software to layer on top of the infrastructure is either open source, where only support costs need to be covered, or commercial, where suppliers are finally figuring out that new, more flexible pricing models are required.   So, as the cost of the platform itself falls, it is only to be expected that a massively competitive market, such as the cloud, passes on some of those savings to its prospective customers…

Grazed from USA Today.  Author: Laura Baverman.

For consumers, Auth0’s technology ensures their identity will be protected when they log in. For developers, it’s a simple and fast way to authenticate users and ensure websites and mobile applications are secure.  And for venture capitalists, the Seattle start-up’s technology — along with a slew of other new tools for developers — represents dollar signs.

Auth0 CEO Jon Gelsey says his company is riding the "developers-are-the-new-CIOs" wave. Because cloud computing is replacing traditional software, and the complexity of application development has increased, developers now decide the infrastructure and tools used by even the largest corporations in the world. That’s opened up a market for entrepreneurs who want to make developers’ lives easier and software better…

Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Jon Roskill.

Let’s cut right to the chase… Lots of companies have offered 24/7 availability of systems and data to their customers and employees for years. What else is new? What’s new is that a cloud computing environment can make 24/7 availability possible for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). (Infographic Source:Towergate)

Previously, only organizations with robust IT infrastructure (in terms of servers, communications networks, and the staff to maintain them) could offer global access to internally hosted software applications and databases. Now SMEs can offer customer ordering and account self-service applications hosted in a public cloud. The same public cloud can provide 24/7 availability of applications and data to employees, thereby improving productivity or supporting more flexible working arrangements…

Grazed from PRNewsWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Softmart’s Microsoft Strategy Director, Gina Montgomery, will be presenting a webinar series on the Microsoft Cloud. This three-part series will inform and educate all levels, from thought-leaders to technical experts to users, on Office 365, Microsoft Azure, and the new Enterprise Mobility Suite. Gina is a seasoned speaker at SharePoint Saturdays and conferences throughout the U.S. She provides expertise in helping organizations maximize their IT investments by focusing on strategy, project planning, analysis, and implementing successful business solutions.

The first webinar is a thought-leadership series and will occur on Thursday, October 2^nd. The talk will focus on trends that are driving organizations to consider a shift to the cloud. This session will be beneficial for anyone who has been encouraged to have their business switch to the cloud, but may be unsure of how to navigate this change…

Grazed from ABC.NET.  NIGEL STITT.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that – for most organisations – taking a ‘hybrid’ approach to cloud adoption makes sound business sense. By augmenting existing on-premise or hosted systems with extra cloud-based resources, they’re better placed to meet constantly changing IT requirements.

In some cases, a hybrid infrastructure will include one or more Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers. These services can be rolled out quickly and remove the need to purchase and manage extra hardware and applications.

Many hybrid setups are also likely to involve Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers. By using compute and storage resources in an on-demand way, an organisation can scale capacity to meet changes in requirements. You no longer have to provision internal or hosted systems to cope with peaks in demand but can simply rent extra capacity as it’s required…

Grazed from TechTarget.   Author:  Rob Wright.

The Cloud Security Alliance says support for global data privacy standards and a consumer bill of rights is increasing.  The CSA’s Data Protection Heat Index survey report, which was sponsored by Cisco Systems Inc., looked at some of the top issues around data protection and privacy in the cloud, including data residency and sovereignty, and lawful interception. The survey respondents include 40 of what the CSA called, "the most influential cloud security leaders" in the world, from CISOs to privacy and legal experts.

The findings show strong support for more global standards guiding the use and protection of private data.  For example, the survey showed broad support for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’sPrivacy Principles to facilitate better data privacy standards and protection…