Grazed from CBROnline.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud and smart mobility have been responsible for about 42% of technology deal, with the global technology M&A rising by 57% to $52.4bn this year, a new report revealed.  The latest report from Ernst & Young revealed that the disclosed value of M&A deals rose by 70% to $119bn during the second half of 2014, while the value dropped 21% in 2Q14 compared to Q1.

Ernst & Young Global Technology Industry Transaction Advisory Services leader, Jeff Liu, said: "Global technology M&A is on course for a blockbuster year in 2014. Technology companies are cash rich, and interest rates are low…

Grazed from WallStreetDaily.  Author: Louis Basenese.

Amazon (AMZN) has been basking in the glory of higher sales and share prices, thanks to a phenomenon known as “showrooming.”  That’s when consumers hit their local stores to get an up-close look at a product, but then head home to purchase it online.

Chances are you’re guilty of this behavior, too, since an annual Harris poll shows that 46% of Americans admit to showrooming (up from 43% the year before)…

Grazed from BidnessEtc.  Author: Larry Darrell.

Salesforce.com, Inc. (CRM), a pioneer of cloud software business, announced its earnings results for the second quarter of tis fiscal 2015 (2QFY15) after the market closed yesterday.

The San Francisco-based company also revised up its guidance for the entire FY15 after the strong results seen in 2QFY15. Its guidance for revenues was increased by $30 million to $5.34-5.37 billion, while analysts estimate $5.34 billion. The forecast for adjusted EPS was also revised up to $0.50-0.52, in line with expectations of $0.51…

Grazed from CloudComputingIntelligence.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Grazed from TechTarget.  Author: David Linthicum.

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Joe McKendrick.

These days, everyone wants a piece of the cloud. Technology mergers and acquisitions are on a tear for a blockbuster year, and cloud computing is responsible for much of this burst of activity.

That’s the word from EY, which finds clouds lurking behind many transactions in its latest review of M&A activity in the second quarter of this year (April to June). In total, $52.4 billion in deals were conducted across the globe, a 57% year-over-year increase. Cloud and smart mobility drove 42 percent of technology deal-making, EY estimates…

Grazed from CIO-Today. Author: Jennifer LeClaire.

VMWare is pressing deeper into cloud Relevant Products/Services technologies with its latest acquisition. The virtualization Relevant Products/Services and cloud infrastructure Relevant Products/Services company just bought a real-time Relevant Products/Services application delivery technology provider called CloudVolumes. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

CloudVolumes’ technology makes it possible for enterprises to deliver native applications to virtualized environments on demand, which fills a gap in VMware’s portfolio of software solutions. CloudVolumes customers use the solutions for terminal servers, desktops, and servers, eliminating lock-ins of service providers and hypervisors…

Grazed from RicksCloud. Author: Rick Blaisdell.

In this post, I’ll discuss XaaS: what it is and why you might want to consider using it. First, what is XaaS? Is this just more marketing fluff? Why do we need to define yet another model to fully describe cloud services? I contest that XaaS is a legitimate term, and that it is useful to describe a new type of cloud services — those that make use of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS all neatly delivered in one package.

Such packages are intended to fully displace the delivery of a commodity IT service. My favorite example of XaaS is desktop as a service, or DaaS. In a DaaS product, a service provider might assemble it with the following:

• Servers to run Virtual Desktop Infrastructure from a provider such as Terremark (IaaS)
• An office suite such as Microsoft Office365 (SaaS)
• Patching and maintenance services
• A physical endpoint such as a Chromebook or thin client device…

Grazed from FierceGovernmentIT. Author: Dibya Sarkar.

The National Science Foundation said it’s funding academic research to develop and experiment with innovative cloud computing architectures. NSF announced Aug. 20 two $10 million projects to create cloud testbeds – one called "Chameleon" and the other, "CloudLab," according to a press release.

Cloud computing, which essentially is the use of remote servers to store, manage and process data, has gained enormous popularity in recent years due to the greater capacity, scalability, flexibility and savings it provides. Organizations can tap into new applications and services, enhance collaboration and ensure service reliability, among other benefits…

Grazed from MSPMentor. Author: Editorial Staff.

A common objection encountered by MSPs who deliver IT security services that are hosted "in the cloud" is the perception that somehow these services are more risky than on-premise solutions. For example, in multiple Gartner surveys, security is cited as the No. 1 inhibitor to the adoption of cloud-based computing.

Many IT professionals have a preconceived notion that cloud computing will be less secure than what they can deliver themselves on premises. In a recent PerspecSys survey of 130 IT security professionals, 66 percent said they still view the cloud as more difficult to secure than on-premise options…