Cloud for Point-of-Sale
If cloud software is really going to provide the revolution that many of us predict, we need to see tools adopted by mainstream users. While we’ve seen some exciting tools at the infrastructure level that bring efficiencies for IT, and some application level tools that make sharing and collaboration easier for knowledge workers, we’ve yet to see much in the way of the cloud delivering benefits for mass-market businesses. A new startup from New Zealand aims to help with that by providing a retail point-of-sale (POS) solution that brings cloud benefits in an application designed for retailers.
Market Leaders: Small-Business Suite CRM
The Market
Using CMDBs and service catalogs to build private clouds
With a few exceptions, discussions around private clouds do not include IT Infrastructure Libraries (ITILs), configuration management databases (CMDBs) and service catalogs, but that is quickly changing. Steve Todd, in particular, has noted that when designing the software architecture for a private cloud implementation, one architectural component becomes central: the CMDB.
PaaS Assessment Tool: Can Your App Development Be Done in the Cloud?
Thinking of moving your application development platform offsite and into the cloud? Before making that decision, you’ll want to determine if such a move is right for the your organization’s business needs. You’ll need to know if your development team is ready and if the applications being produced are appropriate for the cloud.
Survey: Infrastructure-as-a-Service Adoption on the Rise
According to a new report from the Yankee Group, enterprise adoption of infrastructure as a service is growing rapidly.
Australian etailers looking for technology change
New research from Forrester shows that 50% of Australian online retailers are planning to change their eCommerce platforms within two years. But mobile access is not a priority for most of the companies responding to the survey.
The main problem cited by Forrester is that retailers have tended to choose an eCommerce platform without realising how much sales growth would occur, and they are now running into the limitations of the originally selected software.
Top 10 Cloud Computing Complaints
As the popularity of cloud computing is taking off, so have questions and complaints from IT professionals who are using — or considering moving to — the cloud. Industry leaders answer some of the main concerns that they hear from IT staff about the cloud.
Gripe #1: "Wait, this isn’t really infinite, is it?"
One of the big draws of cloud computing is the ability to start small and then go big at a moment’s notice. But this elasticity should not be mistaken for infinity.
Hewlett Packard trumps Dell with $1.6bn bid for 3PAR
Computer maker Hewlett Packard (HP) has launched a $1.6bn (£1bn) bid for data storage firm 3PAR, trumping a $1.2bn offer made by rival Dell last week.
Along with IBM, the two firms are looking into more profitable business areas outside of making computers.
The bids come as part of a glut of merger and acquisitions activity in the technology sector, including last week’s $7.8bn bid for McAfee by Intel.
The HP bid pushed Wall Street higher in early trade, before shares lost ground.
Deconstructing Virtualization and the Cloud
It’s been nearly two years since the term "cloud computing" leaked into the IT lexicon and still many leading experts in the field are struggling to come up with a definition.
That has to be a testament to either the cloud’s broad impact on all manner of enterprise functions or the fact that it is a nebulous term signifying everything, or nothing at all.
Either way, the hunt is still on for an exact, or at least a satisfactory, definition of what the cloud is and what it isn’t.
How to Move Enterprise Applications Safely to the Cloud
Before moving enterprise applications to the cloud, you need to be sure that your expectations are realistic and your objectives match what the cloud can deliver. The following are five best practices based on my experiences working with enterprise customers—from their initial exploration of cloud possibilities to the deployment of specific applications they’ve migrated to the cloud.
Best practice No. 1: Determine your cloud objectives