Category: News

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Beth Pariseau.

From AppScale to Zillabytes, a plethora of cloud computing startups have emerged in recent years. There are three ways to go from here: acquisition, IPO or failure. Thus, IT pros considering products from a cloud computing startup should also closely examine the company’s funding, market segment and partner ecosystem before they buy.

Identifying the source of funding for CliQr Technologies Inc. was important for Robert Banks, director of PZFlex, a virtual prototyping company based in Mountain View, Calif. that uses CliQr’s CloudCenter software to manage clouds hosted by Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Rackspace Inc…

Grazed from SmartDataCollective. Author: Asher Ross.

The benefits of the cloud, such as lower costs, scalability and flexibility, are numerous. But while SMEs have enthusiastically embraced the cloud, large companies have been more reluctant to invest in this technology. It’s time for change: the cloud has advantages for the company and also of greater magnitude will see CIOs essential as a way to secure the future of their organizations.

CIOs are increasingly warming to the cloud. A survey in May this year by the analyst firm Research found that 92 percent of CIOs and IT professionals think the cloud is good for business. The same survey also found that only 31 percent of companies that describe their infrastructure is mainly based on the cloud, indicating a rejection among most organizations to take positive steps towards cloud adoption. Seems that if larger the company, the greater the resistance…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Mary K. Pratt.

The CIO at Utah State University, Hawley says he and his team must serve the university’s employees and deliver the tools they need. But he realizes that many of the school’s users are finding outside options, installing unsanctioned applications that they find easier to use. "People always gravitate to the most functional or least-cost solution. And in our ‘freemium’ world, those things are available by the dozen," he says.

Hawley says he suspects that employee use of unauthorized IT tools is particularly prevalent these days, as telecommuting and bring-your-own-device policies become increasingly common. People everywhere are becoming more mobile. Empowered first by company-issued laptops and now by their own smartphones and tablets, employees of all stripes want to do their work from any location at any time with any device, and they’re turning to the cloud to help them do it — using hosted services to share, store and sync work files with just a click…

Grazed from Marketwire. Author: PR Announcement.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) today unveiled the speaker line up and presentations for its upcoming CISO APAC Forum to be held December 17-18 at The Venetian Macau. The announcement was made at a press conference today hosted jointly with Macau SAR Bureau of Telecommunications Regulation (DSRT), Macao Computer Society (MCS) and attended by leaders of CSA Hong Kong and Macau Chapter.

Designed to be a gathering of the world’s leading minds in information security and definitive authorities in cloud computing, the CSA CISO APAC Forum will be the CSA’s first main event in East Asia, having held both the first CSA CISO APAC Forum last November and the inaugural CSA Congress APAC this past May in Singapore. This year’s event will address, through presentations, case studies and first-hand experiences, some of the most controversial and debated topics in cloud security including panels on Cryptography and Privacy as a Business Model; Governmental Cloud Strategy and Experience Sharing; Big Data & Emerging Threats Experiences; Emerging Cyber Threats & Securing the Cloud; and The CISO Report 2013 and CISO Guide by OWASP…

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: Marissa Tejada.

Cloud computing has become an important part of the most reliable and effective disaster recovery solutions. That is proven by the fact that disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) is growing in popularity as more and more organizations become comfortable with cloud deployments. DRaaS is a big consideration for midsize firms as they seek solutions to ensure that their precious data is safe no matter what disaster may occur.

More Disaster Recovery Adoption

According to analyst firm Gartner, more than 30 percent of midsize companies will have adopted cloud-based disaster recovery (DR) by next year. Gartner’s findings, recently featured in InfoTech Spotlight, also outlined the key benefits of using cloud computing for DR. Cost savings is one big benefit. Additionally, firms may reduce their recovery testing. The study points out that reduced complexity at start-up is also important and that organizations will put DRaaS in place to support critical applications and those that require short recovery times…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Darryl K. Taft.

Splunk recently announced Splunk Cloud, a new service that delivers Splunk Enterprise in the cloud. However, at least one competitor is asking whether Splunk Cloud is a cop-out. In a blog post, Charlie Oppenheimer, CEO of Spunk competitor Loggly, claims that Splunk has given up on Software as a Service (SaaS).

“It appears that Splunk has thrown in the towel on Software as a Service (SaaS) and replaced Splunk Storm with a hosted software model,” Oppenheimer said in his post. “We were always skeptical that a company with such a phenomenally successful enterprise software business would disrupt its own business with a serious SaaS offering. And with today’s announcement of Splunk Cloud now it seems that the doubts were justified.” Splunk officials declined to comment on Oppenheimer’s claims…

Grazed from MarketWatch. Author: Editorial Staff.

IBM Corp. IBM -0.58% was downgraded to an equal-weight rating by Barclays on Monday morning. In a note to clients prior to the opening bell, analyst Ben Reitzes wrote of the impact of cloud computing and the growth of software-as-a-service, or SaaS, "which seem to adversely impact all of IBM’s segments in some way." He said his report was not a call about the company’s second half of the 2013 fiscal year.

"It is increasingly clear to us that investors will evaluate IBM on cash flow more than earnings until revenue starts to grow meaningfully," he wrote, cutting his price target on the stock to $190 from $215. IBM shares were last down 0.7% to $182.83 in morning trades on Monday…

Read more from the source @ http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ibm-downgraded-on-growing-threat-from-cloud-saas-2013-10-07?link=MW_latest_news

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Robert Malmrose.

Willie Sutton, the famous bank robber, is credited with robbing more than 100 banks between the late 1920s and the early 1950s, when he was arrested, convicted and imprisoned. Sutton stole more than $2 million during his prolific crime wave. In an article published in The Saturday Evening Post in January 1951, a reporter asked Sutton why he robbed banks, to which Sutton allegedly replied, "Because that’s where the money is." In his autobiography, Sutton denied that he actually he used those exact words, but then wrote, "That’s what almost anybody would say… it couldn’t be more obvious."

Modern-day bank robbers aren’t using masks and guns, but rather computers and social engineering. As businesses move their intellectual property and client data into cloud technologies, it’s clear that the new bank robbers are going to be found in the cloud. Why? The worldwide public cloud services market is growing tremendously. And they’re not just targeting banks anymore, but any company where they can find data to resell, disrupt or exploit…

Grazed from Jitscale. Author: PR Announcement.

The sudden closing of enterprise cloud storage provider Nirvanix has left more than 1,000 of their customers scrambling to quickly migrate data to new providers. Cloud infrastructure provider Jitscale today outlined some tips that will help companies keep their cloud-based data safe in the event of an unexpected disruption in service.

"While some skeptics have used the Nirvanix closure to bolster their belief that the cloud is not safe for a company’s data or platforms, Jitscale does not subscribe to this point of view," said Eelco van Beek, chief executive officer at Jitscale. "The benefits of the cloud are numerous and remain relevant, despite the failure of one company."…

Grazed from Diginomica. Author: Phil Wainwright.

Every security breach of third-party data harms public trust in cloud computing. Not only well-publicized mega-breaches like the theft of login data, encrypted credit card data and source code from Adobe, but also the word-of-mouth damage that arises every time an individual has their account hacked.

You’d think that cloud computing providers would go out of their way to minimize vulnerabilities. Of course they invest massive sums in securing their datacenters against direct attack. But most attacks today don’t come at the physical network perimeter. Why try and tear down the walls when you can just steal the keys and walk right in? Most attacks today gain access by stealing or cracking passwords that allow the hacker to assume a trusted user’s identity…