Category: News

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

Compliance may not be quite the hot topic it was a few years ago when regulations such as HIPAA and SOX came into being, but it’s still of critical importance to many businesses—and particularly to their customers, who would generally prefer not to have their personal information lost or intercepted. Cloud and managed services provider ViaWest knows this, and has expanded its reporting services for its customers using its data centers.

ViaWest typically provides a variety of SSAE 16 (formerly SAS 70) reports to customers, and now it’s expanding that portfolio to include dual-standard SSAE 16 and ISAE 3402 SOC 1 Type II, SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, PCI reports on compliance for Sections 9 and 12, as well as HIPAA reports for physical controls…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Srikanth RP.

The immense potential of the Indian SMB market is well known. Market research firm, Zinnov, says that with over 50 million units, India has the largest number of SMBs across the world. While a majority of SMBs in this sector have global aspirations, they are way behind in technology adoption – a vital parameter for competing against global players.

While this sector wants to use technology, a majority of SMBs seldom adopt technology as they are either too expensive or too cumbersome to deploy. The cloud is a perfect technology for SMBs as it gives them the ability to conserve cash, and scale without technology infrastructure restrictions…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Rick Blaisdell.

When it comes to cloud computing, expectations are high for 2013. Businesses of all sizes are putting their hopes into cloud computing technologies and services to help them deliver business value while reducing operating costs. According to a recent Foresights survey nearly 50% of all enterprises in North America and Europe will set aside budgets for cloud investments in 2013. Also, 50% of software development companies are planning to deploy applications in the cloud. Let’s see what analysts and researchers expect from the cloud computing market in 2013:

Cloud technology will reach more customers in 2013

The cloud computing marketplace will reach $16.7B in revenue by 2013, including the large and well-established software-as-a-service (SaaS) category, according to a research report by 451 Market Monitor, compared to a revenue of $8.7B in 2010…

Grazed from Wired. Author: Edwin Schouten.

You’d think that by now, since we started talking about the term cloud computing back in 2008, we’d all know what its characteristics are and how it’s consumed and delivered. This, however, does not seem to be the case, even though there are some great recaps out there. I just read the Computerworld UK post, CIOs frustrated by ‘fake’ cloud services. But this is not unique to cloud alone. Think of SOA for instance, which was never really understood by the public at large.

In my opinion, this has to do with the fact that some of the large IT companies “define their own standards” and interpretations of information technology. Marketing teams at companies sometimes use different terms and abbreviations to add a false sense of uniqueness. They can also “interpret” well-known terms and abbreviations freely to suggest false similarities. This makes it more difficult for IT consumers to compare individual solutions on facts and capabilities…

Grazed from International Law Office. Author: Fiona Wilson and Oliver Bray.

The recent rise of cloud computing – both for businesses and at consumer level – is providing a decent challenge for the regulators tasked with applying established data protection principles to this new and fast-developing industry.

Until last year there had been little guidance at UK or EU level. However, in July 2012 the Article 29 Working Party – the independent advisory body made up of data protection regulators from across the EU member states – released its Opinion on Cloud Computing (05/2012). This was closely followed by guidance from the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO’s Guidance on the Use of Cloud Computing was published in September 2012…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Tom Nolle.

By all appearances, 2012 seemed to be a good year for cloud computing. In addition to being the darling of the media for all of last year, the cloud gained a lot of ground in terms of the number of businesses that have adopted cloud computing in some form. But despite this traction, the cloud is still largely a spectator sport for providers from a financial perspective. Even by optimistic estimates, the market has realized less than 1% of its total opportunity.

Cloud providers or prospective providers are concerned; how can a service already be turning into a commodity when it’s hardly begun to succeed? Fortunately, key improvements on both the buyer and seller sides of a cloud transaction will drive the future of cloud computing in 2013…

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Maureen O’Gara.

Storage titan EMC has quietly acquired Texas-based iWave Software, whose Automator suite streamlines the provisioning and management of storage systems, data centers and private clouds. No price was mentioned.

It will be another Storage-as-a-Service ornament for EMC’s Advanced Storage Division. EMC uses iWave widgetry in its VMAX Service Provider Platform. Users can provision, remove and extend block storage for Linux, VMware ESX servers and VMware clusters. The news got out through a posting by iWave Brent Rhymes, who’s of course "thrilled" with the acquisition…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Chris Kanaracus.

Zoho continues to flesh out the feature set of its cloud-based CRM (customer relationship management) application, adding a new document library, advanced email filtering, and location-aware mobile applications.

The features, which were announced Tuesday, come about a year after Zoho launched an update that featured an overhauled user interface, integration with LinkedIn and a social network-like feature called Pulse. Zoho CRM’s new Documents module provides salespeople with a central point for sharing sales-related materials, such as proposals and advertisements, with access controlled according to an individual’s role. Professional Edition customers get 250MB of storage per user, while Enterprise version customers receive 500MB…

Grazed from Business Wire. Author: PR Announcement.

Global Knowledge, the worldwide leader in IT and business skills training, today announced the availability of Cloud: Roadmap to Success: An Interactive Workshop. In the one-day workshop, cloud computing decision makers will learn what it takes to successfully implement cloud computing from their industry peers who have done it. Through a moderated question-and-answer format, participants will be engaged in a guided conversation with cloud computing veterans that is structured around the key decisions IT managers face when implementing cloud computing. Panelists include executives with real-world corporate cloud responsibilities and experience and cloud subject matter experts with wide industry views.

“Anyone who has to ‘do cloud’ is going to benefit from this workshop, whether he or she is just starting to implement cloud computing or is well on the way,” explained Hank Marquis, cloud solutions practice director at Global Knowledge. “Along with teaching participants things their peers have done to be successful, we’ll teach them what to avoid as well.”…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Jordan Shapiro.

At just $199, the Acer C7 Chromebook seems like the perfect kids’ computer. When I was a kid, my whole family shared one Apple IIc. All the graphics were green. The software that taught me touch typing came on multiple floppy disks. Print Shop was my favorite way to make use of the dot matrix printer. The internet was not accessible.

My kids obviously live in a different time. Their world is saturated with personal computing. At five and seven years old, they are already familiar with “Google” as a verb. They are tablet savvy, navigating Minecraft in ways that are puzzling to me. And they have their own gmail accounts. When other parents hear me talking about emails that my son sent, their first reaction is a smile. It seems cute. However, they also express understandable worry that the internet is filled with predators and cyber-bullying…