Category: News

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Ellyne Phneah.

Singapore has slipped to fourth place from third in the Cloud Readiness Index 2012, dragged down by below average scores in data privacy, and power grid and green policy. According to the report by Asia’s Cloud Computing Association (ACCA) released Tuesday, the country scored the highest in areas such as data sovereignty, e-government and ICT prioritization, and intellectual property (IP) protection. It ranked second international connectivity and fourth for broadband quality.

The index measures 14 Asia-Pacific countries and markets using ten different measures covering regulatory issues such as data protection, infrastructure areas such as broadband and the broader business and government environment…

Grazed from PRWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Storing your data in the cloud means you can access it from anywhere – but so can others. Last week’s resignation of CIA director General David Petraeus is due to him and his ex-mistress not understanding this fact.

The past year has seen an enormous promotion of cloud computing by corporate giants like Apple, Microsoft and Google. Microsoft’s Windows 8 has their Skydrive cloud platform built-in. Apple’s new iPhone and Macbooks link to iCloud. Google goes further, producing a cloud-only notebook called the Chromebook. Users store photos, emails and documents – or in the case of Petraeus, intimate letters. However, in this rush the get into the cloud, the security of users is often ignored…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Cloudability says its analytics can cut your overall cloud services cost. Available now for Amazon Web Services, support is coming for other major cloud service providers, A raft of companies have sprung up to help companies get a better grip on their cloud spend.

Cloudability, which helps users ascertain costs of a wide range of cloud-based services, is now making its analytics broadly available for Amazon Web Services with support to come for an array of other cloud services. The Portland, Oregon-based startup says its new analytics provide a picture of actual AWS use and generates reports of actual use, recommending actions to save money…

Grazed from Digi International. Author: PR Announcement.

Digi International announced the purchase of Chicago-based Etherios, Inc., a salesforce.com Platinum Partner and creator of The Social Machine, a revolutionary new cloud-based method for integrating machines into core business processes via the Salesforce Service Cloud. Combining the iDigi Device Cloud with The Social Machine will enable almost any machine, anywhere in the world, to connect rapidly and easily to the Service Cloud. By enabling real-time machine interactions with organizations’ workflows, customers will be able to benefit dramatically through improved asset management, greater machine uptime and the ability to offer proactive customer service.

“Etherios is a world-class cloud computing services provider with hundreds of successful domestic and global deployments,” said Joe Dunsmore, CEO, Digi International. “We believe Digi’s deep device expertise combined with Etherios’ ability to integrate devices directly into an organization’s core business processes via the industry’s leading cloud-based CRM system can be an M2M game changer.”…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Michael Lee.

Speaking at VMWare’s vForum 2012 in Sydney today, IBM program director for Cloud Computing Client Engagements Dan Carr said that the maturity of cloud services has meant that businesses not only have traditional records-based applications to move to the cloud, but that new types of applications are being born out of the mobile and social boom that the internet is experiencing.

Carr said that customers that have come to him in the past four years have become increasingly concerned with the ability to align how they use the cloud with how fast their business is moving, saying that not only do they want to increase the efficiency of how they use the cloud, but also the ability in which they produce cloud application…

Grazed from ITWorld Canada. Author: Brian Bloom.

Governments in countries around the world are struggling to come up with a coherent doctrine for cyber-warfare. Based on what we’ve seen, an attack on by an enemy country’s on a government or military network isn’t viewed as gravely as an enemy launching mortar shells at a command post. The latter would almost certainly lead to a shooting war, whereas the former has been tacitly accepted as espionage rather than the opening of outright hostilities.

But what happens when enemy (or unfriendly) countries launch cyber-attacks that damage physical infrastructure (as the Stuxnet virus is widely believed to have done in Iran), or terrorists cause economic damage? Is it time to fuel up the bombers?…

Grazed from ChinaTechNews. Author: Editorial Staff.

Alibaba’s cloud computing platform’s five systems, including cloud computing, large-scale storage, cloud network, data crunching, and Yun OS, will be integrated and renamed the Feitian platform. Wang Jian, president and chief technology officer for Aliyun.com, told local developers of the company’s move at a developer conference.

At present, Amazon has already achieved profit in the global cloud computing market, and many companies, including Apple, use Amazon’s cloud computing services. In China, Alibaba, Huawei, and Shanda provide cloud computing services to developers. Due to the largest investment in the early stages, Aliyun.com has not yet made any profit…

Grazed from NextGov. Author: Josh Smith.

The FBI’s digital detective work not only brought down CIA Director David Petraeus, it also provided rare insights into the bureau’s latest methods for tracking people across cyberspace and the fight over government surveillance. Petraeus resigned suddenly on Friday, citing an affair that was uncovered after FBI agents followed an electronic trail that eventually linked the former Army general to his biographer, Paula Broadwell. The explosive combination of sex and spies was only embellished by the details of how federal officials stumbled across the liaison.

“Anyone more alarmed by FBI snooping through a journalist’s emails & investigating the sex life of CIA Dir. than who Petraeus was schtupping?” New Yorker Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza tweeted on Sunday. “FBI SPIED ON CIA DIRECTOR, WOMAN; EMAILS?” blared a headline on theDrudge Report…

Grazed from The Register. Author: Natalie Apostolou.

Australia and New Zealand’s limited international connectivity has cast a shadow over both market’s cloud computing competitiveness against their Asian neighbours. According to the Cloud Readiness Index (CRI), an annual study produced by the Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA), Australia has slipped three positions in the rankings due to its perceived limited international bandwidth, where it ranked second last.

While Australia scores highly in data privacy and data sovereignty its overall competitiveness in the cloud stakes sees it trail Japan, which secured top ranking followed by Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore Taiwan and New Zealand…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: J. Nicholas Hoover.

President Barack Obama’s first term was marked by ambitious IT reform initiatives in cybersecurity, cloud computing, mobility, project management and more. With his reelection, Obama’s focus must now shift to finishing what he started.

On his first day in office in 2009, Obama signaled that IT would be high on his agenda when he issued a memo calling on federal agencies to "harness new technologies" to promote open government. It remains to be seen if he will launch a tech policy of similar scope on day one of his second term, but there’s already enough to keep the federal CIO and federal CTO — positions created in Obama’s first term — busy pushing those existing programs forward…