Category: News

Grazed from MSP News.  Author: Kerry Doyle.

Cloud computing is continuing its penetration into the global business realm. Companies recognize that it is far more than a better IT solution; rather, they see it as a better business solution. That said cloud sourcing, or choosing a services provider, is a complex undertaking fraught with risks and challenges. How do you get it right? What about sensitive data in the cloud? These kinds of questions have been addressed by CipherCloud which provides a unified cloud encryption gateway that encrypts sensitive data in real time before it’s sent to the cloud.

The recent announcement of a new partnership between Cloud Sherpas and CipherCloud will introduce CipherCloud’s encryption gateway technology to Cloud Sherpas’ customer base while expanding geographical and vertical markets for both companies. Founded in 2008, Cloud Sherpas, a leader in the Cloud Service Provider market (CSP (News – Alert)), was recently named the Google Enterprise 2011 Partner of the Year. This was based in part on their deep-rooted commitment to Google technologies and customer success, as evidenced by the number of Google (News – Alert) Apps Certified Deployment Specialists engaged throughout its organization…

Grazed from Bottom Line.  Author: Samuel Greengard.

Amid all the noise and chaos about cloud computing and how it is transforming the enterprise, it’s important to ponder how significantly the cloud is altering the way people work and interact on a personal level.

Over the last few years, iCloud, SkyDrive, Dropbox, Box and Sugarsync have created much easier ways to manage and sync data across different devices, including smartphones and tablets. Now Google has entered the fray with Google Drive…

Grazed from CIO.  Author: Bernard Golden.

A year ago, when discussing an organization’s cloud strategy, I heard a consistent theme that "our focus is on creating a private cloud." Sometimes stated, sometimes unstated or sometimes said under an executive’s breath was the objective of curtailing developer use of public cloud computing. The target of that objective most commonly was Amazon Web Services.

I always felt that the characterization that attributed the "public cloud problem" to rogue developers was misplaced. It is true that many developers embraced Amazon Web Services for its easy resource availability and low cost — a.k.a. its "agility." However, to presume that the issue is caused by individuals offered (or coerced into using) a private cloud is to fundamentally misunderstand the phenomenon of "shadow IT," as it is sometimes pejoratively called…

Grazed from CNN.  Author: Juliet Mann.

Europe’s struggling economies could find themselves thrown a lifeline from the "cloud," according to Microsoft International’s president Jean-Philippe Courtois.

Cloud computing — where businesses access computing services from a centralized provider, rather than owning their own infrastructure — could be the key to kick-starting Europe’s struggling economies, Courtois told CNN.

The shift in technology is the biggest in the past decade, and can transform the way businesses can operate, he added…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Paul Sangster.

Today, security is undoubtedly the biggest risk and negative side effect to cloud computing. Fortunately, the status quo is about to change. The Trusted Computing Group (TCG), a not-for-profit organization that has developed open standards for computers, networks, storage and mobile devices to improve enterprise and personal security, is now focusing its attention on cloud computing security. The hardware basis of trust for many aspects of TCG’s standards is the Trusted Platform Module, or TPM.

For a virtualized trusted platform, a virtual TPM (vTPM) and all the associated architecture have been defined to provide protection for virtual machines paralleling the hardware-rooted security offered on non-virtualized platforms. While the standard was only recently released, it represents the culmination of a decade-long effort by TCG members to increase financial, medical, government and other organizations’ trust in electronic information processing, communication and control…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

NetSuite Inc, the industry’s leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP software suites, today announced the latest partners to join the NetSuite Solution Provider Program. The high-profile Value Added Resellers (VARs) with long, established histories with on-premise ERP such as Microsoft Dynamics GP and Sage, that decided to embrace the tidal wave of demand generated by NetSuite’s enterprise cloud computing solutions include BCG Systems, NEO3, LLC., MIG & Co. and TAG. Each of these new partners recognizes that the disruptive innovation of cloud computing has reached critical mass and that opportunities for sustainable growth are within the cloud, as the number of global enterprises moving away from on-premise solutions continues to grow.

Partnering with NetSuite enables these firms to capitalize on the growing market demand for cloud offerings, by providing them access to a world-class development platform, as well as a superior line-up of cloud business management solutions, including NetSuite’s core integrated suite that combines ERP / financials, customer relationship management (CRM), Ecommerce, Services Resource Planning (SRP), and NetSuite OneWorld–a cloud computing solution which enables multinational and multi-subsidiary companies to manage their global financial consolidation and business operations. Many of the new partners from the on-premise world have closed their first major cloud deals on NetSuite within weeks of joining the program, as customers are looking for the efficiencies, flexibility and cost benefits of the cloud…

Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Florence de Borja.

With the continuous monitoring of trends and updates for cloud computing, service providers will be able to avoid expensive mistakes. These providers won’t be able to miss any opportunity the market is offering for the succeeding years. Gartner Inc., a world-renowned advisory and research company in the field of information technology, has outlined five trends which can affect cloud strategy up to 2015.

According to David Cearly, Gartner fellow and vice president, cloud computing has changed the ways businesses and individuals choose to deliver or acquire IT services with less emphasis on traditional hardware and software licensing constraints. It has made an important effect on every facet of IT and the way users use business, information, and applications services. According to another Gartner fellow and vice president, David Mitchell Smith, due to the rapid change and evolution of cloud computing technologies and trends, cloud computing service providers have continuously misunderstood the cloud as they use it as a marketing term.  Because of the level of change, uncertainty, confusion, and impact, Gartner has released 5 trends which will enable cloud computing to accelerate, shift, or reach a tipping point until 2015…

Grazed from PRWeb.  Author: PR Announcement.

ChannelCloud, the pioneer in providing comprehensive, private, managed cloud solutions for IT professionals, today announced its silver-level sponsorship of the Citrix Synergy™ event in San Francisco May 9-11, 2012.

The Citrix Synergy 2012 conference is dedicated to open sharing of the latest technology trends in the cloud era and will include case studies, instructor-led and self-paced learning labs, as well as insight about the power and potential of the cloud era…

Grazed from Business Insider.  Author: Julie Bort.

Cloud computing, the idea that all kinds of computing can be delivered totally over the Internet, is changing everything.  It affects our daily lives … you don’t have to go into the office to grab a file. You can share stuff with anyone across any device.

It affects billions of dollars in IT spending. Enterprises are quickly moving from buying stuff to renting what they need.  One day, it may even make the PC as we know it irrelevant.

But none of this is going to happen on its own. Right now, its all being figured out by the companies building clouds. They’ve got a wide range of tactics — from giving stuff away for free to owning more of everything…

Grazed from PC Quest.  Author:  Sufyan bin Uzayr.

Of late, cloud computing has taken the IT world by a storm. More and more businesses are migrating to the cloud instead of local storage. Not only is cloud-based storage cheaper and requires lesser maintenance, it also fosters greater collaboration and data sharing capabilities.

Both Google and Amazon are now offering attractive cloud services for businesses and organizations. The service is extremely reliable; your data is stored across multiple servers and can be seamlessly shared among all your employees and clients.

At this junction, with cloud computing on the rise, questions are being raised about security issues. For a start, any data stored on an intranet/internet, no matter how big or small, can be subject to malicious hackers. However, generally speaking, cloud based storage has often been under the attack of tech critics claiming it to be an insecure medium for storage of data. Thus, while more and more organizations are shifting to cloud-based storage for managing their data, there are talks about Google suffering outages (see http://goo.gl/O7YxX) thereby proving the inability of the cloud to be a reliable medium for business usage…