Category: News

Grazed from DataPipe.  Author: Chris Bateman.

The rise of big data analytics was a game-changer for just about every industry. For years, businesses have possessed tremendous amounts of raw, unstructured data that they thought was more or less unusable, as there was no way to glean valuable insight from the information in this form.

With advanced big data analytics, though, this was no longer the case. Quickly, enterprises began to leverage these big data resources, gaining unprecedented insight into their markets, as well as their own operations.  Now, increasingly, big data analytics’ impact is growing, thanks to accelerating influence of cloud computing…

Grazed from LogicWorks.  Author: Editorial Staff.

What are the top CIO challenges in 2015? According to a survey reported yesterday on CIO.com, security, downtime, and staffing top the list of workplace issues “keeping CIOs up at night.”

No surprises there. After a flurry of recent high-profile cyber-attacks and internal security breaches, the majority of CIO executives will ramp up the security and availability of their systems in 2015, according to the report. Unfortunately, this often means that teams are scrambling to finish a checklist of CIO security concerns to patch up the most immediate vulnerabilities, rather than taking a longer view and building rigorous and monitored security practices into all layers of their IT deployments…

Grazed from TopTechNews.  Author: Jeremy Owens.

Silicon Valley’s cloudy outlook for software Relevant Products/Services grew stronger in 2014, as Salesforce and Workday sales continued to pile up, and investors bet Wednesday that the growth will continue in 2015 and beyond.

Salesforce, a pioneer in software-as-a-service offerings, topped $5 billion in annual revenues for the first time thanks to a fourth quarter that exactly matched analysts’ expectations for both adjusted profits and revenues, according to Thomson Reuters calculations. The San Francisco company reported a quarterly loss of $65.8 million, or 10 cents a share, on sales of $1.44 billion in its fourth quarter, which stretched to Jan. 31; after adjusting for stock-based compensation and other costs, Salesforce said profits were 14 cents a share…

Grazed from SysConMedia.  Author: Ian Khan.

Creating global change that is actually good for the entire world is a mammoth task. A population of almost 7 billion as of 2015 is taking its toll on the planet, as it  survives the brunt of keeping the works going. What role can cloud computing play in making it easier for all of us?  Did you know that:

• There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than at any point in the last 800,000 years.
• In total, the U.S. emits approximately 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year. Forty-percent of that comes from power plant emissions alone.
• Every day 70 million tons of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere…

Grazed from CloudComputing.Net.  Author:  James Bourne.

It was one of the most fascinating battles of 2013: who would win the lucrative CIA cloud computing contract? Two horses were in the race, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM; and it was the former who eventually came out on top despite appeals from the latter.  Now, according to CIA chief information officer Doug Wolfe, the AWS cloud has attained “final operational capability”.

As reported by Enterprise Tech, Wolfe told delegates at an industry event this week the CIA cloud would be “offset” on a private security network, and AWS had “made a big investment” in the project.  The AWS cloud will be unleashed across 17 US intelligence agencies according to the report, with Wolfe noting the CIA was “behind where [they] hoped to be” in terms of cloud adoption…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Michael Krigsman.

A survey of IT leaders regarding their expectations of cloud computing, sponsored by Tata Communications, offers unsurprising, perhaps obvious, conclusions. Despite the boring data, an exciting truth does emerge – cloud can help make the CIO and IT more relevant to the business.

For this report, market researchers, Vanson Bourne, "conducted a total of 1000 interviews with senior IT decision-makers in private organisations of 500 employees or more," during September and October 2014. Although the report mentions "interviews," it appears these were online survey responses rather than face-to-face interviews:…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: David Needle.

Much work remains to be done if security breaches such as those at Sony Pictures Entertainment and health insurer Anthem are to become a rare event. That was the consensus of security vendors speaking at the OnCloud 2015 conference here this week. While malicious hackers will continue working to crack the latest security schemes, Barmak Meftah, CEO of AlienVault said security could be greatly enhanced by enterprises sharing more information.

“Imagine if we had a way to share threat data around the world,” he said. “For once we could be more proactive rather than reactive.” Only recently have companies become more forthcoming about data breaches, thanks largely to legislation and social media giving consumers an outlet to quickly spread the news that their personal accounts have been hacked and private information exposed…

See more at: http://www.eweek.com/cloud/security-vendors-say-new-technologies-needed-to-to-bolster-cloud-defenses.html#sthash.yxzdpxqR.dpuf

Grazed from TechRadar.  Author: Alistair Forbes.

Over the last several years, the discussions amongst enterprises about the advantages and disadvantages of various cloud models have filtered through to decision-makers in businesses across the UK. Perception, as the adage goes, is reality.

Executives have heard of enterprises fearing that cloud-based solutions can result in sacrificing security, privacy and control of business-critical data, but they have equally seen examples of enterprises relying on cloud computing and enjoying many forms of competitive advantage such as savings in time and cost…

Grazed from BusinessWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) today announced the creation of the Open Cloud Institute, an initiative to develop degree programs in cloud computing and big data and foster collaboration with industry, positioning UTSA and San Antonio as world leaders in open cloud technology.

Through the 80/20 Foundation and other industry supporters, the Open Cloud Institute will launch with initial gifts and in-kind investments of $9 million. The foundation has committed $4.8 million to support four endowed professorships, up to two faculty research positions, 10 graduate student endowments and research funding…

Grazed from MSPMentor.  Author: Michael Brown.

Will 2015 be the year the cloud gets past the hype? While cloud-based file sharing and other cloud services are being adopted by almost all businesses, the cloud is still in the early stages of its technological revolution. Whether it is personal computers, the internet, or 3D printing, every new technology goes through a period of hype and disillusionment before the really productive innovation takes place.

Gartner calls this the Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies. According to Gartner, cloud computing has already passed the inflated expectations people had about it and everyone is beginning to become disillusioned by it…