Category: News

Grazed from TechCrunch.  Author: Sharon Wagner.

A lot can happen in a year, and in the world of cloud computing, 2014 was a breakout one. Cloud adoption finally experienced a tornado of demand that swept up large enterprises en masse. Yet as businesses move services to the cloud and increasingly depend on third-party vendors, important questions should be answered around who is responsible for managing these services and how service quality should be measured.

The main objective of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) is to clearly define relationships and set expectations for adequate service levels between the buyer and the seller. In the case of the cloud, this would be the cloud provider and the cloud consumer. A traditional SLA is a rigid and custom contract with complicated legalese focused around operational metrics provided by IT and using IT internal resources…

Grazed from PFhub.  Author:  Kaitlin Longmire.

Apple will use iCloud to store Biometric data from Apple Pay; according to the iPhone maker, the move is being made to ensure a seamless process of mobile payment when using the Apple Pay service. To ensure a secure data verification system, instead of storing information on the device only, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will also store fingerprint data of users on its iCloud – Apple Inc.’s own cloud service.

This is just a plan at this stage; Apple as of yet has not started storing this data because this initiative raises a lot of questions in terms of user security and privacy. Information about the possibility of the move was revealed by a reliable website, which got hold of a recent patent bought by the tech giant with information about the coveted move…

Grazed from NationalGazette.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Last year software program maker K2.com stopped relying on Amazon.com (AMZN) for its cloud services and turned to Microsoft (MSFT) instead. K2 Chief Executive Officer Adriaan van Wyk says he’s satisfied with the choice—most of the time. The developer tools of Microsoft’s Azure cloud service are superior, he says, and he likes its customized customer service.

However occasionally Azure is slow, and on Nov. 18 it suffered a international outage that lasted several hours. As insurance coverage, Van Wyk has moved five % of his business enterprise back to Amazon Internet Services. “We still like Microsoft,” he says. “At the similar time, it’s been a bit bumpy. The 5 % makes certain if we have to move back to AWS we can do it rapidly.”…

Grazed from CIO.  Author: Tony Pagliarulo.

As we began the New Year, industry prognosticators and research firms published their lists of major technology predictions and trends that could have a major impact on organizations in 2015.  We continued to hear about the growing impact of “big data”, the “Internet of things”, cloud computing, and the increasing impact of emerging technologies such as 3D printing, wearables and smart machines.

My research and discussions with dozens of CIOs and line of business executives over the past year indicate that the strategic importance of IT and the role of the CIO continue to grow in importance.  Organizations are willing to invest more in technology; however they are expecting a significant increase in business results and at a much faster speed…

Grazed from TopTechNews.  Author: Shirley Siluk.

With such a variety of unified communications (UC) services now available, enterprise Relevant Products/Services IT managers and telecom directors need to consider a whole host of factors to choose the best option. Let’s take a look first at what unified communications can do for your enterprise, and then consider some of the key decision points you may need to address when selecting a UC system or provider.

Starting with the Basics

Unified communications technology enables users to communicate in either real time or non-real time, switching seamlessly from one form of communications to another — for example, sending an instant message to someone who just left a voicemail. Systems for unified communications also enable users to collaborate more easily across an organization, from department to department, and from one location to multiple others…

Grazed from TechTimes.  Author: Christian de Looper

Amazon Web Services, the e-tailer’s cloud business, has been holding tight to a leadership position but all that could change as the Internet of Things, with all its data, arrives like a gale force into the consumer and enterprise environments.

One industry watcher is questioning whether Amazon will survive as a cloud services provider given the e-tailer has a short window to re-strategize its cloud business model due to the Internet of Things (IoT), which is the interconnection of uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices collecting data from every point possible…

Grazed from BusinessTimes.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Microsoft agreed to buy startup Revolution Analytics, which makes tools to sift through data, to help the company build up its cloud-services business.  Terms weren’t disclosed. The deal was driven by the growing volumes of data that companies are contending with and the need for more software that can help analyze the information, Microsoft said in a blog post on Friday. Revolution Analytics, based in Mountain View, California, makes a statistics programming language called R that helps analyze data.

Microsoft is competing with companies such as Google and Amazon.com Inc. to provide computer services over the Internet, which is known as cloud computing. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has made the cloud a priority as he tries to reinvigorate the Redmond, Washington-based software company…

Read more from the source @ http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/technology/microsoft-agrees-to-buy-revolution-analytics-to-boost-cloud

Grazed from Business2Community.  Author: Lance Wright.

As cyber security becomes a larger focal point in the media and minds of online shoppers, consumers understandably have increasing concerns when it comes to what protections are offered by retailers. Across channels, only 55% of shoppers think retailers use security systems that adequately protect their data, and not surprisingly so.

In fact, Trustwave reports that data breaches increased by 53.6% from 2012 to 2013, with more than half of thosebreaches targeting ecommerce sites. Of special concern is highly sensitive data, including credit card numbers andpersonally identifiable information. But with customer expectations on the rise and IT budgets commonly on thefall, how can retailers meet the security needs of today’s digital environment? For many organizations, turning to cloud-based commerce solutions helps fill the gap…

Grazed from HuffingtonPost.  Author: Matt Sheehan.

A year ago, few outside of China knew the name Jack Ma. Today, he’s the most sought after man at Davos. The founder and face of Alibaba Group, “the Steve Jobs of China,” the richest man in Asia — Ma’s appellations are as numerous as the industries he is conquering.

Alibaba Group is a sprawling Internet empire that took on some of America’s leading online titans — and won. Its consumer-to-consumer platform (Taobao) routed then-goliath Ebay, and its business-to-consumer megastore (Tmall.com) dominates Amazon. Alibaba has ventured into mobile payments, cloud computing, social media, and is now testing streaming international content. The company is second only to Walmart in global transactions, and its $25 billion initial public stock offering last fall was the largest in history…

Grazed from BizJournals. Author: Mike W. Thomas.

The National Science Foundation is funding a partnership between the University of Texas at San Antonio and other universities that will work with open cloud technology to develop advanced computing systems for scientists and engineers. The participating universities, along with other scientific institutions, will share $6.6 million grant money.

UTSA’s Cloud and Big Data Laboratory will participate in the project known as Jetstream — which will be based at Indiana University’s Pervasive Technology Institute and the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Advanced Computing Center…