Category: News

Grazed from Cloud Computing.  Author: Editorial Staff.

The “Security Policy Management in Hybrid Cloud Environments” survey reveals the key network security management challenges organizations face when deploying business applications across hybrid on-premise/public cloud environments.

Key findings of the survey highlight the need for IT professionals to increase visibility across both on-premise and cloud platforms, create new workflows, reconsider team responsibilities and reexamine compliance processes so that they can continue to protect enterprise and ensure network security…

To view infographic and read more from the source, visit http://www.algosec.com/en/resources/security_policy_management_in_hybrid_cloud_environments_2014
 

Grazed from Midsize Insider.  Author: Kelley Katsanos.

Before midsize businesses reconsider using cloud services due to cloud computing security risks, they should assess security vulnerabilities and pinpoint core business activities potentially affected by cloud computing implementation. This will help determine if a move to the cloud is a step in the right direction, especially for those firms delaying cloud adoption due to security concerns.

Avoiding the Cloud

A recent study by the Ponemon Institute featured on Netskope indicates that 53 percent of European IT professionals feel that the chances of a data breach increase with the use of the cloud. A data breach can be costly, especially for midsize companies with limited budgets, and it may threaten a company’s competitive position and damage its reputation. Therefore, businesses need to ensure that proper security measures are in place in order to mitigate security risks…

Grazed from Seeking Alpha.  Author: Paulo Santos.

Usually, this would mostly go unnoticed. Google (GOOG, GOOGL) has slashed cloud computing prices yet again, by a further 10%. However, this time there will be an impact – on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN). The AWS economicsare turning into a large problem for Amazon.com.

The reason is simple. A large part of Amazon.com’s horrid Q3 2014 guidance, where the company recognized it might face an operating loss of $400 million to $800 million, was due to the price war AWS was facing. Indeed, Amazon.com had earlier recognized that its customers would be saving "hundreds of millions of dollars" due to the latest round in cloud computing price drops, also initiated by Google and matched by Amazon.com. The move also had an impact on Amazon.com’s revenue growth rate, with the "Other" category where AWS is included seeing a large drop in its year-on-year growth rate…

Grazed from Fortune.  Author: Michal Lev-Ram.

In the wake of the announcement of Windows 10, we talk to Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise group.

Much has already been written about Microsoft’s new Windows 10 and the reintroduction of its long-lost Start button after the company unveiled its updated flagship operating system on Tuesday morning. The new OS may provide a much-needed advance over its predecessor, Windows 8, but it is unlikely to restore Microsoft  MSFT -0.52%  to its former glory as the operating system of choice for computing devices—certainly not in an era where tablets and smartphones have largely supplanted the PC in terms of attention…

Grazed from NewsWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Award-winning cloud services provider SherWeb today announced the highly anticipated official launch of its Performance Cloud, which has been available on a limited basis since May. Included in this announcement is SherWeb’s most recent industry benchmarking data comparing SherWeb’s public cloud solution with that of Google, Amazon and Rackspace. SherWeb’s UnixBench score of 2178 versus Amazon’s 1444 for overall server performance makes SherWeb’s on-demand cloud servers by far the fastest among market leaders.

The long-time hosting provider says its new Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution fills a major void in the market and that channel demand has been particularly strong. Unlike competing offers, SherWeb’s Performance Cloud Servers do not make enterprise or SMB end-user organizations compromise performance for cost, or vice versa…

Grazed from Computing.co.uk.  Author: Sooraj Shah.

"Curiosity" and a willingness to learn new skills will be key for IT staff who want to remain in demand as organisations make the leap to cloud services.  That is according to a number of IT decision makers, who were speaking on Computing‘s Question Time, a live set of webinars focusing on how the role of the CIO is changing as cloud services become more widely adopted.

One of the supposed reasons why many IT teams have been slow to embrace cloud services is that they feel they might be signing their own redundancy notices. Tony Morgan, executive architect at IBM, believes that those managing the service desk will be most at risk.  But he urged IT employees to become more flexible, building up their business-facing skills, in particular, in order to reduce the risk of facing the axe…

Grazed from PCWorld.  Author: Joab Jackson.

Earlier this month, Microsoft quietly appointed software architect Mark Russinovich as chief technology officer for its Azure cloud computing platform, formalizing a role he’s been executing for the past several years.  It was a smart appointment not the least because it may help ease any remaining concerns of system administrators reluctant to take on Microsoft’s cloud platform as part of their job duties. Among the Microsoft faithful, Russinovich has serious geek credibility. If Russinovich is behind the gears at Azure, it must be O.K.

Russinovich has long been one of the most popular speakers at Microsoft’s Build and TechEd technical conferences, thanks to his clear, cogent explanations of the company’s technologies. Russinovich joined the company in 2006, after Microsoft purchased his enterprise software company, Winternals Software, which offered a line of Windows repair tools that many found superior to Microsoft’s own…

Grazed from ComputerWeekly.  Author: Clive Longbottom.

As cloud computing becomes more pervasive, the cost seems to be tumbling. This is great news to organisation taking their first steps into using public cloud services – or is it?  In many ways, yes it is. Hardware costs are coming down, and modern tools are enabling more cloud functions to be automated, eliminating costs in physically managing the cloud with error-prone humans.

Software to layer on top of the infrastructure is either open source, where only support costs need to be covered, or commercial, where suppliers are finally figuring out that new, more flexible pricing models are required.   So, as the cost of the platform itself falls, it is only to be expected that a massively competitive market, such as the cloud, passes on some of those savings to its prospective customers…

Grazed from USA Today.  Author: Laura Baverman.

For consumers, Auth0’s technology ensures their identity will be protected when they log in. For developers, it’s a simple and fast way to authenticate users and ensure websites and mobile applications are secure.  And for venture capitalists, the Seattle start-up’s technology — along with a slew of other new tools for developers — represents dollar signs.

Auth0 CEO Jon Gelsey says his company is riding the "developers-are-the-new-CIOs" wave. Because cloud computing is replacing traditional software, and the complexity of application development has increased, developers now decide the infrastructure and tools used by even the largest corporations in the world. That’s opened up a market for entrepreneurs who want to make developers’ lives easier and software better…

Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Jon Roskill.

Let’s cut right to the chase… Lots of companies have offered 24/7 availability of systems and data to their customers and employees for years. What else is new? What’s new is that a cloud computing environment can make 24/7 availability possible for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). (Infographic Source:Towergate)

Previously, only organizations with robust IT infrastructure (in terms of servers, communications networks, and the staff to maintain them) could offer global access to internally hosted software applications and databases. Now SMEs can offer customer ordering and account self-service applications hosted in a public cloud. The same public cloud can provide 24/7 availability of applications and data to employees, thereby improving productivity or supporting more flexible working arrangements…