The Cloud Life

3 First Steps In Building Your Own Cloud Services

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 08:14:29 -0500

Businesses that want to double as cloud computing providers must take three fundamental measures.

Are Foreign Cloud Providers Exploiting Privacy Concerns?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 08:13:14 -0500

Tech officials are warning House subcommittee members that foriegn cloud services providers are trying to exploit perceived weaknesses in privacy laws to drive business away from U.S. providers.

See on cio.com

Is The Cloud The New Y2K?

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 08:43:00 -0500

Summary: Commentary - Twelve years ago, the year 2000 (Y2K) was portrayed as IT’s Grim Reaper – engineers and developers labored day-and-night to modernize legacy applications and bring new systems online to avoid the predicted shutdown of major business applications and an ensuing global blackout.

See on zdnet.com

Cloud computing: 10 ways it will change by 2020

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 08:40:00 -0500

What are the issues, challenges and technologies that will frustrate and inspire those working on the cloud in 2020?

Right now we are in the early days of cloud computing, with many organisations taking their first, tentative steps. But by 2020 cloud is going to be a major — and permanent — part of the enterprise computing infrastructure.

See on zdnet.com

Social Media, Mobile Technology And Cloud Converging

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 08:30:00 -0500

The availability of information, which drives social, mobile and cloud technologies, is the connective tissue in this Nexus of Forces.

As the realms of social media, cloud computing, mobile technology and the ubiquity of information are converging to form a “Nexus of Forces” that will build upon and transform user behavior, creating new business opportunities as it grows, according to a report from IT research firm Gartner. As the consumerization of IT, a result of the availability of excellent devices, interfaces and applications with minimal learning curves, drives the use of these four realms, together they are revolutionizing business and society, disrupting old business models and creating new leaders, the report said.

See on eweek.com

When There's A Third Party In The Cloud

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 13:01:00 -0500

A third party can increase risk, so your contract should address this possibility.

When contracting for cloud-computing services, one challenge is that there may be more parties involved than your company and the cloud vendor. The vendor might outsource some of the services covered in the contract, or it could end up under different ownership after a merger or acquisition. On the client end, you might choose to work with a cloud broker. Because the introduction of third parties can increase risk, it’s essential for potential cloud clients to identify third parties before adopting a cloud service, thoroughly understand their roles and ensure that their responsibilities are effectively addressed in the contract.

See on computerworld.com

Vertical Is The New Horizontal: How The Cloud Makes Domain Expertise More Valuable In The Enterprise

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:59:00 -0500

In the days before the cloud, on-premise software providers that focused on selling into a vertical market were considered second-class citizens to the “big guns” selling into the broader horizontal marketplace. The real “win”—in market share, wallet share and ultimately, profits—was the broadest approach. The notion of specializing in solutions that serve a market niche or specific industry was considered limited unless it was just the start of something more horizontal.

See on techcrunch.com

Coming To Grips With The Systemic Risks In The Hybrid Cloud

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 10:50:00 -0500

CFOs are increasingly becoming aware of the pitfalls associated with the adoption of non-trivial, enterprise cloud computing solutions, which is an important factor in helping them make appropriate cloud decisions for their organisations. Commonly quoted pitfalls relate to concerns about data privacy, uptime, and security, total cost of ownership, vendor lock-in and jurisdictional considerations.

See on cfoworld.com.au

U.S. Military Begins Moving Its information Technology (IT) infrastructure To Secure Cloud Computing

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 10:47:00 -0500

The DOD’s new cloud-computing strategy establishes the Joint Information Environment (JIE) enterprise with seamless access to information regardless of computing device or location, DOD officials say. The DOD Enterprise Cloud Environment is a key component of the JIE.

See on militaryaerospace.com

Do You Have the Cloud Computing Skills You Need?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 07:49:02 -0500

Enterprises are adding more cloud-computing experts to their IT departments, and the list of much-needed cloud-related skillsets is growing. According to a new CompTIA survey, three out of five companies are expanding their workforces to help them transition to cloud computing.

See on buildyourcareerblog.computer.org

Which Governance Framework Is Right For Cloud Computing

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 07:47:46 -0500

Which Governance Framework Is Right For Cloud Computing? The Threat Cloud computing is revolutionizing how organizations use technology worldwide.

See on cloudtweaks.com

Who Ultimately Pays for Cloud Computing? It Depends

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:03:00 -0500

When the department or user group of a company decides it wants to use a cloud-borne service, who ponies up with the money for the service?

See on forbes.com

More People Have Their Head In the clouds

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 08:26:00 -0500

For a couple of years now, there has been a substantial amount of hype in the business intelligence (BI) space regarding “cloud BI,” or business intelligence systems hosted by Internet “cloud computing” service providers. This “cloud BI”, which is actually SaaS (software-as-a-service) BI, has been riding the wave of cloud computing in general, with the lower startup costs, faster deployment and easier scalability that cloud-based software implementations promise business customers. Several new companies have emerged and are promoting a new golden age of BI which they say will be faster, easier and cheaper than conventional business intelligence.

See on economist.com

SaaS, Business Intelligence & Cloud Computing Questions Answered

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 21:55:00 -0500

Several new companies have emerged and are promoting a new golden age of BI which they say will be faster, easier and cheaper than conventional business intelligence.

See on sisense.com

Can Microsoft Get SaaS Right With Office 2013?

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 21:32:00 -0500

Ten years ago, Microsoft tried and failed to convince users to rent instead of buy Office. Is there any reason to think Office 2013 will fare better?

Microsoft’s pushing hard to convince individuals and small organizations that they should rent instead of buy Office 2013. But unless it has learned from mistakes made with its Office XP rental experiment, the company could face an uphill battle convincing users.

See on akamai.infoworld.com

Small Businesses Should Really Be In The Cloud

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 07:18:00 -0500

For a small business owner, making decisions about where to invest their time and money to keep their business afloat can be a constant battle. Without the resources that are available within larger, more established companies, small businesses and start-ups often struggle to survive, never mind make a profit. There is, however, an effective way of saving time and money while increasing productivity that many small business owners are missing out on. Sounds too good to be true?

See on smeweb.com

Email In Security Hot Seat With Rise Of Cloud

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 07:17:00 -0500

Today’s tech landscape makes for ‘complex melting pot’ of security challenges with once trusty, old email.

For most enterprises it is not enough to make sure their own email platform is secure. If their suppliers are not equally secure, they can be as vulnerable to criminal hackers and data leaks from human error as the weakest link in their supply chain.

The combination of a chain of usually small- to medium-size suppliers, the expansion of cloud-based email services and the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend among workers has created what Richard Parris, writing for BCW, calls a “complex melting pot of security challenges surrounding the secure transfer of sensitive data via email.”

See on infoworld.com

Run IT As A Responsive Business, Beat The Cloud Vendors At Their Own Game

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:15:40 -0500

IT departments are increasingly competing with cloud providers, but are hamstrung by maintenance and upkeep costs. A new CIO consortium wants to change that, and help IT run as a business.

Read more…
See on zdnet.com

Fastest-Growing Category of Cloud Computing Is Business Intelligence and Analytics

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:07:00 -0500

Will the cloud push business intelligence and analytics to a whole new level? Since cloud-based services can support massive amounts of data and provide it in a consistent manner across enterprises, there’s reason to believe that even the most technology-averse organizations will have a way to compete on analytics, just as the big players do.

See on forbes.com

Cloud storage

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 12:18:52 -0500

Do you use any type of cloud storage? If so, what kind, and why?