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12.12.2011

The Center for Digital Strategies recently hosted a talk by Symantec President and CEO Enrique Salem to discuss cloud vps servers security. He talked about how security regarding cloud vps servers and other cloud computing business practices impacts individuals and has begun to actually reshape the way business is run. Salem said that when it comes to the Cloud, he sees it as being the largest change for IT in the last thirty years.

In his talk he shared three areas where security problems can occur:

1. At implementation when expectations are unrealistic
2. When users share the wrong information
3. When problems come from the inherent difficulties in the categorization of information

Salem also looked at the three big trends in cloud vps servers and how they will affect most businesses security issues. One of these issues is how the explosion of data has brought us a new wave of more sophisticated hackers who now hack for money instead of glory. For a look at how your business can learn more about security for your cloud vps servers, be sure to read here.

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12.9.2011

Hubspan Predictions for 2012
With the New Year less than a month away, more companies are making predictions about what the year ahead will see for business. Hubspan, a business integration provider, has recently their predictions for what they see as the next years focus in the way of cloud opportunities, It and business integration.
The predictions for the year include:

1. Global uncertainty will drive companies to get closer to existing customers and look to maximize current relationships.
2. Continuing consumerism of IT to drive end-user visible tools.
3. Cloud costs will continue to compel adaptation in new ways

For these and more ideas on where the business of cloud will go in the following year, read more.

Cloud Connects Across Devices Main Incentive

A recent survey that looked at the various reasons that companies choose to adapt to the cloud showed that the ability to connect employees across a multitude of devices was the biggest reason to move to the cloud. The survey interviewed over 3000 IT decision makers in eight countries from both public and private sectors.

Among the findings were that only 14% of the businesses downsized after adapting to the cloud and 20% actually hired cloud experts as part of the transition. Almost half of the small businesses in the US when asked named access to information as the biggest reason for the change to the cloud. These and more are in the survey overview at MarketWatch.

Healthcare Cloud Problems Highlighted

Sometimes the same old problems show up in new technologies. In this recent story in Information Week, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York seemed like the perfect place for cloud adaptation. But a lack of coordination through IT and problems with communication at the beginning gave them a new set of problems with their cloud based solution.

Because they decided to not bring IT into the decision process, multiple hosts were used for a variety of field workers across the network, making it difficult for nurses to coordinate because of multiple IDs and log-ins. A great look at how even the best technology can be implemented in a way that doesn’t utilize it to the full extent. For more on this case study, read more at InformationWeek.

Does Salesforce Offer a Social Marketing Cloud?

Paul Greenberg from the Enterprise Irregulars, a wonderful little blog on the business side of the tech world of enterprise has some interesting comments to make about radian6. If you are familiar with Salesforce then you know that this is one of their latest acquisitions.

In this article Greenberg looks at the recent claim that radian6 is a “social marketing cloud” whatever that may mean. In fact, it is his whole dissecting of the phrase and others like this that makes this piece of particular interest to anyone looking to understand the new marketing and sales trends in the cloud. For more of his perspective, read more.

Five Development Trends to Watch

eWeek takes a look at five trends in the coming year that will affect developers in the cloud business. But these five trends will probably affect more than just developers, as all of the businesses that are involved in cloud technology will be affected by these enterprise technology movements.

• HTML5
• Big Data
• Analytics

These and more are highlighted in an insightful article that looks at how not only are the major developers going to need to be aware of this movement in cloud technology, but how these trends will affect each other. For this and more check out the full story at eWeek.

Five Ways to Benefit from the NIST Cloud Roadmap

This week the National Institute of Standards and Technology released a road map for government technology managers who are looking to set up cloud systems. This has been a long discussed and awaited guide, but can be intimidating for anyone first looking through it. Government Computer News recently released a very enlightening five step guide, with a link to the draft of the NIST Roadmap, to help IT managers along the way to the cloud roadmap.

The guide lists five major steps that every manager should contemplate as part of their plan when they are designing their cloud system using the roadmap. Among those five steps are:

1. Ask you vendors to map their services to the NIST Roadmap when discussing plans.
2. Compare Agency use cases with those provided by the NIST Roadmap
3. Focus on Deployment

For a look in more detail at how you can utilize these and other ideas for the NIST roadmap in your own cloud plans, be sure read more.

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12.8.2011

It’s always exciting to hear different industries realizing the benefits of cloud computing. Property management is a new sector to develop cloud server based tools to help keep track of the real estate being managed. We recently saw a good example of this with the latest development from facility and property management company Jones Lang LaSalle. They announced the creation of a cloud servers-based property management tool, IntelliCommand™, that takes cloud-based smart-building technology and combines it with real-time remote monitoring to allow long distance control of facilities on a world-wide basis. This is a great example of how cloud servers and cloud computing is changing the reach of many businesses.

A central location with access to leading edge technology will allow them to offer seamless and continuous monitoring of any building’s performance including everything from HVAC to air compressors allowing the delivery of peak performance around the clock. The cloud servers-based technology will be able to detect anomalies in operating systems and report them to on-site engineers or deploy appropriate resources to resolve specific situations as they arise.

For a look at how this new innovative use of cloud server technology has helped this business to reduce overhead, energy costs, and lower facility management costs over time, read the press release at MarketWatch.

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12.7.2011

The road to virtual servers is paved with good intentions and bad planning. More and more these days companies are discovering that finding the best way to move their businesses from desktop to the cloud must include precise planning. In order to have your sales force and your back office in sync, they need to have portability of applications. In other words, they need virtual servers that can connect them anyplace and anytime. But how to make that migration without disrupting business or ending up with a less efficient system then you have now?

TechRepublic’s analysis of the best approach to this problem is clear and precise, giving not only the right questions to ask, but the right order in which to ask them. Author Jeanne Morain is well versed in the road blocks to put a business on a virtual server footing, having deployed thousands of applications over the years. In this article she outlines a 10-step program that will give guidance to the lead investigator in looking at the solution instead of the problem.

The program starts with the basics and leads you through a series of questions that will help anyone get the upper hand when it comes to a company’s upcoming move to virtual servers. Here is a short look at this approach to taking on the migration to cloud that many will be facing soon:

1. Look at the User, not the Machine – Begin by defining each user’s role and impact on the business, what they need it to do in terms of content and the context in which they need to do it.
2. Look at the Assets Today – Some technologies and tools you use now work well for you, and some do not. Knowing the difference will help in deciding what changes and when.
3. Look at the Political Landscape – Who do you need to give you buy-in for this change? Who will it affect the most? Eliminate turf wars by being inclusive of all teams.
4. Look at your Processes – Are there in house processes done by hand that could be automated? Are there ones that should never be automated? What processes are essential for the new cloud server based business to run successfully?

This is just the tip of the iceberg. However, it gives you a good idea about the kind of top of mind checklist every business needs for a move to a cloud server based operation. For the full ten steps and more of the details in each step, be sure to read more at TechRepublic.

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Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.