Friday Cloud News Roundup

Obama’s New CIO Looking for Cloud Innovation

In his first talk since taking office, U.S. CIO Steven Van Roekel said that he is intending to go beyond what his predecessor did and look for innovative uses of cloud technology in government agencies. While still building on previous directions, the former Microsoft executive saw plenty of opportunities for the U.S. government to become technology-centric in its approach to solutions within agencies and between agencies.

His call to the private sector to be not only a part of the “Future First” movement but to help the government define it will give many industries a chance to implement and direct the kind of technology they want to see, and even perhaps be a part of it.

Dropbox Announces New Security Measures

DropBox, the cloud-based file sharing system that many SMB businesses have used recently announced a new service for more confidential files called DropBox for Teams. With enhanced encryption and two-level security, DropBox sees this as an answer to many corporation’s qualms about using the service for more confidential files. Seen as primarily a system for individuals or SMBs, DropBox is working on increasing security to attract larger businesses to it service.

Cloud Based Mergers – Who Benefits?

A recent look at the flurry of activity in the Mergers and Acquisitions side of technology shows a possible future direction for the cloud. But how does that affect your business? This article looks at what kinds of changes can be forecast and how many of the SMBs are going to be affected.

Symantec is Taking to the Cloud

Wireless carriers will be able to start providing businesses with options for controlling mobile access to their sites soon through a new Symantec offering. It will begin by having the initial product hosted in the TekMark data centers and begin selling the service in the following year. The application will be provided by a third partner that will run on a mobile device and communicate with Tekmark’s data centers.