December 19th, 2011
Rick Blaisdell often has some interesting observations to make about business in the cloud. This post is no exception as he takes a look at a recent report from CSC, a leading business solution company, about why companies choose to move some of their business to cloud computing.
In this article he makes several statements that show how business is evolving, and why technology may be the solution but human behavior seems to be the driver. Here are a couple of the pathways that Rick discusses, along with giving us links to some interesting comments and articles that back up his thinking:
For a look at Rick’s thinking, and where he sees business going in the future when it comes to the cloud, be sure to read more.
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December 16th, 2011
UpFront with Piston Cloud CEO
Joshua McKinty has been on the forefront of cloud technology for several years now, including his involvement with the creation of OpenStack. Now he has a new venture, Piston Cloud, and he spent a bit of time recently with Vator News to talk about the direction that he sees for both cloud technology and his new Piston Cloud, including where it can be leading that move.
Cloud Computing Adaption Increasing
With the recession pushing business to look for cost cutting, more businesses then ever have been looking at cloud computing as a solution. According to the latest reports from companiesandmarkets.com, the trend towards cloud computing will only grow in the coming year as the need for IT support of mobile services makes cloud technology the perfect solution.
PersonalWeb Sues for Patent Infringement
The owner of a company that owns several patents relating to storage and cloud computing have initiated a lawsuit against nine of the leading data storage businesses, alleging infringement of their patents. PersonalWeb named eight patents that were violated by all of the nine companies and is looking for unspecified damages, costs, and royalties related to the patents. Among the companies named were Amazon, NEC and YouTube.
71% of Healthcare Providers Considering Cloud Adaption
In a recent report by healthcare research firm KLAS, healthcare providers are beginning to turn to the cloud in large numbers, even if that move is not as likely to be to public clouds such as Amazon. Although patient data security and data control were still cited as major concerns, many healthcare providers are looking at private clouds as the way to secure their records above the levels achieved at their own onsite data centers.
Federal Government Adopts Cloud Security Rules
The Federal Government just announced the development of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). This program will offer to any business considering doing cloud business with government agencies a standard approach and set of guidelines for cloud security assessments. This will aid the private sector to market cloud products to these agencies as the government begins its migration to the cloud.
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December 15th, 2011
While we often focus on the ways that business, especially SMBs can benefit from a move to cloud server based operations, educational centers are poised to make a move to the cloud as well. Cloud technology blog CloudTweaks takes a look at how the world of education, at all levels, can benefit from the latest cloud servers technology.
In this concise look at how cloud servers can solve many of today’s problems in the classroom the author identifies various areas where the application of cloud servers to the current technology can make classrooms more efficient learning environments. Here are just a couple examples of how the author sees the education system moving to the clouds:
For a look at how both public school systems and higher education centers can use cloud servers and cloud technology to give greater access to a larger range of students, read the full story at CloudTweaks.
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December 14th, 2011
Deutsche Bank recently was recognized for its use of cloud server based Collaboration and Identity Management software to create virtualized environments for developers and individuals. The German bank identified its use of cloud server based technology to develop and deploy identity management tools. These tools were vital to the development of cloud server technologies that safeguard the banking companies business while allowing developers to collaborate in virtual environments.
The judges noted in awarding the recognition that the concepts that Deutsche Bank used could be adapted by others in both the banking industry and other security-conscious businesses. The bank showed in its white paper on the development and deployment of the cloud server based technologies how it fulfilled three objectives:
For a full look at the requirements of the cloud server technology award and a link to the white paper by Deutsche Bank that shows the development of the low cost developer service, be sure to follow our link here.
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December 13th, 2011
The use of cloud technology for startups may be the very thing that fuels the upcoming boom in business development. This is the viewpoint of Forbes latest look at technology and business by guest writer Joe McKendrick. In this forward-looking article, he shows by examples how various startups have used cloud technology as a key component of their business to cut down startup costs and turn a profit more quickly.
It doesn’t matter whether it is college kids straight out of school, long time business professionals looking for a new start or corporate professionals looking at becoming entrepreneurs. The move to cloud technology has made new businesses in everything from travel services to scientific ventures and entertainment businesses a more sustainable possibility with very little upfront costs compared to traditional startups.
The article also looks at recent surveys that show over 50% of new businesses are using cloud technology in everything from finances to sales to storage and backup. The critical first three years are where the biggest savings occur and McKendrick has the numbers to back this up. To read his interview with Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn and an in-depth look at one very successful startups venture, Cycle Computing, continue reading at Forbes.com.
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December 12th, 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:
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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December 9th, 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:
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.
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:
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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December 8th, 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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December 7th, 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:
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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December 6th, 2011
If you have a small business, you know that in years past many of the ways to make operations more economical were just not practical for a business of your size. But the development of cloud computing, especially when it comes to a variety of cloud services such as virtual servers, means that many small and medium businesses can take advantage of new technologies without breaking the bank. The following article from PC World’s Business Center takes a look at a variety of points when discussing how a move to the cloud could be a smart one for many SMBs:
For more on what you need to consider on your way to cloud computing, be sure to read the full article at PCWorld.
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