Cloud Computing

607 posts

Man working on laptop by an airport window at sunrise, illustrating mobility driving desktop virtualization

Mobility Is Driving Desktop Virtualization

The demand for desktop virtualization is being driven, at least in part, by the explosive growth in mobile work styles. That’s a key takeaway from a new global market study commissioned by virtual solutions provider Citrix, whose virtualization, networking and cloud solutions are delivered to more than 100 million corporate desktops daily. The survey found that 55 percent of responding companies will deploy new desktop virtualization for the first time by 2013. Of those surveyed, […]

A smiling woman stands in her coffee shop, illustrating cloud computing and small business success

Cloud Computing Key To Small Business Success

Small businesses have the power to revive the nation’s economy; they just need the opportunity, technology and the right government policies to help them succeed, according to a report from the Center for Public Policy Innovation (CPPI) and the Digital Dialogue Forum (DDF). The report also notes small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy and they are responsible for two-thirds of the 40 million jobs created in the country over the past 30 […]

Man smiling while looking at his smartphone, illustrating bring your own device

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Having attained some basic oversight and policy control over personal devices in the enterprise, corporate IT administrators in 2012 face the appification of enterprise services. Opening up platforms such as iOS and Android to outside developers brings an increased risk of malware. Mobile virtualization enables one physical device to run two parallel virtual phones, supporting enterprise and personal use without compromising enterprise security or personal privacy. These next-generation mobile devices will have quad-core Cortex-A15 processors […]

A dandelion blowing in the wind at sunset, illustrating wishing upon a cloud

Wish Upon A Cloud

It seems that every networking event this year, every tech magazine issue, and every vendor worth its salt is talking about “the cloud.” The cloud, in one of its many forms – public, private, or mixed – has become ubiquitous! I’ll confess: I started off my cloud gazing with little interest and several doubts, but I’ve learned a lot over the past year about the potential benefits of obtaining software, platform, and infrastructure as cloud […]

Green plant sprouts growing in soil, illustrating PaaS market growth

PaaS To See Strong Growth

Platform as a service (PaaS) is a core layer of the cloud computing architecture, and its evolution will affect the future of most users and vendors in enterprise software markets, according to Gartner. “With large and growing vendor investment in PaaS, the market is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth, leading to innovation and likely breakthroughs in technology and business use of all of cloud computing,” said Yefim Natis, vice president and […]

Heavy traffic on a multi-lane highway at golden hour, illustrating the drive to public clouds

The Drive To Public Clouds

The farthest-reaching changes in the IT industry often occur when a single new development simultaneously responds to the needs of both consumers and business users. Perhaps the best-known example of this kind of wave was the original PC: office workers used PCs during the day for their business tasks and then used the machine when they got home to play games (and often vice versa). The Web was also adopted in equal measure by consumers […]

Two white security cameras mounted on a pole, illustrating US spy agencies adopting cloud computing

US Spy Agencies Look To Cloud Computing

US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said cloud computing will play a major role as the nation’s spy agencies work to integrate computer and information systems to share more data securely. Cloud computing has “huge potential for achieving savings and promoting integration,” Clapper told an audience last week at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a policy group in Washington. Cloud computing lets users run programmes and store data over the internet. Along […]

Tangled electrical wires on a utility pole, illustrating security after virtualization

Post-Virtualization Security

As the second law of thermodynamics tells us, all things trend toward chaos and this is no less true with a virtual environment. Sprawl can have a real security impact, and it takes discipline and planning to control sprawl — discipline and planning that won’t occur without someone from the security team actively monitoring the problem and formulating strategies for how to address the issue. Virtualization has been one of the most rapidly and widely […]

Two women wearing headsets in a bright office, illustrating cloud computing in the contact center

Cloud Computing In The Contact Center

Companies are looking for cloud solutions that satisfy the requirements of the IT manager in terms of reliability, security and rapid access to data, while still receiving everything they need such as service, flexibility and user-friendliness. By consolidating resources into secure, redundant and hardened data centres, providers of cloud solutions can offer a considerably higher degree of reliability and increased network security than before. Yet many companies are still sceptical about these claims and doubt […]

Fireworks at nighttime, illustrating cloud computing adoption in 2012

Cloud Computing Adoption To Explode In 2012

In testing cloud computing services and observing the growth of cloud activities, we’ve noticed that there are distinct phases that organisations go through in adopting cloud. First, application developers fall in love with cloud-based disposable infrastructure and/or ready-built app development platforms that circumvent long purchasing cycles and capital asset growth limitations. Then other attractions, like commodity rentable infrastructure, or expansive platforms, become attractive. Sometimes applications are either extended to the cloud as private growth areas, […]