By definition, Cloud computing is Web-based computing, whereby shared resources, both software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand through an Internet connection. Instead of having to buy, install, maintain, and manage these resources on your own computer or device, you access and use them through a Web browser. One of the major advantages to businesses using Cloud based technologies is that it saves time. Rather than managing technology in-house, you pay […]
Cloud Computing
607 posts
Over the past 24 months, the interest in cloud computing – a general term for software deployed through hosted, managed services and software-as-a-service (SaaS) models – has continued to grow. As a result, the movement of more business applications into the cloud is becoming more prevalent. This popularity is made clear when you consider the recent report from ARC Advisory Group, which revealed the supply chain management market grew 7 per cent in the last […]
A commonly held belief is that cloud computing—a utility model for computing capacity, software and business functionality—is a phenomenon whose value resides primarily in reducing IT costs. In fact, the flexibility that the cloud makes possible for infrastructures, services and processes means that it is also capable of driving significant innovation. This is a key finding of new research from the London School of Economics and Accenture, based on a survey of 1,035 business and […]
More and more enterprise IT shops – as they get comfortable with virtualization practices in their own private clouds – are considering a jump to the public cloud. But before making that leap, consider these pieces of advice from those that have already jumped. 1. Make sure your provider has VM-specific security “Hypervisors were never really designed to be running in a public environment,” says Beth Cohen, senior cloud architect for Cloud Technology Partners, a […]
The future belongs to a virtualized IT world, which functions on the basis of business processes. In fact, fifty-nine percent of European CIOs surveyed by IDG Research Services for a recent ‘CIO2CIO Perspectives’ report on Optimizing Virtualization Investments indicated that their companies are actively investing in virtualization initiatives. Additionally, they confirmed that virtualization technology is increasingly showing its influence in business-critical services. More than half those users plan to virtualize business-critical services as part of […]
The restart-only availability level allows for failure of a component such as a host or storage array. Failures generally manifest as the equivalent of a “blue screen” for the virtual desktop. Consider what happens when one of your physical desktops crashes — do the users generate a help desk ticket or do they simply restart their system? A key advantage of virtualization is the ability to decouple an operating system from its hardware layer. This […]
Researchers from North Carolina State University and IBM have developed a new, experimental technique to better protect sensitive information in cloud computing – without significantly affecting the system’s overall performance. Under the cloud-computing paradigm, the computational power and storage of multiple computers is pooled, and can be shared by multiple users. Hypervisors are programs that create the virtual workspace that allows different operating systems to run in isolation from one another – even though each […]
Few organizations have moved to cloud computing — the delivery of computing as a service from remote centers — and of those that have, many are disappointed with the results, a survey published on Tuesday found. Fewer than one in five organizations questioned have outsourced the hosting of their applications to cloud computing providers, with two-thirds in early discussions, in trials or not considering a move, said computer security firm Symantec. Many firms are looking […]
You are a small business, therefore, you need an easy way to communicate with your customers and vice versa. Picking a phone system that you can rely on is a complicated, tricky business, and not really something you want to hassle with at the end of the day. Ultimately, the choice comes down to two options. A traditional phone system relies on phone lines that are connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), on […]
In a new survey, access-management vendor Imprivata forecasts that health care will move ahead of other industries in the adoption of desktop virtualization. Imprivata, a provider of access-management tools, has released the results of a survey showing health care poised to take the lead in desktop virtualization adoption in the next 12 months. For the report called “2011 Virtualization Trends in Healthcare,” researchers interviewed 477 IT managers in multiple industries, including health care and financial […]