cloud computing

222 posts

Laptop on a wooden desk displaying data charts, illustrating analysis of 2018 cloud computing trends

Bessemer Ventures’ 2018 Cloud Computing Trends

The Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Bessemer Venture Partners, meets with over a thousand cloud companies each year and keeps close tabs on its dozens of investments in the cloud market. Just to round things out, Bessemer also researches 78 cloud companies that have already gone public, keeping tabs on their performance so as to better advise their still-private investments. All of this data comes together in the firm’s annual State of the Cloud report. Here […]

Chicago skyline along Lake Michigan, illustrating the Chicago cloud tax

Chicago Taxes The Cloud

As a result of two rulings, each effective July 1, 2015, the city of Chicago will attempt to tax the “Cloud” more directly and comprehensibly than any other U.S. jurisdiction. On June 9, 2015, the Chicago Department of Finance (the “Department”) issued rulings regarding (1) the application of the city’s Personal Property Lease Transaction Tax (the “Lease Transaction Tax”) to nonpossessory computer leases and (2) the application of the city’s Amusement Tax (the “Amusement Tax”) […]

Businessman celebrating success at his laptop, illustrating cloud computing living up to the hype

Cloud Lives Up To The Hype

A recent survey by communications and enterprise IT service provider Tata Communications found that enterprise organizations with more than 500 employees saw tangible benefits to their cloud computing efforts. The survey results included 85 percent of the respondents saying that the cloud had lived up to the industry hype, while 23 percent said it had exceeded their expectations. According to the global survey, 83 percent of the enterprises felt they had experienced benefits they didn’t […]

Person walking up a flight of steps, illustrating five steps to implement cloud computing

Five Steps To Implement Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is no longer just the realm of experimenters. Research suggests about 86 per cent of Australian companies now use a cloud service of some type, while the rest are more than likely to deploy a service in the coming years. Companies are finding cloud services provide the agility, flexibility and scalability they need to reduce the cost of doing business, or even completely changing the way they do it. Although cloud services are […]

Frustrated woman with her head in her hands at a laptop, illustrating when cloud computing goes wrong

When Cloud Computing Goes Wrong

Technical things go wrong. So what should businesses think about to ensure reliable and consistent operations with an added layer of complexity? The first step is recognizing that things will go wrong. Whether operations are in an in-house data center, an external commercial collocation data center, or in a hybrid cloud arrangement with workload split between in-house and cloud, the principles are the same. Cloud Isn’t New No matter what marketing would have us believe, […]

Silver and black hard disk drive, illustrating SMB data protection and backup

SMBs Struggle With Data Protection’s Rising Complexity

A survey of 401 global small and midsize businesses (SMBs) conducted by IDC on behalf of data protection specialist Acronis found that IT organizations are struggling with backup and recovery, thanks to the rise of virtualization and cloud computing. Backup and recovery becomes more problematic with each new platform added. Most IT organizations now routinely run multiple types of hypervisors in and out of the cloud, but these platforms are increasing the cost and complexity […]

Long-exposure light trails from traffic at night, illustrating the need for speed in the cloud

The Need For Speed And The Cloud

There can be a tendency to think too simplistically about the benefits of moving applications to the cloud. Traditional logic centres around the cost savings that companies can make out of the shift from on-premise deployments but there is another, more important element of the cloud that should be given more credence – speed. The need for speed amongst enterprise organisations is critical, and, with growing understanding and competence, enterprise organisations are harnessing the potential […]

Sun shining in a blue sky with white clouds, illustrating a sunny forecast for cloud computing

Sunny Forecast For Clouds

Improvements in hardware, software, and networking have combined with the secular trend toward outsourcing to usher in the era of cloud computing. The economies of scale offered by remote data centers managed by third parties allow enterprises to offload or outsource some or all of their computing and storage workloads. Cloud adoption is particularly cost-effective for smaller and midsize users that lack the capital, manpower, or expertise to build and maintain their own data centers. […]

Colleagues working together at a computer, illustrating key skills IT pros need for cloud computing

Key Skills IT Pros Need For Cloud Computing

1. Business and financial skills The intersection of business and technology is always an overarching concern, but it is especially so when it comes to cloud-based computing. 2. Technical skills With the cloud, organizations can streamline their IT resources, offloading much of day-to-day systems and application management. But that doesn’t mean IT abdicates all responsibility. There’s a need for language skills to build applications that can run quickly on the Internet. 3. Enterprise architecture and […]