Global sales of software as a service (SaaS) are rising steadily with increased adoption of SaaS and with total worldwide revenues expected to top $22 billion by 2015. According to the latest market report from analyst firm, Gartner, SaaS revenue is forecast to reach $14.5 billion this year, a 17.9 percent increase from 2011 revenue of $12.3 billion, with healthy growth through to 2015 when revenue is forecast to reach $22.1 billion. “After more than […]
cloud computing
222 posts
CIOs are worried: cloud computing is being used as a way for businesses to dodge the IT department and get services delivered more quickly. But as well as giving the CIO sleepless nights, this attempt to side-step the IT department is causing additional cost and complexity along the way. I recently wrote about how cloud computing deployments are kicking off without the CIO’s knowledge, and only coming to light when sys admins put their expenses […]
CIOs have tied their future career prospects very much to the mast of cloud computing, with recent research revealing that they believe cloud computing is shifting the focus of their role away from primarily technology onto vital business services, and increasing their chances of promotion to CEO. In a global survey of 615 CEOs, including Australian CIOs, 57 percent of the Australian respondents said that’s what they believed about the affects of cloud computing on […]
If you came here for the article with the title, “Is It Time to Move Plant Data Outside the Plant?”, unfortunately, it has been removed at the request of the publisher of the website from which it was obtained. Asking me to remove it was within their rights, but I believe it was a shortsighted decision based on old media ideas about the copyright “protection” of assets and the imagined potential loss of ad revenue. […]
Expertly meshed information technology and voice technology services are the perfect combination of near term problem solving and long term competitive opportunities for organizations today. Delivered across a redundant and highly performing mesh infrastructure, mesh services have proven to lower or completely eliminate technology ownership problems, while improving the customer experience and productivity gains. Industry leading technologies and technology talent are available in any fraction or combination to fit your exact operational and budgetary expectations. […]
meshIP, LLC is please to announce the launch of two new services! meshIP was formed five years ago and has specialized in company formation, business plan development, funding and growth strategies. We are adding to our capabilities to assist small and mid-sized firms in their growth by offering hosted computing and telecommunications services. These offerings allow our clients to get out of the IT business and focus on their business. Our meshDESK service offering allows […]
IBM has announced it is working on technology that enables a desktop environment to be streamed from cloud computing infrastructures to a PC endpoint, enabling workers to access their corporate desktop anywhere and on any system. Dubbed the Secure Enterprise Desktop, the technology is being demonstrated at the CeBIT show in Hanover this week. It is currently undergoing small-scale pilot tests, but IBM said it plans to make the service commercially available to customers later […]
The CIO as we understand the role is under threat from Cloud Computing and ICT professionals need to start getting smart about their function. That was the stark warning from Oracle, a company whose conversion to the Cloud has taken time to go public. While once dismissed by CEO Larry Ellison as “just water vapour”, Cloud is now firmly on the Oracle road map as a top priority. Hence the appearance of John Abel, chief […]
Software as a Service is one of—if not the most—popular cloud delivery models for small- and medium-sized businesses. According to Gartner—Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing (2011), SaaS is entering the mainstream market in the next two to five years. The SaaS model levels the playing field between growing businesses and larger competitors, by equipping SMBs with application functionality that only large enterprises previously enjoyed. Moreover, this increase in functionality no longer requires huge investments in […]
The Business Software Alliance, which represents US companies such as Microsoft, ranked 24 countries that account for 80 per cent of the global ICT market based on seven policy categories that measure the countries’ preparedness to support the growth of cloud computing. Brazil finished last in the survey, earning only 35.1 points out of a possible 100 because of its policies in areas such free trade, security, data privacy and cybercrime. India – which has […]
Openness in software and architectures is a big win for users. This truth is so widely recognized that a lot of vendors seem to favor using “open” as a sort of mantra even though they’re often not, well, open except in glancing and incidental ways. This is nowhere truer than with cloud computing. Having an open architecture and approach when building a cloud matters deeply. Only an open cloud allows customers to manage diverse infrastructures […]
The network is the weakest link in cloud computing as, without network access, staff are unable to connect to databases, e-mail or other applications. While the cloud can store company data and deliver applications without the overheads of dedicated in-house servers and other hardware, the third party hosting the data or applications is not usually responsible for the network links from the customer to its facilities. Companies must plan how they connect their corporate networks […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Less than a decade ago I owned an advertising agency with 30 staff across three locations. As a digital agency our work was primarily email, internet access, document writing and sharing. To achieve and support that we had a dedicated room in Ipswich that housed switches and servers, back up facilities, racks and air conditioning units to stop everything overheating. The cost of installation was in the tens of thousands and the cost of maintaining […]
Given the ever-increasing reliance on cloud computing, it is inevitable that disputes and litigation will increase between corporations and cloud service providers. The most obvious point of contention will occur if data in the cloud is lost, damaged, stolen or is otherwise rendered inaccessible for a period of time. In such circumstances, the corporation may be facing enormous liability and will seek to hold the cloud provider responsible, while the cloud provider will undoubtedly look […]
Virtualization and the server consolidation that it delivers will be the top priority for chief information officers in 2012, according to a survey by the research firm IDC. Savings from server consolidation will be invested in new IT initiatives such as cloud computing, mobility, data analytics, and use of social media for business purposes. When CIOs were asked by IDC to name their top three IT priorities for this year, nearly 40 percent of them […]
Industry experts and cloud service providers are hopeful about the prospects of a new federal program that sets cloud computing security standards, but they also note some potential pitfalls. For one security expert, the program represents a lost chance to improve cybersecurity. The Obama Administration last month launched the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), which sets a standard approach for assessing the security of cloud services and products against a baseline of controls. […]
CIOs will have the opportunity to move away from the traditional scenario of spending 80% of their budget on maintenance and 20% on innovation if they harness cloud computing technologies. This in turn will raise the expectations put on CIOs from the boardroom, who will expect IT to drive business innovations. Cloud computing is shaking-up competitive landscapes as companies of all sizes can access the same resources and reach similar markets as a result. But […]
The term “cloud” has been turned into a marketing platform by many suppliers and this has obscured what it really is – a way to procure and deliver IT services. The cloud covers a wide spectrum of services and delivery models. The common security concerns are ensuring the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the services and data delivered through a cloud environment. Cloud computing makes people uneasy. The perceived lack of ownership and control has […]
As end users bring their own devices to work, download apps and sign up for cloud services, it’s getting harder for IT to maintain application visibility and control performance. In addition to introducing IT management blind spots, trends such as consumerization, mobility and cloud computing are also increasing business risk, according to a survey of CIOs from around the world. “The age-old disconnect between business and IT is at risk of widening,” said Steve Tack, […]
Visiongain’s latest management research “Mobile Cloud Computing Industry Outlook Report: 2011-2016” examines the market and how the ecosystem players are leveraging mobile cloud solutions to enable their strategies and business models. The mobile cloud computing market is just beginning to evolve in 2011; by 2016, the market will enter into a rapid growth stage. Interested market players need to formulate emergent strategies now to enjoy the early movers’ advantage. The company’s research projects the total […]
Once viewed as the formula for desktop PC provisioning and management roles, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) technology is moving into the mainstream via a new path, as a solution for business services. Most enterprise administrators have viewed Virtual Desktop Infrastructure as a way to deliver enterprise desktops to users more efficiently. However, VDI can deliver more than just a typical business desktop; the technology can also be used to deliver specialized business services. A case […]
Misinformation and a lack of understanding have delayed some companies from obtaining the advantages of cloud computing. With the explosion of information regarding cloud computing, a lot of people think that everybody knows more than they want to about the technology. Yet according to many IT solution providers who are working with customers to help them transition to the cloud, the biggest issue holding them back is a lack of understanding about what exactly is […]
There’s been so much talk about it. And it seems everyone is doing it. “The cloud” has become many businesses’ preferred method of information management and storage. Cloud computing simply means that information is hosted and stored on the Web. But there one’s industry that’s not quite so sure about it, or the security of it. While 71 percent of healthcare organizations are either using or looking at the implementation of cloud computing or storage […]