The head of Microsoft Ireland says Ireland could become a global leader in cloud computing, but only if the country seizes the initiative and gains first mover advantage over rivals. He said Ireland needed every advantage, including low corporate taxes, to compete for foreign investment. Microsoft Ireland MD Paul Rellis was addressing an audience of 120 business leaders at a Dublin Chamber of Commerce members’ briefing at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin. The US, […]
Cloud
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In business, and in nature, it is the strong that survive. Rather than trying to coast through the down economy, consider ways to strengthen, improve, and grow your business. This will better your chances of “survival” and enhance the future of your company. Information systems streamline business operations and help you do more with less. By investing in new technologies and automating business processes, you can run your business more efficiently. It may even be […]
Cloud computing revenue in the US public sector is expected to grow by 21.6 percent over the next few years, according to the latest survey by International Data Corporation (IDC). The report, entitled U.S. Public IT Cloud Services by Industry Sector: More Details on the Opportunity, shows that from 2009 to 2014 public cloud revenue in the US will grow significantly from $11.1 billion to $29.5 billion. The main areas that will employ cloud computing […]
Few technology trends have captured as much popular attention as Cloud Computing. The level of hype associated with the ‘Cloud’ hasn’t been seen since the hoopla created during the Dot.com era. As a result, there has been plenty of debate about whether the Cloud Computing phenomenon is headed to a similar demise. This quote is taken from a Seeking Alpha article by Jeffrey Kaplan, published in December 2010. Just a few weeks after Jeffrey’s comments, […]
A report has found that many businesses are turning to cloud computing in an effort to control costs Companies are increasingly turning cloud computing to enhance productivity and increase their return on investment (ROI), according to a report from Fonality. The “2011 Small and Medium-Sized Business Communications Plans and Priorities” state-of-the-market report polled professionals considered to be on the “leading edge” of technology adoption. Respondents emphasised that cloud-based business applications or AaaS (Anything as a […]
Last summer, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra asked the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help accelerate the federal government’s secure adoption of cloud computing by leading efforts to develop cloud standards and guidelines. And NIST just delivered. The agency published two new draft documents on cloud computing. The first document, NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-145) defines cloud computing at least as far as the government is […]
Prada did it with Miu Miu; Dolce & Gabbana with D&G Now Verizon’s $1.4 billion purchase of Terremark applies a business model from the catwalk to cloud computing: The launch of a ‘diffusion’ line. Diffusion lines – affordable merchandise from luxury labels – are big business in fashion. Correctly marketed, they create a virtuous circle of demand between couture and main street buyers, and expand a designer’s overall revenues through direct sales and licensing deals. […]
As your organization relies more on cloud-based applications for productivity and business success, you must be increasingly vigilant against Web-borne attacks. As sensitive data now migrates between corporate data centers and cloud data centers beyond your network perimeter, you can no longer think only in terms of network security, but instead must shift focus to information security. Three overarching, interrelated trends — cloud consumption, virtualization and mobility — present themselves as key industry themes for […]
Cloud Computing creates great opportunities for Europe but various “legal, technical and commercial issues” need to resolved before it can be widely practiced, the EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said at Davos 2011. Normally I prefer clearly defined concepts. But when it comes to cloud computing I have understood that we cannot wait for a universally agreed definition. We have to act. That is why I am really grateful for the opportunity to discuss […]
If I asked you to pick the most over-hyped technology trend of the past year, you’d probably pick either “cloud computing” or “smartphones and tablets.” Pretty much every tech publication has wall-to-wall coverage of those trends, while plenty of vendors are busily slapping “cloud” and “mobile” on a slew of products that are only vaguely so. The thing about these so-called over-hyped trends, though, is that they really aren’t. In the build up to the […]
I got a press release this morning from VMware that was touting the adoption of of vSphere as the virtualization technology of choice for the SMB user. Included in the press release, as usual, were a few brief customer stories and the expected quotes from VMware executives and their business partners. The purpose of the release, I’m sure, was to raise my awareness of the success of vSphere in the SMB space, but what it […]
Internal departments buying their own IT may force the hand of the CIO into making an early move to the cloud. But that shift will alter the traditional role of the CIO forever, says Steven Salmon. Over the next few years, cloud computing is set to transform the way CIOs operate. More organisations will turn to cloud products such as software as a service (SaaS), which will continue to mature. Driving the increased uptake is […]
Ciaran Treanor, technology director, DANU Technologies, outlines why SMEs, specifically start-ups, can significantly reduce IT spend by accessing IT resources on demand via the cloud. Treanor was one of the speakers at last week’s cloud computing event hosted by The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) (Ireland) at Trinity College Dublin, which aimed to inform people what the cloud has to offer start-ups and small enterprises, especially those in the non-IT space that may be […]
While the potential benefits of cloud computing, such as resource flexibility, are appealing to many IT executives, security and regulatory concerns are either limiting or preventing its use by Wall Street financial firms. That was the consensus of many attendees at the High Performance Computing in Financial Markets Conference held here Monday. Mats Andersson, CTO of Nasdaq’s OMX Exchange, said Nasdaq uses cloud computing systems, but only inside the company’s firewall and only to access […]
Companies should think twice about pursuing trademarks around the term ‘cloud computing,’ as market saturation is making product differentiation increasingly difficult. Cloud computing stands to transform business and personal technology, but the phrase “cloud computing” raises legal issues for brand owners looking to exploit it as a trademark or brand name. As with any marketing revolution — we saw it with green or eco-friendly products, referred to as “green washing” — trademark issues are never […]
Cloud computing has quickly established its rightful place in modern IT organisations, helping enterprises become more agile while keeping close watch on costs. As a new mainstream appeal, the new delivery model has proven its stripes with applications like messaging, storage and CRM. Now, technology innovators are applying what they learned. Cloud service delivery has hit critical mass, with the majority of organisations already riding the wave. With that adoption, enterprises have become more comfortable […]
The dominant desktop paradigm will finally wither and a thousand new personal computing models will bloom. Everyone knows the Windows desktop monolith is breaking into pieces. Yes, Microsoft is still making money, mainly from the big rollover to Windows 7 — but where does Redmond go from here? And which alternatives are truly viable? This is the year when we’ll start to find out. New, overlapping client computing paradigms are popping up all over the […]
Cloud computing vendors may be popping the bubbly well into the new year, as a handful of promising cloud computing startups have started off 2011 with sizeable financial injections to get the ball rolling. And the early influx of cash to kick off 2011 comes on the heels of many more cloud computing up-and-comers that closed out 2010 with late-year funding to help them dig their claws deeper into the channel. The windfall of cash […]
Cloud computing has long been touted as a way to help entrepreneurs conduct businesses by housing data and computer hardware over the Internet. While using the cloud is pretty straightforward, getting a cloud infrastructure in place can take some time and work. Thankfully, there are many cloud computing services companies that can help build the right infrastructure for your business to migrate data, hardware and software to the cloud. “The last thing small businesses want […]
Cloud computing, mobile applications,smart phones and tablets will all play an important role in driving Thailand’s information and communications technology industry in 2011. But executives of the industry emphasize the growing challenges of security in the new age of mobility and devices of all kinds, when asked to share their visions for the year ahead. The managing director and general manager of HP Enterprise Business for Hewlett-Packard (Thailand), Beng Teck Liang, said the adoption of […]
Based on the work I have been doing in cloud computing Europe, Asia/Pacific, and North America, people have been regularly asking me the questions, “How are attitudes towards cloud computing different in Europe?” and “How has cloud adoption differed in Europe from it’s adoption in the United States?” In fact, I was asked back in September to write a blog on the differences I have seen in cloud adoption in Europe versus my experience in […]
Being that we’re at the start of a new year and all, I thought I’d launch the 2011 newsletter by sharing predictions from a variety of network and systems management vendor executives. Many, of course, have high expectations regarding the continued maturity of virtualization and cloud computing within the enterprise and, along with that, a better understanding of the management challenges and how to go about addressing those effectively. Srinivas Ramanathan, CEO of performance monitoring […]
Cloud computing has been making headlines and generating buzz for the past several years. Companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft have all placed big bets on public clouds, while traditional enterprise companies such as IBM, HP and EMC are pushing private clouds. The future may involve more than one cloud model, even for some of the largest and most staid corporations, but being able to juggle the advantages of each while minimizing risks such […]
Even a business operating in the clouds needs someone on the ground. In Alaska, Nate Gates is aiming to be what he called that “local throat to choke.” Gates founded Cloud 49 in July after four years as chief information officer for Chenga Corp., an Alaska Native village corporation, and his preliminary expectations have been exceeded as state companies explore and embrace cloud computing technology. “We thought it would be a slow road the first […]
A growing number of small-business owners are expected to try cloud computing services next year, hoping to trim costs and stay up and running if disaster strikes. Cloud computing refers to any service that operates over an Internet connection, allowing immediate access from any computer or mobile device with Web access. Business owners can access software or store information—such as customer contacts, accounting data and presentations—and leave the technical maintenance to the cloud provider. As […]
A few weeks back, I was on a panel of media pundits asked to make predictions about what might happen in the technology business in 2011. One prominent member of our group, seeking to stake out a bold, contrarian position, asserted that 2011 would be the year that “cloud computing” would be revealed to be a big nothing, an over-hyped concept that in the end is more about marketing than actual technology. He’s so, so […]
International Business Machines Corp., the world’s biggest computer-services provider, is building a cloud-computing system for NATO in the first such deal for the international military alliance. The software and hardware will let NATO more quickly collect and analyze data, such as military intelligence in Afghanistan, said E.J. Herold, head of the project for IBM. NATO’s military command department in Norfolk, Virginia, will use the technology first, with the possibility it will expand to other divisions, […]
Once upon a time, a few decades ago, computers were extraordinarily expensive, room-filling machines – the kind decked out with whirring tape reels, flashing lights, and banks of switches. You didn’t pull up a chair up to use one; instead, using a process called timesharing, you accessed it via a remote terminal at the same time as a bunch of other folks. The PC revolution changed all that, but only for a while. Today, we’re […]
Today, service providers and enterprises interested in implementing clouds face the challenge of integrating complex software and hardware components from multiple vendors. The resulting system can end up being expensive to build and hard to operate, minimizing the original motives and benefits of moving to cloud computing. Cloud computing platforms are attractive because they let businesses quickly access hosted private and public resources on-demand without the complexities and time associated with the purchase, installation, configuration […]
Cloud Computing can help your business reduce costs as you don’t have to invest in hardware and other physical infrastructure, your data is stored on a secure location and you only pay for what you use – there are no licensing fees associated with cloud computing. Legal Issues associated with Cloud Computing That said, there are some important legal issues that must be taken care of before you sign-up with any of the cloud vendors […]