A quarter of enterprise are using or planning to use tablet computers, according to a report from Forrester which surveyed over 2,000 executives across Canada, France, Germany, the UK and the US. However, devices brought into the enterprise by staff are unlikely to be well catered for, as Forrester found that just two per cent support random or rogue devices, while 17 per cent are already trialling their own choice of model. This is likely […]
Cloud
Cloud computing has been a key enabling factor in the latest generation of web startups, letting them start with small amounts of capital and scale quickly in response to demand. Startups don’t care about a lot of the factors that slow adoption of cloud computing. New startups don’t own anything yet, so they don’t have a legacy investment in physical infrastructure. They also don’t have IT departments, who often have a stake in the old […]
Amazon doesn’t have paperwork from the music industry approving its new cloud music service. Does it need it? “Not at all!” says the e-commerce giant. “Maybe?” Says the music industry. Adding: “We sure we wish they would have asked.” We’re probably going to dive deeper into the legal intricacies of music licensing and cloud storage in the next couple days. For now, we can say that: * Lots of people think a version of cloud-based […]
A few years ago, the IT world was focused on public cloud computing. In 2010, after IT directors expressed concerns over public cloud security issues, the focus shifted to private clouds. And now, because everyone wants operational flexibility, hybrid clouds are at the top of the wish list. Several recent cloud surveys confirm these high levels of interest in hybrid cloud. A Unisys survey in January 2011 indicated that 21% of IT organizations are focusing […]
If you’ve read anything about the phenomenon of Big Data, then you probably picture armies of servers chugging some form of the Hadoop ecosystem to crunch mountains of information streaming from internal corporate transactions, emails, instant messages, and Web logs or external social media interactions and public information. Sounds expensive, right? Not necessarily. Thanks to cloud computing, freely available tools, and limitless free data, you can do major league Big Data analysis for a C-note. […]
If you came here for the article with the title, “Is the Cloud Really Just the Return of Mainframe Computing?’, 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. […]
It may sound like a PR ploy, but “cloud computing” truly is a different way of using technology resources, and more firms are adopting it. If your head hasn’t been lost up in the cirrus or cumulus, you’ve probably heard of cloud computing over the last few years. “The cloud” has figured prominently in President Obama’s technology initiatives, in the business plans of familiar tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft, and even in […]
GSA assistant commissioner Mary Davie tries to dispel cloud computing ‘myths’ and says a phased deployment strategy will raise the chances for successful projects. Moving to the cloud is easier, more cost-effective, and safer than many federal IT pros realize, according to the assistant commissioner of the General Services Administration. In light of the federal mandate for agencies to embrace cloud computing, GSA’s Mary Davie tried to debunk some of the myths about cloud computing […]
In less than a decade, the global mobile Internet has emerged as a phenomenon that directly impacts the lives of 1 out of every 8 persons living on the planet. As businesses of all types scramble to prepare for the unstoppable wave of mobile commerce unleashed by this socio-economic revolution, the need for strengthening mobile security has never been greater. The mobile device market reached a critical inflection point at the start of 2011: For […]
There is no shortage of hype about cloud services, both positive and negative, but it is often difficult for potential customers to do an objective cost / benefit analysis. In addition to promising productivity and business process benefits, cloud computing can be very attractive to cut rapidly both capital and operating expenditure. There may, however, be unanticipated costs and risks in a move to online hosting of key data and applications. Perhaps surprisingly, and despite […]