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 […]
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The use of technology is among one of the greatest challenges facing medium sized businesses. It also presents one of the biggest transformational opportunities to drive growth, promote innovation, reduce costs and ensure your business maintains a competitive edge. 1. Free up resources Most businesses today are concerned about the state of the economy. Moving in-house hardware and software to a highly secure data centre means it can be delivered back as a fully managed […]
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 […]
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 […]
People are only just starting to understand new technological trends such as virtualization and cloud computing, when along comes a phenomenon called “Big Data.” That trend doesn’t really focus on burgeoning content or data encouraged by all those cloud activities. Big Data is all about tools and processes that allow organizations to manage and analyze very large data sets that yield insights from which the business may profit. According to storage provider and cloud solution […]
Worried about your data? If you’re not, you’re kidding yourself. It’s become clear over the past few months that the risk of security breaches has reached a new and frightening level — from sophisticated tools in the hands of national governments and organized crime to spontaneous attacks harnessing the resources of thousands of loosely connected vigilantes. Add to that the dizzying array of devices now used to access, move and store data. Security strategies that […]
New Zealand was already set to be the land of cloud computing, but the Christchurch earthquake should boost that process further. As businesses recover from the havoc the quake wreaked, it is becoming clear who fared best. Those who stored their data offsite were least affected, and cloud computing was shown to be good for data recovery. Analysts say that, given this, the quake will send firms to the cloud, especially since it makes it […]
Businesses concerned about the security of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud technology should be more worried about how they secure data themselves rather than the levels of security offered by cloud providers. A recent survey by Forrester Research found that security is the main concern about IaaS technology for 58 per cent of European technology decision-makers. And these concerns – combined with others – appear to be hampering adoption, with just two per cent […]
As more organizations turn to the cloud, the need for an effective set of industry standards is becoming ever more pressing. There is a clear divide between those who argue for implementation of cloud standards and those who argue against. At the heart of this debate is a clear need to balance the benefits of having a standard with the call for a sustained pace of innovation. The argument against cloud computing standards relies on […]
Security takes precedence over financial return Companies are still wary about the security aspect of cloud computing and want more reassurance before investing in the technology. That’s according to new research from SunGard which found that only 15 percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) would be happy to entrust their company’s data to cloud providers. To no great surprise, financial accounting systems were the applications that CFOs were most reluctant to see despatched to the […]
While Cloud Computing has captured the imagination of CIOs, there are serious questions whether sensitive business data can be effectively managed in the cloud. Wendy Yale from Varonis explores. The data governance and compliance issues faced by organisations are the same whether operating in a cloud environment or not. When organisations are considering moving business data into the cloud a sound data governance approach must be in place to enable them to avoid costly data […]