CFOs have high hopes for cloud computing, even though they don’t appear to know much about it. Such are the findings from two recent surveys conducted by CFO. Asked about their current use of cloud-computing services, a majority of senior finance executives either have no plans to pursue it in the short term, or are doing so very tentatively. Nearly a third admit that they aren’t even sure what “cloud computing” really means. Yet, when […]
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Search engine giant Google has gone into overdrive in promoting its Google Apps cloud based enterprise suite with adverts in various prominent magazines including The Economist. Google’s recent Google Apps ad in The Economist reflects the company’s determination to push its productivity suite ahead of Microsoft Office, The Register reports. The four page ad claims that every day 3000 businesses are shifting to Google’s platform with over 3 million businesses adopting Google Apps since its […]
Cloud computing is famous for being a metaphor instead of a technology, but that metaphor is increasingly hard for non-techies to understand. Many variations of cloud have emerged that have little to do with the initial vision that sparked interest— a public cloud with burst-up capability on demand. “Public cloud is not what most of our clients are talking about right now,” according to Chris Wolf, analyst for Gartner Group’s Burton Group consultancy. “Pretty much […]
1. Get smart Before making a move into the cloud, get educated on the principles and definitions of cloud computing, advises Johan Goossens, head of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation’s (ACT) Technology & Human Factors Branch in Norfolk, Va. “We started in the summer of 2010 with educational efforts. We got ourselves smart on the terminology, sitting down with vendor partners,” he says. 2. Know your apps “Before we got started with the cloud, we made […]
Many small and midsize businesses (SMBs) don’t yet fully understand what software as a service (SAAS) is, how SAAS works and why SAAS makes business sense for them. In this article, I’ll discuss the evolution of software delivery models, why applications in the cloud make sense for SMBs, and the various benefits of SAAS for SMBs (including low financial risk, easy deployment and ease of access from anywhere). After reading this article, you’ll be able […]
CSO recently interviewed Gary Loveland, a principal in PricewaterhouseCooper’s advisory practice and head of the firm’s global security practice, about the latest in cloud security issues. Loveland has functioned as a data security officer and has recommended and implemented security strategies in large-scale business environments. CSO: What do you consider to be the most serious security threats related to cloud computing? Loveland: One of the most serious security threats to cloud computing is the fact […]
Microsoft today named some of the country’s top “cloud-friendly” U.S. cities. The rankings are based on the results of an extensive survey in which 2,000 IT decision makers nationwide discussed how they are adopting and using cloud computing. The forecast for cloud computing across key U.S. cities calls for new lines of business, more need for IT services, and potential job growth, according to a new survey released today by Microsoft. Microsoft released the results […]
SMBs looking at cloud computing – don’t overlook hosted and managed services Almost every child has looked at a cloud and said, “That cloud looks like a _____.” The filled-in blank often becomes the point of highly subjective argument. In much the same way, IT professionals continuously seek to fill in the blank with an understanding of “cloud computing” and we’ve learned that what you see in your cloud has a lot to do with […]
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 […]
Cloud Adopters Embrace Cloud For Both Innovation and Legacy Optimization Once thought to be the answer to deployment options for just the SMB market, early cloud adopters proved otherwise. Stereotypes about industry, size of company, geographies, and roles no longer hold back adoption. Cloud adoption at all 4 layers of the cloud passed the tipping points in 2010 as a key business and technology strategy (see Figure 1). For 2011, we can expect users to: […]