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Cloud Computing News
Cloud Computing Key to Fighting Data Loss
May 16 2012 - eWeek
By: Nathan Eddy
The amount of data created and held by companies is increasing exponentially, and keeping it safe continues to be a major cause for concern. At the same time, cloud computing, rather than remaining a theoretical concept, is now a reality for many organizations. Data loss continues to be a huge problem for companies across North America that are looking to cloud-based platforms for a solution, according to a survey commissioned by CA Technologies, “Insights: Data Protection and the Cloud.”
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Oracle and Cloud Computing: Database Helps, But Challenges Remain
May 16 2012 - Network Computing
By: Staff
In part three of a series on Oracle's position in the cloud computing market, we take a look at how the vendor's database will affect its efforts. Part one, "Oracle Embraces Cloud Computing, the New Consumption Model," examined the evolution of the company's stance on the cloud. Part two, "Oracle Positioned to Succeed in the Cloud Computing Market," explored how the vendor's hardware and software offerings influence its cloud computing push.
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Refund Checks to Be Issued for Cloud Computing Tax
May 16 2012 - VPR News
By: Bob Kinzel
The Vermont Tax Department is getting ready to issue refund checks to businesses that have paid the "cloud computing" tax over the past few years. One of the big tax issues of the 2012 session involved the imposition of the state sales tax on services that businesses receive online from remote servers.
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Government and Cloud Computing
May 16 2012 - Cisco
By: Steve Wildstrom
The federal government, like the private sector, sees great opportunities in moving its IT infrastructure in the cloud. A 2011 white paper by then-Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra estimated that $20 billion of the government's $80 billion in annual IT spending could move to the cloud. A study by the MeriTalk Cloud Computing Exchange estimates that the government could save $12 billion a year through greater use of cloud services, which promote efficiency through elimination of duplication and higher utilization of equipment. But the reality is that because of complex regulations, especially those covering security and procurement, that move will be slow and painful.
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How Cloud Computing Saved My Business
May 16 2012 - Entrepreneur
By: Stewart Wolpin
Some might find it strange that something as ephemeral as the "cloud" could have as great an impact on businesses as more tangible transformational technologies such as the smartphone and computer. With the cloud, businesses don't have to invest in and maintain costly backroom hardware and software. They are freed from costly, time consuming maintenance and administrative duties and can concentrate on what they really want to do -- run a profitable operation.
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Cloud Computing and Mobile Processing Saves Small Business
May 16 2012 - Forbes
By: The Small Business Authority
Cloud computing, put broadly, is a term used to describe any service available on the internet. More specifically, cloud computing refers to a hosting environment that leverages pooled computing resources by way of virtualization. Cloud computing takes existing physical servers and creates virtualized servers to exist on top of them. The virtual servers leverage the computing power of the entire infrastructure without necessarily being dependent on any given hardware. This makes the servers more powerful and more reliable.
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The Real Limits of Cloud Computing
May 15 2012 - IT World
By: Brian Proffitt
When Google Drive was initially announced to be integrated with ChromeOS-running machines, the general consensus in the media seemed to be that this functionality was going to harbor a new age of personal cloud computing. I, for one, am not so sure.
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Cloud Computing Tools: Improving Security Through Visibility and Automation
May 15 2012 - PC World
By: Robert Scheier, CSO
Many enterprises are reluctant to move critical cloud applications out of their own data centers and into the public cloud due to security concerns. Yet the same automated, consistent provisioning that is essential to managing either public or private clouds (as well as to the process of thinking through a cloud deployment) can also offer the fringe benefit of improving security.
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Top 10 Cloud Influencers, Thought Leaders
May 15 2012 - Wired Cloudline
By: Mike Ellis
Cloud computing is everywhere these days and is becoming increasingly vital to any IT strategy. Forrester forecasts that the global cloud market will grow from $40.7 billion to more than $241 billion in 2020. Let’s take time to reflect on how we got to this point and the people that have shaped (and will continue to influence) how we deliver and consume technology today. We’ve compiled a list of the top cloud influencers and thought leaders that we’ve followed since the cloud’s inception.
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Tap on Cloud's Multiplier Effect
May 15 2012 - ZDNet
By: Jamie Yap
The current cloud computing focus is largely on how companies can move to the cloud, however industry executives urged enterprise customers to look beyond this stage to seeing how cloud services can help grow their business.
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3 winners, 3 losers in the move to big data
May 15 2012 - InfoWorld
By: David Linthicum
The move to big data is afoot. Recently, Yahoo and Google both tossed their very big hats into the ring, and the cloud computing leaders are already offering access to big data services. It's becoming the killer application for cloud computing, and I believe it will drive a tremendous amount of growth in 2012 and 2013.
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Cloud Computing a Game Changer for Your Company? 5 Questions to Ponder
May 15 2012 - Forbes
By: Joe McKendrick
Are we there yet? Think of cloud computing as a continuum that stretches all the way from one-off projects — that is, companies simply moving some IT assets to the cloud to gain cost savings — all the way up to a game-changer that strategically leverages online resources to open up new markets or ways of doing business.
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Cloud computing tools: Improving security through visibility and automation
May 14 2012 - CSO
By: Robert Scheier
Many enterprises are reluctant to move critical cloud applications out of their own data centers and into the public cloud due to security concerns. Yet the same automated, consistent provisioning that is essential to managing either public or private clouds (as well as to the process of thinking through a cloud deployment) can also offer the fringe benefit of improving security.
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Oracle Embraces Cloud Computing, the New Consumption Model
May 14 2012 - Network Computing
By: Liam Lahey
The clouds have lifted at Oracle, one might say. In a series of briefings at the recent Oracle Industry Analyst World 2012, the software vendor set its sights on the cloud computing market, announcing a broad portfolio of products and services to enable public, private and hybrid clouds, in turn letting customers choose the right approach for them. It's a change in direction for the company, according to some experts.
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Mobility, Cloud, Virtualization Gain Traction Among Small Businesses: Symantec
May 14 2012 - eWeek
By: Nathan Eddy
Cloud computing, virtualization and mobile technology are increasingly prevalent among small and midsize businesses, according to a survey from IT security firm Symantec. The findings of the company’s 2012 "SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey" indicated that disaster preparedness is closely connected to these three technologies. The survey found more than one-third of SMBs (35 percent) are now taking advantage of mobile devices for business use.
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As I See It: Cloud Cover
May 14 2012 - IT Jungle
By: Victor Rozek
Herb Grosch was the second scientist ever hired by IBM. And he was a good hire. His resume resembled an achievement highlight reel. It included doing calculations for the Manhattan Project, and helping develop the Whirlwind computer at MIT--the first system that actually operated in real time and used video displays for output. He was also the first to formalize the relationship between cost and performance in what has become known as Grosch's Law: "economy is as the square root of the speed."
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SAP Seen Boosting Cloud to Vindicate SuccessFactors Deal
May 14 2012 - Bloomberg News
By: Cornelius Rahn
SAP AG (SAP) plans to show this week it has learnt from a flawed venture into Internet-based software five years ago with its new strategy for cloud-computing, months after the $3.4 billion purchase of SuccessFactors Inc.
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DOE Hybrid Cloud May Be Model For Future
May 11 2012 - InformationWeek
By: Barbara DePompa
The Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration are creating a cloud computing environment that could be a model for other federal agencies.
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Google CIO Ben Fried Says Cloud Tipping Point Is at Hand
May 11 2012 - Wall Street Journal: CIO Journal
By: Steve Rosenbush
The economics of cloud computing are driving down the cost structure of business so far and so fast that it’s scary, Google CIO Ben Fried says.
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Is Cloud Computing Best for My Business
May 11 2012 - MSN
By: Heather Cox
There’s been a lot of talk recently about how the cloud will revolutionise business computing. But how is it different to what you’re doing now, and what’s the benefit?
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The Morning Download: CIOs Seek Cloud Cover
May 11 2012 - Wall Street Journal
By: Michael Hickins
CIOs are beginning — some would say finally — to use cloud computing as a strategic tool. The ability to rent computing and storage capacity as needs arise, as well as applications that can be used to manage sales accounts, deploy field technicians, or just about any other function, gives CIOs the ability to help their organizations seize new market opportunities without making huge up-front investments.
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Google looks to grow computing service
May 11 2012 - Bloomberg
By: Brian Womack and Ari Levy
Google Inc., which has watched Amazon.com Inc. dominate the market for Web-based computer services, is boosting spending to carve out a bigger piece of the cloud for itself.
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6 Signs of a Maturing Cloud-Computing Industry
May 10 2012 - Wired Cloudline
By: Todd Nielsen
I am continually surprised at how fast the cloud-computing industry is maturing and growing. There is news every day of radical advances in IT delivery through the cloud. Every industry goes through phases and growth pains until they reach maturation. Here are six phases currently in progress in the maturity of the cloud-computing industry.
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This just in: Cloud computing is hard and takes a long time
May 10 2012 - InfoWorld
By: David Linthicum
Cisco Systems has surveyed more than 1,300 IT professionals to determine the top priorities and challenges they face when migrating applications and information to the cloud. Guess what? It's harder, and it takes longer than many thought. Duh.
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Vivendi’s SFR and Bull Form Cloud Computing Company, Echos Says
May 10 2012 - Bloomberg
By: Rudy Ruitenberg
SFR SA, Vivendi SA (VIV)’s French mobile- phone unit, will set up a company to offer cloud-computing services with computer maker Bull (BULL) SA, Les Echos reported, without saying where it got the information.
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The Path to Cloud Control
May 10 2012 - Channel Insider
By: Michael Vizard
Historically, solution providers in the channel tended to align themselves with one major computing platform or another. Given the complexities of setting up any particular server platform, that approach made a lot of technical and economic sense even if it did tie the interests of a solution provider to a particular vendor.
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Google Drive: What Cloud Are You On?
May 09 2012 - Manhattan Beach Patch
By: Jeffrey J. Rose
After rumors for several years that it would be getting into the cloud-computing business, tech giant Google finally launched its Google Drive last week, prompting all kinds of cloud storage and application providers to come out with announcements of their own, not wanting to be lost in the fog.
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How Cloud Computing Can Benefit Disaster Response
May 09 2012 - Emergency Management
By: Valerie Lucus-McEwen
As technology continues to redefine emergency management practices, the process of incorporating new concepts into daily practice and planning can be confusing. This is especially true if the concept sounds mysterious and cryptic — cloud computing often sounds complex and bewildering.
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Cisco: Network Tops Cloud Challenges
May 09 2012 - InformationWeek
By: Robert Mullins
Enterprise cloud adoption is expected to grow significantly in 2012, but some serious obstacles to even wider adoption remain, according to a survey of Cisco Systems customers released at the Interop 2012 conference this week in Las Vegas.
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Proper security and protection measures enable rapid cloud adoption, say HP experts
May 09 2012 - IT-Director
By: Dana Gardner
It now falls to CIOs to not only rapidly adapt to cloud computing, but to find the ways to protect their employees and customers as they adopt cloud models – even as security threats grow. This is a serious -- but not insurmountable challenge. Cloud computing has clearly sparked the imagination of business leaders, who see it as a powerful new way to be innovative and gain first-mover advantages -- with or without traditional IT's consent.
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Has 'cloud computing' become a redundant phrase?
May 07 2012 - ZDNet
By: Joe McKendrick
My eighth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Pedrick, probably would have a field day with her red pen if she ever read many of the IT-related blogs out there – including mine. One of her pet peeves was the loading up of sentences with redundancies; most thoughts could be expressed neatly and cleanly with an economy of words. Consider phrases such as “free gift,” “all-time record,” “foreign imports,” “advance planning,” “join together” and “new recruit.” Perhaps “cloud computing” has become one of those redundant phrases as well.
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Gazing Into The Cloud, From Storage to Servers
May 07 2012 - NPR
By: Ira Flatow
Apple and Amazon want to store your music in 'the cloud,' while companies from Google to Microsoft to Zoho offer ways to wrangle your office documents there. But what exactly is the cloud, and is the time right to start using it? Technology experts Tony Bradley and Nicholas Carr look at the switch away from traditional desktop computing.
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With Terremark in hand, Verizon focuses on cloud work
May 07 2012 - The Washington Post
By: Marjorie Censer
Verizon and Terremark started as partners on a General Dynamics-led team to provide cloud computing services to the Army. By the time General Dynamics announced the award earlier this month, Verizon had bought Terremark, giving it a larger infrastructure as it pursues more cloud work.
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Keeping the cloud secure
May 07 2012 - The Washington Post
By: Marjorie Censer
The government will soon roll out a program that could offer a smoother path for companies that want to sell their cloud services and products to federal agencies. The General Services Administration is readying what’s known as FedRAMP (shorthand for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program), an initiative to standardize the security of cloud products and services and accelerate their adoption.
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Hostage Crisis in the Cloud: Can You Rescue Your Data?
May 07 2012 - CIO
By: Stephanie Overby
In traditional outsourcing deals—in which the service provider hosts massive amounts of customer data—the issue of returning that data to the customer is now largely settled. Outsourcing contracts typically include detailed termination and transition assistance provisions that outline the provider's responsibilities regarding data return.
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US dominance may pose cloud computing risks
May 07 2012 - Computer World
By: Stephen Bell
Ultra Fast Broadband has the potential to convert New Zealanders from a purely downloading online lifestyle to full-hearted participation in the cloud, says InternetNZ CEO Vikram Kumar. The bottleneck now represented by New Zealand’s restricted bandwidth will be dramatically cleared and there will be much more movement of data in the upward direction, particularly in the use of cloud services.
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State companies helping Army with cloud computing
May 04 2012 - Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentenial
By: Rick Barrett
The U.S. Army has turned to cloud computing, and to Wisconsin companies, to improve its intelligence gathering in Afghanistan. Under a $19.5 million contract, the Army is buying computer services from a Lockheed Martin Corp. team that includes Silicon Graphics International of Chippewa Falls and IEA Inc. of Kenosha.
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The battle to stop Amazon Web Services starts here
May 04 2012 - InfoWorld
By: David Linthicum
Piston Computing plans to build a bridge to EMC VMware's Cloud Foundry, meaning it will link Piston's own OpenStack-based cloud IaaS offering. What does this mean for cloud development? It's the start of many other such integration efforts, I suspect, to battle the meteoric rise of Amazon Web Services (AWS).
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A Cloud-Computing Gem in the Making
May 04 2012 - AOL Daily Finance
By: Keki Fatakia, The Motley Fool
Dell seems to be making all the right moves. The company is not only focusing on the exploding market for tablet computers in the corporate sector, but is also further heading out into the cloud-computing space, which is another high-growth industry.
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Citrix Defends CloudStack's Value Vs. OpenStack
May 04 2012 - InformationWeek
By: Charles Babcock
In an April 18 column, I questioned whether we really needed advocates of one open source cloud project, CloudStack, saying it was superior to another project, OpenStack. My problem was in CloudStack's proponents suggesting it's the best because it's the most compatible with Amazon's cloud computing infrastructure.
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How 'Cloud' Isn't Helping the Cloud
May 03 2012 - Redmond Channel Partner
By: Howard M. Cohen
It's possible that the one thing that has clouded up the whole view of "the cloud" and cloud computing is the word "cloud." Why "cloud"? Why not "utility," which HP used a few years back and was much more descriptive of what the strategy was meant to accomplish? What about "remote" computing? Or "hosted"? Cloud is so open to interpretation, so vague, so...cloudy!
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Cloud computing gains in federal government
May 03 2012 - Computer World
By: Kenneth Corbin
The federal government may not be renowned for its operational speed or agility, and certainly IT is no exception, but federal agency CIOs and their employees have gradually been warming to the new model of cloud computing, according to a panel of industry executives speaking at a conference here on Wednesday.
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Cloud Computing Boosts Building Performance, Collaboration
May 03 2012 - GlobeSt.com
By: Jacqueline Hlavenka
To those in the design, construction and building operations industry, the concept of cloud computing can have many different meanings, from servers to code to different devices – even the kitchen sink. But panelists at the 2012 Buildings NY conference agreed that the new technology could have a major impact on property performance and employee productivity as the workplace continues to evolve in the digital direction.
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Zynga Takes on Amazon in the Cloud
May 03 2012 - Forbes
By: Reuven Cohen
Lately there seems to have been a shift from the anything for anyone cloud to the industry or vertically focused cloud. Adding to this is news from Zynga, which announced on May 1 what it describes as “the beta release of Zynga.com, a new service enabling third party developers to create and publish games on the Zynga Platform.” Yes, that company that brought you Farmville is now going to be a cloud service provider enabling a whole new crop of game companies, which I can only assume they will acquire when the time is right.
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Looking at Cloud Strategy Through the Lens of Value
April 30 2012 - Forbes
By: Mike Pearl
If the innovative ways that businesses are using cloud computing haven’t set off alarms within your organization, it’s time that they did. Enterprises that look at the cloud solely through the lens of technology will be left behind by more agile competitors that use the cloud to develop innovative new business models based on faster time to market, new modes of customer interaction and more efficient operating models. Likewise, IT service providers that market their cloud offerings simply as technology solutions will be outmaneuvered by competitors that position their offerings based on the business value they deliver.
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Cloud Computing Is Set to Transform Charity IT Infrastructure
April 30 2012 - The Guardian
By: Dan Sutherland
Over the years Sport Relief has created many special charity moments, like John Bishop's week of hell, David Walliams' epic swims and Helen Skelton's south pole challenge. Together translating into over £175m raised for UK charities since 2002. From a technology perspective, these huge one-off events present a real challenge. How do you create an IT infrastructure that is able to cope with such a massive volume of traffic in a short space of time? Not only that, how do you do it cost effectively and, most importantly, making sure everyone who wants to make a donation is able to? Thankfully the answer to this challenge lies in cloud computing.
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Bringing 'Cloud' Down to Earth
April 30 2012 - InformationWeek
By: Brian Pereira
There is no doubt that the Cloud has significant benefits for business. With attractive propositions such as OPEX model, lower TCO, shared resources, faster deployment/roll-out of applications (in minutes not months) -- every organization would be tempted to move its infrastructure to the cloud. But the journey to the cloud isn't all that simple and straightforward. There are numerous considerations in the areas of processes, policies, people, and applications.
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Cloud computing platform launches a network of new businesses
April 30 2012 - Search CIO Mid-Market
By: Christina Torode
In just one year, Mohawk Fine Paper Inc. went from serving 300 customers to 30,000. In this podcast, Paul Stamas, SearchCIO-Midmarket.com 2012 IT Leadership Awards finalist and Mohawk's vice president of IT, explains how he transformed Mohawk from a struggling, 80-year-old company to an agile and highly connected business built on a cloud computing platform. He is a finalist for the Cultural Innovation and Technological Advancement awards.
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Master MySQL in the Amazon cloud
April 30 2012 - IT World
By: Sean Hull
For many MySQL database admins, Amazon Web Services represents the brave new world of cloud computing -- one fraught with disappearing servers, disk I/O variability, and other shared resource challenges, not to mention questions regarding the security of data. But for those seeking to tap the powerful flexibility that cloud computing affords MySQL database deployments, AWS should be viewed simply as the next natural step in data center evolution -- one in which virtualization and commodity hardware are a given, and scalability, performance, and high availability are readily attained.
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Google Drive: Watch out, cloud computing in U.S. like 'Wild West'
April 26 2012 - LA Times
By: Michelle Maltais
With the advent of Google Drive, we talk about cloud computing as if the bits and bytes of our lives are stored somewhere up in the air, but, really, the "clouds" are very terrestrial. What's more up in the air are the laws that govern who can access your stuff and how.
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Who Needs Cloud Computing?
April 26 2012 - LA Times
By: Michelle Maltais
With all of the chatter around Google Drive and the like, you may be wondering whether you should have a cloud drive somewhere. Some people live blissful digitally disconnected lives -- free of smartphones, free of Facebook, devoid of a digital photo album with snapshots of everything from their baby to their breakfast, no tangle of charging cables, no bytes of data to transfer or tap.
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CIOs' Cloud Strategy Must Include Public Cloud
April 26 2012 - Computer World
By: Bernard Golden
A year ago, when discussing an organization's cloud strategy, I heard a consistent theme that "our focus is on creating a private cloud." Sometimes stated, sometimes unstated or sometimes said under an executive's breath was the objective of curtailing developer use of public cloud computing. The target of that objective most commonly was Amazon Web Services.
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Google expands its cloud-computing offerings with 'Drive'
April 25 2012 - CNN
By: Doug Gross
Google expanded the digital world of cloud computing on Tuesday, announcing the rollout of "Google Drive." The service, which will give users 5GB of free remote storage and additional space for a monthly fee, puts the Web giant in competition with Apple and Microsoft, as well as specialized services like Box and Dropbox, in a space that increasingly looks like the future of computing.
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Simplifying the Management of Cloud Computing
April 25 2012 - IT Business Edge
By: Michael Vizard
All things being relatively equal, the decision as to which cloud service provider to go with is likely to come down to manageability. Most IT administrators want a cloud computing experience that closely mimics what they see when they are actually sitting in front of a physical server.
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Simplifying the Management of Cloud Computing
April 25 2012 - IT Business Edge
By: Michael Vizard
All things being relatively equal, the decision as to which cloud service provider to go with is likely to come down to manageability. Most IT administrators want a cloud computing experience that closely mimics what they see when they are actually sitting in front of a physical server.
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Cloud computing still on the top of channels watch list
April 25 2012 - Channel Biz
By: Andrea Marie-Petrou
Cloud computing remains at the top of the channel “one to watch” list, with spending on this technology rising every year, according to a report. The 2012 CA Technologies Channel Index, said that investment in this technology has increased once again for the fourth year running.
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Where IT is going: Cloud, mobile, and data
April 24 2012 - CNET
By: Gordon Haff
Cloud computing seems to often get used as a catch-all term for the big trends happening in IT. This has the unfortunate effect of adding additional ambiguities to a topic that's already laden with definitional overload. (For example, on a topic like security or compliance, it makes a lot of difference whether you're talking about public clouds like Amazon's, a private cloud within an enterprise, a social network, or some mashup of two or more of the above.)
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4 Keys To Hybrid Cloud Planning
April 24 2012 - InformationWeek
By: Beth Stackpole
Amidst all the hype surrounding cloud computing, the hybrid cloud approach-- the blending of both private and public cloud environments--is gaining traction. But the reality of building a bridge that effectively leverages the strengths of both architectures is ending up to be a greater challenge than many anticipated.
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Cost savings for over half of businesses using cloud computing
April 24 2012 - Irish Independent
By: John Mulligan
Over half of Irish organisations that have begun using cloud computing systems claim that they've already generated cost savings as a result, according to a new survey. This week marks the first Microsoft-sponsored National Cloud Week, which aims to educate businesses about the potential impact of cloud computing.
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Microsoft, HP and SalesForce Assess Key Cloud Computing Issues April 22, 2012
April 24 2012 - Viodi
By: Alan Weissberger
At the April 12, 2012 TiE Cloud meeting in Santa Clara, CA, three leading Cloud Service Providers presented their views as to where the cloud industry is now and where it’s going. Microsoft, HP and Salesforce are each addressing a different segment of the cloud market with what they believe are compelling value propositions for their customers.
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Cloud computing leads training priorities
April 24 2012 - ITWeb
By: Admire Moyo
The majority of local organisations believe their IT staff will require training in cloud computing and virtualisation in the next 12 months. This was one of the major findings of the ITWeb/Foster-Melliar IT Training Survey, which ran on ITWeb Online for 14 days, attracting 190 responses.
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Even the Tech-Savviest Struggle With Cloud-Based Business Models: Study
April 24 2012 - Forbes
By: Joe McKendrick
Cloud computing offers an interesting value proposition to businesses of all stripes because it offers cheaper technology resources and greater flexibility. But that’s only half the story. Every company also has the potential to become a cloud services provider as well as a cloud services consumer. If you run a ball-bearing factory, and you have a private cloud and extend some online capabilities to members of your supply chain — such as checking your inventory levels or something more complex such as running product simulations — you are a service provider.
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Supercomputing At Not-So-Super Costs
April 23 2012 - CIO Journal
By: Clint Boulton
The term “supercomputing” suggests computing that comes at a great deal of cost and is reserved for massive companies. But in this age of cloud computing, where vendors host software on their servers and provision it to end user customers, supercomputing need not always come with super costs. That’s the lesson learned from Cycle Computing, which used a computing cluster comprised of 50,000 computer chips to test drug compounds for less than $5,000 an hour for less than three hours, reports the New York Times’ Steve Lohr.
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Amazon Cloud Computing Is Getting Bigger Too
April 23 2012 - Social Barrel
By: Laurentiu Stan
Giant Internet retailer Amazon is flexing another online muscle that promises to be as powerful as its web sales business – its cloud-computing infrastructure. BGR News this morning quoted a research made by DeepFields Network, which showed that with little fuss, Amazon’s cloud computing system is starting to exert influence on as much as 1% of the total Internet traffic in North America.
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AWS Innovation Means Cloud Domination
April 23 2012 - eWeek
By: Darryl K. Taft
Amazon Web Services kicked off its cloud computing service in 2006 and has since taken a commanding lead in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) space by adding more and more services and amassing a number of customers. What's more, AWS has no intention of slowing down as the cloud is poised to take over the world. At the AWS Summit 2012 NYC here, Adam Selipsky, vice president of sales, marketing and support at AWS, gave a brief history of AWS’ innovations over the last six years, highlighting some of the more recent ones, including the AWS Marketplace, which AWS announced on April 19.
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Questions to ask cloud computing providers
April 23 2012 - Business Insurance
By: Staff
A list of essential questions you should ask cloud providers before signing on.
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Late to the Cloud? Hardly.
April 23 2012 - Seeking Alpha
By: Michael Fauscette
It's a statement that I hear often lately as more traditional software vendors start to invest in cloud computing- that they're "late to the cloud". Of course many of those who are saying it are "pure play" SaaS vendors that are no doubt starting to feel some competitive pressure as more vendors start selling SaaS applications. I also hear it from colleagues and I suppose that it is a true statement of fact, but to me there's a little more to the story than that. I think the bigger question might be whether being late to the cloud is "bad".
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Government shared services could fall to cloud
April 23 2012 - IT News
By: Liz Tay and John Hilvert
Global government organisations may turn away from traditional shared services arrangements to new models like cloud computing and stronger supplier partnerships this year, Gartner predicts. The analyst firm surveyed 213 IT executives from national, state and local government organisations in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific for its Government IT Sourcing Survey Highlights 2012 report, released this month.
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Is India the emerging cloud computing capital of the world?
April 23 2012 - InformationWeek
By: Srikanth RP
Consider these statistics: A study by Nasscom and Deloitte estimates the Indian cloud computing market will reach USD 16 billion by 2020. Similarly, a report by consulting firm Zinnov Management Consulting estimates that the cloud computing market will grow from USD 400 million (currently) to USD 4.5 billion by 2015. A recent Microsoft-IDC study says that cloud computing will generate over 2 million jobs in India by 2015.
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The Download: Microsoft’s focus is on mobile cloud, CEO says
April 23 2012 - The Washington Post
By: Steven Overly
Steve Ballmer keeps a paperless office. The Microsoft chief executive told a crowd of high-tech executives at a Northern Virginia Technology Council gathering in Tysons Corner last week that his workspace is now anchored by handheld computers and a large, digital monitor.
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Amazon cloud accessed daily by a third of all 'Net users
April 20 2012 - IT World
By: Patrick Thibodeau
The era of cloud hyper-giants, providers so big and so critical to the delivery of information and commerce, is clearly here. But unlike an electric utility, which can give an exact count of customers and power consumed, understanding the true size of a cloud provider hasn't been as easy. But DeepField Networks, a new cloud intelligence company operating in semi-stealth mode, posted some eye-popping findings Wednesday about the breadth of Internet activity Amazon is now responsible for.
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Privacy abuses could kill cloud storage
April 20 2012 - InfoWorld
By: David Linthicum
Did you hear? Some employers are asking for your Facebook and Twitter passwords before they offer you employment. This issue caused so much of a stir that Maryland passed legislation to ban employers from such requests. I suspect the employers with these ambitions will have to go back to drug tests, blind reference checks, and background investigations to vet their candidates. What does this have to do with cloud computing? The rise of personal clouds -- such as iCloud, Mozy, Carbonite, Box, Dropbox, Google Apps, Microsoft SkyDrive, and other cheap or free ways to store our personal data outside of our homes -- could make us vulnerable to requests or demands for access.
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Greenpeace's clean cloud push: Hey, they've got a point
April 20 2012 - CNET
By: Martin LaMonica
In its trademark smashmouth style, Greenpeace this week took cloud computing companies to task for using dirty energy -- and then came under fire itself over its methods and assertions. Whatever Greenpeace's shortcomings, though, its activists have a point.
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Courts shouldn't plumb cloud computing complexities, expert says
April 20 2012 - Federal News Radio
By: Tom Temin and Emily Kopp
Cloud computing is supposed to be done in a way that protects an agency's information, but Richard Falkenrath, a principal with the Chertoff Group, worries that the information could be in jeopardy. He is calling on Congress to prevent the courts from getting too far into the cloud computing decisions your agency makes.
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Cloud computing 'emerging from hype cycle'
April 20 2012 - UKauthorITy.com
By: Dan Jellinek
"Some of the statistics that have been bandied around of 90% savings - that's not a saving from the cloud, that's a comment on past practices", Creese told the live broadcast "G-Cloud and CloudStore - What impact on public sector technology?" Suppliers had jumped on a bandwagon, he said: "You will not find many suppliers now who will be telling you they do not have a cloud service", but only some of these are genuine, he said.
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Oracle quietly plotting ambitious cloud computing plan
April 19 2012 - InfoWorld
By: Brandon Butler
During a series of analyst briefings this week, Oracle has provided additional details of how it plans to play in the cloud moving forward. The overall strategy is an ambitious one that features software (SaaS) and platform (PaaS) offerings, along with social collaboration tools, all leveraging the legacy database management systems that have made Oracle one of the biggest tech companies in the world.
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Cloud computing in the real world Hiawatha Bray
April 19 2012 - The Boston Globe
By: Hiawatha Bray
There are clouds in the forecast, in Boston and everywhere else. A host of press reports suggest that Google Inc. will next week launch a new product called Drive, a free “cloud storage’’ service that’ll let you stash five gigabytes of data online, and access it anywhere through any Internet-connected device.
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Is cloud computing just a cloud of pollution?
April 19 2012 - Digital Trends
By: Geoff Duncan
Environmental watchdog group Greenpeace is taking on the technology sector again. On Wednesday, the organization released a 52-page report “How Clean is Your Cloud?,” analyzing the energy policies and data center operations of some of the world’s leading technology companies, including the likes of Oracle, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, HP, Facebook, Google, and Apple. Greenpeace’s take? With some exceptions, technology companies are mostly failing to adopt clean energy practices and are still largely relying on so-called “dirty” energy sources like coal-fired power plants to fuel their power-hungry data centers. Specifically, Greenpeace has singled out Apple, branding the company as the most reliant on coal-generated power of any firm in its survey. (In an unusual move, Apple quickly refute
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What to consider before signing up for Google Drive
April 19 2012 - IT World
By: Lucas Mearian
Just as with an Apple product launch, Google has had to do next to nothing to create buzz around its long-awaited Google Drive cloud storage service. The latest: Google Drive will launch next week. Of course, prognosticators have predicted much the same thing numerous times in the past, predictions that turned out to be wrong.
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Dearth of Cloud Computing Skills Finally Being Addressed
April 19 2012 - Midsize Insider
By: Shawn Drew
The explosion of cloud computing over the past few years has brought a true revolution to the world of IT, especially for businesses that previously lacked the resources to take advantage of the latest trends in computing. However, this explosion has left the world of technology with relatively few people who possess the ability to correctly deploy and troubleshoot cloud solutions. This burgeoning skills gap is finally getting the attention it deserves, and some companies, like Microsoft, are already taking action.
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Cloud Insecurity: Not Enough Tools, Experience or Transparency
April 18 2012 - TechNewsWorld
By: Bryan Doerr
It may be that the hype around cloud computing has settled, but security concerns continue to make headlines and are often cited by CIOs as top priorities. The IT industry association CompTIA, which earlier this year released its ninth annual Information Security Trends Study, found that while many U.S. companies trust the cloud enough to use it, only 13 percent trust it enough for heavy lifting. For example, 58 percent won't put confidential company data in the cloud, and 56 percent won't put credit card data in the cloud. When asked to assess the current risks in cloud security, nearly all had moderate or serious concerns, and 55 percent said those concerns were greater now than ever.
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Apple, Amazon receive poor grades in Greenpeace clean cloud report; Apple disputes data
April 18 2012 - The Washington Post
By: Staff
Greenpeace released a report April 17 that looked at how “green” the cloud computing operations were for 14 major players in the industry. According to Greenpeace, some cloud data centers use as much electricity as 180,000 homes would use. Here’s a look at how the tech titans, such as Apple, Facebook and Amazon, stacked up against one another.
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Amazon’s Secretive Cloud Carries 1 Percent of the Internet
April 18 2012 - Wired Enterprise
By: Robert McMillan
Amazon’s cloud computing infrastructure is growing so fast that it’s silently becoming a core piece of the internet. That’s according to an analysis done by DeepField Networks, a start-up that number-crunched several weeks’ worth of anonymous network traffic provided by internet service providers, mainly in North America. They found that one-third of the several million users in the study visited a website that uses Amazon’s infrastructure each day.
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Cloud Computing Comes to Healthcare Sector, But May Drift Over Developed Economies
April 17 2012 - Healthcare Packaging
By: Staff
Improved electronic data systems are eagerly anticipated in hospitals across the world, but their implementation may be balanced on national financial climates, according to a new report by business intelligence experts GBI Research. The new report* shows that the growing popularity of Hospital Information Systems (HIS) will create future profits in the healthcare IT market.
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3 issues the cloud can't solve for you
April 17 2012 - InfoWorld
By: David Linthicum
Cloud computing is a step in the right direction for many enterprises and government agencies, with strong patterns of success that demonstrate its value. But given the hype these days, you'd think that the cloud can do anything. Clearly, cloud computing can't fix everything, and it's worthwhile to review that "can't fix" list before you begin your journey to the cloud.
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Amazon, Microsoft low on Greenpeace clean-energy 'cloud' index
April 17 2012 - The Seattle Times
By: Janet I. Tu
Greenpeace is releasing today its ratings on how clean or dirty tech companies' clouds are, and among those it dings are two local giants: Amazon.com and Microsoft. "Cloud" refers to storing data and applications on remote servers and data centers, which users can access through the Internet. That's in contrast with the more traditional method of storage in a company's own servers or mainframes.
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Cloud Computing: IT Teams Stressed by Business Plans to Rapidly Adopt Cloud and SaaS
April 17 2012 - Formtek Blog
By: Dick Weisinger
A report from Saugatuck Technology finds that the move by businesses to the cloud is happening at a blazing pace. The report sees that businesses are moving to the cloud happening in two phases, first a transitional phase where systems consist of hybrid integrations of both on-premise and cloud software, and finally a phase where systems are fully based in the cloud.
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Apple defends green credentials of cloud computing services
April 17 2012 - The Guardian
By: Suzanne Goldenberg
Apple disclosed sensitive information about energy demand at the data centre housing its iCloud service for the first time on Tuesday, defending its green credentials in the face of a campaign by Greenpeace. In a report rating 14 companies leading the migration from local computers to cloud computing, Greenpeace gave failing grades to Apple, Amazon and Microsoft for their reliance on highly polluting coal to power their data centres.
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Quality of Service: Have Confidence in Your Cloud
April 16 2012 - Computer Technology Review
By: John Humphreys
Cloud computing is a term that has become part of our everyday conversations. More and more businesses want to be in the cloud and are taking steps to move to more virtual environments. According to the Open Data Center Alliance, more than 40 percent of its members expect to run more than 40 percent of internal IT systems in cloud environments within two years. Recent discussions have also focused on the types of cloud services available. Whether businesses are using services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS), the end goal is the same: to reduce the costs of business operations. The challenge is to make sure businesses understand what each service offers and to determine which option makes the most sense for their specific cloud needs.
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Cloud computing ‘eagerly anticipated’ by healthcare
April 16 2012 - InPharm
By: Ben Adams
Cloud computing has been dubbed the ‘next big thing’ in healthcare IT, allowing data to be stored on servers not owned by an organisation, saving both space and money. And a new report by business intelligence analysts GBI Research says that improved electronic data systems are eagerly anticipated in hospitals across the world - but it may not be used that widely by healthcare bodies in the US or UK.
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Why open source is the key to cloud innovation
April 16 2012 - InfoWorld
By: Thor Olavsrud
In the 25 years since Richard Stallman wrote the GNU General Public License, free and open source software (FOSS) have become pervasive in computing: Linux, Apache HTTP Server, MySQL, and more can be found in large numbers of enterprises across the globe. And open source is now increasingly undergirding cloud computing as well.
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NAB: Cloud computing is ready for its closeup
April 16 2012 - Gigaom
By: Barb Darrow
Few industries are better suited to the cloud computing model than film and TV production. Show business is project-oriented with myriad production shops and contractors collaborating on short-term jobs that can be compute intensive. Instead of scaling up their own infrastructure to meet those spiky needs, why not rent the capacity they need when they need it?
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Cloud Computing Skills Shortage Forces CIOs to Grow Their Own
April 13 2012 - CIO
By: Merideth Levinson
When Majestic Realty Co., a Los Angeles-based commercial real estate developer, moved to Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) for cloud-based email in early 2011, CIO Jon Grunzweig was shocked by the lack of technical support he found for BPOS in the marketplace.
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Mobile Computing Primary Security Concern for Professionals
April 13 2012 - Technorati
By: Usman Zafar Paracha
Security and protection are the top concerns of present day consumers and businesses. In this regard, Fishnet security has done a survey, finding that mobile computing is the top security concern for organizations. According to the survey, about 35% of information security professionals regarded mobile computing, 27% reported social networks and 18% of professionals reported cloud computing as the major security concerns.
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Does Cloud Computing Hurt Apple?
April 13 2012 - The Motley Fool
By: Tim Beyers
If the central thesis of the cloud-computing movement is that hardware is largely irrelevant -- made obsolete by browsers that can run applications anywhere, on any device -- and if Dell's (NAS: DELL) recent purchase of Wyse Technology proves that the movement has momentum, then why are Apple (NAS: AAPL) investors hoarding shares like a pirate who's found a long-lost buried treasure? The Mac maker is subject to the same forces conspiring to commoditize computer hardware, right?
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How is Cloud Computing Impacting Print Production?
April 13 2012 - WhatTheyThink
By: Staff
CEO of Caslon Rab Govil answers the question of cloud computing's impact on the printing community. and how printers should look to incorporate the cloud into their business.
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VMware Cloud Foundry Plays Disruptive Role
April 13 2012 - InformationWeek
By: Charles Babcock
VMware celebrated the first anniversary of its Cloud Foundry development platform Wednesday, and during the festivities on Hillview Ave. in Palo Alto, which included a cake with a single candle, all I could think of, was: "Why is VMware doing this?" Why is it a big deal that Cloud Foundry is one year old? Cloud Foundry has experienced 75,000 downloads since it became available as open source code. So what? Those 75,000 downloads would constitute a slow day for MySQL or the Apache Web Server.
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What makes a cloud a cloud? 5 defining characterstics
April 13 2012 - IT World
By: Staff
In a cloud-based architecture, resources can be provisioned so quickly as to appear unlimited to the consumer. If there is one single hallmark trait of the cloud it is likely this one: the ability to flatten the IT supply chain to provision applications in a matter of minutes instead of days or weeks.
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Big data and cloud computing: Watch out for these unknowns
April 13 2012 - InfoWorld
By: David Linthicum
The concept of big data is simple, as most good ideas are. Big data gives us the ability to use commodity computing to process distributed queries across multiple data sets and return result sets in record time. Cloud computing provides the underlying engine, typically through the use of Hadoop. Because these commodity server instances can be rented as needed, big data becomes affordable for most enterprises.
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What's your cloud contingency plan?
April 12 2012 - smh.com.au
By: Adam Turner
Do you live in the cloud but keep one foot on the ground? If you tend to jump between computers and other devices during the day, you'll love the flexibility of cloud computing. If your documents and other important data is stored in the cloud, you can grab any device and pick up working where you left off.
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