Cloud Computing News & Articles

If electronic signature has never been one of the sexier components of cloud computing and not attracted much media coverage, we’ve watched interest in it grow steadily over the past three years. The announcement by Google that it is investing in DocuSign suggests that e-signatures are about to become a lot more interesting.

Cloud based document collaboration in the enterprise still has roadblocks, but for some companies, the tradeoffs are worth the convenience.

One major concern that enterprises and individuals usually have about cloud computing is security. While public cloud services do offer security in terms of data and access, a combination of vulnerabilities from different providers, like a cocktail of prescription drugs taken in the wrong mix, may just prove to be lethal.

Big Data is making a big splash in the enterprise, with big names eager to join the big game. For one, Google has introduced its big-data crunching cloud offering BigQuery. Cloud-services provider Informatica, in turn, has partnered with Google in helping developers and enterprises move large amounts of data across services through Cloud Connector for Google Cloud. This month, Informatica makes it even more intuitive to move and interface big data with its Summer 2012 release.

Google is scrapping several services as part of what the company terms an ongoing effort to create a “more seamless, beautiful user experience.” The services are all being folded into or replaced by other Google services, rather than having their functionality completely eliminated.

Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) setups are popular in the workplace today, and it can be a headache for IT departments to manage access, data and applications across a variety of platforms. With this in mind, Citrix has highlighted mobile-enabling technologies in its latest release of CloudGateway 2 and Citrix Receiver client.

Nearly too hard to believe, but Box has managed to secure a stomping, great US$ 125 million in funding for enterprise expansion, including US$ 100 million from a single investor, General Atlantic (GA).

Microsoft officially unveiled Office 2013 earlier this month. Office 2013 isn’t just a good tool for spinning up spreadsheets and slide decks; it’s also a great platform for Microsoft to promote its cloud storage service SkyDrive.

Rackspace has finally gone live with its OpenStack-based cloud. The company began stress testing the services back in April. Now, Rackspace has taken it live.

Igloo Software has updated its web-based collaboration suite. On Tuesday, the Kitchener, Ontario-based company announced the next generation of its product, which features multilingual translation. 

Document sharing service Dropbox has confirmed that it recently suffered a hacking attack that compromised the names and passwords of some user accounts.

With all things “cloud” all the rage these days, I think there are two major schools of thought and their associated narratives building around the cloud. At odds with each other, yet building simultaneously, these two narratives may give us pause when we consider what the cloud should mean for us and how we should approach it.

Software-defined networking. That’s the latest thing to have, if you’re a giant software company intent on being a player in the age of the cloud. On Monday, Oracle announced it has entered into an agreement to buy Xsigo Systems, a move that strengthens the company's position in the cloud computing realm.

Everything is becoming more social, so why not programming. Sites like Stack Overflow and GitHub have already been successful encouraging “friendly” banter among developers. Startup Koding certainly believes it’s a winning model, and is finally opening its browser-based social development tool to the public.

Google is launching a Cloud Platform Partner Program. The technology giant has said the new Program is intended to provide partners with tools, training and resources.