Cloud Computing News & Articles

It seems as if every year IBM Connect always throws in some interesting items -- and this year is no different. In what almost appears to be a timed response to Oracle’s outline of its cloud strategy, IBM has given its SmartCloud a lot of attention, including a great big dollop of SAP love.

Microsoft has announced the release of Office 365 Home Premium, the consumer based cloud alternative to the Microsoft Office suite.

In the past it has often been difficult to get information out of Oracle. In fact, it was often the case that enterprises outside of the US knew more about what was happening at Oracle than those within, as executives toured the globe for the launch of one product or another. However, Mark Hurd, President of Oracle, has said he will remedy that by giving regular press briefings. The first one held last night focused on the cloud, Oracle’s business vision for the cloud, and that old chestnut from yesteryear, Sun.

It occurred to me recently that people are talking about “the cloud” these days almost as much as they talk about the weather. Need to reduce spending on IT infrastructure? Move to the cloud! Want to increase accessibility? Move to the cloud! Hoping to streamline processes? Move to the cloud!

Enterprise powerhouse Box, a cloud sharing utility, has announced integrations with Uberconference, a video conferencing tool, and IntApp, a sharing app designed specifically for legal teams.

IDC consulting has produced a cloud-based worker study for Microsoft, and the focus is on how new skill sets are still not prevalent enough in the workforce. More cloud-ready, if you will, workers are needed to fill many positions as businesses continue to shift to the cloud.

More cloud-goodness from Microsoft, which has just announced the immediate and general availability of Windows Azure Media Services. Enterprises that don’t have the resources, or even the will to build on-demand video without having to invest in, or extend their existing infrastructure can now turn to this service to do the heavy work.

With the release of TERMINALFOUR Site Manager 7.3 the company continues to build out its web content management system with developers in mind. Last April in v7.2 it focused on making the product easier to use, integrate with and host. In v7.3 the focus is on scalability, migration, website and online management, and self-service capabilities.

It’s been a slow start this year in terms of predictions and lists. Normally at this stage in January we have to stop looking at them. There are many possible reasons why this year is different, the most likely reason however could be the economic uncertainty and how businesses will deal with it this year. That said, Gartner has still been able to identity a top ten digital technology wish-list for 2013.

Aaron Levie, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of online storage and collaboration provider Box Inc., has announced the company is planning an initial public offering (IPO) for next year.

The Pantheon is an ancient temple to the gods, who ruled from the clouds above. So, it’s fitting that Pantheon is the name of a company that provides a platform in the cloud where developers can worship Drupal, the open source web content management system. A platform that the company said this week, is getting over one billion hits a month.  

Like any relatively young industry, the e-Discovery technology market is undergoing a process of maturation. In a relatively short time span, e-Discovery has evolved from a somewhat isolated activity to an expansive, business-critical operation.

It’s true, we are a long way off from seeing serious uptake of SharePoint 2013. In fact, most organizations are still using SharePoint 2007 despite the advantages that 2010, and 2013, are offering. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take some time to consider how this latest version of SharePoint will change the way we implement new applications within our companies.

Looking to boost the versatility of its growing Cloud OS offering is Microsoft, with a new plan for cloud-based management of devices using various operating systems -- iOS and Android as well as Windows 8, RT and Phone 8. 

With a presence on public clouds becoming more and more important in a rapidly expanding market, Liferay has just announced that it has inked a deal with cloud management and marketplace solutions provider Standing Cloud, making Liferay’s portal available on more than 15 public clouds.