IT pros love hybrid cloud but struggle to track consumption

Cloud fail

According to a new survey 79 percent of IT pros are pursuing a hybrid cloud strategy and one third will grow their cloud services by more than 50 percent in the coming year.

The figures come from cloud consumption management specilalist Cloud Cruiser which surveyed IT professionals who attended the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Global Summit held in San Francisco and New York City in April and July.

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WinRAR will not get 'useless' security patch to fix 'vulnerability'

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Usually when a security firm finds a vulnerability in an app or a program, and notifies the developers, a patch is issued in a matter days, sometimes even hours.

Not when it comes to WinRAR. The guys over at RARLab have been reached out to by both Vulnerability Lab and Malwarebytes about a vulnerability which, they say, on a danger scale of 1 to 10 is a 9.2.

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HP announces new open source network OS

Network switch

With the volume of network traffic growing exponentially, large web-scale organizations need to scale their data centers to new levels. These organizations need scale and flexibility for their data centers to meet increasingly complex business and technology requirements.

To provide developers with the ability to accelerate innovation, avoid vendor lock in and protect their investment, HP together with a community of like-minded companies, today announced the launch of the OpenSwitch Community along with a new open source network operating system (NOS).

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FireLayers and Check Point bring security to enterprise cloud apps

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As more employees use their personal devices for business, corporate data is increasingly put at risk from sophisticated malware.

To foil these attacks, real-time protection company FireLayers and security specialist Check Point Software Technologies today announced their joint Extend Perimeter Security solution, which spreads security to cloud applications and provides enterprises with protection from zero-day threats and malware distribution.

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How to fix Windows 10's blurry font problem

Windows 10 blurred

If you change the DPI scaling to make text, apps and other items easier to read on your Windows device, you may have encountered the problem of blurry fonts in Windows 10.

The issue is caused by Microsoft using a different scaling method to the one it used in previous versions of Windows (stretching back to Vista), and mostly affects the Windows font and dialog boxes.

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Iconmedia WebAnimator Plus is a powerful animation creator [Review]

Iconmedia WebAnimator Plus

Flash used to be a core part of the internet, because for a time it was the only practical way to produce animations on websites.

It was also easy to use which made it attractive to designers and advertisers and at one time it seemed almost every site was decorated by Flash banners and adverts. But the arrival of HTML5 and CSS3, plus worries about security vulnerabilities, means that Flash has been on the decline for some time.

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8 big reasons Apple should let Mac OS X onto the PC

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As an IT professional by day, it's a question that has confounded me for some time. I've tossed it around in my technical circles, trying to get a feel for what true reasons exist for Apple's double standard when it comes to not allowing OS X onto other platforms -- but gladly allowing Windows to run natively via Boot Camp.

How come Apple doesn't allow PC users to install and run OS X on the hardware of their choice?

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Cleanly remove software with Bulk Crap Uninstaller

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When we first looked at Bulk Crap Uninstaller (BCU) back in April, it was a simple free tool which did little more than uninstall multiple Windows programs in one operation.

Intensive development means that’s all changed, though, and BCU is now a very capable manager and uninstaller for all your Windows software.

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Big data + behavioral science = better decisions

decision decide IT flowchart

Companies sometimes struggle to get value from their data. Information is often static and can’t provide insights into individual business decisions.

To help deliver better value from data, decision analytics company OnCorps is unveiling its Adaptive Decision Analytics platform that intelligently engages users and prompts them to make better decisions.

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How to stop Windows 10 messing up your drivers

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The update process in Windows 10 has proved controversial. There was upset at the fact that updates are not optional, and this in turn led to driver updates breaking people's computers.

We have already looked at the steps you can take to stop Windows 10 installing automatic updates, but what about if you want to keep Windows 10 up to date while retaining manual control of when drivers are updated? Read on to find out how to stop Windows 10 messing up your drivers.

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Monthly Android update guarantee is 'unrealistic'

Reality Check Sign

The widespread Stagefright vulnerability has lead Google and Samsung to announce plans for monthly Android updates, which would minimize the time it usually takes to fix security bugs in their distributions. LG has quickly followed suit with a similar pledge of its own, but, when asked if it will do the same, HTC has basically said "no".

HTC is among the few Android vendors that deliver major software updates in a timely fashion, so this comes as a bit of a surprise. HTC America president Jason Mackenzie says that such a commitment is "not realistic", pointing at carrier approvals as the main reason why it is extremely difficult to guarantee a monthly release schedule.

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Apple is the best brand in the world

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Interbrand has published its Best Global Brands 2015 list. As in previous years, technology companies are well-represented in the list, and this time around it is Apple that takes the top slot. The company, which just launched the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus is valued at $170 billion -- an increase of 43 percent.

Google finds itself in second place with a $120 billion valuation (up 12 percent from last year), and Microsoft is not far behind in fourth position with a valuation of $67 billion. IBM and Samsung are in fifth and seventh place, and an increase in value of 29 percent to $37 billion sees Amazon just creeping into the top ten. Further down the list there are some new arrivals to note.

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How your company should respond to a security crisis

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Ideally, security breaches are prevented rather than responded to, but no company’s defences are completely impenetrable.

Therefore, it is up to businesses to ensure that they have a strategy for responding to security crises that prevents repeat attacks.

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Toshiba Chromebook 2 (CB35-C3300) 2015 Edition first impressions [Review]

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Chromebooks are wonderful computers for light and medium computing. While Windows and OS X are superior for heavy lifting -- especially with legacy software -- Chrome OS is a dream for web surfing, email and writing. If either you or someone you know lives in the web browser, laptops running Google's Linux-based operating system could be perfect. By design, they are virtually malware free, and OS updates are a breeze.

Finding the perfect Chromebook is difficult, as everyone's needs may be different, but I only suggest models with at least 4GB of RAM regardless. I also demand a quality keyboard and display, and I think all consumers deserve this too. Toshiba's new Chromebook 2 (2015) meets all of my needs, while also being affordable. In other words, it will probably be a winner for you too. Here are my first impressions.

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Leaked Windows 10 Build 10558 has new features that you might actually be interested in

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It seems like it has been a while since there was a new build of Windows 10 -- official or leaked -- but Wzor has come up with the goods once again. This time around we are treated to a leak of Windows 10 Build 10558 and Microsoft has added new goodies and changed a few things, making this one of the most interesting Windows 10 builds in ages.

There are some cosmetic changes here and there, but the addition of new apps -- such as Microsoft Phone -- shows that progress is being made as we move towards Threshold 2. As well as updates to the operating system itself, there are also important changes to Microsoft Edge.

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