Articles about Cloud

Microsoft slipped one under the radar for everyone who relies on its Azure service for Windows virtual machines. In a move that even took me off guard, Microsoft has reversed a longstanding policy of not allowing any form of RDS (Remote Desktop Services) on Windows Azure.

Previous policies strictly enforced remote desktop access on Azure only for the purposes of "administration and maintenance." As of July 1, this stumbling block for many Azure early adopters is finally gone, with a few caveats which I'll point out shortly.

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We're used to sharing information via social networking in our personal lives, but in the business world the impact of this has so far proved limited. Enterprise software supplier Deltek hopes to change this with the launch of Kona Business, a premium version of its cloud-based social collaboration and productivity tool.

A cross between a calendar, social network and project management tool, Kona Business brings together all of the interactions between people working on a project, allowing them to get things done more effectively and more quickly, and as it's in the cloud it can be rolled out easily via browsers or through Android and iOS apps.

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BitTorrent has been making waves recently with the release of its Sync client. To its credit, the organization seemed to see the coming privacy apocalypse that we have fallen into over the past few weeks, and built features into the service that it hopes will protect customers.

What began as private testing and entered alpha in April, is finally growing up. Christian Averill, a company representative, told BetaNews "BitTorrent Sync was designed to solve what we see as real, fundamental challenges to data synchronization: limitations on privacy, file security and dependency on cloud infrastructure. Also, limitations on speed, size, and space".

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Analyst group Gartner says in a new report that the global market for IT outsourcing is set to reach $288 billion this year. This though represents an increase of only 2.8 percent and growth is slower than predicted by previous forecasts.

Bryan Britz, research vice president at Gartner says, "Planned new adoption of ITO remains positive in all service line segments. However, constrained IT budgets, an evolving ITO delivery model, economic conditions and cost-focused buyers are limiting the growth potential of the ITO market".

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Acronis International has announced the first public beta of its flagship backup tool, Acronis True Image 2014.

The big addition in this release is fully integrated support for backing up your system to Acronis Cloud, the company’s online storage service. Or some of your system, at least (the trial and full versions come with 5GB of storage space, free for 1 year).

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One of the things that puts businesses off moving their systems to the cloud is the problem of migrating all of their applications and data to a remote platform. Californian company CloudVelocity aims to address this with its launch of One Hybrid Cloud, a package that streamlines the movement of information to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

One Hybrid Cloud effectively makes AWS an extension of the corporate data center, making it possible to run existing Linux and Windows apps in the cloud without modification. It automates many of the processes required to migrate apps to the cloud and in the process the developers reckon it can reduce migration expenses by more than 90 percent.

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Point.io has released its new Baas (Backend as a Service) platform. Aimed at document management and workflow, Point.io's offering is designed to help companies maintain control of their content whilst enabling BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).

The application allows developers to build mobile apps that let users access and share content on any device efficiently and securely. Ron Rock, CEO of Point.io says, "By design, enterprises have been locking down their content for decades, but with the shift in workforce mobility it's become critical that content, and the workflows that thrive on it, are unleashed to devices beyond the corporate firewall".

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When Active Directory first hit the enterprise computing scene over a decade ago, the tech pundits dismissed AD as just another Microsoft sideshow. Something that would never see any widescale adoption in the face of NetWare and other heavy hitters in the LDAP arena. Even longtime Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott got it wrong and doubted success. Thirteen years later and organizations small and large live and die by their Active Directory domains.

It's funny, then, that AD is the sole dinosaur running atop on-premise servers at corporations worldwide which supposedly "can't" be moved to the cloud. Microsoft has been busily converting its on-premise products into cloud platforms with relatively good results over the last 3-4 years. While Microsoft surely doesn't want to become a has-been within the physical server arena for organizations hesitant to move to the cloud, it no doubt has been playing two face when it comes to on-prem vs cloud-hosted solutions.

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Development company FatFractal has launched its new Cloud-in-a-Box solution to make it easier for enterprises to deploy software in public or private clouds or in traditional data centers.

The company's Platform as a Service (Paas) and Backend as a Service (BaaS) products allow developers to create tailored solutions without the need for repetitive steps. FatFractal CEO, Kevin Nickels says, "We've hit the right balance between out-of-the-box services like security, scalability and performance without limiting the developer’s ability to do whatever they want".

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One man's virus is often another's legitimate program or cookie, so whatever antivirus software you have installed it's always useful to be able to get a second opinion from time to time. There are already a number of online scans you can use for this and BullGuard is the latest to join the party with today's launch of its own free scanner.

Unlike some of the alternative offerings, BullGuard works by adding a plug-in to your browser. This lets you run the scan at any time with just a single click on a toolbar button so you don't have to remember the website address or where you filed the bookmark. It supports all of the popular browsers too. The scan, which took just a couple of minutes using the Chrome plug-in on my -- not quite as fast as it used to be -- Windows 7 laptop, looks for viruses and checks that your current security is up to date.

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Leading web host company 1&1 Internet has launched a new cloud server package that delivers user configurable resources to bring greater efficiency to business users.

The adjustable resources -- processor cores, RAM and hard disk space -- are configurable upwards and downwards by the user at any time. This offers the capacity for a very high performance resource at a low cost. The pricing model is clearly set out with costs per hour for each core and gigabyte of RAM and disk space. Changes become active within five minutes and there's no minimum contract term involved.

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A study unveiled at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston shows that partners with more than half their revenue related to the cloud had higher gross profits, more new customers and faster business growth.

The study by IDC goes to highlight the changes taking place in the business world as more organizations shift their systems to the cloud rather than keeping them in house. "Cloud alone hasn't caused these impressive numbers, though that is absolutely part of it; top-performing partners were visionaries that took on cloud technologies before their peers," says Darren Bibby, program vice president of Channels and Alliances Research at IDC. "We're at the point in the industry's overall cloud transition where partners that don't move some of their business to the cloud likely won't survive. And some partners that are getting ready to sell their business or retire may be OK with that. Most won't be".

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With all of the cloud and social apps these days, our content becomes increasingly spread across vast reaches of the Internet. It is a modern-day problem that is less easy to solve than you may believe and accomplishing the feat has generated its own mini-industry within the tech world.

One service aiming to unify our vast web of data is Jolicloud, which uses its Jolidrive app to bring this sprawling mess together in a central location for customers to access. Now the service releases its iOS app, which is built for both iPhone and iPad and brings together much of your cloud-based life.

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Cloud storage locker Mega has turned a blind eye to the ever increasing popularity of mobile devices, offering no official app for Android or iOS (let alone BlackBerry or Windows Phone) to complement its security-oriented service. Now, though, Mega looks to finally fix the oversight.

The cloud storage locker just introduced its first mobile app called Mega which, at least at the moment, is only available for Android devices. The offering, according to the changelog, was "acquired by MEGA and is now being maintainted [sic] by MEGA contractors". Let's take a look at the features.

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Microsoft has released Skype 6.6 for Windows and Mac, which introduces minor updates to the company's popular chat service that "focus on quality by addressing user feedback and improving ease of use".

Version 6.6 concentrates on adopting consistent entry points for sending video messages across all platforms, plus implementing a number of platform-specific fixes.

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