Articles about Cloud

For those in the States, the mad dash to compliance is unquestionably on. After years of taking a "wait and see" approach to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations surrounding medical office technology, healthcare providers (and related covered entities) are scrambling to get their systems and procedures in order. Big Brother has officially set a September 23, 2013 deadline for most new rules that put into place heightened protocols for how patient information (PI) is shared as well as how notifications about breaches need to be handled, among other things.

Naturally, a lot of my consulting clients in the healthcare industry are reaching out for professional help on how to get their IT systems in line as these deadlines approach. One of the biggest facets of the new HIPAA laws, which affects companies like mine that provide hands-on IT consulting, is that for the first time ever we are being considered "covered entities" in the same boat as the healthcare outlets themselves.

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On Friday, Finnish mobile maker Nokia announced HERE Connected Driving, a cloud-connected in-car navigation solution with offline mapping, real-time traffic information and mobile device app support. Labeled by the company as "the only end-to-end driving solution on the market", it will be officially demoed during the International Motor Show in Frankfurt, Germany.

Nokia's in-car navigation solution is comprised of four parts -- HERE Auto, HERE Auto Cloud, HERE Auto Companion and HERE Traffic. HERE Auto takes care of navigation instructions, with or without a data connection, similar to the company's HERE Drive+ Windows Phone 8 app. It provides turn-by-turn voice-guided navigation in 95 countries, while supporting 2D, 3D and satellite map views (street imagery is also included). According to Nokia, Continental's Open Infotainment Platform already integrates HERE Auto and it is expected to arrive in cars in upcoming months.

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A speedy six weeks after its beta release, Acronis International has announced the first full release of Acronis True Image 2014 ($49.99), as well as a new Acronis True Image 2014 Premium edition ($79.99).

This release is all about the cloud. There’s now 5GB of free storage space included with the program (though only for a year, unfortunately), which can be expanded up to 250GB at extra cost. And you can now back up files, folders, or your entire system image to the cloud, just as easily as any other destination.

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As some of you may know, Evernote is my favorite note-taking app. And, there is a very good reason for that -- the cloud-based service is available for all major mobile platforms through their respective app stores, making it easy to use, regardless of which operating system I may favor at the time. This makes it particularly handy when I'm jotting down ideas for upcoming stories on my Windows Phone 8 smartphone, but wish to look into them further on my laptop, which runs Windows 8, or straight on the web.

Another good reason as to why Evernote is at the top of my note-taking app list is the ongoing commitment for Windows Phone 8. New versions are rolled out regularly for the tiled handset OS, introducing new features and improvements at a steady pace. And the latest iteration that was released late-yesterday, brings yet another batch of goodies, including speech-to-text support.

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When Microsoft first launched SkyDrive, the company offered 25 GB of storage to everyone willing to sign up. As the service grew and was increasingly integrated into more places, like Windows 8 and Office 2013, that free ride came partially to an end. Free storage was downgraded to seven gigabytes, but those who met certain criteria were grandfathered in.

Now that 25 GB threshold breaths new life, though not quite for everyone. This time around the extra cloud space goes to Pro users -- business customers. "Today, we're pleased to announce three new significant improvements to SkyDrive Pro for Office 365 business subscribers - to help you be more productive", the Office 365 team announces.

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Its all about the cloud these days. At least that is what we are being told. Truth is, it is a rather handy product of modern computing, and one that I use daily. Now G Cloud Backup, a product from Genie9, announces a new update to its Android app that aims to improve and simplify this experience even more.

The app backs up your messages, call logs, contacts, photos and music. You will need to sign up for an account, but both the app and the account are free. Customers get 1 GB of free storage, though more can be earned.

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Californian work collaboration and project management specialist Clarizen has launched the latest version of its cloud-based platform. Clarizen v6 combines social engagement and project management to achieve better results.

Clarizen’s co-founder and CEO Avinoam Nowogrodski says, "Clarizen v6 was designed from the ground up to support the requirements of today's changing modern workplace. Increasingly, companies and organizations are staffed by people of different generations, with different skill sets and who are located around the world. Clarizen v6 delivers on our Work Funnel concept of connecting social context, tasks and projects on a single cloud-based platform, so collaboration will drive results".

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Emergency surgery is the appropriate analogy for the firing of the iconic CEO. Yes firing. Microsoft announced Steve Ballmer's departure today, quite unexpectedly, and in his own words "within the next 12 months, after a successor is chosen". Meaning: Soon as there is a replacement, he is gone. Vamoose. Adios. We'll send Christmas cards. Not!

Unless Ballmer is in ill-health, or something bad happened to someone he loves, he wouldn't just walk away whistling to the wind. The man is too passionate about Microsoft. There is but one interpretation: The board of directors gave Ballmer his pink slip.

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iWork for iCloud beta was originally only available for developers (or people with developer accounts), much to the ire of the fruit-logo company's eager and loyal following. Today, without any fanfare, the cloud-based Office platform is now available to all Apple ID users.

Apple describes the service by saying "iWork has always been the best way to be productive on the Mac. And iWork for iOS made it easy to create beautiful documents on iPad and iPhone. With iWork for iCloud we’re bringing Pages, Numbers, and Keynote to the web -- on Mac and PC. And thanks to iCloud, your work is always up to date on all your devices".

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The man behind UK cloud and hosting provider UKFast is launching a new fund to help protect businesses from online threats. Called BASE (Building A Safer Environment) it aims to make quality security solutions available to businesses who can't afford the inflated costs charged by suppliers.

The fund set up by Lawrence Jones, CEO of UKFast, aims to help businesses add security features to their network and grow to the next level. UKFast grants £5,000 to each business that qualifies for the funding to boost their solution.

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The cloud storage business is the hot commodity in technology right now, or at least one of the hottest. Box is one of several of the big players competing with the likes of SkyDrive, Dropbox and more. Today the company celebrates its success by rewarding those with free accounts and adding a new tier aimed at small business.

In the past, individuals with free accounts received five-gigabytes of storage space, which is standard practice with many of these services. However, that is now changing. Aaron Levie announces that the company is "doubling the free storage in our Personal plan from five-GB to ten-GB".

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The Internet is thought of as being a global infrastructure that breaks down barriers, blurs physical boundaries and renders distance meaningless. But for two thirds of the world, Internet access is just not available, and this is something that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wants to change.

Working in conjunction with Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung, Internet.org is an initiative that aims to help bring web access to the five billion people who are not yet connected.

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"I'm working from home," is often seen as one of the great lies of modern life. But a new survey released today by Kona, the cloud based social collaboration and productivity platform, shows that a majority of employees would rather telecommute than be in the office.

The survey conducted with SodaHead shows that 70 percent of us would prefer to be sitting at home in our pajamas than traveling to the office. For those aged between 35 and 44 the number wanting to telecommute jumps to 81 percent. The 18-24 age group though obviously likes to get out more with only 66 percent preferring home working.

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Capturing the screen on a PC is easy enough, particularly with Windows 8, where pressing Win+PrtSc can finally save your grab as a file.

Actually doing something with that grab, like sharing it with someone else, normally takes rather more work, of course. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Especially if you install a copy of the open source CloudShot.

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The SaaS alert and incident tracking company PagerDuty has announced the addition of webhooks to its software to streamline integration with other tools.

Development teams will be able to improve collaboration and incident response by customizing their web applications. This allows improved reporting and alerting so that, for example, any changes to the status of a logged entry will cause messages to be sent automatically.

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