Articles about Cloud

Though it doesn't identify exactly what "cloud computing skills" actually are, business intelligence firm Wanted Analytics on Tuesday said more than 5,000 U.S. cloud computing job openings were listed online in February alone. This is up 92 percent from February 2011, and an impressive 400 percent from February 2010.

Software Engineers, Computer Systems Engineers and Architects, and Network and Computer Systems Administrators are the three jobs that most commonly listed cloud computing skills. However, Wanted Analytics said 2011 job listings weren't just in the engineering and administration sector. Jobs in marketing, sales, and financial and marketing analysis also demanded experience with cloud computing at much greater rates than previous years.

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Today, Gartner made a bold prediction about changing computing eras, claiming that the cloud will replace the PC as the "center of users' digital lives" by 2014. Welcome to the cloud-connected device era.

The implications are staggering, if Gartner is right, and keep in mind the firm's core customers are enterprises not consumers -- hence the audience for this staggering prediction, which isn't so unbelievable. Computing and informational relevance has been shifting away from the PC to cloud-connected devices for nearly a decade. I started earnestly talking and writing about it in 2005, when still an analyst at Jupiter Research. Like other trends, this one started slowly and now accelerates quickly.

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There are a ton of companies jockeying to become the "Dropbox of the enterprise world," with a managed solution for cloud file sharing, storage, collaboration, and backup with cross-platform mobile compatibility.

Monday, file sharing and collaboration solutions company Accellion Inc launched its own take on this popular niche with Kitedrive, which it bills, predictably, as "Dropbox for the Enterprise." The cloud file sync service first saw the light of day about four months ago, at the tail end of 2011, and it is now integrated with Accellion's mobile file sharing solutions.

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Security firm Bitdefender has launched Safebox, a new cloud-based backup, sync and share solution. Safebox, which is currently available for Windows and Android, with an iOS version in the pipeline, offers users 2GB free online storage space, with the option to upgrade to 30GB and 60GB packages.

Like competing products, Safebox allows users to back up selected folders to the cloud where they’re encrypted for storage, synchronizing with other devices and sharing with selected users.

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Microsoft's silent Nokia takeover, which started with last year's Windows Phone agreement, is starting to pick up momentum. This afternoon Nokia emailed that Ovi Share will close up, effective the last day of May; I signed up for the service three years ago (gasp, or was it longer).

It's just one of the many Ovi services headed for that great graveyard in the cloud, as Windows Live replaces each and every one. Well, that is until Microsoft officially rebrands Live services some time before Windows 8 launches.

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In the United States, unemployment and the scarcity of new jobs is continually a hot-button issue, especially now in the Presidential primary season. But job creation is a topic of special importance all over the world and residents of countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, and Singapore are all doing far more searches on "job creation" than U.S. residents.

So is a global shift to the cloud a good thing for job creation? Market intelligence company IDC on Monday released the results of a four-year, Microsoft-commisssioned study (.pdf here,) that says it is. The study predicts the number of jobs that will be created by a widespread shift to cloud computing, and where those jobs will be created.

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Panda Antivirus has announced a maintenance release for Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5.2, promising better performance, a new search engine for its toolbar add-on and a wide number of bug fixes.

Panda Cloud Antivirus is designed to minimize its impact on system resources by tapping into cloud-based processing power to do much of the security tool’s leg work in analyzing, blocking and attempting to remove malware infections. This makes it especially suitable for deployment on low-spec and older PCs.

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AVAST Software has released the final builds of its avast! 7 Free, Pro Antivirus and Internet Security packages, each of which include some interesting and welcome new features.

The first you’re likely to notice is the ability to install the programs in Compatibility Mode, which aims to ensure that you can run them alongside other security tools. We’ve yet to test this to see how well it works, but any attempt to address these conflicts is a step in the right direction.

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There is some truth to Microsoft's "Googlighting" video -- that somehow every Google product feels like a work unfinished. Good Example: Google Docs for Android, which today got some features that should have been there in the first place. Collaboration is one of Google Docs headline features. But that feature lacked for something on Android phones or tablets. Today's update essentially brings more parity between the desktop and mobile clients.

"We want to give everyone the chance to be productive no matter where they are, so today we’re releasing a new update to the Google Docs app for Android", Vadim Gerasimov, Google software engineer explains. "We've brought the collaborative experience from Google Docs on the desktop to your Android device. You'll see updates in real time as others type on their computers, tablets and phones, and you can just tap the document to join in". Well it's about time.

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Back in November, we took a quick look at the Tout "e-mail as a service" platform for small businesses and individuals.

The startup provides a web-based email analytics platform that lets users track the status of their messages from any email provider in real time, to see whether they were viewed and clicked through, so they can be effectively tailored for optimum engagement.

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Over the past year, we've witnessed a convergence of social, mobile and cloud computing prompting organizations around the globe to evaluate how they embrace the growing social business market. "Social" has become essential for organizations that want to remain competitive.

Reflecting on the clients I've met across 66 countries, five things surprised me about companies embarking on the social business journey.

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Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC acquired cloud services provider Dashwire in August for approximately $18.5 million with the outward intention of integrating the company's cloud services into its still-in-beta HTCSense.com mobile backup, storage, and content management service.

For over four years, Dashwire has run a service that allowed mobile users of various operating systems to back up their photos, videos, contacts, settings, and messages to the Dashwire cloud.

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On February 16, Apple unexpectedly released the OS X 10.8 developer preview and announced the software's availability some time in "late summer". Apple highlights 10 new features in Mountain Lion, the majority of which inherit capabilities from iOS 5 on iPad: AirPlay Mirroring, Game Center, Gatekeeper, iCloud, Messages, Notes, Notification Center, Reminders, Share Sheets and Twitter.

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Acomba UG has released BoxCryptor 1.2, its free and paid-for encryption tool for those using certain cloud-based backup services. BoxCryptor is designed for those who wish to encrypt their data locally prior to uploading it to services like Dropbox where the encryption is handled remotely, thereby adding an extra layer of privacy and security to the user’s files.

Version 1.2 adds support for unlimited encrypted folders to those using the paid-for, unlimited version ($39.99 personal, $99.99 business), plus adds a new Advanced mode for more experienced users alongside a new wizard for creating and opening encrypted folders for beginners.

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Amazon on Tuesday reduced the price of its Simple Storage Service (S3) cloud-based storage platform by between 12 and 13.5 percent for U.S. customers. With the reduction, the retailer-turned-cloud-services-provider is attempting to draw the attention of businesses utilizing on-premises storage solutions with a more affordable and scalable cloud platform.

As a bonus, current customers also get a nice reduction in their monthly bill. It applies to both private enterprise and users of AWS GovCloud.

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