Articles about Cloud

Microsoft is now the overall leader in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market, beating Salesforce by a tiny margin. However, not everything is as straightforward as it seems.

According to Synergy Research Group, Microsoft, even though late to the party as usual, now holds 15 percent of the SaaS market, while Salesforce, the leader so far, has 14 percent share.

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More than four out of ten (41 percent) of all enterprise workloads all over the world are either on a private or public cloud. By the time we reach 2018, the number will have risen to 60 percent, according to a new report by 451 Research. The cloud-first approach is already common, the report says.

More than a third (38 per ent) of all enterprises polled for the report say they already have such a policy. Europe is leading the way, with 42 percent of organizations having such a policy. On-premise private clouds as well as software-as-a-service models are most common among enterprises, each accounting for 14 percent of all apps, 451 Research says.

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HP has launched three new products to help businesses move their workloads into the cloud computing environment easier. The trio includes the t630 Thin Client, ThinPro 6, and VMware Blast.

The t630 Thin Client allows for the streamlining of current cloud-based deployments, comes with next generation, x86 quad-core systems-on-a-chip developed by AMD, and offers AMD Radeon graphics.

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Moving applications to the cloud and distributing work to remote offices places new strains on networks. According to Microsoft's guidelines for Office 365 adoption, enterprises should plan for up to four times increase in WAN bandwidth, and enable direct-to-cloud access from the remote office to avoid sub-optimal performance.

Software-defined WAN pioneer CloudGenix is addressing this problem with the launch of its Instant On (ION) 3000v application-defined fabric, an SD-WAN platform for virtualizing remote offices.

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Dropbox users around the world are being told to change their account passwords. Anyone who has been using the cloud storage service since before the middle of 2012 and has not changed their password may have had some of their account details 'obtained' in an incident in 2012.

Dropbox says that email addresses plus hashed and salted passwords were grabbed four years ago. The company stresses that there are no indications that accounts have been improperly accessed and the security measures are being taken on a preventative basis.

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Google Ads has proved itself an effective tool for gaining new business, but it's a rather less useful way of targeting existing customers.

Now though, marketing cloud specialist Optimove is launching a new integration with Google Ads. This allows businesses to target existing customers with personalized ads on google.com and across the Google Display Network, based on recent and predicted behavior patterns.

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There are lots of cloud storage services available, offering varying amounts of free space, and additional storage for a fee. OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox are all great services.

Amazon wants you to consider storing your files in its cloud, and today it introduces unlimited storage for people in the UK -- and you don’t have to be a Prime subscriber to get it.

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Cloud-based technology is becoming a universal means for storing data across various fields of IT, and it is no different within the call center industry. Cloud-based call center solutions are transforming customer service, while at the same time helping companies become even more efficient. The introduction of the cloud has also allowed small and medium-sized businesses to compete with larger enterprises while also providing these larger corporations with the bandwidth to expand globally.

Cloud-based call center technology has created a more effective and efficient solution for call centers. However, that’s not where the efficiency should end. It would benefit companies to use the cloud-based technology in collaboration with other platforms to establish a long-running, favorable impact. Here are a few ways that call centers can leverage other tools and integrate them into their existing cloud-based call center technology.

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While 96 percent of US enterprises expect to increase their investment in cloud management over the next five years, the majority of IT decision makers are not using those services to their fullest potential according to a new study.

The survey findings from Wakefield Research and cloud automation specialist Logicworks show that 80 percent of the 400 surveyed IT decision makers believe that their company's leadership team underestimates the time and cost required to maintain resources in the cloud.

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Enterprise data can have multiple elements which makes it difficult to map to different systems and can prevent businesses from getting the most from their information.

Data integration specialist SnapLogic is introducing a new release of its Elastic Integration Platform with new additions to its library of more than 400 intelligent connectors called Snaps.

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Salesforce has announced it is buying data analytics startup BeyondCore. In a tweet posted earlier this week, Marc Benioff says: "I am thrilled announce @Salesforce has acquired @beyondcoreinc to enhance the AI capabilities of Analytics Cloud".

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed, but we do know that BeyondCore will integrate into Saleforce’s Analytics Cloud, and will leverage its AI knowledge.

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With the release of Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft's support for Windows Phone is gradually starting to die off. We already knew that Windows Phone support for Skype was coming to an end, but now we know more.

Microsoft has now announced that as well as ending support for Skype on Windows Phone in October, come 'early 2017' the apps will simply stop working. And it's all thanks to a move to the cloud.

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There are a number of concerns that companies have over migrating to the cloud, but one of the key ones is who else might have access to the data.

Cloud security company Bitglass has released the results of its latest Mitigating Cloud Risks survey in conjunction with the Cloud Security Alliance, which shows that potential government access to encrypted data is an issue.

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If you’re counting on a Hybrid IT strategy as a way to save money, you may wish to think again, according to recent research by Vanson Bourne, conducted on behalf of Sungard Availability Services. The survey of 700 IT decision-makers across the US and Europe in major financial services, retail, healthcare and other organizations found that half have seen IT costs stay the same or rise since adopting a Hybrid IT strategy. Of course, that means the other half have realized cost savings, suggesting that the price tag attached to a hybrid estate can vary wildly according to approach.

On the other hand, if you anticipate that hybridization will have a positive impact on your business despite any increase in costs, you’ll be reassured to discover that 94 percent claim to have done just that. Despite the growing skills gaps and the potential complexity of blending cloud resources with existing on premise IT environments, almost three-quarters of enterprises report that Hybrid IT is key to staying competitive. IT leaders cite an increase in business agility (46 percent), improved customer service (41 percent) and faster product development (34 percent) as beneficial outcomes.

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Shadow IT is an increasingly major concern for businesses, the use of public cloud services offers convenience for workers but risks confidential information being exposed outside the organisation.

Canadian endpoint security company Absolute is launching new functionality for its Absolute Data and Device Security (DDS) product that detects data at risk on endpoints associated with cloud storage applications.

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