Microsoft has announced that its investments in cloud computing in Europe exceeded $3 billion, as it plans to open a new data center in the country next year. Besides making this announcement, Microsoft has also released a new book, entitled A Cloud for Global Good, containing policy recommendations for things like data protection.

The company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, says the investment comes as a result of a "growing demand" from both European customers and partners. "Building a global, trusted, intelligent cloud platform is core to our mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. There’s never been a better time for organizations across Europe to seize new growth and opportunity with the Microsoft Cloud".

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In order to help boost sales of its mobile device amongst enterprises, Apple has announced a partnership with the consulting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP.

On Wednesday, the two companies said that they had formed a new service called Enterprise Next, which would entail 5,000 consultants from Deloitte advising clients in a range of enterprises as to how they could put Apple devices to the best use within their organization.

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HP Enterprise's announcement earlier this month that it was spinning off its 'non-core' software business, including the Autonomy big data solution to Micro Focus, has left many customers worried about the future.

Archiving, analytics and compliance specialist Actiance is hoping to attract these users with the launch of an Autonomy Safe Landing Program, letting users easily transition to its Alcatraz archiving product.

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A quarter of European companies are completely unprepared for the event of a cyberattack and would be extremely exposed if it happened, a new report by global law firm DLA Piper claims.

The paper also says that almost half of all companies (44 percent) view cyberattacks as a significant risk to their business, which means that a significant portion is aware of the problem yet does nothing. Among companies in Western Europe the number rises to almost a third (31 percent). The Benelux region is by far the worst, with 75 percent of companies being exposed.

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Microsoft has provided more details as to how it will be integrating Office 365 Groups into its enterprise-focused social network Yammer. On January 1, 2017, the Yammer Enterprise service tier will be discontinued, but the social network will remain available and will be integrated with Office 365 services in a number of ways.

Within Yammer itself, it will be possible for users to create Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents through Office Online. Users will also be able to move their work from Yammer to a shared OneNote notebook or to the Microsoft Planner Project Management tool.

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The use of push notifications in apps to reach users is an attractive option for marketers. But done wrongly it can lead to more annoyance than success.

So what do companies need to do to ensure their notifications are effective? App monetization platform Tapjoy has released data based on a study of over 4.4 million push notifications sent between February and August 2016, to help businesses use push notifications effectively.

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The shift of systems to the cloud has made enterprise data visible beyond the perimeter of the organization, employees can access it from anywhere, and that has an effect on insider threats.

Data protection company Bitglass has released its report on insider threats in the enterprise, featuring insights from over 500 cyber security professionals on the state of insider data leaks and the tools used to mitigate these threats.

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Just over half of enterprises (51 percent), which decide to deploy a cloud solution, opt for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), over Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or Software-as-a-Service (Saas).

This is according to a new report by Intel DCM, based on a survey of 204 US-based IT managers, directors, software engineers and DevOps responsible for overseeing their enterprise cloud strategy. The report also states that DevOps teams spend most of their time monitoring complex environments in their organization.

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Three out of five board members believe that they need to have cyber security experts on their boards, yet only one in six claim to have substantial expertise in understanding the implications of cyber security.

These are among the findings of a report from risk analytics specialist Bay Dynamics which looks at why boards of directors are making cyber security a top priority and the challenges they face in reducing risk.

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Many companies rely on legacy applications, but while they're keen to get maximum return on their investment and avoid the costs of moving to a new system, they may be opening themselves to security threats.

Information risk management consultancy AsTech Consulting is launching its Legacy Application Security Evaluation and Remediation (LASER) guided security improvement program to help companies uncover hidden security issues.

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If your business gets hacked, expect to lose a significant portion of your customers -- for good. This is according to a new report released by Alertsec, the cloud-based encryption company. Its Brand Perception Study, based on a poll of 1,200 Americans, says 17 percent of women and 11 percent of men would permanently lose trust in a hacked company.

Almost a third (29 percent) would need months to return while a further 22 percent would need only one. Men are also more likely (16 percent) to switch brands after a hack than women (6 percent). For more than a third (35 percent), a hack means the company was sloppy. Another third (32 percent) says it is the result of a lack of professionalism, while 26 percent say the company would become a great target for lawsuits.

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At the Microsoft Ignite event, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant announced a new cloud partnership with none other than Adobe.  This one works both ways. On one side, Microsoft "will make Adobe Marketing Cloud its preferred marketing service for Dynamics 365 Enterprise edition", and, on the other side, Adobe will "make Microsoft Azure its preferred cloud platform for the Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Document Cloud".

Interestingly enough, Adobe has so far used Amazon Web Services, but it was left unclear if this means Amazon is getting the boot or not.

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Enterprise use of the public cloud is taking off in a big way and it's estimated that by 2018, half of the applications running in public cloud environments will be considered mission-critical by the organizations that use them.

But migrating legacy applications to the cloud can lead to new security risks as how the application is used and hosted could differ from the original deployment.

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Cloud-based unified communications are an attractive option for businesses, but a lack of effective management and monitoring tools is holding back many from deploying the technology.

Managed cloud services company Unify Square is addressing this with the launch of an extended lineup of Skype for Business (SfB) cloud and hybrid services to help enterprises transition from on premise, to hybrid or full cloud deployments.

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Leakage of data, whether due to the action of hackers or simple error by insiders is a major problem for enterprises.

File security specialist FinalCode is launching a new version of its DRM platform to help businesses secure data both inside and outside the organization.

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