A new survey by cloud analytics company Cloud Cruiser and Dimensional Research shows that the top challenge with public cloud consumption is the ability to proactively manage usage and costs across the business.

The survey among almost 200 professionals who attended the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Global Summit in April also reveals that nearly one third of organizations are doing nothing to track, manage and allocate cloud consumption costs.

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Microsoft has pushed Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14352 to the Fast Ring. The latest build introduced a number of updates and bug fixes. One of the biggest changes is to Cortana which can now be used to control a Groove Music Catalog and set a timer.

The recently-introduced Windows Ink gains improved Sticky Notes, and the ruler now benefits from the inclusion of a compass. Gamers can now enjoy the Windows Game bar at full-screen in more games, including World of Warcraft, Counterstrike: Global Offensive, and Diablo III. Important changes have also been made to the Feedback Hub.

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Shadow IT, or stealth IT, is a practice still commonly used by European workers, according to a new Fuze report. It means employees are using either hardware or software that has not been directly approved of by the IT department, risking security breaches.

The report, entitled "App Generation report", argues that 40 percent of employees are using their personal devices for work. The same goes for software and apps.

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Records management is once again back on the business agenda, driven by the new European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into effect in under two years from now. Through the GDPR, the European Commission intends to strengthen and unify data protection for individuals within the EU. This new directive represents a substantial leap in scope compared to previous versions of this regulation; and its non-compliance poses a major risk to businesses.

No organization can take lightly the risk of a sanction that can be up to four percent of its worldwide turnover.

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Although Macs have been relatively immune to malware, they have faced nuisance apps like adware and PUPs for years, and new threats are appearing, including ransomware like KeRanger. Experts believe it's only a matter of time before the next big attacks against Macs surface.

With more companies turning to Macs and a rising number of new threats, concern about the possibility of widespread Mac vulnerabilities is on the rise. Malware protection specialist Malwarebytes is responding to this by extending its Breach Remediation platform to cover Mac systems.

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Business leaders understand the importance of data analytics, and will do what it takes to make sure their company’s data needs are met. However, they don’t think they should be anticipating future trends in order to take full advantage of any upcoming opportunities.

Those are the results of a new study conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and sponsored by Microsoft Cloud. The study is entitled Transforming Business, and says that 67 percent of survey respondents (including IT leaders, HR leaders, finance and sales & marketing people), are "somewhat" or "very" confident about their department’s ability to use data.

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When containers are mentioned, Docker is probably the system that comes to mind. But in fact the container market is much bigger than that with over 100 products that use containers to amplify the benefits of agile development for their users.

Of those, 20 come from public companies and over 70 from private companies, which collectively represent $1.7 billion in venture capital funding. 88 percent of enterprises say they're shifting to a DevOps strategy, and containers are changing the nature of DevOps and transforming infrastructure.

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Disaster recovery solutions have usually been a fixed cost for business, involving paying for a fixed amount of storage whether you actually used it or not.

Data protection specialist Druva is launching new usage-based pricing for its Phoenix public cloud solution for backup, archive and disaster recovery. There are no additional hardware or software costs and enterprises will now pay only for the actual storage they consume.

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The healthcare and pharmaceutical industries are highly regulated and need to constantly keep up with changing demands and regulations.

California-based Actiance, specialists in communications compliance, analytics and archiving, has launched a new cloud-based platform aimed at the health sector which addresses new and existing regulatory retention, security and privacy requirements, while reducing the risk and expense of costly eDiscovery and compliance activities.

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Businesses in the UK, as well as elsewhere in Europe, are not really worried about security, as their employees increasingly use company mobile devices, new research has shown.

Secure identity solutions firm HID has revealed that 77 percent of employees in the UK aren’t concerned about mobile security, highlighting a pretty high level of confidence in they have in mobile security. Looking at Germany, the percentage stands at 82. Overall, 74 percent of European workers are confident about using corporate mobile devices.

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Microsoft has quietly announced plans to reduce the number of updates that will be released each year for Windows 10. The company had previously said that there would be three 'feature updates' (like the Windows 10 Anniversary Update) per year, but this has now been scaled back to two.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft has not made a great deal of noise about the change to the majority of Windows 10 users, choosing instead to make the announcement at the WinHEC conference in Taiwan. At the event, senior program manager Chris Riggs also revealed how the update scheduling will work for consumers and businesses.

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Anti-corruption and anti-bribery policies do not work, and IT and telecom companies haven’t been spared the ill practices, a new study by Eversheds shows.

Eversheds polled 500 board-level executives in large organizations in 12 countries, including 55 in the IT and telecoms sector, about how they’re handling bribery and corruption. Turns out, not so well. Almost two-thirds (65 percent) have said anti-corruption policies do not work, and 80 percent of executives said to have uncovered ill practices within their organizations.

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In today’s modern world working a traditional nine-to-five job is impractical and no longer necessary, according to a new report from TeamViewer.

The company commissioned the report titled "The End of Nine-to-Five", which found that 72 percent of UK office workers believe that traditional office life is no longer relevant with almost two thirds (62 percent) of those surveyed currently working remotely at least one day a week. Even more surprisingly, UK workers on average spend 2.5 days or half of their working week away from their offices.

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Docker has been hailed as a cycle-shrinking, cost-reducing panacea by DevOps, though ROI is far from proven with this nascent technology. So do companies have more than just hype or guesswork to go on?

Whilst businesses continue to embrace containerization, uncertainties, and misconceptions about Docker linger, not least of which is that it always reduces costs and saves time. Here are the pros and cons of Docker, and what companies need to think more about before casting their vote of confidence and investing in this space.

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Admit it, we’ve all been thinking about the summer vacation since the blustery days of winter. Dreaming of destinations, looking at dates and ultimately, sending those out-of-office notices so that everyone knows we’re taking a break and heading out of town!

But while most of us are safe to switch those out-of-office messages on and tune out on our summer trips, IT is an industry that never truly gets a vacation. No matter the time of year, IT departments are always hard at work creating and maintaining the foundation of the modern business world. Among the top reasons why IT never goes on vacation, three are:

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