Coining the Cloud: An Assessment of Cloud Computing’s Shifty Definition As with any burgeoning technology, cloud computing remains in flux in terms of its definition. Cloud steadily rises in popularity and familiarity with both tech nuts and the general public, thanks to an increase in advertising and more widely distributed education on just how useful it proves for a variety of sectors: major conglomerates, small businesses, enterprising individuals, and casual genre devotees. Yet despite the uptick in cloud’s presence, the cloud community has yet to agree in consensus on its best denotation. Dictionary.com provides a serviceable and fairly clear explanation
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Benefits of Cloud Computing To Growing Small Companies During its early years, a lot of business owners believed that Information Technology is just a financial liability and not an asset of the company. Most of them settled for the least expensive alternative because they believed that the company will still benefit if they chose the alternative. However, things have changed nowadays. IT is now being recognized by a lot of entrepreneurs as a great tool in their business process. Some of these companies rely on in-house IT infrastructure because they believe they can better control circumstances. When they have control,
IDC Analyst Firm Predicts: Cloud Computing to Create 14 Million New Jobs by 2015 REDMOND, Wash. – March 5, 2012 – Spending on public and private IT cloud services will generate nearly 14 million jobs worldwide from 2011 to 2015, according to a new study by the analyst firm IDC. The research, commissioned by Microsoft, also found that IT innovation created by cloud computing could produce $1.1 trillion a year in new business revenues. (Click To Zoom Infographic) “The cloud is going to have a huge impact on job creation,” says Susan Hauser, Microsoft corporate vice president of the Worldwide Enterprise
Cloud Biggies and their Partnership Programs One of the best ways to encourage sales is through specialized partnership programs, and IT companies have long employed this strategy to promote their traditional offerings. Now they have started similar initiatives for their cloud computing services as well. While some companies have tried to get buy-in from end-consumers, even going to the extent of offering services for free (See: Ninefold and Rackspace Battle for Australian Startup Mind Space and Why is Rackspace targeting Startups?), others have started targeting their channel partners, all in the hope of grabbing larger shares of the expanding cloud
What is and What Is Not SaaS What is SaaS? Basically, SaaS stands for Software-as-a-Service. Of course, this identification of the meaning behind the individual letters will only be the tip of the iceberg in your effort to truly understand what SaaS really is. So, let us define SaaS in a more understandable manner. Basically, SaaS is a method through which software-related services are delivered from one point to another remotely or through internet alternatives. To speak in a less technical manner, SaaS is something that is used in order to maximize the use of software and applications that are
Is Cloud Computing Killing the Hardware Stars? Dell, HP: Take Heed New York Times “Bits” writer Quentin Hardy declared major victory last week for cloud computing. The triumph resounded well enough to earn the title “The Week the Cloud Won.” After lengthy months of incremental progress, cloud’s organizations have finally chipped away at the big boys of technology like Dell and Hewlett Packard. These heavy hitters in “enterprise computing” dwindled in earnings, whereas Salesforce.com, a major cloud computing company, saw its profits skyrocket by nearly 40%. True cloud diehards interpret these developments, as does Hardy, as bellwethers of auspicious change for
The Growing Number Of Cloud Channels ‘C’ LOUD The big C when it comes to Cloud for the Channel is Conflict. I have been presenting and visiting partners around Europe for the past several years and listening to the opinions and input from vendors, Vars, Resellers, MSP’s, ISP’s and a variety of channels by varying name definitions and one things for sure, the Cloud has certainly stimulated debate. Whether it be concern, nervousness, confusion or mistrust, a lot of negative feelings have been generated in the channel by the C word. And yet there also are a growing number of
Teachers or Computers: Discussing the Issue In the last couple of years, we have witnessed a lot of technological breakthroughs in all aspects of our lives. As a matter of fact, the field of education, too, has had its share of technological advancements. Basically, it is now pretty common to observe multi-media devices in most modern classrooms. And, in the last couple of years, classrooms now have become, quite literally, connected to the outside world. It is without doubt that education has become incredibly better in the last couple of years. With the internet, and all the applications and technologies






