CLOUD COMPUTING — 1st Quarter 2012

Interactive Intelligence Helps Contact Centers Navigate Their Way Into the Cloud

Several years ago, Don Brown, the founder and CEO of Interactive Intelligence, saw a major market shift when he realized that... Read More >>>



Feature Articles

TMC Announces Cloud Computing Awards Winners
The First Annual Cloud Computing Excellence Award recognizes companies that most effectively leveraged cloud computing in efforts to bring new, differentiated offerings to market.

SMBs Leverage Enterprise-Class Cloud Solutions
Microsoft Corp.'s global "SMB Cloud Adoption Study 2011" investigated how cloud computing will impact small and midsize businesses (SMBs) in the next three years. According to the research, 39 percent of SMBs expect to be paying for one or more cloud services within three years, an increase of 34 percent from the current 29 percent. It also finds that the number of cloud services SMBs pay for will nearly double in most countries over the next three years.

Data Security: Barrier or Bridge to the Cloud?
Cloud has opened up several IT strategy considerations for businesses, with security top of mind for chief information officers as they evaluate the potential benefits of shifting to the cloud for their computing needs. Cloud Computing has taken an in-depth look at the conceivable risks involved by speaking with some of the industry's leading cloud and security experts on how to overcome these challenges, separating fact from fiction.

COLUMNS

Publisher's Outlook

Why a Cloud Computing Magazine? Why Now?
Most of us know the benefits of cloud from an OPEX versus CAPEX perspective but what is sometimes lost in the move to cloud is companies are also benefitting by being able to focus more on their core competency. Are we in the business of building data centers is a question more and more CXO titles are asking themselves and, except for a handful of markets, the answer is "no." And by focusing on business instead of managing server farms and software licenses, companies are able to be more nimble - scaling their compute and bandwidth needs up and down as their business needs dictate.

The Future of Cloud

Where Will the Cloud Take Us?
Considering business communications once revolved around the PBX, the cloud is mind-boggling. In companies of all kinds, applications for productivity and customer care are now being optimized to address the web, social media, speech analytics, mobility and huge amounts of data. Many of these optimizations, in fact, are delivering similar functionality in creative new ways.

View From the Cloud

Head in the Clouds
If you ask the cloud-reticent, they will say cloud is still in its infancy and the industry needs clear standards before they will make the leap from on premise computing.

Silver Lining

A Business Case That's Hard to Ignore
The past year has seen the use of cloud-based services and applications increase faster than many would have expected. While there's no shortage us consumer usage (see iCloud, GoogleApps, etc.), the same combination of ubiquitous access and ease of management/use offers a business case that is hard to ignore. In fact, the suggestion from IDC that by next year, three-quarters of the U.S. workforce will be mobile will only fuel the fire, as the current growth in mobile data usage will only continue. If businesses can mobilize more of their workforces - either putting them on the road or allowing more flexibility in terms of work environment - because they are no longer restricted by physical network limitations, why wouldn't they?

Cloud Storage

Cloud Storage: When Does It Make Sense for Your Business?
Businesses are finding that they need to store more and more data, for a variety of reasons. They may be converting boxes of paper files to a digital format, saving all their electronic communications to comply with eDiscovery requests, or simply dealing with the glut of files that naturally accumulate over years of doing business. But all that data is expensive to keep around. The more data a business keeps onsite, the more manpower, electricity and physical space is required to maintain it.

The Open Cloud

The Evolution of IT Towards Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a new paradigm for IT that displaces the current dominant paradigm, enterprise computing. This is in the same way that enterprise computing (or "client/server") displaced mainframe computing as the dominant paradigm.

Public vs. Private Cloud

Starting with a Hybrid Cloud Model
Businesses large and small, in every sector, are moving their operations to the cloud - including your competitors. Let's start by defining what "cloud" means and the difference between public and private clouds.

Cloud Compliance

Meeting Regulatory Compliance Challenges in the Cloud
With more companies moving their networks into the cloud, a number of questions remain unanswered concerning corporate governance and regulatory compliance issues in cloud computing applications.

Cloud Integration

So, You Want to Sell Cloud?
Automobiles make it easy for an ordinary human to propel themselves forward at a relatively high velocity. Although they're easy to operate, the technology upon which they're built is incredibly complex. Cloud is no different in this respect.

Clouding Communications

A Force in the Telecom Industry
Not too long ago, there was simply hosting. A service provider would host not just your website, but the product catalog database like mySQL that was needed to provide complete information to your website visitors. Today, we call that "cloud."

IN EVERY ISSUE

View From the Cloud
By Erin E. Harrison

Publisher's Outlook
By Rich Tehrani

Silver Lining
By Erik Linask