CLOUD COMPUTING — 2nd Quarter 2012

SMB Cloud Forecast: The Future is Bright

The bigger story, of course, is that the cloud enables SMBs to get on-demand access to the same enterprise-class communications applications that have previously beenexclusive to large organizations.Cloud Computing recently sat down with Walter Scott, CEO of GFI Software, to discuss adoption trends... Read More >>>



Feature Articles

Public vs. Private Cloud? It's Not An 'Either / Or' Decision
While cloud computing is still in the early stages of growth and widespread adoption is still several years out, few would argue cloud is a game changer. At this phase in the cloud movement, as cloud-based services are on the rise and service providers continue to emerge, it's an exploratory time for businesses which areundergoing the validation of cloud.

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.

COLUMNS

THE FUTURE OF CLOUD

The Cloud's Next Step:Increasing Intelligence
For as much as the cloud is still emerging in business communications, its foundation is sound.Now that things like virtual server technology and flexible deployment options are commonly in use,organizations in growing numbers are successfully meeting key requirements for security and predictability as well as control.

VIEW FROM THE CLOUD

Calling All Cloud Skeptics
For conceivably the past three years, we have heard, said and read a lot about thecatchphrase "cloud computing," whichundeniablyhas brought with it some mystique. At first, most people liked the idea of moving resources off premise, but many didn't want to get close enough to actually touch the concept. Times have certainly changed and we are seeing a maturing cloud movement: Even though cloud is still in the hype phase, as we enter the second quarter of 2012, more companies are choosing to move their IT infrastructure or communications into the cloud.

PUBLISHER'S OUTLOOK

Neustar Aims to Make Mobile App Development Easier
Recently Jean Foster and Steve Edwards at Neustar showed me their Intelligent Cloud service, which integrates rich, anonymized databases from TARGUSInfo with access to carrier network and other information to accelerate developer productivity and, frankly, to enable applications to become better drivers of value for consumers and revenue for advertisers and merchants.

COVER STORY

SMB Cloud Forecast: The Future is Bright
The bigger story, of course, is that the cloud enables SMBs to get on-demand access to the same enterprise-class communications applications that have previously beenexclusive to large organizations.Cloud Computing recently sat down with Walter Scott, CEO of GFI Software, to discuss adoption trends in the SMB market, how cloud is helping them level the playing field, and what concerns about cloud are justified or, more important, not justified.Our full exchange follows:

CLOUD COMMUNICATIONS

The M5 Case
Recently, M5 Communications was acquired for about $160 million by ShoreTel. The premise PBX vendor caves into the pressure of the cloud communications space both because of the opportunity and the threat. Avaya, Interactive Intelligence and MITEL have CaaS offerings. At some point, ShoreTel had to jump on that bandwagon.

CLOUD INTEGRATION

'Undisastering' Disaster Recovery
No matter how you play it, Disaster Recovery (DR) is an expensive hedge. Maintaining a live replica of your production environment in a remote location cannot be reduced to a negligible expense. Cloud-derived efficiencies can, however, make a functional DR solution far more accessible and less expensive. Rather than expounding upon the obvious benefits of cloud DR, this article focuses on the inherent obstacles using a borrowed theme that symbolically parallels the road from disaster to recovery.

PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE CLOUD

Private Personal Clouds: Fact or Fiction?
The recent forced closure of the popular Megaupload cloud file sharing service has left many people wondering about the security and overall wisdom of storing data and content in the cloud.

CLOUD COMPLIANCE

Assuring Cloud Compliance
Federal and state laws and industry regulations such as HIPAA and PCI DSS require strict controls on what kind of data can be stored, who can access it and where it can be stored. It is possible to have much tighter control on access in fully premise-based solutions, but they tend to be costly, especially for SMBs when they need to maintain multiple data center locations for failover and disaster recovery.

CLOUD SECURITY

Headache to Nightmare: Email Now a Corporate Threat?
Unsolicited email has always been a nuisance for both users and IT administrators. Recently, the intent of this type of email has taken a turn for the worse. What was once unwanted bulk mail, soliciting products,has turned into dangerous and sophisticated emails with the intent of stealing sensitive corporate data, costing businesses a substantial amount of time and money. Gartner recently reported that advanced technologies must catch the last .5 percent of this advanced spam.It is imperative thatbusinesses stop malicious email before it reaches corporate networks.

IN EVERY ISSUE

View From the Cloud
By Erin E. Harrison

Publisher's Outlook
By Rich Tehrani

Silver Lining
By Erik Linask