Saturday, March 31, 2012
Magazines' Digital Circulation More Than Doubles - But Remains Small (Nat Ives/AdAge)
http://adage.com/article/mediaworks/magazines-digital-circulation-doubles/233771/
Fast-Growing Digital Still Just 1% of Publishers' Total — Magazines more than doubled their paid digital circulation in the most recent reporting period, but print remains the overwhelming majority of their business
Man vs. Machine: Could Facebook's people-sourced search beat Google's algorithm? (Drew Olanoff/The Next Web)
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-28/facebook-delves-deeper-into-search
On Feb. 1, a few hours after Facebook declared its intention to raise $5 billion in what will likely be the largest initial public offering in tech history, Mark Zuckerberg gave close followers of his company a potential clue to its future.Kickstarter Shares The Effects Of Its Blockbuster Season
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/B7fkevTtElA/
Sent to you via Google Reader
Devs, here’s your 6 month window for mobile app success
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/CoKmTDKHtbU/
Sent to you via Google Reader
Box rounds up a bunch of apps for cloud storage push
http://gigaom.com/cloud/box-rounds-up-a-bunch-of-apps-for-cloud-storage-push/
Very interesting how they work with application a one stop shop in the cloud
Sent to you via Google Reader
Closer Look at One NoSQL Database – MongoDB
http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/2223945
Sent to you via Google Reader
Friday, March 30, 2012
Beware of old business axioms
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Latest Trends Of The Cloud Computing World
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cloudtweakscloud/~3/sBl-7mM5k3I/
Sent to you via Google Reader
80-20: the deadly cause of IT project failure
Tales from the Trenches: GitHub
Monday, March 26, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Reckon to split with QuickBooks
http://www.zdnet.com.au/reckon-to-split-with-quickbooks-339334441.htm?feed=rss
Sent to you via Google Reader
Introduction and overview of responses | Pew Internet & American Life Project
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Future-of-Apps-and-Web/Overview.aspx
cover story in Wired magazine in 2010 asserted in its title: "The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet."
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Cloudera CEO: Come to me with apps, I’ll get you money
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/LNT7UnrX4_0/
Sent to you via Google Reader
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Jolicloud evolves again with ‘personal cloud’ search
Who will be the ‘Dropbox of the enterprise?’ The race is on
It seems like every cloud storage company really, really, really wants to be the Dropbox of the enterprise when it grows up.
It's easy to see why. Dropbox, which now claims 50 million users, is the sweetheart of the cloud storage, file sharing, and synchronization world. People laud it for its ease of use, it's cross-platform capability. That success has prompted a ton of discussion about whether the San Francisco-based company, led by CEO Drew Houston, is a disruptor or a flash in the pan given that the major platform vendors — Microsoft, Google, Apple(a aapl) — are doing their own cloud-based file-share-and-sync thing. VMware's Project Octopus and Citrix' acquisition of ShareFile are also seen as Dropbox-for-the-enterprise moves.
But there are dozens of smaller, more nimble cloud storage providers that want to replicate the success Dropbox has had with consumers in the business world. Box is the most prominent of these contenders but the number also includes Egnyte, Accellion, ownCloud, GroupLogic, SurDoc and others. And, Dropbox, itself is not standing still. It just bought Cove to help build up its infrastructure and services to webscale, as GigaOM's Derrick Harris reported.
All of these vendors promise to let users synchronize and share their files across all relevant desktops and devices, in a way that won't give their company's IT departments fits.
This trend was definitely not lost on The 451 Group analyst Kathleen Reidy who suggests a whole new category – mobile file sharing and sync platforms – to reduce the confusion. In a recent blog post, Reidy wrote that this whole "Dropbox for the enterprise" theme started to crop up last year …
… when Box started getting serious about the enterprise market and I began to get a lot of briefing requests from the likes of Accellion, Egnyte and others about their enterprise file sharing and sync offerings. Things really started heating up later in 2011, as we saw VMWare announce its Dropbox-for-the-enterprise in August, Citrix acquire ShareFile in October; open source play ownCloud set sail in December and we recently initiated coverage on another startup, Germany-based TeamDrive.
Her argument is that the mobility bit is really what's important — and disruptive — here. People want their stuff to be available wherever, whenever and on whatever device they have on hand. And she weighs in on classifying this as a platform as opposed to a feature since these new products will enable lots of customization and add-ons and an ecosystem of third parties that will provide all that.
One caveat: 50 million Dropbox users sounds great. Box claims 9 million users. But neither company is particularly forthcoming about how many of those users are actually paying as opposed to using the companies' free or "freemium" services. That's a big question for these Dropbox for the Enterprise wannabes to consider. Presumably, the beauty of an enterprise model is that companies will pay for business-grade services. But it's difficult to get "freemium" users to move to a paid model — the conversion rate is typically thought to be 1 percent to 3 percent at the high end.
Microsoft: Our apps are really coming to Azure! Eventually, maybe
As of today, none of Microsoft's major applications are hosted on the company's Windows Azure cloud. On Monday, the company said that the Azure version of its Dynamics NAV enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, announced last year, is still not ready, with a beta promised for May and general availability by the end of the year. (To be fair, last year, the company did not provide a due date.)
Another ERP product — Dynamics GP 2013 — will go to beta this summer and should also hit the year-end deadline. Still a third ERP product, Dynamics AX, will be Azure-enabled in its "next major release," said Kirill Tatarinov, corporate VP of Microsoft Business Solutions, but he did not provide a timeline.
Microsoft, like other legacy software providers, is trying to navigate the tricky course between its profitable on-premises software, and the cloud-hosted software delivered as a service. And, perhaps more than any vendor, Microsoft has to figure out a way to do this while keeping its reseller and implementation partners in the fold. Traditional resellers sell the software itself and provide the customization and other services so critical in ERP. When the software itself flows from a vendor cloud, these partners feel — with reason — cut out of the transaction. That is especially true for partners that now host Microsoft ERP on their own infrastructure.
That's why Tatarinov and Microsoft COO Kevin Turner, speaking at the Microsoft Convergence 2012 conference in Houston, continued to stress that even Azure-hosted ERP will be "delivered by partners." In theory that means Microsoft will not sell those services direct to end users — a claim that some partners don't buy.
The Windows Azure platform-as-a-service cloud went live in February 2010 and one reason for the lack of Microsoft Azure applications is the lengthy development cycle of those products. The company has said that its plan is to put all of its software on Azure.
But Microsoft needs to get on the stick. Devoted Microsoft Dynamics partners and customers — mostly small and medium sized businesses — may hold out for these Azure offerings, but the rest of of the world is moving on. NetSuite has offered ERP as a service for years and now other competitors such as Workday, the cloud-based ERP brainchild of PeopleSoft founder David Duffield, do as well. Even SAP, the great grand-daddy of old-school, on-premises ERP, offers a cloud-based option in Business ByDesign. Microsoft is definitely late to this party.
Feature photo courtesy of Carlos Gutiérrez G.
Monday, March 19, 2012
The top 25 must have Android smartphone apps
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/the-top-25-must-have-android-smartphone-apps-20120229-1u1yr.html#ixzz1pXnnsp8b
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Generating New Revenue Opportunities with Cloud Computing
http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/2201702
"While the IT savings aspect is compelling, the strongest benefit of cloud computing is how it enhances business agility."
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Is your outsourcer agile enough?
http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/is-your-outsourcer-agile-enough/145042
More companies are choosing agile development to create user-friendly, quickly evolving enterprise apps. Here's how to decide if your outsourcer is up to the task
Monday, March 12, 2012
Fwd: Move to the cloud? The two decisions that matter
Sunday, March 11, 2012
How 9-to-5 Workers Can Win with the Cloud: Friday FAQs
How 9-to-5 Workers Can Win with the Cloud: Friday FAQs Several close friends of mine, currently maintaining full-time office jobs, have wondered about this whole "cloud computing" thing. Specifically, they question its usefulness for them, how it can empower them at work, and how it can potentially fuel a progression in their careers. These FAQs,
Microsoft warns that OnLive Desktop’s Office streaming app violates license
Never Negotiate Piecemeal. Here’s Why
http://www.cloudave.com/17766/never-negotiate-piecemeal-heres-why/
His lawyerly training has helped him become an excellent negotiator. Negotiating is part of the training as a corporate lawyer and why you should never negotiate against lawyers unless you yourself have one present.
Thursday, March 08, 2012
I just installed Zoiper Classic Softphone
Google takes on iTunes with Google Play
http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/google-takes-on-itunes-with-google-play/145016
Google Play combines Google Music and the Android Market to create a one-stop shop for apps and tunes from Google, much like Apple's iTunes
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Engaged, Informed Employees Get the Job Done
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/social-business/engaged-informed-employees-get-the-job-done-014744.php
This month's theme for CMSWire is about taking the focus of Customer Experience Management (CXM) and applying it internally to the enterprise, particularly to Enterprise Information Management (EIM) environments.
Initially that gave me pause for thought, because although I work for a large organization where the focus is very firmly on the customer first, and everything I do, even in an internal role, has to be linked to a positive impact on the customer, I am certainly no expert in CXM. So, while I think I understand the overall focus of CXM, my first step was Wikipedia to check on the definition of the term!
iPad3 vs Windows 8 - and the Winner Is... Cloud
http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/2189912
As evident from various social media interactions, blogs, tech news sites and other Google searches, the two events that clearly brought the attention of every one happened in quick succession. Interestingly there are huge discussions about the issue of 'Windows 8 vs iPad 3,' while the former is an operating system, latter is a tablet device, yet the discussions are pointing to the fact that Windows 8 will facilitate other non-iPad tablet manufacturers to pose a serious challenge to iPad3. Analysts claim that while Apple iPad3 is expected to increase the market size further in the tablet field, Windows 8 has enough features to induce a new Windows 8 tablet market that can pose a serious challenge to iPad 3. As it always happens in any kind of competition between innovative products, only time will tell
NaviSite wants to host your virtual desktops
http://www.itworld.com/cloud-computing/253770/navisite-wants-host-your-virtual-desktops
Seeking to capture a slice of market share in the emerging field of virtual desktop services, NaviSite, a Time Warner Cable managed service provider of cloud-based products has announced its next major endeavor: a desktop as a service (DaaS) offering aimed specifically at enterprise
Sunday, March 04, 2012
Security In The Cloud: Logs, Audits, Encryption…
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cloudtweakscloud/~3/TJzD6nAeX78/
Security In The Cloud: Logs, Audits, Encryption… Considering a move to the cloud for one or several of your key services? If so, you are not alone. Cloud computing is growing exponentially as more and more vendors are starting to offer services, and as more businesses are beginning to see the potential for cost savings