IT Services

No big-bang Apps news at I/O, but some announcements merit attention

Apps, Google's flagship product for enterprise IT, had a minor presence at this week's I/O developer conference, but some announcements at the show and in prior weeks deserve attention from customers of the cloud email and collaboration suite.

By Juan Carlos Perez | 17 May, 2013 23:57

Tags: applications, Google, e-mail, Google I/O, software, Office suites, collaboration, Software as a service, cloud computing, internet

Virtual reality and non-conductive liquids: data centers get innovative

Google I/O is getting most of the attention this week, but a conference at the other end of Silicon Valley showed there's plenty of innovation happening in the word of data centers, too.

By James Niccolai | 17 May, 2013 16:54

Tags: 3M, Green data center, Uptime Institute, servers, hardware systems, I/O Data Centers, Hewlett-Packard, environment

Newvem expands to monitor Azure and Amazon clouds

Newvem, which sells a tool that allows users to track and optimize their use of cloud computing resources, has expanded its software's functionality to monitor not just Amazon Web Services, but now Microsoft Azure now as well.

By Brandon Butler | 17 May, 2013 16:29

Tags: amazon, Amazon Web Services, Azure cloud, Microsoft, Cloud, Microsoft cloud, cloud computing, cloud watching, internet, Amazon Cloud

Former Amazon cloud engineer spills to Reddit audience

Usually Amazon Web Services, which many consider to be the leader in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud computing market, is pretty hush-hush about the internal workings of its massive cloud.

By Brandon Butler | 17 May, 2013 14:32

Tags: Amazon Web Services, reddit, amazon.com, Cloud, cloud infrastructure, cloud computing, internet, Amazon cloud infrastructure, Amazon Cloud

Progress at Foxconn factories, but working hours still exceed Chinese laws

Employees at the Chinese factories of Apple supplier Foxconn continue to work beyond the country's legal limit of 49 hours a month, according to a report from the Fair Labor Association (FLA). But the Taiwanese manufacturer is making overall steady progress in improving the working conditions at a select group of factories in China, it said.

By Michael Kan | 17 May, 2013 07:03

Tags: Electronics manufacturing, Apple, Foxconn Technology Group, Health and safety, environment

Swedish data center saves $1 million a year using seawater for cooling

A data center in Sweden has cut its energy bills by a million dollars a year using seawater to cool its servers, though jellyfish are an occasional hazard.

By James Niccolai | 16 May, 2013 19:55

Tags: Green data center, environment, Interxion

SAP builds out HANA platform and ecosystem

Anyone remotely within the orbit of SAP lately knows that its number-one focus is the HANA in-memory database and development platform. At this week's Sapphire conference in Orlando, the vendor sought to show the progress it is making in both building out HANA's capabilities as well as attracting developers and partners to HANA.

By Chris Kanaracus | 16 May, 2013 18:35

Tags: Amazon Web Services, Internet-based applications and services, applications, enterprise resource planning, data mining, cloud computing, internet, data warehousing, VMware, Hasso Plattner, business intelligence, sapphire, databases, SAP, software

ServiceNow wants to be the cloud for IT

Many enterprise IT shops may be reluctant to jump head first into cloud computing. After all, there are a variety of concerns that come with using the cloud, from security to integrations with existing systems, and perhaps most scary: What the cloud will mean for your IT job.

By Brandon Butler | 16 May, 2013 18:18

Tags: Configuration / maintenance, Cloud, hardware systems, Data Center, cloud computing, internet

Google takes Quick Action on Gmail

In the middle of its annual developers conference, the Google unveiled updates to its popular Gmail service.

By Sharon Gaudin | 16 May, 2013 15:55

Tags: web apps, Google, cloud computing, internet

NextDC completes S1 base building

Data centre provider NextDC (ASX: NXT) has received the thumbs up that its Sydney (S1) facility achieved practical completion.

By Hamish Barwick | 16 May, 2013 10:48

Tags: S1, Asia Pacific Data Centre Group, data centres, NextDC

Amazon gives DynamoDB a performance boost

Amazon Web Services is improving the performance of its DynamoDB database service with Parallel Scan, which gives users faster access to their tables.

By Mikael Ricknäs | 16 May, 2013 10:28

Tags: Amazon Web Services, databases, applications, software, Software as a service, cloud computing, internet

How to keep the feds from snooping on your cloud data

A growing number of SaaS providers offer secure encryption log-in to Dropbox and other cloud storage vendors, meaning even they can't access the data you store. And neither can the government.

By Lucas Mearian | 16 May, 2013 09:55

Tags: American Civil Liberties Union, Google, Microsoft, security, cloud security, privacy, cloud storage

SunGard brings cloud service to disaster recovery

Can the old guard in business continuity and disaster-recovery services thrive in an era when the companies are looking at new ways to process business data? SunGard Data Systems, with decades of experience in availability services, is feeling the pinch as some business clientele move data to the cloud. But SunGard says it's pushing forward with innovations that are making it a public cloud provider as well with the kind of application availability it says will be hard to match elsewhere.

By Ellen Messmer | 15 May, 2013 21:57

Tags: sungard, security, Cloud, Apache Foundation, SunGard Availability Services, Wide Area Network, cloud computing, internet, VMware, Gartner

Google rolls out by-the-minute cloud billing, introduces a new NoSQL database

Google, attempting to build its reputation as an enterprise and developer-focused cloud computing provider, today said its cloud platform is open for anyone to signup for, and can be used with a new by-the-minute billing scheme.

By Brandon Butler | 15 May, 2013 21:57

Tags: Configuration / maintenance, Google, Cloud, hardware systems, Data Center, cloud computing, internet

Dell 'refining' plans for OpenStack-powered public cloud

Fresh off the acquisition of a company that specializes in helping customers manage resources across multiple public clouds, Dell said it is "refining" its own plans to build a public cloud based on OpenStack.

By Brandon Butler | 15 May, 2013 16:08

Tags: Configuration / maintenance, Dell, Cloud, hardware systems, Data Center, cloud computing, internet, OpenStack

SAP unveils 'consumer-friendly' Fiori app suite

SAP's software is known for its role running many of the world's largest companies, but not necessarily for its user-friendliness. As part of an ongoing effort to change this perception, SAP unveiled Fiori, a set of 25 lightweight "consumer-friendly" applications that can run on desktops, tablets and mobile devices, on Wednesday at the Sapphire conference in Orlando.

By Chris Kanaracus | 15 May, 2013 14:28

Tags: Internet-based applications and services, consumer electronics, applications, SAP, software, mobile, cloud computing, internet, sapphire

CGW Lawyers ditches PCs for virtual desktop

Getting rid of aging desktop computers in favour of a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) has led to increased productivity and less IT problems for Brisbane-based Cooper Grace Ward Lawyers.

By Hamish Barwick | 15 May, 2013 10:12

Tags: vSphere, trend micro, desktop virtualization, virtual desktop, CGW Lawyers, VMware

Rackspace to help customers debug their programs

Facing fierce competition in the market for cloud services, hosting provider Rackspace has pledged to help its users debug the programs they'll run on Rackspace's OpenStack platform.

By Joab Jackson | 14 May, 2013 17:29

Tags: application development, Managed Services, software, cloud computing, internet, rackspace

Nick Carr's IT Doesn't Matter still matters

Nick Carr's article "IT Doesn't Matter" was published in in Harvard Business Review in May 2003 and ignited an industry firestorm for its perceived dismissal of the strategic value of IT.

By Ann Bednarz | 14 May, 2013 17:13

Tags: Utility Computing, Networking, infrastructure management, Nicholas Carr, IT careers, IT jobs, Harvard Business Review, internet, cloud computing, management, IT Doesn't Matter, nick carr, Cloud

Q&A: Nick Carr on 10th anniversary of 'IT Doesn't Matter'

Nick Carr rocked the tech world with his controversial essay in the May 2003 issue of the Harvard Business Review, titled "IT Doesn't Matter." Carr claimed companies were overspending on IT and that the competitive advantage to be gained by tech investments was shrinking as technology became more commoditized and accessible to everyone. On the 10-year anniversary of the article's publication, Carr talked with Network World's Ann Bednarz about what he got right, what he got wrong, and how the piece remains relevant today.

By Ann Bednarz | 14 May, 2013 17:13

Tags: Utility Computing, nick carr, Networking, Cloud, infrastructure management, Nicholas Carr, Harvard Business Review, internet, cloud computing, management, IT Doesn't Matter

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