MilCloud provides military with on-demand infrastructure and network management tools through web-based interface.

Nothing is as powerful as a successful BYOD program, but that power becomes toxic when BYOD is treated as a cosmetic fix. I recently learned that botulinum toxin — quite often knows as Botox — is a lethal but naturally occurring substance. It’s probably the most toxic substances known, but if correctly applied has enormous therapeutic value — let alone its place within the cosmetic universe for you to hold back the ravages of time by wiping out wrinkles and frown lines. All this got me thinking that BYOD is basically the identical for enterprise IT — it is a toxin, but person who can be utilized for good. [You may say no to BYOD, but prepare in finding alternatives to satisfy your users’ needs. Read BYOD: Lessons On Negotiating Limits] BYOD also is naturally occurring. From executives demanding iPad access, to sales managers sneaking inside the latest Android device — there is no stopping it. As such, its therapeutic value (increased productivity and value... Read More »

A California lawsuit suggests the government must take stronger steps to give protection to government data from data mining and user profiling by cloud service providers. In the technology-rich world we are living in, it is important for everybody to appreciate how their data is processed and used. For the federal government, it’s arguably much more important, given the large amounts of sensitive citizen data it possesses and stores. As we move to more sophisticated, data-driven technological environments equivalent to the cloud, it’s imperative that each one government entities become hypervigilant about with the intention that vendors are handling this knowledge appropriately. i’m not the primary person to claim this, and that i will definitely not be the last. Recent disclosures in a California lawsuit have raised several red flags about how government data may be utilized by cloud vendors — particularly vendors with business models that rely heavily on advertising revenue and monetizing user data. The lawsuit alleges that Google violated federal and state... Read More »

Tech companies, advocacy groups, and Internet users rally to demand that governments limit online surveillance. 20 Great Ideas To Steal (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) On Tuesday, a coalition of businesses and advocacy groups have scheduled a sequence of events around the globe to induce governments to reform surveillance practices. The protest against mass surveillance, inspired by the months of revelations in regards to the reach of america National Security Agency and designated “The Day We Fight Back,” was announced last month at the anniversary of the death of technology activist Aaron Swartz. It’s also intended as a reminder of the defeat two years ago of the Stop Online Piracy Act, a up to date high-water mark for online activism. By midday Pacific Time, the coalition’s website said that it has facilitated more than 37,900 calls and over 86,000 emails to legislators. A Google seek for the JavaScript code particular to the coalition’s protest banners suggests almost 1,000 of them has been put on websites.... Read More »

The price of cloud computing should keep pace with the falling price of hardware, Google insists. 8 Data Centers For Cloud’s Toughest Jobs (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Taking aim at Amazon Web Services, Google on Tuesday slashed the pricing of its Cloud Platform services and introduced new offerings to tempt developers to deploy their applications inside the company’s datacenters. At an industry event in San Francisco, Urs Hölzle, senior VP of technical infrastructure at Google, said that during the last eight years, a niche has emerged between the price of cloud computing services and the hardware used to deliver these services. Cloud service costs have declined only 6% to eight% per year on average in this period while hardware costs have fallen 20% to 30% per year, he explained. “We do not think this gap should really exist,” Hölzle said. “We believe the cost of virtualized hardware should follow an analogous price as real hardware.” To bring cloud computing costs towards where they... Read More »