Cloud Computing

Moving to the Cloud? Tips for a Soft Landing

Companies are no longer afraid of the cloud. Big talk about security and performance issues has dwindled to small voices as enterprises and SMBs alike adopt cloud services to empower their global impact. Big cloud benefits, however -- agility, scalability and on-demand access -- are the result of a thoughtful, well-planned move from on-site servers to off-site resources. Here are four key tips for a soft cloud landing. more

Fear of Disaster: 5 Tips to Help Enterprises Cope

IT disasters can strike anywhere, anytime. In 1983, a faulty Soviet warning system nearly precipitated World War III -- the system claimed five missiles were en route from the U.S. Only quick thinking by Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov saved the day when he realized the United States would never launch so few warheads. And in 2004, a private contractor working with the British Child Support Agency (CSA) suffered a glitch that overpaid 1.9 million people and underpaid 700,000. more

Identify DDoS Attacks with External Performance Monitoring (Part 2 of 3)

In Part One of this series, we examined internal server, network and infrastructure monitoring applications. Now let's take a look at another way to capture DDoS information: external performance monitoring... Unlike network/infrastructure tools - which are usually installed inside a customer's network - external performance monitoring solutions are typically provided by a third party and leverage monitoring locations from around the world. more

Google Hosting a Discussion on the Future of Cloud Computing

Google will be hosting a discussion on the future of cloud computing and technology policy tomorrow, March 20, in Washington, D.C. Participants include Jeffrey Rayport, principal at the Marketspace consulting group and a leading experts on digital strategy and marketing, and Andrew Heyward, former President of CBS News, who will be presenting the findings of their new study. "They will assess the possibilities, risks and returns of cloud computing; the next steps in moving forward; and potential implications for technology policy," says Dorothy Chou, Google's Global Communications and Public Affairs. Those unable to attend are invited to submit questions in advance via Google Moderator. more

The Changing World of Network Management in an Increasingly Cloud-Centric World

Over the past two weeks Andrew Lerner, Vice President in Gartner Research covering enterprise networking products, has put out two successive blogs that raise really interesting questions about the changing world of network management in an increasingly cloud-centric world. In "What Keeps Network Folks Up at Night?", Andrew writes about the worrisome challenges in the Banking/Financial industry related to frequent manual network configuration errors. more

Security Shortfalls Exposed in End-to-End Encrypted Cloud Storage Providers

A recent study critically examines the security of popular end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) cloud storage providers, uncovering significant vulnerabilities in platforms widely marketed for their user-controlled privacy features. more

Transparency Comes to Load Testing via the Cloud

The importance of online presence continues to grow exponentially. More and more of our personal and professional endeavors are conducted online. Because of this, the ability to ensure a good experience for our online friends and customers also is increasing rapidly. At its core, load testing is nothing more than ensuring your online presence is ready for the number of visitors you expect. It's simple to explain, but historically it's been anything but simple, or easy to afford. more

Public Cloud Infrastructure as a Service Rapidly Gaining Acceptance Among Enterprises

Public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings are rapidly gaining acceptance among enterprises as a viable alternative to on-premises hardware for IT infrastructure, According to new IDC study more

Why Mid-Sized Businesses That Embrace the Cloud See Improved Revenues

According to a recent study from IBM, mid-sized businesses that embrace cloud technology see nearly double the revenue and increased profit growth compared to their more hesitant peers. The study, which included 800 leading global IT professionals, found that the 20% of organizations that had committed more resources to the cloud were reaping significant cost-cutting advantages and improved levels of efficiency. more

Building a Base of Knowledge for Advocacy Abroad in the Digital Age

Answering questions at the Internet Association's Virtuous Circle conference last week, Secretary Kerry presented the U.S. Department of State's effort to prioritize global digital economy issues abroad in order to reflect the growing importance of these issues in both economic and foreign policy. The State Department has made real progress on this initiative in the last year and hopes to continue our momentum going forward. more

Interstate at Rush Hour ...in the Rain ...on a Friday – AKA, Your Enterprise Traffic on the Net

Congestion. Traffic. Two words that draw a visceral response, whether you are commuting to work or managing a network. Managing data traffic used to be easy. Everything was housed in centralized data centers, and all traffic was routed through big, dedicated, effective but expensive "pipes" -- Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) links. When all the applications are at the data center, it makes sense to build private access for all traffic. more

A Look at How Retailers Handled the Online Rush as Black Friday Sales Hit $1 Billion Mark

This year Black Friday online sales reached $1 billion for the first time. Of course, Cyber Monday is the busiest e-commerce day of them all. Sales for Cyber Monday reached $1.5 billion this year, a 30 percent increase from 2011... Website providers have been moving to cloud computing so they can instantly scale to meet increased traffic. But what happens when everyone needs to scale at the same time? more

Virtualizing the Gateway - How CSPs Are Revolutionizing the Network Edge

Software-defined networking (SDN) itself represents a deconstructed view of current switching and routing architectures providing the abstractions of control from dataplane. With this newfound control, the industry is leveraging multiple virtualization strategies to build out public, private, and hybrid cloud architectures, delivering multiple new application services to the market. more

The Hidden Risks of AI Notetakers: Precaution or Paranoia?

As AI notetakers become common in virtual meetings, concerns grow over data privacy, potential misuse, and the risks of unknowingly sharing sensitive corporate information with unseen third parties beyond organizational control. more

Leased, Not Owned: Why the Future of the Internet Is Likely Subscription-Based

From software to network architecture, the internet is shifting from ownership to on-demand access. Subscription models now underpin the digital economy, offering scalability and agility while raising fresh questions about control, cost and compliance. more