As 2012 draws to a close, Ericsson ConsumerLab has identified the hottest consumer trends for 2013 and beyond. For more than 15 years, ConsumerLab has conducted research into people's values, behavior and ways of using ICT products and services.
Computerworld Philippines staff | 18 Dec | Read more
Inside the enterprise, the biggest obstacle to cloud computing is often the company's own corporate counsel. Here's how IT is getting to yes with legal.
Howard Baldwin | 03 Dec | Read more
Studies show that employees are engaging in rogue use of the cloud, even when IT organizations say they have clear formal cloud policies and penalties for violation of the policies.
Thor Olavsrud | 13 Nov | Read more
'Tis the season to begin ramping up online shopping activity, and for retailers that means doing all they can to ensure their websites are up, highly available and able to handle peak capacity. Looming in many IT managers' minds is the cautionary tale of Target, whose website crashed twice after it was inundated by an unprecedented number of online shoppers when the retailer began selling clothing and accessories from high-end Italian fashion company Missoni.
Esther Shein | 29 Nov | Read more
One of the remaining key issues Cloud users need to consider relates to the notion of being locked-in to certain applications or systems — and if a user wants to transfer data or applications from the Cloud, whether the data is portable between service providers. In these circumstances, a user will need to consider its requirements to access data some years into the future for a plethora of regulatory reasons.
Mark Vincent and Nick Hart | 11 Apr | Read more
Proper due diligence focuses on identifying the players in the Cloud relationship. That is, who is actually involved in providing the services and are they the same entity (or entities) that are processing or storing data? In the case of aggregators, for example, a Cloud user could be dealing with a single entity which itself is provided services by various third parties.
Mark Vincent and Nick Hart | 10 Apr | Read more
Unlike a fixed server in your office or at a data centre in Australia, data in the Cloud can potentially be located anywhere in the world — even in multiple data centres in multiple copies worldwide. A Cloud service provider may not even know where the data resides at any one time. The Cloud may not be tied to any particular location but this is clearly not the case with the laws of each country. Any ‘global’ technology solution will be impacted by the laws of a large number of nation states. As a result, sending and processing data around the globe could, in the process, fail to comply with data protection and privacy laws in various countries.
Mark Vincent and Nick Hart | 09 Apr | Read more
The Cloud can be cheaper, more flexible, easier to manage and efficient. But users and providers of Cloud services have to weigh these advantages against the risks or perceived risks — such as regulatory compliance, security, performance, availability of service, and liabilities and remedies under the governing contracts.
Mark Vincent and Nick Hart | 08 Apr | Read more
Yet another survey is indicating that security is a big issue for those intending to take up cloud computing.
Keir Thomas | 04 Feb | Read more
Most of us don't like paying for antivirus (AV) software, but at least home users can rely on one of the free options, such as Microsoft Security Essentials, avast!, or AVG Free.
Keir Thomas | 19 Jan | Read more
The promise of cost savings derived from cloud computing is attractive, but concrete financial returns are not always quickly achieved. Except, perhaps, when it comes to disaster recovery.
Kim S. Nash | 17 Jun | Read more
Though most U.S. companies still list customer and other corporate information as their most valuable assets, many keep pushing this data farther from safe lockdown in the data center--and are about to give it another strong shove in that direction.
Kevin Fogarty | 18 May | Read more
If you think the phrase "It's in the cloud" means that your data resides on the Internet and is thus accessible everywhere equally, think again. Most infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud services share the same residence model as traditional hosting and outsourcing deployments -- they live in specific data centers in specific geographies. This means that customer data is generated and most likely stored in this physical location, giving it legal and privacy implications.
James Staten | 19 Apr | Read more
The hype around cloud computing would make you think mass adoption will happen tomorrow. But recent studies by a number of sources have shown that security is the biggest barrier to cloud adoption. The reality is cloud computing is simply another step in technology evolution following the path of mainframe, client server and Web applications, all of which had -- and still have -- their own security issues.
There is no doubt that cloud computing is dominating today's IT conversation among C-level security executives. Whether it's due to the compelling cost saving possibilities in a tough economy, or because of perceived advantages in provisioning flexibility, auto-scaling, and on-demand computing, CSOs are probing the capabilities, costs and restrictions of the cloud. At the same time, security and compliance concerns are at the forefront of issues potentially holding large enterprises back from capitalizing on the benefits that cloud computing has to offer.
Jim Hietala | 07 Jan | Read more