Cloud Hosting

Six out of 10 U.S. companies already have at least one application in the cloud, and 71 percent expect to increase spending on cloud services in the next 12 months, according to a recent IDG Enterprise survey of 554 IT professionals, including 357 heads of IT.

Most respondents (64 percent) agreed with the statement that cloud computing will mean higher costs in the short term, but will save money in the long term.

Barr Snyderwine, CIO of Hargrove, an events management company, says using the public cloud is his way of keeping costs down. The company is using an online collaboration tool for document sharing because "it's so cheap I can't say no," he says. "We are probably saving money in the long run on the [business] continuity side."

In fact, 84 percent of the survey respondents cited business continuity as the top business driver for their cloud investments. Snyderwine says he is also looking to put Microsoft's Exchange in the cloud as part of his continuity plan. "The comfort of having completely redundant servers is very, very attractive," he says.

In the survey, respondents said other top business reasons for moving IT to cloud services include speed of deployment, gaining the flexibility to react to market conditions, and improving customer support.

Tim Walter, CIO of CrossCom National, a retail systems provider, has a different reason: He's moving company data into a private cloud in hopes of achieving greater data consistency and integration. "You can get systems in the same cloud to talk [to each other]," Walter says.

But putting data in the cloud also carries risks: 70 percent of the respondents said security concerns are the top barrier to their adoption of cloud computing.

Walter says one challenge is having data from different types of customers in the cloud, because each customer has different security needs. "We look at who requires the tightest [security] levels and try to work everyone else toward [those]," he says.

Follow Editorial Assistant Lauren Brousell on Twitter: @lbrousell.

Read more about cloud computing in CIO's Cloud Computing Drilldown.

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CIOs Plan to Increase Cloud Spending

TeamDrive 3.0 will help enterprises implement Bring Your Own Device policies without worrying about leaking confidential data or intellectual property when employees access files on the go

Hannover, Germany - March 6th 2012 - Enterprise cloud synchronization provider TeamDrive today released a new client platform that brings security and privacy to the mobile access of cloud data. TeamDrive 3.0 adds secure clients for iOS and Android smart phones and tablets to the existing Mac, PC and Linux secure clients. It also makes significant enhancements to the underlying technology, adding RSA-2048 encryption to invitations to share AES-256 encrypted files on a TeamDrive Space.

The new TeamDrive 3.0 clients, downloadable from the TeamDrive website, will be on show at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany this week. TeamDrive's iPhone and iPad apps are in the final stages of testing and will be live in the App Store in March. Android and iOS customers should register on the TeamDrive website to receive an email as soon as the apps are available in Android Market or the Apple App Store: http://www.teamdrive.com/teamdrive3. Support for Blackberry and Windows Mobile Phones will be available this summer.

TeamDrive's approach to cloud storage for the enterprise is highly secure: All of the data are encrypted on your computer before they are uploaded. Furthermore, unlike similar cloud synchronization tools, businesses can use TeamDrive with their choice of server, whether it is private cloud, public cloud, TeamDrive cloud or on-site. Instead of being pushed into a public cloud, in other words, companies can use TeamDrive to run their own private service with the contents remaining fully under company control, on company-owned and company-managed servers.

TeamDrive is currently the only cloud synchronization tool with a data protection seal of approval.

Volker Oboda, CEO of TeamDrive, said, "The issue around BYOD is in fact LYOD. Our new smart phone apps will make it easy for enterprises to implement Bring Your Own Device policies without worrying about employee Losing Their Own Device incidents. The freedom to use your own server and securely access your TeamDrive Space from a smart phone makes TeamDrive the best cloud synchronization tool for enterprises that want to share files, but still want to protect their intellectual property."

TeamDrive customer Dr. Anthony Beck, DART Project Champion and Research Fellow in the School of Computing at the University of Leeds, commented on why the University of Leeds uses TeamDrive.

Dr. Beck said, "Instead of our data being held on Dropbox's servers in the cloud (Dropbox actually uses Amazon's cloud service), we can host them on our own servers. Therefore, we all access local files from a 'shared space'. In theory, this means we all work on the most up-to-date information. We can't use Dropbox or other cloud data storage companies that are not a signatory to Safe Harbor. As everything is maintained on our own servers, TeamDrive is Safe Harbor compliant."

He added, "The ability to use our own servers for shared cloud storage is fantastic. Essentially we have an unlimited storage capacity which we can easily share with colleagues throughout the world at any institution. This really helps collaboration. The smart phone application will provide the final piece allowing us to access data whilst 'on the go'."

The new TeamDrive smart phone applications have many built-in features, such as a photo-sharing tool, that make it much easier to ensure secure, seamless collaboration. These feature-rich mobile applications are perfect for enterprises seeking the most secure way to enhance remote collaboration and offer always-on access to office files, photos, music, videos and more - even when offline.

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TeamDrive 3.0 Unveiled at CeBIT: Brings Enterprise-Grade Security to Cloud File Sharing on the iPhone, iPad and Android

Cloud computing presents both challenges and opportunities for personal computing giants. Microsoft is "re-imagining" Windows for cloud-connected devices. Meanwhile, Intel rethinks its microprocessor strategies for mobile devices and servers, seeking to embrace the cloud at both ends of the consumption supply chain. For these incumbents that defined the personal computing era, the post-PC era future requires leaping from the past, not clinging to it.

Where the "Wintel" marriage is likely to remain strongest is the server. Microsoft's post-PC -- what I call cloud-connected device -- strategy is two-fold: Providing direct, hosted services or applications businesses can host internally and expanding Windows's support for additional chip architectures. For its part, Intel develops microprocessors for more device categories, while optimizing server chips for cloud applications and services, such as the recently announced Xeon processor E5-2600 product family.

For a time, Intel and Microsoft will diverge on desktop and mobile PCs, particularly tablets. Windows 8 "is a completely reimagined operating system for us as an organization", Microsoft COO Kevin Turner says, in his keynote last week during Convergence 2012. "It not only runs great on Intel and x86, it will also be the first operating system on the planet that also runs on ARM and system-on-a-chip. So, the ability to have multiple architectures that we support with a consistent user experience is something that we're just very, very excited about".

Meanwhile, Intel plays catch up in microprocessors that compete directly with ARM. Intel specifically designed the Atom processor Z2460 platform, which some of you may know as "Medfield", for smartphones and tablets.

In January, Intel struck a multi-year, multi-device deal with Motorola Mobility, now owned by Google, for the processor family and others like it. Motorola -- and Lenovo, too -- plan to ship Intel-powered smartphones in the second half of this year.

"By developing the Medfield chip for mobile devices, Intel will open the doors for further innovation for mobile device OEMs by providing a very capable alternative to existing ARM based chipsets," Wayne Lam, iSuppli analyst, says. However, Intel still must solve some power-consumption issues that ARM already has surpassed, as well as gain share as virtual newcomer.

Serving the Cloud

It's the server where there is opportunity pursued but often overlooked in analyses of the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company's chip strategy for cloud-connected devices.

Intel is the overwhelming x86 chip market leader. During fourth quarter, PC and server microprocessors generated $10.9 billion in sales, up 14.2 percent year over year, according to IDC. Intel's overall market share was 80.3 percent, but much higher for servers: 94.5 percent.

As cloud connectivity increases so do demands for servers and storage capable of handling the load. This year, spending on digital technology products will account for 10 percent of the average household's disposal income -- or $2.2 trillion in total, says Gartner, which projects spending to reach $2.8 trillion by 2015.

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Intel rises to the cloud

HAWTHORNE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

HOB, Inc. today announced it has addressed the debate of public versus private cloud computing. Enterprises are progressively recognizing the advantages of central data storage. This trend is being driven by the promise of cloud computing. Whether public or private, the cloud demands centralized data and applications. Public cloud designs are, due to security concerns, still being hesitantly deployed. Private cloud solutions, however, are very much sought after.

Public vs. Private Clouds

If an organization leverages the public cloud, enterprise data are transferred to the cloud provider. In a private cloud, however, the data remain solely in the companys hands: physically as well as virtually. Public clouds promise much: Economies of scale, lower cost and less administrative expense including fail-safety. These are only some examples. A private cloud is more modest: Economies of scale are smaller, whether costs can be reduced is questionable, but: Security for data and applications is always in safe hands and can be controlled. Additionally, a private cloud can be structured as a user wants here, a public cloud is not so flexible.

On closer inspection, it becomes clear: Security risks in the public cloud are currently incalculable and thus, unacceptable. The legal situation is also neither uniform nor clear. These facts alone should give every IT manager a reason to worry. Depending on where the servers of the cloud providers are located, considerably more people could access sensitive corporate data than you might think. With a private cloud, organizations can eliminate this risk.

Many public cloud providers claim to have fail safety, high availability and data protection at the highest level, but can this claim be trusted? Fail safety means more than a server location protected against floods or hurricanes. Overload scenarios must also be considered. Is the cloud still performant when another cloud company randomly uses up more capacity? For these reasons, HOB strongly recommends private cloud designs. Having a personal cloud can also satisfy the highest demands on security and still have the utmost flexibility.

HOB Solutions for the Private Cloud

Once a private cloud is built and the data correspondingly secured, access to data and applications in the cloud must be made possible. Before anything else, this access must be secure, but also flexible and practical. To this end, HOB provides several remote access solutions to fit a companys specific needs, securely, from any user device, at any time and from anywhere. For access via an SSL VPN, HOB RD VPN is the first choice: Browser-based, no installation on the client device, best usability and the highest degree of security and flexibility. If a smartphone is the device being used, HOBLink Mobile provides secure access to e-mails, contacts, calendar entries and notes. With HOBLink Mobile, no data are downloaded to the smartphone, nor are any stored there. This way, in the event the smartphone is lost or stolen, the data remains safely in an organization's private cloud. If the organization uses IPsec solutions, HOB supports this with the HOBLink VPN Anywhere Client: it is compatible with the VPN gateways of leading manufacturers and needs no installation on the client.

"HOB solutions have one thing in common: They are easy to administrate, can be custom configured and, with respect to security, at the top of the class. This is achieved via strong encryption, either SSL- or IPsec-based, as well as various strong authentication methods," explained Klaus Brandsttter, CEO of HOB, Inc.

About HOB, Inc.

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HOB, Inc. Takes Aim at Cloud Computing with Secure Remote Access Product Line

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Gladinet has announced a new platform to provide cloud storage solutions for collaboration, file storage, backup and team workspaces. Gladinet Cloud version 4.0 also seamlessly integrates with existing local storage to create a hybrid cloud platform with centrally managed, unified access. As part of their continuing effort to "ease small and medium sized business (SMB) migration to the cloud," Jerry Huang, Gladinet's President, said, "We are excited by the opportunity to offer customers solutions that allow them to adopt cloud storage quickly and without disruption, while maintaining control of their data using preferred storage services like Google Cloud Storage, Google Docs Amazon S3, OpenStack and more."

Gladinet Cloud version 4.0 is available in four editions: Starter, Professional, Premium and Team, ordered by increasing capability. The Starter edition provides basic cloud connectivity through a mapped drive on a single user's desktop and the Professional edition adds capabilities like backup, 2-way synchronization and support for Google Docs 2-step authentication. These editions are geared towards customers that just want to access cloud storage from their desktops and laptops. The Premium edition adds capabilities like snapshot backups, file and folder sharing, web portal access and mobile access. Finally, the Team edition offers access to more advanced clients for servers with Active Directory integration.

The open, flexible platform gives Gladinet customers several options for cloud storage adoption. For example, they can instantly make shared folders on a file server accessible to remote users without disrupting on-premise access. They can use existing Active Directory identities to globally manage access. They can share files and folders with external users. Gladinet Cloud version 4.0 also facilitates file server replacement or the creation of synchronized, shared workspaces in the cloud, and can be used to synchronize a folder across multiple machines.

In addition to the new features and open platform, Gladinet has also broadened the potential scope of its partnerships. Engagement models now run the gamut from simply recommending or reselling Gladinet products to becoming a preferred partner with the right to distribute a branded version hosted by Gladinet or the partner. Huang also noted that "We are seeing a sharp increase in partner branding activity as they seek to make it easier for customers to access their cloud storage." His claims were confirmed by a partner who stated, "Gladinet Cloud's unified access model is an interesting differentiator, which makes it easy to migrate to the cloud and control user access without changing their access models away from familiar paradigms like local drives, network shares, desktops and mobile devices."

Whether you are a partner or SMB, if you are interested in non-disruptive adoption of cloud storage for collaboration, remote access, backup or file storage, Gladinet has a unique and compelling solution.

About Gladinet

Founded in 2008, Gladinet started by providing users the convenience of a network drive attached to cloud storage. With the addition of products that attach cloud storage to file servers, backup to the cloud and create personal clouds, Gladinet is changing the way businesses access and use cloud storage through its widely accepted cloud storage access platform. Learn more at http://www.gladinet.com. Follow us at http://twitter.com/gladinetor find us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Gladinet.

Contact:

Franklyn Peart, SVP Business Development Gladinet franklynp@gladinet.com http://www.gladinet.com

This press release was issued through eReleases(R). For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com.

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Gladinet Cloud Version 4.0 Released