Software as a service (SaaS) adoption has more than quintupled since 2011 with the front office leading the way, research from North Bridge Venture Partners has shown.

The data, which polled 1358 respondents, found that SaaS was becoming increasingly important as a CIO priority, behind security software and business intelligence, hitting 74% adoption this year. IaaS and PaaS, in comparison, lag behind on 56% and 41% adoption respectively.

The report revealed fairly solid figures for cloud adoption and innovation. Nearly half (49%) of respondents claimed companies use cloud computing for revenue generation or product development activities, while a similar number (45%) want to or already run their company in the cloud.

The transition phase is also rapidly improving, according to the research. Aside from manufacturing, two thirds of respondents across all business apps will move some or most of their processing to the cloud in the next two years. This …

While on-premise deployments are still the default for many enterprise applications today, most everyone agrees that SaaS and Cloud are the future. The question from the CXO is no longer, “Should we consider putting this application in the cloud?” It is, “Why wouldn’t we deploy this in the cloud?” As this new thinking takes full effect, I see three big changes for IT professionals:
Instead of acquiring and operating on-site infrastructure and applications for the enterprise, IT professionals will be expected to coordinate business services for employees and end-users. Their role will be to ensure their “customers” are getting the performance levels they need to speed communication, increase collaboration and accelerate individual and organizational productivity.

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In 2013, the total cost of natural disasters reached $192 billion, according to recent research from Impact Forecasting, a division of reinsurance company Aon Benfield, who conducts these reports each year.
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy topped 2013’s most costly natural disaster. With damage estimated at over $60 billion, Sandy is the second most expensive hurricane on record in the United States. Countless businesses lost revenue while waiting for power to return, or floods to subside. But many others were prepared, thanks to the IT professionals who made sure they had the right technology in place to weather any storm. In the eye of the storm, there are a few positive stories that came out of this devastating disaster.

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As technology evolves, business models evolve. The corner grocery store gave way to the emporium, which became the supermarket. Now we order groceries online with a credit card, and a truck turns up with the goods. Hansom cabriolets became taxis and limos, and now we have Uber. At one time, people would communicate at a distance through pigeons and human messengers. Then we created postal services, then email, and now a plethora of social networks. We still eat food, move around and communicate, but we do it all in different contexts. None of this contextual change would be economically or technically possible without the information systems to manage the business relationships, track transactions and settle accounts.
Now, think about your phone and Internet access arrangements. For most people, this means a subscription with one big company, a contractual commitment, a monthly payment and perhaps some usage charges. Big companies build and own the infrastructure; they may subcontract work to other companies, but the carrier “owns” the customer relationships. It was pretty much like that 50 years ago.

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“Organizations take time to evolve. That’s why we’re bound for a hybrid future, where public and private clouds blend to create a shared infrastructure that spans application, organization and data center boundaries,” noted Esmeralda Swartz, CMO of MetraTech, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo conference chairs Larry Carvalho and Vanessa Alvarez.
Cloud Computing Journal: How are cloud standards playing a role in expanding adoption among users? Are standards helping new business models for service providers?

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ServiceNow this week launched its Eureka version of its online service management suite with new features aimed at letting non-technical folks build custom applications and process flows.
IT service management (ITSM) has long been a huge benefit to complex and exception-rich IT operations by helping to standardize, automate and apply a common system-of-record approach to tasks, incidents, assets, and workflows.
ServiceNow has been growing rapidly as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of ITSM, but clearly sees a larger opportunity – making service creation, use, and management a benefit to nearly all workers for any number of business processes.
It’s one of those rare instances where IT has been more mature and methodological in solving complexity than many other traditional business functions. Indeed, siloed and disjointed «productivity applications» that require lots of manual effort have been a driver to bring service orientation to the average business process.

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Red Hat, Inc., on Wednesday announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire eNovance, a provider of open source cloud computing services. Combined with Red Hat’s existing leadership in OpenStack, the addition of eNovance’s systems integration capabilities and engineering talent is aimed at meeting growing demand for enterprise OpenStack consulting, design and deployment.
Red Hat and eNovance first partnered in 2013 to deliver OpenStack implementation and integration services to joint customers, helping to accelerate adoption of Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform. Most recently, in May 2014, the two companies announced an expanded collaboration to drive Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and telecommunications innovations into OpenStack, aimed at delivering the industry’s most complete, carrier-grade telecommunications offering based on Linux, Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), and OpenStack.

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Red Hat, Inc., on Wednesday announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire eNovance, a provider of open source cloud computing services. Combined with Red Hat’s existing leadership in OpenStack, the addition of eNovance’s systems integration capabilities and engineering talent is aimed at meeting growing demand for enterprise OpenStack consulting, design and deployment.
Red Hat and eNovance first partnered in 2013 to deliver OpenStack implementation and integration services to joint customers, helping to accelerate adoption of Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform. Most recently, in May 2014, the two companies announced an expanded collaboration to drive Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and telecommunications innovations into OpenStack, aimed at delivering the industry’s most complete, carrier-grade telecommunications offering based on Linux, Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), and OpenStack.

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The scorched-earth legal and PR battle currently taking place between Netflix and Verizon makes for some entertaining headlines. But the outcome of this fight will have profound impacts for both end-users and IT professionals. 

One thing that doesn’t get discussed enough is the potential effect that this battle could potentially have over market freedom and competitively within the general SaaS and media space. But before we get into this discussion, let’s look at some of the key areas of conflict that have pushed the Net Neutrality debate to the point where it is today. (Not just for Netflix-Verizon, but for the general ISP industry as a whole).

Consumers and SaaS/Content Providers

The argument from the consumer and SaaS and content provider perspective is simple and easy enough to understand. Consumers are paying for a specific ISP service, and they would like to enjoy the full benefits of …

What do a firewall and a fortress have in common? They are no longer strong enough to protect the valuables housed inside. Like the walls of an old fortress, the cracks in the firewall are allowing the bad guys to slip in – unannounced and unnoticed. By the time these thieves get in, the damage is already done and the network is already compromised. Intellectual property is easily slipped out the back door leaving no trace of forced entry. If we want to reign in on these cybercriminals, it’s high time we start thinking the way these thieves think. If we don’t, malware, rootkits, AETs and other nefarious threats will continue to undermine our sense of security.

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