On the day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 12,000 for the first time since June 2008, it was impossible not to correlate the eloquence and optimism of President Obama's "State of the Union" speech on Tuesday night with the restoration of a sense of perspective and hope in the USA about the future. Obama grasped the nettle full-on. "We are poised for progress," he declared, adding: "Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing." As one blogger expressed it, though - and he is a former Goldman Sachs trader called Tyler Durden, so he ought to know wheref he speaks: "There was a massive pink elephant in the room called reality though." Durden's gripe is with what he deems to be the unreality of Obama's praising Google and Facebook so highly in an Ameri... (more)

4th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo Starts Today

A round-up of the wide range of important issues and timely topics due to be discussed by over 130 industry experts at SYS-CON's 4th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, opening today at the Santa Clara Convention Center, in Santa Clara, CA. The event runs from November 2-4, 2009. Building Scalable and Extensible RIAs in the Cloud - Ranjith Ramakrishnan, Co-Founder & CTO of Cumulux, will be co-presenting a session in which delegates will learn how to build scalable and extensible RIAs on the Windows Azure Cloud. The session will cover enabling rich and complete User Experience customizations and addressing multi-tenant requirements. Cloud Security - is the focus of a whole welter of sessions in Santa Clara. "It's Nothing New; It Changes Everything!" is the title of the session being given by Sun's Chief Security Architect Glenn Brunette, for example. Brunett... (more)

Schwab Announces Security Guarantee

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Charles Schwab Corporation announced today a security guarantee covering 100% of any account losses that arise from unauthorized account activity. The guarantee is effective immediately and covers clients of the entire Schwab family of companies. Details about the guarantee are available at http://www.schwab.com/guarantee. "It has always been our practice to make clients whole in cases of unauthorized account activity. Our new security guarantee turns that historic practice into a public promise," said Charles R. Schwab, founder and CEO, in announcing the guarantee. "We have a broad array of internal security systems and measures in place that protect the safety of client accounts at Schwab. Given rising public concerns over identity theft and cyber-fraud, we think adding a clear and simple guarantee will contrib... (more)

Financial Organizations at Risk From Spyware and Malicious Web Threats Despite Existing Security Measures

SAN JOSE, California, June 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Finjan Inc., the global provider of best-of-breed proactive web security solutions for businesses and organizations, warns that financial organizations are still at risk from web-borne threats, such as spyware and malicious code, despite their use of Anti-Virus and URL Filtering security solutions. A recent security audit conducted by Finjan for a major financial organization clearly showed the growing proportion of web-borne threats, which were not detected by traditional anti-virus and firewall products that were in place. Finjan's security audit affirms that the most prevalent security threat for financial institutions is spyware. An overwhelming 67% of security policy violations recorded during this audit were related to spyware downloads, attempts to access spyware websites or attempts to access websites that hide ... (more)

The Top 250 Players in the Cloud Computing Ecosystem

In the run-up to the next Cloud Expo, 7th Cloud Expo (November 1–4, 2010) being held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley, it's time to give my earlier list a complete overhaul. Here, accordingly, is an expanded list of the most active players in the Cloud Ecosystem. I have increased it from the 'mere' 150 I identified back in January of this year, to 250, testimony – as if any were needed! – to the fierce and continuing growth of the "Elastic IT" paradigm throughout the world of enterprise computing. Editorial note: The words in quotation marks used to describe the various services and solutions in this round-up are in every case taken from the Web sites of the companies themselves. Omissions to this Top 250 list should be sent to me via Twitter (twitter.com/jg21) and I will endeavor to include them in any future revision of this newly expanded rou... (more)

Cloud Expo New York Call for Papers Now Open

Early Bird Savings Cloud Expo Cloud computing is a game changer. The cloud is disrupting traditional software and hardware business models by disrupting how IT service gets delivered. Entrepreneurial opportunities abound as this classic disruptive technology begins to proliferate, so it is no surprise that SYS-CON's industry-leading International Cloud Expo is going from strength to strength. The 5th International Cloud Expo, to be held April 19-21, 2010, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York, NY, announces that its Call for Papers is fast approaching. Topics on which submission are welcome include all aspects of providing or using massively scalable IT-related capabilities as a service using Internet technologies (see suggested examples below). Help plant your flag in the fast-expanding business opportunity that is The Cloud: submit your speaking propos... (more)

Cloud Expo 2011 East To Attract 10,000 Delegates and 200 Exhibitors

SYS-CON Events announced today that the 8th International Cloud Expo will take place June 6-9, 2011, in New York City. The International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo series is the world's leading Cloud-focused event and is held three times a year, in New York, Silicon Valley and in Europe. Over 600 corporate sponsors and 10,000 industry professionals have participated in Cloud Computing Expo since its inception, more than all other Cloud-related events put together. Cloud Computing Expo 2011 East Call for Papers Deadline November 30, 2010 - SUBMIT YOUR SPEAKING PROPOSAL TODAY! The four-day event will offer a rich array of sessions led by exceptional speakers about the business and technical value of cloud computing with more than 150 sponsors and exhibitors and over 5,000 estimated delegates from well over 48 different countries. Explore Cloud Expo Sponsorship &... (more)

The Top 100 Bloggers on Cloud Computing

Ever since I first published here my tentative list of Top 50 Bloggers on Cloud Computing it became clear that an expansion would be needed before too long. Thanks to community feedback via my Twitter account (http://twitter.com/jg21) here goes - just three months before Cloud Expo Silicon Valley (November 7-10) - with an expanded roster, listed as before in alphabetical order since I am making no attempt at this stage to rank the various blogs, merely to map - and celebrate - their existence. Dustin Amrhein | "A View from the Clouds" Dave Asprey | "Cloudy Words" Ian Bergin | "Clouded Issues" Randy Bias | "Cloudscaling" Rick Blaisdell | "Rickscloud" Steve Bobrowski | "The Cloud View" Rene Buest | www.CloudUser.de Larry Carvalho | "Robust Cloud" Andrew M. Chapman | "MemorableURL.com" Sam Charrington | "Cloud Pulse" Colin Clark | "Cloud Event Processing" Peter Coffee | cloudb... (more)

Most Powerful Voices in Security

The security community has a growing number of influential and important people, especially as the industry rises to meet the need to address more advanced security threats, such as targeted attacks. But how does a company in the security industry truly identify the influential people? And then once identified, how does one use influential voices to help promote their brand? In this study, we answer the first question - how to identify the most powerful voices in your industry, focusing on the security space, and as part of this we provide you a list of people to follow for the best, most up to date information, and who have the loudest voices to help help carry some of your key messages. In a future study, we will discuss how to further exploit that knowledge to market your brand. As executives in a fast-changing and social world, many of us struggle with the abil... (more)

Cloud Computing and Big Data in 2013: What's Coming Next?

What changes in the cloud computing and big data landscape should we be expecting in 2013? In this article we offer a round-up of industry experts' opinions as they were asked by Cloud Expo / BigDataExpo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan to preview the fast-approaching year ahead. 2013 Will Be The Year of Big Data  | The Internet of Things | Cloud To The Rescue (DR) | SSD John Engates | @jengates CTO of Rackspace Hosting Now its CTO, John joined Rackspace in August 2000, just a year after the company was founded, as VP of Operations, managing the datacenter operations and customer-service teams. Two years later, when Rackspace decided to add new services for larger enterprise customers, he created and helped develop the Intensive Hosting business unit. Most recently, he has played an active role in the evolution and evangelism of Rackspace's cloud computing strategy an... (more)

Cloud Expo, Inc. Announces Cloud Expo 2011 New York Venue

Click Here to Save $800 at Cloud Expo New York ! Cloud Expo, Inc. announced on Thursday that Cloud Expo 2011 New York, the 8th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, will take place June 6-9, 2011, at the Javits Center in New York City. Cloud Expo - International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo series is the world’s leading Cloud-focused event and is held in New York, Silicon Valley, Prague, Tokyo, and Hong-Kong. Over 900 corporate sponsors and more than 65,000 industry professionals have participated in Cloud Expo since its inception, tenfold more than all other Cloud-related events put together. Click Here to Save $800 at Cloud Expo New York ! "Cloud Expo was announced on February 24, 2007, the day the term ‘cloud computing' was coined," said Fuat Kircaali, Chairman and Founder of Cloud Expo, Inc. "Cloud has become synonymous with ‘computing' and ‘soft... (more)