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Cloud Computing Topic Center

Best practices, in-depth analysis, news and more about cloud computing

Oracle buying Taleo for $1.9B in direct hit at SAP

Oracle is buying cloud-based talent management and employee recruitment software vendor Taleo for roughly $1.9 billion, the company announced Thursday. The move comes shortly after SAP's move to acquire SuccessFactors, a close competitor of Taleo, for $3.4 billion in a deal that has yet to close.
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Google's GDrive Reportedly To Launch As Dropbox-rival 'Drive'

Google's long-rumored GDrive that would let you upload and store files to its servers and be able to access them from anywhere you have an Internet connection may finally be close to launching in the coming weeks as a more cheaply priced Dropbox rival.

Salesforce.com shakes up Standard support plan features

Salesforce.com has made a series of changes to its support services that include the removal of certain features from the Standard tier, but which the company says overall will provide a better experience for customers.

Why one insurance company ditched its own hardware- for a cloud -based SAN

Why do some enterprise managers decide to brave their way into the new and unknown of cloud-based services? Sometimes it's simply because the old technology just isn't working out that well anymore.

FBI declares cloud vendors must meet CJIS security rules

The FBI Tuesday reaffirmed its rule that all cloud products sold to to U.S. law enforcement agencies must comply with the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Systems security requirements.

VMware makes it easier to wholesale clouds

VMware has introduced a new software platform that makes it easier for service providers to wholesale their cloud-services infrastructure to other providers.

HP moves load testing software to the cloud

With the release of its new LoadRunner in the Cloud application load testing solution, HP aims to provide the flexibility of software-as-a-service in tools that traditionally entailed substantial investments to implement.

Red Hat launches storage appliance for Amazon's cloud

Red Hat has announced the Virtual Storage Appliance for Amazon Web Services (AWS), which can take advantage of Amazon's cloud while at the same time offering excellent performance, the company said on Tuesday.

Microsoft teams up with 24/7 for customer service software

Microsoft has entered into a broad partnership with customer-service software provider 24/7 that the companies expect will yield a superior cloud-based platform that large companies can use to better address their customers' needs.

HP to let partners host LoadRunner

Hewlett-Packard's LoadRunner performance validation software will become available on a hosted basis through HP partners, the company announced Tuesday.

Hands on: HP's Enterprise Database Consolidation Appliance

This new appliance from Microsoft and HP can bring in all database instances from around the network and host them in a fault-tolerant device with lots of features -- and a hefty pricetag. Insider (registration required)

Flexing NoSQL: MongoDB in review

MongoDB shines with broad programming language support, SQL-like queries, and out-of-the-box scaling

OnLive's train wreck: Office on the iPad

The OnLive Desktop service shows just how wrong desktop virtualization can be

How to Protect Your Intellectual Property in the Cloud

IT professionals know that handing data over to a third-party is always risky, but cloud computing creates unique concerns for IP. Here are nine tips to protect critical corporate data wherever it goes

Free, Cloud-Based Word Processor Zoho Writer Shows Promise

Zoho Writer is an online (with offline and syncing functionality) word processing application that offers a nice amount of functionality, especially given the limitations of the Web as a platform for productivity tools. After creating a free account with Zoho, you can access Zoho Writer. It looks a lot like most word processors, so if you've used any major program in this category, it will take no more than a few minutes of poking around to learn how to do things. This is good, because the "Help" is in the form of a FAQ, not a tutorial or index of functions.

SaaS, APTs and Asymmetric Risk Take Spotlight at Security Threats 2012

What's your stance on SaaS? Is your perimeter as secure as you think? How can the insurance calculus on asymmetric risk illuminate your company's security exposure? CIO.com's Bernard Golden recaps the provocative discussions entertained at the Security Threat 2012 conference.

Best Security Suites: PC Bodyguards

Have security suites reached the point where they all work?

Need More Storage? Reach for the Cloud

When you start out with a fresh new hard drive, it may seem like it has virtually unlimited capacity. The reality, though, is that it won't take nearly as long to max out that drive as you might think, and you will need to find some way to expand your storage.

Need More Storage? Expand with External Drives

Face it. Emails, digital pictures, video clips, and other data can quickly fill up hundreds of gigabytes of space. As your remaining space dwindles to nothing, you have a decision to make in terms of how you're going to expand capacity.

Twine, jump-started by Kickstarter

Gibbs follows up on last week's column on the Lantronix xPrintServer and looks at Twine, a wireless sensor device that got funded on Kickstarter.