Without question, cloud computing continues to be the hot topic of discussion in information technology circles. Vendors, customers and industry observers are all weighing in on the opportunities and challenges posed by the cloud.

Many IT professionals are, quite reasonably, asking question such as: “What does my job look like as the tech industry and my company move toward cloud computing?” Continue Reading

When Storage EXPO closed its doors for the final time last year, the storage vendor community was faced with finding a new forum in which to discuss and demonstrate its latest products and technologies. IP EXPO has proved to be the natural choice.

As the UK’s biggest and most comprehensive IT conference and exhibition, IP EXPO 2010 is really the ideal place for storage to be seen and discussed in the most relevant context. Not, as storage used to be treated, as a peripheral technology that played a supporting role alongside more “strategic” infrastructure technologies, but as a core component of the integrated technology stack that will be the foundation of tomorrow’s next generation business infrastructure. Continue Reading

Sean Kelley, global CIO of Deutsche Bank, has been elected chairman of the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council (ECLC), a cross-industry body created by the TM Forum, an international association of cloud infrastructure and services providers whose membership includes AT&T, BT, Cisco, IBM and Microsoft.

The TM Forum has so far done little to raise its profile outside of its tight-knit community of major networked service and technology vendors, but its creation of the ECLC, and the appointment of such as senior figure from the user community to lead it, is evidence that it plans to take a leading role in creating a structured market for cloud services.

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After more than 50 years of investment in information security it would seem reasonable to expect the IT community to be winning its perennial battle with hackers, crackers and the assorted other threats to the integrity of corporate data and systems. The reality, sadly, is very different.

Although studies suggest that familiar threats such as viruses and the teenage hacker are less potent than they used to be, in most other respects the IT security challenge is still expanding faster than many chief information officers (CISOs), or their allies in the information security industry, will publicly care to admit.

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