Innovation through Open Standards

David Lindquist, CTO, IBM Cloud & Smarter Infrastructure discusses how the adoption of open standards helps customers avoid vendor lock-in and fosters innovation in their businesses.

Disrupting The Business Software Industry

At age 27, Box Co-Founder Aaron Levie is pioneering a new approach to enterprise software that upends the traditional model software giants rely on.

How LiveOps became the leader in cloud customer service

Pivot expert Marty Beard turns LiveOps telephone-based customer service platform into a cloud-based one that embraces social media. In A Total Disruption’s latest Pivot, Marty shares the results and dishes great advice on staying nimble and always looking for new ways to change and improve.

Cloud Files vs. Cloud Block Storage

Learn about the differences between Cloud Files and Cloud Block Storage from Rackspace Engineer Chuck Thier, a guy who has worked on both systems.

The State of Play Shifts Rapidly: Fresh Insights into Cloud Adoption Trends

A survey, based on 460 interviews with IT executives and business decision-makers, across 7 sectors, and selected countries in key regions, was carried out by independent research company Coleman Parkes to explore what the situation is with the users of the Cloud. Who was leading on Cloud, what were the drivers, how was it being managed? 

Bringing SMS Services Anywhere in the World with Telerivet 

Hermione Way interviews Joshua Stern, CEO and Co-founder of Telerivet, a cloud SMS service that allows anyone to create SMS applications anywhere in the world.

The Future Of Finance Departments

What do business leaders think about how finance departments will look like in 10 years? How do you think will the finance departments be shaped in the future? 

Whilst business software systems have been core to the finance department for a number of years we are increasingly now seeing tools which, rather than simply processing data, enable us to add real business value. The advent of cloud computing and its impact on the finance department over the past 5 years in particular is difficult to ignore.

But does this automation spell the end for finance departments? Will technology eventually automate all financial activities?

Oracle Public Cloud Computing Partner Program

Oracle wants to build a cathedral of cloud services, while all around it its competitors are building slums.

The company’s chief executive, Larry Ellison, outlined the database giant’s cloud strategy on Sunday at Oracle OpenWorld. His vision was that Oracle customers will use both a public and private cloud entirely based around the company’s software and hardware. 

“We’re adding a new line of business, cloud computing, to our traditional business of selling software and selling hardware… and we’re going to sell it on the fastest computers in the world,” Ellison said on Sunday. “It makes a lot of sense for Oracle to be in all three tiers of cloud services.”

Those three tiers are software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). In other words, Oracle wants to be the Salesforce; Heroku; and Google, Microsoft, Amazon and HP of the cloud.

BECKHOFF Innovates Intelligent Wind Turbines With Intelligent Systems Technology

Intel Intelligent Systems and Microsoft help BECKHOFF migrate automation from wind turbine controllers to the cloud, saving costs on local servers and increasing maintenance and energy output efficiencies. Watch as Intel’s Andrew John and Heiko Wilke from BECKOFF explain this new solution to renewable wind energy.

Salesforce.com Acquires Buddy Media

Michael Lazerow, co-founder of Buddy Media, and Marcel Lebrun, co-founder of Radian6, discuss the Salesforce.com announcement that it has completed its acquisition of Buddy Media, the world’s leading social media marketing platform. The Buddy Media team joins the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

By combining Buddy Media, the world’s leading social media marketing platform, with Salesforce Radian6, the world’s leading social media listening platform, salesforce.com will deliver the first comprehensive Marketing Cloud that will allow customers to listen, engage, gain insight, publish, advertise and measure social marketing programs. With the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, CMOs will be empowered to manage the entire social marketing lifecycle.