Pretty much every selling point of the cloud boils down to cost. The cloud provides pre-packaged resources, so you don't have to buy, install, and maintain them yourself. The cloud doesn't require labor-intensive implementation projects that use up too much time and money. The cloud is scalable to meet your business needs as they continue to evolve. And best of all, it is mostly priced on a pay-per-use basis. Yet, as cloud adoption surges, more and more companies are experiencing the unforeseen pains of runaway costs. A 2012 Cloud ROI survey conducted by InformationWeek found that of all the companies using ... READ MORE

Opscode helps companies develop fully automated server infrastructures through their flagship product, Chef. Adam Jacob, one of the founders of Opscode, shares his insights into the business benefits of automation, where the infrastructure automation industry is headed, and how Chef and Opscode fit into that landscape. To learn more about Opscode, visit their website and check out our Opscode product review. What is Opscode’s mission? I think the elevator version of the mission is that we want to automate the world’s infrastructure. When you break that down, what it really means is that we believe that there’s a fundamental shift happening in ... READ MORE

The body of information targeted by Big Data has two primary sources: humans and machines. On one hand, Big Data involves exploring data created directly by people. Social media content, newsletters, blog posts, and other forms of electronic correspondence are actively created by individuals, and when analyzed for patterns and trends can have significant implications for marketing strategies, branding, and customer engagement. The other, perhaps less glamorous side of Big Data is the “machine” side, which involves indexing and analyzing behind-the-scenes computer-generated data. Well-deciphered machine data can generate useful insights into customer transactions, security threats, fraudulent activity, and application behavior, among ... READ MORE

We're always hearing about the death of the attention span given all the amazing technological marvels that we now have at our disposal, and the business world has to keep up with those innovations in order to continue to thrive and prosper. Just as not having a company website is no longer acceptable, it won't be long before the lack of a company app or community forum will also start to separate the wheat from the chaff. Yet with so many technological distractions at our fingertips, it's growing more and more difficult for companies and products to fully engage with ... READ MORE

Researching, identifying, choosing, and implementing a business software system can be a long process. The investment in a system is one that will last years and affect how an organization functions, both internally and externally. Investing in a new software system is a big step and all the key stakeholders in an organization should be involved in the decision-making process. As with most companies, we have a CRM system in place to manage our sales and marketing processes. As our organization grows and evolves, our needs change and our current CRM system may no longer fit our requirements. This series will ... READ MORE

Last week, we highlighted the five leaders in IaaS solutions. The list was heavy on big, established names. However, the IaaS market is changing so rapidly, that there are plenty of other companies that could be game-changers in this crowded field. Here are the top five companies you should keep an eye on. Main Contenders GoGrid GoGrid is the largest pure-play IaaS provider, offering virtual and physical servers, storage, networking, load balancing, and security scaled in real-time and in multiple data centers using a web interface or API. But besides their extensive offering and very competitive pricing (pay-as-you-go pricing starts at $.06/hour, but ... READ MORE

Human beings are creating massive amounts of data. Last month Mashable published another fun infographic, this time depicting how much data we’re creating online each minute. For starters, Google receives more than 2 million search queries, Facebook users share nearly 700,000 pieces of content, and Twitter users send more than 100,000 Tweets every 60 seconds. The Web, corporate databases, and the data indexing platform Hadoop are swollen with data that could be extremely valuable for business intelligence if harnessed in useful way. Although the diverse nature of this data makes it hard to aggregate and model meaningfully, recent advances in ... READ MORE

Apptio's Technology Business Management solution represents a fresh take on managing the cost, quality, and value of IT services. Apptio Director of Product Marketing John Novak joined us to speak about the IT challenges facing businesses today, and how Apptio TBM is innovating to create solutions. To learn more about Apptio, visit their website. How was Apptio founded, and what was the inspiration behind its founding? Our founder and CEO, Sunny Gupta, is a 20+ year software veteran. He’s worked for a number of different companies and he’s a consummate entrepreneur, consistently looking for problems customers are trying to solve. In his prior ... READ MORE

Thanks to social media, consumers can share their opinions and have their voices heard by both their peers and the brands and companies they want to buy from. Social media has changed the name of the game; companies who want to survive and thrive can no longer simply broadcast their messages to their current and potential customers. Advertising, marketing, and brand building has become a two-way conversation. People are talking about brands amongst themselves on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, and companies can leverage this engaged audience to spread their message. That is Lithium’s value proposition. Lithium Technologies is dedicated ... READ MORE

The importance of social media and social networking is undeniable, and a lot of mobile apps and business software solutions are trying to figure out how to leverage it in such a way that's not only useful, but indispensable. Savi People from Mobile Life Studio, LLC. is one such iOS app that aims to bring together all the disparate pieces of your contacts' information into one, simple, easy to use package. Savi People Review: Things to Like Getting started is pretty simple, and the app walks you through the steps with very clear instructions. Just import your contacts, sign into your social ... READ MORE