ING examines cloud computing, but finds licensing a problem
ING is just the type of large user organization that cloud vendors want signing up for their various online business services. But software licensing issues could be a hurdle for some companies. Read more...

Citrix details Web 2.0 'app delivery controller'

Sun's open-source boss slams App Engine's Java support

Start-up led by Sun veterans unveils data access appliances

Sun exec slams Google over App Engine's Java support

Google cites API deprecation policies for five technologies

Google working to add every last service to Apps

Grand ambitions for Linux

Google secure data tool ties Apps to company data

Google adds Java to App Engine cloud service

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Can IT manage the cloud? These CTOs can
Brian Corrigan used to run datacenters for major casinos, so he knows not to gamble with mission-critical apps. Now, he works in the other gaming industry -- the one with joysticks and lots of shooting -- building communities for online gamers and collecting information about game usage for their publishers. As CTO at Agora Games, he needs to quickly ramp up and then cut his computing capabilities as new games come on the market, become all the rage, and eventually fade into so-so status. So it's little surprise that he's joined the growing ranks of companies buying computing, storage, and networking power as they need it from the cloud.

5 Misunderstood Facts About ERP
Think you know everything about ERP? Here are five things to consider:

Sun's open-source boss slams App Engine's Java support
Google committed a major transgression by only including support for a subset of Java classes in its App Engine development platform, according to Sun Microsystems' chief open-source officer, Simon Phipps.

Explaining Salesforce.com to the CEO
At your executive staff meeting, the sales and marketing VPs have been squabbling about the need for a real CRM system, and the discussion turns to Salesforce.com. The CEO asks for a briefing on the alternatives tomorrow, and he's looking to you for objective but convincing guidance-in terms he can understand.

One foot on the ground and one in the clouds
The early adopter "cloud crowd" makes the most headlines, but they're only the tip of the small business iceberg. Looking at various data storage vendor customer numbers has convinced me 90% of small businesses are still mostly land (or LAN) based. Some people don't yet trust Internet data storage, and some like to wear data storage suspenders with their data storage belts. The good news for both? Options for combo cloud and local storage hybrids continue to grow.

Salesforce's Force.com Platform, Demystified
When online security firm Websense needed to extend an internally-developed tool for creating customer quotes, CIO Jim Haskin was faced with a choice: Continue to build the system in-house or move application development to a third-party service.

Why Chiquita chose SaaS apps from an upstart vendor
Why Chiquita chose SaaS from upstart vendor Workday

One Cloud Cost Advantage That May Be Irresistible
A couple of interesting whitepapers crossed my desk over the past week whose message can be boiled down to a simple proposition: cloud providers can achieve economies of scale that preclude almost any organization's data center from being cost-competitive. Doing the math on one real-life example, a Microsoft data center, gets pretty interesting.

Banking on Programmer Loyalty
Windows Azure provides familiar proprietary tools to lure Windows developers into the cloud with Microsoft.

Exit Strategy
Vendor lock-in is one of the primary fears expressed by IT managers who hesitate to get into cloud computing. How real is the risk, and what can you do about it? Read on.

Editors' Picks

Linux, Mac, Windows XP: Whatever your choice of operating system, we have some fun things for you to try. The operating systems of yesteryear weren't all sunshine and roses. Cyber cynic Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols names his picks for some of the worst OSs of all time. Apple's newest Mac Pro takes a significant step forward with the move to Intel's new Nehalem processor and an infrastructure that should be able to squeeze the utmost out of the upcoming Mac OS X 10.6. Satellite radio will die soon anyway, but Apple will accidentally perform a mercy killing of Sirius XM Radio this summer, says Mike Elgan.

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MarketVibe: The State of Data Governance in Enterprises Today (Source: IDG) In December 2008, Computerworld invited IT and line-of-business leaders to participate in a survey on data issues within their organizations. The goal of the survey was to gain a better understanding of the data issues that organizations are facing today, which groups have responsibility for maintaining the accuracy of this data, and the impact of these data issues on business initiatives. The survey was commissioned by Kalido, but data was gathered and tabulated independently by Computerworld and IDG Research Services. 500% Improvement in Data Processing! Always-on Windows® Server - Mission Impossible? Think Again. Business Data You Can Believe In Employee Web Use and Misuse Creating Predictable IT Strategies in an Unpredictable Business Climate Bad Broker Data is Bad for Business Email Security Buyer's Guide Critical Data Protection Innovate Faster with Oracle Database 11g Oracle Database 11g: Real Application Testing & Manageability Overview Oracle Data Guard 11g The Next Era in Data Protection and Availability Keep Them Separated Best Practices for Symantec NetBackup (NBU) Design Data Domain for Symantec OpenStorage Primer Inventory Management Clustering System on JBoss Enterprise Middleware Ritz Camera Centers Snap "Common Sense" Image for PCI Compliance Retail Grocery Chain Checks out Whitelisting Security Common Pitfalls in Server Virtualization Best practices for a Data Warehouse on Oracle Database 11g Oracle Database 11g High Availability More White Papers

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