David Needle

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Do private clouds have a role in the enterprise? Or should IT departments and CIOs place their bets on innovative services from public cloud providers like Amazon and Microsoft? To enterprise software giant SAP (NYSE: SAP), the answer to both questions is yes. “Public clouds have scale, but there are lots […]

It’s back to the future for the Ask.com search service. One of the early search providers, the company was originally called AskJeeves and focused on providing answers to so-called natural language queries. One could ask “What’s the best way to get a mortgage approved?” and the service would give a full sentence answer on the […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — This week’s rollout of Google Apps for Governmentis a major milestone in the search giant’s efforts to win more customers for its cloud apps and to answer the security concerns of potential enterprise customers. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) said it has become first cloud computing application suite provider to receive Federal Information […]

IT workers expressed surprising confidence in the strength of the economy and job availability in a new study released this week, signaling optimism about the sector’s prospects and the market for IT jobs. The Technisource IT Employment Report, based on a survey conducted in the U.S. by Harris Interactive, concluded that although many parts of […]

Cloud computing is often hyped as a cool new technology and a near-cure-all; move all that complicated IT infrastructure to the cloud so your company can be more efficient and save money and space in the process. Deloitte venture capitalist Mark Jensen strongly believes in cloud computing’s value proposition, but with some important caveats. “The […]

Search giant Google on Thursday reported double-digit revenue growth for the second quarter, though its earnings fell short of analysts’ expectations, causing the stock to take a hit in after-hours trading. Google (NADSAQ: GOOG) reported second-quarter earnings of $6.45 per share, well ahead of last year’s mark of $5.36 per share, but short of analysts’ […]

Is the enterprise ready for cloud computing? It’s an issue that’s constantly debated at industry conferences and the focus of articles in InternetNews.comand other IT-oriented websites. While cloud vendors tout the basic value proposition of moving IT infrastructure like applications and storage to the cloud, CIOs and IT managers worry about security issuesand not having […]

As Google looks to assure potential business customers that its cloud-based suite of applications is a worthy alternative to on-premises solutions, it’s getting help from independent service providers. One example is Backupify, an online backup, archiving and export service that unveiled support for Google Apps this week. Cambridge, MA-based Backupify said it automatically backs up […]

Virtualization can be a boon to enterprises looking to consolidate servers and lower costs but a study of IT decision makers by Forrester Researchconcludes that several persistent issues keep companies from realizing the technology’s full potential. The “Strategies to Improve IT Efficiencies in 2010” study highlighted three main management challenges IT departments face when implanting […]

Thanks to the popularity of the iPhone, Apple holds the top spot now when it comes to mobile app stores. But telecom research firm Ovum predicts that’s set to change over the next four years, with rivals like Android and the BlackBerry poised for tremendous growth. That change could even see Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) be […]