Jeff Vance

In July when VMware acquired network virtualization startup Nicira for more than $1 billion, VMware showed that it’s serious about being as big of a player in the cloud’s future as it has been with the cloud’s enabling technology, virtualization. VMware declined to discuss their cloud roadmap with me for this story, but as the […]

If you’re already tired of all the hype surrounding cloud computing, you’d better brace yourself for another cycle focused on OpenStack, the open-source cloud platform that’s touted as the operating system for the cloud. The forces aligning behind OpenStack are impressive ones. The project originated in NASA, was moved along in partnership with Rackspace and […]

For many organizations, the path to a private cloud seems almost preordained. Once they’ve invested in virtualization and consolidated servers, they believe that private clouds are the next logical step. It is, actually, but just because you’ve gained efficiencies through virtualization doesn’t mean you’re a hop, skip and a jump from having full-blown private clouds. […]

Moving to the cloud isn’t as easy as many cloud vendors would have you believe, especially for large enterprises. Pundits cite concerns like security and compliance as reasons that large enterprises will be late adopters, but there’s an equally compelling and often overlooked factor: legacy investments. Most large enterprises have made major investments in their […]

The shift to cloud-based infrastructures and services isn’t an easy one. Sure, there are plenty of opportunities: lower costs, increased agility and the freedom to refocus your IT staff on your core business. However, with every opportunity comes a corresponding risk, including but not limited to security challenges, downtime and a loss of IT control. […]

The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend is pressuring CIOs and IT managers into bad decisions. Many organizations aren’t happy with their mobile security options, so they’re trying to wait for the BYOD storm to pass. “If you just say, ‘No,’ creative people will find workarounds to make their lives easier,” said Chris Herndon, Managing […]

The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend is pressuring CIOs and IT managers into bad decisions. Many organizations aren’t happy with their mobile security options, so they’re trying to wait for the BYOD storm to pass. “If you just say, ‘No,’ creative people will find workarounds to make their lives easier,” said Chris Herndon, Managing […]

Most discussions about mobile security in the enterprise focus on Mobile Device Management (MDM) these days. Some vendors may call it Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) instead, but the point is the same: invest in an expensive, multi-featured, centralized security suite, and you’ll be able to manage and secure a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) environment. […]

Not that long ago, firewalls were simple things. They fit neatly into corporate networks and helped to protect anything residing on that network from external threats. Today, the mission isn’t so simple. Many corporate applications reside beyond the firewall and many workers need to access internal application from remote locations. And while traditional firewalls are […]

As with so many other enterprise-focused technologies (CRM, ERP, collaboration), the cloud is upending the disaster recovery (DR) status quo. For end users, this is good. Prices are dropping – putting DR in reach for much smaller organizations than in the past – and choices are multiplying. However, the cloud is no panacea, and for […]