Jeff Vance

When Google released 16 new business apps in the Apps Marketplace earlier this month, the move bolstered Google’s claim that it now provides a viable alternative to Office. Not to be outdone, Microsoft released a Web-based version of Office a week later, indicating that it too is serious about the cloud. Then came word that […]

Last month, in the first article about cloud computing leaders, we looked at a few of cloud computing’s usual suspects (Amazon, Google, Salesforce.com, Microsoft), a surprise entrant (CA), and some startups driving the cloud-adoption push, including Rackspace, Eucalyptus and GoGrid. This time around we investigate some additional big players, more up-and-coming startups, and a company […]

Cloud computing is as confusing as it is promising. For each so-called sure-fire proclamation (all email will soon be in the cloud; a down economy will accelerate cloud computing), there are many more questions. What are the benefits of a private cloud versus public cloud? How do you manage identities in the cloud? Should the […]

Establishing smartphone security best practices should be easy right? Well, not exactly. While smartphones are nothing new for the enterprise – BlackBerries have long been standard knowledge-worker accessories – the explosion of competing platforms, increased horsepower and ballooning Internet connectivity have ramped up their security risks. A recent Aberdeen Group study found that the typical […]

Determining the best smartphone for the enterprise has prompted little debate, until recently. For years, BlackBerry has owned the North American enterprise smartphone/mobile messaging market. While BlackBerry still has a firm grip on the market, that grip is loosening. Apple with its iPhone is turning its attention to the enterprise, while the Android smartphone looms […]

With the rise of cloud computing, it’s a good time to be a thin client vendor. According to Global Industry Analysts, the global thin client market will expand to 14.36 million units shipped by 2015. Meanwhile, IDC believes that more than a 1.2 million thin clients will ship in 2010, an increase of 20 percent over […]

ALSO SEE: Business Intelligence Software: Industry Scorecard AND: Business Intelligence Software: Cloud Burst Ahead The business intelligence softwaremarket is shaping up as a David vs. Goliath struggle. Behemoths like Microsoft, Oracle and IBM offer feature-rich BI suites along with their many other enterprise software products. Meanwhile, pure-play vendors – such as MicroStrategy, QlikTech and Tableau […]

One of the virtualization companies who responded to my request for information asked me, “What exactly does ‘emerging’ mean?” Good question, especially since I badger marketing pros about ambiguous language like this all the time. For the sake of this article, let’s say an “emerging” virtualization company isn’t one of the first ten or twelve […]

The big question for the cloud in 2010 is where Microsoft will fit in. Microsoft used to be a laggard when it came to the cloud-enabling technology of virtualization, but Windows Azure is already grabbing market share from more established cloud vendors. Sure, plenty of other vendors – Google, Rackspace, Amazon and Salesforce.com, to name […]

ALSO SEE: Best Smartphone for the Enterprise: Evaluating the Contenders AND: Best Smartphone Security Practices: Five Tips The year 2009 was a dismal one for carriers and handset vendors alike. Sales were down, replacement cycles were way up and the trend of voice services (be they fixed or mobile) becoming a commodity continued unabated. Yet, […]