We picked out 5 random things that you should know about Bime to give you a little overview of its capabilities.

1. You don't have to be an IT whizz to use Bime.

Yes, believe it or not, not everyone that uses Bime is an IT pro. In fact, it's almost the opposite - Bime is designed to empower professionals outside of the IT department, with a view to freeing up IT demand so that IT departments can focus solely on their strategic IT role. There is no hardware, no software to install, no deployment and no manual update. And because Bime has been designed for normal people, only meaningful design features are available; not because we don’t care, but because less is more: beautiful visual design meets effortless functionality.

Today's cloud computing environment is relatively complex - so complex in fact, that it has motivated Gartner’s Global IT Council for Cloud Services to identify the six key rights (and one responsibility) to serve as a best-practices guideline for enterprises looking to deploy cloud-based solutions. The ultimate goal: to help cloud providers and their customers establish successful business relationships.

The recent report released by Gartner says all cloud services customers should have some basic rights to protect their interests. We’ll briefly outline their ideas :

 

 

The Business Intelligence landscape is one that is constantly changing and taking advantage of what technology has to offer.  The economic recovery has triggered some organizations to consolidate and update software.  But what other trends have we seen this year? 

The McAfee Cloud Secure program will use a combination of methods to help cloud vendors secure their products

McAfee has recently launched a program to help Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers strengthen the security around their cloud based offerings. The ‘McAfee Cloud Secure Program’ includes services such as cloud security certification, automated auditing, remediation and reporting.

The service will use a combination of rigorous security testing, business practice review, compliance certification, and ongoing vulnerability evaluation to help Cloud vendors secure their cloud environments.

The company is partnering with leading certification delivery vendors to provide certification services tailored for SaaS and Cloud vendors. The certification services, which will be provided on an annual basis, will include existing security controls, processes and certifications, as well as future cloud security standards.

Immer wieder entstehen Diskussionen über die Datensicherheit im Netz. Wer diese verfolgt, überlegt es sich zwei mal, was er online preisgibt. Auf Online Communities wird selbst die E-Mail-Adresse nur ungern weiter gegeben. Oft werden Zweit-Accounts angelegt, um sich mit ihnen in der Welt des Web zu bewegen und damit die Hauptadresse vor Spam-Mails zu bewahren. Wer seine Daten schützen will, schafft sich am besten einen Safe an und legt seine ganzen Passwörter und andere sensible Daten gedruckt darin ab. Mutige speichern diese verschlüsselt lokal auf dem eigenen Rechner. Aber so etwas online speichern? - Ein nahezu absurder Gedanke! Oder doch nicht?

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Can't say I agree with all of these - do you? (Leave your comments)

And security isn’t at the top of list. In what areas is cloud computing still vulnerable? Hint: They aren’t all technology related.

1) Performance. The recent problems with Twitter (“Fail Whale”) and Steve Jobs’ embarrassment at the network outage at the introduction of the new iPhone don’t exactly impart warm fuzzy feelings about the Internet and network performance in general. An SLA can’t guarantee performance; it can only punish bad performance. And a critical application is just that, critical.

Unter dem Namen "MessageLabs" bietet das Internet-Security-Unternehmen Symantec SaaS-Lösungen zum Schutz kleiner, mittelständiger und großer Unternehmen an.Im Vordergrund stehen dabei eine permanente Kontrolle der angewählten Webseiten sowie die Überwachung von E-Mail-Accounts. Diese Webservices funktionieren so, dass zwischen dem Unternehmensnetzwerk und dem World Wide Web ein MessageLabs-Server dazwischen geschaltet wird...

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Cloud computing is starting to become real. I say that not because senior IT leaders at three of Computerworld's most recent conferences -- Premier 100, SaaScon and SNW -- couldn't stop talking about it, but because we're moving out of the "Why should I do this?" stage and into the "How can I do it?" phase.

What's more, the blind fervor is gone, replaced by healthy skepticism and active grappling with the frustratingly complex issues that need solving before CIOs will feel comfortable signing up with software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service or infrastructure-as-a-service vendors. Many see the potential benefits of at least one of these cloud-based services for their organizations, but they need vendors to clear a number of hurdles before they will seriously consider adopting services-based IT.

You've heard the litany of concerns before: security, privacy, compliance, liability, vendor lock-in, customization, service levels, performance, support and so on.

That's what made the opening presentation at SaaScon 2010 last month so interesting. Kevin Crawford, assistant director of IT for the city of Los Angeles, spoke about the terms of the city's agreement to outsource all of its e-mail to Google. L.A. negotiated the deal through CSC, its direct supplier, and it got CSC to negotiate with Google in turn.

In recent years, software-as-a-service (SaaS) has emerged as a viable application delivery method, and most enterprises are now including some SaaS software in their portfolios. SaaS saves IT infrastructure and maintenance costs, not to mention the hassle of initial deployment, integration and customization common with licensed software.

However, SaaS brings with it a unique set of challenges for those responsible for security. The most important shift is looking at your software vendor not as a product company, but rather as a service provider. Sound vendor management practices dictate that any third-party software is at least as secure as in-house packages. This guide will help you compare your organization’s risk management and compliance priorities to the SaaS provider’s security policies and procedures.

When you convert to SaaS, your data will be transported across the Internet to the SaaS vendor site. If their application is not secure, your critical business information will potentially be exposed to anyone who can take advantage of such a vulnerability.

Symantec aims to help train partners to offer either on-premise or software as a service, saying SaaS will comprise 15 percent of its revenue within five years.

President and CEO Enrique Salem told media at the vendor's inaugural Asia Pacific and Japan Partner Engage conference partner programmes and enablement have been a key priority. He says the company's goal is to enable partners to participate in both delivery modes. He adds it will move more of its product portfolio to be offered as a service. It will also seek to boost partners' skills, he says.

"We're doing more to bring partners into SaaS and to face the specific issues they deal with in SaaS and help them learn new skills."