Cloud price wars give way to feature battles among Amazon, Microsoft and Google

	Cooler than cubicles: 18 new designs for the office | Verizon's cloud went down… for the last time?
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	Cloud price wars give way to feature battles among Amazon, Microsoft and Google Two years ago the biggest battles in the IaaS cloud computing industry were over price. It was a seemingly non-stop back and forth that caused some to wonder how low the prices could go. Fast forward to today and providers are still dropping prices, but not with the same vigor and frequency as in 2013. Read More WEBCAST: APC by Schneider Electric Building Tomorrow's Data Center with Converged Technologies A number of forces are converging: the cloud, converged infrastructure, big data and fabric architectures to name a few. And if those weren't enough, data center professionals must keep systems up 24 by 7, keep data secure, meet compliance obligations and keep costs and energy usage under control. It's a tall order. Learn More In this Issue Cooler than cubicles: 18 new designs for the office Verizon's cloud went down… for the last time? INSIDER Review: Mirantis takes the sting out of OpenStack deployments After acquiring Sanbolic to fill storage void, could Citrix target networking next? Microsoft cloud services provide construction firm with cost-savings, increased productivity Twitter to tour the world teaching developers how to build apps Consider bandwidth-on-demand in your VPN-cloud network Scroogled no more: Microsoft's anti-Google campaign slinks away for good Lifesize enhances its video cloud service, introduces two new video endpoints WHITE PAPER: Riverbed Technology Powering the Hybrid Enterprise To better serve business demands for information everyone, enterprises must develop new strategies for optimizing multiple kinds of networks. View Now>> Cooler than cubicles: 18 new designs for the office What do workers want most? Flexibility, say staffing pros. People want to be able to adjust their hours, their locations, and their devices. The way work gets done is changing in today's world, and furniture designers are responding. Check out the comfy pods, mobile desks, and lounge-like layouts that put ordinary cubicles to shame. Read More Verizon's cloud went down… for the last time? You may have heard about Verizon's cloud going down last weekend, which the company caught some criticism for. It didn't go down because of some unexpected technical glitch, but instead Verizon cloud engineers purposely shut it down for scheduled maintenance. What exactly required the company to shut down its IaaS cloud service for almost two days over the weekend? Read More INSIDER Review: Mirantis takes the sting out of OpenStack deployments Those who know OpenStack know it's an exceptionally powerful cloud infrastructure platform. They also know it's far from simple to build and deploy. Read More WEBCAST: Unisys Retrofitting the IT Factory; From Builder to Broker In this webcast, we'll put Forrester Research market observations into the context of real-world CIO experiences to help you navigate the new world of service management—from the changes and challenges to proven best practices. View now After acquiring Sanbolic to fill storage void, could Citrix target networking next? This week, Citrix announced it was acquiring Sanbolic, a vendor that provides virtual storage technology for virtual data centers. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company enables customers to "software define" storage to optimize the delivery of workloads between any types of media. Read More Microsoft cloud services provide construction firm with cost-savings, increased productivity Chicago-based Walsh Group Construction is finding that buying into Microsoft's Office 365 and Enterprise Mobility Suite is yielding a mixed bag of benefits – better BYOD, cost-saving, time-saving, increased productivity – but adopting the cloud services required a dose of blind trust in their security. Read More Twitter to tour the world teaching developers how to build apps Twitter is embarking on a worldwide tour to disseminate knowledge and technical know-how about building good apps. Using the company's tools, of course. Read More WHITE PAPER: Worksoft, Inc. IDC Reports the ROI of Automated Business Process Validation Industry analyst firm IDC examines the value proposition driving large SAP® customers to adopt automation as their new standard in quality assurance. The study quantifies ROI at 12 of the world's largest companies using Worksoft business process validation software, with benefits worth $4.2 million annually and a five year NPV of $11 million. Learn More Consider bandwidth-on-demand in your VPN-cloud network Many enterprises needing to connect to cloud resources will opt to do it over a business-class VPN service, such as an MPLS VPN, to ensure that user-to-cloud connections and response times are immediate.If you're one of them, you might check into whether your MPLS VPN provider offers bandwidth-on-demand (BOD) options to help you manage usage costs. Read More Scroogled no more: Microsoft's anti-Google campaign slinks away for good Microsoft's sleazy ad campaign against Google is no more, as the "Scroogled" website has quietly vanished. Read More Lifesize enhances its video cloud service, introduces two new video endpoints Lifesize, a division of Logitech, has announced new enhancements to its Lifesize Cloud video conferencing service, along with the introduction of two new video conferencing endpoints including the Lifesize Icon 400TM and Icon Flex. Read More
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