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In the first six months of 2012 more than Twenty Million pieces of personal data traded hands through the data black market, and to put that into perspective that is more than twice as much that traded hands in all of 2011 and 2013 appears to be on track to surpass those numbers.

The marketing machine pushing cloud computing has been in full swing the last few years and many organizations have certainly bought into not only the hype but, the thought of being on the leading edge of the technology curve along with the attractiveness of relieving themselves of the technology burden.

The lines are becoming more and more blurred and companies and employees are struggling to determine if allowing people to use their own technology devices at work is good business practice or is it full of pitfalls?

In more than 30 years of technology management experience one question that has never changed is how do computer viruses get started and why? It seems like an easy question to answer however there really is not a logical answer that would make sense to a company that is in the middle of fighting a virus outbreak.

When it comes to identifying reoccurring themes one area that comes to mind is the difference between archiving and backup. Most companies and IT people look at this as one in the same, meaning that if you are doing backups that also can double as archiving. The issue is that is not true and the needs both legally and functionally are different, and do require different technology to be successful.

While speaking at a national software conference last week about virtualization, I was really surprised by the large numbers of conference attendees that come up to me to discuss how their company tried virtualization and the nightmare that followed. It was also interesting that during the open conversation part of my class the wide ranging opinions that both technical people and managers have regarding the application of virtualization of servers and networking devices. I have always said put ten technology professionals in a room ask the same question and you will get ten different answers and a three hour debate, and you will still be confused.

Over the last couple of months I have been attending several software user conferences, many of which I have been speaking or teaching at and the huge buzz word is “Cloud”. However, I continue to be amazed at how we are defining the cloud and what companies are evaluating a cloud solution don’t know about the product or service they are purchasing. I am going to go against the industry and tell you the cloud is a marketing term and that the cloud is basically a rebranding of old names such as Terminal Services and Citrix. However, with that being said, there have been improvements in the technology that has increased our ability to evolve in the virtual or cloud workspace.

O’FALLON, MO – March 27, 2012 – Winning Technologies/Xpress Host announced they have been selected as the sole worldwide hosted provider for anterraBI™, a hosted Microsoft Sharepoint based business intelligence solution for real estate and construction companies. Anterra will offer its clients a turnkey package that utilizes Winning Technologies’ Xpress Host data center as well as other IT services.

Bruce Vanderzyde, President of anterraBI™, said Winning Technologies was selected as the exclusive hosted provider based on the company’s strong experience in the construction industry as well as its reputation for providing outstanding technology solutions at an affordable price point.

What is the cloud? Well that depends on you. “Cloud Computing” is certainly the most common catch phrase of the day, the problem with it is most people have no idea what that really means to them or their business. When people ask me to explain in laymen terms what the cloud is I tell them it is “SES” someone else’s server. In a nut shell that is what cloud computing is, someone else’s server, and it is how they are presenting that front-end access point to you and your business that determines the type of cloud computing you are using.