Reconsider Cloud Computing for your Company

A white cloud, the symbol of Cloud Computing -- it sounds like something that is fluffy, serene, sunny and care-free. But, look again, that Cloud is beginning to darken and turn stormy making cloud computing something that you may want to reconsider for your company.

Security experts, according to a recent article in the LA Times, latimes.com/business/la-fi-cloud-security, say that outsourcing computer tasks to large data centers may not be as safe as billed.

There have been an increase in high-profile attacks to companies like Citigroup Inc. and Sony Corp. These have come in the wake of companies wanting to move their business operations online, or to a "cloud" model. Cloud computing is where all tasks are outsourced to firms with large data centers all over the world.

While cloud computing has a lot of money saving potential and it would reduce the need for in-house servers, security analysts are saying it might not be as safe as it is being advertised.

With cloud, hundreds or thousands of companies can be stored in one location, which makes it theoretically possible for hackers to control large amounts of information through just one attack, a process that the article called "hyperjacking."

Since hacking continues to yield profitable data, the number of hackers is also increasing. Low-cost hacking tools have computerized the hacking process for people interested in learning.

As cloud computing has expanded with many software and network providers now offering SAS applications (Softward As a Service), it seems to simplify your internal computing needs. But once you are in the cloud, you are at risk from more than hackers. Recently DigitalOne, a large web-hosting company, had their Virgina location raided by the FBI and several of their servers were confiscated. As part of an investigation of one of the firm's customers, "tens" of servers that were unrelated to the targeted customer were taken. Service was disrupted to hundreds of customers for over 30 hours.

Even if nothing else goes wrong, you are at the mercy of the cloud computing provider when it comes to security. Even the best of companies can have software bugs that will put your information at risk. Dropbox, a large online file storage service, recently was notified by one of its users that the account authentification mechanism was not working. Basically this left 25 million customers with files stored online with Dropbox vulnerable to anyone having access to their information. The company admits that the information was unprotected for four hours, but if the user had not notified the company of the issue it could have gone on much longer.

Before choosing to move to the cloud, a company should thoroughly review its entire network security infrastructure. Moving to the cloud would require complete confidence in not only the business's ability to connect, but also to ensure the connections are secure, the information is stored securely and encrypted, and a plan is in place so the company continue to operate in the event there is a failure. While the cloud seems like a resource among resources - meaning it seems on the outside to be the perfect option - it is no more or less invulnerable than any other resource. Cloud-based companies still suffer outages.

In response to the high-profile attacks, companies seem to be taking the warnings seriously. Most small to mid-size companies fly under the radar for the hacker community. Once your data is moved into the cloud environment where it stored with millions of other records, you become a target. There are some real holes in the cloud infrastructure and the bad guys are getting in.

The LA Times article talked to Alex Bermudez, the security manager for Beachbody, the Los Angeles company that makes the popular P90X workout videos. he said that although his company is adding security as it expands overseas, he has held off on switching to the cloud.

"There are a lot of good technology companies doing the cloud well," he said, but having his company's data stored remotely, alongside data from many other firms, "is a little scary."

Designer Cases - More Expensive than the iPad Itself

Designers are all trying to get their piece of the technology pie. So what better way than to design cases to protect people's precious iPads? Well it might defeat the purpose a little when the cases are more - sometimes more than three times - the price of the gadget itself.

Here are some top designers and how much their cases are going for:

Designer: Tod's

Price: $4,9000

Description: This case is not too much bang for how much buck they want. For nearly $5,000 this case is boring - but at least it's made from genuine alligator, right?

Designer: Chanel

Price: $1,555

Description: This case is basically the price of three iPads, but if you are into paying that much for a case, this is a classic Chanel with black, quilted leather.

Designer: Crystal Roc

Price: $966

Description: All that glitters is not gold, but it might be Swarovski's Xilion Cut crystals. Who doesn't want an iPad completely covered with Swarovski crystals?

Designer: Prada

Price: $420

Description: Simple and classy, Prada offers a simple red nylon iPad case.

Designer: Louis Vuitton

Price: $390

Description: Fairly cheap compared to the other designers, this case sports the Louis Vuitton logo.

A New Year Means New Gadgets

This weekend in Las Vegas at the annual International Consumer Electronics show revealed many products that may actually have an impact on technology for years to come, despite the usual flops that come from this show. Here are a few of the gadgets that were on display:

Tablet-

Touch-screen tablet computers were one thing that were a theme of the show. The devices were a slew of potentional competitors for the Apple iPad. Some of the models had certain hardware that the iPad doesn't yet have such as front-and-rear cameras for video chatting, high-def video recording capabilities, and 4G.

3-D Tvs with glasses-

Last year, the thing that was supposed to catch on was 3-D for televisions, but it didn't go as planned. But some companies such as Vizio and LG are trying a different take on the 3-D, which would make the glasses light and inexpenive like the ones that consumers use at movie theaters, rather than the bulky, expenisve and battery-powered glasses that the TV sets of 2010 would have needed.

Free TV on the go-

Television on portable gadgets may become more popular this year. TV broadcasters are adding signals to towers and those signals will help small gadgets like laptops and cell phones get TV. Associated Press reported that it was unclear about how interested the public will be in this technology.

Hottest Google Searches of 2010

With 2010 winding down and getting ready to come to a close, it's only right to reflect. Here is a list of some of the hottest topics searched in Google this past year according to a report called the Google Zeitgeist 2010.

The Top-Searched Events:

1. World Cup-South Africa

2. Olympics-Canada

3. Haiti earthquake-Haiti

4. Oil Spill-Gulf of Mexico

5. Ash Cloud-Iceland

Fastest Rising:

1. Chatroulette

2. iPad

3. Justin Bieber

4. Nicki Minaj

5. Friv

Fastest Rising People:

1. Justin Bieber

2. Katy Perry

3. Selena Gomez

4. Kim Kardashian

5. Eminem

Fastest Rising Consumer Electronics:

1. iPad

2. iPhone 4

3. Nokia 5530

4. HTC Evo 4G

5. Nokia n900

Ask.com is no more

Jeeves has left the building for good.

In 1996 the site askjeeves.com was founded, and the site featured a gentleman named Jeeves that would basically fetch the answers to your questions. The character is said to be based on a fictional valet.

The site was founded by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, and it's headquarters are in Oakland.

The innovative idea behind this site was using natural language, that would allow users to search in question form. Ten years later, by 2006 Jeeves had been phased out and the search engine was just known as ask.com.

With Google and Yahoo! monopolizing search engines, Ask.com decided to give up its web search.

They say that they will be stopping the development of the current searching and simply focusing efforts on their Q&A service.

The company InterActiveCorp, who bought Ask.com in 2005 for $1.85 billion hasn't been able to make the money needed to help compete with Google or Bing.

Stainless Steel iPhone?

Recently, Apple Insider, found a patent that surfaced from Apple that points to a possible future of stainless steel.

The patent says points to the idea that there would be a portfolio made of stainless steel devices, but that the devices would be coated with nitride to make them scratch proof. The document says that the layer would be 15 microns thick.

The patent was filed in April by Douglas Weber. It says that steel is cheaper than aluminum to make, and that it is easier to machine.

The future of Apple may look stainless.

Starbucks Offers Free Songs, E-Books with your coffee

Starbucks is now serving more than just coffee.

They are adding free books, news and entertainment to their new digital network. Starbucks is now promising some perks such as free access to paid Web sites like The Wall Street Journal. The idea behind all the free stuff is to get customers spending more on drinks and through the site.

According to the Associated Press, the move comes as Starbucks faces steep competition from McDonald's and other fast-food chains that are pushing fancy coffee drinks, but also gives a chance for Starbucks to make more money from the site where people linger for the free wi-fi, which saw 30 million log-ins just last month.

This new network strategy is a partnership with Yahoo. The other partners include iTunes, The New York Times, Patch, USA Today and Zagat.

But there is a catch-- Most of the free content can only be read or viewed in Starbucks. This will either have customers buy the content so that they can take it with them, or requires more and frequent trips to Starbucks.