Since last June Google has kept Google Compute Engine (GCE), an open Infrastructure-as- a-Service (IaaS), an invitation only service. Starting May 15^th, GCE has gone public. This move makes GCE a direct competitor for Amazon Web Service (AWS), one of the major and more established IaaS providers.

• 89% of worldwide IT departments support some form of BYOD.
• 69% of global IT leaders think the benefits of BYOD are positive.
• 51% of workers use their personal smartphones as their BYOD device, 44% use their laptops or ultra-books, and 31% use tablets.

And just like any really great party, this one can be a blast as long as you have good security. In fact, that’s the real catch to making BYOD work for an organization – Mobile Device Management (MDM). You’re weighing gains in productivity and potential reductions in capital expenditures against the need to maintain a secure IT environment. It’s a careful balancing act, but could really be worth the effort. In fact, according to estimates by Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group, the annual savings from BYOD could range from $300 to $1,300 per employee, depending on their role in the organization.

When I started interning here at NSK, I didn’t know cloud computing from cumulonimbus. Writing each blog entry took loads of detective work. But for this last entry, I was asked to blog about what I already know, and sometimes it's those blog posts that are the hardest ones to write.

In recent posts we’ve discussed the need for MDM and why businesses are choosing a BYOD work environment. A running theme through all posts related to technological advancements is that technology is constantly changing, which is why—surprise, surprise—an article days ago came out titled “The End of BYOD As We Know It?”

With protection and security at stake, as well as accountability, companies are looking to MDM, which makes business run as smooth as a knife slicing into butter.

In the past few weeks we’ve talked about what’s going on up in the cloud, including big data and cyber security. We’ve yet to reach the innovations from the novels of Jules Verne and HG Wells—but we’re getting there (time travel? I wouldn’t rule it out at this point). And there’s still the requirement of accessing oceans of data through a machine. Who knows? Perhaps the cloud will eventually materialize above our heads and we can access our accounts and files from thin air. For now, however, we must rely on computers and smartphones to enter the data dense world of cloud computing.

These past few months, American security systems seem to have virtually checked out while Chinese hackers are checking in. The hackers’ jobs have even taken a turn to professionalism—hackers, apparently, get weekends off too.

What are Managed Services?

IT managed services let you offload specific  IT operations to a service provider, known in tech parlance as IT Managed Services Provider. The IT managed service provider assumes ongoing responsibility for monitoring, managing and/or problem resolution for selected IT systems and functions on your behalf.

Punxsutawney Phil’s shadow was MIA, which points to an early spring in our future. But we’re a little skeptical of wagering our bets on the absent shadow of a groundhog, in spite of his good track record (and what was up with last weekend’s blizzard? Oh, Phil!). Weather, life in general, it’s all unpredictable, and your data can be caught in that unforeseeable cyclone and annihilated before you can say, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

But don’t go all Chicken Little just yet; you can protect and recover your data by taking the proper steps should the need arise. It’s like the scout’s motto:

We’ve heard the phrase “one in a million” but how about “one in a quintillion”? Now there’s a term that will make you feel microbial.