Cloud IT Community Week in Review: Google, Cisco and Intermedia

By Rory Lidstone
Contributing Writer

It was another busy week for the cloud IT space as major companies made news alongside some dire research about ransomware.

Indeed, Intermedia (News - Alert) kicked off the week with the release of its “2016 Crypto-Ransomware Report.” The report states that ransomware, malware that encrypts the data on a target’s computer and threatens to delete that data if a ransom isn’t paid within a certain amount of time, is targeting bigger business and spreading within corporate networks. The reason businesses are paying the high cost is due to a lack of business continuity planning to deal with losing data held ransom.

Next, Google expanded its single sign-on (SSO) capabilities within the Google Identity platform to include pre-configured support for Microsoft (News - Alert) Office 365 and Facebook at Work. Google (News - Alert) Identity also now supports Panorama9, New Relic, Concur, Coupa, Box, Slack and more, adding to the hundreds of already supported apps in the Google Apps Marketplace. Part of the Google Apps for Work suite, the Google Identity platform is made up of a number of solutions, including Google Sign-In.

In other news this week, Cisco (News - Alert) acquired San Jose-based CliQr Technologies for $260 million. This move may signal a new service set for the cloud, namely the option to centralize the deployment and management of applications across multiple environments. This multicloud management capability will likely become a key feature as companies opt for multiple public clouds and approaches in the future. This is especially true considering most cloud vendors aren’t interested in providing management beyond their own platform.

Lastly, data from various market research experts seems to suggest that cloud deployments have crossed the chasm into the mainstream. Whether hybrid cloud, or a mix of on-premises with public and private cloud services, the cloud now ranks as the third top investments priorities for enterprise CISO. According to Gartner (News - Alert), for example, nearly half of the world’s enterprises will have implemented some type of hybrid cloud by 2017.

That about does it for this week in cloud IT, but be sure to check out the Cloud IT Community for more highlights.