The use of cloud computing has become increasingly popular in the UK and elsewhere. It's benefits are obvious for remote working, storage capacity and, despite some doubts, information security. - See more at: http://www.storetec.net/news-blog/microsoft-in-new-enterprise-cloud-initiatives

1. Microsoft in New Enterprise Cloud Initiatives
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The use of cloud computing has become increasingly popular in the UK
and elsewhere. It's benefits are obvious for remote working, storage
capacity and, despite some doubts, information security.

2. Even so, there are many challenges and one of these is finding the
right sort of cloud usage for each company. Should a firm use the
private cloud, the public cloud or a hybrid mixture of both? And if it
does the latter, what should the balance between them be?
These are just some of the questions that may be asked and as cloud
usage spreads, the needs of companies may become more varied,
occur on very different scales and provide individual challenges based
on the unique aspects of each enterprise and organisation.

3. Microsoft has sought to grab the lion's share of the market with a series
of new offerings for enterprises aimed at enabling companies to
overcome a variety of IT challenges and make the most of cloud
computing.
Cloud and enterprise executive vice president at Microsoft Satya
Nadella said: “As enterprises move to the cloud they are going to bet
on vendors that have best-in-class software as a service applications,
operate a global public cloud that supports a broad ecosystem of third
party services, and deliver multi-cloud mobility through true hybrid
solutions."

4. It has announced its new Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center
2012 R2 products, which are designed to provide a more modern
cloud-friendly infrastructure. The company said: "Together, these new
products empower companies to create data centres without
boundaries using Hyper-V for high-scale virtualisation; high-
performance storage at dramatically lower costs; built-in, software-
defined networking; and hybrid business continuity." It added that these
can help companies deliver both self-service infrastructure and
platforms from their own data centres.

5. Another pair of products Microsoft is launching are the Visual Studio
2013 and the new .NET 4.5.1, which are also available from October
18th. These are designed to speed up the introduction and integration
of new software by IT managers and others.
Microsoft also noted that "most enterprises will take a hybrid approach
to cloud" and is providing new products and services to help towards
this end. It is offering its Enterprise Agreement price incentives to take
on Windows Azure software and is backing this up with a new
partnership with telecoms company Equinox to help ensure faster
connection times to its US service users.

6. It remains to be seen if it will clinch similar partnerships elsewhere -
such as in the UK. At present Microsoft is bringing the US government
on board with new deals involving its new Azure US Government
Cloud, although of course it may not get used much until the current
shutdown of federal agencies ends.
The company is also heralding a second preview of its new SQL Server
2014, which is designed to deal better with big data and provide a
service improvement of between ten and 30 times current levels, as
well as combining with Windows Azure to give better backup and
disaster recovery capacities. New software-as-a-service facilities are
also being launched, with the advent of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Online Fall ’13, said to be an improvement on its predecessor.

7. In addition to this, the company is providing more means of supporting
those working on a bring-your-own-device basis. While this particular
way of working has mobility advantages, there are obvious security
risks involved if the hardware item is lost or stolen. Microsoft has said
its new Windows Intune will provide "security enhanced applications" to
ensure the data stored this way cannot fall into the wrong hands.
While Microsoft is seeking to make this month the one where a raft of
new applications gives it a stronger position in the cloud computing
market, others are getting in on the act.

8. PC World has noted Toshiba is among these firms, with the company's
first cloud offering coming with the novel feature of enabling users to
customise its remote hardware that hosts the virtual desktop and
storage space, so it can be used on both tablets and PCs.

9. This is currently being deployed in the US. For firms in the UK, now
may be a good time to look at what is available here to ensure each
firm can get the hardware it requires to use the cloud in an
advantageous way, while making sure security is never compromised.
Storetec News/Blogs."http://www.storetec.net/news-blog/microsoft-in-
new-enterprise-cloud-initiatives/". Microsoft in New Enterprise Cloud
Initiatives. October 9, 2013. Storetec.

10. This is currently being deployed in the US. For firms in the UK, now
may be a good time to look at what is available here to ensure each
firm can get the hardware it requires to use the cloud in an
advantageous way, while making sure security is never compromised.
Storetec News/Blogs."http://www.storetec.net/news-blog/microsoft-in-
new-enterprise-cloud-initiatives/". Microsoft in New Enterprise Cloud
Initiatives. October 9, 2013. Storetec.