15 Google+ Users You Should Add to Your Circles

Google+ is in its early days, but here’s a list of early-adopters and thought leaders that you should be paying attention to on Google’s new social network.

It hasn’t even been a month since Google launched Google+, and the social network has already been popular. CEO Larry Page said last week that Google+ has already added 10 million users and about a billion items are shared on the service every day.

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Without the 140-character limitations of Twitter and with friend-organization tools that are more user-friendly than those of Facebook, people are using Google+ in a much different way than they use other social networks, and Google has really left it up to the user to mold their Google+ experience to their liking. For example, Digg co-founder Kevin Rose has adopted it as his blog.

Related Story Check out our Google+ Review

Perhaps users enjoy this kind of flexibility. Google+ was first launched at the end of June in a “field trial." Less than two weeks later, Google opened up the service on an invitation basis. Naturally, in the first few days, Google+’s population was dominated by early adopters and tech industry folk. Celebrities that are ubiquitous on Facebook and Twitter are mostly scant on Google+ for now. But new users are signing up each day, which brings up a question: who should you include in your Google+ Circles? Sure, you could add rapper-slash-actor 50 Cent or “Pretty Boy Swag" singer Soulja Boy, a few of the celebrities that are early to the G+ party, but they’re not the thought leaders on Google’s newborn platform.

It’s early in the game; many people are learning how to use Google+ as they go. But some are clearly figuring it out faster than others, and the things they're sharing range from the entertaining to the inspiring. Here are our picks for the most follow-worthy users on Google+.

How big is Microsoft gambling with Windows 8?

Analysts try to parse the risk Microsoft's taking by blending touch with the desktop in one OS

Computerworld - Analysts parsing what Microsoft revealed of Windows 8 earlier this week are split today on how big the company's gambling with its operating system cash cow, some saying the bet was for the farm, while others said it was the best move Microsoft could make.

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"They're betting the farm on this one," said Wes Miller, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft who worked in the Windows team from 2000 to 2004. "This is a bigger jump for Microsoft than .Net," he added, talking about the software framework Microsoft debuted in early 2002.

Earlier this week, Microsoft showed off parts of Windows 8 -- company executives stressed that the name was not official, but what it was being called for now -- at the All Things Digital technology conference, and at a computer trade show in Taiwan.

Windows 8 will feature a "touch-first" interface to help it compete in the fast-growing tablet market, but underneath that will offer a more traditional Windows-style desktop. In demonstrations, Microsoft showed the touch-style start screen for Windows 8, and how users could switch to a more familiar icon-based interface.

Continuing coverage: Windows 8
Calling Windows 8 a "reimagining" of the decades-old OS, Microsoft said the all-in-one OS will respond to both touch and keyboard-and-mouse navigation, and run on a wide range of devices and form factors, from small tablets to large desktop systems and screens.

That strategy got both kudos and criticism from Microsoft experts -- sometimes both from the same analyst -- with the critics wondering how the company's biggest customers will react to an upgrade that so aggressively pushes touch.

"Microsoft's problem is how do they keep the existing customer base with Windows while addressing touch," said Miller, all without alienating the enterprise customers that drive Windows revenues. "Some will look at this and think of the old Saturday Night Live skit.... 'It's a floor wax and a dessert topping,'" Miller added.

"The gamble is that by dragging legacy Windows to the tablet, Microsoft runs the risk of damaging its traditional desktop Windows business," said Al Gillen, an analyst with IDC. "Windows 8 is all about the tablet. I think it's dead on arrival for business customers."

Others said much the same, calling Windows 8 a "consumer" release that offers little or nothing for business.

"Yeah, there's a gamble here," said Michael Silver of Gartner. "This will be more likely to be taken up by consumers than businesses."

"Honestly, Windows 8 is all consumer," agreed Miller. "It's all about 'How do we deal with this iPad problem?'"

Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. "Organizations will have a hard time with Windows 8, but then they're tired from their Windows 7 deployments," Silver said.

Silver argued that enterprises will skip Windows 8, just as most did with Windows Vista, and instead stick to Windows 7, a tactic that Microsoft itself endorsed when it recommended that businesses now deploying Windows 7 stick with their plans.

But even Silver acknowledged that Windows 8 is a smart move by Microsoft.

"Microsoft needs a more modular approach to Windows, one that lets it put different components on different devices," he said, echoing recommendations he made in 2008 when he warned Windows was "collapsing" under its own weight. At the time, Silver said that unless Microsoft made radical changes, including putting Windows on a diet and making it modular, the OS risked becoming unsustainable.

"Microsoft needs a next-generation, lighter-weight OS, and that's what we're seeing signs of here with the new HTML5 and JavaScript [application] model," said Silver. "I see this as essentially the slimming down of Windows."

Ballmer: Windows Phone 7 not successful yet

Microsoft CEO maintains confidence that its mobile OS would draw more users in years to come, however

IDG News Service - While Microsoft has enjoyed many successes over the past year, Windows Phone 7 hasn't been among them, admitted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during the opening keynote Monday at the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, being held this week in Los Angeles.

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Ballmer took time to celebrate some of the successes the company has had over the past year, such as the success of Microsoft Office and Windows 7. He did display some modesty in admitting that the company did not make major in-roads with Windows Phone 7. "In a year, we've gone from very small to ... very small," he said, referring to the market share that the phone operating system has made since its introduction last year.

Last month, survey firm Nielsen estimated that Microsoft Phone 7 was in only about 1% of all the handsets now being used in the U.S.

Nonetheless, Ballmer maintained confidence that it would draw more users in the years to come. "You will see a lot of progress in the market going forward," he said.

Full coverage: Windows Phone 7

Using the Windows operating system, Ballmer seemingly took the opportunity to bash competitor Apple with its success with the iPad, though he did not mention that company by name.

He noted that Microsoft had sold more than 350 million licenses for Windows 7, while other unnamed companies, presumably Apple, were celebrating success with only 20 million copies of their OS. "350 is a lot more than 20," he said.

Much of the opening WPC talk focused on the work that Microsoft partners have done in helping the company, most notably in the emerging field of cloud computing.

In his keynote, Jon Roskill, Microsoft's corporate vice president of the worldwide partner group, noted that Microsoft has more than 640,000 partner companies, which collectively have 15 million employees. About 95% of Microsoft revenue comes from partner-related work, he said. For every $1 Microsoft makes on its software, partners make $8.70 in additional revenue servicing and customizing these products, he said.

About 58% of partners at the conference "are working with the cloud," though in most cases the use is still exploratory, Roskill said.

Ballmer repeatedly stressed that one of Microsoft's unique advantages is that it works with both on-premise software and cloud services. He noted that technologies from competitors such as Oracle and VMware "[have] merit, but what we think what customers want to do is match between the public and private clouds," he said.

This year's WPC is pivotal for the company. Microsoft is under a lot of pressure to produce an operating system that manufacturers could use to compete with Apple's iPad.

Attendees, consisting mostly of Microsoft partner businesses, will also be eager to hear of news this week about Microsoft's Azure cloud service offering. More than 12,000 participants are attending this year's WPC.

Microsoft COO Turner bashes competitors in WPC keynote

IDG News Service - For his annual keynote at the Microsoft Wordwide Partner Conference, taking place this week in Los Angeles, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner wasted little time challenging Microsoft's many competitors. He flouted the supposed weaknesses of Cisco, IBM, Google, Oracle and others, letting attendees know that Microsoft is gunning for these companies' business.

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"I am grateful for those competitors. It is fun going after them in a big way," he said.

Turner even took the opportunity to criticize some of Microsoft's old technologies, such as Windows XP and Office 2003.

As the COO, Turner oversees Microsoft's worldwide sales, marketing, and services. And at the WPC conference, his role is to rally Microsoft partners to march into battle against

competing companies. This year, however, Turner seemed even more eager than usual to call out competitors by name and list their putative deficiencies.

Google was one of the first companies Turner savaged, particularly in regards to its online office suite, Google Docs. "Two years ago, all of the headlines said Microsoft was in big trouble," he said. "Guess what? It hasn't happened."

He criticized Google for hidden fees in Google Docs, which Microsoft competes against with its own recently launched Office365. Turner claimed that Google's annual fee of $50 per user per year is "only the tip of the iceberg." Customers may incur additional fees, the nature of which Turner did not specify.

He also touted Office365, taking the time to quote an article from a trade magazine, stating that "Office 365, frankly, is to Google Apps as XBOX 360 Live is to Pong."

"Office365, ladies and gentlemen, is nothing but a Google butt-kicker," he said, adding that Office365 had already gained 5 million licensed users. He also mocked Google Talk as an "inferior messaging system."

Discussing Cisco, Turner extolled the audience to go after that company's profitable teleconference business. "Think about all the years that Cisco has been milking those high margins -- 75, 80 percent margins -- on its unified communications product," he said, adding that Microsoft's partners could offer a lower-cost alternative through Microsoft's Lync unified communications offering.

Another target was IBM. Turner notes that Microsoft has migrated 4.5 million users off of IBM's Lotus Notes, and expects to migrate another 5 million this year, all in favor of Microsoft Exchange.

Taking aim at Oracle, Tuner rhetorically asked: "How many happy Oracle customers are you talking to?"

"There is a tremendous opportunity for us to really go after the Oracle customer right now," he said. He posited that SQL Server was a lower-cost and more secure alternative to the Oracle database.

With VMware, he referred to something he called the "VMware tax," noting that Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization software offers the ability to run more virtual machines, after the first six, at no additional cost. "We caught VMware flat-footed because of the economics of the cloud," he said. "The more VMs you add, the more you save."

Elgan: What I lost on the Google+ Diet II

Elgan: What I lost on the Google+ Diet II
After using only Google's new social network for a week -- forsaking all others -- here's what I learned

Computerworld - On July 8, I went on the Google+ Diet, using Google's new social network for all my online communication. As part of the diet, I stopped using Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and several other services. I even stopped using e-mail.

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But the most addictive component of Google+ is something called Notifications. By clicking on the glaring red box that tells how many notifications you have waiting, you can see at a glance who Circled, or followed, you, who commented, +1'd (or "liked") your posts or comments, and who reshared one of your posts.

Dangerously, Google+ becomes more addictive the more you use it. Simply understanding how Circles and following works enables you to constantly tweak and optimize what you see and who you interact with.

Gmail is an inseparable part of Google+

For my Google+ Diet, I've redirected all my e-mail communication through Google+. When I send e-mail, I simply post on Google+, and "address" the post to someone's Google+ presence or to their e-mail address. One advantage of this is that the subsequent back-and-forth takes place on Google+'s wonderful commenting system.
Google Plus

* Elgan: What I lost on the Google+ Diet
* Visual tour: 8 Google+ add-ons, extensions, and downloads
* With 10M users, Google+ is becoming a social competitor
* Google races to create business version of Google+
* Privacy, contact updates added to Google+
* Can Facebook and Google+ coexist?
* Google+ fervor may be making Facebook nervous
* Google to developers: Stay tuned for Google+ tools
* Google+ hit with spam bug
* Visual tour: 10 Google+ tips for beginners

Continuing coverage: Google+

When I receive e-mail I want to reply to, I paste it into Google+ and reply from there.

I also use e-mail still for non-communication purposes, such as reading my Google Alerts and Calendar notifications, and for submitting columns.

As you may have now suspected, avoiding e-mail is somewhat idiotic, for two reasons. First, the copying and pasting of incoming e-mail into Google+ isn't easier than simply replying. And secondly, Gmail is, in fact, part of Google+. Gmail serves as its messaging system.

For most people wanting to try the Google+ Diet, my advice is to go ahead and use Gmail with it.

Google+ replaces Twitter easier than it replaces Facebook

The transition from Twitter to Google+ is way easier than from Facebook to Google+. The reason is that Google+ does almost everything Twitter does, but better. On Facebook, however the biggest "feature" is the user base. So if you're having daily conversations with your old college buddies or high school BFFs, those just stop when you move to Google+. For now, at least.

While Google+ represents a minor potential -- and eventual -- challenge to Facebook's long-term dominance, it represents an existential threat to Twitter. As I said in my column last week, Twitter is obsolete. It's great at delivering a quick comment or link, but if you want to chat about it, Twitter is lousy.

Google+ can replace blogging

Big-name bloggers have already shut down their blogs and replaced them with their public posts on their Google+ profiles. Here's mine. As you can see, it's a blog!

Better still, it works like the best blogging platform, Tumblr. It's easy for other users to re-blog or "share" your posts on their own "blog." Commenting is great.

The only downsides are that you can't customize it with a "theme" or custom design, and you can't use advertising. But it's only a matter of time before these features come to Google+, I would imagine.

Windows 8 Revealed: New Features of Microsoft's Next OS

The Windows 8 start screen merges the multi-touch, tile-based design of WP7 with desktop OS features for a completely new UI.

Microsoft Windows president Steven Sinofsky gave a sneak peek of the next version of Windows — code-named Windows 8 — at the Wall Street Journal's D9 conference on Wednesday.

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Today, Microsoft did a more detailed demo of Windows 8 at a news conference at Computex in Taipei (video below).

The software giant has stated that Windows 8 will be seamless across PCs and tablets and slates by making the OS compatible with ARM-based chips as well as traditional Windows processors from Intel and AMD. Based on early slides and video demos, Microsoft has redesigned the user interface to be a medley of Windows client OS and the tile-based design of Windows Phone 7. This certainly appears to be a more flexible and completely different iteration of Windows.

Microsoft: Windows 8 Won't Require a New PC
Windows 8: 5 Questions About Microsoft's New OS

The Start screen for Windows 8 is a personal mosaic of colorful tiles and looks nothing like the traditional Windows desktop we're all accustomed to. Every app on a Windows 8 PC is represented by a tile: e-mail, weather, calendar, photos, Twitter feed, the touch-based IE10 browser, etc. Each tile can be clicked on with the touch of a finger, and also can be accessed via a mouse and keyboard.

Based on the Windows 8 demos, most of the apps are written in HTML5 and JavaScript and resemble mobile apps you would see on a Windows Phone 7, just on a larger scale. But the Windows 8 interface also maintains the files and folder system of a desktop OS as well as the popular Windows 7 feature Aero Snap.

One eyebrow-raising app that showed up in Microsoft's demo on Wednesday was for a Windows App Store, which all but confirms that Microsoft is going to wisely release an app store built into Windows 8. Application stores are a new thing for desktop OSes, but are integral to a tablet OS (Apple App Store for iOS, Android Market for Android, BlackBerry App World for QNX on BlackBerry Playbooks).

Click here for a another video demo of Windows 8 from Jensen Harris, Microsoft's Windows Director of Program Management.

Microsoft COO Goes on Competitor-Bashing Spree

For his annual keynote at the Microsoft Wordwide Partner Conference, taking place this week in Los Angeles, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner wasted little time challenging Microsoft's many competitors. He flouted the supposed weaknesses of Cisco, IBM, Google, Oracle and others, letting attendees know that Microsoft is gunning for these companies' business.

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IDG News Service — For his annual keynote at the Microsoft (MSFT) Wordwide Partner Conference, taking place this week in Los Angeles, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner wasted little time challenging Microsoft's many competitors. He flouted the supposed weaknesses of Cisco, IBM (IBM), Google (GOOG), Oracle (ORCL) and others, letting attendees know that Microsoft is gunning for these companies' business.

"I am grateful for those competitors. It is fun going after them in a big way," he said.

Turner even took the opportunity to criticize some of Microsoft's old technologies, such as Windows XP and Office 2003.

As the COO, Turner oversees Microsoft's worldwide sales, marketing, and services. And at the WPC conference, his role is to rally Microsoft partners to march into battle against

competing companies. This year, however, Turner seemed even more eager than usual to call out competitors by name and list their putative deficiencies.

Google was one of the first companies Turner savaged, particularly in regards to its online office suite, Google Docs. "Two years ago, all of the headlines said Microsoft was in big trouble," he said. "Guess what? It hasn't happened."

He criticized Google for hidden fees in Google Docs, which Microsoft competes against with its own recently launched Office365. Turner claimed that Google's annual fee of $50 per user per year is "only the tip of the iceberg." Customers may incur additional fees, the nature of which Turner did not specify.

He also touted Office365, taking the time to quote an article from a trade magazine, stating that "Office 365, frankly, is to Google Apps as XBOX 360 Live is to Pong."

"Office365, ladies and gentlemen, is nothing but a Google butt-kicker," he said, adding that Office365 had already gained 5 million licensed users. He also mocked Google Talk as an "inferior messaging system."

Discussing Cisco, Turner extolled the audience to go after that company's profitable teleconference business. "Think about all the years that Cisco has been milking those high margins -- 75, 80 percent margins -- on its unified communications product," he said, adding that Microsoft's partners could offer a lower-cost alternative through Microsoft's Lync unified communications offering.

Another target was IBM. Turner notes that Microsoft has migrated 4.5 million users off of IBM's Lotus Notes, and expects to migrate another 5 million this year, all in favor of Microsoft Exchange.

Taking aim at Oracle, Tuner rhetorically asked: "How many happy Oracle customers are you talking to?"

"There is a tremendous opportunity for us to really go after the Oracle customer right now," he said. He posited that SQL Server was a lower-cost and more secure alternative to the Oracle database.

The 6 Hottest New Jobs in IT

IT job seekers have real reason to hope. No fewer than 10,000 IT jobs were added to payrolls in May alone, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics, reflecting a steady month-over-month increase since January. And in a June survey by the IT jobs site Dice.com, 65 percent of hiring managers and recruiters said they will hire more tech professionals in the second half of 2011 than in the previous six months.

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IT job seekers have real reason to hope. No fewer than 10,000 IT jobs were added to payrolls in May alone, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics, reflecting a steady month-over-month increase since January. And in a June survey by the IT jobs site Dice.com, 65 percent of hiring managers and recruiters said they will hire more tech professionals in the second half of 2011 than in the previous six months.

LinkedIn Quick Tip: How to Discover the Hottest New Job Skills
IT Careers: Hottest Jobs, Skills in Cloud Computing, Mobile Application Development

But which jobs have the greatest growth potential -- and stand the best chance of withstanding outsourcing or another economic downturn?

To find those hottest of hot jobs, we've scoured listings on IT hiring sites like Dice and Modis and talked with IT execs about the skills they're looking for in the year to come. Our sources point to a cluster of new job titles created to make IT more agile, more social -- and more tightly intertwined with business.

Our results are not scientific. The six job titles you see here have actually been listed, but we didn't choose them based on frequency of appearance or random sample polling. Instead, we picked them because we think they answer the real needs of businesses that want to prepare for the future. In short, we expect they will pay well, have staying power, and truly influence the organization either now or in the future. When's the last time you heard that about a job in IT?

Hot IT job No. 1: Business architect

The notion that IT is separate from business has faded into antiquity. Upper management recognizes that technology is not just integral to success, but actually drives the way companies pursue their business goals. To help merge technology and business processes, a new breed of enterprise architect -- known as the business architect -- is emerging.

"Business architecture is about making sure the whole business holds together," says Forrester Research (FORR) analyst Alex Cullen, who researches IT strategy and organizational planning. "It's a role built around business planning, pointing out opportunities to utilize IT more effectively" in sales, customer service, and other key areas.

Unlike the traditional enterprise architect, whose role is to organize technology to meet business goals, the business architect is a member of the business organization, reporting to the CEO and fashioning high-level company strategy with technology in mind. The successful business architect has a deeper knowledge of the company's business model and workflow than the average enterprise architect. Think MBA with an IT focus.

7 free Windows tune-up tools and tips

You don't need to spend money to keep a Windows computer running in top form. Here's how to fix, clean and maintain Windows using programs you can download now for free.

3. Remove unneeded programs with Revo Uninstaller.
You should uninstall applications from Windows that you don't use, or you don't recognize and are certain that your Windows system doesn't need. We like using Revo Uninstaller for this job, because it can be set to thoroughly delete the miscellaneous files, folders and settings that often remain when programs are removed using the standard uninstall function within the Windows control panel.

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The free version of Revo Uninstaller can remove 32-bit programs (installed on either a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows), but you'll have to pay for the pro version to remove 64-bit programs.

This tool can also be used to deactivate or entirely remove autorun files, so that your Windows computer's start-up won't be bogged down from having to automatically load programs that you don't need or want it to run whenever you boot up the computer.

4. Clean out temporary files and the Windows registry with CCleaner.

This popular tool washes Windows of Web browser cookies and miscellaneous, usually temporary files that it and other applications create. It can also quickly scan through the registry settings of Windows and remove entries that are no longer needed. Although deleting these items can free up quite a lot of space on your hard drive, it's debatable whether doing so really improves the overall performance of your computer.

Regardless, for those of us who like to keep a Windows computer clean and running "tight," CCleaner is an essential tool for clearing out temporary file clutter and freeing up some additional hard drive space.

Like Revo Uninstaller, CCleaner also includes a tool for removing unwanted autorun files to help you speed up the boot time of your Windows system.

5. Check for updates to installed programs with FileHippo.com's Update Checker.

As we said, we prefer turning off the automatic updating functionality of Windows, in order to prevent unexpected system and Internet speed slowdowns. We feel the same about individual applications that have the built-in capability to update themselves without user input. Switch this off! Many applications, like Adobe Reader, let you download updates manually from within their settings.

Rather than having to go through all your installed software one-by-one to check for updates to them, install FileHippo.com's Update Checker. This tool audits the programs installed on your Windows system, and then opens a page in your default Web browser listing links to download the latest versions of them (hosted on FileHippo.com).

6. Defrag the hard drive with Auslogics Disk Defrag.

After you've updated Windows, scanned for malware, and thoroughly removed programs and files you don't need, the last maintenance step you should do is defrag your Windows system's hard drive to optimize its speed and overall performance. There are a couple of decent defragging tools you can use over the one that comes with Windows. We've come to prefer Auslogics Disk Defrag for its ease-of-use, graphically informative representation of your hard drive, and speed at defragging.

Offering The A-To-Z Of Enterprise Solutions On One Platform

IT’s all about usability and security!

The product offers a completely proprietary environment, developed from the ground up. The platform uses a few open source software applications at the back-end. The service offers a standard SLA (service level agreement) to its customers related to aspects like usability and uptime.

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But how does the platform ensure 100 per cent uptime? Kundu explains: “A2zapps.com has one of the top Level-3+ compliant data centres in India, and owing to its high availability environments, allows the platform the flexibility to commit uptime to customers. We have subscribed to an unusually high bandwidth for higher data flow speed between the Internet and data centres. To date, we have not faced any challenges or outages regarding uptime and availability and our users are usually happy.” The platform has a dedicated team for customer success management (CSM) to monitor customer issues closely and resolve them in the best possible timeframe. The service also provides a basic level of support to each and every user in order to ensure higher satisfaction levels.

Since security is the biggest customer concern when it comes to sharing data over the SaaS platform, Kundu affirms that security is dealt with at various levels. Security need not be a technology challenge alone; it is also a people and process challenge, he feels.

The physical security and security processes are implemented at the host’s side. The company also shares best practices with its clients for customer-controlled security mechanisms. Kundu reveals other security features of the application: “Our data centre servers cannot be used or accessed by anyone and are protected through usage of smart gadgets like any Level-3+ compliant secured data centre. We also use 128-bit encryption technologies to encrypt the data that flows between the server and user’s Web browser. Besides, our employees do not have access to customer data, unless authorised by a customer during the process of issue resolution. So when A2zapps.com personnel log in as the super user, they can only see the configuration and customisation related data (meta data) and can create test data to test out customisation.”

How it all began

What was it that led to the development of this platform? Kundu recalls, “When I was consulting for PeopleSoft for its online CRM (customer relationship management) back in 2000, and later working for Salesforce.com in the US, I wanted to take this online model to the next level by introducing a common business platform instead of providing SMEs with a specific online application. Being an Indian, I knew that SMEs in India could not afford different applications from different vendors. I was looking for a name that would be easy to remember and reflect the business model itself. I wanted to add a dot (.) to the name of the company to reflect the delivery model.”

Kundu and his colleagues undertook an analysis that showed that while there was a huge need for business applications in the SME segment, these requirements differed across organisations and there was no single product that could suit all of them. So the company was formed with the intention of creating a product that could fit every business need for enterprises of every size. The team was aware that this was not an easy job, considering the huge SME base in India, but what drove team members was a belief that a product like A2zapps.com could take it to the next level, and help it create one of the next generation of Indian enterprises.

The A2zapps.com team today comprises, Kantanu Kundu (CEO, chairman and founder), Ranjeet Bhatia (director-Operations & Foundation, and co-founder), Surajit Sinha (chief customer and product strategy officer) and Pranab Bhuyan (COO and EVP-Corporate Policy, Law and Strategy). And they have every reason to be proud of their creation.

The 10 worst cloud outages (and what we can learn from them)

Sending your IT business to the cloud comes with risk, as those affected by these 10 colossal cloud outages can attest
"I'd like to apologize to you, our customers and partners, for the obvious inconveniences these issues caused," Dave Thompson, corporate vice president for Microsoft Online Services, wrote in a blog.

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"I'd also like to apologize for the obvious inconvenience of having to speak 15 syllables every time you say our service's ridiculous name," he probably should have added.

Colossal cloud outage No. 7: The Salesforce slipup. An hour of downtime may not sound like much, but when your company holds the keys to the customer service operations of tens of thousands of businesses, more than a few of those organizations are bound to view those 60 minutes as a lifetime.

Salesforce.com learned this the hard way when its data center shut down last January. Just four days into the new year, Salesforce.com reported a full-on failure -- meaning services, backups, the whole nine yards were kaput.

Annoying? Absolutely. Surprising? Not entirely.

"The reality is that cloud-based data centers -- guess what? -- they go down, too," says Tim Crawford, chief information officer of All Covered, a division of Konica Minolta. "That has always been the case and will always be the case. We have to be realistic about it."

Crawford says successful cloud computing requires a different mind-set than traditional server setups: It's up to you, he suggests, to decide whether your business's data can endure occasional downtime -- and if not, to make sure your configuration has the resiliency needed to avoid it.

"When you pick a cloud provider, you need to do your homework to understand how they're providing those services and if they're able to build a level of redundancy as good or better than what you're able to do on your own," Crawford says. "If the answer is no, then why are you using them?"

Colossal cloud outage No. 8: Terremark's terrible day. These days, Terremark may be making headlines for its billion-dollar Verizon deal, but in early 2010, an extended outage dominated the cloud provider's coverage.

Terremark's luck turned sour on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2010. The company's vCloud Express service took a nosedive that day, with a Miami-based data center going offline for about seven hours. Users were unable to access data stored in the center for the entire period.

Not to get overly redundant, but this brings up the value of redundancy -- having your crucial data available on multiple servers in different data centers or, even better, different regions. You could also take the extra step of spreading it among different providers as a failsafe.

"You can pick a series of vendors to host a workload -- one as a backup or two as a backup, and then another as your primary," suggests Harold Moss, chief technology officer of IBM's Cloud Security Strategy program. "You can then implement your workload there in a secure manner, with the appropriate security, and start to introduce your resiliency capabilities."

Colossal cloud outage No. 9: The PayPal fall-down. Want a cloud outage with some seriously wide-reaching impact? Try taking PayPal offline for a few hours.

This is no hypothetical exercise: PayPal fell for real in the summer of 2009, leaving millions of merchants around the world with no way to sell their stuff. The service was completely unavailable for about an hour and remained spotty for several more. PayPal said hardware failure was to blame.

It's a rare kind of outage, no doubt -- but with all the sales lost, this unfortunate interruption easily earns a spot in cloud computing's hall of shame.

Colossal cloud outage No. 10: Rackspace's rough year. When you provide cloud services to Web presences like TechCrunch and Justin Timberlake, you'd better believe people are going to notice when your servers stop working.

Rackspace learned that lesson a few times in 2009. The cloud provider suffered four high-profile failures throughout the year, adding up to hours of offline time for the company's customers. One blip was bad enough that Rackspace had to pay out nearly $3 million in service credits to its users.

Rackspace called the incidents "painful and very disappointing" and promised to "execute at a high level for a long time" after. Today, the company continues to focus on uptime but also works to help users plan for the inevitable turbulence that comes with life in the cloud.

"If you want to cluster a server or build geographical redundancy, it's easier to do now than it ever was before, but you have to actually take those steps," says Rackspace's Lew Moorman. "The cloud doesn't bring inherent weaknesses that weren't present if you did things in-house before."

All considered, the biggest lesson here may be that no single server, center, or service is 100 percent reliable. If you don't build your business with that in mind -- well, my friend, you're just walking around with your head in the cloud.