internet - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• Let users choose enterprise cloud applications

  <em>This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.</em>

• CIOs must embrace consumer cloud tools or risk losing control

  CIOs are quickly losing control of the applications and platforms their employees choose to use at work. Personal preferences for cloud-based apps from Google, Box and Slack, among others, have spilled into the workforce at an astonishing rate during the past 18 months. Unsanctioned apps and services can negatively impact workflow, productivity and the general health of a company, but the potential damage can be offset with the right IT mindset, support and flexibility.

• Will Bitcoin become a legitimate currency for large companies?

  Bitcoin is on the rise, but not in the way you might think.

• Why the open source business model is a failure

  Open source software companies must move to the Cloud and add proprietary code to their products to succeed. The current business model is recipe for failure.

• Pro sports teams look to social video to score big with fans

  Following your favorite professional sports team before and after games -- and beyond the nightly sports broadcast -- has never been easier. Social video apps, such as Periscope, Meerkat, Vine, Snapchat and Instagram, are disrupting the traditional content distribution models of teams, TV networks and radio stations. While the transformation is already riddled with concerns over content rights, it represents a valuable opportunity for sports organizations to engage and interact with fans, particularly younger generations.

• Social media sites still don't do enough to combat abuse

  Every day, countless individuals and groups are victimized on social networks. The abusers, detached and cloaked in anonymity, often take on different personas as they shame, troll, incite and denigrate others with relative impunity. The ramifications can be devastating and, until recently, the majority of social media companies failed to acknowledge -- let alone confront -- the vulgarity and vicious threats that fly so freely on their platforms.

• How Twitter can help you recruit tech talent

  Twitter conjures up images of funny celebrity tweets and corporate PR gaffes rather than job searching and recruiting. However, there is an emerging pool of job candidates on Twitter. In fact, 45 percent of job seekers report that they use Twitter, compared to 40 percent who use LinkedIn, according to 2014 research from JobVite. The same research also points to an increased interest in Twitter for recruitment, with 73 percent of companies reporting a focus on increasing social network recruitment.

• Can Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest help marketers reach millennials?

  Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest arrived on the social scene after Facebook and Twitter, but they quickly made their marks, especially among millennials. After reaching critical mass, the three companies are attempting to monetize their services by rolling out new features for advertisers. Select large, global brands, including McDonald's, are testing the new features and could be role models for other marketers interested in the apps. However, all three services are still relatively young, and it might be too early to tell if ad campaigns are worth the investment.

• Can LibreOffice successfully compete with Microsoft Office?

  It's hard to imagine an open source project more likely to fail than one that attempts to go toe-to-toe with Microsoft's Office productivity suite.

• Twitter takes another shot a social shopping

  Twitter is taking cues from Amazon, Pinterest and others in its latest foray into social shopping. The company announced a new set of pages that are designed to streamline the purchase process on Twitter. Pages for products and places can include images, video, product descriptions and prices, and -- most importantly for Twitter -- the option to buy products or visit advertiser websites for more information. The new shopping features are available now on Twitter's website and in its Android and iOS apps.

• Standards are coming for containers

  A list of leading cloud, storage and virtualization companies are backing a new effort named the Open Container Project, which aims to create a set of standards for the fast-growing technology.

• Office 365 vs. Google for Work: A cloud comparison for small businesses

  The price of enterprise collaboration and productivity tools for small- and medium-size businesses has dropped considerably. Cloud-based services from Microsoft, Google and others are available for what many folks pay for a single cup of coffee.

• Office 365 and Google for Work adoption rates to grow rapidly

  Cloud-based platforms such as Google for Work and Microsoft Office 365 are far from ubiquitous in today's workplace, but they're seeing rapid adoption, and that trend is going to continue. In fact, more than half of the small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) queried as part of a new survey from BetterCloud plan to run all of their IT services in the cloud within five years.

• How to set up Amazon Web Services for your small business

  Cloud computing technology has matured significantly over the years, and now offers a compelling list of advantages over on-site deployments, especially for small businesses and start-ups that may not have the capital to purchase servers and other hardware appliances.

• Migrating to the cloud? Start with a readiness assessment

  <em>This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.</em>