Software as a service - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Think you know your competitors? This tool helps uncover some you don't

  Military leaders live by the maxim "know your enemy," and a new tool from marketing-intelligence company GinzaMetrics helps apply that wisdom to business.

• New SAP Cloud app targets finance professionals

  Hard on the heels of the recent announcement of its next-generation S/4Hana enterprise software platform, SAP has unveiled a new sSoftware-as-a-Service application aimed at finance professionals but delivering a consumer-like experience.

• Microsoft moves Intune to a monthly update schedule

  To keep up with the ever-quickening pace of technological innovation, Microsoft has started updating its Intune IT management service on a monthly basis.

• Microsoft updates cloud-based SQL Server to simplify management

  Microsoft has added automated backup and patching for SQL Server databases running in virtual machines on its Azure cloud, in a bid to simplify management and improve reliability.

• Google superchages cloud storage for databases with Local SSD

  If you want the fastest possible storage performance for a database as inexpensively as possible, Google's cloud-based Local SSD for its Compute Engine platform could be the answer.

• Microsoft adds boards feature to Delve to ease content organization

  Microsoft has added a feature to its Delve content discovery tool that lets users gather material related to a certain task or idea and place it in a central location.

• Google and Avaya to bring Chromebooks and WebRTC to call centres

  Google and Avaya are chasing companies seeking to install or upgrade call center systems, promising them easier and more affordable deployments via Chromebooks and a WebRTC interface to the Avaya customer support software.

• Knowledge Vault helps CIOs stay in control of cloud-based email and storage

  For CIOs and IT departments that are concerned about losing control as more applications become cloud-based, analytics company Knowledge Vault offers some relief, starting with in-depth monitoring of Office 365 usage.

• HP rolls data analysis tools into the Cloud

  The pool of online data analysis services available for corporate users is about to grow larger, with HP set to offer two of its own, key products as hosted cloud services by early next year.

• DT and Informatica service links Cloud, on-premises apps, data

  European CIOs looking to integrate applications across public and private Clouds will soon have a new option with a data orchestration service from Deutsche Telekom and Informatica.

• Dateline Nelson: Innovation upstream at NZ King Salmon

  IT manager Simon Gutschlag takes the perspectives of a biologist, an environmentalist and a technology evangelist at New Zealand King Salmon.

• Adobe can now send customized messages to beacon apps

  Stores, sports venues and other users of Apple's iBeacons will have to walk a fine line between helping users and angering them with new in-app messaging from Adobe Systems' Marketing Cloud.

• Amazon promises a mightier MySQL with Aurora release

  With Wednesday's preview release of a new database service called Aurora, Amazon Web Services claims to have supercharged the open source MySQL with the high performance, reliability, and scalability characteristics typically associated with commercial database systems--at the fraction of the cost for these products.

• CIO to COO: Lessons from the cloud

  Peter Yates at Spark Ventures discusses how his experiences in consumption based IT services can be transposed to his new domain – operations.

• Chrome extension lets users launch desktop apps from Google Drive

  A new Chrome extension adds a desktop application launcher to Google Drive, as Google tries to bridge the interoperability gap between local software and its cloud services.