VPNs are not a new technology. But I strongly believe that this security tool is still very under-used, and that we should soon expect to see a boom in the use of Virtual Private Networks by both companies and individuals alike.

Interesting overview of business video conferencing in the cloud:

The widespread adoption of cloud computing in business-critical applications such as storage and CRM has set the stage for conquering another, video conferencing cloud computing offers compelling, fundamental advantages in this product category: lower cost, automated fail-over, and much easier to scale versus video-specific routers, multipoint control units (MCUs) and other infrastructure hardware solutions.  But as experienced IT managers know, there’s more to video conferencing than meets the eye, literally.  What about bandwidth consumption and manageability?

According to a new survey from the Cloud Industry Forum, companies in the UK are mostly satisfied with their cloud provider, as discussed in my article here.

"ABI predicts a compound annual growth rate of 95 per cent, leading to 161 million subscribers by 2016. Services companies such as Spotify and Rhapsody are poised to scoop the spoils. However, creators will find it tough."

It's evident that communication service providers (CSPs) are currently pondering on how to approach the changes in usage behavior that social networking, especially Facebook, is bringing. CSPs are concerned that Facebook and the likes will hurt their current revenue streams from voice, text messaging and other services. From a new ReadWriteWeb article:

It's a logical conclusion that Facebook will extend its messaging platform to voice and other communications. That realization is forcing the telecommunications providers to respond. Facebook is moving into telco territory.

Not all companies are willing to move to the Cloud for various reasons, some of the listed below

For his part, Engates defined cloud computing as being similar to hosting, but with much greater flexibility thanks to the use of virtualization to create and break down applications quickly. VMWare, Microsoft, and Amazon would probably all agree with that definition. Then they can get to work solving the other problems.

Again, for 2011, cloud computing is on Gartner's top list of technologies to watch and invest in. See the Gartner slides

Cloud computing is one on the top 10 strategic technologies for 2011, according to Gartner

Cloud Computing. Cloud computing services exist along a spectrum from open public to closed private. The next three years will see the delivery of a range of cloud service approaches that fall between these two extremes. Vendors will offer packaged private cloud implementations that deliver the vendor's public cloud service technologies (software and/or hardware) and methodologies (i.e., best practices to build and run the service) in a form that can be implemented inside the consumer's enterprise. Many will also offer management services to remotely manage the cloud service implementation. Gartner expects large enterprises to have a dynamic sourcing team in place by 2012 that is responsible for ongoing cloudsourcing decisions and management.

Google will soon launch a new search product, Google Instant, that's directly targeted at mobile touch-screen users. Google Instant will show results "as you type", suggesting the relevant search result before you finish tying in your search phrase. From GigaOM:

In many ways, Google Instant demonstrates the evolution of a product in order to keep up with times; today’s faster broadband means that the search results need to come up faster than one could type. More importantly, Google Instant is a search product optimized for a brave new world where the user interface is touch rather than keyboards, and devices aren’t your classic computer, but instead mobile and tablet-like

Verizon has scheduled to open up a new presence in the UK by next year, aimed at the European market. It's services, called "CaaS" (Compute-as-a-Service) is basically a IaaS offering. Not surprisingly, the primary reasons for establishing a data center in the UK is to minimize latency and address data location issues, thereby complying to the EU privacy regulations. From ZDNet UK:

Region-specific facilities are necessary for two reasons — latency and data location, Beaumont said. By having the service come from a local facility, latency can be reduced, and the company can track the geographical location of customer data by using its own network. This helps "with some of the regulatory type of issues", Beaumont said. "If you're a company, some have issues with things like safe harbour or the Patriot Act, so they feel much more comfortable with those resources residing outside the US rather than in the US," he added