Stories by: Shane O'Neill

Is 2012 the year app stores will break out in the enterprise?

Ultrabooks, a term coined by Intel, gave name to the increasingly thin, light, fast and (relatively) cheap Windows laptops popping up over the last year in reaction to the Apple MacBook Air and the iPad-led tablet craze.

Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Cisco, take notice: Despite the near-constant hype about cloud computing services, most mid-market companies are still viewing cloud as a complement, not a replacement.

If you're old enough to remember the Cold War, you know what an arms race is. One side comes up with a new weapon, the other side matches it, and then the first comes back with something even bigger and so on and so on. That also describes the ongoing battle between computer users who value their privacy and the Web sites and their advertisers that don't.

Chances are Microsoft will not retaliate against Google's 12.5 billion purchase of Motorola by acquiring a phone maker of its own, say industry analysts, mainly because of the company's rich history developing and licensing software and building an ecosystem of hardware partners.

Enterprises planning a Windows OS migration are at a bit of a crossroads. There's a lot to consider.

When it comes to deploying Microsoft Office alternatives such as Google Apps, Zoho or Lotus Symphony, enterprise IT managers are in a state of intense curiosity but are still not ready for widespread adoption, according to a new Forrester research report entitled "Market Update: Office Productivity Alternatives."

At first glance, Microsoft's whopping $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype may seem like a pure consumer play to bolster Windows Live, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Kinect -- or an extremely expensive way to prevent Google from gobbling up Skype first.

For all the cost-saving appeal of cloud applications -- more commonly referred to as SaaS (software as a service) -- enterprises are still trying to get their heads around the benefits and risks of SaaS and which parts of the company need it the most.

Check out these 10 Google Apps add-ons designed to enhance the Google Apps experience and help you take care of business -- from data protection to project management and more. All add-ons can be found at Google Apps Marketplace, and most of them are free or offer a free edition.