With the release of its new LoadRunner in the Cloud application load testing solution, HP aims to provide the flexibility of software-as-a-service in tools that traditionally entailed substantial investments to implement.

Demos, like appearances, can be deceiving. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, one of the media hits was OnLive Desktop, a service that provisions a Windows 7 desktop environment that includes Microsoft Office 2010 to the iPad over an Internet connection. For many, the idea of being able to run the full Office suite is very appealing, given some of the limitations of the iPad's native office productivity tools such as Apple iWork suite (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers), Quickoffice, and Documents to Go.

After more than two years of work, the city of Los Angeles last month abandoned plans to migrate its police operations to Google's hosted email and office applications because it says the service can't meet FBI security requirements.

After more than two years of work, the city of Los Angeles last month abandoned plans to migrate its police operations to Google's hosted email and office applications because it says the service can't meet FBI security requirements.

If I had to sum up in one word the most exciting thing that happened to cloud computing in 2011, I'd have to say it's OpenStack. This open source project, launched by Rackspace and NASA in late 2010, is assembling a private cloud "operating system" for the data center that promises vast increases in operational efficiency. The momentum behind it is phenomenal; at last count, 144 companies back the project, including Cisco, Citrix, Dell, HP, and Intel.

When you think about Polycom, the first image that might pop into your mind is the company's 'iconic, triangular speakerphone.' But CEO Andrew Miller wants you to know that Polycom is much, much more than that. In this installment of the IDG Enterprise CEO Interview Series, Miller spoke via Polycom's high-definition telepresence system with IDGE Chief Content Officer John Gallant about why Polycom should really be known as a software company and about Polycom's move to the cloud. Miller also discussed the impact of mobility on the visual communications market and why -- despite all the talk about video from Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers -- Polycom is in a better position to help companies drive the next era of collaboration. He also talked about the powerful partnerships Polycom has built with top-tier service providers and enterprise stalwarts like Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, IBM, and others.

Chipita America may be as close to a serverless company as one can find today. Its ERP, EDI and BI systems, Office and Exchange applications and file servers are all hosted in the cloud. About six years ago, when many IT managers were debating the merits of Nicholas Carr's book Does IT Matter? , Chipita CIO Scott Martin was moving the Tulsa, Okla.-based snack food maker's email to service provider CenterBeam's cloud-hosted platform.

It's 2 p.m. Do you know where your cloud data is? Really? Executives at one large Fortune 500 company thought they knew, but a routine audit of the cloud provider uncovered a serious problem.

Calling itself the 21st century distributor, NewLease is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) specialist with a sole focus on the service provider community. It facilitates and implements SaaS or subscription licensing models in Australia, New Zealand and India. Company chief Doug Tutus said the company - which was initially established as a service provider - is well placed to attack the SaaS market, having positioned itself early in the game and fine-tuned its expertise. JENNIFER O'BRIEN reports.

CIOs think of Symantec as a company that buys its way into new markets. Over the past decade the Cupertino, California, vendor has snatched up about 30 companies as it's evolved from an antivirus and tools seller to an aspiring enterprise infrastructure vendor.

The two primary forms of public cloud computing, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), are both growing dramatically in popularity. Over the last few years, the primary focus of the IaaS providers has been on offering the basic compute and storage resources required to run applications.

Both tech vendors are aiming to change the rules of game for enterprise software. And while they're going about it with two different business models, the companies share some things in common.

Small and medium-sized businesses have more important things to worry about than Microsoft's new Azure, a cloud-resident platform for building applications served to users online.

The tasks in Laef Olson’s working hours can be rather varied. Olson, who is the CIO at Software-as-a-Service vendor RightNow Technologies is on the one hand responsible for IT security and the organisation’s information systems, while on the other he spruiks the strategy and vision for the company's on-demand hosting platform. On many occasions Olson gets a direct audience with company CIOs. What makes it easier for Olson to get traction to the upper levels of management is his past. He has been group vice president of global technology operations of Travelport and Orbitz Worldwide. And before that CTO of cars.com. In these roles he was also a consumer of SaaS products. It is that experience that he uses to relate to customers when on the road. Olson briefly stopped over in Australia last month where CIO Magazine asked him about the maturity of SaaS.

Amid the growing popularity of software-as-a-service, IT managers are faced with a sometimes monumental task of developing big-picture strategies and policies to govern service-based applications as well as defining performance metrics and support.

Facing uncertain economic times, enterprises may be more likely to turn to cloud computing services -- such as SaaS (software as a service), Amazon-style utility computing, and managed service providers -- for the lower up-front costs, the faster time to market, and the ability to add capabilities quickly without investing in new hardware.