CenterBeam, Inc.

Companies that are considering outsourcing IT operations to a cloud computing vendor will save money in the long run. In the short term, however, it is possible that costs to the organization to restructuring may hinder total savings, according to Network Computing.

The latest attack aimed at compromising the desktop security of social networking users is a spam message carried out using Facebook to convince users to upload malware onto their hard drives, according to McAfee. The message claims to be from Facebook administrators and informs the recipients that they must change their password.

The Federal Communications Commission announced its National Broadband Plan on Wednesday morning to mixed reception from the IT community. While some believe the plans are too grandiose it is clear that there are disparities in broadband availability throughout the U.S., which create further distance between academic and financial opportunities.

As cloud computing vendors constantly tinker with their products to make them more appealing to customers, leading industry experts believe that their security measures must also be adjusted, according to ITBusinessEdge.com.

A substantial number of organizations that have yet to move to the cloud cite security as the factor behind their decision to keep their on-site IT operations. Cloud computing companies have attempted to ease the concerns, but to no avail in many cases.

In recent days, entirely false rumors of President Obama's death and the fervor surrounding the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament have been exploited by cyber criminals to compromise web security and spread malware, according to Trend Micro.

Video game consoles may soon have their strongest competitor ever in the form of a cloud computing based gaming platform that allows users to purchase and play video games in the cloud.

Cloud computing applications cannot offer the flexibility that hosted IT can, but the other benefits outweigh the small sacrifices, according to Internet Evolution.

Google recently announced the development of an applications marketplace that allows cloud computing companies to easily purchase and integrate features into their business seamlessly. The site acts a medium between cloud computing application developers and companies hoping to increase their capabilities.

The increased useof smartphones and laptops in the enterprise sector has led Gartner, an IT market research firm, to predict that PC shipments will grow by 20 percent in 2010. Moreover, spending is likely to increase by 12.2 percent to about $245 billion.