AllThingsD.com reports a source close to the company has revealed it’s planning an event for early March in San Francisco, in which it will likely launch the iPad 3.

An Apple spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on the events timing, saying the company doesn’t respond to rumour or speculation.

It’s widely expected the successor to the iPad 2 will feature a faster chip and graphics processor as well as the same high-quality retina display seen in the iPhone 4 and 4S. If the iPad 2′s launch in anything to go on, the iPad 3 should go on sale around 10 days after it’s reveal.

The March event will be the second fronted by new Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took over the post from Apple founder Steve Jobs just months before his death last October.

If you’re not from a technical background, attempting to understand “cloud computing” could be both confusing and somewhat daunting. But it needn’t be. Put simply, cloud computing is a way to access products and services securely through an internet connection anywhere in the world.

It has been around for years. Whether you’re accessing Facebook, Amazon, Hotmail, YouTube, you’re using cloud computing. You tap in to huge banks of data through some very complex programs, each of which are hosted on various forms of physical hardware, located elsewhere and sometimes in other parts of the world.

The term “cloud computing” incorporates all of the clever networking, languages, programs and environments that allow us to do this. It refers to our ability to link to computer technologies globally through a modest internet connection.

Why the big fuss?

Whilst types of cloud computing have been around for years, the ability to link to these technologies has only recently started to mature. IT investment is expected to focus on this area in the coming years. Where certain technologies were once out of reach for particular businesses, they are now accessible.

Take software, for example. Traditionally, it came on a disc and you loaded it on to your hard drive. In a larger business it was stored on local servers, where the IT department would have needed to buy and install the software, as well as set up and maintain the servers it ran on.

More recently, however, software that we access through our web browser has become more popular. This can be referred to as ‘software as a service’ (SaaS), and is one of three components classified within cloud computing. Sage CRM.com Cloud is an example of software we host and provide using cloud computing. You pay a subscription for the service and have access to it in a Public Cloud environment. The provider (in this case Sage) is responsible for maintaining that service for you. You may choose to access through a Private Cloud environment. This means you are still accessing through a browser however, your programs and data are located in a Private Cloud environment. A Private Cloud can be referred to as ‘infrastructure as a service’ (IaaS).

‘I’ve heard of Saas, but what else is involved with cloud computing?’

I’ve introduced you to the first component of cloud computing, SaaS. There are two more. The second component is ‘platform as a service’ (PaaS). While SaaS allows access to software through a browser, PaaS offers much more than just buying and installing the software. It allows an organisation’s IT department or IT supplier to:

(i)            Source or build and maintain the platform for the users to work from.

(ii)           Customise the software to fit the organisation’s processes.

(iii)          Develop software for its users.

This can be a complex process. PaaS providers allow their customers to build software and make changes to it using a simple internet connection in an environment they have built, support and manage.

The third component is ‘infrastructure as a service’ (IaaS). Data, hardware, servers and networking components require ongoing maintenance. Providers offer to host products in a central location and provide access to them through a secure internet connection. Huge buildings full of hardware exist worldwide (also known as Data Centres), with masses of virtual and real-life security. They are there to ensure that no one can access those servers but the customers using their internet connection thousands of miles away in some cases. This service is IaaS.

Cloud computing gives IT buyers access to technologies, without the constraints of large upfront fixed costs, space, power or extensive setup times. As technology continues to improve and develop, the ability to access the best products and services from anywhere in the world is also improving and evolving.

If you’d like to get practical, email me Charles.Pludthura@sage.com

Consumer technology is transforming our lives as Australians are gaining ubiquitous access, to everything and everywhere, through a rich and simple user experience that has become the norm. But small businesses are also warming up to the benefits of consumer-style technology in the workplace.

A recent Telstra survey found that more than half of Australian SMBs are providing their staff with a smartphone and more than 66 per cent plan to purchase tablets in the coming year. Apart from the flexibility that these mobile devices provide, this is also the best time if any for SMBs to embrace the cloud to make their businesses truly mobile.

Work at your own time, save money and be more resourceful

There are many trends that come and go, but cloud is certainly one to stay due to the many benefits it provides to business of all sizes. For instance, cloud computing allows business applications to be hosted on the service provider’s infrastructure, leaving you to focus on your business. Staff can now access this data and applications from anywhere, using devices of their choice. They are no longer tied to their desks, and are empowered to work at their own time – this can provide an amazing lift to productivity.

Time constraints, resource and cost are always the big ticket issues – particularly when it comes to IT, but cloud-based services can help small businesses to dramatically reduce the impact these challenges have, providing a more agile position to monetize the business opportunities around them, literally ‘cashing in’ on the trend. Why? Because by pushing these applications and the IT administration out to the cloud it means you can concentrate on what generates revenue, not ‘keeps the lights on’ and it can all be managed with greater fiscal discipline given it comes in a pay-by-month or VM (virtual machine) model, so you only pay for what you use.

Not only is cloud computing to some extent financially freeing due to the services generally being paid for on a per-month, per-user basis that is easy to change, but it is also highly convenient because you are always using the latest version of everything without needing to perform complicated upgrades.

Mobility is a key trend for 2012

Surveys have shown that over 60 percent of SMBs have at least one person who works away from the office at any point in time. Businesses with mobile workforces such as sales representatives, tradesmen quoting on jobs, accountants, and contractors would benefit the most from cloud-based services. For instance, contractors could recover their job schedules the night before without having to go into the office, check on any updates throughout the day or initiate a workflow for someone to follow up a request from a customer.

With the cloud, your employees’ capacity and your business productivity are both enhanced – urgent orders can still be processed after hours, customer queries are dealt with more promptly, sales people are working with data in real time and there is a constant flow of information – accessible by anyone (who is authorised), anywhere, anytime.

In the event that a staff member loses their device, have their laptop or tablet stolen or need to go on medical leave, the most up-to-date file is still retrievable quickly and effectively without the involvement of IT staff, which often comes at an additional cost.

Mobility is turning out to be the key trend for 2012 and to truly capitalise on the benefits of the bringing-your-own-devices (BYOD) to work; embracing the cloud will be a key differentiator. The benefits for those that embrace it are potentially enormous, with the opportunities to be exploited by harnessing cloud technology not reserved for larger businesses only, as once thought. What needs to be understood is that the cloud can add a lot of value to small businesses due to its simplicity, accessibility and flexibility – as long as you are able to manage the growth in data, back it up and secure your devices.

- Mark Oakey is marketing manager, Storage Platforms at EMC Corporation ANZ

The plans are ideal for offices with up to five employees, Optus said, and SMBs can choose from a range of plans beginning at $59 per month offering high-speed data, voice and cloud-based email and collaboration tools, with the flexibility to scale connection speed up or down based on requirements.

To make it easier for businesses to go digital, all the packages finclude a single user license for Optus OfficeApps Email and Collaboration suite, webSMS and a new business domain name. OfficeApps, a cloud-based solution, gives SMBs access to Google Applications for Business, including email, calendar and documents, and the ability to send personalised bulk SMS via the web.

For customers looking for data allowance and faster speeds, Optus has created the $59, $89, and $119 business data packages which are available on a 12 or 24 month contract. The $59 package offers up to 100GB of anytime data, while the $89 and $119 plans include 500GB and 1,000GB of data allowance respectively.

For customers looking to combine their broadband and business phone, Optus offers the $99, $109 and $129 business data and phone packages. On the $99 business data and phone package businesses receive 500GB of data and unlimited standard calls to fixed line numbers and Optus mobiles within Australia. Small businesses that require unlimited standard calls to fixed lines and mobiles within Australia can opt for the $109 and $129 packages, which include 500GB and 1,000GB of data respectively.

According to Optus SMB managing director Rohan Ganeson, the NBN opens a door for small businesses to take advantage of high-speed broadband, and do business new ways.

“Optus NBN packages have been designed to offer great flexibility and value and make it easier for small businesses to take the leap into the digital world, from establishing an online presence to reach new customers, to running their applications in the cloud for 24/7 access to business data,” Ganeson said.

All Optus’ NBN plans include an NBN Wi-Fi modem and the standard speed pack, ideal for basic multimedia streaming, web browsing and email. This can be scaled up or down at any time to suit a business’ online needs.

According to the Acronis Global Disaster Recovery Index 2012, while Australian SMBs confidence about their ability to recover data after a disaster remains below average, it more than doubled in 2011, growing 136 percent.

Underlying this rise is perceived improvements about having the right resources and the technologies to recover data. Confidence in these two criteria more than doubled over the past 12 months.

Another contributing factor to the increase is that 66 percent of SMBs now check their backup and disaster recovery plans more regularly, possibly as a result of the natural disasters which hit many regions in 2011, including destructive flooding in Australia, Brazil and Thailand, deadly earthquakes in New Zealand and Turkey, storms across the United States and the devastating tsunami in Japan.

On a more local level, Acronis found Australian businesses are 36 percent more confident their backup and DR operations won’t fail during a disaster, but one-third still haven’t employed an offsite backup strategy, the same number as the year previous.

Karl Sice, Acronis’ general manager – Pacific, said the natural disasters of 2011 have acted as a catalyst for positive change when it comes to businesses testing back-up and DR operations – but the results aren’t all positive.

“…for all the positives in the survey, too many strategic-level negatives, such as failure to get executive buy-in and the use of multiple, disjointed solutions, linger when it comes to keeping the business-critical digital assets of a business secure, protected and immediately available, particularly in a hybrid world,” Sice said.

The survey also found downtime as a result of disaster-related data loss costs a business an average of US$366,363 per year – which can mean the difference between a business’ survival and closure in many cases.

Do you back-up your business data offsite? How regularly?

I hope by now that I don’t need to convince you that your business should be online! No matter what your business I’d lay a bet that your customers and your competitors are all online in one way or another.

If you’re not already online here are a couple of valuable tips to make your first step into the online marketplace a successful one. If you already have a website, this advice will also help to improve your current website and sell more of your product or service.

Have you thought about what the main purpose of your website is? It may be a glorified business card that gives your potential clients information and your contact details. Maybe its a contact place for your existing customers, or a shop where you plan to sell directly to your customers. You may even want a membership site for your customers to sign up to. Business websites have many purposes, but regardless of this, the secret is to keep it simple and not to confuse your clients.

Once you have a grasp of what your purpose is you can start the research phase. The internet makes it easy to research what your customers and competitors are doing online. Imagine knowing what search terms your customers/clients are using to find your products or service. How great would it be if you could look at a competitors website and work out what keywords (search terms) their website ranks for? The good news is Google has created software to tell you the keywords (search terms) your potential customers are using, and you can paste your competitors URL into the same software to see what keywords Google thinks may be relevant for them. You can find the external Google keyword tool here. Go and have a play with it – you might be surprised!

Understanding what keywords your customers are using online to find your product or service is incredibly valuable when it comes to building a website for your business. You want Google to find your website when your potential clients and customers search for your product or service. Once you understand which keywords are right for you, you can have your website content created around these keywords.  Keywords are the basis of on-page Search Engine Optimisation – your web developer should be able to advise you more on how they will make your website visible to Google for your chosen keywords.

One final quick point about ‘good’ keywords. They may not be the keywords with the largest volume of searches – in fact they usually aren’t because so much competition might exist in your industry that you could battle to feature on the 10th page, let alone the first Google page. So, when researching your keywords think about who your customer is and what ‘buying’ phrases they might use and balance that with the number of competitors for that keyword.

If you’re already a Google Apps user then you are well aware of the benefits that come from switching to the cloud service platform. In addition to lowering IT costs, Google Apps improves productivity, communication, and collaboration abilities of all kinds of organisations.

And now there’s yet another tool that will benefit your end users. As of October 27, Google made Google+, its social networking site, available to Google Apps users. In order to gain access to this new tool, administrators need to manually turn it on. Google+ for Google Apps is currently only available for Google Apps for Business users, non-profits, and higher education institutions using Google Apps for Education.

But those who do have access to Google+ for Google Apps should definitely begin using this new tool. Google Apps users will have access to the same Google+ features as those who are using personal Google accounts in addition to a few extras. One such unique feature includes the ability to share with everyone in your organisation, regardless of whether they are in one of your circles or not.

These extra features aside, the basic tools that drive Google+ make the service a more than worthwhile addition to the Google Apps suite. For example, circles allows users to create groups of people with which they can share specific information. This tool proves useful when you have a message to share but don’t want to share it publicly, as it only pertains to certain people.

The hangouts with extra tool that’s available to Google+ for Google Apps users will allow you to work with others remotely but will make you think you’re all sitting around the same table. How is this possible? Hangouts enables users to screen share, simultaneously collaborate in Google Docs, and have multiperson video chats. These three tools combined mean that everyone can view and work on the exact same screen at the same time while having a face-to-face (through video chat) conversation.

And the benefits of Google+ for Google Apps don’t end there. Shortly after Google announced Google+ for Google Apps they made Google+ Pages available for apps users, as well. With Google+ Pages, organisations can create a page through which they can send messages, converse with customers, and share news and updates.  Additionally, these pages are easy to find as organisations can place a Google+ Badge to their page directly on the organisation website.

Looking at all of these features together proves that using Google+ for Google Apps will increase the benefits of the Google Apps service to you and others in your business.

- Sharon Shapiro is from Cloud Sherpas,  a leading Google Apps cloud service provider. As a Google Apps Authorised Reseller and Google Enterprise partner, it has migrated over one million users across all major industries from legacy, on-premise messaging systems to Google Apps, helping organisations adopt cloud computing to innovate and dramatically reduce their IT expenses. Get to know the company by checking out its Google+ page at cloudsherpas.com/plus .

No-one doubts that the explosion of digital technology has produced a fundamental shift in the global economy. What’s less visible is how Australian small to medium businesses (SMBs) have embraced this change and embedded it into their own practices.

Ninety-five percent of Australian SMBs are internet-connected and on average they do 34 percent of their procurement online, according to the latest Sensis e-Business Report. Other research for Telstra shows six-in-ten SMBs allow their staff to work from home and 34 percent have workers who spend more time away from the office than in it.

We live in a highly mobile world. Half of Australian SMBs use mobile broadband and 46 percent of all mobile phones are smartphones that can access e-mail and the mobile Internet.

So here are five predictions for information and communication technology for Australian small businesses in 2012:

1. Unified Communications

A good definition of Unified Communications is allowing all forms of digital communication – voice, video, documents, messages, whiteboards – between communicating parties whichever device they are using.

Today, Unified Communications is primarily achieved by the users combining their phone with their PC, but increasingly smartphones that bring e-mail, voice calls, SMS and the Internet together are a flexible way of doing Unified Communications.

In 2012 we’re going to see a dramatic rise in the use of Unified Communications in small businesses as it becomes simpler and affordable.

Telstra has already announced an out-of-the-box product called Digital Business, which combines high-speed fixed broadband and high-definition broadband telephony that works seamlessly with mobiles and cloud software.

It is designed for businesses with up to five employees and means a phone need never go unattended and an answering machine message should never be lost.

This product is smart enough to forward a call to a mobile, home phone or business handset, and archive voicemails on a PC. All of a business’s valuable data is stored on a remote server so it need never be lost.

2. Faster Networks

Of those Aussie small businesses already using mobile broadband, 88 percent say speed is “important” or “very important.” It’s no surprise, then, that almost nine-in-ten are interested in switching to the new ultra-fast broadband 4G LTE.

In late 2011, Telstra became the first telco in Australia to roll-out 4G LTE and that’s continuing apace into 2012.

Telstra USB 4G mobile broadband modem customers in 4G coverage areas can enjoy typical download speeds up to 2 times faster than earlier 3G devices. .

This is a game-changer that will drive SMBs to reassess how they use mobility in their working lives – especially as we will be releasing 4G-capable smartphones and tablets in the New Year.

Telstra 4G coverage is initially available in all capital city CBD’s (within 5km of the GPO), associated airports and selected regional locations (within 3km of the town centre) and automatically switches to our fastest 3G network speeds available in other coverage areas.

3. Videoconferencing

Faster broadband has made high-quality videoconferencing a reality but until recently, it was the preserve of big business because of its high cost.

Higher speeds and more powerful computers are allowing us to do much more and videoconferencing is becoming an important business tool that’s much more affordable for small business.

Some 45 percent of SMBs say they regularly have meetings with suppliers, clients and other key people and almost nine-in-ten would rather do this face-to-face than by landline or email.

Videoconferencing will become very attractive for those SMBs that want to be more productive – especially since the maxim of time being money is still true and the cost of travel is rising.

4. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has been a buzz-word in business for a couple of years. It means using a secure server located and operated by someone else to use applications, store data or do computing work.

Cloud allows small businesses to enjoy the same advantages as big businesses, for a fraction of the cost and without large up-front licence-fees or hardware costs.

The shift of business to the cloud has been gathering momentum. Of the customers using Telstra’s own cloud software portal, T-Suite, a stunning 98 percent are SMBs. That customer base grew 110 per cent in less than nine months.

In the next year, cloud will make sense to even more SMBs and there will be a dramatic spike in its uptake.

5. Mobile Comparison Shopping

Smartphones are becoming a bargain shopper’s best friend in the USA, UK and Japan – and not just to call around.

Free applications like RedLaser make it easy to photograph a product’s barcode, have it automatically uploaded to a database and see a range of comparative prices from other outlets within seconds. RedLaser has next to no Australian product content right now but that will change.

We’ve already seen one major supermarket chain introduce its own barcode comparison app and more will follow.

In 2012, smartphone comparison shopping will throw down a challenge for SMBs to promote their own attributes online, using mobile-optimised web presences.

Many are already using the internet to increase productivity – our research shows greater than one-in-five has a website reaping an average of 41 percent of total turnover.

McAfee has teamed with Vodafone to launch the McAfee Mobile Security app, a monthly subscription-based security service for selected Android smartphones.

According to McAfee chief technology officer Michael Sentonas, mobiles are now major record keepers for many businesses, making it important they have security in place to protect against mobile data theft.

“The anxiety we feel when we believe that we have lost our device is not only to do with the inconvenience of the loss; the next questions we ask are who has access to the information on the device and what will they do with it?”

Features of the McAfee Mobile Security app include:

• Anti-theft Protection
• Device Lock: Prevents misuse of the users phone and personal data by remotely locking all data, including the data on the memory (SIM) card, and displaying a “contact me” message on the device.
• Remotely Wipe Data: Protects privacy by remotely deleting the data on the phone and removable memory card. It can also back up data before the remote wipe to prevent the loss of data on the device.
• Backup and Restore Data: Preserves irreplaceable personal information on demand, on a schedule, or before wiping a missing smartphone, then restores information to the new device.
• Locate and Track: Helps users to recover their smartphone if it is lost or stolen. Users can view the device’s location on a map, send an SMS to prompt its return and use a remote alarm to make it “scream”.
• Display of a personalised message with instructions regarding how to contact the owner to return a lost device.
• Complete Anti-virus, Anti-spyware and Anti-phishing Protection: Scans and cleans malicious code from inbound emails, outbound emails, text messages, attachments and files.
• Web Protection: McAfee SiteAdvisor protects against Web threats by blocking risky links within SMS, email and social networking sites. It also safeguards against potential phishing sites, browser exploits and malicious quick response (QR) codes.
• Online Management: The McAfee Web portal lets users quickly execute needed security tasks, such as backup, restore, locate, and remote lock and wipe.
• Uninstall Protection: Prevents a thief or another user from bypassing their McAfee mobile protection.

The app is available now for download from the Vodafone website, at a cost of $3 a month after the first month, which is free. Supported operating systems include Google Android 2.1 – 3.0 smartphones.

We keep hearing about how ‘the cloud’ is going to make us crazy-powerful and change the way we live. If that were true, it should’ve happened back when Hotmail started the trend for people to exchange information without requiring their own physical server for storage. That innovation did change things, but it didn’t rock the world quite as much as contemporary cloud computing aficionados are making out.

In Australia, moving from on-premise storage to the cloud amongst small businesses is expected to drive a compound annual growth rate of 16.6 percent by 2016. For this very reason we have some very big players either starting their own ventures to capitalise on the rush to the cloud, and others who are investing massive amounts to expand their already considerable reach into information technological market.

Cloud computing is not new in concept, but it is in the way it has evolved to be designed around different business needs. We now have an information management option that allows businesses to store information remotely, allow access through infinite channels and ensure the data is kept in real time.

The secret of cloud computing is ensuring you have defined the challenge/opportunity you’re seeking to solve.

The biggest mistake would be to move everything to the cloud without planning. Storage is cheap these days. Be selective and strategic, plan what, how and who can access information.

Some of the biggest benefit is the ability for the cloud to unlock the potential of staff and drive true collaborative activities on various projects. Where an organisation may struggle to facilitate a culture of knowledge sharing, the cloud may breach this barrier and create more incentive for individual staff to share ideas.

When assessing how your organisation might use a cloud, remember what it’s there for. Providing you are looking at A-grade providers, their security is probably better than your own. Storage can be accessed through a decentralised channel, but the more you store, the more expensive it gets and harder to find what you need! Being selective with the kind of information that is stored and the personnel you allow to access it can ultimately drive return on investment much faster.

- Neil Glentworth is managing director of Glentworth, an information management specialist firm which helps organisations identify better ways to maximise efficiencies, minimise risk and ultimately grow their business value.