The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating the privacy and security implications of cloud computing. That could be quite an inquiry as the debate is still open about how to actually define cloud computing in the first place. Sponsor The investigation should raise some concerns with the enterprise community. Such an investigation could cover aspects of Internet communications that have been in use for years. How would the FTC distinguish between the rights of the consumer and businesses that also use cloud computing services? What regulations would drift into the enterprise sector? Any service provider could be viewed as part of the investigation under such a broad umbrella. The obvious parties would include Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Rackspace and the other large cloud computing services. SaaS is a form of cloud computing. That could mean a company like NetSuite , Zoho or Salesforce.com would have a stake in the outcome of such an investigation. According to The Hill , the investigation surfaced in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In the filing, The FTC recognizes the cost savings of cloud computing but has concerns about information being stored remotely: "However, the storage of data on remote computers may also raise privacy and security concerns for consumers," wrote David Vladeck, who helms the FTC's Consumer Protection Bureau. This statement is puzzling. People have been storing their data remotely since the early 1990s on services that predate the social networks. The intent of the inquiry is to protect consumers privacy. But the repercussions of such a broad investigation will also have reverberations throughout the enterprise community if the inquiry is not narrowed. According to The Hill, the FTC is holding a roundtable Jan. 28 to focus on privacy protections. It will include specific discussions about cloud computing, identity management, mobile computing and social networking. Discuss

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FTC to Investigate Cloud Computing

Socialtext is saying it posted record quarter-over-quarter bookings growth in 2009, bolstered by social computing's growing presence in the enterprise. It's important to note that Socialext is reporting record bookings, not record revenues. The company does not disclose its actual revenues. It's hard to to give Socilatext a lot of credit without knowing how its revenues fared. Further, the year ahead may be one of the most challenging for the company as competition is only getting more fierce. Sponsor Socialtext is one of the most established companies in the Enterprise 2.0 space, dating back to 2002 when it got its start as a wiki provider. In recent years, the company has diversified, adding a microblogging platform and collaborative tools such as SocialCalc , its collaborative spreadsheet application. Socialtext said it now has 6,500 customers, compared to 4,000 in 2008. The company also said it set a record for the number of companies that renewed contracts. Jive Software may be one of the biggest competitors for Socialtext. Microsoft will be pushing hard into the enterprise market this year with Sharepoint 2010. Google, Cisco, IBM and a host of new players are also fighting for the same piece of the pie. But, overall, the Soclaltext news is more real proof that social computing did get the attention of the enterprise in 2009, and that the year ahead should be another record year for the overall market. Discuss

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Socialtext Gets The Bookings But The Year Ahead Will Be Tough

In 2009, when Ray Ozzie stepped into the ring with the news that Microsoft was launching a full-on social lab, it was clear that the Enterprise 2.0 movement was moving into a new phase. Now comes the question of what effect Microsoft will have on the way Enterprise 2.0 evolves and what roles the players that are early to the game will play in its future. Sponsor Editor's note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we'll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year - and ahead to what next year holds - we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It's not just a best-of list, it's also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb! Ozzie is Microsoft's chief architect and one of the most respected people in tech circles. Lillian Cheng will lead the Future Social Experiences (FUSE) Labs and report to Ozzie. Cheng is a luminary in her own right, leading a number of research efforts for Microsoft, including the Vista UI. FUSE will combine three labs: The Creative Systems Group, which has been led by Cheng, and the Rich Media Labs and Startup Labs, now commandeered by Ray Ozzie. In an email to Microsoft employees this week, the message was pretty clear about the direction the company will take with its technology development. In essence, the tea leaves say that pretty much every product at Microsoft will include social or sharing features. FUSE will serve as a resource for the product groups. In Ozzie's words: Myriad scenarios involving the notion of 'social' have now gone far beyond communications and collaboration and are transforming experiences that are key to our customers and key to our business, in leisure & entertainment; productivity & teamwork; experiences extending how we use the OS itself. The three groups being combined have concrete skills and code in areas where 'social' meets sharing; where 'social' meets real-time; where 'social' meets media; where 'social' meets search; where 'social' meets the cloud plus three screens and a world of devices. FUSE Labs will bring more coherence and capability to those advanced development projects where they're already actively collaborating with product groups to help them succeed with 'leapfrog' efforts. Working closely with (Microsoft Research) and across our divisions, the lab will prioritize efforts where its capabilities can be applied to areas where the company's extant missions, structures, tempo or risk might otherwise cause us to miss a material threat or opportunity. Microsoft's apparent deep commitment will create a rising tide for the Enterprise 2.0 movement, which is already in full swing. A number of best-in-breed applications are being used by business people. Microsoft's high-profile commitment will further fuel interest in these applications. Part of this is just the natural order that is taking place. Corporations have historically relied on document-based systems such as Sharepoint. Web pages reflect the next extension, but they, too, are essentially a form of a document. Enterprise 2.0 is forcing a change by fitting social layers that surface information from traditional data silos. That shows no sign of slowing down. FUSE will push the effort forward in its work with the product groups. It will be a wholly different kind of approach that has its roots in IT more than in the business departments. A Different Development Burden Microsoft faces a different developmental burden than what faces the young best-of-breed companies that are building social applications for their business customers.These companies are building products from scratch that they can quickly change without worrying about software upgrades. Their products will continue to fill a gap for the business manager. This means that the Enterprise 2.0 movement will see a dual form of growth, both from business and IT departments. How Will The Customer Fare? Perhaps more interesting will be the changing dynamics for Microsoft customers. I spoke with Tim Young, CEO of Socialcast about this topic. The advantage of social technologies is their ease of use and how they fit into a line of business. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools can be treated as an expense. They perform a service. Business users like that model. The applications are easy to use and affordable. They do not require an IT team to put in place. Business users have been free to use these technologies at will. They have been pretty much ignored by the IT Department. But recently, Microsoft has been pressuring their IT contacts to upgrade to Sharepoint 2010. People we speak to say that IT is now starting to ask business users about the social technologies they are using. IT is skeptical to some extent. They have relationships with Microsoft that are important to maintain. But unlike in the past, business users are the early technology adopters and hold a bit of power. They have started using social technologies and are not looking back. They have crossed the chasm and are looking to employ these applications even more. The news from Microsoft just proves that the social enterprise is here to stay. Microsoft is not in such a bad space. Companies are still heavily reliant on spreadsheets and email. Documents remain the crown jewels of the organization. Their social offering only stands to improve with FUSE now in place. Several companies, like Jive Software , are integrating their products with Sharepoint, providing an edge they previously did not have. We expect Microsoft will play a heavy hand in how Enterprise 2.0 evolves. But the foundation has already been established to some extent without them. They have their own allies in the enterprise. Now it's just a question of how fast the culture shifts. Discuss

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Ray Ozzie's New Social Lab: What It Means For Enterprise 2.0

IBM CEO Sam Palmisano had some questions of his own in response to a question by a Barrons writer about Google in the enterprise. The quote appears in a Barron's story about IBM's comeback. The actual story requires a subscription to view. Here is what Palmisano had to say: "Is Google going to become the computing platform for the enterprise? Is a bank going to run itself on Google? Is an airline going to run itself on Google? Is IBM going to run its supply chain on Google? Is Bharti Wireless going to run themselves on Google? Is the banking system of China that we've built going to be on Google? Is the Russian Central Bank that we're building going to be on Google? No." Sponsor It's often perceived that a threat really is a threat when a smaller competitor is acknowledged by a much bigger rival. Is that the case, here? Palmisano does appear to infer that Googe is not up to the task of handling the work required of major operations. By making the comment, it opens up questions about how much of a threat IBM sees in Google. There is no doubt that Google has made noteworthy strides in developing an enterprise suite of products. And why would a company like an airline not consider Google? Of course, Google does not offer the technology to perform core transactional task or much less in-flight software. But day-to-day office tasks can well be handled with Google applications. Google does not pose any threat to IBM. Google dominance is not at hand. But Palmisano does appear to acknowledge that Google has a place at the table. Discuss

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IBM CEO Dismisses Idea of Google Dominance

It's not easy to migrate to Windows 7 from Windows XP. Core incompatibilities just make it inherently difficult. In the next year, it is likely that the enterprise will face the challenges of this migration, especially as new workstations are purchased. The challenge is compounded by the fact that Microsoft does not offer a clear migration path to Windows 7. Further, a number of legacy applications will not work in Windows 7, no matter how well the software is moved. Sponsor Virtualization software such as that from ZInstall can make the process of switching to Windows 7 a bit easier. ZInstall offers two "TV stations," meaning the company uses virtualization so the user may see both Windows 7 and Windows XP on the desktop. This gives the user the ability to move to Windows 7 at their own pace. ZInstall migrates all applications, settings and files from the old system to the new one, with no reinstalls. The virtualization technology means every application works on Windows 7 just like on Windows XP. ZInstall supports two main scenarios: Migration between two personal computers from one with Windows XP to a new one with Windows 7. Migration to Windows 7 on an existing personal computer. Virtualization is proving to be highly popular in the enterprise. Companies such as Citrix and VMWare are making small fortunes selling its virtualization technologies. ZInstall is banking on this trend with its virtualization technology designed to take the headache out of switching from Windows XP to Windows 7. Discuss

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Migrating to Windows 7? Virtualization Can Make it A Bit Easier

Every year the ReadWriteWeb team tries its hand at predicting the future. Looking back at our 2009 predictions , we got some wrong (I predicted that Facebook would sign up to OpenSocial) but others turned out to be on the money. I correctly guessed that the usual suspects would remain unacquired in '09 - Digg, Twitter, Technorati - but that FriendFeed would get bought. OK, so I guessed that Google would be the buyer. But close enough! Without further ado, here are our predictions for 2010. We'd love to read your predictions in the comments. Sponsor Richard MacManus, Founder & CEO 1. There will be a breakthrough consumer application for Internet of Things - involving the iPhone, RFID tags and a major consumer product such as books or groceries. In general Internet of Things will ramp up in 2010, with thousands more everyday objects becoming connected to the Internet. 2. Google will acquire PostRank and promptly consign it to the same graveyard Feedburner went to. 3. Microsoft will acquire Wolfram|Alpha and Bing will continue to make small gains in the search market. Google will be distracted by increasing consumer complaints about content farms polluting Google search results. 4. A price war will erupt in the eBook market and Amazon.com will offer the lowest prices, leading to it gaining a dominant position in the market with its Kindle eBook Reader. 5. Google will partner with a large PC manufacturer from Asia, who will launch an inexpensive netbook powered by Chrome OS in the U.S. market. It will become a hot consumer item among school kids and university students. Marshall Kirkpatrick, Lead Writer & VP Content Dev 1. Google Wave will win some respect back as people discover valuable uses for it and get used to the user experience. 2. Facebook will open aggregate user profile and social graph data for outside analysis. 3. Some serious user interface innovations will blow our minds. 4. Data portability will become more real, standard, expected and viable. 5. A new social network will rise to join the big ones. It may offer the privacy that Facebook is moving away from, it may be mobile and location-centric, it may focus on personal content recommendations. Sarah Perez, Feature Writer 1. MySpace doesn't quite make a comeback, but gets a fresh start of sorts with their music and entertainment offerings. The Gen Y/Gen Z demographic sees growth on the site but the network's overall numbers continue to decline. 2. Twitter launches ads. 3. TweetDeck finally launches a web version and becomes the number 1 Twitter client other than twitter.com. 4. Cloud computing heats up. AWS, Google, Microsoft and others begin price wars to compete for customers. 5. The iPhone still rules and grabs more mobile market share than ever before. 6. Meanwhile, Android becomes the #2 mobile platform by year-end. 7. iPhone App backlash begins. There are too many worthless apps and no decent way to find the good ones. Then Apple surprises us with a brand-new feature that improves greatly upon their "genius" offering to help us find new and useful apps via iTunes. 8. iTunes announces a web service, thanks to the Lala acquisition. 9. Spotify finally gets the green light in U.S. and people go nuts for it. 10. The netbook craze dies down. People start buying new "in-between" devices that are slightly larger and more powerful than today's netbooks - but smaller, more lightweight and cheaper than regular notebooks. Features like better processors, separate GPUs, and SSD HD options set these new "ultra portable" devices apart from the traditional netbook, but they're still often called "netbooks" because of their size. Market confusion ensues. Jolie O'Dell, Writer & Community Manager 1. MySpace relaunches as a content network, leveraging the bands and filmmakers they already have on board and dropping the emphasis on social networking. 2. Twitter will find a monetization model and launch things like ads and pro features. 3. Facebook will become the Borg. Its number of users will continue to climb until the network is as ubiquitous as Google and lay people confuse Facebook with “the Internet.” They’ll make more money and control more data than ever before. 4. iPhone’s exclusivity with AT&T will come to a breaking point and we’ll see network-agnostic iPhones. 5. On the bright side, 2010 will signal the death of the login. Third-party authentications will become the norm, and user data will be entrusted to a discrete handful of online properties. Users will pitch a hissyfit if ever they’re asked to create a username and password and upload an avatar. After all, doesn’t the Internet know they have a Facebook? 6. File-sharing will continue to be shut down around the world; by 2011, we’ll all be downloading via Tor and the U.S. will have instituted a lame 3-strikes-no-Internet policy. 7. Cybercrime will be more of an issue than ever. Expect to see a major governmental security breach in 2010, as the government continues to adopt 2.0 tech without strong and permanent infosec personnel and procedures in place. Dana Oshiro, ReadWriteStart Writer 1. AR: Geo-locational games and AR will come together in 2010. We’re going to see strange behavior from those playing zombie shooter games on their commutes. 2. Agree with Sarah: Netbooks and gadgets like the PsiXpda are going to gain ground. 3. Mobile Music: Offline music caching will be expected of all streaming music apps. 4. The browser really will be the new OS. 5. Payment Systems: Between Square, PayPal X and advances in internet TV, we’re going to see payment options integrated in unlikely places. Alex Williams, ReadWriteEnterprise Writer 1. Cloud computing will go through a shake-out. There are just too many companies out there for the market to sustain. The big players will go on a buying spree. The consolidation will deeply affect users. Some companies will fold overnight. Users will lose access to their data, leading to a whole new wave of skepticism about cloud computing. But it won’t be enough to slow down the move to cloud computing. More companies will consider the security risks as less of a factor, compared to the cost benefits and potential for innovation. Cloud computing technology will become more of a commodity. The business applications for cloud computing will take center stage. 2. The big players will come back strong. IBM , SAP and Microsoft will innovate just enough to show big gains with customers. 3. Consumer based social networks will make big efforts to gain wider access to the enterprise, as more companies seek to open up to the social Web. The information architecture of social networks will change to accommodate the greater degrees of control that the enterprise requires. This will bring on the rise of “social middleware,” services that act as a layer between social networks and the enterprise. 4. A new breed of social networks will emerge that act as one-stop shops for applications and services. These will look more like marketplaces than social hubs for conversations around the proverbial virtual water cooler. SaaS leaders will face off for this growing market. 5. iPhone, Android or the Blackberry? I expect the Android to be the talk of the enterprise, especially if the Google Phone does make it to market. Such a phone would eliminate carrier costs and break down walled gardens that have limited application development. Sean Ammirati, COO 1. Facebook will go public & the IPO will be a huge financial success. 2. Hyperlocal advertising will heat up, delivering another nail in the traditional newspaper industry’s coffin. (Very similar to one of my 2008 predictions, but this time focused on the advertising aspects.) Specifically, it will be more common for a local establishment to pay marketing dollars to Yelp or FourSquare, for example, then their local newspaper. 3. Apple will release an “iTablet” and the world will be a better place for it. Ok, more accurately we’ll all think the world is a better place for it. 4. Agree with Jolie regarding “the death of the login.” I'm hoping for open distributed alternatives along with Facebook and a handful of others. 5. Between Boxee’s continued development and a new AppleTV (hopefully synched with their iTablet), it will become much more common to enjoy the Internet on a TV. Elyssa Pallai, Marketing & Experience Manager 1. Skype becomes increasingly pervasive, as the younger generations force their parents to get online and consumers find new and interesting ways to cut costs and save money. 2. Software as service becomes ever more popular, as businesses and governments choose to focus on their core business and realize the benefits of lightweight technologies in the cloud - including rapid deployment and the low cost of switching. 3. The online user experience has a renaissance, as web browsers and hardware become more sophisticated and designers / developers take advantage of that. 4. The growth of Internet of Things continues, RFID tags in everything. The initial bugs will make funny things happen all around us. 5. iPhones and other smartphones become the purchasing tool of choice. 6. Consumers bypass carriers and create open wifi networks for all (which is already happening but not en mass). Jared Smith, Webmaster 1. Backlash against the App Store causes more and more developers to defect to Android and competing platforms. 2. Google Chrome’s market share increases at Firefox’s expense. Internet Explorer continues to lose ground as more rich, HTML5 -aware Web apps spring up on the scene. 3. Opera begins to struggle, as WebKit becomes the rendering engine of choice on mobile devices. 4. Social analytics features explode onto the scene in 2010. Twitter opens Pro accounts, including analytics and an API to access them. Google strikes a deal to integrate Twitter analytics with its Google Analytics product. Discuss

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2010 Predictions

With Apple, you never know who is going to be evil next. Microsoft usually gets the grand prize, but as of late it appears that Google may be getting the cold shoulder for its forays into the mobile word. Apple and Google have historically been very friendly. But in recent months, the tenor of that relationship has changed. Apple rejected Google Voice for the iPhone. And now it appears that the relationship may get a bit cooler with all the talk of a Google phone. As that relationship becomes more distant, it appears that Apple and Microsoft may be warming up a bit, which may prove fruitful for the future of the iPhone in the enterprise. It may also prove beneficial for Microsoft, too, as it is also fighting off Google's efforts to win over the enterprise with its Google Apps productivity applications. Sponsor As PCWorld points out, Microsoft may be smart to team up with Apple. The iPhone is a solid, smart phone. Microsoft could do well by developing applications for the iPhone that serve its customers. Its Exchange Server and Office products still dominate the enterprise. As it is platform agnostic, Microsoft can develop applications for the iPhone that support its customers and protects its market base. Apple needs a good partner like Microsoft to make any significant dent in the enterprise. It does not have the enterprise infrastructure like Research in Motion does with the Blackberry Server. Without an enterprise management service, Apple will find it tough for the iPhone to make any deep play into the corporate world. Further, Google is showing signs that its plans to dominate the Internet is dependent on having hardware to go with its enterprise services and cloud-based operating systems. Google is reaching out to handset and netbook manufacturers. This suits Google's designs on the enterprise. Google Apps are gaining acceptance as a enterprise suite. The Android OS finally seems to be gaining some momentum. And the Chrome OS is a strong contender for the netbook market, especially as Windows 7 shows yet more signs of delays. We expect the enterprise will serve as the place where the battles intensify between Apple and Google. Microsoft has nothing to lose in teaming with Apple to fend off Google, a common rival and current evil force du jour. Discuss

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Will Apple and Microsoft Join Forces To Fight Google?