Demand for cloud-based storage and backup is creating some lucrative opportunities for companies servicing large telecommunications providers. We are seeing a number of carriers offering cloud-based services. Orange Business Services announced today that it will be offering cloud storage and other cloud-based services for its customers. Verizon announced earlier this month that it is offering a number of cloud-related services. Telecommunications companies are partnering with services like Nomadesk to give customers the ability to do their own cloud-based online backups. Sponsor Belgium-based Nomadesk is an online backup and syncing service for small business owners and personal users. It provides unlimited storage and sharing. The company announced this week a partnership with Bell Canada to provide its millions of customers with online back up for their mobile devices. Nomadesk is a virtual hard drive on your desktop. It's very simple. We downloaded the application, made some simple configurations and immediately had the ability to drag and drop files into the virtual hard drive that sits on the desktop.The hard drive is connected to the cloud and syncs when updates are made. Your data is secured and encrypted. It can be shared with any number of users and synced across the community. Applications can be backed up. Access to documents are available online or offline. Nomadesk CEO Filip Tack is touting the service as a better alternative to Box.net and Mozy . We agree that Nomadesk is easy to use, but as a collaboration platform it has some way to go. For example, Nomadesk does not have an advanced search capability like Box.net. We view enterprise search as a key feature for collaboration services. Tack said the company will offer search as a feature in the first part of 2010. Companies in this space are showing big market gains as larger providers seek revenues from the petabytes of data being produced every day. Mozy, for instance, just announced a partnership with Cox Business. Mozy is also partnering with China Telecom, McAfee and Vodafone to deliver cloud-based backup to customers. What is the amount of data that is produced every day in the enterprise? We know this can vary wildly but even small businesses are starting to produce exponential amounts of information compared to just a year ago. As this amount of information continues to grow, services like Nomadesk should stand to do very well as providers for large telecommunications companies. Nomadesk service for small businesses starts at $15 per user, per month. Discuss

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Nomadesk: Cloud-Based Backup Providers Doing Quite Well

Factories may not be the first place you'd expect to see demand for social technologies. But social networks are changing how manufacturers view their operations. In a recent survey of 268 manufacturers, 63% of respondents said that enterprise resources planning (ERP) software will provide its highest value when integrated with social computing technologies. Users want ERP software to perform the functions of collaborative technologies and social networks. Sponsor But why do manufacturers want social technologies in the enterprise? According to Manufacturing BusinessTechnology , a trade publication, they want to develop ways to share the knowledge of senior engineers and professionals. Among manufacturers with more than $1 billion in revenue, 72% said they wanted this capability. Manufacturers are most interested in using data from social networks to capture leads, research competitors and perform business intelligence functions, such as product training. They are also interested in receiving contextual information from similar users at other companies, and troubleshooting. Manufacturers are turning out to be the surprise adopters of Enterprise 2.0 technology. In a recent survey done by the 2.0 Adoption Council, manufacturers were some of the most eager adopters of social technologies. The survey of manufacturing managers was done on behalf of IFS North America , one of the largest software providers to manufacturing markets. IFS is developing its open-source applications to fit the changing manufacturing landscape. For example, it is migrating away from static documentation technologies in favor of more collaborative applications such as wikis. Many manufacturing companies face an aging workforce. A new breed of socially oriented technologies will be considered part of doing business for a younger generation. It's evident that real-time technologies, social networks and cloud-based services are having real impacts across our economy. In 2010, we expect to see clear examples of how these new messaging and communications services affect supply chains across multiple industries. Discuss

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Facebook in the Factory: Manufacturers Want Social Software, Too

IBM is teaming up with eyeOS , the maker of an open-source, web-based operating system. We've had our (ahem) eye on eyeOS for quite some time . It's receiving renewed interest in the wake of the much anticipated launch of Google Chrome OS . IBM will offer eyeOS 2.0, available in January, to all customers who buy IBM's System Z mainframe servers. SystemZ servers are used mainly by large organizations for data processing purposes. So eyeOS will be used as a desktop in the cloud for potentially thousands of enterprise users. Sponsor This is a huge win for eyeOS, making it one of Google's biggest competitors in the web OS or " webtop ," space. IBM has a huge channel for distributing eyeOS, which will better position the Barcelona-based company in the enterprise market. Questions still remain about the eyeOS platform. IBM is adopting the software for availability on its servers, which raises questions about eyeOS as a true cloud offering. The beauty of cloud computing is its ease of use, with the Web as its backbone. As our own Sarah Perez wrote in September about eyeOS : "Besides, offering the host-your-own solution almost misses the point of being a web OS. The promise of cloud computing is that it's supposed to make our lives easier - our data lives on the web now and not on our fallible hard disks and CDs. We don't have to backup, because Google (or any other cloud vendor) does that for you. We don't have to worry with hard drive space either - we use the cloud, sometimes even for a fee, and we can get to our data from anywhere using any device. And all this is provided to you within your browser." Nonetheless, this is a big step forward for eyeOS and validation that this kind of "webtop" solution may have legs after all. Discuss

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IBM Gets Webtop From eyeOS, Eyes Google Chrome OS

Collaboration services targeted for the small business market often seem more like software suites than web-based services with deep linking capabilities and tag-based environments. For example, the new offering from HyperOffice focuses on features that are fundamental to small business operations but lacks the advanced capabilities that we see from a number of Enterprise 2.0 services. Is this a good thing? Is this due to the domination of document-based systems that have traditionally been such a part of the small business world? Sponsor We are torn on this one. We see a number of companies offering services such as real-time collaboration environments. Still, the portal mindset seems to have such a hold on the small business market. HyperOffice looks like it is providing a service that has value for the small business. But like others we have seen, HyperOffice feels monolithic. It provides the capability to create personal and group environments but extensions to the web are limited. In some respects this may be just the right approach. HyperOffice users may not want the capability to build data mashups and tie into services like Twitter. The company points out that the market is flooded with Web 2.0 style point tools. The HyperOffice platform is a one-stop shop. This may be smart as the company is targeting Microsoft Sharepoint and Lotus Notes users. A SaaS like HyperOffice may be enticing, perhaps even more because it has similar functionality to the offerings from the big players in the market. The HyperOffice UI resembles a Microsoft Office environment. The main page includes icons such as desktop, mail and calendar. The features are basic but provide a clear functionality for the user. HyperOffice has personal and group settings. Groups may share calendar items, collaborate on documents and other tasks. Additional features include tasks, notes, a wiki and the ability to search Google and Yahoo! from within the application. Here's an overview of the service: Google Apps and Zoho provide a deeper web experience than HyperOffice. But there is definite value here for the company looking for an affordable, CRM service. Pricing starts at $7 per user, per month. Discuss

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Why Do Small Business Services Sometimes Lack Sophistication?

Outlook users can now use email plug-in Liaise to automatically extract action items, delegation and priority levels from the free text of email conversations. This is software that's so cool it makes me jealous of Windows users. Liaise launched in September and won the Peoples' Choice Award for Enterprise Products at DEMO but is available to the public at large for the first time today. Sponsor In removing its Beta label, Liaise has added a few new features, including calendar integration, group collaboration and more user control over the UI. Check it out, I think if you're an Outlook user this is something you could really find useful. Discuss

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Use OutLook? Liaise Intelligent Assistant Available Now

SnapLogic is one of those kinds of companies we run across that you can say, "yes, these guys get it." The company provides data integration services that snaps information from the enterprise, social networks and the web. MindTouch is a company we have covered a lot about lately. MindTouch provides a presentation layer that for instance, shows information from multiple data sources in a dashboard environment. Now the two companies are teaming up to provide Business Application Integrations (BAI) . Systems that the companies say make for affordable enterprise integration services that are cheaper by an order of magnitude compared to more traditional offerings. Sponsor BAI integrates the database functionality of SnapLogic and combines it with the presentation capabilities of MindTouch. The service is priced at $4,995. Historically, custom built systems cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement. It's an Enterprise 2.0 play. The service can be up and running in almost no time at all. Custom, heavyweight systems often take months to implement. The companies maintain BAI cuts down on operation costs such as maintenance and the need to have multiple developers constantly managing on premise systems. Almost more so, data is overwhelming companies right now. Analytics are of critical need. Will BAI be adopted? Larger questions will be about the value the service provides and how customers view it. On the one hand it is affordable and simple to implement. But those factors may be a hindrance, too, as companies are not quite accustomed to the lightweight systems that SnapLogic and MindTouch embrace. Discuss

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MindTouch and SnapLogic: Another Affordable Way to Fit Information Together

Having a meaningful conversation in 140 characters or less seems at times a tad, let's say, disjointed. It's not exactly meaningful. But it is this Twitter like approach that is defining how real-time technologies are deployed in the enterprise. AskMyBrainTrust looks at the real-time enterprise through a different scope. Users are not limited to a set number of characters for expressing themselves. Instead, the service uses a real-time model to elicit meaningful conversations with your brain trust, that inner circle you go to for counsel and feedback. Sponsor With most real-time services, the application provides better value when a critical mass of people participate. AskMyBrainTrust limits a group to seven people. Collaboration is limited only to the people in the group. After the group is formed, a topic is submitted. Idea are presented by members of the group. Each has its own threaded discussion. Members of the brain trust vote on the ideas with the intention of driving the group to a consensus. Real-time services with character limits make it challenging for meaningful communications across a tight group of confidants. Email is even worse. Discussions scatter. Gathering ideas together to form a consensus almost has to be done on a one-on-one basis. Conference calls can sometimes feel endless without any form of agreement. AskMyBrain represents the evolution of real-time technologies. Real-time services like Yammer and present.ly have their own fit for ongoing conversations with any number of people. AskMyBrainTrust is not suited for these kinds of social conversations. More so, it is a service for when you need to collaborate among a small group of people to reach a collective agreement. Discuss

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Conversations in 140 Characters or Less are not Exactly Meaningful