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Have your friends or colleagues suggested a ‘must have’ budgeting app that you found to be a waste of time? We’ve collected three of the best apps that you can start using right now that are going to keep your money where it should be, your pocket!

Big data is a phrase we see regularly these days but…do we really know what it is? Like many concepts in the technology industry, the answer to what big data is, is likely to depend on who you ask. There are plenty of misconceptions and misperceptions of just what big data is and what it can do.

No doubt you’ve seen and heard much about the necessity for a strategic approach to IT.  That’s all well and good, but for many, IT is something which ‘just happens’ and as a result, calling it ‘strategic’ couldn’t be further from the truth. Want to change that? Here’s how (and hint: a strategic approach will deliver considerable advantages - in performance, efficiency and enablement).

Typically, the first thing most assume when dealing with cloud services is that there will be a cost saving. The next is that the costs will be variable, and they are. What ‘they’ don’t tell you is that by using Amazon Web Services (AWS), it is possible to get lost in the cloud and end up with a bill much bigger than anticipated. Here’s how that can happen.

Let's start by considering a trully uknown - AWS Cost Accounting

Pricing for AWS is completely transparent.  The price for each service is clearly labelled online and publicly available.  Amazon’s list prices are the same for all customers, and the only discounts come in the form of volume discounts based on usage, or Reserved Instances (RIs).

So if that's so transparent, how is it an unknown? The devil is in the details

You will by now have heard the term 'Cloud Computing' a lot.  You probably have found that the term 'cloud computing' used for completely different and apparently contradictory circumstances. Google, Uber and Amazon are all 'cloud' but very different services. Didn't Amazon once sell books?  AWS, Evernote, Uber, AirBnB, Office 365, Google - all cloud, all quite distinct.

But  then  even  though  IT  created  this  notion  of  cloud  computing  they  took  it  further  and  created  even  more  clouds.  No, these aren’t cumulus, stratus or cirrus. They are instead the public cloud, the hybrid cloud and the private cloud.

Before getting into these definitions, take a look at this previous blog for more detail on "What is cloud" 

Let's start: Public Cloud

A    public    cloud is based on a standard cloud computing    model,   where   a  service provider (think Microsoft or Amazon)    makes    resources,    such  as applications  and   storage, available  to  the   general  public over the Internet. Public cloud services   may   be   free   or    offered  on a pay-per-usage model.  

What about private cloud?

As useful as the internet is, it is also the means by which criminals can attack your business, either to disrupt operations, or for their financial gain. Information security is everyone’s business: employees, managers and business owners. It is necessary to take reasonable precautions to secure individual devices, the network and all other IT infrastructure against threats which continually evolve and which, if they take hold, can have nasty effects on productivity, reputation and the bottom line.

But just what is malware?