Typically, SaaS offerings that work for both the provider and the customer take advantage of the inherent sameness of a certain business process across companies to package the app for mass consumption — such apps as sales force automation, customer relationship management, billing, and accounting.

In contrast, data warehouses and the business intelligence applications built atop them are typically carefully crafted and highly customized, even though the underlying software may be fundamentally similar across enterprises. Companies that manage to create a working data warehouse frequently hold their business analytics close to the vest.

read the rest at: Internet Evolution – Sean Gallagher – Data Warehousing as a Service an Option for Midsized Firms.

With a number of cloud computing initiatives already under way across the Defense Department, the military has established something of a beachhead in the dawning days of scalable, on-demand computing via the Internet. Now, as the Army starts to move forward with the first of its consolidated enterprise services, that beachhead is about to expand rapidly.

Encryption may end flash drives’ exile for good — Defense Systems.

In late 2008, the Strategic Command’s Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations (JTF-GNO) put in place an immediate ban on the use of flash drives — USB storage devices that have become the modern version of the floppy disk.

Used throughout the Defense Department to physically carry data between systems or transport personal files for use on shared systems, USB drives were at least partially responsible for a rapidly spreading virus attack on DOD’s Secret IP Router Network and Unclassified but Sensitive IP Router Network. On unclassified systems, the virus might have provided a back door for hackers to extract data.

To more quickly and effectively make battlefield decisions, warfighters need the final product of shared knowledge and collaboration: actionable intelligence.

Defense and intelligence community researchers and the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance industry are looking for technologies that help intelligence analysts and warfighters share information more easily and meaningfully. Rather than merely pushing sensor data to troops, the goal is to create a common operating picture that facilitates faster decisions in the field.

Bruce Bennett is director of satellite communications, teleport and services at the Defense Information Services Agency. In that role, Bennett is in charge of some of DISA’s largest procurement programs — the recently created Future Comsatcom Services Acquisition (FCSA), a joint effort with the General Services Administration, being perhaps the most visible of them. He is also responsible for the upcoming Defense Information Systems Network (DISN) Global Services Management (GSM) procurement.

Defense Systems contributing editor Sean Gallagher interviewed Bennett and asked him to share his perspective on the status of FCSA and the growing demand for military satellite communications.

If you’ve got a Facebook account, you’re going to start seeing more websites that want you to use it. Facebook now allows you to “like” web pages that aren’t part of Facebook itself. You’ll also be able to use your Facebook account for an increasing number of websites.