A Russian crime ring has been credited with breaching and obtaining 1.2 billion username and password combinations including 500 million email accounts. This information was taken from over 420,000 websites ranging from large house hold names to small companies.

“I like your shirt”, my boss commented the other day. “Thanks, I got it from LL Bean, it’s so easy; I love on-line shopping”. We then had a quick conversation about on-line shopping, which site is the best for shoes, casual or work clothes etc.

For this weeks throwback thursday I decided to look in my desk/apartment to see what old relics of technology I had lying around. Now I'm only 23 years old so many of our more technologically experienced readers may scoff and say things like "hrmph this is modern technology!" or "back in my day" but for me this is a throwback.

Wikipedia defines cloud computing as, “The use and access of multiple server-based computational resources via a digital network (WAN, Internet connection using the World Wide Web, etc.).”

But what does that mean?

The easiest way to not only understand what cloud computing is but also gain insight into why it’s gaining in popularity, is to compare it to the evolution of public utilities.

The smartphone has completely changed the way that employees work and interact with their co-workers. It has also completely changed the security landscape for most companies. In 2012 Gartner found that 65% of corporations were adopting new mobile device management (MDM) tactics to try and address the security concerns that smartphones and tablets were bringing into the workplace.

The cloud has changed so many aspects of our world, one of the biggest changes has been to how we consume our entertainment. With services like Netflix, Hulu and HBO Go more and more consumers are cutting the cord with their cable companies and switching to streaming services.

Cloud adoption has been on the steady rise for several years now; there is now a large customer base in the cloud ranging from individual users to enterprise level companies. With this large user base now established we are moving into part two of any products adoption pattern, buyer’s remorse.

Here are some quick hit statistics about the cloud, basically the cloud is moving fast, really fast. Its time to catch up with it.

These videos are quickly becoming some of my favorite throwbacks, in this one kids react to the original portable music player. Thats right its back, its the legendary, the bulky, the original Sony Walkman. I will give you a quick warning though, this video will make you feel old.

When configuring your client's new workstations to work in the cloud there are plenty of things to look forward to as an engineer. I remember at past jobs how much manual labor was needed to replace a workstation. Some people had had their computers for over a decade.