<p>Businesses need to keep a close eye on the evolution of cloud based services to avoid wasting money and missing out on business opportunities.</p> <p><strong> </strong></p> 

Are you going to upgrade to SQL Server 2012? This edition of SQL Server Insider sets out to help you decide whether the investment is worth it or not. Read this edition to learn if several IT pros are going to upgrade and why, how this release will affect the database marketplace and pros and cons of actually upgrading. 

The promise of creating value by harnessing collective activities is attractingorganisations to technology that connects employees, engages customers and partners inconversation, or boosts their R&D through crowdsourcing initiatives. 

The security of SQL Server database servers has become a top priority for database administrators. This article examines best practices that can be employed to secure Microsoft SQL Server 2000 databases. It provides an overview of the security model in SQL Server 2000 and discusses best practices you can employ to secure yours. 

The exclusive sponsor of today's virtual seminar has compiled a library of useful information for you to read - and will have technical staff on hand in the virtual environment to answer your questions about deduplication technology. 

W. Curtis Preston discusses the issues surrounding restoring deduplicated data in this podcast. 

Storage Magazine Online is starting off the New Year right – specifically, by covering a few of the major topics, issues and technologies you’ll likely be hearing about quite frequently in 2011 like new storage strategies and hybrid cloud storage. 

This week’s Computer Weekly examines the growing threat from smartphones being targeted by hackers and viruses as the devices are increasingly used for work. Hospitality giant Mitchells & Butlers talks about its migration to the cloud and the CIO of Airbus discusses his IT priorities and how he spends €500m a year on IT. 

While most common payroll process errors are avoidable, they are also easily overlooked. Unfortunately even the smallest errors can lead to long-term issues and increased expenses. Read more to find out the top 10 payroll pitfalls and how to prevent them. 

The inaugural issue of BI Trends & Strategies offers sound advice to help you in ensuring your organization is on track to keep up with the rapidly changing landscape of BI and analytics. In this issue, readers will learn about a big data definition and the impact it will have on BI and data warehousing, agile development methodology and more. 

Read this FAQ featuring W. Curtis Preston, which outlines how Linear Tape-Open (LTO) tape differs from other tape media, the various generations of LTO and the pros and cons of this backup technology. Also learn about the newest model, LTO-5, being released this year. 

Virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs) are one of the hottest technologies in IT today – and more and more organizations plan to deploy virtual desktops throughout 2011. Read about this and more in the March 2011 edition of Storage Magazine. 

Query performance three times faster is just one item in this top-10 list from the analysts at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). Download this article to read the full top 10 and learn why Cognos 10 holds "strong value for upgrading customers and prospects."