UPDATED 11:49 EDT / FEBRUARY 24 2013

This Week in the Cloud: End-User Management, Mega and Home Entertainment

Managing end-users is no easier task, but two firms have set out to make it easier.  Both companies had major milestones this week in the world of cloud computing.

Virtualization specialist VMware debuted the latest release of the Horizon Suite, its pre-bundled enterprise mobility offering. This newest version includes a solution named VMware Workplace – an MDN platform that enables IT departments to roll out apps and data to all of the devices used by a individual or team.

Stormpath, a pure play provider of user management solutions, announced that it closed an $8.2 million first round of funding round led by New Enterprise Associates and Pelion Venture Partners. Existing investor Flybridge Capital Partners chipped in as well. The up-and-coming cloud startup offers developers a hosted access management and authentication solution that can scale up to millions of users, and deliver cost savings of similar proportions for larger projects.

While VMware and Stormpath are jumping hoops to appeal to the enterprise customer, Kim Dotcom is fleshing out his revived file sharing service. This week the internet entrepreneur turned renegade declared that Mega has become one of the first major websites to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.

Registering an account with Mega gets you 500GB for free, a cap that can be increased to four terabytes for a monthly fee. The cheapest plan starts at $9.99 month, the equivalent of half a Bitcoin at the time of the announcement.

In other personal cloud news, Sony announced the long-awaited PlayStation 4.  The next generation console is beefier, more game-friendly and connects to a cloud-powered backend that supports a variety of services. These include a set of social capabilities and a music streaming app that allows you to listen to tracks while they’re downloading.


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