It was announced this week that Amazon.com is dropping no less than $775 million to purchase Kiva Systems, a company that manufactures robots for use in warehouses (Kiva prefers the term “material handling technology,” but you get the point). On the one hand, it’s a way for Amazon to improve its efficiency, and thus its margins, ...

Thanks to well-timed announcements by Moxie Software and Saba, I’ve heard no less than three vendors tell me that they’ve prepared the next generation of the social enterprise model in the last week. Salesforce.com makes up the trio. But is social media in the workplace evolving, or is this just more hype? Saba People Cloud ...

Microsoft delivered a much-awaited update on its roadmap for moving its cornerstone Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ERP applications to its Windows Azure cloud at these week’s Microsoft Convergence conference. But that “update” amounts to little more than a hedge, promising that it’s coming before year’s end, but providing scant few other details for when it’s ...

It seems pretty simple: A better, more efficient data center means a better, more efficient platform for modern IT services like cloud, mobile and big data, which translates to more productivity and more time to innovate. But according to an IDC study commissioned by IBM itself, only 21% of the 300 “global IT leaders” surveyed ...

Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard used his Google+ page to announce late Friday afternoon that he’s leaving the Googleplex after an eight-year run to helm Upstart.com, a new education-focused startup. “It’s true. After eight wonderful and life-altering years, I’ve decided to leave Google to pursue my own adventure. I owe a lifetime of gratitude to +Larry ...

Between Microsoft cutting prices for the Office 365 software-as-a-service suite, an ex-Googler explaining why he left the company (hint: it involves Google+), and Salesforce.com launching new social and site-building services, and more, it was a busy week in cloud services. But isn’t it always? Here’s a roundup. Microsoft Office 365 Cuts Prices by 20% Thanks to ...

Accel Partners has announced that its inaugural Big Data Conference, which promises to “uncover the future disruptive ideas and technology trends in Big Data,” will be held on the Stanford University campus on May 9th. The one-day event will see entrepreneurs, researchers and IT thought leaders converge to discuss how the ability to crunch petabytes ...

During his keynote session, Salesforce.com CEO and Chairman Marc Benioff brought video game publishing giant Activision’s CIO Robert Schmid on stage.  They talked about how the Salesforce Service Cloud enables it to meet unique challenges facing a gaming platform where 5 million concurrent users of a total 50 million are generating terabytes of data a day, ...

Here at the San Francisco stop of the Cloudforce touring conference, Salesforce.com is extending play to be all things cloud to all people with the introduction of its Salesforce Rypple social performance management and Salesforce Site.com social-backed, CRM-integrated website building tools. It’s all part of what the company bills as the second generation of social enterprise ...

Cloud integrator Appirio is using today’s Salesforce.com Cloudforce conference here in San Francisco to announce the close of a $60 million round of Series D funding, led by General Atlantic with the participation of existing investors Sequoia Capital and GGV Capital. The money will go into new practice areas, new geographies and, yes, into acquisitions ...