When it comes to cloud-based e-mail, there are four major vendors vying for your IT dollars: Microsoft, Google, IBM and Cisco. Each has its pros and cons, but no matter which vendor you choose the price of e-mail will be roughly the same: $5 per user per month.

Fonality, a provider of cloud-based business phone solutions and contact center solutions for growing businesses, has announced the company’s customer sales in the first half of 2010 have more than doubled compared to the prior year.

Microsoft Corp. has said that it’s highlighting market opportunities for hosting and communications service providers as adoption of cloud services among small and midsize business (SMBs) continues to rise.

The company is highlighting these opportunities at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010. Microsoft said that it’s helping service providers take advantage of those opportunities via its software, services and programs, enabling them to become trusted advisors and full-service IT providers to businesses.

The battle for email cloud is set to heat up as enterprises start to rethink their email strategies, that's according to Forrester chief analyst, Ted Schadler. And the chief beneficiaries are going to be Microsoft and Google.

In a new report, Four Giants Compete For Your Cloud Email Business, Schadler explains how the advent of cloud services is going to shake up enterprises' spending on email.

Revenues are projected to grow from $13.1 billion in 2009 to more than $40 billion in 2014

Interest in the SaaS (software as a service) delivery model is growing to the point that by 2012, almost 85 percent of new vendors will be focused on SaaS services, according to new research from analyst firm IDC.

Also by 2012, some two-thirds of new offerings from established vendors will be sold as SaaS, IDC said.

The cloud-based productivity apps feature enhanced security and are being pitched as cost-savers

Honing in on the lucrative government market for business applications, Google introduced Google Apps for Government, featuring its suite of cloud-based business applications equipped with extra security precautions.

Selon Microsoft France, une centaine de nouveaux clients par mois adoptent ses solutions cloud (Exchange Online, Office Communications Online, Office web Apps) et des grands comptes franchissent le pas.

Windows Azure Appliance, Dynamics CRM 2011, Windows Intune…La Microsoft WorldWide Partner Conference (WPC) organisée la semaine dernière à Washington a été dense.

Dans le prolongement, la branche française de Microsoft fait le point sur sa percée cloud.

The tools and training be offered are aimed at helping partners deploy and support cloud-based offerings

Microsoft is giving its partners tools that could help drive more business to its cloud-based services.

At the company's annual Worldwide Partner Conference, the new Microsoft channel chief unveiled programs that give Microsoft business partners free access to its cloud software as well as training.

SMEStorage has announced version 1.40 of its iSMEStorage product, which is a cloud hosting virtualization application for the iPhone. In this newest version, SMEStorage has added support to the OS 4.0 for the iPad and the iPhone .

Company officials said that the application brings access to more than ten aggregated storage clouds directly from the iPad, with seamless viewing and management from a virtual cloud file system.

Jazztel, P.L.C., a Spanish telecommunications operator, has selected and already implemented BroadSoft’s BroadWorks VoIP application platform to support its Hosted-PBX offering, Packs de Empresa.

Packs de Empresa is a bundled service for small businesses that includes up to eight voice lines, together with ADSL2+ Internet access and a set of BroadWorks value-added features, including call forwarding, three-way calling, group hunting and short dialing.