Research has shown time and time again that the biggest driver for most organizations in the process of moving to a virtual or cloud environment is—you guessed it—cost savings. However, to unlock the full return-on-investment value of virtual or cloud environments, IT operations management needs to be fundamentally modified. To achieve software-defined data center efficiencies, the approach must be shifted from bottom-up to top-down management, and the emphasis must be transitioned from manual intervention by staff in a reactive fashion to automated controls. Automation is the key change here. A good automated approach can be established using software that maintains an optimal state of operations—one in which applications always have the resources they require to meet business goals while making the most efficient use of network, storage and compute resources. This eWEEK slide show identifies the 10 main obstacles IT managers should plan to face when deploying a cloud or virtual environment. Chief resources for this are virtualization software provider VMTurbo, Forrester Research and eWEEK reporting.

The Google package delivery pilot program, which began in March, is expanding, according to a report.

This time, federal investigators are looking at whether Google broke antitrust laws regarding its sales of online advertisements.

After a spate of high-profile compromises, Twitter announced it is rolling out a new way for users to better protect their accounts from hijacking.

Google created the crisis-response Web page as part of its efforts to help the devastated community of Moore, Okla., recover and get needed assistance.

Amazon expanded its App Store and tablet reach, as a study faults the FAA for denying consumers 100 million-plus hours of online time.

Hospital staff spent a significant amount of time on Facebook, especially when ERs became more crowded with patients, a University of Florida study revealed.

The vendors are contributing to the $10 million in funding for Cloudscaling, which bases its cloud solution on the OpenStack platform.

PlayerScale's Player.IO is the platform for online games played on a daily basis by an estimated 150 million people worldwide.

NEWS ANALYSIS: Google Chrome keeps gaining ground on competing Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer. This is due to its strong set of features and Google’s patient support.

NEWS ANALYSIS: Over the past 40 years, Ethernet—a standard that a bunch of tinkerers at Xerox PARC created to run a printer—continues to deliver as it grows bigger and faster.

Google, which makes the bulk of its revenue on search ads, wants to encourage and help online advertisers to be successful as well.

A private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, will buy Websense, which makes Internet content-security systems.

The browser update lets users talk to Chrome to do many of their searches with this innovative feature.

Tony Perkins, founder of AlwaysOn Network as well as Red Herring and Upside magazines, knows how to put on a good IT conference. His AlwaysOn and OnDemand events, held at various locations around the United States, can be counted on to attract thought leaders and smart entrepreneurs. The OnDemand 2013 conference, held May 20 and 21 at Hewlett-Packard's refashioned Executive Business Center on the main campus in Palo Alto, Calif., drew a packed house, as relatively new startup companies were selected to talk about their ideas to venture capitalists and potential customers. This two-day event treated attendees to a high-level debate and discourse on top trends and opportunities in the software-as-a-service (SaaS), cloud, on-demand and mobile enterprise sectors. AlwaysOn editors select the OnDemand 100 Top Private Companies and identify the Power Players in On-Demand Computing—the investors, corporate buyers and dealmakers championing the on-demand and cloud entrepreneurs. This slide show spotlights 10 of the most promising companies showcased in this year's OnDemand summit.