There was a time when it was okay to have one consumer electronics company specialize in building one product and another company building another, with both businesses working together yet apart to keep the technology sector humming along. Thanks to Apple's unbridled success the companys stock passed $500 this week and it is worth more than Google and Microsoft combined it has become fashionable for high-tech giants to develop and nurture a whole ecosystem. Take Apple's approach to mobile. The company builds its own hardware and software, and controls the supply chain and component pipeline for its iPhones, iPads and other devices like no other tech company in the history of the industry. Increasingly, Amazon and now Google are following in Apple's footsteps. Amazon, once solely an e-commerce and Web services provider, has spent the last several years building Kindle e-readers. Then, Amazon added the Kindle Fire tablet to bite off a chunk of the consumer Web market Apple triggered with the iPad. Not to be outdone, Google is building a home entertainment system, and the company is borrowing heavily from the ideas that Apple and Amazon have already set in motion. What is Google up to in its quest to control the living room? eWEEK explores the possibilities. - ...

Rackspace said it can help further accelerate adoption of SharePoint, one of the fastest-growing applications in the business productivity segment. - Cloud computing specialist Rackspace Hosting announced its acquisition of SharePoint911, a provider of SharePoint consulting, training and quot;JumpStart quot; services within SharePoint. The unification of both companies provides capabilities to deliver SharePoint hosting solutions along with ...

Increasingly, large organizations are discovering and using enterprise information with the objective of growing or transforming their business as they seek more holistic approaches to their data integration and data management practices. This is all in an effort to address the challenges associated with the growing volume, variety, velocity and complexity of information. In 2012, more companies will continue moving their business processes to the cloud, intensifying expectations for cloud data integration and data management as a part of a company's information infrastructure. The desired end result: to enable a more agile, quicker and more cost-effective response to business needs. To get a better handle on the way this approach to data is developing, eWEEK spoke to Robert Fox, director of B2B/EAI software development for Liaison Technologies, a global provider of secure cloud-based integration and data management services and solutions. - ...

SMBs continue to lead the adoption of cloud services, as the U.S. market experienced a 25 percent increase in 2011, growing to $15.1 billion. - Parallels, a hosting and cloud services enablement provider, released the latest updates of Parallels SMB Cloud Insights, its series of research that profiles the cloud buying behavior of small to midsize businesses (SMBs), the fastest-growing segment for cloud services. The survey results continues...

Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about Apple TV during a recent keynote, but remained reluctant to share concrete news on future plans. - Apple CEO Tim Cook offered some hints about the direction of Apple TV, as part of his much-circulated Feb. 14 keynote at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco. After cautioning that he “wouldnt want to go into detail about future stuff,” Cook conceded that “we nee...