Ellen Messmer, Network World, Tim Greene

Office 365 is the Microsoft Office suite of desktop applications and hosted versions of Microsoft's server products delivered and accessed over the Internet.

Security startup Vaultive debuts this month with a product to remotely manage encryption of email data that enterprises may choose to keep in the Microsoft Office 365 cloud service.

The chief of AT&T Mobility can't wait for Windows 8 tablets to hit the market because they'll fuel demand for Windows phones.

"When they come out with Windows 8 in the fourth quarter, I think it will actually add to the value that [Windows Phone] OS brings to the marketplace in that that'll be the first time that you can truly have a similar experience on your PC, on your tablet, on your smartphone from Microsoft," says Ralph de la Vega, speaking at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference. "From what I've seen from the previews that I've been given, I think it's going to be exceptionally good."

IT management executives from large corporations worry most about how to manage employee-owned devices safely and securely, according to clients of the Directions on Microsoft analyst firm.

Asked which of five options would have the biggest impact on their systems management over the next three years, 40 percent chose "Invasion of mobile devices like tablets and phones," according to Don Retallack, a vice president at the firm.

Doctors are being cautioned by hospitals they work with to avoid interacting with patients on social media, and that they reject any overtures by patients to interact on the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

Stanford University School of Medicine student Matt Goldstein, who graduates in June and has accepted a position at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, says the hospital specifically stated in a letter to him that it would like him to refrain from using social media with patients. Goldstein also says the letter he got told him he should change his privacy settings on Facebook, if he used it at all, to optimize privacy.

When Microsoft launches Windows 8 Release Preview next month the operating system will have improved navigation features for users who like more than one monitor to display all their applications.

The upgrade - the last major tune-up expected before the final version launches sometime this fall - addresses task bars, desktop backgrounds and that no man's land, the common edge shared by adjacent screens, according to the Building Windows 8 blog.

Small and midsize businesses that actually use cloud services see them as a way to boost security and save money, according to a survey sponsored by Microsoft.

The same survey finds similar-size businesses not using cloud services worry they might not be secure enough and that the costs of transitioning to them might be a hurdle.

Microsoft is taking heat from browser competitors Firefox and Chrome for blocking them out of planned Windows 8 devices that will be based on ARM processors.

These low-power machines will run Windows RT, which Microsoft describes as a new member of its Windows operating system family that won't allow installing third-party software.

MIT's Sloan School of Management has embraced virtualized desktops as a way to meet user needs and streamline operations, but the IT staff accepts that finding just the right mix of hardware and software is an ongoing challenge.

Since the school started exploring thin-client virtual desktops in 2009, it has tried PCs, laptops zero-client devices and is considering expanding support to iPads and Android tablets, says Wesley Esser, MIT Sloan's director of information technology consulting and support.

A survey of more than 4,000 mobile-device users and IT professionals shows wildly abundant use of mobile devices, but profound concerns about security and how employee-owned devices ought to be used for business purposes.

According to the "Trusted Mobility Index," a survey Juniper Networks undertook to explore the ongoing mobile experience in the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, China and Japan, mobile-device users on average own three mobile devices, whether they be smartphones, tablets, e-readers or portable video game systems. Eighteen percent of the survey respondents say they own five devices. About three-quarters of respondents are already using some of their mobile devices for sensitive applications, such as online banking and medical information. But the survey reveals considerable anxiety and even confusion about security, and where they should be looking for help or handling of security incidents.

There is now an ongoing and massive cyberattack targeting the American gas-pipeline industry, aimed at giving the attacker a way to gather sensitive information by compromising business systems and possibly even subverting industrial control systems. The Department of Homeland Security's investigative division, called the ICS-CERT, says it's taking the somewhat unusual step of issuing an alert and speaking publicly about it to heighten awareness of a dangerous situation.

ICS-CERT, whose job at DHS is to interact with the nation's utilities and manufacturing firms that use industrial control systems and help them assess possible cyberattacks, is referring to it as the "Gas Pipeline Cyber Intrusion Campaign." In speaking briefly about it today at a conference here, Kevin Hemsley, a leader in the ICS-CERT, said a "sophisticated threat actor" is going after the national gas pipeline operators, mostly through spear-phishing, and has in some cases been able to compromise them.

Intel, which last year acquired McAfee for its security expertise, recently described work it is doing to provide enterprises with a way to secure data stored in public or hybrid cloud environments.

Jason Waxman, general manager of Intel's Cloud Infrastructure Group, joined with Greg Brown, vice president of network security at McAfee, to describe the strategy that's being pursued to let IT managers gain better understanding about the security of their cloud workloads.

Microsoft offers a range of services such as email and messaging under the banner of Windows Live, but that is about to end, shifting instead to a tight integration with Windows 8 that will drop the Live name and become an invisible part of Windows 8.

In a blog post, Microsoft acknowledges that the current way of offering Windows Live services seems disconnected from the operating system and its applications, but that changes with Windows 8.