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The term online reputation management is familiar to more and more executives and even small businesses every day. Also known as ORM, it refers to managing what is said online about a given company, product, or even individual. With large percentages of consumers using the internet to research products and companies and still others getting their news from online sources, it is vital that businesses at least monitor what goes on in the cyber world.

A single negative review on an anonymous site can easily find its way to the top of the search engine results for the name of a company, product, or service. Likewise a negative blog post, forum comment, or even a video demonstrating how a specific product fails to work. The more negative results to a search query for your company’s name, the more potential customers you lose. For individuals this can translate to losing out on promotions or jobs. For start up companies it can mean they don’t get the venture capital they need.

The main problem with do-it-yourself ORM is that the web is a vast organism. It takes more than just doing a few web searches to identify what results turn up for a company name. You need to be able to monitor social media conversations and news reports before they end up in the search results. More importantly, you need to have the knowledge and resources to create positive results and make sure they end up in the results. That’s where hiring elixir interactive becomes more cost effective. In fact, there are many qualified ORM companies that can help you with proven techniques to influence results as well as advice on how to respond to negative sites, if at all.

It’s nearly impossible to read a tech magazine, blog, or newpaper column without seeing news and analysis about the rise and impact of the cloud. In 2010, the cloud is definitely one of the big things and is likely to remain so for several years as more and more companies and even individuals move more and more computing functions off of in house servers and computers and into the cloud.

For those companies who are drawn to the flexibility and efficiency of cloud computing but afraid of losing control and security, there are a number of options for private cloud automation . The first is to create their own private cloud. This is ideal for very large corporations with extensive data and processes that need high levels of security. By building and maintaining their own cloud they can offer flexibility and efficiency to employees and even clients while keeping tight control of access and other security issues.

Another, more common, solution is to contract with private cloud companies. These are third party businesses that specialize in creating private cloud environments for their clients. While the physical systems reside on their equipment, they work very closely with companies to design cloud environments that provide high security, customization, and keep control firmly in the hands of the company using the cloud. An additional advantage of using a private cloud vendor is that companies can usually create hybrid clouds, where some functions are on public clouds (which are usually cheaper) while the core, sensitive computing is on the private cloud. This allows them to design the perfect balance of security, control, and price.