If anyone is still wondering whether clouds are just a fad, or a permanent change in how technology is delivered, more evidence is coming that the latter is the case.

Finnish startups are flowering. Nothing seems to stop them. Silicon Valley investors find them interesting, worth the trip to the Nordic latitudes, and worth their investment. There is a startup revolution in Finland.

Organizations are gaining experience and confidence with cloud-based solutions. But are they getting the most out of their cloud investments? “Two or three years ago, we were hearing about data safety and overall control concerns, and companies were in the process of still determining what the cost benefits of cloud would be,” said Vijay Takanti, VP of security and collaboration solutions at Exostar , an aerospace industry cloud services provider. “Now there is a much higher knowledge level in the cloud, and most of these initial concerns, with the exception of security, have been resolved -- but there are still business processes that organizations are hesitant to put into the cloud. They are also not leveraging cloud to get the most out of the technology.”

About a month ago, a federal grand jury issued indictments against Megaupload Limited and seven of its principals on charges related to copyright infringement, racketeering, and money laundering. (See: Of SOPA, the DOJ, & Anonymous.) A couple of weeks later, law enforcement officials conducted a raid seizing the defendants' assets, copying files from Megaupload servers, and shutting down Megaupload.com and its affiliated sites.

Last month saw the publication of the UK Cyber Security Strategy, outlining the UK government's perception of national-level threats from cyberattack -- whether "cyberwar" or "cybercrime" -- and its proposals and plans for meeting those threats in the coming years.