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In a recent survey by Evans Data, Google gets accolades for its public cloud. IBM gets top marks from developers for its private cloud.

But what do developers want the most? They want the cloud to be simple to use. They want it to be as as easy to get your data in as easy it is to get the data out. And they want it to be secure.

Evans Data survey took a look at the whole gamut of issues related to cloud computing in an annual survey, and its conclusions focus on the dichotomies between private and public clouds.

The big guns of the technology world are sometimes like that aging baseball team making another run for the World Series.

The baseball team's roster is filled with stars in the later part of their careers. They are not as fast as the younger players they oppose. But they sure have experience and enough knowledge to know exactly how to exploit the weaknesses of those kids with the big bats and strong arms.

IBM is buying BigFix, adding to its run of acquisitions in the past several years of security companies.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. BigFix has received $33 million in venture financing since its beginnings in 1997. Bloomberg estimates the acquisition price at $400 million.

BigFix is based out of Emeryville, Ca. It provides security intelligence software for managing an enterprise across its computing endpoints, meaning its personal computers, servers and desktops. For example, it can monitor if a PC is out of compliance, needs security fixes or requires an update.

IBM's Bob Sutor, vice president of open source and Linux, announced this morning that Big Blue is "moving to Firefox as its default browser" because the open-source browser is "stunningly standards compliant", "not beholden to one commercial entity" and "extensible" among other reasons.

The decision puts IBM's nearly 400,000 employees solidly in Mozilla's court, adding yet another vote of confidence for the worlds number two browser.

KickApps, a provider of enterprise-grade hosted social media platforms, announced the release of KickApps for IBM's WebSphere Commerce today. Websphere Commerce users will have the ability to integrate KickApps social media features into their stores and create highly targeted offers based on customer behaviors. The new "eSpots" feature of the product will allow users to create their own widgets to place on other web sites.

In what is the latest inIBM's series of acquisitions, the company today announced an agreement to purchase Coremetrics for an undisclosed sum. The acquisitions expands IBM's ability to deliver real-time intelligence to enterprises. Coremetrics is a SaaS provider that gleans data from not only a company's own website, but also social media, mobile media and other sources. Coremetrics's existing customers include brands such as Bank of America and Holiday Inn.

IBM released this week the iPad version of Lotus Notes Traveler, featuring two-way encrypted synchronization of e-mail, calendar and contacts with IBM Lotus Domino servers. The app also features per-message e-mail encryption.

IBM is betting on wide enterprise adoption of the iPad. The company's press release quotes John Roling, IT director at IBM client and business partner Czarnowski, saying he can see the iPad taking the place of the laptop for executives.

By 2015, it's estimated there will be one trillion connected devices. People with pacemakers will be monitored by wireless systems. In the near future, automobiles will run on 64-bit, multi-core processors, running millions of lines of code.

It's a future that IBM believes will be increasingly dominated by a "system of systems," where software scales on devices that interconnect to create a convergence of mechanical, electronic, and digital technologies.

Info-Tech Research Group released its evaluation of enterprise collaboration software earlier this year. Microsoft's Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Open Text's Open Text Social Media 7 won the highest praise. But as worker expectations change, there's clearly room for competition on usability.

IBM is buying Sterling Commerce for $1.4 billion. It is IBM's largest acquisition since purchasing Cognos in 2007 for $922 million.

The acquisition of the AT&T company is intended to complement IBM's middleware portfolio and help customers develop more intelligent business networks. Gartner believes the acquisition is a complement to IBM's acquisition of Cast Iron Systems a few weeks ago.

The transaction environment is undergoing rapid change as customers increasingly make purchases online and through electronic systems via any number of indirect channels. IBM's expectation is that Sterling Commerce will simplify the way organizations connect and communicate with partners, customers and suppliers through an on-premise infrastructure or cloud delivery model.