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Michael Koploy, an analyst with the excellent consultancy Software Advice, has put together this week some interesting data that shows the true story of security breaches concerning electronic medical records. He found that contrary to popular opinion, storing this information online makes this information no more insecure than, say, accessing your bank account. Many of the exploits had to do with common, unsexy things such as stealing paper records and laptops or hard drives from doctor's offices containing patient information.

Today IBM announced several enhancements to its SmartCloud computing services collection, focusing on disaster recovery and continuity features. The new services include:

• IBM SmartCloud Archive, specifically designed for eDiscovery and other regulatory requirements for records storage,
• IBM SmartCloud Virtualized Server Recovery, and
• IBM SmartCloud Managed Backup enhancements to integrate the above two services in the backup stream and in automated backups.

BitNami, Cloud.com and Zenoss have released the results of its 2011 Cloud Computing Outlook survey. You can request a copy of the report here.

Only 20% respondents have no plans to develop a cloud computing strategy, but there was a clear preference for using dedicated hardware instead of public cloud infrastructure. Virtualization is very popular, and the biggest benefit respondents perceive in cloud computing was hardware savings.

In a refreshingly bitter post at Tech Target, Carl Brooks wrote: "Apple iCloud is not cloud computing."

Brooks went on: "You know what iCloud is? Streaming media. In other words, it's a Web service. Not relevant to cloud; not even in the ballpark."

But there are certainly some cloudy elements to iCloud. At the very least, it's a software-as-a-service. It fulfills the cloud promise of providing anytime, anywhere access to data.

Accounting juggernaut Intuit has made some significant enhancements to its online accounting services and will announce today a series of new apps and partner supplying vendors. The Intuit Partner Platform and Intuit Anywhere SaaS solutions will make it easier for small businesses to extend their existing QuickBooks accounting software tools by federating user's identity across participating vendors.

As expected, Savvis was acquired this week. And as expected, it was acquired by a telco - CenturyLink, the third largest telecommunications company in the U.S. There's very little to say about this acquisition that wasn't said earlier this year when Verizon acquired Terremark and Time Warner Cable acquired NaviSite.

"Verizon and Century Link have made it clear that telco's are attacking this market and both have gone the acquisition route," writes Gartner analyst Kyle Hilgendorf. Hilgendorf writes that Gartner has found that the biggest technical problems enterprises migrating to IaaS face are "network performance and latency issues (not to mention non-technical legal, transparency, and availability concerns)."

Enterprises are getting more complex with virtualization and the advent of cloud computing - which is leading to changes that are making room for next generation networks. The Strategic Network Group says new networks must be evaluated according to three criteria: portfolios, partners and processes.

Google is famously secretive about its data centers, so a new video on its enterprise blog that gives a glimpse into the inner workings of its facilities is a rare treat. The video emphasizes security and environmental best practices. You can watch it after the jump.

As soon as this summer, Google could announce a program to rent Chrome OS portable computers for $10 to $20 per month. According to a report on the generally reputable tech blog Neowin, this plan, part of an effort to get more people using its services and viewing its ads online, was confirmed by an unnamed source.

In response to our request for comment, Google told us the same thing it told the U.K. Register yesterday: "We don't have anything to share at this time." This, then, is just a rumor; but I think it's a very thought-provoking one. What would it mean for a consumer cloud computing interface to be available dirt cheap, largely ad-supported and as a rental?

We have been ending the week here with an infographic we find that looks to have some value for at least a snapshot of the market.

This week, the Horn Group sent us an infographic that shows the vendors in what it calls the Cloud Computing Stratosphere. The group created the infographic to help give its clients some perspective on the market. They sought out Forrester Research for context and guidance.