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Want a more global perspective of enterprise technology trends? Gartner's 2011 CIO Agenda survey included responses from 2,014 CIOs across 50 countries and 38 industries. In a recent announcement, Gartner detailed the responses of 36 top CIOs in India.

Cloud and mobile technologies beat more traditional concerns like enterprise resource planning and network communications.

The Android version of a popular barcode-scanning application has been spotted running on several different BlackBerry devices according to the app's maker ShopSavvy. In a recent blog post, the company revealed that, despite not having an official BlackBerry version of its smartphone application available, its analytics program shows that its Android app was run on various BalckBerry devices, including the BlackBerry 8300, 8600 and the 8520.

Even more interesting is the fact that these apps were run somewhere in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada - the same city where Research in Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of BlackBerry devices, has its headquarters.

We've spent the past few days at the Parallel Summit, talking with people about the hosting industry and the small business market.

Parallel executives have reiterated that the cloud's future is in the small business market. In talks yesterday, Parallel Executive Chariman and Chief Architect Serguei Beloussov said it will be a $50 billion market by 2015.

Parallels Software is having its annual conference with discussions about the cloud and virtualization.

The big takeaway we see from this event? The small business market is beginning to see significant growth.

We'll be live blogging this morning to give you a view about the trends that are evolving in the market.

Pooling its virtualized infrastructure has proven to have its benefits for Germany's University of Münster.

The university has more than 38,000 students spread amongst 15 different departments. Its natural sciences department oversees 10,000 users and 3,500 machines.

The department now has two server locations but the infrastructure is pooled to allow for more efficient maintenance and backup in case of a downtime issue. Here's what they did:

The decisions that come with deciding how to use cloud computing reminds me of conversations that I am sure you've had.

You look at a few options then you decide. But with the cloud, it's about a few hundred features to consider.

Our Road to the Cloud," contest, sponsored by VMware and Intel, is looking at how companies get started in cloud computing. Write a comment and you will be a candidate to win a MacBook Air. We'll be giving out a new MacBook Air every month.

The most basic of services will often require the most complex of technologies to keep running.

Allied Electronics, for instance, distributes electronics components in the United States and Canada. Performance is critical as is redundancy.

To keep its systems running at an optimum capability, Allied Electronics recently adopted virtualization. Here's how the shift fit perfectly with its Service Level Agreements:

There was once a time when students may have had access to better computers at school than they did at home. But with the explosion of consumer technologies, that's not the case. Arguably now many students carry more powerful computing devices in their pockets than sit on their desks at school.

Schools struggle to keep up with continually changing technology. They simply cannot afford to replace hardware at the rate with which upgrades are released. And as such, the technology infrastructure of most schools is severely lacking.

Jonathan Hefter has built something that could solve that.

Earlier this month we covered Gartner analyst David J. Cappuccio's concerns that a data center crisis is looming. This week we're seeing increased data center hiring. We talked to SunGard Availability Services's Managing Principal of Consulting Services Dr. Mickey Zandi, who says that although data center hiring isn't in crisis yet, it's already difficult to find qualified people. He shares some advice for data center managers and workers on how to prepare to for the future.

It is inevitable for any considerable enterprise to consider how the cloud and the data center can be combined in the most dynamic, efficient and secure way as possible.

It's a decision making process that gets even more complex when considering the dizzying terminology that makes sense only after considerable conversation.

I kept thinking about these customers when listening to Hewlett-Packard (HP) discuss its new hybrid cloud service.