Thursday, January 31, 2013

Cloud storage startup Axcient

Backers: What's this, another cloud storage upstart? Here, have $20m
Register
Another day, another cloud storage startup. This one's Axcient, which is in the cloud backup game and has just scored itself $20m in Series D funding. That seems surprising. It's already Axcient's fourth funding round and it's a lot of greenbacks. What ...

Cloud Computing And Its Effects On Network Management
CloudTweaks News
The delivery of computing as a service, or cloud computing, over a network is becoming more and more mainstream and is allowing businesses of all sizes to get their applications up and running faster, with easier manageability and less maintenance ...

MEGA cloud storage service is launched by Kim Dotcom
HEXUS
Controversial internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom held a press conference from his mansion in New Zealand on Sunday to launch his new MEGA cloud storage service. The event, which took place on the anniversary of the takedown of Megaupload, was ...

HEXUS

Mediafire – 50GB more free cloud storage
The Gadgeteer
Need even more online Cloud storage? We've tried to keep you up to date with what's available so here's another free offering. When you sign up with MediaFire they'll give you 50GB of storage. It is their basic offering so there's no batch uploading ...

There is a silver lining to cloud computing despite challenges
Daily Nation
In April 2011, a major failure in Amazon Cloud services brought down thousands of company websites that had rented storage space in the Internet firm. That exposed the risks of cloud computing to enterprises, especially for those that fail to invest in ...

Daily Nation

New EU Commission strategy on cloud computing
New Europe (blog)
In addition, cloud computing has the potential to reduce costs for businesses when implementing information technology systems and to enable a number of sophisticated IT services to be developed by creative companies. ... Internet however, cloud ...

What does MEGA mean for cloud storage and the mobile industry?
PhoneDog
In fact, your lack of adapting to cloud storage might be detrimental to how you're living your digital life, and the future of your data. It might also temporarily limit your view of some devices coming out this year, and the year to follow, because if ...

Report: Cloud Storage Market to Grow 40.2% from 2013 to 2018; To Reach ...
Broadway World
According to a new market research report "Private/Public Cloud Storage Market (Incl. Cloud Storage Gateways, Backup & Recovery, Data Movement & Access, Data Replication, Hierarchical Storage Management & Archiving, Security And Storage Resource ...

QNB, Mannai join forces to offer cloud services to SMEs
Zawya (registration)
"Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient and on demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. Further, these can then be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider ...

CIOs say cloud computing is really, truly a priority this time
InfoWorld
In a recent survey of 2,000 CIOs, a Gartner report revealed that the execs' top tech priorities for 2013 include cloud computing in general, as well as its specific types: software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and platform ...

Around the Web - Cloud Computing: Skytap Offers Ready-to-Go ...
Skytap, the cloud platform that offers virtual lab automation as a service, now has pre-configured Cloudera Hadoop (CDH4) templates in its library that can be ...
www.informationweek.com/.../39312f35684d3276432f4d433...

[1301.3926] Cloud Computing with Context Cameras
Title: Cloud Computing with Context Cameras. Authors: A. J. Pickles, W. E. Rosing. (Submitted on 16 Jan 2013). Abstract: We summarize methods and plans to ...
arxiv.org/abs/1301.3926

EU blueprint for cloud ...
While EU plans rightly aim to boost the use of cloud computing (CC), they fail to spur the development of cloud services and the emergence of European cloud ...
europa.eu/rapid/press-release_CES-13-2_en.htm

More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Questions Before Signing a Cloud Computing Contract

9 Questions to Ask Before Signing a Cloud Computing Contract
Forbes
What's negotiable, what's not in a cloud computing arrangement? Cloud computingmay be highly virtualized and digitized, but its is still based on a relationship between two parties consisting of human beings. And since it is still the new kid on the ...

Forbes

EnvisionRxOptions Overcomes Archiving Challenges With Whitewater Cloud ...
Marketwire (press release)
Champion Solutions Group recommended cloud backup as a way for EnvisionRxOptions to cut storage costs while simplifying backup processes and suggested a Riverbed Whitewater cloudstorage gateway appliance and Nirvanix as the cloud provider.

Gartner Cloud Computing Magic Quadrant Pits AWS Against the World
CIO
Say what you will about Gartner Magic Quadrants, but there's little doubt that IT organizations use them to evaluate technology. The firm's last two analyses of the cloud service provider place Amazon Web Services head and shoulders about the rest ...

Cloud storage a 'security time bomb' for public sector
PublicServiceEurope.com
In recent times there has been a massive rise in the popularity of public cloudservices such as Google Drive, Microsoft Sky Drive, Box and DropBox as a way to store data. The use of these services is greater than ever, demonstrated by the fact DropBox ...

PublicServiceEurope.com

Cloud Computing Services in Russia Offer Huge Growth Potential, Finds Frost ...
PR Newswire (press release)
Business models can also be affected when cloud services are deployed, since the costs of IT infrastructure migrates from CAPEX to OPEX. "Nevertheless, there are several restraints for cloudcomputing penetration in Russia that need to be addressed ...

Cashing in on Cloud Computing
TheBull.com.au
The company entered the cloud computing market in August 2011 with the acquisition of cloud provider IntraPower Limited, a company with 8 years experience offering cloud services to small and medium sized businesses. Although TPG is a relatively new ...

TheBull.com.au

More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



Saturday, January 26, 2013

Amazon and the Unknown Unknowns

Amazon's Unknown Unknowns - NYTimes.com: " . . . On Dec. 29, Amazon Web Services published a detailed explanation of what went wrong Christmas Eve, when Netflix and many other customers (Amazon won’t say how many) had service disruptions. The company also described what it was doing to ensure the problem would not happen again. . . . In the future, developers will need specific permission to change the data load balancing equipment. What isn’t clear is whether A.W.S. can examine all of its own management practices to see if there are other such decision-making flaws. Mr. Selipsky, understandably, could not say whether everything else was solid, though he did note that Amazon had eight years of experience running and managing big systems for others. To be sure, such breakdowns happen all the time with old-style corporate servers. While they don’t have the dramatic effect of an A.W.S. failure, they may collectively represent much more downtime. In a study commissioned by Amazon, IDC said downtime on A.W.S. was 72 percent less per year than on conventional corporate servers. While the financing of the study makes its conclusions somewhat questionable, its results are in line with similar studies about online e-mail systems compared with in-house products."

Up in the Cloud: Hype and High Expectations for Cloud Computing
Knowledge@Wharton
A recent global survey by Knowledge@Wharton and SAP's Performance Benchmarking team reveals that while the hype and excitement surrounding cloudcomputing is reaching a fever pitch, many businesses are still expressing concerns over cloud security and ...

Knowledge@Wharton

Ready for the rules of cloud computing databases in 2013? — Tech ...
Summary: How is the database market changing, and what are the new rules for cloud databases in 2013 and beyond? Find out when you join GigaOM ...
gigaom.com/.../ready-for-the-rules-of-cloud-computing-datab...

Picking the Right Cloud Storage Solution
Technorati
Finding the right cloud storage provider is now easier with small business and consumer review site NextAdvisor.com, who announced a cloud storage category offering consumers its top picks. It also allows visitors to compare cloud storageservices like ...

Cisco-Backs Hosting and Cloud Services Company Parallels
Private Equity Hub (press release)
Parallels, a hosting and cloud services company, has inked an undisclosed amount of financing from Cisco. As part of the investment, Parallels and Cisco agreed to expand joint development, marketing and industry initiatives, the companies said.

Oracle Lists Drivers of Cloud Computing
AllAfrica.com
Oracle, an integrated Information Technology (IT) solution provider in hardware and software systems has identified accessibility, simplicity and robustness as key drivers to cloud computing. Senior Vice-President for Eastern Central Europe, Middle ...

EU's strategy for cloud computing needs to expand
New Europe
On 16 January, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) announced that EU blueprint for cloud computing falls short. EESC reports that the Commission should widen its strategy and invest in the development of cloud computing software and ...

New Europe

Impact of Cloud Computing on the Datacenter Identified by Computacenter
Marketwire (press release)
A staggering 98.9% of organisations interviewed claimed to use at least one cloud service. The datacenter needs to continually adapt to cope with planned and unplanned demands from the business, an issue which has intensified with huge virtualisation ...

The Penny Pinchers of the Cloud Jessica Leber
MIT Technology Review
Cloudability is one of a crop of startups aimed at helping businesses understand the costs of cloud computing as the technology matures and much larger businesses get more comfortable with the idea of renting or leasing remote computing capacity to run ...

Ovum Says “Data Will Be The New Cloud Computing Oil” In 2013
Exchange News Direct
Cloud computing services, and the (social, mobile) applications that cloud platforms underpin, generate a lot of data, which in turn requires cloud services and applications to make sense of it. This trend connects with and fuels other industry trends ...

Cloud Computing Users Are Losing Data, Symantec Finds SYMC
Investor's Business Daily
The other issues identified by Symantec are faulty cloud backup — that's the one tied to the data loss statistic — inefficient use of the amount of cloud storage purchased, not toeing the line with corporate regulatory compliance requirements and ...

Cloud computing features heavily in 2013 CIO tech priorities
CloudTech
The importance of cloud computing in the overall tech sphere has again been emphasised in a Gartner report surveying over 2,000 CIOs on their technology priorities for 2013. Cloudy areas featured heavily in the top 10 priorities for CIOs, with cloud ...

More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



Friday, January 25, 2013

Cisco's Private Cloud

Cisco's Private Cloud: Pain And Profit
InformationWeek
Cisco is not a cloud service provider, but it has an expanding suite of products under the label "Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud 3.1." With it, Cisco is building out a private cloud across seven major data centers in hopes that its experience ...

Joe Masters Emison
Optimize Magazine
There's a growing demand for standards to bring some sanity to the cloud computing market. Both buyers and sellers have their ... IT pros also see value in formalized standards for cloud services, according to the 400 respondents to our InformationWeek ...

Cloud storage grows, but many fail to back up mobile data
ITworld.com
January 23, 2013, 11:05 AM — More companies are storing their data in the cloud as part of a hybrid onsite and offsite storage solution, but many admit they are not able to back-up large chunks of their data at all. Research company Vanson Bourne ...

EESC – European Cloud Computing Strategy Lacks Execution
CloudTimes
AWS Introduces Improved Billing Reports For Easier Tracking of Cloud Usage · Dell Presents Scalable Solutions in Security, Cloud, and Support · cloudpassage_top100 CloudPassage Study Reveals Increased Use of Public Cloud · Big Data · Cloud Storage ...

Congressional commission to look closer at China cloud computing
Nextgov
Chinese cloud computing is still in infancy but is a fast-growing industry that has been slated for government venture capital. The size of China's public cloud services market – which generally targets individual consumers -- is expected to reach over ...

Beware: 7 Sins of Cloud Computing
Wired
Organizational ignorance: Cloud is a hot concept for many businesses. In the last year, the emphasis on cloud computing as the go-to solution for infrastructure needs has propelled it to the forefront of the IT discussion, with many believing it will ...

Wired

Survey Reveals Business Alignment Trumps Cloud Computing and Application ...
Marketwire (press release)
Serena Software, the leader in Orchestrated IT solutions, today announced the results of an annual survey on application development and delivery priorities and initiatives for 2013. The survey, conducted at Gartner's recent Application Architecture, ...

Are UK Firms Slow to Adopt Cloud Computing?
Backup Technology
The survey into the use of cloud computing by large US and UK firms (1,000 employees and above), conducted by Vanson Bourne, looked at usage levels of cloud computing and general opinion of cloud computing, e.g. data storage and automation of ...

Alumnus and Microsoft Inventor Tapping Cloud Computing Potential
University of Texas at Dallas (press release)
He helps build, manage and breathe life into the entire world of cloud computing at Microsoft. With the prevalence of commercial products like Microsoft's Office 365, and a plethora of cloud services like competitors' Dropbox and iCloud, Belady has his ...

University of Texas at Dallas (press release)

Red Hat folds ManageIQ purchase into cloud control stack
InfoWorld
Organizations are increasingly moving toward hybrid cloud deployments, in which some operations are run on public cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services, while others are kept in-house, perhaps as a part of an internal private cloud, said Mary ...

BackUp Exec Cloud Storage for Windows Azure Storage | Symantec ...
How can I configure BackUp Exec for Cloud Storage on Windows Azure Storage without Getting riverbed in Topology. Nirvanix have option of installing plugin ...
www.symantec.com/.../backup-exec-cloud-storage-windows-a...

More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



Thursday, January 24, 2013

Cloud trends for 2013

Cloud trends for 2013 | TechRepublic: "The Infrastructure-as-a-Service market, while still growing strongly and attracting new competitors, isn’t really the focus for most cloud vendors. The places where everyone wants to be are the Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service markets, where there are much better margins to be had. In fact, even Amazon and Rackspace, arguably the two leaders in the IaaS market, are quickly launching new services focused on the upper layers of the cloud stack: Amazon with its myriad cloud services beyond EC2 and S3, and Rackspace with Cloud Databases. This trend of new services that move further away from the infrastructure layer will continue throughout 2013. Companies looking to move upmarket, however, face many of the same challenges they faced when first moving into the cloud computing market: explaining the services and how they work to customers, convincing them of the benefits of adopting these services in place of their traditional counterparts, and so on. As I mentioned before, 2013 has everything to be another exciting year in the cloud computing "

UK Data Center Colocation Business Growing
InformationWeek
U.K. companies are investing in data center colocation facilities to meet growing demand, as IT departments lean more on cloud computing. Start The Discussion · Tweet; Mail Mail; Print Print ...U.K. Trade & Investment claims that the annual market ...

HP's Head of Cloud Computing Zorawar "Biri" Singh Departs
All Things Digital
Word has just leaked out of Hewlett-Packard that Zorawar “Biri” Singh, senior vice president and general manager for Cloud Services, is leaving the company. Roger Levy, the group's vice president for technology and customer relations, will replace him ...

Research and Markets: Cloud Storage Market - Worldwide Forecasts & Analysis ...
The Herald | HeraldOnline.com
Emergence of innovative storage technologies such as inline data deduplication, inline compression, WAN optimization, cloud based security solutions and storage gateways are pushing the growth of the Cloud Storage Market. Small and medium-sized ...

Oracle offers low overhead cloud services
GCN.com
Oracle Corp. launched what might be called a starter set of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings that would allow agencies to operate some of the company's mainstream cloud computing systems in-house for a monthly fee. With Oracle IaaS ...

Cloud storage startup Box readies for a 2014 IPO
VentureBeat
The rapidly growing cloud storage provider competes with larger players like Dropbox and Microsoft. In recent interviews with VentureBeat, Levie said that the role of the chief information officer is changing, and startups have an opportunity to ...

VentureBeat

Data the new 'cloud computing oil' in year of rapid growth
iTWire
Describing data as the “new cloud computing oil in 2013,” Lachal observes that cloud computingservices, and the (social, mobile) applications that cloud platforms underpin, generate a lot of data, which in turn requires cloud services and applications ...

Symantec Survey: Poorly Planned Cloud Move Can Be Costly
Talkin' Cloud
According to a recent Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) survey, though, poor planning can negate many of the cost benefits of cloud computing and unveil a few hidden costs. The "Avoiding the Hidden Costs of Cloud 2013 Survey" found that ... It's incredibly easy ...

6 hidden costs of cloud and how to avoid them
CIO Magazine
In fact, here in the opening weeks of 2013, a new study by Symantec finds that 94 percent of enterprises are at least discussing cloud or cloud services, up from 75 percent a year ago. But Symantec also reports that companies that rush into cloud ...

Verizon Terremark Enhances Its Enterprise Cloud Services
Biztech2.com
Enterprise Cloud computing platforms are being expanded in two of the company's datacentre facilities located in Dallas and London, as enterprises and governments across geographies demand immediate access and availability to cloud resources. Verizon ...

Biztech2.com

MediaFires new Android app offers 50GB of free cloud storage
Tech2
Cloud storage service MediaFire has finally thrown its doors open to Android users. Just like its iOS and desktop versions, MediaFire for Android will offer users a whopping 50GB of free cloud storage. Of course, there are a few strings attached to the ...

Tech2

Cloud storage provider Box has sights set on a 2014 ... - The Next Web
By Alex Wilhelm
According to Bloomberg, Box, the popular provider of cloud storage and digital content management services, has its eyes on an initial public offering in 2014. The company, according to its CEO Aaron Levie, has to go public, as it doesn't wish ...
The Next Web


More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security




Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Choosing a cloud storage service


How to choose a cloud storage service
PC Advisor
Cloud computing could form an important part of your technological life, but you have to know what you're looking for. Here are some tips on what to look for in a cloud storage service. (See also: the Top 20 cloud storage services.) In conversation ...

Top 20 cloud storage services
PC Advisor
Of course, when you do pay for cloud storage, you can expect not just extra storage space, but guarantees that your files will remain safe from deletion and prying eyes. Plus, you don't have to worry about hard drives failing or running or storing ...

Cloud storage grows, many fail to back up mobile data
ComputerworldUK
More companies are storing their data in the cloud as part of a hybrid onsite and offsite storage solution, but many admit they are not able to back-up large chunks of their data at all. Research company Vanson Bourne surveyed 650 IT decision makers ...

Mega, Kim Dotcom's New Cloud Storage Service, Reaches 1 Million Users A ...
International Business Times
Just a day after triumphantly launching his new cloud storage service “Mega,” founder Kim Dotcom has announced that the Megaupload successor already attracted more than a million users. Mega, Kim Dotcom's New Cloud Storage Service, Reaches 1 ...

International Business Times

The Effects of Cloud Computing on the Health Care Industry
Smart Data Collective
Cloud storage costs about 10 times lesser than the server space and hardware materials plus training of human resources to maintain and support the system in daily operations. Cloud computing storage requirements only adapt to the needs of the client.

Flexiant and SolidFire Integrate to Help Customers Build Differentiated Cloud ...
Marketwire (press release)
Tony Lucas, Product Champion and Founder, Flexiant, said, "SolidFire has addressed the problems of delivering predictable multi-tenant cloud storage in a way that existing storage systems cannot. The SolidFire / Flexiant integration gives customers the ...

Oracle Clarifies Cloud Computing Terminology
DABCC.com
Oracle Clarifies Cloud Computing Terminology. Related Articles. Identity and access management as a cloud-based service eliminates time, pain and cost · OrionVM Enterprise Selects Mellanox InfiniBand for their Private and Public Clouds · How the Cloud ...

Mega: Hands-on with the encrypted cloud storage service
PCWorld
You can either drag and drop files right onto your file manager, or you can click the upload buttons at the top of your cloud drive. File uploads are monitored in the lower half of the screen. In my tests, file uploads were a little slow, possibly ...

Boosting presence of EU-based cloud providers would improve business take ...
Out-Law.com
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) said that businesses and individuals would be more likely to utilise cloud computing (CC) if their "trust" in the technology grew. It said that there is inherently less trust in using non-EU providers ...

More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Kim Dotcom's Mega offers 50GB of free cloud storage

Kim Dotcom reveals Mega will offer 50GB of free storage, hopes to offer Megaupload data transfer - The Next Web: "Kim Dotcom on Thursday used Twitter to reveal some interesting new tidbits in regards to his upcoming Mega service, which will be hosted at the New Zealand-based domain Mega.co.nz. Two days before the service is to go live, Doctom says he plans to offer 50GB of free storage to all members and is also working on bringing over users’ Megaupload files and data, but has so far run into legal issues."

Mega Launches Its Cloud Storage And File Sharing Service As 'The Privacy ...
TechCrunch
Kim Dotcom's new secure file-storage and file-sharing venture Mega has now officially launched on a surge of interest. The timing of the launch, 6:48 a.m. New Zealand time on January 20, coincides with the one-year anniversary of the raid on his home ...

Will Kim Dotcom's Mega cloud storage service destroy the competition? [POLL]
Phandroid.com
Are you willing to trust Kim Dotcom again? This is a question we ask ourselves today as Mega is released to the public. MegaUpload's revival brings a completely new philosophy in mind. In comes Mega, a cloud storage service that has turned into a ...

Cloud storage service 'Mega' launches | News | TechRadar
Cloud storage service 'Mega' launches - Mega, a cloud storage site and successor to closed file-hosting site MegaUpload, launched today, gar.
www.techradar.com/.../cloud-storage-service-mega-launches-1...

Kim Dotcom's New MEGA Encrypted Cloud Storage: See No Evil, Store No Evil
Forbes
Controversial file storage tycoon, Kim Dotcom, is launching his new encrypted cloud storage site MEGA in the U.S. tomorrow (note: link not currently active.) The service will offer 50GB of storage for free and three Pro tiers of 500GB to 4TB for $13 ...

Forbes

Kim Dotcom's cloud storage service Mega opens limited access for some users
VentureBeat
The Mega service is essentially a cloud storage locker that's similar to Dropbox, according to TechCrunch. Mega offers 50GB of free storage to users to upload all their media files, documents, and other files. But there's an indication that Mega will ...

VentureBeat

How the Final Omnibus Rule Affects HIPAA Cloud Computing Providers
Smart Data Collective
So how do these modifications affect HIPAA cloud providers? While cloud providers have generally been considered and treated as business associates in the industry, the modifications make it even clearer that data center operators are officially ...

Mega arrives: Ars goes hands-on with Kim Dotcom's new cloud storage site
Ars Technica
Nearly one year after Kim Dotcom's Megaupload storage site was shuttered on criminal charges filed by the United States government, the big man is back with a new cloud storage service, called simply Mega. Why host in New Zealand? The site answers that...

Ars Technica

Kim Dotcom's 'Mega' Cloud Storage System Launches In Beta, Set To Take On ...
iDigitalTimes.com
It's still unclear whether Mega will become a viable alternative to other storage lockers such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive or Apple iCloud. For now, Mega remains a second-tier storage system in an increasingly congested field of cloud storage ...

iDigitalTimes.com

How 'bring your own cloud' could kill BYOD
ZDNet
How many personal cloud services can you name? If you can name more than five without performing an Internet search, then you clearly see the problem. But it's not in the sheer number of personal cloud options that presents a problem, it's their ...

HP cloud chief's exit sparks more confusion
Fortune
(gigaom.com) -- Updated: Hewlett-Packard's attempt to get its cloud computing strategy heard above the noise around the company's bigger woes took another hit this week.  Zorawar “Biri” Singh, who headed up HP's Converged Cloud and Cloud Services ...


More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



Saturday, January 19, 2013

Cloud computing expands in Latin America

Cloud news links:

Cloud computing expands in Latin America
UPI.com
8 (UPI) -- Cloud computing is set to expand in Latin America and the Caribbean region, bringing about rapid changes in security- and business-related telecommunications industries. New software being made available to businesses and governments in the ...

Companies Learn to Successfully Implement Cloud Computing in Global ...
The Herald | HeraldOnline.com
CARY, N.C. — Global Knowledge, the worldwide leader in IT and business skills training, today announced the availability of Cloud: Roadmap to Success: An Interactive Workshop. In the one-day workshop, cloud computing decision makers will learn what it ...

Why Cloud Computing Is About More Than Just Data Centers
By Brian Caulfield
Worrall was joined on the panel by Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, head of mobile business development atcloud-storage company DropBox and Tom Paquin, CTO at online gaming provider OnLive. “This is by far the most exciting time in my career,” ...
NVIDIA

Amazon's Cloud Revenues, Examined - Cloud-computing ...
According to Hoffman, one driver of growth in Amazon cloud computing is bigger ... In addition, Schachter claimed Amazon's cloud services are "a 100% gross ...
www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/.../240145741

The realist's guide to cloud services and what they're good for
InfoWorld (blog)
The realist's guide to cloud services and what they're good for. SaaS, PaaS, IaaS -- cloud computing comes in many flavors. Here's how to tell which one best fits your business. By Bob Lewis | InfoWorld ....

2013 Outlook For Cloud Computing
CloudTweaks News
As my first prediction, cloud storage services like the ones mentioned above will become commonplace with the masses, especially those that specialize in picture syncing. As internet connectivity becomes commonplace, more ... so maybe we can talk about ...

Contracting for Cloud Services on a Massive Scale
Campus Technology
In 2012, the Technologies Committee, under the leadership of John Dunning, CIO of Wayne State College (NE), recognized that cloud computing was going to be an issue for a number of schools: It recommended pursuing a contract with an overarching service ...

Nirvanix Offers Direct Connections To Cloud Storage At CoreSite
Daily Markets (press release)
“As a result of this collaborative effort, CoreSite customers running a cloud computing environment or a SAN storage infrastructure can now establish an immediate and direct connection into our cloud storage services for on-demand storage capacity, ...

Local Company Offers Cloud Computing for Business Customers
KTUU.com
... by offering cloud computing to business customers. General Communication, Inc. announced Tuesday that it has entered the cloud services market, which is a collection of interconnected IT services and infrastructures that are accessible via a network.

Zoho CRM update adds document repository, mobile location awareness
InfoWorld
Zoho continues to flesh out the feature set of its cloud-based CRM (customer relationship management) application, adding a new document library, advanced email filtering, and location-aware mobile applications. The features, which were announced ...

The best hardware, software, and cloud services of the year
InfoWorld
Read about the winning hardware, software, development tools, and cloud services in our slideshow, "InfoWorld's 2013 Technology of the Year Award winners." | Cut straight to the key news for technology development and IT management with our ...

Cloud Computing: Security a Hurdle - HealthcareInfoSecurity
While cloud computing can often provide cost-effective and convenient ways for ... Aske and Lacey also complained that cloud services providers often are ...
www.bankinfosecurity.com/cloud-computing-security.../op-1

More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



Thursday, January 17, 2013

Amazon vs Apple and Google and Microsoft

It's a "big boys" game: Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft--

Goliath vs Goliath...Amazon takes on Apple and Google - Telegraph: " . . . Amazon is one of the biggest retailers in the world, selling everything from groceries to electronics, and notching up $934m of profits on $48bn of sales last year. It was the same concept of gaining a foothold to win a market that informed Bezos’s decision to offer Amazon’s Kindle e-reading device to consumers at a loss. It wanted to cement its position in people’s daily lives. . . while Amazon’s efforts on the retail and gadget fronts are well documented, there is another, bigger, game in play that has received much less attention. The company is investing heavily in “cloud computing” – essentially a way of storing information remotely, accessing it via the web and offering this to businesses alongside software and data services as a pick 'n’ mix selection. Instead of buying their own warehouses of computer servers, or even ordering a spot in the warehouse of some other technology giant, customers that sign up to Amazon Web Services [AWS] can activate storage capacity at a few moments’ notice on a pay-as-you-go basis. . . . What’s more, the scale of Amazon’s investment in cloud capacity, initially for its own retail operation, means it can charge third-party customers a fraction of what they might have paid to store the same information elsewhere. “By removing a lot of the cost and a lot of the muck of managing their infrastructure, we thought we could do a lot for innovation,” Andy Jassy, senior vice president of AWS, explained to The Sunday Telegraph. . . ."

Amazon's cloud is bigger, more profitable than we think, report says
GigaOM
... and co-branded credit cards. Given that, AWS remains pretty much a black box, but I would be willing to bet, all of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' talk of low-margin, high-volume business aside, that Amazon is not doing cloud services as a philanthropic ...

GigaOM


State Street's Transformation Unfolds, Driven by Cloud Computing
Forbes
Cloud computing is opening up new opportunities in the fast-moving, technology-rich banking sector. Many banks already have significant technology assets and data center operations, and cloud not only offers greater IT efficiency, but also a way to ...

Forbes

NVIDIA introduces GRID cloud computing system for streaming games to PCs ...
Liliputing
NVIDIA sees cloud computing as the future of gaming… or at least part of the future. By offloading the work of rendering graphics to a powerful server, you can run top tier games on a device with a low power chip like a smartphone or a tablet. But ...

Cloud Infographic: Cloud Computing Fact Or Fiction
CloudTweaks News
This post was written by cloudtweaks who has written 1161 posts on CloudTweaks. Established in 2009, CloudTweaks.com is recognized as one of the leading authorities in cloud computinginformation. We are proud to offer contributions by our own writers ...

MEEZA signs strategic cloud services agreement with Symantec
AME Info
MEEZA, IT services and solutions provider in Qatar, has signed a strategic cloud servicesagreement with Symantec, a global leader in security, backup and availability solutions to offer market-leading hosted cloud solutions that will take the current ...

The State of Cloud Computing Around the World: India
CloudTimes (blog)
Australia to Benefit From Cloud Computing – Ovum Study · zenoss-logo Floyd Strimling's Cloud Predictions for 2013 · oracle_top100 Avoiding the Accidental SOACloud Architecture · ict-strategy-enterprise-cloud Enterprise ICT Strategy MeetsCloud ...

CloudTimes (blog)

Microsoft Office 365 Migration: Growing Opportunity for Channel
Talkin' Cloud
As businesses look to cloud services providers to take their existing systems and move them to thecloud, whether it's in public or private cloud offerings, there's a growing opportunity for channel partners to provide their customers with migration ...

NVIDIA unveils the Grid, first 'fully integrated' product
Engadget
NVIDIA's CES 2013 press conference is still ongoing, but the chipmaker is already unveiling something we've only seen teased before: the NVIDIA Grid, a card used for cloud computing across PCs, smart TVs, and smartphones. CEO and founder Jen-Hsun ...

Gokuai, a cloud storage firm with over 1 million registered users in China ...
The Next Web
The startup's CEO, Shuomiao Jiang, claims the cloud storage and file synchronization platform has quickly attracted a bunch of enterprise customers, with the number of registered users said to have crossed the 1 million mark already. To lure in even ...


More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Xbox Live lingering cloud storage problems

Xbox Live suffering from lingering cloud storage problems
VentureBeat
Original Story: Some Xbox 360 owners are unable to access their saved games and data in cloud storage, according to Xbox Live's server status page. Service outages aren't uncommon, but they're annoying to consumers during the busy holiday season,...

VentureBeat

7 deadly sins of cloud computing
CSO
The only secure way to log in to the cloud is through enterprise identity management systems. Though many cloud services permit just about anyone in the organization to sign themselves up, create their own IDs and passwords without registering these ...

CSO

Cloud Computing And Virtualization
CloudTweaks News
People often ask what is the real difference of cloud computing and “the internet” or “ isn't the internet already cloud computing”. I often tell them that cloud computing does not equal the internet or vice-versa, the internet is simply the best ...

Canonical Enhancing JuJu Cloud Services Orchestration Tools
Talkin' Cloud
When it comes to cloud computing -- which Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has earmarked as a major focus for Canonical in 2013 -- one of the Ubuntu ecosystem's most innovative projects is JuJu, a solution for deploying cloud services. JuJu is already ...

Talkin' Cloud

Synchronoss Acquires Cloud Services Provider NewBay From RIM
Talkin' Cloud
The acquisition of the Dublin, Ireland-based cloud services company will give Bridgewater, New Jersey-based Synchronoss the ability to expand its global mobility platform enablement strategy considerably. The acquisition followed shortly on the heels ...

Talkin' Cloud

Keywords: cloud computing, data privacy, data storage, e-discovery
Mondaq News Alerts (registration)
A multinational company is negotiating an agreement with a cloud computing provider to maintain and hold all of the company's electronically stored information and data. The general counsel of the multinational company is concerned about data privacy ...

QualyCloud: solving the 'where' issue for Europe's Cloud Storage
The Rude Baguette
Cloud computing was definitely a hot subject in France and across Europe in 2012. From the debates around the relevance of Andromede and the response of the global cloud giants, to the EU's prioritization of cloud computing and hope that it will be a ...

Cloud Computing Stocks: Talkin' Cloud Stocks Index
Talkin' Cloud
Welcome to the Talkin' Cloud Stocks Index*, which tracks 20 cloud computing stocks, software as a service (SaaS) stocks, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) stocks and platform as a service (PaaS) stocks. Welcome to the Talkin' Cloud Stocks Index ...

More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



Saturday, January 12, 2013

City of Chicago signs four-year Microsoft cloud services deal

City of Chicago signs four-year Microsoft cloud services deal to save $400K ...
The Verge
The City of Chicago is announcing a four-year agreement with Microsoft today that will see it usecloud services for employee email and desktop applications. As Microsoft battles Google for cloudcustomers, Chicago says it will save taxpayers $400,000 ...

Gartner: Top 10 cloud storage providers
Network World
That means there's a pretty good sized market for the cloud, and specifically cloud storage. Gartner predicted in 2012 $109 billion was spent on cloud computing, a 20% increase from the year before. But the cloud is a big industry too, with a lot of ...

Understanding The Cloud Computing Infrastructure
CloudTweaks News
As a long time advocate of cloud computing, I already know most of the technology and terms surrounding cloud computing and if someone mentions a new application or feature I might be able to gleam how it works based on the technologies used. This is ...

Help Wanted: Managed Services and Cloud Services Career Openings
MSPmentor
They involve everything from managed services to cloud services sales, management and technical support opportunities. And some big names — including Google — are seeking expertise. You can post your job listing for free. Or check out the job board ...

Focusing on Cloud Computing & Office 365 Migration Solutions, Agile IT ...
Fort Mills Times
Today, Agile IT released its 2012 year-end results, showing that business is booming for this San Diego cloud computing company focused on fixed price Cloud and Office 365 Migration Solutions. "This year has been great for Agile IT," said Principal ...

Ten predictions for cloud comp ...
Business News Americas
... will see consolidation in the region. Sonda's regional cloud computing manager Sergio Rademacher has identified 10 key trends. ... Alliances between providers of storage and providers ofcloud services will take off in 2013 to help clients take ...

OpenDrive getting piece of $1.3 billion cloud storage market
DigitalJournal.com
“In an environment where mobile devices like smartphones and media tablets handle broadband data on a near-ceaseless basis, businesses are realizing the importance of cloud services in allowing consumers to manage, store and sync content across their ...

DigitalJournal.com

Challenges remain for agency cloud computing adoption, says CAGW
FierceGovernmentIT
While federal agencies have made progress expanding their use of cloud services, many challenges remain for full implementation, Citizens Against Government Waste says in its 2012 review of the federal cloud. As part of the Obama administration's ...

Law Firms And Cloud Computing | Cullen and Dykman LLP - JDSupra
The term “cloud computing” has been tossed about as the new trend in IT. Unfortunately, just as often has you hear the term echoed as the “next big thing” a ...
www.jdsupra.com/.../law-firms-and-cloud-computing-98577/

More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



Thursday, January 10, 2013

Best Cloud Storage Solutions

The Best Cloud Storage Solutions
PC Magazine
If you don't have a cloud storage service in place, you need one—or maybe more than one. Many of the best cloud storage solutions do something specific, like backup and make accessible your music library, or help you not only save copies of files, but ...

The 4 cloud computing resolutions you should make for 2013
InfoWorld
It's 2013. Cloud computing is another year older. As adopters, we're making fewer mistakes, but I suspect we'll repeat many of the same errors from 2012. Now is the time to work on cloud computing improvements, to set reasonable goals -- and to make ...

Netflix open sources tool to clean up your AWS cloud
GigaOM
That leads to a profusion of under-utilized or totally unused resources — the untidy closet aspect of cloud computing. netflix-logo Before, Netflix engineers could use its Asgard cloud deployment tool to manually delete these unused resources but ...

GigaOM

What do you want from cloud computing? A conversation with Zenoss
ZDNet
Often cloud computing services are being selected based upon the the expected costs rather than what the service will do for the organization. These perceptions often are developed by business decision makers without the help of IT support ...

Hard Truths About Cloud Differences
InformationWeek
We're long into the hype cycle of cloud computing. That means clear criteria to assess and evaluate the different options are critical. Which of the many cloud approaches should medium to large enterprises take to optimize their data center operations?

Cloud computing skills gap is widening, warns IDC
ComputerWeekly.com
About 1.7 million cloud computing-related job roles globally could not be filled in 2012 because applicants lacked training, certification and experience needed to work in a cloud-enabled world, according to a study by IDC. The demand for cloud-savvy ...

Why the feds keep stumbling in the cloud
InfoWorld
According to a 2012 survey of federal civilian and defense personnel, $5.5 billion had been saved through the use of cloud computing technology. However, the survey respondents also stated that wider cloud adoption could have saved as much as $12 ...

Top 10 cloud storage providers, according to Gartner
ComputerworldUK
Like many other aspects of cloud computing, Amazon Web Services is considered a market leader in cloud storage. It's been an early and aggressive player in the market and its services drive offerings from competitors, Gartner says, while its pricing is ...

Focusing on Cloud Computing & Office 365 Migration Solutions, Agile IT ...
Marketwire (press release)
SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire - Jan 4, 2013) - Today, Agile IT released its 2012 year-end results, showing that business is booming for this San Diego cloud computing company focused on fixed price Cloud and Office 365 Migration Solutions. "This year has ...

Chicago Picks Microsoft Cloud For Email
InformationWeek
Cloud computing, which often seems too much hype and too little reality, is starting to capture real customers. And government organizations, cities in particular, are paying attention and starting to sign up for cloud services. Chicago, a city not ...

PITB launches data centre & cloud computing services
The News International
The PITB will offer all required services of a Tier-III (international standard) compliant data center andcloud computing to host applications and services for public and private sectors at the Arfa Software Technology Park's data centre. Dr. Jawaid ...

Proceed carefully with cloud storage, Gartner warns
Techworld.com
The benefits of cloud-based storage are similar to those offered by other forms of cloud computing: It can provide significant cost and agility benefits to end user customers. Concerns around security, privacy and accessibility - which are common ...

The year in cloud computing: Key points in 2012 | TechRepublic
By Thoran Rodrigues
Thoran Rodrigues looks at some of the developments in cloud computing in 2012. ... Throughout the year, cloud services experienced several significant reliability issues, and Amazon, the market leader, took center stage on many of these.
on TechRepublic

Gartner: Top 10 cloud storage providers
That means there's a pretty good sized market for the cloud, and specifically cloud storage. Gartner predicted in 2012 $109 billion was spent on cloud computing ...
www.networkworld.com/.../010313-gartner-cloud-storage-26...

More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The Cloud Challenges Amazon

The Cloud Challenges Amazon
New York Times
That's because problems with Amazon's cloud computing service, which provides storage and computing power for all kinds of Web sites and services, caused Netflix to go down for much of the day. In updates on a Web site that reports on the status of its ...

Cloud Computing And Big Data
CloudTweaks News
The cloud is all about applications, media and information. But of the three, media seems to be the largest with applications coming in at close second, while information ranks last place. But what we are seeing in the last two years suggests that ...

The EU's Cloud Computing Initiative
Mondaq News Alerts (registration)
The European Commission, in its communication titled "Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe," recently announced a new strategy for cloud computing in the EU. According to the statement released by the EC, the strategy is designed to ...

Cloud Computing Is Why The New SimCity Needs An Always-On Connection ...
Kotaku Australia
A couple weeks ago, the SimCity gang at Maxis held an AMA at Reddit. That may not have been such a smart idea. They don't like DRM over there, for any reason, and SimCity's gonna require an always-on Internet connection to play it, in any mode.

Calxeda finds a new market in storage
GigaOM
As the market for scale out computing, storage and networking changes the demands made on IT equipment, Calxeda and others are seeing an opportunity that may have begun in servers and the cloud computing environment, but certainly isn't stopping ...

GigaOM

Nirvanix Improves Cloud Performance with Flash Storage
Talkin' Cloud
Cloud storage service provider Nirvanix recently updated its 10 global data centers that make up the backbone of its Cloud Storage Network to include flash memory arrays from Violin Memory. According to Nirvanix, the addition of flash memory ...

How Cloud Computing will Shape 2013
Proformative
There is no question about it; cloud computing is going to grow even larger than it already it is in 2013. Traditionalist accounting firms will find it increasingly difficult to ignore organization's prevailing use of cloud storage internally and with ...

More Cloud News below--computing, storage, infrastructure, security



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