Saturday, March 30, 2013

Cloud Computing Is Winning The Trust War

Why Cloud Computing Is Slowly Winning The Trust War
Forbes
Taking value-networks to the cloud services: Security services, semantics and service level agreements. Information Systems and eBusiness Management, 11(1), 51-91. Khan, K. M., & Malluhi, Q. (2010). Establishing trust in cloud computing. IT ...

Forbes

KiteDesk aggregates social streams, cloud services
ZDNet
There are plenty of applications emerging to help tame professionals tame all the social networks and cloud services that are a part of their daily life. One of the latest is a new mobile app called KiteDesk, developed for the Apple iOS platform. The ...

ZDNet

VMware Confirms Its Amazon Web Services Competitor, Hybrid Cloud Services ...
TechCrunch
VMware today announced Hybrid Cloud Services, a new business unit that puts it in closer competition with Amazon Web Services for enterprises' cloud service needs. It also announced that the unit would be headed up by Bill Fathers, who left his role as ...

TechCrunch

Google Elbows Into the Cloud
New York Times
It is part of Google's dive into a business known as cloud services — renting to other businesses access to its enormous data storage and computing power, accessible by the Internet. In cloud computing, dozens or even thousands of computer servers are...

New York Times

Startup finds security niche in cloud storage
Boston Herald
“It's very clear businesses and consumers needed a solution to ensure their data is secure in cloud services like Dropbox,” said Dan Scheinman, an angel investor. “NCrypted Cloud has created something which is friendly to me both as a consumer and as a ...

Amazon, Telcos Will Battle For Cloud Customers
InformationWeek
Last year it became the self-service priced-by-the-hour BT Cloud Compute. Another fast-growing area of cloud computing is platform as a service (PaaS), the assembly of tools and programming frameworks in a cloud setting that speeds software development.

Cloud services can save you money -- if you're careful
ComputerworldUK
The key to earning a positive return on investment when adopting cloud services -- including software-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service -- is carefully studying costs and benefits to ensure that such a shift will pay off. Sounds like many of ...

Cost battle: Cloud computing vs. in-house IT
Network World
Large enterprises with highly optimized IT shops tailored to their business' needs may find cloud computing to be more expensive. But, if a company has workloads that ebb and flow in their use of compute power, then the cloud can yield substantial ...

Making cloud computing more efficient
MIT News
But for applications that depend heavily on database queries, cloud hosting can pose as many problems as it solves. Cloud services often partition their servers into “virtual machines,” each of which gets so many operations per second on a server's ...

Egynte adds third-party cloud storage choices for its file sharing platform
ZDNet
based company touted that companies with heterogeneous storage environments will be able to integrate third-party cloud storage to extend these existing infrastructures to the cloud while maintaining access for all employees and clients.

How Cloud Computing Helps Cut Costs, Boost Profits
CIO
The study found that 88 percent of cloud users pointed to cost savings and 56 percent of respondents agreed that cloud services have helped them boost profits. Additionally, 60 percent of respondents said cloud computing has reduced the need for their ...

CIO

House votes against taxing cloud computing
KTVB
BOISE -- The House voted to exclude so-called cloud computing services delivered over the Internet from being charged a sales tax by the state. The 65-2 vote on Monday sends the measure to the Senate. The Idaho Technology Council, which represents ...

Is the Middle East The Next Big Market For Cloud Computing?
Forbes
Another great example of the opportunities found in the region is the January announcement from Virtustream that it has partnered with Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), the largest telecom operator in the Middle East and Africa to provide cloud services. The ...

Can Cloud Services Improve Small Business Profits?
Small Business Computing
A recent report adds statistical weight behind the claim that working in the cloud is not only convenient but profitable. That means it may be time for small businesses and entrepreneurs to seriously consider how they can best use cloud services to ...

The impact of cloud computing on the UK's IT industry
Information Age
They may have taken some persuasion at first, but UK organisations are now happily buying cloud computing services. In a recent study, IT analyst firm TechMarketView estimated that the UK cloudmarket grew by around 38% in the 2011/12 tax year, ...

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



Thursday, March 28, 2013

Cloud Services Help Your Small Business Grow

Can Cloud Services Help Your Small Business Grow?
TIME
And half claim that such cloud computing services helped them grow their businesses. So instead of buying, installing and maintaining software and servers, think about turning over at least some of your infrastructure to a service provider ...

Third-party cloud storage services to stumble in enterprise push
ZDNet
Cloud storage providers such as Dropbox and Box are winning over consumers by emphasizing the availability of their services across multiple ecosystems and geographies. However, the enterprise-grade versions of these services may not be sufficiently ...

Cloud review: 8 public cloud services put to the test
InfoWorld
That's the beauty of the cloud. You buy what you want, when you want it. Oh, there is one errant recurring charge for a blob of bits stuck in Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud, but tech support is looking into erasing that. I expect it will be stricken ...

VMware CEO Embraces Cloud Services, Not Intel CEO Job
Wall Street Journal- India (blog)
Why would a profitable software company like VMware move into cloud services, a field led by Amazon where a raft of new competitors could squeeze margins? CEO Pat Gelsinger says its approach will be quite a bit different. The company and its majority ...

Netflix Offers US$100000 In Prizes To Advance Cloud Computing
PR Newswire (press release)
"Cloud computing has become a hot topic recently, but the technology is still just emerging," said Neil Hunt , chief product officer at Netflix. "No doubt many of the key ideas that will take it to the next level have yet to be conceived, explored, and ...

Pharmacy Company's Rx For Chaos: More Cloud
InformationWeek
The small business handles several hundred thousand such prescriptions every year with just 27 employees, an accomplishment CEO Jay Roy chalks up to the company's increasing reliance on thecloud. "There's no way 27 people could touch everything ...

Computex organizers forecast a cloud computing bonanza
China Post
Featuring some 1,700 exhibitors and 5,000 booths, this year's Computex will showcase the latest developments in cloud computing and information communications technology (ICT), and is expected to attract more than 36,000 international buyers. According ...

EMC Thailand to focus on storage, cloud computing businesses
The Nation
EMC's biggest opportunity continues to be helping customers transition from a physical data center to a virtualized one that is cloud computing, and the company is also actively supporting service providers in this area. EMC's offers organizations a ...

Will VMware Challenge Amazon Head On?
InformationWeek
VMware announces Hybrid Cloud Services unit. Does that mean VMware IaaS, competing directly with Amazon, or continued reliance on partners? Start The Discussion · Tweet; Mail Mail; Print Print · Charles Babcock | March 14, 2013 09:12 AM. VMware told ...

Suppliers addressing businesses' concerns over cloud computing, says expert
Out-Law.com
Cloud computing specialist Charles Park of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the results of a recent survey conducted on behalf of KPMG had highlighted the "maturing" nature of the cloud market. ... In addition, businesses are ...

The 100 Coolest Cloud Computing Vendors Of 2013
CRN's 100 Coolest Cloud Computing Vendors Of 2013, the Cloud 100, looks at the best vendors incloud platforms, cloud infrastructure, cloud storage, cloud ...
www.crn.com/.../the-100-coolest-cloud-computing-vendors-of...

Cloud services can save you money -- if you're careful ...
Calculating the real ROI of cloud apps requires the analysis of a lot of factors, ... Home > Cloud Computing ... Computerworld - The key to earning a positive return on investment when adoptingcloud services -- including software-as-a- service ...
www.computerworld.com/.../Cloud_services_can_save_you_...

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



Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Google Set to Overtake Amazon and Microsoft in Cloud Computing Services

In Cloud Services it's a 3-way race, and Amazon is playing a role like Apple in smartphones. Google is set to gain on Amazon fast, leaving Microsoft in third position--

Google Takes on Amazon and Microsoft for Cloud Computing Services - NYTimes.com: " . . . Microsoft started Azure to try to hold on to corporate customers that Amazon wants to pry away, and has struggled for years to adapt its business from selling individual software packages to renting software over the cloud. Google’s cloud offerings originally tied to other Google services. But to reach a broader market, Google has followed Amazon’s lead by offering a cloud platform that works with a much broader range of services, Mr. Staten said. Google has the weakest corporate ties. It sells businesses cloud-based word processing, storage, and spreadsheet tools, but its operation is still much smaller than Microsoft’s. It introduced the Google App Engine, for building and hosting Web and mobile apps on Google’s cloud, in 2004. The company says that 250,000 developers use it to run 1 million apps that generate up to 7.5 billion page hits a day. In June, Google announced Compute Engine, for large-scale computing and data center access, at its annual conference for software developers, in the hope that developers and eventually big companies would use it. But nearly a year later, it is still in a test phase and not open to the public. People who have used Google’s cloud business say it is inexpensive and capable, but lacks some features of A.W.S. Google has said its cloud services will cost about 50 percent less than competing products. . . . "

Sweet Spot for Public Cloud Services: Very Small Companies
Forbes
AWS appears to have a high-volume business based on relatively small transactions. Cloudyn's data shows that 59% of AWS customers spend less than $50,000 annually for the cloud services. About a third spend less than $10,000 a year for cloud services.

China's cloud deployment dampened by nascent enterprise demand
ZDNet
Chinese authorities are encouraging the building of cloud computing infrastructure in their jurisdictions. However, cloud services in China face the challenge of low demand from enterprises who are reluctant to fully adopt public cloud due to security ...

Netflix Cloud Prize offers over $100000 in rewards to cloud computing gurus HD
Engadget
Netflix has a vested interest in fostering cloud computing -- after all, that's increasingly the company's core business. Accordingly, it's not going to just sit around and wait for a breakthrough. The subscription service is kicking off its Netflix ...

Jolidrive Combines All Your Cloud Services into One
Lifehacker
Cloud services are everywhere, and you probably have at least a few accounts all over the web. Jolidrive takes all those services and rolls them into one, simple interface. Perhaps you have files in Dropbox, but prefer Google Drive for documents. Maybe ...

HP launches cloud computing platform in Brazil
Telecompaper (subscription)
HP has launched its cloud computing platform in Brazil. Called Enterprise Cloud Services - Virtual Private Cloud (ECS/VPC), the new platform has been tested since early 2013 and now enters commercial operation with the proposal to deliver a ...

Netflix challenges developers to improve cloud computing, offers $100000
SlashGear
Netflix is looking to boost the reality of cloud computing via its OSS, taking it to the next level and helping it realize its potential. How is it doing this? Via its Netflix CloudPrize competition, which it is using to challenge developers across ...

SlashGear

Is your cloud drive really private? Not according to fine print
NBCNews.com
"When users place their data with cloud computing services, they lose the ability to maintain complete control of that information," said Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). The fight against child ...

BDR Cloud Services Market: Innovation vs. Commoditization
MSPmentor (blog)
When it comes to cloud-based backup and disaster recovery (BDR) services, the market is still growing rapidly but some MSPs are starting to worry about commoditization. No doubt, vendors want to stay ahead of the commoditization curve. Among the moves ...


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




Saturday, March 23, 2013

Cloud as job creator

Cloud as job creator, crazy times for Microsoft Azure storage
GigaOM
One fear among IT people is that the move to cloud computing will mean job cuts. But that may not really be the case, according to a new Rackspace-backed survey. Among 1,300 U.K. and U.S. companies surveyed by the Manchester Business School, found ...
GigaOM

Meet the Microsoft Office Luddites: Why power users won't live in the cloud | PCWorld: "The bottom line is that Microsoft knows its customers still need (or at least want) traditional, "hit-a-button-and-install-this-to-my-programs-folder" software. But who, exactly, are the holdouts who refuse to make the switch to Google Drive, Office 365, or even Microsoft's Office Web Apps? Who's still using a local copy of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint exclusively, and why?  They are the Office Luddites, and here they explain why they'll give up their Office DVDs only when you pry them from their cold, dead hands."

VMware cloud saga continues; Amazon kicks up monitoring ...
GigaOM
CRN followed up in August with its report on Project Zephyr which it described as a challenge to Amazon's public cloud.his week CRN again reported on VMware's AWS killer. The previous week, VMware CEO heated up all the chit chat when he implored ...

GigaOM

What if your cloud dashboard isn't telling the truth? Hint: It ain't good
GigaOM
hat happens if you can't believe your own dashboard? Whether it's for your car, your plane or your computing cloud, it's not a good thing if the console that's supposed to tell you what's really going on just isn't ...

GigaOM

Four Steps to the Cloud: Start By Firing Your Sales Team
CRN
So says Gartner Vice President and Distinguished Analyst Tiffani Bova , who opened UBM Tech's XChange Solution Provider 2013 in Orlando with a session on cloudcomputing and the channel. Bova explained how solution providers that are looking to ...

12 Certainties That Will Transform Every Career and Create New Ones | Flash Foresights from Daniel Burrus | Big Think: "7. Cloud Services and Virtualization will be increasingly embraced by businesses of all sizes, as this represents a major shift in how organizations obtain and maintain software, hardware, and computing capacity. IT is rapidly becoming an on-demand service that is rapidly transforming all business processes resulting in a rapid evolution of current careers as well as creating new careers in every functional area."

IBM, EMC, And Others Are All Trying To Buy The Same $2 Billion Cloud ...
Business Insider
SoftLayer is a cloud-computing and Web-hosting provider with about 25,000 customers, mostly small and mid-sized customers, making it the world's largest privately held website hoster, Damouni reports. EMC most likely wants this company to boost its ...

Business Insider

Dropbox Bought Mailbox Because It Wants To Be More Than A Cloud Storage ...
TechCrunch
In addition to Mailbox, an app designed for iOS devices, Dropbox has made a few other acquisitions that point specifically to cloud services that work on mobile devices. They include Audiogalaxy for music and Snapjoy for pictures on the consumer side ...

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



Thursday, March 21, 2013

Top personal cloud-storage services

The top 10 personal cloud-storage services
ZDNet
While remote file storage has been with us for decade—I had remote storage on a Unix server using file transfer protocol (ftp) and NFS (Network File System) in the 80s—cloud storage for the masses didn't really get going until 2007 when Drew Houston,...

ZDNet

Gallery: Browse 10 cloud storage services
ZDNet
Amazon Cloud Drive. Amazon's Cloud Drive isn't bad, and its storage options are inexpensive, but -- like so many of these services -- it needs real operating system integration to be first rate.

ZDNet

CliQr Technologies Announces Advisory Board to Revolutionize Cloud Computing
Marketwire (press release)
The six advisory board members will shape the company's direction and strategy in an innovative cloud computing industry. "We're pleased to announce these highly qualified appointed members to our advisory board because of the unique background and ...

Maxthon adds cloud storage, sharing and more to its browser on Mac, Windows ...
The Next Web
The revamped web browser has a number of new features to tempt users over from Chrome, Firefox and other popular alternatives, including cloud push – which allows anyone with a Maxthon Passport account to push web content to and from different ...

The Next Web

Cloud Continues to Move Into the Mainstream
Wall Street Journal (blog)
But like many other major corporations, it has enthusiastically embraced cloud computing, which has been introduced at multiple layers of its information technology, from routine applications to the very core of the energy giant's global IT ...

AT&T Sees 'New Era' as Cloud Services Combine With Faster 4G
Bloomberg
Expanding the services will enable users to stream stored data and content from cloud services at faster rates and with lower delays, Stephenson said. This will drive increased data usage and require more investment in spectrum and networks, he said.

AICPA Cloud Computing Controls Endorsed by Security Group
CPA Practice Advisor
In a position paper released today, the CSA said that for most cloud providers a SOC 2 report “is likely to meet the assurance and reporting needs of the majority of users of cloud services, when the criteria for the engagement are supplemented by the ...

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



Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Public cloud services to total $131B by 2017

Gartner: Public cloud services to total $131B by 2017
ZDNet
Although forecast growth is generally high across all regions, the adoption of cloud services varies significantly by country. Providers should not assume that a generic strategy applied to specific countries or regions of the world will produce the ...

Where The Highest Paying Cloud Computing Jobs Are
Forbes
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (31%), Information Technologies (30%) and Manufacturing (12%) lead the top ten industries hiring cloud computingprofessionals in positions paying $100K or more. Wanted Analytics uses the NAICS taxonomy ...

Forbes

Cloud-Computing Tools For Doctors And Physicians
CloudTweaks News
Today we will focus more on small medical services providers and on how they can use cloud computing technologies. Here are the cloud-based solutions most used by doctors and physicians:Cloud storage. Information storage is of major importance for ...

Google App Engine Developers Get Help From Ferris
InformationWeek
Cloud Sherpas, a company that helps businesses implement cloud computing services, released Thursday an open source Python framework to simplify custom app development on Google App Engine. Recently named Google Apps implementation partner ...

CloudTweaks News
I have talked about security in cloud computing many times before, explaining why it is just as safe as conventional networking security, even citing its benefits over the conventional. However, there are many who still find cloud computing security ...

Schools, governments charge into the cloud -- why not businesses?
InfoWorld
According to a study recently released by CDW Government, a provider of government technology products and services, 40 percent of K-12 schools are turning to cloud computing for storage. However, the cloud is finding other applications at schools ...

9 top threats to cloud computing security
InfoWorld
Print| . 9 top threats to cloud computing security. Cloud computing has grabbed the spotlight at this year's RSA Conference 2013 in San Francisco, with vendors aplenty hawking products and services that equip IT with controls to bring order to cloud chaos.

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

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Cloud-Based Recovery In Business-Continuity Plans

The New Normal for Disaster Recovery: Incorporating Cloud-Based Recovery Into Business-Continuity Plans - The Data Center Journal: " . . . The good news is a new and robust disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) or cloud DR model has now emerged that promises to deliver enterprise-class continuity, cost efficiency and flexibility. Now considered by many observers to be one of the hottest new areas for the enterprise cloud, DRaaS has captured the interest of many organizations. An Emerging Solution: Cloud-Based Continuity In talking about the DRaaS model, a distinction first needs to be drawn between this model and backup-as-a-service. Backup-as-a-service is an attractive concept for protecting against data loss and corruption and for meeting various compliance requirements. Backup-as-a-service does not, however, deal directly with disaster recovery (DR) requirements. DR deals with the question of how do you recover your application processing if your production data center is unavailable. Backup-as-a-service with server provisioning at the time of disaster could result in weeks of outage if server replacement is unplanned, or in outages of a day or more if standby servers in a secondary location are available. . . . "

Review: Livin' in the cloud with Google's new Chromebook Pixel • The Register: "At this kind of money, Google is going directly at Intel-flogged Ultrabooks and Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro and Air – and they might just succeed in prying away some users of those laptops. After a week of lugging the Pixel around, using it for day-to-day work and trying it out in a variety of locales, we prefer its hardware to an idealized Ultrabook, the MacBook Pro, and in some ways the Air, in terms of design, build-quality, and specifications."

IBM to make its cloud services and software open sourced-based
Phys.Org
This move will ensure that innovation in cloud computing is not hampered by locking businesses into proprietary islands of insecure and difficult-to-manage offerings. Without industry-wide open standards for cloud computing, businesses will not be able ...

Appcore Raises $6M Series B To Expand Cloud Computing Infrastructure ...
TechCrunch
Today Appcore, a company that offers complete cloud computing infrastructure (read: hardware and software) to clients including mobile network providers, data centers, and enterprises, has announced a $6 million Series B round today. The company, which ...

TechCrunch

Telecommuting and cloud computing: For innovators only
InfoWorld (blog)
However, what is relevant about this issue is the use of cloud computing by a remote workforce. What are those ... Of course, some companies push back on public cloud computing with the normal excuses, including security, privacy, ownership, and so on.

Evernote Cloud Storage Service Warns Users of Password Breach
eWeek
Cloud service companies, which collect information on a massive number of users, have become targets for hackers and cyber-criminals. In June 2012, business networking service LinkedIn acknowledged that the hashed, but not salted, passwords for nearly ...

eWeek

The Real Market Size of Public Cloud Services
Wired
Taking the hype out of the equation, this number seems too big to represent an emerging segment like Cloud Computing that is barely hitting its mainstream stride.... Like a former president's infamous answer, it depends on how you define “Cloud Services”.

Wired

Cloud computing as a strategy for NZ business
National Business Review
Yet, cloud computing as a business strategy has the potential to be a game changer. Businesses, politicians and policy makers have to understand that cloud computing represents table stakes for international competitiveness today, a necessity rather ...

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



Thursday, March 14, 2013

Surviving cloud failures

How to survive inevitable cloud failures | PCWorld: " . . . I chose all my cloud services based on the central principle of data redundancy. To wit: SkyDrive's desktop app saves local copies of your files directly on your computer. (Dropbox, Google Drive, SugarSync, and most other cloud synchronization services do the same.) Pixlr lets you save your edited images in an online locker or straight to your computer, while Evernote has a handy-dandy export option, as does Microsoft's OneNote. HipChat was foisted upon me by my PCWorld bosses, but I use Digsby for all my other instant messaging services, and Digsby allows me to save transcripts of my conversations directly to my computer. Google makes things a bit trickier, as Google Docs save in a weird application-specific format. Nonetheless, if you want to back up your files in one big .zip, select all the files and folders on your Drive homepage, then click More > Download. From there, you can choose the format you'd like your files exported in. Google Calendar has a straightforward export option. To save your Gmail messages, simply download them using an email client like Outlook or Thunderbird. Nice and easy. Most data- or file-focused cloud services offer similar ways to export your information, so you don't have to use the same services I do. . . ."

Cloud Computing and Open Architectures
Wall Street Journal (blog)
IBM's recent announcement that its cloud services and software will be based on open standards is sure to lead more vendors, developers and users to follow suit, says Guest Columnist Irving Wladawsky-Berger. And that's a good thing for cloud computing ...

Amazon's Cheaper Cloud Services—Up to a Point
Businessweek
The cloud computing division grew so large that the company couldn't rent out all its spare server capacity. So the e-commerce giant created a supply-and-demand-driven market called Amazon EC2 Spot Instances that allows clients to rent processors for ...

Don't let consumerization be the free lunch that eats you
InfoWorld (blog)
The long-term cost of cloud services. Given this, could somebody please tell me why, when you add the two little words "the cloud" to the discussion, everything is supposed to change? There are certainly good reasons to put some of your computing eggs ...

Dimension Data Launches Cloud Services in Nigeria
AllAfrica.com
Dimension Data said that it's cloud offering will enable clients to accelerate their adoption of cloud computing, increase strategic agility, lower ICT infrastructure management expenses, and reducecloud migration complexity and risk. Cloud technology ...

IBM to offer cloud services to Fullerton India
Times of India
PUNE: Non-banking finance company (NBFC) Fullerton India Credit Company Limited has selected IBM SmartCloud Virtualized Server Recovery, a cloud-based disaster recovery service to ensure business continuity and operational resiliency for its clients'...

Times of India

Cloud Computing 2013 – What The Industry Experts Say
CloudTweaks News
The world of technology is doing wonders every now and then since many past decades –a few advancements here and a few there! So what does the year 2013 have in store for the world of technology? What are some Cloud computing changes that can be ...

Here are the top 50 cloud services your employees are using every day
CITEworld
A couple of those cloud storage companies were names I didn't recognize, like 4shared (which came in at number 17, just behind Office 365), Rackspace Cloudfiles (number 39), and Screencast (number 50), showing that there are many new entrants in this ...

CITEworld

Cloud services market to reach $US131bn: Gartner
IDG News Service
"The continued growth of the Cloud services market will result from the adoption of Cloud servicesfor production systems and workloads, in addition to the development and testing scenarios that have led as the most prominent use case for public Cloud ...

Cloud Options Proliferate Across the Channel
eWeek
When it comes to cloud computing, solution providers have no shortage of options. They can either opt to build their own cloud to provide services to customers or resell any number of other cloud services. The challenge is figuring out the right mix of ...

eWeek

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



Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Google says Welcome to the Cloud

Google says ‘Welcome to Cloud City’ | Successful Workplace: "The Chromebook Pixel represents a step towards a completely cloud-based future, so much so that I’m willing to bet that in the next 5 years it will usher in Cloud Cities; towns and communities where the entire population have fully embraced an always on, mobile and cloud based infrastructure. . . . But other consumer companies are moving this way too. Sony recently announced its strategy for streaming and online gaming services with its PS4: the acquisition of GaiKai was a major play in this direction (although whether they pull it off is another matter). Apple has been tinkering with its little “hobby”, the AppleTV, and for a while now, Netflix and Spotify dominate streaming media. Microsoft today updated its Office 365 Pro packages and Amazon has integrated Cloud Player into Ford SYNC’s Applink platform. Physical media is dying, even flash storage will become a museum piece in 5 years once cloud infrastructure and networking become robust, fast and reliable.Light and lean technologies and operating systems are becoming defacto standards and with them come ever increasing pushes towards the cloud. And we all know that when a consumer trend becomes mainstream the enterprise will surely follow. For larger organizations, the 5 year prediction will come and go without incident. I’m still working with companies stuck with Windows NT for example but for SMEs willing to embrace cloud it’ll be a reality. Google knows what it’s doing. Five years from now, whole cities will be entirely cloud based. . . ."

Six Facts That Surprised Me About Cloud Computing
CloudTweaks News
When I started reading this article on the cloud, I was surprised to learn it has a longer name than just the cloud. This took me off guard because with the popularity and global use of the cloud computing you would think some annoying know it all ...

The rise of the cloud services market
BusinessTech
The public cloud services market is forecast to grow 18.5% in 2013 to total $131 billion worldwide, with cloud advertising accounting for the lions share, according to tech research and advisory firm Gartner. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS ...

BusinessTech

The 10 Best Countries for Cloud Computing
Forbes
should: explicitly prohibit restrictions on the provision of cross-border data services; prohibit requiring the use of local computing infrastructure, such as servers, as a condition for providing, or investing in the provision of, cloud services in ...

BRICs still lag in annual cloud computing scorecard
Yahoo! News (blog)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brazil, Russia, India and China still lag far behind developed countries in policies considered critical for the future of cloud computing, but each made some progress over the past year, a U.S. industry group said on Thursday.

Yahoo! News (blog)

Cloud storage: Price wars ahead?
ZDNet
As we shift from a fat-client PC-centric computing world to one that's increasingly based on cloud services and storage, I see free and low-cost cloud storage options becoming a more important sales point. It's not just storage for individual users ...

ZDNet

Verizon Terremark CTO Speaks On Cloud Computing Disruption
Forbes
Cloud computing and mobile are two technology trends that are transforming how businesses operate and how consumers live. The first generation of cloud computingfocused on cost optimization. Lopez Research believes the second wave of cloud ...

Forbes

Cloud services to become default choice for Whitehall from this year
ZDNet
The policy is designed to help UK government hit its target of having half of all new IT spending on public cloud services by 2015. By replacing bespoke IT systems with off-the-shelf cloud services, the government estimates it could more than halve the ...

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



Saturday, March 9, 2013

Amazon Unlikely To Spin Off AWS Cloud Unit


Amazon Unlikely To Spin Off AWS Cloud Unit
InformationWeek
AWS, on the other hand, is a new kind of wholesaler, distributing compute cycles from cloud data centers at rock bottom prices and generating a more modest estimated $2.1 billion in sales. So will these two dissimilar businesses remain under the same ...

How to Avoid the Hidden Costs of Cloud Computing
ZDNet
We all know the conventional wisdom about cloud computing: it's cheap, fast and easy. But is it really that much cheaper? Or is it simply optics that make it appear cheaper? Optics can absolutely change your perception of the cost of something. Just ...

SkyDrive Delivers Solid Cloud Storage Integration With Office 2013
eWeek
REVIEW: Microsoft SkyDrive delivers reliable cloud data file storage closely integrated with Office 2013, despite some puzzling bugs that Microsoft should patch promptly. I recently started using Microsoft's new Office 2013 along with its SkyDrive ...

eWeek

Cloud Computing's ROI Increasingly Elusive, Survey Finds
Forbes
Chris points out that cloud has immense potential for organizations, but efforts to deliver cloud-based solutions need to be “supported by proper instrumentation of the financial parameters of cloud services, so that the architecture, development and ...

Forbes

Inside Brad Garlinghouse's Re-Imagination of Cloud-Storage Service YouSendIt
Wall Street Journal (blog)
“It's not going to have box, or cloud, or drive, or sync or share,” Garlinghouse said in an interview. “And the logo won't be blue, gray and white.” YouSendIt is a rather formidable operation. It generated between $55 million and $60 million in revenue ...

Wall Street Journal (blog)

LogMeIn uncloaks cloud storage bypass
Register
By now you know the prosumer cloud storage schtick: an agent on your device monitors a designated folder and copies everything in it to the cloud, from where any other device running the service's agent and logged in with the same account sucks down ...

Parallels: SME Cloud Services Market to Reach $95 Billion by 2015
CloudTimes (blog)
parallels logo 300x119 Parallels: SME Cloud Services Market to Reach $95 Billion by 2015 More and more small and medium-sized enterprises adopt cloud technologies at different levels. SMEs are an important part of the cloud market and are at the heart ...

Idaho Now Circumspect On Whether Cloud Computing Is Taxable
CloudTweaks News
Larsen also attempted a definition of cloud computing in the light of contemporary asset-and-software analogies, by saying that the industry is nothing but companies allocating capacities, and rental space over the web, as well as, outsourcing, showing ...

Cloud computing chance and challenge for big firms: expert
Shanghai Daily (subscription)
Speaking at the two-day Middle East CIO summit organized by global information technology (IT) research firm IDC, Sabbagh said Zamil Industrial Investment, as one of the largest Saudi industry conglomerates, started to implement cloud computing three ...

6 Revealing Cloud Storage Statistics
Six Key Indicators For Cloud Storage drew from a study of 100 executives that was conducted by Avere Systems and Gatepoint Research.
www.crn.com/slide.../6-revealing-cloud-storage-statistics.htm

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



Thursday, March 7, 2013

Cloud Computing Boosts Next Generation of Startups


Cloud Computing Boosts Next Generation of Startups, Survey Shows
Forbes
The benefits are seen in their IT budgets – two thirds (66 percent) of organizations who use private or public cloud services feel that cloud computing has reduced their IT costs, with almost six in ten (58 percent) reporting that cost savings through ...

Forbes

Microsoft Azure pips Amazon as king of cloud storage
ZDNet
Besides Microsoft's Azure Blob and Amazon's S3, the test included, by invitation, Google Cloud Storage, and two OpenStack offerings: HP Cloud Object Storage and Rackspace Cloud Files. The contenders had a chance to review the results, according to ...

Cloud Storage Crisis Looms For The Enterprise Brain
ReadWriteWeb
And yet few enterprise IT vendors are paying any attention. The problem is that employees are busily stashing data all over the place, in all sorts of cloud services, which is leading to what Huddle CEO Alastair Mitchell calls a "fracturing of the ...

ReadWriteWeb

International: PCI Security Standards Council releases cloud computing guidelines
DataGuidance (press release)
The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) published - on 7 February 2013 - the 'PCI DSS Cloud Computing Guidelines Information Supplement' (Guidelines) on the use ofcloud technologies and considerations for maintaining ...

ISM Adds NetSuite, Launches Cloud Computing Practice
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
Partnering with NetSuite enables ISM to launch a new cloud computing practice, offering their customers cloud-based business management and ERP software to more efficiently run core business processes including financial management, warehouse and ...

San Francisco Chronicle (press release)

PlayStation 4 cloud services bringing “Everything Everywhere”
SlashGear
This week the PlayStation 4 was revealed with no less than Gaikai-powered cloudgaming prepared for a future in which Sony's aim is “Everything Everywhere.” In this case it means that PlayStation 3 games will be able to be played by any device at any...

SlashGear

Yammer to deliver Office Web Apps, SkyDrive Pro integration this summer
InfoWorld
SkyDrive Pro, an enterprise version of the consumer SkyDrive cloud storage service, will become Yammer's underlying file-storage platform for Yammer, Microsoft said on Wednesday. The link with Office Web Apps, a browser-based version of the Office ...

Press Release: Pastel launches cloud computing for small businesses
Technology Zimbabwe
Announcing the imminent launch of My Business Online, Pastel Software Zimbabwe managing director Rob Watson said the introduction of cloud computing in Zimbabwe was an exciting step forward for small businesses, enabling them to keep their accounts ...

Cloud Computing Security Handbook
Windows IT Pro (blog)
Jan De Clercq (who writes frequently about security for WindowsITPro.com) and David Graves, an HP Distinguished Engineer who specializes in cloud services, also contribute to the book. John's previous books in the series are Cloud Computing Explained ...

OnApp's federated cloud storage platform hits production
GigaOM
As a major step in its quest to take on Amazon in a federated fashion, the OnAppCloud platform now includes fully-fledged distributed storage, VMware support and a more useful federated CDN. OnApp is one of the most interesting European cloudplayers, ...

GigaOM

In the Rush to Cloud Computing, Here's One Question Not Enough People are ...
Forbes
If anything, cloud is actually a new phase of IT outsourcing, Dan says, adding that “cloud computing is nothing more than the next step in outsourcing your IT operations,” the culmination of years of attempts to offload technology management to...

Forbes

Gartner Predicts Infrastructure Services Will Accelerate Cloud Computing Growth
Forbes
I've seen this in conversations with resellers and enterprise customers, and this trend is also reflected in Gartner's latest report on public cloud computing adoption, Forecast Overview: Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2011-2016, 4Q12 Update ...

Forbes

Review: Dell Cloud lets you have it your way
InfoWorld
Dell's new cloud has a distinctly Dell flavor that's apparent from the beginning. The company has always been very close to Microsoft, and now it's even closer after the leveraged buyout. While otherclouds charge a bit more for a Microsoft license ...

How Cloud Computing Is Helping Green Businesses
Greener Ideal
The cloud can be accessed from anywhere where there's an internet connection, and therefore allows business data to be stored and continuously updated in one, central location. This guide to cloud computing explains the technology in further detail.

Greener Ideal

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



Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Google improves support for cloud services

In Battle With Amazon, Google Hardens Its Cloud Services
Wired
As part of its ongoing effort to compete with Amazon in the cloud computing game, Google has beefed up the technical support options for businesses who use its sweeping collections of cloud services. The Google Cloud Platform now includes online ...

PS4's cloud services are "aspirational", could miss launch
MCV
Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Jack Tretton has warned gamers not to expect all of the features outlined in Sony's PS4 press to be available at launch. That includes things such as streaming games, sharing gameplay video or ...

MCV

Google adds fee-based support services for cloud platform customers
InfoWorld
Google has launched fee-based support services for customers of its cloud platform and infrastructure products, like App Engine, Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, and Big Query. Google, often criticized over the years for having weak technical support ...

1TB cloud-storage, a killer screen: What Google's Chromebook Pixel offers
Firstpost
Google has launched its own Chromebook Pixel which is priced at a steep price of $1299 for the Wi-fi only version, while the Wi-Fi plus cellular version is priced at $1499. The device is currently only available in the US and UK via Google's Play Store ...

VCE adds two new converged infrastructure models, SAP certification
InfoWorld
Calling it the biggest news since its creation, VCE today added two low-end models to its line of Vblock pre-configured, cloud-computing systems. VCE also announced it is teaming with SAP AG to add the SAP HANA database to its Vblock system. Models ...

5 Misconceptions Your Parents Make About Cloud Computing
CloudTweaks News
Sure the joke, “Al Gore invented the internet,” is a little old but your parents had seven years to work on this environmental Cloud twist to the joke to shock it back to life. Now our parents will confuse their joke with reality and we have to hear ...

Accenture Moving NSF Accounting To Cloud Computing; Ed Meehan Comments
GovConWire
Accenture Federal Services has won a five-year, $24.4 million contract to transition the U.S. National Science Foundation's financial accounting system to a cloud computing environment. The company plans to host the agency's 25-year old system in a ...

VMware Partner Exchange: 10 Cloud Services Providers to Watch
Talkin' Cloud
But cloud services providers (CSPs) will also push into the spotlight. Indeed, VMware's service provider licensing model has caught on with a range of companies that have public and private clouds. In fact, there are more than 8,500 vCloud Services...

Talkin' Cloud

Lujiazui to host cloud computing event
China Daily
Cloud Connect, a globally influential event in the cloud computing industry, will make its debut at Shanghai's International Convention Center from September 15 to 17. The rapid development of cloud computing will have a big impact on China's IT ...

HP News - HP Enables Partners to Accelerate Cloud Services Delivery
LAS VEGAS — HP today announced two new HP Cloud Builder programs that enable partners to leverage HP Cloud Services, the company's public cloud, ...
www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press-release.html?id...

When iCloud isn't enough: balancing other cloud storage options
GigaOM
Rene Ritchie's excellent article on iCloud and Dropbox has forced me to examine how I use iCloud and other cloud storage. When iCloud launched in 2011, I had hopes it would be a single-source solution, but over the years it's become apparent to me that...

GigaOM

Why Akamai is a smart play in cloud computing
MSN Money
Forrester estimates that the cloud-computing market will grow from $41 billion in 2011 to $241 billion in 2020. Cisco Systems (CSCO) estimates that two-thirds of total data center traffic will becloud traffic by 2016. IDC projects that application ...

CloudTweaks News
The European Union has resuscitated the more than a decade-old contention about data independence after giving an exposé of the US Patriot Act of 2001, which bequeaths the Federal administration, on the other side of the Atlantic, the power to seize ...

The fog of law and cloud computing
The Age
Data sovereignty concerns should not stop Australian businesses considering cloud services, say legal experts. Photo: Orlando Chiodo. Data sovereignty and privacy concerns resulting from the ... The reach of the US Patriot Act – which essentially ...

The Age

Unplugged: Got cloud?
USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — Cloud computing is exploding and growing faster than a swirling funnel crossing the Oklahoma plains. The next generation of computing lowers information technology costs while increasing corporate profits at the same time. And what's ...

Cloud Pro
Cloud services provider Our Holdings has caused uproar among programmers for trying to trademark the word 'python'. The company, which offers both Infrastructure-as-a-Service and cloud backup, uses the trading name 'python' for its products and owns ...

Cloud computing – The future for all?
This is Total Essex
Cloud computing is an IT solution that offers all of these. Operating within the cloud offers companies the opportunity to move away from physical servers and hardware to virtual ones, benefit from a solution that is scalable and command lower overheads.

This is Total Essex

10 Pioneers Of Cloud Computing
Siliconindia.com
The interesting part of cloud computing is that it's just a decade old, but the growth rate simply has been astonishing when compared to slow nurturers like personal computing and client-server technology. And then there are these pioneers. These guys...

Siliconindia.com

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