Cloud Computing, Coming of Age

Coming of Age in Cloud Computing - NYTimes.com: "... Microsoft, which operates one of the biggest so-called “public clouds,” or large and flexible computing systems available for remote rental, announced several changes to its data storage and processing services that will make them more powerful. Microsoft also announced a partnership with Dell to sell a kind of “cloud in a box,” or hardware and software that created a mini-version of Microsoft’s cloud, called Azure, inside a company. The idea is that a company could work with its own version of Azure, then easily move up to the giant version Microsoft has to handle big workloads. Hewlett-Packard may be after something similar with its effort to create a private-public cloud business based on the HP cloud, which uses a kind of open source software. What all of this means is that cloud computing, which makes it easier to tie more things to computers and more easily manage software, is starting to appear in even more forms and types...." (read more at link above)

Other Cloud NEWS:

InformationWeek
Cloud Computing: IT's Driving Again
InformationWeek
For example, in 2013 it reported cloud storage was growing at a rate 2.5 ... Organizations adopting cloud services expect to spend "54% of their IT ...


Defense One
Clarifying DISA's Cloud Computing Role
Signal Magazine
“I don't think DISA is going to be moving away from our participation in the cloudbrokerage, cloud services,” said Alfred Rivera, the agency's acting ...

Cloud computing in 2020: Looking into that crystal ball
CloudTech
Recently, @thedodgeretort of Enterprise CIO Forum held a Twitter chat about what cloud computing in 2020 will look like. I decided to write up a quick ...


ITProPortal
Demystifying cloud computing jargon: A guide to understanding the future of IT infrastructure
ITProPortal
How many of you really understand the cloud? If you were tasked with explaining "thecloud" to a child could you manage it? A recent discussion with ...

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Microsoft, Data Centers, Cloud Computing

CLOUD NEWS:

Computerworld
Microsoft leans on data-center strength to get cloud edge
Computerworld
Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise group, shows how Microsoft differentiates Azure at a press conference earlier this month. Credit: James Niccolai/IDG News Service ...


The Globe and Mail
Memo to Microsoft skeptics: Don't look back, look forward
The Globe and Mail
Few companies, if any, have gone from startup to the Dow Jones in as little time as Microsoft Corp., yet the software giant doesn't get a lot of respect. That's part of what makes it an interesting investment. I think Microsoft is on the cusp of a period of ...

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Microsoft, Azure, Enterprise Cloud Computing

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Seeks to ‘Harmonize’ With CIOs - The CIO Report - WSJ: "...The company plans to differentiate Azure by the level of enterprise support it delivers, the scale at which it can deliver services and its ability to help companies operate both in the cloud and on-premises in a hybrid environment,  said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of cloud and enterprise. By the end of 2014, the Azure footprint will extend to 19 regions around the world, more than that of Amazon Web Services and Google Inc., said Mr. Guthrie. Each region can hold up to 600,000 servers. “Going forward, we think all customers are going to need this hyperscale functionality to power their businesses,” said Mr. Guthrie. Microsoft projects that, aside from itself, only Amazon Web Services [AWS] and Google will be able to deliver this level of scale...."

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Microsoft vs Amazon in the Cloud (video)

Microsoft vs. Amazon: Who Will Win in the Cloud?: Video - Bloomberg:
(Allow video to load after clicking play or go to link above)
BCSG Managing Director John Davis discusses how his cloud services brokerage works, the battle for cloud computing space, the health of the U.K. tech sector with Bloomberg's Mark Barton and Manus Cranny on "Countdown." (Source: Bloomberg 10/24)

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Storm Clouds Over Amazon AWS?

Storm Clouds Over Amazon Business - WSJ: "Amazon.com Inc. has been fighting two big rivals in the world of cloud computing. But that battle shows signs of becoming a free-for-all that threatens its profitability goals for the business. Large telecom and small startups have been forging into or expanding services that let companies rent computing cycles rather than operate their own servers and data centers. The broader competition comes amid a continuing price war in the business among Amazon, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Those pressures were underscored... when the online retailer reported a wider loss for its second quarter. Part of the reason: its Amazon Web Services, or AWS, recently cut prices by between 28% and 51% for various services as gains at AWS and similar businesses slowed to 38% from 60% in its first quarter." (read more at link above)

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Google Cloud, Microsoft, RedHat, IBM, Docker, Kubernetes

Google Cloud Platform Blog: Welcome Microsoft, RedHat, IBM, Docker and more to the Kubernetes community: "Kubernetes is an open source manager for Docker containers, based on Google’s years of experience using containers at Internet scale. Today, Microsoft, RedHat, IBM, Docker, Mesosphere, CoreOS and SaltStack are joining the Kubernetes community and will actively contribute to the project. Each company brings unique strengths, and together we will ensure that Kubernetes is a strong and open container management framework for any application and in any environment - whether in a private, public or hybrid cloud. Our shared goal is to allow a broad range of developers to take advantage of container technologies. Kubernetes was built from the ground up as a lean, extensible and portable framework for managing Docker workloads. It lets customers manage their applications the way that Google manages hyper-scale applications like Search and Gmail...." (read more at link above)

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Cloud Storage for Business, Google, Microsoft, Others

Google, Microsoft and Others Delve Deeper Into Cloud Storage for Businesses - NYTimes.com: "... Online digital storage, the repository of an increasing amount of our business and personal lives, is changing from being a small part of computing to the core way of selling corporations other kinds of cloud software and services. Soon, keeping your digital goods will also be the means for tech companies to understand who does what inside a business, just the way they understand consumers by watching what they do on the web. “Storage is where the stickiness is,” said Jeffrey Mann, vice president for research at Gartner. “It’s how they hold a customer. If they store your stuff, they get to know you better.”..."

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Cloud Computing, a Failed Revolution?

Gartner's Lydia Leong echoed this perspective in a couple funny tweets, plaintively noting that, far from being finished with cloud implementations, many IT personnel don't even really understand cloud computing. -- Has Cloud Computing Been a Failed Revolution?
CIO
Talk to IT personnel, or study what they look up on Google, and you may think they're done with cloud computing. Talk to analysts, though -- or, more ...(read more at link above)

Google Embraces Docker, the Next Big Thing in Cloud Computing
Wired
Google is putting its considerable weight behind an open source technology that's already one of the hottest new ideas in the world of cloud ...

Google battles Amazon for corporate clouds
ITworld.com
By Joab Jackson, IDG News Service | Cloud Computing. June 17, 2014, 4:50 PM —Google says it's in the enterprise cloud market to stay and and will ...

Cloud Computing: Google Says Docker Shares its Vision
Social Times (blog)
The future of personalization is cloud computing, with the Linux open-source operating system underpinning the servers that drive the Internet. Docker ...

How cloud computing is like getting a rental car
The Tennessean
... or online word processors, like Google Docs, cloud computing can involve ... to small businesses that wish to leverage cloud computing capabilities.

Cloud computing breathing new life into Microsoft
Investor's Business Daily
Cloud computing breathing new life into Microsoft ... to better compete with Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and others.

Google Stands to Dockerize the Future of Cloud Computing
USFinancePost
Back in 2012, Google Inc. hired Eric Brewer, a computer science professor from the University of California, Berkeley, to redesign a brand-new ...

Acer to release new cloud apps in June, eyes partnerships in smart devices
ITworld.com
The cloud computing market is filled with plenty of competitors such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon. But Acer's Shih believes the company can ...

Google looks to the day when it can quit building its own servers
PCWorld
As cloud deployments get bigger and more widespread, the industry will eventually catch up to Google's style of computing and the company will no ...

Cloud Computing's Second Act Is All Business
Forbes
He conveys the observation that Google search traffic for the term “cloud ... The curtain is now opening on cloud computing's second act, which is all ...

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Microsoft, Mobile First, Cloud First Strategy

Microsoft's Mobile First, Cloud First Strategy, Explained - InformationWeek: "...IoT [internet of things] is a mega-bet, and Microsoft would be foolish to exclude Windows from the party. Even if IoT achieves only a quarter of the most optimistic projections, it will be a profoundly disruptive force, a tide that raises many ships and encompasses everything from wearable devices to smarter city infrastructure. In the PC world, Microsoft made its money by snaring around 90% of the market. In the IoT world, the company could generate a lot more cash with a lot less market share. The cross-platform opportunity is a mega-bet too -- and that's the point. When the bets are this large, Microsoft can afford for one to lightly infringe on the other. The company's focus is no longer the preservation of sacred cows; it's about synergies. Microsoft doesn't need to match Apple's smartphone sales to become the next decade's biggest IT player, but it needs a critical mass of users across every sphere -- datacenters, offices, consumers, professionals, wearables, embedded systems, PCs, tablets, phablets, smartphones, you name it. "This is gold rush time," Nadella said. "And when it comes to that, we have the broadest SaaS solution and the broadest platform solution. That combination of those assets doesn't come often." Indeed, at the heart of the synergies sits Azure, the cloud platform that supports Microsoft's services, and which benefits from new users wherever they come from. If you're using Skype on a Surface, Office on an iPad, or outlook.com on an Android device, you're feeding Azure all the same. It certainly doesn't hurt that as Azure grows more reliable and fully featured, it's also become a platform for others to build their own clouds...." (read more at link above)

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Google, Microsoft, agreed, Cloud now safe

Google, Microsoft agree: Cloud is now safe enough to use | Security & Privacy - CNET News: "The two Internet powerhouses agree that it's time to stop fearing cloud security and embrace the future at the annual RSA Conference.Nevermind Microsoft's awkward "Scroogled" anti-Google campaign. When it comes to cloud security, the two giants are practically best buds. At the annual RSA Conference held at the Moscone Center here on Wednesday, Microsoft Chief Information Security Officer Bret Arsenault and Google Director of Security for Google Apps Eran Feigenbaum explained their stances on cloud security at a panel also featuring noted independent security expert Bruce Schneier and Verizon's data breach risk team expert, Wade Baker...." (read more at the link above)

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Google, Amazon, Microsoft, the Cloud Battle

Google, Amazon & Microsoft: Cloud Battle Just Changed - InformationWeek: "...Amazon's only real competition is Google on the technology front and Microsoft on the enterprise front. Microsoft doesn't have to figure out how to sell to the enterprise; it's been doing it for many years. Nor does Microsoft have to instantly be on an equal footing with Amazon or extract large profits from its Azure cloud offerings. On the contrary, Microsoft has such a strong enterprise systems offering in place that its cash flow will help fund its expansion into cloud services. Not many companies can say this; it takes capital -- lots of it -- to launch a global cloud service. Google and Microsoft are the only two companies that I can see (and IBM, maybe) that can make a commitment to provide cloud services and stick to it. The services don't stay the same. They, like the universe, constantly expand...." (read more at link above)

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Microsoft, the Cloud, Satya Nadella

The Gigaom Interview: A chat with Microsoft’s Satya Nadella from before he was the (likely) next CEO — Tech News and Analysis: "...Cloud is perhaps the most secular growth engine out there because it scales with a number of devices, it scales with a number of apps, so it scales with the users and their devices and their apps. So that means all of those things are calling back home, they need more compute, they need more storage, and so therefore, cloud is the one thing you can bet on, is that there is going to be more cloud. Just because you can imagine all of those other things exploring. Now then the question is, what is that nature of the cloud? That’s where I think, those three things that I mentioned: one is proliferation of SaaS applications and in particular … the question of what’s the most ubiquitously used SaaS application? And the race is on for us and the industry and I think that’s where I think it will be something around communications and collaborations. That’s why Office365 is super important to us. The second thing that I think is also going to be true is, who are the scale players who can actually satisfy that demand? ... There is Amazon, there’s us, and maybe Google if they are serious about the enterprise infrastructure business...."

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Microsoft’s Satya Nadella on Google

Next Microsoft CEO (?) dishes on Google --

The Gigaom Interview: A chat with Microsoft’s Satya Nadella from before he was the (likely) next CEO — Tech News and Analysis:You don’t think they (Google) are serious? I don’t know. I don’t run into them. We compete with them, but on Office365 and Google apps, not as much when it comes to Azure. It’s really Amazon and Azure as far as I can tell when it comes to the public cloud. That would be the other thing that I see, who are the ones – and you can’t just say I’m going to enter this business tomorrow, it requires five, six billion dollars of capital expense every year — who have the muscle to be able to get into the public cloud business. If you’re already not in it at this scale, you’re probably never going to be in it. You have to wait for the next big inflection point. And then lastly, it is like, if you go with the notion that the world will still be hybrid, and there is a need for server products that mimic what you use in your own public cloud, that’s where VMWare and others will play and I think that’s still going to be very important." (read more at link above)

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Cloud Predictions for 2014

10 Cloud Predictions for 2014
BusinessNewsDaily
As indicated by the massive surge in users and the slew of cloud vendors and service providers now available, cloud computing went from being just ...
See all stories on this topic »


BusinessNewsDaily

OpenStack push grows, Microsoft and Amazon square off
V3.co.uk
Cloud computing continued its inexorable spread during 2013. ... more confident about adopting cloud services for some IT services this year, the ...

V3.co.uk

Report: MSPs Move Toward Becoming Public IaaS Cloud Providers
MSPmentor
Transformation to IaaS cloud computing model is starting to show significant momentum as MSPs and carriers are including IaaS cloud in their service ...

MSPmentor

2013 witnessed growth of advanced technology solutions such as ...
TelecomTiger
Tata Communications said that the year 2013 witnessed the growth of advanced technology solutions such as cloud computing, smart devices and ...

TelecomTiger

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Google Or Microsoft, Army Users Get Choice

Google Or Microsoft? Army Users Get Choice - Government - Enterprise: "Officials in the U.S. Army's Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS) believe in giving users a choice. That's why they have established blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) that let Army agencies pick between Microsoft and Google for cloud-based email, collaboration, information sharing and mobile access. In addition to a deal to buy 50,000 seat licenses of Microsoft's Office 365 suite of cloud-based applications through Microsoft partner Dell, the Army also has awarded a five-year contract to DLT Solutions LLC to offer Google's Apps for Government cloud platform to 50,000 users. . . ."

China Telecom launches cloud computing center in Guizhou

Xinhua
GUIYANG, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- China Telecom, a leading Chinese telecom operator, broke ground for a cloud computing center in southwest China's Guizhou ...

Business Cloud News

IBM Opens Federal Cloud Innovation Center in Washington, DC

Wall Street Journal
The new IBM Federal Cloud Innovation Center in Washington, D.C., will bring IBM's cloud computing research efforts closer to federal agencies to develop ...

Business Cloud News

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Microsoft Army Deal For Office 365

Microsoft Lands Army Deal For Office 365 - Government - Cloud/SaaS -: " . . . Kolcun said there are currently more than a million federal, state and local government employees using Office 365, including the FAA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. New York recently joined the states of California and Texas in signing up for Office 365, with more than 120,000 employees across New York's executive agencies scheduled to make the move by the end of the year. The move to a standardized platform is expected to save approximately $3 million in annual license, hardware, maintenance, energy and personnel costs. . . ."

Verizon & NetApp Team on Cloud

Light Reading
NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) and Verizon Enterprise Solutions today announced a collaboration to re-architect traditional cloud-based storage models to deliver ...

ExecutiveBiz

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Amazon, CIA Cloud Contract

Amazon Wins Ruling for $600 Million CIA Cloud Contract - Bloomberg: "Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) defeated International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)’s effort to reopen bidding for a $600 million Central Intelligence Agency cloud computing contract. Judge Thomas Wheeler of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington granted Amazon’s request for judgment on the administrative record following a hearing yesterday, according to a minute order posted on the court’s electronic docket. A written opinion will follow, according to the order. Amazon sued in July after the Government Accountability Office, the agency that makes recommendations on challenges to contracts, sided with IBM and agreed that the CIA had failed to properly evaluate prices and had waived a contract requirement only for Seattle-based Amazon. . . ."

Army awards contract for Google, Microsoft cloud services
Federal Times
The Army is expanding its use of commercial cloud services through new contracts awarded to Google and Microsoft, the service announced this week.

GovConWire

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Google, Microsoft, Government Cloud Contracts

Google, Microsoft in '2-Horse Race' for Government Cloud Contracts

CIO
As tech behemoths Google and Microsoft try to win over public-sector CIOs with their cloud-based productivity suites, government agencies eye cost savings and ...


Cloud computing: Is your business prepared?

Real Business
Cloud computing offers businesses the opportunity to outsource their IT services, reducing both time and cost efficiently. This is highly attractive, as businesses ...

Telit Acquires ILS Technology and Expands into M2M Cloud Services

Wall Street Journal
Telit Wireless Solutions, a global provider of high-quality machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions, products and services, today announced that it acquired ILS ...

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Microsoft cloud computing vision for Xbox One remains unchanged

Microsoft's cloud computing 'vision' for Xbox One remains unchanged
Joystiq
Whitten listed a host of examples of how cloud computing still exists as part of the Xbox One plan, noting players will "see great games like Titanfall take advantage of the cloud processing power" as well as have the ability to get games from the ...

Cloud Computing Courses And Advantages Explained
CloudTweaks News
Cloud computing is the latest technology in the field of computers and Internet based services. This new technology has helped businesses and individuals to save data efficiently in a cost effective manner. The industry now seeks professionals who are ...

Cloud computing can create a level playing field for SMEs across Europe (video)
Siliconrepublic.com
Europe needs to move to create standards and rules around business agreements and what happens to data used in cloud computing services, said Dr Andreas Goerdeler, deputy director general in charge of Information Society and Media at the German ...

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Microsoft And Oracle Will Announce Major Cloud Computing Partnership

Microsoft And Oracle Will Announce Major Cloud Computing Partnership Next Monday | TechCrunch: " . . . the SAP angle has interesting possibilities. SAP has aligned closely with Amazon Web Services. Oracle could be looking to Microsoft to be its partner for big data, in-memory computing. For Pivotal, its effort is as much about big data as it is about application development. They also face SP as a competitor in the space. . ."

Oracle moves to embrace cloud upheaval
Financial Times
Oracle will this week lay out plans to move deeper into the cloud-computing market, as Wall Street worries that the US software company's traditional business is being disrupted by a technology transition that is bringing a new wave of start-ups to the ...

Media File Sharing via The Cloud Catching On
Broadcast Engineering
The different types of cloud services can be boiled down to two basic industry terms, “CloudWashed” and “Cloud Formed.” Cloud Washed, the most popular and easiest to deploy, gets a broadcaster up and running very quickly, but can be vulnerable to ...

What CIOs Need to Consider When Migrating to Cloud Is the Next Big Move
SYS-CON Media (press release)
The benefits of moving from an on-premises model to subscription-based, cloud-hosted computing are substantial. With cloud computing, CIOs have the opportunity to capitalize on a variable-cost structure. Until recently, data centers have needed to load ...

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