Latest News from CloudCommons 2012

This Week in Cloud

Thu, 10 May 2012 07:58:00 EDT

Can Google Apps unseat Microsoft Office and Exchange? This CIO article shares insight from the CIO of New England Biolabs, which recently conducted proof-of-concept testing with Google Apps for Business. While New England Biolabs decided to stick with its Outlook/Exchange Server set-up and plans to transition to a hybrid solution that adds the cloud-based Microsoft Office 365, the article also highlights why organizations should consider Google Apps.

US Government Saves $5.5B From Cloud

Fri, 04 May 2012 03:00:00 EDT

A recent study revealed that the government is saving around $5.5 billion a year since the shift to cloud, according to this CRN article. The study was created from interviews with 108 federal IT managers and CIOs and was published by MeriTalk Cloud Computing Exchange. The study also found that if they had been more aggressive in cloud adoption, the government could have saved $12 billion.

VCs Spend $6.9 Billion on Cloud Startups

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 03:45:00 EDT

Venture capitalists devoted $6.9 billion in 2011 to cloud startups, which is an increase of 68% over 2010, according to this InformationWeek article. Author Patrick Houston recommends that enterprises develop a rigorous process for vetting IT cloud tools and vendors now to prepare yourself for the onslaught of new cloud services that will be coming soon.

How Green is Your Cloud Provider?

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 03:15:00 EDT

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Watch the latest edition of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.

Cloud News

Rackspace will offer a production version of their OpenStack open-source cloud platform beginning on May 1st, according to this GigaOM blog. Rackspace and NASA launched the OpenStack cloud project in 2010 and since then, HP, Cisco, Dell, IBM, Red Hat and others have contributed to the project.
Is the cloud really green? A recent report by Greenpeace suggests that it depends on who your cloud provider is and the way in which they are consuming electricity. According to this NPR blog, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon Web Services all rely heavily on coal, while Google, Yahoo, and Facebook continue to move toward renewable resources for their clouds.
Microsoft announced its largest cloud deal to date with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), according to this InformationWeek article. Microsoft will provide online service and software to 7.5 million students and professors maintained by the AICTE.
As an alternative to Vblock, EMC announced an all-in-one private cloud system this week, according to this PCWorld article. The VSPEX platform gives channel partners the ability to offer enterprises custom systems with applications that meet their customer’s needs.
The media and entertainment industry has taken the bull by the horns when it comes to cloud computing. At the conference for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in Las Vegas, technology vendors are showcasing their cloud-based solutions that radically change the delivery and sharing of video content. Read more about what Forrester Research reported on the demand for cloud services in the media industry in this ZDNet article.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Through year-end 2012, a significant number of pilot and production deployments of private cloud services will emerge, and hybrid cloud capability will become a major requirement. The market for cloud management platforms will expand greatly, but a number of vendors will be acquired or will exit the market. Outsourcing will become a mainstream alternative to internally deployed private clouds. This report by Gartner (compliments of Cloud Commons), examines the top five trends for private cloud and offers recommendations for your business based on those trends.

Feature article

Private Cloud ROI – More Examples Wanted

By George Hulme, Independent Writer

We’ve discussed the potential benefits of private cloud a number of times. Organizations have talked about the ability to maintain full control and transparency over their systems that they believe is necessary to attain the level of security that they want.

Sometimes, as was the case with game maker Zynga, their private cloud helps them to reach the level of business agility that they need. However, we’re also starting to hear more about how private clouds can also be more cost effective, especially when done by organizations that have the people with the right skills and experience in place. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is the future of cloud open-source? In this PCWorld blog, Thor Olavsrud details observations from Red Hat’s Bryan Che on why many companies are choosing open-source cloud.
The war wages on between open-source and proprietary cloud. In this ITWorld blog, Brandon Butler comments on a recent blog post by VMWare that defends the benefits of their private cloud and takes a jab at the open-source solutions available in the market.
Want to learn how the Cloud Commons® Ecosystem can help build your business? This white paper on Cloud Commons outlines how solution providers leverage the ecosystem to engage prospects, create compelling cloud services offerings, and bring them to market.

MSP Corner

Are MSPs becoming a little too comfortable with cloud? In this MSPmentor blog, Joe Panettieri suggests that while MSPs are enjoying huge growth from cloud, they should be keeping their eyes open for new cloud opportunities.
PEER 1 Hosting announced the deployment of Nimsoft Unified Manager this week in order to provide its customers with monitoring capabilities, according to this article at the WHIR.
Will price competition from large companies lead to the extinction of lifestyle MSPs? In this MSPmentor article, Jessica Davis examines the current MSP market and the impact that cloud is having on the industry.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
TMForum Management World: May 21 – 24, Dublin, Ireland
The Business of Cloud Computing: May 21 – 22, Dallas, Texas
Microsoft TechEd: June 11 – 14, Orlando, FL
Cloud Computing World Forum, June 12 – 13, London, UK

This Week in Cloud

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 06:46:00 EDT

HP announced its HP Converged Cloud based on a ‘hardened’ version of OpenStack software, targeting hybrid enterprise deployments and pushing for a common architecture across private and public clouds as well as traditional data centers. To learn more about the components of the offering, which include public cloud services, a service virtualization offering and Cloud Maps, which will provide templates of pre-configured cloud services, read this InformationWeek article. The offerings will be available in public beta on May 10. Here, InformationWeek editor Chris Murphy summarizes HP’s cloud strategy and this ZDnet blog explores whether HP can effectively move into delivering public cloud services, while supporting its existing services.

This Week in Cloud, April 5, 2012: Gartner’s five cloud predictions, Dell’s cloud moves, CloudViews Unplugged . And more…

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 06:47:57 EDT

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New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

Gartner outlined five cloud computing trends that will impact a business’s cloud strategy through 2015. The five trends include: Formal decision frameworks facilitate cloud investment optimization, hybrid cloud is an imperative, cloud brokerage will facilitate cloud consumption, cloud-centric design becomes a necessity, and cloud computing influences future data center and operational models. Read more in this press release from Gartner. In this GigaOM blog, Barb Darrow details a number of Gartner’s predictions and discusses the transformation that needs to take place in the current IT landscape.
Dell announced two acquisitions this week that are meant to bolster their position in the cloud market. On Monday, Dell announced that they will be acquiring Wyse Technology, the maker of hardware for thin-client devices which aims to help companies transition to virtualized and cloud environments, according to this PCWorld article. Dell also announced that they are acquiring Clerity Solutions, which specializes in moving legacy application to the cloud, according to this ZDNet article.
The United States and Europe are lagging behind Asia-Pacific and Latin America when it comes to cloud computing adoption, according to a recent Tata Consultancy Services study. One of the reasons for the slow adoption rates in these countries may be related to their hesitancy to store mission critical data in the cloud, according to this Forbes article.
Cisco and EMC are partnering to offer training and certification programs for cloud professionals, according to this WindowsITPro article. The programs range from cloud architecture and virtualization to data center networking and data science.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Feature article

Measure Twice… Cut Once: How to Avoid the Cloud Factory Default Button

By Randy Becker, GreenPages

This is one of those old woodworking adages that really applies when you are starting the process to build out your own private cloud. What does this mean and how does it apply today? Well, I can remember all too well my junior high school shop teacher repeating this over and over again to us as students. I think he told us measure twice, cut once almost as many times as he told us to remember to take the key out of the chuck in the drill press or to stop drag racing with the belt sanders. I can also remember telling my shop teacher it was a whole lot more fun to crank up the table saw and start cutting than to use a tape measure.

Well this same thing applies today in IT. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

CloudViews Unplugged, a Cloud Commons video blog which explores the impact of the month’s top cloud news stories premiered this week. Andi Mann and George Watt discuss the U.S. Patriot Act, rogue IT, cloud's impact on IT jobs, Doro's mobile apps, CloudCode, and more!
What makes for a successful cloud adoption? In this Cloud Computing Journal blog, Andi Mann identifies 11 tips for a successful cloud adoption. The tips include topics such as business and IT alignment, cloud as an enabler, the ‘new normal’ makes cloud mandatory, and more.
What type of environment is best suited for your test lab? In this blog on InformationWeek, Michael Biddick compares the benefits and risks associated with cloud and on-premise test labs.

MSP Corner

ViaWest is partnering with Infolink Consulting on an analytics and data integration solution, according to this MSPmentor article.
Latisys is expanding its data centers by 72,000 square feet and is set to debut an IaaS offering, according to this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Fair 2012: April 17-19, Seattle, WA
Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
The Business of Cloud Computing: May 21-22, Dallas, TX
TMForum Management World: May 21-24, 2012, Dublin, Ireland

The CIO as a Business Service Conductor

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EDT

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

In a bid to make its cloud a de facto standard, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has given its blessing to an open-source version of its APIs produced by Eucalyptus Systems, according to this Information Week article. Eucalyptus supplies on-premises cloud-launching software that can mobilize APIs that are a match for Amazon's major services. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that AWS may be launching cloud services in India; the company has been buying up infrastructure from telecom provider Tata Communications in India, according to this PCWorld article.
Sprint is partnering with Cisco Systems to launch a cloud-based unified communications bundle for large enterprises. It is the first of several cloud initiatives Sprint will launch this year, according to this eWeek article, which includes more detail on the service offering.
Dell is partnering with Ubuntu Linux maker Canonical to deliver a cloud solution in Britain and China. The solution, which has been available in the US since last year is based on OpenStack software combined with Dell’s servers, services and open-source deployment framework. Read more in this Wired article.
Microsoft recently outlined a plan to deliver its Dynamics ERP software through a SaaS model. In this InformationWeek article, Doug Henschen identifies 6 pros and 3 cons of Microsoft’s cloud strategy.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Feature article

The CIO as a Business Service Conductor

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Conducting an orchestra is easy; delivering a new CRM service is hard!

A long time ago, someone asked me on Twitter what is the difference between automation and orchestration. It really got me thinking, and eventually I think I answered by using an actual musical orchestra as a metaphor.

In this metaphor, having an autonomous musician play the entire violin part of a symphony is somewhat akin to typical automation - lots of activity and complex interactions all handled without external intervention, but all within a reasonably tight sphere of influence, in large part unconnected with the rest of the orchestra. In this case, as long as all your automation is well synchronized, then the symphony sounds at least listenable. However, whenever anything goes awry - a string breaks, a bow is dropped - then all of a sudden that instrument is out of time, and the symphony turns into cacophony. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

GreenTouch has developed technology that it claims will reduce energy consumption in fiber-to-the-home networks by 30 percent over current technologies. The new technology leverages Bit-Interleaved Passive Optical Networking. To learn more, read the announcement on Sys-con.
In this ITWorld blog, Bernard Golden shares his views on why cloud computing calls for rebuilding enterprise IT.
This Forbes article describes CIOs’ love-hate relationship with cloud computing. Some interesting data within: approximately 58% of respondents are running mission-critical workloads in the unmanaged public cloud regardless of policy and 79% of respondents to a Forrester Research survey plan to support running mission-critical workloads on unmanaged public cloud services in the next two years.
In this Cloud Commons article, Trevor Williamson with GreenPages explores the challenge of ‘how can you forecast and pay for resources and justify costs for problems you don’t have yet?’ He explores an analogy of the hypothermic cloud infrastructure, and explains an approach to maintain ‘blood flow’ to tier 1 and 2 apps.

MSP Corner

Boundary launched SaaS-based monitoring for big data and cloud software development platform, such as Hadoop and Cassandra. Boundary is focused on providing data collection, advanced analytics, an application-centric view and real-time monitoring, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article.
All Covered is acquiring Boston-based Covisia Solutions, an MSP that specializes in desktop virtualization. This is All Covered’s 7th acquisition in the last 12 months, according to this CRN article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
Cloud Fair 2012: April 17-19, Seattle, WA

This Week in Cloud, March 29, 2012: AWS partners with Eucalyptus, Gartner Report: Top 5 trends in private cloud, Sprint & Cisco partner around unified communications, New technology reduces energy consumption of fiber-to-the-home networks by 30%. And more

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

In a bid to make its cloud a de facto standard, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has given its blessing to an open-source version of its APIs produced by Eucalyptus Systems, according to this Information Week article. Eucalyptus supplies on-premises cloud-launching software that can mobilize APIs that are a match for Amazon's major services. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that AWS may be launching cloud services in India; the company has been buying up infrastructure from telecom provider Tata Communications in India, according to this PCWorld article.
Sprint is partnering with Cisco Systems to launch a cloud-based unified communications bundle for large enterprises. It is the first of several cloud initiatives Sprint will launch this year, according to this eWeek article, which includes more detail on the service offering.
Dell is partnering with Ubuntu Linux maker Canonical to deliver a cloud solution in Britain and China. The solution, which has been available in the US since last year is based on OpenStack software combined with Dell’s servers, services and open-source deployment framework. Read more in this Wired article.
Microsoft recently outlined a plan to deliver its Dynamics ERP software through a SaaS model. In this InformationWeek article, Doug Henschen identifies 6 pros and 3 cons of Microsoft’s cloud strategy.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Feature article

The CIO as a Business Service Conductor

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Conducting an orchestra is easy; delivering a new CRM service is hard!

Cloud Views

GreenTouch has developed technology that it claims will reduce energy consumption in fiber-to-the-home networks by 30 percent over current technologies. The new technology leverages Bit-Interleaved Passive Optical Networking. To learn more, read the announcement on Sys-con.
In this ITWorld blog, Bernard Golden shares his views on why cloud computing calls for rebuilding enterprise IT.
This Forbes article describes CIOs’ love-hate relationship with cloud computing. Some interesting data within: approximately 58% of respondents are running mission-critical workloads in the unmanaged public cloud regardless of policy and 79% of respondents to a Forrester Research survey plan to support running mission-critical workloads on unmanaged public cloud services in the next two years.
In this Cloud Commons article, Trevor Williamson with GreenPages explores the challenge of ‘how can you forecast and pay for resources and justify costs for problems you don’t have yet?’ He explores an analogy of the hypothermic cloud infrastructure, and explains an approach to maintain ‘blood flow’ to tier 1 and 2 apps.

MSP Corner

Boundary launched SaaS-based monitoring for big data and cloud software development platform, such as Hadoop and Cassandra. Boundary is focused on providing data collection, advanced analytics, an application-centric view and real-time monitoring, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article.
All Covered is acquiring Boston-based Covisia Solutions, an MSP that specializes in desktop virtualization. This is All Covered’s 7th acquisition in the last 12 months, according to this CRN article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
Cloud Fair 2012: April 17-19, Seattle, WA

This Week in Cloud, March 29, 2012: AWS partners with Eucalyptus, Gartner Report: Top 5 trends in private cloud, Sprint & Cisco partner around unified communications, New technology reduces energy consumption of fiber-to-the-home networks by 30%. And more

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

In a bid to make its cloud a de facto standard, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has given its blessing to an open-source version of its APIs produced by Eucalyptus Systems, according to this Information Week article. Eucalyptus supplies on-premises cloud-launching software that can mobilize APIs that are a match for Amazon's major services. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that AWS may be launching cloud services in India; the company has been buying up infrastructure from telecom provider Tata Communications in India, according to this PCWorld article.
Sprint is partnering with Cisco Systems to launch a cloud-based unified communications bundle for large enterprises. It is the first of several cloud initiatives Sprint will launch this year, according to this eWeek article, which includes more detail on the service offering.
Dell is partnering with Ubuntu Linux maker Canonical to deliver a cloud solution in Britain and China. The solution, which has been available in the US since last year is based on OpenStack software combined with Dell’s servers, services and open-source deployment framework. Read more in this Wired article.
Microsoft recently outlined a plan to deliver its Dynamics ERP software through a SaaS model. In this InformationWeek article, Doug Henschen identifies 6 pros and 3 cons of Microsoft’s cloud strategy.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Feature article

The CIO as a Business Service Conductor

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Conducting an orchestra is easy; delivering a new CRM service is hard!

Cloud Views

GreenTouch has developed technology that it claims will reduce energy consumption in fiber-to-the-home networks by 30 percent over current technologies. The new technology leverages Bit-Interleaved Passive Optical Networking. To learn more, read the announcement on Sys-con.
In this ITWorld blog, Bernard Golden shares his views on why cloud computing calls for rebuilding enterprise IT.
This Forbes article describes CIOs’ love-hate relationship with cloud computing. Some interesting data within: approximately 58% of respondents are running mission-critical workloads in the unmanaged public cloud regardless of policy and 79% of respondents to a Forrester Research survey plan to support running mission-critical workloads on unmanaged public cloud services in the next two years.
In this Cloud Commons article, Trevor Williamson with GreenPages explores the challenge of ‘how can you forecast and pay for resources and justify costs for problems you don’t have yet?’ He explores an analogy of the hypothermic cloud infrastructure, and explains an approach to maintain ‘blood flow’ to tier 1 and 2 apps.

MSP Corner

Boundary launched SaaS-based monitoring for big data and cloud software development platform, such as Hadoop and Cassandra. Boundary is focused on providing data collection, advanced analytics, an application-centric view and real-time monitoring, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article.
All Covered is acquiring Boston-based Covisia Solutions, an MSP that specializes in desktop virtualization. This is All Covered’s 7th acquisition in the last 12 months, according to this CRN article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
Cloud Fair 2012: April 17-19, Seattle, WA

This Week in Cloud, March 29, 2012: AWS partners with Eucalyptus, Gartner Report: Top 5 trends in private cloud, Sprint & Cisco partner around unified communications, New technology reduces energy consumption of fiber-to-the-home networks by 30%. And more

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

In a bid to make its cloud a de facto standard, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has given its blessing to an open-source version of its APIs produced by Eucalyptus Systems, according to this Information Week article. Eucalyptus supplies on-premises cloud-launching software that can mobilize APIs that are a match for Amazon's major services. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that AWS may be launching cloud services in India; the company has been buying up infrastructure from telecom provider Tata Communications in India, according to this PCWorld article.
Sprint is partnering with Cisco Systems to launch a cloud-based unified communications bundle for large enterprises. It is the first of several cloud initiatives Sprint will launch this year, according to this eWeek article, which includes more detail on the service offering.
Dell is partnering with Ubuntu Linux maker Canonical to deliver a cloud solution in Britain and China. The solution, which has been available in the US since last year is based on OpenStack software combined with Dell’s servers, services and open-source deployment framework. Read more in this Wired article.
Microsoft recently outlined a plan to deliver its Dynamics ERP software through a SaaS model. In this InformationWeek article, Doug Henschen identifies 6 pros and 3 cons of Microsoft’s cloud strategy.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Feature article

The CIO as a Business Service Conductor

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Conducting an orchestra is easy; delivering a new CRM service is hard!

Cloud Views

GreenTouch has developed technology that it claims will reduce energy consumption in fiber-to-the-home networks by 30 percent over current technologies. The new technology leverages Bit-Interleaved Passive Optical Networking. To learn more, read the announcement on Sys-con.
In this ITWorld blog, Bernard Golden shares his views on why cloud computing calls for rebuilding enterprise IT.
This Forbes article describes CIOs’ love-hate relationship with cloud computing. Some interesting data within: approximately 58% of respondents are running mission-critical workloads in the unmanaged public cloud regardless of policy and 79% of respondents to a Forrester Research survey plan to support running mission-critical workloads on unmanaged public cloud services in the next two years.
In this Cloud Commons article, Trevor Williamson with GreenPages explores the challenge of ‘how can you forecast and pay for resources and justify costs for problems you don’t have yet?’ He explores an analogy of the hypothermic cloud infrastructure, and explains an approach to maintain ‘blood flow’ to tier 1 and 2 apps.

MSP Corner

Boundary launched SaaS-based monitoring for big data and cloud software development platform, such as Hadoop and Cassandra. Boundary is focused on providing data collection, advanced analytics, an application-centric view and real-time monitoring, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article.
All Covered is acquiring Boston-based Covisia Solutions, an MSP that specializes in desktop virtualization. This is All Covered’s 7th acquisition in the last 12 months, according to this CRN article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
Cloud Fair 2012: April 17-19, Seattle, WA

AWS partners with Eucalyptus, Gartner Reports on Private Cloud

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

In a bid to make its cloud a de facto standard, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has given its blessing to an open-source version of its APIs produced by Eucalyptus Systems, according to this Information Week article. Eucalyptus supplies on-premises cloud-launching software that can mobilize APIs that are a match for Amazon's major services. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that AWS may be launching cloud services in India; the company has been buying up infrastructure from telecom provider Tata Communications in India, according to this PCWorld article.
Sprint is partnering with Cisco Systems to launch a cloud-based unified communications bundle for large enterprises. It is the first of several cloud initiatives Sprint will launch this year, according to this eWeek article, which includes more detail on the service offering.
Dell is partnering with Ubuntu Linux maker Canonical to deliver a cloud solution in Britain and China. The solution, which has been available in the US since last year is based on OpenStack software combined with Dell’s servers, services and open-source deployment framework. Read more in this Wired article.
Microsoft recently outlined a plan to deliver its Dynamics ERP software through a SaaS model. In this InformationWeek article, Doug Henschen identifies 6 pros and 3 cons of Microsoft’s cloud strategy.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Feature article

The CIO as a Business Service Conductor

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Conducting an orchestra is easy; delivering a new CRM service is hard!

Cloud Views

GreenTouch has developed technology that it claims will reduce energy consumption in fiber-to-the-home networks by 30 percent over current technologies. The new technology leverages Bit-Interleaved Passive Optical Networking. To learn more, read the announcement on Sys-con.
In this ITWorld blog, Bernard Golden shares his views on why cloud computing calls for rebuilding enterprise IT.
This Forbes article describes CIOs’ love-hate relationship with cloud computing. Some interesting data within: approximately 58% of respondents are running mission-critical workloads in the unmanaged public cloud regardless of policy and 79% of respondents to a Forrester Research survey plan to support running mission-critical workloads on unmanaged public cloud services in the next two years.
In this Cloud Commons article, Trevor Williamson with GreenPages explores the challenge of ‘how can you forecast and pay for resources and justify costs for problems you don’t have yet?’ He explores an analogy of the hypothermic cloud infrastructure, and explains an approach to maintain ‘blood flow’ to tier 1 and 2 apps.

MSP Corner

Boundary launched SaaS-based monitoring for big data and cloud software development platform, such as Hadoop and Cassandra. Boundary is focused on providing data collection, advanced analytics, an application-centric view and real-time monitoring, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article.
All Covered is acquiring Boston-based Covisia Solutions, an MSP that specializes in desktop virtualization. This is All Covered’s 7th acquisition in the last 12 months, according to this CRN article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
Cloud Fair 2012: April 17-19, Seattle, WA

This Week in Cloud, March 29, 2012: AWS partners with Eucalyptus, Gartner Report: Top 5 trends in private cloud, Sprint & Cisco partner around unified communications, New technology reduces energy consumption of fiber-to-the-home networks by 30%. And more

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

In a bid to make its cloud a de facto standard, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has given its blessing to an open-source version of its APIs produced by Eucalyptus Systems, according to this Information Week article. Eucalyptus supplies on-premises cloud-launching software that can mobilize APIs that are a match for Amazon's major services. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that AWS may be launching cloud services in India; the company has been buying up infrastructure from telecom provider Tata Communications in India, according to this PCWorld article.
Sprint is partnering with Cisco Systems to launch a cloud-based unified communications bundle for large enterprises. It is the first of several cloud initiatives Sprint will launch this year, according to this eWeek article, which includes more detail on the service offering.
Dell is partnering with Ubuntu Linux maker Canonical to deliver a cloud solution in Britain and China. The solution, which has been available in the US since last year is based on OpenStack software combined with Dell’s servers, services and open-source deployment framework. Read more in this Wired article.
Microsoft recently outlined a plan to deliver its Dynamics ERP software through a SaaS model. In this InformationWeek article, Doug Henschen identifies 6 pros and 3 cons of Microsoft’s cloud strategy.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Feature article

The CIO as a Business Service Conductor

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Conducting an orchestra is easy; delivering a new CRM service is hard!

Cloud Views

GreenTouch has developed technology that it claims will reduce energy consumption in fiber-to-the-home networks by 30 percent over current technologies. The new technology leverages Bit-Interleaved Passive Optical Networking. To learn more, read the announcement on Sys-con.
In this ITWorld blog, Bernard Golden shares his views on why cloud computing calls for rebuilding enterprise IT.
This Forbes article describes CIOs’ love-hate relationship with cloud computing. Some interesting data within: approximately 58% of respondents are running mission-critical workloads in the unmanaged public cloud regardless of policy and 79% of respondents to a Forrester Research survey plan to support running mission-critical workloads on unmanaged public cloud services in the next two years.
In this Cloud Commons article, Trevor Williamson with GreenPages explores the challenge of ‘how can you forecast and pay for resources and justify costs for problems you don’t have yet?’ He explores an analogy of the hypothermic cloud infrastructure, and explains an approach to maintain ‘blood flow’ to tier 1 and 2 apps.

MSP Corner

Boundary launched SaaS-based monitoring for big data and cloud software development platform, such as Hadoop and Cassandra. Boundary is focused on providing data collection, advanced analytics, an application-centric view and real-time monitoring, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article.
All Covered is acquiring Boston-based Covisia Solutions, an MSP that specializes in desktop virtualization. This is All Covered’s 7th acquisition in the last 12 months, according to this CRN article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
Cloud Fair 2012: April 17-19, Seattle, WA

This Week in Cloud, March 29, 2012: AWS partners with Eucalyptus, Gartner Report: Top 5 trends in private cloud, Sprint & Cisco partner around unified communications, New technology reduces energy consumption of fiber-to-the-home networks by 30%. And more

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

In a bid to make its cloud a de facto standard, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has given its blessing to an open-source version of its APIs produced by Eucalyptus Systems, according to this Information Week article. Eucalyptus supplies on-premises cloud-launching software that can mobilize APIs that are a match for Amazon's major services. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that AWS may be launching cloud services in India; the company has been buying up infrastructure from telecom provider Tata Communications in India, according to this PCWorld article.
Sprint is partnering with Cisco Systems to launch a cloud-based unified communications bundle for large enterprises. It is the first of several cloud initiatives Sprint will launch this year, according to this eWeek article, which includes more detail on the service offering.
Dell is partnering with Ubuntu Linux maker Canonical to deliver a cloud solution in Britain and China. The solution, which has been available in the US since last year is based on OpenStack software combined with Dell’s servers, services and open-source deployment framework. Read more in this Wired article.
Microsoft recently outlined a plan to deliver its Dynamics ERP software through a SaaS model. In this InformationWeek article, Doug Henschen identifies 6 pros and 3 cons of Microsoft’s cloud strategy.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Feature article

The CIO as a Business Service Conductor

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Conducting an orchestra is easy; delivering a new CRM service is hard!

Cloud Views

GreenTouch has developed technology that it claims will reduce energy consumption in fiber-to-the-home networks by 30 percent over current technologies. The new technology leverages Bit-Interleaved Passive Optical Networking. To learn more, read the announcement on Sys-con.
In this ITWorld blog, Bernard Golden shares his views on why cloud computing calls for rebuilding enterprise IT.
This Forbes article describes CIOs’ love-hate relationship with cloud computing. Some interesting data within: approximately 58% of respondents are running mission-critical workloads in the unmanaged public cloud regardless of policy and 79% of respondents to a Forrester Research survey plan to support running mission-critical workloads on unmanaged public cloud services in the next two years.
In this Cloud Commons article, Trevor Williamson with GreenPages explores the challenge of ‘how can you forecast and pay for resources and justify costs for problems you don’t have yet?’ He explores an analogy of the hypothermic cloud infrastructure, and explains an approach to maintain ‘blood flow’ to tier 1 and 2 apps.

MSP Corner

Boundary launched SaaS-based monitoring for big data and cloud software development platform, such as Hadoop and Cassandra. Boundary is focused on providing data collection, advanced analytics, an application-centric view and real-time monitoring, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article.
All Covered is acquiring Boston-based Covisia Solutions, an MSP that specializes in desktop virtualization. This is All Covered’s 7th acquisition in the last 12 months, according to this CRN article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
Cloud Fair 2012: April 17-19, Seattle, WA

This Week in Cloud

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 05:18:00 EDT

HP is planning to launch a mega cloud service to rival Amazon Web Services offerings. The new offerings will combine PaaS, IaaS and SaaS and will provide a full array of platforms, infrastructure and applications along with professional services, according to this Channelnomics article. This blog in the New York Times offers more detail on the service offerings, which are scheduled to launch within 2 months.

NIST Announces Security Standards for Cloud

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 06:00:00 EST

NIST has released a major revision to the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). The public draft of the Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations provides a set of security standards that are meant to help protect government agencies from threats that are emerging from mobile and cloud computing, according to this InformationWeek article.

US Patriot Act: Red Herring?

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:00:00 EST

Is the US Patriot Act a red herring? Some European countries, as well as Brazil and China, have been using the U.S. Patriot Act as an excuse to set up barriers for the transfer of data into the U.S., but according to Business Software Alliance CEO Robert Holleyman, those countries have similar laws in place that allow them to inspect data when looking for evidence of terrorist activity. The reason for the barriers may be to stall America's growth in the cloud market, according to this InformationWeek article.

APAC Isn’t Ready for Cloud

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 09:30:00 EST

CloudStore, the G-Cloud application procurement site, was launched by the UK government this week to give small businesses in the UK the ability to compete with larger IT companies for contracts with the public sector, according to this ZDNet article. The CloudStore launched with 257 companies that are offering services geared toward public-sector organizations.

This Week in Cloud, February 16, 2012: Google Drive, Telcos vs. AWS, Forecast AWS charges mid-month, New cloud security approaches. And more…

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:21:16 EST

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Cloud News

Google is reportedly close to introducing a cloud-storage service called Drive, which will be similar to Dropbox. This PC World article points out that the service offering could potentially turn Google partners into rivals.
Are telcos poised to disrupt Amazon’s enterprise cloud? This Information Week article makes the case that they are, citing speakers from the Cloud Carrier Forum held at the Cloud Connect conference. One point consistently made at the conference: “not only do the carriers already own the networks across which all cloud-based data and content is already trafficked, they have a decades-old and relatively bulletproof track record in delivering secure and highly available services.”
Uptime Software announced a service that can forecast customers’ Amazon Web Services bill in the middle of the month, to help eliminate cloud bill surprises. Read more in this Information Week article.
This Forbes article titled ‘Cloud computing market hot, but how hot? Estimates all over the map’ says that the problem in sizing the cloud market is deciding where software ends and cloud begins, and where traditional outsourcing ends and cloud begins. The report cites market sizing data from Market Research Media ($270 billion in 2020), Forrester ($241 billion in 2020), Visiongain ($83 billion by 2016), IDC ($55 billion by 2014) and HP ($143 billion by next year.
Electric Cloud, a provider of develop and test cloud solutions is offering developers one year of free access to a developer tool that it claims can speed application builds by as much as 70 percent. This offer is available to developers worldwide for the next 60 days, according to this eWeek article.
Cloudscaling launched its Open Cloud System, an IaaS solution based on the OpenStack open source project. Cloudscaling is also teaming with Cloud Technology Partners to provide infrastructure and consulting services on cloud implementation and migration. Read more in this Data Center Knowledge article.
UnitedHealth Group plans to launch a cloud platform aimed at healthcare providers and insurers to enable sharing of medical data among industry players, according to this Wall Street Journal article.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: The New IT: Drivers, Challenges and Opportunities

This research explores the driving forces that are changing the role of IT in the enterprise, and examines the challenges, along with opportunities and approaches, CIOs can use to define and build a new IT. IT must fuel the successful execution of the enterprise's business strategy, accelerate organizational change and drive innovation business solutions for increased competitive advantage. We believe that the recommendations in this report by Gartner (available compliments of Cloud Commons) will help you better navigate the dynamic and complex IT landscape that has emerged from the advancement in cloud, mobile and social computing.

Feature article

On Cloud and IT Disaster Recovery

By George Hulme, Independent Writer

In his column When Disaster Thunders Through the Cloud, Rob Livingstone raises a point about IT disaster recovery - a point I wonder if many have thought through. That’s whether enterprises believe that when they choose a cloud services provider *their* IT disaster recovery efforts come with the package. I don’t think most enterprise IT folk take such a simplistic view.

I’ve not interviewed any IT teams who believe that IT disaster recovery is a core value proposition of any single cloud provider. That is, of course, beyond the investments that provider makes to ensure that they’re adequately resilient. It just makes no sense to expect to simply toss that much responsibility over the fence and into the hands of one company. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Multiple cloud formations require new security approaches: This eWeek article discusses some new strategies for managing the unique security challenges presented by cloud computing. Solutions from CloudPassage and Lighthouse Security Group are discussed. Another interesting point from the article: Forrester analyst Jonathan Penn predicts that rather than reallocating portions of existing security budgets to cloud computing, organizations will allocate money to security within cloud projects, creating a whole new category of revenue for the security market. Forrester predicts the cloud security market will grow to $1.5 billion by 2015.
Today, only 13% of companies have substantially implemented cloud across the organization; that figure will increase to 41% according to IBM-sponsored research that will be published shortly in The Economist. The report, which is summarized in this Information Week article, concludes that cloud’s potential to drive business innovation is substantial, but largely untapped.
This eWeek article explores whether 2012 is the year PaaS goes mainstream. The latest report from Gartner, cited in the article, estimates that PaaS revenue in 2011 was $707.4 million, an increase of 38 percent over the previous year.

MSP Corner

In this Talkin’ Cloud article, a guest blog from NetEnrich explores two different types of IT revenue – project vs. recurring – and defines which is better.
Cloud security provider Savid Technologies is being acquired by Technology Capital Investors, a NY-based investment firm that already owns several other MSP and cloud service providers. Read more in this CRN article.
Demystifying Opportunities in the Cloud: In this MSPnews article, Peter Sherr with CA Technologies discusses the opportunities for MSPs in 2012, managed services that are being underestimated by the MSP community, how MSPs can better communicate the value of managed services and more.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Analytics Summit: February 25, Mountain View, CA
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Cloud Computing Imperative 2012: March 12 – 14, Dubai, UAE
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY
Cisco Live APJ: March 20 – 23, Melbourne, Australia
4th Annual Cloud Computing Summit 2012: March 23. London, UK
Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal

This Week in Cloud, February 9, 2012: OpenStack drops Hyper-V, Red Hat’s legacy app remedy, Fujitsu + ServiceMesh partner, 28% of IT orgs assess cloud impact. And more…

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:33:27 EST

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New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

OpenStack will be removing support for Hyper-V from Essex, the next version of OpenStack, despite Microsoft's stated commitment to the code, according to this ComputerWorld article. The code would have allowed service providers to build an OpenStack cloud using Hyper-V, but according to one developer, it was "broken and unmaintained."
Red Hat announced the Red Hat Virtual Storage Appliance for Amazon Web Services which aims to simplify the process of migrating legacy applications to Amazon's public cloud. The new virtual storage appliance adds POSIX compliance which means that most Unix applications will not have to be rewritten for use in the cloud, according to this GigaOM article.
Amazon announced that it will be cutting the price of its Amazon S3 service by 10% for the first 500 terabytes of data, according to this Wall Street Journal article. This news comes after last week's announcement that the number of objects stored in Amazon S3 had a 192% year-over-year growth, according to this ReadWriteWeb article.
Fujitsu and cloud platform vendor ServiceMesh are partnering to deliver public and private cloud offerings to enterprise customers, according to this eWeek article. ServiceMesh will gain access to Fujitsu's global, on-demand cloud footprint, while Fujitsu will offer its customers ServiceMesh's Agility Platform, which provides a single management interface for policy management, cloud governance, security and workflow automation in hybrid environments.
VMware announced the vCloud Integration Manager, which provides a standard and simple way for service providers to provision vCloud Director, vSphere and vShield, according to this VMWare blog. You can read more about the product and the reason why VMWare created it in this The Register article.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Enterprises moving business-critical information and processes into the cloud must ensure that their cloud providers meet their security policies. We believe that the recommendations in this report by Gartner (available compliments of Cloud Commons ecosystem) will help secure your cloud by explaining the various models of security testing that a company can use to test their provider's code for vulnerabilities.

Feature article

Pragmatic Cloud: Peeling the Cloud’s Green Onion

By George Watt, CA Technologies

Does cloud computing really make things greener?

The Green Onion's Three Layers

Recently my colleague Dhesi Ananchaperumal and I were invited to speak at several conferences on the topics of energy management and consumption, and cost reduction. During those sessions I was asked to share some of our experiences in our journey to providing a private cloud and to discuss whether the cloud made CA Technologies greener. In preparation for these sessions I realized that we had actually progressed through three levels of green awareness and maturity in our cloud's early years. (You can watch a short YouTube video of one of our sessions here.) Read the full article to find out the three levels of green awareness and maturity.

Cloud Views

Has the fate of Megaupload derailed the cloud’s momentum? In this blog on Cloud Commons, George Hulme wonders if Megaupload’s demise will have a negative impact on the growth of cloud.
Is the popularity of cloud computing causing businesses to transition to cloud before they're ready? In this article at InformationWeek, Michael Healey examines the responses to the InformationWeek 2012 State of Cloud Computing Survey. While a third of the companies surveyed are already using cloud services, only 28% of those companies evaluated the potential impact on their internal architecture before going live.
The medical industry is a great candidate for cloud services, but there's a major barrier to adoption: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In this blog at ZDNet, David Chernicoff describes HIPAA's regulations and how it’s impacting the number and quality of services available to the medical industry.

MSP Corner

What are the new offerings that you should consider adding to your managed service portfolio? In this Channelpro article, Rich Freeman suggest four new offerings including managed audio/visual services, desktop as a service, managed firewall services and managed e-discovery. This MSPAlliance article delves into the companies that are making headway on these four offerings.
Level Platforms announced that it'll be adding Mobile Device Management (MDM) to their Managed Workplace 2012 release, according to this eWeek article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

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New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

I am in the midst of writing a book on Cloud Standards(expected to be available on or about June 20, 2012). There are only a handful of standards that apply directly to clouds, but the number of standards that cloud computing inherently relies upon is enormous. I have lots of leeway in writing about standards in the book, mainly because it is hard to think of a computing standard that does not apply to cloud in some way.

There is a reason for that: cloud is the culmination of almost everything in computing up to now. Of course, that means that there is very little in cloud that is new (yes, I did just suggest cloud is old, too). The components and technologies that make up a cloud implementation are the same technologies that have been used for decades. So, why all the talk about cloud today? What's new are the ways all the technology fits together, the scale of its application, and its wide variety of uses. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:56:35 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Download our iPhone app

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 2, 2012: BMC acquires Numara, Salesforce.com launches desk.com, Gartner PaaS report, Cloud fueling global economic growth, Quantum cloud? Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

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New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

BMC is acquiring Numara Software, a provider of integrated IT management solutions to midmarket companies. In this Computerworld UK blog, Forrester’s Dave Johnson shares his analysis.
Salesforce.com has launched Desk.com, a cloud-based customer help-desk dashboard that integrates Facebook and Twitter feeds alongside more traditional corporate channels such as email. Subscriptions start at $49 per seat per month. Read this eWeek article for more.
Gartner issued a special report on the PaaS market, saying it is on the cusp of several years of strategic growth. Currently, the PaaS market is in its early stage and does not yet have well-established leaders. By 2013, Gartner expects all major vendors will have competitive production offerings in the PaaS market and by 2016, competition among PaaS vendors will produce new programming models, new standards and new software market leaders. Read the press release for more detail.
To better target enterprise business, Amazon Web Services introduced the AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance to automate enterprise data backup to Amazon S3. Learn about the details of the service offering in this ZDNet article.
The London School of Economics issued a study showing that cloud computing is fueling global economic growth. Read more in this DataCentres.com article. The study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between 2010 and 2014.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

Which is more complex: a jet airplane or a cloud data center?

By Marv Waschke, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

With more than 2000 SaaS vendors in the market and estimates that 95% of companies want to maintain or increase their SaaS usage, this GigaOM blog asks: ‘Will the cloud hit the wall without good integration?’
This blog in the New York Times analyzes the recently published Forrester business and technology outlook for 2020 report. The blog summarizes the findings thus: “cloud computing will come on quicker than you think, it will be controlled by a very few companies that will fight for the right to own your data, and businesses need to think about what software they can write that will differentiate them from all the other customers of these giants.” Read the article for thoughts on who the likely leaders will be, how they will differentiate themselves and more.
Quantum cloud? A team of scientists has demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. Read more in this Gizmag article.
This ZDNet blog shares 5 ways cloud supercharges enterprise initiatives, specifically: investing in shared services, consolidating global platforms, simplifying application portfolios, improving user experiences and onboarding shadow IT applications.

MSP Corner

MicroTech has been awarded the first cloud contract for the Army to maintain and support mobile data centers for the Army Private Cloud Mobile Program. Learn more in this CRN article.
MSP Novatrend is the latest hosting and managed service provider to choose the CA AppLogic cloud platform. Read more in this MSPmentor article.
NetIQ released Cloud Manager 2.0 aimed at helping MSPs manage IaaS more efficiently. Read more in this MSPmentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC
ComputerWorld IT Leaders Conference: March 11 – 13, Phoenix, AZ
Global Services Conference: March 15, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:22:00 EST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a finalized set of guidelines on cloud security. Read more in this InformationWeek article or read the guidelines at NIST.gov. Cloud computing provider Joyent recently raised $85 million in funding, according to this TechCrunch article. European group Weather Investment II was the main investor. SmartDataCenter, Joyent’s cloud software suite, is used worldwide by developers and enterprises. Piston has released Piston Enterprise OS, an open source operating system for the cloud. This scalable private cloud operating system is built on the OpenStack cloud platform and was built for enterprise customers. Read more at Data Center Knowledge. Microsoft recently entered a four-year agreement with HP aiming to make its communications and collaboration applications available via HP's cloud services. This deal includes collaborations in private, public and hybrid cloud solutions. Read more in this CloudTweaks article.

This Week in Cloud, January 19, 2011: Fujitsu big data cloud service, Microsoft to reposition System Center for cloud computing, New cloud portability standard from OASIS, Symantec acquires LiveOffice. And more…

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:25:08 EST

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Cloud News

Fujitsu is launching a big data cloud service that will enable the capture and analysis of customer data to help drive decision-making. The service includes using Fujitsu’s software and systems to gather telemetry and data from sensors, application transactions, clickstreams, logs, multimedia files and other data formats, processing the data and reintegrating the data with existing systems. Read more in this The Register article.
The OASIS standards body has proposed a new cloud portability standard (Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications). Read more in this CIOL article.
Microsoft is repositioning its System Center management suite to make it the central management console, not only for Windows Server in the enterprise data center, but also for future workloads in the on-premise cloud and Windows Azure public cloud. This InformationWeek article details the enhancements Microsoft will roll out.
While the hypervisor battle between Microsoft and VMware continues to rage on, New RW Baird research cited in this GigaOM article says that more than 25 percent of resellers expect the hypervisor category to be the scene of the most aggressive price pressure of any IT category this year.
Amazon Web Services bulked up its Direct Connect offerings with the addition of four new global locations, bringing private cloud connectivity to Northern California, Ireland, Singapore and Tokyo. This CRN article has more details.
Symantec acquired cloud storage vendor LiveOffice, adding a cloud-based option to its information governance products. To learn more, read this Computerworld article.
New data from IHS predicts that unit shipments of cloud servers will soar to 875,000 in 2012, up 35% from units shipped last year. Read this GigaOm article for more.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Feature article

A Year’s Worth of IaaS on a Single 3 x 5 Card

By Kurt Milne, IT Process Institute

Some people like to start the New Year with predictions. I like to clean house, simplify, and make room for the new.

So I've summarized my 2011 private and hybrid IaaS cloud thinking from conversations, blogs, white papers, meetups, conferences and tradeshows -- on a single 3”x5” card. Read the full article for Milne’s snappy summary of IaaS.

Cloud Views

Cloud Commons will be hosting a #CloudViews twitter event on cloud security today, January 19th at 3:00 PM ET. Follow the @CloudCommons twitter handle to join in the event. Find out more information and view our guest panel on Cloud Commons.
This CloudTweaks link shows an interesting infographic on who is using cloud today and includes links to other infographics on the most commonly used cloud applications and the biggest cloud security concerns.
When your data’s in the cloud, is it still your data? In this Computerworld article, cloud contracts expert Tom Trappler advises that cloud contracts should have language clearly affirming your ownership of your data.
In this blog, Gartner analyst Anton Chuvakin identifies numerous challenges involved in monitoring the security of public cloud assets.
CIOs adopting cloud computing are more ambitious than their peers, according to this Information Week article citing research sponsored by CA Technologies.

MSP Corner

SMB cloud spending through service providers will increase to $615 million by 2015, according to recent AMI Partners research on cloud routes-to-market cited in this article. The research firm said this figure is the largest among all routes-to-market tracked by AMI and far outpaces the growth in total SaaS spending over the same period.
Regional-based MSP OutsourceIT is merging with GoBeyondIT, a cloud service provider serving SMBs and enterprises. The combined company will offer a full suite of managed and cloud services, including Helpdesk, Project Services, Virtual CIO Services, NOC Services, Hosted Desktops (VDI), Hosted Servers, Hosted Applications and VoIP Telephone Services, according to this article in CBR Online. In response to the news, Joe Panettieri ponders whether small MSPs can battle big cloud service providers in this Talkin’ Cloud article.
BluPointe has updated its cloud data protection solution for MSPs, making enhancements around security and data integrity, according to this MSP Mentor article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Expo Europe: January 25 – 26, London, UK
MSPWorld: February 1 – 3, Miami, FL
Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC

This Week in Cloud, January 12, 2012: 10,000 cloud jobs, Cloud complexity, IBM buys Platform Comp., Gartner report on security testing inside. And more…

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:23:15 EST

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Cloud News

Talent research firm Wanted Analytics recently concluded that demand for cloud computing expertise has increased by leaps and bounds. This CRN article details the results of the study and reveals that in the past 90 days, 10,000 job ads have been placed with cloud computing skills and experience as part of the job requirements.
According to this CloudTweaks article, the latest cloud supercomputer developed by Amazon promises to perform 240 trillion calculations per second, without incurring monumental costs. The supercomputer runs on Amazon EC2 and is ranked the 42nd fastest in the world. Though there are supercomputers that run faster, Amazon’s offering comes at a much lower cost.
While the US government is shutting down 1,200 data centers, they are also enabling the remaining revamped data centers to lease out extra capacity to other federal agencies. To know more about the US government’s latest data center strategy, read this article at GigaOM.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently declared that the year-end opening of its data center in São Paulo, Brazil has doubled its overall data center footprint. AWS now has data centers in Asia Pacific, Europe, and on the east and west coasts of the US. To learn more about Amazon’s recent growth, read this article at The Register.
Internap’s recent acquisition of Voxel for $30 million is another indicator of the aggressive wave of M&A activity centered on cloud services. Major IT firms and cloud providers continue to expand their offerings by purchasing smaller cloud firms. To learn more about how large firms including Rackspace, Internap, IBM, and HP are jumping onto the cloud acquisition bandwagon, read this GigaOM article.
IBM recently acquired the Toronto-based firm Platform Computing. Platform Computing provides cluster, grid, and cloud management products for distributed computing environments. To learn more about how this acquisition can enhance IBM’s growth in the cloud computing sector, read this article at Technorati.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Application Security Testing of Cloud Services Providers Is a Must

Enterprises moving business-critical information and processes into the cloud must ensure that their cloud providers meet their security policies. We believe that the recommendations in this report by Gartner (available compliments of Cloud Commons) will help secure your cloud by explaining the various models of security testing that a company can use to test their provider's code for vulnerabilities.

Feature article

Toward what future goes the enterprise app store?

By George Hulme, Independent Writer

The topic of IT consumerization in the enterprise - and what it means for data management and the role of IT departments - has garnered a lot of attention lately. Certainly, workers bringing their own devices, and choosing their own cloud services poses a challenge to the status quo.

Those who have read my opinions over the years know that I’m a proponent of IT departments actively competing to win the hearts - and ultimately the business - of the “informal” corporate IT buyers. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Will the cloud simplify your IT environment? James Urquhart thinks not. In this blog on GigaOM, he argues that the cloud will present new challenges, but that engineers and software developers will learn and adapt to the complexity of the cloud.
Existing contracts may be slowing down cloud adoption and leaving some companies behind the competition. In this blog on GigaOM, Scott Bils details how an enterprise can leverage the cloud without violating existing contracts.
This Network World blog details the concept of a web of interconnected clouds called Intercloud. Intercloud will be comprised of cloud computing resources which are owned, shared, and connected by multiple providers on an open platform. This kind of federation cloud will allow providers to buy, rent, and share cloud resources externally, especially benefiting smaller providers.

MSP Corner

In this blog on Talkin’ Cloud, Justin Crotty describes how MSPs need to be innovative and set themselves apart from the common MSP. He also explains the difference between MSPs selling on an industry scale and an individual scale.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Expo Europe: January 25 – 26, London, UK
MSPWorld: February 1 – 3, Miami, FL
Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC

This Week in Cloud, January 5, 2011: IBM buys Green Hat, 10 cloud startups to watch, How cloud is changing job descriptions, What’s next with hypervisors. And more…

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:17:02 EST

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New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

IBM is purchasing Green Hat, which provides technology for testing applications without the need to use underlying hardware. Green Hat provides cloud-based tools for analyzing the performance of major vendors’ software in a controlled environment so customers can test how it interacts with their existing stack, according to this ZDNet UK article.
Private cloud provider Nimbula launched a migration service to help customers move from public clouds to Nimbula-powered private clouds. Nimbula claims that companies can run certain workloads more efficiently and cost-effectively in a private cloud environment. Read more in this Information Week article.
In a light news week due to the holidays, several industry pundits took time to reflect on 2011. Michael Miller in PC Mag writes that 2011 was the year of tablets and cloud computing. ReadWriteWeb identified their top ten list of enterprise cloud apps and services in 2011.
Derrick Harris with GigaOm called out 10 cloud startups to watch in 2012. On his list: AppFog, Bromium, Cloudability, CloudSigma, Kaggle, Nebula, Parse, ScaleXtreme, SolidFire and Zillabyte.
InformationWeek shared the results of a survey identifying 10 in progress IT shifts. Findings suggest that not all IT budget news is bleak, that cloud progress will slow down a bit in 2012, that it’s been a banner year for data analytics and that cloud services are increasingly being used for disaster recovery. To read the full list of predictions and review the survey, read this article.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

IT Procurement Best Practices - Nine Contractual Terms to Reduce Risk in Cloud Contracts

When it comes to cloud contract negotiations and SLAs, certain terms can often be unclear or overlooked. This Gartner report (available free of charge on Cloud Commons) defines the nine key terms that you should be aware of to help your organization recover damages and help prevent against potential threats that could have a serious impact on your business.

Feature Article

Pragmatic Cloud: A look at yesterday paints a picture of tomorrow

by George Watt, CA Technologies

Having completed my last road trip of the year, I dusted off the notes I took during a series of Cloud Exchange roundtables (and a few other cloud conferences) I attended to see what I might learn from them. (The first thing I learned was that I take a lot of notes.) I thought I would share what I discovered, which I will do in a 2-part series.

The following five topics were top of mind for Cloud Exchange roundtable participants: security, resilience/business continuity, data, finance, and the user experience. Read part 1 for summary notes and comments on security, resilience and data. Read part 2 for thoughts on finance and user experience.

Cloud Views

This Network World article titled ‘What’s next with hypervisors?’ discusses why companies would leverage an open source vs. a proprietary hypervisor approach, the battle brewing between Xen and KVM, whether the hypervisor market will commoditize and more.
This article on Cloud Commons titled ‘A handful of 2012 cloud resolutions’ includes useful guidance on how to avoid common cloud gotchas.
This Forbes article discusses how cloud computing is changing many job descriptions. The changes reflect the more strategic role IT plays in the direction of businesses as cloud computing is enabling more reliable and predictable supporting technology. There is also a growing demand for professions and managers more focused on business development than application development. The article also includes an analysis of recent job openings and their descriptions.
Cloud computing buyers are adopting more sophisticated cloud services, according to research published by InformationWeek Reports. The research identified that there will be fewer new adopters of IaaS. New users of PaaS, SaaS and cloud services provided by virtualization vendors will continue to grow at a rapid clip. Read more in this InformationWeek article.

MSP Corner

In this MSP News article, Laura Stotler identifies Eight Considerations for MSPs in 2012. For example, while 2011 saw service providers focused on building cloud platforms that mimic major cloud vendors in terms of infrastructure, pricing and self-service, the focus in 2012 will shift to providing customers with smart data, transparency and visibility using updated monitoring and management tools.
Cisco has launched a cloud-based managed services program, OnPlus, for channel partners seeking to offer remote network management and assessment services to SMBs. Read more in this SearchNetworkingChannel article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Expo Europe: January 25 – 26, London, UK
MSPWorld: February 1 – 3, Miami, FL
Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC

This Week in Cloud

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:38:00 EST

The US Congress has instructed the Defense Department to adopt a strategy that involves use of cloud computing services. In an effort to reduce expenditures, the bill requires the Pentagon to migrate data to the cloud. These moves are likely to generate US contracts for suppliers like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. To find out how the White House plans to embrace the cloud, and deal with the associated security concerns that arise, read this Bloomberg Businessweek article. CA Technologies recently released its new global report called ‘The Future Role of the CIO 2011’, based on a survey of Chief Information Officers. According to the report, cloud computing is drastically changing the attitude and vision of CIOs and also their role in enterprises. Many believe that cloud technology allows CIOs to focus on strategy and innovation, thus making the transition to CEO easier. To know more about the results of the survey on ‘Changing Role of the CIO’ by CA Technologies, read this article at BIZTECH2. Hillingdon, one of London's boroughs, will be the first local authority in the UK to make the move to the cloud. This Guardian article details the transition which will be facilitated by Cloudreach, a reseller of Google Apps for Business. IBM recently announced that it will purchase the cloud-based supply chain analytics firm Emptoris. The Massachusetts-based firm specializes in products that make supply chain operations and procurement more efficient. To know more about the acquisition, read this article in InformationWeek. Cloud provider Nimbula, whose founders helped build Amazon Web Services, is looking to help firms build their own private or hybrid clouds as alternatives to public clouds like AWS. Nimbula is targeting the customers who realize that private clouds offer better performance than public clouds and can be more economical. To know how the professional services offered by Nimbula seek to address cloud users’ concerns, read this PCWorld article. Salesforce.com is looking to counter SAP's acquisition of SuccessFactors by purchasing Rypple, a cloud computing startup. Like SuccessFactors, Rypple too provides tools related to human resource management. Salesforce.com plans to use Rypple's social performance management applications to generate employee feedback and optimize the performance of its cloud-based platforms. To know more about Salesforce.com's collaboration with Rypple, read this eWeek article.

This Week in Cloud, December 15, 2011: New cloud security standards from the US federal government, IBM buys DemandTec, Why it’s so hard to talk about cloud, 2012 predictions roundup. And more…

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:20:12 EST

Cloud News

US CIO Steven VanRoekel unveiled the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), which establishes a set of baseline security and privacy standards that all cloud service providers will need to meet in order to sell their products to government agencies. FedRAMP will require that all federal agencies only use FedRAMP-certified cloud services and technologies and it will also provide federal agencies with standard procurement language to use in RFPs. Read more in this ComputerWorld article.
IBM is purchasing SaaS vendor DemandTec for $440 million. DemandTec provides pricing, merchandising and marketing analytics for retail and consumer products companies. In this ZDNet article, IBM software and systems chief Steve Mills points out that IBM’s acquisition approach differs from some of its competitors because it is focused on targeting verticals.
Microsoft announced plans to support open-source tools and technologies on its Windows Azure platform, according to this ZDNet article. In separate but related news, VMware partner Tier 3 is making available an open-source .Net framework implementation of the Cloud Foundry platform. Read this ZDNet article for more information.
HP and Microsoft have announced a 4-year partnership to deliver public, private and hybrid cloud Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Lync services in highly regulated enterprise environments. For more information, read this Information Week article.
IBM has released the Strategic IP Insight Platform, a cloud-based data analytics systems to support companies’ intellectual property efforts. The system searches the US Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization patent databases, as well as abstracts from MEDLINE, the US government’s scientific literature database, according to this article in Wired.
Fujitsu has introduced a cloud service that will help customers manage the impacts of requirements when building information and communication systems, using the Tri-shaping methodology. Read more in this CBR Online article.

Feature article

When Cloud and Consumers Collide: Consumer-driven IT

By Adam Famularo, CA Technologies

It's no secret that the consumerization of IT is defining a new era of corporate computing, bringing with it both business opportunities and technical challenges. A host of technologies--ranging from cloud-computing services, mobile applications, social networks and mobile devices--are being introduced into the enterprise ecosystem by employees, business partners, customers, and corporate executives.

It's also no secret that consumer apps, hardware, communication, and platform technologies are giving people unprecedented flexibility in how, when, and where they do business. They're creating new and better ways for organizations to engage with people and markets, potentially strengthening customer loyalty and boosting revenues.

Read the full article, which includes key findings from an IDC research study on the consumerization of IT.

Cloud Views

In this GigaOm blog, James Urquhart writes about ‘Why it’s so hard to talk about cloud,’ pointing out the challenges of using legacy terms like application to describe concepts that have been altered by newer models, namely service orientation and cloud computing.
‘Tis the season for 2012 predictions. Here are links to some of our favorite predictions and some of the ensuing discussion:
From James Staten with Forrester: The awkward teenage years are upon us.
Gartner released their predictions for 2012 and beyond. One interesting example: Gartner predicts that by 2015, the prices for 80 percent of cloud services will include a global energy surcharge.
IDC predicts 2012 will be the year of mobile and cloud platform wars.
Andi Mann with CA Technologies shares his 2012 predictions and reviews his predictions for 2011.
Nati Shalom with GigaSpaces shares his predictions—highlights include moving from Amazon-centric clouds to cloud mashups and iCloud everywhere.
Derrick Harris with GigaOm analyzes predictions from Gartner and IDC on big data and cloud computing.
Ron Miller explains why he believes Gartner has underestimated cloud security concerns.

MSP Corner

CA Technologies made enhancements to its ARCserve product and MSP Program, including the addition of a per-terabyte pricing option and the ability for CA ARCserve to handle cloud-based backups, and integration to Nimsoft, Kaseya and other monitoring platforms. Read this CRN article for more.
Cisco has rolled out a new cloud-based service called OnPlus that offers small business-focused channel partners a way to easily and affordably provide network assessment, management and advisory services to customers, according to this eChannelLine article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Expo Europe: January 25 – 26, London, UK
MSPWorld: February 1 – 3, Miami, FL
Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA
Cloud/Gov: Plan, Implement, Succeed: February 16, Washington DC

This Week in Cloud, December 7, 2011: CA Technologies Cloud Marketplace, Cisco CloudVerse, Cloud’s impact on IT jobs, SAP acquires SuccessFactors. And more…

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:29:40 EST

Cloud News

CA Technologies recently launched its Cloud Commons Marketplace, an open marketplace and community for cloud developers, software vendors, enterprise businesses and service providers. The marketplace is built on an app store business model, which allows users to compare, rate, buy, and sell cloud solutions. To learn more about the Cloud Commons Marketplace and how a cloud marketplace based on an aggregation model can benefit enterprises as well as service providers, read this Search Cloud Provider article.
Cisco recently announced CloudVerse, which combines Unified Data Center, Cloud Intelligent Network, and Cloud Applications and Services to help organizations build, manage, and connect their internal and external cloud. This Data Center Knowledge article describes the offering in detail.
On December 3, 2011, SAP America announced its $3.4 billion acquisition of SuccessFactors, which provides cloud-based human capital management tools. With this move, SAP aims to make a more aggressive foray into cloud computing. To learn more about the acquisition and SAP’s cloud vision, read this article in PCWorld.
According to research findings by Gartner, low-cost cloud services will take over a significant portion of the revenue of outsourcing firms by 2015. Industrialized low-cost IT services (ILCS) could restructure the pricing and value of IT services, by directly or indirectly substituting traditionally outsourced services. To know more about what Gartner analysts say about the future of ILCS, and the consumerization of the cloud, read this Business Standard article.
Mobile device connectivity may be the number one factor in driving business cloud adoption. In a recent CSC survey of 2,645 IT executives, 1/3 of respondents said that having access to information through multiple devices was the reason they adopted the technology. In comparison, only 10% attributed cost savings as the main reason for going to the cloud. Read more in this Forbes article.

Feature article

The impact of cloud computing on IT jobs - a few thoughts

By George Hulme, Independent Writer

Talk around the (mostly negative) impact cloud computing will have on IT jobs doesn’t seem to ever let up. In his piece, Cloud computing’s real creative destruction may be the IT workforce, Larry Dignan at ZDNet writes that “humans will be virtualized just like servers are, as he recaps a presentation from two analysts at the market research firm Gartner. Taking a different view, Bernard Golden at CIO.com provides a strong argument in his The IT Jobs Cloud Computing Will Create.

Goldman contends, essentially, that rather than jobs being automated away - on net - that the increased use of IT that cloud computing will usher in will actually create IT jobs.

I tend to agree with Goldman, and think the hysteria on how many IT jobs cloud computing will displace is significantly overhyped - if not flat out wrong. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

According to a new study by The International Data Corporation, the future of IT lies in the coming together of mobile devices, social networking, cloud computing, and data storage. This convergence is likely to cause major upheaval among large companies. As major firms adopt and invest in new technology, significant changes in IT are expected. To find out what IDC analysts predict about the spending on advanced technologies, and their effects on the industry, read this blog in The New York Times.
The Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) recently ran into a problem with their cloud services. The company decided to go to the cloud to support its mobile workforce, but soon learned that different areas of the enterprise were actually using different cloud hosts. This Information Week article details how VNSNY remedied the problem and how access control can be a major concern for industries with sensitive data.
In this blog on Cloud Commons, Kurt Milne discusses the results from a survey he conducted at the OpenStack hacker event in Silicon Valley on whether or not it makes sense to move existing workloads into the cloud.

MSP Corner

MSPs are now partnering with IaaS providers, such as Rackspace and AWS, to bring more visibility and transparency to their customers. By partnering with IaaS providers, MSPs gain the advantage of transparency into key SLAs which includes metrics on end-user performance indicators such as latency and bandwidth. To learn more about how the traditional role of MSPs is shifting with advent of cloud computing, read this AppNeta article.
According to a poll by Kroll Ontrack, 81 percent of attorneys in medium-to-large companies that participated in a recent survey on e-discovery said they plan to leverage the cloud for storage and e-discovery purposes within the next two years. Noticing the trend, MSPs, including Kroll Ontrack, are beginning to offer SaaS versions of e-discovery. Read more in this Talkin’ Cloud article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Gartner Data Center Conference: December 5 – 8, Las Vegas, NV
Cloud Expo Europe: January 25 – 26, London, UK
MSPWorld: February 1 – 3, Miami, FL
Cloud Connect: February 13 – 16, Silicon Valley, CA

This Week in Cloud, December 1, 2011: New offerings from Fujitsu, Alcatel-Lucent, Hitachi and VMware. Why Google gets no respect (from developers), 10 steps to transform desktops to universal cloud clients. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

Research published by Cisco predicts that cloud traffic will grow 12-fold by 2015. The research also states that most networks aren’t ready to handle advanced cloud apps. Read more in this InfoWorld article.
Fujitsu launched the Cloud Connect Communication suite that provides unified collaboration and communication tools for the Cisco HCS platform. Applications include video conferencing, WebEx, collaboration, instant messaging and telepresence. Other solutions rolled out include the Cloud Connect Voice service to manage PBX hardware and software and the Cloud Connect Managed Mobile service. Read this IT Pro article for more.
Alcatel-Lucent has introduced the CloudBand cloud computing platform that will help operators guarantee bandwidth so they can deliver SLAs around priority and quality of service, according to this Embedded Computing article.
In the face of competition from Apple and Google’s cloud services, the team behind Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service outlined its thinking on what the company needs to do with its cloud strategy. Read more in this PC Mag article.
Hitachi plans to sell cloud-based systems that merge and analyze data collected from diverse sources such as roads, shipping, energy grids and mass transport, according to this PC World article.
VMware introduced Caldecott, a Ruby-based tool that enables developers to migrate application data between different Cloud Foundry clouds. Read more in this eWeek article.

Feature article

As cloud becomes a teenager, it is time for adult supervision!

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

James Staten at Forrester recently published his Top 10 Cloud Predictions for 2012. In it, James talks about how cloud is maturing, and warns of the challenges as cloud enters, as he describes it, "the awkward teenage years.” It is a great piece, and I really love this analogy. I have been using it myself recently, as it fits and resonates so well. It also perfectly highlights the growing need for 'adult supervision' in cloud computing.

As a toddler, cloud was not expected to have any maturity, discipline, self-control, or to understand the real world. So we all just did our best to help it grow, resigned in the process to just clean up after it and at least to prevent any life-threatening injuries. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

In this GigaOm blog, Barb Darrow explains why Google gets no respect (from developers). The article also includes an interesting counterpoint on why Google tools are better for business than you’d think.
Read about 10 steps for transforming desktops to universal clients for the cloud in this Tech Republic article. Article author Jeanne Morain has also recently published a book on the topic that provides additional guidance and detail. Morain is also one of Andy Mann’s co-authors for the Visible Ops Private Cloud Book.
This CIO article debates whether public or private clouds are cheaper for the enterprise.
This PCWorld article explores five points to consider when deciding whether or not to move to the cloud. Making the list are: lower cost of ownership, dependability, scalability, mobility and future-proofing.
Will supercomputers live only in the cloud? Read why David Linthicum thinks so in this PC World article.

MSP Corner

After the Talkin’ Cloud websites (which run in the cloud) experienced poor performance issues, Joe Panettieri wrote this blog titled, ‘My Confession: Why SMBs need MSPs for reliable cloud services.’
Thrive Networks, the managed services business owned by Staples, is building a cloud services platform for small businesses. ThriveCloud services will include hosted Exchange and hosted Microsoft Small business Server, aimed at customers with 10 to 250 employees. Read this Talkin’ Cloud article for more.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Gartner Data Center Conference: December 5 – 8, Las Vegas, NC
Up 2011 Cloud Computing Conference: December 5 – 9, Mountain View, CA

This Week in Cloud, December 1, 2011: New offerings from Fujitsu, Alcatel-Lucent, Hitachi and VMware. Why Google gets no respect (from developers), 10 steps to transform desktops to universal cloud clients. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives. Cloud News Research published by Cisco predicts that cloud traffic will grow 12-fold by 2015. The research also states that most networks aren’t ready to handle advanced cloud apps. Read more in this InfoWorld article. Fujitsu launched the Cloud Connect Communication suite that provides unified collaboration and communication tools for the Cisco HCS platform. Applications include video conferencing, WebEx, collaboration, instant messaging and telepresence. Other solutions rolled out include the Cloud Connect Voice service to manage PBX hardware and software and the Cloud Connect Managed Mobile service. Read this IT Pro article for more. Alcatel-Lucent has introduced the CloudBand cloud computing platform that will help operators guarantee bandwidth so they can deliver SLAs around priority and quality of service, according to this Embedded Computing article. In the face of competition from Apple and Google’s cloud services, the team behind Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service outlined its thinking on what the company needs to do with its cloud strategy. Read more in this PC Mag article. Hitachi plans to sell cloud-based systems that merge and analyze data collected from diverse sources such as roads, shipping, energy grids and mass transport, according to this PC World article. VMware introduced Caldecott, a Ruby-based tool that enables developers to migrate application data between different Cloud Foundry clouds. Read more in this eWeek article. Feature article As cloud becomes a teenager, it is time for adult supervision! By Andi Mann, CA Technologies James Staten at Forrester recently published his Top 10 Cloud Predictions for 2012. In it, James talks about how cloud is maturing, and warns of the challenges as cloud enters, as he describes it, "the awkward teenage years.” It is a great piece, and I really love this analogy. I have been using it myself recently, as it fits and resonates so well. It also perfectly highlights the growing need for 'adult supervision' in cloud computing. As a toddler, cloud was not expected to have any maturity, discipline, self-control, or to understand the real world. So we all just did our best to help it grow, resigned in the process to just clean up after it and at least to prevent any life-threatening injuries. Read the full article. Cloud Views In this GigaOm blog, Barb Darrow explains why Google gets no respect (from developers). The article also includes an interesting counterpoint on why Google tools are better for business than you’d think. Read about 10 steps for transforming desktops to universal clients for the cloud in this Tech Republic article. Article author Jeanne Morain has also recently published a book on the topic that provides additional guidance and detail. Morain is also one of Andy Mann’s co-authors for the Visible Ops Private Cloud Book. This CIO article debates whether public or private clouds are cheaper for the enterprise. This PCWorld article explores five points to consider when deciding whether or not to move to the cloud. Making the list are: lower cost of ownership, dependability, scalability, mobility and future-proofing. Will supercomputers live only in the cloud? Read why David Linthicum thinks so in this PC World article. MSP Corner After the Talkin’ Cloud websites (which run in the cloud) experienced poor performance issues, Joe Panettieri wrote this blog titled, ‘My Confession: Why SMBs need MSPs for reliable cloud services.’ Thrive Networks, the managed services business owned by Staples, is building a cloud services platform for small businesses. ThriveCloud services will include hosted Exchange and hosted Microsoft Small business Server, aimed at customers with 10 to 250 employees. Read this Talkin’ Cloud article for more. Upcoming Cloud Events Gartner Data Center Conference: December 5 – 8, Las Vegas, NC Up 2011 Cloud Computing Conference: December 5 – 9, Mountain View, CA

This Week in Cloud, December 1, 2011: New offerings from Fujitsu, Alcatel-Lucent, Hitachi and VMware. Why Google gets no respect (from developers), 10 steps to transform desktops to universal cloud clients. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

Research published by Cisco predicts that cloud traffic will grow 12-fold by 2015. The research also states that most networks aren’t ready to handle advanced cloud apps. Read more in this InfoWorld article.
Fujitsu launched the Cloud Connect Communication suite that provides unified collaboration and communication tools for the Cisco HCS platform. Applications include video conferencing, WebEx, collaboration, instant messaging and telepresence. Other solutions rolled out include the Cloud Connect Voice service to manage PBX hardware and software and the Cloud Connect Managed Mobile service. Read this IT Pro article for more.
Alcatel-Lucent has introduced the CloudBand cloud computing platform that will help operators guarantee bandwidth so they can deliver SLAs around priority and quality of service, according to this Embedded Computing article.
In the face of competition from Apple and Google’s cloud services, the team behind Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service outlined its thinking on what the company needs to do with its cloud strategy. Read more in this PC Mag article.
Hitachi plans to sell cloud-based systems that merge and analyze data collected from diverse sources such as roads, shipping, energy grids and mass transport, according to this PC World article.
VMware introduced Caldecott, a Ruby-based tool that enables developers to migrate application data between different Cloud Foundry clouds. Read more in this eWeek article.

Feature article

As cloud becomes a teenager, it is time for adult supervision!

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

In this GigaOm blog, Barb Darrow explains why Google gets no respect (from developers). The article also includes an interesting counterpoint on why Google tools are better for business than you’d think.
Read about 10 steps for transforming desktops to universal clients for the cloud in this Tech Republic article. Article author Jeanne Morain has also recently published a book on the topic that provides additional guidance and detail. Morain is also one of Andy Mann’s co-authors for the Visible Ops Private Cloud Book.
This CIO article debates whether public or private clouds are cheaper for the enterprise.
This PCWorld article explores five points to consider when deciding whether or not to move to the cloud. Making the list are: lower cost of ownership, dependability, scalability, mobility and future-proofing.
Will supercomputers live only in the cloud? Read why David Linthicum thinks so in this PC World article.

MSP Corner

After the Talkin’ Cloud websites (which run in the cloud) experienced poor performance issues, Joe Panettieri wrote this blog titled, ‘My Confession: Why SMBs need MSPs for reliable cloud services.’
Thrive Networks, the managed services business owned by Staples, is building a cloud services platform for small businesses. ThriveCloud services will include hosted Exchange and hosted Microsoft Small business Server, aimed at customers with 10 to 250 employees. Read this Talkin’ Cloud article for more.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Gartner Data Center Conference: December 5 – 8, Las Vegas, NC
Up 2011 Cloud Computing Conference: December 5 – 9, Mountain View, CA

This Week in Cloud, December 1, 2011: New offerings from Fujitsu, Alcatel-Lucent, Hitachi and VMware. Why Google gets no respect (from developers), 10 steps to transform desktops to universal cloud clients. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

Research published by Cisco predicts that cloud traffic will grow 12-fold by 2015. The research also states that most networks aren’t ready to handle advanced cloud apps. Read more in this InfoWorld article.
Fujitsu launched the Cloud Connect Communication suite that provides unified collaboration and communication tools for the Cisco HCS platform. Applications include video conferencing, WebEx, collaboration, instant messaging and telepresence. Other solutions rolled out include the Cloud Connect Voice service to manage PBX hardware and software and the Cloud Connect Managed Mobile service. Read this IT Pro article for more.
Alcatel-Lucent has introduced the CloudBand cloud computing platform that will help operators guarantee bandwidth so they can deliver SLAs around priority and quality of service, according to this Embedded Computing article.
In the face of competition from Apple and Google’s cloud services, the team behind Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service outlined its thinking on what the company needs to do with its cloud strategy. Read more in this PC Mag article.
Hitachi plans to sell cloud-based systems that merge and analyze data collected from diverse sources such as roads, shipping, energy grids and mass transport, according to this PC World article.
VMware introduced Caldecott, a Ruby-based tool that enables developers to migrate application data between different Cloud Foundry clouds. Read more in this eWeek article.

Feature article

As cloud becomes a teenager, it is time for adult supervision!

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

In this GigaOm blog, Barb Darrow explains why Google gets no respect (from developers). The article also includes an interesting counterpoint on why Google tools are better for business than you’d think.
Read about 10 steps for transforming desktops to universal clients for the cloud in this Tech Republic article. Article author Jeanne Morain has also recently published a book on the topic that provides additional guidance and detail. Morain is also one of Andy Mann’s co-authors for the Visible Ops Private Cloud Book.
This CIO article debates whether public or private clouds are cheaper for the enterprise.
This PCWorld article explores five points to consider when deciding whether or not to move to the cloud. Making the list are: lower cost of ownership, dependability, scalability, mobility and future-proofing.
Will supercomputers live only in the cloud? Read why David Linthicum thinks so in this PC World article.

MSP Corner

After the Talkin’ Cloud websites (which run in the cloud) experienced poor performance issues, Joe Panettieri wrote this blog titled, ‘My Confession: Why SMBs need MSPs for reliable cloud services.’
Thrive Networks, the managed services business owned by Staples, is building a cloud services platform for small businesses. ThriveCloud services will include hosted Exchange and hosted Microsoft Small business Server, aimed at customers with 10 to 250 employees. Read this Talkin’ Cloud article for more.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Gartner Data Center Conference: December 5 – 8, Las Vegas, NC
Up 2011 Cloud Computing Conference: December 5 – 9, Mountain View, CA

This Week in Cloud, December 1, 2011: New offerings from Fujitsu, Alcatel-Lucent, Hitachi and VMware. Why Google gets no respect (from developers), 10 steps to transform desktops to universal cloud clients. And more…

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:26:35 EST

This Week in Cloud, December 1, 2011: New offerings from Fujitsu, Alcatel-Lucent, Hitachi and VMware. Why Google gets no respect (from developers), 10 steps to transform desktops to universal cloud clients. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

Research published by Cisco predicts that cloud traffic will grow 12-fold by 2015. The research also states that most networks aren’t ready to handle advanced cloud apps. Read more in this InfoWorld article.
Fujitsu launched the Cloud Connect Communication suite that provides unified collaboration and communication tools for the Cisco HCS platform. Applications include video conferencing, WebEx, collaboration, instant messaging and telepresence. Other solutions rolled out include the Cloud Connect Voice service to manage PBX hardware and software and the Cloud Connect Managed Mobile service. Read this IT Pro article for more.
Alcatel-Lucent has introduced the CloudBand cloud computing platform that will help operators guarantee bandwidth so they can deliver SLAs around priority and quality of service, according to this Embedded Computing article.
In the face of competition from Apple and Google’s cloud services, the team behind Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service outlined its thinking on what the company needs to do with its cloud strategy. Read more in this PC Mag article.
Hitachi plans to sell cloud-based systems that merge and analyze data collected from diverse sources such as roads, shipping, energy grids and mass transport, according to this PC World article.
VMware introduced Caldecott, a Ruby-based tool that enables developers to migrate application data between different Cloud Foundry clouds. Read more in this eWeek article.

Feature article

As cloud becomes a teenager, it is time for adult supervision!

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

In this GigaOm blog, Barb Darrow explains why Google gets no respect (from developers). The article also includes an interesting counterpoint on why Google tools are better for business than you’d think.
Read about 10 steps for transforming desktops to universal clients for the cloud in this Tech Republic article. Article author Jeanne Morain has also recently published a book on the topic that provides additional guidance and detail. Morain is also one of Andy Mann’s co-authors for the Visible Ops Private Cloud Book.
This CIO article debates whether public or private clouds are cheaper for the enterprise.
This PCWorld article explores five points to consider when deciding whether or not to move to the cloud. Making the list are: lower cost of ownership, dependability, scalability, mobility and future-proofing.
Will supercomputers live only in the cloud? Read why David Linthicum thinks so in this PC World article.

MSP Corner

After the Talkin’ Cloud websites (which run in the cloud) experienced poor performance issues, Joe Panettieri wrote this blog titled, ‘My Confession: Why SMBs need MSPs for reliable cloud services.’
Thrive Networks, the managed services business owned by Staples, is building a cloud services platform for small businesses. ThriveCloud services will include hosted Exchange and hosted Microsoft Small business Server, aimed at customers with 10 to 250 employees. Read this Talkin’ Cloud article for more.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Gartner Data Center Conference: December 5 – 8, Las Vegas, NC
Up 2011 Cloud Computing Conference: December 5 – 9, Mountain View, CA

This Week in Cloud, December 1, 2011: New offerings from Fujitsu, Alcatel-Lucent, Hitachi and VMware. Why Google gets no respect (from developers), 10 steps to transform desktops to universal cloud clients. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

Research published by Cisco predicts that cloud traffic will grow 12-fold by 2015. The research also states that most networks aren’t ready to handle advanced cloud apps. Read more in this InfoWorld article.
Fujitsu launched the Cloud Connect Communication suite that provides unified collaboration and communication tools for the Cisco HCS platform. Applications include video conferencing, WebEx, collaboration, instant messaging and telepresence. Other solutions rolled out include the Cloud Connect Voice service to manage PBX hardware and software and the Cloud Connect Managed Mobile service. Read this IT Pro article for more.
Alcatel-Lucent has introduced the CloudBand cloud computing platform that will help operators guarantee bandwidth so they can deliver SLAs around priority and quality of service, according to this Embedded Computing article.
In the face of competition from Apple and Google’s cloud services, the team behind Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service outlined its thinking on what the company needs to do with its cloud strategy. Read more in this PC Mag article.
Hitachi plans to sell cloud-based systems that merge and analyze data collected from diverse sources such as roads, shipping, energy grids and mass transport, according to this PC World article.
VMware introduced Caldecott, a Ruby-based tool that enables developers to migrate application data between different Cloud Foundry clouds. Read more in this eWeek article.

Feature article

As cloud becomes a teenager, it is time for adult supervision!

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

In this GigaOm blog, Barb Darrow explains why Google gets no respect (from developers). The article also includes an interesting counterpoint on why Google tools are better for business than you’d think.
Read about 10 steps for transforming desktops to universal clients for the cloud in this Tech Republic article. Article author Jeanne Morain has also recently published a book on the topic that provides additional guidance and detail. Morain is also one of Andy Mann’s co-authors for the Visible Ops Private Cloud Book.
This CIO article debates whether public or private clouds are cheaper for the enterprise.
This PCWorld article explores five points to consider when deciding whether or not to move to the cloud. Making the list are: lower cost of ownership, dependability, scalability, mobility and future-proofing.
Will supercomputers live only in the cloud? Read why David Linthicum thinks so in this PC World article.

MSP Corner

After the Talkin’ Cloud websites (which run in the cloud) experienced poor performance issues, Joe Panettieri wrote this blog titled, ‘My Confession: Why SMBs need MSPs for reliable cloud services.’
Thrive Networks, the managed services business owned by Staples, is building a cloud services platform for small businesses. ThriveCloud services will include hosted Exchange and hosted Microsoft Small business Server, aimed at customers with 10 to 250 employees. Read this Talkin’ Cloud article for more.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Gartner Data Center Conference: December 5 – 8, Las Vegas, NC
Up 2011 Cloud Computing Conference: December 5 – 9, Mountain View, CA

This Week in Cloud, December 1, 2011: New offerings from Fujitsu, Alcatel-Lucent, Hitachi and VMware. Why Google gets no respect (from developers), 10 steps to transform desktops to universal cloud clients. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

Research published by Cisco predicts that cloud traffic will grow 12-fold by 2015. The research also states that most networks aren’t ready to handle advanced cloud apps. Read more in this InfoWorld article.
Fujitsu launched the Cloud Connect Communication suite that provides unified collaboration and communication tools for the Cisco HCS platform. Applications include video conferencing, WebEx, collaboration, instant messaging and telepresence. Other solutions rolled out include the Cloud Connect Voice service to manage PBX hardware and software and the Cloud Connect Managed Mobile service. Read this IT Pro article for more.
Alcatel-Lucent has introduced the CloudBand cloud computing platform that will help operators guarantee bandwidth so they can deliver SLAs around priority and quality of service, according to this Embedded Computing article.
In the face of competition from Apple and Google’s cloud services, the team behind Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service outlined its thinking on what the company needs to do with its cloud strategy. Read more in this PC Mag article.
Hitachi plans to sell cloud-based systems that merge and analyze data collected from diverse sources such as roads, shipping, energy grids and mass transport, according to this PC World article.
VMware introduced Caldecott, a Ruby-based tool that enables developers to migrate application data between different Cloud Foundry clouds. Read more in this eWeek article.

Feature article

As cloud becomes a teenager, it is time for adult supervision!

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

In this GigaOm blog, Barb Darrow explains why Google gets no respect (from developers). The article also includes an interesting counterpoint on why Google tools are better for business than you’d think.
Read about 10 steps for transforming desktops to universal clients for the cloud in this Tech Republic article. Article author Jeanne Morain has also recently published a book on the topic that provides additional guidance and detail. Morain is also one of Andy Mann’s co-authors for the Visible Ops Private Cloud Book.
This CIO article debates whether public or private clouds are cheaper for the enterprise.
This PCWorld article explores five points to consider when deciding whether or not to move to the cloud. Making the list are: lower cost of ownership, dependability, scalability, mobility and future-proofing.
Will supercomputers live only in the cloud? Read why David Linthicum thinks so in this PC World article.

MSP Corner

After the Talkin’ Cloud websites (which run in the cloud) experienced poor performance issues, Joe Panettieri wrote this blog titled, ‘My Confession: Why SMBs need MSPs for reliable cloud services.’
Thrive Networks, the managed services business owned by Staples, is building a cloud services platform for small businesses. ThriveCloud services will include hosted Exchange and hosted Microsoft Small business Server, aimed at customers with 10 to 250 employees. Read this Talkin’ Cloud article for more.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Gartner Data Center Conference: December 5 – 8, Las Vegas, NC
Up 2011 Cloud Computing Conference: December 5 – 9, Mountain View, CA

This Week in Cloud, December 1, 2011: New offerings from Fujitsu, Alcatel-Lucent, Hitachi and VMware. Why Google gets no respect (from developers), 10 steps to transform desktops to universal cloud clients. And more…

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

New: Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

Research published by Cisco predicts that cloud traffic will grow 12-fold by 2015. The research also states that most networks aren’t ready to handle advanced cloud apps. Read more in this InfoWorld article.
Fujitsu launched the Cloud Connect Communication suite that provides unified collaboration and communication tools for the Cisco HCS platform. Applications include video conferencing, WebEx, collaboration, instant messaging and telepresence. Other solutions rolled out include the Cloud Connect Voice service to manage PBX hardware and software and the Cloud Connect Managed Mobile service. Read this IT Pro article for more.
Alcatel-Lucent has introduced the CloudBand cloud computing platform that will help operators guarantee bandwidth so they can deliver SLAs around priority and quality of service, according to this Embedded Computing article.
In the face of competition from Apple and Google’s cloud services, the team behind Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service outlined its thinking on what the company needs to do with its cloud strategy. Read more in this PC Mag article.
Hitachi plans to sell cloud-based systems that merge and analyze data collected from diverse sources such as roads, shipping, energy grids and mass transport, according to this PC World article.
VMware introduced Caldecott, a Ruby-based tool that enables developers to migrate application data between different Cloud Foundry clouds. Read more in this eWeek article.

Feature article

As cloud becomes a teenager, it is time for adult supervision!

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Cloud Views

In this GigaOm blog, Barb Darrow explains why Google gets no respect (from developers). The article also includes an interesting counterpoint on why Google tools are better for business than you’d think.
Read about 10 steps for transforming desktops to universal clients for the cloud in this Tech Republic article. Article author Jeanne Morain has also recently published a book on the topic that provides additional guidance and detail. Morain is also one of Andy Mann’s co-authors for the Visible Ops Private Cloud Book.
This CIO article debates whether public or private clouds are cheaper for the enterprise.
This PCWorld article explores five points to consider when deciding whether or not to move to the cloud. Making the list are: lower cost of ownership, dependability, scalability, mobility and future-proofing.
Will supercomputers live only in the cloud? Read why David Linthicum thinks so in this PC World article.

MSP Corner

After the Talkin’ Cloud websites (which run in the cloud) experienced poor performance issues, Joe Panettieri wrote this blog titled, ‘My Confession: Why SMBs need MSPs for reliable cloud services.’
Thrive Networks, the managed services business owned by Staples, is building a cloud services platform for small businesses. ThriveCloud services will include hosted Exchange and hosted Microsoft Small business Server, aimed at customers with 10 to 250 employees. Read this Talkin’ Cloud article for more.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Gartner Data Center Conference: December 5 – 8, Las Vegas, NC
Up 2011 Cloud Computing Conference: December 5 – 9, Mountain View, CA