Grazed from CIOL. Author: David Schneider.

Cloud computing has become one of the most significant secular trends within technology, and we believe the outcomes are just beginning to be felt across the industry.

A recent Forrester report predicted that the global cloud computing market will grow from $40.7 billion in 2011 to $241 billion by 2020. All round savings including cost efficiency, asset optimization, lower upfront investment, flexibility, ease of maintenance in all aspects of IT’s hard and soft costs, are driving more and more businesses to adopt the cloud.

Cloud computing allows businesses to shift large chunks of budgetary excel spreadsheet from a capex to an opex model, paying only for what they use…

VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today unveiled the speaker lineup and sponsorship list for the leading virtualization and cloud infrastructure event of the year, VMworld 2012.

Underscoring the conference theme, “Right Here, Right Now,” VMworld 2012 in San Francisco will feature more than 230 unique breakout sessions from VMware and its community of partners and customers that are driving innovation in the virtualization and cloud computing industry. More than 250 sponsors and exhibitors are supporting the conference including Global Diamond Sponsors Cisco, Dell, EMC, HP and NetApp.

Grazed from Bloomberg. Author: Aaron Ricadela.

Even before Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) went public in 2004, Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff wasted few opportunities to poke fun at bigger, more established software companies, calling their products “landfill.”

In his management book “Behind the Cloud,” Benioff advised upstarts to “box above your weight.” Salesforce.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff said, “The moves that Oracle, SAP and Microsoft have made validate what Salesforce.com has been saying for over a decade.”

Now, Oracle Corp. (ORCL), SAP AG (SAP) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) are punching back, buying companies that offer business-management tools over the Internet, gaining traction in an area pioneered by Salesforce. That’s stepping up pressure on Benioff to move beyond his core — programs that manage sales — and accelerate a push into software-development and social-media marketing, part of a bigger market valued by UBS AG at more than $100 billion…

Grazed from MSPNews. Author: Editorial Staff.

Symform, a cloud storage and backup service, is now reportedly a member of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA).

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is a not-for-profit, member-driven organization, chartered to advertise the utilization of best practices in order to realize security assurance within Cloud Computing. It also delivers education on the uses of Cloud Computing to help secure all other forms of computing.

Symform’s Cloud Storage Network protects users’ data, business and bottom line: when they contribute to its network, it provides them unlimited cloud storage and backup for the lowest flat fee. Unlike traditional data center storage, Symform’s global network encrypts, shreds and geo-distributes data and its disruptive technology provides more secure, more cost-effective and higher-performing cloud data storage and backup than any alternative today…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Joe Panettieri.

Microsoft Office 365 is set to to gain cloud encryption, thanks to CipherCloud. I am intrigued by CipherCloud’s move but I’m also curious to know: Is this encryption service only for Exchange Online — or does it truly blanket all of Office 365 (SharePoint Online, Lync Online, etc.)?

Generally speaking, I think security concerns about cloud computing have settled down in the past year or so. Ironically, I think security is the reason many companies are embracing the cloud. Surely, Microsoft’s deep pockets can build a more effective security barrier than most small businesses could do so on-premises.

Still, there are cases where businesses need to fulfill corporate compliance and government mandates. Enter CipherCloud, which claims to address data privacy, residency, security and regulatory compliance requirements…

Grazed from MSPNews. Author: Erin Harrison.

One paradox about cloud computing is that it is an economically viable strategy for organizations that are looking for an on-demand network access to a shared pool of computing resources to meet a variety of business needs. From a sales perspective, the cloud is often touted as an enabler of lowering operating expenses, however, cloud services are not free and bills can easily rack up if no one is paying attention.

In fact, unexpected spikes and overages can downright destroy your cloud budget. This is where cloud bill tracking systems such as startup Cloudability come in. The Portland, Ore.-based firm is able to help customers track spending across multiple cloud services and identify waste and potential cost savings…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Stuart J. Johnson.

Companies such as Hewlett-Packard tout cloud service-level agreements to attract customers, but cloud SLAs do little to help companies recoup outage-related revenue losses.

In fact, many cloud services vendors promise between 99.95% and 99.9% of uptime on a monthly basis, but typically only pay out on their service-level agreements (SLAs) if service falls far below those levels.

When Hewlett-Packard (HP) made its Cloud Object Storage and Cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN) offerings generally available last week, the company bragged a premier SLA with a guarantee of 99.95% (three and a half nines) uptime or better per month. Otherwise, it credits customers as much as 30% off their monthly bill — but there are caveats…

Grazed from TechNewsWorld. Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud technology appears to have taken the world by storm. The U.S. government is among those moving aggressively to the cloud, as federal agencies implement a White House generated "cloud first" policy that instructs agencies to give primary consideration to using the cloud for IT solutions.

Adoption of the cloud depends on a number of factors: adequate security, appropriate functionality, cost Simple Strategies for Enhancing eCommerce Profitability. Click to download white paper. and performance. For both the government and the private sector, a central element in cloud adoption is the Service Level Agreement, or SLA, between the cloud user and the cloud service provider…

Grazed from Data Center Knowledge.  Author: Bill Kleyman.

Today’s modern IT environment is no longer asking “What is cloud computing?” Rather, they are actively looking to enter the cloud space with an intelligent and flexible platform. Cloud computing has come a long way and is now a solid means of data delivery over the Wide Area Network. One of the most important aspects of working with cloud computing is understanding the numerous variables which come with the technology. Knowing the difference between public, hybrid, and private cloud designs is important when business goals need to be aligned with an IT project.

An intelligent cloud orchestrator will have a solid understanding of the cloud delivery model. Whether an organization is looking for SaaS, PaaS or even IaaS – cloud computing can be a powerful add-on to any organization. When working with a cloud infrastructure, there are many benefits and use cases to be aware of. In this white paper, INTERNAP outlines where an organization can utilize cloud computing and make intelligent decisions revolving around their environments. Aside from just expanding an existing data center, cloud computing has several key benefits including:..