Grazed from CloudComputingPath. Author: Pravin Anchan.

Apple’s iCloud Drive takes Dropbox head on. Launched at WWDC 2014, iCloud Drive resembles Dropbox with a similar file system to store files related to each app separately in the cloud. Such files can be synchronized with Windows, iOS and OSX even if you do not install any iCloud apps. Windows users can access iCloud Drive but Apple is yet to open up APIs for the Windows Phone and Android platform.

However, it is easy to access files using Mac but on other iOS devices you have to fiddle a bit. Apple has not yet created an iCloud Drive app for iOS. This means users must launch an iCloud Drive storage app to access files independently of related applications. iCloud Drive does come as a boon for Apple device users but it may not convert other cloud drive users that offer similar or even more reliable services despite competitively priced offerings of $ 0.99 per month for 20 GB and $ 3.09 per month for 200 GB…

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Chris Patterson.

NaviSite works with many businesses getting started with cloud technology and one question we often hear is, “Where do I start? Which part of my infrastructure should I move into the cloud first?” IT leaders must pick a starting point for cloud adoption, and the decision becomes easier when they understand that leveraging cloud technology can take place incrementally, one task at a time. We call this approach “out-tasking,” which often begins by migrating small, low risk applications onto the cloud, where they can be easily tested, debugged and improved through an iterative approach.

The out-tasking framework helps IT leaders overcome the common misconception that moving onto the cloud means transferring their entire infrastructure in one fell swoop. In reality, we’ve found that businesses experience vastly better results when they don’t use cloud as a replacement, but instead begin to augment and modernize their existing compute environment…

Grazed from FCW. Author: Adam Mazmanian.

The Department of Veterans Affairs canceled a $36 million cloud computing deal with HP in May 2013 after a dispute between the CIO’s office and the agency’s inspector general over how long emails should be retained and concerns over system security, FCW has learned.

When the deal was announced in November 2012, it was one of the most ambitious cloud migrations of any federal agency, covering the VA’s entire 600,000-strong workforce. HP Enterprise Services was selected as the integrator to deploy the system, which was set to go live with a March 2013 pilot for 15,000 users, involving calendar and email apps…

Grazed from SmartDataCollective. Author: Mark Smith.

At the Informatica World 2014 conference, the company known for its data integration software unveiled the Intelligent Data Platform. In the last three years Informatica has expanded beyond data integration and now has a broad software portfolio that facilitates information management within the enterprise and through cloud computing. The Intelligent Data Platform forms a framework for its portfolio.

This expression of broad potential is important for Informatica, which has been slow to position its products as capable of more than data integration. A large part of the value it provides lies in what its products can do to help organizations strengthen their enterprise architectures for managing applications and data. We see Informatica’s sweet spot in facilitating efficient use of data for business and IT purposes; we call this information optimization…

Grazed from Amazon. Author: Editorial Staff.

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably know that I sometimes talk about the number of options and choices that you have at your fingertips when you use AWS. You can choose from a broad array of cloud services, run your code on a wide variety of Linux distributions and Windows versions on the instance type that best fits your needs.

In keeping with our tradition, I am happy to announce that we are now making a set of Windows Server 2012 R2 AMIs (Amazon Machine Images) available for use on EC2. These AMIs are available in 19 languages and include a set of PV (paravirtualized) drivers that have been certified by Microsoft for Windows Server 2012 R2…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Steve Prentice.

What does the future look like for ERP in the cloud? It’s a question that everyone involved in this business asks, given that the general changeover from on-premise systems to cloud computing is currently happening more slowly than many had anticipated. But according to some industry watchers, the pace will continue to pick up, and the expectation is that over the next few years investment in public IT cloud computing services will approach $100 billion, with an annual growth rate of approximately 25 percent. Most of that is due to companies choosing to shift more and more of their core operations to the cloud.

The future of cloud-based ERP resides in a combination of forces: a recognition of the true safety and security of the cloud; the economic and functional practicalities of replacing licensed software such as Microsoft Excel with externally managed and maintained SaaS applications; the appeal of both two-tier and multi-tenancy ERP setups; and the general bandwagon effect…

Grazed from Bizjournals. Author: Bill Hethcock.

Information and communications industry spending nationwide grew 6.6 percent in 2013, to $1.3 trillion — the fastest growth rate in years and the first time the United States has grown faster than the rest of the world. That number is forecast to climb to $6.1 trillion by 2017, a rate of growth that Grant Seiffert, president of the Telecommunications Industry Association, calls remarkable.

The demand for data, especially video, is fueling the telecom industry’s growth, as is the proliferation of gadgets “talking” to each other, Seiffert said today (Wednesday) at TIA’s Network of the Future conference in Dallas. “How the value chain continues to change, and the pace of that change, is incredible,” he said…

Grazed from BusinessInsider. AuthorL Julie Bort.

Cloud computing is producing a huge crop of big and successful companies. There are already 23 public cloud companies trading at more than $1 billion in market cap, tracked by Bessemer Venture Partners’ BVP Cloud Index. Bessemer has also identified another 300 successful cloud startups; among them, 16 have already hit a $1 billion valuation or on the verge of it, a concept BVD calls the "cloud unicorn."

The unicorn indicates the mythical nature of crossing that $1 billion valuation milestone. BVD predicts many of these companies could hit the $1 billion valuation through an acquisition. The companies are:

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

Cloudamize, the leading cloud infrastructure analytics platform for Amazon Web Services, today released the results of a three-month study of the cloud computing marketplace. After analyzing more than 77,000 Amazon Web Services instances for its clients, Cloudamize uncovered usage trends, customer misconceptions, and potential areas for improvement in how organizations utilize the cloud. Among those findings: 34% of analyzed instances had cost-saving opportunities of 30% or more.

“In exploring the benefits of cloud computing, many organizations are finding that they encounter a significant amount of noise that hinders their decision making,” commented Khushboo Shah, founder and CEO of Cloudamize. “This analysis deciphers the signal from that noise, dispels the myths around the cloud, and enables them to move forward with confidence and efficiency.”…

Grazed from TheVarGuy. Author: Michael Cusanelli.

Tech Data (TECD) has launched a new distribution agreement with cloud service provider dinCloud to provide the company’s cloud-based solutions to channel partners. The agreement makes dinCloud’s portfolio of hosted virtual desktops (HVDs), hosted virtual servers (HVS) and the new dinStorage S3 cloud storage platform available to Tech Data’s channel solution providers through the Tech Data Solutions Store.

“For businesses seeking to leverage secure cloud infrastructure and business provisioning, we are excited to offer dinCloud solutions to our channel of resellers,” said Stacy Nethercoat, vice president, Product Marketing, Software and Cloud Services at Tech Data, in a prepared statement…