Grazed from TechGig.  Author: Editorial Staff.

RackSpace has recently confirmed that they have retained Morgan Stanley in order to begin entertaining acquisition or partnership requests. As Cloud’s Big Three began their race to the bottom in regards to pricing, it left many industry analysts wondering what would happen to RackSpace once the dust settled.

RackSpace has become an important player in the cloud market. Although the company is a publically traded stock, it seems as if RackSpace just doesn’t have the brand name recognition or the capital to keep up with movers and shakers in the cloud industry. RackSpace has invested $1 billion in infrastructure since 2005. Recently, it was reported that RackSpace had been bleeding clients due to the slashing of cloud prices from vendors such as AWS, Google and Microsoft. While RackSpace’s commitment to cloud and their total investment within the industry is nothing to scoff at, it seems as if the large technology players are exponentially outspending RackSpace…

Grazed from TechCrunch.  Author: Pete Sonsini.

After more than a decade of hype and billions of dollars of value creation, it would be reasonable to expect investors to start losing interest in cloud-related startups. In the venture business, me-too investors reap ever-diminishing returns compared to early entrants in a new sector. And while the sweeping transformation that began with the migration of non-critical applications from the data center to the cloud has proven massive indeed, it’s certainly no longer early days.

Indeed, even the second wave of cloud opportunity — essentially reinventing the infrastructure underlying cloud applications to meet the growing demands for performance and scalability in an increasingly mobile, app-centric world — has begun to level off in terms of new opportunity. The enabling technologies that were hand-sewn by cloud pioneers like Google or Facebook are becoming more and more commercially available; one by one, obstacles are being eliminated and problems are being solved, primarily by startups…

Grazed from TechCocktail.  Author: Michael Templeman.

Cloud computing is currently one of technology’s hottest topics. The sector is growing rapidly and some are warning that it could be the next big tech bubble. It is clear to most Chief Technology Officers of major corporations, though, that it is a technology with a rich history that is sure to continue going in the right direction.

A Brief History of Cloud Computing

The true beginning of cloud computing was actually back in the 1950’s, when large-scale mainframes were able to be purchased by schools and corporations. The mainframes were installed in large rooms that were essentially server rooms, while access to the mainframes could be achieved through “dumb terminals.” These terminals were stations that only worked to create access to the mainframes; they would have multiple users on each station…

Grazed from BusByway.  Author: PR Announce,ment.

BIME Analytics, the pioneer in true cloud business intelligence (BI), today announced that Gartner, Inc. named BIME Analytics as one of five ‘Cool Vendors’ in the Gartner Cool Vendors in PaaS report by Yefim V. Natis, Joao Tapadinhas and others, published April 28, 2014.

Each year, Gartner identifies new Cool Vendors in key technology areas and publishes a series of research reports highlighting the products and services that have the potential to exploit digitalization and radically alter competitive dynamics across many industries…

Grazed from InfoQ.  Author: Abel Avram.

According to Gartner’s Yefim V. Natis, VP & Fellow, a new enterprise architectural style is rising these days: Software-Defined Architecture (SDA).  During the Gartner webinar entitled Software-Defined Architecture: Application Design for Digital Business (account required), Natis took a look at the challenges that modern IT presents to software architects and some of the design principles that help architects create better applications that last longer.

Among other things discussed during this webinar, Natis introduced this idea of SDA as a natural development in software architecture following previous styles starting with the monolithic one of the 70s as depicted in the next graphic taken from the webinar’s slides (PDF):…

Grazed from RealWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Skyscape Cloud Services Limited, the easy to adopt, easy to use and easy to leave cloud services company, today announced that its full range of assured cloud services will be available on the latest iteration of the G-Cloud Framework – G-Cloud 5.

"As a long-standing supporter of the G-Cloud Framework – which has succeeded in transforming the procurement of IT services for public sector buyers and has created a more level playing field for providers – we welcome the latest iteration and are pleased to confirm that our full range of cloud services, which have recently achieved re-accreditation by CESG PGA to Impact Level 3 (IL3), will be available via G-Cloud 5," said Phil Dawson, CEO of Skyscape Cloud Services. "In line with our ongoing commitment of continually enhancing our services and ensuring the best value for money for our public sector customers, we are delivering further price reductions, free PSN data transfer and have made a significant investment in our Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering."…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is as old as virtualization technology. VMware announced VDI alliance way back in 2006. While IaaS, PaaS and SaaS became synonymous with cloud, it took a long time for desktops to show up there. VDI has always been confined to the data center or at most to an MSP-owned infrastructure. But that seems to be changing fast with Amazon, VMware, Citrix and Microsoft battling it out to win the Desktop as a Service or DaaS war.

It all started with AWS announcing Amazon WorkSpaces at its annual re:Invent conference last year. Although it has a long way to go in terms of feature set, Amazon should be credited for bringing desktops to the public cloud. Having strengthened the end-user computing group with the new leadership team, VMware was quick to announce Horizon DaaS on its vCHS platform a week before the general availability of Amazon WorkSpaces. Armed with Desktone and Airwatch acquisitions, VMware is aiming to make a mark in this segment…

Grazed from CloudComputingPath.  Author: Pravin

Only a year after the launch of its Global Certification Program, Amazon now ups the ante and offers exams at the professional level followed by appropriate certification for professionals to add extra qualifications.

As it stands the Global Certification Program covers topics related to deploying and managing applications on its AWS platform. Its AWS Certified Solutions Architect at the Associate Level includes design and development of applications. This is the first level to be introduced with the professional and master levels to follow. The program aims to be comprehensive covering all aspects of AWS operations. For instance, a solutions architect handles design of distributed applications…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Jeffrey Burt.

At Cisco Live, company executives unveil enhanced AMP offerings, new firewalls and the acquisition of ThreatGrid.  Amid Cisco Systems’ talk about collaboration and cloud computing, security emerged as a key subject at during the Cisco Live 2014 event this week.  The networking company at the show unveiled a range of new and enhanced security offerings—including enhancements to its Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) products—and announced it is buying malware analysis vendor ThreatGrid, the third security acquisition Cisco has made this year.

As Cisco continues its efforts to become an enterprise IT solutions provider, security will play a key role, according to CEO John Chambers. In an interview with Bloomberg, Chambers said that the network can provide security that no other part of the IT infrastructure can. That will only help Cisco in its security ambitions…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Derrick Harris.

Large web companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon have been pushing the boundaries of IT for years, and now their problems — and solutions — are making their ways into the mainstream.  In less than a month, Gigaom will host its seventh annual Structure conference examining the future of computing. Looking back to the first event in 2008, it’s stark how much has changed.

The concepts of the day such as software as a service, cloud computing and big data have been validated and assimilated. The new discussions are around ever-evolving techniques and architectures for consuming them, and how to deliver them at ever-greater scales…