Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: David Linthicum.

Total cost of ownership, or TCO, is a formula that assesses direct and indirect costs and benefits related to the purchase of any IT component. The goal is a final figure that will reflect the true purchase price, all things considered.

For instance, if I leverage a public cloud, my reoccurring costs go up since I now pay subscription usage feeds. However, the amount of money I pay to buy and maintain hardware and software should go down, or go away entirely. Thus, the TCO of cloud is the adjustment in direct and direct costs and benefits as a result of using cloud…

Grazed from 6Fusion.  Author: PR Announcement.

6fusion is pleased to once again be one of the cloud industry leaders collaborating on the 4th annual Future of Cloud Computing Survey and we encourage everyone involved in cloud to participate in the survey. Whether you are a cloud user, cloud provider, cloud broker, or play another role in the cloud you should take the survey. It will only take about 5 minutes to complete and you can access the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6FusionNB

North Bridge will announce the results at GigaOM Structure, one of the leading cloud industry events that annually convenes influential technology experts to both examine and debate the future of cloud computing. North Bridge partner Michael Skok will present the results of the survey at the show on June 18 in San Francisco. If you are interested in attending, we can offer a 25% discount on tickets to the event. Ping us at info@6fusion.com to get the discount code.

Grazed from gillmckerrow.com.  Author: Jeremy Harris.

It came from my daughter, who heard it from one of her lecturers. She’s studying film and television at university. And of course, everything in film and television is digital these days.  I immediately thought about our approach to software (particularly cloud-based applications), and realised the same principle applies.

So much of what we do today is digital. And it makes whatever we’re doing—photography, communications or even accounting—quick and easy.  But where is the information being stored? Do you have a backup? Where is it? And how quickly and easily can you access it?  Let’s look at a few different scenarios, starting with one close to home…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Cleveland D. Bonner.

New markets are being created in the cloud. According to a recent survey by IBM and the Economist Intelligence Unit, 67 percent of companies with revenues less than $1 billion have adopted the cloud at some level. But those companies that deploy the could in their organization solely to save money will eventually realize the available cost savings.

How else can we use clouds? The answer comes from a small — but growing — number of companies that are starting to use the cloud in disruptive ways. Such companies are creating new markets and industries, or are creating new revenue streams. And they aren’t alone. An IBM Institute for Business Value, “The Power of Cloud,” found that 16 percent of survey repondents are using cloud as a tool to innovate. They’re finding ways to use the cloud in entirely new ways. Take gaming. By 2015, half the video games will be played on the cloud. How can the cloud change your business? To read stories about how clients can benefit from “Made with IBM,” click here.

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Grazed from Forbes. Author: Andy Oram.

If your data consists of one million samples, but only 100 have the characteristics you’re looking for, and if each of the million samples contains 250,000 attributes, each of which is built of thousands of basic elements, you have a big data problem. This is kind of challenge faced by the 2,700 Bio-IT World attendees, who discover genetic interactions and create drugs for the rest of us.

Often they are looking for rare (orphan) diseases, or for cohorts who share a rare combination of genetic factors that require a unique treatment. The data sets get huge, particularly when the researchers start studying proteomics (the proteins active in the patients’ bodies)…

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Marc Shaw.

In part 1 we considered the importance of both knowing the details of your company’s network and in part 2 we discussed the need for keeping data backup onsite in case of an emergency, along with the acronym D2D2C and the 3-2-1 rule for maximum protection. When it comes to system outages or downtime, unless you have widespread system automation, the biggest effect of system outage will obviously be on the end user.

It’s therefore important to factor in user experience to any data recovery or backup plan. Keep track of general problems users are having, from latency to inadequate response time during normal usage, as these can be an indicator of problem areas and lead to bigger glitches down the line if left unaddressed…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Editorial Staff.

Government agencies that rely upon cloud service providers have to trust that cloud providers will protect their data or services from risk and harm. In a perfect world, cloud providers would have a complete understanding of the unique missions — and risks — that agencies face.

In reality, cloud service operators tend to provide a "one size fits all" approach to services that often overlooks specific or unique mission risks. As a result, government agencies must ultimately accept responsibility for ensuring that cloud providers offer the appropriate amount of protection to manage risk. It also requires agencies to directly address some fundamental questions regarding risk…

Grazed from StackOps. Author: Editorial Staff.

StackOps, the leading business in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platforms based on OpenStack™, has announced its new service, StackOps.NET, a solution for businesses which offers the latest generation hybrid cloud IaaS, combining the public and private clouds as one platform.

StackOps.NET is a Hybrid Cloud which combines the existing Virtual Private Cloud service offered to its clients in its service zones in Amsterdam and Madrid, with the new Virtual Datacenter (VDC), the public cloud solution developed by StackOps that allows clients to fully deploy their own Virtual Datacenter in a flexible, self-managed way…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

All clouds are fast and elastic, right? Well, it depends on many factors, but I can say for certain that the way you use cloud determines performance more than the cloud itself. Cloud computing is really a new way to consume resources. The resources themselves are not much different than the resources you’ve consumed for years in private data centers.

What’s different about the cloud is your ability to spin up any number of resources, as needed. Once you’re done using them, you can spin them down. This is why public clouds are typically elastic, although this does not ensure both performance and scalability. To get both of those attributes, the key to success is more a matter of application design than it is the cloud platform itself…

Grazed from ABCNews. Author: Kelvin Chan.

China’s Alibaba Group, which is readying for a big U.S. initial public offering, is known as an e-commerce titan but it’s been busily expanding into other rising industries. Here’s a closer look at those businesses, which include cloud computing, mobile messaging, and investments in online video, social media as well as bricks and mortar retail and delivery networks.

Three retail e-commerce sites account for four-fifths of Alibaba’s revenue. Taobao, which means "digging for treasure," is a cross between eBay and Amazon for China. Sellers pay nothing to list on Taobao, but Alibaba charges for advertising services. Tmall, which in Chinese is known as Tian Mao, or Sky Cat, is for brands selling directly to consumers while Juhuasuan is a group buying marketplace akin to Groupon…