Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Jeffrey Burt.

Hewlett-Packard officials want to make it easier and more cost-effective for enterprises to build data centers.  The giant tech vendor is unveiling its HP Facility-as-a-Service (FaaS) offering that essentially lets organizations avoid the millions of dollars in upfront capital costs associated with building new data centers and instead spread those costs out over a number of years.

The service gives businesses another option when deciding on a data center strategy, and enables them to keep control of their infrastructure rather than opt for a cloud or co-location solution, according to Rick Einhorn, vice president of technology services data center consulting at HP.  "It takes out most of the initial capital expenditure and drives it into an operational expenditure," Einhorn told eWEEK…

Grazed from NetworkSupportServicesBlog.  Author: Editorial Staff.

In recent times, cloud computing is considered as a major solution for storage of large amounts of data. Clouds are being used for the purpose of high data storage. With an increase and widening of companies that make use of Information Technology, it is difficult to maintain a physical device where data can be stored. Thus, companies are now making use of cloud computing that helps them store the data in a safe and secure place. A number of IT Support service providers now own clouds and lease storage space to different companies. Let us now see how cloud storage is actually done.

Cloud storage is expected to be available and durable no matter what the physical conditions of a system might be. It is a virtual storage system that allows you to store your data without using the physical memory. The size of a cloud storage may range anywhere between a few bytes up to a few petabytes…

Grazed from Protiviti.  Author: Editorial Staff.

As cloud service providers mature, and expand and refine their offerings, it is increasingly difficult for many organizations not to at least consider moving certain functions to the cloud. Cost-reduction opportunities, scalability, flexibility and elasticity are just some of the potential benefits of such a move. However, companies looking to shift their information technology (IT) assets to a cloud model (public, private or hybrid) often are not fully informed, or simply are unaware, of the range of risks and limitations of cloud computing.

Most organizations do have security concerns about the cloud. Leadership, especially from IT, may worry that data will be less safe if hosted by a third party, instead of internally or in a “steel cage” by a local co-location provider. The fear of losing control of and visibility into IT systems is a key reason why many organizations decide to delay or cancel cloud conversions, particularly large commitments to the cloud…

Grazed from PR NewsWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Solidifying its position as a leading IT infrastructure and cloud provider, Peak 10 has been named the first provider in the Americas to achieve the Cisco Powered Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) designation under the Cisco® Cloud and Managed Services Advanced Certification. This certification recognizes Peak 10 as a provider with the capability to sell and deliver cloud and managed services for companies needing to accelerate time to market and time to revenue.  

"We continue to see strong demand for DRaaS, or cloud DR services, to help businesses lower their risk to support their business continuity plans," said Jeff Spalding, COO for Peak 10. "As part of this designation, our infrastructure and operational processes went through a rigorous third party audit…

Grazed from Elastica.  Author: Editorial Staff.

The cloud computing security landscape is complex with its constant movement of data between devices, networks, and the cloud. The cloud provides great opportunities to attackers, results in shadow IT, and places an ever greater security burden on endpoints. Today, businesses use the cloud not just to host applications, but also to manage and analyze data.

As the cloud becomes increasingly popular with small and large businesses, ever more valuable and critical data is moved to it. Cloud security has been in the news over the last week with a new report out on it…

Grazed from CNET. Author: Matt Elliot.

Cloud computing promised ease and convenience in accessing your data from any Internet-connected device, and it delivers on that promise. I love being able to access photos on Flickr from my phone or a friend’s computer, for example. I can also grab a recipe I have on Google Drive when I’m in the grocery store or share a file from Dropbox when I’m basically anywhere. No argument here — cloud computing has added a level of ease and convenience to my life.

The trouble is, I have accumulated a fair number of cloud computing services over the years that I use regularly. I discovered an iPhone app called Octonius a few months ago that lets me search across Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Drive for files that I know I have in the cloud but can’t remember exactly where…

Grazed from ActiveState. Author: PR Announcement.

ActiveState announces its ongoing support as a founding Gold-level sponsor for the non-profit organization known as the Cloud Foundry foundation and applauds the expanding community. Today, new Gold members, Accenture, BNY Mellon, Capgemini, GE, Ericsson, Intel, NTTand Verizon join founding Gold members CenturyLink and ActiveState, and founding Platinum members EMC, HP, IBM, Pivotal, Rackspace, SAP and VMware, as members of the Cloud Foundry foundation.Pivotal launched the Cloud Foundry foundation in February 2014 to develop and advance an industry standard for multi-cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions for enterprise computing.

The foundation is dedicated to the evolution and growth of the Cloud Foundry open source project as well as the ecosystem and community around it. All members have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding. The foundation will transition to a formal governance model and is slated to officiallylaunch in the fall of 2014…

Grazed from ITProportal. Author: Jes Breslaw.

Cloud technology has started to reach its maturation point – it’s a major part of almost every IT strategy, and is used across all industries all over the world. Gartner predicts that the bulk of new IT spending by 2016 will be for cloud computing platforms and applications, with nearly half of large enterprises having cloud deployments by the end of 2017.

Why is cloud so important? It’s because each and every one of us wants to start using our mobile devices for business, as seamlessly as we do in our personal lives. This ability to work from anywhere is enabled by the convergence of cloud and mobile technology, so that we have constant access to the content we need…

Grazed from PlanetLotus. Author: Marta Farensbach.

These days, marketers and media alike are focusing their attention on the “cloud” creating a lot of interest and buzz. But what exactly is the “cloud”? This term is sometimes used as a metaphor for the Internet as a whole. In business, it really refers to the software platforms and infrastructure delivered as services via the Internet. In some ways, almost every organization is operating in the cloud already. Websites, social media, email, online meetings and video calls are all examples of cloud computing.

Typically, end-users access cloud applications via a browser or mobile device, while key information and back-end software are stored and processed on remote servers controlled by a third party. To be more formal, we can use the definition from the EU Agency for Information Security (ENISA) which defines cloud computing as “an on-demand service model for IT provision, often based on virtualization and distributed computing technologies.”…

Grazed from Tmcnet. Author: Laura Stotler.

I recently got the opportunity to interview Simon Withers, vice president of Global Cloud Product at Sungard Availability. His company, which has been in the managed IT services business for more than 30 years, has seen massive growth in the private cloud services space over the last couple of years, which isn’t surprising. What may be a game changer, however, is the rapid hybridization that is occurring in the cloud computing economy as organizations begin to understand the benefits of blending public and private infrastructure.

Withers said that hybridization is occurring across a number of infrastructure levels, and customers are rapidly realizing the importance of combining the security and customization of the private cloud with the cost savings and efficiencies of public cloud infrastructure. “What we are seeing at Sungard Availability Services is high growth in private services,” said Withers. “Ironically, at the same time, the majority of our managed cloud implementations are hybrid IT with increasing prevalence in the last twenty-four months.”…