Grazed from NetworkComputing. Author: Mark Peters.

For decades, the standard model for IT procurement has typically involved an IT manager being aware of an IT need and then quantifying it. This happens with more or less involvement from organizations’ buying and legal departments (which is either more or less welcome!). The IT manager will then hold some type of beauty contest among the usual-suspect vendors (directly or virtually via a partner).

Then a winner is selected, usually based on criteria the buying IT manager determined before going into the decision-making fray. But recent ESG research indicates that three factors are conspiring (well, maybe that’s too dramatic a word, but they’re certainly combining) to put this formula under pressure. They are:…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Jeffrey Burt.

Hewlett-Packard officials are introducing enhancements to the company’s HP-UX operating system and new Itanium-based NonStop servers aimed at midrange enterprises, part of the giant tech vendor’s larger Project Odyssey effort. HP also on April 28 is unveiling enhancements to its Integrity-based CloudSystem Matrix with HP-UX, a converged offering designed for private clouds and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) environments that run mission-critical workloads.

The same trends—from cloud computing to big data to greater mobility—that are driving the growing demands for better energy efficiency, smaller footprints and lower costs also being felt by large organizations that run mission-critical workloads on systems like HP’s Integrity and NonStop servers, which are powered by Intel’s Itanium processors, according to HP officials…

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Intelligent Living Inc. stated today that it created a new subsidiary company called Provectus and, in doing so, has merged the assets of both Venturian Group of Miami and Perfect Solutions of Northfield, NJ into the subsidiary to create a robust, full service Managed IT and Private Cloud services company with current revenues of $2.2 million. This new subsidiary will bring revenue and operational efficiency to Intelligent Living, which will be demonstrated on the balance sheet over the next few years.

Intelligent Living Inc. Chief Strategy Officer Josh Eikov said, "We made the decision to become an infrastructure company to both the medical and marijuana industries which are completely burgeoning markets that represent a global opportunity approaching $60 billion by the end of the decade. In our market research we realized that someone needed to build the roads, bridges and tunnels for all of this business activity to be conducted on and so, the birth of Provectus: Managed IT and Cloud Services."…

Grazed from DataCenterKnowledge. Author: Robert Jenkins.

Since the dawn of cloud computing, its appeal to businesses could be summed up in three words: scalability, availability and accessibility. But, cloud computing has been around for a while now, and like any other technology, we inevitably reach the point where people start asking what’s next. We live in an age where paradigm-shifting innovations are rolled out more often than at any other point in history.

Consequently, businesses never stop looking for the next breakthrough that will launch the next generation of their product or service. Scalability, availability and accessibility will always be the pillars upon which the cloud was built, but where is that next cost-efficiency upgrade coming from?…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

The next version of Microsoft (MSFT) Forefront Identity Manager will sport a new name, but it also will lean on the advantages of Azure and be designed to enable hybrid cloud computing. But there’s still plenty of time to get ready for it. Microsoft doesn’t plan to release Identity Manager until the first half of 2015.

The Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform team wrote in a blog that the next version will be available next year. Identity Manager was designed to help organizations ensure appropriate access to corporate information, regardless of where the data is located. And that seems to be part of Microsoft’s strategy to tie this into its hybrid cloud strategy…

Grazed from SysConMedia. Author: PR Announcement.

Today, at the 5th Annual Telco Cloud World Forum, the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA), the global organization where members work together to advance the deployment of enterprise cloud solutions and services that are interoperable, secure and free of vendor lock-in, announced a collaboration with Intel® Corporation. Under the collaboration, the ODCA will integrate its usage models into the Intel® Cloud Finder Program, an online reference site that assists users with the selection of Cloud Service Providers (CSPs).

"ODCA members have stated a desire to easily identify cloud services meeting ODCA requirements, and Intel Cloud Finder provides an ideal tool to meet this requirement," said Mario Mueller, ODCA chairman and vice president of IT Infrastructure, BMW. "With enterprises ramping up cloud service usage based on ODCA usage models this year, the availability of this tool is perfectly timed for members’ expected deployments."…

Grazed from ITWorld. Author: Joab Jackson.

IBM has assembled a vast array of hosted cloud services, and now it has somewhere to show them off. On its IBM Cloud online marketplace that goes live on Monday, enterprises can find the full range of IBM’s offerings behind a single gateway. "So many of our customers want to build new cloud-based, front-end systems, but they want to tie them into their back-end infrastructure. We’re delivering a whole set of integration components and control services to do the connection, and monitor and control what is taking place," said Steve Mills, IBM senior vice president and group executive for software and systems.

The marketplace has more than 100 hosted IBM applications, as well as middleware components from IBM’s Bluemix platform as a service (PaaS). It also serves as a portal to IBM’s SoftLayer infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and houses a collection of services from IBM partners…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Ryan Huang.

Recognizing vulnerabilities in existing facilities before embarking on a cloud computing deployment offers an opportunity for potential cloud computing adopters to fortify critical systems. This is done primarily through the optimization of the end-to-end infrastructure with fault-tolerant systems – including power, precision cooling and infrastructure management – to sustain the highest possible levels of availability and service while reducing operating costs and management complexity, according to Emerson Network Power. The most significant opportunities for facility optimization can be divided into three key areas:

• Employing a High-Density System Configuration
• Optimizing the Power Architecture for High Availability
• Managing Complexities through Infrastructure Management
  

Grazed from CRN.  Author: Sholto Macpherson.

Is cloud computing forcing distributors out of the market? In my column last month, Danny Smith from Express Online hinted as much as he discussed the challenge of finding a role for disties in the new world order.  But some refuse to believe that the cloud only represents a threat. Scott Frew, CEO of Distribution Central, jumped onto LinkedIn to tell me, “Just wanted to say I completely disagree with the article on cloud killing ED. I normally let these things go but I thought it needed some balance on this one.”

I put in a call to Frew and he pointed out the upside in cloud computing – strong growth in networks and hybrid systems. It’s not all talk either: for the year to 30 June, DC broke through the $250 million mark, while Q1 2013 was its most profitable quarter ever…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Barb Darrow.

Last week, IBM and Microsoft put themselves front and center to prove that they can both capitalize on their tech legacy while pushing beyond it in the era of web-scale cloud.  On Wednesday, IBM showed some progress on its plan to reinvigorate its Power chip architecture. The company showed off a Tyan-built white box server running firmware and an OS by foundation partners IBM, Google, and Canonical.

Google’s participation was the highlight when IBM announced the foundation in August– its presence gives IBM’s Power architecture some web-scale credibility although, as far as I can tell Google has not committed to actually using Power-based servers…