Grazed from Datamation. Author: Sean Michael Kerner.

Demand for virtualization and cloud technologies continues to grow, which in turn is fueling growth for VMware. VMware reported its first quarter fiscal 2014 earnings late Tuesday with revenue reported at $1.36 billion, for a 14 percent year-over-year gain. Net Income for the quarter was reported at $199 million or $0.46 per share.

"As we talk to customers, one thing is becoming clear, they not only see the value of the software-defined data center, they increasingly believe that this approach will become the model for leading data centers in the world," VMware CEO, Pat Gelsinger said during his company’s earnings call…

Grazed from MidsizeInsider. Author: Jason Hannula.

Cloud computing has moved from a business and technology buzzword to a standard for software and storage implementation, and it is no surprise that businesses have begun reaping returns on their investments. As noted in a piece by Linda Tucci for SearchCIO, the benefits of a successful cloud computing implementation strategy are freeing up IT staff to engage in a more strategic role for the business.

However, the idea of implementing a cloud computing strategy is still met with fear and resistance from within IT shops when such solutions are broached by CIOs. For example, former Electronic Arts CIO Mark Tonnesen reported that the company’s initial "public cloud first" stance was reassessed in favor of the selective use of private cloud implementations. Forrester Research confirms that a trial and error approach by businesses is common when attempting to strike a balance between public and private clouds…

Grazed from ComputerScienceDegreeHub. Author: Editorial Staff.

It’s a fact: more data is added via the Internet every second than the Internet had in its entirety twenty years ago. This accumulation of “Big Data” comes from many sources, including consumer and business files — including photos and images, spreadsheets, mobile application data, and more.

In the past, much of this data was stored in the memory of computers and mobile devices. Now, data is increasingly being stored “in the Cloud,” which allows it to be accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection, and numerous companies are battling it out for this market. Let’s look at the numbers behind cloud storage, and particular for two hot companies in this market, Box and Dropbox — both of whom received additional funding in Jan 2014…

To view infographic and read more from the source, visit http://www.computersciencedegreehub.com/cloud-storage-battle/

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Grazed from The Var Guy. Author: Michael Cusanelli.

Avnet Technology Solutions has expanded its long-standing distribution relationship with IBM to include services from cloud infrastructure provider SoftLayer. Avnet (AVT) says the new distribution agreement for North American channel partners will allow it to help resellers develop their cloud portfolios with a new range of IBM middleware and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.

"Avnet and IBM share a common passion for investing in market opportunities, such as the cloud, that will help business partners and their customers evolve to better meet the needs of an ever-changing world," said Fred Cuen, senior vice president, general manager, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, IBM Solutions group, in a prepared statement…

Grazed from ITWorldCanada. Author: Don Sheppard.

For some organizations, start-ups in particular, cloud computing will be the only IT game in town. Given the choice between acquiring, installing and operating a data centre full of equipment and buying public services on a consumption basis, the choice would be very clear. This choice, however, is not as obvious for larger, well-established enterprises that have already invested in numerous “legacy” systems.

For some leaders, a major commitment to cloud computing could be a very difficult and potentially risky decision. How about a simple thought experiment? Let’s imagine what the cloud computing end game is – what it means for an enterprise to go “all in” with cloud computing…

Grazed from ComputerSupport. Author: Kirill Bensonoff.

A new infographic released by ComputerSupport.com shows that cloud adoption rates are on the rise, echoing predictions throughout the technology and business sectors over the past couple of years. The infographic, which is available below, demonstrates that not only is the presence of cloud hosting increasing, but many people are enthusiastic enough about the cloud to recommend it to their peers.

Current Adoption

The infographic is based on a Microsoft study, which gauged cloud adoption rates among a wide range of organizations, found that the vast majority of organizations of all sizes use both Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and hosted infrastructure services. Both SaaS and hosted infrastructure services are currently being used most by organizations with less than 100 employees…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Pedro Hernandez.

Earth Day (April 22) has emerged as an opportunity for tech companies to voice their support for clean energy, low-waste IT operations and environmentally-friendly policies. This year, Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, has joined the chorus. Amid the backdrop of the eco-themed day’s festivities, Nadella touted his company’s efforts in steering the tech industry toward greener IT pastures.

In a letter to the Business Roundtable, an association of U.S. CEOs, Nadella outlined how the software giant is addressing environmental concerns and taking steps to eliminate its carbon footprint. "Through Microsoft Research, we have teams of computer scientists who are using the power of big data to understand complex environmental challenges in ways they never have before," he wrote…

Grazed from TheWrap. Author: Ira Telnowitz.

Several of the Supreme Court justices who heard arguments in the broadcast networks’ case against the online TV site Aereo criticized the company’s business model but worried about passing down a ruling that could affect other technology. Broadcasters contend that Aereo — a New York based company with less than a million subscribers — is stealing their signals.

The company uses millions of small antenna to relay broadcast signals to subscribers’ laptops, tablets and other devices, collecting a small fee. While the justices expressed skepticism that Aereo’s technology violates copyrights, they also questioned whether the company was trying to take advantage of legal loopholes…

Grazed from PCMag. Author: Michael J. Miller.

Competition is a wonderful thing. And the increased competition in cloud services – especially the intense battle among Amazon, Google, and Microsoft – is resulting in services and pricing that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago. Over the past month, all three of the big players, plus a variety of smaller ones, have introduced new products and services for the cloud.

About a month ago, Google started this round of price cutting at its Cloud Platform Live event, where it cut prices on most of its services, some rather dramatically. Compute fees dropped by 32 percent, and standard storage prices went down to 2.6 cents per gigabyte per month. A similar drop in prices for its consumer product, Google Drive, gives you 1TB of storage for about $10 a month. That’s quite compelling…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Sean M. Kerner.

The OpenStack Foundation officially debuted its Icehouse release on April 17 providing enterprises, service providers and end-users with new and enhanced cloud computing features. OpenStack is an open-source effort that got its start in July 2010 as a joint project supported by Rackspace and NASA.

The Icehouse release is the ninth release of OpenStack since the project officially debuted and enjoys the support of many of the world’s leading tech vendors, including IBM, HP, Dell, Cisco, AT&T, Intel, VMware and many others. With the Icehouse release, in addition to more features, there was more development activity across multiple metrics…