Grazed from TomsITPro. Author: James Sullivan.

AWS is a beast that continues to grow, and this most recent expansion sees 12 new EC2 Elastic MapReduce instance types and an entirely new EC2 instance category, the R3. Amazon is also adding new regional support for several instance types. The AWS blog categorizes their new instance types into five functionality-based categories:

• General Purpose (m3.xlarge and m3.2xlarge)
• Compute-optimized (c3.xlarge, c3.2xlarge, c3.4xlarge and c3.8xlarge)
• GPU (g2.2xlarge)
• Memory-optimized (cr1.8xlarge)
• Storage-optimized (i2.xlarge, i2.2xlarge, i2.4xlarge and i2.8xlarge)…

Grazed from TechGig. Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud computing is an important business tool in most IT services companies. A lot of organisations are either using their internal talent to deploy cloud-based activities or outsourcing the same to a third party – but either way these companies have started to realise the real need of implementing cloud-based services for different functions.

As a result of implementing cloud-based services, organisations are also going to face a sea change in the overall business performance. In fact, a large number of companies have been witnessing a change in their way of working over the past couple of years, after implement this tool…

Grazed from SmartCompany. Author: David Markus.

I have been doing public presentations on cloud computing for the past six years and still today the first question people ask is about security of the data stored in the cloud. Will my data be safe from prying eyes? The answer was typically that if you keep your passwords secure your data should be pretty safe. That was before we all learned about the NSA and realised there was no such thing as secure storage in a public system. The big companies with good security advice and plenty of money to spend on options kind of knew that already.

So the answer to the question is in encrypting the data stored in the cloud before it leaves your control and then make sure you hold the encryption keys so that you are the only person or company on the planet that can see the information unless you send it to someone else in a decrypted state…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Joab Jackson.

VMware is about to release a new version of its Horizon VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) software that will allow administrators to manage VDI and non-VDI deployments in a unified manner, by using multiple VMware technologies. "We are extending VMware Horizon beyond VDI, to be able to do virtual desktops," said Sumit Dhawan, VMware vice president and general manager of desktop products and end-user computing.

Horizon is now "a complete system, able to handle 100 percent of desktops," Dhawan said. VDI technologies, such as Horizon’s, encapsulate a user’s entire OS and desktop environment within a virtual machine, so it can be accessed or downloaded over a network. VDI can be beneficial over standard desktop PCs, in a number of ways…

Grazed from Investors.com. Author: Reinhardt Krause.

When Joe Tucci took over as EMC chief executive in January 2001, he faced the challenge of reviving a company that took a big hit in the 2000-01 dot-com crash, with annual revenue falling to $5.4 billion in 2002 from $8.8 billion just two years earlier. The data storage system-maker’s customers were shifting to client-server computing and shared, networked resources. Tucci knew software innovation would be key.

EMC (EMC), based in Hopkinton, Mass., is still the information technology industry’s data storage leader. The firm owes much to what Tucci calls its "string of pearls" acquisitions, led by the jewel it bought in 2004 — VMware (VMW), an emerging force in client-server computing…

Grazed from TechPageOne. Author: Michael O’Dwyer.

Companies both large and small are investing in big data. The smart ones prepare well and upgrade their information technology infrastructure to ensure their networks can handle the increased traffic. Others find themselves scrambling to improve their networks, as critical processes slow down or halt. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Today, there are so many infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings on the market that can handle big data workloads across several networks that most businesses should be able to find a product that fits their strategy, says Joy Taylor, chief executive officer of TayganPoint Consulting Group, a Lambertville, N.J.-based strategic management consulting firm.

“Today, [this means that scalability] and fast response time are no longer a challenge for companies looking to implement a big data strategy,” Taylor says.“The types of solutions readily available today for big data analytics allow SMBs to [use] the growing volume of data to drive competitive advantage — something that was cost prohibitive in the legacy world (prior to the cloud).”…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Larry Dignan.

Verizon on Wednesday launched a secure cloud interconnect service that aims to tether multiple services together using private Internet Protocol addresses. With the move Verizon aims to be the secure connect between its own cloud, Microsoft Azure and private clouds run by Equinix. Verizon’s Private IP service will be available direct in Equinix’s 15 data centers around the world.

Verizon’s approach is notable as it aims to use its core strengths as a telecom provider to carve out a cloud computing niche. Verizon also owns Terremark, a major cloud computing player. In a statement, Verizon noted that eliminating security concerns as enterprises tether multiple services together could speed adoption…

Grazed from MBTMag. Author: Ranga Bodla.

While companies have been relying on hosted software and third-party tools for decades, it has been roughly six years since clouds entered the enterprise IT psyche. Here are some insights into the opportunities and limitations of service in the cloud, as well as what the future brings for cloud computing.

What types of tools typically exist in "the cloud" today?

Today the cloud is not just an option when it comes to selecting software applications and IT tools — it’s the default option. Applications like NetSuite were the beginning of true multi-tenant cloud infrastructure, moving beyond simple third-party hosting and passing along economies of scale to customers by pooling computing resources…

Grazed from MBTMag. Author: Ranga Bodla.

While companies have been relying on hosted software and third-party tools for decades, it has been roughly six years since clouds entered the enterprise IT psyche. Here are some insights into the opportunities and limitations of service in the cloud, as well as what the future brings for cloud computing.

What types of tools typically exist in "the cloud" today?

Today the cloud is not just an option when it comes to selecting software applications and IT tools — it’s the default option. Applications like NetSuite were the beginning of true multi-tenant cloud infrastructure, moving beyond simple third-party hosting and passing along economies of scale to customers by pooling computing resources…

Grazed from CBR. Author: Joe Curtis.

Cloud could finally prove cheaper than on-premise thanks to a new Linux-based technology that renders cloud hosting half the price of Amazon Web Services (AWS), it is claimed. Cloud-hosting provider Elastichosts today announced its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution, basing it on Linux containerisation technology that allows for more flexible pricing.

While providers including AWS and Google offer on-demand services, they actually charge based on the overall capacity of servers being used. But Elastichosts’ IaaS solution, Elastic Containers, charges by real-time usage, measured every 15 minutes, meaning customers would pay less when the servers are less busy, such as overnight…