Grazed from MidSize Insider. Author: Rick Robinson.

Cloud computing has become the norm; and as the cloud skyscape matures and firms balance specific requirements with the advantages of flexibility, the trend is moving toward hybrid cloud dominance. Another result of cloud maturation is the growing prospect of self-service IT, particularly for developers. These cloud-centric trends are reshaping the IT environment at midsize firms. As traditional in-house IT fades among midsize firms, the new midsize IT is taking shape as a broker and manager of multiple and varied cloud resources.

The State of the Cloud Is Strong and Dynamic

As Serdar Yegulalp reports at InfoWorld, software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider RightScale has released its 2014 State of the Cloud Report. The report’s headline finding should surprise no one by this point: The cloud has gone mainstream. The survey of more than a thousand IT professionals from firms of all sizes, both tech-oriented and otherwise, finds that most of them — 94 percent — have moved beyond the "Cloud Watcher" stage and have launched at least their first cloud operations…

Grazed from ITWorld. Author: Nermin Bajric.

IBM has won a five-year contract to manage Coca Cola Amatil’s (CCA) mission-critical SAP infrastructure on its private Cloud hosted in its Sydney datacentre. The project is expected to "drive significant operational costs" out of CCA’s South Pacific business. The company operates in Australia, NZ, Indonesia, PNG, Fiji, and Samoa.

CCA’s Australian and Indonesian branches will be the first to move onto IBM’s Cloud. A statement from IBM claims the platform will optimise and streamline CCA’s order management and distribution processes, increase operational efficiencies, and deliver a consistent customer experience…

Grazed from GuruFocus. Author: Editorial Staff.

The cloud and the cloud computing technologies are witnessing a major boom, and the market is predicted to continue growth. The growth of this market is due to the fact of more and more businesses are now moving into the cloud environment as the cloud matures. It won’t be a myth to say that various IT organizations are into a metamorphosis by adopting cloud technologies in their product portfolio. One such company is NetApp (NTAP), which is focused on delivering ground-breaking solutions to broaden its customer base and to influence its top and bottom line. NetApp is now primarily focusing the storage and cloud computing technologies and is striving to acquire a wider market.

Financials

The company recently released its third quarter 2014 results. It recorded a sequential quarterly growth by 4% for total revenue of $1.61 billion. But on a year-over-year basis it was down by 1%. The revenue even missed the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion but was in the range of management’s estimate of $1.575 billion to $1.675 billion. The year-over-year decline was mainly due to a decline of 22.3% from the OEM revenues. This was partly offset by an increase of 1.8% branded revenue. On a year-over-year basis, earnings improved 14.5%…

Grazed from CMSWire. Author: Steven Pogrebivsky.

You’ve been thinking about moving to Office 365. You know it offers some great capabilities while helping reduce some costs, but you need to convince management it’s the right move. There is a lot to take into consideration, but these 10 talking points should help you explain your recommendations to management.

1. The Advantages and Challenges of a Public Cloud

Office 365 is a SaaS (software as a service) offering, hosted by Microsoft. This is a public cloud service, so it comes with a number of potential concerns — availability and security being the two biggest ones. There are a number of benefits to a SaaS offering like Office 365: you pay a monthly subscription for your site and nothing more, you get most of the standard SharePoint features, and you can work with external partners much more easily than in an on premises SharePoint implementation…

Grazed from NationalLawReview. Author: Christine M. Wahr and Sarah T. Hogan.

You’ve read part 1 of our series, and you’re now armed with the knowledge about hosted services and cloud computing that you’ve been too embarrassed to ask. To help you bring it home – virtually – we offer our top 5 considerations when purchasing hosted services for your organization:

1. Implement processes for agreement to non-negotiable terms. Many lower priced hosted services providers will present terms of use in a “click-through” or “click-wrap” agreement. These “take it or leave it” terms are intended to avoid a costly negotiation over legal language where this is low profit margin for the services. While the vast majority of click-through terms will be acceptable for the services being purchased, your organization should make sure individuals with purchasing authority are trained to recognize provisions that raise your organization’s risk profile, and to escalate those provisions for legal review. For example, legal and IT security should review all terms relating to privacy and data security. Additionally, users should escalate for legal approval any provision requiring indemnification by your organization, as well as any provision purporting to claim ownership of any of your organization’s data or intellectual property…

Grazed from StarTribune. Author: Dee Depass.

In a potentially major breakthrough for data centers, 3M Co. today announced a new cooling fluid for large computer systems that reduces the need for powerful air conditioners and slashes energy costs. The technology is being portrayed as a game changer for massive data centers, which have proliferated with the rise of cloud-based networks for businesses and consumers and as storage for so-called “big data” applications used by business and government.

Such centers today use lots of energy to run computer servers and storage arrays and also to cool off those machines from the heat they generate. 3M will demonstrate its new 3M Novec Engineered Fluid at its Maplewood headquarters later today along with partners IntelCorp. and SGI…

Grazed from NationalLawReview. Author: Christine M. Wahr and Sarah T. Hogan.

In today’s world, it seems that virtually every business is using or offering some degree of online services. If you’re involved in making technology purchasing decisions for your business, you likely receive numerous requests related to purchasing hosted services, though the nuances of what a hosted service is and the particular legal considerations such a purchase raises may still be hazy concepts. If this resonates with you, you are not alone – even the most tech-savvy users can be left confused in this ever-evolving industry. To assist you in responding rapidly to these requests, we have pulled together a two-part series containing a quick reference guide of basics and top 5 considerations for purchasers of hosted solutions. Welcome to part 1 of this series, Hosting 101: The Basics.

What is a hosted service? The term “hosted service” is used to refer to a product or service powered by information technology resources that you do not own or control. Users are provided with access to the product or service without the need to purchase and maintain the necessary software,hardware, server space and other logistical and technical resources. You may run into hosted services that are provided on a dedicated server owned by the provider, but today, more often than not, hosted services are provided via the cloud…

Grazed from Parallels. Author: PR Announcement.

Parallels, a leading hosting and cloud services enablement provider, today announced a significant expansion of its strategic alliance with Ingram Micro Inc., a leading master cloud services aggregator and provider, as well as the world’s largest wholesale technology distributor and a global leader in IT supply-chain and mobile device lifecycle services.

As part of the relationship, Ingram Micro will adopt and deploy Parallels Automation as the core service delivery platform for its new global Cloud Marketplace, which was announced today at the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit 2014. Parallels expanded relationship with Ingram Micro also includes an equity investment by the distribution leader that demonstrates Ingram Micro’s commitment to the platform and the alliance…

Grazed from CMSWire. Author: Jeff Lawrence.

The choice between cloud-based and in-house DAM used to be easy. Between the high cost of cloud storage and bandwidth, and the limited capabilities of SaaS (software as a service) solutions — the argument for in-house DAM was clear. Cost is no longer the sole determining factor. Cloud computing and storage costs have lowered in the last few years, making SaaS a viable choice for many organizations. SaaS DAM vendors have responded to customer needs by offering new features and functionality that directly compete with the capabilities of in-house solutions — such as integration tools for social media — which places them squarely on the competitive playing field.

What’s the Difference?

SaaS is not a panacea, in-house solutions are still the right fit for many organizations. In general, in-house DAM solutions are limited only to the organization’s hardware infrastructure, security governance, network and quality of IT support. The client is responsible for the purchase and support of the hardware, software, database, storage, security and business continuity planning…

Grazed from UNSW.edu.au. Author: Editorial Staff.

UNSW researchers are using artificial intelligence to create a computer network capable of regulating its own consumption of public cloud services. The team, led by School of Computer Science and Engineering Lecturer Srikumar Venugopal, hopes the research will make truly elastic cloud computing a reality.

Elasticity is seen as a key benefit of the cloud, allowing companies to automatically and immediately dial up or down the consumption of cloud computing power based on need. The idea is to prevent companies over- or under-provisioning resources to run a particular workload. Presently, companies set rules to manage when to spin-up new virtual servers or shut them down. Systems administrators use their experience and historical data to set the rules…