Grazed from eWeek. Author: Jeffrey Burt.

Google is making its in-house software-defined networking technology available to organizations using its Compute Engine cloud computing platform. Google has been at the forefront of software-defined networking (SDN) for the past couple of years, developing an OpenFlow-based system dubbed Andromeda for internal use.

Now the Web giant is bringing that network virtualization technology to Compute Engine, a move that will enable customers to "see major performance gains in throughput over our already fast network connections," Amin Vahdat, a distinguished engineer at Google, wrote in an April 2 post on the company’s blog. Andromeda already is available in two Compute Engine zones—us-central1-b and Europe-west1-a. Over the next few months, Google will migrate all of its zones to the SDN platform, wrote Vahdat, who gave a presentation about Andromeda in March at the Open Networking Summit…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Sean Michael Kerner.

The annual Interop Las Vegas conference, which this year ran from March 31 to April 2, provided insight into a number of sectors of the IT landscape. While the Interop show has its roots as a networking interoperability showcase, the event has expanded to look beyond the network. "To be a networking architect today, you also have to consider applications, cloud and security," says Interop General Manager Jennifer Jessup.

"It’s no longer about just looking at the network." To that end, the Interop 2014 event had multiple sessions on security, including one from the chief information security officer of Western Union. The cloud was also a topic of discussion and presentation at the Cloud Connect Summit, which was co-located with Interop…

Grazed from TheCloudSimplified. Author: PR Announcement.

Established IT firm Xperience Group has launched a new cloud computing platform, thecloudsimplified.com, on 1st April 2014 which enables users to purchase, manage and provision servers in less than 30 seconds, from as little as 23.50 per month – which is further enhanced by a limited time 50% discount for new customers.

The Cloud Simplified (thcloudsimplified.com), a public and private cloud computing platform built on Xperience’s two new world class cloud computing platforms, enables individuals and businesses alike to self provision servers in record breaking time and at competitive prices…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Laura Aberle.

While cloud computing is the hottest of hot topics, businesses can be lukewarm when it comes to privacy, security and information governance in the cloud. But recent events such as Edward Snowden’s revelations about mass surveillance at the National Security Administration have turned up the heat, according to Else Khoury, the manager of information management services for Niagara Region, a municipal government body in Ontario, Canada. In her AIIM 2014 session "Getting Lost in the Cloud: Privacy Risks and Cloud Computing," she said that privacy has become one of the most buzzed-about issues in information management.

Khoury acknowledged that privacy in the cloud is only one of many challenges discussed at AIIM, but the problems she touched on extend into information governance in the cloud as a whole and to AIIM’s overarching theme of information overload creating chaos but also opportunity…

Grazed from PR NewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

IBM inventors have patented a cloud computing security technique that enables app developers to ensure that data notifications are securely and confidentially pushed to and from mobile devices. Maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of data shared via mobile networks is a priority for developers, service providers and end-users, yet IBM security researchers found that insufficient security protocols in mobile applications can risk exposing details of data notifications pushed across mobile networks, potentially exposing personal or sensitive information to service providers.

This mobile security exposure is problematic and limiting to organizations that wish to use mobile notifications to communicate sensitive information with their customers, such as a credit card company wanting to notify a customer of suspicious charges or a bank may need to alert customers to suspicious account activity…

Grazed from Responza. Author: Sunni Campbell.

There are some old servers out there reaching the end of their lifespans and its important to consider the pros and cons of jumping to the cloud instead of performing a one-to-one replacement. Here we investigate some of the exciting benefits of moving to the cloud. We touch on security, backup, maintenance, and technical architecture strategy – major factors that should be contemplated when considering any changes to your IT environment. Here are some starter questions to get you thinking:

• Is your hardware older than five years and out of warranty?
• Do you have many users working remotely either from home or in satellite offices?
• Is your organization changing or growing rapidly?
• What are your security needs?…

Grazed from ThinkProgress. Author: Lauren C. Williams.

Greenpeace’s latest energy report called out Amazon as being one of the worst dirty energy transgressors. But the report also praises Apple for completely switching to renewable energy, showing that public pressure and greater transparency can turn former energy offenders into most improved.

The organization ranked tech industry giants such as Twitter, eBay, Apple, Google, and Facebook based on how clean their energy sources are. Apple came out on top because it only uses renewable energy for its iCloud and iTunes services. However, Greenpeace flunked Amazon and Twitter, penalizing them for not being transparent about their energy sources…

Grazed from Fortune. Author: Clay Dillow.

Last year’s revelations of the National Security Agency’s sweeping data collection programs were not particularly good for U.S. technology companies. Following the Edward Snowden leak, the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation predicted that U.S. cloud computing companies could lose as much as $35 billion in worldwide sales over the next few years. Analysts at Forrester projected losses for Internet service providers as high as $180 billion by 2016 in the wake of the scandal.

For most cloud storage and data sharing companies, that suggests rough sailing ahead. For BitTorrent, it suggests opportunity. BitTorrent — the same company behind the eponymous and somewhat infamous peer-to-peer file sharing protocol — has developed a solution for file-sharing between systems and devices that solves a lot of the problems inherent in cloud-based file sharing systems like Dropbox or Box. Sync updates shared files and folders across devices just like those services — but it does so without ever storing that data on remote servers…

Grazed from SourceSecurity. Author: Editorial Staff.

Genetec, a leading provider of unified IP security solutions recently announced new features and a reduced pricing plan for Stratocast, its cloud-based video surveillance-as-a-service (VSaaS), powered by the Microsoft Azure cloud-computing platform. Stratocast is designed to meet the needs of small and midsized businesses that require a reliable and cost-effective video surveillance solution without the expenses and complexities typically associated with installing and managing on-premise surveillance systems. \

The new features and pricing model are expected to be available mid-April 2014, including support for multi-channel encoders, a health-monitoring dashboard, integrator branding options, and geo-redundant storage. Genetec demonstrated Stratocast at ISC West 2014 (Sands Expo & Convention Center, Las Vegas – Booth #23027)…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Adam Ritchie.

Investments in space technology have produced many spinoff inventions that we now take for granted in everyday modern life. Advances in comfort, such as memory foam and shoe insoles, and life-saving technologies, such as smoke detectors and safety grooving in roads and runways, were all inspired by NASA research.

The popular open source Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform OpenStack also originated from a NASA program. At the Ames Research Center in 2009, NASA established its own private cloud computing environment – and became the first federal program to do so. NASA then teamed up with Rackspace and together they released OpenStack in 2010…