Grazed from Fool. Author: Adrian Campos.

In the last month, shares of Rackspace Hosting have underperformed against other cloud-computing peers. The company took a beating after the news of the departure of co-founder and CEO Lanham Napier. Napier, who joined Rackspace in 2000, took the company’s top line from $1.5 million to $1.5 billion in 2013.

Under his leadership, the company became a global leader in offering hosting services, from managed servers to hybrid cloud, with hundreds of thousands of customers using Rackspace for their IT needs. However, the company now appears to be caught in the middle of a fierce fight for the promising cloud market, where giants such as Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN ) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG ) continue investing heavily in technology to capture market share. In this difficult environment, how does Rackspace plan to continue increasing its top line?…

Grazed from eCampusNews. Author: Mike Siegel.

Though it may be old hat to many higher education technologists, cloud computing still plays a vital role on campuses of every size. Cloud is basically a symbol for the internet; and cloud computing is a way for organizations, business and universities to store and retrieve data over the internet. It allows for people to store things on the internet and have access on a large-scale.

Anyone with an online connection can utilize cloud computing at any location. It is a more efficient and inexpensive way to synchronize and access data or programs, especially in the uprising of online courses for universities. Forbes recently released a list of free online cloud computing courses:…

Grazed from CRN. Author: Kevin McLaughlin.

Red Hat has uninvited Piston Cloud Computing, a San Francisco-based startup that had signed as a sponsor for its upcoming open-source conference, apparently without explanation. Piston Cloud had paid $13,000 to be a sponsor for The Red Hat Summit, which is being held in San Francisco from April 14-17. But Red Hat has canceled the sponsorship and will refund the sponsorship fee. Its motives for doing so are unclear.

"Upon reviewing the 2014 Red Hat Summit sponsor list, Red Hat leadership has requested the termination of the sponsorship agreement with Piston Cloud," Michael Fremder, Red Hat’s global corporate sponsorship marketing manager, said in an email sent to Piston Cloud Friday, which was viewed by CRN…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Juan Carlos Perez.

A service disruption that lasted more than five hours made key Google Web apps malfunction on Thursday. At around 2 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time, Google acknowledged on its Apps Status page a problem with its Drive cloud storage service and with its Docs word processing and Sheet spreadsheet applications, and later with its Sites intranet builder.

The company declared the problem solved at around 7:30 p.m., but didn’t explain what caused it or how many users were affected. Later on, after 10 p.m., the Slides presentation creation app also hit a glitch that lasted for about 30 minutes. Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment…

Grazed from TechRepublic. Author: James Sanders.

While cloud computing in the enterprise enjoys ever-higher adoption rates, the consumer cloud has more hurdles to overcome. New developments this year have made the forecast for consumer-facing cloud technology a rather gloomy one. While corporate cheerleading of enterprise cloud remains abundant, a reality check is needed for the consumer cloud market, and the encumbrances which that market faces.

The end (for now) of net neutrality

After a ruling by a United States Court of Appeals in January 2014 that struck down the FCC’s net neutrality directive, accusations are flying that Verizon is throttling Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Netflix. The FCC ruling was not unexpected, due to the way in which the FCC classifies broadband Internet services, and hope remains for altering that definition to re-introduce net neutrality as an FCC mandate…

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Linda Musthaler.

In June 2013, David Linthicum wrote in InfoWorld, “The journey to the cloud has moved from Interest and study to experimentation, and now it is moving to true production. In the next few years, we’ll see the accelerating adoption of cloud computing, though perhaps with less hype.” Linthicum asserts that this acceleration will in large part be due to the trust that enterprises are willing to place on cloud services.

But where does that trust come from? Is it simply because, as Linthicum wrote, “data has resided in the cloud for years without huge security breaches” and “businesses have figured that out”? That hardly seems like a good reason to place trust in a cloud service or application where an enterprise’s data will live…

Grazed from ChannelPartnersOnline. Author: David Sebestyen.

As a pure-play IT cloud partner, I often am asked about the best cloud solutions telecom agents should sell to get their cloud compute practice off the ground. Hosted PBX and the like have been easy entry points into selling cloud for some telecom agents, but many are finding these "telecom extensions" provide neither a platform nor a path that leads to building a cloud computing practice. Closing this gap to the compute side is very high on most agents’ priority lists.

So, how do you jump-start your cloud computing practice? First, you need to first define what "the best" cloud product or solution means to you. For my company, it has always been about delivering those products and services that provide the highest value to the client while nurturing and protecting the long-term relationship by staying ahead of the rapidly changing technology curve and thus remaining in the forefront of the client’s mind as the "go-to person" for technology…

Grazed from TheVarGuy. Author: Chris Talbot.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) must be hoping to head competitors such as Cisco Systems (CSCO) off at the pass—specifically, the network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) pass. A memo leaked this week to Re/code shows that HP has formed an NFV group within its cloud computing business unit and shuffled longtime networking lead Bethany Mayer over to lead it.

For nearly three years, Mayer has been senior vice president and general manager of HP Networking, but the memo shows she has been given this new role. That leaves an open spot in HP Networking’s leadership, but Mayer’s new role will be an important one. Although the NFV business unit actually will be part of HP’s cloud computing initiatives, Mayer’s role still will be heavily networking-based. And it’s really an important role the seasoned executive will be filling…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

CodeLathe, the leader in personal cloud products, has launched a new app update that will allow users to automatically backup their photos and videos from iDevices to their computers running Tonido Personal Cloud software. This new feature is offered completely free to customers and there is no storage limits or subscription fees.

The self-hosted cloud solution allows users to view documents, play music, browse photos, watch videos and share files without ever sending personal data through unsecured mediums like email, social media platforms or storing in Public Online services. Individuals begin by downloading the free Tonido server app on their desktop and the free mobile app onto their iOS device. Employing smart LAN switching technology to use gigabit access speed within home LAN networks, the app safely connects users to the documents stored on their desktop in seconds. Users can also access their files via Wi-Fi or 3G mobile networks, automatically backup their photos and videos from their iPhone/iPad to their Tonido personal cloud, and download files for offline viewing…

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Engine Yard, the leading cloud application management platform, is delivering new features for customers that demand a high level of security for their cloud platform and require customized support for deploying and managing their highly scalable applications. The company is committed to meeting requirements for Service Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2) Type 1 and 2 audits. In addition, Engine Yard is providing options for customers to run apps that are covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The company also launched Managed support, which includes strategy, planning and managed services.

Customers can rely on the expertise of support and professional services engineers to help them meet their growth and scaling needs. These new features underscore the proven security of the Engine Yard PaaS and enable companies to use the platform for high security applications, including e-commerce and healthcare…