Grazed from Stuff.co.nz.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Telecom says it has been selected to provide cloud-based desktop computing solutions to government agencies, alongside Datacom and Japanese-owned companies Dimension Data and Fujitsu.  However, that has not been confirmed by the Internal Affairs Department, which said it was still negotiating with a "fourth" supplier.

United States technology giants IBM and Hewlett-Packard could not immediately be reached for comment on whether they had sought places on the all-of-government supply panel or still hoped to be included.  Government chief information officer Colin MacDonald said the successful suppliers would supply "virtual desktops" to government agencies…

Grazed from TopTechNews.  Author: Jennifer LeClaire.

Hackathons are making headlines these days but one cloud provider’s contest is coming with the largest single hackathon bounty ever. Salesforce.com is turning heads with a $1 million #salesforcehack during its Dreamforce event.  Here’s the deal: Developers will create the next killer mobile app on the Salesforce Platform for a chance to win a cool $1 million.

Salesforce has noticed a trend: with social networks rising — and with the simultaneous proliferation of mobile devices — developers are looking to capitalize on the potentially lucrative technology shift to create a new class of enterprise apps…

Grazed from Chicago Tribune.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Swisscom is building a "Swiss Cloud" that could loosen the grip of U.S. technology giants and attract foreign companies looking for a way to shield sensitive data from the prying eyes of foreign intelligence services.  Companies are increasingly turning to cloud computing – an umbrella term for technology services such as email and business software offered remotely via the Internet instead of on-site – to cut costs and add flexibility to their IT departments.

But revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) secretly gathered user data from nine big U.S. tech companies including Google, Apple and Facebook has demonstrated that privacy for users of cloud services can be compromised, and some suggest customers could seek out alternatives to the dominant U.S. providers to try and protect sensitive information…

Grazed from CloudTP.  Author: David Linthicum.

Let’s face it, there are two things that will occur shortly: The movement to cloud computing, and the rise of the dead. Here’s how one will save us from the other.  It’s just a matter of time before we migrate many of our existing IT assets to public cloud-based systems. However, it’s also just a matter of time before the dead rise from the grave and attempt to eat our brains. Yes, I’m saying that the “Walking Dead” could be a documentary.

Of course the first thing we ask ourselves as walking corpses are making their way to our office building is, “How can the migration to the cloud save us from forever roaming the earth as zombies?” Here are some guidelines that should keep you safe in case of the zombie apocalypse:…

Grazed from Renovo.  Author: PR Announcement.

Renovo Corporation, a leading provider of financial reporting solutions, announced the launch of Cloudfyi, the cloud version of its successful on-premises financial reporting software, Renovofyi. The addition of Cloudfyi to Renovo’s product suite expands the company’s market reach as well as the range of offerings for clients.

"We are proud as a leader in financial reporting to be the first company to launch an independent financial report writer for the cloud. Cloud computing is rapidly becoming a reality and is driven by a desire to significantly improve business and IT agility. With our Cloudfyi release, companies will be able to quickly produce financial statements and provide the supporting details that managers need to more effectively run their businesses, without installing any hardware or software. Our vision is to leverage the latest technology innovations with our world class financial reporting solutions to help businesses of all sizes increase productivity and lower IT cost," said Renovo President, Maureen Okerstrom…

Grazed from Datamation.  Author: Pedro Hernandez.

Cisco and NetApp celebrated their three-year FlexPod partnership by teasing the cloud-enabled upgrades that that companies have planned for the platform.  In a brief statement, the companies said that they are preparing "several technology enhancements to better enable IT and service providers to become cloud providers." FlexPod is an integrated system offering (compute, storage and networking) meant to speed IT infrastructure deployment and configuration in enterprise computing environments.

Their joint FlexPod solutions have caught the attention of data center operators, according to Marcus Phipps, senior manager of Data Center Solutions Marketing for Cisco. He noted in a blog post that during the past three years, "we’ve experienced some tremendous growth, more than doubling new installations year-over-year, and now we have more than 3,000 customers globally."…

Grazed from ECNS. Author: Editorial Staff.

Chinese search engine Baidu launched an online shopping mall Thursday, but the e-mall powered by cloud computing was shut down in less than 24 hours due to suspected copyright issues. The e-mall provides service allowing users to trade electronic files, including videos, pictures, documents as well as music. Users can also post transaction information and comments. All the transactions are done via Baidu’s payment platform, baifubao.

Baidu said earlier it doesn’t own copyrights of all the electronic files uploaded by its users nor does it have the obligation to check the files, according to a statement detailing its cloud computing operating system. The search engine required potential users to sell copyrighted resources based on an honor system. If any copyright complaints were filed, the use of related electronic resources will be stopped, Baidu said…

Grazed from DataCenterDynamics. Author: Nick Razey.

For those working in the fast moving world of cloud computing it is easy to take the somewhat arrogant view that the choice of data center is irrelevant; that although it is an essential piece of the jigsaw, one data center is just the same as another when compared to the complexities of differing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms. On this basis it is assumed that all the value in the IT chain will migrate to the cloud provider’s leaving data centers to earn meagre commodity margins.

The data center, however, is a very long way from being a commodity. A commodity typically has three characteristics; the product is the same, the quality is the same and the price is the same. And because the products are interchangeable they are usually bought and sold via efficient spot markets which exactly match supply and demand and which prevent any suppliers earning excessive returns…

Grazed from TMCNet. Author: Kathleen Richards.

Virtualization and cloud computing have advanced rapidly despite overarching security concerns. Industry guru and provocateur Chris Hoff predicted a bumpy ride, and some of the vendor and technology fallout, as virtualization deployments spun up — and lowered costs for some companies — but security lagged behind. After two years of research and "solid hands-on collaborative work with networking, security and audit practitioners and managers" at enterprises and service providers worldwide, Hoff delivered a landmark presentation on the issues surrounding virtualization security at the Black Hat conference in 2008 that caught people’s attention.

Five years later, we are thrilled that he is the author of our November cover story, "Virtualization Security Dynamics Get Old," and catching us up on the past, present, and perhaps most importantly, future of virtualization, cloud computing and security. Many of the problems he initially outlined remain, but progress is being made, writes Hoff:..

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Editorial Staff.

According to most all credible research including Gartner, cloud computing promises economic advantages, speed, agility, flexibility, infinite elasticity and innovation—and at Tech Data, we too believe in that philosophy. So with so many obvious advantages, why aren’t more solution providers investing in and leading with the cloud?

Consider this question: We all love cloud in theory, but do we,in fact, really “get it”? I would assert that we’re not there yet. It’s a bold statement, but one that I’m willing to stand behind. In fact, I’ll take it one step further and say that the true success of cloud in the channel collectively depends on all of us—through our collective adoption and enablement. The sooner that we as an industry are educated and understand and embrace the value of cloud for the end user, the sooner we can begin to truly capitalize on everything that the cloud has to offer. The potential of cloud solutions is significant and multi-layered. We have, in fact, barely tapped the surface…