Grazed from CIOL. Author: Editorial Staff.

At InterConnect 2013 IBM unveiled new systems and solutions that address these needs by helping clients and managed service providers (MSPs) build private and hybrid clouds to get the most out of Big Data, social, and mobile workloads. These include PureSystems, Power Systems, Smarter Storage Systems, System x, and Technical Computing offerings that provide the flexibility clients need to quickly deploy clouds.

Clients are looking to leverage public clouds while still maintaining control of them. This is causing organizations to embrace private and hybrid clouds where they can more easily manage in-house resources as they adopt external cloud services…

Grazed from GSN Magazine. Author: Dale R. Gardner.

Hybrid-Cloud computing, the combination of private, community and public Cloud infrastructures, delivers advantages. But it also introduces risks, particularly around privileged users and trusted insider threats. Agencies already routinely develop plan of action and milestones (POAMs) to address audit findings on shared administrative accounts, weak and default passwords, and other privileged risks. And regulations mandating tighter privileged user controls have also emerged.

Most recently, an updated release of NIST Special Publication 800-53 brought new requirements. More are found in Presidential CAP goals and long-standing programs, such as HSPD-12 and OMB 11-11, which reinforce the requirement for PIV card controlled logical access to systems, particularly for privileged accounts…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Jessica Scarpati.

In a market practically defined by do-it-yourself provisioning, the notion of cloud professional services seems almost like an oxymoron. Professional services come at a premium price, and cloud computing is, in many ways, a commodity. Yet for that exact reason, cloud providers are acutely aware that improving the profitability of the cloud model hinges on finding a way to boost revenue through complementary services.

IBM, recently named a leader in IDC’s MarketScape for cloud professional services, is finding ways to articulate the value of these services to customers across several markets. Ric Telford, the company’s vice president of cloud services, recently spoke with SearchCloudProvider about how IBM has gained that edge…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Harvey Koeppel.

"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining." — Jef Raskin, creator of the initial concepts that became the Apple Macintosh computer, as quoted in Dr. Dobb’s Journal.

I must admit that I have heard many descriptions of computing but, when I came across this exploding-shoe metaphor, it was (a) different, and (b) caught my attention. Then again, I have always been fascinated by what people have to say about technology, especially new technology, and especially new technology that is disruptive by its nature. Here are a few of my favorites:…

Grazed from LiquidM. Author: PR Announcement.

LiquidM today announced the public availability of its white-labeled Mobile Advertising Management Platform (MAMP), which allows mobile media buyers to optimize their management processes across the full range of premium to performance advertising. To customers who care about returns, quality, and efficiency, LiquidM provides a business model-agnostic full stack to manage and optimize their mobile advertising campaigns.

LiquidM’s modular, cloud-based SaaS replaces Build-Your-Own (BYO) or inadequate point solutions of ad tech infrastructure with a standardized, open platform that is customizable to individual needs. Additionally, the company is also announcing a $5M series A funding from Blumberg Capital, Earlybird, and Asset Management to fuel the growth and marketing of the product…

Grazed from Adaptive Computing. Author: PR Announcement.

Adaptive Computing, the company that powers many of world’s largest private/hybrid cloud and technical computing environments with its optimization and scheduling software, today announced it has been awarded five patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office related to technologies that make cloud computing more energy efficient. This raises the company’s total number of patent grants to 31 and bolsters its private cloud portfolio as one of the richest in existence.

The patents apply to Adaptive Computing’s Moab software and cover multiple significant aspects in intelligent power management, including patented concepts of:

• Calendar-based power capping – Helps navigate power quotas by identifying optimal times to operate data-intensive simulations
• On-demand power management – Optimizes workload by properly allocating resources and powering off servers as needed
• Predictive placement – Employs power-aware policies to manage energy consumption within data centers more evenly and save on cooling costs…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

Capgemini, the global consulting, technology and outsourcing services provider, is expanding its cloud portfolio by becoming a Virtustream partner. By partnering with the IaaS vendor, Capgemini is expecting to expand its hybrid and private cloud solutions for its customers.

This announcement follows less than two months after Capgemini’s rollout of a Big Data analytics offering on Amazon (AMZN) Web Services. In the last couple of years or so, Capgemini has also partnered with Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Azure. Although those announcements focused on the public cloud sector, the Virtustream partnership is intended to build out the consulting firm’s hybrid—and to a lesser extent, private—cloud solutions…