Grazed from TechCrunch. Author: Alex Williams.

VMware announced general availability of VMware vSphere 5.5 and VMware vCloud Suite at VMworld today. The new version of its virtualization technology includes the integration of Cloud Foundry, the platform-as-a-service that is now part of Pivotal, which spun out from VMware parent company EMC.

Cloud Foundry used to be VMware’s crown jewel. But now it will work as a platform that Pivotal will build for VMware to integrate with its new cloud, vCloud Hybrid Services. Dubbed Pivotal CF, the service will be made available later this year on VMware vSphere and vCloud Hybrid Services. vSphere is designed as an enhanced set of virtualization-management tools for cloud computing. vCloud Suite manages vSphere to help companies pool resources for more elasticity…

Grazed from SQLMag. Author: Michael Otay.

Today, IT is on the brink of a couple of important evolutionary—maybe even revolutionary—steps. At one end of the spectrum, there’s the cloud. The cloud represents a return to a more centralized computing model, in which a cloud provider delivers the control of massive amounts of computing power. At the complete opposite end of the spectrum is the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend, in which end users want to choose and use their own low-powered phones, devices, and tablets to access both their corporate resources and their personal data. It’s ironic that these two seemingly opposite trends are developing at the same time. One is about massive scalability and relinquishing control, and the other is about individual choice and personal control.

Slow Going and Fast Moving

The trend toward the cloud is a much slower-growing movement because of a number of factors, including security and the inherent difficulty of changing infrastructure services. However, the proliferation of end user devices in business environments is exploding just as the number of small-form-factor devices is exploding worldwide. The BYOD trend was initially kicked off by Apple’s iPhone, which quickly usurped the then-predominant BlackBerry…

Grazed from MSPMentor. Author: Editorial Staff.

Here’s a point of view: It is now clear that there is a dividing line between MSPs that have a legacy cost structure driven by investments in hardware and people to manage those environments and newer MSPs that have an altogether different cost structure due to investing in cloud-centric solutions. Some in the prior camp will successfully transition their businesses into an annuity cloud business, but the majority will not. The leap is just too significant.

IBM and Softlayer can help these companies bridge that gap and make the transition successfully. On July 8, 2013, IBM completed its acquisition of SoftLayer, the world’s largest privately-held IaaS provider. This strengthens IBM’s already deep commitments to MSPs (see video), including MSP offerings, an MSP partner program, and MSP pricing options. There are three powerful ways that IBM and SoftLayer can help MSPs change the game:…

Grazed from RackWare. Author: PR Announcement.

RackWare, the company that brings intelligence and automation to the cloud by integrating data center and cloud resources into a scalable and intelligently managed computing environment, today announced that it will demonstrate its RMM 2.0 software for cloud management in the Savvis, a CenturyLink company, booth at VMworld in San Francisco.

The demonstration will show how RMM 2.0 can integrate Savvis’ cloud solutions with data center resources to create a unified, scalable cloud deployment and management fabric. The combined solution targets large organizations with hundreds or even thousands of legacy applications, because RMM 2.0 enables apps to be deployed to the cloud without the time and expense of rewriting…

Grazed from RiverMeadow. Author: PR Announcement.

RiverMeadow Software™ Inc., developer of the world’s only automated server migration solution developed specifically for carrier and service provider clouds, will be sponsoring free server migrations into VMware vCloud® Hybrid Service™, using the RiverMeadow Cloud Migration SaaS portal, at VMworld® 2013. The RiverMeadow Cloud Migration SaaS platform represents a simple, automated and customizable approach to onboarding and migrating physical, virtual and cloud-based server workloads into VMware vCloud Hybrid Service environments.

"Migrating today’s data centers to a cloud environment requires critical configuration information, IT management tools and related software," said Mark Shirman, President and CEO, RiverMeadow. "In collaboration with VMware, the RiverMeadow Cloud Migration SaaS helps alleviate the cost, complexity and skill-level constraints that limit the ability of companies to achieve a high level of cloud performance. We invite all VMworld® 2013 attendees to stop by our booth to sign up for a free promo code and see how RiverMeadow is making it easy, automated and affordable to migrate workloads into VMware vCloud® Hybrid Service™."…

Grazed from Renaissance Capital. Author: PR Announcement.

RingCentral, which provides cloud-based phone systems to small businesses, filed on Monday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering. The San Mateo, CA-based company, which was founded in 1999 and booked $136 million in sales for the 12 months ended June 30, 2013, plans to list under the symbol RNG, but has yet to announce an exchange. RingCentral initially filed confidentially on June 24, 2013. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and BofA Merrill Lynch are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.

Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/6k3fhc/hybrid_cloud) has announced the addition of the "Hybrid Cloud Market by Delivery Models, Cloud Management & Cloud Security – Global Advancements, Market Forecasts & Analysis (2013 – 2018)" report to their offering.

‘Hybrid Cloud Market by Delivery Models (Saas, Paas, Iaas), by Cloud Management (Cloud Bursting, Cloud Orchestration), by Cloud Security (Network Security, Data Security, Physical Security – Global Advancements, Market Forecasts & Analysis (2013 – 2018)’…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Chris Kanarkarus.

Salesforce.com’s next CRM (customer relationship management) software release will contain a slew of new features, with many focused on the Chatter collaboration and messaging tool as well as customer service, according to a set of official release notes. Many new features associated with Chatter concern usability and access to the system. For example, now iOS device users will be able to launch Chatter Mobile from their Salesforce.com email.

This is an important update "as most folks are still email-dependent," said analyst Ray Wang , CEO of Constellation Research. Another major new feature, albeit available only as a pilot, is called Salesforce Files. It allows users to "securely sync files between Chatter and your desktop and some mobile devices," according to the notes. "This is the competitor to Box," and something customers should look at, Wang said…

Grazed from Dell. Author: PR Announcement.

Today at VMworld 2013, Dell announced new cloud and virtualization solutions to help customers deliver increased performance, agility and efficiency. The new end-to-end offerings demonstrate the breadth of the Dell and VMware integrations and strength of the partnership.

"Customers are in the driver’s seat when it comes to procuring cloud and virtualization solutions and Dell is on target with its new offerings as the company is both innovating and partnering to give customers exactly the solutions that will best fit their business needs," said Wayne Pauley, Senior Analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). "Dell’s new offerings should help customers boost IT performance and better enable business agility. When you include VMware’s virtualization technology with Dell’s solutions, customers will want to take a close look at how they can further enhance and quickly optimize their businesses with these joint solutions."…

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Lindsey Nelson.

Businesses have reached a tipping point. No longer is it a question of “if” they should turn to the cloud, rather the questions are now a matter of when and which areas of the business would you like to see impacted first. It’s more than just collaboration and anywhere, anytime access.

According to a recent survey administered by SAP and the Knowledge@Wharton group, 85% of respondents believe that cloud computing will not only transform their business, but their industry as well. Why? The survey discovered two main reasons why the adoption of cloud computing in businesses continues to grow globally…