Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Stuart Kippelman.

I know this might not be a comfortable topic for everyone, but we have to talk about it. What if the cloud becomes the primary data center, and SaaS is the only way applications are sold? Will there be a need for an IT department?

This blog won’t come up with the answer, but an open dialog is always healthy. This topic comes up frequently, and depending on the day and with whom I speak, the viewpoints are very different. I encourage you to post your thoughts and let’s discuss them. There are two very different sides to this topic. Let me try and represent both for your consideration. IT departments are toast:…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: John Foley.

When CEO Larry Ellison introduced Oracle Database 12c at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco last September, he described it as a new foundation for modern cloud applications. That sums up Oracle Database 12c perfectly. First and foremost, it’s a platform for cloud computing, as signified by the “c” in its moniker. If there were just one single thing you should know about Oracle Database 12c, that would be it.

Wrapped up in that big idea are hundreds of database improvements. In fact, there are more than 500 new features in Oracle Database 12c, which together bring new levels of efficiency, scalability, and security to Oracle’s market-leading database management system…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

For cloud services providers, there’s a horizontal approach to service development that most providers take, but there’s also a strong business case to be made for vertical services. Vertical markets present a strong growth opportunity for cloud providers, and one of those verticals that has been growing quickly is health care.

We’ve covered the healthcare vertical frequently and recently, and cloud services providers are clearly finding success in building and targeting apps at a variety of healthcare organizations and businesses. Take Peak 10 as the latest example of a cloud provider who has had success in the healthcare vertical. Peak 10 recently announced it had scored a new multiyear cloud services contract with Premier, a healthcare alliance consisting of about 2,800 community hospitals and 95,000 alternate sites. That’s a big win for the cloud services provider…

Grazed from BusinessInsider. Author: Wolf Richter.

The cloud is a growth industry. And a religion in Silicon Valley: you’re better off with all your data and software stored in a data center somewhere on the planet. It’s at the core of Big Data. It’s a beacon of growth that revenue-challenged tech giants like Oracle and IBM wave in the faces of antsy investors.

IBM used the word 14 times during its earnings call in July. “Cloud computing,” “cloud offerings,” “cloud infrastructure,” it was all there. Revenues from the cloud jumped 70% during the first half, IBM bragged – to cover up an ugly tidbit: overall revenues fell 3.3%, and revenues at its US hardware division, Systems and Technology group, plunged 12%…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) today announced that it will host a free CloudBytes Town Hall on Monday, August 12th at 8:00am (PDT), on "NSA/PRISM Lessons Learned: The Repercussions for Cloud Services Adoption".

The ongoing disclosure of the extent of the PRISM program has raised major privacy and confidentiality concerns for customers of cloud-based services. A recent CSA survey of 500 respondents found that 56% of non-US residents were less likely to use US-based cloud providers, in light of recent revelations about government access to customer information. Companies have fiduciary obligations and other requirements to keep corporate data not only secure, but also private and confidential…

Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: PR Announcement.

EVault, Inc., a Seagate Company STX -0.32% , today announced that a new strategic partnership with Hitachi Data Systems allows Hitachi TrueNorth partners to deliver cloud-based backup services by leveraging EVault SaaS and EVault Endpoint Protection in select Asia Pacific countries.

EVault provides onsite, cloud and cloud-connected data protection solutions to help organizations protect distributed environments, supported by a secure, reliable cloud storage infrastructure and backed by the highest quality customer service. EVault has been a leader in the industry’s move to hybrid storage models, with a uniquely integrated ecosystem of EVault storage software, SaaS, managed services and appliances that help ensure customers maintain business continuity. Geared towards mid-market and enterprise-level businesses, EVault solutions are optimized to perform in multi-site, multi-platform environments, ideal for protecting operations in remote and branch office locations…

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Paradyne, a Microsoft Online Services Partner of the Year finalist and leading Cloud Accelerate partner, and Exoprise, a provider of cloud based monitoring and enablement solutions for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, today announced a value-add, strategic partnership. The agreement brings Exoprise’s complementary offerings for Microsoft Office 365 to the Australian market for the first time and accelerates the adoption of cloud office applications. The announcement follows the recent launch of Exoprise’s new cloud monitoring solution for Microsoft Office 365.

Office 365 is a subscription-based suite offering online access to the software and services built around the Microsoft Office platform. Unlike on-premise deployments, where IT teams can monitor performance via direct access to the servers running their Office applications, visibility to Office 365 performance is limited to the Microsoft Office 365 Service Status Dashboard. While this dashboard provides current status of Office 365 itself, it cannot provide real-time end-to-end performance data nor can it provide information on the health and availability of the various networks — the customer’s, the ISP’s, the regional backbone, etc. connecting the users to the service…

Grazed from CIOL. Author: Editorial Staff.

Open cloud application company, Cloud Elements recently announced the availability of a new developer tool to connect Twilio and SendGrid, the two leading cloud API platforms for SMS messaging, voice and email respectively via a single uniform application programming interface (API).

The Cloud Elements Messaging Hub provides a single console to provision, integrate, monitor and maintain these services, providing an integrated messaging platform that delivers seamless interaction between the leading SMS, voice and email service providers, said a press release. The release further added that with Cloud Elements’ Messaging Hub, software developers now have the quickest and most cost-effective way to bring Twilio and SendGrid services into their SaaS applications…

Grazed from FCW.com.  Author: Frank Konkel.

The battle between tech titans IBM and Amazon Web Services to win a cloud computing contract with the CIA worth up to $600 million now resembles a chess match, with each side answering the other’s moves with legal filings and carefully crafted public statements.  AWS won the contract to build a massive private cloud infrastructure for the intelligence community in January.

IBM then filed a bid protest in February that the Government Accountability Office upheld in June, directing the CIA to comply with recommendations it made.  Then on July 24, AWS challenged the necessity and scope of corrective actions the CIA took in response to recommendations from the GAO, filing a complaint against the federal government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in hopes of expediting a resolution. AWS seeks a formal response from the court by Sept. 23…

Grazed from IT Business Edge. Author: Arthor Cole.

Most enterprises are far enough into the cloud deployment process to understand that there is more than one type of cloud. At the moment, many organizations are content to spin up a few hosted resources to gain extra storage or run a few key applications. But as cloud strategies become more refined, the style of cloud implemented on both private and public resources and the infrastructure that supports them can have a dramatic impact on future data objectives.

As I’ve pointed out, hybrid architectures are only as good as the private cloud allows them to be, and so far only a handful of organizations are pursuing what leading experts deem to be a true private cloud strategy. Part of this is because the cloud is still an ill-defined concept, but legacy infrastructure can be a major drag as well—particularly when it consists primarily of silo-based, bare-metal architecture. So clearly, the first step in any coordinated cloud strategy is to implement virtual and software-defined infrastructure to the broadest extent possible…