Grazed from DataCenter Knowledge. Author: Pete Johnson.

There’s been a lot of coverage in the tech press lately about “per minute” billing of cloud services, which pushes the envelope of flexibility and the method may be putting pressure on Amazon to do the same. But what’s next? It’s fair to say that, after seven years of cloud computing, we’ve seen what Cloud Computing 1.0 is about. While better than traditional hosting, it’s still not all it could be. Not by a long shot.

What does Cloud Computing 2.0 look like? Here are some ideas:

1: Choose # of CPU cores, RAM, and amount of disk space independently

How cloudy is it really when your IaaS provider makes you pick from a list of cookie cutter sizes that makes life easier for them instead of more flexible for you? Really, think about it. How can a service provider force you to pick what is right for your app or database? For most IaaS providers now, it’s like buying a car — when you want to get the leather seats but they are only available in the package that also has a sunroof that you don’t want. Why use an IaaS platform that makes you pay for resources you don’t need? How very 1.0!…

Grazed from MarketWired. Author: PR Announcement.

Open cloud application company, Cloud Elements, today 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. 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.

Available without charge for the remainder of 2013, the Cloud Elements Messaging Hub allows developers to easily provision and integrate services within their specific environments with a simple click of a mouse. The Element’s singular dashboard offers automated monitoring, innovative tagging for granular account tracking, and seamless, interoperability between services (e.g., send an email, receive a text confirmation)…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Sourya Biswas.

“The Network is the Computer.”  – John Gage, former Chief Researcher and Vice President at Sun Microsystems.

The above statement was adopted as the company tagline by the networking giant that recently merged with Oracle. However, perhaps this phrase is truer than ever before today due to the rise of cloud computing. Indeed, the Network has assumed extraordinary importance in the Age of the Cloud.

Whatever be the functionality of the servers that power the Cloud, without a robust network they are just disparate components that can never function as one. To use an analogy, without the nervous system, the individual limbs cannot function effectively. As this paper says, “IT managers should enforce these (cloud-compatible) requirements across all major datacenter components, not just the server infrastructure. This includes building cloud-like scalability into the network itself.”…

Grazed from V3.co.uk. Author: Shaun Nichols.

Security firm Sophos has launched a new service that will allow users to better run the company’s Unified Threat Management (UTM) platform through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Compute (EC2) computing cloud service.

The company said that it would also be adding an hourly licence option to its threat management service on Amazon. The option will be available for users to purchase on the AWS Marketplace. Security services have long been a feature on Amazon’s AWS Marketplace since the company launched the feature in 2012. The market allows third-party vendors to integrate their products with AWS virtual machine instances…

Grazed from Suse. Author: PR Announcement.

SUSE is beta testing its enterprise-ready SUSE Cloud 2.0 for private clouds. SUSE 2.0, based on OpenStack’s Grizzly project sports improved installation, better management and adds support for hypervisor options.

“The beta program helps battle harden the software . . . and allows selected partners to ensure integration of their solutions with SUSE Cloud,” said Michael Miller, SUSE vice president of global alliances and marketing in a statement. SUSE Cloud is an open source enterprise cloud computing platform that enables easy deployment and seamless management of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) private clouds…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: David Linthicum.

Time and again, customers identify agility and scalability as key benefits of using public cloud services. The core value of cloud computing is the ability to provision resources on-demand, as required by the business, and then return those resources once they are no longer needed. While this provides value and business agility, providers are finding that cost accounting and billing can be a bit of a challenge.

The concept of cloud bursting appeals to enterprises that have fluctuating capacity needs. The idea behind it is that enterprises can use their internal systems or perhaps private clouds for normal needs, and when additional capacity is required, they may allocate the extra resources they need within a public cloud…

Grazed from FierceHealthIT. Author: Dan Bowman.

Information for more than 3,000 patients at Oregon Health & Science University was put at risk when medical residents stored the data on a password protected cloud computing system, the institution announced this week. The potential data breach is the third such reported incident to occur at the university in less than a year, and the fifth since 2008.

In May, a faculty member at the university’s school of medicine found that residents in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery were using Google Drive and Google Mail to maintain a spreadsheet of patients that was accessible among department members in real time. A subsequent investigation determined that similar practices had taken place in the hospital’s Department of Urology and in Kidney Transplant Services. Those patients impacted–3,044 in all–were admitted to the hospital between Jan. 1, 2011 and July 3 of this year…

Grazed from The Vary Guy. Author: DH Kass.

Two key executives with VMware (VMW) ties are now working at Illumio, a cloud security startup founded in January, 2013, backed by $8 million in funding and currently in stealth mode. Alan Cohen, a former Cisco Systems (CSCO) exec who moved to software defined networking vendor Nicira in 2011 prior to its acquisition by VMware a year ago, apparently has landed at Illumio as chief commercial officer, according to an AllThingsD report. In addition, Ben Verghese, a former VMware chief management architect and vice president, now is toiling as Illumio’s engineering vice president.

As is common with stealth mode companies, you don’t get to know a whole lot until they emerge, which certainly is true with Illumio. According to a slim profile on the company at venture backer Andreessen Horowitz’s website, Illumio’s founders are Andrew Rubin, formerly security vendor Cymtec Systems’ chief executive; PJ Kirner, former Cymtec chief technology officer and distinguished engineer at Juniper (JNPR); and Alan Stokol, a former Juniper and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) executive…

Grazed from DailyNews. Author: Patrick Tamburrino.

After a few rough years with the economy, and after squeezing every last drop of functionality out of their existing infrastructure, some companies are faced with the question of replacing that infrastructure with new equipment or moving their information to the cloud. While the option of putting data in the cloud is attractive especially to new companies that do not have established server infrastructure, the financial aspects surrounding a move to cloud computing for established companies may surprise you.

According to a recent article in Forbes, when established companies received proposals from leading cloud computing companies and peeled back the onion a bit, moving to cloud-based servers was far more expensive than simply investing in new server infrastructure…

Grazed from Dr. Dobbs. Author: Andrew Binstock.

When I was first learning to program, PCs were expensive and unreliable devices. Due to the cost of PCs at the time, I recognized that the best way to have the PC I wanted was to assemble it from scratch. Every few years, I went out in search of the latest, screaming CPU, a new motherboard, as much RAM as I could afford, bigger drives, and a more powerful graphics card. Then, a weekend that I looked forward to with relish would be spent creating my next wonder-box. Next came the long process of reloading the OS, and finally, the apps and tools. When all was said and done, I had a newer, faster machine. But I was exhausted, rather than exhilarated.

After several cycles of this over the years, I finally realized that building my own PC was an enormous time sink that paid few real dividends. By then, PCs had dropped in price and become much more reliable. Intelligence prevailed, and since that moment of clarity, I have purchased all subsequent systems — and saved a lot of time and aggravation in the process…