Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: Paul Venezia.

Certain elements of cloud computing are inarguably beneficial. The ability to quickly provision, clone, and deploy servers to address capacity issues is a definite plus, and the fact that you can effortlessly add elements such as load balancers, big storage, and databases is equally compelling. However, there is a downside that needs to be understood: the fact that, in many cases, cloud server instances can exhibit wildly different performance metrics, measured from second to second.

Sure, SLAs and guarantees made by the cloud provider can address these issues after the fact, but when it’s crunch time, there’s nothing you can do other than communicate the problem and hope it gets fixed quickly. You may have visibility into what your instances are doing, but you have no idea what the underlying hardware is doing, how it’s configured, or how oversubscribed it might be. That’s the nature of the cloud…

Grazed from Finextra.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud computing is more than just a technology; it’s a model for disruptive business transformation. And like any business transformation endeavor, it has to be supported by some fundamental realignment in organization structures, processes and even culture.   Take for instance the rather radical concept of distributed IT decision making in the cloud model. No more waiting for the IT department to provision technology; end users will independently assess and access the required infrastructure components based on demand. 

IT, then, is no longer a detached purveyor of computing resources. From a pure maintenance and support function, it has to evolve into a more strategic role that involves working with different organizational units to understand their business needs and guide them to the appropriate technological solutions. In this new participative role, IT will be responsible for providing strategic technical guidance, defining standards and enabling innovation…

Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Abdul Salam.

Information has always been the most powerful weapon anyone could wield. It allowed Alexander the Great to conquer nations and allowed the U.S. to drive home crippling blows to the enemy during the Second World War on two fronts –in Europe against Germany and in the Pacific against Japan. I am talking about the two preemptive strikes that sank the two most powerful and biggest battleships during that period, Germany’s Bismarck and later Japan’s Yamato.

Move forward some five to six decades and the threat has changed; now we not only have to deal with physical threats but cyber ones as well.  The times have changed and threats to national security are no longer as black and white or as defined as nations and groups. Information and data are worth millions and are the new unspoken currency…

Fibernet Corp., a recognized leader in customizable colocation, dedicated hosting, and professional virtual hosting, will upgrade its previous control panel software for Windows shared hosting clients to Parallels Plesk.

Fibernet offers Parallels Plesk as a software tool to assist shared hosting users in administering their Windows-based websites. With this new program, customers will be able to manage domains, track their own customers and subscriptions, and build their web presence from their own offices.

Grazed from CSO.  Author: David Braue.

A survey found that data encryption practices amongst cloud providers vary widely, while a privacy advocate was suggesting that the recent revelations about the US government’s PRISM data-filtering program should make businesses think twice about their use of cloud computing and a European Commission report suggested PRISM was harming the business of US cloud providers.

Even as planned July 4 online protests against PRISM seemed to fall flat, caution was being advised regarding disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) services, even more so because of the increasingly apparent number of ways that governments are spying on citizens online. Things have gotten so bad that the European Union approved stricted penalties for cyber-attacks and suspended data-sharing deals with the US in the wake of the PRISM revelations…

Grazed from HostReview.  Author: Brent Johnson.

Cloud computing and virtualization are two approaches to make more efficient use of hardware. The basic principle behind the cloud, which is similar to the old concept of on-demand computing, is that computing resources can be turned into products and delivered over the Internet. A company or individual can then use these resources on a metered basis, which is paying for processing power and storage consumption. For many companies utilizing cloud services may eventually shrink the need for your IT support staff as your cloud provider would manage and support your infrastructure.

Virtualization technology allows you to take physical hardware and split it up into multiple different services or applications all running simultaneously on one system. This allows organizations to consolidate many servers on a single hardware component saving them a ton of money. There are many different forms of virtualization from hardware virtualization to storage to software…

Grazed from Stuff.  Author:  James Scollay.

There’s good news in the latest MYOB Business monitor for businesses who want to boost their chances of success.  The survey showed just 34% of Kiwi small and medium-sized companies have a website and only 16% use cloud computing for business. That means almost two-thirds still have scope to take up these technologies and enjoy the benefits.

Companies that do this have been outpacing their competitors. Those who used cloud computing were 16% more likely to have experienced a revenue increase last year.  In addition to supporting the bottom line, the cloud has helped businesses build a platform for growth…

Grazed from DataCenter Knowledge.  Author: Rich Miller.

For your weekend reading, here’s a recap of five noteworthy stories that appeared on Data Center Knowledge this past week.  The Immersion Data Center: The New Frontier of High-Density Computing – Geoscience specialist CGG has filled an entire data center with tanks of servers submerged in a liquid coolant similar to mineral oil. Here’s a look at this unique data center in Houston and its implementation of immersion cooling technology from Green Revolution Cooling.

Rackspace Bringing Hybrid Cloud to CERN – Rackspace Hosting has been pushing the hybrid computing message, and CERN is kicking the tires. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, will be relying on Rackspace’s Open Hybrid Cloud to help it discover the origins of the universe…

Grazed from PRWeb.  Author: PR Announcement.

Talygen’s newest release of its industry leading Business Management Automation application has given Business Owners and Managers multiple new ways to communicate with their Employees and Clients. Talygen offers advanced features that are not available anywhere else in the marketplace. With Talygen this entire suite of advanced business productivity applications are available, fully integrated, in just one easy to use application.

Talygen is a Software as a Service (SaaS) web application with a very easy to use touch friendly interface and easy scalability. There is no other Business Management Automation application with Talygen’s advanced features and rich customizable work flows.  Talygen also offers Smartphone apps for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry to help users on the go.Talygen’s mobile application is designed to help managers supervise tasks and employees at multiple levels…

Grazed from Internap.  Author: Andrew Boring.

In our previous post, we described IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service). Today we’ll discuss how Software as a Service (SaaS) fits into the stack and explore which type of infrastructure makes sense in different scenarios. Various combinations of these services can help meet your needs for flexibility and resource control so you can manage and create applications as desired.

SaaS
Most SaaS providers deliver end-user applications on-demand, as a service, over the Internet. Salesforce.com and Google Apps are two common examples of this. However, many SaaS applications can provide services to other applications, usually via a SOAP or RESTful API over the Internet. A good example of this is how Yelp integrates Google Maps into its mobile application – Google is the SaaS provider, and the Yelp application becomes the consumer of the software service…