Grazed from LinkedIn. Author: Michael Skok.

We don’t often see opportunities as clearly as this. Cloud computing is literally reinventing what we know as the computer industry and there’s a $220 billion TAM to be addressed by 2020. I’ve written in the past about Open Source eating the software world. Well the corollary is that Cloud is growing the software industry as Everything becomes available as a cloud Service (Eaase). In fact, according to industry analysts, this opportunity has nearly doubled in size in the last year and we’ve seen that in our own portfolio, which has more than doubled in value to over $2bn+ as of today. And it’s clear to us that it’s still early enough and there are enough drivers and inhibitors that present real opportunity to invest, so long as you read carefully between the clouds.

So as an entrepreneur, where might you invest? To find out, we are now in the third year of running what has now become the industry’s broadest independent survey with 57 vendors, ranging from established players like Amazon, Citrix and Microsoft, to challengers like Rackspace, RedHat and CA. Not to mention important growth players like Acquia, CloudBees, Couchbase, Demandware, Eucalyptus and dozens of others listed below…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Nick Heath.

Cloud service contracts are still too complex for many businesses to grasp the potential risks and liabilities, according to Europe’s digital agenda commissioner, Neelie Kroes. Businesses are buying into cloud services without fully understanding what they’re paying for and what they can expect from the service, Kroes wrote in a blogpost on Friday.

"One of the big barriers to using cloud computing is a lack of trust. I think you should be able to know what you’re getting and what it means — and it should be easy to ensure that the terms in your contract are reasonable: open, transparent, safe and fair. Even if you don’t have a law degree," she said…

Grazed from ScienceOmega. Author: James Morgan.

Laptops, tablets and smartphones have altered the daily lives of countless citizens. Accessing the internet whilst on the move has become second nature to many, and users have grown accustomed to working with the same media across multiple devices. Cloud computing is a term widely used to denote the ability to connect and to synchronise multiple devices over a network. In combination with the advent of smart devices, ‘the cloud’ has transformed the way in which we utilise and interact with computers.

Not only has this new level of connectivity altered how we use technology for social purposes, but it has also transformed how we work professionally. In the current era of austerity, companies are looking to get the most out of their workforces, and in the interests of increased productivity, many have allowed a ‘bring-your-own-device’ (BYOD) culture to emerge…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Abdul Salam.

Google Glass has been generating a lot of hype because of its capabilities which is an indication that technology is finally heading towards the direction of science fiction; a move that a lot of people growing up in the 70’s and 80’s have been anticipating for a long time. Google Glass is a wearable computer which opens up a lot of multimedia possibilities, not just for sharing and recording, but for consumption as well. The biggest possibility would be augmented reality. This brings a totally new piece to the board which will change the game once again. And this alone will already make Google Glass a worthy purchase.

Imagine the possibilities of augmented reality. The way we view the world will be totally changed, it will probably look like the interface of a game with different heads-up display (HUD) elements being shown. When can set up a waypoint of your destination on your map and get a visual cue on where it is exactly so you can just follow that barring a turn-by-turn system which will not be feasible for small streets and crowded market areas. You can set up reminders and checklists of things to do or buy and all of them visible in the corner of your eye, and it can even tell you which isle these products are located. The practical application of Google Glass is practically limited only by our imagination, and of course the infrastructure…

Grazed From BizTech2. Author: Editorial Staff.

Cisco announced the evolution of its network services strategy for virtual and cloud networks by integrating the Citrix NetScaler application delivery controller (ADC) technology into the Cisco Unified Fabric Cloud Network Services portfolio. The best-in-class virtual application delivery controller will be tightly coupled into Cisco’s virtual networking framework to provide superior network service provisioning and performance. Citrix NetScaler 1000V will be sold by Cisco and its channel partners worldwide and supported globally by the Cisco Technical Assistance Center.

Cisco’s Cloud Network Services architecture is designed to simplify and accelerate cloud network deployments without compromising the critical security and application services that key datacentre applications require. It is comprised of a comprehensive portfolio of integrated, application-aware network services and security offerings designed for virtual and cloud environments. The delivery of Citrix NetScaler 1000V brings intelligent application delivery capabilities to Cisco Cloud Network Services…

Grazed from IT Jungle. Author: Jenny Thomas.

IT departments around the world can practically be heard crying out "show me the money" after years of tight budgets and sweeping cutbacks. And while the overall picture for IT spending still isn’t looking too rosy, there are a few areas that will get an infusion of cash this year, according to a recent survey of spending by government sector organizations on hardware, software, IT services and telecommunications by Gartner.  The Gartner analysts are projecting that worldwide IT spending by government organizations will total $449.5 billion in 2013, which is a slight decrease of 0.1 percent from 2012.

This is also a revision to Gartner’s original 2013 spending forecast of 0.2 percent growth, which it blames on weak economic development. But Gartner did identify three areas where spending was likely to increase: mobile technologies, IT modernization, and cloud computing. Professional services and big data were also noted as areas where investment was anticipated to be strong this year…

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Omri Erel.

People presume that, in the transition to cloud systems, there will be tug of war between SaaS and IT, as well as between SaaS and traditional software deployment methods. While there’s a bit of truth to the rumored struggle for traditional software and SaaS to find a balance, it’s not so severe as to be particularly dramatic, with a few exceptions. However, when it comes to IT, the disconnect people talk about just doesn’t exist.

The thinking is that IT will fade into obsolescence as a result of self-service, and as a result of certain processes being handled offsite in server farms and other cloud environments. That’s a misconception. It’s also not uncommon for people to think IT people resent SaaS, and are not proponents of it. But you’d be wrong…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Barb Darrow.

It won’t surprise you to hear that Microsoft cloud chief Satya Nadella thinks Windows Azure is ready for primetime not only among the big and medium-sized companies where Windows and .NET are entrenched but among lean Mac-laden startups that have made Amazon Web Services the de facto infrastructure standard.

In his view, Windows Azure is already a major player in public cloud and will get bigger because Microsoft has the apps that prove Azure’s mettle day in and day out. In an interview following his Structure 2013 talk, Nadella conceded that Azure does not yet have an outside “poster child” for Azure — the role Netflix plays for AWS. But, it does have a ton of internal workloads humming away testing out the service…

Grazed from IOL SciTech.  Author: Ryan Peter.

It seems that just about everyone is offering cloud storage these days and it’s something you should be using too. But how do you choose the right cloud storage option that suits you?  What is cloud storage? Well, simply put, it’s all about having a backup hard drive drive on the Internet that you can access from just about any computer that has Internet access. So instead of lugging around a USB stick (and losing it) or an external hard drive, users can copy files to their cloud storage and download them to another computer.

But cloud storage is more than just a place to leave files online. You can also use cloud storage apps to automatically back up certain folders on your hard drive so that the second you create a file in that folder it uploads to your cloud drive. So if your hard drive crashes, getting all your important files back is an absolute cinch and you don’t need to worry about backing up to an external drive every day…

Grazed from Business2Community.  Author: Andre W. Klein.

n recent times, one of the most popular concepts mentioned in the IT environment has been, without doubt, that of Cloud Computing. This is a set of technologies based on infrastructure as well as on service, offering real advantages to important organizations whose main objective is to provide companies and/or end users with environments that are secure, flexible, personalized and dynamic.

In other words, Cloud Computing is essentially “Internet-based Computing”, which provides its users with countless virtual services and resources. In this new concept, applications are considered as services that are accessible to the user provided you have an Internet connection…