Grazed from The Var Guy. Author: Christopher Tozzi.

Tier 3, an enterprise cloud hosting and management provider that works closely with channel partners, has introduced an object-storage service to protect data in the cloud. At the core of the service is a feature that copies cloud data on a per-file — or "object" — basis to a secondary data center. By backing up data at the object level, the company says, Tier 3 can provide a degree of redundancy that is both scalable and highly automatic, since no additional engineering work is required to back up or restore the objects in case of failure. Meanwhile, beyond the relative novelty of the object-based approach to cloud storage, Tier 3’s new service is notable for two other key reasons:

Geo-location: The service backs up data to secondary servers located in the same country as those hosting the primary cloud. Although the whole point of cloud computing, in one sense, is to nullify the significance of the physical location of data, that issue can actually matter a whole lot when it comes to auditory compliance or legal constraints. Ensuring that information is automatically backed up in the same jurisdiction may therefore simplify operations for some enterprises…

Grazed from ITWorld. Author: James Niccolai.

Despite the promise of portability from service providers, the reality of the cloud for big customers is a similar type of lock-in as they experience with on-premise apps vendors such as Oracle and SAP, two CIOs said Tuesday. "You’re kind of locked in — it’s out with the old boss and in with the new," said Ralph Loura, CIO of The Clorox Company, in a discussion about "what keeps CIOs up at night" at the GigaOm Structure conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Companies that buy storage and compute services in small increments might not be tied to one provider, but most big companies sign big, multi-year contracts with cloud suppliers that effectively tie them to one platform, he said. They also train workers for that platform and build applications and interfaces in a "semi-bespoke model" that further ties them down. "I think we’re all trying not to get fooled again with this model, and that’s one of the things that keeps me up at night," he said…

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Jim Shepherd.

In enterprises across the globe, CIOs are looking cautiously in one direction: up – to the cloud. Migrating to the cloud changes not only the operations of the data center but also the roles of the CIO and IT staff. As a result, management must carefully weigh the pros and cons of shifting to cloud-based computing so that they can prepare their organizations and themselves for change that cascades across budgets, vendor relations, job descriptions and career paths, as well as infrastructure and processes.

The benefits of moving from an on-premises model to subscription-based, cloud-hosted computing are substantial. With cloud computing, CIOs have the opportunity to capitalize on a variable-cost structure. Until recently, data centers have needed to load up with hardware, software and networking devices to prepare for peak periods, even though these investments may lie underused or dormant for significant periods. Traditionally, IT costs only go up…

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Alexis Cleary.

IT is currently facing two dilemmas. The first is many want their private cloud architecture to work with their existing data center. Secondly, IT professionals are looking to build private clouds that are open to other clouds but also equipped to run existing in-house systems and applications. So you may be asking yourself, “Why should I build a private cloud?”

Under a private cloud, an agency effectively acts as a service provider for their internal customers. IT professionals that move to a private cloud would deliver the same kind of flexible computing as public clouds from Amazon Web Services (AWS), but behind a firewall and without the security worries that come with sending data outside the agency. This scenario appeals to organizations that want more control over their infrastructure…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Jordan Novet.

VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger is comfortable with the fact that Amazon got a major head start in running Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). But in that game, he doesn’t believe one size fits all. “It’s hard for Amazon to reach into the enterprise,” he told GigaOM Founder and Senior Writer Om Malik during a talk at our Structure conference on Wednesday. By comparison, Gelsinger said his company “has an extraordinary leadership position already.”

He expects VMware’s recently revealed public cloud, known as vCloud Hybrid Service, to get plenty of business from large companies that are deep into the VMware world but see value in being able to call on scaled-out shared infrastructure whenever that’s necessary…

Grazed from The Server Side. Author: Cameron McKenzie.

As a software architect attending a developer conference like the 2013 Red Hat Summit, one of the least interesting vendors on the docket has to be Intel. They are always there, set up with a big booth in the exhibitors pavilion at the Oracle OpenWorld and IBM Innovate conferences, and while it all seems interesting to the low-level hardware guys, chips and processors simply aren’t the bailiwick of coders. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that processors aren’t important to the wellbeing of developers, but they’re important in the same way that air is important for sustaining life – things fall apart if it disappears, but so long as it’s there, it’s boring as hell.

Interestingly though, Dirk Hohndel , Chief Linux and Open Source Technologist at Intel, in the most entertaining of the array of morning keynotes at the 2013 Red Hat Summit made some pretty compelling arguments about why Intel should be taken more seriously as a player in the open-source software development world…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

Qubell, an innovator in application deployment and configuration management, emerged from stealth mode today and launched the Qubell™ Adaptive PaaS (platform-as-a-service), the first platform designed to enable enterprises to implement changes to their complex online services rapidly and without risking the stability of their system. With the Qubell platform, enterprises can put new content and features into customers’ hands continuously, thereby gaining the business agility needed for success in today’s competitive markets. (See related press release: “Kohl’s Completes Initial Implementation of the Qubell Adaptive PaaS, Which Helps Speed Delivery of its Ecommerce Features and Services.”)

“Companies today live or die based on how well they innovate and deliver amazing digital services,” said Victoria Livschitz, president and CEO of Qubell. “For most enterprises, making even minor alterations to their complex online applications is painfully slow. How can they compete with Amazon.com, Google or Facebook – companies that innovate continuously and roll out dozens of small changes and improvements every day – without matching the vast automation investments already made by these ecommerce giants? Qubell levels the playing field. Building on top of cloud technology and agile development, we enable all online enterprises to transform how they think about innovation, get serious about reducing cycle times, and deliver new features and services almost as fast as they can conceive them.”

[slideshow: 5, layout=top, order=middle, rotate=15, blend=0, height=100%, width=575, fit=0, nowrap=0, dir=|slideshows/5cloudtechnologies/|yes||Generic Photos|Aren’t they great?||]

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Jonathan Gershater.

I previously wrote a review of the Microsoft Azure public cloud and included a comparison between Azure and AWS (Amazon Web Services) and will now compare OpenStack and VMware vCloud. For a review of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) see my blog post and video. This table provides a simple and high level comparison of OpenStack and vCloud…

To see the comparison table and read more, see http://www.sys-con.com/node/2703566

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Charles Babcock.

VMware has implemented Cloud Credits for its customers to purchase hybrid cloud services from VMware or a VMware partner. By putting Cloud Credits in place, virtualization managers "can reduce the rogue IT spend" on public cloud services, according to the program’s explanation on the VMware website.

By "rogue IT spend," think of enterprise business units taking their computing needs to a fresh account at Amazon Web Services (AWS). The constant migration of enterprise computing from inside the data center, where VMware dominates, to the outside is what worries VMware these days. Countering AWS’s appeal has been a target since February…