Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Karen Goulart.

When it comes to navigating new cloud territory, many CIOs tend to stick with what they know. But that might not always make for the most beneficial outcomes. There’s a sense of safety — and practicality — in entrusting a move to Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to the same vendor they’ve partnered with for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). A recent TechTarget survey bears this out. Among respondents to the 2013 Tech Target Cloud Pulse Survey who indicated that they’re using some type of PaaS, the top four providers they chose were Google AppEngine, Microsoft Windows Azure, Salesforce.com’s Force.com and Amazon Beanstalk.

Choosing a well-known provider is understandable, said Yefim Natis, vice president and distinguished analyst with Stamford, Conn-based Gartner, Inc. But while these big names have the benefit of history and established reputations on their side, CIOs who overlook smaller PaaS providers could be missing out on better service and greater, faster innovations. In this SearchCIO.com tip, Natis discusses the relative benefits and reasons companies choose smaller PaaS providers, as well as how to guard assets when working with a startup that may be here today, gone tomorrow (or in a few years)…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Nathan Eddy.

Intelligent Memory is available for any of the current Teradata workload-specific platforms running the Teradata Database. Analytic data solutions specialist Teradata announced the launch of Intelligent Memory, a database technology that extends memory space beyond cache to help increase query performance and enable organizations to leverage in-memory technologies with big data.

Intelligent Memory is available for any of the current Teradata workload-specific platforms running the Teradata Database. For organizations looking for departmental solutions, Integrated Data Warehouse or Active Data Warehouse, Teradata Intelligent Memory is designed to deliver the performance required to offer the required set of data analytics…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Nathan Eddy.

Built on the Vblock platform, CloudCompute offers businesses secure, private network access and connectivity from the business to the IaaS environment. Network operator Sprint announced the launch of CloudCompute, an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution that integrates CSC’s virtualized, utility-based cloud computing solution with Sprint’s cloud-aware Global MPLS network.

Built on the Vblock platform, which combines virtualization software from VMware, unified networking, security and computing from Cisco, and storage, security and management technologies from EMC, CloudCompute offers businesses secure, private network access and connectivity from the subscriber’s business into the IaaS environment through a scalable and flexible network…

Grazed from CloudPro. Author: James Stirling.

Proper governance procedures are key to successful cloud strategy, organisation claims Information security association ISACA has outlined five questions boards of directors need to ask about cloud governance in order to ensure a successful implementation.

The advice is delivered as part of the organisation’s Cloud Governance: Questions Boards of Directors Need to Ask whitepaper, in which ISACA urges directors to view cloud computing like any other investment and implement proper governance for it…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: David F. Carr.

Software-defined networking (SDN) has been in the "coming soon" category for many years, but an Interop keynote panel discussion on the topic showed room for debate over what it ought to look like when it finally gets here. SDN is too often spoken of as a single event that will wipe away all current networking technologies, when in fact "the underpinnings are already in place," said moderator Eric Hanselman, chief analyst at 451 Research.

The point of SDN is to make networks easy to configure and reconfigure in software rather than hardware, with many more networking functions migrating from being embedded capabilities of a network appliance to being defined in software. Network systems are migrating incrementally in that direction as networks follow the same path toward virtualization as servers and storage, he said. Ultimately, the goal is to provide every data center with the flexibility associated with cloud computing…

Grazed from CRN. Author: Rick Whiting.

CA Technologies will lay off approximately 1,200 employees worldwide and consolidate its development operations after the company reported disappointing fourth-quarter financial results. The company expects to carry out the majority of the cutbacks by the end of the current quarter in June and will take a charge of approximately $150 million in fiscal 2014 to cover those costs.

CA reported revenue of $1.15 billion for the fourth quarter ended March 31, a decline of 3 percent from $1.18 billion in the same period one year earlier. Income from continuing operations was $242 million, up 15 percent from $211 million last year…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Today Performance Solutions Technology, LLC announces the release of MProCloud, the cloud version of ManagePro™, the company’s flagship product. MProCloud delivers all the functionality inherent in the Windows desktop version of ManagePro, but as a cloud-based service to users anywhere on any device utilizing Citrix’s Xenapp. A leap ahead from the traditional structural form and list-based designs in most SAAS or Cloud apps, MProCloud retains the rich experience of a desktop application, but is delivered with speed and simplicity in the cloud.

MProCloud stands apart from other online project and task management applications in how it helps users generate desired outcomes and results. First, it’s designed with the work perspective that meeting deliverables through people and projects requires much more than the basic project management features of creating project structure, assigning resources and due dates. That’s why MProCloud also includes great tools for early identification and resolution of issues, schedule slips and process problems…

Grazed from Read Write Web. Author: Fredric Paul.

As cloud computing dominates more and more aspects of the tech world, similar-sounding but confusingly different something-as-a-service acronyms keep piling up. You’ve probably heard of SaaS (Software as a Service), since it applies mostly to cloud services delivered to end users.

But what about IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service)? Even many tech professionals can’t explain the differences without babbling incoherently. Fortunately, this new infographic from IaaS provider ProfitBricks does a good job of explaining the differences and who uses which one for what. Enjoy.

See infographic and read more from the source @ http://readwrite.com/2013/05/08/explained-saas-iaas-paas-infographic

Grazed from V3.co.uk. Author: Daniel Robinson.

Cloud computing has been around for quite a few years now, so isn’t it about time we accepted that the cloud is simply part of the way IT is delivered these days, rather than some exotic and dangerous cutting-edge technology?

The very name ‘cloud’ doesn’t help, of course, as it is a loosely defined term that covers a broad range of technologies and usage cases, but until someone can come up with a better term for what cloud represents, it looks like we are stuck with it…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Bob Evans.

As cloud computing surges into the mainstream of business-technology strategies and deployments, plenty of questions are still swirling around regarding security, time to value, public versus private, lock-in, cost, and more. For businesses, these questions are reasonable as cloud adoptions grow rapidly around the world and increasingly essential workloads move from their traditional on-premise home to the cloud.

For the tech industry, the novelty of specialized and niche cloud products is beginning to lose favor as businesses look to avoid the costly habits of the past: purchasing lots and lots of point solutions from lots and lots of incompatible vendors requiring lots and lots of integrators and money and time to stitch it all together…