Grazed from Enterprise Irregulars. Author: Louis Columbus.

The best manufacturers I’ve visited this year all share a common attribute: they are obsessed with making themselves as easy as possible to work with from a supply chain, distribution and services standpoint. Many are evaluating cloud-based manufacturing applications including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and several have adopted cloud-based applications across their companies.

With so much interest, there is much confusion as well. I recently spoke with Cindy Jutras, founder and CEO of MintJutras. Her firm has recently completed a survey of SaaS adoption in manufacturing, distribution and other industries. She found the following:…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Joe Panettierri.

Rackspace, the cloud services provider (CSP) and OpenStack proponent, delivered weaker than expected quarterly earnings results today. The big question: Is the growth of cloud computing slowing down — or is Rackspace being squeezed by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Windows Azure and other big-name public clouds?

For its quarter ended March 31, Rackspace said revenue grew 20 percent to $362 million and net income grew 18 percent to $27 million. Most businesses craze that type of growth. But Wall Street wanted even more, and Rackspace shares fell more than 15 percent in after-hours trading…

Grazed from ADT. Author: John K. Waters.

Java-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provider Jelastic has created a plug-in for the NetBeans integrated development environment (IDE), the company announced this week. The new plug-in allows users of the Jelastic platform to access their development, test, and production deployments from within the venerable Java IDE.

Jelastic is a Java- and PHP-based cloud hosting platform designed to run any Java application in the cloud without code or language changes, and without the need to write for specific APIs. It supports any JVM-based app, including apps developed with Java 6, Java 7, JRuby, Scala and Groovy…

Grazed from Windows IT Pro. Author: Rod Trent.

Can you remember a time when you haven’t heard about the Cloud as a form of computing? It’s used everywhere these days, for all kinds of things related to both Information Technology (IT) and Consumer-oriented services. It’s the industry buzzword that just won’t die. Cloud. Cloud. Cloud.

Can you remember a time when you haven’t heard about the Cloud as a form of computing? It’s used everywhere these days, for all kinds of things related to both Information Technology (IT) and Consumer-oriented services. It’s the industry buzzword that just won’t die…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Stephanie Mann.

When it comes to the cloud services market, Software as a Service (SaaS) leads the pack. Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research reports that SaaS revenue will far exceed that of Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service (PaaS) in coming years. The firm predicts that SaaS will rake in $92.8 billion by 2016, up from just $21.2 billion in 2011. Driving the trend is increasing demand for mobile SaaS — SaaS applications that companies access via smartphones and other wireless devices.

Not surprisingly, SaaS vendors are looking for ways to differentiate themselves in the increasingly crowded SaaS applications market. Experts say that more SaaS providers are entering the mobile fray, serving up customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other enterprise-specific mobile apps for a widening customer base…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Editorial Staff.

AccelOps Cloud Security Survey Report surveyed some 176 IT security personnel and they ranked BYOD as the top source for fear of incurring data loss and having the need for heightened data control. This is the traditional topic or cloud worriers and opponents of cloud computing which only helps in propagating the myth that cloud computing in not secure. ISC2’s January research shows that explicitly linked cloud computing to the creation of personal device policies.

But the take away from the research is that companies who support BYOD have happier employees while also needing to increase their cloud security knowledge and skills. The same research survey shows that 78% of the participants consider BYOD as a “somewhat or very significant risk”. Read More…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

The HIPAA and HITECH compliancy regulations are increasingly having an effect on cloud and hosted services. As cloud computing catches on in all vertical markets, health care professionals are seeing the advantages of having their data and apps in the cloud, but if the average business has concerns over security, those concerns are multiplied tenfold in the health care sector. With that in mind, 8×8 is now supporting HIPAA and HITECH in its Virtual Office VoIP phone service.

With the scrutiny health care providers are put under when it comes to securing patient and customer data, it only makes sense for such organizations to look to providers that aim to work to provide regulation-compliant cloud solutions. 8×8 is just one vendor working to help its vertical customers comply with strict privacy legislations, and the company has been building out its cloud communications services to comply with FISMA, PCI-DSS and CPNI requirements…

Grazed from ITWorld. Author: Mikael Ricknäs.

Google has added a new notification to its Cloud Storage service, allowing applications to automatically take action when new content is uploaded by users. Normally, applications would have to poll for changes, which can be a resource waste or cause the application to react slowly. Also, writing and deploying custom scripts to trigger an application is cumbersome for developers, Google said in a blog post. But the object change notification will change that and seemingly make life a little easier for developers.

The notification is used to monitor Google Cloud Storage buckets for new, modified or deleted objects. For example, when a users adds a new picture to a bucket, an application could be notified to automatically create a thumbnail. The application and the bucket communicate using a so-called notification channel. A website detailing the feature shows how to add one…

Grazed from GetApp. Author: PR Announcement.

GetApp is now the largest independent small business marketplace for cloud applications in the world, the company announced today. More than 5,000 top-tier business app developers have signed on to GetApp to offer affordable and easy-to-use applications to millions of businesses. Software as a Service (SaaS) – or cloud-based business apps – have become the fastest growing segment of the cloud computing industry, according to Forrester. Likewise, Gartner predicts that the cloud computing industry will reach $148 billion by 2014.

“We believe that the cloud is a game changer for all businesses and that the 5000-plus SaaS solutions we offer have put small and medium sized businesses on a more level IT playing field with larger companies,” says Christophe Primault, CEO of GetApp…

Grazed from ProfitBricks. Author: PR Announcement.

ProfitBricks, the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) company that completely reengineered the delivery of cloud computing, today released a case study detailing how its cloud computing 2.0 solution can help SaaS companies achieve their business goals.

SchoolBrains, a global provider of sophisticated data management, analytical and assessment solutions for PreK-12 school districts, implemented ProfitBricks’ IaaS solution across multiple school districts. In doing so, SchoolBrains demonstrated how cloud computing 2.0 infrastructure can help SaaS companies operate more effectively and efficiently while enhancing application performance…