Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

The new Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certification Program is a response to organizations screaming for some way to both validate and train employees on the use of AWS public cloud technology. Indeed, AWS Certifications help to recognize the skills, knowledge, and expertise in the AWS public cloud platform. To earn an AWS Certification, individuals must demonstrate their proficiency in a particular area by passing an AWS Certification Exam — akin to getting your driver’s license but instead of road signs, you’re tested on API error messages.

This is much like past certification exams from Microsoft, Novell, and Cisco. I’d go so far as to say that those with AWS Certifications are poised to earn decent money, considering the large number of AWS jobs chasing after a limited pool of candidates these days…

Grazed from TechCentral. Author: Editorial Staff.

Platform as a service (PaaS) is sort of the like the red-headed stepchild between the two, providing an application development and hosting platform in the cloud. PaaS in many ways combines elements of infrastructure and software as a service. But recently, Gartner researcher John Rymer, who closely tracks the PaaS market, says the lines between IaaS, SaaS and PaaS are beginning to blur.

Some of the leading IaaS companies, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), are adding PaaS-like features to their offerings. AWS has made it easier to deploy and scale applications in its cloud through services like its recently released OpsWorks, as well as Elastic Beanstalk and CloudFront, for example. SaaS pioneer Salesforce.com, meanwhile, is making a big push to promote its integrated PaaS offerings, Force.com and Heroku…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Darryl K. Taft.

IBM announced it has been awarded a 10-year $123 million contract by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to replace the agency’s 50-year-old legacy human resources application with a new system delivered in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.

IBM will deliver what it refers to as a first-of-its-kind private-sector HR technology solution for the U.S. federal government. IBM has been selected as the HR Line of Business (LOB) Shared Services Center (SSC) provider for the VA and will build, operate and maintain a new HR system to be deployed across the enterprise to deliver a standardized and interoperable human resources experience.

Grazed from PR NewsWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Opsview, a leading IT monitoring vendor, has released new research indicating that 64% percent of those questioned identified virtualization as the primary focus for investment in 2013. The Opsview study also identified IT monitoring (55%) and private clouds (46%) as among their top initiatives for 2013.

The key trends from the study include:

• VMware continues to dominate the virtualization space with over 54% of respondents choosing them as their preferred vendor. However, Microsoft’s market share is growing steadily with over 18%.
• Almost a quarter of respondents claimed that more than 75% of their entire IT infrastructure is now virtualized.
• Only 12% of those surveyed admitted to using Xen and KVM…

Grazed from ITBusiness. Author: Francis Moran.

Adobe Systems Inc. is going all-in on a software as a service (SaaS) business model for its suite of heavy-lifting creative tools, announcing today at its Max conference in Los Angeles that it is replacing its nearly 10-year-old Creative Suite with a greatly expanded version of Creative Cloud, the subscription product it first unveiled about a year ago.

The updated Creative Cloud offering amalgamates Adobe’s full collection of more than 30 tools and services, including the company’s flagship products Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver, making them all available through a small-business-friendly monthly subscription starting at about $50, with individual apps available for as little as about $20 per month…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Jim Shepherd.

When people think of cloud computing, two benefits usually spring to mind: an end to burdensome onsite system maintenance and the beginning of real-time, Web-based data access. But there’s a third set of advantages offered by today’s cloud innovators. Through a new “living” approach to product development, system enhancements are developed in response to customer needs on an ongoing basis and offered to all users as they become available. That means users get new features faster, and those features are more closely aligned with their actual business needs.

This approach is quickly replacing old-school product development methods, where providers come up with enhancements and then push them out to users in the form of large packaged updates or versions…

Grazed from The Var Guy. Author: Christopher Tozzi.

Rackspace is connecting the dots between Microsoft.NET and OpenStack, the open source cloud computing platform. The move could simplify Web and mobile application development for the Microsoft .NET community. As one of the most popular programming platforms around today, the .NET framework already receives a great deal of support from Microsoft and partners across the IT channel. Programming tools catering to .NET develolpers proliferate, and Microsoft’s Visual Studio helps to streamline the development of .NET applications.

Still, as a software framework that Microsoft unveiled more than a decade ago, .NET is not exactly what one could call "cloud native" (not that many programming frameworks, even at this point in the game, are). But Rackspace is working to make it easier to leverage .NET expertise for the cloud via a couple key initiatives that more seamlessly integrate .NET into Rackspace’s OpenStack-based cloud platform…

Grazed from Gravitant. Author: PR Announcement.

Gravitant, the leader in cloud services brokerage and management, has been named a finalist in the Cloud Computing/SaaS category for the 2013 TechAmerica Foundation American Technology Awards (ATAs). The ATAs cross the technology industry recognizing products and services like cloudMatrix.

“Each year, the caliber of nominations for the American Technology Awards increases. This is a true testament to the technology industry and our power for transforming the world around us,” said Shawn Osborne, the TechAmerica Foundation Chairman. “We congratulate Gravitant for their outstanding work and thank them for their contribution to the growth and innovation of our vibrant industry.” The awards are awarded on the basis of a thorough evaluation by industry experts and technology leaders…

Grazed from New York Times. Author: Quentin Hardy.

SAP, the German software giant, is making one of the largest pushes into cloud computing yet seen from a large incumbent company. It may even be destroying its own business, in order to build for a new one.

SAP is famous for developing enterprise resource planning, or ERP, software. ERP is used to control complex manufacturing, run corporate functions like financials, or manage a company’s systems of supply. A few years ago SAP introduced HANA, a product that combines fast computing and data retrieval to better analyze how well a company is working. The product has been a big hit, and SAP has been proclaiming it the company’s future…

Grazed from ITWorld. Author: Martyn Williams.

SearchYourCloud, which provides a single search interface to find documents stored on a desktop or several cloud-based services, expanded on Tuesday to include Box. Access to Box is being included in a new version of the SearchYourCloud client software that is being launched the same day for Windows, iPhone and iPad platforms. The software, from U.K.-based Simplexo, already works with DropBox, Exchange, Outlook.com and SharePoint documents.

"It’s a one-stop shop to find the document you need," said Michael Judd, vice president of product development, in an interview. The software works by accessing a user’s cloud storage accounts and indexing the contents. Local files on a hard disk are also indexed, providing a single interface from which to search both offline and online files…