Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Editorial Staff.

As trends such as cloud computing, Big Data, and the Internet of Things generate rapidly increasing amounts of data for organizations and users to process and store, IT functions face an ever-increasing demand for better data storage systems capable of coping with these trends. To help them, Cisco today announced new solutions for storage area networks (SANs) that deliver higher performance, scalability and reliability than other competing systems.

The new solutions include the Cisco® MDS 9710 Multilayer Director, which delivers three times the bandwidth of any storage director in the industry. Cisco also announced the Cisco MDS 9250i Multiservice Fabric Switch, which improves efficiency by performing important storage networking services in the SAN fabric. "As the leading IT service provider inNorway, we look to Cisco as a key technology partner to support us in the process of consolidating and upgrading data centers. We require storage networks to support the next generation services and level of availability our customers demand," said Jo Marius Pedersen, SAN specialist, EVRY…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Reuven Cohen.

Cloud interoperability and portability seems to be a hot topic these days. This topic is one that I have a bit of experience with. Back in 2008, I had the fortune, or possibly misfortune, of starting one of the first groups dedicated to the discussion of Cloud interoperability, aptly titled, “The Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum”. For a while this Google group was a popular forum for the discussion of various interop and standardization challenges, but it ultimately faded as politics, personalities and priorities shifted. Five years later, I thought I’d revisit the discussion.

A lot has changed since those early days, Amazon still dominates and many of the early cloud pioneers have long been acquired. In addition, a new crop of players have emerged as serious treats to the incumbent players in the space. The companies who were previously viewed as incumbent are now the challengers in this quickly evolving cloud battleground…

Grazed from SeekingAlpha. Author: Editorial Staff.

Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) are out at each other in a new invisible battlefield: Computer horsepower. Cloud computing has been around for quite a long time (since 1984, at least the concept) but its potential has only recently been discovered. Despite the buzz around the concept, very few people understand the underlying framework, which is ironic since most people have already used it. Simply put, cloud (another word for internet) computing is using other people’s server to run your network/application for your organization, remotely. Prime examples are Gmail and drop box. It essentially reduces the hassle and cost of the end user by outsourcing the entire IT department to the service provider; e.g. Amazon or Google.

Overview

Amazon is the pioneer, providing cloud computing services since 2004, but Google has recently caught on (began last year June). Google has the largest storage capacity in the world, which has made Amazon push harder, especially in terms of pricing. Amazon’s EC2 provides IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), outsourcing IT needs along with the hardware, while Google’s App Engine provides PaaS (Platform as a service)…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Stacey Higginbotham.

For the last six years Miguel Castillo and his team have built dozens of platforms for connected devices, from connecting garbage cans to adding informatics to solar panels. But in 2012 Castillo realized that he was sick of reinventing the wheel for each machine-to-machine project that Wairbut, his company, accepted. So he and his CTO, Alvaro Everlet, spun out a new company to build a platform of software and infrastructure so others could connect devices without having to reinvent the same wheel they had invented so many times before. They called the startup Carriots, and it’s now in the middle of raising a first round of funding.

Like Electric Imp, Carriots, a Madrid-based company, wants to make it easy for people to build out services for connected devices. Electric Imp provides the cloud service as well as an SD card with built-in connectivity. Carriots provides the cloud service, essentially a platform as a service, or PaaS, for the internet of things…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

The Cloud Security Alliance is extending its membership to a new level that serves SMBs and the cloud providers serving that small and medium business (SMB) market segment. Announced at InfoSecurity Europe in London, the CSA SMB Membership and SMB Working Group are meant to provide SMBs with guidance in cloud security.

For cloud providers, CSA plans to work with them through this new membership level and working group to help them understand the cloud security needs of SMBs. However, this kickoff of the new SMB-focused membership and working group is just the beginning, as the first step for the organization will be to create an SMB version of the CSA Guidance documents, as well as cloud security materials that can be readily consumed by SMBs, many of which likely don’t have the IT and security capabilities and knowledge base enjoyed by enterprises…

Grazed from The Register. Author: Simon Sharwood.

NetApp has approached the University of Melbourne’s Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems (CLOUDS) Laboratory, seeking collaboration around the Labs’ research specialties in federated public clouds.

The Reg has learned that senior NetApp employees from outside Australia visited the Lab last February. Now the Lab’s Director, Professor Rajkumar Buyya, has told The Reg those discussions centred on federated cloud functions in the Aneka product offered by a commercial spinout from the Lab called Manjrasoft…

Grazed from PR.com. Author: PR Announcement.

CloudAccess.com, a leader in unified security solutions from the cloud, announced the release of the latest version of CloudIDM/AM which features a unique and seamless integration between enterprise identity management and access control (single sign on/access management) from the cloud.

“We’ve taken the next evolutionary step to integrate the key capabilities of provisioning, multi-factor authentication and role-based workflow management with an advanced single sign on for SaaS and legacy applications and manage it all from the cloud,” said CloudAccess CEO Kevin Nikkhoo…

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Matthew Ramsey.

As enterprises seek the best in cloud services, numerous changes are occurring in the cloud market. Picking the best each provider has to offer is not uncommon, leaving businesses with multiple services to manage. Solvedirect, an Austrian firm providing software and services for cloud systems, pioneered the ServiceGrid platform. It was designed to monitor services across multiple partners, no matter what systems the enterprise has implemented. This has caught the attention of Cisco, a world leader in network and computing systems. The corporation recently bought the cloud services management company.

What SolveDirect Adds to the Equation

The acquisition may have huge implications for the enterprise cloud computing industry. SolveDirect is known for its operational efficiency and skill set for engineering. The capacity for managing multiple services is critical. Enterprises are often tasked with managing up to 15 external IT service providers, leaving staff with an endless flow of emails, phone calls, and online interactions for support. These interactions tend to drive down efficiency, but ServiceGrid has streamlined the process to address the multi-provider IT models modern enterprise are finding themselves left to manage…

Grazed from ITWeb. Author: Editorial Staff.

Global Micro Solutions has partnered with Apprenda to introduce a new platform as a service (PaaS) cloud offering, intended to help businesses build, manage and deploy next-generation cloud applications. The public PaaS provides a way for customers to scale their massive custom application portfolios, quickly and in a secure cloud environment, says JJ Milner, MD and chief cloud architect for Global Micro.

“Global Micro is the first hosting provider in South Africa to offer Azure Services for Windows,” says Milner. “The Apprenda Platform extends this infrastructure as a service (IaaS) capability with platform as a service. Global Micro is Apprenda’s exclusive delivery partner in Africa and will support the partner and customer community. Apprenda will, in turn, support Global Micro.” The service will help to maximise the productivity of development teams and increase the speed with which updates and new products can be launched…

Grazed from ITWeb. Author: Johani Marais.

According to the IDC, CIOs in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region acknowledge the benefits of cloud infrastructure and nearly 47% of CIOs in Africa are already engaged in cloud strategy of some kind. Part of this trend of moving towards cloud computing is the adoption of SaaS- (software as a service) based enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, says Johani Marais, Channel Manager Africa, Epicor Software Corporation.

In the past, organisations were hesitant to keep critical data in the cloud mainly because of the sheer value of the data, which seemed so much safer kept on-site rather than in an intangible space outside of the perceived realm of control. This is why systems such CRM, HCM and sales force automation were often cloud-based, whereas manufacturing process management data was kept out of the cloud. Now, SaaS deployments are becoming more widely used than traditional hosting options, even in larger organisations that are becoming far more likely to make use of SaaS. This can be attributed to a shift in mindset caused by advances in technology and a better understanding of how cloud-based ERP works…