April 17, 2013 Off

What Is Platform As A Service?

By David

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Lindsey Nelson.

According to TechTarget.com, it is “a way to rent hardware, operating systems, storage and network capacity over the internet…(it) allows the customer to rent virtualized servers and associated services for running existing applications or developing and testing new ones.”

The last part is what has most likely attributed to PaaS’s success. Because the service is delivered over the internet, this freedom from hardware worry allows developers to focus on developing and launching an app. No concerns over storage and back up, they can quickly breeze through the app development. PaaS is commonly confused with two things, one is it’s distant cousin middleware and the other one its family member, Infrastructure as a Service. Here’s the difference:…

April 17, 2013 Off

How to Pick Cloud Contenders Among Pretenders

By David

Grazed from Wired. Author: Patrick Kerpan.

Infrastructure is the most basic level of cloud computing. A cloud provider offers you, as a cloud application owner or user, the ability to run your business application without managing the underlying physical resources of CPU, storage, network and memory. Public/private cloud IaaS is multi-tenant access to the physical resources ) where you can launch virtual machines (VMs) as needed in the cloud.

Cloud commoditizes the infrastructure — hence Infrastructure-as-a-Service, or the difficult to pronounce, “IaaS”. Regardless of deployment model or provider, you should have access to infrastructure and the ability to purchase VMs. So now that you’re shopping for infrastructure, what should you look for in a cloud provider?…

April 17, 2013 Off

Mellanox Introduces ConnectX-3 Pro Adapter, Enabling New Levels of Performance and Scalability for Cloud Computing

By David

Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Mellanox(R) Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX) (TASE: MLNX), a leading supplier of high-performance, end-to-end interconnect solutions for data center servers and storage systems, today announced ConnectX-3 Pro, the industry’s first network adapter IC and card with hardware offload engines that support virtualized overlay networks commonly used in cloud infrastructures. With hardware offload support for VXLAN and NVGRE, ConnectX-3 Pro enables cloud providers to build large-scale infrastructures with industry-leading performance and dramatically lower CPU overhead, thus reducing cloud application cost and increasing cloud ROI.

ConnectX-3 Pro, the industry’s first network adapter IC and card with hardware offload engines that support virtualized overlay networks commonly used in cloud infrastructures. (Photo: Business Wire)…

April 17, 2013 Off

Cloud Service Brokerages and the Changing Face of Enterprise Cloud Computing

By David

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Matthew Ramsey.

The how-to of cloud implementations has gotten infinitely easier as cloud service brokers have begun to dominate the market. As many trends have shaped technology fluxes over time, this one is proving to be a game-changer for enterprises. There are many examples in the current climate. One that stands out is the partnership of Gravitant with Amazon Web Services, a well-established cloud entity. The former has created the cloudMatrix service, which is designed to simplify hybrid cloud deployments for enterprises.

This service is proving to be so inclusive that even government agencies have implemented it. Corporate IT leaders have numerous options, including human resources, procurement, financial, sales, and marketing, and other standard business functions and industry-specific options. Companies have sought to outsource various departmental functions over the past several years. When it comes to cloud computing, third-party cloud service brokerages have found their niche, and bring the best of service in a single package…

April 17, 2013 Off

Gazzang Encryption and Key Management Solutions Enable Secure Cloud Computing in Health Care

By David

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Gazzang, the Linux data security company, today announced its software-based data security solutions are enabling health care organizations to confidently move sensitive data into cloud and big data environments. The cloud computing market in health care is expected to grow to $5.4 billion by 2017(1) , due in large part to the performance gains, inexpensive storage, elasticity and data sharing capabilities delivered by the cloud.

Pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms and research hospitals are using the cloud to analyze massive datasets and quickly provision and de-provision large Linux clusters according to business requirements. As cloud usage escalates, these organizations are turning to Gazzang to encrypt and secure health care data as required by HIPAA-HITECH compliance regulations…

April 17, 2013 Off

Bitium Closes $2.4M Seed Round for SaaS Operating System

By David

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Today Bitium announced a $2.4M seed round for the first Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) operating system. The round was led by Mike Hirshland of Resolute VC and features an all-star list of investors including Alex Bard (Desk.com); Michael Lazerow (Buddy Media); former SVP of Strategy for Microsoft, Hank Vigil; Rob Glaser (Real Networks); seasoned SaaS entrepreneurs Hiten Shah (KISSmetrics) and Sean Ellis (Qualaroo); and Southern California funds Double M Partners, Social Leverage and Karlin Ventures.

In today’s era of cloud computing, software is developed for Web browsers instead of desktops. SaaS apps exist in independent silos and don’t function together like they do in Microsoft Windows or Mac OSX. Furthermore, employee adoption of Web apps is on the rise and a challenge for companies to manage. Consider the statistics; according to Gartner Research, worldwide SaaS revenue will reach $22.1 billion by 2015…

April 17, 2013 Off

ActiveState Named a Gartner Research “Cool Vendor in PaaS”

By David

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

ActiveState(R), whose software enables developers and enterprises to innovate from code to cloud, today announced it has been named a Gartner Research "Cool Vendor in PaaS" for 2013. In its "Cools Vendors in PaaS, 2013" report released yesterday, the global research firm profiles ActiveState and its flagship cloud middleware technology Stackato(R), the private Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for the agile enterprise.

"It’s great to be recognized as a cool vendor in PaaS," says ActiveState CEO Bart Copeland. "This acknowledgement validates our approach, and highlights just some of Stackato’s innovative features. But what’s really cool is how enterprise customers like ExactTarget, Mozilla, and HP use Stackato to transform cloud deployment to get products to market faster, manage applications more securely, and save money in the process."…

April 17, 2013 Off

Cloud Computing: Midokura Announces General Availability of Disruptive Network Virtualization Technology

By David

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Midokura, a global startup focused on network virtualization, today announced the general availability of MidoNet. MidoNet virtualizes the network stack for cloud platforms, such as OpenStack. First introduced last Fall to the U.S. market, this solution has been in development for three years. MidoNet is a distributed, decentralized, multi-layer software-defined virtual network solution specifically designed for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Midokura’s approach not only adds automation that significantly reduces the human cost (OPEX) of managing the network, but also impacts the overall economics of cloud computing (CAPEX) by simplifying network requirements.

"We are excited to disrupt the market and offer the industry general access to our MidoNet network virtualization technology," said Dan Mihai Dumitriu, co-founder and CEO of Midokura. "Unlike other solutions out there, MidoNet pushes intelligence to the edge of the network, as it takes an overlay-based approach to network virtualization and sits on top of any IP-connected network. Given this, MidoNet makes it easier for enterprises to build fully featured, secure and scalable clouds."…

April 17, 2013 Off

DISA reaches milestone in quest to manage and negotiate cloud contracts

By David

Grazed from FederalTimes. Author: Nichole Johnson.

The Defense Information Systems Agency is one step closer to standing up cloud broker services for the Defense Department. As DoD’s cloud broker, DISA will manage the use, performance and delivery of cloud services and negotiate contracts between cloud service providers and DoD consumers.

DISA announced Tuesday that it has developed a process for gathering and assessing DoD’s cloud computing requirements, evaluating vendors’ cloud offerings against contract requirements and has created a catalog for cloud services. In a June 2012 memo, DoD Chief Information Officer Teri Takai said all DoD components must acquire government or industry-provided cloud services using DISA, or obtain a waiver…

April 17, 2013 Off

OpenStack Summit: Rackspace, Red Hat Enterprise Cloud Pitch

By David

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Joe Panettieri.

The OpenStack Summit is "going enterprise" according to the opening keynote session that featured cloud user case studies from Comcast, Bloomberg, Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) and Hubspot. Rackspace (NYSE:RAX) Senior VP Jim Curry said this is "the year of the user" for OpenStack. Next up is a Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) keynote. The overall big theme: OpenStack is more than a developer movement; it’s also ready to help enterprises and cloud services providers (CSPs) that want to make money, according to keynote speakers. Here’s a keynote recap.

Jonathan Bryce, leader of the OpenStack Foundation

  • Foundation started in Sept. 2012
  • The foundation also launched the Gnome Outreach Program for Women, which has helped women to get involved with OpenStack
  • The foundation will have an open house on Thursday to solicit more ideas on where the foundation can go next.
  • "Six months ago we had a peaceful transition of power over to the foundation."…