Grazed from Technorati. Author: Rahul Manekari.

The latest news in the cloud computing sector comes from none other than Microsoft. It has been reported that Microsoft has tied up with Cloud Cruiser, maker of the chargeback and billing analytic system, to give Windows Server 2012 and the System Center Management system its own billing and chargeback capabilities which will enable it to be used on Microsoft Azure’s Cloud services.

This will enable enterprises and hosting service providers to gain greater cost efficiencies by delivering holistic cost visibility, cost analytics, chargeback, and billing across Microsoft hybrid cloud environments…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Matthew Finnie.

The promise of cloud computing as a way to reduce costs, manage expansion and make the creation of new services easier is very real, but we’re still in the early days of adoption. Organisations and governments are still largely digesting what they’ve heard, sifting through the benefits, and weighing up the “fear, uncertainty and doubt” concerning its impact on businesses and services.

What is true and very real is the impact it’s having on how services are being created and how seriously corporate IT is taking it. For those wanting to build the next Facebook it’s a no-brainer. Pinterest, the fanatically followed online pin board is the fastest growing site in history, (17m users in just 9 months), and to date it’s pure cloud…

Grazed from CentriLogic. Author: PR Announcement.

CentriLogic, a trusted provider of international hybrid hosting and data center solutions, today announced its enhanced International multi-zone Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Cloud offering. The improved cloud service provides organizations with elastic and on-demand computing infrastructure featuring multiple cross-border availability zones provisioned from CentriLogic’s owned and operated data centers in Canada and the United States.

The new cloud offering is an evolution of CentriLogic’s Canadian-based distributed cloud computing service that was launched in early 2010. CentriLogic’s new International IaaS cloud will support organizations with enterprise-class workloads while also addressing cross-border regulatory and compliance concerns arising from legislation including PIPEDA and the US Patriot Act…

CopperEgg Corp., a leading cloud monitoring and analytics company, today announced a new Cloud Sizing Tool that accurately benchmarks enterprise and cloud servers to help customers choose the proper Amazon EC2 instance types, pricing, and Elastic Block Storage (EBS) configurations from over 200 possible Amazon Web Services (AWS) combinations. Businesses can save money and ensure application performance by using the Cloud Sizing Tool to rightsize instances during cloud migrations, resize existing EC2 instances, and avoid over- or under-provisioned cloud resources. CopperEgg will demonstrate the Cloud Sizing Tool at the AWS Summit 2013 in New York City on April 18 and at the Opscode #ChefConf 2013 in San Francisco.

“The cloud sizing report gives us a better way to measure server usage,” said Jonathan Marbutt, Vice President of WayCool Software. “By changing cloud providers and switching to AWS, we were able to reduce cost by at least 30 percent, plus gain more powerful servers in the process. Our app response time has also improved.”

Grazed from FierceTelecom. Author: Sean Buckley.

AT&T and Verizon, according to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report on managed hosting providers in North America, have established themselves as key players in the segment. Having built a broad presence in the U.S. and international markets with its set of private IaaS and colocation services, AT&T provides cloud and managed services out of 23 data centers in North America in addition to facilities in Europe and Asia.

The telco’s depth and experience in providing managed hosting services continues to be a selling point for its large multinational corporation (MNC) customers that have complex enterprise application and hosting needs. "AT&T is able to use its network as a differentiator for use cases where network access is a heavily weighted criterion, or where end-to-end service management with SLAs is required," Gartner wrote…

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), the industry leader in network innovation, is now a Gold Member of the OpenStack Foundation, reaffirming the company’s commitment to industry collaboration and open standards. The decision was made at the OpenStack Summit, held in Portland, Ore. this week, following approval of Juniper’s application by the OpenStack Foundation Board of Directors.

Juniper Networks believes industry collaboration and the move toward standards is critical to driving innovation across the networking industry. The company’s broad solutions portfolio and its vision for the future of networking are key to promoting the adoption of OpenStack integrated architectures with partners and customers, enabling flexible application development for cloud computing environments…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Christine Cignoli.

Cloud computing has changed the cost and budget equation for many businesses, and IT managers can get a better understanding of where the money goes — and get more for their cloud money — if they keep a watchful eye on the numbers. Using cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) can remove a business’s capital expenditure, said Kris Bliesner, CEO of 2nd Watch, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems integrator. But the timing involved in deploying IT services has shifted dramatically, Bliesner said.

"Before, when I talked about building a budget as an IT person, I thought about three years ahead," he said. "Now, my cost model is a by-the-hour cost model. How do I take advantage of that?" Bliesner offered some tips on getting the most out of this new cloud cost model at the Modern Infrastructure Decisions conference in New York last week…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Reuven Cohen.

If you’ve attended a technology conference over the last couple years it’s hard to avoid the obvious buzz around cloud computing. Almost every vendor has applied the term to anything and everything imaginable. During this time there has been some debate over the level of adoption outside of the startup scene, specifically within the larger “enterprise class” of companies. We’re now at a point where most “new software” created, is created with the Internet as a central tenant. It’s how modern software is developed, deployed and consumed. Yes. The cloud has gone mainstream.

New research sponsored by enterprise focused cloud computing firm, Virtustream, sheds new light on the adoption of cloud computing. The report findings indicate that the majority of U.S. businesses are now using some form of cloud computing for IT. The report notes that increasingly most of these businesses use multiple cloud providers leading to potential problems with interoperability and, so called, “Cloud Sprawl”…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Ted Samson.

Microsoft on Tuesday made a flurry of Windows Azure-related announcements, including the general availability of Windows Azure IaaS (infrastructure as a service), with new VMI (virtual machine image) templates for SQL Server, BizTalk Server, and SharePoint; larger VM sizes; and new pricing to challenge Amazon Web Services (AWS). What’s more, Microsoft announced the general availability of Windows Azure Virtual Networks.

Microsoft unveiled previews of Azure IaaS and Virtual Networks last June as part of a significant overhaul to the formerly PaaS-centric platform featuring a healthy dose of IaaS capabilities and broader support for various OSes and development platforms. Today’s news marks an important milestone for Microsoft Azure as it emerges as a credible competitor to AWS, OpenStack, and other cloud platforms jockeying for position. (Check out InfoWorld’s review of Azure for more details about the Microsoft-crafted cloud.)…

Grazed from ITBusinessEdge. Author: Loraine Lawson.

Integration continues to frustrate organizations trying to use SaaS applications. TechTarget reports that application integration showed up as a top cloud problem in two surveys it recently conducted. You may recall earlier this year a KPGM survey that found 31 percent said integrating cloud services with their on-premise applications and systems was more complex than expected.

TechTarget’s Cloud Pulse survey found similar results: 34 percent said SaaS programs can’t interoperate with other programs from the cloud or in house. “And once again, customization was tied with integration: Even with customization, 34 percent of Cloud Pulse respondents said SaaS apps can be inadequate for the client’s business needs,” reports SearchEnterpriseLinux.com Site Editor Jan Stafford…