Grazed from Wired.  Author: Robbie Wright.

You know what they say about two things being certain in life. The tax part of that illustrious pair is now rearing its ugly head in the world of cloud computing. It seems that politicians are finally starting to realize that this cloud computing “thing” is actually generating a lot of revenue — and they want their slice of the pie. However, let’s stay far away from the politics and just consider the ramifications of cloud taxation on cloud adoption.

Legislators in Massachusetts, among others, have begun pursuing or have already been successful in applying taxation to web-based services. The big question in my mind is what this actually affects. What difference, if any, will taxation make in the cloud market?…

Grazed from Dr.Dobbs. Author: Adrian Bridgwater.

Cloud and mobile app testing company Soasta and Java PaaS player CloudBees have formed a partnership that sees the release of a new Jenkins open source plugin for build, test, and deployment. With continuous integration features for mobile development utilizing real mobile devices, CloudBees architect (and creator of Jenkins) Kohsuke Kawaguchi says he optimized the plugin for Jenkins to eliminate manual tasks in testing.

"I appreciate Soasta open-sourcing its Jenkins plugin and collaborating with the Jenkins community," said Kawaguchi. "Soasta brings the product expertise and the Jenkins community brings their Jenkins expertise. When we collaborate, it’s a win for everyone. We look forward to seeing more companies follow the same path."…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Jeffrey Burt.

Cisco Systems is working with Microsoft to offer new products designed to make it easier for businesses to virtualize their data centers, reduce complexity and leverage cloud computing technologies. Cisco is combining its Unified Computing System (UCS) converged data center solution with Microsoft’s Fast Track 3.0 architecture offerings to give businesses integrated solutions that will make it easier for them to provision, deploy and manage their data center environments, according to the two companies.

In addition, Cisco is offering new Microsoft Fast Track 3.0 packages that can leverage options from either EMC and its year-old VSPEX integrated virtualization solution or NetApp and its FlexPod technology…

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Jim Duffy.

SDNs aren’t just for data center networks, despite the best-use-case-scenario arguments for network virtualization and flow management pervading the industry. SDNs can automate and manage WAN operations as well. Google is using OpenFlow to interconnect data center over a WAN. And startup Glue Networks is targeting Cisco’s installed base of WAN routers as a sweet spot for its SDN WAN offerings.

Major IT trends such as SaaS, private clouds, BYOD, mobility and voice/data convergence are stressing the quality of links in an enterprise WAN, as analyst Lee Doyle notes here. WAN links now require improved security, lower latency, higher reliability and support for any device in any location to accommodate these trends…

Grazed from SCMagazine. Author: Editorial Staff.

Proofpoint has acquired Maildistiller, a provider of SaaS email security solutions to bolster its cloud architecture. As part of a plan to expand its Proofpoint Essentials suite of software-as-a-service (SaaS) security and compliance solutions, it acquired the Northern Ireland-based company, which is specifically designed for channel distribution through multi-level distribution and managed service providers (MSPs).

According to Proofpoint, the technology will enable Proofpoint Essentials to combine the security and threat detection capabilities with ease of use, multi-level channel management and modern SaaS architecture required to serve the mid-to-small enterprise market…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

Cloud computing jobs are on the rise, no matter what analyst firms you ask these days. Of course, "cloud computing jobs" can mean many things, ranging from architects to operators. However, the demand seems to be for those who have development experience with specific public clouds and those who have experience operating specific clouds, both private and public.

Say you don’t want to learn OpenStack anytime soon but still want to cash in on cloud computing, or you don’t have the hands-on cloud experience in high demand. What are your options? Consider focusing on a job whose demand is rising because of cloud computing but is not directly related to cloud computing. These secondary jobs are being created through the use of cloud-based platforms. They may not directly deal with cloud technology, but are nonetheless driven by it…

Grazed from TheVarGuy. Author: Christopher Tozzi.

In theory, the cloud makes communication easier than ever by allowing users to connect with one another from anywhere. In practice, the picture can be more complicated, especially in situations where security or regulator concerns constrain the ability to work in the cloud. But the channel is responding with solutions for leveraging the cloud without violating data policies, as a new collaboration platform from Teambox shows.

The software, called Teambox On-Premise, is designed to reconcile data privacy and security concerns with demand for cloud-based collaboration by allowing organizations to run collaboration software on their own hardware and behind their own firewalls. It’s the latest addition to Teambox’s line of collaboration, workflow management and file sharing applications, and the company bills it as the channel’s "only behind­-your-­firewall collaboration solution."…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Christopher Tozzi.

In a clear sign that cloud computing is now front and center on the channel’s agenda, there are dozens of conferences that now serve VARs, MSPs and cloud services providers. One of the biggest of this spring, RightScale Compute 2013, is approaching fast. Here’s what to expect — along with a discount code just for Talkin’ Cloud readers who might want to attend.

Scheduled for April 23-26 in San Francisco, RightScale Compute will combine technical presentations to promote a better understanding of some key cloud technologies with sessions and keynotes that focus on the bigger picture of where the cloud is going in the future and how it relates to the channel at large…

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

RiverMeadow Software(TM) Inc., developer of the world’s only automated server migration solution developed specifically for carrier and service provider clouds, today announced that Cisco Services will use the RiverMeadow Cloud Migration Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tool in its Cloud On-Boarding Service offerings to help customers easily move entire server workloads to public, private and hybrid cloud environments.

Traditionally, migrating applications from one server environment to another would involve manually configuring a new environment to ensure it meets the same requirements. With data center demands evolving, customers need the ability to rapidly move server workloads around to serve their users and accommodate an influx of application requests at any given time. Providing migration tools "as a Service" automates the configuration and migration process across cloud environments allowing organizations to adapt to changing business needs…

Grazed from Developer.com. Author: Octavia Andreea Anghel.

OpenShift is Red Hat’s Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. For PHP cloud development, OpenShift offers an application platform in the cloud where you can build, test, deploy, and run your applications. Also, OpenShift enables you to use a great variety of the latest and greatest technology Quickstarts that allow you to boot your favorite platform on OpenShift almost instantaneously.

All you need to do to begin PHP cloud development on OpenShift is take three simple steps: Sign up and create an account on OpenShift, find the QuickStart for your favorite platform and follow the instructions on the Quickstart page (usually in the README.md file), and host that platform on OpenShift. Your favorite platform is available on OpenShift, and you can start on your project!…