Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Matthew Finnegan.

HP can stake a bigger claim in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) market by creating an enterprise-friendly rival to Amazon’s ‘consumer’ cloud, according to the head of the firm’s Converged Cloud unit, Saar Gillai.  HP is in the process of reimagining itself in what it terms the ‘new style of IT’, with its traditional businesses are coming under threat while attempts to move into new areas such as the Autonomy acquisition have proved problematic.

Targeting cloud revenues is top priority for CEO Meg Whitman, as the company attempts to find other avenues of growth says Gillai. According to HP figures, total cloud-related revenues, including sales of cloud services and hardware used to setup clouds, were almost $4 billion for 2012, and this is targeted to double by 2015…

Grazed from SeekingAlpha.  Author: Editorial Staff.

The cloud computing market is expected to grow to $177 billion over the next two years, and in turn, many companies will be looking to capitalize from this bubble. For those unfamiliar, cloud computing is the use of computing resources (hardware and software) that are delivered as a service over a network (typically the Internet). Mainframe computing from around the 1970s was replaced by client-server computing architecture in the 1980s and 90s, but by the time the Internet flourished, the world found a need to centralize the storage of data again. In recent years, this necessity of centralization has created a cloud computing bubble.

Consumers may be more familiar with cloud service offerings. This includes Google Drive, offered by Google (GOOG), SkyDrive by Microsoft (MSFT), Box.com, and Dropbox.  Here are some other ideas for investing in cloud computing that investors should consider:..

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…