Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: Brandon Butler.

Microsoft Azure’s cloud outperformed Amazon Web Services in a series of rigorous tests conducted by Nasuni, a storage vendor that annually benchmarks CSPs (cloud service providers).  Nasuni uses public cloud resources in its enterprise storage offering, so each year the company conducts a series of rigorous tests on the top CSPs’ clouds in an effort to see which companies offer the best performing, most reliable infrastructure. Last year, Amazon Web Services’ cloud came out on top, but this year Microsoft Azure outperformed AWS in performance and reliability measures.

AWS is still better at handling extra-large storage volumes, while Nasuni found that the two OpenStack powered clouds it tested — from HP and Rackspace — were lacking, particularly at larger scales.  Nasuni conducted the tests on five of the largest CSPs: Azure, AWS, HP, Rackspace and Google Cloud. A write/read/delete test determined how effective each provider was at uploading data of various sizes (between 1KB and 1GB) to its cloud, recalling the randomly generated file and deleting it…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

TraceSecurity and Qualys have combined their technologies to deliver to SME and SMB customers a cloud-based IT governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solution. TraceSecurity is focused on delivering cloud-based IT GRC solutions, whereas Qualys is a cloud security and compliance management solutions vendor. The two companies have teamed up and are relying on their respective technologies for this venture—specifically, TraceCSO and QualysGuard Vulnerability Management. The partnership presents an integration of the two products in a cloud-based IT GRC package.

According to the companies, although TraceCSO is equipped with its own vulnerability management capabilities, the integration with QualysGuard will enable users to manage their vulernability scan results within TraceCSO’s centralized interface. QualysGuard has also been integrated to influence other areas of TraceCSO, including risk, audit and compliance management…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Mark Mitchell Szynaka.

Many industry projections state that enterprises will review or adopt some sort of hybrid cloud deployment this year. But a vast majority of those enterprises remain unclear on the fundamentals of hybrid cloud computing.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines hybrid cloud as a composition of at least one private cloud and at least one public cloud. A hybrid cloud is typically offered in one of two ways: A vendor has a private cloud and forms a partnership with a public cloud provider, or a public cloud provider forms a partnership with a vendor that provides private cloud platforms…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: CJ Arlotta.

Security and storage solutions provider Barracuda Networks Inc. announced a joint relationship with Drobo, a developer of data storage products for businesses and professionals, that aims to bring cloud accessibility and storage to Drobo customers. Drobo 5N, designed to enable sharing of storage and accessing of data, will be integrated with Barracuda Copy, allowing users to access shared files from any location and any device. The integration of both solutions extends the Copy cloud functionality to Drobo users and enables the following key features:

• File sharing – Anything users store on the Drobo device and share with Copy can be accessed without the hassle of file attachments. Unlike email attachments with size limitations, Copy allows users to upload and share files of any size, including 1080p videos and photographs…

Grazed from DataCenter Knowledge. Author: Bill Kleyman.

With cloud computing taking off at a very fast pace — some administrators are scrambling to jump into the technology. Unfortunately, many organizations are purchasing the right gear, deploying the right technologies, but still forgetting the policy creation process.

The truth is that cloud computing is relatively new for many organizations. This means that companies looking to enter the cloud must be careful and avoid jumping in with both feet. Although every environment is unique, administrators must take the time to create a plan which will help them retain control over their cloud initiative…

Grazed from FortMillsTimes. Author: Editorial Staff.

Accenture has been recognized with an HP Partner in Excellence Global Innovation Award for Cloud Computing at the 2013 HP Global Partner Conference. HP Partner in Excellence Award winners are selected by a panel of HP Alliance executives and presented to outstanding HP partners worldwide who have demonstrated exceptional business performance, achieved significant overall growth, have delivered innovative solutions to customers, or have demonstrated IT innovation through philanthropic activities in their local communities.

The HP Partner in Excellence Global Innovation Award for Cloud Computing honors Accenture for demonstrating significant success with HP by implementing a Private Cloud solution for a global healthcare products client…

Grazed from GovConWire. Author: Ross Wilkers.

Accenture Federal Services has won a five-year, $24.4 million contract to transition the U.S. National Science Foundation’s financial accounting system to a cloud computing environment. The company plans to host the agency’s 25-year old system in a shared service environment and use commercial-off-the-shelf software for the project, Accenture said Thursday.

NSF managed and dispersed $5.72 billion in funding for research and related activities last year for fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences.
Formed in 1950, NSF contributes funding for nearly 20 percent of federally-supported research at colleges and universities…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Editorial Staff.

1) Al Gore Invented the Cloud.

The collective sigh heard around the world when they read this section may signal that this joke has run its course, but you must have forgotten already, this article is about what your parent’s think. In addition, the day your dad stops telling the same bad joke over and over again is the day he is no longer a father. So let me explain an inconvenient truth (see what I did there?) about this misconception. Sure the joke, “Al Gore invented the internet,” is a little old but your parents had seven years to work on this environmental Cloud twist to the joke to shock it back to life. Now our parents will confuse their joke with reality and we have to hear them complain about Al Gore for a few more years. Just let the man be!

2) “Auntie Em, Auntie Em It’s a Twister!”

One day I hope you are graced with, “So if everyone uses this Cloud, how does it keep everyone’s stuff separate?” You may laugh at the absurdity of this, but sadly I was not fortunate enough of coming up with such a wonderful question. It seems that with some parents the Cloud produces thoughts of the mighty tornado, nature’s fiercest re-arranger of stuff. So it only makes sense that when the Cloud’s network processor becomes too hot and then mixes with the cooling system it produces a twister of biblical proportions from your Cloud and out pops apps, pictures, music, and movies that aren’t even yours. Because nothing can stop the mighty tornado Cloud as it throws all your information to other random Cloud users and you will lose everything!…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Louis Columbus.

Hiring great people and creating a culture of achievement that is fun, focused and able to get challenging tasks done is not an easy task. Keeping that culture strong and focused on the customer takes a unique leader that consistently earns trust and respect. Those are the qualities I think of whenever I’m asked to recommend the best cloud computing companies to work for.

Using the scores from Glassdoor.com I’ve put together the table below comparing cloud computing companies and when available, the percentage of employees who approve of their CEO. Cloud computing companies are sorted based on the percentage of employees would recommend their company to a friend…