Grazed from ComputerWeekly. Author: Archana Venkatraman.

Software as a service (SaaS) continues to be the top cloud service that the UK enterprises plan to use in 2013, despite newer cloud services such as datacentre as a service, database as a service or even testing and development as a service. A majority (55%) of respondents of the TechTarget and Computer Weekly UK IT priorities survey 2013 cited SaaS as the external cloud service that they will use this year.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) was the second most popular cloud service, with around 34% of some 400 IT executives surveyed planning to use it. In comparison, only 12% of respondents said they will use datacentre as a service and only 11% said they will use collaboration as a service. Other cloud computing services such as testing and development and private cloud design were also cited by less than 20% of the respondents…

Grazed from ITWeb. Author: Roelof Louw.

Cloud computing is predicted to be the future of the technology world, and analyst reports abound on the expected growth of the uptake of these solutions. However, security issues remain one of the dominant barriers with the adoption of cloud solutions. Many organisations are hesitant to migrate to the cloud in light of the ever-increasing number of attacks on cloud-based solutions, as well as the risk of downtime caused by natural disasters and other issues in the regions where cloud data is stored.

When making the transition to the cloud, it is critical to adopt an end-to-end approach that focuses on IT security, data protection and availability, enabling organisations to leverage the multiple benefits of the cloud while minimising the risks. Furthermore, it is crucial to factor in both the internal and external risks associated with cloud computing, which too require a holistic approach, says Roelof Louw, Cloud Expert at T-Systems in South Africa. This in turn requires that all potential threats be identified, and structured protection mechanisms are put into place which go beyond technology and incorporate processes and people across multiple areas…

Grazed from ElectronicsNews. Author: Isaac Leung.

NEW cloud computing algorithms may make high performance computing networks cheaper and more energy efficient. Professor Albert Zomaya, IT expert at the University of Sydney and director of High Performance Computing and Networking at the University’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies, says computing needs to be more ecologically friendly.

Professor Zomaya will address next week’s Australian Data Centre Strategy Summit and argue the need to move to more ecologically friendly practices of computing. In that speech, he will reveal the development of new algorithms and tools for energy-aware resource management allocation for large-scale distributed systems, such as clouds, enabling these systems to become environmentally friendly…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Sanjay Poonen.

There is widespread agreement—across the globe and in every industry—that mobile, big data, and cloud computing are the three cornerstone issues of tomorrow’s business environment. In fact, a strong organizational response to each of these issues is already critical to competitive survival.

As a result, CIOs, business strategists and IT leaders are working furiously to make sure their businesses have plans in place to stay ahead of these challenges. But there is one subtlety that is frequently overlooked: When it comes to mobile computing, big data and the cloud, what we have is not three problems but one…

Grazed from CT Post.  Author: Editorial Staff.

When it comes to getting business done more efficiently, cloud computing has certainly helped; but up until recently, most business owners could only take advantage of cloud computing services on their PCs. This often meant that team members working on a project would need to physically be in front of their computers in order to collaborate on project files. Thankfully, service providers have taken notice of this disadvantage and have begun offering cloud computing for mobile devices as well.

Whether you have a Google phone or any other type of smartphone, you can now use a number of cloud networking technologies to access files from virtually any connected PC or mobile device. Essentially, using this technology, you, your employees and their coworkers will be able to upload files to central depositories, work on files together in real-time and then download files to mobile devices that receive a data connection. All of this means that your workforce will no longer be required to be in front of a PC to access your company’s important files from the cloud…

Grazed from Seattle Post.  Author: Editorial Staff.

When we think of the cloud’s impact on the corporate world, it is easy to get caught up in how it has changed the way we do business on a global level, how we can connect using a multitude of devices, or even how it has given small businesses access to better technology.  What sometimes gets lost is how the cloud has changed the IT industry as a whole.

Cloud computing is revolutionizing the IT industry, not only because it provides robust technology solutions at a variety of price points, but because it facilitates a change in the role of the IT organization itself.   "Cloud computing has the ability to transform an IT’s focus from performing business as usual activities (keeping the organization running) to driving IT innovation," explained Shally Stanley, managing director, Global Services…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Maureen O’Gara.

Eucalyptus, the open source private cloud platform partnered with Amazon to give people hybrid clouds, has found selling support and professional services, the usual way an open source company makes money, isn’t working as a business because would-be customers are too tight-fisted.  As a result it didn’t grow as much as expected last year.

So it’s regrouping. It’s open sourcing its services and training, CEO Marten Mickos said, to focus on its product business, where it’s seeing early indications of large cloud implementations and the potential for a big business thanks in part to its alliance with Amazon, whose APIs are the recognized cloud standard…

Grazed from InformationWeek.  Author: Charles Babcock.

SavvisDirect, the cloud arm of CenturyLink telecommunications, has launched a private cloud service for application development, AppGrid, to give enterprises a secure setting in which to produce and deploy new applications.

Public cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services EC2, are already frequently used as a testing site for new software. Test servers can be commissioned, configured to match a production environment and then dismantled when testing is done. In addition, platforms as a service, such as Heroku, bring sophisticated services to developers on Amazon to speed application development.  SavvisDirect is creating an alternative to the public cloud setting. It’s inviting enterprise developers to adopt AppGrid as an off-premises cloud service that is nonetheless an unshared, single tenant environment where sensitive code can be produced, tested and deployed behind secure barriers…

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Maureen O’Gara.

PCs being what they are nowadays HP went into the Chromebook business Monday. Demand for the kind of ho-hum computing the thing exemplifies is apparently expanding. Acer says that its $199 C7 Chromebook now accounts for 5%-10% of its US shipments. Samsung, which leads in the space, has a $249 ARM-based Chromebook and a more fully featured $449 version. Lenovo will be coming out with a $429 ThinkPad X131e Chromebook later this month.

The $330-to-start HP widget is called the Pavilion 14 Chromebook. The 14 comes from its 14-inch 1,366-by-768-pixel screen, the largest on the market so far.  The 4lb dingus is built on a dual-core 1.1GHz Intel Celeron chip, 16GB of flash storage, 2GB of RAM, expandable to 4GB, with Wi-Fi, Ethernet, a 720p camera, three USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port and an SD card slot. HP says the battery is only good for four hours and 15 minutes. Samsung and Lenovo are supposed to do six hours. It ships with 100GB of free Google Drive cloud storage for two years, otherwise priced at $120.