Grazed from The Journal. Author: Margo Pierce.

Businesses use cloud computing differently than educators do, but access, security, cost, and scalability are shared concerns. The report "A Snapshot into Cloud Storage Adoption produced" by TwinStrata, a data storage company, offers the perspective of those using or exploring cloud storage options. The company conducted a survey of more than 200 people that “focuses on the attitudes and experiences of a cloud-friendly sample group as determined by their attendance at one of two cloud-focused conferences.” Here are some highlights of the results.

Eighty percent of current cloud storage users claim that they can recover their data in less than 24 hours, with nearly a quarter believing that they have instantaneous recovery. In comparison, nearly one in six respondents who do not use cloud storage estimated that it would take more than a week to recover their data in the event of a disaster…

Grazed from InforWorld. Author: Mikael Ricknäs.

Users of Amazon Web Services’ Relational Database Service (RDS) can now keep track of their databases with new notifications via email and SMS. Amazon’s Simple Notification Service (SNS) will give administrators a heads-up when their databases are running low on storage, have shut down, or a backup has started or finished. More than 40 types of notifications are available, Amazon said in a blog post on Monday.

Users can choose to receive different categories of notifications. For example, if administrators subscribe to the backup category for a given database instance, they will be notified whenever a backup-related event occurs, according to a support document published by Amazon. There are also notifications for availability and configuration changes. The notifications can be used with all three databases — MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server — that run on Amazon’s cloud using RDS, which is still being beta tested…

Grazed from Ravello. Author: PR Announcement.

Cloud computing company Ravello Systems Inc. has raised $15 million in second financing round. The company has now raised a total of $26 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Norwest Venture Partners since it was founded in 2011.

Ravello, founded by CEO Rami Tamir and chairman and president Benny Schnaider, has developed what it calls the standard KVM hypervisor, which it says will change the game in the hybrid cloud market by delivering the industry’s first cloud application hypervisor. Ravello is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and has offices in Ra’anana. This is the fourth start up founded by Schnaider and Tamir. In September 2008, they sold Qumranet Inc. to Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) for $107 million…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Joe Panettieri.

More than 50 percent of the world’s top 30 global telecommunications companies have bet their cloud services strategies on Parallels’ software. Moreover, 9,000 service providers and more than 50,000 web developers leverage Parallels’ software to serve millions of SMB customers. So what’s next? How about new Parallels Cloud Storage technology that allows service providers to counter Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Simple Storage Service (S3)?

Parallels CEO Birger Steen announced the updates during Parallels Summit in Las Vegas, where the company is hosting ISVs, VARs, telcos and aspiring cloud services providers (CSPs). During a pre-conference interview last week, Steen outlined a range of moves for Talkin’ Cloud. They included: …

Grazed from Wired. Author: Ryan Kean.

Cloud computing offers a value proposition that is different from traditional enterprise IT environments. By providing a way to exploit virtualization and aggregate computing resources, cloud computing can offer economies of scale that would otherwise be unavailable. The elastic nature of cloud computing provides near immediate access to resources. This is in contrast to the traditional approach of investing capital, resources and time in designing and implementing infrastructure (hardware and middleware). This allows organizations to drive to realize business benefits faster by shortening time to market.

Understand the benefits and risks

While the benefits of cloud computing can be very persuasive, consumers must have a clear understanding of potential security benefits and risks of a potential cloud provider. This allows a consumer to set realistic expectations with their internal business partners as well as the cloud provider. Transitioning to public cloud computing involves a transfer of responsibility and control to the cloud provider over information as well as system components that were previously under the organization’s direct control. The transition is usually accompanied by loss of direct control over the management of operations and also a loss of influence over decisions made about the computing environment…

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

IBM says it is buying the software portfolio of Star Analytics Inc, a privately held business analytics firm in California, on undisclosed terms. The acquisition, another in a string of Big Data and analytics acquisitions, is supposed to advance IBM’s business analytics initiatives so clients can get faster access and real-time insight into specialized data sources.

Star Analytics software helps automatically integrate essential information from applications and business intelligence tools across the enterprises, on-premise or from the cloud. It removes custom coding for specialized sources that are hard to maintain and retires manual processes that are cumbersome and time-consuming…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Appcore, provider of the industry’s only complete automated cloud computing platform, is proud to announce its newest customer, CloudNet. CloudNet has selected Appcore to bring content streaming and cloud services to Asia. Formed by a team of IT, telecom, marketing and engineering professionals, CloudNet aims to make IT simple for users and become a market leader in Infrastructure-as-a-Service. The company is based in Hong Kong and serves clients and business partners primarily in Hong Kong and China.

CloudNet’s business model, "make IT simple," reflects the company’s decision to partner with Appcore. "We were convinced that Appcore’s all-in-one model is an outstanding infrastructure solution that delivers value to service providers, data center operators and enterprises," said Joseph Tse, CEO of CloudNet. "Appcore has offered CloudNet effective and efficient tools to develop our business and competitive edge. CloudNet will work as a strategic partner with Appcore to jointly develop a market entry strategy for the Greater China market."…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Art Landro.

Businesses rely on the implementation of processes. Cloud-based software provides a way for easy management and alleviates issues companies face trying to improve these processes, particularly when it comes to prototyping and modeling. A question many businesses are trying to address is: How can cloud ensure smooth Business Process Management?

The speed of getting started is a huge benefit of bringing cloud technology to BPM. Typically, BPM-in-the-cloud providers offer this capability “as a Service,” meaning that companies can start with BPM without the need to install and set up the software themselves. The price point to enter BPM through the cloud is usually lower due to the “pay for use” subscription model. Companies can “sample” BPM to see what if it is right for them. Finally, it is easier to orchestrate applications and data that reside in the cloud, so running BPM in the cloud makes processes more efficient…

Grazed from V3.co.uk. Author: Dan Worth.

IBM has announced an update to its Power Systems offerings which is says will bring big data analytics capabilities to smaller firms and emerging markets and tackle rivals HP and Oracle.  The new Power Express entry-level and midrange offerings are based on Power7+ processors that have been optimised for use with the firm’s own analytics technologies such as Cognos and SPSS, IBM said.

The new products are listed as the Power Express 710, 720, 730 and 740, will start from $5,947 and begin shipping from 20 February. IBM said this will enable it compete with similar technology from rivals Oracle and HP. Rod Adkins, senior vice president for IBM Systems and Technology Group, said the new offerings would help firms with smaller balance sheets utilise the benefits of big data…

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Ellen Messmer.

A substantial number of businesses say cloud computing security challenges are daunting and the costs higher than they originally thought they would be, according to the Cloud Survey report published today by consultancy KPMG International. The study indicates that one-half of the 650 respondents said their organizations already make use of the cloud for business processes.

Two of the main reasons given for moving to cloud-based services were to make it easier to enter new markets and drives process transformation. But one-third said the cost of moving to the cloud were higher than expected, mainly because they belatedly discovered that it involved more changes in their existing business and IT architectures than they’d originally recognized. The problems they encountered included failure to address changes that were needed in business-process redesign, IT management capabilities, systems integration, infrastructure and various IT "configurations" involved in the transition process, the report notes…