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…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

The eighth annual Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report, from security provider Arbor Networks, reveals how both cloud service providers and traditional data centers are under attack. The report examined a 12-month period and asked 200 security-based questions of 130 enterprise and network operations professionals. The key findings follow:

• 94 percent of data center managers reported some type of security attacks
• 76 percent had to deal with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on their customers
• 43 percent had partial or total infrastructure outages due to DDoS
• 14 percent had to deal with attacks targeting a cloud service

The report concluded that cloud services are very tempting for DDoS attackers, who now focus mainly on private data centers. It’s safe to assume that, as more cloud services come into use, DDoS attacks on them will become more commonplace…

Grazed from Delimeter. Author: Renai LeMay.

Hosting and cloud computing giant Rackspace this morning revealed it had hired one of Australia’s most cloud-savvy chief information officers, former Altium IT executive Alan Perkins, in a key role to spearhead the adoption and development of the company’s solutions in Australia.

Rackspace is one of the largest global hosting companies, providing a range of services from eight existing datacentres located overseas, and as of late 2012, from a new datacentre based in Australia. The company provides infrastructure services ranging from dedicated hosting to private and public cloud services, as well as application hosting — such as email systems. Locally, it already counts prominent organisations such as Rio Tinto, Telstra, Australia Post, Monash University and Tourism Queensland among its customers…

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Russell deVries.

If you’re in the IT space, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, odds are you’ve heard about cloud computing. In fact, you’re probably hearing about applications “in the cloud” now more than ever – accompanied by much debate and controversy. But what is cloud computing and how is it valuable for email archiving.

According to Gartner’s Key Issues for Cloud Computing (2009), cloud computing is “a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service to customers using Internet technologies.” This broad definition is the reason why the umbrella of cloud computing is so huge; it’s a scalable technology than can be applied to virtually anything. In fact, it is being applied to virtually anything. There almost too many types of public cloud computing to keep up with, including:…

Grazed from Piston Cloud. Author: PR Announcement.

Piston Cloud Computing, Inc., the enterprise OpenStack™ company, today announced it has raised $8 million in Series B funding. The investment will be used to fuel product development, meet the needs of Piston Cloud’s rapidly expanding customer base and further deliver on the company’s vision for mass adoption of OpenStack. Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Data Collective and Swisscom Ventures join Divergent Ventures, Hummer Winblad and True Ventures as principal investors.

Corporate Milestones
• Today’s $8 million in Series B financing follows a $4.5 million Series A round in July 2011.
• Launched the first commercial OpenStack distribution with the general availability of the company’s flagship solution, Piston Enterprise OpenStack™, software for building, scaling and managing a private Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud on bare-metal, converged commodity hardware.
• Integration with Cloud Foundry™, the leading open source Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering, that allows Cloud Foundry PaaS to run on OpenStack…

Grazed from Windows IT Pro. Author: Editorial Staff.

Last week, Microsoft launched Office 365 Home Premium subscription service, the version of its cloud service aimed at home users of the company’s Office suite of applications. Subscribers will get the new Microsoft Office 2013 versions of Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word. What got somewhat lost in the shuffle of this launch was that Office 2013 was also released for purchase in the traditional software model. I’m sure that’s no mistake, as Microsoft transitions to a "devices and services" company.

Microsoft also announced that the business versions of Office 365 would launch with new capabilities on February 27, which is probably the bigger news for IT pros. However, the company created some hoopla around the launch of the consumer-focused Office 365 Home Premium with an event in New York at Bryant Park where visitors were able try features of the new releases, including Skype world calling — which you won’t get in the retail version of Office. In all of Microsoft’s signage and press material surrounding the launch, the subscription model is highlighted and the straight software for purchase looks like an afterthought…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Joe Panettieri.

At Parallels Summit 2013, watch for trends involving telco cloud services, as well as new companies integrating their email security, open source, storage and eDiscovery solutions with Parallels’ technology. Parallels Summit, a major cloud computing conference, kicks off today in Las Vegas. CEO Birger Steen says SMB cloud computing has gone mainstream. So what’s next for VARs, MSPs and aspiring cloud services providers (CSPs)? Talkin’ Cloud offers these five trends and news tips, which are worth tracking at the conference this week.

1. Telcos Become CSPs: It sounds like about 15 of the top 30 top telcos are leveraging Parallels’ automation software to build out their cloud services. I need to double-check those figures, but the overall trend is clear. Classic telecommunications companies, ILECs and other phone service specialists see Parallels as a path to offering cloud services…