Grazed from Forbes. Author: Louis Columbus.

When the CEO of a rust-belt manufacturer speaks of cloud computing as critical to his company’s business strategies for competing globally, it’s clear a fundamental shift is underway. Nearly every manufacturing company I’ve spoken with in the last ninety days has a mobility roadmap and is also challenged to integrate existing ERP, pricing and fulfillment systems into next-generation selling platforms.

One of the most driven CEOs I’ve met in manufacturing implemented a cloud-based channel management, pricing, quoting and CRM system to manage direct sales and a large distributor network across several countries. Manufacturers are bringing an entirely new level of pragmatism to cloud computing, quickly deflating its hype by pushing for results on the shop floor…

Grazed from PRNewsWired. Author: PR Announcement.

The World’s Top Cloud Computing Event, Cloud Connect (http://www.cloudconnectevent.cn/) will first launch at the Shanghai International Convention Center from September 15 to 17, 2013 (Sunday to Tuesday). Supported by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy & Information and Shanghai Promotion Center of Software Industry, Cloud Connect will engage with nearly 50 top companies and more than 3,000 professional visitors at one time.

The rapid development of the cloud computing business model has had a significant impact on China’s IT industry and created new prospects for it. In 2013, China’s cloud computing service market will develop even further. Cloud computing will become one of the mainstream business models, constantly fused with big data, mobile, socialization, and more. At the time of enterprises’ transitions to the cloud computing model, organizers are introducing Cloud Connect into China, with a goal to provide the latest top cloud technology for Chinese clients and business partners, which will lead an innovation wave for the cloud industry.

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Charles Babcock.

For about an hour starting around 11:30 a.m. Pacific, the Amazon.com retail site was inaccessible to customers. Attempts to access the site were met with a http://1.1 message on an otherwise white and unadorned screen. The site appeared to be operating normally again about 12:45 p.m. Pacific. Several customers noted the outage on Facebook and Twitter. At 12:24 p.m. Pacific, The San Francisco technology reporting site, GigaOm, noted: "Amazon is down; Yes, you read that right."

Security blogger George V. Hulme noted about 12:30 p.m. on Facebook: "Http/1.1 Service Unavailable." Queries submitted to Amazon Web Services and Amazon.com public relations personnel did not result in any immediate response. Amazon Web Services appeared to be up and running during that time. The AWS home page appeared on cue and key services, such as the Heroku cloud running on AWS, were still up during the period Amazon.com was inaccessible.

Grazed from NextGov. Author: Editorial Staff

The Labor Department will pay a vendor up to $50 million to move its employees and contractors to a cloud-based Microsoft email system, according to an award notice. The contract also appears to include systems for Web-based e-discovery, records management and software-as-a-service tools, according to recent solicitation documents.

The Department first sought a vendor for cloud email services in August. The plan at that point was to combine legacy systems from the department’s nine major divisions into a unified email system with three separate domains, one for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, another for the Office of Inspector General and a third for the remainder of the agency, according to the request for proposal…

Grazed from WashingtonPost. Author: Editorial Staff.

Art Liscano knows he’s an endangered species in the job market: He’s a meter reader in Fresno, Calif. For 26 years, he’s driven from house to house, checking how much electricity Pacific Gas & Electric customers have used. But PG&E doesn’t need many people like Liscano making rounds anymore. Every day, the utility replaces 1,200 old-fashioned meters with digital versions that can collect information without human help, generate more accurate power bills, even send an alert if the power goes out.

“I can see why technology is taking over,” says Liscano, 66, who earns $67,000 a year. “We can see the writing on the wall.” His department employed 50 full-time meter readers just six years ago. Now, it has six…

Grazed from IOL. Author: Rob Hastings.

All personal information stored by British internet users on major “cloud” computing services including Google Drive can be spied upon routinely without their knowledge by US authorities under newly-approved legislation, it can be disclosed. Cloud computing has exploded in recent years as a flexible, cheap way for individuals, companies and government bodies to remotely store documents and data. According to some estimates, 35 per cent of UK firms use some sort of cloud system – with Google Drive, Apple iCloud and Amazon Cloud Drive the major players.

But it has now emerged that all documents uploaded on to cloud systems based in the US or falling under Washington’s jurisdiction can be accessed and analysed without a warrant by American security agencies…

Grazed from GovTech. Author: Editorial Staff.

Government agencies are often slowed down by the bureaucracy, creating challenges for pushing forward new ideas that could improve IT operations. In a keynote speech presented at Defining the Cloud for Government, a conference held Wednesday, Jan. 30, in Sacramento, Calif., Brian David Johnson (pictured above), Intel’s futurist and director of future casting and experience research, said it’s crucial for government agencies to think well into the future when planning technology implementations. According to Johnson, cloud computing and big data will figure prominently into that future.

During opening remarks, Carlos Ramos, secretary of the California Technology Agency, said the agency plans to move some applications into a private cloud because he believes cloud computing is the future. He added that government is so reliant on technology that policies and programs “don’t have a prayer” without the use of the cloud. But how can governments look a decade or more into the future?…

Grazed from ComputerWeekly. Author: Archana Venkatraman.

Capacity management is the most underestimated problem of cloud computing, says Morgan Stanley executive director for IT strategy Evangelos Kotsovinos. Evangelos Kotsovinos is leading cloud computing strategy and execution at Morgan Stanley. “One of the main reasons for using cloud computing services is to get efficiency and cost savings. And maximum IT efficiency on the cloud comes from good capacity planning and management,” Kotsovinos said at the Cloud Expo Europe 2013 event. But it is still the most overlooked and underestimated aspect of the cloud, he said.

Many enterprises move to cloud computing without a detailed capacity management strategy because cloud platform is seen as infinitely elastic, where capacity can be purchased as and when needed. But buying resources on the cloud instantly can be expensive and enterprises can mitigate that cost by planning for capacity in advance and avoiding over- or under-provisioning, according to Kotsovinos…

Grazed from MyHostNews. Author: PR Announcement.

A media representative for ToggleBox.com, a cloud hosting services provider, today announced the company won the ‘Cloud Computing’ Editors’ Choice Award for January 2013. To celebrate winning the award, the company’s executive leadership team is currently running a $100,000 giveaway special available to a limited number of new customers. The ‘Cloud Computing’ Editors’ Choice Award was issued by FindMyHost.com which is an industry leading online magazine. FindMyHost.com publishes hosting industry news and maintains a staff that writes reviews of hosting companies throughout the world. Mr. Richard Guzzo, a vice president at FindMyHost.com said, “We’re all very familiar with ToggleBox so we weren’t surprised when it was nominated. They have a great admin team and a superior customer service department.”

“I’ve been using Togglebox for several years and I wouldn’t dare switch to another hosting company. I once had to forget about a website and I’ve had too many bad experiences with other hosts. So far Togglebox is doing pretty good and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”…

Grazed from TechZone360. Author: Peter Bernstein.

One of the real values of coming to TMC’s ITEXPO Miami is capturing the insights of industry experts and visionaries in real-time. The truth is you never know when someone or several of them are going to capture the essence of what is going on in our industry, and do so in a way that really get the juices flowing and social media humming. Such was the case for the featured panel of Day One’s afternoon session, Battle for the Cloud: The Future of Cloud Computing. Let’s start with a rare gathering on one stage of the following:

• Lisa Pierce, Managing VP, Unified Communications, Network Systems and Services Research Team
• IBM, Mike McCarthy, Vice President of Cloud Computing Services
• Citrix, Peter Ulander, VP Product Marketing
• Microsoft,Skip Chilcott, Senior Product Marketing Manager
• HP, Kiran Bellare, Director Product Marketing Cloud Services
• Cisco, Roberto D. De La Mora, Sr. Director Unified Communications…