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

Violin Memory, the flash storage house reportedly looking to go public this year, has bought GridIron Systems, a start-up whose software accelerates enterprise applications such as online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehouses, virtualization and Big Data analytics. GridIron sells a box called TurboCharger that’s supposed to make applications two-10 times faster.
Violin isn’t saying what it paid but the price is rumored to be between $200 million and $300 million.

GridIron raised about $30 million in VC funding from Mohr Davidow, Foundation Capital and Trinity Ventures. Violin says GridIron brings its arrays complementary application acceleration and SAN-based caching technologies…

Grazed from DailyNation. Author: Esmond Shahonya.

In April 2011, a major failure in Amazon Cloud services brought down thousands of company websites that had rented storage space in the Internet firm. That exposed the risks of cloud computing to enterprises, especially for those that fail to invest in back-up systems.

Locally, Safaricom has faced some challenges of hosting M-Pesa servers in an off-shore cloud computing matrix. The trouble has been that whenever there is a problem on the host in Germany, the service is adversely hit. Last year, it was characterised with outages that reflected on the bleak reality of cloud computing…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Brad Hale.

The delivery of computing as a service, or cloud computing, over a network is becoming more and more mainstream and is allowing businesses of all sizes to get their applications up and running faster, with easier manageability and less maintenance. Cloud computing allows enterprises, and enables IT, to more rapidly adjust IT resources (apps, servers, storage, and networking) to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.

Cloud computing forces us to change our traditional approach to application and network management. No longer do we have a fixed number of assets that must remain running 100% of the time, and performing to the best of their abilities. Instead, we have on-demand computing where resource needs, such as servers and applications, and capacity fluctuates based on demand…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

In a recent survey of 2,000 CIOs, a Gartner report revealed that the execs’ top tech priorities for 2013 include cloud computing in general, as well as its specific types: software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS). No surprise there. Of course, every year since 2008 has been deemed the "year of the cloud." Yes, small cloud projects exist and Amazon Web Services did not get to be a billion-dollar company due to a lack of interest. However, the adoption has been slow if steady. It isn’t exploding, as everyone has predicted for each year.

At least CIOs finally get it: Either figure out a way to leverage cloud technology, or get into real estate. Although this technology is still emerging, the value of at least putting together a plan and a few projects has been there for years. The business cases have always existed…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Allan Leinwand.

Without needing to snoop, your cloud provider has access to crucial data about your business. Allan Leinwand, of ServiceNow, says that’s why you may need a Chinese Wall between you and your cloud provider.

In today’s world of fierce co-opetition, your cloud provider may be both your partner and competitor – and building your business on top of your competitor’s cloud is a very dangerous way to live. When the ancient Chinese wanted to keep their population safe from dangerous invaders, they built a wall. So, does your business need a Chinese Wall to provide protection from a possible invasion by your cloud provider?…

Grazed from Courthouse News.  Author: Philip A Janquart.

The Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services has proposed that "inclusive Cloud and Web computing" be a priority for the federal Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects (DRRP) and Centers.  In the United States, people classified as "disabled" are accessing the World Wide Web 23 percent less than the rest of the population, according to the National Broadband Plan and a 2010 Federal Communications Commission report.

"One reason for the disparity is that the Web infrastructure is not set up to address disability access issues seamlessly across all of its functions," the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services explained. "Additionally, software and devices (e.g., computers, smartphones and tablets) used to access the Web are often inaccessible for people with disabilities, and individuals with disabilities have limited access to technical assistance with selecting, setting up and using appropriate technologies."…

Grazed from The Smart Data Collective.  Author: Editorial Staff.

The long-awaited final modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement and Breach Rules were introduced Thursday. The 563-word document outlines the changes that were initially slated for implementation last summer (remember the omnibus rule?). So how do these modifications affect HIPAA cloud providers?

While cloud providers have generally been considered and treated as business associates in the industry, the modifications make it even clearer that data center operators are officially considered business associates and are also directly liable for being compliant with the HIPAA standards that apply to business associates. The federal document states:…

Grazed from OutLaw.com.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Symantec said that nearly 1,000 of the 3,236 business and IT executives within global organisations of all sizes it had surveyed about the ‘hidden costs of cloud’ had simultaneously reported rogue cloud use within their firm and the loss of confidential information last year. Symantec defined ‘rogue clouds’ as "business groups implementing public cloud applications that are not managed by or integrated into the company’s IT infrastructure".  The primary reason why businesses allowed rogue use of cloud was to save money, according to Symantec.

"Perhaps the sales manager signs his department up for Salesforce without thinking to consult IT," Symantec said in a new report (11-page / 4.62MB PDF). "Or perhaps marketing shares important launch materials with outside vendors via an unauthorized Dropbox account. In either case the organization has put sensitive information into the cloud without organizational oversight. It’s a surprisingly common problem, found in three-quarters of all organizations. It also seems to be an issue experienced more by enterprises (83%) than SMBs (70%)."…

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

Avnet Embedded, an Avnet unit by way of Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas, has launched Open Compute Project (OCP) Innovation Labs as both technology showcases and development labs for users, developers and partners to design, deliver and integrate cost-effective, power-efficient compute, storage and networking solutions.

It says the lab will provide the OCP community with local and remote access to resources offering "hands-on" enablement of platform and configuration testing, hardware and software validation, performance tuning and community innovation. Avnet will bring together the hardware, connectivity and technical support resources to assist developers with application creation…

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

Calxeda, the Texas start-up with the ARM-based servers, joined the Open Compute Project (OCP) this week, contributing Project Knockout to the cause’s Open Vault dumb storage scheme.
A spec enhancement to the SAS expander slot on the Open Vault spec, Project Knockout injects compute into the customer’s storage tier.

Calxeda’s chips will be built into the storage chassis, putting processing close to the data and eliminating the need for a separate Xeon server to control the disks in Open Vault. The Knockout board, which will offer independent management that will improve performance, cost and redundancy, is ready for evaluation…