Grazed from Out-Law.com. Author: Editorial Staff.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) said that businesses and individuals would be more likely to utilise cloud computing (CC) if their "trust" in the technology grew. It said that there is inherently less trust in using non-EU providers of cloud services and encouraged the Commission to take measures, such as enabling the use of "subsidies", to encourage EU-based cloud suppliers to emerge and improve trust levels.

The EESC said that there is currently a "dependency" on non-European companies providing cloud services to EU citizens because some existing EU-based providers lack the "same level of global visibility and influence" as Amazon, Microsoft and Google and are therefore "unable to compete" with those US firms…

Grazed from CloudTimes. Author: Saroj Kar.

While cloud computing is in first place among the technologies of interest to the corporate sector, the industry is a struggle for professionals in this field. In 2012, more than 1.7 million jobs in the field of cloud computing remain unoccupied, according to analysts firm IDC. The reason for this is lack of qualifications and certificates from applicants.

The trend is likely to continue in 2013 and staffing professionals worldwide said IT hiring will focus on jobs involving cloud computing, mobile technology and business intelligence. Enterprises are using SaaS (software as a service) products from a variety of vendors, but the developers, consultants and overall workforce necessary to support the technology haven’t developed quickly enough, said Eric Berridge, co-founder of IT consulting and resources firm Bluewolf…

Grazed from Smart Data Collective. Author: Vanessa Parks.

Cloud computing is now not just about uploading your files in Yahoo! Groups or Google Communities for sharing with a common group. Cloud computing today speaks of large data and resources used by enterprises. There are many businesses and industries affected by this trend in technology. One of which is the health care sector. In this article, we will talk about the impact of cloud computing to this industry in the nearest future.

1. Record and Protect Patients’ Information Safely

There’s a saying that doctors can never tell who their patients are to prevent judgments. Patients’ information contains such confidential pieces of data that need to be protected at all times. This is the very reason why the hospital’s IT infrastructure and network must be so secured from hackers or anyone who attempt to get data illegally. Cloud computing, in its most initial state, has had issues regarding security. However now that many experts joined in to make the system really hard to break into, organizations can rest assured that there are increased levels of security and privacy in the cloud. Hospitals who want to use cloud computing must adhere to the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)…

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

Panzura, a start-up with global cloud storage solutions, has gotten three patents on its widgetry from the US Patent and Trademark Office.
No. 8,306,948 – "Global Deduplication File System"
No. 8,341,363 – "Efficient Cloud Network Attached Storage"
No. 8,356,016 – "Forwarding File-System-Level Information to a Storage Management System"

The company says the new patents recognize the underlying technology of its Panzura Operating System, which forms the core of its Global Cloud Storage System. It says it’s the industry’s first storage solution to bring advanced NAS capabilities to a distributed, cloud-integrated storage tier, providing a globally distributed storage system with LAN-like performance…

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."…