Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Don Cleveland.

Could the reign of the IT department over cloud computing business decisions be coming to an end? Writing for ZD Net, Sam Shead reported on a survey that demonstrated a dramatic changing of the guard when it comes to decisions about implementing cloud technologies. Rather than leaders in the IT department, executives are taking charge of critical decisions involving the cloud signaling both the importance of cloud technology and up coming changes in the way this medium will be managed.

The report, issued by Capgemini, covers responses from 460 companies worldwide and provides evidence that a shift is taking place from the IT department to executives without IT experience. Citing the UK as one example, the report states that more times than not, business executives are the key decision makers when it comes to the cloud…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Editorial Staff.

Symantec foresees several exciting trends in the storage space in the coming year. Here are top seven trends that are set to influence the storage area within the enterprise IT in 2013:

1. Software defined data center becomes the new buzzword

Software defined data centers will take on cloud computing to become the new industry buzzword. In 2013, software defined storage will have significant impact on cloud, appliances and SSDs/Flash storage implementations. Also, commodity hardware, appliances and cloud will become increasingly reliant on smart software that will define and drive the future of data center computing…

Grazed from eCommerce Times. Author: Dana Gardner.

"If you look back to 2011, 10 percent of the survey respondents would have said that the cloud is just too risky, and they gave many reasons last year. This year, we’re down to 3 percent. So that’s a significant drop, said Michael Skok, partner at North Bridge Venture Partners. "I’d argue that 3 percent says that you’re at a point where people are beginning to understand cloud better."

A recent survey on cloud computing explored the business growth opportunities for buyers and consumers of cloud services alike, and its findings about confidence are surprising. Businesses are experimenting with the technologies and services that are available. The multi-year annual survey on the cloud market provides a springboard to examine some of the implications for where the growth opportunities and inhibitors may be…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Which OpenStack component is best for your needs? Mirantis says its Do-it-Yourself OpenStack service can sort this out for you and provide the best, most stable OpenStack infrastructure to meet given needs. OpenStack is coming into its own, at least if you count the number of companies delivering OpenStack-based cloud infrastructure. But with variety comes confusion. Who do you go with? Rackspace? Red Hat? Hewlett-Packard? Cloudscaling? SUSE? Ubuntu? Internap? Someone else? Storage from one vendor, compute from another? Mirantis is pitching itself as just the company to sort out the best OpenStack technologies for a given implementation.

The systems integrator is now offering its prescriptions for the best “Do it yourself” OpenStack for your needs, said Boris Renski, co-founder of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company. Mirantis, a member of the OpenStack Foundation board, says its already delivered more than 30 OpenStack deployments for companies including The Gap, PayPal, Internap, Webex, Internap — even NASA, the great grandaddy of OpenStack itself…

Grazed from ComputerWeekly. Author: Warwick Ashford.

Security continues to hinder organisations in adopting cloud computing, at least for mission-critical or sensitive data applications. Concerns about sensitive data sitting on infrastructure shared with competitors continue to linger, but the power of cloud computing is now being put forward as an effective way of dealing with increasingly dynamic and advanced threats.

Some security suppliers are even looking at cloud computing to give them the competitive edge in detecting and mitigating previously unknown threats in near real time. So can cloud computing tackle new and emerging cyber threats, or is this just a new round of security industry marketing hype?…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Rich Hein.

The push is on to put more infrastructure and services in the cloud, but what does that mean for the cloud technology job market? The term cloud computing has become part of the vernacular in companies of all industries and sizes. Over the past few years, more and more companies are moving to the cloud to save money, scale more easily and achieve faster times to production.

If you frequent job boards or listen to chatter about cloud jobs, there is an explosion of career opportunities, but according to David Foote of Foote Partners, a Florida-based analyst firm that specialises in IT analysis and forecasting, cloud roles have yet to be clearly defined. "We’re in a period of transition where we’re moving to the next level of what cloud means," Foote says. The challenge many companies face, Foote says, is that we have yet to define the skills necessary for leveraging all the cloud has to offer, and as a result there’s a lot of confusion over what a cloud role really is…

Grazed from Data Center Journal. Author: Matt Zieg.

The cloud. The name conjures images of an obscuring mist always out of our reach. The reality of cloud computing can seem just as mysterious. Before hurtling into this nebulous IT frontier, it is important to separate hype from reality. This discussion closely examines the validity of some commonly held beliefs about the cloud and a summary of those findings.

Cloud computing is a powerful and important tool for today’s businesses, but like any tool it must be used properly to realize its true benefit. Responsible businesses and IT departments will take the time to fully understand the risks and benefits associated with the cloud, challenge common assumptions and misperceptions, and make informed decisions that benefit their organizations and their customers. In evaluating these cloud-related assumptions, Emerson Network Power researchers focused specifically on public clouds and posed a simple question: Fact or fiction?…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Matt Prigge.

By now, just about everyone is familiar with the potential benefits of the public cloud, even if they haven’t yet decided to leverage it in some way. The elasticity and scalability offered by the cloud combined with pay-as-you-go pricing can be compelling.

However, for heavy cloud users, simply comparing the costs and relative flexibility of running workloads in the cloud versus running them on-premise doesn’t tell the whole story. Potential users must consider how they’re actually going to get access to the systems that reside in the cloud — especially in relation to hybrid cloud and storage-intensive applications…

Grazed from Forbed. Author: Joe McKendrick.

Every year at this time, analysts, prognosticators and pundits alike try to size up the year ahead in technology. And — no surprise — cloud computing is this year’s hottest topic. Cloud is already a force to be reckoned with on the business technology scene — IT executives, vendors and analysts alike are trying to keep up to determine what it all really means and where it is taking us.

To that end, I culled analysts’ prediction lists for 2013 and identified some practical predictions that are likely to come to pass, if they haven’t done so already. Here are some of the predictions that really make sense:…

Cloud, Control or Both