Grazed from eWeek. Author: Darryl K. Taft.

Eucalyptus Systems, a provider of private and hybrid cloud computing software, has announced several new capabilities within its open-source cloud software including new management and storage features.

Eucalyptus 3.2 introduces several new features that increase control and management of cloud resources including a new graphical user interface that enables self-service capabilities, simplified cloud administration and enhanced cloud usage reporting. Eucalyptus Systems officials maintain that Eucalyptus 3.2 furthers the company’s position in open-source cloud computing software for private and hybrid clouds…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Jack Clark.

Google has added 36 new types of server to its rentable cloud infrastructure. The additions to Google Compute Engine, the company’s infrastructure-as-a-service technology, were announced by Google on Monday. "At launch we offered four basic [instance types]," Barak Regev, head of Google’s Cloud Platform in EMEA, told ZDNet. "If you aggregate [the 36 new instances] into brackets, you’ll see they are touching the high-memory and high-CPU instances [but] the one that is most notable is the diskless file configuration."

The diskless configuration’s instances let developers rent lower-cost instances for applications that do not need a dedicated disk attached to their server – an ‘ephemeral’ disk – but can handle a separate ‘persistent’ disk. Ephemeral disks are faster but do not retain data across instances. Google is also cutting the prices of its main four instances by around five percent…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Joe Panetierri.

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is at a crossroads. CEO Paul Otellini is preparing to retire; the tablet and smartphone markets remain difficult to crack; and new platforms like ultrabooks running Windows 8 or Windows 7 have yet to ignite major PC upgrade cycles. But there could be a silver lining in all this. It’s call Intel Hybrid Cloud. The big question: Will Intel put serius marketing muscle behind this potential channel partner opportunity, especially as partners seek alternatives to Microsoft’s discontinued Windows Small Business Server (SBS).

Intel Hybrid Cloud essentially is an on-premises small business server that can link to a range of managed and cloud services. Special offers include a BDR (backup and disaster recovery) appliance running StorageCraft, and Level Platforms software that allows MSPs (managed services providers) to remotely manage and troubleshoot customer systems…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Radhika Nallayam.

Years from today, when historians tell our children the story of IT circa 2012, the shift to opex models is going to be an important milestone and they will point to cloud computing as the incendiary that lit the first flame.

Like many historians, they will be wrong; opex models have existed before cloud computing. But it’s hard to blame them for thinking that. While the cloud isn’t the first opex model, it’s definitely served as a tipping point for the opex-IT movement. It’s what fired CFO imaginations as they dreamed of a world where sunk IT costs were a thing of the past…

Grazed from UCStrategies.com. Author: Editorial Staff.

The latest CIO Tech Priorities research reveals that head IT-decision makers intend to heighten spending over the next year. It is anticipated that the biggest amount of this spending will go towards cloud computing services, mobile technology, and finally, business intelligence and analytics (BI&A). According to the most recent CIO Magazine Tech Poll/Tech Priorities survey, IT budgets are expected to increase in the next year and mobile technology investments are likely to take the biggest portion. The other realms that are expected to use a significant share of the increased budget include cloud computing services and BI&A.

The CIO survey results discovered that 48 percent of the respondents believe that the next year will bring a surge in IT spending. Thirty-nine percent reported that budgets will remain the same, and the additional 13 percent expect budget cuts for IT…

Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: PR Announcement.

With a string of new customers and alliances with strategic partners for its cloud-based medical image archive platform, Dell has been recognized as one of the largest healthcare cloud computing providers in the industry.

In September, Frost & Sullivan recognized Dell Healthcare and Life Sciences with its 2012 North American Company of the Year Award, based on the firm’s analysis of the enterprise imaging informatics market. "In addition to operating the industry’s largest public cloud for medical imaging, Dell is also ideally positioned for the implementation of private clouds within multisite hospital and imaging center networks," said Nadim Daher, principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan…

Grazed from ComputerWorldUK. Author: Forrester.

James Staten and I wrote this vision of the future of cloud computing. The full report is available to Forrester clients at this link. The research is part of Forrester’s playbook to advise CIOs on productive use of cloud computing and is relevant to application development and delivery leaders as well.

This research charts the shifts taking place in the market as indicated by the most advanced cloud developers and consumers. In the future, look for the popular software-as-a-service (SaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) models to become much more flexible by allowing greater customisation and integration…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Joe Panetierri.

What’s next for the HP Public Cloud? Senior VP Zorawar ‘Biri’ Singh will deliver the answers during HP Discover 2012 (Dec. 4-6, Franfurt, Germany). Sure, CEO Meg Whitman will assure customers and partners that HP is on the mend following a brutal write-down tied to the 2011 Autonomy acquisition. But for established and emerging cloud partners, Singh’s words will matter most.

As senior VP and general manager, HP Cloud Services, Singh has been working to effectively position his company against entrenched rivals (Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Cloud, etc.) and old foes that are moving into cloud computing (Dell, IBM, Oracle). He explained the strategy — including channel partner considerations — to Talkin’ Cloud during the OpenStack conference in April 2012…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Abdul Salam.

Cloud computing is now in heavy use in the industry and even the consumer market is starting to consider the benefits of cloud computing. Even though it is using the same technology that we have since more than 10 years ago, the cloud computing paradigm made all of the difference by simply changing the implementation of networking technology. But what exactly drives the development of cloud technology, what motivates its constant update, and what prevents people from adopting it?

Well, the biggest driver of cloud computing has always been economics. Because of changing market trends, heavy competition, and a failing world economy, IT organizations, companies, and other businesses need to be able to adapt to the rapid changes in order to stay afloat and make profit. Cloud computing brings with it immediate advantages because of cost savings.

The following are cost saving benefits are immediately felt by a business the moment they implement cloud computing technologies…