Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Jack Clark.

Cloud computing is converting from a market defined by different technologies into one defined by quality of service. Existing utility markets include ones for water, electricity, gas and, to a degree, basic internet connectivity. A utility market occurs when an item has been commoditised to the point that it becomes very hard to differentiate on a technology basis, and instead companies distinguish themselves through different levels of service, availability and support.

In the same way that in the early days of electricity there were arguments over whether AC or DC delivered the ‘best type of electricity’, the technology industry continues to debate the merits of certain technologies over others for delivering cloud computing. However, these arguments are growing less fervent as datacentre infrastructure is commoditised and homogenised by large cloud providers…

Grazed from VoiceAndData.ciol. Author: Editorial Staff.

The world we live in is in a rapid state of change in terms of the way we communicate and are connected with each other. We are constantly greeted by new advances in communications technology, be it the smartphone, tablet computers, internet gaming, social networks, or e-services like e-money or e-education. The advent of cloud computing is a natural progression as we advance towards a super-connected world where data centers and local area networks are at the heart of making it all happen. Cloud computing and superconnectivity are placing ever-increasing pressures on these networks.

Networks are now required to increase their capacity and deliver higher data rates and also be energy-efficient. This pressure means that virtualization, next-generation speeds, and the green data center have become key global trends. In striving to cope with these trends, data center managers are destined to encounter certain specific challenges. Data center dynamics (in collaboration with Corning Inc) recently conducted a survey of 160 data centers in the 6 key markets of the UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Middle East, and the US, including the top 100 data center owners and operators in those regions…

Grazed from Computing.co.uk. Author: Editorial Staff.

At a recent Dell roundtable event on the future of cloud computing, the discussion centred around how cloud was not being adopted wholesale by many organisations yet. Various reasons were put forward, such as fear of change, fear of losing control, security issues and so on. A little while later on, several people were pushing the case for cloud around its capability to enable innovation.

Sure, cloud computing can provide a different way of doing things and can encourage a completely different way of facilitating business process – but if this is pushed as the main way that cloud works, then surely all that is happening is that users will be put off more? If fear of change is a factor to scare organisations off from using cloud, then moving critical business workloads to a relatively unproven emerging platform AND changing the way the application runs has to be enough not only to put the techies off the change, but also the business?…

Grazed from ITWorld. Author: John Moore.

When Republic Services sought to retool the systems supporting its national account team, the environmental services company selected Salesforce.com as part of the overhaul-and soon after making that decision, Republic Services hired Bluewolf, a New York-based consulting firm and Salesforce.com partner, for some deployment help.

Bill Halnon, CIO of Republic Services, says his company wanted to work with an experienced hand in the Salesforce.com space. "After selecting the tool, we looked at how we [were] going to implement this," Halnon says. "Even though it is a cloud application, it required some customization and configuration to fit our needs. Just like we would go out and look for an SAP partner, we took the same route with Salesforce.com."…

Grazed from The Next Web. Author: Alex Wilhelm.

The deal’s terms were not made available, however the purchase price could have veered into the low nine-figure range, as StorSimple had raised some $31.5 million prior to its purchase. In Microsoft’s eyes, the company was right in the middle of big data and cloud computing, areas that it itself is investing into quite heavily, with its work on Azure and work with Hadoop. StorSimple, Microsoft told TNW, brings “together on-premises and cloud storage [and] data management.”

It was our perspective then, and remains, that this purchase is essentially a talent and customer acquisition pickup for Azure, a product that is technically capable, but lacks mindshare in the public market, as it competes with rival offerings from Rackspace, and sits in Amazon’s shade…

Grazed from WHIR. Author: Justin Lee.

With the growing complexity of cloud computing and the coexistence of private, hybrid, and public cloud systems and infrastructures, cloud management tools have become more important than ever. There is certainly a need for these tools to offer the same flexibility and scalability as a company’s cloud strategy, as they ensure the company’s cloud-based resources are effectively working and interacting with end users and other services.

A cloud management strategy often involves a range of tasks, such as performance monitoring, security and compliance auditing and management, and the launch and operation of a disaster recovery and contingency plans…