Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Don Cleveland.

Human rationality is quickly becoming a castaway in the study of economics and psychology. That humans make decisions irrationally is an irrefutable precept as evidenced by empirical research. What these studies have uncovered is than when it comes to dealing with the emotions that naturally arise in the decision making process, avoiding risk trumps rational decision-making. The key issue is how the issue is framed to begin with.

One of the problems with cloud computing is overcoming its name. For most people, “the cloud” does not relate to some diagraming by computer scientists to illustrate how cloud computing operates. That frame of reference is only relevant to a narrow portion of tech savvy professionals. When most people here the word, “cloud” they unconsciously begin framing a set of references like: dreamy, foggy, haziness, overcast, and overshadow. Without being aware of it, putting one’s valuable data in the cloud becomes a lot more like driving one’s children around in an exploding Pinto from the 1970s than purchasing the latest technology…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Dan Woods.

Every part of the world of business computing is getting cloudier. By that I mean that computing resources are becoming virtual. Instead of running on a physical machine, our applications run on virtual machines, ones created by software and controlled by APIs. This is happening in data centers who are using VMware and other virtualization technologies to increase utilization and flexibility, and in public and private clouds created by the likes of Amazon and Rackspace that provide on-demand computing resources.

In the face of all of this hardware becoming software, It is easy to think that we can forget about the physical world. But this is not true, especially when it comes to the network layer. I recently started studying a company called Gnodal, which creates a new kind of Ethernet-based, ASIC-accelerated switch that can dynamically optimize the flow of network traffic. Learning about this technology has convinced me that more and more companies are going to face a large bump in the road as their infrastructure becomes more virtual…

Grazed from Financial Post. Author: Adrian Tan and Alvaro Flores.

More and more start-ups, entrepreneurial and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are migrating to the cloud and grappling with new tax considerations and challenges. Ernst & Young’s latest Global information security survey reveals 45% of companies have already deployed or are evaluating cloud services. What’s more, cloud revenue growth is expected to experience a 26% compound annual growth rate from now until 2014. That’s five times faster than the IT industry as a whole.

Cloud computing has the potential to increase the effectiveness of IT initiatives, reduce the cost of in-house operations, increase operational flexibility and generate a competitive advantage in global markets. The cost efficiencies of cloud computing, in particular, can enable start-ups and SMEs to implement IT services without substantial upfront investment. But while the benefits may be clear, the risks are too often overlooked…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Joe McKendrick.

Andi Mann, vice president for strategic solutions at CA Technologies, for one, questions whether CIOs are the right individuals to talk to about the success of cloud computing. And he takes the original Navint Partners report – which was based on qualitative interviews with 20 CIOs – to task.

“Twenty CIOs are happy, so far, with cloud computing. But what about their bosses, their employees, their organization’s partners and their customers?” he asks. “Are they happy?” In order to understand the business success of cloud computing or any innovative technology, Mann points out, “we need to (a) talk to more than just CIOs, (b) be certain we’re asking all the right questions, and (c) hit a larger sample than just four percent of the Fortune 500.”…

Grazed from ITWorld Canada. Author: Howard Solomon.

Traditionally, Canadian organizations are slow to adopt technology and cloud computing is no different. But the country manager for EMC Corp., which sells storage and virtualization solutions, isn’t frustrated by our conservatism.

“It doesn’t because the whole ‘big bang’ approach to go [entirely] to the public cloud is a difficult approach to make,” Michael Sharum, said in an interview Wednesday at the EMC Forum, a day-long seminar in Toronto to showcase its solutions…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Rohan Pearce.

Elasticity — the ability to ramp up or down computing resources depending on need — is one of the key benefits of cloud computing. Not being shackled to their own, in-house hardware means organisations can dial up the amount of resources they need to crunch big data sets, run their Web presence during spikes and troughs in demand and process periodic jobs without needing the internal resources necessary to cope with peak demand.

But although the IT department may be less likely to have to run out to buy a new server or two, they will still have to make decisions about the purchase of resources from a cloud provider. Of course, cloud computing will let you change your mind and respond to changes in an organisation’s demand, but, according to a group of Microsoft researchers, there may be an easier way to go about it, with benefits for both providers and ‘cloud consumers’…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Which type of Amazon Web Services Reserved Instance should your company deploy and for what time period for any given job? These are the kinds of questions Cloudyn’s new calculator can help you sort out for yourself, the company said.

We all hear how inexpensive Amazon cloud computing services are. We also hear about how many companies spin up way more Amazon EC2 compute power than they need. The net, net, net, is that Amazon, as cheap as it is, could be cheaper if companies just buy and pay for what they need…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

CA Technologies today announced the release of “Cloud Standards: Agreements That Hold Together Clouds,” the latest book from CA Press. The book is a definitive guide to the technology that supports the cloud and the standards that make cloud computing possible.

“Cloud Standards: Agreements That Hold Together Clouds” details existing and in-progress industry standards related to cloud computing. With more than 20 years of industry experience, author Marvin Waschke is a leading authority on cloud standards. In the book, Waschke draws upon years of active participation in standards groups including the DMTF Cloud Management Working Group, the OASIS TOSCA Technical Committee and the W3C Service Modeling Language Working Group. He provides an in-depth overview of how existing standards are used and gives engineers practical advice on constructing clouds and cloud-based services…

Grazed from Reuters. Author: Editorial Staff.

Akamai Technologies Inc (AKAM.O) beat Wall Street expectations as the internet content delivery company reported higher revenue in its cloud computing and media delivery segments. Shares of the company, which helps firms deliver content faster by avoiding congestion on the Web, were up 5.5 percent in after-market trade.

Akamai has been benefiting from a strong demand for online videos and companies spending more on internet initiatives to cut costs…