Grazed from Cisco News Room. Author: Anne Field.

Small businesses, of course, can save a ton of money and gain a lot of efficiencies by going to the cloud. But getting there isn’t necessarily that simple. Fact is, one size does not fit all. " A startup marketing company, for example, may take a very different path from an established medical practice," says Igal Rabinovich, CEO of IT Help Central, a White Plains, NY consulting firm. Here are some key considerations to take into account before making the move.

Create a migration plan.

Best is not to make the change willy-nilly, particularly if you think you’ll be moving many applications to the cloud. That means having a roadmap for how you’ll proceed, introducing applications one at a time and testing each one before deciding to go ahead with it and then moving onto the next. You also need to include a training period for employees to learn how to use each application…

Grazed from Data Center Knowledge. Author: Jason Verge.

If you need any more proof of the impact of cloud and spectacular growth of Internet traffic, Cisco’s Global Cloud Index should do the trick. The study predicts that global data center traffic will grow 4-fold and reach a total of 6.6 zettabytes annually by 2016. The company predicts global cloud traffic, the fastest growing component of data center traffic, to grow at a 44 percent combined annual growth rate (CAGR), from 683 exabytes annual traffic in 2011 to 4.3 zettabytes by 2016.

Two-thirds of all data center traffic and server workloads will be cloud-based by 2016, Cisco predicts, and the average workload per cloud server will be 4 times greater than that of traditional servers. Consumer cloud traffic is expected to grow faster than business cloud traffic, at 46 percent CAGR vs 37 percent for business. The Global Cloud Index report seeks to expand upon existing network traffic studies to assess the likely impact of Internet growth on data center and cloud infrastructure…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Gregory Musungu.

The cloud computing business model has had a phenomenal adoption in the last decade. It scales business, private, and public operations in a way that lowers costs, takes advantage of new technology, and boosts efficiency with minimal infrastructural engagements. And because it’s been the center of many debates surrounding business operations, cloud computing sector has been a beehive of activities. In the past few months, it has suddenly become a hot start-up area, attracting more and more interest. There are a number of possible reasons for this.

1. Closing knowledge gap about the cloud

According to a survey carried out and published by the Business Insider in late 2011, close to 50 percent of all Americans were not aware of what the cloud was. When the infograph came in, it worried stakeholders in the industry and they seem to have acted upon it. Recently, there has been marked evidence of a reducing knowledge gap in the previously quiet cloud sphere. People are becoming aware of the cloud and what it can do for start-ups and innovative businesses…

Grazed from BankInfoSecurity. Author: Eric Chabrow.

Employing cloud computing services could help organizations defend against the type of distributed denial of service attacks that have temporarily crippled the online service of major American banks, says NIST’s Matthew Scholl.

By using cloud computing services, Scholl says in an interview with Information Security Media Group, enterprises no longer are completely dependent on their own physical infrastructure because they can add processing capabilities from the cloud to keep up with DDoS attacks…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Rackspace’s new OpenStack-powered Cloud Block Storage comes in spinning disk and faster SSD tiers and lets customers mix and match block size with compute instances as needed, says company CTO John Engates. Rackspace continued to roll out pieces of its OpenStack cloud Tuesday with the debut of Cloud Block Storage.

Unlike its current non-OpenStack storage, this offering lets customers mix and match sizes of block storage volumes as needed with their compute instances. “We used to offer block storage associated with our cloud servers but it came in pre-defined bundles — large servers got a lot of storage, small servers got a small amount. This decouples that decision,” Rackspace CTO John Engates said in an interview…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Sharon Florentine.

The cloud is the perfect companion for startups. No, really. There are as many reasons for startups to embrace cloud computing technology as there are for enterprises. As Janakiram Mocherla, cloud-technology consultant, evangelist and author outlines, there are ten main reasons why startups should consider going to the cloud.

10. Self service: For startups, the ability to provision and de-provision resources all by yourself, without relying on a third party, is very powerful.

Most cloud platforms include a dashboard or management console that you can use to acquire and launch resources as you need them. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a trusted cloud provider in your corner…

Grazed from PCAdvisor. Author: Michael Cooney.

Trying to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to IT issues is not a job for the faint of heart. That point was driven home at Gartner’s IT annual IT Symposium fest here where analyst David Cappuccio outlined what he called "new forces that are not easily controlled by IT are pushing themselves to the forefront of IT spending."

The forces of cloud computing, social media/networking, mobility and information management are all evolving at a rapid pace. These evolutions are largely happening despite the controls that IT normally places on the use of technologies, Cappuccio stated. "IT was forced to support tablets, and end users forced them to support IM and wireless networks a few years ago. And more such technologies are on the horizon," he said…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

It’s that time of the year again: Ghost shows and monster movies are constantly on TV, there’s plenty of candy in the office, and memos are issued on appropriate costumes for the workplace. I love Halloween.

Not much scares me this time of year — except in the world of cloud computing. In fact, certain developments in cloud computing strike fear in my heart. Be afraid — very afraid — of these three things.

1. The lack of security planning in cloud deployments. You’d think security is at the top of the list for those who deploy systems on public clouds. Sadly, I’ve noticed that security is typically an afterthought, very much like in internal deployments…

Grazed from CIO. Author: Bernard Golden.

Analyst firm IHS published an important study last week. It predicts that, for the first time ever, PC shipments would drop year-over-year; for 2012, total shipments will drop 1.2 percent. IDC and Gartner agree, noting that third quarter PC shipments fell 8 percent. It’s the steepest drop since 2001.

While it’s clear that use of new form factors such as smartphones and tablets has been skyrocketing over the past few years, this study is the first that indicates that this growth, far from incremental, is taking share from the previously dominant form factor. Of course, some may not accept the study’s findings, feeling that rumors of the death of the PC have been overstated. It may be the case, too, that the total number of PCs sold in 2012 won’t really shrink but may, instead, end up showing modest growth…

Grazed from BBC. Author: Editorial Staff.

Users could cut 30% off their bills for on-demand computer services by working out what sort of chip is on the servers they are renting, research suggests. On-demand, or cloud, services are built around what are advertised as clusters of generic computer servers.

But analysis reveals that some clusters are 40% faster than supposedly identical groups of machines. The statistics were gathered by working out which processors were used in the hardware behind the cloud service…