Grazed from ComputerWeekly. Author: Archana Venkatraman.

Software defined datacentres, cloud management and automation, virtualisation licensing, mobile virtualisation, heterogeneity and the need for IT executives to develop new skills in the cloud era were some of the themes of the VMworld Europe 2012 conference.

“Cloud is a disruptive technology,” said VMware’s new chief executive Pat Gelsinger, in his opening keynote, setting the tone of the Right Here, Right Now conference, heavily focused on cloud computing’s role in datacentres and its automation…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: John Foley.

The General Service Administration, in justifying its decision two years ago to adopt Google’s cloud services for email and collaboration, projected it would save $15 million over five years. Now, an internal audit has found that evidence of those anticipated savings is lacking.

GSA’s inspector general recently released the results of its audit of the agency’s transition from Lotus Notes to Google Apps for 17,000 employees. Unisys is the lead contractor on that part of the project. In a related move, GSA awarded a five-year contract to Salesforce.com to use its Force.com service to support the Notes migration. GSA’s undertaking is significant because it’s one of Uncle Sam’s first big steps into the cloud. The agency became the first "to move its entire staff to a single cloud-based email system," according to the inspector general…

Grazed from The Huffinton Post. Author: Naibo Yu.

In a Chinese classroom, a teacher needs to face more than 20 students and sometimes up to 60. These students, and their parents, will always want to get the most attention from the teacher.
This is an educational challenge faced by schools the world over, which in China, we’re turning to technology to tackle.

In 2008, with a start up loan from Youth Business China (a member of the global charity network), Youth Business International, I founded HowLang Group – part of a new wave of educational tools, social learning, where technology is used to help break down the barriers of the school walls and improve learning. At this time, our product was just in the design phase, struggling for investment, so the loan was crucial to helping us progress…

Grazed from the Huffington Post. Author: Steve Hamby.

You can’t engage in a conversation about IT today without hearing having cloud computing dropped in the first two sentences. But behind that term is an overwhelming number of types, issues, solutions, and architectures to consider and digest. The world could benefit from a translation of sorts to explain to the cloud non-experts all this IT mumbo-jumbo. Here’s my attempt.

Multiple Cloud Types

It’s common to envision "the Cloud" as one huge computer network hoarding gobs of information. However, there are many clouds and even different types of clouds, each suitable for different types of problems. Specific features and benefits of cloud types should affect decisions in developing and deploying cloud solutions. And sometimes one cloud type isn’t enough, and multiple cloud types need to be combined to solve a problem. For example, a utility cloud often provides the core computing resources needed for data and storage clouds. Here is a closer look at four of the most common types of clouds that I encounter in enterprises…

Grazed from DataCenter Dynamics. Author: Penny Jones.

Building on its current cloud computing operations, Asustek Computer – or Asus – which produces computers and provides personal cloud services, plans to build three more data centers around the world.

It has earmarked the US, Europe and Northern China for its new cloud computing centers, according to a report by the Focus Taiwan News Channel, which covered a speech given by Andy Huang, the Asus Asia Subsidiary’s director at a cloud computing forum in Taiwan…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: John Omwamba.

The new kid on the block is a rather interesting one known as personal cloud computing. It is a contradictory statement because as it allows one to cultivate individual freedom with one’s device, it also taps into a plethora of public resources in remote servers. In other words, while it helps to personalize individual pleasures, it uses multi-device networking as the stepping stone.

The WebDesktop is a classic example of this platform: it allows users to manage software functions online and offline without having to set up any programs. It also helps to synchronize apps in computers and stats in cell phones devoid of any brand restrictions because they are all open source. Need one say that it helps to run simultaneous gadgets on the desktop because unlimited space is on the web? That marks it public face. The personal face lies in the simple fact that it synchronizes all functions that an individual with an affinity for infotainment would require without buying expensive equipment. One can play live games, trade in futures, network and do virtually everything that personality can allow…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

Cloud computing is expanding rapidly, with an accompanying need for for cloud computing "experts" to make this technology work. That translates into many new jobs chasing very few qualified candidates. At the same time, many IT professionals are attempting to figure out how they can cash in on the cloud.

Most of the cloud jobs to be found these days require deep knowledge around a particular technology, such as Amazon Web Services, OpenStack, Salesforce.com, or Azure. This is typically due to the fact that the company has standardized on a cloud technology. I call these jobs cloud technology specialists, in that they focus on a specific cloud technology: development, implementation, management, and so on…

Grazed from IEEE TechTalk. Author: Tekla Perry.

An abundance of cheap, renewable energy, particularly hydropower and geothermal, has drawn aluminum smelters to Iceland. It’s become an industry that already consumes five times as much electricity as the country’s residents, and more aluminum plants are on the drawing board—raising concerns about how much the country’s economy is relying on one industry.

Meanwhile, there is another fast-growing, power-hungry industry in the world: cloud computing and storage. “The cloud” seems so light and fluffy, but building a cloud involves huge clunky buildings full of servers. Just one of these server farms, according to an April report by Greenpeace, can consume the energy equivalent of 180 000 homes. The companies that run them do their best to be efficient, because high energy costs hurt profits—and also, in some cases at least, because of a corporate commitment to the environment. The April Greenpeace report praised Yahoo and Google for “prioritizing access to renewable energy in their cloud expansion” but criticized Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft for rapidly expanding their clouds “without adequate regard to source of electricity,” relying “heavily on dirty energy.”…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

The nation’s biggest broadband and cable provider is joining the OpenStack Foundation, just in time for it’s big coming out party in San Diego next week. Comcast is also working with Cisco on applications that can build on that open-source infrastructure.

Updated: Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, is now aboard the OpenStack cloud effort having joined the OpenStack Foundation as a member, a Comcast spokeswoman confirmed on Thursday. That’s a big win for for OpenStack before the Foundation’s big coming out party at the OpenStack Summit next week in San Diego…