NetApp and Desktone, Inc., announced today a solution that simplifies the delivery of virtual desktops as a service (DaaS). The solution helps service providers avoid the common challenges of virtual desktop deployment by reducing startup costs, removing design and management complexity, and improving performance. With this solution, service providers can rapidly deploy a full-featured service that enables their customers to easily reap the benefits of virtual desktops such as supporting mobile users, reducing the cost of desktop support, helping to safeguard intellectual property, and supporting user demand for "bring your own device policies" policies.

The new service, built specifically for cloud delivery environments, features technology that enables a single infrastructure to be elastically scalable and cost efficient. Security is designed in at the application, network, and storage layers to help maintain the privacy of customers’ data.

ServiceNow, a leading provider of cloud-based services to automate enterprise IT operations, today announced a new release of its IT service automation software. By embedding new IT Asset Management application, ServiceNow enables companies to more efficiently utilize software and help achieve compliance with license terms and requirements. At the same time, companies can avoid over-purchasing of software licenses and maintenance or support contracts. The release also includes new capabilities for agile software development that ultimately lead to an improved user experience.

Enterprises today waste a great deal of money and time through improperly managed software resources. ServiceNow software can help businesses rightsize and monitor a software portfolio through a fully integrated cloud-based service for all types of IT assets, while helping achieve audit-ready license compliance automation and reporting.

Grazed from Array Networks.  Author: PR Announcement

Array Networks Inc., a global leader in application delivery networking solutions for mobility, security and performance, today announced the immediate availability of its new vxAG Virtual Secure Access Gateway virtual appliance for cloud and virtualized environments. Powered by Array’s award-winning 64-bit SpeedCore platform, the new product gives enterprises and service providers the ability to run Array’s proven AG Series secure access gateways as virtual machines on commodity servers running VMware ESXi, Citrix XenServer or OpenXen hypervisors.

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Mikael Ricknäs.

Content delivery accelerator Akamai Techologies has launched a service for adapting websites to the device used to access them, which it says also simplifies the upgrade to IPv6. The service, Aqua Ion, has been shaped by the increasing diversity of devices used to access websites, and is composed of technologies Akamai has acquired and developed in-house.

The most important addition is the front-end optimization, which to a large extent is the result of Akamai’s acquisition of Blaze Software. "Blaze’s technology has been re-engineered to have it scale across the Akamai platform," said Joel Reid, Akamai sales manager for Enterprise in the U.K. and Ireland…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: John Omwambu.

There is always a bridge between different platforms be they devices or networks. The same case applies to vehicles, handheld devices and the latest nebula in the Internet skies, cloud computing. It has become easier to communicate comfortably in the driver’s seat without lifting a finger courtesy of Bluetooth and other technologies that have hitherto been inherently mobile. It is also a show of coercion between the three platforms that makes it possible to call someone while using only the voice as the command for making that call. Here is a dissection of the thin line that separates the three platforms.

Mobile in cars

Mobile gadgets are becoming more of a non-entity inside vehicles. They may even lose the term ‘handheld devices’ because they are now customized into the system. They come with their buttons on the dashboard whereby if one wants to send a message or place a call, he or she will just have to turn on the button and communicate directly. Alternatively, one can decide to attach the gadget to a connector so that whenever a call comes through, there won’t be any need to use hands to receive it. The basic technologies that are now migrating from the phone to the auto industry include that of Bluetooth and wireless web connections…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Rick Blaisdell.

Cloud technology has created new opportunities and job roles. In order to be ready for them, we must enhance our current skills set to include cloud computing. The worldwide demand for implementing cloud infrastructure by governments, enterprises and educational institutions is a call for IT professionals to attend trainings and courses, in order to get better educated in this technology.

As the need for the development of cloud computing standards became apparent, major companies have launched cloud computing certification programs. These certification programs include cloud-focused training programs targeting service providers or vendors, operations professionals in the enterprise, as well as systems integrators who are trained to navigate, deploy and operate cloud platforms…

Grazed from Science Codex. Author: Editorial Staff.

A new-cloud based operating system for all kinds of computer is being developed by researchers in China. Details of the TransOS system are reported in a forthcoming special issue of the International Journal of Cloud Computing. Computer users are familiar to different degrees with the operating system that gets their machines up and running, whether that is the Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, Linux, ChromeOS or other operating system. The OS handles the links between hardware, the CPU, memory, hard drive, peripherals such as printers and cameras as well as the components that connect the computer to the Internet, critically it also allows the user to run the various bits of software and applications they need, such as their email programs, web browsers, word processors, spreadsheets and games.

While, operating systems seem firmly entrenched in the personal computer and their files, documents, movies, sounds and images, sit deep within the hard drive. Traditionally, software too is stored on the same hard drive for quick access to the programs a user needs at any given time. However, there is a growing movement that is taking the applications off the personal hard drive and putting them "in the cloud". The user connects to the Internet and "runs" the software as and when needed from a cloud server, perhaps even storing their files in the cloud too. This has numerous advantages for the user. First, the software can be kept up to date automatically without their intervention. Secondly, the software is independent of the hardware and operating system and so can be run from almost any computer with an Internet connection. Thirdly, if the user files are also in the cloud, then they can access and use their files anywhere in the world with a network connection and at any time…

Grazed from v3.co.uk. Author: Daniel Robinson.

VMware chief executive Pat Gelsinger kicked off his first VMworld in Europe by re-iterating the company’s strategy to deliver on the software-defined datacentre and radically reshape the way its customers operate their IT services. Announcing key updates to the firm’s recently launched vCloud Suite, Gelsinger said that the IT industry was entering a phase of fundamental change, driven by cloud computing.

"Cloud is so disruptive as it changes everything about the way we operate the datacentre," he said, adding that IT departments have to make the transition from being reactive to a proactive state. "The goal is to make IT a platform for innovation rather than just about providing services," Gelsinger said…

Grazed from Datamation. Author: Cynthia Harvey.

On Tuesday, IBM made two announcements related to its enterprise products and services. First, the company has expanded its PureSystems line with solutions for big data, transactions and operational analytics. Second, Big Blue will team with AT&T to enable more secure cloud computing.

IBM’s new PureSystems offerings are called PureData System for Transactions, PureData System for Analytics and the PureData System for Operational Analytics. Writing for Forbes, Tom Groenfeldt explained, "IBM calls PureSystems expert integrated systems; other companies refer to similar systems as engineered. In any event, the concept seems relatively simple and overdue — the company manufactures the system and delivers specific types of computing power rather than leaving a client to buy the pieces for do-it-yourself assembly. It’s the difference between buying a car and having UPS deliver a series of crates with parts from a variety of suppliers. It’s an update of that adage about what clients want — they don’t want a server or a SAN, they want answers."…

Grazed from The New York Times. Author: Quentin Hardy.

For all the freedom promised by cloud computing, businesses may be really looking at less choice and more constraint than ever before. Whether that happens is the technology industry’s next great battleground.

On one side are large incumbent tech providers like Oracle and Hewlett-Packard, who already have broad portfolios of technology and deep corporate relationships after years of selling products. On the other are younger companies, whose products and services were built for cloud computing and thus may offer more innovative approaches…