HP today announced it is expanding its Converged Cloud portfolio with joint HP and Microsoft solutions that simplify and enhance every aspect of a client’s private cloud journey.

The HP and Microsoft Joint Private Cloud initiative features optimized, preintegrated solutions based on extensive joint technology development, and offers one-stop-shop life cycle sales and support.

While organizations are attracted by the flexibility and financial benefits of cloud, they are struggling with how to get started quickly while addressing risk areas such as data loss, security and vendor lock-in. By providing a clear, proven path along with a single-vendor client experience, HP and Microsoft are greatly simplifying and accelerating the evolution to cloud computing.

Bitdefender, an award-winning provider of innovative security solutions, today announced that Security for Virtualized Environments (SVE) is now available as Security-as-a-Service on Amazon’s AWS Marketplace. For customers seeking a flexible licensing model, the new service allows organizations to choose security licensing based on administrative and financial requirements — on-demand per hour utility based monthly subscription.

"With other security solutions, many organizations must deal with rigid licensing models that seldom allow horizontal scalability and policy changes based on the needs of the business," said Robert Krauss, Director Enterprise Sales and Alliances, North America, Bitdefender. "Security for Virtualized Environments offered as Security-as-a-Service (SaaS) on AWS Marketplace was developed to extend the benefits of the cloud — giving organizations security how they want it and when they need it. With our licensing model, organizations have uncomplicated and adaptable security solutions, in terms of administration and scalability, and like a utility, businesses pay for it as they need it."

Grazed from SCMagazine. Author: Editorial Staff.

I have known about the SC Awards for years and years, and have watched all the high-quality companies and products it has recognized. Each year it seems to gain more widespread attention in the industry.

Porticor has a first-in-the-industry, unique service to secure cloud computing and data in the cloud, and we were prompted to participate because we believe our solution is a quality participant and has a strong chance of being recognized…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: J. Nicholas Hoover.

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) released a five-year strategic plan Tuesday outlining how the agency will navigate a possibly decreasing military and IT budget and military priorities that are increasingly shifting away from Afghanistan and Iraq.

From a technological standpoint, DISA is looking to facilitate an increasingly enterprise-oriented Department of Defense that shares IT resources across numerous services, relies heavily on cloud computing and mobile technologies, and continues to push the boundaries of cybersecurity…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

The cloud, shorthand for “cloud computing”, is transforming all aspects of personal life, business, and society. With that transformation comes deep interest in economic justification, as well as a bit of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. CLOUDONOMICS: The Business Value of Cloud Computing (John Wiley & Sons; September 2012; $60.00) looks well beyond the ephemeral specifics of particular service provider offerings or technologies, and instead uses understandable examples to explain how the cloud can be wielded strategically to create profitable revenue while delivering clear benefits to customers.

Written by cloud computing thought leader Joe Weinman, the book demystifies business models and economic benefits of the cloud, offering insights to business executives in virtually any industry–CIOs, developers, architects, IT managers, academics, students, investors, and policy-makers…

Grazed from Mashable. Author: Editorial Staff.

For executives who have long relied on traditional data servers without issue, switching to the cloud can seem like an unnecessary risk. After all, the imagery evoked — a fluffy, floating entity far from your control —doesn’t exactly scream security.

Truth be told, the vast majority of concerns about cloud computing are groundless; like most every revolutionary technology, it’s weighed down by a lot of misconceptions.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get Adam Savage and the Myth Busters team over to tackle cloud computing’s naysayers, but we’ll do our best to debunk the 5 biggest myths about cloud computing:…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Basho says its Riak CS object store will fit nicely into the CloudStack open-source cloud platform. As service providers and enterprises look for Amazon S3 compatible storage, entries like Riak CS and DreamHost’s new Ceph-based store could be viable options.

Basho, the company behind the Riak CS distributed object store, is joining the Apache CloudStack Project and will work to integrate its storage with the CloudStack open-source cloud platform.The company is contributing some, but not all, of the code to the project. CloudStack is the cloud platform backed by Citrix(s ctrx) as a rival to the OpenStack cloud and Basho will work with Citrix on this integration…

Grazed from Data Center Knowledge. Author: Bill Kleyman.

There’s very little argument that WAN technologies have helped shape many organizations now do business. Self-service and data delivery over the Internet, referred to as cloud computing, is helping organizations grow organically, while still keeping costs stable. With increased bandwidth and better technology behind the cloud, this solution can be a powerful tool for any business.

Cloud Options

But what type of deliverables does the cloud really offer? Disaster Recovery, Backup, Test/Dev and other capabilities of the cloud have helped create an interesting solution set for organizations to choose from. Aside from just knowing what the cloud can offer, organizations and managers must be able to explain the benefits of the cloud in a top-down model. This means that if managers know the end goals of a cloud strategy, while the engineering staff is left clueless, the success of the entire project can be limited. The main goal here is to understand the various solutions that the cloud can bring to an organization, and how to show these benefits to the entire IT team…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Charlie Osbourne.

A new cloud computing company, Numergy, has been created by French operator SFR and IT group Bull in partnership with government investment firm Caisse des Depots.

Headed by formerly president of IT services group Capgemeni subsidiary Sogeti France Philippe Tavernier, the company aims to provide cloud-based services to governments, businesses innovative start-ups around France and Europe. Based close to Paris, the new firm hopes to eventually support 400 employees and generate sales worth 400 euros ($503 million) in four years…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Brandon Butler.

While big-name players such as Amazon, Google, IBM, Verizon and VMware sit atop the burgeoning cloud computing market, an entire ecosystem of early stage startups are looking to stake their claim, too.

And why not? As Ignition Partners’ Frank Artale sees it, enterprises are on the precipice of the next major shift in computing and venture capital firms are "very aggressive" in looking for companies that can help customers ease their transition to the cloud…