Grazed from Forbes. Author: Ashutosh Garg and Joshua Levy.

Cloud computing infrastructure plays a rapidly increasing role in business-critical online operations. A recent study of several million Internet users found that one third of them visited a website that uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure each day. And for good reason. E-commerce websites, social and advertising networks, streaming video, and other so-called “Big Data” applications all benefit greatly from the ability to spin up large compute clusters easily and on demand. You can leave the work of setting up racks and servers to the cloud providers, pay only when you need it, and instead focus engineering resources on core competencies.

However, are there risks in your business being dependent on a single cloud provider? Recent failures at Amazon, such as a major thunderstorm-induced outage in June at Amazon’s northern Virginia data centers, have left swaths of companies that depend on the cloud — including Netflix, Instagram, Pinterest, and others — with hours of downtime. Last year also saw a more series multi-day outage for some Amazon customers. As the cloud becomes central to operations, companies must contemplate the consequences of delegating critical data center infrastructure to services that might just go away. Can an unexpected storm blow the cloud — and your business — offline?…

Grazed from Business Insider. Author: Vivian Giang.

In our technologically-driven world, it’s essential that when launching a new business that those involved can quickly share and access files between one another.

There are a wide range of cloud computing services that can be crucial tools for businesses in the midst of growing rapidly, but also need to remain conscious about spending.

To get some insights on what business owners should know when choosing cloud-based tools, we turned to tech coach Peter Bell, Senior Vice President of Engineering at General Assembly, an organization specializing in education in business and entrepreneurship…

Grazed from FierceTelecom. Author: Editorial Staff.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and Fujitsu Laboratories of America today announced launch of the Big Data Working Group which will take industry ownership in addressing the need for collaborative research and solutions to today’s big data security challenges. Chaired by Sreeranga Rajan of Fujitsu Laboratories of America with co-chairs Neel Sundaresan of eBay and Wilco Van Ginkel of Verizon, the CSA Big Data Working Group will work to address the security and privacy issues magnified today by the velocity, volume, and variety of big data, such as large-scale cloud infrastructures, diversity of data sources and formats, streaming nature of data acquisition and high volume inter-cloud migration.

"As a recognized leader in development and deployment of large scale cloud infrastructures, we are pleased to work with our fellow members at the CSA to develop best practices and standards for big data security and privacy," said Yasunori Kimura, President and CEO of Fujitsu Laboratories of America. "We invite companies from around the world facing big data challenges to join us in this important research effort."…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Tom Nolle.

Given that everything these days seems to be about the cloud, it’s not surprising that you hear a lot about cloud UC. Cloud UC refers to the union of unified communications (UC) and cloud computing and focuses on hosting UC applications on the cloud. If we believe the cloud is the future, moving UC applications to the cloud is hardly a technical challenge. And, this move has brought about new cloud UC strategies and architectures that may not address real telecom issues.

Cloud computing is the new architecture that binds IT and networking into a single system, and its primary value isn’t cost management or opening IT to public hosting. The value is the flexibility that cloud will bring to the way we empower workers, particularly via a spectrum of mobile devices. In this cloud era, workers will work differently, consume information differently and collaborate differently. It follows then that they will communicate differently, and it’s that basic change that will drive the cloud UC vision…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: John Omwamba.

The line between cloud computing and information technology is hazy, but it is always safe to say that they complement each other, with cloud computing representing the latest paradigm for remodeling IT services. There are very clear roles of IT in cloud computing technology, which can yield greater business benefits if well harnessed.

On one hand, IT is playing a big role in proactive management of new acquisitions, financial trade-offs, and security challenges of cloud-based services. This means that the role of IT has changed from the traditional owner and operator of IT infrastructure to a more managerial one—managing the IT supply chain. IT systems now manage more complex, multi-platform internal and external services, with CIOs being tasked with redefining the value of IT to the business. This shift presents exciting new opportunities for IT professionals to expand their skill sets and become strategic advisers to businesses…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

ManageIQ (www.manageiq.com), a leader in enterprise cloud management, today announced it has been named as a finalist in the "Best of VMworld 2012" for private cloud computing. The Best of VMworld 2012 awards winners were selected by an independent team of experts and editors from TechTarget’s SearchServerVirtualization.com, based on innovation, value, performance, reliability and ease of use. The awards cover nine categories of the virtualization market, including private cloud computing technologies. TechTarget received over 250 nominees for the contest.

"We are excited that our EVM Version 4 Suite, which delivers significant value to our Global 1000 customers, has been selected for recognition at the show this year," said Joseph Fitzgerald, ManageIQ Chief Product Officer. "We just announced our new EVM Version 5 Suite at VMworld this week with support for hybrid and public clouds, including Amazon. We’re looking forward to future hybrid and public cloud computing evaluations that include our new EVM V5 release with its comprehensive IT Cloud Management capabilities."

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Joab Jackson.

Enterprise software rivals Red Hat and Oracle, along with a number of other software and online services providers, have collaborated on a standard that they hope will ease the use of PaaS (platform as a service) among customers.

"Starting and stopping an application really ought to be standardized to make it easier for customers to manage their applications across different platforms," said Jeff Mischkinsky, Oracle senior director for Oracle’s Fusion middleware, who was involved in the development of the standard…

Grazed from Business Excellence Online. Author: By Dr. Mike Gault.

We are witnessing the large-scale industrialization of the data center, owned and operated by the ICT operators, with security technologies in the hands of the end user to remove any need to trust their human operators.

The traditional “protect the perimeter” model of enterprise data security, one where layers of security are added around enterprise data, access to which is limited to trusted insiders, clearly has challenges in a cloud model when outsiders (the folks running the cloud) have access to all your data and can monitor everything that you do in their environment.

The solution is not, as some would tell you in the security profession, better certification of cloud providers and external vetting of the human operators. Certification has a role but the ultimate answer will be the invention of technologies that completely remove the need for trusting the human operators…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Gina Narcisi.

Cloud computing has always been a tough sell with both federal and local government agencies. Plagued by regulatory compliance requirements and high-stakes security concerns, these customers loathe moving sensitive data into a cloud provider’s data center, where compute and storage resources are typically shared among customers.

Until recently, government agencies that sought cloud services had to shop around for a cloud provider that could live up to their strict, sometimes unique requirements — with few guarantees from a provider, other than its word, that a particular cloud offering would best meet their needs.

Smaller, local government agencies have been the most skittish about adopting cloud due to ongoing security fears, lack of experience and cost concerns, according to recent research from Alexandria, Va.-based IDC Research. This sector is the least enthusiastic about the cloud, despite gains that a cloud environment could offer, noted Shawn McCarthy, research director of IDC Government Insights…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Darryl K. Taft.

IBM continues its tradition of providing technology to drive the US Open tennis tournament, this year bringing its big data analytics and cloud computing prowess to the fore as well as adding a new iPad app.

IBM and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) have teamed up to deliver new technologies for tennis fans watching the 2012 US Open tennis tournament.

During the two-week event, IBM will apply its predictive analytics, cloud computing and mobile technology expertise to connect tennis fans to what is happening on the courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, NY. IBM also has enhanced the digital capabilities of the USOpen.org web site to give users front-row access to the action on the court…