Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Karen Goulart.

As the old saying goes, "The customer is king." But does that hold true when the customer is dealing with a cloud provider? In the relatively new realm of enterprise cloud computing, the answer is both yes and no. Executives from four top cloud providers — Microsoft, Amazon.com, Rackspace and Salesforce.com — sat down at the recent Gartner Catalyst conference in San Diego to answer questions about what they want customers to know about cloud computing and about what customers should — and shouldn’t — expect from cloud providers.
Do cloud providers offer better security?

Even as more enterprises experience increased levels of comfort with cloud computing, security remains a top concern. After all, the customer’s business is at stake — and so is the cloud provider’s reputation. It’s expected that questions will be raised about security at the start of any cloud adoption conversation, but Peter Coffee, vice president and head of platform research at Salesforce.com Inc., said he’d like the conversation to begin on a level playing field…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Stacey Higginbotham.

Zscaler is done saying no to venture capitalists and has managed to raise $38 million in its first round of outside investment from Lightspeed Ventures. The company is offering a new form of security software designed to accommodate today’s mobile workforce and delivered as a service.

Zscaler a four-year-old startup that has bootstrapped its business by providing a new form of security designed for a mobile and cloud-dependent workforce, has raised $38 million in first-time financing. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and an unnamed strategic investor…

Grazed from V3.co.uk. Author: Shaun Nichols.

Ubuntu developer Canonical is making a push to establish itself as a force in the Linux server and cloud computing markets.

The company, which has long been known as a champion for the expansion of Linux into the consumer and developer markets, said that Ubuntu will also play a part in the next generation of cloud computing platforms.

Speaking in a keynote address at the 2012 LinuxCon North America convention in San Diego, Canonical vice president of cloud Kyle MacDonald told attendees that the company sees itself performing particularly well in the scale-out server market…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Deney Dentel.

There has been lots and lots of news about cloud computing lately. Some people think it is a really big deal, while others have been warning us that it’s just a bunch of hype. We definitely take the first position. Cloud computing is a major step forward for computing, and it’s going to help make any further steps much easier and less expensive.

Upgrades are generally an afterthought with cloud computing. It turns the whole process into something completely different, where you don’t need to worry about purchasing the new software and your server is used in much more intelligent and efficient ways. Cloud computing also allows for much higher connectivity with other businesses…

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Sue Poremba.

For as much as cloud computing has become part of the technology landscape, there are still a lot of people who either haven’t gotten around to migrating data into the cloud or who have purposely avoided the move.

But have we reached a point where using the cloud has become almost mandatory for today’s business environment?

“There is nothing that dictates the need to go to the cloud,” says David W. B. Parker, owner of PTC Computer Solutions. “The cloud is really a medium whereby companies can interact by and between themselves and share with others within or without the company. If this is not something that is necessitated by the business or businesses your company serves or services, then the cloud is not a functional option.”…

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

In Tuesday’s article on Amazon Web Services, I wrote about lots of different data-crunching companies, mostly in the developed world.

In the long term, however, as companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft sell computing everywhere, the most dramatic changes may be in places most of us do not now see. Already, places without clean water, decent sanitation or steady electricity are using supercomputers.

Cheki is a used car classifieds business that serves up about a billion page views a month, mostly in Kenya and Nigeria. Most of the one million people using the site are looking at it with Android-based smartphones that cost about $70, according to Thomas Shaw, the company’s information technology manager. Imagine things in a few years, when Huawei, which makes most of the devices, gets those phone prices even lower…

Grazed from DailyFinance. Author: Tim Brugger.

If questions remained regarding Cisco’s (NAS: CSCO) ability to outperform analyst and shareholder expectations, its earnings announcement from a couple of weeks ago silenced them in a big way. Cisco’s year-over-year operating income, net income, revenue, and cash from operations are all through the roof. To top things off, CEO John Chambers and the team finally dug into the $48 billion in reserves and increased the dividend yield to an impressive 2.89%.

Rather than congratulate itself on a stellar quarter, Cisco is continuing its push for significant growth in key business areas. In conjunction with previously announced cost-saving initiatives, the moves will keep investors cheering well into 2013…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Chris Preimesberger.

VMware on Aug. 28 at its VMworld 2012 event launched a new management package for data centers called VMware vCloud Suite.

The world’s largest virtualization software provider also introduced a new community group, the Cloud Ops Forum, whose purpose will be to promote cloud-based IT from VMware’s point of view.

The announcements were augmented by the additional news Aug. 28 that VMware also is joining the open-source OpenStack Foundation. The Cloud Ops Forum and OpenStack Foundation are parallel in purpose in that they aim to provide tools for IT departments to virtualize their data centers and move services into public, private or hybrid cloud deployments…

Grazed from PingZine. Author: Editorial Staff.

The Cloud Advisory Council, an innovative not-for-profit organization dedicated to develop and enable the next-generation cloud architecture, today announced the organization’s formation and directive to provide cloud designers and IT managers with the tools needed to enable computing in the cloud, to strengthen the qualification and integration of cloud solutions and to provide best practices.

The Cloud Advisory Council is an industry collaboration of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), strategic technology suppliers, independent software vendors (ISVs), and end-users across the entire range of the Cloud market segment. Founding members include: AMAX, AMD, Atlantic.Net, Check Point Software, Colfax, DDN, Eucalyptus, Mellanox Technologies, Nanjing Standard Communication, ProfitBricks, SGI, Sugon, Supermicro, and Xeround…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Rick Blaisdell.

As cloud computing continues its rapid growth in the public consciousness, industry leaders know they must be consistently fast and innovative with ideas, products, and services. A company that is slow to react to the ever-emerging changes and challenges will find itself quickly playing a dangerous game of catch-up. Three of the biggest names in setting the industry pace, EMC, Amazon, and Cisco have all made headlines in recent months for their newest contributions to the cloud sector.

Earlier this summer, EMC made a splash with their acquisition of Syncplicity, a cloud storage company. Syncplicity, originally founded by three ex-Microsoft employees, offers a service similar to Dropbox. What sets Syncplicity apart from its competition is a greater emphasis on security. This focus makes it a more attractive option for businesses, as employees who wish to use personal devices to access their office files can do so with less risk of compromising the company’s data. EMC’s purchase of Syncplicity, coupled with their announcement of forty-plus other cloud-based product improvements, highlight the tech giant’s commitment to being a thought leader in cloud innovation…