Grazed from InforWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

Werner Vogel, the CTO of Amazon.com, wrote a thoughtful blog last week that focuses on how to determine the true value of using its technology, looking at both total cost of ownership (TCO) and the return on agility. The blog stated that customers "struggle with how to account for the return on agility, the fact that they are now able to pursue business opportunities much faster at much lower cost points than before."

It’s good to see this kind of thinking coming from a provider. I find that many vendors are clueless about the business-agility value of their own technology. I’ve written a ton on the value of agility, in the context of both SOA and cloud computing (which are directly related)…

Grazed from Computer Technology Review. Author: Editorial Staff.

Onstage at VMworld 2012, VMware unveiled on Monday a comprehensive solution of cloud infrastructure and management products, expertise and ecosystem support to help customers drive greater efficiency and improve operational agility. The VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 integrates VMware’s virtualization, cloud infrastructure and management portfolio into a single SKU, simplifying the adoption of cloud era technologies.

“Today at VMworld, VMware and its partners are taking a bold step toward simplifying IT, offering customers everything they need to build, operate and manage their cloud environments,” said Paul Maritz, VMware CEO. “The VMware vCloud Suite delivers the software-defined datacenter – the architecture for implementing cloud computing.”…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Deni Conner.

Quantum on Monday at VMworld 2012 announced Q-Cloud, a new cloud-based backup and disaster recovery service that works with the company’s deduplication appliances and disk-based storage arrays.

Designed for small and mid-sized businesses, Q-Cloud is capable of deduplicating and backing up data to both on-premises equipment and to the cloud. It can back up capacities of 1TB to 1PB of data and achieve a deduplication ratio of 15:1…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

More granular cloud management features will make it easier for companies and service providers to set up group policies and lessen server sprawl in their environments, says Tier 3 CTO Jared Wray.

Tier 3 says its new cloud management tools will give customers more precise control of their workloads and help them keep a lid on server sprawl.

Just because companies want to offload some compute tasks to third-party providers, doesn’t mean they don’t want precise management of those jobs or a way to track and monitor them. The race is on among the cloud service providers to offer the granularity of control enterprise customers need…

Grazed from Biz2Tech. Author: Editorial Staff.

ScaleArc, the database infrastructure software that simplifies the way database environments are deployed and managed, has announced that it has joined the Global Cloud Network (GCN), an alliance of mobile carriers who run their mobile clouds and IaaS on Joyent’s datacentre fabric. In joining GCN, ScaleArc will offer its ScaleArc iDB v2.2 database infrastructure software through Joyent’s carrier-grade SmartDataCenter cloud infrastructure for carriers utilising GCN.

Traditionally, carriers hosting a MySQL database in the cloud have faced significant challenges. The constant application modification needed to scale database environments — while billions of real-time, data-intensive and latency-sensitive mobile transactions hit the networks each day — is nearly impossible to do without experiencing serious business continuity issues. With the addition of plug-and-play iDB technology from ScaleArc, carriers on GCN can bypass the need for modifications and achieve instant scalability, higher availability and better performance of their MySQL database environment…

Grazed from 4Traders. Author: Editorial Staff.

Ninety-five percent of those claiming they never use the cloud actually do so via online banking and shopping, social networking, and storing photos and music

While "the cloud" may be the tech buzzword of the year, many Americans remain foggy about what the cloud really is and how it works. A new national survey by Wakefield Research, commissioned by Citrix, showed that most respondents believe the cloud is related to weather, while some referred to pillows, drugs and toilet paper. Those in the know claim working from home in their "birthday suit" is the cloud’s greatest advantage. The good news is that even those that don’t know exactly what the cloud is recognize its economic benefits and think the cloud is a catalyst for small business growth…

Grazed from EETimes. Author: Editorial Staff.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the zEnterprise® EC12 mainframe server, the most powerful and technologically advanced version of an IBM system that has been the linchpin of enterprise computing for 48 years. The new enterprise system features technologies that demonstrate IBM’s ongoing commitment to meet the growing need to secure and manage critical information with the System z mainframe.

Mainframes support significant portions of the data environment at most large enterprises. As these enterprises grapple with the well-documented growth of data, they are looking for new ways to secure and gain insights from such critical information as financial, customer and enterprise resource data that will enable them to provide their clients with new services. The new zEC12 offers industry-leading security and robust support for operational analytics that can help clients efficiently sift through large volumes of raw data and transform it to gain knowledge that can be used for competitive advantage. For example, a retailer managing online transactions on zEC12 can gain insights from client information that will enable it to provide clients with a more customized shopping experience…

Grazed from NewYork Times. Author: Quentin Hardy.

Within a few years, Amazon.com’s creative destruction of both traditional book publishing and retailing may be footnotes to the company’s larger and more secretive goal: giving anyone on the planet access to an almost unimaginable amount of computing power.

Every day, a start-up called the Climate Corporation performs over 10,000 simulations of the next two years’ weather for more than one million locations in the United States. It then combines that with data on root structure and soil porosity to write crop insurance for thousands of farmers…

Grazed from PCAdvisor. Author: Brandon Butler.

While cloud computing and virtualization, along with a focus on small and midsize businesses, are expected to be major trends at this year’s VMworld show, the virtual desktop infrastructure players are looking to make some news this week as well.

Three big players – Citrix, Dell and HP – each made announcements last week regarding virtual desktop offerings, including new software from Citrix and new hardware components from Dell and HP. At least one analyst says the preparation for VMworld shows the growing importance of VDI technology in an increasingly cloud and mobile world…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Juan Carlos Perez.

IBM plans to boost its enterprise social line of software by acquiring Kenexa, a maker of cloud-based human resources applications, the companies said on Monday.

IBM has agreed to pay $46 per share for Kenexa in a cash transaction worth about $1.3 billion. Kenexa shares closed at $32.39 on Friday, so IBM is offering a premium of 42 percent for the company.

Kenexa, based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, has almost 9,000 customers, including more than half of the Fortune 500. It has about 2,800 employees and operations in 21 countries…