Grazed from CloudTimes. Author: Florence De Borja.

Because cloud computing is still in its early state, we can expect a few organizations taking advantage of being the first ones to take advantage of it. However, it is expected that by 2020 a lot of organizations are already in the clouds. Since is just around the corner, Forrester, an analyst group, says that the cloud computing industry will be worth around $150 billion by 2020, up by $115 billion from 2011. There will also be a great demand from business organizations as well as an increase in technology developments which will support cloud computing.

Processing power will also experience a rapid increase which will eventually reduce the price of cloud computing projects. It is also expected that supercomputing will experience a big boom by 2020. On the organization level, a new breed of Chief Information Officers will emerge as they will take charge of cloud computing directions on an enterprise scale…

Grazed from Equities.com. Author: Editorial Staff.

Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX) today launched Wave Cloud, a cloud-based service for enterprise-wide management of self-encrypting drives (SEDs). The company’s new subscription-based service introduces a game-changing platform for enterprises that wish to rapidly deploy centrally-managed hardware-based data encryption on laptops — all without the complexity and cost associated with maintaining on-premise servers.

SEDs provide one of the best defenses against data breach. Based on the Opal specification published by the Trusted Computing Group, the drives are available from leading storage vendors at little to no incremental cost from a wide range of PC suppliers, including Dell, HP, Lenovo and others. Solid-state versions of SEDs are also available. Advantages over software encryption include better performance (because encryption happens on a chip, it doesn’t compete for processing cycles); faster deployment (unlike software, SEDs don’t require an initial encryption cycle); and enhanced security (encryption cannot be turned off or otherwise compromised by the end user)…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Karen Goulart.

For CIO George Reed, having the right enterprise cloud computing skills in his data center is a matter of life and death. No, really.

Reed is the CIO of Seven Corners Inc., a privately held global travel insurance provider in Carmel, Ind. Each day any number of the company’s 220,000 policy holders around the world could be calling on Seven Corners through its Web portals for help in a crisis.

That’s in addition to the 15,000 medical providers and eight insurance carriers who knock at the insurance provider’s portal doors. All of them have to be able to securely access what they need, anytime from anywhere…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Ilesfay Technology Group LLC (Ilesfay), a global leader in data replication solutions, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued the company patent No 8,244,831 titled, "Method for the Preemptive Creation of Binary Delta Information within a Computer Network."

The technology, dubbed MatchMaking®, enables customers "to collaborate and share information in a way that was just not possible before," said Ilesfay CEO Chris McLennan. "Our unique approach allows Ilesfay to provide our customers with the highest-performing data-replication methods on the planet."…

CA Technologies and Logicalis, an international IT solutions and managed services provider, today announced that the companies are extending their strategic relationship in the U.S. to offer customers greater flexibility and choice for their enterprise-class cloud computing strategies.

Logicalis, a long-time CA Technologies customer, relies on several CA Technologies solutions to support its own cloud infrastructure, and as a Premier Service Provider partner, it offers a range of CA Technologies products to its end customers, including Nimsoft to deliver monitoring-as-a-service to its managed services customers. With the extension of this partnership, Logicalis’ customers can now select CA Automation Suite for Clouds from Logicalis’ cloud aggregation toolbox.

Today, Rackspace Hosting, the open cloud company, announced the release of Rackspace Private Cloud Software, powered by OpenStack – making it simple and easy for companies to install, test and run a multi-node OpenStack based private cloud environment. The software, code named “Alamo,” uses the same OpenStack compute platform, Nova, used to run Rackspace clouds and is available as a free download from the Rackspace website. This software is based upon Rackspace’s experience in deploying and operating OpenStack-based public and private clouds in a variety of environments including in Rackspace’s own datacenters as well as in external datacenters. The Rackspace Private Cloud is backed by an optional support offering.

The Rackspace Private Cloud Software combines the capabilities of public cloud with the customization, reliability and control advantages of a dedicated environment. Customers now have a simple way to install an OpenStack-based private cloud in their own datacenter, at Rackspace, or in a colocation facility.

Grazed from SocialPandas.  Author: PR Announcement

SocialPandas (www.socialpandas.com), a startup provider of social selling applications, today announced that it has closed a $1.5 million round of seed funding led by True Ventures, a premier early-stage investment firm. The oversubscribed round also includes prominent angel investments from former Salesforce.com, VMware, and Apple executives as well as the Alchemist Accelerator. The company will use the funds to fuel product development for a launch in 2013.

“Social networks including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn represent enormous opportunities for new revenue streams for business-to-business (B2B) companies,” said Mark Trang, CEO & Co-Founder of SocialPandas. “Enterprises can track vanity metrics like Fans and Followers. However, no comprehensive tools exist for sales teams to discover new leads, engage top prospects, or optimize deal pipelines across social channels. Sales professionals are stuck using pre-social CRM tools, email, and phones while their customers are spending more time on social networks. We’re excited to bridge this gap with a platform built from ground-up that lets sales teams finally ‘speak social’ and compete in the social era.”

Grazed from Equities.com. Author: Editorial Staff.

The new Dell Wyse D Class Cloud Client Family empowers customers with enhanced enterprise grade features, and packs a punch with improved computing performance.

– New dual core mid-range cloud client family delivers an exceptional user experience including high definition multimedia, voice and video functionalities and essential I/O support for virtualized desktop environments

– Includes flexible networking and storage options and easy "hands off" management

– Extremely energy-efficient, using only 9.2 watts of electricity in operation…

Grazed from CIO. Author: Mikael Ricknas.

Boundary is trying to reach more customers for its application performance monitoring service with a free version that has all the same features as the existing offering. The service has also been upgraded to simplify problem diagnosis, the company said on Tuesday.

Boundary is used to keep track of cloud-based applications, distributed applications and clusters. It works by monitoring the flow of packets between servers and alerts users when something is going wrong.

The addition of a free version is meant to make it easier for enterprises to try out the service. The free version has all the same features as the paid version, but Boundary limits the amount of data that can be sent for analysis. Users also have to rely on community support and they can’t store historical data…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Saleem Abdul.

Modern businesses are now beginning to understand the importance of the cloud in terms of delivering services and even products. The cloud makes everything easier and more efficient so more and more businesses are reaping the benefits of cloud computing. But just in case you do not know how this is done yet, here is your answer. Agreements-based billing (ABB) allows you and your business to monetize your cloud applications in order to appeal to customers in new and revolutionary ways and allow you to track and capture their activities on the cloud.

So here are 10 ways that you can use ABB to monetize the cloud:…