Grazed from ComputingIT. Author: Peter Gothard.

Many users of cloud data services are entirely unaware of inherent security risks, and security can only improve if customers pressure providers to deliver it, Frank Coggrave, VP of sales, EMEA & APAC at Guidance Software, has told Computing.

The company, which 18 months ago was responsible for assisting Sony in clearing up its widely-publicised and reputation-damaging PlayStation 3 server hack, sees a distinct lack in security provisions in many cloud providers’ commercial offerings.

Coggrave believes security provision in cloud companies falls into two categories…

Grazed from FierceEnterpriseCommunications. Author: Jason Meyers.

Internet-hosting service Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) expanded its portfolio of OpenStack-powered cloud products for enterprises, with Tuesday’s introduction of new open-source, public-cloud offerings and a new control panel for cloud-based service management.

"Rackspace is disrupting the current model of how IT is consumed," CEO Lanham Napier said in a statement.

"We have delivered on our promise to implement OpenStack in our cloud offerings, and to free customers from the vendor lock-in that they face at other major cloud providers," he said. "We’re delivering open, high-performance, scalable and easy-to-use cloud solutions, while empowering customers to choose features, services, prices and locations based on the needs of their business."…

Grazed from ITWeb. Author: Martin May.

One of the biggest lessons learned by many of Salesforce.com’s 2.1 million global subscribers, following the cloud computing giant’s recent catastrophic power outage, is that support problems don’t disappear when applications or infrastructures move to the cloud.

As the cloud-based service provider’s servers remained inoperative for an agonisingly long period, there seems little doubt that a sizable number of its 86 000 corporate customers were revisiting their service level agreements (SLAs) and quickly reading through the fine print detailing Salesforce.com’s support targets…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Derrick Harris.

We already know how powerful techniques such as machine learning and sentiment analyis can be when it comes to deciphering consumer behavior online, and now it seems they can identify bullies, as well. A group of University of Wisconsin researchers have developed a machine learning algorithm that’s identifying more than 15,000 tweets per day relating to bullying — complete with loads of associated sociological insights — which begs the question of how to act on that data. How do you govern a social web that can be simultaneously a communication platform, a research lab full of unknowing subjects and a boiling-over pot of criminal evidence?

How the model works and what it found

In order to train their model, the researchers fed it two sets of tweets — one they had determined to be about bullying activity and another that was not. Once the model had learned the language identifiers of tweets relating to bullying, it was time to turn it loose on real-world tweets. Not only did the system start identifying a great number of tweets, but it also discovered time patterns (they occur most frequently during the school week) and was able to pick out who played what role in the bullying…

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Liz McMillan.

TwinStrata earned top marks in Info-Tech Research Group’s new report "Vendor Landscape: Cloud Backup Gateways."

• TwinStrata was given Best Overall Value award for "coupling its impressive product with an appealing price," said the Info-Tech Research Group Research Document.
• TwinStrata CloudArray® was the only product in the report given an overall score of "exemplary."

Nicos Vekiarides, chief executive officer at TwinStrata, stated, "The Info-Tech results validate our focus on meeting customer needs through our industry-leading feature set, broad solution partner ecosystem and flexible pricing models. We are pleased to have been rated top honors in both value and overall product; it’s a testament to what we deliver to our customers every day."…

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Elizabeth White.

Symform on Thursday announced it has joined the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). The CSA is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance within cloud computing, and to provide education on the uses of cloud computing to help secure all other forms of computing.

Jim Reavis, executive director at the CSA, stated that "Symform’s deep expertise in security will be a valuable addition to our organization as companies increasingly look to the cloud and distributed approaches to manage and protect their data."…

PerfCap Corporation, the leading provider of automated performance management and capacity planning software for the IT industry, today announced CloudView Starter Pack, an easy and cost effective way for customers to begin the performance monitoring and capacity planning of their VMware computing infrastructure.

The CloudView Starter Pack includes a 30 day free trial of our software and within 90 days, the option to purchase CloudView software including one year support at a significant savings. This limited time offer includes five VMware client licenses at the regular price and the Performance Analysis Web Zone (PAWZ) Server at no cost.

Grazed from IT Business Edge. Author: Arthor Cole.

Two salient facts are emerging about enterprise infrastructure as the second decade of the 21st Century unfolds. One is that cloud computing will usher in new levels of dynamism and flexibility that will both drive performance and lower costs. The other is that mainframes will continue to support significant portions of the data environment at most large organizations.

While these two architectures are not mutually exclusive, it does pose a conundrum of sorts: How will mainframe users resolve the differences between aging big iron platforms and the fast-paced culture of the cloud?

Although predictions of the mainframe’s imminent demise are as old as, well, the rack-based server, it is clear now that top-tier organizations’ commitment to the technology is solid. BMC Software recently issued a survey indicating that 93 percent of current users expect mainframe capacity to hold steady or even grow over the next few years. The plan, at least, is to continually tweak their current mainframe platforms to accommodate both the cloud and mobile computing as these two technologies continue to reshape the overall enterprise landscape…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Rick Watson.

Cloud computing has fronted the expansion of the personal computer. Microsoft’s Bill Gates envisioned the personalization of the computer over 20 years ago, and these dreams have been surpassed. The desire to expand the utility of personal computing has brought to light the need for control of data sharing. Outsourcing of hardware resources is a fairly new area in computing. Normally termed as cloud computing, data sharing has fronted a novel catalogue of legal implications, with most jurisdictions seeking to control the power wielded by providers of such services.

These jurisdictions are actually justified in their cause, owing to the growing tendency for cloud computing to replace onsite data storage. What will become of individuals who are not able to handle the required expertise in managing the data stored in the cloud? Is there any conflict of interest when it comes to cloud computing? Do onshore and offshore data centers offers analogous services?…