July 21, 2012 Off

Department of Defense Maps Its Cloud Strategy

By David

Grazed from CIO Today. Author: Jennifer LeClaire.

The Defense Department has released a cloud computing strategy all its own, aimed at moving current network applications from a duplicative, cumbersome and costly set of application silos to an end state designed to create a more agile, secure, and cost-effective service environment that can rapidly respond to changing needs.

Teri Takai, CIO at the Defense Department, said the government agency is moving to an enterprise cloud environment that provides tangible benefits across the department by supporting the delivery of the joint information environment, from the continental United States to the warfighter at the tactical edge…

July 20, 2012 Off

Benefits of Utilizing the Microsoft Azure Platform for your SaaS Solutions

By David

Contributed Article. Author: Shawn Barker, Quest Software

Benefits of Utilizing the Microsoft Azure Platform for your SaaS Solutions

As a software developer, Quest Software has a great deal of experience building on-premises software to solve such customer challenges as migrating email from one platform to another. While these products have done very well, the inherent drawbacks to on-premises software, include the need to provision hardware, as well as download, configure, patch, and maintain the software. Companies generally live with this for software that solves ongoing management problems like identity management, data protection and auditing. These requirements of on-premises software can add significant time, cost and resources to short-term projects, however.

For the last few years, I’ve been working with development teams at Quest to build Software as a Service (SaaS) products, most of these on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform. One of those products – Quest OnDemand Migration for Email – was released last September and, as the name suggests, it migrates email from on-premises or cloud-based email platforms to Office 365, Live@Edu and hosted Exchange. The following are the main factors we considered when deciding on a cloud platform for this product.

July 20, 2012 Off

Microsoft’s Shift to the Cloud: What It Means for You

By David

Grazed from PCWorld. Author: Loyd Case.

Microsoft’s announcement of Office 2013 is another linchpin in the company’s effort to assume a leadership role as a cloud-computing services provider.

The new version of Office will be tightly coupled to the company’s SkyDrive cloud-storage service. SkyDrive, in turn, is one of the key built-in features of Windows 8.

Microsoft has yet to announce pricing for the new Office. But with Windows 8 Pro upgrades costing just $40 if you upgrade online directly from Microsoft, the software giant has already signaled a willingness to change its upgrade models.

That’s the most aggressive pricing yet for the company’s flagship operating system, and it could be a harbinger of Microsoft’s approach to Office upgrades. One clear message that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivered at the Office 2013 announcement is the shift from packaged goods to services. Ballmer noted that the new Office was “the first round of Office designed from the get-go as a service.”…

July 20, 2012 Off

Cloud Security Alliance Selects Singapore as Site for Corporate Headquarters, Continues APAC Expansion Initiative

By David

Grazed from MarketWatch. Author: PR Announcement.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) today announced the establishment of the new CSA corporate headquarters in Singapore, under an effort led by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), and founding APAC sponsor Trend Micro (tyo:4704) . The CSA will undertake a three-year strategic private-public partnership with support from the Singapore government to further the security of cloud computing. As part of the agreement, the CSA will establish a Global Research Centre, Global Standards Secretariat, and Global Centre of Excellence for CCSK training and education in Singapore.

"After a highly competitive process, with interest from many candidates in the region, we are pleased to have selected Singapore as the key hub for CSA activities in the APAC region," said Aloysius Cheang, Managing Director Asia Pacific for the CSA. "EDB and IDA have demonstrated a great commitment to the CSA presence in APAC, which will be highly beneficial to our members in the region, and elevate Singapore as a global hub for cloud computing security."…

July 20, 2012 Off

Fastest-Growing Category of Cloud Computing: Business Intelligence and Analytics

By David

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Joe McKendrick.

Will the cloud push business intelligence and analytics to a whole new level? Since cloud-based services can support massive amounts of data and provide it in a consistent manner across enterprises, there’s reason to believe that even the most technology-averse organizations will have a way to compete on analytics, just as the big players do.

To be sure, we’re still only in the early stages cloud-based BI and analytics. A new survey report from Saugatuck Technology concludes that, as of year-end 2011, only about 13% of enterprises worldwide – including all industries and all sizes of enterprises – indicated that they had cloud-based BI/advanced analytics solutions in place and in use.

But this is about to change. Saugatuck’s survey also shows that cloud-based BI and analytics will be among the fastest-growing cloud-based business management solution types through the next two years. Cloud-based BI and analytics will see an 84% compound annual growth rate over this period. This is based on a survey sample of 200 user enterprise IT and business leaders, along with input from about 30 vendors…

July 19, 2012 Off

Optimize Your Infrastructure; From Hand-built to Mass-production

By David

Grazed from GreenPages. Author: Trevor Williamson, Director of Solutions Architecture @ GreenPages Technology Solutions.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know that I write a lot about cloud and cloud technologies, specifically around optimizing IT infrastructures and transitioning them from traditional management methodologies and ideals toward dynamic, cloud-based methodologies. Recently, in conversations with customers as well as my colleagues and peers within the industry, it is becoming increasingly clear that the public, at least the subset I deal with, are simply fed up with the massive amount of hype surrounding cloud.

Everyone is using that as a selling point and have attached so many different meanings that it has become meaningless…white noise that just hums in the background and adds no value to the conversation. In order to try to cut through that background noise I’m going to cast the conversation in a way that is a lot less buzzy and a little more specific to what people know and are familiar with. Let’s talk about cars (haa ha, again)…and how Henry Ford revolutionized the automobile industry…

July 19, 2012 Off

The Cloud and the Grid: A Celestial Match?

By David

Grazed from Daily Finance. Author: Sara E. Wright.

Recent power outages across the East Coast, some lasting more than a week during the height of a debilitating heat wave, have exposed the soft underbelly of the North American electrical grid. Old Gray Mare, she ain’t what she used to be, and it’s going to take oodles of money to give her a much-needed facelift and get her back in fighting shape. Follow that money, and you should find some compelling investment opportunities. One of these is "the cloud," nerd-speak for cloud computing technology.

Harsh reality
The Electricity Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Energy warned in 2009 that "…the current electric power infrastructure … will be unable to ensure a reliable, cost-effective, secure, and environmentally sustainable supply of electricity for the next two decades … much of the electricity supply and delivery infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life." Say what? That’s alarming!…

July 19, 2012 Off

Are you opportunistic or strategic with your cloud investments?

By David

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Phil LeClare – Forrester Research.

Our latest survey on IT budgets and priorities shows that 35 percent of enterprises have a big focus on cloud computing (calling it a high or critical priority), but do we really know how best to apply that investment?

We continue to see a large disconnect between what the business wants from cloud services and what the IT department wants to offer and support. The short story is the business wants public cloud services (or something very, very close to this value proposition) for delivering new services and capabilities to market. Yet IT wants to offer private cloud solutions that improve operational efficiency and drive down overall IT costs. IT doesn’t have its head in the sand about business’ demands, they just have to balance these desires against what IT is measured on – the cost and security of services provided. And frankly they don’t trust the public cloud…

July 19, 2012 Off

CSC’s BizCloud for Government Offers Federal Agencies First On-Premise Private Cloud Billed as a Service and Ready for Workloads

By David

Grazed from CSC. Author: PR Announcement

CSC today announced BizCloud for Government — the industry’s first and only on-premise private cloud that is billed as a service and ready for application workloads in 10 weeks. As federal agencies strive to improve operational efficiencies, reduce costs, meet federal mandates and embrace cloud services, CSC’s BizCloud for Government provides the privacy, security and control of a private cloud with the agility, convenience and elasticity of a public cloud.

“Our customers want greater efficiency and cost-effective alternatives to meet both mission and IT requirements, and BizCloud for Government can provide these benefits immediately,” said Leif Ulstrup, president of CSC’s Federal Consulting Practice. “Many government agencies are already taking advantage of our more than 50 years of government experience combined with our deep commercial cloud expertise to modernize their enterprise without losing focus on the mission.”

July 19, 2012 Off

6fusion Announces General Availability of Cloud Resource Meter for VMware vSphere

By David

Grazed from 6fusion. Author: PR Announcement

6fusion, the leading provider of utility metered public, private, and hybrid cloud infrastructure management solutions, today announced that Cloud Resource Meter for VMware vSphere has achieved general availability and the latest version of the product is now available for download. You can see a demo of Cloud Resource Meter for VMware vSphere at 1PM ET on Wednesday, August 1st – register here.

Cloud Resource Meter for VMware vSphere allows users to meter resource consumption in any VMware vSphere 4.1 or 5.0 environment providing unparalleled insight into resource consumption – all for free and all right from the VMware console. In addition, new functionality was added to the latest version of Cloud Resource Meter for VMware vSphere based on feedback from beta customers, including: