Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Many companies jumped on the software as a service (SaaS) bandwagon because that cloud-delivery model gets their applications up and running fast and uniformly across geographies and business units. On the flip side, SaaS vendors have recreated the same sort of seperate data silos that plagued the client-server computing era.

That’s the problem database pioneer Roger Sippl is attacking with Connection Cloud, his startup that aims not only to free up that SaaS data using the SaaS company’s own APIs and Connection Cloud’s own connectors…

Grazed from CloudTimes. Author: Xath Cruz.

The European Commission’s panel on privacy is planning to promote the concept of cloud computing and aims to endorse it as legal under the continent’s privacy law. In line with this, the commission also encourages organizations and companies to learn how to police themselves better in order to protect data and personal information that is stored remotely via cloud.

Dubbed the Article 29 Working Party, the panel is expected to make recommendations and create guidelines on cloud computing, which will finally address security and privacy concerns that have long hindered wider adoption of cloud computing services outside of the US.

The Article 29 Working Party’s recommendations and guidelines will be included in a report, which will also highlight the benefits of cloud computing and its ability to encourage innovation and economic efficiency. The report emphasizes the European officials’ more practical approach to the role of remote computing in the economy…

Grazed from OpenPR. Author: PR Announcement.

Multi-vendor; mixed technology support and professional services organization, Vitrx, have teamed up with Dynamax, one of the longest standing digital signage providers in the world, to extend the range of its cloud-based services it offers to businesses looking to improve productivity and cost efficiency.

The companies joined forces due to the compatibility of their offers and their commitment to delivering premium customer service. Cloud- based digital signage software- digitalsignage.NET- allows businesses to decrease their printing and travel expenditure by scheduling and sending news and information to a network of screens, from any location with an Internet connection.

With this new product in their portfolio, Vitrx aims to enable companies to communicate smarter not harder enhancing the quality of their communications, as content can be quickly refreshed and amended via the cloud. The software is based on Amazon’s EC2 solution and supports HTML5 technology for real-time data input…

Grazed from NewYork Times. Author: Quentin Hardy.

There is something strangely familiar about what is going on in tech. We’re having something like an early-1980s operating system struggle, with corporate survival as the prize.

June’s three big announcements by Apple, Microsoft and Google made plain that we have a new mainstream model for using computers. As one of the participants noted, it is marked by the interaction of “the hardware, and the software and the cloud.”

The three big companies all seem to have a big cloud computing capability, a decent-looking mobile device, and relationships with software developers. Those may be the minimum elements for competition in the new world. The two great challenges are mastering the cloud technology and convincing outside developers to join your team, making things to go inside one or another system…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: David Linthicum.

Following the Google Compute Engine announcement last week, the cloud market has a new player in the world of IaaS, and yet another provider with yet another set of APIs.

APIs, or application programming interfaces, are nothing new; they give developers programmatic access to services. This includes cloud services, such as storing data, updating a database, moving data, pushing data into a queue, provisioning a server, etc.

APIs are important in the world of cloud computing because of how they’re used. Lines are being drawn around groups of cloud providers that rely on certain types of APIs. And enterprises are beginning to notice, and while it makes an interesting conversation, consumer concerns still surround vendor lock-in and portability issues…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Kevin Fitchard.

Soon our cars will be the most connected devices we own. Consequently they could generate the most expensive monthly data bills of any device we own.

Cars will have built in Wi-Fi allowing them to not only share data, but quite possibly act autonomously on that information. If carriers like Verizon get their way, every car will have embedded LTE, allowing them to grab any manner and any quantity of content from the airwaves. But all radio connections aren’t created equal.

Wi-Fi is essentially free, while cellular data is expensive. The seeming liberation of an always-connected vehicle could easily be constrained by the shackles of an enormous cellular bill. Is there a way we can maximize the “free” connectivity of Wi-Fi while minimizing the costs of mobile data?…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Sharon Gaudin.

When one talks of computers today, he or she could be referring to a laptop, a desktop or maybe even a smartphone. However, if Google’s latest plan stays on track, the definition of a computer could broaden significantly.

At its Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco, the company threw a lot of effort behind the unveiling of a prototype of its so-called Google Glass computerized eyeglasses. The Android-powered eyeglasses are equipped with a processor, memory, camera, GPS sensors and a display screen.

Google co-founder and CEO Sergey Brin said the Google Glass development effort is all about "doing brand new risky technological things that are really about making science fiction real."…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

Amazon Web Services suffered an outage in early June, and again this weekend. The outage affected more than just Instagram, Pinterest and Netflix users. Thousands of lonely singles using dating website WhatsYourPrice.com were also affected. Today, WhatsYourPrice.com, the world’s largest online dating website where members bid for first dates, announced it is terminating its use of Amazon Web Services EC2 permanently.

Cloud computing is sexy. However, as the recent outage at Amazon’s cloud computing services illustrates, it can also produce a lot of unhappy customers. In the past month, Amazon’s Internet-based computing services (AWS) have suffered two major outages. The first occurred a few weeks ago on June 14, caused by a series of problems with generators and electrical switching equipment. And again this past weekend, due to severe thunderstorms in the East Coast.

Instagram, Pinterest and Netflix users aren’t the only ones affected by Amazon’s recent server crashes. In fact, thousands of singles using dating website WhatsYourPrice.com was affected as well…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Steve Ranger.

Despite the hype, cloud computing is still a tiny proportion of overall IT spending, although it is likely to grow fast.

According to analysts TechMarketView, the UK market for cloud computing reached £1.2bn in 2011, 38 percent higher than the previous year. The analysts expect cloud-computing revenues to grow by 35 percent each year to reach £3.9bn by 2015.

That sounds like a lot of money, until you realise this means that cloud accounted for a mere two percent of the UK software and IT services market in 2011. Rapid growth will see cloud build to nine percent of the market in 2015, however…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Derrick Harris.

AOL is taking its flexible infrastructure strategy to a whole new level of flexibility by building data centers about the size of French door refrigerators. AOL Services CTO Mike Manos wrote about the units — part of a project code-named “Nibiru” internally — in his blog on Thursday, proclaiming July 4 (the day the first one arrived) AOL’s Data Center Independence Day. If they work as planned, AOL will be able to deploy new services and infrastructure when and where needed with little more than an electrical outlet required.

The Nibiru project, he explains, is a set of “incredibly game-changing” goals for transforming the way AOL’s services division carries out the work of managing the company’s infrastructure, and the newly materialized mini data centers we’re high on the list:…