Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Atlantis Computing thinks that as cheap as storage has become, it’s still too expensive. Its goal is to suck as much of that cost out of your IT infrastructure as possible. First it offered software that CEO Bernard Harguindeguy says cuts the storage requirement for desktop virtualiation implementations by up to 90 percent. The ILIO Diskless VDI software does so by compressing the data and using local desktop storage to shoulder the burden.

Now, this GigaOM Launchpad finalist is applying its software smarts to storage-intensive server applications such as Hadoop and Microsoft SQL Server as well with ILIO Flexcloud.

“Hadoop requires a lot of storage very close to the compute resource, we think we solve that problem,” he said. Running it on server RAM lets you virtualize Hadoop and run multiple copies on the same server sharing RAM as the primary storage, Atlantis CEO Bernard Harquindeguy told me in a recent interview…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Patience Wait.

The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a three-year, $15 million contract to IT services firm CGI Federal as part of a broad plan to shift up to 80% of its computing environment to the cloud by 2015.

The award was made under a General Services Administration blanket purchase agreement for infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). CGI is one of a dozen vendors that have been approved under the BPA to provide certified, secure cloud services–including storage, virtual machines, and Web hosting–to federal agencies…

Grazed from MarketWatch. Author: PR Announcement.

Joyent and Guardtime’s cloud computing technology enables Levira, the Estonian government’s majority owned service provider, to offer secure cloud-computing services to Governments and enterprises in Scandinavia and Central and Eastern Europe. Levira also aims to start providing secure cloud services for multinational corporations that need to comply with the data residency requirements also outside of their home soil.

"Joyent’s double hulled virtualization and Guardtime’s keyless signature technology makes a formidable combination for enterprises and governments who wish to move to a cloud computing environment but hesitate due to security and trust-related concerns," said Mart Einpalu, CEO of Levira. "Our mission is to become a leading cloud computing service provider in Scandinavia and Central and Eastern Europe and our unique ability to give our clients tools to prove with mathematical certainty that their data has been safe and in compliance with the regulations is a paramount requirement to achieve that."…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Concerns over data security and a limited knowledge of cloud computing are putting Canada’s economic competitiveness at risk, as business and IT leaders fail to adopt new cloud technologies, according to an TELUS and IDC Canada study released today.

The study, commissioned by TELUS, reveals that the majority of Canadian organizations currently using cloud computing say it has transformed the way they work by allowing them to re-focus resources on meeting strategic business objectives. Yet 71 per cent of Canadian businesses are risking their competitive edge because they aren’t open to alternative IT delivery models that can bring new levels of productivity and enhanced customer service to their organizations…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Florence de Borja.

With all the hustle and bustle brought about by cloud computing, small and medium-sized enterprises are really very confused when it comes to searching for a service provider who can deliver on his promises such as streamlining of operational expenses, reduction of capital expenses and the like. Because many entry-level users have doubts, fears, and uncertainties regarding cloud computing, it helps them if some entities can provide information about the subject so that they are well informed when they decide to move to the cloud.

In essence, a cloud computing service provider must be able to deliver on his promises to provide a reliable and secure environment in the most scalable, cost-effective, and simple manner. The service supplier must have state-of-the-art technology so that he can provide the best availability and performance. Aside from that, the cloud computing vendor must provide 24/7 access to the cloud environment from anywhere in the world using various platforms and devices. Technical support must be in place 24/7 so that users can quickly get help when they need it. The cloud computing provider must be able to build a network infrastructure that is fault-tolerant and comprehensive…

Grazed from MarketWatch. Author: PR Announcement.

Cloud provider Datapipe, a global provider of managed services, infrastructure, and IT cloud computing, today announced it has been recognized by Talkin’ Cloud on its Top 100 Cloud Services Provider list. Datapipe ranked #21 for its ability to deliver cloud computing solutions and management of AWS, CloudStack, and VMware environments.

Stratosphere(TM), Datapipe’s flagship cloud offering, is built on a world-class network, and available as a secure public or hosted private cloud. Engineered to meet enterprise requirements for governance, usability, compliance and interoperability, Stratosphere(TM) is a globally available, high-performance managed cloud computing platform. Datapipe’s CEO, Robb Allen, elaborates on why his company’s cloud platform continues to be selected as a top cloud offering:…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Smartvue Corp., a global video surveillance company, announced today at the 2012 Electronic Security Expo its new Cloudvue surveillance service powered by Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Azure.

To meet the challenges of scalable, worldwide, video surveillance and security, Smartvue helps organizations simply and securely take advantage of cloud computing and storage by delivering live, recorded, and stored network video surveillance through its Cloudvue service powered by Windows Azure…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

A recent survey revealed user attitudes and adoption plans for cloud storage; full results are available at http://bit.ly/cs-survey-2012results .

• Nearly three-quarters of cloud storage users estimated they could recover their data within 24 hours
• One out of every eight organizations that do not use cloud storage responded that it would take "more than a week" to recover their data.

Respondents were attendees at the recent Cloud Computing Expo at Javits Center in New York June 11-14, an audience expected to offer more sophisticated insight into the use of cloud computing than a general IT audience. Seventy-three percent of respondents have implemented some form of cloud computing already, with more than a quarter (28 percent) having done so for three or more years…