Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Derrick Harris.

Google is hard at work on a cloud computing offering that will compete directly with the popular Amazon EC2 cloud, according to a source familiar with Google’s plans. Not to be outdone, other sources have confirmed Microsoft is also building an Infrastructure as a Service platform, and that the Redmond cloud will be ready — or at least announced — before Google’s. According to my sources, Google should roll out its service for renting virtual server instances by the end of the year, while Microsoft is slating its big announcement for a June 7 event in San Francisco.

Although Google declined to comment on whether the offering is indeed on the way, an IaaS cloud would make a lot of sense for the company. It already has a popular platform-as-a-service offering in App Engine that is essentially a cloud-based application runtime, but renting virtual servers in an IaaS model is still where the money is in cloud-based computing. Google also has an API-accessible storage offering — the aptly named Google Cloud Storage — that would make for a nice complement to an IaaS cloud, like Amazon’s ridiculously popular S3 storage service is for EC2…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Darryl K. Taft.

IBM has announced advancements to its SmartCloud Services and added customers and partners.

IBM said it has seen rapid adoption of its SmartCloud portfolio as customers and partners move to the cloud. Big Blue manages massive amounts of data and client transactions in its cloud environments, including 1 million enterprise application users working on the IBM Cloud, more than $100 billion in commerce transactions a year in the cloud and 4.5 million daily client transactions conducted through the IBM Cloud.

Moreover, customers and partners are increasingly choosing IBM SmartCloud services, software and hardware to expand into new markets, enable their mobile workforces and develop enterprise applications more efficiently, IBM said…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Maureen O’Gara.

Facebook decision makers and their bankers were reportedly closeted together shortly before the markets closed in New York Thursday trying to decide whether to price Facebook’s IPO at $38 or $39 a share, according to the Wall Street Journal, which evidently had a glass – in the way of a source – pressed to the conference room door.

Although nothing is definite yet, evidently the $39 price might break the camel’s back. They reportedly tried it on investors and got told no.

At $38 Facebook would be valued at a record $104 billion for an IPO and raise $18.4 billion. It would take $41 a share for the social networking site to best Visa’s record-setting IPO in 2008. Of course Visa had a proven business model. Facebook doesn’t…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

The childhood cancer research computing cluster created and donated by Dell for the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is ready to support the world’s first precision medicine clinical trial for pediatric cancer. The computation performance of the cluster is expected to accelerate analysis and identification of targeted treatments beyond initial projections.

Oncologists from the Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC) and biomedical researchers from TGen will use the new high performance computing and collaboration cloud to identify targeted treatments for pediatric cancer patients based on the specific genetic vulnerabilities of each child’s tumor–an approach that could be used to treat many pediatric and adult cancers in the future…

Grazed from Forbes.  Author: Jacqueline Vanacek.

Almost every parent I know has had to confiscate a cell phone, monitor Facebook, or somehow curtail a child’s online presence.

Almost every start-up CEO I know has said that cloud computing with mobile, social and big data is one of the most exciting tech waves we’ve ever had.

And who would have thought that teens are part of the reason – compelling the tech industry to extend the boundaries like never before! That’s a good thing because it sparks even more Internet opportunities — and some we’ve just begun to pursue…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Leading Service Provider and Technology Integrator MicroTech announces a new cloud computing solution — the MicroTech Advanced Virtual Environment; a next generation technology solution that offers a high-performance, highly available and scalable, ready-to-activate private cloud. The new solution from MicroTech will be unveiled at EMC World 2012, May 21 – 24, in Las Vegas.

The Advanced Virtual Environment solution combines the next-generation MicroTech MicroPodd(TM) portable data center with a CA AppLogic® turnkey cloud platform, monitoring solution, business intelligence reporting tool, and cloud minder identity management service to deliver a comprehensive private cloud solution — meeting all NIST cloud characteristics…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Autho: PR Announcement.

Broadview Networks, a leading provider of hosted voice, data and cloud computing solutions, announced today that it has won the B2B Customer Strategy Award in the inaugural 2012 Cloud Awards.

Broadview has been in the forefront of adopting cloud-based services to improve its customers’ operations, and as a leader in the cloud-based IP phone solutions market, has extended their expertise to cloud computing. Their suite of cloud computing services offers fully-managed enterprise-grade hosted business applications and infrastructure tailored to make it easy-to-use for the small- and medium-sized business…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Numerix ( www.numerix.com ), the leading provider of cross-asset analytics for derivatives valuations and risk management, today announced it was named Technology Innovation Provider of the Year for the Americas by Structured Products Magazine. This is the sixth consecutive year that Numerix has won the award, a testament to the company’s commitment and success in the Americas region for the modeling, pricing, valuation and risk management of structured products.

Numerix continued to build on its leadership position in the region by bringing to market new and innovative technology solutions that met the specific needs of structured products clients across the America’s region, both through independent solutions and Numerix’s partnership network. Numerix also expanded its presence in the region with the addition of 27 new institutions to its client and partner roster. New clients represented a solid mix and cross section of the financial services industry: insurance companies, banks, corporations, hedge funds and sell side brokers…

Grazed from PRWeb.  Author: PR Announcement.

SSAE 16 Professionals has unveiled a specialty service line focusing on SSAE 16 (SOC 1) and SOC 2 reports for cloud computing companies. Cloud computing can be thought of as web-based tools or applications that users can access and use through a web browser as if the programs were installed locally on their own computers. Companies are increasingly seeking cloud service providers to reduce costs in their own business. By running applications through the cloud, a company can eliminate the costs associated with buying, maintaining, and securing the hardware to run the applications while maximizing the application’s potential to store data on remote servers. Cloud computing is also scalable, which is beneficial to fast growing companies who may need to ramp up staff quickly over the next several years. With so much emphasis and reliance on controls at the cloud computing provider, having a SSAE 16 or SOC 2 is not only recommended, but it is almost mandatory in today’s competitive marketplace…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

As businesses embrace the transformative power of cloud computing to gain a significant advantage, IBM today unveiled advancements to its SmartCloud Services and announced new customers and partners that demonstrate IBM SmartCloud is a leading enterprise cloud platform for business.

 

IBM has seen rapid adoption of its SmartCloud portfolio as customers and partners move to the cloud. IBM manages massive amounts of data and client transactions in its cloud environments, including:

1 million enterprise application users working on the IBM Cloud

More than $100 billion in commerce transactions a year in the cloud

4.5 million daily client transactions conducted through the IBM Cloud…