Security Alliance Proposes Cloud Certification Framework
Grazed from Application Development Trends. Author: John K. Waters.
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), a not-for-profit coalition of companies, individuals, organizations and "key stake holders" with an interest in promoting secure cloud computing, has disclosed plans to offer a certification program for providers of cloud-based products and services.
The new Open Certification Framework will be a program for "flexible, incremental and multi-layered cloud provider certification" aligned with the CSA’s security guidance and control objectives, the organization says.
Essentially the CSA is trying to develop a regulatory regime that will lead to the creation of a globally recognized certification that meets their own assurance requirements — in other words, a set of best security practices for the cloud…
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 
IBM has announced advancements to its SmartCloud Services and added customers and partners.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.