Grazed from Midsize Insider.  Author: Rick Robinson.

The Oracle Fusion Applications suite is available in two versions, hosted (and thus in the cloud) and on-site. So far, Fusion customers are showing a marked preference for the hosted version. Their experience may offer insights to IT managers at midsize firms in choosing between cloud or on-site options.

For all of the debate about cloud computing, the primary argument in favor of the cloud is that it provides greater simplicity and convenience to the user, including midsize business users. Oracle’s decision to offer Fusion in both cloud and on-site versions offers an unusually direct comparison of the two approaches…

Grazed from Wired.  Author: Cade Metz.

HP’s original plan was to build a cloud service using technology developed inside its very own HP Labs. But then Biri Singh arrived.

Zorawar “Biri” Singh was once the vice president of cloud computing at IBM, and he parachuted into HP in May of last year, grabbing control of the company’s new Cloud Services group, which was already developing an online service along the lines of Amazon EC2 — a service that provides instant access to virtual servers and other computing resources for building, testing, and deploying large software applications. HP’s service was already under construction using proprietary HP Labs technology, but not long after Singh’s arrival, it was moved to OpenStack, the Linux of cloud computing…

Grazed from CIO.  Author: John R. Rymer.

Cloud computing has reached an inflection point for enterprises — a comprehensive strategy for its use is now required. Until now, most companies had adopted cloud services in an ad hoc fashion, driven mostly by business leaders and developers looking to deliver new systems of engagement they felt could not be delivered by corporate IT — or in the time frame required. These ad hoc experiences prove that cloud solutions are now ready to be strategic resources in enterprise business technology portfolios. Only CIOs can help the business strike the right balance between the agility, efficiency, security, compliance, and integration that’s required for a successful cloud strategy.

This research introduces our Playbook approach to our cloud research, describing how to execute an enterprise cloud strategy from vision to planning to implementation through to ongoing optimization. It is the Executive Overview to our Playbook on achieving cloud economics, setting the context for 12 reports by Forrester analysts that address each major phase of the transformation…

Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: Joab Jackson.

Preparing for its entry into the market for IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), Hewlett-Packard on Thursday launched a second beta program of cloud computing services it plans to offer commercially.

The company’s HP Cloud Compute, HP Cloud Object Storage, and HP Cloud Content Delivery Network services can now all be accessed by the public. All the services will be offered on an hourly pay-as-you-go model.  This beta program expands upon a smaller, free beta portfolio of cloud services offered by the company last September.

The company will be marketing these services for organizations that want to run large-scale Web services from the cloud. HP Cloud Compute offers virtual servers. HP Cloud Object Storage offers object-based storage, and the HP Cloud Content Delivery Network provides a globally distributed caching layer to speed the delivery of services…

Grazed from MarketWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Puppet Labs™, the leading provider of IT automation software for system administrators, today announced that Advance Digital, Inc., a leading creator of digital information and connection solutions for local consumers and businesses with 11 media properties across the U.S., uses Puppet Enterprise to deliver best-in-class operational agility and efficiency of its VMware private cloud computing infrastructure. As a result, Advance Digital’s media properties are able to respond rapidly to spikes in consumer traffic and see orders of magnitude improvement in site availability.

Prior to Puppet Enterprise, Advance Digital had been long-time users of IT automation in the form of custom scripts. However, the increased node counts driven by virtualization outstripped the practicality of their homegrown tools and motivated them to explore next-generation technologies. Advance Digital considered many solutions, but when they saw the traction Puppet had gained along with Puppet’s community backing, Advance Digital chose to adopt Puppet Enterprise. With Puppet Enterprise, the process of provisioning a server was cut down to hours. Furthermore, having automated their release management processes with Puppet Enterprise, Advance Digital can accurately and quickly deploy software updates, leaving the heavy lifting to Puppet Enterprise…

Grazed from InformationWeek.  Author: Barbara DePompa.

The Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration are creating a cloud computing environment that could be a model for other federal agencies.

Working together, the DOE and NNSA are combining a private cloud and commercial cloud services to create a secure, hybrid cloud that will be available to other DOE departments, and potentially to other federal agencies. Just last week, Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel released a shared IT services strategy that directs agencies to adopt services that are available "for consumption by multiple organizations within or between federal agencies."

The cloud project was described by Energy CTO Pete Tseronis, along with two IT executives of NNSA–CTO Travis Howerton, and management and operations CTO Anil Karmel–at InformationWeek‘s Government IT Leadership Forum on May 3 in Washington, D.C. NNSA, which is responsible for the security of the U.S. military’s nuclear weapons stockpile, operates within the DOE…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Brian Prince.

Secure cloud computing and mobile device security are top priorities for enterprises, but they also share top spots on Symantec’s list of plans for extending its product portfolio, company executives told eWEEK.

At the company’s Vision 2012 Conference in Las Vegas, Symantec officials laid out a road map that includes building up its cloud-based O3 platform and stretching further into both the mobile and cloud computing space through a mix of organic development and acquisitions.

Identity protection

“This was something that I talked about last year–that we would add new capabilities, new products, new services to our portfolio,” chief executive Enrique Salem said on Tuesday, regarding the company’s cloud computing plans. “So, recently we acquired LiveOffice… We spent $1.3 billion (£800m) to buy VeriSign. Why? Their certificate business is interesting, but what’s more interesting is our ability to create products like O3, which used the… identity-protection technology that VeriSign had built.”…

Grazed from MarketWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, today announced its entire* comprehensive portfolio of Citrix Ready® and Citrix HDX Ready verified thin clients are also verified for Citrix VDI-in-a-Box™. This ultra-low-cost complete virtual desktop solution makes it easier than ever for small and medium-sized businesses to realize the transformative benefits of desktop virtualization.

Unlike other low-cost VDI solutions that require lock-in to proprietary and non-scalable solutions to reduce costs, the combined Wyse and Citrix VDI-in-a-Box solution provides the functionality required to provide a rich user experience and ensure a scalable solution SMBs can grow with. Wyse’s new solutions:

• Remove complexity and costs – VDI-in-a-Box provides built-in high-availability and eliminates over 60 percent of traditional VDI infrastructure — including management servers and shared storage (SANs) — by creating a grid of off-the-shelf servers using local storage. Coupled with Wyse devices, VDI-in-a-Box eliminates the multiple moving parts and expensive shared storage usually required to provide a consistent, scalable, and highly-available virtual desktop environment.
  

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Zuora, the subscription commerce and billing leader for the Subscription Economy, today announced that Zuora Z-Commerce for the Cloud is now available as a key technology solution for HP Cloud Services.

• With Zuora’s participation in HP’s new public cloud services, customers and partners will be able to rapidly monetize their cloud offerings through Zuora’s metering, pricing and billing platform that matches the business model of cloud computing with subscription and pay-as-you-go pricing models.
• Zuora, having pioneered the cloud billing space and the Subscription Economy, is the first enterprise-grade billing platform fully integrated with HP, enabling HP Cloud Services and its ecosystem to deliver flexible cloud computing services at global scale…

Develop, Innovate and Monetize Any Type of Cloud Service

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Dome9 Security(TM), the leading provider of cloud server security management for public and private clouds, as well as for dedicated and virtual private servers (VPS), today announced that its leading cloud security service supports HP Cloud Services with automated security and centralized access management. As a result of this agreement and technology integration, subscribers to HP Cloud Services ( http://hpcloud.com ) can leverage Dome9’s proven security management capabilities to secure their HP Cloud Compute servers.

Under an agreement with HP, Dome9’s cloud security service integrates with HP Cloud Services out-of-the-box. The two services offer integration via an agent or API, for unparalleled flexibility and ease of use for cloud security. Customers simply enter their HP Cloud Services API key or install the lightweight Dome9 agent. Dome9 automatically connects to HP Cloud Services and begins managing the cloud server security, providing policy-based automation to secure an infinite number of servers with highly elastic controls…