Grazed from V3.co.uk.  Author: Daniel Robinson.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has extended its cloud computing service offerings aimed at Windows developers with the introduction of SQL database and ASP.Net application support as managed services.

Available now worldwide, the Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for Microsoft SQL Server and ASP.Net support for AWS Elastic Beanstalk enable organisations to deploy SQL Server databases and ASP.Net applications onto Amazon’s cloud infrastructure using familiar Microsoft tools, without having to worry about management or adding extra resources if they need to scale up, the firm said.

"We’re excited to give Windows and ASP.Net developers new options for taking advantage of AWS to quickly deploy and easily manage their databases and applications in the cloud," said Amazon Web Services vice president Charlie Bell…

Grazed from BusinessWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

6fusion, the leading provider of utility metered public, private, and hybrid cloud infrastructure management solutions today announced multi-hypervisor support with the expansion of its cloud computing platform to support the Open Source and Citrix Xen platforms.

“6fusion’s objective is to neutralize the relevance of the hypervisor when building cloud infrastructure,” says John Cowan, CEO and co-founder of 6fusion. “With this release, customers now not only have the ability to operate Xen based infrastructure side by side with other hypervisors managed by 6fusion’s UC6 platform, but they can move cloud workloads seamlessly across private or public cloud infrastructure managed by different hypervisor technologies,” he added.

With this new release, 6fusion users will have the ability to build, meter, and manage both public and private infrastructures using the VMware vSphere, Open Source Xen, and Citrix Xen virtualization platforms…

Grazed from Computing.co.uk.  Author: Graeme Burton.

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, today announced the Wyse Xenith 2, based on the ultra-secure Wyse zero framework. This breakthrough zero client was revealed today at Citrix Synergy(TM) 2012, the premier event on cloud computing, virtualization and networking. Wyse, the leading shipper of fixed and mobile desktop zero clients in the world, will be demonstrating the Xenith 2 at Wyse Booth #206 from May 9-10, 2012.

Following on the success of the Wyse Xenith and Wyse Xenith Pro, the Wyse Xenith 2 is the ideal Citrix zero client solution for both enterprise and SMB organizations. The Wyse Xenith 2 zero client is purpose-built for Citrix XenDesktop(R) blending the amazing cost benefits of the ARM System-on-Chip (SoC) architecture, with a non-Windows Citrix Receiver compatible client, developed in cooperation with Citrix. Improving on the success of the Xenith, with 30% faster performance and lower power consumption, the result is a super secure, very affordable, true high-fidelity desktop experience. For users requiring a diverse variety of applications, including HD multimedia, the Wyse Xenith 2 delivers a new standard in price and performance in a compact zero client and delivers an unprecedented combination of simplicity, performance and security for office-based workers…

Grazed from Midsize Insider.  Author: Sharon Hurley Hall.

Discussion of cloud computing is likely to move away from whether to adopt it to questions how to management it. That’s the view of Michael Vizard, writing for IT Business Edge. Mr Vizard believes that the adoption debate is largely over, and this hypothesis is borne out by recent IDC research that predicts 14 million new jobs in this sector over the next three years.

Cloud Job Expansion for Midsized Businesses

Small and midsize businesses will see their share of this expansion and will account for about half of the new jobs. Since their size makes them able to respond easily to technological and business changes, these businesses are quickly turning to cloud solutions, something many large businesses have been slower to do. In the main, small and midsized businesses are less constrained by the need to support legacy systems…

Grazed from CIOZone.  Author: Bill Gerneglia.

America’s mid-sized companies are far more important to the U.S. economy than most people realize. A recent Deloitte survey titled “America’s economic engine” whose purpose was to provide insight into this often overlooked source of economic dynamism yields interesting insights. As a group, this segment employs more people than the entire S&P 500 and has total revenues equivalent to 40 percent of the U.S. GDP. This is a collection of companies that really leverages the latest in IT to drive profits.

 Companies recognize the growing importance of technology. They continue to prioritize automation of business processes, data analytics, and business intelligence as triggers to increase productivity and areas where they are most likely to make investments in 2012. According to the survey there seems to be a greater recognition of the benefits of cloud computing. In the Deloitte September 2011 survey, Cloud Computing was recognized as a distant fourth as a means to increase productivity. In the current survey conducted in March 2012, it nearly equaled data analytics and business intelligence in terms of likely investments…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Larry Dignan.

OpenStack, a cloud platform started by Rackspace and NASA, is either the biggest virally growing open software movement since Linux or a murky hodge podge of technologies that could flop.

It all depends on what tech vendors you ask and the horses they have in the cloud architecture race.

Most of the horses—at least the vocal ones—to date appear to be on the pro-OpenStack side of the equation. Rackspace’s recent first quarter results highlight the power of OpenStack. Rackspace’s first quarter and outlook illustrate the power of OpenStack. Rackspace’s quarter was a disappointment, but Wall Street analysts kept gushing about the power of OpenStack…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (tase:MLNX), a leading supplier of high-performance, end-to-end interconnect solutions for data center servers and storage systems, and Eucalyptus Systems, creator of the most widely deployed on-premise cloud computing platform, today announced that they have established a strategic partnership program to further accelerate and foster adoption of efficient, high-performance cloud infrastructures.

A critical issue in today’s cloud solution is complexity. The industry is looking for better integration of multiple software, hardware, and management elements, as well as end-to-end solution validation. The collaboration between Mellanox and Eucalyptus will provide the cloud industry with an efficient cloud infrastructure that is simple to deploy…

Grazed from InformationWeek.   Author: Jayabalan Subramanium.

Data security keeps chief information security officers (CISOs) up at night, and with new computing models such as cloud, the stakes can be perilously higher. The possibilities of data loss, data leakage, service downtime, regulatory constraints, and risk of intellectual property theft create a treacherous risk environment. These security issues illustrate the significant hurdles a business must clear before adopting cloud computing. Any organization considering a move to the cloud must carefully assess what applications and data it can migrate to a cloud environment because cloud computing may not be appropriate for all business processes.

Organizations must carefully examine the capabilities of any potential cloud services provider. Security, compliance, availability, and scalability are all factors that must be thoroughly evaluated before embarking on the journey to the cloud. At the same time, it is important to consider the financial viability of the service provider. A business does not want a service provider to disappear the month after it moves its processes into the cloud. In today’s harsh operating environment, adding value and increasing efficiency are imperative. Cloud computing has matured to the point that it can be a secure, viable, and highly effective approach. But without careful planning and consideration of market concerns, the gains can be overshadowed by the risk exposure…

Grazed from PCWorld.  Author: Bernard Golden.

Last week I wrote about the fact that IT organizations are now executing an "and" cloud computing strategy, in the sense that their future plans include (most likely) an internal cloud based on VMware and an external cloud (most likely Amazon Web Services).

I pointed out that the traditional model of managing virtual machines–creating a VM template that contains all the software components that the VM contains–is inappropriate in a world in which applications may be deployed internally, externally, across both internal and external clouds, and even transferred between internal and external clouds. This is due to the fact that the virtual machine images are typically incompatible across deployment environments…