Grazed from InformationWeek.  Author: A. Rafeq.

Cloud computing  is rapidly emerging as the next big IT service for its pay-as-you-go model and is a key enabler for  all enterprises, but especially for small and medium enterprises as it makes available computing power on demand as a utility by drastically reducing investment in IT infrastructure. The growing shift to cloud computing can deliver significant value—but most enterprises have little knowledge of the perils of transferring IT decision making away from technology specialists to business unit leaders.

Eliminating oversight and governance from cloud computing decisions can create significant risk to organisations, effectively undermining any benefits of moving to the cloud and, at the same time, potentially creating serious issues for organisations. Before jumping into the bandwagon of the cloudy way, it is important to adapt examine how to use the cloud to create value for the enterprise…

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Stephen Bell.

Ultra Fast Broadband has the potential to convert New Zealanders from a purely downloading online lifestyle to full-hearted participation in the cloud, says InternetNZ CEO Vikram Kumar.

The bottleneck now represented by New Zealand’s restricted bandwidth will be dramatically cleared and there will be much more movement of data in the upward direction, particularly in the use of cloud services.

This makes it urgent to pay attention to the risks entailed in moving data to and from the cloud, he says…
 

Grazed from Washington Post.  Author: Marjorie Censer.

Verizon and Terremark started as partners on a General Dynamics-led team to provide cloud computing services to the Army. By the time General Dynamics announced the award earlier this month, Verizon had bought Terremark, giving it a larger infrastructure as it pursues more cloud work.

The federal cloud computing environment has become ever more competitive as traditional government integrators and IT contractors go up against commercial providers shifting into government work.

Telecommunications companies are seeking a greater share, making acquisitions designed to boost their cloud computing credentials. Verizon, which has its federal office in Ashburn, bought Terremark — with a federal office in Herndon and a data center in Culpeper — last year in a roughly $1.4 billion deal…

Contributed Article.  Author: Greg Jones, Manager of Solutions Architecture at Quest Software

 

 

When you are moving to Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud offering, choosing the right migration tool to help you get there is very important. It’s a good idea to evaluate third-party migration products that provide the extended functionality, support, and the capabilities necessary to ensure success.

 

Every organization might not require help from a third-party vendor, but, it’s a best practice to calculate the benefits a migration partner might bring to your project and compare them to the needs of your organization. I must caution you, however, to choose your vendors wisely, and be absolutely sure you’re getting the functionality you need.  

Grazed from CTV.  Author: Vanessa Greco.

When virtual clouds first rolled in, there appeared to be little indication that a downpour of privacy concerns would follow.

Web surfers tossed photos into online albums, logged errands on digital calendars and sent work files to personal email accounts. To this day, we continue to fling tidbits of information across the web and into invisible storage lockers.

All this online data hoarding is known as "cloud computing," the process of using the Internet to ship files over to a remote server instead of just saving to a local piece of physical media, such as a hard drive…

Grazed from Bisiness Line.  Author: K. Bharat Kumar and Sachin Sancheti.

Big data is just that – big, and a big opportunity, as well. It may be the first time that the IT industry has finally named a new concept crisply, aptly and lucidly. But, as with all things IT, it still needs explaining.

For instance, what was missing in data-warehousing and business intelligence (BI) that is now possible with Big Data?

Wikipedia, as always, puts it best: big data consists of data sets that grow so large that they become awkward to work with using on-hand database management tools. Difficulties include capture, storage, search, sharing, analytics, and visualizing. This trend continues because of the benefits of working with larger and larger data sets allowing analysts to "spot business trends, prevent diseases, combat crime.”…

Grazed from PRWeb.  Author: PR Announcement.

SmartSignin is a finalist for the 2012 CATAAlliance Cloud Computing Innovation Award, which will be presented at this year’s CATAAlliance Innovation Awards Gala in Ottawa. The winner will be selected by a committee consisting of members of CATA’s Board of Directors and industry experts. Voting by CATA members and subscribers through an on-line voting poll is also taken into consideration. Voting takes place later today, at http://www.cata.ca. Winners will be notified by May 8th.

Founder and CEO, Mayukh Gon expressed excitement at being nominated for this prestigious award. “This is great news for us and I would like to thank the CATAAlliance for recognizing the innovative nature of our offering and the importance of securing identity at a time when data security and privacy is breached on a daily basis. I think consumers deserve protection for their online identities, passwords, and most importantly their privacy. I wanted to give users a simple way to take charge of their own security and privacy. SmartSignin is the only Identity solution for consumers and enterprises that delivers convenience enhanced by robust security. Our cookie-less architecture, token free authentication, and patented Smart-Key algorithm developed in a Joint-venture with the University of Toronto, ensures no single point of weakness.”…

Grazed from PR.com.  Author: PR Announcement.

The CDM Media team announced today that Corbus, a global solutions provider of Information Technology (IT), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Project Management (PMO) services, will be joining the CIO Cloud Summit, June 5-7, 2012, at the Montelucia Resort in Scottsdale, AZ.

The CIO Cloud Summit is an opportunity for CIOs and IT executives from multiple industries to explore critical cloud computing issues, connect with other executives in various stages of cloud computing projects, and learn about the latest cloud computing solutions. Attendees are encouraged to share ideas, explore technology solutions, and learn about the latest cloud computing topics and trends…

Grazed from RealWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Cloud industry network EuroCloud UK (http://eurocloud.org.uk/) is aiming to highlight cloud computing’s contribution to European economic growth with the launch this week of its Awards and a special event for cloud startups later this month.

Both link into Europe-wide initiatives being organised by EuroCloud across the continent. Winners of the UK Awards, to be announced in July, will go forward to compete to win the European contest in Luxembourg in October.

The UK’s cloud start-up event on May 23rd is part of an event held simultaneously in 10 European countries. Attendees at every venue will view keynotes from Neelie Kroes European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda; Rainer Zinow, SVP On-Demand Strategy at SAP; and Forrest Lin of the Chinese Institute of Electronics. Local sessions will take place in between the shared keynote webcasts…