April 23, 2012 Off

Defining cloud computing part two: Financial and technology explanation

By David

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Chris Poelker.
 

Definition one: the financial explanation

Cloud computing is a paradigm shift from traditional IT, where applications and infrastructure are bought, built and managed by the end user with capital dollars, to a model where IT is bought in modular units as an operational expense.

What that means to the bean counters is that they don’t need to worry about capital budgets anymore. They can simply outsource all or part of what IT does to a third-party cloud provider and treat it as a business expense using an operational budget…

April 23, 2012 Off

Teradata Active Data Warehouses Provide Private Cloud Benefits

By David
Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Teradata Universe EMEA — Greater utilization of processing power has been a key driver and sought-after benefit of corporate private cloud computing implementations – to centralize and share computing resources and increase utilization to 60 percent or higher. Today, only about 25 percent of the available processing power of virtualized servers is being utilized by many companies that adopt virtualization, a Gartner analyst recently told CIO magazine(1). Teradata today announced important new private cloud capabilities to help companies effectively realize much greater utilization.

To view the full social media version of this press release with image, please visit: http://www.teradata.com/News-Releases/2012/Teradata-Active-Data-Warehouses-Provide-Private-Cloud-Benefits-Today/ …

April 22, 2012 Off

AWS Innovation Means Cloud Domination

By David
Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Darryl K. Taft.

Amazon Web Services kicked off its cloud computing service in 2006 and has since taken a commanding lead in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) space by adding more and more services and amassing a number of customers. What’s more, AWS has no intention of slowing down as the cloud is poised to take over the world.

At the AWS Summit 2012 NYC here, Adam Selipsky, vice president of sales, marketing and support at AWS, gave a brief history of AWS’ innovations over the last six years, highlighting some of the more recent ones, including the AWS Marketplace, which AWS announced on April 19…

April 22, 2012 Off

“Late” to the Cloud?

By David
Grazed from Enterprise Irregulars.  Author: Michael Fauscette.

It’s a statement that I hear often lately, as more traditional software vendors start to invest in cloud computing, that they’re "late to the cloud". Of course many of those who are saying it are "pure play" SaaS vendors that are no doubt starting to feel some competitive pressure as more vendors start selling SaaS applications. I also hear it from colleagues and I suppose that it is a true statement of fact but to me there’s a little more to the story than that. I think the bigger question might be whether being late to the cloud is "bad"…

April 22, 2012 Off

Samsung S-Cloud Storage Service To Be Announced On May 3rd In London

By David
Grazed from Tech Source.  Author: Alex Dimitru.

The rumor mill says that Samsung’s cloud computing service, named S-Cloud, will be unveiled on May 3rd, along with the South Korean company’s new flagship smartphone, Galaxy S3.

A South Korea-based website claims that Samsung is preparing to launch a storage in the cloud service. Is still uncertain how Samsung will call their new service, as both sCloud and S-Cloud are plausible solutions. As you probably guessed, the South Koreans are planing to compete against Apple and their iCloud service.

According to Maeil Business sources, quoted by The Verge, the launch of a storage in the cloud service is part of Samsung consolidation plan, and it will be officially announced on May 3rd…

April 22, 2012 Off

Top HP Cloud Computing Executive Opens Arms to MSPs

By David
Grazed from MSPMentor.  Author: Joe Panetierri.

Hewlett-Packard’s top cloud computing executive opened his arms to MSPs (managed services providers) today, predicting that cloud computing will “usher in a complete renaissance in MSP land.” Zorawar ‘Biri’ Singh, senior VP and GM of HP Cloud Services, also said mobile devices on the front-end are driving the massive cloud trends on the back-end.

Singh’s statements were part of a channel-centric interview today at an OpenStack conference in San Francisco.

Singh announced HP’s Converged Cloud and HP Public Cloud strategy earlier this month. Part of that strategy involves OpenStack, a fast-emerging open source cloud computing platform. More than 1,000 people — software developers, vendors and IT consultants — attended this week’s OpenStack conference. HP’s cloud strategy also involves extensive managed services

April 22, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing: Supercomputing At Not-So-Super Costs

By David
Grazed from Wall Street Journal.   Author: Chris Boulton.

The term “supercomputing” suggests computing that comes at a great deal of cost and is reserved for massive companies. But in this age of cloud computing, where vendors host software on their servers and provision it to end user customers, supercomputing need not always come with super costs.

That’s the lesson learned from Cycle Computing, which used a computing cluster comprised of 50,000 computer chips to test drug compounds for less than $5,000 an hour for less than three hours, reports the New York Times’ Steve Lohr

April 20, 2012 Off

Cloud Security: Encryption Is Key

By David
Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Ariel Dan.

Today, with enterprises migrating to the cloud, the security challenge around protecting data is greater than ever before. Keeping data private and secure has always been a business imperative. But for many companies and organizations, it has also become a compliance requirement and a necessity to stay in business. Standards including HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI DSS and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act all require that organizations protect their data at rest and provide defenses against data loss and threats.

Public cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than as a product, and is usually categorized into three service models: Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). When it comes to public cloud security, all leading cloud providers are investing significant efforts and resources in securing and certifying their datacenters. However, as cloud computing matures, enterprises are learning that cloud security cannot be delivered by the cloud provider alone. In fact, cloud providers make sure enterprises know that security is a shared responsibility, and that cloud customers do share responsibility for data security, protection from unauthorized access, and backup of their data…

April 20, 2012 Off

Secure Cloud Computing Platform Focus on New Collaboration

By David
Grazed from Midsize Insider.  Author: Bob Thomas.

The lack of secure cloud computing has been one of the biggest issues facing companies that want to move their operations into the cloud, but which are concerned about the deployment of sensitive data into the perceived unsecure environment of cloud computing.

Three companies, LynuxWorks, Inc., TransLattice, and Fritz Technologies Corporation, which are already known for providing solutions to data-sensitive customers like the government, have announced their collaboration to produce a secure cloud platform. The S.E.C.U.R.E. (Secure, Enterprise, Cross-Domain, Unified, Resilient Environment) platform is ideal for creating cloud deployments in highly sensitive environments…

April 20, 2012 Off

Why Should Investors Care About Amazon’s Cloud Services?

By David
Grazed from Daily Finance.  Author: Anders Bylund.

It’s been nearly six years since Amazon.com (NAS: AMZN) had the brilliant idea of monetizing its oodles and oodles of surplus computing power.

The e-tailer built up a truly epic computing infrastructure to support its core operations, but much of that hardware had a lot of downtime. While still requiring electric power, man-hours of server maintenance, and data center cooling, the servers would often sit unused. Why not rent out idle servers by the hour instead?

The idea was an instant hit, and Amazon’s cloud-computing services have come a long way since then. Management routinely holds up the collection of data-mangling products, collectively known as Amazon Web Services or AWS, as an example of a fast-growing Amazon operation. These days, Amazon pumps millions of dollars specifically into building out the AWS infrastructure, which now is separate from Amazon’s general operations…