Grazed from GreenBiz.com.  Author: Dunstan Allison Hope and Ryan Schuchard.

Just a decade ago, it would have been hard for all but the most tech-savvy to imagine the extent of cloud computing today. The cloud — what some are calling “the factory of the 21^st century” — is a complex system of data centers worldwide that store, process and deliver information on demand over the Internet, providing users with resources, applications and information that they previously would have stored locally. The cloud, run by a network of IT service companies, Internet firms and telecommunications services providers, offers services to all of us, from banks and retailers to individuals like you and me. It is both real — requiring traditional inputs such as electricity — and virtual.

Throughout the history of corporate responsibility, a few megatrends have redefined how we think about the ethics of business. The outsourcing of manufacturing to places with low labor costs and lax regulations, for instance, led to a rise in consciousness about working conditions at supplier facilities. Or the increasing number of people living at the “base of the pyramid” (the now 2.5 billion people who exist on less than $2.50 per day) prompted companies to address global poverty while advancing business interests…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Joyent Cloud, the public cloud designed for real-time, high-performance applications, and Cloudant, provider of a scalable Data Layer as a Service for data-driven web and mobile applications, today announced a partnership to provide developers with the ability to store, analyze and distribute application data across a global network of secure, high-performance data centers. Joyent Cloud provides public and private cloud computing software and services to popular Web applications including LinkedIn, Voxer, Gilt Groupe and TaskRabbit. Aside from Cloudant, Joyent Cloud also powers a growing number of cloud platform and software services providers including Nodejitsu, StackMob, and GameSalad.

By using Cloudant, Joyent customers can scale their application data layer up or down on demand through a simple management interface. "Making the Cloudant data layer available on Joyent Cloud helps ensure that our customers’ applications run flawlessly at any scale," said Cloudant CEO Derek Schoettle. "This is particularly important for the data-intensive, real-time applications that many Cloudant and Joyent Cloud customers run."…

Grazed from PR Newswire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Microsoft Corp. today announced changes to its Microsoft Certification Program for IT professionals and developers, designed to specifically address the growing skills gap in the technology industry. As jobs with new skills profiles are created by public and private IT cloud computing solutions, certification and training enable IT professionals and developers to differentiate themselves and align their skills to these new profiles, which are in high demand in the market.

The three skill levels — associate, expert and master — create a clear certification path for a strong career journey, from entry level to the most esteemed. Each certification level is now updated to be solutions-focused and addresses the industry’s changing needs while ensuring quality and relevance…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

More than a third (35 percent) of information security professionals believe mobile computing represents the biggest risk to their organizations, according to results from a survey completed by FishNet Security. Social networks (27 percent) and cloud computing (18 percent) represent the next areas of highest concern.

"It’s clear that mobile computing tops the list of this year’s leading security concerns with the clients we surveyed," said Gary Fish, FishNet Security’s founder and CEO. "Our company is seeing this as a major issue because of the number of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) instances and the vulnerabilities that can threaten mobile computing, such as unsecured Wi-Fi access, lost or stolen devices, and malware attacks on mobile operating systems."…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Joe McKendrick.

Many see cloud computing as one huge monolithic wave sweeping through the business world. However, there are many different types of clouds, and the risks — and methodologies needed to address them — varies as much as the cloud models themselves. Vordel’s Mark O’Neill, writing in Computing Technology Review, dissects the differing security issues in Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas):

Software as a Service (SaaS): Issue #1 here is password management. Since SaaS delivers applications from the cloud, the main risk is likely to stem from multiple passwords accessing applications, O’Neill says. “An organization can solve these issues by opting for a single sign-on option between on-premise systems and cloud. By leveraging a single sign-on option, users are able to access both their own desktops and any cloud services via a single password…. This approach also reduces the incidences of dangling accounts – which are vulnerable to unauthorized usage – after users leave organizations.”…

Grazed from PRWeb.  Author: PR Announcement.

Bureaucloud (http://bureaucloud.com) has fully launched its Cloud Computing service this month to tackle the needs of UK SMEs. The provider delivers Enterprise Class infrastructure as a service without high entry costs or long term contracts.

Small businesses need to keep their IT agile to compete with the bigger, more established competitors. Bureaucloud provides a platform where clients can easily grow or retract usage as they need to.

The solution has been designed using technology normally found in large enterprises. By enabling SMEs to run their IT on these systems, a company of any size can use the benefits of the Cloud and data centre infrastructure. This avoids the need to buy any hardware or hire the additional expertise in house…

Grazed from Investors.com.  Author: Brian Deagon.

Computer technology has made many big shifts the past 40 years — mainframes to minis to desktops and networks — and IBM says its newest product puts it at the forefront of the newest shift.

IBM (IBM) on Wednesday is unveiling PureSystems, a computer it says is built to lead the move into so-called "converged systems."

But rival Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) might have gotten the jump on IBM. On Tuesday, HP announced HP Converged Cloud, responding to the "changing way infrastructures are built" and "major shifts in how services are delivered."…

Grazed from Forbes.  Author: Joe McKendrick.

Companies are investing heavily in cloud computing, a new survey of 1,650 IT and business executives shows. On average, they report, more than a third, 34%, of their current IT budgets are now allocated to cloud computing solutions.

These are some of the findings of the IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing Study, conducted in January 2012. Most of these budgets are going to private clouds hosted within the walls of enterprises. Private cloud deployments are currently where the majority of information is stored in the cloud (24%), and the trend will continue to dominate 18 months from now (33%)…

Grazed from Spend Matters.  Author: Steve Kekick.

While there are differing views on the definition of cloud computing, the key is that an organization purchases computing services on a consumption basis versus paying for a dedicated resource or asset (software, hardware, storage, infrastructure, etc.). There is often much debate regarding the move to cloud computing, the risks, and what benefits it can provide. It is vital to understand your organization’s IT needs and prominent factors in making the proper decision. Below are five questions I’ve come up with to ask yourself:

1) How much Control does your organization need to maintain?
The amount of control required by a company will determine whether they choose a private or public cloud. In a private cloud your data and resources are simply that, private. Your organization’s information is separate from all others and this can result in paying a premium price due to less efficiency in storing only your data and applications. In a public cloud, resources can be leveraged to optimum levels, though it does mean your data and systems will share resources with other organizations. One of the cloud’s greatest powers is being able to leverage resources. This can be done best in a public cloud with great amounts of data as compared to a individual or private cloud. However, in moving to the public cloud you retain less control, and some organizations require immediate and complete access for any number of reasons. The trade-off on control is that your organization will benefit from improved features and efficiencies that evolve from experience in supporting other clients. But your organization is susceptible to larger performance issues, if they arise, as well as a standard upgrade path…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Dr. James McCaffrey, Associate Vice President of Volt Technical Resources, a staffing business of Volt Information Sciences, Inc. will appear as a speaker at the upcoming International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG 2012) April 16-18, 2012 in Las Vegas. McCaffrey will present “A Hybrid System for Analyzing Very Large Graphs.”

McCaffrey’s research explores previously unpublished approaches for efficiently analyzing huge data files stored in Cloud Computing environments.

“This research has the potential for use in identifying patterns of influence and communication flow in vast amounts of social network data,” said McCaffrey…