Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Jeff Norman.

It is now official: cloud computing now has serious gov cred. We recently learned that the Air Force was strongly considering the possibility of leaping into the cloud, as a strategy to slash the girth of maintenance and operations in their budget, as well as to tighten security measures. Many readers will wince at that last aim; cloud computing and great security are hardly synonymous, they will muse. The Air Force has nevertheless honed in on several of the cloud’s virtues from a military perspective.

These advantages may lie in cloud’s capacity for “zero” and “thin clients;” the former entails the classic cloud computing setup of just a keyboard, monitor, and mouse, no additional processor to be found. A “thin client” expands on the “zero client” with the addition of an integrated processor, ideal for graphics and media — which might come in handy for an everyday military operation, we think. (Wink, wink.)…

Grazed from Healthcare IT News.  Author: Geoff Webb.

While many industries are reliant on information technology to deliver services and drive innovation, none is so deeply entwined in IT than healthcare.  Whether it’s federal government mandates to move towards fully electronic information processing, or the explosive growth of consumerized tools like tablets and smartphones, the healthcare industry both shapes, and is shaped by, the technology it uses.

As such, it should be no surprise that the potential impact of cloud computing is being felt, with mixed feelings, most acutely in this industry.

Cloud, as a platform, has been sometimes dismissed as nothing more than a new name for old technology.  That’s understandable – cloud doesn’t rely on anything especially new nor are the business models especially novel.  After all, companies have been delivering software services over the internet for some years.  However, simply examining the constituent parts of cloud misses the fact that cloud represents so much more than a lot of virtual servers accessed through a browser.  Cloud is as much the effect as it is the cause; it is both the technology and the way that the technology is being used.  Cloud may be made up familiar building blocks, but the end result is something radically new…

Grazed from InforWorld.  Author: David Linthicum.

It looks like OpenStack won’t be the only open source cloud computing player. Earlier this week, Citrix Systems released its CloudStack software to the Apache Software Foundation as an alternative to OpenStack. Formerly a member of the project, Citrix cited difficulties in making OpenStack work with its technology as a major driver behind the defection.

CloudStack will launch with about 30 technology partners, many of them already involved with OpenStack. CloudStack claims an Amazon Web Services-compatible native API set. OpenStack has an AWS API compatibility feature as well.

For those expecting an apples-versus-apples fight, you’re way off. CloudStack is a software product with an install base that’s been moved to open source for marketing purposes. This game has been played many times before, with everything from CRM software to ESBs. Indeed, you’ll find open source versions of most major software patterns…

Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: Mikael Ricknäs.

Ubuntu developer Canonical is working on a new provisioning platform called Metal as a Service (MaaS), which will be used to activate new servers, on top of which a cloud can be deployed, founder Mark Shuttleworth said in a blog post on Wednesday.

The way computing systems are built is changing. Instead of big boxes, the future belongs to clusters consisting of "hyper-dense racks with wimpy nodes," according to Shuttleworth. More power is added by adding more nodes to clusters, rather than buying beefier nodes, and reliability is improved by doubling up, so services keep running when individual nodes fail, he wrote.

However, the benefits of these systems will only be realized if the management can be done efficiently and that’s where MaaS comes in, according to Shuttleworth…

Grazed from Federal Computer Week.  Author: Camille Tuutti.

How’s this for a cautionary tale?

A lawyer who represented a medical facility found out during cross-examination that his client had moved its important information into a cloud environment. So far, it sounds like a typical cloud migration.

But it was only later that the client learned the cloud provider was deleting all data every 60 days. Lacking the evidence that would have been in those records, the client had no choice but to settle the case…

Grazed from IT Business Edge.  Author: Robert McGarvey.

Ask network administrators and CIOs perhaps four years into what was supposed to be a cloud computing revolution that was going to shattered traditional file storage mindsets and the cruel reality is that the majority would plunk down their wagers on unicorns.

Cloud, so far, just has not lived up to expectations — it’s slow, it has troubles housing huge enterprise critical data, and it is perceived as insecure. A key reason is that many historic clouds achieved their cost savings by using "older technology," said Jared Wray, CTO at cloud provider Tier 3. And "they have not excelled at network performance," he added, mainly for technical reasons…

Grazed from CIO.  Author: Bernard Golden.

I serve as the co-chairman of the SVForum Cloud and Virtualization SIG, based in Silicon Valley. Thanks to our location, we are able to call upon an array of innovative and interesting speakers and attract a sophisticated, knowledgeable audience.

Last week’s SIG meeting was one of the most interesting we’ve had in our more than three-year history. Its title was "Cloud Computing the Netflix Way," and we had two Netflix guest speakers: Adrian Cockcroft, director of architecture for cloud systems (his presentation is here), and Jason Chan, Netflix’s security architect (his presentation is here)…

Grazed from V3.co.uk.  Author:  Rosalie Marshall.

Whether you like it or not, big data analytics technology has nabbed its spot as the next hot trend in the IT industry, and the term will be banded about for years to come.

At increasing numbers of industry events big data analytics is listed, along with cloud computing, social networking and mobile computing, as a technology that has the potential to change the IT landscape as we know it.

IDC published a report last month that forecast the market for big data technology and services will grow from $3.2bn in 2010 to $16.9bn in 2015. This is seven times the annual growth rate that is forecast for the IT market in general…

Grazed from CoStar Group.  Author: Randyl Drummer.

One of the hot topics in IT over the last year has been the growth and management of big data and the rise of cloud computing, fueled by an explosion in consumer smart phones and tablets, GPS navigation, social media, online gaming and e-commerce, among many other data-hungry sources.

But while the "cloud" term seems somewhat celestial and ethereal, the impact has been immediate and forceful on the wholesale and colocation data center industry as it strives to keep pace with the rapid spike in corporate demand, with the growth in total data usage and storage rising to nearly incomprehensible numbers.

In fact, the technological capacity to store information has roughly doubled about every three years since the 1980s, to the point that 90% of the data that exists on Earth has been created in the last two years alone, according to IBM…

Grazed from IT Business Edge.  Author: Drew Robb.

A growing number of vendors offer cloud-based ERP products. While major players like SAP are introducing cloud computing into their previously on-premise product lines, the trail has been blazed by a series of pioneers, whether under a cloud or a software-as-a-service (SaaS) banner.

Among them are Acumatica, Plex Online, RootStock, Kenandy, NetSuite and Consona (Compiere). But there are many more to choose from, and to be fair, the established ERP giants are catching up fast in terms of making their software function over the Web…