Grazed from ChannelInsider.  Author: Michael Vizard.

There’s still not much clarity when it comes to all things cloud these days, and the confusion surrounding the emergence of so-called cloud operating systems is not helping matters.

Much of the debate about cloud computing will be managed can be traced back to emergence of OpenStack, an effort led by Rackspace and NASA to create an open source layer of software for managing heterogeneous cloud computing environments. Essentially, OpenStack was created to prevent customers from getting locked into proprietary cloud computing platforms…

Grazed from Wired.  Author: Todd Neilson.

When I talk to people about cloud computing, and especially to solution providers and business executives, they tend to have the belief that you are either in the cloud or you are not in the cloud. This causes a lot of distress, as people try to compare less than perfect cloud providers, in hopes of choosing the perfect one. In some of recent posts, this distress has been manifest with comments expressing fears about security and connectivity, among others.

While I do run with the crowd that believes cloud computing will be huge, I believe the industry is just beginning to mature. One of the reasons it is maturing is the formation of niches. Niches are a tell-tale sign that an industry is growing-up. Companies are finding gaps in the industry and then developing products and services to fill those gaps. This maturation will continue, and then the next step will be consolidation in the industry…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Dome9 Security, the leading provider of cloud security firewall management for public and private clouds, as well as for dedicated and virtual private servers (VPS), today announced that Network Products Guide, a leading technology research and advisory guide, has named Dome9 as a finalist for the 7th Annual 2012 Hot Companies Awards. These industry and peer awards honor achievements and recognitions in every facet of the IT industry. Winners will be honored in Las Vegas on May 8 during the 7th annual dinner and presentations.

Dome9 Security is the only cloud security service to automate cloud firewall management for public and private clouds, as well as for dedicated and Virtual Private Servers (VPS), across all platforms. Dome9 closes a critical gap in today’s cloud computing server security — ports such as SSH, RDP, and MYSQL left open so administrators can connect to and manage their cloud servers…

Grazed from GreenBiz.  Author: Eric Louie.

Cloud computing already has cut some businesses’ IT costs. But a new report has found that it also could be the next big thing to help reduce their energy use.

The fourth annual Energy Efficient IT Report — by technology products and services seller CDW — calls cloud computing a possible “game changer” that’s playing a growing role in energy efficiency.

For the report, CDW surveyed 760 people working in private businesses, nonprofits, schools and governments. Of these respondents, 62 percent agreed that cloud computing is an energy efficient way to consolidate data centers. That’s up from slightly fewer than half of the respondents in 2010…

Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: Brandon Butler.

With competition heating up in open source [1] clouds, an analysis of community participation among four major projects shows that Eucalyptus — the oldest of those studied — has the largest standing community, but OpenStack and CloudStack are gaining momentum in the developer community.

The dynamics of the open source cloud computing [2] market are changing. Eucalyptus, which is a private cloud Infrastructure as a Service model, recently announced a partnership [3] with Amazon Web Services to ensure interoperability between the two systems. Meanwhile, Citrix announced this week it would be migrating away from the OpenStack project and would give its CloudStack platform an Apache license, in effect creating a competing open source project to OpenStack…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

iWeb announces the launch of its new Cloud Server service, powered by its Smart Layer Technology, engineered to be "kinder" and easier to manage by customers, who increasingly require Cloud platforms and servers which are easy to use, quickly deployed and provide capacity and performance on demand – billed by the hour.

"Our customers asked for cloud services, and we heard them loud and clear. We also heard horror stories from businesses that had been charged outrageous fees for data transfer using other cloud platforms. So we decided to build a kinder cloud; one that won’t drown your business with unexpectedcharges" says Martin Leclair, President of Products and iWeb co-Founder.

The iWeb Cloud Service allows customers to utilize the resources they need, when they need them most and for just as long as required…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Roger Strukhoff.

As we inch toward the next Cloud Expo in New York, the world inches toward cloud computing. The progress has an inevitability to it, as it seems just a matter of time for the day when "computing" equals cloud computing. The findings of the recent "IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing Study, January 2012."

The study found that 57% of companies surveyed have at least one app or a portion of its infrastructure in the cloud, with anticipated budgets toward cloud computing this year of $300,00+ among smaller companies and $2.55 million among companies with more than 1,000 employees…

Grazed from PR NewsWire.  Author: PR Announcement.  

CornerStone Telephone Company, a provider of advanced communications services, is now working with Verizon Global Wholesale to provide cloud-computing services to CornerStone’s business customers.

Under the agreement, CornerStone will resell an enterprise-class cloud service from Terremark, Verizon’s IT services subsidiary. The service, to be sold under CornerStone’s SkySphere brand, will help its customers efficiently and securely manage on-demand computing resources to meet dynamic business requirements while paying only for the resources consumed…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Eucalyptus Systems, creator of the most widely deployed on-premise cloud computing platform, today announced a free white paper, "Blending Clouds: A Blueprint for Your Hybrid Future." The white paper outlines the key benefits of deploying a hybrid cloud, emerging usage patterns, and the architectural principals behind this approach.

For today’s enterprises, the question isn’t about choosing a public or private cloud. The decision lies in how to enable both in the form of a hybrid cloud. Public and private clouds are quickly dovetailing to enable blended scenarios based on dynamic optimizations for price, policy and performance…

Grazed from Smart Data Collective.  Author: Shaughn Knight.

Business intelligence (BI) industry is experiencing a profound effect since the inception of Cloud computing. The exponential growth in the use of amorphous data by companies, including big data leads many decision-makers to grapple with the most efficient ways to analyze real-time data quickly and effectively. These intensifying data demands are just one of the reasons that predict the developing market interest in cloud-based analytics. While Gartner forecasts the global business intelligence (BI) market to grow 9.7% this year to $10.8 billion, business analytics software-as-a-service (SaaS) is anticipated to spring up three times faster than the total business analytics software market.

BI facilitates companies to analyze data and turn it into valuable business information. As more data and applications migrate into the cloud, numerous new data sources are being created. Cloud-based BI and analytics offer companies and business users multiple benefits. Businesses of all sizes can leverage vast computing and storage resources in the cloud without having to invest in expanding their existing IT footprints or IT support staffs. BI providers are adapting their tools to this new reality, and successful companies must now evaluate and act upon this opportunity. In addition, cloud-based BI and analytics provide business leaders opportunities to quickly gather and act on granular insights from a mix of structured and unstructured data…