Grazed from MicroScope.co.uk.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Ian Moyse, recently appointed UK sales director at web-based CRM vendor Workbooks.com, shares his perspective on the cloud.

Cloud is the big ‘C’ word in the channel right now, posing ‘C’onflict, ‘C’onfusion and ‘C’hallenges to the status quo. The IT industry is a fast-paced, constantly evolving beast, and yet the extraordinary speed at which cloud computing has come to dominate the landscape has caught many by surprise. On reflection, few would deny it was the Zeitgeist for 2011 and it’s likely to remain a much discussed topic in 2012.

We are seeing a channel landscape where partners are reporting a number of concerns around selling cloud, the key ones I have heard cited being; "I don’t want vendors to sell direct", "The margins are too low", "Where do I make service revenues?", "How do I make the transition to a different billing and commercial model?", "I want to bill my customer and not have the vendor doing it"…

Grazed from Talkin Cloud.  Author: Joe Panettieri.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c, announced today, is designed to help customers manage Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds. The new release surfaces about two weeks before Oracle (ORCL) hosts a private analyst gathering at its Redwood Shores, Calif., headquarters. If history is any indication, Oracle President Mark Hurd (pictured) will offer a cloud computing strategy update at that closed-door gathering.

First, the details on Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c. Oracle says it’s designed to help customers and IT service providers that need to manage traditional, virtualized and cloud environments built atop Oracle solutions…

Grazed from MarketWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

NephoScale continues to enhance its cloud services line card with the addition of seven new cloud server plans and is making the cloud more affordable with price reductions of up to 50% on existing cloud services. NephoScale has reduced prices across its entire range of cloud-based services including cloud servers, cloud storage and data transfer. As one of the most competitive IaaS cloud vendors in the market today, this announcement further validates NephoScale’s ability to deliver flexibility and value in cloud computing…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Transcend Computing, an innovator in Amazon Compatible Environments (ACE) for public, private and hybrid cloud computing, today announced that it has exited stealth-mode with the beta launch of StackStudio and StackPlace, which are available now as a web-based service. Transcend Computing was formed to help developers, enterprises and managed service providers to capitalize on the momentum of Amazon Web Services.

StackStudio is a visual, drag-and-drop online development environment for assembling multi-tier application topologies using the Amazon CloudFormation format. Application stacks assembled with StackStudio are ready to run on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and on other public and private ACE platforms…

Grazed from RealWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

NextiraOne, Europe’s leading expert in communications services, has been awarded certification as a Cisco Cloud Infrastructure Partner in Germany, reinforcing the strong partnership between the two companies in the data centre market. Cisco has confirmed that NextiraOne Germany has achieved significant levels of competence in the integration and operation of its data centre solutions.

This certification relates to NextiraOne’s expertise in unified computing systems (UCS), including for example the new M3 family, but also in MDS systems, Nexus Switches and in Wide Area Application Services (WAAS). "This achievement is very important to us and for our customers," commented Dr. Bernd Ruppert, CEO of NextiraOne Germany. "Both enterprises and cloud services providers can be sure with this certification that NextiraOne has the profound knowledge and expertise required to be able to implement Cisco cloud infrastructures."…

Grazed from ITWire.  Author: Beverley Head.

Analyst Gartner today released the results of its Executive Programmes 2012 CIO Agenda survey, and while cloud computing led the pack last year, this year it’s been relegated to number three on the technology priority list, behind mobile technologies and analytics and business intelligence. According to Gartner it’s the productivity implications of smartphones and tablets which are driving this surge of interest.

A year ago it was cloud computing which led the way internationally, with local and international CIOs ranking it the lead item they wanted to address.

In terms of business priorities local CIOs nominated attracting and retaining new customers, increasing enterprise growth and reducing enterprise costs as the top three issues on the agenda…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Dana Gardner.

Cloud computing has sparked the imagination of business leaders, who see it as a powerful new way to be innovative and gain first-mover advantages — with or without traditional IT’s consent.

This now means that the center of gravity for IT services is shifting toward the enterprise’s boundaries – moving increasingly outside their firewalls. And so how can companies have it both ways — exploit cloud’s promise but also retain rigor and control that internal IT influences and governance enables?…

Grazed from Technology Spectator.  Author: Shane Muller.

In some ways shifting from on-premise to cloud computing requires a leap of faith.  The former involves physical IT equipment located on your site.  You can see, touch and feel it whereas in a cloud environment, the really grunty hardware and software is nowhere to be seen.  Although still  running your essential business applications, the servers, the backups and the applications are managed by a third party and could be housed anywhere in the world.
 
Because the infrastructure is no longer under your roof or directly under your control, cloud computing raises many questions about systems performance, data ownership, management and responsibility. If you can’t see the system, how can you be sure you’re getting what you pay for?  How secure is the data? What happens in the event of a crash? Fortunately it’s a model that has been evolving for some time now and many of these questions have been resolved in practice…

Grazed from Business Wire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Connectria Hosting, a global managed hosting provider, today announced that it has launched a cloud solution for the IBM i platform based upon two years of testing, development and research done in cooperation with IBM.

“We are very excited to offer these Cloud Solutions for a technology with such longevity and value. Now customers can leverage Connectria’s superior IBM i managed hosting services in a flexible and affordable cloud computing environment.”

Connectria’s IBM i Cloud Hosting Solutions have been designed to run on the reliable IBM Power Systems Servers to deliver all the benefits expected from a Connectria Cloud Solution, including reliability, scalability, flexibility and affordable pricing. Customers of Connectria’s IBM i Cloud Hosting Solutions will be able to purchase the IBM i capacity and support they need, when they need it, for as long as they need it – backed by Connectria’s world-class 24/7 IBM i administration and support…

Grazed from Bloomberg BusinessWeek.  Author:  Ashlee Vance.