Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Sourya Biswas.

The usefulness (and necessity) of developing universal cloud computing standards has been covered in several articles (See: Cloud Computing Standards: How Important Are They?  and Cloud Computing Standards – is it time? ). However, now that some concrete steps are being taken towards this goal, the industry is facing non-cooperation from several big players. Come to think of it, that’s not surprising.

Consider what the big names like Amazon and Microsoft may lose out on if universal standards come into place. One, they would lose the power of vendor lock-in by which existing customers would be forced to continue with existing vendors because switching costs would be too high. With universal standards, switching costs would decrease drastically, forcing the big players to keep demanding customers happy. And with multiple players vying for customers’ attention, that may not be too easy. As can be seen in the cell phone industry where portability is easy, there’s a lot of customer churn between vendors…

Grazed from PCWorld.  Author: Joab Jackson.

Extending its range of open-source projects to cloud computing, the Apache Software Foundation has approved the Deltacloud as a top-level project, the organization announced Thursday.

First developed by Red Hat in 2009, Deltacloud offers a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) that can be used to interact with multiple cloud service providers. Red Hat submitted Deltacloud to Apache in 2010, and Apache accepted the project in incubator status.

The Apache acceptance "is a significant milestone" for Deltacloud, said Scott Crenshaw, Red Hat vice president and general manager, in a webcast. "It reflects the breadth of the project’s community and the strong and fair governance structure around the project. While it was started by Red Hat, it is governed by an independent community."…

Grazed from Network World.  Author: Kenneth Corbin.

Amid mounting budget pressures and a maturing set of technologies, the federal government is poised for the rapid adoption of cloud computing services over the next several years, according to one of the senior agency leaders helping craft a government-wide cloud strategy.

While federal tech chiefs have long envisioned an environment in which agency storage and applications are hosted and shared throughout the government, the policy reforms required for such a shift, though still very much a work in progress, have recently come into focus and figure to precipitate a major migration to the cloud over the next several years, said David McClure, the associate administrator of the General Services Administration’s Office Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

The TechAmerica Foundation today released the highly anticipated recommendations from the State and Local Government Cloud Commission (SLG-CC) that will assist state and local governments in navigating the adoption of cloud computing. The roadmap is designed for state and local officials who seek to deliver better service and cost savings to their constituents. This practical guidance and set of recommendations comes from the leading thinkers on cloud computing.

"Businesses and institutions across the nation have transformed their IT using the cloud, improving their ability to communicate, deliver value, and be competitive. Now is the time for these benefits to accrue to state and local governments as well. What’s been missing is a playbook — and we’re delivering that, based on a unique and powerful collaboration of 38 leading technology companies to create better collaboration within and between government agencies; resulting in better services and costs to governments and citizens," said Tarkan Maner, Commission Chair and President and CEO of Wyse Technology…

Grazed from TechTarget.  Author: Marcia Salvage.

As more organizations delve into public and private cloud computing, security issues are becoming more pressing. RSA Conference 2012 is testament to the growing interest in cloud security: An entire track is devoted to the topic, with sessions scheduled on cloud data privacy and data integrity in the cloud.

In addition, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) will hold its third annual summit at the conference. The future of cloud security standards will be among the cloud computing security issues discussed at the summit, which is expected to draw about 1,100 attendees…

Grazed from eCommerceTimes.  Author: Theodore F. di Stefano.

The word "terminal," before the computer revolution, had several meanings, one of which described it as either end of a carrier line containing facilities for freight and passengers. Nowadays, in the computer age, it can mean the end point of a carrier line containing data "floating" in a cloud and saved for many users and uses.

Specifically, in the case of V-Rooms, it means the secure cloud-location used as a warehouse of private portals.

Safe Storage in Clouds

So many individuals and businesses are now looking to cloud computing in order to store valuable data off-site. This gives those storing such data in clouds the security and peace of mind of having their precious "cargo" — data — stored in an offsite location and not having to worry about a force of nature, sometimes referred to in legal terms as a "force majeure."…

Grazed from Data Center Knowledge.  Author: Rich Miller.

If you want to learn about a company’s adoption of cloud computing, don’t ask the CIO. He might be the last to know.

That’s why surveys of CIOs tend to show meaningfully lower cloud adoption than similar surveys of developers, according to Geva Perry, an industry veteran and author of Thinking Out Cloud. Perry was one of the keynoters this week at the Cloud Connect conference at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

“The way adoption of cloud computing has worked is that it happens from the bottom up,” said Perry. “With Amazon, it was a developer-driven adoption. Amazon understood this, and built its service so it was optimized for developers.”…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, today announced it’s working with Microsoft to market school IT labs and one-to-one computing solutions that allow a cost effective delivery of innovative IT enabled education. These solutions are available through Wyse and Microsoft education channel partners to educational institutions worldwide.

Among the solutions for education are: an entry level shared computing option for school computing labs combining Wyse zero clients and Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Server 2011, or a powerful and scalable cloud PC solution using Wyse WSM software, providing schools with centrally-managed, scalable one-to-one computing for students. Both solutions are secure and easy to set up and run, delivering a great Windows 7 desktop experience for students. For mobile students, Wyse offers the popular PocketCloud mobile cloud software family delivering access to student desktops and content from a variety of handheld devices…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Joyent Cloud, the highest performance public cloud, and Amplify, a startup accelerator focused on supporting innovative media and entertainment Internet startups, have announced a partnership to supply free cloud computing resources and marketing services to Amplify’s portfolio companies.

Members of the Amplify startup family will power their launches on Joyent SmartMachines running Joyent SmartOS, a unique operating system designed specifically for cloud computing. SmartOS and Joyent’s SmartDataCenter are the core components behind Joyent’s public cloud offering, a service designed specifically to deliver the premium performance required to power real-time applications…

Grazed from Bradenton Herald.  Author: Editorial Staff.