More Regulation Will Ensure Global Cloud Computing Growth
Grazed from Redmondmag.com. Author: Jeffrey Schwartz.
When it comes to policies that promote growth of cloud computing among the world’s leading users of information technology, Japan comes out on top and the United States fourth, according to a report published this week by the Business Software Alliance.
But a lack of consistency in laws and economic polices among the 24 countries that account for 80 percent of the world’s information and communications technology is putting the promise of a robust global cloud marketplace at risk, based on a BSA study that is the basis of its first Global Cloud Computing Scorecard (report .PDF here).
"In a global economy, you should be able to get the technology you need for personal or business use from cloud providers located anywhere in the world," said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman in a statement. "But that requires laws and regulations that let data flow easily across borders. Right now, too many countries have too many different rules standing in the way of the kind of trade in digital services we really need."…
Cloud Computing: IBM Migration Factory Brings Competitors’ Customers to Big Blue
In an aggressive move against its key competition, IBM announced new resources to help customers migrate from competing hardware platforms while also claiming Big Blue recorded nearly 2,400 competitive displacements in 2011 for its servers and storage systems.
IBM said nearly 40 percent of the 2,400 displacements came from HP and more than 25 percent came from Oracle/Sun. In addition, IBM said it gained 570 competitive displacements in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Meanwhile, IBM also announced new initiatives for its Migration Factory to continue helping clients quickly and securely migrate core applications and databases to a new IBM-based environment. New resources include workshops to facilitate the transition from competing servers to IBM systems, and migration to a cloud computing solution built on Power Systems. In addition, customers who want to migrate from HP or Oracle/Sun technologies to a Power Systems-based infrastructure are now eligible for new funding services for the migration process…
Cloud Computing’s Hidden Export Regulation Risks
Thousands of Americans export data overseas every day without U.S. government authorizations and don’t even know it. How? By using cloud-computing services, ranging from personal services like Gmail to large-scale enterprise data storage solutions. While cloud-based services have become a valuable tool for improving efficiency, outdated government regulation leaves cloud users exposed.
Here’s an example. Imagine you’re an engineer working for a small firm in Indiana that uses a cloud service for data storage. One day you realize the company’s aluminum valves, used only by U.S. customers, could be improved with a redesigned “butterfly” mechanism. You revise the design specifications on your desktop computer and click “save.” Your company’s cloud provider routes your document to its network’s least burdened location—which happens to be in India—for storage…
Citrix and IT Sligo announce IT education alliance
The Minister for Jobs and Skills Ruairí Quinn TD is launching the Citrix Academy Network at IT Sligo this afternoon. The aim of the network is to equip students from computing programmes at IT Sligo with advanced technical skills so they can pursue IT careers in areas such as virtualisation or cloud computing.
IT Sligo is the first higher education institution in Ireland to join the network. The first 25 students have recently started the course at the institute, while an additional 55 students are expected to begin the accreditation process by the end of the year…
Dell buys AppAssure to boost cloud services
Computer maker Dell Inc. said Friday it bought AppAssure, a company that specializes in remote data storage and computing, as part of Dell’s strategy to press into the field of Internet-based systems known as cloud computing.
Dell did not disclose financial terms of the deal…
Cloud Computing: Old Big Data Cozies Up with New Big Data
Teradata, once famous for massaging huge classical databases so Wal-Mart, say, could stock just so many navy blue whatevers, has teamed up with Hortonworks, the months-old Yahoo-spun off open source Apache Hadoop supporter, so they can push Hadoop-leveraging Big Data analytics together.
The old-line Big Data house already has an alliance with Cloudera, the first-to-market Hadoop commercializer, and if Teradata customers are absolutely positive they want Cloudera’s Hadoop distribution they can get it from Teradata…
A Hybrid Approach to Backup and Recovery in the Cloud
One of the biggest drawbacks to backup and recovery is that the actual process of backing up files and recovering files is time consuming. Add the expense of acquiring the dedicated infrastructure that mostly sits idle and it is little wonder that backup and recovery quickly fall off the IT priority list.
Cloud computing is supposed to solve the expense issue associated with dedicated infrastructure. But making cumbersome backup and recovery processes simpler in the context of the cloud requires a little engineering work. According to Steve Fairbanks, vice president of data management for CA Technologies, that’s what CA Technologies and Microsoft have teamed up to do…
Cloud Security Summit Announced for 2012, Tackling Concept of Identity
User identity is the next big issue in cloud computing safety according to security firm Ping Identity, which recently announced their 2012 Cloud Security Summit in Vail, Colorado. New cloud technology is quickly making legacy security programs that rely on users connecting via hardwired devices increasingly obsolete, and new solutions are needed to not only protect virtual and cloud-stored data, but help redefine the role of business IT for the future…
SMBs Occupy Forefront of Cloud Adoption
Popular opinion holds that cloud computing is a technology area dominated by large enterprises, with a few brave SMBs dipping their toes in and the rest hanging back to see how things develop this year. However, at least one set of data contradicts this belief. Recent research from hosting and cloud services software provider Parallels indicates that SMBs are actually leading the way when it comes to cloud adoption.
According to Parallels data, the US SMB cloud market grew 25% during 2011, increasing to $15.1 billion USD. In addition, SMBs on the “small” end with fewer than 20 employees are at least three times more likely to choose cloud services than on-premise services, and SMBs plan to double the amount of paid cloud applications they purchase in the next three years, with size of SMB determining which applications are critical…
Rackspace considers Australia but needs skills in the UK
Rackspace Hosting is considering setting up a data center in Australia to cater for the Asia Pacific market, but it could have some big challenges ahead with its cloud growth plans if its experience in the UK is anything to go by.
The hosting and cloud computing provider, which set up a data center in the UK last year, is now challenging UK universities to add cloud computing to its curriculum as it faces what it calls a “skills shortage” in the cloud computing space…