Grazed from Dynamic Business.  Author: Editorial Staff.

As technology moves more towards a subscriber model you might see the “aaS” suffix placed after a variety of letters.

The most common terms currently utilised under the “cloud” banner are:

–       Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): servers, networks, disk space and other IT infrastructure

–       Platform as a Service (PaaS): environments where software companies can build applications without the need for infrastructure

–       Software as a Service (SaaS): applications and software solutions that are ready for immediate use

Recently I was asked the question about whether a website classifies as SaaS. The answer is both yes and no – as it comes down to perspectives…

Grazed from Techgoondu.  Author: Aaron Tan.

The market for cloud computing services among small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) is expected to swell to US$68 billion by 2014, a new study has found.

According to Parallels’ SMB Cloud Insights report, SMBs will continue to lead the cloud computing wave, with small businesses three times more likely than large enterprises to choose cloud services over on-premise software.

SMBs surveyed in the study also plan to double the number of cloud applications they purchase over the next three years.

The new study, which details hosting, cloud services and applications that appeal to SMBs, follows similar surveys conducted in countries such as Brazil, Mexico, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Japan and Australia…

Grazed from TheNextWeb.  Author: Matthew Panzarino.

Today at a Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave a keynote presentation in which he addressed working conditions at Apple’s factories in China, as well as the product philosophy of Apple.

He also announced that its syncing service iCloud now has over 100M users. Just last month, Cook said that the service had 85M users, making this a growth of 15M users in 21 days.

Cook also reiterated that iCloud was a ‘long-game’ strategy that Apple would continue to pursue over many years. He said that it wasn’t just a product, but a “strategy for the next decade” of Apple’s business. Cook mentioned that the way that iCloud took a household with multiple Macs or iDevices and simplified the interchange of information as the primary drive behind the introduction of iCloud…

Grazed from V3.co.uk.  Author: Daniel Robinson.

Red Hat has announced key steps towards more open and interoperable cloud computing with the promotion of its Deltacloud API to a top-level Apache project and an extension of its partnership with Amazon Web Services that enables hybrid cloud operation of Red Hat Enterprise MRG Grid.

The moves were announced as part of a Red Hat webcast where the company hammered home the need for an open approach to cloud computing that allows customers to expand easily, enables portability between clouds, and avoids a lock-in to proprietary architectures…

Grazed from Data Center Knowledge.  Author: Rich Miller.

Dell Services has opened its new data center in Quincy, Wash., a key component of a global data center expansion to support the company’s push into cloud computing services. The first phase of the project features 40,000 square feet of data center space.

The Dell Western Technology Center is a multi-client facility with redundant network connectivity, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), cooling, utility and back-up emergency power generation. It is built with the largest installation in the U.S. to use a “heat wheel,” also known as a rotary heat exchanger. The heat wheel is a refinement of existing approaches that take advantage of outside air to improve cooling efficiency – which slashes data center power bills by reducing the need to use power-hungry chillers for air conditioning…

Grazed from SacBee.  Author: Editorial Staff.

GreenPages Technology Solutions, a leading cloud and virtualization consulting and integration firm, announced today that it is the first U.S. integration partner for CA Technologies new CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock™ Platforms. Recently unveiled at Cisco Live in London, the CA Technologies solution provides out-of-the-box standardized processes that allow IT organizations to deliver Vblock Infrastructure Platforms as a service.

"As we help our customers move to a cloud-based computing model, the ability to quickly and predictably provision and deliver critical IT and business services is crucial," said John Ross, GreenPages’ CTO. "By combining GreenPages’ Integration and Managed Services with CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms, our customers can achieve private cloud capabilities in days instead of months, helping to realize a rapid return on their VCE investment."…

Grazed from Network Computing.  Author:  Sharon Fisher.

Seeking to bring cloud computing features to the VMware virtualization private cloud space, Nimbula has announced a new version of its Nimbula Director cloud operating system. In addition to supporting the VMware ESXi hypervisor, Version 2.0 is also intended to support VMware’s Cloud Foundry Platform as a Service solution. The company also said it is now a member of VMware’s Technology Alliance Program. Other enhancements in this version include the ability for third parties to write software for the Nimbula Director platform, managing and monitoring applications, providing Dynamic Name Service and Virtual Private Network services, and adding features intended to make the software more enterprise-ready by improving its scalability.

"There are some good incremental improvements like support for VMware ESXi hypervisors and support for more network services like DNS and VPN," says Paul Burns, president of Neovise, a Fort Collins, Colo., consultancy. "While these are somewhat basic, customers definitely need and want them. There are also a couple of new capabilities that I think really move Nimbula forward. They’ve greatly improved the extensibility of the Nimbula platform by enabling deep integration with all kinds of related cloud services. This lets service providers more easily offer value-added services such as databases, object storage and development environments."…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author:  Eric Lai.

It feels a little blasphemous to type this while Cloud Connect, the cloud industry’s premier conference, takes place just 30 miles away.

But sometimes when you see a balloon rising from all of the hot air filling it, you gotta take aim with the BB gun and pop it.

As most of you know, multitenancy is the term describing when a single instance of software serves dozens or hundreds of users/customers at the same time. Anyone can see how much more efficient this is versus the old server hosting model, where the ratio of server:customer is 1:1. Even using today’s Red Hat-type virtualization, each server can cram fewer users/customers onto itself than a true multitenant service…

Grazed from CRM Buyer.  Author:  Denis Pombriant.

Last week Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) bought the HR SaaS company Taleo for US$1.9 billion, which to me means it’s time to do you-know-what to the fire and call in the dogs. This hunt is officially over and out.

The hunt in question is for legitimacy and primacy of the SaaS and cloud computing model. Many people would argue that legitimacy happened when Salesforce had its first billion-dollar year — heck, its first $100 million would do just as well. But primacy has always been a wee bit dodgy…

Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Florence de Borja.

A lot of accounting firms are reluctant to shift to cloud computing primarily because of concerns regarding service quality, cost, customization, and integration problems. Initially, these concerns may be a problem for the adoption of cloud computing but suppliers are swiftly releasing new products and services to allay these issues.

Accountants have their own way of doing things and as long as this doesn’t run contrary to accounting principles and standards then they are free to come up with easier means to finish their accounting jobs. Therefore, a problem which accountants foresee when they shift to cloud computing is that they may encounter customization problems. Thus, software suppliers like Intacct and NetSuite have created tools to help accountants with their customization needs. As more and more software applications are released by different suppliers, accounting on the cloud can proved to be easier than the traditional software applications found in the accounting firm’s office…