Grazed from InfoBoom.  Author: Douglas Bonderud.

Cloud computing–it’s been the buzzword around technology markets of all types for the past several years and is finally starting to deliver on promises made. In many ways a more efficient reworking of the centralized data concept, cloud computing promises more for less by allowing a small or midsize business (SMB) to outsource any part of or all of their IT department. But while "as-a-service" options all offer greater ease of use and supposedly lower costs, does letting a cloud provider take full IT control really make sense?

The Great IT Debate 

For SMBs, the cloud represents two things: lower cost and improved agility. Many businesses love the idea of having no in-house servers, which should cut power costs and end the need for upgrades over time. In addition, the cloud’s promise to deliver almost any app and run on multiple operating systems makes many SMBs eager to buy in. Limited patching and downtime and always-on access sounds great to most business owners…

Grazed from Dynamic Business.  Author: Neil Glentworth.

Cloud computing isn’t new, having been in use by big business for decades in some form or another. Now the technology is readily accessible to SMBs, you need to separate fact from fiction to understand the benefits it can deliver to your business.

We keep hearing about how ‘the cloud’ is going to make us crazy-powerful and change the way we live. If that were true, it should’ve happened back when Hotmail started the trend for people to exchange information without requiring their own physical server for storage. That innovation did change things, but it didn’t rock the world quite as much as contemporary cloud computing aficionados are making out…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Heather Clancy.

Grazed from Talkin Cloud.  Author: Joe Panettieri.

Rackspace VP of Enterprise Strategy Andrew Schroepfer says the cloud computing company has a 1 percent monthly churn rate. How did Rackspace achieve such a low customer churn and high customer retention? Schroepfer offered some insights during the CA Technologies MSP Symposium today in Miami, Fla.

Schroepfer pointed to four lessons:

• We’re a great place to work
• We have a standardized services portfolio to keep things simple.
• We’re easy to work with
• Our employees focus on jobs that involve their core strengths…

Grazed from PCWorld.  Author: John C. Dvorak.

The shut down of Megaupload by the U.S. government is not being perceived for what it is: a mega failure for cloud computing.

Grazed from MSPNews.  Author: Kerry Doyle.

Cloud computing can make a variety of computing services available to companies of all sizes on an ‘as-need’ basis. It allows cloud providers to offer a range of physical resources, such as processors, data storage, applications, and platform access for developers. The result is that smaller companies can eliminate the need for physical hardware as well as the expenditures it entails.

In turn, companies receive access to massive computing and storage resources, then pay only for pro-rated computing services and usage. With that goal in mind, an increasing number of companies are also creating their own private clouds. Into this arena comes CA Technologies (News – Alert) with its latest offering: CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock…

Grazed from InfoQ.  Author: Richard Seroter.

The Open Group recently published three standards that aid organizations that are building infrastructure-as-a-service offerings and service oriented architectures. In addition to releasing the Service Oriented Architecture Reference Architecture (SOA RA) and Service Oriented Cloud Computing Infrastructure Framework (SOCCI), the Open Group also updated their Open Group Service Integration Maturity Model (OSIMM). In concert, these standards provide expert advice in the form of best practices, questionnaires, and templates for SOA and cloud-scale infrastructure architecture.

The SOA RA is a nearly two hundred page guide that includes significant input from IBM, among other technology partners. Architects are meant to use this guide as a blueprint for assessing, designing and implementing service-oriented solutions. In essence, this standard answer the question “what is an SOA?” and provides a complete logical design of a service oriented architecture. The core of this standard focuses on nine thoroughly described layers, or capability areas, that make up a SOA solution stack…

Grazed from Network Computing.  Author:  Chris Talbot.

Cloud computing has taken center stage over the last two years as the hot enterprise technology, but in the database realm, the public cloud and off-site hosted database services still represent too many unknown factors to truly have mass adoption. According to the co-author of the InformationWeek "State of Database Technology" report, the public cloud is so far having very little impact on enterprise databases.

Although enterprises are adopting cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM), email, enterprise content management and web hosting services, concerns and challenges related to the cloud are slowing the adoption of cloud-based databases, said David Read, CTO of Blue Slate Solutions and co-author of the report…

Grazed from Talkin Cloud.  Author: Matthew Weinberger.

File storage/sync solutions such as Dropbox offer a whole new world of functionality to many users otherwise unfamiliar with the barest concept of cloud computing. But there are still many IT decisionmakers out there who just don’t trust public cloud solutions. Enter SOS Online Backup and its SOS Collaborate Private Cloud, designed to bring full file-sync and sharing capabilities into the customers’ own data center.

In addition to the aforementioned Dropbox-style file-sync and sharing features, SOS Collaborate supports open source plugins for additional file type or application data; grants administrators deep visibility into and control over customer usage; and provides a regulatory compliance audit trail for later usage, according to the press release. It can be deployed as a virtual appliance or on a physical machine behind the customer firewall…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

LawLoop.com, ( www.LawLoop.com ), the complete cloud computing solution for lawyers, today announced its official company launch at LegalTech 2012 in New York. LawLoop.com provides a cloud-based solution that reinvents the way law firms of all sizes can securely and efficiently operate, collaborate and communicate.

LawLoop.com takes cloud-based solutions to the next level with uniquely designed "Loops" to safely and cost-effectively share documents, software and information both internally and externally. LawLoop.com’s advanced networking feature uses individualized profiles and avatars to create more transparent virtual collaboration that increases firm and project productivity…