Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: Ted Samson.

Recession-fueled stagnation is slowly drawing to an end as U.S. companies are signaling they’re ready to sink some cash into growth and emerging markets. That spells opportunity for certain IT professionals: Companies are looking to hire and retain those who are skilled in areas such as mobility [1], cloud computing [2], software development [3], and big data [4].

Such is the big picture painted by two separate reports released this week. One comes from research company Hackett Group, titled "2012 IT Key Issues: Coming to Terms with the ‘New Normal’ [5]." It identifies Global 1000 companies’ key priorities for the year. The other is IT staffing company Bluewolf’s "2012 IT Salary Guide [6]," which provides an in-depth look at IT salaries and hiring trends…

Grazed from Developer Integration News.  Author: Vance McCarthy.

The explosive success of cloud computing, especially SaaS, will spark searches in 2012 for better ways to ensure security, privacy and enterprise-wide identity and access management, said Darren Platt, CTO and co-founder of Symplified.

Researcher have noted cloud security is attracting more interest from IT. In 2012, IDC predicts as many as 80% of all new commercial apps will be deployed from cloud platforms. Further, by the end of 2012, Forrester Research predicts that enterprises that tap into  the cloud will be using 10 or more cloud-based services or SaaS applications…

Grazed from WallStreet & Technology.  Author: Ivy Schmerken.

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…