Grazed from Cloud Tweaks.  Author:  Rick Blaisdell.

Perhaps to recap some of the things that I have written about during the year, I would now like to propose a set of best practices for a cloud computing implementation, the ones that I believe are crucial. Here are the 4 most important aspects to determining the success of such an IT project:

– Security: I will start with this, since it still seems to be the most debated about topic when it comes to cloud computing implementation. Keep in mind that the managed enterprise provider you choose has specialists dedicated to the security of your servers which are available 24/7. They are responsible for both the setup and the ongoing maintenance of your cloud – regardless whether it is public or not. Think how much trouble, time and money it would cost you to hire these specialists, to setup, monitor and maintain your own system– it does seem simpler and more efficient to have security in place when paying for your cloud services, doesn’t it?…

Grazed from Signal Scape.  Author: Rachel Eisenhower.

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Appirio announced today it has selected NetApp, Inc. as its Cloud Pioneer of the Year, an annual award given by Appirio to companies and individuals that demonstrate leadership in cloud computing initiatives. The award honors the team for the cloud-first approach they took to dramatically improve the Field Operation team’s ability to move fast and respond to the business’ evolving needs.

The NetApp team, led by its VP of worldwide sales ops, was selected from nearly a dozen other Appirio Cloud Pioneers representing companies such as BP, Brown-Forman, Glocap, Enterasys, Medtronic, Suntech and Yahoo!…

Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: David Linthicum.

Cloud computing is going strong, and I suspect it’ll peak this year or next. I know this because the hype is almost out of control and misinformation is plentiful — the classic signs of an impending peak. It’s a new technology, but the same old hype cycle.

Although much good is going on in the cloud, as both the technology and the underlying architectures mature, the hype means we’ll also see cloud providers pull some real blunders. Here are three you can expect this year…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Paul Miller.

Microsoft announced last month that its Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, Office 365, will better comply with European guidelines to ensure that customer data is adequately protected. This move is certainly welcome, but the long-armed spectre of the USA PATRIOT Act continues to hang over Microsoft and other US companies, regardless of customers’ nationality or the country within which Microsoft might physically host a particular customer’s data.

The PATRIOT Act’s acronymic name may evoke harmless images of bunting, parades, and national anthems, but the reality is rather different. A product of America’s post-9/11 entrenchment, the Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 affords the Federal Government wide-ranging and far-reaching powers that show little — if any — respect for geographic boundaries or inconveniently contradictory local legislation. A US company (like Microsoft or Amazon) is subject to the Act’s powers all around the world. A US citizen’s data, stored in a US company’s data centre that is physically situated in the United States is subject to the Act, and everyone might be reasonably comfortable with that. But so is a German citizen’s data, stored in an Amazon data centre in Ireland; and German, Irish and European lawmakers appear almost powerless to intercede…

Grazed from CRN.  Author: Andrew R. Hickey.

The demand for cloud computing skills has exploded, with hiring for cloud computing expertise growing 61 percent year over year, according to a recent report from Wanted Analytics, a talent research firm.

According to the report, over the past 90 days employers and staffing firms have placed more than 10,000 job ads that included cloud computing skills and experience as requirements. Those ads came from more than 2,400 companies in that 90-day period, which ultimately pushed cloud hiring demand 61 percent year-over-year.

The need for cloud computing skills has been pushing the market for months. Solution providers are seeking cloud-ready employees to bring their businesses to the next level. Additionally, a host of major IT companies, including HP and others, have launched cloud-specific certifications to arm the market with cloud skills and competence. And solution providers like Bluewolf have begun offering training programs, which in some cases are free, to deepen the cloud computing talent pool…

Grazed from MSP News.  Author: Carolyn J. Dawson.

Logicalis (News – Alert) is aleading global provider of integrated information and communications technology (ICT) solutions and services. They recently made an announcement that their Logicalis Enterprise Cloud (LEC) public cloud service has secured the VMware vCloud Powered status. This is a clear indication to its clients that the organization’s cloud services are underpinned by VMware’s virtualization and cloud computing technology. This technology is called VMware vSphere and VMware vCloud Director. As part of the VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP), the Logicalis Enterprise Cloud brings together VMware vCloud technology and gives it the ability to expand its security and workload isolation. In turn, this gives Logicalis the ability to make available highly scalable cloud services to its customer base…

Grazed from SBTimes.  Author: Editorial Staff.

GuardTime ( http://www.guardtime.com ), creator of the Keyless Signature technology used to provide indisputable proof of time, origin, and integrity for electronic data, today signed an agreement with Tokyo-based NRI SecureTechnologies, Ltd., a one stop-solution provider for information security, to do business collaboration in the area of cloud computing security.

GuardTime developed and provides the solution code-named "DataConductor," which can detect changes and/or transfers of any data stored in the datacenter. By signing the data using GuardTime’s Keyless Signatures, ( http://www.guardtime.com ) DataConductor can automatically detect when and where the data was created or transferred, and if the datahas been tampered with or not. An alert is sent to the customer when an abnormal status is detected. DataConductor can assure the integrity of data and confirm the location where data exists, providing a full audit trail of data storage in the Cloud. DataConductor enables regulatory compliance for archiving with commodity cloud storage…

Grazed from The Register.  Author:  Timothy Prickett Morgan.

Being the touchstone for cloud computing, online retailing giant Amazon wants to brag about its compute, storage, and other cloud services that are sold under the Amazon Web Services brand. For whatever reason – probably to obscure the costs and possibly the profits of the AWS subsidiary – Amazon has not broken out the business, and still lump it into the Other bucket.

But sometimes, Amazon just can’t resist itself. As the new year got rolling, Amazon did a little bit of chest beating about AWS.

First, the company said that with the opening of its AWS data center in São Paulo, Brazil in mid-December, the company has doubled its AWS data-center footprint…