November 22, 2011 Off

Cloud Computing: Labor Contract and Negotiations as a Service

By David
Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Srinivasan Sundara Rajan.

SaaS / BpaaS Adoption

This is the continuation of my series of articles on Industry SaaS. This term ‘Industry SaaS’ can be used interchangeably with BpaaS (Business Process as a Service). However, the term ‘Industry SaaS’ means Software as a Service which focuses on a specific industry, and the term BpaaS has yet to mature with a clear definition.

Labor Contract Negotiations Management & Tracking

  • Most large enterprises need to negotiate benefits to its employees with the labor contract unions
  • These negotiations happen between the management and the respective labor unions…
November 22, 2011 Off

Treasury Dept. Gives “Freedom Of Information Act” A Cloud Technology Makeover

By David
Grazed from InformationWeek Government.  Author: Elizabeth Montalbano.

The U.S. Department of Treasury is leveraging cloud computing to make it easier for the department to handle Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, as well as for people to submit them.

The move is one of a host of efforts to expedite FOIA requests as agencies in the Obama administration try to make government information more accessible.

A new system at Treasury called goFOIA has three key features to improve the process of requesting and obtaining FOIA documents, according to a post on the CIO.gov blog by Treasury CIO Robyn East…

November 22, 2011 Off

Internet anonymiser runs in the cloud

By David
Grazed from CloudPro.  Author:  Brian Betts.

The Tor Project has invited supporters of its Internet anonymising scheme to set up bridge nodes on Amazon’s EC2 cloud computing network. Bridges act as the first hop onto the Tor network, which then allows Internet users to bypass national firewalls and ISP filtering software, and access the Internet uncensored.

Called Tor Cloud, the preloaded software is ready to deploy on EC2 in six service regions, and is pre-configured for automatic updates and port forwarding, so no user intervention is needed. Tor developers said they were also looking at packaging up versions for other cloud computing services, including Softlayer.com, Hetzner.de and Rackspace. ..

November 22, 2011 Off

Will 2012 Be the Year of the Private Cloud?

By David
Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Nicos Vekiarides.

As business adoption of cloud computing and cloud storage takes hold, new benefits of cloud IT versus traditional IT continue to emerge on a regular basis. One recent example is the Carbon Disclosure Project Study 2011: Cloud Computing – The IT Solution for the 21st Century produced by analyst firm Verdantix.  In the report, not only are the cost advantages of cloud computing discussed but also the resulting reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, the study looks at a food and beverage company that is moving an HR application from local IT to the cloud. The model predicts a savings of  $12 million over a 5 year period and a reduction of 30,000 tons in CO2 emissions, simply by moving to the public cloud.

So what does all this have to do with 2012 being the year of the private cloud? Let me explain.  Interestingly enough, the study also concluded that this same company could save $5M and cut CO2 emissions by 25,000 tons over the same time period but this time by moving to a private cloud. While most of us already assume that public clouds are housed in highly efficient “green” data centers with tremendous economies of scale, the private cloud scenario modeled in this report makes a strong statement that improved resource utilization can drive huge benefits even when all infrastructure stays local. The study goes on to cite other efficiencies of cloud architectures including improved time-to-market which also apply to both public and private clouds…

November 22, 2011 Off

Netsuite “SuiteAcademy” Program Graduates Cloud Computing to Higher Education Worldwide

By David
Grazed from PR NewsWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

NetSuite Inc. ( NYSE: N), the industry’s leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP software suites, today announced the details of SuiteAcademy, an educational program designed to bring cloud-based business management solutions to university classrooms worldwide. Driven by the growing global demand for teaching NetSuite cloud solutions in college classrooms, "SuiteAcademy" will put NetSuite software and professor developed curriculum in the hands of students, giving the next generation of business leaders a competitive advantage by having worked with the fastest growing financial management solution (according to Gartner). The adoption of cloud computing is accelerating among businesses worldwide and educational institutions are making sure they stay up-to-date with the latest technology to ensure that their students learn the most practical and relevant curricula…

November 22, 2011 Off

Navisite Promotes Oracle SaaS Licenses to Cloud ISVs

By David
Grazed from Talkin’Clouds.  Author: Joe Panettieri.

NaviSite, a cloud services provider acquired by Time Warner Cable Company earlier this year, is promoting Oracle SaaS software licenses for ISVs (independent software vendors) that are pushing into cloud computing. The move comes as Oracle itself continues to bolster its cloud strategy.

According to NaviSite:

“With monthly Oracle software licensing, NaviSite ISV customers can take advantage of a flexible usage-based billing that accommodates changing business needs. The Oracle software licensing is seamlessly integrated into NaviSite’s hosting services, and complements traditional licensing.”

NaviSite is a platinum member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized partner program. The company has a longstanding relationship with Oracle, which itself has been promoting a cloud strategy in recent months…

November 21, 2011 Off

Gaining Control Over ‘Cloud Sprawl’

By David

Grazed from IT Business Edge.  Author: Michael Vizard.
 

One of the issues that many IT organizations are soon going to find themselves dealing with is “cloud sprawl.” Because it’s relatively easy to set up an account with any number of cloud computing service providers, IT organizations may soon find themselves managing application workloads across many different services.

At the same time, those organizations are just as likely to have an instance of private cloud computing under development, which may be running on premise or in a third-party data center…

November 21, 2011 Off

Moving Operations To The “Cloud” Saves Time, Money

By David
Grazed from Business Technology.  Author: Jim Salviski.

The terms “cloud” and “cloud computing” are just about everywhere, but unless you’re in the information technology business, you may not be sure exactly what they mean.

So what exactly is the cloud? It describes computing systems, data and infrastructure running on a server at an off-site data center that your company can rent or lease.

Simply put, the cloud refers to the out-of-sight, out-of-mind computer tasks that happen on someone else’s equipment. It can replace or be an extension of the server—or servers—taking up valuable space in your company’s closet or costing a fortune at your company’s data center…

November 21, 2011 Off

The IT of business – why the cloud is a not new idea

By David
Grazed from Bizcommunity.com.  Author:  Raj Harie.

There is increasing awareness and publicity surrounding cloud computing today, but cloud computing is not a new concept. Mainstream computing first started off with the mainframe, terminal computing where the device sitting on the user’s desk was just a terminal accessing the mainframe, which did the processing and number crunching.
 
After this there was a paradigm shift to personal computers and client/server computing, which allowed the workload to be shared between the client, typically a Windows desktop and a Windows server. This was great because it allowed for the ability to work "offline" from the corporate network, using tools like Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc. This shift also brought about simplicity to computing – you no longer needed a programming background, everything became more intuitive with Windows and a graphical user interface…

November 21, 2011 Off

Wyse Acquires Trellia to Expand Cloud Computing Capabilities

By David
Grazed from Mobile Enterprise.  Author: Tony Rizzo.

Wyse Technology, a significant player in cloud client computing, today announced that it has acquired Trellia, a cloud-based mobile infrastructure management vendor. The Trellia solution suite provides Wyse, its customers and partners with a comprehensive suite of cloud-based mobile security, device, app and expense management software solutions.
 
The Trellia acquisition adds a specific set of technology IP and expertise to present and future Wyse infrastructure management software solutions aimed at helping organizations speed deployment of cloud client computing. Through the acquisition, Wyse expects to further simplify and reduce the cost for organizations of all sizes to manage, support and secure the exploding number of consumer smartphones and tablets now accessing physical and virtualized IT resources…