Grazed from Data Center Knowledge.  Author: John Rath.

After almost two years into the Federal Government data center consolidation project an interesting roadblock may have emerged to redirect cloud computing efforts. Plans to favor the DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency) cloud for military departments and agencies may be set aside in favor of private sector clouds.

Migration to private sector

Nexgov reports that a part of the 2012 Defense Authorization Act passed last week has lawmakers directing Defense CIO Teri Takai to develop a plan to use commercial cloud computing services instead of DISA’s. Within the act, Takai is directed to submit a plan by April 1, 2012, for “migration of Defense data and government-provided services from department owned and operated data centers to cloud computing services generally available within the private sector.”  This comes less than a month after a Pentagon report stating that as much as $680 million a year, starting in 2015, could be saved if the Defense Department consolidated data centers. The authorization act also zeroed out the Army budget to consolidate its enterprise email with DISA until the service examines alternatives…

Grazed from CRN.  Author:  Editorial Staff.

HP has introduced new cloud solutions to advance deployment of private, public and hybrid clouds. The company has integrated its HP CloudSystem with Alcatel-Lucent to enable communication service providers for networking.

HP has also introduced HP CloudAgile Service Provider program, HP CloudSystem Matrix 7.0, HP Cloud Protection program, HP Enterprise Cloud Services–Compute, and training programs to transform legacy data centers for cloud computing.

“Clients want to understand, plan, build and source for cloud computing in a way that allows them to gain agility, reduce risk, maintain control and ensure security,” said Santanu Ghose, Country Head, Converged Infrastructure Solutions, HP India…

Grazed from Virtualization Review.  Author: David Davis.

I’ve been working on a project for a company that uses infrastructure-as-a-service to dynamically bring up virtual machines in the public cloud for temporarily use. I am excited and bullish on cloud computing and, prior to this project, I didn’t see a lot of negatives to "the cloud" (as long as you understood today’s technology limitations). However, through this project I have come to believe that the greatest limitation to using IaaS in today’s public cloud may be the utter chaos when it comes to pricing.

Lack of Public Cloud Pricing
In trying to get pricing to compare one cloud service offering to another, I went to each company’s Web site and tried to obtain their list price. This doesn’t work. Most companies don’t publish their prices publicly and they say "contact us to have a sales person contact you."…

Grazed from SmartDataCollective.  Author: Mark Smith.

I attended the annual SAP Influencer Summit (Twitter #SAPSummit), at which executives from SAP meet with analysts and customers from around the world to discuss the company’s direction. Pointing out that in 2012 SAP will reach its 40th anniversary of operations, chief communications officer Hubertus Kulpus and chief marketing officer Jonathan Becher kicked off the summit, then passed the microphones to co-CEO Jim Hagemann-Snabe and CTO Vishal Sikka for overviews of the business and technology strategies. They presented a well-rehearsed dialogue on SAP’s definition of its software business as being in two areas, the “system of record” and “system of engagement”; the first term describes its transactional applications and the second its portfolio of business analytics…

Grazed from Windows IT Pro.  Author: Michael Otey.

Grazed from Vanguard.  Author: Prince Osuagwu.

Frontline computer and back end company, International Business Machines, IBM, believes that organizations that embrace the concept of smarter computing and are approaching computing in a different way, are likely to build and enhance easily, the infrastructure they already have.

This is because they would  have harnessed data and integrated information to unlock insights and make better decisions, quicker.

Smarter computing helps companies optimized their systems for specific tasks to deliver the efficiency and performance required in an ever more competitive and challenging world as is seen today. Moreover, cloud computing aids rapid delivery of new services that can benefit local communities and businesses alike, just like it helps position IT leaders and their teams to drive innovation for their businesses, rather than just being the implementers…

Grazed from BusinessWeek.  Author:   Chris Strohm.

Congress ordered the Defense Department to develop a plan to use more cloud-computing services, a move that may lead to U.S. contracts for suppliers including Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

The fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill, approved by Congress on Dec. 15, requires the Pentagon to develop a strategy by April 1 to migrate its data to cloud-computing services to consolidate resources, according to the legislation. The cloud is a Web-based pool of shared computing resources such as software and data storage.

The White House is trying to get agencies across the government, including the Pentagon, to embrace cloud computing to reduce $80 billion in annual U.S. spending. Moving Pentagon data to cloud services raises security concerns that call for service contract requirements, said James Lewis, director of the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington…

Grazed from InformationWeek.  Author:  J. Nicholas Hoover.

The White House plans to require agencies to future-proof information technology decisions through the use of some mix of agile development, machine readable data, Web services and modular procurement techniques, federal CIO Steven VanRoekel said in an interview with InformationWeek.

The details do not appear to be set in stone, but the requirements, which VanRoekel calls "Future First" (short for "future-ready first," he says), will come in guidance to be issued some time next year. "When we solve a problem to meet some mission need, it should be ready for the future, it should be expandable" he said. "This is about taking big mission solutions and breaking them down into small components."

In government today, procurements often take too long, project requirements are over-prescribed, and development takes place in a long waterfall process, which VanRoekel admits too often leaves federal IT projects "outdated or too inflexible in the end."…

Grazed from AllThingsD.  Author: Nick Mehta.

If I say “cloud computing,” what companies come to mind? Amazon’s innovative Amazon Web Services Cloud? Google’s cloud-based collaboration tools, Google Apps? Salesforce.com, the pioneer in moving business applications to the Web? Facebook because, well, it’s Facebook? How about Microsoft? Before you laugh and close your Chrome browser, hear me out. While perhaps lacking the sex appeal (and stock price appreciation) of the other companies I mentioned, Microsoft is the dark horse that will bring the benefits of the cloud to mainstream businesses. How can I make that claim? Well, if it pleases this jury, Microsoft has the motive, means and opportunity to win the enterprise cloud.

Motive

As the saying goes, people are motivated by either greed or fear. I think for many big companies, it’s more the latter. And Microsoft has a lot to be scared about…

Grazed from Forbes.  Author: Ana Cantu.