Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Jeffrey Burt.

Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard continue to push their cloud computing agendas with new offerings and services.

Cisco executives, including Lew Tucker, CTO of cloud computing at the vendor, and Padmasree Warrior, senior vice president of engineering and CTO of Cisco, are expected to discuss the company’s cloud strategy and unveil a host of new technologies aimed at cloud service providers during a Webinar scheduled for Dec. 6. A number of Cisco cloud partners and customers also will join the discussion.

Details for the online event can be found on Cisco’s Website…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Big Switch Networks, an OpenFlow company bringing the benefits of virtualization and cloud architecture to enterprise networks, today announced that it has been selected as one of three finalists for the UP-START 2011 Most Promising Startup Cloud Award.

The UP-START Award finalists are disruptive and next-generation cloud computing companies, as well as innovative stealth mode and emerging solution providers who are defining cloud technology. The panel of judges, representing recognized leaders in technology, evaluated 350 nominations before selecting a shortlist of finalists. Winners will be announced at this week’s UP Cloud Computing Conference…

Grazed from InTech.  Author: Maryanne Steidinger.

There is much discussion these days on whether cloud-based technology is “right” for manufacturing. Given the security concerns, what applications should manufacturers look for to help them get started? And, more importantly, why should they even care about the cloud?

Grazed from Channel Pro.  Author: Steve Hughes.

Though the concept of “cloud computing” is not new, it is undisputable that it has captured the imagination of the IT industry and will play a large part in the ICT domain over the next decade and beyond.

One critical component of cloud computing which is seldom mentioned, and goes a long way to addressing concerns over the performance / reliability issues, is the role of the network. As applications become virtualised and are transferred at will between data centres, more and more cloud implementations will require lower latency to continue to function. One method of solving this problem will be to use faster, more reliable networks which in turn help customers address questions around service levels. After all, how can any cloud service level agreement (SLA) be worth anything if the performance and availability of the network is not an integral part of it?…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

A survey of information technology (IT) decision makers around the globe found that the shift to cloud computing is driven primarily by a desire to connect employees through the multitude of computing devices in use today. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, 33 percent of survey respondents cited accessibility to information through multiple devices as the most important reason for their decision to adopt cloud computing.

Rounding out the top motivating factors of cloud adoption within the enterprise were accelerating the speed of business, which was the choice of 21 percent of respondents, and cutting costs, with 17 percent citing it as most important. In the United States, the trend among small businesses was even more pronounced, as nearly half, or 46 percent, of small businesses cited information access through a multitude of devices as the most important reason for adopting the cloud, while 10 percent of small businesses cited cutting costs…

Grazed from Cloud Ventures.  Author: Neil Mcevoy.

One of the most powerful areas for Cloud Computing is where you can harness key technologies like Identity, cost effectively and in a manner that provides real benefits quickly.

For example if you are the HR Manager for an organization then social networks like Linkedin are a great source of talent, so advertising there may be one step you take.

If you want to increase the response rates you enjoy from these adverts one technology you can use is ‘Cloud Logins’. This means that your HR application, where you capture the candidate’s resume, can be connected to Linkedin so that they don’t to repeat the sign-on process to your site too when they make the application…

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author:   Bob Violino.

Most experts agree: The cloud is moving past the hype stage and starting to deliver tangible benefits, primarily increased flexibility and agility.

But moving to the cloud can also mean added costs, some of which are unexpected, according to IT executives whose organizations have implemented or are considering cloud services.

While these costs wouldn’t necessarily prevent companies from getting real business value out of cloud computing, they could have an impact on the overall cost-benefit analysis of cloud services…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Insight Enterprises, Inc., a leading global provider of technology solutions, has exceeded a significant milestone in the emerging area of cloud computing, having now sold more than 1 million seats in various cloud offerings. Insight offers a collection of Cloud solutions including messaging, security, infrastructure and collaboration.

"Industry trends continue to point to cloud adoption as part of the overall IT strategy for businesses. We anticipate this shift will accelerate growth in all client segments including public, private and hybrid clouds, as clients migrate their selected workloads away from traditional on-premise IT infrastructure and into the cloud," said Ken Lamneck, Insight President and CEO…

Grazed from CIO.  Author: Christine Burns.

If you think cloud computing is a disruptive force within the enterprise, just imagine what the cloud is doing to the vendor landscape.

The sheer number of cloud players – or companies that claim to be cloud players — is staggering. By some estimates there are more than 2,000 software as a service (SaaS) companies alone. At this early point in the cloud revolution, there are certainly front runners, but the field is wide open.

For example, the marquee SaaS player, Salesforce.com, owned a paltry 8.7% of the total SaaS market, according to a 2010 IDC report that tracked 84 vendors. Other big names –Intuit, Cisco, Microsoft, Google and Symantec – were all below 5% each. That leaves scores of other competitors with tiny market shares today, and no place to go but up…

There’s so much happening in the cloud computing area nowadays, and Windows Azure just seems like Microsoft’s version of Amazon Web Services. I notice that Azure is coined as “platform as a service”. Can you walk us through the differences?

Amazon Web Services are generally considered “infrastructure as a service”. Both Infrastructure and platform as a service are public cloud offerings to deliver computing resources. The difference lies in the level of abstraction provided by each…