Grazed from Wall Street Journal.  Author: Jack Hough.

For a way to invest in "cloud computing" without paying a stratospheric price, take a cue from Wall Street’s newest tech enthusiast: Warren Buffett.

Mr. Buffett, who has long avoided computing stocks while favoring railroads, soft drinks and insurance, announced this week that his Berkshire Hathaway has amassed a $10.7 billion stake in International Business Machines, making it the second-largest shareholder.

Last year, the century-old tech giant announced a goal to boost yearly cloud-computing revenues by $3 billion by 2015, to $7 billion. That is a sliver relative to its current total revenues of $106 billion, but it is an important source of growth…

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Stephen Bell.

New Zealand could be leading most of the world in the evolution of a code of practice for cloud computing.

Looking around the world, says project coordinator Joy Cottle, it appears there is only one fully-fledged code, in the UK. The US National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) has developed terms of reference towards a code, a process that took two-and-a-half years. New Zealand’s code, scheduled to be issued in version 1.0 by the end of March next year, could well arrive before the NIST code is finalised, Cottle told a consultation meeting in Wellington. There is interest in the New Zealand code of practice effort from Australian parties with a stake in the cloud…

Grazed from SFGate.  Author: PR Announcement.

CloudAccess, the leading provider of cloud-based security solutions and services, received a coveted Golden Bridge Award for Innovation in Technology at the 3rd Annual Golden Bridge Awards ceremony in New York. The award for best cloud security solution was presented to CloudAccess for its SingleSource platform.

Cloud Access has been an innovator in developing high-performance security solutions that make cloud computing viable for organizations with critical operational, compliance and regulatory issues. Its robust SingleSource platform offers organizations an array of cost-effective solutions to meet their unique security needs, including: software as a service (SaaS) applications, identity management, log management, security information and event management and single sign on (SSO) web security solutions. CloudAccess provides enterprise security in a SaaS application for amazing dependability, scalability and affordability. Each component of the SingleSource platform can be configured to meet the specific business requirements of an organization…

Grazed from PR Wire.  Author:  PR Announcement.

Finding a Cloud service to keep all your files safe, secure and internet accessible whether it’s for your personal use or to manage your business content online, just got a lot easier. Cloud computing has been around for more than a decade and is becoming widely adopted as individual consumers and businesses are realizing the benefits the cloud presents. There has been an unprecedented increase in the availability and quantity of data users require to store and the search is on to find providers with the best features at the right price for comparison and review.

For home use, instant, automatic protection for photos, music, and digital files while having information accessible wherever you are is a priority. Executives looking to increase their agility and to manage organizational complexity are finding that with Cloud computing they have a valuable tool that forms the core of a new business process that is capable of radically improving performance…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Radiant Technologies today announces their achievement of the newly created Microsoft Dynamics Cloud Partner certification. As a cloud partner, Radiant Technologies provides customers the power to choose how they deploy Microsoft Dynamics, whether in the Cloud via SaaS, or on-premises.

Due to high demand, rapid globalization, and intense competition, Microsoft developed a solution to reduce IT costs, minimize staffing expenses, lower expenditures, and increase flexibility. This solution is the existing, proven Microsoft Dynamics product line, now available as a Cloud Computing solution with a hosted server model. Radiant Technologies also has recently introduced a cloud industry website: Microsoft Dynamics in the Cloud…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author:  Darryl K. Taft.

Oracle announced a new version of its Java application server, Oracle WebLogic Server, 12c, which enables enterprises to better integrate cloud computing into their IT mix.

As the center piece of Oracle’s Cloud Application Foundation, and a core part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware product family, Oracle WebLogic Server continues to deliver innovative capabilities for building, deploying and running Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) applications. It also features enhancements to help customers and partners lower their total cost of ownership and derive more value from their current application infrastructure, while accelerating the development cycle and reducing time to market for their applications…

 

Grazed from Reuters.  Author:  Michael Shields.

Germany’s SAP announced a $3.4 billion cash deal to buy U.S. web-based software company SuccessFactors, joining the scramble among technology firms to offer cloud-computing services to businesses.

SAP said on Saturday it would pay $40 per share for SuccessFactors, a premium of 52 percent over both its Friday closing price and the one-month volume-weighted average price, making it expensive for any rival bidder that might want to put in a counter bid.

SuccessFactors, which first went public at $10 a share four years ago, makes human resources software used by companies to review employee performance, It competes with Taleo Corp and Kenexa Corp…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Brady Reiter.

With cloud computing adoption and growth well established, more cloud vendors are entering the market and differentiating themselves by providing specialized services that focus on specific customers, geographies, applications or service models. Cloud services focused on optimizing business-critical applications make sense for enterprise customers looking for high-performance, highly available infrastructures.

But as a cloud customer, how do you know if your managed cloud provider truly has a specialized touch when it comes to optimizing, for example, BI applications from Oracle or ERP solutions from Microsoft?

Generic cloud infrastructure is insufficient for the demands of business-critical applications. IT executives seeking the efficiencies of cloud computing for critical enterprise applications need to evaluate the overall application expertise of their cloud infrastructure providers and assess their application expertise and their ability and flexibility to optimize their cloud infrastructure for business-critical applications. Application optimization needs to be addressed across the entire technology stack, from the physical hardware to the service delivery architecture to the application…

Grazed from USNews and World Report.  Author: Michael Morella.

With the launch of Apple’s iCloud system in October, many consumers got their first clear glimpse of the future of computing. Giving users the ability to store their music, photos, and data online and call it up on any of their computers or mobile devices, iCloud has all the benefits of a hard drive without any of the bulk. In recent years, more and more businesses have been embracing so-called cloud computing, and many market analysts and technophiles forecast that the concept will revolutionize the way companies and consumers use technology (and make a lot of money for some firms and investors along the way).

In essence, cloud computing means doing business over the Web rather than keeping it on location. That might mean that one company pays another for use of its servers, or to store digital information at an off-site data center, or to control and maintain its software instead of having the expense of an in-house IT department. The idea is that computing "be made available to people anywhere, anytime, like electricity or utilities," says Venky Ganesan, managing director of Globespan Capital Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in a range of technologies…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Maureen O’Gara.

Back in the olden days, when cloud was still a young thing and not everybody’s middle name, back before the Apotheker distractions and false trails, and before HP, in catch-up mode, started indiscriminately trying to be all things cloud to everybody, it simply wanted to sell its widgetry into the cloud.

That still seemed to be the key takeaway from the jumble of programs and widgetry it announced in Vienna on Wednesday where at least part of its message was a come-on to service providers and resellers.

It wants service providers using its stuff in public, private and hybrid deployments and is willing to educate third parties, even college kids, to help. Only the message gets watered down because HP talks in the same breath about enterprises and government like maybe they’re direct accounts and although it seemed to want to focus on hybrid clouds it couldn’t help throwing in public and private clouds too to make sure it’s touched all the bases…