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SMB Nation Wrap Up: Clouds Fill the Conference Hall

Grazed from Channel Pro. Author: Rich Freeman.

What a difference a year makes. Back in 2009, most attendees at the fall edition of SMB Nation, a semi-annual trade show for VARs and managed service providers, exhibited little interest in cloud computing. This year it was the dominant theme at the conference, held October 22nd through 24th in Las Vegas.

“We’re at the point where we’ve got to start figuring out the right places to use this technology,” said Dave Sobel, CEO of Evolve Technologies, an MSP and business IT consultancy in Fairfax, Va.

The Next Big Battle in the Cloud

Grazed from IT Business Edge. Author: Michael Vizard.

The price of raw storage in terms of the cost per terabyte keeps dropping. So it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to see application service providers such as Box.net announcing upgraded offerings that give an individual user access to up to 5GB of free storage, while giving business customers plans that start with a basic level of 500 GB of storage per user.

IBM Aims To Ease Partners’ Move To The Cloud

Grazed from CRN. Author: Joseph F. Kovar.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) this week launched its Cloud Computing Lab, a platform on which technology and channel partners can test different models for developing cloud computing products and explore potential technical and sales strategies.

The new Cloud Computing Lab, based in Hursley, U.K., gives partners access to the IBM Test Cloud from any of IBM’s 38 Innovation Centers worldwide, said Dave Mitchell, director of strategy and emerging business for IBM.

Cloud computing expansion planned by environmental services company

Grazed from Experian QAS. Author: Neil Hill.

The use of cloud computing offerings is proving to be a success at an environmental services company.

Mark Stone, chief information officer at Safety-Kleen Systems, explained that his organisation currently uses cloud computing technology in around 15 per cent of its applications, reports Computerworld New Zealand.

While this usage is currently confined to functions such as customer relationship management systems and travel management, the executive explained that the company is looking to increase its cloud usage.

Integration as a Cloud Pilot Project

Grazed from IT Business Edge. Author: Loraine Lawson.

It seems IT executives are still a bit skittish over moving their applications to the cloud, a hesitation based largely on lingering concerns about security and compliance concerns.

Smartly, they’re using small projects as a way to test the waters, according to a recent InfoWorld article. Interestingly enough, the “starter” project mentioned in the piece is hosted integration.

“Operationalizing” analytics: IBM’s new UK Cloud Computing Lab

Grazed from CWDN. Author: Adrian Bridgwater.

Spending a few days with IBM at the company’s Information on Demand conference comes with three guarantees: you’ll get a tightly run event (they’ve been doing this for a few years now after all); you’ll get plenty of news; and you’ll be hit with plenty of new Americanised terms such as the "templatizing" of business intelligence tools and the "operationalizing" of data analytics.

IBM Helps Resellers Serve the Midmarket

Grazed from ChannelPro SMB. Author: Cecilia Galvin and Jessica Mattison.

After an internal reorganization earlier this year, Andy Monshaw took the reins as IBM’s general manager of global midmarket business. This segment, says Monshaw, spends $156 billion on IT annually to run and grow their businesses. But that figure does not include PCs, printers, or other commodities; rather, it comprises “the core of IBM’s addressable market.” Monshaw talks about his plans to help resellers address this lucrative market.

ChannelPro-SMB: What are the requirements of midsize customers, and how should your partners address them?