ZeroStack, pioneering the cloud-managed datacenter delivering agility without complexity, today announced that its Cloud Platform can break industry dependence on VMware ESX by offering one-click workload porting from ESX to ZeroStack. ZeroStack is now the only company to offer bi-directional application portability across hypervisors, and to integrate with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and VMware vSphere.

Companies are balking at the idea of single-vendor lock-in for cloud infrastructure, but they have such large investments in ESX and related tools that they feel trapped. ZeroStack unpacks workloads from ESX and migrates them to its Cloud Platform with one click, giving customers access to KVM-based tools as well as OpenStack APIs.

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Brandon Butler.

At 105 years old, IBM has been through more than a few major technology transformations. Arguably, none is bigger than the current retooling of the company around cloud computing – an effort overseen by Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president, IBM Cloud. LeBlanc says IT leaders and business executives aren’t caught up in Wall Street’s worries over IBM’s revenue declines or the pace of the cloud transformation.

Instead, they’re focusing on the higher-value capabilities – like Watson cognitive computing or internet of things functions – IBM is layering atop what LeBlanc calls the ‘phase one’ cloud that will help them transform their own businesses. In an interview with Network World Senior Editor Brandon Butler and IDG Chief Content Officer John Gallant, LeBlanc talked about how IBM is tailoring its cloud services to specific vertical industries and what Big Blue is doing to enhance its Platform- and Infrastructure-as-a-Service capabilities…

Read more from the source @ http://www.networkworld.com/article/3118105/cloud-computing/ibm-cloud-chief-the-next-phase-of-cloud-is-a-race-to-add-value.html

Grazed from DeccanChronicle. Author: Vishnu Anand.

Companies like SAP, IBM, HP and Oracle have been ruling the enterprise software business worldwide. But India is sending them back to school to learn how to do business in a country where they tail wags the dog — where the opportunity lies with thousands of small and medium businesses (SMBs), rather than with a handful of big-name marquee clients.

The late management guru, C.K. Prahlad called it ‘the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’ — and at least one software biggie — SAP– has had to adjust its India strategy, to come up with models where small businesses can work through its channel of partners rather than with the German parent…

Dell Technologies will initially employ ~140,000 workers, making it the largest privately controlled technology company by the numbers according to Tom Sweet, Dell Technologies’ CFO.

The new company also underscores a shift toward IT industry consolidation as leading players in servers like Dell and storage leaders like EMC search for synergies in order to meet enterprise demand for hybrid cloud and cloud-native offerings.

Continuum^®, the only channel-exclusive IT management platform company, announced that cloud services provider dinCloud selected its R1Soft^® Server Backup Manager (SBM) to provide continuous data protection services as part of its dinBackup solution for more resilient workspaces for existing and new clients. dinBackup provides backup and snapshot capabilities as a self-service to clients who choose to self-manage or work with channel partners to manage backups. The service runs in a hosted private cloud for each customer, powered by dinCloud. R1Soft SBM is the leading commercial backup software, deployed by more than 1,800 web hosting providers, protecting nearly 250,000 servers worldwide.

Grazed from PCWorld. Author: John Ribeiro.

Oracle will acquire LogFire, a provider of cloud-based warehouse management applications, with the aim of boosting the features of its supply chain management cloud offering. The Redwood Shores, California, software and cloud giant expects that the addition of the LogFire applications will complement the logistics functionality of its Oracle Supply Chain Management (SCM) Cloud by adding warehouse management capabilities.

The financial terms of the proposed acquisition of the Atlanta, Georgia, firm were not disclosed. The management and employees of LogFire, which was started in 2007, will join the Oracle SCM Cloud team. Oracle has been making acquisitions of cloud computing companies to shore up its applications for various industries…

Grazed from CloudExpo. Author: Mike Azevedo.

Companies are migrating infrastructure to the cloud in order to achieve advantages and agility that they need to remain competitive. However, they may have difficulty achieving one extremely important benefit of cloud computing as they attempt to run their MySQL databases in the cloud – scalability in true utility fashion.

Similar to the power utilities we are all familiar with, this entails the ability to get what you need, when you need it and pay for only what you use, even during peak demand. Why switch to the cloud if databases like MySQL limit scalability and performance? It’s very simple: the advantages of shedding the headaches of managing one’s own machines and reducing operating and capital expenditures are still too great to ignore…

Grazed from DailyReportOnline. Author: Michelle Tyde.

Cloud computing services (the outsourcing of information technology services via the internet) continue to evolve rapidly in the technology industry due to greater flexibility and economy. According to the research analyst Gartner, the use of cloud computing will become the bulk of new IT spend this year.

Providers are able to offer low-cost, flexible solutions because they standardize their offerings for multiple customers. Customers benefit from the cost savings, flexibility and scalability of the services. The downside to cloud services are that providers are less likely than traditional outsourcing providers to adapt their solutions to a customer’s needs or negotiate contract terms…