Grazed from CBROnline. Author: Hannah Williams.

Cloud is most definitely in fashion when it comes to business tech, but researchers are currently exploring ways in which to literally embed cloud into fashion. US Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are looking into developing a fully functioning, lightweight cloud computing system embedded into clothing – meaning a wearable personal cloud could soon become the ultimate accessory.

Rajib Hasan, assistant professor of computer and information sciences in the UAB college of Arts and Sciences, and Rasib Khan, a recent postdoctoral graduate student, presented their wearable cloud jacket at the 40th institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society International Conference on Computers, Softwares and Applications (IEEE COMPSAC) in June…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Andrew Froelich.

The rise of cloud computing has been a game-changer for not only businesses, but also IT pros looking to stay relevant. Here are 9 must-have skills in different aspects of cloud technologies needed to compete. Cloud computing is a huge part of IT, and its growth shows no sign of slowing down.

As an IT professional, it makes sense to start looking into obtaining skills in different aspects of cloud technologies to further your career. Here, we’ve identified 9 of those skills. Keep in mind, we’re not suggesting that all IT pros are going to be working for a service provider one day. In reality, most will end up on the customer end of the cloud relationship…

Grazed form PSFK. Author: Leo Lutero.

In the London Olympics of 2012, the US Cycling Women’s trio was 5.676 seconds shy of snatching the gold from the Great Britain contenders (who broke the world record). This year, the US team is leaving nothing to chance by upgrading their tools, using the best technology available in the cloud computing space.

IBM helped develop a groundbreaking analytics system that pairs environmental and rider data. Sensors developed by Stages captures cyclist data 64 times a second. The power required to make sense of this plus many other data inputs rely on the cloud. Through the IBM Watson Internet of Things Platform, coaches can track athlete power watts, lap timing, new muscle oxygenation and matched burned results in real time…

Read more from the source @ http://www.psfk.com/2016/08/olympics-how-cloud-computing-helps-the-us-cycling-team.html

Grazed from CIOReview. Author: Editorial Staff.

Focusing on the credibility and sophistication of today’s cloud offerings, companies often look to strike a deal with the most comprehensive cloud service provider through Service Level Agreements (SLAs). As outputbased contracts, an SLA specifically defines what the customer will receive and not how the service itself is delivered, as it chalks out the services delivered by a cloud provider to fulfill the requirements of their customers.

As Gartner expertly states, an institution considering cloud computing must understand the detailed terms and conditions and the risks of signing the service provider’s standard contract before moving to a cloud computing solution. Most significantly, cloud customers should closely evaluate application workflow in cloud SLAs. This allows them to determine application response time and identify the resources that support the applications…

Grazed from ForbesIndia. Author: Harichandan Arakali.

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), has visited India over a dozen times by his own reckoning. His visits, though, are not as sonorous as his boss Jeff Bezos’s. Recall how the founder and CEO of ecommerce behemoth Amazon Inc had put on a shiny bandhgala and posed for photographs, which went viral on social media, leaning out of a truck’s cabin in Bengaluru in September 2014.

Despite Jassy’s lower-pitched demeanour—he prefers a simple business suit and uses a BlackBerry Classic—he has been garnering customer after customer in the country for AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing unit, which has achieved a revenue run rate of $10 billion (around Rs 67,000 crore) globally. The unit, set up in 2006, currently garners about 15 percent of Seattle-based Amazon’s overall revenues but nearly half the company’s operating income…

Read more from the source @ http://forbesindia.com/article/work-in-progress/the-man-who-put-amazon-on-cloud-nine/44009/1#ixzz4GwMM3vOt

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Joe McKendrick.

A recent survey of IT leaders finds most acknowledge that hybrid cloud computing is the way to go. However, most are also still trying to understand what it all means. Such is the result of a study of 1,050 IT executives by The Hybrid Hive, a news site sponsored by Fujitsu and several other partners.

Hybrid is already commonplace — two-fifths of respondents report they already have a hybrid IT environment in place, while 51% are open to it. Companies are spending almost a third of their total IT budgets on cloud, with 14% spending more than half of their budgets on this technology. Four-fifths (79%) of IT executives believe it is "inevitable" that the future of corporate IT infrastructure is hybrid, while 81% agree they will have to deploy a hybrid IT environment to meet the needs of their organizations…

Grazed from FTFNews. Author: Eugene Grygo.

Something interesting is underway as far as cloud computing and securities operations — the Amazon Web Services (AWS) offering has been quietly gaining ground after some initial resistance. I recall that the main concerns about using the AWS cloud revolved around compliance and security.

But Amazon zeroed in on the compliance and security demands and concerns of the securities industry by putting out a document that offers an overview of how AWS meets the regulatory requirements of the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE)…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Christopher Tozzi.

Mirantis wants to become the "one-stop shop" for users of OpenStack on enterprise Linux. The company this week announced a new partnership with SUSE, adding another Linux option alongside its existing Red Hat and CentOS offerings. Mirantis is a major distributor of OpenStack, the open source platform for building cloud infrastructure on top of a Linux-based operating system.

Mirantis seeks to distinguish itself in the crowded OpenStack market by delivering what it calls a "pure-play" OpenStack distribution, allowing users to deploy any type of Linux platform in conjunction with OpenStack. While Mirantis can support any Linux distribution, it has now forged closer ties with SUSE, which develops SUSE Linux Enterprise Server…

"We are delighted to again be mentioned by Gartner among DaaS vendors. Our just released concurrent pricing model, also highlighted in the report, offers customers flexibility regardless of company size. With the increased demand for enterprise BYOD, The Sixth Flag offers an attractive alternative to furnishing end users with costly hardware. BYOD and complementary solutions like The Sixth Flag not only reduce hardware costs but also full lifecycle management, including asset tracking and recovery," said Pete Kofod, Founder of The Sixth Flag, Inc.

Fugue, Inc. announced today the availability of its cloud-native solution for fully automating the deployment, operations and enforcement of cloud infrastructure at scale. 

Enterprises are moving to the cloud to increase competitiveness and efficiency. However, complexity explodes in the cloud, and achieving those goals is challenging, as most DevOps teams today are forced to manually stitch together disparate tool sets. Fugue tackles this complexity with a cohesive system that allows DevOps professionals to define infrastructure upfront, leverage a runtime component to ensure that all cloud resources remain consistent with that definition, and automatically correct configuration drift. Furthermore, Fugue eliminates wasteful and error-prone cloud maintenance burdens that slow innovation and increase compliance and security risks. As the technological gateway that unlocks the power of the cloud, Fugue helps businesses achieve digital transformation and competitive advantage goals.