Grazed from ElectronicDesign. Author: James Morra.

Over the last year, computer companies have been diving deeper into cloud computing, with Hewlett Packard making the controversial decision to spin out its information technology business, and Dell buying data storage company EMC. The widespread use of cloud computing is not only making for more competition, but also leading to new advances in servers that process data from the cloud.

Now, researchers have built a transceiver that could speed up data transfers between optical modules and semiconductor chips used in servers and switches. Built by Fujitsu Laboratories and system-on-chip designer Socionext, the transceiver can transmit data at 56 Gbits/s per channel—twice the speed of current transceiver standards…

Read more from the source @ http://electronicdesign.com/communications/new-transceiver-speeds-data-transfers-cloud-computing

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Jimmy Chang.

IT is challenged by the line of business to deliver a competitive edge to compete in a global market. Securely delivering apps and data to any device is a core IT workflow to enable productivity. However, if you are like most companies, your IT budget is not growing at the same pace as demand for IT services. To be more agile, the current paradigm around app delivery needs to be turned upside down. IT needs to cut the cord.

IT’s evolution: From plow horse to racehorse

IT and the work world have come a long way. Remember the days when the IT department issued you a standard black PC and employees worked at desks? Back then, IT was focused on analysing available IT solutions and then executing multiyear plans. It was common for IT to be working on multi-year programs for SharePoint, ERP, and CRM systems…

Grazed from TelecomPaper. Author: Editorial Staff.

Bell Business Markets and IBM entered into a new partnership for the Canadian market to expand the cloud computing services available through Bell Business Cloud. This partnership will give businesses across Canada access to the IBM Cloud via a private connection from Bell. Bell Business Cloud enables enterprises to plug into the IBM Cloud, giving them direct access to a wide range of on-demand computing and storage options.

These new services include Bell Cloud Connect, Bell Cloud Compute and Backup & Restore. Bell’s Business Cloud in partnership with IBM is available across the country to all mid and large businesses.

Read more from the source @ http://www.telecompaper.com/news/bell-ibm-enter-cloud-computing-partnership-for-canada–1127017

Docker has launched the latest version of its containerization platform, and with it, placed a heavy emphasis on security updates.  The latest release of Docker Engine has now reached version 1.10 (that’s one incremental number above 1.09, so as not to be confused with a 1.1 release).

The new additions help answer one of the main objections raised by some of the early critics of the technology — solving security challenges.

Up until this release, Docker containers have had to run as root under the Docker daemon, bringing with it a host of security concerns.  The security solution in Docker 1.10 is a new feature called "user namespaces," a concept that was originally introduced as an experimental feature in Docker version 1.9.  User namespaces expands on the idea of granular access policies by allowing multiple namespaces to reside on the same Docker host.

In a recent survey conducted by Kaseya, more than 400 MSPs revealed that the greatest areas of MSP services revenue growth in 2015 were backup and recovery, remote monitoring, and cloud services, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). Respondents expect these service pricing plans to rise again substantially in 2016. Leveraging the powerful combination of CloudCheckr and Unitrends Boomerang, a virtual appliance enabling users to simply and affordably move virtual machines (VMs) from VMware to AWS, MSPs can take full advantage of these offerings without increasing overhead expenses.

Avaya, a global leader in business communications software, systems and services, today announced its first complete, multichannel unified communications and contact center cloud offers targeted for the midmarket. Avaya Midmarket Cloud solutions are two flexible deployment options, enabling Avaya channel partners to seamlessly evolve midsize companies to the advanced capabilities needed for digital business. Both options, Powered by Avaya IP Office™ and OnAvaya™ – Google™ Cloud Platform, can enable true, hybrid clouds that allow customers to maximize their investments in more than 1 million Avaya systems worldwide.

Based on the world-class, Avaya IP Office™ Platform, Avaya Midmarket Cloud Solutions are the only unified communications and contact center cloud offers for midsize businesses in the market that utilize the same code base as those installed on premises. The benefits of a single code base for deploying hybrid clouds cannot be understated:

Grazed from TechnologyReview. Author: Editorial Staff.

The airy Berkeley office space of startup Rigetti Computing boasts three refrigerators–but only one of them stores food. The other two use liquid helium to cool experimental computer chips to a fraction of a degree from absolute zero. The two-year-old company is trying to build the hardware needed to power a quantum computer, which could trounce any conventional machine by tapping into quantum mechanics.

The company aims to produce a prototype chip by the end of 2017 that is significantly more complex than those built by other groups working on fully programmable quantum computers. The following generation of chips should be able to accelerate some kinds of machine learning and run highly accurate chemistry simulations that might unlock new kinds of industrial processes, says Chad Rigetti, the startup’s founder and CEO…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Larry Dignan.

The cloud needs to become more transparent especially since the industry is scaling to dominate enterprise technology. In a recent research note, Gartner argued that the revenue claims of cloud vendors are increasingly hard to digest. Gartner said enterprises shouldn’t take vendor cloud revenue claims at face value and evaluate them based on strategy and services (naturally using tools from the research firm).

A week ago, I argued that Google should provide some kind of cloud run rate just so customers can get a feel for scale and how it compares to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Azure and IBM. Oh well. Unlike Gartner, I think the revenue figures matter somewhat, but are far from the deciding factor…

 Grazed from ManilaTimes.  Author: KIM BERNARDO-LOKIN.

“From white hat to Red Hat,” was the joke a senior executive of Red Hat quipped to Alessandro Perilli, after hearing excerpts from The Manila Times interview with him, to which Perilli answered back with a wink, and a seemingly knowing smile.

In the vast world of technology, a “white hat” is an internet slang, which refers to an ethical computer hacker or a computer security expert who hacks with the intention of improving security systems.  Perilli is currently the general manager for Cloud Management Strategy for Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions. The technology company recently hosted a full-house Red Hat Forum Asia Pacific in Manila, where key senior executives were in attendance…

Grazed from TechTimes.  Author: Horia Ungureanu.

IBM told the media that it is expanding its portfolio of Cloud Data Services with more than 25 services, and all can be accessed on the IBM Cloud.  At least two IT groups will benefit from the new services. Coders will be able to craft, deploy and manage apps for mobile gadgets and Web services, while marketing specialists can look at hidden trends in the online environment by consulting data analytics in the cloud.