"We have partnered with Hive-IO because the utility fabric enables us to deliver high performance and scalable desktops and infrastructure that is world class.   This is the same technology used by large financial institutions and H.A. Services can now deliver this same level of performance to its customers of all sizes." — John Gallagher, Director of Business Development, H.A. Services

Qubole will use this funding to expand the availability of Qubole Data Service (QDS), a self-service platform for big data analytics, and to integrate new data engines so customers can choose the right tool for their data analytics needs. Qubole has seen great traction in a number of industries, with customers including Datalogix (Oracle), BloomReach, Pinterest, TubeMogul and Fanatics. The company plans to target several new verticals, including Internet of Things (IoT), life sciences and retail. Additionally, the company will target larger enterprises that are accelerating their usage of the cloud. It will also expand its customer acquisition efforts in the APAC and EU regions.

Grazed from MarketWatch. Author: Robert McMillan.

The recent market selloff is pummeling the business-technology sector, but it may come with a silver lining for its top players: an opportunity to buy cash-poor upstarts that have been eating away at their business. Enterprise-technology giants like International Business Machines Corp. IBM, +1.16% , Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO, +1.92% and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. HPE, +5.00% have all seen their market value shrink by at least 9% in the past month — underperforming the S&P 500 index, which fell 7% over the same period.

Some younger firms have fared much worse. Box Inc. BOX, +5.49% a seller of Internet-based data storage, has dropped by 26%. Workday Inc. WDAY, +2.38% which sells online access to accounting and human resources software, lost 13%. The market capitalization of Hortonworks HDP, +8.54% , which makes data-analytics software, has plummeted by half…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Kristin Knapp.

Hoping to reap benefits such as greater flexibility, cost-efficiency and scale, organizations of all sizes are migrating applications to the cloud – but many times, they can’t go at it alone. Fortunately, there are a range of cloud provider and third-party tools designed to help organizations migrate applications to the cloud, and then manage and optimize those apps post-migration. In some cases, these tools also help organizations track their cloud computing resources, costs and performance.

For many IT pros, cloud migration tools are a saving grace – and it seems more organizations are choosing to adopt them. According to research group IDC, the worldwide cloud systems management software market is expected to exceed $8 billion by 2019. Tools for cloud performance and event management — including those that provide monitoring and resource optimization capabilities — represent the fastest-growing segment of that market…

Read more from the source @ http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/feature/Decisions-decisions-Choosing-a-cloud-migration-tool

Grazed from ITProPortal. Author: Barclay Ballard.

Despite being launched more than five years ago and being supported by high-profile businesses of the likes of IBM, Intel, Yahoo, CERN, Disney, and hundreds of others, OpenStack is not particularly well known in business circles. This is largely because OpenStack is a cloud operating system that works behind the scenes delivering the infrastructure that organisations need to work effectively.

Speed and simplicity are its two main attributes, and since launching the OpenStack project has created thousands of jobs and benefitted countless organisations. With cloud computing continuing to grow in popularity all over the world, it’s vitally important that businesses have a strong understanding of what OpenStack can deliver…

Read more from the source @ http://www.itproportal.com/2016/01/21/openstack-what-businesses-need-to-know/#ixzz3xv4C0SFL

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Chris Preimesberger.

Yes, we know: The window of opportunity—mid-December to mid-January—is closing for IT publications to publish interesting and/or thought-provoking predictions for the year ahead. We at eWEEK have published during the last several weeks a number of articles and slide shows that look back at last year and ahead to what 2016 will bring, talking about the different sectors of IT and even looking at prospects for the more distant future.

They always seem to spur imaginations. However, looking through our substantial bank of submissions, we found that there are still a few compelling ones that didn’t make it into print earlier and that are thought-provoking enough to use here. Topic areas that seem to be consistent among predictors for 2016 are security issues (always), the rise of the Internet of things (IoT), the rapid increase in the deployment of container-based systems and the continued skyrocketing amount of data in general. Contributors to this eWEEK slide show include thought leaders from several industry sectors…

Read more from the source @ http://www.eweek.com/it-management/slideshows/what-to-expect-from-iot-cloud-containers-other-tech-sectors-in-2016.html

Grazed from BCM. Author: Editorial Staff.

Alibaba Cloud Computing (Alicloud) is to launch 20 new online services to the Chinese market under the brand name Big Data Platform. The new application service range caters for activities in the data development chain, including processing, analysis, computing, machine learning and big data hosting. Around 1,000 developers are expected to be developing services with AliCloud in the next three years.

The plan is to use all the data-processing capacity and data-security skills that the Alibaba Group has accumulated in ten years of running the world’s biggest ecommerce platform, AliCloud president Simon Hu told reporters at the launch. “That data becomes a resource and a service that we can provide our clients,” said Hu…

Grazed from BidnessEtc. Author: Editorial Staff.

Alibaba’s cloud computing unit, AliCloud, is gearing up to launch a new suite of big data solution and analytics widely accessible in China. The e-commerce powerhouse is also planning to work with NVIDIA to initiate an internet based high graphics processing service in China. Formerly known as Aliyun, the cloud services arm serves the company’s websites and external clients which includes small enterprises working in China and businesses abroad.

AliCloud’s recently launched big data platform provides data solutions that cover all aspects of data development, including information processing, computation and machine learning. In addition, Alibaba Group Holding Inc (NYSE:BABA) plans to leverage its expertise in big data platforms by enlisting almost a thousand data developers who will provide these solutions to customers…

Grazed from Fortune. Author: Barb Darrow.

Peter Magnusson wants to make one thing clear: Amazon Web Services, in his opinion, does not define enterprise cloud computing. In fact, if Magnusson, senior vice president of cloud development for Oracle ORCL 1.03% , is worried about any rival cloud provider, it is Microsoft MSFT 1.14% , he told Fortune in an interview after an Oracle CloudWorld event in New York on Wednesday.

Those words might surprise companies like Comcast CMCSA 1.36% , General Electric GE 2.43% , and Capital One bank, which are all big AWS customers. But then again they’re likely big Oracle and Microsoft customers as well. And Oracle, as we keep hearing, is getting into the cloud computing, including public cloud, big time. Critics say it’s late to this game. Defenders would say cloud adoption remains in its early stages…

Read more from the source @ http://fortune.com/2016/01/20/oracle-exec-says-aws-not-enterprise-ready/