Grazed from MotleyFool. Author: Editorial Staff.

The evolution of the server market over the past few years has not been kind to International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM). While the company’s mainframe systems remain entrenched, its Power servers have been losing share to x86-based systems for quite some time. Cloud companies have been building massive, hyperscale data centers, often designing custom systems around chips from Intel. This is where much of the growth in the server industry is occurring, and IBM has completely missed the boat.

IBM recognized this problem a few years ago, and in 2013, the company founded the OpenPOWER foundation along with a handful of other member companies. The goal of the OpenPOWER foundation is to build an ecosystem around IBM’s POWER architecture, with technology being contributed from all of the foundation’s members…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Alan R. Earls.

There’s something comforting about the concept of a cloud service-level agreement. There it is in black and white: a cloud provider’s promise to keep your applications up and running — almost all the time. But while a cloud service-level agreement may be an indispensable component for securing cloud services, it’s rarely as airtight as it looks.

In fact, according to experts, users need to be aware of both service-level agreement best practices, as well as a host of potential problems. One of the biggest issues with cloud computing SLAs is that they haven’t yet evolved into an industry standard, said Michael S. Mensik, partner at Baker & McKenzie LLP, a Chicago-based law firm, citing a the firm’s recent survey on cloud computing and SLAs…

Grazed from TechCrunch. Author: Ron Miller.

Accenture, the worldwide consulting company, announced today it was buying Cloud Sherpas, a firm that specializes in helping companies incorporate cloud services like Salesforce.com, Google and ServiceNow into the enterprise. Accenture did not disclose the purchase price.

It’s not a coincidence that this announcement came as Dreamforce, the enormous Salesforce.com customer conference, is taking place in San Francisco this week. The acquisition actually has a lot do with Salesforce consulting services.Accenture already has a team of more than 2700 consultants devoted to helping with Salesforce integration. They will be adding 500 additional Salesforce experts with the Cloud Sherpas deal…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

Mobile devices grow only more capable and computerlike in their abilities — the iPad Pro announced last week by Apple is a great example of that trend. Yet many mobile developers look to pair public cloud services with mobile devices, offloading the workloads to back-end servers.

That does not seem quite right, given the impressive processing and storage power of mobile devices. If processing occurs on back-end cloud servers, you must have connectivity to that cloud, and information must be transmitted back and forth to the device. For some mobile applications that share data, back-end storage is a requirement…

Grazed from LifeHacker. Author: Spandas Lui.

There was once a time when IT vendors shunned the idea of open source. Why wouldn’t they? The idea of sharing their very own programming innovations with others was viewed as detrimental to any competitive business. But nearly 20 years on, open source is now in vogue and has been embraced by some of the biggest IT vendors and their clients. So what changed? We find out.

The popularity of open source, believe it or not, has little to do with cost. Yes, the free nature of open source means that vendors can acquire and build upon those codes at a lower cost but, first and foremost, it’s about consistency. Open source allow vendors to develop different software and platforms that are compatible with each other…

Grazed from TopTechNews. Author: Jennifer LeClaire.

In a move that may turn the heads of IT admins, VCE just expanded its hyper-converged Rackscale family. The VCE VxRACK system promises to help IT quickly and cost-effectively build and operate clouds that tap into the benefits of VMware’s Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) offerings.

One of the key attractions VCE VxRack will offer IT is choice. With its new system, VCE shows it understands that workloads have different requirements and customer Relevant Products/Services environments vary. VxRack Systems give IT admins more options and the ability to map systems to specific app environments…

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: John S. Webster.

If you listen to the hype surrounding OpenStack, it’s nothing less than a panacea offering fast, relatively easy, cost-efficient tools for deploying enterprise apps as cloud services. Some analysts are far less bullish, arguing that building a private cloud with OpenStack is a daunting task. We interviewed OpenStack trailblazers from large enterprises like Walmart, Time Warner Cable, and PayPal.

They say OpenStack is ready for prime time deployment in the enterprise – as long as you understand the potential pitfalls and impediments. You need to have the right staff. You need to start small. And you need to be ready to handle potential issues in the areas of upgrades, scalability and ease of use…

Grazed from Business.com. Author: Rick Delgado.

Are you a cloud supporter or a cloud skeptic? That’s the divide many businesses are facing as cloud computing continues to gain in popularity. While cloud supporters maintain that it can provide numerous benefits for companies, cloud skeptics say it presents too many issues surrounding security and data ownership.

These issues are of particular concern for small businesses since they usually operate with limited budgets and resources. But what do real world results say about the effectiveness of using the cloud? Luckily, a new study has recently been released detailing how small businesses are using the cloud to great success. It shows that those who remain skeptical of the cloud might be missing out on some golden opportunities to expand their businesses and earn a lot more money…

Grazed from InsideHPC. Author: Editorial Staff.

Human lives could be at risk if we get the technology of cloud computing and big data wrong in applications such as driverless cars and personalized medicine, this year’s ISC Cloud and Big Data conference will be told. The conference is moving from the picturesque setting of Heidelberg to the more pragmatic Frankfurt Marriott Hotel, located directly across the street from the Frankfurt Messe Fairgrounds.

Whereas last year’s event offered separate conferences on cloud computing and on big data, this year’s conference, which takes place from 28 to 30 September, offers parallel tracks that recognize the tight relationship between the technology of cloud computing and the scientific and business challenges of big data…