Grazed from Datamation. Author: Editorial Staff.

Towards the middle of January, the Defense Information Systems Agency – a subdivision of the United States Department of Defense – released a new cloud computing security requirements guide, which we first heard talk of back in November. The primary purpose of this SRG is to make the process of acquiring commercial cloud services more efficient for DoD agencies (without undermining security, of course). Not surprisingly, this means that the SRG effectively renders obsolete the DoD’s original Cloud Security Model, under which only a few select vendors received authorization.

“In plain language, the new guide explains that components “remain responsible for determining what data and missions are hosted” by cloud service providers,” writes Frank Konkel of Nextgov. “Each use of cloud services will also require an enterprise IT business case analysis, with each analysis required to consider DISA-provided cloud services such as DISA’s milCloud offering.”…

Grazed from BizJournals. Author: Editorial Staff.

ProfitBricks opened an office in San Antonio last year expecting big things in the cloud computing industry. So far this year it has not been disappointed. “2015 is proving to be the year where cloud computing becomes the norm,” said William Toll, vice president of marketing for Boston-based ProfitBricks.

The company, which also has an office in Berlin, Germany, provides its clients with access to cloud servers, storage and networks using its own platform. The company uses a drag-and-drop data center design and management tool giving customers the ability to customize their cloud environment…

Grazed from TheRegister. Author: Chris Mellor.

Facebook’s Open Compute Project testing is sub-standard and doesn’t follow well-established industry procedures, according to The Register’s sources. The Open Compute Project (OCP) was formed in 2011 and involves the Facebook-initiated design of bare-bones computer equipment that can supposedly be built, installed and operated at a lower cost than branded servers. A product certification lab was opened at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) in January 2014. There is another lab at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan. UTSA said it would:

• Conduct OCP certification and deliver the certification logo
• Develop OCP certification quality assurance tools and methodologies
• Research, build and publish OCP-based cloud and Big Data reference architectures
• Support Open Compute events by providing educational opportunities…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Bob Violino.

Without proper analytics in place, many cloud services customers are wasting resources, struggling with compliance and suffering from outages and unexpected costs, according to a new study from Forrester Research. The study, sponsored by enterprise cloud hosting provider iLand, shows that all of the 275 IT decision makers and senior business executives surveyed in the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore said they’ve experienced at least one negative financial or operational impact due to missing or hidden metadata.

These negative business impacts include outages, wasted resources, unexpected costs and challenges reporting to management. “Companies aren’t just using the cloud—they depend on it,” the report says. “Nevertheless, cloud providers fail to keep cloud users happy. As companies expand their use of cloud services, they need to be confident that their cloud providers aren’t holding anything back, and are committed to their success.”…

Grazed from WSJ. Author: Lisa Beilfuss.

Cisco Systems Inc. on Tuesday announced a deal to buy privately held MaintenanceNet for $139 million, the latest acquisition for the network giant. Carlsbad, Calif.-based MaintenanceNet, which was founded in 2004, operates a cloud-based platform that uses data analytics to help automate sales processes.

The companies have partnered since 2009, whereby MaintenanceNet’s software alerts Cisco clients to service contracts that are coming up for renewal or overdue and enables automated quoting and online ordering. In a blog post, Cisco said MaintenanceNet will join its global customer success organization and called the ability to easily track and manage contracts “critical” as more information technology business models shift to a recurring revenue model for products and services…

Read more from the source @ http://www.wsj.com/articles/cisco-plans-to-buy-cloud-platform-maintenancenet-1436281361

Grazed from MSPMentor. Author: Dan Kobialka.

Amazon (AMZN) is providing Cloud Drive users with the ability to access files via smartphones and tablets. The technology giant this week launched Cloud Drive applications on iTunes, Google Play and the Amazon Appstore. So what do the new apps mean for managed service providers (MSPs)?

These apps offer a simplified folder list and a way to view and share files that could make it easier for sales representatives and service technicians to access files on the go, according to TechCrunch. The Cloud Drive apps allow users to view files stored with Amazon and navigate through directories, InformationWeek noted…

Grazed from TheRegister. Author: Editorial Staff.

From every angle, developers are the key to the public cloud. Unfortunately, today’s developers often aren’t up to the challenge and frequently end up being as much of a roadblock as operations administrators. New breeds of technologists are required, bringing new ways of thinking to using the emerging infrastructure superpowers of tomorrow.

Actually, I lie. What’s needed isn’t – for the most part – a particularly new way of thinking. It’s a rather old one, with a twist. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning, of the modern era of computing. This began with the introduction of the microcomputer. Suddenly (it took about 15 years) everyone had a computer on their desks. Servers held some centralised resources, but individual PCs could crunch away on things and nobody had to worry about time sharing on mainframes…

Grazed from CCI. Author: Editorial Staff.

Parallels, has announced the rebranding of its virtualisation and cloud service provider business unit. Effective from today, the company’s Service Provider business will operate as Odin while the cross-platform solutions unit will continue to operate as Parallels. From this week the new Odin brand will handle the businesses cloud hosting solutions which currently powers a wide range of businesses from small and local hosters to some of the world’s largest telecommunications providers.

The brand will service and support more than 10,000 service providers in delivering applications and cloud services to more than 10 million SMBs from 15 countries. The Odin business will provide consultancy, a catalogue of cloud applications (Plesk, Plesk Automation, and Virtuozzo), and a selection of software including web business builder, server virtualisation, provisioning, and billing automation…

Read more from the source @ http://cloudcomputingintelligence.com/item/2239-parallels-renames-service-provider-business-unit-odin

Grazed from FoundersWorkbench. Author: Gerry Stegmaier.

Having recently examined scalability as a key motivation to founders’ use of cloud computing funding, we will now take a look at the various legal issues that may arise from cloud computing-based transactions. The implementation of cloud computing infrastructure implicates several issues inherent to the technology – most notably data control and regulatory compliance.

The simple act of contracting with a cloud computing service provider, for example, requires a company to delegate significant control over its data and computing infrastructure to that service provider. Because the purchasing company likely continues to have responsibility for that core business data, ensuring that the cloud relationship addresses this responsibility remains an important operational consideration…

Grazed from TheVarGuy. Author: Charlene OHanion.

One of the topics I often find myself discussing with both vendors and partners is cloud services. To be more specific, the role cloud services should play in channel partners’ business models. And with every conversation, one thread keeps popping out: Channel partners should embrace cloud services, but shouldn’t expect to make the transition overnight.

In other words, make it an evolutionary event, not a revolutionary event. Two conversations I had last week bolstered this idea. One was with Blake Wetzel, vice president of CenturyLink’s Channel Alliance, and the other was with Bob Skelley, vice president of Global Channel at Infinio…