June 28, 2015 Off

Cloud data warehouse race heats up

By David

 Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Andrew Brust.

The notion of running a data warehouse in the cloud was a pretty novel thing when Amazon Web Services launched its Redshift service in November of 2012. Most on-premises data warehouse (DW) platforms are appliance-based, which makes them difficult to expand, and the resulting need to leave room for growth also makes them expensive to acquire.

In the cloud though, economics are better, elasticity is realistic and logistics are streamlined. Combine that with the ability to handle "big data" volumes with the familiar SQL/relational model that Redshift uses and it’s hardly surprising that the service has been one of Amazon’s fastest growing since its launch…

June 28, 2015 Off

Google quietly launches GitHub cloud rival

By David

 Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Charlie Osbourne.

Google has launched a code repository supported by cloud technology with little fanfare.  The Mountain View, CA-based firm’s quiet project, the Cloud Code Repository, offers users private code repositories hosted on the Google Cloud Platform. Currently in the beta stage of development and offering free signups, the repository can be set up as a Git remote, and operations including push, pull, clone and log are offered, among others.
 
A source code editor is also on the table, where repository files can be viewed by branch, commit and tag — and quick edits can be made through the Google Developers Console. Every project created through the console has an associated Cloud Source repository, which can be used for the collaborative development of applications and services…
June 28, 2015 Off

Cloud computing may make IT compliance auditing even cloudier

By David

 Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Joe McKendrick.

Compliance is one of those thankless activities that add a lot more pain than gain to IT managers’ and professionals’ worklives. It’s a matter of doing the minimum that needs to get done and be done with it, so one can get back to the good things, like building commerce and analytics systems.

Accordingly, most IT departments are ill-prepared for any audits that may come their way. A new survey finds three out of five IT professionals say they’re not ready for compliance audits…

June 28, 2015 Off

Unifying the big content, big data divide

By David

Grazed from CCI.  Author: Mika Javanainen.

While cloud computing is credited with offering more effective ways to utilise applications, it can also further complicate the task of document and content management with the introduction of new sets of information silos.  Many companies are encountering issues with ‘dark data’ because they maintain multiple information silos in the cloud and on-premises that contain business-critical data sets that other systems cannot leverage. These repositories often contain massive amounts of Big Data (structured data) and Big Content (unstructured content).

To effectively connect these silos and ensure information workers have fast access to all of the content they need, it’s important to first understand their differences. Structured data (Big Data) is information that resides in various databases and business systems such as CRM and ERP solutions — much of which is often maintained by different lines of business and isolated to specific users and applications…

June 28, 2015 Off

Cloud Computing: Microsoft Mission Is to Help Everyone ‘Achieve More,’ CEO Says

By David

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Pedro Hernandez.

CEO Satya Nadella is setting a new agenda ahead of its new fiscal year and the imminent, high-profile launch of Windows 10. More shakeups may be on the horizon.  Microsoft has a new mission statement as the tech giant prepares for the release of Windows 10 and the start of a new fiscal year, CEO Satya Nadella announced to employees in an internal email this week.

"Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. I’m proud to share that this is our new official mission statement," wrote Nadella (pictured) in the email obtained by GeekWire. "This mission is ambitious and at the core of what our customers deeply care about. We have unique capability in harmonizing the needs of both individuals and organizations."…

June 28, 2015 Off

Red Hat Extends OpenStack Ecosystem

By David

Grazed from TheVarGuy.  Author: Mike Vizard.

At the Red Hat 2015 Summit this week Red Hat (RHT) extended the reach and scope of its OpenStack ecosystem via alliances with third-party vendors that should have a significant impact on its relationships all across the channel.

Via a new alliances with Vantrix, a provider of storage systems optimized for video content, and an expansion of its relationship with Super Micro Computer, Red Hat is now making greater use of OEM partnerships to bring open source storage technologies such as Ceph and Gluster to market…

June 27, 2015 Off

Cloud Computing: Huawei Demos Open Network Hypervisor

By David

Grazed from LightReading.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Huawei has successfully demonstrated its Open Network Hypervisor (OpenNH) solution during the Open Networking Summit 2015 in California.  The OpenNH is a Software-defined Networking (SDN)-based independent tenant virtual network solution which supports operators with accelerating service deployment, providing innovative open networks and enhancing secure separation between tenants, and reducing operation costs. If the solution is commercially used in the future, it will bring new business opportunities for network operators, data centers, and virtual operators.

As 4G evolves into 5G, the number of network users will increase sharply, particularly as more people leverage the Internet of Things. During this transition, operators will encounter a complex operating environment…

June 27, 2015 Off

Tune into the Cloud – Something Got Me Started

By David

Grazed from SysConMedia.  Author: Gregor Petri.

By now it is widely acknowledged that cloud enables a fast (agile) start. But more important than a fast start is getting results quickly. We are talking then about high productivity platforms, a category of PaaS. Funnily enough, several cloud providers – such as Microsoft and Google – launched a PaaS platform first and only later – when they saw how quickly the virtual machine based IaaS services from Amazon were becoming popular – technically did a step back to launch a lower level IaaS service.

Achieving cloudiness aspects such as scalability, elasticity, pay for use and service orientation is however quit difficult if your building blocks consist of merely virtual machines and load balancers…

June 26, 2015 Off

Cloud Computing: Can Silicon Valley sell big business on climate action?

By David

Grazed from GreenBiz. Author: Lauren Hepler.

In February, Apple announced a massive $848 million solar deal as part of pursuit to power its operations with 100 percent renewable energy. Google, Facebook and Salesforce have all made their own 100 percent renewable energy commitments. Even notorious sustainability laggard Amazon is taking action on its goal of powering its hulking cloud computing division with clean energy.

The question now: if and how the tech industry’s highly visible — and once seemingly far-fetched — clean energy goals might make a bigger imprint on other industries during a crucial year for climate politics. “At least 11 big IT companies have committed to 100 percent renewables," said Ryan Schuchard, associate director of climate change for nonprofit sustainability membership group BSR. "(Tech) has one of the best levers of any sector to move on renewables."…

Read more from the source @ http://www.greenbiz.com/article/can-silicon-valley-sell-big-business-climate-action

June 26, 2015 Off

Cloud computing definition in constant flux

By David

Grazed from TechTarget.  Author:  Jeff Kaplan.

Amazon Web Services continues to set the pace in public cloud as it regularly rolls out new cloud offerings and prices its existing services to meet the changing needs of customers. But other players are seeking to gain a share of the market by creating their own cloud categories and pushing the boundaries of the cloud marketplace.

The proliferation of cloud services has created a double-edged sword. The stream of new cloud alternatives has produced a buyers’ market, characterized by intensifying price competition. But it has also made it more difficult for IT and corporate decision makers to determine which cloud offerings are best suited to meet their particular business and technological requirements…