Grazed from UCMerced.edu. Author: Editorial Staff.

A UC Merced researcher has come up with a new, super-efficient encryption system for smart phones that lets users secure data being sent to and retrieved from the cloud. Encrypting data on your phone or tablet — including pictures, documents and videos — protects against the kinds of leaks and hacks that seem to be in the news almost every week. But those devices have energy and storage limits, and encryption systems can be costly.

In the Cloud LabOpens a new window at UC Merced, graduate student Mehdi Bahrami, who works with Chancellor’s Professor Mukesh Singhal in the School of Engineering, devised a new lightweight data privacy method for mobile clients to store data in one or multiple clouds without using a lot of a mobile device’s resources…

Grazed from Wired. Author: Cade Metz.

FOR MANY, DOCKER is the next big thing in cloud computing. But some big names—most notably Google—are now backing an alternative to this enormously-influential technology. In December, one of Docker’s earliest supporters, the Silicon Valley startup CoreOS, unveiled an open source project called Rocket.

CoreOS founder and CEO Alex Polvi felt that Docker had strayed from its original mission, and with Rocket, he and his colleagues hoped to bring that mission back to the fore. Five months later, Google has put its considerable weight behind this effort, officially joining the Rocket open source project and rolling the technology into one of its cloud computing tools…

Grazed from FT. Author: Richard Waters.

Cisco Systems on Monday brought the curtain down on one of Silicon Valley’s longest-running chief executive acts as it announced that John Chambers would step aside after 20 years. However, in an unusual division of power that leaves him at the centre of the networking equipment company’s leadership, Cisco said Mr Chambers would stay on as full-time chairman.

Mr Chambers, who built Cisco from a small maker of internet routers into the world’s biggest networking equipment company, will hand the chief executive title to Chuck Robbins, head of the company’s global sales division, on July 26. In an apparent attempt to head off concerns about what his involvement would be in the company’s management after the reshuffle, Cisco said Mr Chambers would “devote his time to supporting Robbins”, as well as dealing with the company’s customers and governments around the world…

Grazed from Fortune. Author: Barb Darrow.

Given the hype, you might think that all applications and data in the universe are now sitting in someone’s cloud. But you would be wrong. The corporate world is at the beginning of the cloud computing era and tons of applications—especially those at the largest businesses—still run in server rooms or data centers operated by the companies in question.

And, that fact, along with pre-existing relationships with information technology (IT) pros who manage all of it, give Microsoft MSFT -0.08% a big advantage over born-in-the-cloud providers, according to CEO Satya Nadella. Thousands of companies run Microsoft SQL Server databases, SharePoint file sharing, Exchange email, System Center management, and other services on their premises…

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Susan Perschke.

Once moved to the cloud, applications become more challenging to manage. Cloud app performance management and performance monitoring tools help identify bottlenecks and other performance metrics. Good tools can help determine if bottlenecks are isolated to the application itself or if there are system-wide issues with a particular provider.

The most granular tools can even do a deep-dive into the app to see if individual processes, such as database queries, are running optimally. For this review, we tested four commercial products, Exoprise CloudReady, AppNeta, ThousandEyes and Dynatrace. We focused mainly on ease of deployment, day-to-day management, overall features and cost…

Read more from the source @ http://www.networkworld.com/article/2915837/cloud-computing/top-tools-to-manage-cloud-apps.html

Grazed from Fortune. Author: Barb Darrow.

We live in strange times. Companies are increasingly running applications on computers owned and operated by another company. Employees tend to look upon their colleagues in information technology as more of a nuisance than an asset. Satya Nadella thinks his company can help make sense of it all.

On Monday, at Microsoft’s Ignite conference in Chicago, the chief executive will directly address those tech professionals who make sure email gets where it needs to go and that corporate databases keep chugging along. To them Nadella will issue a reminder that even though many dollars budgeted for technology are now flowing to marketing or other corporate departments, that doesn’t mean IT spending is down overall or that the need for tech specialists has evaporated. Quite the contrary…

Read more from the source @ https://fortune.com/2015/05/04/satya-nadella-ceo-microsoft/

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud security certification is getting a new dimension. At the RSA conference earlier this month the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and (ISC)² announced a new cloud security certification: Certified Cloud Security Professional, or CCSP for short. (ISC)² is most famous for its flagship certification: Certified Information Systems Security Professional or CISSP. More than 100,000 professionals maintain this certification and it is widely recognized. The Cloud Security Alliance pioneered the cloud security field a few years ago, and runs the CCSK (Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge) programme. The CCSP body of knowledge covers 6 domains:

• Architectural Concepts and Design Requirements
• Cloud Data Security
• Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security
• Cloud Application Security
• Operations
• Legal and Compliance…

Grazed from NetworkAsia.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud service providers (CSPs) serving a growing a customer base must be prepared to tackle challenges that are inherent in widespread cloud adoption and optimize their service performance. One key success factor is interconnection – the ability to connect to customers, networks and each other in an instant.

This year, tactical cloud computing benefits, such as elastic capacity, utility pricing and deferred capital investments, are no longer enough, according to Frost & Sullivan’s Stratecast practice. Enterprises will seek out providers that support greater end-to-end performance, visibility, and accountability to help drive their strategic goals…

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: James Henderson.

Are Microsoft, VMware and Red Hat better value than OpenStack distributions for total cost of ownership?  That’s the key question circulating the cloud market following the launch of 451 Research’s latest Cloud Price Index, billed as one of the most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of the cost of cloud computing.

According to findings, the typical cost of small-scale enterprise private clouds powered by VMware, Red Hat and Microsoft are all within half a cent of each other at about US$0.10 per virtual-machine hour while OpenStack distributions cost, on average, $0.08 per VM hour, a 20 percent saving…

Grazed from SysCon Media.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Everyone’s talking about the Internet of Things recently, but one topic I don’t see addressed much is the difference between Service-Focused IoT and Device-Focused IoT. The concept of “The Internet of Things” has always been about vast, heterogeneous networks of small, limited-purpose devices. However, there is a growing need to further differentiate IoT into the two delivery models.

In my previous blog, I discussed how hardware manufacturers are able to leverage IoT and recurring revenue to further lock in customers, increase lifetime value, and raise exit barriers around their services. However, these examples all require the service provider to also be some sort of hardware manufacturer. Nest (the popular smart thermostat company) is fantastic, but you must buy a Nest-branded device in order to leverage Nest cloud services…