Grazed from ComputerWeekly. Author: Max Cooter.

Successful cloud implementations need careful planning, with flexibility and the timing of the switch important considerations. The whole notion of cloud implementation has changed in the past five years. From being seen as a large and daunting manoeuvre to be undertaken only by the boldest of CIOs, the cloud has found its way to the heart of mainstream computing.

There has also been a change in the drivers for the move to cloud. Initially largely focused on trying to save money, the cloud was touted as a quick way to reduce costs. But that way of thinking has gone out of the window as companies begin to realise other advantages from cloud…

Grazed from IT Business Edge. Author: Arthur Cole.

Consensus is building that the cloud will subsume traditional data center infrastructure within the next decade. This is not to say that local resources will go the way of the dinosaur, but that whatever remains in the data center will be cloud-based. This means that both the hardware and software platforms that hope to support future data architectures will have to cater more toward cloud functionality than traditional data center constructs.

And yet, it seems that only recently have we seen anything that can be described as cloud-specific enterprise systems in the channel. HP took the wraps off of its Cloudline server this week, aimed specifically at helping cloud service providers gain an edge on competitors by offering not just lower costs, but advanced functionality as well…

Grazed from RedmondMagazine.  Author: Kurt Mackie.

Cisco and Microsoft announced a technology integration effort today that promises to expand the options of Cisco’s cloud service provider partners, allowing them to more easily tap Microsoft Azure cloud computing resources.

Cisco currently has more than 60 partners centered on its Intercloud effort, which is based on the OpenStack cloud architecture. This new technology integration effort with Microsoft will expand on Cisco’s Intercloud effort by facilitating partner use of Microsoft’s proprietary Azure infrastructure…

Grazed from TechRepublic.  Author: Nick Hardiman.

The knowledge forum Big Think recorded a video with Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of the C++ programming language: "What are the five most important languages that programmers should know?" He said, "Nobody should call themselves a professional if they know only one language."

So in Stroustrup’s opinion, it’s no good saying, "I love Perl. There is only one language, and that is Perl." If entry-level developers have nailed their first language and want to get serious in the cloud computing world, they need a portfolio of programming languages to call their own. But which ones? What programming languages should a cloud developer pick…

Grazed from InvestorsBusinessDaily.  Author: Scott Stoddard.

Profit and sales growth at Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) has picked up as the networking giant pushes into the growing field of hybrid computing with partner Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Cisco and Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled a joint product aimed at helping cloud service providers reduce costs while rapidly delivering hybrid cloud services.

Hybrid computing allows companies to manage and exchange data stored in-house or in rented public cloud services such as Microsoft’s Azure.  The move comes as Cisco and Microsoft seek to compete against rivals such as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) in hybrid cloud computing…

Grazed from VirtualizationReview.  Author: Dan Kusnetzsky.

Cosentry recently announced a new extension to its Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) offering. The goal is helping small to medium size enterprises have the same DR capabilities as their larger cousins.  Cosentry describes its DRaaS offering in the following way:

    Cosentry’s DRaaS has been enhanced to meet varying recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs), with targets ranging from less than 15 minutes to several days based on application importance and budget…

Grazed from ChannelPartnersOnline.  Author: Perry Vandell.

SingleHop, the private cloud hosting company, said on Tuesday that it is acquiring Server Intellect, which is best known for providing Microsoft-managed hosting solutions. SingleHop believes Server Intellect’s experience in Microsoft’s Hyper-V native hypervisor will give it an advantage over the competition.

More than half of the enterprise hypervisor market has found a home with VMware – which SingleHop also supports – but notes that Microsoft’s Hyper-V encompasses approximately 30 percent of the market…

Grazed from WhaTech.  Author: Editorial Staff.

We’ve written plenty in this column about the beneficial attributes of cloud computing but there’s another side to these: if successfully exploited by your competitors, cloud computing can be toxic to your business.  And it is the main benefits of cloud computing that make it a particularly powerful tool in the hands of a disruptive startup competitor: low, or zero, upfront costs; usage-based charging, rapid and massive scalability.

These aspects of cloud computing have been brought to the fore in a new report form Frost & Sullivan: The Role of Cloud Computing in Industry Transformation. It says: "Cloud computing is … a significant enabler of new, disruptive competitors—allowing new entrants to quickly and cost-effectively roll out new products and services and enter new markets, at a speed which can often blindside established market participants."…

Grazed from BusinessSolutions. Author: Editorial Staff.

Ingram Micro Inc. recently announced channel partners in the U.S. and Canada can now provision, invoice, manage and support Microsoft Office 365 products and bundles via the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace. A proprietary gateway developed by Ingram Micro and its valued partners, the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace enables channel partners to transform and grow their cloud business by offering instant, online access to a wide array of services and solutions from market-leading cloud vendors.

“Ingram Micro is the first master cloud service provider to offer a true, online consumption model for Office 365 that is backed by a suite of migration services and a dedicated service desk,” said Renee Bergeron, vice president, Cloud, Ingram Micro. “This allows our resellers to have a more direct relationship with their customers while maintaining the flexibility to bundle their offering with solutions from Ingram Micro or other leading cloud service providers.”…

Grazed from Mellanox.  Author: PR Announcement.

Mellanox® Technologies, Ltd., a leading supplier of end-to-end interconnect solutions for servers and storage systems, today announced Mellanox Multi-Host™, an innovative technology that provides high flexibility and major savings in building next generation, scalable Cloud, Web 2.0 and high-performance data centers.

The new technology enables designing and building new scale-out heterogeneous compute and storage racks with direct connectivity between compute elements, storage elements and the network, better power and performance management, while achieving maximum data processing and data transfer at minimum capital and operational expenses. Mellanox Multi-Host technology is available today in the company’s line of ConnectX®-4 10/25/50/100 Gigabit Ethernet adapters, and in OCP-based boards as part of Facebook’s recently announced Yosemite platform…