Grazed from FutureGov. Author: Editorial Staff.

Civil servants don’t like sharing their data. In the name of accountability, departments will happily shield their precious data from the eyes of other departments, let alone citizens. It takes an extreme act of political will, or a crisis, to drive transformation. This may explain the relatively slow uptake of cloud computing technology by Asia Pacific’s city governments.

“A lot of the opposition to the cloud comes from city officials not wanting to share their data,” says Vijay Jagannathan, Secretary General of CityNet, a network of over 130 cities and organisations focused on sustainable urban development in Asia Pacific. “In developing countries you find that a lot of power comes by not sharing. And it can be hard politically to force departments to share.”…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

In the e-book, “Demystifying the Cloud: A Guide to Understanding Cloud Computing,” available online or as a PDF download, Dell outlines the essential information IT leaders need to understand and make informed decisions about cloud computing. From explaining the difference between private, public and hybrid clouds to debunking some of cloud computing’s biggest misconceptions, “Demystifying the Cloud” offers a 20-minute overview of the cloud for anyone considering making it a part of his or her company.

This online guide also looks at the advantages cloud computing offers over more traditional computing models. It lays out how the cloud can be used to benefit a business and spells out some of the challenges businesses may face when adopting the cloud. The e-book also clearly explains the recommended steps to fully adopt the cloud and touches on the cost of cloud computing, while listing some of the top providers currently out there. Now available for download, this interactive resource will help IT and business leaders quickly understand cloud computing, and guide their business to a technologically savvy and more productive future. See the e-book here: http://dell.to/1BJ7ext

Grazed from ComputerDealerNews. Author: Editorial Staff.

Big Blue today took the wraps off its second SoftLayer data centre in the Montreal suburb of Drummondville. IBM Canada just eight months ago cut the ribbon on a Toronto-based SoftLayer facility. According to IBM Canada officials, the Québec facility is part of $1.2 billion investment in cloud computing from the Armonk, N.Y.-based giant.

SoftLayer currently has a customer base of more than 1,000 organizations including start-ups, financial services/insurance, public sector and retailers. One of those clients is New York-based Baseline Medical Inc. and Silanis Technology Inc. of Montreal, the two companies formed a joint partnership more than 15 years ago to develop and deliver e-business solutions to healthcare and insurance markets along with government…

Grazed from Talkin Cloud. Author: Christopher Tozzi.

Red Hat (RHT) has made its containerization intentions known by its launch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host, an open source operating system tailored for running Docker and other container-based app platforms. Atomic Host, which Red Hat released March 5, is designed to streamline the process required to containerize any app that runs on modern versions of the company’s flagship Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) platform.

The new product is based, in part, on Project Atomic, an open source, community-based project for building hosting platforms for containerized apps that launched in 2014. There are important differences, however, between Atomic Host and Project Atomic, which is currently compatible with several Linux distributions related to RHEL — including CentOS and Fedora — in addition to RHEL itself…

Grazed from ComputerWeekly. Author: Caroline Donnelly.

Research from IT services provider Telstra claims deploying cloud services from three or more suppliers can damage a company’s business agility. The Australian IT services company commissioned research house Vanson Bourne to interview 675 IT decision makers working for private sector firms with 250 or more employees operating in the US, UK, Hong Kong and Australia.

The UK portion of the survey garnered 200 responses, with two-thirds of respondents stating a preference for procuring cloud services from a single supplier for ease of management. Most failed to do so, however, because of the challenging of finding a single provider who does everything they need in the cloud…

Grazed from DarkReading. Author: Bill Kleyman.

When it comes to cloud adoption, one of the longest standing debates revolves around data integrity and security. The FUD around cloud always has involved issues of security and information access. But what if we have it all wrong? What if we are actually misunderstanding the true, underlying business model of a modern cloud environment?

But before we get into that, let’s look at the current data breach landscape. A recent 2014 Ponemon study shows that a probability of a material data breach over the next two years involving a minimum of 10,000 records, at an on-premise data center, is nearly 19 percent. In addition, the study reports:…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Nathan Eddy.

Cloud computing is becoming more and more prevalent in the financial sector, though many respondents of a recent survey claimed to have less than 50 percent of a solidified, concerted cloud strategy, with controls and security being main concerns. According to the worldwide survey of more than 100 professionals conducted by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and sponsored by CipherCloud, 61 percent of respondents believe a cloud strategy is in the formative stages within their organization, with 39 to 47 percent planning to use a mix of in-house IT, private and public clouds, and 18 percent planning to use private clouds.

None of the respondents has plans to be hosted mostly in a public cloud, according to the report. "Primarily the top security concerns were more focused around data protection," Luciano Santos, vice president of research and member services at the Cloud Security Alliance, told eWEEK. "Data confidentiality, data governance and data breach were the top-ranked security concerns identified by the financial institutions that participated."…

See more at: http://www.eweek.com/small-business/financial-firms-in-search-of-a-cloud-strategy.html#sthash.aaucheLZ.dpuf

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Joe McKendrick.

A recent survey of 1,000 executives discusses some of the benefits enterprises are seeing as a result of cloud computing. What catches the eye, however, is the number of executives who are seeing benefits they never really expected — close to one in four, in many cases. For example, 25 percent say they unexpectedly experienced improved communications within their organizations.

Another 22 percent report increased revenues they did not anticipate, and 22 percent say they experienced greater customer satisfaction — again, not part of the original plan. It’s also notable that 21 percent say cloud has actually delivered improved security. In total, 83 percent of executives report benefits they did not expect to see…

Grazed from BostonGlobe. Author: Jay Fitzgerald.

EMC Corp., the largest technology company in Massachusetts, thinks Wall Street doesn’t understand it. So on Tuesday, the Hopkinton company — known best for its data-storage business, it employs 68,000 people worldwide and reaps $24 billion in annual revenue — will hold a strategy summit in New York City. EMC hopes to convince analysts, investors, and others it really is on the right track.

Most of its top executives, including longtime chief executive Joseph Tucci, will be present to share information, review strategic options, answer questions, and listen to ideas and criticisms. But chances are the summit won’t change many minds. Increasingly, critics say EMC has become a stagnant goliath that isn’t doing enough to pump up its share value and articulate a long-term vision for the 36-year-old company…

Grazed from BusinessSpectator. Author: Michael Cornwell.

The era of flash storage is definitely here and ready for large-scale use by companies of every size, from enterprises to SMEs. With new technologies, companies will benefit from the advantages of using flash drives for storage. Here are some reasons that are being identified by companies as to why they can no longer do without this technology.

Capable of harnessing the data explosion

Companies are still struggling with tight IT budgets, whilst trying to manage large amounts of data. IDC has predicted that the amount of data will increase by more than 50 percent each year over the next few years. This will only increase the demand for storage systems. At the same time, Companies are also demanding higher performance, more power and efficiency, as a result of new technology initiatives such as cloud computing, virtualisation and big data…