Grazed from SysConMedia.  Author: Ian Khan.

Creating global change that is actually good for the entire world is a mammoth task. A population of almost 7 billion as of 2015 is taking its toll on the planet, as it  survives the brunt of keeping the works going. What role can cloud computing play in making it easier for all of us?  Did you know that:

• There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than at any point in the last 800,000 years.
• In total, the U.S. emits approximately 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year. Forty-percent of that comes from power plant emissions alone.
• Every day 70 million tons of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere…

Grazed from CloudComputing.Net.  Author:  James Bourne.

It was one of the most fascinating battles of 2013: who would win the lucrative CIA cloud computing contract? Two horses were in the race, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM; and it was the former who eventually came out on top despite appeals from the latter.  Now, according to CIA chief information officer Doug Wolfe, the AWS cloud has attained “final operational capability”.

As reported by Enterprise Tech, Wolfe told delegates at an industry event this week the CIA cloud would be “offset” on a private security network, and AWS had “made a big investment” in the project.  The AWS cloud will be unleashed across 17 US intelligence agencies according to the report, with Wolfe noting the CIA was “behind where [they] hoped to be” in terms of cloud adoption…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Michael Krigsman.

A survey of IT leaders regarding their expectations of cloud computing, sponsored by Tata Communications, offers unsurprising, perhaps obvious, conclusions. Despite the boring data, an exciting truth does emerge – cloud can help make the CIO and IT more relevant to the business.

For this report, market researchers, Vanson Bourne, "conducted a total of 1000 interviews with senior IT decision-makers in private organisations of 500 employees or more," during September and October 2014. Although the report mentions "interviews," it appears these were online survey responses rather than face-to-face interviews:…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: David Needle.

Much work remains to be done if security breaches such as those at Sony Pictures Entertainment and health insurer Anthem are to become a rare event. That was the consensus of security vendors speaking at the OnCloud 2015 conference here this week. While malicious hackers will continue working to crack the latest security schemes, Barmak Meftah, CEO of AlienVault said security could be greatly enhanced by enterprises sharing more information.

“Imagine if we had a way to share threat data around the world,” he said. “For once we could be more proactive rather than reactive.” Only recently have companies become more forthcoming about data breaches, thanks largely to legislation and social media giving consumers an outlet to quickly spread the news that their personal accounts have been hacked and private information exposed…

See more at: http://www.eweek.com/cloud/security-vendors-say-new-technologies-needed-to-to-bolster-cloud-defenses.html#sthash.yxzdpxqR.dpuf

Grazed from TechRadar.  Author: Alistair Forbes.

Over the last several years, the discussions amongst enterprises about the advantages and disadvantages of various cloud models have filtered through to decision-makers in businesses across the UK. Perception, as the adage goes, is reality.

Executives have heard of enterprises fearing that cloud-based solutions can result in sacrificing security, privacy and control of business-critical data, but they have equally seen examples of enterprises relying on cloud computing and enjoying many forms of competitive advantage such as savings in time and cost…

Grazed from BusinessWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) today announced the creation of the Open Cloud Institute, an initiative to develop degree programs in cloud computing and big data and foster collaboration with industry, positioning UTSA and San Antonio as world leaders in open cloud technology.

Through the 80/20 Foundation and other industry supporters, the Open Cloud Institute will launch with initial gifts and in-kind investments of $9 million. The foundation has committed $4.8 million to support four endowed professorships, up to two faculty research positions, 10 graduate student endowments and research funding…

Grazed from MSPMentor.  Author: Michael Brown.

Will 2015 be the year the cloud gets past the hype? While cloud-based file sharing and other cloud services are being adopted by almost all businesses, the cloud is still in the early stages of its technological revolution. Whether it is personal computers, the internet, or 3D printing, every new technology goes through a period of hype and disillusionment before the really productive innovation takes place.

Gartner calls this the Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies. According to Gartner, cloud computing has already passed the inflated expectations people had about it and everyone is beginning to become disillusioned by it…

Grazed from TalkinCloud.  Author: Dan Kobialka.

Docker is expanding its "batteries included but swappable" open source ecosystem to empower developers and system administrators to launch and manage portable distributed applications.

The San Francisco-based open source platform provider has released three new orchestration tools that are designed to help developers and system administrators create Dockerized apps…

Grazed from Effective Software.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud based platforms are a modern, reliable and cost effective way to manage the day to day running of your business. As well as being secure, cloud based platforms are scalable, allowing for easy future expansion when your business needs it.

In recent years, interest in cloud computing has skyrocketed. The business world has been quick to embrace it. This is because the benefits cloud based platforms can offer businesses are becoming more and more apparent. These benefits can be reaped by a wide range of businesses across multiple sectors…

Grazed from ReCode.  Author: Arik Hesseldahl.

Computing and IT services giant IBM will spend $4 billion on its cloud services, data analytics and mobile businesses in a bid to turn it into what CEO Ginni Rometty said will be a $40-billion-a-year-in-revenue business by 2018.

On a conference call ahead of its annual investors presentation in New York, Rometty said the three businesses, which she referred to as IBM’s “strategic imperatives,” have grown in overall importance as it has divested itself of its older traditional business units. Five years ago the divisions amounted to 13 percent of IBM’s sales, Rometty said. By the start of 2015 they accounted for 27 percent…