Grazed from CloudWedge.  Author:  Editorial Staff.

Want to build your own cloud company or even launch a public cloud service? OpenStack is an open source software resource that aims to let you do all of that. It competes with other notable software offerings such as vCloud (paying) from VMware and CloudStack (also open). At another level it also competes with cloud service providers such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft that offer instant cloud computing. But if nonetheless you’re chewing over open and home-grown as the way to go, here are some points to ponder while you plan.

OpenStack is Open

Ho ho, sounds obvious, right? As open source software, anyone can obtain and use the source code, modify it and feed those modifications back into the OpenStack community. This is good for innovation and market-driven development…

Grazed from CloudComputingToday.  Author:  Arnal Dayaratna.

On Tuesday, Mirantis announced the integration of OpenStack with Kubernetes, the open source framework developed by Google to manage containers. The integration between OpenStack and Kubernetes enhances the portability of applications between the private cloud infrastructures typical of OpenStack and public cloud environments such as the Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure that support Kubernetes.

Even though Docker containers are well known for enhancing the portability of applications across infrastructures, transporting applications and workloads from private clouds to public clouds remains challenging…

Grazed from CFO.  Author: Keith Button.

The cloud computing bandwagon continues to pick up speed, with software-as-a-service (SaaS) arrangements now outselling licensed software. Moreover, cloud computing is winning corporate converts to infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), which offers virtual hardware, storage capacity, network connections, and so on; and platform-as-a-service (PaaS), which enables users to build software applications over the Internet.

It’s not surprising that so many companies have migrated to the cloud, given its promise of cost savings, increased flexibility, and greater ease of use. But they still face choices among public, private, and hybrid public-private cloud arrangements. Moreover, there are a number of cost-benefit considerations and risks to address. And for certain applications, on-premises software may still be the best bet…

Grazed from Bloomberg.  Author: Alex Barinka.

International Business Machines Corp. formed a partnership with Juniper Networks Inc. to create networks with built-in analytics, harnessing big data to improve mobile and other applications.

IBM and Juniper will design and sell tools to help businesses analyze information, update operations, reduce costs and improve how applications run, according to a statement Tuesday. This could involve customizing experiences for watching videos, running business apps or managing Web-connected devices…

Grazed from MarketWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

SingleHop, a leading provider of on-demand hosted private clouds and managed hosting, today introduced storage-agnostic backup-as-a-service (BaaS) capabilities through Veeam Cloud Connect©, enabling enterprises to efficiently backup data to the cloud. Veeam Availability Suite v8 users can immediately take advantage of SingleHop BaaS with no additional hardware, software, or upfront costs and without the cost and complexity of managing an offsite infrastructure. SingleHop is among a small handful of companies to offer Veeam-powered backup to extend customer data protection outside of the data center.

Cloud-based backup has emerged as the choice alternative or complementary method to tape, disk, on-premise, and 3rd party co-location scenarios because of the reduced risk, lower costs and improved business continuity the cloud model delivers…

Grazed from MSPHub.  Author: Editorial Staff.

According to a recent article from CIO, “many companies contain workstations with software that is not approved by the Information Technology (IT) department; instead, it has been adopted and installed by individuals or even, in some cases, entire departments.” Simply put, not just employees but entire business units are now willing to circumvent IT policies they find too restrictive, and the open nature of public cloud services makes this a simple task.

Of course, such unsanctioned use comes with real risk. For example, DevOps work done with unapproved services puts sensitive data beyond the reach of corporate firewalls and other securitymeasures. E-discovery requests also become problematic, since IT professionals do not have knowledge of data use from start to finish. In addition, asset management is an issue, since productivity may spike without a definitive cause, making budgetary discussions more complicated. Ultimately, ignoring shadow cloud services is not an option, but controlling them can prove difficult…

Grazed from Reuters.  Author:  Editorial Staff.

The FASB agreed to amend U.S. GAAP to clarify how cloud computing clients report fees they pay to suppliers. Cloud computing customers are expected to use the amended guidance to determine whether they have a license to use the software or a service contract.

The FASB agreed on February 18, 2015, to finalize amendments to U.S. GAAP to clarify how cloud computing clients report fees they pay to suppliers.  A draft of the amendments was published in August in Proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2014-230,Intangibles—Goodwill and Other—Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Customer’s Accounting for Fees Paid in a Cloud Computing Arrangement…

Grazed from NetworkWorld.  Author: Brandon Butler.

It’s a busy time for container technology in the cloud computing market: IBM this week at its InterConnect conference in Las Vegas announced broad support for containers in its hybrid cloud computing software, while Google partnered with OpenStack distributor Mirantis to enable container technology capabilities in the open source cloud platform.  Forrester storage analyst Henry Balatzar reported from IBM InterConnect that: “Everyone is going container crazy.”

Perhaps all the hype is for good reason. Containers are shaping up as breakthrough technology that some believe could rival the impact that virtual machines (VMs) have had in corporate data centers…

Grazed from V3.co.uk.  Author: Daniel Robinson.

IBM has added a series of technologies and services to its cloud computing offerings, including support for Docker containers and the extension of the Bluemix developer platform into a customer’s data centre, among others.

Announced at the IBM InterConnect 2015 conference, the additions are aimed at delivering the same level of control, visibility, security and governance in a hybrid cloud environment as an organisation has over its internal private cloud or traditional IT systems…

Grazed from TechRadar.  Author: Anthony Poh.

Making the switch to cloud systems can be a daunting task for CIOs, for whom the various different systems and processes on offer can be overwhelming. The range of definitions and standards applied to cloud computing complicates the task further, as does pressure from other C-level executives who may be keen to deploy a system they may not be familiar with.

It is vital to understand the different options on the market, and find the right solution for the right business…