Grazed from DataCenterKnowledge. Author: Bill Kleyman.

OpenStack vs CloudStack is not so much of a battle as it is a push for advanced cloud management. Let’s start here: these platforms were designed as cloud computing has become an integral part for many organizations. The big push was for logical cloud-layer management that has a lot of ways to control various workloads. With that, let’s dive into the latest and greatest from both of these guys.

CloudStack: Running on hyervisors like KVN, vSphere, XenServer, and now Hyper-V, CloudStack is an open-source cloud management platform designed for creating, controlling, and deploying various cloud services. With its growing API-supported stack, CloudStack already fully supports the Amazon AWS API model…

Read more from the source @ http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2015/02/23/openstack-vs-cloudstack-the-platforms-and-the-cloud-apis/

Grazed from CBC. Author: Jeff Green.

A new report on cloud storage prepared for Google by a Hamilton-based risk advisor shows that businesses need to take a truly global look to completely secure data. And in an interview with the CBC, James Arlen, director of risk and advisory services for Leviathan Security Group, says the same principles of data security companies such as Google need, apply to your personal data, too.

Arlen said the average person treats their personal memories like a digital shoe box, adding it just takes one "flood" for a catastrophic loss to occur. "The person who kept all the photos of the first four years of their child’s life on their computer and now their hard drive crashed," Arlen said. "Now your child’s photographic life begins at four."…

Grazed from YahooFinance. Author: Editorial Staff.

The Global Cloud-Enabling Technologies Market is expected to post a CAGR of 16.6 percent from 2014-2019, thanks to increased adoption of cloud-based services by enterprises, according to a new report from research firm TechNavio. The latest report by TechNavio highlights the ever-increasing adoption of cloud-based services by enterprises worldwide, which will result in innovative technologies and make the cloud environment more efficient.

Many vendors are focusing on product improvement in order to enhance cloud capabilities and remain competitive in the market. Virtualization is the most popular cloud-enabling technology, and it plays a vital role in shaping cloud datacenter operations. “Virtualization offers a more streamlined platform to optimize IT resources, making them more scalable, which indirectly decreases the cost of adopting cloud services and also simplifies the delivery of services in cloud environments,” says Faisal Ghaus, Vice President of TechNavio…

Read more from the source @ https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/increased-adoption-cloud-based-services-150500868.html

Grazed from Pymnts. Author: Editorial Staff.

By the end of 2015, Europe could change the way data is transferred across its Member States. The European Commission is knee-deep in exploring cloud computing regulations that would span the EU, but cloud technology often sparks fear of privacy breaches – especially within small businesses.

The way B2B does business in Europe could change significantly with these cloud computing rules, and the Commission will need to juggle the concerns and needs of the industry as it looks to rain the benefits of the cloud upon all businesses. At the fourth annual Think Cloud for Government Conference held earlier this month, the European Commission’s head of software, services and cloud computing Pearse O’Donohue offered an update to the Commission’s cloud regulation efforts, which raises significant concerns for Europe’s B2B industry…

Grazed from BetaNews. Author: Mihaita Bamburic.

Colder regions make great places for building data centers. Operators can leverage the colder air outside to cool those hot servers, without relying much on costly tools like air conditioners and the like. When we’re talking about thousands of servers all running in the same place, the savings are substantial. And so is the positive impact on the environment, thanks to a healthy decrease in energy requirements and emissions.

It should come as no surprise that Apple has announced Denmark and Ireland as the locations of choice for its two new European data centers. The two countries are also favored by other players in the tech industry, like Google and Microsoft. Apple’s new data centers will power online services for European customers…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Matt Asay.

If you’re an enterprise software vendor today, there’s only one company to fear: Amazon. VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger perhaps said it most honestly ("if a workload goes to Amazon, you lose, and we have lost forever"), but the sentiment is widely shared — or it should be. After all, AWS (Amazon Web Services) plays by different rules, spoiling the comfortable margins and business models of yesterday.

While AWS used to confine itself to the relatively small IaaS market, it now dabbles in everything from email and calendaring systems to document storage services and various PaaS solutions. Indeed, as Amazon CTO Werner Vogels has declared, AWS is in the "business of pain management for enterprises," and there’s plenty of pain to go around…

Grazed from FederalRadioNews. Author: Jared Serbu.

The Pentagon is already working on changes to federal acquisition rules which would require stepped-up notification procedures when private companies hosting DoD data have their systems penetrated by hackers. But the department evidently feels a sense of urgency about those rules when it comes to its still-emerging use of cloud computing.

On Feb. 8, DoD published a class deviation — a sparsely-used procedure that lets the department implement regulatory changes immediately — telling all of its contracting officers that if they are purchasing anything remotely resembling cloud computing services, they must follow new procedures the DoD CIO laid out last month in its new security requirements guide for cloud computing…

Read more from the source @ http://www.federalnewsradio.com/1323/3805533/DoD-accelerates-security-rules-for-cloud-computing

Grazed from BusinessCloud. Author: Ian Murphy.

One of the key benefits of Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud, containers and even application virtualisation is the ability to create a self-service approach for users and customers. According to a survey by Matillion that took 12 months, covered 150 countries, 18 business sectors and involved responses from 10,000 senior decision makers, the promise of self-service for Business Intelligence (BI) is more myth than substance.

The survey, which can be found here (registration required), focused on one single question: "What is your biggest challenge around management" and respondents were given seven options to choose from.

• Freeing up IT resource from reporting/analytics
• Replacing a BI system
• Delivering mobile BI
• Reducing the cost of producing reports
• Unlocking data buried in systems
• Reporting/analysing across multiple systems
• Delivering self-service reporting/analysis…

Grazed from NetworkAsia.  Author: Brian Karlovsky.

 Hitachi Data Systems is set to acquire SAP Cloud service provider, oXya, in a bid to extend its portfolio of managed Cloud services.  The acquisition is expected to close by the end of March and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Upon the close of the acquisition, oXya, with more than 500 employees, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Data Systems and will continue to execute its current business model under oXya vice-president and chairman, Frederic de Belloy, reporting to Hicham Abdessamad, HDS executive vice-president, Global Services…

Grazed from PR.Com.  Author: PR Announcement.

The proliferation of cloud computing, big data, BYOD, mobile and inter-connected networks have become opportunistic breeding grounds for cyber criminals to disrupt business operations and cause financial loss as well as to gain access to corporate and personal data. Such losses were estimated last year in excess of $500 billion effecting companies of all sizes.

The impact of a corporate security exposure or breach is staggering and prior implications have proven to result in a loss of revenue, customer confidence and litigation…