Grazed from Tom’s IT PRo.  Author: William Van Winkle.

Operating officially since 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is closing in on its 10-year anniversary. Some might call that old, while others would say that Amazon has merely had that much more time to build an incredible head start over its competition. One of those competitors, Microsoft Azure, entered the market in 2010. But by this time had Amazon already sprinted ahead to an insurmountable lead?

Microsoft doesn’t think so, clearly, and has been building its infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering out from AWS’ shadow ever since.  Of course, insurmountable leads and shadows are largely irrelevant to your own enterprise. These companies are both global titans with the resources to make their respective cloud services as robust and expansive as they want…

Grazed from TechCocktail.  Author: Santosh Satya.

A little more than a decade ago, three famous paintings were on display at the Whitworth Gallery, an art museum in Manchester, England. Since the works of Gauguin, Picasso, and Van Gogh were valued at about $8 million, they were heavily protected by security guards and electronic systems. Guards patrolled the gallery. Alarms were set in place. And closed-circuit television scanned the paintings.

Still, none of this was enough. Burglars broke into the Whitworth Gallery in late April, 2003 and stole the three paintings. A few days later, the expensive masterpieces were found in a public restroom near the art museum. A note attached to the masterpieces dismissed the episode as a caper designed to test the woeful security measures. This bold art burglary is a lesson for network administrators who guard information systems…

Grazed from SysCon Media.  Author: Kira Makagon.

There’s no denying we’re in the midst of a cloud craze – but, behind all the hype, is cloud adoption really imperative? How much of the cloud buzz is fabrications of possible benefits, and how much of it is reality? To decipher what’s true and what’s false, I’ve put together a list of five reasons why cloud adoption is important, according to the facts:

  1. Freedom from responsibility and costs. Yes, when you move services to a cloud provider, you immediately relinquish some control. However, you instantly free yourself from the cost of hardware and server management, and gain back the time (or manpower) that it would ordinarily take to run IT systems. In fact 84% of CIOs report they’ve cut application costs by moving to the cloud…

Grazed from Avanade.  Author: Scott Lewis.

Ah, the cloud. Everyone is doing it. Everyone is talking about it. While writing this blog post, I decided to Google the number of recent news articles on cloud strategy within the last 24 hours. Want to read all the articles? Hope you have nothing else on your schedule today or recently completed a speed reading course because a quick count revealed approximately 250 articles.

According to the 5th Annual Trends in Cloud Computing study released in November 2014 by CompTIA, more than 90% of companies have adopted cloud computing at some level. But the study also reveals that moving applications, infrastructure and other resources are not so easy to implement. In addition, 28% of companies in the early stages of cloud conversion indicated that it required “significant” effort, while this jumps to 63% for companies who have already completed their journey…

Grazed from Baseline.  Author: Kent Weaver.

Organizations planning to make a bold digital splash in 2015 are also likely to need another upgrade: their data centers. As new technologies enter the marketplace, many enterprises are planning—and budgeting—for the next big thing.

However, data center migrations are, in many ways, both easier and more complex than ever. Technologies such as virtualization may eliminate the need for moving physical equipment, but the vast array of other options, such as hybrid and cloud solutions, make the process inherently more complex than it was before…

Grazed from TechTarget.  Author: David Linthicum.

AWS has a great set of tools that come with its public cloud service. In many instances, the tools are there for use free of charge, with the clear bet being that these tools will drive AWS cloud service usage.

However, those IT shops that are AWS-focused are now seeking the best-of-breed tools that work and play well with their AWS deployments. Thus, the question comes up as to which path to take when it comes to selecting and using third-party tools that work with the AWS platform…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Barb Darrow.

Amazon Web Services already offers software development kits (SDKs) for Java, C#, Ruby, Python, JavaScript, PHP and Objective C programming languages. Now it says it will add Go (aka Golang) to that list. More accurately, it says it’s taken over aws-go, an SDK developed by Stripe. The SDK is in a sort of beta stage, with work continuing.

While Go doesn’t have nearly as many users as Java or C — an IEEE Spectrum survey ranked it as the nineteenth most popular language between Scala and Arduino — it’s gained traction among developers. That’s especially true for those building cloud or web services infrastructure. Docker, which has taken the development world like a gale force wind, is written in Go, for example…

Grazed from ManufacturingBusiness.  Author: Doug Fair.

Although cloud computing has been a hot topic across almost every industry for quite some time, it is only recently that manufacturers have begun considering abandoning their traditional, on-premise solutions and embracing the cloud. If you are like any other manufacturer, this transition probably seems daunting. How much will it cost? Are my data secure on the cloud?

Will my IT resources be able to support the new system?  There is no need to fear — transitioning to cloud-based technology is actually a huge step towards improving manufacturing operations not only at the plant level, but also throughout the entire enterprise…

Grazed from MSPMentor.  Author: Editorial Staff.

A common belief throughout the IT industry is that public cloud is cheaper. While this is true in some cases, oftentimes the trade-off for a lower upfront price point is spotty customer service, limited features and availability, and lower security thresholds. Where consumers are concerned, these may not be deal-breakers, but businesses need the capabilities, performance and IT security only private cloud
can provide.

For example, some of the key business benefits afforded by private cloud are the “always on” IT security updates and the ability to reallocate resources quickly as the needs of the business evolve. Furthermore, for businesses, switching to private cloud can save time and money because it is less of a hassle and more cost-effective than purchasing or hosting servers and infrastructure equipment…

Grazed from Reuters.  Author: Bill Rigby.

International Business Machines Corp brought back annual performance bonuses for its chief executive and her top lieutenants for 2014 despite falling profits and a tumbling stock price, a regulatory filing showed on Friday.  The technology company, which has posted lower profits for 11 quarters in a row as it struggles to transform itself into a cloud-based software and services company, withheld annual bonuses in 2013 at the executives’ own request.

The bonuses returned as a feature of IBM’s executive compensation for 2014, according to a document filed with securities regulators on Friday, despite the fact that IBM’s net profit from continuing operations fell 7 percent last year and its stock shed about 14 percent…