Grazed from CRN. Author: Steve Burke.

Hewlett-Packard has done the next-to-impossible with its new pay-as-you-go Flexible Capacity channel model, solution providers said. The new offering, which is being announced Tuesday, provides the framework for both customers and partners to take advantage of breakthrough cloud computing economics without the pain normally associated with making the transformation to the new style of IT.

Flexible Capacity opens the door for customers to free up a significant amount of working capital by putting in place minimum three-year, private-cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service deals with flex-up bursting or flex-down capabilities. The services agreements, under which HP Financial Services arranges the financing and HP Technology Services holds the sales contract, are based on the same monthly fixed-fee, pay-as-you-go model that has fueled public cloud adoption…

Read more from the source @ http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/300074764/partners-hp-flexible-capacity-is-cloud-computing-game-changer.htm

Grazed from TechTimes. Author: Christine deLooper.

Cloud computing is revolutionizing how we work and play, yet it’s not all good for the vendors competiting for users as they’re now embroiled in what the tech industry is calling the "race to zero." The phrase reflects the trend of increasing competition that is driving competitors to slash prices while offering more and more storage.

Luckily for the players, computer storage is getting cheaper so the price cuts aren’t killing bottom lines. For example, one gigabyte’s worth of storage in 1993 cost around $9,000. In 2013, that same storage space cost 4 cents. Cloud storage competition started heating up when Google began offering a free gigabyte of storage for Gmail users…

Grazed from Datamation. Author: Christine Taylor.

Backup as a Service (BaaS) provides backup and recovery operations from the cloud. The cloud-based BaaS provider maintains necessary backup equipment, applications, process and management in their data center. The customer will have some on-site installation – an appliance and backup agents are common – but there is no need to buy backup servers and software, run upgrades and patches, or purchase dedupe appliances.

Note that BaaS is not just a marketing term for online backup. Online backup is not a service: IT uses the cloud as a backup target, similar to disk or tape. In contrast, BaaS launches from the cloud service provider, who consults with the customer over needs and SLAs, and who manages the backup and recovery service…

Grazed from ChannelPartnersOnline. Author: Craig Galbraith.

Rackspace on Monday said it now supports Microsoft’s cloud platform, including System Center, Hyper-V, Windows Azure Pack and Windows Server, in all of its U.S. data centers. Part of its managed cloud strategy, Rackspace says the move gives customers options, whether it be the company’s own OpenStack-powered Rackspace Private Cloud, or Microsoft technology.

“Rackspace customers who use Microsoft software tend to be looking for the ‘whole package,’ meaning they want a place to host their servers along with a partner who can work with them to ensure they run better here than anywhere else in the world, wrote Rackspace’s Jeff DeVerter, in a blog…

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Dan Newman.

I always find it interesting when two or more innovations blend together to give us something even more amazing. Cloud computing and mobile technology have been two of the most talked-about trends in the past few years and while they have brought significant changes in the way we do business, the interaction between these two innovations looks promising. As businesses are constantly trying to reinvent themselves, they are under the mounting pressure of coping with the fast-paced evolution of the marketing sector and the emergence of new marketing practices. So, what worked for you before might not show the same results today.

Mobile is where your customer is

We can conveniently say that we have left those days behind when mobile-enabled web presence played second fiddle to web usage via desktop. Research from CNN suggests that mobile usage among adult Americans has surpassed PC internet usage. As such, mobile has become one of the most important platforms for businesses to reach out to their consumers…

Grazed from VirtualizationReview. Author: Keith Ward.

The cloud "has quickly become an essential ingredient of modern IT," says CompTIA Inc., using data from its latest study, "5th Annual Trends in Cloud Computing," which reports more than 90 percent adoption, at some level, of cloud computing. That conclusion was based on a June/July 2014 survey, which also found that moving applications, infrastructure and other resources to the cloud isn’t nearly as easy as some vendors claim in the marketing materials.

"This may come as a surprise to some firms, as they may hold an expectation that the initial migration and integration posed the largest obstacles to smooth cloud operations," Seth Robinson, CompTIA’s senior director for technology analysis, was quoted as saying in a press release…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: CJ Arlotta.

Cloud services providers (CSPs) leveraging infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platforms seem to have differing opinions on which services provider offers the best option, especially when market research conflicts. Even Talkin’ Cloud’s own research confirms a difference in results among respondents. According to the 2014 Talkin’ Cloud 100 — which ranks the world’s top cloud service providers, aggregators, brokers and more according to cloud revenues and other metrics — Amazon Web Services (EC2) is the favorite IaaS platform among CSPs.

Not only did Amazon rank as the most commonly used IaaS platform among CSPs, the Seattle-based tech giant also showed its dominance on our research list overall, snagging the number three spot with $3.94 billion in total recurring revenue in 2013. Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Azure took the number two spot on Talkin’ Cloud’s most commonly used IaaS platform list. VMware (VMW) vCloud Hybrid Service ranked third. Citrix Systems (CTXS) took fourth…

Read more from the source @ http://talkincloud.com/cloud-computing/study-amazon-microsoft-continue-iaas-battle

Grazed from CloudWedge. Author: Sean Shado.

Since cloud computing has gained stream, there is an industry wide “Race to zero” in regards to price. Cloud services keep getting cheaper and many analysts wonder if some cloud services will be free by default. If you caught some of the sound bytes Box’s CEO Aaron Levie last week, Levie goes on to mention that he sees “A future where storage is free and infinite.”

It’s starting to seem as if Cloud’s Big 3’s pricing competition has put pressure on other vendors to drop their prices and because of this, we are seeing what could be described as survival of the fittest within the cloud market. When public cloud first hit the scene in the mid 2000s, storage, compute and other IaaS services were heralded as being the darling of cloud computing…

Grazed from the VarGuy. Author: Editorial Staff.

CloudPhysics, a data-driven insight provider, is offering VMware (VMW) vSphere users a free Datacenter Insights Report to help them discover operational hazards within their IT infrastructures. The report, which was produced by CloudPhysics’ data scientists, is expected to help vSphere users gain an understanding of any hidden issues within their infrastructures and to highlight the negative impact of leaving risks unattended.

CloudPhysics’ global data set currently has more than 50 trillion points of machine metadata from data centers around the world, according to the company. Among the results of its insight report, CloudPhysics found that:…

Grazed from MobileEnterprise. Author: Editorial Staff.

The mix of technology in the enterprise today varies, but more than 90% of companies are using some form of cloud computing, according to new research from IT industry association CompTIA. Still, as users move beyond experiments and trials into more advanced applications, they’re also facing more challenges, according the Fifth Annual Trends in Cloud Computing study. "This may come as a surprise to some firms, as they may hold an expectation that the initial migration and integration posed the largest obstacles to smooth cloud operations," said Seth Robinson, senior director, technology analysis.

Transition Challenges

In fact, companies that have progressed through several of the adoption stages as defined by CompTIA find that the transitions become more difficult as they move forward. Among companies that have progressed from the first experimental stage to a non-critical use stage, 28% rated the transition as requiring significant effort…