Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, today announced that Altera, Chelsio Communications, DataCentred, Imagination Technologies and Travelping are joining the organization.
These companies illustrate that Linux continues to rapidly grow its footprint globally across a wide range of industries and applications.

Data centers with massive operations are increasingly common. From cloud and embedded computing to analytics and hardware customization, enterprises are struggling with how to efficiently and cost-effectively handle new types and amounts of data. Today’s new members understand the pull Linux has in the data center and support the collaborative work underway to solve today’s scalable server, network and storage challenges…

Grazed from CBROnline. Author: Editorial Staff.

Nearly half of UK organisations are ready to adopt software defined networking (SDN) even though they don’t understand it. A survey of 200 IT decision makers found that 40% of businesses are planning to deploy SDN, which promises to make the network more flexible, easier to manage and more secure, within the next five years.

Another 34% said they are planning to adopt Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) during the same period, with 27% keen to do so before 2018. However, 37% of decision makers admitted that they did not fully understand the concept of SDN, while 45% said the same about NFV…

Grazed from BizJournals. Author: Patrick Hoge.

Salesforce.com, a pioneer in cloud computing, has usually been an early adopter of new computing and related services trends, launching an app store for integrated applications, embedding social networking in its products and transforming its technical base for smartphones.

Now the trend du jour is wearable computing, and Salesforce has jumped on the bandwagon in a big way, as shown by recent investments in wearable startups and an initiative to get developers to build applications that connect devices worn on the face, wrist and body with Salesforce’s technology…

Grazed from Business-Technology. Author: Joanne Frearson.

It’s an unusual comparison, admittedly. But “cheap” and “chic” are two terms Beighton feels are appropriate when it comes to describing the cloud – it is cost effective, and it has the capacity to serve millions or billions of people very quickly, then change equally quickly. Beighton certainly knows a lot about the cloud, and has a varied background when it comes to technology, becoming part of the government’s programme to switch off analogue television and move over to digital after a spell as CTO of lastminute.com.

One area where he believes cloud computing is chic is in the internet of things (IoT). In order for the IoT to work, he says, devices need to be able to talk to each other. Classifications have to be agreed upon as to how to define these devices, which in turn needs to be put into context as to how they are being used…

Grazed from NewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Tech Data Corporation (Nasdaq:TECD) today announced the introduction of a new cloud-focused education and enablement program through Tech Data’s TDCloud business unit. Offered as part of TDCloud Academy, the program offers customized education tracks for solution providers focused on launching, expanding, and maximizing cloud businesses.

TDCloud Academy is Tech Data’s tiered cloud education program for solution providers, designed to accelerate adoption of cloud solutions and identify new cloud opportunities. The announcement was made in conjunction with Tech Data’s TDCloud Partner Summit, taking place this week in Miami, Florida…

Grazed from GPSWorld. Author: Editorial Staff.

Spectra Precision introduced a new cloud computing service for Spectra Precsion applications. The company also announced new road modules for version 5.5 of its Survey Pro software and for Spectra Precision Survey Office. The announcements were made at InterGeo 2014, being held this week in Berlin.

Spectra Precision Central. A dedicated cloud computing service for Spectra Precision survey applications, Spectra Precision Central offers survey teams in the field and office the ability to rapidly exchange survey and project data with team members when and where it is needed…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Dave Hart.

If I asked you to name a multi-billion dollar market that’s getting a long overdue cloud makeover, would field service management be at the forefront of your mind? It should. This $15 billion industry has only just begun to dip its toe into the huge pool of possibility thanks to software as a service, the tablet and smartphone revolution, and senior management’s recognition that service is indeed strategic.

Add to this the commercial insight into addressable revenue-generating opportunities and the resulting top line growth, and you’ve got a new cloud darling. Service businesses represent around 70% of the world’s economy, yet to date, only about a third of the world’s large service businesses currently use field service management solutions…

Grazed from EETimes. Author: Levent Gurgen.

The ClouT project is a joint Europe-Japan collaboration to make cities smarter, helping them face emerging challenges in efficient energy management, safety and security, and economic growth and development. The project is creating a layer of services to bridge cloud computing and the Internet of Things to establish a communications and collaboration platform that exploits all possible information sources.

ClouT — which stands for cloud of things — is providing infrastructure, services, tools that will be used by cities, their citizens, service developers, and application integrators to create, deploy, and manage applications that take advantage of IoT and cloud capabilities. In addition, the program will help end-users create and share their own cloud services…

Grazed from PCWorld. Author: Mikael Ricknäs.

NTT Communications is giving the power of choice to network administrators, releasing an upgrade for its Enterprise Cloud platform that will allow for on-the-fly changes to bandwidth capacity and VPN connections. The server side of cloud computing already offers IT managers a large degree of flexibility. Enterprises can use self-service options and APIs (application programming interfaces) to customize server functions…

However, network managers have far less control over network connections between users and cloud-based servers, according to Len Padilla, vice president of product strategy at NTT Communications. With its upgrade to Enterprise Cloud, which has been live for about two-and-a-half years, NTT wants to change that. The upgrade lets network administrators increase or decrease the available bandwidth of connections to the cloud service, depending on the amount of traffic they expect at a given time…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: James Bourne.

Flash storage provider SolidFire has beefed up its funding pool with a series D round of $82m, bringing its total up to $150m. The funding was led by Greenspring Associates, a new investor, along with current investors NEA, Novak Biddle, Samsung Ventures and Valhalla Partners. SolidFire says the new funds will be part of a global push and to advance its all-flash storage architecture.

“Series D financing for SolidFire is important,” Jay Prassl, SolidFire VP marketing, told CloudTech. “When you’re building an infrastructure company and a storage company like SolidFire, it’s a capital-intensive business. “This D round funding is very important because it puts SolidFire very much on a path to profitability,” he added…