Graxed from ScientificComputing. Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud computing is not only the latest revolution in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) world, but a key enhancer of innovation and economic development. Within the framework of the project CLOUDS, Madrid-based researchers have made crucial scientific advances in the state-of-the-art of cloud computing.

Cloud computing is an emerging paradigm for distributed computing systems whose goal is to offer software as a service over the Internet. The CLOUDS research project, in which IMDEA Networks has participated, has focused on advancing the state-of-the-art of this technology trend, one that is revolutionizing computing and the way in which users and network providers interact online…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Lori MacVittie.

Two separate surveys were recently revealed on the topic of cloud. One, from Exoprise, examined adoption rates primarily across software as a service (SaaS). The other, from Intermedia, examined rogue access in the cloud. When considering the two together, they paint a somewhat disturbing picture that presents considerable risk to organizations adopting SaaS.

Exoprise found, not unsurprisingly, a heft adoption of cloud in the SaaS market. In fact, it found that nearly 75 percent of respondents indicated their organizations uses or plans to use software as a service. That’s unsurprisingly given that most of the applications-turned-cloud being adopted are those easiest to commoditize — productivity, customer relationship Management (CRM), and Sales Force Automation (SFA). Microsoft Office 365 dominated adoption, with nearly 40 percent of all respondents, compared to around 23 percent citing Salesforce.com usage…

Grazed from BusinessInsider. Author: Julie Bort.

Google employs 450 full-time engineers to stop hackers and other snoopers from breaking into its data centers and cloud services. And today, Google published a report card of sorts on how well they are doing in those matters. The new report explains how Google’s cloud computing services work and why they are safe (Edward Snowden be darned).

For instance, Google’s cloud uses something called "perfect forward security," a special way to use encryption designed to thwart snoopers like, say, the NSA. The report is actually the result of a third-party audit done by Ernst & Young, Google security director Eran Feigenbaum told Business Insider. It’s part of a certification Google has earned that verifies its cloud is secure (known as the ISO 27001 certificate)…

Grazed from CBROnline. Author: Amy-jo Crowley.

Cisco has joined forces with LG to develop technology related to the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing systems. The networking firm said it had chosen LG CNS, a subsidiary of the South Korean electronics giant, as its first local business partner in efforts to identify business opportunities in the Korean market.

Chong Kyung-won, GM and VP of Cisco Korea, told The Korea Times: "Cisco believes the cloud computing market has huge growth potential. We’ve been consistent in providing standardised and qualified cloud and managed services to our partner companies.
"We hope the partnership with LG CNS lays the groundwork for shared growth with more Korean partners in those segments."…

Grazed from GovTech. Author: Jessica Hughes.

The risk of a data breach in the cloud is multiplying and is now costlier and happens more frequently, according to a recent study by the Ponemon Institute. But this phenomenon, which is dubbed the cloud multiplier effect, can be mitigated by a strengthened security posture, according to Larry Ponemon, chairman of the Ponemon Institute.

"It’s funny, I’m a big believer in the cloud," Ponemon said. "I like cloud and I think cloud [has] improved quite a bit from a security perspective." Cloud computing is not necessarily less secure, Ponemon said, but that is the perception among many of the study’s respondents who view on-premises data breach as easier to control and less costly as a result…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that SoftLayer, an IBM Company, plans to launch its first Australian data center in Melbourne in September. It will be the latest of 15 new data centers that IBM plans to open as part of a $1.2 billion dollar global investment to strengthen and extend its cloud services in Asia Pacific and around the world. The new onshore SoftLayer data center will meet Australian organizations’ demands for secure, in-country enterprise-grade IBM cloud services that can deliver hybrid, private and public cloud environments.

The Melbourne data center offers the full portfolio of SoftLayer’s cloud services to include bare metal and virtual servers, storage, and networking, all in one integrated platform. Replicating the design of other SoftLayer data centers around the globe, the Melbourne facility will have capacity for more than 15,000 physical servers…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Adrian Bridgwater.

Hyperconverged IT systems (or hyper-converged networks if you prefer a hyphen and a rather less generic term than ‘systems’) are the new darlings of the software management community. Well, they will be if the major vendors behind these products and methodologies have their way.

Often spoken of in the same breath as the (dreaded) so-called ‘business and technology transformation process’, hyperconvergence is a logical bedfellow for the cloud computing, dashboard (and console-view) management and software-defined worlds that it emanates from. But what is it?…

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Today at VMworld(R) 2014, VMware, NVIDIA and Google announced a collaborative effort to deliver high-performance virtual desktops and workstation-class graphics to Google Chromebooks. Showcased as a technology preview, the solution demonstrates the next generation of VMware Blast Performance and NVIDIA GRID(TM) vGPU(TM) technology to satisfy customers’ most demanding visual computing needs. The joint effort is expected to expand the hardware options for high-performance virtual desktops, enabling customers to select their system of choice without compromise.

"We are breaking down traditional barriers to adopting virtual desktops and offering new economics for the delivery of graphics-intensive applications through the power of the cloud," said Sanjay Poonen, executive vice president and general manager, End-User Computing, VMware. "Organizations of all industries and requirements will soon be able to embrace the mobile-cloud using a solution that offers a new way to work from three proven industry leaders."…

Grazed from Zacks. Author: Editorial Staff.

Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ – Analyst Report) and VMware, Inc. (VMW – Snapshot Report) recently joined forces to deploy software-defined networking (SDN) aided infrastructure to deliver enhanced performance for networking customers. Through this collaboration, Hewlett-Packard will combine its Virtual Application Networks SDN Controller with the VMware NSX network virtualization platform that provides a private cloud-based service.

This would make the cloud-computing environment more secure, simple, flexible and efficient. The announcement also stated that VMware’s enterprise-class virtualization technologies will be supported by HP’s Helion OpenStack services. The partnership will enable Hewlett-Packard to offer an efficient and improved hybrid IT environment to drive performance…

Grazed from LightReading. Author: Mitch Wagner.

Hot Interconnects — Google relies on its Andromeda networking platform to deliver a global cloud infrastructure that gives customers the security and performance benefits of local private networks. "We want bare-metal performance and low latency for the services we deliver," said Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Distinguished Engineer Amin Vahdat, delivering a keynote at the conference here today.

SDN is key to delivering the needed performance and security, he said. SDN at its most fundamental involves separating the control plane from the data plane, Vahdat noted. "A logically centralized hierarchical control plane beats peer-to-peer every time," he said. The data plane can run at network speed, while the control plane can run on commodity hardware, scaling as needed. The control plane requires 1% of the overhead of the entire network, Vahdat said…