Grazed from IT BusinessEdge. Author: Loraine Lawson.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is nice and all, according to 92 percent of the 350 IT executives surveyed conducted by Dimensional Research, but it would be much better if integration weren’t such a concern, the respondents said, according to an Integration Developer News report.

“The ability to avoid SaaS silos and easily obtain consistent data integration and data quality across on-premise and cloud-based data is definitely a top concern among those IT decision makers we surveyed,” Richard Broome, CIO of Host Analytics, told IDN. Overall, 88 percent reported “challenges” with SaaS business applications and 67 percent specifically cited data integration problems…

Grazed from GCN.  Author: William Jackson.

Faced with steep budget cuts, Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development needed to find a way to cut the cost of meetings with staff and stakeholders around the state without giving up the benefits of face-to-face communication.

The Department of Land Conservation and Development is a regulatory agency with about 60 staffers scattered across offices at department headquarters in Salem, at the state office building in Portland and at regional offices at Newport, La Grande, Tillamook, Eugene, Medford and Bend. Staff members also must work with local governments, industry officials, land owners and developers across the state…

Grazed from TechRepublic.  Author: James Sanders.

Microsoft’s internal IT department introduced a plan last week on what steps it’s taking to move the business processes into Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform.This move, as explained in the posting on the Microsoft TechNet Blogs website, is necessitated by Microsoft closing two data centers over the next 24 months, as well as allowing leases on others to expire.

In addition, thousands of existing servers will reach end of life over the next five years, which would require $200 million to replace. The migration to the new model of hybrid cloud infrastructure built on top of Microsoft Azure is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018…

Graze from TalkinCloud. Author: Steph Martin.

As one of the newest members to join CompTIA’s Partner Advisory Council a few weeks ago I was immediately and affectionately dubbed the "poster child" for the Hybrid VAR. Along with my new and somewhat daunting poster child status, the council proceeded to essentially begin the evangelism of the newest buzz term for this mystical technology unicorn and so was born (pardon the pun) the "born in the cloud" partner — also known as me.

Now before I launch into the meaning of what is sure to explode into the newest cliche in an industry well-known for it’s overuse of acronyms and homegrown vernacular, I want to publicly set the record straight (mostly to put my children and friends at ease and dispel the confusion surrounding my miraculous mythological birth with this talk of the ever-elusive concept cloud computing)…

Grazed from TheCloud Network. Author: Editorial Staff.

More and more small businesses are moving to the ‘cloud’ and IT companies are offering more services and solutions in the ‘cloud’. Why are businesses and IT providers moving away from “on-premises”? This past week at the XChange Event in San Antonio, Texas, many IT and business experts brought up this popular topic.

Their response was that ‘cloud’ computing has many more benefits for all parties involved, no matter the size of the enterprise. Smaller companies are able to get ahead and compete with bigger players, as barriers are broken down and fast growth is not an issue anymore with a fully integrated solution in the “Cloud”, such as erpWizard…

Grazed from ThoughtsOnCloud. Author: Ahmed Banafa.

The term “fog computing” or “edge computing” means that rather than hosting and working from a centralized cloud, fog systems operate on network ends. It is a term for placing some processes and resources at the edge of the cloud, instead of establishing channels for cloud storage and utilization.

fog computingFog computing tackles an important problem in cloud computing, namely, reducing the need for bandwidth by not sending every bit of information over cloud channels, and instead aggregating it at certain access points. This type of distributed strategy lowers costs and improves efficiencies. More interestingly, it’s one approach to dealing with the emerging concept of Internet of Things (IoT)…

Grazed from MarketWatch. Author: PR Announcement.

Software defined storage provides customers with a vision and roadmap to the next generation data center including cloud deployments. NetApp(R) NTAP, +0.68% today announced new solutions that increase and simplify automation of software-defined storage elements and provide fine-grained management of VMware virtual machine data, including evaluation software that interoperates with VMware’s Virtual Volumes to help customers achieve more efficient IT operations at a lower cost. Additionally, NetApp is announcing new OnCommand(R) software with enhanced data protection and improved reporting capabilities, and flash-optimized FlexPod(R)(1) with VMware Horizon View(TM) for end-user computing.

Software-Defined Storage for the Cloud Era NetApp is a key design partner for VMware’s Virtual Volumes, a new data storage architecture designed to enable granular, VM-level management of storage resources and data services, based on application-centric policies. NetApp’s solution for VMware Virtual Volumes will deliver advanced policy based software-defined storage management. NetApp’s support for Virtual Volumes builds upon NetApp’s patented Virtual Storage Console (VSC) for VMware that improves data storage efficiency and reduces cost and complexity in a VMware virtual infrastructure environment…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has bumped its credentials with the Department of Defense. Following on a previous announcement in March in which Amazon received DoD Provisional Authorization under the DoD Cloud Security Model for Impact Levels 1-2, the cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider has increased its credentials to include Impact Levels 3-4.

Amazon said it is the first cloud services provider to receive certification for Impact Levels 3-4, anabling it to offer cloud services for sensitive workloads via GovCloud. "As part of the Level 3-5 Authorization, our partners and DoD customers will be able to implement a wide range of DoD requirements necessary to protect their data at these levels, including AWS Direct Connect routing to the DoD’s network, comprehensive computer network defense coverage, and Common Access Card (CAC) integration," wrote Jeff Barr, chief evangelist for Amazon Web Services, in a blog post…

Grazed from SysCon Media. Author: Editorial Staff.

CloudByte, the first provider of secure, multi-application storage for Enterprise applications, announced the worldwide release of CloudByte ElastiStor Appliance (ESA), a complete self-managed storage solution a couple of months back in three variants: A10, A50, and A100. ElastiStor Appliances enable any size organization to break away from vendor lock-in and high expense of legacy storage approaches. Subsequent to the global launch of ESA, CloudByte has tailored the current release to meet the strong demand for all-flash appliances in India.

While the SanDisk Optimus Eco SAS SSDs power the all-flash and hybrid storage pools, Netweb, the leading provider of server, storage and high-performance computing (HPC) solutions, facilitates distribution and hardware support. IndiQus Technologies is the implementation partner…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Joe McKendrick.

We’ve only just begun to embrace the potential of cloud. As the so-called Internet of Things takes hold, cloud computing services will need to acquire a new depth and breadth to handle petabytes of data, demanding, complex applications, and millions of users. New, evolving architecture is needed. The National Science Foundation (NSF) wants to promote a new generation of applications, including real-time and safety-critical applications such as those used in medical devices, power grids, and transportation systems.

These are among the reasons NSF recently announced two $10 million projects to create cloud computing testbeds–to be called "Chameleon" and "CloudLab"– that will enable researchers to develop and experiment with, as they put it, "novel cloud architectures and pursue new, architecturally-enabled applications" of cloud computing. Ultimately, the goal of the NSFCloud program and the two new projects is to advance the field of cloud computing broadly, its promoters said…