Grazed from Baseline. Author: Dennis McCafferty.

The majority of U.S. companies recognize that the cloud will play an essential role in innovation in the very near future. Yet, most enterprises don’t have a clear cloud migration plan in place, according to a recent survey conducted by Oxford Economics for Windstream. The accompanying survey report, titled "The Path to Value in the Cloud," reveals that organizations are falling short when it comes to getting the right performance and ROI metrics in place to measure cloud-enabling success.

There are also concerns about the cloud’s impact on security, costs, platform compatibility and privacy. However, overall sentiments remain upbeat, as the cloud is expected to help increase geographic market expansion, business transformation, collaboration and other strategy drivers…

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Hospitals and healthcare systems in need of a cost-effective, HIPAA-compliant solution for long-term archiving of healthcare data now have an alternative to on-site redundant archiving. ClearDATA Networks, Inc. today announced its new cloud-based Archive as a Service solution. It is the first offering of its kind created specifically to meet requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for archiving of healthcare data that does not need to be accessed immediately or regularly.

Healthcare organizations and medical research facilities create petabytes of confidential patient information, including patient records, lab results and images, each year. HIPAA can sometimes require a large amount of this information to be stored for up to seven years, even though it is rarely (if ever) accessed. These requirements can severely impact IT budgets as organizations pay an ever-growing price for equipment, power, cooling, floor space, backup and recovery capabilities and personnel to maintain it all. In addition, many medical research facilities still use tape to archive older data despite concerns about its reliability…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Editorial Staff.

It is not easy running a startup, but it’s getting much easier due to the availability and low cost of Cloud computing and its related services. This will inevitably mean more competition, but with the growing interest in Big Data, IoT, Cloud Computing, Wearable Technology and Clean Technology, there will be a tremendous number of options to demonstrate innovation.

The bad news is that most of the startups don’t last past the first few years as seen in the infographic provide by SurePayroll.com. However, the good news is that VC’s are out in full-force spending boatloads on new products and services. This is very good news to startups which are innovative, stick through the tough times and make smart sound business decisions…

To view infographic and read more from the source, please visit http://cloudtweaks.com/2014/08/cloud-infographic-startup-soup-hot-cold/

Grazed from CloudComputingIntelligence. Author: Editorial Staff.

XenApp and XenDesktop from Citrix now offer faster applications and greater reliability and security and claim to reduce the need for expensive SSD storage by 99% with reference architectures for Azure and a partner programme for IAAS service providers.

Citrix today announced new versions of Citrix XanApp and XenDesktop (both version7.6), the new versions which will be available in September, will have an improved user experience, improved security, instant app access, and are designed to “virtually eliminate the costs of ensuring storage performance.”…

Grazed from Phys.org.  Author: Editorial Staff.

With the sale of first its desktop PC business and now its server business to Chinese partner Lenovo, IBM has come full circle. By exiting the hardware business IBM leaves behind the low-end market it invented and returns to its roots in high performance computers, software, and a focus on the client.

Computer industry companies have to spot opportunities and ensure they change products to take advantage of shifting markets. It is an industry where leading companies can go from boom to bust in a short time, and there are many examples of those that failed to move quickly enough. The once innovative Sun Microsystems was swallowed by Oracle, the formerly cutting-edge DEC was bought by Compaq, and Compaq, instrumental in breaking open the PC market from IBM’s grip, was itself swallowed by HP. In the 1990s the world’s most popular computer games were written specifically for the 3D graphics chips from 3Dfx; just a few short years later the firm was bankrupt and snapped up by competitor Nvidia. Each had fixated on a certain product range, and failed to see the evolution of the market…

CloudComputingTech.  Author: James Bourne.

 Everyone knows that if something looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck – or at least we have to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae.  Thus according to the duck test if it looks and feels like a private cloud, it should be a private cloud. Yet CenturyLink aims to turn that on its head with its latest private cloud launch, which aims to offer the agility of a public cloud but with the security of a private cloud.

Isn’t this essentially a hybrid cloud? Well, yes and no. Each private cloud instance is plugged in to CenturyLink’s public cloud nodes, thus running off the same platform and providing what IDC research vice president Melanie Posey describes as “a frictionless hybrid cloud option.”…

Grazed from TalkinCloud.  Author: Lori MacVittie.

In 2011, Jocelyn DeGance Graham, founded Cloud Network of Women (CloudNOW), which focused on amplifying women’s contributions to technology with an emphasis on cloud computing. In the past three years the organization has grown in both numbers, reach and its mission. Most recently the organization branched out to sponsor a Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) program focused not just on encouraging women to enter STEM, but on mentoring and guiding them into and through a career.

Its roots in cloud computing arise from the reality that cloud computing has been a boon for women in computing technology. Its relatively low cost eliminates a significant barrier to entry for start-ups and encourages women to take the helm and make their mark on the industry…

Grazed from TopTechNews.  Author: Linda M. Rosencrance.

Aiming to boost its CRM Relevant Products/Services offerings, business Relevant Products/Services application software and cloud Relevant Products/Services services provider Infor has agreed to acquire the Saleslogix cloud-based CRM application from Swiftpage.

Saleslogix CRM, which will become Infor CRM, will add sales and service functionality to the Infor CloudSuite, its industry-specific software that’s available on Amazon Web Services. Swiftpage expects the transaction to close in the coming weeks. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed…

Grazed from Science20.  Author: Editorial Staff.

If you were a 1990s protester in a developed nation, you probably hate the idea of globalization, though democratization of culture and wealth have clearly been very good things. Globalization used to be controversial but by now no one sentient really thinks cultures that condone rape and stoning of women should be preserved.

Cloud computing will take that globalization to the next level, because it is a key enhancer of innovation and economic development – and it gives groups without giant budgets for hardware a way to compete, just like food science that lets crops grow in inhospitable climes saves lives…

Grazed from CloudTech.  Author: James Bourne.

Microsoft suffered a blow yesterday when its Azure cloud and virtual machines suffered a series of outages before later being restored.  According to Reuters, the downtime was due to interruptions in multiple centres, with a representative from the company explaining that a small section of its customer base was affected.

A cursory glance at Azure’s status history page gives a glimpse as to the various outages suffered, with downtime logged on both August 18 and 19.  “Starting at 18 Aug 2014, 17:49 UTC, we are experiencing an interruption to Azure Services, may include Cloud Services, Virtual Machines Websites, Automation, Service Bus, Backup, Site Recovery, HDInsight, Mobile Services and possible other Azure Services in multiple regions,” the update wrote. “Customers began to experience service restoration as updates were deployed across the affected environment.”…