Grazed from VirtualizationReview.  Author:  Dennis Schwartz.

When it comes to cloud computing, Microsoft’s goal is clear: Redmond is "in it to win."  That was the main message from Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich at his keynote address during the TechMentor conference on the Microsoft campus.

He emphasized that growing use of the Microsoft Azure cloud service, rapidly expanding features and a price war is putting the squeeze on cloud market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS)…

Grazed from Baseline.  Author: Dennis McCafferty.

Remember when Oracle CEO Larry Ellison famously dismissed the cloud as "complete gibberish"? Or the days when you’d mention cloud computing in casual conversation with a non-techy friend or family member, and they’d have absolutely no clue what you were talking about? Clearly, those days are in the past, as the cloud is now a mainstream technology that is considered essential for business.

Ninety-four percent of organizations surveyed are using cloud computing, and 58 percent have a hybrid (public and private) cloud strategy in place, according to the annual "2014 State of the Cloud Report" from RightScale. Given all the interest about this technology, there’s been a lot of other research released about cloud investments and trends…

Grazed from FederalTimes.  Author: Andy Medici.

The Defense Department will soon be moving some of its data into the cloud as part of a series of pilot projects, acting chief information officer Terry Halvorsen said Aug. 13.  He said at the 2014 Federal Forum in Washington, D.C., that he expects DoD to announce five pilots by Sept. 1 that will expand its efforts to move data into the cloud and has promised his staff a steak dinner when they finalize the pilots.

“I think you will see us announce that fairly quickly going forward,” Halvorsen said.  The Defense Department will start with level three data — sensitive information that is not for the public — and then move on to level four. But the focus will be in what he called semi-private clouds, such as government-only clouds available in the private sector…

Read more from the source @ http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20140813/IT/308130012/DoD-release-cloud-computing-pilots-by-September?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Departments|p

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Jeffrey Burt.

Juniper Networks is rolling out a new line of Ethernet switches aimed at helping enterprises deal with the increasing demand for better and faster access to cloud services and applications such as unified communications and virtual desktop infrastructures.

Juniper’s new EX4600 switches, announced Aug. 13, are open and scalable, and offer high performance in a small and cost-effective form factor, according to company officials. The switches also leverage Juniper’s Open Converged Framework (OCF), an approach to networking introduced by the company in June that calls for using open, published interfaces to enable the convergence of wired and wireless networks from different vendors…

Grazed from GeekWire.  Auhor: Tricia Duryee.

Amazon has made a rare investment in Acquia, a Burlington, Mass.-based digital marketing company that operates on Amazon’s cloud services.  The undisclosed investment piggybacks on a $50 million round closed in May from major investors, including Sigma Partners and New Enterprise Associates.

In all, the company has raised more than $100 million over several rounds of funding.  The company said the money will be used to help deliver an open cloud platform for content, community and commerce.  Investments made directly by Amazon, and not Jeff Bezos, are fairly infrequent. Recent examples include small investments in e-commerce companies in China or India…

Grazed from NetworkWorld.  Author: Brandon Butler.

The Internet of Things has reached the height of its hype, according to Gartner.  Each year the research firm puts out a Hype Cycle of emerging technologies, a sort of report card for various trends and buzzwords. This year, IoT tops the list.

Gartner believes that most emerging technologies go through a natural process in which they are triggered by some innovation, then they rise to a peak of inflated expectations. As the technologies mature, markets generally become disillusioned by them, before they start to become mainstream and just part of everyday technology…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Chris Preimesberger.

It’s not discussed and written about as much as it probably should be, but cloud applications crash at least as often as their on-premise counterparts. It’s simply a fact of IT life: Any application running anywhere—whether on a physical server or in a virtual machine halfway across the world—can crash at any time.

While minimizing downtime remains a key IT challenge, cloud computing disasters require a slightly different approach. Increased flexibility does mean that IT administrators have to give up a degree of control. When disaster does strike, there’s no physical data center you can visit to investigate the problem—or at least it’s usually not close enough to access quickly…

Grazed from BusinessWorld.  Author: Editorial Staff.

VMware is an American technology company that provides cloud and virtualisation software and services. Virtualisation in computing refers to the process of creating a virtual (rather than a real) version of hardware, operating systems, storage devices, and computer network resources. It has helped technology companies reduce expenses by boosting efficiency and agility.

Though VMware is majority owned by data storage giant EMC, it operates independently and works with even competitors of its parent. It accounts for a quarter of EMC’s revenues, and more than 70 per cent of EMC’s market capitalisation of nearly $60 billion. VMware, which had revenues of $5.21 billion in 2013, is the fifth-largest software company in the world…

Grazed from CloudComputingNews.  Author:  Nick Razey.

If we ever lose a bid for a data centre contract, it is for one of two reasons.  Either the customer insists on being close to London and is happy to pay the premium for doing so, or the customer is obsessed by paying the lowest possible price and will accept any quality of data centre service to achieve this.

While I struggle to understand both points of view it is the latter approach which is totally incomprehensible in the modern world.  I see the IT infrastructure as an inverted pyramid. At the bottom is the cheapest element, the data centre service.  It is staggering to think that the cost of this per rack (at NGD at least) is only £20 per day or less…

Grazed from ITProPortal.  Author: Editorial Staff.

There are some very important business and operational reasons why companies must adopt the cloud or risk being left in the dust. This HP whitepaper outlines these reasons and shows why those that have adopted the cloud will continue to thrive.

Opex over Capex

In business, capital expenditure can be a drain on operational performance. Just like buying a new car that is then worth half its original cost after about a year’s driving, the same can be said for servers and data storage equipment, as well as on-premise software.  Constant outlays on hardware and software have a detrimental effect on cashflow and a drastic effect on the company’s bottom line. This is where cloud computing comes to the rescue, by allowing customers to use the systems provided at a much cheaper cost using the Opex model. Those companies doing everything themselves in-house, with their own hardware and software, are at a cost disadvantage…