Grazed from TalkinCloud.  Author: Chris Talbot.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has hit an interesting point in its evolution as a business. The company is by far the dominant leader in the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) space—a technology category it arguably created.  Although Microsoft (MSFT) is nipping at its heels, Azure still has a long way to go to catch up.

And some believe it will catch up in time. But as Microsoft’s IaaS year-over-year growth looks rather impressive, Amazon’s year-over-year growth is starting to look less so. But don’t let that fool you; Amazon is still growing, but its annual growth rate is slowing, according to an essay on investment blog Seeking Alpha…

Read more from the source @ http://talkincloud.com/iaas/081214/amazon-revenue-growth-slow-over-time

Grazed from V3.co.uk.  Author: Dave Neal.

Changes to the European data protection landscape could catch cloud computing providers unaware, forcing them on the backfoot if new laws are introduced.  Research by cloud company Skyhigh Networks, of 7,000 cloud services listed in its CloudRegistry directory, found that just one out of every 100 providers is likely to comply with the proposed standards.

This would force them into hasty revisions to their software, or risk falling foul of the new laws and potentially huge fines.  Skyhigh noted the numerous issues that cloud firms face at present, ranging from legislative and data protection rules to the Right to be Forgotten, as Skyhigh Networks’ European director Charlie Howe explained…

Grazed from TalkinCloud.  Author: Dan Kobialka.

IBM (IBM) has acquired Lincoln, Rhode Island-based identity and access management (IAM) platform provider Lighthouse Security Group. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.  Lighthouse Security Group is a subsidiary of IBM partner Lighthouse Computer Services, and its Gateway platform "protects identity and data in an increasingly complex IT environment where more company information is being stored in the cloud and accessed from mobile devices."

Latha Maripuri, director of IBM Security Services, told Talkin’ Cloud she believes the acquisition will help her company develop and launch new identity management solutions and ensure its customers can better manage their IT security deployments.  "This acquisition provides a cloud platform for us to build our future identity management offerings," she said…

Grazed from PRWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Cloud specialist ITonCloud today announced a new service tailored specifically to professional services industries including legal, accounting and aged-care.  Hosted in multiple robust, secure environments in Australia, ITonCloud now offers bespoke cloud solutions specific to industry requirements from $199 per user per month, with no upfront fees and no lock-in contracts.  The service includes a fully maintained ITonCloud environment, an Intelligent Desktop Terminal, and unlimited support calls.

“We’ve been providing end-to-end cloud solutions that deliver the full benefits of cloud to customers, including line of business applications all Microsoft desktop application and licensing in a hosted desktop ,” said Andrew Tucker, Chief Executive Officer, ITonCloud.  “Delivered by our partners, we’re now including industry-specific, tailored applications for the legal, accounting and aged-care sectors in our managed services portfolio.”…

Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author:  John Brandon.

Horror stories don’t just happen at the movie theater. In a few cases, companies make a big play to use the wrong cloud application or experience widespread outages in their connection to cloud storage.  While vendors claim that cloud services are secure and reliable, that’s not always the case. A better way than relying or vendor promises? Make sure your migration plans, budgets, existing infrastructure, security and any ancillary services all match up before making the jump to the cloud.

What happens when a cloud provider declares bankruptcy?

Late last year, a cloud storage company called Nirvanix shut down and gave customers only a few weeks to move data to a different provider. According to Charles King, an IT analyst, this meant companies with terabytes or even petabytes of data in the cloud had to act quickly. "A business should always have a strong sense of the assets it has stored in the cloud, but it needs to consider those points in terms of the time and cost of retrieving them," King says…

Grazed from BusinessSpectator.   Author: Steve Regini.

Time and again, surveys reveal that cloud computing raises security and reliability worries with CIOs and other execs. Two-thirds (67 per cent) of respondents in an Autumn 2013 IDG Enterprise survey chose security as one of their top three concerns, with integration a distant second (46 per cent). Security is more of an issue for large companies than for small and midsize companies, according to the report.

While these concerns are more often associated with public cloud providers, securing internal networks and ensuring uptime is a perennial challenge. Plenty of harmful and costly incidents happen inside the firewall due to employee error and gaps in protection…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Barb Darrow.

The inaugural OpenStack Silicon Valley event next month will feature speakers from the OpenStack posse: HP, Red Hat, Cloudscaling, Mirantis — the usual suspects (although IBM is mysteriously missing.)  But it will also spotlight keynoters from Eucalyptus and Citrix. That’s surprising since those companies back rival open-source clouds.

And yet Mårten Mickos, the CEO of Eucalyptus, who once likened OpenStack with its myriad backers to the Soviet Union of cloud, will be there to talk. So will Sameer Dholakia, group VP and GM of cloud computing for Citrix, a primary backer of CloudStack, another open-source cloud framework…

Grazed from XO.  Author: PR Announcement.

XO Communications (XO) on Monday said it expanded its access to Amazon Web Services’ cloud computing solutions by adding dedicated connections.  New dedicated connections will support more secure network connectivity for enterprises at speeds ranging from 50 to 500 Mbps.

This expansion of the AWS Direct Connect relationship is an enhancement to existing direct connections at speeds of 1 and 10 Gbps.  Nicola Jackson, vice president, product and marketing at XO Communications, said: “Companies are now looking for reliable, more secure access to cloud resources through direct connections to AWS…

Grazed from Defense Systems.  Author: Bill Rowan.

A paradigm shift is happening inside the Defense Department. DOD organizations are embracing the idea that computing does not need to take place in a physical arena. This change is happening due to multiple macro-trends and technological innovations.

The current budgetary climate is forcing all agencies to reduce spending and make IT more efficient. This major trend is augmented by mandates driving data center consolidation efforts and desktop virtualization. Combined, these trends are accelerating the move towards the software-defined fighting force. It simply isn’t logical any longer to think of defense IT as needing to be physical…

Grazed from Mirantis. Author: Press Release

Mirantis, the world’s leading pure-play OpenStack company, today announced the speaker lineup for OpenStack Silicon Valley 2014, a community event to be held September 16, 2014 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. The speaker line up includes top cloud executives from Cisco, Citrix, Dell, eBay, Ericsson, Eucalyptus, HP, Intel, Red Hat, VMware and more. OpenStack customers will share practical tips on deploying private and hybrid cloud solutions and experts will debate controversial topics that range from whether OpenStack needs a benevolent dictator to a call to sign an industry peace treaty in the cloud platform wars.