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.

Grazed from TechSpot.  Author: Kent Smith.

When looking at the near future of data center technology, there are two very important trends to consider. First—the adoption of public and private cloud computing continues to become much more pervasive. Enterprises, software developers, and home users are all making the transition to cloud-based models for services and storage.

Second—devices, data, and network demand are all projected to grow at explosive rates over the next few years. By 2020, the digital universe – the data we create and copy annually – will reach 44 zettabytes, or 44 trillion gigabytes. There will be an estimated 24 billion IP-connected devices online (up from 13 billion in 2013). Network expansion is expected to more than triple in that same timeframe, from 63 million new server ports to 206 million…

Grazed from PC World Magazine.  Author: Mikael Ricknäs.

Atos’s offer to acquire servers and services specialist Bull has been approved, making it possible for the company to beef up its security and cloud computing offerings.  The French IT services company announced a €620 million (US$830 million) bid for Bull at the end of May.

The deal required Atos to acquire 50 percent plus one share of Bull’s equity, and that condition has been met, Atos said Monday. It will hold 84.25 percent of Bull’s share capital and voting rights and 18.4 percent of the convertible bonds in circulation by a settlement date set for next Monday, the company said…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Leon Spencer.

IBM has filed a patent for a technique that will automatically manage cloud data across geographic regions, claiming it will allow client companies to comply with regulations governing where data can be stored in different countries and continents. "During the early years of cloud computing, it was evident that storing and accessing business data across geographically dispersed cloud computing environments could present logistical and regulatory challenges," said IBM’s Sandeep Ramesh Patil, co-inventor of the patent.

"Our team of inventors designed a system that will allow businesses to efficiently manage and move data in the cloud, while meeting required compliance mandates in different countries." Although IBM waited until August 8 to announce the new technique, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published the patent on March 18. The patent was first filed with the USPTO on September 23, 2010…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Joe McKendrick.

In the business world over the past couple of decades, no two words have carried more negative baggage and resulted in such trepidation than downsizing and outsourcing. Downsizing is still the nasty term it has always been, but lately, there’s been a sea change in attitudes toward outsourcing.

That’s because cloud is shattering the practice of outsourcing as we’ve known it. It’s transforming outsourcing from an invasive, Borg-like assimilation of jobs and departments to everyone’s toolset. In a way, cloud has ripped open the very fabric of the outsourcing universe. Outsourcing — that is, the use of services outside one’s organization — has become a part of our day-to-day lives, and we embrace this model with gusto…

Grazed from CMO. Author: Editorial Staff.

Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), today announced the creation of a new cloud partner ecosystem with Avnet Technology Solutions, the global IT solutions distribution leader and an operating group of Avnet, Inc.(NYSE: AVT). Avnet was named national value-add distributor of the Hitachi Cloud Services Connection program (HCSC) in Australia.

Under the brand Avnet Cloud Connect, Hitachi Data Systems and Avnet, together with independent software vendors (ISVs) and alliance partners, help a growing number of resellers and systems integrators (SIs) to capitalise on the opportunity of cloud computing without the need for capital investment…

Grazed from MSDynamicsWorld.  Author: Rob Curls.

 "No one understands the cloud! It’s a mystery!"  Those words of anguish, from Jason Segel to his co-star Cameron Diaz in a new comedy, sum up the confusion that still surrounds cloud technology for most people. In this case, the pair discovers that their computer has uploaded undesirable personal data to a cloud-based file sharing service, making it visible to everyone they know. Can they get the offending content back, saving some shred of their dignity in the process?

While this is a fictional story wrapped around a comedic personal mishap, it identifies some key challenges we face with cloud computing today, from the lack of controls for safeguarding data to a general lack of knowledge in the general public…