Grazed from CloudCommunications. Author: Frank Griffin.

Access to resources is one of the difficulties SMBs face as they try to navigate the business world. In today’s environment technology is a critical component of an organization’s makeup, and no matter what kind of industry you’re in, having a digital presence and using information and communications technology (ICT) is essential. In the past, the CapEx/OpEx of IT infrastructure priced the vast majority of SMBs from implementing these solutions as part of their operations, but that is no longer the case.

Cloud computing now makes it possible for even the smallest of businesses to deploy SaaS (News – Alert), PaaS, and IaaS at affordable price points. In an article written by Michael Brown on mspmentor.net, he points to a recent study showing executives in the U.S. believe having cloud services has delivered a significant value to their business…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Eric Knorr.

The primary mission of computing has always been to automate business. The secondary mission has been to automate the automation, a quest that grows ever more urgent as data center technology achieves such towering complexity it threatens to collapse under its own weight. The private cloud is the latest attempt to boost the efficiency and agility of the vast assortment of hardware and software sprawled across data centers.

The idea is to pool compute, storage, and network resources and manage them from a central software control point rather than scrambling to provision, monitor, manage, and reconfigure all that infrastructure manually. Predictably, the organizations with the most experience designing and running shared infrastructure are the public cloud service providers themselves…

Grazed from SarbOx. Author: Editorial Staff.

Datapipe, a global provider of managed hosting and cloud services, has announced that the Datapipe Cloud Analytics for Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform has been recognized with a 2014 Cloud Computing Excellence Award. The award honors companies who have effectively leveraged cloud computing capabilities while bringing forth new, innovative offerings to market. An advanced managed service offering, Datapipe Cloud Analytics for AWS utilizes data-mining and intelligence tools to track AWS patterns, providing in-depth analysis of areas such as usage, spending, security and governance.

“Datapipe is being honored for their achievement in bringing innovation and excellence to the market, while leveraging the latest technology trends.” Designed to assist global customers using AWS for both hybrid and public cloud deployments, Datapipe Cloud Analytics offers a cost-effective management approach from a single solution…

Grazed from Wired. Author: Klint Finley.

Matt Pfeil drove from Austin to San Antonio with only one thing in mind: stopping Jonathan Ellis from quitting his job at the cloud computing company Rackspace. Ellis had emailed his colleagues, including Pfeil, to say he planned on leaving Rackspace to start a new company around Cassandra, a sweeping open-source database originally created by Facebook to help juggle the scads of digital information generated by its popular social network.

Pfeil had worked with Cassandra at Rackspace, so he knew the value of the project, but he didn’t want Rackspace to lose Ellis. When he wasn’t writing code, Pfeil helped with the company’s recruiting efforts, and that made it especially difficult to see Ellis leave. The two met for lunch at a tiny Thai restaurant in San Antonio, and Pfeil brought a long list of reasons why Ellis shouldn’t quit. But soon, his plan started to backfire…

Grazed from DBTA. Author: Editorial Staff.

Scientists from IBM, AT&T, and Applied Communication Sciences (ACS) have announced a proof-of-concept for technology that reduces set up times for cloud-to-cloud connectivity from days to seconds. This advance is a major step forward that could one day lead to sub-second provisioning time with IP and next-generation optical networking equipment and enables elastic bandwidth between clouds at high connection request rates using intelligent cloud data center orchestrators, instead of requiring static provisioning for peak demand.

“This technology not only represents a new ability to scale big data workloads and cloud computing resources in a single environment but the elastic bandwidth model removes the inefficiency in consumption versus cost for cloud-to-cloud connectivity,” said Douglas Freimuth, IBM Research senior technical staff member and master inventor…

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Jon Oltsik.

According to ESG research, 63% of mid-market (i.e. 250 to 999 employees) and enterprise (i.e. more than 1,000 employees) are currently using Software-as-a Service (SaaS), 33% use Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and 27% employ Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) today (note: I am an ESG employee).

Additionally, 72% of all firms are increasing their spending on cloud computing initiatives this year. Wasn’t IT risk supposed to put the brakes on cloud computing deployment? Security professionals are still quite concerned. In a recent ESG research survey, infosec pros identified numerous cloud security risk areas as follows:…

Read more from the source @ http://www.networkworld.com/article/2459955/cisco-subnet/cloud-security-priorities-and-synergies-with-enterprise-security.html

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

RightScale® Inc., a demonstrated leader in enterprise cloud portfolio management, today announced the general availability of RightScale Cloud Analytics, the first multi-cloud cost management solution that integrates with a cloud management platform to enable users to take action on insights and implement budget controls.

RightScale Cloud Analytics, first announced in beta in November 2013, is an enterprise-grade cost management solution that provides sophisticated cloud usage and cost analysis as well as forecasting and scenario planning across major public and private clouds. Cloud Analytics is part of the RightScale Cloud Portfolio Management platform, which includes Cloud Analytics, Cloud Management, and Self-Service…

Grazed from DataCenterKnowledge. Author: Pete Johnson.

As you may know, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Oracle can copyright the Java API and Google violated that copyright by creating software that is API compatible. This has huge impact across the entire software world, but in particular with cloud computing where the APIs are used to provision resources on demand.

This development sheds light on the desire for users to avoid lock-in and have the ability to more freely move applications between clouds, which can be done more easily with API compatibility. But it also sheds light on the alternative of an abstraction approach that frees cloud vendors to innovate beyond borders imposed by API compatibility while giving users the portability they seek…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Charles Babcock.

When it comes to judging the true cost of cloud computing, many companies try to break down the cost of running their own on-premises data center and compare that with the cost of using Amazon’s or Microsoft’s cloud. At Airbnb, Dave Augustine doesn’t really have time for all that.

The six-year-old Web company has never had its own data center. Airbnb launched its service, which matches travelers with people looking to rent out a room or other accommodation, using the Amazon cloud, and its developers still build all their applications for Amazon’s EC2. Having more than one cloud infrastructure provider, says Augustine, Airbnb’s manager of site reliability engineering, "is an interesting idea" he might look at someday — perhaps after Airbnb doubles its bookings again. As for determining his company’s return on investment on Amazon services, Augustine calls that "penny-pinching."…

Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Haystax Technology Inc. , a developer of next-generation analytics and cloud computing solutions, today announced that it has acquired NetCentrics Corporation , a leader in cybersecurity and network management solutions for defense and federal customers. The acquisition provides immediate scale to create a single company capable of driving greater innovation and positioning itself as a premier high-tech provider, specializing in big data analytics, cloud computing, real-time threat assessment, cybersecurity and IT enterprise management for defense, intelligence and commercial markets. Together, the companies are poised to leverage a multi-billion dollar market opportunity.

With a revenue of more than $100 million, the companies will effectively address the top technology growth sectors, including cybersecurity, analytics, cloud computing, IT infrastructure modernization and secure mobility solutions. With the Haystax Technology Accelerator and NetCentrics’ OVO consulting group, the company will continue to focus on delivering next generation disruptive products and services…