Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Sachin Shridhar.

In the evolving world of IT where the only constant is change, students and professionals alike are always looking out for IT trends, and skills they need to update themselves with in order to stay relevant. According to Forrester, the global cloud computing market is set to explode from US$40.7 billion in 2011 to US$241 billion by 2020.

CIOs everywhere are dedicating increasingly larger budgets to cloud computing, indicating the growing importance of clouds in many organizations’ IT strategies. This comes as no surprise, considering the task and cost efficiency of cloud for daily business operations. Higher cloud adoption will come with increasing demands for people who can operate them. IT professionals who also become cloud experts are likely to find their expertise highly valued by many organizations preparing for this impending cloud explosion…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: CJ Arlotta.

MSD Capital has made a "multi-million dollar" capital investment in Eagle Eye Networks, an Austin, Texas-based cloud surveillance security company. Announced on Thursday, the Series B funds will be used to further expand the Eagle Eye Security Camera Video Management System (VMS) to "meet the rapidly growing" demand from its customers, the company said.

Austin Ventures and Enrique Salem, former CEO of Symantec (SYMC) and current board Member at FireEye, a Milpitas, California-based network security company, also participated in the financing round. "Cloud technology is transforming the video surveillance industry, with broad applications spanning both security and business operations," MSD Capital founder Michael Dell said in a statement…

Read more from the source @ http://talkincloud.com/cloud-computing-funding-and-finance/michael-dell-invests-cloud-video-surveillance

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

Do you know how much cloud computing is really going on in your organization? If you’re like IT management in most companies and government agencies, you don’t have a clue. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) doesn’t know how many cloud computing contracts it has or how secure they are, according to a recent audit by the agency’s inspector general, in a report released last week.

In at least one instance, the EPA may not have had access to a subcontractor’s cloud for investigative purposes. Worse, that same subcontractor was not compliant with the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), which sets security standards for cloud providers. Most IT leaders don’t have a real understanding of how many cloud computing (or other technology) resources are being used — and to what extent — right under their noses. It’s called "shadow IT" for a reason: Those technologies are in the shadows…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Jeramiah Dooley.

Public cloud services have put huge pressures on enterprise IT to compete in a more agile way. When it can take days or even weeks for IT departments to procure and manually set-up necessary networking and storage hardware to support new applications, why wouldn’t employees turn to providers who can meet their needs within minutes?

To meet these demands, the hardware infrastructure needs to be more than fast; it needs to be flexible and scalable with rapid automation to meet the needs of its users. Storage has a key role to play here, with a sophisticated management layer that can separate performance and capacity – independently controlling access speeds and available drive space on an app-by-app basis – it has now become possible to virtualise performance independent of capacity…

Grazed from InfraScience. Author: Editorial Staff.

As companies continue to migrate toward cloud computing on a variety of enterprise fronts, it’s important for business leaders to make sure they’re getting the most out of the experience. There are constantly new tools and dynamic strategies rolling out that are meant to boost productivity and increase corporate success, but not all of these are as successful as others. What matters most is keeping clear lines of communication both within and among outward-facing channels, tasks that are best established and maintained through social media.

A social world

The presence of social media is becoming proliferate both in the cloud and on mobile devices. Consumers already make ample use of this technology, so it behooves companies to keep up with the trend. After all, who buys retail products, determines what’s trendy or influences the flow of enterprise investments if not consumers?…

Grazed from Solar Communications. Author: Editorial Staff.

On-demand cloud computing is estimated to create 3.8 million jobs and generate up to £197 billion to European Union CDP by 2020. This is according to research from the European Commission. A report published by ITProPortal says this displays just how important on-demand cloud computing is in addressing demands for agility and growth in business.

This cloud model allows organisations to access a pool of configurable resources, including servers, application and storage. It means businesses can access services in a flexible and pay-as-you-go manner, instead of purchasing hardware and licenses outright. The business benefits of using the cloud are multiple. Forty-six per cent of those questioned claimed more effective mobile working was an advantage…

Grazed from Pertino. Author: Editorial Staff.

Pertino, a company reinventing networking for the cloud era, today announced a modern approach to WAN-based VPC using its Cloud Network Engine service. As cloud adoption increases, so does the demand for extending VPC over the WAN to connect public cloud servers across different regions and providers and with remote servers and users. Today’s WAN-based VPC solutions are very complicated and inflexible, creating significant friction with the dynamic and elastic cloud infrastructures they connect. The Pertino Cloud Network Engine enables IT and DevOps professionals to build secure, cloud-based VPCs in minuteswithout configuration or hardware that work anywhere with any public cloud provider.

According to IDC, worldwide spending on Hosted Private Cloud services is set to surpass $24 billion in 2016, and analysts "anticipate that virtual private cloud will be the predominant operational model for companies wanting to take advantage of the speed and lower capital costs associated with cloud computing."…

Grazed from FT. Author: Richard Waters.

Microsoft on Thursday suffered a setback in a case testing the cross-border reach of law enforcement in the cloud computing era, after it was ordered to hand US authorities a user’s email held in a datacentre in Ireland. The decision, if it stands, represents a further reversal for the US internet industry in the wake of the Snowden revelations about widespread surveillance by the National Security Agency, according to legal experts.

“For technology companies that store data outside the US, it’s a hugely important case,” said Craig Newman, Managing Partner of New York law firm Richards Kibbe & Orbe. “It really opens up a Pandora’s box in terms of seeking information outside the US.” Microsoft, which had fought the order, immediately said that it would appeal. Its resistance has already won the backing of Brussels, which earlier this year questioned whether the US attempt to access email held overseas breached international law…

Read more from the source @ http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0649c042-18e6-11e4-933e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz395FbLhbS

Grazed from BSMinfo. Author: John Humphreys.

With its ability to provide infrastructure access, make applications more affordable, eliminate implementation cost and complexity and increase speed, the cloud is becoming the primary delivery platform for businesses. While many look at the cloud as a state-of-the-art marvel, managed services providers (MSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) who are losing customers to this new proposition are feeling differently about the benefits of the cloud.

But rather than approaching the cloud as a threat, the reseller channel community should be looking at the cloud as a business opportunity. By reexamining business models and rethinking how to deliver IT services going forward, MSPs and ISVs will find that there is plenty of room for intermediaries in the cloud…

Grazed from Hollywood Reporter. Author: Etan Vlessing.

Shaw Communications is expanding its data center business by acquiring Colorado-based ViaWest for $1.2 billion. The bid by the western Canadian cable giant for a bigger slice of cloud revenues, unveiled on Thursday, will see ViaWest continue to operate as a subsidiary of Calgary-based Shaw.

The Canadian company will acquire a 100 percent interest in the privately-held ViaWest from Oak Hill Capital Partners and other shareholders. ViaWest provides data center and cloud technology services in the U.S. market. Shaw is following other North American cable and telco rivals in building out their data center businesses…