Month: October 2012

Grazed from Talkin Cloud.  Author: Joe Panetierri.

Avnet Technology Solutions (NYSE: AVT) and Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ: AMZN) have inked a cloud computing partnership to empower VARs, MSPs, ISVs and other channel partners, Talkin’ Cloud has learned. The cloud relationship will initially involve Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) database services and Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD) Whitewater cloud storage gateway solutions. But take a closer look and it’s clear Avnet and Amazon intend to explore of additional cloud solution bundles for Avnet’s channel partners.

The Avnet Cloud Solutions initiative (unveiled in May 2012) seems to be gaining momentum with industry heavyweights. Instead of simply reselling SaaS offerings to channel partners, Avnet has been creating custom bundles (backed by a cloud support team) for its partner ecosystem…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Bart Copeland.

Shadow IT projects crop up in much the same way. Gridlocked by the processes and protocols imposed by IT management, developers very often give in to the temptation of moving their projects outside where they can progress faster. These “shadow IT” or “dark ops” which happen when developers go outside the firewall — spinning up and provisioning their work on beyond-the-firewall cloud resources to support time-sensitive project delivery. These efforts typically happen without the knowledge of IT (or accounting) departments…

Grazed from CRN.  Author: Chad Berndston.

Oracle (NSDQ:ORCL) plans to attack the cloud computing opportunity with a slew of new channel offerings for its 25,000 partners, including programs that will designate specialized Oracle partners as cloud builders and others that will pay partners referral fees and extra incentives for their cloud integration expertise.

It’s the latest in a series of cloud-centric moves from the software giant, for which a software-and-services strategy is seen as increasingly important as its hardware business continues to erode. The launch is actually five distinct channel offerings that Judson Althoff, Oracle senior vice president, worldwide alliances and channels, is scheduled to unveil to partners during an Oracle Partner Network (OPN) keynote on Sunday — the channel kickoff to Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco…

Grazed from Police One.  Author: Doug Wyllie.

The vast majority of people would rather keep their money in a bank, rather than hiding it under the mattress. Most would rather have their electricity supplied by the power company, as opposed to a gas-powered generator in the back yard. And pretty much everyone wants to have programs automatically appear on their television, not trudging someplace to get a DVD of every single thing they watch. 

If you’re a money-under-the-mattress, generator-out-back, run-to-the-video-store type of person then perhaps cloud computing isn’t for you.

But if you agree that the massive FDIC-insured vault at the bank is more secure than your Posturepedic, and that the power company is more likely to keep the lights on than the little Honda in the yard, and that a trip to Blockbuster looks rather lackluster, then read on my friends…