Author: David

Grazed from USA Today. Author: Eric Chiu.

Judging by the numbers, we know we’re all in the cloud now (public cloud services alone will grow to $131 billion this year). We know why this is happening—cloud computing is affordable, scalable and really agile. We know there’s no going back. What we don’t know is how safe it all is.

Besides the long list of system crashes and data breaches, analysts tell us the virtualized model presents entirely new security challenges. Sure, that’s always a problem with new technology paradigms. But now, with so many assets migrating, it’s time tackle the issue head-on…

Grazed from VirtusStream. Author: PR Announcement.

Virtustream, Inc., the leading enterprise class cloud software and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider, today announced that it has been named a 2013 Vendor to Watch by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). In order to be recognized as a Vendor to Watch, companies must demonstrate customer value by delivering solutions for problems that have previously gone unaddressed.

“Virtustream continues to drive innovation in the cloud market by effectively addressing the diverse needs of enterprises,” said Torsten Volk, research director at EMA. “Companies that are moving mission-critical applications to the cloud must meet stringent business demands, and vendors such as Virtustream are making this possible with solutions that deliver a secure, compliant and flexible cloud environment.”…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Patrick Moorhead.

It’s literally time to step right up and place your bets. While Software Defined Networking (SDN) is one of the hottest trends in enterprise networking today, it is easy to place the wrong bet. Looking at the previous large strategic bets that businesses have had to make – the Internet, virtualization, or cloud computing – it was a sucker’s bet. The answer was always “yes” and the only variables were how much and when.

It was like looking at a blizzard bearing down on the Midwest – you know it is going to hit, but when and how many inches were up for negotiation. While we have written an extensive analysis here, I want to provide you a snapshot of my thoughts here. With all of the talk about SDN in the market don’t assume that the answer is a slam-dunk as well…

Grazed from LinuxInsider. Author: Jay Lyman.

The discussion and debate over open source cloud software’s compatibility with cloud leader Amazon’s proprietary APIs was just beginning when the 451 Group released "The OpenStack Tipping Point" in April. With the advancement of the OpenStack software and community — along with lingering questions about the desired level of compatibility with Amazon’s cloud — the matter is heating up. However, the issue of Amazon cloud compatibility is largely a non-issue.

Enterprise customers are focused on solving their computing and business challenges. They typically center on promptly providing their customers and internal users and divisions with adequate resources and infrastructure; speeding application development and deployment; and avoiding so-called "Shadow IT," which normally involves use of Amazon’s cloud…

Grazed from WHIR. Author: Nicole Henderson.

IT solutions provider CSC acquired big data analytics provider Infochimps on Tuesday for an undisclosed amount. Based in Austin, TX, and Silicon Valley, CA, respectively, Infochimps is a developer of cloud-based big data analysis software for enterprises.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of CSC, the Infochimps team will report to CSC’s big data and analytics business unit led by Sashi Reddi, VP and GM, CSC. Infochimps will remain under its existing leadership. “At the core of Infochimps’ DNA is our unique, open source-based Big Data and cloud expertise,” Jim Kaskade, CEO, Infochimps said in a blog post. “Infochimps was founded by data scientists, cloud computing, and open source experts, who have built three critical analytic services required by virtually all next-generation enterprise applications: real-time data processing and analytics, batch analytics and ad hoc analytics – all for actionable insights, and all powered by open standards.”…

Grazed from American Banker. Author: Penny Crosman.

AT&T and CSC have agreed to partner to provide cloud computing services to enterprises such as financial services companies. The announcement comes the same week a PricewaterhouseCoopers study of financial services executives found 71% plan to invest more in cloud computing this year and 50% plan to invest in private cloud technology. Also this week, IBM rolled out new Power- and x86-based servers to the company’s Flex System intended to be used in private clouds.

Systems integrator CSC already offers a cloud computing service called BizCloud. It provides virtualized server, storage and networking technology, often installing the popular VBlock configuration of EMCstorage, Cisco servers and switches and VMWare virtualization software…

Grazed from FierceEnterpriseCommunications. Author: David Weldon.

Don’t kid yourself that cloud computing prices are justified, despite recent pricing gouging. That is the claim of cloud hosting company ProfitBricks, which this week lashed out at rivals for misleading customers on their pricing strategies. Andreas Gauger, founder and CMO of the German-based ProfitBricks, blogged this week that his company would cut its cloud services fee in half, making his service as cheap to use as Amazon, according to a report in CloudPro.

Gauger said ProfitBricks is slashing prices for CPU core and RAM, with single-CPU core server prices cut from 5 cents per hour to 2.5 cents per hour. Despite recent reports about Google and Amazon dropping their cloud computing rates, Gauger says those rates are still hiding huge profit margins. "So here is the deal: If I were to sell our product at the same prices as Amazon or Rackshare does, I would have gross margins far higher than the quoted 60 percent to 80 percent," Gauger said…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Randall Jackson.

The issue of data sovereignty is starting to drive business decision making with regard to data held in the cloud, according to New Zealand email security and hosting company SMX. SMX co-founder and chief technology officer, Thom Hooker, said government organisations are particularly sensitive about the sovereignty issue, which is a driver behind SMX’s high uptake among government and local government organisations.

More than half of New Zealand’s local government organisations and around one third of the District Health Boards have now subscribed to SMX’s cloud service. Hooker said data sovereignty is an even more important issue nowadays as businesses begin to move mail servers to the Cloud…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Last week it was IBM. Now CenturyLink has joined the community advisory board that will, in theory, help Cloud Foundry establish itself as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that enterprises will use. cloudfoundrylogoThat’s no mean feat. Developers often love PaaSes, which give them an easy environment to build their applications, but big companies often balk at deploying those applications on a third-party platform and bring them in house.

Pivotal, the spin-off partially owned by EMC and VMware, is backing this Cloud Foundry play big time but apparently realizes it needs strong third-party support — including from cloud competitors — to avoid the perception that any one company is big-footing the process…