Author: David

Grazed from CloudTimes.  Author: Saroj Kar.

A group of experts appointed by European Commission will scrutinize how European cloud computing contracts are established. It will also try to develop a standard contract.  The European Commission launched a call for applications to recruit people from the industry, academia and other profiles, to establish a group of experts whose mission is to create a model on transparent cloud contract.

According to Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission, one of the big barriers to using cloud computing is a lack of trust. People don’t always understand the terms in their contract: what they’re paying for, and what they can expect. It should be easy to ensure that the terms in contract are reasonable: open, transparent, safe and fair…

Grazed from IT Business Edge.  Author: Mike Vizard.

There is no shortage of data that users of mobile computing devices need to access; the problem has been finding a simple way to actually make that happen.  To address that specific issue, Roambi has made its report writer engine that unifies access to multiple types of data available as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application in the cloud.

According to Co-Founder and President of product innovation Quinton Alsbury, Roambi Business is designed to make data more accessible to mobile computing users regardless of whether that data was originally stored in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or NoSQL unstructured database…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Ed Bott.

Good night, TechNet.  The online Technet blogs and customer support forums will live on, but Microsoft announced today in a letter to subscribers that it plans to retire its venerable TechNet subscriptions service. New subscriptions will no longer be available after August 31, 2013, and the subscription service will shut down as current subscribers’ contracts end.

Microsoft has offered TechNet subscriptions for most of the modern Windows era, debuting in 1998 as a massive packet of CDs, and evolving into a download option as broadband connections became common.  The services have historically been one of the best deals around for frugal IT professionals and PC enthusiasts. For an annual subscription fee of a few hundred dollars, subscribers get the right to download virtually all of the desktop and server software Microsoft sells, with multiple product keys…

Grazed from CloudPro.  Author: Jane McCallion.

CERN openlab has signed a year-long collaboration agreement with Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider Rackspace to develop a hybrid cloud system to help further the centre’s research into the origins of the universe.  CERN openlab is the framework through which the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) tests and validates new technologies in partnership with private industry.

Speaking to Cloud Pro, Tim Bell, infrastructure manager at CERN, explained: “[The framework allows] CERN and commercial organisations to do combined research.  “This gives us the opportunity to take the extreme computing challenges that come from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and are able to then apply those both to areas of interest to CERN and areas of interest for the company in a research environment.”…

Grazed from PR NewsWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Networking Solutions, a provider of IT solutions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley, today announced it has been named a Certified Delivery Partner of OS33, the leading unified cloud computing IT platform, to deliver cloud-hosted virtual desktops and services to Northern California area businesses.  As an OS33 Certified Delivery Partner, Networking Solutions adds the capability to rapidly deliver cloud-desktops, servers, applications and storage for business looking to shift some or all of their IT assets to the cloud.

This new Networking Solutions service, powered by OS33, provides companies access to a fast, secure and centralized IT platform, meeting the demand for businesses looking to reduce costs, improve performance, and maximize productivity via the cloud. Employees can easily access all their apps, data and IT from any device including mobile phones and tablets, via the OS33 Webtop, providing the workforce with a consistent and secure experience 24x7x365. Additionally, the platform ensures the IT network is always up and running with company infrastructure that is centralized and protected via fully managed, redundant data centers, automated backup and disaster recovery…

Grazed from CSO.  Author: David Geer.

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) backs up the whole environment, not just the data.  "Most of the providers I spoke with also offer a cloud-based environment to spin up the applications and data to when you declare a disaster," says Karyn Price, Industry Analyst, Cloud Computing Services, Frost & Sullivan. This enables enterprises to keep applications available.

Vendors offer DRaaS to increase their market share and revenues. Enterprises, especially small businesses are interested in the inexpensive yet comprehensive DR solution DRaaS offers. There are cautionary notes and considerations too that demand the smart businesss attention before and after buying into DRaaS…

Grazed from Business2Community.  Author: David Grimes.

In so many industries, the pace of business and the intensity of competition translate into a new mandate: be agile. More than ever before, companies need the ability to retool on the fly, respond to competitive threats, pounce on market opportunities, and support shorter product development lifecycles. In most cases these needs can only be met by a correspondingly agile supporting IT infrastructure.

With its self-service, on-demand provisioning of services, pay-as-you-go pricing, and world-class management capabilities, cloud computing can provide the agility that so many businesses require. However, many businesses have concerns. Their data is often – rightfully – regarded as the critical asset to be highly protected, which can create an “anti-cloud” mindset…

Grazed from Business2Community.  Author: RJ Burgess.

Traditionally, companies have had to buy, build, and maintain their IT infrastructure in an expensive and complicated process. SaaS ERP provides businesses with an alternative where they can subscribe to services on a shared infrastructure via the Internet. Given the many advantages of the SaaS model over on-premise, businesses of all types and sizes are flocking to the cloud. The main reasons for the popularity of SaaS ERP, according to a study by ERP analytics firm Mint Jutras, have much to do with the three “Cs” – cost, customization, and control.

Cost
Costs are reduced in various ways when using SaaS ERP instead of on-premise software. The first is through lower IT overhead, as much of the spending required for implementing conventional enterprise software (purchasing and maintaining software, servers, their secure location, installation, maintenance, patching and service contracts) is eliminated. In fact, Phil Wainewright, analyst with Summit Strategies, calculates the cost of traditional enterprise software implementation to be 4-to-5 times the cost of the original license…

Jez Humble, principal consultant at ThoughtWorks Studios, will be speaking at the upcoming PuppetConf (expected to have 1,600 attendees this year) about how organizations can deliver valuable, high-quality software frequently and reliably through implementing effective engineering practices.  To find out more about his plans at PuppetConf and to learn more about DevOps, ThoughtWorks Studios and Puppet, we reached out to Jez for more information.

Q:  What can attendees expect to learn about devops from your presentation at PuppetConf?

Jez Humble:  Although people often focus on tools and automation, DevOps is really about a mindset. In this talk I’ll say what I think that entails, and discuss the characteristics of organizations in which it can exist. Most organizations don’t support a DevOps mindset, so I’ll also talk about what you can do to change your organizational culture.

Q:  How has DevOps helped expand virtualization and cloud computing?

Grazed from NBCNews.  Author: Editorial Staff.

France has its "Sovereign Cloud" project while across the Rhine data firms have created the label "Cloud Services: Made in Germany", all trying to reassure big companies that their information is stored away from the prying eyes of U.S. spies.  European firms believe revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has secretly gathered user data from nine big U.S. Internet companies, including Microsoft and Google, will hand them a competitive advantage as they play catch-up with the dominant American players in "cloud computing".

Yet companies and individuals may have to accept that while storing and processing their most sensitive information on servers owned by Europeans and located in Europe could keep it from the NSA’s eyes, intelligence agencies closer to home may be looking anyway…