Author: David

October 17, 2012 Off

Green clouds are all about scale

By David
Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Katie Fehrenbacher.

Do data centers that run on clean power seem like pipe dreams? Not when companies hit the massive scales of webscale computing. Execs creating business models from green data centers say that it’s the large size of the projects that makes clean power attractive.

Two execs building businesses around renewable energy-powered data centers said at GigaOM’s Structure Europe event in Amsterdam on Tuesday that the key to driving clean power for data centers is scale. Both Tate Cantrell, CTO of Verne Global, and Eirikur Hrafnsson, founder of GreenQloud, run companies that sell green data center services to IT companies across large computing facilities, which are able to aggregate clean power cost effectively over a large scale…

October 17, 2012 Off

TrainSignal Releases VMware vCloud Director Organizations Training

By David
Grazed from PRNewsWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

TrainSignal, the global leader in professional computer training, announced the release of their VMware vCloud Director Organizations training course.

These vCloud Director videos provide value to end users who need to set up and maintain vCD Organizations. When vCloud Director is implemented to manage infrastructure in virtual datacenters, the ability to remain agile often depends on scalability via cloud computing. This vCloud training course shows vSphere admins how to construct robust network infrastructures within vCloud Organizations, and how various tools can be used to meet specific needs…

October 17, 2012 Off

OpenStack Summit: Open Cloud Platform Gets Big Push

By David
Grazed from PC Magazine.  Author: Michael J. Miller.

One of the more interesting trends in cloud computing is the emergence of OpenStack, a set of open-source projects to set up public and private cloud computing solutions. This was originally set up by Rackspace Hosting and NASA, but now has grown into a full platform run by the OpenStack Foundation and held its own summit this week.

Troy Toman, senior director for cloud compute engineering at Rackspace and a director of the OpenStack Foundation, said the major projects within OpenStack include Nova, an open-source cloud computing fabric; Glance, for managing server (virtual machine) images; and Quantum, for providing "network as a service" functions. The last one is an API for dynamically configuring virtual networks, effectively a method of software-defined networking (SDN), and is a big part of the latest release of OpenStack, known as "Folsom." (Companies such as Nicira, which is now becoming part of VMware, have been driving this.)…

October 16, 2012 Off

IBM PureSystems – A Bit Of Cloud For Mainframes?

By David

Grazed from TechWeekEurope. Author: Peter Judge.

Six months ago, IBM launched PureSystems, new-wave mainframes which combine RISC and Intel servers and promise a new and simpler way to develop enterprise applications. But since that initial fanfare,we have heard almost nothing about the supposedly revolutionary servers.

That doesn’t mean nothing is happening, though, says IBM senior server consultant IBM Tikiri Wanduragala. He grabbed TechWeekEurope last month, to tell us that PureSystems is a response to commodity cloud computing. It might take time to mature, but it is on track. The meeting took place in the run-up to the announcement of new PureSystems tailored for Big Data analytics…

October 16, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing: Inside Intel, part 1- The Evolution of IT security

By David

Grazed from CSO. Author: Bobby Violino.

Like many other companies, processor manufacturer Intel Corp. is having to evolve its information security focus to meet the changes underway in the technology landscape—particularly with the rapid growth of mobile devices and applications and the rise in cloud computing services.

"We realize the importance of detective controls and building out our security business intelligence capabilities to scale and meet future business objectives around computing," says Alan Ross, senior principal engineer at Intel. "We must have the ability to aggregate, correlate and even visualize many billions of events per day. This type of scale requires investment in many areas."…

October 16, 2012 Off

Cloud security ‘better than in-house security’

By David

Grazed from BCS. Author: Editorial Staff.

Security is one of the main factors preventing companies from switching to cloud computing, particularly cloud storage, as they are worried about how well protected their data will be. But according to Google’s enterprise director of security, the cloud is probably a lot more secure than the in-house systems most firms are currently using.

Speaking to ZDNet, Eran Feigenbaum acknowledged that the exact level of security provided would largely depend on the type of organisation in question and who the cloud service provider was. However, he insisted that in most cases greater security would be offered in the cloud…

October 16, 2012 Off

If you are using Cloud-based services, you should understand the risks, says expert

By David

Grazed from EINPressWire. Author: PR Announcement.

IT Governance Ltd, the leading expert in information security training, consultancy, books and tools, has reported that the Cloud Computing Foundation training course in November is available at a special discounted price of £450 + VAT. This exceptional offer of the EXIN-accredited course will help cost-effectively train your whole IT team in the basics of Cloud Computing. Places can be immediately booked online at www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/3719.

Cloud Computing presents every organisation with the opportunity to increase the effectiveness of its information technology, while potentially significantly reducing costs. Alan Calder, CEO of IT Governance, says, "Understanding the additional risks and supplier relationship issues associated with Cloud-based services are essential for all IT professionals." …

October 16, 2012 Off

The Open Source Cloud is Ready for Hadoop, Projects Say

By David

Grazed from Linux.com. Author: Libby Clark.

Two major trends in enterprise computing this year show increasing overlap: big data processing and open source cloud adoption. To Hortonworks, the software company behind open source Apache Hadoop, the connection makes sense. Enterprise customers want the ability to spin up a cluster on demand and quickly process massive amounts of data, said Jim Walker, director of product marketing at Hortonworks, in an interview at OSCON in July. The cloud provides this kind of access by its ability to scale and handle computing tasks elastically.

The open source cloud offers the additional benefit of low-cost deployment and extra plugability you won’t get with a proprietary cloud infrastructure. All three major open source IaaS platforms — OpenStack, CloudStack and Eucalyptus — have made much progress this year in testing Hadoop deployments on their stacks. And Eucalyptus is working on full integration with the platform…

October 16, 2012 Off

Managing Security in Transitioning to the Private Cloud

By David

Grazed from DataCenterKnowledge. Author: Kevin Normandeau.

The modern IT environment is evolving to include better hardware, more virtualization technologies and now, cloud computing. One of the biggest barriers in moving towards a private cloud model are security and compliance concerns. Organizations are working to protect their cloud platforms as more data centers become distributed. There’s little argument that there are numerous benefits to a private cloud – but some challenges still exist. This white paper from Cisco takes a look at the private cloud computing model and how security plays a role. When looking at cloud characteristics, some of the topics covered include:

  • On-demand self-service
  • Resources pooling
  • Rapid elasticity
  • Measured services
  • Broad network access…
October 16, 2012 Off

Microsoft to acquire cloud-integrated storage provider StorSimple

By David

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Lucas Mearian.

Microsoft announced today that it will acquire cloud storage vendor StorSimple. The terms of the purchase were not disclosed. The move is designed to advance Microsoft’s Cloud OS vision and enable its customers to better leverage hybrid cloud computing, the two companies said.

StorSimple, which opened three and a half years ago and began shipping appliances this spring, is among a relatively new breed of companies to offer an appliance that stores data onsite while replicating or mirroring it to an offsite, public cloud storage provider. Among other companies selling cloud-connected appliances are Nasuni and TwinStrata…