Author: David

Grazed from eChannelLine. Author: Mark Cox.

Avnet Technology Solutions has announced a new training framework available through its recently launched Avnet Cloud Solutions group, which will be available in the U.S. and Canada. The new framework is focused on the off-premise cloud computing market. It includes fundamental, advanced and mastery training related to developing a cloud practice, specializing in high-growth off-premise cloud workloads and gaining in-depth expertise in off-premise cloud offerings.

This announcement is a followup to Avnet’s announcement in May of Avnet Cloud Solutions, a new organization specifically focused on off-premise cloud solutions for VAR, MSP and ISV partners in the U.S. and Canada, the same as the new announcement. At that time, Avnet announced a number of cloud providers would be named to provide those offerings, and announced one, Savvis, a global enterprise-class cloud and managed services provider. Now it has announced another, ITpreneurs, which works in collaboration with CompTIA and the Cloud Credential Council to offer a vendor-neutral cloud certification program…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Joe McKendrick.

What’s the big promise constantly being made about cloud computing? Cost savings, cost savings, cost savings.

But the economics of cloud computing can be a big question mark, especially when it comes to long-term cloud subscription engagements versus larger, one-time investments in packages. An analogy that has been drawn is the long-term costs of renting a car for everyday use, versus making an up-front purchase.

It appears that many enterprises understand that while cost savings is directly possible through cloud, there are other, more profound benefits on the horizon…

Grazed from BusinessCloud9. Author: Keith Bates.

Whilst the concept of 100% Cloud Computing is an alienating thought to even the most IT savvy MD, the reality is that the number of companies opting for a fully outsourced approach is on the rise. Despite the age old server room providing a comfort to those reluctant to move with technological developments, practically speaking it is a ticking time bomb, draining both funds and IT resources.

I am not alone when I say that 100% Cloud is a viable option for businesses nationwide – providing they are willing to embrace the new technology. We have no servers of any significance in any of our offices, relying solely on the Cloud and yet still manage to run more effectively and securely than before. Of course, organisations are right to analyse the risk of the cloud, but once fully informed, the question needs to be asked – “Why the reluctance towards 100% Cloud adoption?”…

Grazed from Technorati. Author: Steve Woods.

The online storage wars just heated up today, as cloud storage service Box.com has begun offering up a great deal more free space than usual – as long as you’re a newbie to their service.

In the battle to get you and I to store our personal and office related documents, images and more in the cloud, services such as Dropbox, Google Docs/Drive and Box have been parrying and thrusting for years now. It’s been pretty bloody…

Grazed from TechCentral.ie. Author: Editorial Staff.

Two of the bigger names in cloud computing, VMware and Rackspace, have released low-cost or free trial versions of their cloud offerings.

The news follows an announcement by Red Hat earlier that it too would offer a free version of its cloud computing platform. Red Hat’s and Rackspace’s offerings help users build private clouds based on the OpenStack software code, while VMware is offering a free trial version of its vCloud software, which allows access to public cloud resources.

The moves signal an effort by cloud service providers to entice businesses that may have virtualised environments to expand to a public or private cloud, one analyst says…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Derrick Harris.

Consumers store their personal content everywhere online — Evernote, Gmail, Dropbox, Flickr, Facebook, just to name a few places — but getting stuff from one place to another can be a pain. Need to set a profile picture for a new service, but all your good photos are sitting in Facebook albums? That probably means downloading the photo locally, maybe editing it, and then finally uploading it to the new service. Filepicker.io, a Y Combinator company headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., thinks it can turn this process on its head with just two lines of code.

The way it works is actually pretty simple: App developers integrate with Filepicker by inserting a few lines into their source code, and Filepicker gives them API access to a broad range of cloud services where consumer content is stored. Users can then upload and download content — photos, documents, whatever — straight to and from the app. Essentially, it cuts out the middleman…

Grazed from The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. Author: Miro Cassetta.

Cloud computing’s cost savings and quick return on investment is frequently making headlines in many sectors, including legal.[1] With litigation and e-discovery on the rise, it’s important to cut costs without sacrificing quality, and cloud computing is the new “go-to” solution. Yet some litigators are hesitant to switch e-discovery databases to the cloud for fear of risks such as security breaches or data loss.

By understanding what cloud computing is, how it can benefit you and what to look for in a service provider, your corporation’s legal department can make the best decisions regarding the use of this powerful technology…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Robert J. Mullins.

Competitors like SAP and Oracle used to scoff at the business model of Salesforce.com with its software as a service delivered in the cloud. Now they are emulating Salesforce’s model and they, along with Microsoft, are trying to apply more competitive pressure on the cloud enterprise application company.

Salesforce upped its game Aug. 14 with the introduction of Salesforce Communities, which is built on its Chatter enterprise social media platform and is designed to better integrate social media with a company’s actual business processes…

Grazed from TechCrunch. Author: Klint Finley.

Back in 2006, cloud computing company Joyent offered a lifetime subscription to bundle of hosting services for a one time fee of $500. Now, according to an e-mail sent to customers, Joyent is pulling the plug on those lifetime accounts. Customers are predictably upset, but not for the reasons you might expect.

Here’s what’s going on: Joyent acquired a web hosting company called TextDrive back in 2005. TextDrive was founded in 2004 by Dean Allen, creator of the content management systems Textile and TextPattern, and Jason Hoffman, who also co-founded Joyent. As Watts Martin explains, TextDrive sold lifetime subscriptions to customers to fund the company rather than raise venture capital. Customers felt like investors in the company. Drew McLellan wrote on Hacker News:…

Grazed from TheHuffington Post. Author: Robert Holleyman.

When Congress created the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) in 2008, cloud computing was unfamiliar to most people outside of the IT industry. Today, it is one of the fastest-growing segments of the information economy. In the interim, recognizing the potential to capitalize on efficiencies of scale and capture maximum benefit from federal IT spending, the Administration has been implementing a “Cloud First” policy to guide its procurement. Now, as IPEC gears up to issue its second Joint Strategic Plan on IP Enforcement, there is an opportunity — indeed, a necessity — to ensure we are guarding against misappropriation or infringement of IP rights in the cloud.

In its first Joint Strategic Plan, the Administration made substantial progress in marshaling the combined resources of the federal government to enforce the IP protections that have long encouraged US technology innovation. Among other noteworthy accomplishments, US officials raised end-user software piracy as a top-tier international trade issue, developed guidance on technology neutrality in federal software procurement, worked with other countries on Special 301 lists to develop concrete action plans for reducing piracy, launched US Embassy IP interagency teams for 17 countries, and worked with payment processors and advertisers to stop doing business with pirates and counterfeiters…