Author: David

Grazed from betaNews. Author: Robert X. Cringely.

This is a followup to my recent column about Steve Wozniak’s warning on the perils of cloud computing, especially cloud storage. It might surprise many users to know there are firms that sell cloud storage and do not back it up. They rely on the disk RAID and some redundancy in the cloud to “protect” your data. If something happens to their datacenter, they could probably not recover your data.

Remember MailandNews.com? They did not have a viable business model. They also didn’t back up their servers. One day they had a big crash and relied on the RAID array to recover the data. It took two weeks and still not all of the data was recovered…

Grazed from Time. Author: Tim Bajarin.

Tim Bajarin is the president of Creative Strategies Inc., a technology industry analysis and market intelligence firm in Silicon Valley. He contributes to the “Big Picture” opinion column that appears every Monday on Techland.

We are witnessing the greatest shakeup in the world of computing that has ever taken place.

From a historical perspective, we started out with mainframes, moved on to mini-computers and in the early ’80s entered the era of the personal computer. Over a period of about 50 years, these three kinds of devices defined what computing was all about…

Grazed from Broadcast Newsroom. Author: PR Announcement.

Skytap, the leading provider of self-service cloud automation solutions, today announced that over 200 enterprises, including Trek Bicycles, Trend Micro, and WorkWise are using the company’s intuitive public and hybrid cloud solutions for development and testing, virtual technical training and software demonstrations.

Customers turn to Skytap Cloud for a fast, easy, and secure way to move dynamic workloads to the cloud in order to increase business agility, reduce time to market, boost productivity across teams and lower costs. Skytap provides the flexibility for customers to create a secure hybrid cloud or public cloud environment with a few simple clicks, enabling IT infrastructure and operations professionals to deploy Skytap Cloud as a secure extension and complement to their existing internal infrastructure and virtualized environments…

Grazed from The Register. Author: Chris Mellor.

What are the key trends we can discern in cloud networking? For a start it will take place at scale, with networks that are much bigger than we are used to and growing bigger by the day.

Traffic in cloud networks will be very heavy and will display some unique characteristics due to the on-demand nature of cloud computing and storage.

For example: consider the need to set up virtual machines in large numbers, to monitor and manage them, to move them as loads on different servers get balanced, and then to remove them when demand dies down. It is as if the volume of traffic on a motorway jumps suddenly by 30 per cent but cars already on the road continue to move at the same speed. There are no traffic jams, pile-ups or drivers getting lost…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Patrick Thibodeau.

U.S.-based corporations and government agencies have been shipping application development work to offshore IT services providers for years.

Now, thanks to cloud computing, foreign companies are starting to bring their business to providers of data center services located in this country.

Consider Grupo Posadas, a large hotel company in Mexico that today relies on five data centers to support more than 17,000 guest rooms in over 100 hotels. Grupo Posadas IT personnel run three of those data centers; the other two are run by outsourcing partners…

Grazed from NewsObserver.com. Author: Paul Gilster.

The cloud is going to be a big part of your computing life whether you like it or not. One reason you’ll like it is that your files will stay synchronized between your desktop PC and the various gadgets you carry with you, like tablet or phone. One reason you won’t like it is that using the cloud means giving up a large measure of control to big companies who will store your data.

Worried? Expect the good and the bad of cloud computing to dominate the news in the next 12 months. Apple users are going to see the iCloud become a major part of the user experience across all Apple devices, while Microsoft is folding its SkyDrive service into the next iteration of Office to synchronize settings, templates and documents. Google already offers a complete office suite available online and Amazon’s cloud options include 5 GB of free storage, competing with Dropbox to snare the interest of mobile-minded users needing desktop files…

Grazed from StarTribune Business. Author: Emily Duke and Asmah Tareen.

Cloud computing is changing the face of business.

The rapid expansion of cloud-based solutions for corporate planning, customer and human resources management, accounting and other key business functions has enabled organizations of all sizes to streamline by relying on agile and cost-effective technology services.

But as businesses rely more on technology vendors to manage critical data and facilitate key business operations, there are some best practices to consider. Consider the case of Lilting Loons, a fictional loon decoy manufacturer and distributor whose sad experiences illustrate storm clouds Minnesota companies should avoid…

Grazed from The Financial Express. Author: Sudhir Chowdhary.

In just a few years, cloud computing has reshaped the Indian IT market and the way that enterprises acquire and use IT products and services, feels Neeraj Dotel, country head, Compuware India, the Indian subsidiary of Detroit-based Compuware, a technology performance company. According to him, India is on a high growth trajectory, promising lots of opportunities for technology companies. In a conversation with Sudhir Chowdhary, he talks about the company’s growth strategy and plans for India. Excerpts:

Tech majors seem to be smitten by two new buzzwords these days: cloud computing and mobility. What have you done till now to establish yourself in this space?

According to a recent report by IDC, investments on emerging technologies such as social media, cloud, mobility and big data are on the rise. The total IT market is expected to grow to $43.57 billion in 2012, up from $37.46 billion in 2011. The business world has reached an inflection point, presenting the Indian enterprise with unprecedented challenges. As users become more mobile and applications more diverse, customers want a better understanding of how performance relates to business results…

IP Technology Labs, the leading provider of LAN Virtualization and Private Cloud LAN Appliances, announces general availability of its exclusive AutoConnect feature for its FastLane Gateway appliances. AutoConnect allows IpTL FastLane appliances to automatically establish a secure Ethernet VPN without any configuration of the appliance, the router, or the network. AutoConnect works especially well in network environments where NAT, Nested-NAT, or Dynamic-IP/DHCP is present on both ends of a link.

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