Author: David

Grazed from MarketWatch. Author: PR Announcement.

Cloud computing promises low cost of entry and fast return on investment, but that ROI can fall short of expectations if hidden costs are left out of the equation. A new white paper from global IT association ISACA, "Calculating Cloud ROI: From the Customer Perspective," shows the true costs of cloud migration and offers a practical framework for calculating ROI.

The free paper outlines five hidden costs that enterprises may not anticipate when moving to cloud-based services:

— Bringing services back in-house due to stricter data privacy laws

— Implementing measures to mitigate risk…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Nathan Eddy.

The biggest concerns of IT decision makers dealing with public clouds are the loss of corporate data and control of data, a reflection of the known threats and risks of data leakage into the public cloud, according to a survey of more than 150 chief information officers (CIOs) conducted by storage services specialist Mezeo Software.

Results suggest the worry factor over data leakage onto the public cloud was high, with more than 80 percent of respondents rating their concern as an eight or higher on a scale of one to 10, with 10 representing the most worried. Compliance and data availability were also highlighted as concerns, but were considered less worrying than data leakage. For the most part, survey respondents were not as concerned about data theft. However, no one believed their organization was exempt from data leakage to public clouds…

Grazed from ComputerWeekly. Author: Vishy Narayan.

"Over recent years, cloud computing has taken the IT industry by storm, with businesses swept along by the promise of a flexible, scalable, secure storage environment. However, as the cloud frenzy settles, IT teams are being brought back down to earth with the realisation that a speedy implementation isn’t enough. What they really need for the long-term success of their cloud projects is to establish the same governance and management processes that currently apply to their traditional IT systems. And, this is where the industry has come against a big stumbling block, as currently businesses simply don’t have the tools or systems in place to facilitate this.

As a result, there is a real danger that the investment that has already gone into these cloud projects will go to waste, or even worse, that businesses could be putting themselves at risk, for example if an incomplete view of an enterprise’s cloud network means they fail to comply with a key regulation. While every business wants to choose and maintain the best cloud infrastructure possible, and for the lowest cost possible, the truth is that they simply lack the time and resource to do this without help…

Grazed from IT Evolutionary Transition. Author: Tim Crawford.

Cloud computing has turned the technology world on it’s head. Some argue this is a bad thing. However, I believe it is a great thing and something we need. For some time, businesses have requested more and more from IT organizations. Several years back, cloud computing came about and provided a significant opportunity for IT organizations and the businesses they serve. However, cloud is not just a change in technology.

New Paradigm

With significant changes in innovation come changes in the way we think. Cloud is no exception. It presents a new way for delivery of services. For IT organizations, this means changing who delivers the services. It means thinking differently about how services are delivered and how relationships are maintained. Further, the fundamental nature of the relationship has changed too from transactional to value. Even within the technology realm, the focus moves from operational to integration. There are many more changes that must be considered when introducing cloud-based solutions…

Grazed from CloudPro. Author: Maxwell Cooter.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is looking to crack a thorny problem for cloud computing – the ability to run high-performance databases. Applications with I/O intensive workloads rely on consistent response times and that’s not always been easy for cloud to deliver.

AWS’s attempt to tackle this problem is a new service called Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) Provisioned IOPS. The system has been designed to offer AWS customers the ability to specify volume size and volume performance so that Amazon EBS will deliver that specified performance.

According to AWS, customers will be able to provision an EBS volume through the AWS management console. Currently, users are limited to 1,000 IOPS per Provisioned IOPS volume – although AWS hopes to deliver higher limits shortly…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

Today’s IT security is a triple constraint: be ahead of those who are after your data, make your data usable, and comply with the regulations that govern your industry. Moving your business “to the cloud” further complicates this situation. While the cost savings sought by hosting data and processing it in the cloud makes a compelling argument to give up control of your data, the risk of data loss, hacking and loss of credibility can quickly outweigh these potential cost savings.

The standard IT security answer has always been when in doubt, deny the risky request. With the recent incidents such as the LinkedIn™, eHarmony™ and other hacks dominating the news, the decision to move your data to a cloud storage provider seems an easy “no”. Thanks to a little innovation, it is now possible to not only manage but concur the triple constraint. “Responding to the speed of business should not be a crime” said Rob Fioto, CEO and Chairperson of RACE. “We simply needed to provide IT security folks with a stronger toolset so they could safely mitigate the many cloud-based risks.”…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Enterprise cloud storage player Box netted a huge $125 million Series E funding round led by growth equity firm General Atlantic Partners. The cash influx brings the total funding for 7-year old Box to $287 million.

The Los Altos, Calif.-based company will use the money to fund international expansion. “We’re going to scale out the team all round — the top net new priority is international expansion which we already started with the opening of a London office,” Box co-founder and CFO Dylan Smith said in an interview on Monday.

Smith also said the company is girding for an IPO but is in no hurry, reiterating that the company, with about 500 employees, should be in a position to go public sometime next year. “We’re focused on growth and market share and, depending on what the market looks like, that will be the ultimate driver,” he said…

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Elizabeth White.

Cloud application auditing and security company, SaaSID, has announced its partnership with big data and business analytics company, EMC Greenplum.

EMC is a global leader in cloud computing, enabling the world’s largest organisations to store, manage, protect and analyse their information: transforming their operations. In July 2010, EMC acquired Greenplum, a vendor of database technology that is optimised for large scale data warehousing and business analytics.

SaaSID’s software provides organisations with a simple way of provisioning, controlling and reporting on cloud-based application use, to extend corporate information security, identity management and governance to the browser. All user interaction with applications managed by SaaSID is provided in a detailed audit trail, to help organisations to maintain regulatory compliance when they adopt cloud-based applications…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Derrick Harris.

For Rackspace, there’s no turning back from OpenStack now. As of Wednesday, all new customer workloads will deploy on the company’s open source cloud computing platform, leaving the company’s legacy platform for existing customers that want to take their time transitioning to the new cloud. Now, the competition to dethrone cloud king Amazon Web Services really begins. Or does it?

I recently spoke with Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier, who shared his vision for how OpenStack is changing his company from the inside out and how he doesn’t necessarily view Amazon as direct competitor…