Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Paul Korzeniowski.

When evaluating cloud services, enterprises first must determine whether to use an open source cloud platform or a proprietary one — an increasingly difficult decision.

As cloud services began to emerge, vendors such as Amazon, Google and Verizon/Terremark developed services based on proprietary APIs. These vendors provide only select interfaces to their software, making it difficult for enterprises to tailor cloud environments specific to their needs.

On the contrary, open source cloud software allows IT teams to modify the cloud architecture more than a proprietary or commercial cloud platform might. And working with the open source community often has benefits. “By adopting an open source model, vendors that may have small teams of developers gain more [programmers],” said Lydia Leong, research vice president at Gartner Inc…

Grazed from VoiceAndData. Author: Andrew Collins.

Vendors claim cloud storage offers a range of benefits to organisations, including cost savings and increased flexibility. But with things like security breaches, data sovereignty and the US Patriot Act breeding doubt in customers’ minds, the future of cloud storage is not certain.

“The cloud” has become one of the most used (perhaps overused) terms in IT discussions today. Vendors and service providers love to explain how the various forms of cloud computing can free your workers from the chains of their desktops, free up the time of your IT staff, and allow you to move your IT spending from CAPEX to OPEX.

Public cloud storage tools – remote storage, usually accessed via the internet, paid for in an on-demand fashion – have been available for some years now. Broadly speaking, they all offer remote data storage, are (usually) accessed via the internet and are paid for in an on-demand fashion…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Srikanth RP.

WinHire Technologies is seeking to disrupt the recruitment market by building the world’s first video social recruitment portal By Srikanth RP, InformationWeek, July 17, 2012

As a late entrant, how do you compete in a market that is already dominated by giants? As a small player with limited ability to capital, how do you scale up without any limits? Startup WinHire Technologies was grappling with these questions, as it rapidly scouted for solutions that could help the firm take advantage of technology and level the playing field with the giants.

WinHire Technologies had a radically different idea. Instead of text-based resumes, the firm wanted to use videos and the reach of the Internet to simplify and improve the process of recruitment. “We wanted to leverage the power of the Internet and the popularity of videos to create the world’s first video social recruitment and networking website,” says Giri Devanur, CEO, WinHire Technologies. On the portal, a job-aspirant can upload his or her video profile, and increase his or her chance of getting hired, as a video can even highlight personality attributes…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Stacey Higginbotham.

A tech trade publication is reporting that VMware CEO Paul Maritz is being pushed out and will be replaced by Pat Gelsinger, the current COO of EMC. EMC owns roughly 80 percent of VMware, the market leader in server virtualization. It’s a rumor we’ve been hearing since June, and on Monday night, CRN published a report that says it has confirmed those rumors, citing “multiple sources familiar with the situation.”

Other rumors circulating say that Maritz has been offered the role of chairman, but not the CEO, of the spin out of the CloudFoundry, Rubicon and Greenplum assets that we reported on this afternoon…

Grazed from EBN. Author: Nicole Lewis.

The demands of extended global supply chains, along with the addition of new suppliers, have placed a greater burden on high-tech electronics manufacturers to collaborate with their partners as they use cloud computing technology to manage inventory, improve forecasts, and sharpen their competitive edge.

Many electronics companies have successfully designed a network that connects their partners and digitizes data that captures every aspect of a product lifecycle — from design, to the procurement of parts, to the manufacturing and distribution of the product. But a more pressing issue arises when high-tech companies seek to leverage their supply chain’s financial and operational data and create new business processes among partners to drive efficiencies and reduce costs…

Grazed from The Moscow Times. Author: Editorial Staff.

It is a myth that there is no room for innovation during a period of economic instability. History proves the opposite. Even in the midst of the Great Depression, approximately 70 new research laboratories were established annually in the United States. Furthermore, such high-tech companies as Hewlett Packard were founded during that period. Currently, we are witnessing increasing interest in innovation as well. Intensive discussion about cloud computing started in 2008, when the U.S. recession ceased to be just a pessimistic forecast and became reality.

Why are innovations so important for overcoming the consequences of the crisis? I shall try to explain using clouds as an example.

Cloud computing is an evolution of corporate IT systems that helps to achieve two objectives: first, get rid of the "burden" by transferring capital expenditures into operational ones and, second, improve flexibility and business responsiveness to market challenges. Public and private clouds are the best models to fulfill these two tasks…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Derrick Harris.

The big news out of VMware is that it’s likely spinning out a cloud computing business, but the company also has had a fair share of significant personnel departures over the past year. A talent exodus as VMware ware tries to compete with Microsoft, Google and Amazon to be the big name in cloud computing may indicate that all is not well in Palo Alto.

But this news isn’t all bad. The number of principal engineers and other technical leaders leaving the company and trying to have big impacts elsewhere suggests VMware might achieve mafia status a la Sun Microsystems, Facebook Google or PayPal. Its employees appear to have the vision, skills and reputations that transcend their work at VMware…

Grazed from InvestorsDaily. Author: Brian Deagon.

Venture capital firms feel positive about investing in cloud computing, software, and social networking, but have the least confidence in the chips and telecom sector, according to a new survey.

The 2012 Global Venture Capital Confidence Survey from Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association also showed venture capital firms are more confident about investing in the U.S. than offshore. The exceptions to that are Brazil, Germany and Israel. The lowest confidence levels were for investing in the U.K., Taiwan and Japan.

On a 1-to-5 scale, with 5 being most confident, investor confidence in the U.S. was 3.26, compared with 2.72 internationally, the survey said. The poll had more than 440 respondents among venture capital and private equity groups in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Israel…

The IaaS Rush

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

As Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and company showed off the latest version of Office Monday, they hit all the right marks — a touch interface, cloud storage, VoIP integration and social networking tie-ins.

The new Office (now in customer preview) will be both “ink-” and “touch-” enabled. It will store user documents to Microsoft’s SkyDrive by default. (Microsoft already said it was tying SkyDrive cloud storage closely into its upcoming Windows 8 operating system.) And the new Office Home and Student 2013 RT versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will ship with Microsoft’s promised ARM-based Windows 8 machines including Surface…