Author: David

Grazed from Stuff.nz. Author: Chris Gardner.

"Partly cloudy" was how Windows 8’s weather application described conditions in Amsterdam at Microsoft’s TechEd Europe conference.

It couldn’t have been a better description of the keynote speech delivered around cloud computing by Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s management and security division. Cloud computing is the popular term for the means by which the likes of Microsoft hosts operating system (OS) software and data for its clients at large data centres the world over.

"We are living in the era of the cloud OS," Anderson said…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Editorial Staff.

InfoWorld described yesterday how Compute Engine is Google’s first unabashed IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) product [1], a cloud that allows users to spin up enormous numbers of virtual Linux machines that run on the same infrastructure powering Google.

But how will customers decide whether to use Google Compute Engine, Rackspace Cloud, Windows Azure, HP Cloud, or another IaaS provider? For an informed answer to that question, InfoWorld turned to Michael Crandell, CEO and founder of RightScale [2], the cloud-management services company that helps customers work with everything from Amazon EC2 to Microsoft Azure.

RightScale has been testing out Compute Engine for some time now as a run-up to integrating its services with theirs [3]. Crandell told InfoWorld how, in the course of working with Google over the past year, he got a feel for what Google is offering and how Compute Engine is going to differentiate itself from the competition…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

Delivering innovation in cloud computing technology for the design and entertainment industries, RevUp Render today announced a new cloud rendering service supporting V-Ray 2.0 rendering software from the Chaos Group. With the RevUp Render cloud computing platform, 3D graphics professionals can utilize the power of massive render farms and high-end production workstations via the cloud—allowing studios and artists to easily scale processing power up or down as needed.

With V-Ray 2.0 rendering software running as part of the RevUp Render platform, artists and studios employing 3D software with distributed rendering capabilities, including Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, McNeel Rhino3D, Trimble SketchUp, and other packages that integrate V-Ray and its distributed rendering (DR) feature can now work completely in the cloud—from beginning to end—utilizing RevUp COSMOS desktop cloud workstations and RevUp Render rendering solutions. Included with the service is a new mobile feature that extends the flexibility of the cloud even further by giving customers access to the RevUp Render desktop and nodes from mobile devices, including Apple iPad, iPhone, Android or Chromebook…

Grazed from BusinessCloud9. Author: Marcie Terman.

Frustratingly – and perhaps inexcusably considering the huge volumes of ink dedicated to the serious considerations of pursuing a Cloud strategy – too many companies are making costly mistakes when migrating servers to the Cloud. Marcie Terman, Business Development Director at DataFort, selects the six most important areas of risk to consider.

Risks around service continuity

Commodity services – those ‘off the shelf’, cheap solutions – will often neglect to make any mention of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) concerning service continuity. But you must understand the risk to your business posed by service continuity, and what your provider is willing to guarantee within the agreement. After all, if you don’t know what the guarantees are, how will you ever convince your board of the merits of Cloud computing?…

Grazed from Telegraph.uk. Author: Editorial Staff.

Frequently Asked Questions on cloud computing

Q: Why should we be doing business in the cloud?

A: Businesses are increasingly investing in cloud computing services because they offer resources such as networks, servers, applications and data storage without having to directly manage the systems that deliver them…

Grazed from ITWire. Author: Beverley Head.

The advent of ubiquitous and affordable cloud computing is bringing to an end a 30-year long era during which change in IT systems was synonymous with risk.

According to Paul Strong, chief technology officer global customer and field initiatives for VMware who is currently visiting Australia, advances in cloud computing means that it is now far simpler and less risky to introduce information systems change to organisations as applications were increasingly being decoupled from infrastructure.

This he said would allow CIOs to be restored to their proper position as chief information officers, rather than chief infrastructure officers…

Grazed from Technorati. Author: Geoff Simon.

When customers go online and complete web forms, they’re creating business opportunities. Millions of companies manage those opportunities with intranet-based CRM systems that help them process leads and orders. But for most companies, there was no fast, easy way to exchange information among ecommerce sites, CRM, and the intranet. Now there is, according to Bitrix, Inc. who recently launched Bitrix24, a cloud-based service that allows companies to create digital workspaces. And now with this integration, website orders and leads are automatically imported to the CRM via a smart connection.

With so much competition surrounding collaboration in the cloud, Bitrix has taken a unique approach in it’s design. By allowing companies to take their entire instance of their Bitrix cloud and move it to an on-site server of their choice, the worry about the whole public vs. private cloud computing deployments going forward aren’t affected by decisions to use Bitrix24 today. This gives customers the flexibility to deploy whatever solution they want down the road without having to worry about an existing system limiting their options later…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Nathan Eddy.

Small and midsize businesses are turning to cloud computing as an easier-to-manage, lower-cost alternative to traditional computing, but concerns over security and cost of implementation remained barriers to adoption, according to a survey of more than 100 companies by cloud computing specialist Twin Strata.

Overall, five out of six respondents indicated that they were either already using or plan to use cloud storage in some capacity, making it the most widely planned cloud initiative – even more than software as a service (SaaS)…

Grazed from NetworkComputing. Author: Liam Lahey.

Network performance monitoring sure isn’t what it used to be. Given the changes that have unfolded in the past few years–private clouds, public clouds, the growing need for Wi-Fi access and increase in mobile devices–the very idea of a network belonging to an organization has all but evaporated. So how can organizations get a view across the network? That’s the question facing enterprises today.

"Old-school tools demanded you owned all the pieces of infrastructure in order to measure and monitor it," Matt Stevens, CTO at AppNeta in Boston, explained. "At the end of the day, there is no single network. It’s a combination of multiple networks and the single biggest challenge is how to understand end-to-end performance across networks that I don’t own and yet still have to rely on."…

Grazed from HostReview. Author: PR Announcement.

ViaWest provides cloud computing environment for Zulahoo’s hosting — Anticipating rapid growth, Zulahoo required a solution with on-demand scalability — Significant cost savings and customer support made ViaWest the clear choice for Zulahoo’s cloud solution

ViaWest, one of the largest privately-held data center, cloud computing and managed services providers in North America, announces it has been selected by Zulahoo to provide on-demand cloud computing services with its KINECTed(TM) Cloud platform. Zulahoo is an Internet start-up community commerce portal focused on promoting secure and private collaboration services. As a company anticipating rapid growth, Zulahoo was looking for a scalable and flexible cloud-based solution…