Citigroup’s Public Bet on the Private Cloud
Cloud computing emerged as disruptive technologies often do—in an entrepreneurial spirit of collaboration in which resources and costs are shared. But so is data, inadvertently or not. When Citigroup embraced the cloud, the cost-saving benefits were obvious, but so was the risk to the firm’s enterprise. There was never any question about taking its cloud private.
"Facebook has more data than we do," says Antonio "Yobie" Benjamin, chief technology officer at Citigroup’s global transaction services in San Francisco. "Citi has roughly 250 million accounts. Facebook has about 900 million accounts and trillions of photos. A complaint Facebook is likely to get will be along the lines of, ‘Dude, where’s my photos?’ With us, it’s ‘Where’s my money?’" For Benjamin, that’s an essential difference…
Terremark Expands North American Cloud Infrastructure Capacity
Seeing increasingly strong enterprise demand for secure cloud computing solutions across North America, Terremark, a Verizon Company, increased its cloud infrastructure capacity by deploying a node of its Enterprise Cloud at its data center in Denver. With the introduction of a cloud node, the Denver data center joins the company’s global footprint of cloud-enabled data centers that seamlessly combine secure and agile cloud computing resources with an extended solution portfolio all within a multi-carrier, highly resilient, and secure facility.
Terremark’s cloud-enabled data center in Denver features more than 70,000 square feet of premier floor space with redundant subsystems to support the leading IT infrastructure services delivered by Terremark. These data center services are backed by service level agreements for 100 percent availability of power and cooling. As with its cloud deployments in the Network Access Points (NAPs) in the United States, Terremark provides complete transparency to customers regarding the exact location of their application workloads and delivers leading security services to support the public cloud infrastructure. Additionally, the company provides customers a compelling hybrid model for enterprise IT by enabling a seamless integration of existing IT infrastructure with Terremark’s cloud computing services through its CloudSwitch software…
ISG (Information Services Group) Joins Cloud Security Alliance
Grazed from MarketWatch. Author: PR Announcement.
Information Services Group (ISG), a leading technology insights, market intelligence and advisory services company, today announced it has joined the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) as a corporate member.
The CSA is a broad coalition of industry practitioners, corporations, associations and other key stakeholders dedicated to promoting best practices on security assurance within cloud computing environments and to providing education on the uses of cloud computing to help secure all other forms of computing. CSA activities include educational outreach via industry and online events and research on cloud computing security assurance issues.
"Security is obviously a critical concern for businesses exploring cloud-based service delivery options," said Steven Hall, Partner, Cloud Solutions ISG. "Our collaboration with the CSA will allow us to leverage industry knowledge and expertise in the services we provide our clients as well as to contribute to evolving standards and best practices."…
Microsoft Sees Cloud As SMB Security Cure
If cloud computing were marketed as a medicine, it would be a wonder drug. Its healing powers would be so great that the cautious consumer might suspect quackery.
But Microsoft insists the cloud can cure a bleeding wallet, a perennial concern among small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).
The company’s Trustworthy Computing Division recently surveyed SMBs–companies with between 100 and 250 PCs, some who use cloud computing, and some who don’t–in the United States, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Among the U.S. organizations surveyed–93 cloud, 94 non-cloud–Microsoft found that SMBs relying on cloud services feel three to five times better about IT costs, IT value, and IT security than those who shun the cloud…
Plextek and RedCloud complete acquisition of Iceni Mobile
Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: PR Announcement.
Plextek Limited, Europe’s leading independent business, product innovation and design consultancy and RedCloud Technology Limited, a leading investor in mobile financial services in emerging markets, today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Intellectual Property Rights of Iceni Mobile Ltd including the mobile payments system (the I2S platform) developed by the same team that brought the world’s most successful mobile money service, M-PESA, to market.
The acquisition signifies both Plextek’s and RedCloud’s commitment to the mobile money market. With the founding team, the companies plan to deliver the technology as a platform as a service and create a new way in which mobile money and associated services are taken to market…
Singapore Telecom Breaks New Ground with Private Cloud Infrastructure for the Whole of Singapore Government
SingTel also awarded renewal of cloud services bulk tender for the supply of public cloud services
Singapore, 15 May 2012 – Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) today announced that it has secured two key tenders awarded by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) to accelerate the Singapore Government’s adoption of cloud computing.
i. G-Cloud for Whole-of-Government
SingTel has been awarded a five-year tender to deploy a private cloud computing infrastructure on a whole-of-government basis. To be rolled out by the end of 2012, the G-Cloud marks the first private cloud infrastructure to be developed on such a scale to cover all government bodies in Singapore. SingTel will provide and maintain G-Cloud for an initial five years with the option for renewal of a further five years…
Tap on cloud’s multiplier effect
Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Jamie Yap.
Simon Choy, chief strategist at IBM Asean, said that the industry focus thus far has solely been about optimization, which include consolidation, virtualization, cost savings, and returns on investment (ROI). However, he said companies should not look at cloud migration narrowly. The executive was speaking to ZDNet Asia at the sidelines of the Cloud Asia conference here Tuesday.
Choy noted that while optimization is the necessary first step, enterprises should look to cloud to create innovative and disruptive business opportunities. In other words, they should not limit themselves to thinking how cloud can help them save money, but on how the technology can grow their businesses and generate more revenue, he explained…
HP Releases Trio of Cloud Services for Public Beta
HP has released three cloud services, HP Cloud Compute, HP Cloud Object Storage, and HP Cloud Content Delivery Network, for public beta testing.
HP Cloud Services, created with OpenStack technology, is an open-source development architecture that provides storage in the cloud for developers and organizations developing Web applications. It includes a management console, which provides analytics into demand patterns, operational performance, and resource use. OpenStack, founded by NASA and Rackspace Hosting, is a free cloud computing platform created by developers and cloud-computing technologists.
HP Cloud Compute provides customizable, scalable virtual servers accessible from any device with Web access. It includes software, control panels, and RESTful application programming interfaces (APIs) to let users run instances and manage the cloud according to their organization’s needs. Appropriate Cloud Compute applications include large-scale data processing, basic Web applications, and multi-tier deployments…
Signal App Fights Piracy With the Cloud
Worries of information falling into the wrong hands, whether in the case of a new film or important business data, are making companies wary of doing anything sensitive on the Internet. Hand deliveries used to be a way around this, but due to globalization, which has scattered employees across the globe, and fast turnaround times demanded by today’s market, this is rarely an option.
Companies are looking for new ways of sending data, and one, Rimage, may just have a solution with their new app, Signal.
The app works with most devices—Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android—and lets publishers control videos, documents, and other files even after they’re sent out by using cloud computing. The company sending out the files just needs to upload them, choose which devices they want to target, then anyone who has the right access will automatically get the files…
Yahoo launches big data analytics tool for online advertisers
Grazed from IT World. Author: Jaikumar Vijayan.
Yahoo today launched a new tool for online advertisers designed to take advantage of the company’s extensive experience with big data analytics.
The tool, called Genome, is designed to help companies deliver more targeted online advertising and marketing campaigns. Genome is scheduled to become available in July and will let online advertisers sift through and analyze massive amounts of behavioral and advertising-related data gathered from Yahoo’s networks as well as those of interclick, a company Yahoo acquired in December.
The tool will also let advertisers bring in their own data, mash it up with Yahoo’s data sets and run analytics on the combination, Yahoo said in a statement…