An Open-Source Food Fight in the Cloud
To date, the four horsemen of the cloud appear to be Amazon.com (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), and VMware (VMW). The first three companies have built their own cloud computing services that consumers and businesses can tap into. Instead of doing its own service, VMware, the maker of virtualization software, is selling a new suite of cloud software so that service providers and businesses can build their own new-age, cloud computing systems.
The collective muscle and proprietary leanings of those four companies has triggered something of a cloud panic. At its core, cloud computing promises lower costs and greater flexibility than traditional data centers. It’s a way to avoid lock-in, that mainframe-era problem where a company buys its own big, expensive systems—and is stuck with them. But those advantages could be undermined if, say, Amazon decides to play the heavy and makes it difficult for companies to move their software and data onto a competing cloud service. That would be lock-in, cloud edition…
Seven Steps on the Path to the Cloud
While there have been discussions around private cloud definitions, there hasn’t been as much discussion on how success is measured for private cloud initiatives or, in particular, the skills or characteristics necessary to get there.
- Cost (shared, metered by use)
- Quality (of service)
- Agility (self-service, elastic)
Experts Gather to Share Insight at Inaugural Hedge Fund Cloud Summit Conference
Eze Castle Integration, Inc., a leading provider of strategic IT solutions and private cloud services to hedge funds, today announced the inaugural Hedge Fund Cloud Summit, which is taking place on April 24, 2012 in New York City at the Sofitel Hotel. This premier half-day conference will cover four essential aspects of cloud computing – from making the business and financial case for cloud computing to hosting applications and protecting data in the cloud.
For the Hedge Fund Cloud Summit, Eze Castle is gathering executives from hedge funds, technology providers and industry associations including the Cloud Security Alliance, eSentire, Ledgex, Advent and others to dive deep into the dynamics of cloud computing at hedge funds. The conference agenda includes panel discussions on: …
HP Receives Army Cloud Computing Contract
Hewlett-Packard Co. said Tuesday that its enterprise services unit has received a contract from the Army for cloud computing services that could be worth up to $249 million. Cloud computing allows workers to fetch computer programs and key documents stored remotely on any device with an Internet connection.
The contract is for one year, with four one-year options. The Army wants to use cloud computing services to help it consolidate data centers and cut costs…
How to Improve Cloud Management for Fun and Profit
While it seems like everyone is trying to get in on the cloud computing craze, service providers and VARs are in a unique position to capitalize on the growing demand for cloud services. The focus to date has been on creating or emulating the "top" cloud computing platforms, such as Amazon EC2 and Windows Azure, from an infrastructure, self-service and pricing perspective. As cloud infrastructure becomes more commoditized, service providers need to set themselves apart from the competition. Giving their constituents something palpable to hang their prized IT assets on, that would otherwise become discernably opaque to them in the clouds, is one way to elevate themselves above the fray…
Dell Buys Mainframe Modernizer in Cloud Push
For the second day in a row Dell Tuesday bought a company and left everybody to wonder what it paid. This time it said it bought Chicago-based Clerity Solutions. It’s kinda amusing for a PC maker to be buying a mainframe company.
To IBM’s irritation, Clerity, which has been around almost 20 years, migrates mainframe users’ applications off the beasts and over to more modern x86-based widgetry.
Dell will put Clerity’s applications re-hosting UniKix automation widgetry and other soothing tricks with its services operation, which will get to rub elbows with the high-class set of corporations and public sector agencies still using mainframes. It says they will get a faster path to the cloud…
EU releases guide for improving security in cloud contracts
Users need to become better at asking cloud providers questions about the finer points of availability and vulnerability management in contracts, according to a new guide from the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA).
ENISA’s goal is to improve the public sector’s understanding of the security of cloud services and the potential indicators and methods that can be used during service delivery, the authors said.
Procuring and managing service contracts for cloud services is an increasingly important task for IT staff…
Multi-Tenancy — a Must for Cloud Service Providers
Cloud computing — the current topic at many IT departments. Current research proves the increasing popularity of cloud solutions at companies. They expect more flexibility, less costs and therefore enhanced competitiveness. This is why companies outsource company data and applications to a central cloud. Simultaneously, with respect to increased demand, cloud service providers have to ensure that they keep their promise of high-availability and data security. In this way alone can they be successful in the long-term. An absolutely necessary condition is the multi-tenant capability of the software used: customer data need to be reliably secured — that one customer can see the data of another is a definite no-go. HOB GmbH & Co. KG offers with its HOB RD VPN a trustworthy solution…
Can the cloud revive manufacturing?
Cloud computing could help usher in the next wave of technological innovation and, with it, provide a new engine for economic growth, say the authors of a forthcoming study on the emerging cloud computing ecosystem.
John Zysman, coauthor of the cloud study and co-director of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy here, argues that “cloud-enhanced services” promise to take up much of the economic slack caused by the steady shift over the last several decades from manufacturing to services. Despite the loss of those U.S. manufacturing jobs, “direct linkages” persist between high value-added services and manufacturing. Zysman and coauthor Stephen Cohen argued in their book, “Manufacturing Matters: The Myth of the Post-Industrial Economy,” that manufacturing remains fundamental to economic growth and that service sector jobs only complement rather than replace critical manufacturing employment…
Cloud Computing: ViaWest Closes $65 Million of Debt Financing
ViaWest, one of the largest privately-held data center, cloud computing and managed services providers in North America, announces today it closed an additional $65MM of debt financing to fund future growth initiatives. This additional investment reflects the strong support of the company’s growth prospects, operational infrastructure and delivery of the highest-level of data center services.
Since its acquisition by Oak Hill Capital Partners in 2010, ViaWest has continued its rapid growth. In 2011, the company opened new premium data centers in the Portland, Oregon and Dallas, Texas markets, bringing its total number of datacenters to 22. ViaWest also recently announced several strategic product launches including its KINECTed Storage, Managed Security, KINECTed Back Up and KINECTed Cloud solutions. ViaWest anticipates that it will utilize the additional capital to continue its market expansion and to further drive its product portfolio, particularly in cloud computing and managed services…