Author: David

Grazed from CRN.  Author: Rick Whiting.

Small and midsize businesses will be among the most eager adopters of cloud computing services over the next three years, and many of them will rely on local service providers to get those cloud services.

That’s according to a survey of more than 3,000 SMBs in 13 countries commissioned by Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) and conducted by Edge Strategies in December.

"Cloud computing is a game-changer because it gives SMBs access to enterprise-class IT infrastructure," said Gabriele Di Piazza, senior marketing director for Microsoft’s operator channels group, in an interview. That group manages Microsoft’s relationships with hosting companies, telecom operators and other IT service providers…

Grazed from MSPNews.  Author: Gary Kim.

Cloud computing was the fastest-growing category of infrastructure spending in 2011, with a 28.4 percent increase, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association. The TIA also expects cloud computing will continue to be the fastest-growing category of network and facilities investment during the next four years, averaging 20.3 percent compounded annually.

As new cloud-based end-user services emerge and as existing services expand, end user spending will more than double to $12.1 billion in 2015 from $5.8 billion in 2011, according to the TIA.   But some reasonable caution always is in order when looking at cloud computing revenue. For starters, there are multiple types of revenue, not all likely to be earned directly by service providers…

Grazed from ITWorld.  Author: Lauren Brousell.

Six out of 10 U.S. companies already have at least one application in the cloud, and 71% expect to increase spending on cloud services in the next 12 months, according to a recent IDG Enterprise survey of 554 IT professionals, including 357 heads of IT.

Most respondents (64%) agreed with the statement that cloud computing will mean higher costs in the short term, but will save money in the long term.

Barr Snyderwine, CIO of Hargrove, an events management company, says using the public cloud is his way of keeping costs down. The company is using an online collaboration tool for document sharing because "it’s so cheap I can’t say no," he says. "We are probably saving money in the long run on the [business] continuity side."…

Grazed from The Guardian.  Author: Charles Author.

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud management platforms — they’re a little bit like those desktop search and indexing applications that gained brief popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s, and which had to be updated each time a new application or file format appeared.

Why might you want one? The problem with cloud computing is that, unless you are a small company with relatively limited IT requirements — just office productivity, web browsing and email, for example — moving to some form of cloud computing model is complex and therefore expensive.

Let’s assume for a moment that going cloud is, all things considered, a positive thing. If so, then you’ll need to find a cloud provider who does it all. But if you’re a company of any size, you’re unlikely to find one that meets all your needs…

Grazed from BusinessWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Vordel, a provider of Application Gateways for Cloud, Mobile and SOA computing, announced today it has been selected as a finalist in the “Best Business Integration Solution” category by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA).

“The recognition bestowed on Vordel by this SIIA award nomination is a true testimony to the quality of product built by the team at Vordel,” said Vic Morris, CEO of Vordel. “We are very pleased to be a CODiE Award finalist and see it as an acknowledgment by our industry peers of the calibre of the Vordel Application Gateway and a validation of our strategy. It is a real honor.”…

Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Florence G. de Borja.

Cloud security or cloud computing security evolved from information security and includes a wide set of controls, technologies, and policies used to protect the associated infrastructure, applications, and data of cloud computing. It is not related to the cloud-based security software services or commonly referred to as security-as-a-service.

Security issues related to cloud computing can either be security issues experienced by end users or security issues experienced by cloud suppliers. In general, cloud providers must make sure that what they’re offering is secure and their customers’ applications and data are also protected. The client, on the other hand, must ensure that the cloud supplier has the appropriate security implemented in order to protect his data and applications. Because of virtualization, customers of public clouds have growing concerns regarding the clouds security primarily because virtualization has changed the relationship between the hardware and the operating system. Additional concern about the virtualization software, with a tendency to be compromised, makes users wary about the capability of cloud computing to be secured…

Grazed from The Information Daily.  Author:  Saverio Romeo.

More than a year ago, Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, claimed that she wanted to create a cloud-friendly and coud-active Europe. The use of cloud computing should bring benefits to large and small companies and individuals. Since then, the European Commission has launched a consultation on cloud services involving cloud solution providers, cloud users and consumers. The consultation highlighted some key challenges such as security, interoperability, lock-in, certification and standardisation. It also brought attention to the topic, particularly from national governments and local authorities across Europe. Such organisations see cloud services as a way to optimise their resources and offer better services for citizens…

Grazed from PRWeb.  Author: PR Announcement.

Acumatica, a provider of Cloud ERP software, today announced it was named one of CRN’s Top 100 Coolest Cloud Computing Vendors of 2012 as well as one of CRN’s Top 20 Coolest Cloud Software Vendors in 2012. The CRN list highlights the most cutting-edge and exciting cloud products to hit the channel over the past year. Each winning vendor offers a cool new product that delivers benefits to both solution providers and end-customers.

"This year’s Top Cloud Computing Vendor award is presented to vendors for creating an innovative cloud product, or an innovative approach to supporting solution providers in the IT channel," said Kelley Damore, Vice President and Editorial Director CRN. "Each vendor was carefully selected by the CRN editorial team based on their ability to deliver a cool new cloud-based product that helps organizations and enterprises take advantage of the ease, flexibility, scalability, elasticity and cost savings that leveraging cloud computing has to offer.”…

Grazed from HostReview.  Author: William Smith.

Cloud computing technology makes enormous computing processing capacity and software available for an economical price through the help of Internet. By availing services of a cloud computing or cloud hosting service provider, users gets many economic benefits as they have to pay only for the amount of computing resources that they consume.

A cloud computing or cloud hosting service provider offers a great number of advantages to the end user organizations. User organizations have to pay only for the amount of computing resources that they consume. User organizations can buy only the required services as and when actually needed, and do not have to buy the costly infrastructure…