Author: David

Grazed from Accounting Times.  Author: Henry Chao and Dr. Paul Foote.

One of the hottest IT trends promoted by vendors such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft is cloud computing.

They advertise the cloud to businesses as the solution to all IT data storage needs with significant savings to the bottom line. Although IT departments are concerned with the security and reliability issues that the cloud brings, business executives are adopting the cloud without necessarily understanding the risks involved in cloud computing.

Visiting any of the cloud providers Web sites, you will see promises of reliability, security, 99 percent-plus uptime, SAS 70 Type II audits, and various certifications such as HIPAA, PCI and SOX compliant. But can you trust handing over your data and applications to the cloud?…

Grazed from Livemint.com – The Wall Street Journal.   Author: Leslie D’Monte.

Grazed from The Malta Independent.  Author:  

In the recently presented Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012, Malta falls within the third and most developed stage together with another 34 countries out of the 142, according to Microsoft Malta Country Manager Adrianna Zammit.

Opening a recent half-day conference on how ‘The Cloud’ has opened a new wave of innovation in computing, Ms Zammit outlined Microsoft Malta’s plan for encouraging innovation and embracing the cloud, and highlighted the benefits that businesses can derive by moving to the cloud…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Jonathan Gershater.

In prior blog posts, I described Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

To recap:

• If I use IaaS I get servers onto which I can load software and applications which I then maintain, though I don’t need to maintain the hardware. I can customize the applications and software running on the servers, at will.
• If I use PaaS, I get a platform of ready to use web servers, application servers, databases etc. I write my own software application and host it at the PaaS provider. I maintain the software I write, but not the application servers, databases or hardware. I can customize the software I write, at will

Finally, we reach the top of the stack: Software as a Service (SaaS)…

Grazed from Dilbert.com.  Author: Scott Adams
 

 

Grazed from The DataCenter Journal.  Author: David Palmer-Stevens.

Organizations of all sizes are looking at how their data center facilities can support their IT requirements for greater flexibility and responsiveness using cloud computing and virtualization. But implementing these technologies and strategies in existing data center environments is easier said than done. Data center managers must take their data center, which can be up to 15 years old, and rebuild it using the latest deployment principles.

One approach here is to take a more modular approach to data center design. The initial adopters of this strategy five years ago were Amazon and Google, and they are usually the reference for data center best practices in current deployment methodology. For companies evaluating where modular data center assets can help their own strategies, there are both lessons to be learned and pitfalls to avoid…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Roger Strukoff.

I reported earlier on a new report entitled The Power of Cloud from IBM, in which it said cloud computing’s potential within enterprise IT remains "virtually untapped," and in which it identified three types of cloud adopters: optimizers, innovators, and disruptors.

I was able to follow that up with a Q&A with Saul J. Berman, Ph.D., Partner & Vice President, Global Strategy Leader & Innovation, and Growth Services Leader within IBM’s Global Business Services (GBS)…

Grazed from ITProPortal.  Author: Jennifer Scott.

When the early rumblings of cloud computing hit the industry wires, it was all new companies we had never heard of, emerging from the deep dark depths of Silicon Valley.

The Amazons and Googles of this world were toddlers compared to the grandfathers of technology, who had been providing software to the world since the 1970s, if not before. And, when it came to handing over sensitive, customer driven data, many businesses were hesitant to use these new kids on the block.

However, the tide has turned in the sea of technology that is cloud and now the forefathers of computing are catching up with the modern day trends…

Grazed from Bloomberg Business Week.  Author: Dina Bass.

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), which dropped prices on its Internet-based cloud-computing service last week, said it will keep cutting when it can, putting pressure on competitors like Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) to keep its own prices low.

Customers of Amazon’s EC2 service, which lets clients run their programs on the online retailer’s server computers, saw price cuts of as much as 37 percent on March 5, and other Amazon cloud service prices were trimmed as well. Microsoft responded days later with reductions on its rival Azure services…