Author: David

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…

Grazed from Zacks.  Author: Editorial Staff.

After a long wait, Palo-Alto based tech behemoth Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) decided to make its cloud computing services public with its second quarter results. The announcement was made by an internal source to New York Times magazine. The announcement was in sync with H-P’s intention to shift its focus on the higher-margin cloud computing arena.

As per the internal executive’s statement, H-P is about to air its cloud services, which are expected to be similar to the cloud platform offered by renowned online retailer Amazon.com Inc.’s (AMZN) Web Services…

Contributed Article.  Author: Sinclair Schuller, CEO of Apprenda
 

Grazed from Sys Con Media.   Author: Maureen O’Gara.

The venture capital boys must have been bitten by the largesse bug. Another cloud company has pulled in a monster fourth round.  Apptio, which already has $41 million, is getting a fresh $50 million from newcomer T Rowe Price (mostly) as well as existing investors Andreesen Horowitz, Greylock, Madrona Venture Group and Shasta Ventures, evidently persuaded the four-year-old start-up is on to a billion-dollar market.

It makes enterprise B2B SaaS software that lets CIOs manage, monitor, budget and forecast their IT spending, including online services. They’re supposed to use it to communicate IT’s cost, quality and value to business management. It will use the money on sales expansion, product development and customer service. It’s going to hire more people adding about 100 to its staff of 260 by the end of the year…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author : Maureen O’Gara.

Come May a better-late-than-never Hewlett-Packard is going to go into the multi-tenant public cloud business à la Amazon’s infrastructure-as-a-service according to what the head of HP’s cloud services Biri Singh told the New York Times the other day.

The difference is supposed to be more business-ready software with a lot of third-party services, not so different structured and unstructured databases and data analytics-as-a-service.

Naturally the analytics will be coming from HP’s Vertica and pricey Autonomy acquisitions…