Author: David

Grazed from MSPNews.  Author: David Delony.

With increasing acceptance of cloud computing by enterprise users comes increasing bandwidth needs, says a survey by Network Instruments (News – Alert), a provider of information and network management.

“While IT teams embrace cloud services and video conferencing as a way to increase cost savings and business flexibility, these technologies introduce new components and environments which make ensuring positive end-user experience all the more challenging,” Brad Reinboldt, senior product manager of Network Instruments said. “The reported lack of monitoring tools, quality metrics, and visibility create serious obstacles that prevent IT from effectively managing performance and jeopardize costly technology investments.”…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced its global Cloudforce Social Enterprise Tour, which kicks off in San Francisco on March 15th. Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff will deliver the keynote on the rise of the social enterprise at Cloudforce San Francisco, the largest Cloudforce ever, at Moscone West. More than 17,000 people are expected to register to learn how their companies can join the social enterprise revolution through social, mobile and open cloud computing. 3,000 developers are expected to register for the co-located Cloudstock, the industry’s first social enterprise developer event, to get hands-on and code the next generation of social enterprise apps.

 Free registration to attend in person is available at www.fb.me/salesforce or watch the keynote online and join the conversation with Salesforce Live! beginning at 8:30 a.m. PT at www.facebook.com/salesforce …

Grazed from MIT Technology Review.  Author: Editorial Staff.

The cloud could suffer the same kind of collapses that plague the financial system, according to an analysis of the unrecognised risks of cloud computing.  The cloud is essentially a metaphor for a network of computers in which computational tasks and resources can be shared. 

The big idea here is that users simply rent the computing power, the storage or an application for as long as they need it without having to invest in the infrastructure behind it.   That makes computing cheaper, easier and more efficient…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Dana Gardner.

Business leaders want to exploit cloud computing values fast, but they also fear the security risks in moving to cloud models too quickly.

Just at the time that companies want to leverage cloud, they know that security threats are growing. Indeed, according to recent HP-sponsored research, the volume and complexity of security threats has continued to escalate. Analyst firms such as Forrester place security and privacy as the top reasons for not adopting cloud.

Yet by better understanding cloud security risks, gaining detailed understanding of your own infrastructure and following proven reference architectures and methods, security can move from an inhibitor of cloud adoption to an enabler…

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Brandon Butler.

Depending on which survey or story you read, the cloud can be either a good thing for IT workers and their job security, or it can be terrifying.

For example, a study by Microsoft and IDC recently predicted that cloud computing will create 14 million jobs internationally by 2015. But those aren’t just IT jobs, they are jobs spread around the entire world, across all industries.

For IT shops, the news may not be as bright: A study by IT service provider CSC concluded that 14% of companies reduced their IT staff headcount after deploying a cloud strategy…

Grazed from CIO.com.  Author: Bernard Golden.

As I’ve noted a number of times, cloud computing promises both greater IT agility and reduced costs. No one disputes the agility issue. Compared to traditional resource deployment that can drag on for weeks or months, cloud computing offers the enormous improvement of a timetable measured in minutes.

On the subject of cost, however, there is no consensus. I discussed the subject a couple of weeks ago here. The other perspective made itself known last week with this opinion piece in InformationWeek. The author evaluated the historical price changes in AWS S3 storage vs. on-premises, disk-based storage and concluded that AWS isn’t cost competitive. Moreover, he asserted that AWS storage isn’t realizing (or at least, isn’t passing on) the benefits of Moore’s Law, since its prices aren’t dropping as rapidly as on-premises storage pricing…

Grazed from ITWire.  Author:  Peter Dinham.

Data integration software services company, Informatica, has adopted cloud-based ERP software vendor, NetSuite’s professional services automation solution to manage its worldwide services business.  Under the deal, Informatica has installed NetSuite OpenAir for project management, time and expense, global billing, resources management and reporting.

Richard Busch, director of professional services operations at Informatica, said the company had experienced significant growth over the past seven years, driven by growth in cloud computing and big data, and the demands placed upon Informatica’s services organisation have increased tremendously…

Grazed from JacksonVille Business Journal.  Author: Michael Clinton.

Peak 10 Inc.    Peak 10 Inc. Latest from The Business Journals Follow this company said today that is planning a complimentary webinar to help businesses of all shapes and sizes understand what they should consider before moving to cloud-based computing.  Peak 10 will host the live webinar “Before You Move to the Cloud” at noon EST Tuesday, March 20.

Cloud-based computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. An example of a cloud-based service is Google Docs available through Gmail…

Grazed from V3.co.uk.  Author: Gareth Morgan.

IT security vendor SafeNet has acquired the privately-held maker of cloud authentication tools Cryptocard to strengthen its authentication-as-a-service offering.

SafeNet intends to integrate Cryptocard’s Backshield cloud platform, which lets firms continue to utilise legacy authentication servers and tokens to secure remote access to virtual desktop infrastructure or cloud-based platforms, with its Fully Trust Authentication service.

“As data continues to proliferate and move beyond traditional perimeters, customers are demanding solutions that protect and control data and identities across networks, mobile devices and to and from the cloud,” said Chris Fedde, SafeNet chief executive…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author: Nathan Eddy.

Disk-based data storage systems specialist Nexsan announced it has teamed up with Veeam Software, a provider of data protection, disaster recovery and management solutions for virtual data center environments. The two are aiming to deliver storage, backup and replication solutions that enable scalable data protection optimized for hypervisor-independent cloud computing.

Nexsan’s platform is designed to simplify storage management in a virtual infrastructure (VI), with disk arrays built on a flexible architecture capable of being integrated into a range of operating environments. Veeam combines backup and replication in a single solution. Veeam Backup & Replication v6 offers a unified approach to data protection along with capabilities that are designed to enhance reliability such as streamlined failover and real failback…