Author: David

January 27, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing: Intel to Buy RealNetworks IP

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

Intel last year bid billions trying to get the Nortel patents. Thursday RealNetworks said Intel was paying it $120 million cash for 190 "foundational media" patents, 170 patent applications and next-generation video codec software good for stuff like streaming.  The IP is apparently supposed to brace Intel’s Ultrabook, smartphone, tablet and digital media interests.

Intel’s also picking up Real’s video codec engineering team.

Real retains "certain rights to continue to use the patents in current and future products."…

January 27, 2012 Off

VMware Simplifies, Automates Virtual/Cloud Management

By David
Grazed from Computer Networking.  Author: Chris Talbot.

VMware is expanding its management portfolio with vCenter Operations Management Suite by integrating with VMware vCenter Capacity IQ and VMware vCenter Configuration Manager for improved performance, capacity and configuration management. VMware revamped its virtualization management suite last October adding the VMware vFabric Application Management and VMware IT Business Management tools. The new enhancements focus on embedding and integrating management tools into the platform streamlining processes and applying analytics so customers can achieve better economics with their cloud computing deployments.

With VMware virtualization becoming increasingly pervasive within enterprise data centers, vCenter Operations Management Suite provides customers with detailed views into their infrastructures while also providing standardized methodologies for more effectively managing virtualized systems, said Charles King, principal analyst Pund-IT. He noted there are two main elements to the product’s value proposition…

January 27, 2012 Off

Evolving Your Managed Service Business to a Cloud Hosting Model

By David

Grazed from MSPNews.  Author: Laura Stotler.

Managed service providers (MSPs) are constantly trying to come up with new and innovative offerings and differentiators to avoid getting stuck in the cloud. TMC (NewsAlert) recently held a webinar discussing some of the challenges service providers face and how to meet them head on to make the most of the promise of cloud computing.

According to an audience poll, more than half of webinar participants said they were already delivering cloud services in 2012. Around 22 percent said they were planning to introduce services this year, and another 14 percent were not sure, while 11 percent were not planning to offer services. Presenter Antonio Piraino, CTO of ScienceLogic (NewsAlert), said that while many MSPs are telling the market they’re offering cloud services, they’re actually still transitioning to the cloud model and facing challenges each day…

January 27, 2012 Off

Pixar Animates Cloud Computing

By David
Grazed from IT Business Edge.  Author: Michael Vizard.

One of the more interesting attributes of cloud computing is the ability to invoke compute-intensive resources as a service. Rather than having to acquire and deploy IT infrastructure to handle peak loads or processing requirements, IT organizations can “rightsize” their IT investments to handle their average workload requirements. Any time their computing requirements exceed those average workload limits, they can invoke additional compute capacity in the cloud using a process known as “cloudbursting.”

It’s still early days in terms of the mainstream adoption of “cloudbursting,” but the concept is already leading to the creation of some new business models. For example, Pixar has announced that it is partnering with GreenButton and Microsoft to deliver a new rendering service in the cloud that will be managed by GreenButton using its namesake cloud management software running on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform…

January 27, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing Fueling Global Economic Growth: London School of Economics study

By David
Grazed from Forbes.  Author: Joe McKendrick.

The development of cloud computing will promote economic growth, increase productivity and shift the type of jobs and skills required by businesses, according to a new study by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The LSE study selected two industries, aerospace and smartphone services, and examined the impact of cloud computing on these  industries across the UK, USA, Germany and Italy between the years 2010 and 2014. The LSE study was underwritten by Microsoft.

Investing in cloud computing is contributing to growth and job creation in both the fast-growing, high-tech smartphone services industry as well as the longstanding and slow-growth aerospace sector, the study claims. In addition, cloud is directly creating employment through the construction, staffing and supply of data centers, which will host the cloud. Using cloud computing enables businesses of all sizes to be more productive by freeing managerial staff and skilled employees to concentrate on more profitable areas of work…

January 27, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing: Amazon Goes After Enterprise Data

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

Amazon’s cloud, which, let’s face it, is still pretty much developer turf, broadened its push into the enterprise Wednesday with the introduction of AWS Storage Gateway, a beta virtual appliance nominally meant to automate enterprise data backup to S3 while creating a comfort level with the cloud among the leery.

It’s the first time Amazon has proposed putting its own software on the ground inside a corporate data center. And the stuff’s targeted at large corporations. Amazon says some customers asked for such a solution. It also expects resellers to offer the service.

It is of course proprietary and a competitive problem for other cloud storage and gateway suppliers. Come to think of it, Amazon as repository of corporate data is a problem for a lot of people…

January 27, 2012 Off

Does Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Belong in the Cloud?

By David
Grazed from Cadalyst.   Author: Eric Marks.

There is a lot of talk about cloud computing today, and its exponentially growing presence among enterprise technologies, particularly product lifecycle management (PLM). The adoption rate of PLM "in the cloud," however, has been slow. Customers are having a difficult time deciphering when, how, and even whether to use PLM in a cloud. Some users feel apprehension about moving sensitive information — such as that managed in PLM — to the cloud. Adoption is gradually gaining momentum, however, as more customers learn about the available options and advantages.

PLM software is branching out from its traditional stronghold in engineering-intensive discrete manufacturing and moving aggressively into process-oriented industries such as energy, food and beverage, and consumer goods, according to a study released by the ARC Advisory Group in November 2011. Cloud-based PLM is garnering more support and higher adoption as these industries start to deploy newer technology and more evolved IT computing environments…

January 27, 2012 Off

Vnetrix deploys CA AppLogic

By David
Grazed from CBR.  Author:  Editorial Staff.

UK-based managed service provider (MSP) Vnetrix has deployed CA Technologies AppLogic software to reduce the launch time for hosted cloud services from weeks to hours and is helping global customers, Universal Music and Atkins, to benefit from cloud-based operations.

Vnetrix is leveraging the CA Technologies AppLogic turnkey cloud computing platform to drive Business Service Innovation by reducing time-to-market for new business services, while simultaneously increasing margin.

CA AppLogic application-centric cloud platform allows users to turn an application and the infrastructure that supports it into a single manageable object…

January 26, 2012 Off

Cloud-Based Security Is Gaining Momentum

By David
Grazed from InfoBoom.  Author: Shawn Drew.

Sourcefire recently announced the release of its FireAMP software, which harnesses the power of the cloud to provide malware protection to businesses. The release is one more example of the rise of cloud-based security, which uses the massive computing power of the cloud to provide solutions that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

January 26, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing Both More Agile and Less Expensive

By David
Grazed from Network World.  Author: Bernard Golden.

In Silicon Valley, the saying "it’s a dessert topping and a floor wax" is often used to puncture the pretensions of a product that promises that it can address every need; it’s applied to products claiming oxymoronic qualities. For example, the saying would be applied to a product that claimed to perform network management and word processing–two different, mismatched, and disharmonious functionalities.

I’m reminded of this when I listen to a debate common to cloud computing discussions. One person will assert that cloud computing is less expensive than the traditional IT infrastructure operations; a second person then says "cost isn’t really the issue for IT, what they really want from cloud computing is greater agility," meaning rapid provisioning of infrastructure resources…