Author: David

Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Florence de Borja.

A lot of accounting firms are reluctant to shift to cloud computing primarily because of concerns regarding service quality, cost, customization, and integration problems. Initially, these concerns may be a problem for the adoption of cloud computing but suppliers are swiftly releasing new products and services to allay these issues.

Accountants have their own way of doing things and as long as this doesn’t run contrary to accounting principles and standards then they are free to come up with easier means to finish their accounting jobs. Therefore, a problem which accountants foresee when they shift to cloud computing is that they may encounter customization problems. Thus, software suppliers like Intacct and NetSuite have created tools to help accountants with their customization needs. As more and more software applications are released by different suppliers, accounting on the cloud can proved to be easier than the traditional software applications found in the accounting firm’s office…

Grazed from NetworkWorld.   Author: Ellen Messmer.

Israel-based startup Porticor launches this week with technology aimed at giving enterprises a way to encrypt data held in cloud computing services, including those from Amazon and Rackspace.

Porticor Virtual Private Data is focused on protecting data at rest in cloud-based computing centers where customers rent disk space or servers, says Gilad Parann-Nissany, Porticor’s co-founder and CEO. What Porticor is doing that’s distinct is relying on a so-called "split-key" method in which the service to encrypt and decrypt doesn’t work unless both pieces of the key are together…

Grazed from RealWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Netplan Internet Solutions Ltd today announced that its VMware public cloud service has achieved VMware vCloud Powered status, illustrating to customers that the company’s cloud  services are underpinned by VMware’s leading virtualization and cloud computing technology, namely VMware vSphere® and VMware vCloud Director™.  A member of the VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP), Netplan provides its VMware vCloud Powered service as a set of cloud computing services across a common platform, supporting the largest set of existing applications and offering distinctive application mobility uniquely available from VMware.

In a recent interview Stuart Gibson, Managing Director of Netplan was quoted saying:…

Grazed from Reuters.  Author: PR Announcement.

Atos, EMC Corporation and VMware  announced today a strategic alliance for open cloud computing. Additionally, Atos plans to create a new company, Canopy, providing  a wide range of cloud solutions and services designed to speed the delivery and help customers quickly take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing.  Based on best-of-breed technology from global cloud computing industry leaders EMC and VMware, the new offerings will include an open cloud platform that enables customers to easily and flexibly choose, access and deploy cloud-based services for their  enterprise IT needs.

Canopy will provide a market-leading one-stop shop for cloud services, enabling organizations to easily, securely and cost effectively accelerate their move to the cloud.  As part of the strategic alliance and in addition to providing the advanced technologies upon which the new Atos cloud solutions and services will be delivered, EMC and VMware also intend to invest alongside Atos to help drive innovation and the successful adoption of Canopy’s solutions in the marketplace…

Grazed from EON.  Author: PR Announcement.

Technology PR specialist Rainier Communications hosted a podcast this week on the future of cloud computing, and the associated challenges in today’s marketplace. The roundtable panel discussion was hosted by Rainier CEO Steve Schuster, and moderated by Neovise Research President Paul Burns, a leading cloud computing industry analyst. The industry panel engaged in an enlightening discussion about the myths, challenges and enormously transformative potential of cloud computing.

The podcast on the “Future of the Cloud” is being released in conjunction with the Cloud Connect 2012 conference in Santa Clara, CA, February 14-15^th…

Grazed from Information Week.  Author: Charles Babcock.

Zynga, the maker of popular social games including Farmville, CityVille, and Mafia Wars, has made a major shift in where it gets the computing horsepower for its more than 227 million monthly active users, in effect, upending its dependence on Amazon Web Services’ infrastructure.

"Nearly 80% of our daily active users were hosted in the (Zynga) zCloud at the end of the year, compared to just 20% at the beginning of the year," said John Schappert, Chief Operating Officer, during the earnings call Tuesday.

That would still make Zynga one of the largest implementers of hybrid cloud computing, building regular use of the public cloud into its IT staff’s planning for how it will add to and use its own data centers. But it also represents how quickly the supplier of social networking games is revising its approach…

Grazed from Information Management.  Author: Justin Kern.

The budget unveiled Monday by the White House features $78.9 billion in federal IT spending, a 1.2 percent decrease from the budget enacted in 2012. Much of that decrease comes from more than $1 billion cut from the Department of Defense IT budget by way of data center consolidation, a centerpiece of the 25-point plan from the office of the federal CIO.

IT spending across non-military agencies will go up from 2012 levels by about $459 million to $41.7 billion in 2013, according to proposed budget figures. Since 2009, IT spending has remained relatively flat, while the total budget presented by Obama grew to a historically high $3.8 trillion…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

CloudSpokes, the crowdsourcing community that matches companies who need cloud development work with a worldwide community of specialist developers, has attracted more than 30,000 developers, fulfilled more than 150 challenges, and created innovative solutions for companies like Suntech, Medtronic and Glocap in its inaugural year. The community, created and managed by Appirio, takes advantage of the unique elements of cloud computing — specifically the ability of developers anywhere to work with cloud platforms instantly — to enable the crowdsourcing of development…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

CloudNOW, a nonprofit executive consortium of the leading women in cloud computing, announced during Cloud Connect Santa Clara today, the first annual CloudNOW Awards presented to 10 outstanding women in cloud computing for their contributions, accomplishments and thought leadership.

"It was amazing and gratifying to have the caliber of candidates participate in our first annual awards," said Jocelyn DeGance Graham, founder of CloudNOW. "As we continue to fulfill on our mission, we plan to expand the awards next year to recognize the outstanding contributions of more women in the cloud and further the reach of women in technology."…

Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: David Linthicum.

Google’s Drive, aka Gdrive, cloud storage service is finally due for release, more than four years after it was first rumored in 2007. Clearly, users want cloud storage, both at the enterprise and the retail levels. Just look at the success of Dropbox and Box.net, not to mention Amazon.com’s S3. Of course Apple is in that game as well with its iCloud document-syncing cloud service. I use them all.

So what’s new with Gdrive? Not much.

We’ve been able to store stuff for free using Google Apps for years. Moreover, we’ve had other more retail-oriented cloud storage systems, such as Dropbox, that already work pretty well and have been battle-tested. While I wouldn’t put state secrets on these services just yet, their security is much better than a USB thumb drive’s, which is the real-world alternative for most users…