Author: David

Grazed from Network Computing.  Author:  Sharon Fisher.

Seeking to bring cloud computing features to the VMware virtualization private cloud space, Nimbula has announced a new version of its Nimbula Director cloud operating system. In addition to supporting the VMware ESXi hypervisor, Version 2.0 is also intended to support VMware’s Cloud Foundry Platform as a Service solution. The company also said it is now a member of VMware’s Technology Alliance Program. Other enhancements in this version include the ability for third parties to write software for the Nimbula Director platform, managing and monitoring applications, providing Dynamic Name Service and Virtual Private Network services, and adding features intended to make the software more enterprise-ready by improving its scalability.

"There are some good incremental improvements like support for VMware ESXi hypervisors and support for more network services like DNS and VPN," says Paul Burns, president of Neovise, a Fort Collins, Colo., consultancy. "While these are somewhat basic, customers definitely need and want them. There are also a couple of new capabilities that I think really move Nimbula forward. They’ve greatly improved the extensibility of the Nimbula platform by enabling deep integration with all kinds of related cloud services. This lets service providers more easily offer value-added services such as databases, object storage and development environments."…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author:  Eric Lai.

It feels a little blasphemous to type this while Cloud Connect, the cloud industry’s premier conference, takes place just 30 miles away.

But sometimes when you see a balloon rising from all of the hot air filling it, you gotta take aim with the BB gun and pop it.

As most of you know, multitenancy is the term describing when a single instance of software serves dozens or hundreds of users/customers at the same time. Anyone can see how much more efficient this is versus the old server hosting model, where the ratio of server:customer is 1:1. Even using today’s Red Hat-type virtualization, each server can cram fewer users/customers onto itself than a true multitenant service…

Grazed from CRM Buyer.  Author:  Denis Pombriant.

Last week Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) bought the HR SaaS company Taleo for US$1.9 billion, which to me means it’s time to do you-know-what to the fire and call in the dogs. This hunt is officially over and out.

The hunt in question is for legitimacy and primacy of the SaaS and cloud computing model. Many people would argue that legitimacy happened when Salesforce had its first billion-dollar year — heck, its first $100 million would do just as well. But primacy has always been a wee bit dodgy…

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…