Author: David

Grazed from Business Standard.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Microsoft is taking the fight with its cloud computing rival, VMware, to a new level, with the launch of Systems Center 2012 that includes a new pricing structure and integrates eight separate component products into one unified solution, streamlining installation and reducing the time it takes to deploy from days down to hours. The software is used with Windows and virtualisation software, letting companies turn their servers into so-called private clouds. The offering is cheaper than VMware’s competing product.

Cloud computing puts data and applications on remote servers and data centres, rather than storing it in a company’s own mainframes. Users can access the data and applications through the internet…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Rackspace Hosting, the service leader in Cloud computing, today announced it has been ranked 74 on FORTUNE magazine’s annual list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For." FORTUNE has named Rackspace as one of America’s top workplaces in four of the past five years. The full list and related stories will appear in the February 6 issue of FORTUNE, and today at fortune.com/bestcompanies.

"We are honored to once again be included among the great companies on the FORTUNE list, and are thrilled that our Fanatical Support and employee engagement got us here," said Lanham Napier, CEO of Rackspace. "Our employees — we call them Rackers — make our company great. I want to thank them for keeping the spirit of Fanatical Support alive through their commitment to our customers and to their fellow Rackers. We are determined to preserve and improve our unique company culture, even as we grow."…

Grazed from Daily Finance.  Author:  Anders Bylund.

What a difference a year makes.

Twelve months ago, shares of F5 Networks (NAS: FFIV) dropped like a rock on a disappointing first-quarter report. Fast-forward 52 weeks and you find the stock surging as much as 12.8%. This time, there’s not just one strong report behind the jump — but a solid series of outperformances.

F5’s non-GAAP earnings landed at $1.03 per share, 22% above the year-ago period and 2% ahead of analyst targets. That’s nothing new; the string of earnings beats actually goes back to and even beyond that dreary drop four quarters ago. In fact, you have to go back to fall 2008 to find the last time F5 merely met Street estimates rather than exceeding them…

Grazed from The Street.  Author:  PR Announcement.

Interphase Corporation (NASDAQ: INPH) announced today that its clouDevice™ desktop virtualization portfolio is now available from PBG Networks, a systems integration firm specializing in virtualization. PBG Networks has introduced a new customized version of clouDevice virtual desktop clients which is designed to serve the cloud computing needs of the K-12 education community. The PBG K12Cloud client bundles a clouDevice client with various application access, virtualization, and security services to enable school IT directors to safely and reliably employ educational applications deployed in a public or private cloud.

“By leveraging the clouDevice technology, which offers an affordable and innovative substitute for traditional desktop computers, PBG has created the K12Cloud, a cloud services solution that meets the specific needs of K-12 school systems,” said Scott Brousseau, Senior VP & CTO of PBG Networks…

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

Nexenta, the open storage shop, has picked up a $21 million C round from Menlo Ventures, which led the investment, as well as Sierra Ventures and Razor’s Edge, which participated.

The threesome joins existing investors Javelin Venture Partners and TransLink Capital.

The start-up says it’s been growing 400% year-over-year for the last three years, which is supposed to make it the fastest-growing company in enterprise storage. It claims 4,000 customers like the US Army and Korea Telecom representing $300 million in hardware sales through the channel and partners such as VMware, Citrix, Cisco, Intel, Dell and Arista…

Grazed from IT Business Edge.  Author: Michael Vizard.

One of the factors limiting the globalization of cloud computing has been concerns about the various legal principles that would be applied by governments in terms of preserving the sanctity of that data. For example, many companies outside the U.S. have been concerned that the U.S. government might apply some of the more draconian aspects of the U.S. Patriot Act to data that belonged to them.

Given the general sensitivity to privacy, this has made many companies outside the U.S. reluctant to store data in data centers that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction. This week, however, Bruce Schwartz, deputy assistant attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, during a conference call took pains to stress that the Patriot Act does not supersede U.S. international treaty obligations, especially, Schwartz says, the terms of a Convention on Cybercrime that was signed in 2001 in Budapest…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: James Carlini.

“Once you get into Cloud Computing and past the glossy euphemisms, you better watch out for the real rocks in the road,” observes James Carlini.

“Cloud computing is the major approach that most organizations should be adapting for their applications in this new era of mobile computing.” You have all read the ads and the articles that hype it, along with all the overnight experts that tout how they know that Cloud Computing is the universal solution for today’s and tomorrow’s organizations. Now, let’s get back on the ground and understand what some of the real potholes and obstacles are on the road to a more efficient and effective IT infrastructure.

Rules of the Road, Rules of the Clouds
There are many “experts” out there touting all the positive aspects to Cloud Computing but like anything else, there are issues and concerns to address…

Grazed from FierceIT.  Author: David Perera.

Public cloud computing environments for scientific applications have the potential to be up to 13 times more expensive than existing Energy Department supercomputing centers, finds a final report of a 2-year federal study.

The study (.pdf), released in December, chronicles the build out of a private cloud dubbed Magellan by the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, as well as a study of attitudes to cloud computing among scientists and cost estimates of running scientific applications in a commercial cloud…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

IDC Government Insights announced the availability of a new report, Best Practices: Regional Community Cloud Hubs — The New "Trickle Down" Effect That’s Boosting State and Local Computing (Document #GI232470). According to the new report, IDC Government Insights believes a new type of government cloud services, labeled "regional cloud hubs", will significantly change the way state and local governments procure online computing services. These regional cloud hubs, defined as one government agency (often at the state level) offering computing services to other government agencies, have proven successful in the State of Michigan and State of Utah and are further examined within the report. In addition, the new research provides a framework for building similar regional cloud solutions.

According to Shawn McCarthy, research analyst, IDC Government Insights, "We believe that cloud hubs will see rapid growth, since the first multiagency efforts have already shown a positive return on investment and solid service levels for cloud solutions subscribers."…

Grazed from IT World.  Author: Brian Proffitt.

Enterprise users are still doubling down on their Linux bets, thanks to the motivation brought on by big data, cloud computing, and virtualization.

That’s one takeaway of a new report released today by the Linux Foundation, based on a survey of just over 400 enterprise Linux users. The survey, conducted in conjunction with the Yeoman Technology Group, reveals that 84 percent of companies currently using Linux have expanded their usage of the operating system over the past 12 months.

Much of that growth is driven by big data: over "75% of respondents expressed concern about supporting ‘Big Data,’ and nearly 72% are choosing Linux to support it," a release from the Linux Foundation stated. "Only 35.9% are planning to use Windows to meet the demands of this new environment."…