Following the announcement of the European Commission’s plans for the Data Protection Directive, Kroes said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the time is right to look to the cloud to help Europe get to grips with its copyright and piracy problems. She also announced a European Cloud Partnership with €10 million initial funding.Over the past year the commission has held talks with cloud providers, users and consumers to identify the main issues that need to be addressed…
January 30, 2012
You can’t stop the Cloud revolution
Grazed from ARN. Author: Patrick Budmar.
Cloud computing is no longer on a roll but becoming a bullet train, according to Aegis Services Australia President, Chris Luxford. It’s a lofty claim but one that is backed up by data from analyst firm, IDC, which has found that more than 20 per cent of Australian CIOs are currently using a Cloud solution.
IDC has also forecasted that the use of Cloud services by Australian companies, from SMBs all the way to enterprises, is set to quadruple by 2015.
The revenue for Cloud services in Australia is expected to increase from $470 million in 2010 to just over $2 billion in 2015 for a compound annual growth rate of 34 per cent…
January 29, 2012
Cloud vs Virtualisation – A Natural Synergy?
The Business Line. Author: Balaji Narasimhan.
Many companies, which are turning to cloud computing, will find the need to manage their cloud space becoming more important. Most of these companies rely on both public and private clouds. The impact in India could be higher than in developed countries, if one goes by a research study conducted by IDC in November 2011. According to the study, less than half of end-users across Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) will complete their private cloud projects by 2014.
The respondents of the IDC survey felt this was because of lack of experience in building these systems and because of higher-than-expected upfront investment requirements. IDC says that consequently an increased number of enterprises will make a detour to public cloud services. This, in turn, will result in the management of the hybrid cloud being more pronounced in countries like India…
January 28, 2012
Europe stumps up £8 million for cloud computing strategy
Grazed from ComputerWeekly. Author: Jennifer Baker.
One year after announcing her intention to develop a European Cloud Computing Strategy, Europe’s Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes this week made a first cash commitment to the initiative.
January 28, 2012
5 ways cloud ‘supercharges’ enterprise initiatives
Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Joe McKendrick.
Cloud in and of itself may or may not add value to the business, but it certainly can help supercharge other key enterprise initiatives.
Cloud can be positioned as the platform for a range of initiatives intended to help increase the agility and ability of the organization’s business technology. That’s the gist of a new book, authored by Pankaj Arora, Raj Biyani and Salil Dave, all Microsoft executives.
In To the Cloud: Powering an Enterprise, the authors explain how enterprise cloud benefits other initiatives within the enterprise:
1) Invest in shared services: “The ability to share physical servers is one cloud benefit, but the cloud can do more. Because a cloud scale unit caan be more granular than an application, enterprises can create functional components that can be shared across applications.”…
January 28, 2012
Amazon’s Expanding Ventures in Cloud Computing
Grazed from Investing.com. Author: Brandy Betz.
Goldman Sachs assigned a “neutral” rating to Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) this week after previewing the fourth-quarter report due for release on January 31. Analyst concerns include European sales potential and the investments that Amazon will need to make into its services, notably including cloud storage. Amazon has released two new cloud storage products in as many weeks that expand the data backup and recovery options available to businesses.
Cloud storage – which has been prominent in the news lately as the industry assesses potential fallout from the shutdown of storage site Megaupload, whose operators have been accused of digital piracy — provides users with a third-party-facilitated online storage network that charges customers only for the space they use. This setup is designed to take potentially costly backup and storage responsibilities out of the hands of business owners, allowing them to focus more on data production than its upkeep…
January 28, 2012
Heads in the cloud: Part 1
Grazed from The Journal of Accountancy. Author: Jeff Drew.
Cloud computing creates unprecedented opportunities for CPA firms to do more chargeable work faster and with better client communications. But transitioning to the cloud and having confidential information accessible over the Internet raises implementation and security concerns that CPA firms must address.
To help CPAs better understand the benefits and challenges of the cloud, the JofA invited five CPAs to share their cloud experiences in a round-table discussion…
January 28, 2012
Aryaka Wins TMC Cloud Computing Excellence Award as the World’s First ‘Optimized Network’ in the Cloud
Grazed from MarketWatch. Author: PR Announcement.
Aryaka, provider of the world’s first cloud-based WAN optimization and application acceleration solution, today announced TMC has named Aryaka a winner of the Cloud Computing Excellence Award as one of the companies that most effectively completes the cloud story by providing the ‘network’ in the cloud.
"The cloud delivery model has fueled a competitive spirit within the vendor, developer and provider communities that has resulted in a wave of new products, services and applications being introduced at an unprecedented rate," said Erik Linask, Group Editorial Director at TMC. "I am pleased to recognize Aryaka as one of the companies that have exemplified innovation and excellence in the market by leveraging the latest technology trends to create an enriched user experience."…
January 28, 2012
Cloud Computing: Facebook to File for Massive IPO according to WSJ
Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Maureen O’Gara.
Facebook will put in its papers to IPO next week, according to the Wall Street Journal Friday, maybe by Wednesday February 1. Apparently the timing is still a bit up in the air but it’s in the works.
The offering, looking to raise $10 billion, is supposed to value the company at somewhere between $75 billion and $100 billion.
Britain’s Telegraph said PrivCo claimed Thursday night that Facebook was targeting an IPO price of $38-$40 for its shares, with a target value for the company of $90 billion-$95 billion because Facebook was "reluctant to aim for the full $100 billion valuation in the hope of leaving some value for investors following the listing."…
January 27, 2012
We’re always looking to share things that are interesting, funny or educational in the Cloud Computing space. And this one fits the bill. Check out this recent video, Mad Men Meets High-Tech Virtualization Private Clouds, from Nutanix, created for the company’s Sales Kickoff 2012.
Nutanix Mad Men Spoof: Build Your Private Cloud
Grazed from YouTube. Author: Nutanix
We’re always looking to share things that are interesting, funny or educational in the Cloud Computing space. And this one fits the bill. Check out this recent video, Mad Men Meets High-Tech Virtualization Private Clouds, from Nutanix, created for the company’s Sales Kickoff 2012. Watch the video:
January 27, 2012
Five Reasons to Move to the Cloud in 2012
Contributed Article. Author: Herb Hamblen, Director of Sales, Mosaic Technology
Gartner, Inc. recently highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that they feel will be strategic for most organizations in 2012. Things like in-memory computing, next-generation analytics and app stores are all extremely relevant, but at Mosaic, we think that cloud computing is the real forerunner here.
Interestingly enough, many companies have still not made the move to the cloud. In a 2009 survey of IT and business executives, many expressed concern about moving to the cloud, citing security, availability and performance as some of their main reasons. The facts, according to Gartner, show that the cloud is a disruptive force and has the potential for broad long-term impact in most industries.
We believe that while the cloud offers a lot of business opportunities, what will happen first is the move to the private cloud otherwise known as virtualization. Throughout 2011, we talked a lot about the benefits of migrating to a virtual environment. There are also a number of Mosaic customers that were willing to provide a behind-the-scenes look at what virtualization did for their business. All that said – while cloud computing is what every marketing person wants to discuss, it is virtualization that many businesses are seriously considering in 2012…