Author: David

Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author:  Eric Knorr.

If I had to sum up in one word the most exciting thing that happened to cloud computing in 2011, I’d have to say it’s OpenStack [1]. This open source project, launched by Rackspace [2] and NASA in late 2010, is assembling a private cloud [3] "operating system" for the data center that promises vast increases in operational efficiency. The momentum behind it is phenomenal; at last count, 144 companies back the project, including Cisco, Citrix, Dell, HP, and Intel.

But at the same time, the public cloud is surging — and not just Amazon and Salesforce, though those two remain the largest public cloud service providers. The telcos (notably Verizon) are gearing up to deliver IaaS (infrastructure as a service) at a larger scale than ever before. Microsoft, HP, and others are also building out huge public cloud capacities…

Grazed from Forbes.  Author: Joe McKendrick.

Just as cloud computing is a game-changer for many companies, it is also changing the nature of jobs – not only within the information technology department, but in other parts of the enterprise as well.

For senior-level executives, especially chief information officers, the changes reflect the more strategic role IT plays in the direction of businesses. For the business, it introduces more reliable and predictable supporting technology.

“For a long period of time, IT was in that Wild West mode,” Greg Shields, partner and principal technologist with Concentrated Technology, recently told Jason Helmick of Interface Technical Training. “We were making up the rules as we go.” But companies and their IT leaders recognize that the best and most cost-effective solutions are those that may have been built and tested elsewhere. “You don’t grow your own food. You don’t raise your own cows anymore for meat. You go to the grocery store because somebody’s figured out that I can create this experience that is the grocery store, and I can do it at a lower cost, both in time and in dollar cost.”…

Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Sourya Biswas.

Sometime back I had written about how Australian cloud computing company Ninefold was trying to drum up fear that data residing on Amazon’s servers in Australia were under the jurisdiction on the US PATRIOT Act, and thereby, subject to search and seizure (See: Your Data in Australia is subject to the US PATRIOT Act ).

Thus, even data on an offshore location would have no privacy from American investigators, a situation unwelcome to many businesses. While Ninefold had its own selfish reasons in highlighting this issue, it being a rival of Amazon Down Under, this is not the first time that cloud privacy under the PATRIOT Act has been in the news. Indeed, I had covered it as well (See: Is Cloud Computing a Threat to Consumer Rights?)…

Grazed from MediaCity.  Author: Shahid Shah.

As most of my regular readers know, I work as a technology strategy advisor for several different government agencies; in that role I get to spend quality time with folks from NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology), what I consider one of the government’s most prominent think tanks. They’re doing yeoman’s work trying to get the massive federal government’s different agencies working in common directions and the technology folks I’ve met seem cognizant of the influence (good and bad) they have; they seem to try to wield that power as carefully as they know how. Since most of you are in the technology industry, albeit specific to healthcare, I recommend that you learn more about NIST and the role it plays ’ they can make your life easier because of the coordination and consensus building work they do for us all. I, for one, was thrilled when NIST was picked as the governing body for the MU certification criteria. These guys know what they’re doing and I wish they got more involved in driving healthcare standards…

Grazed from Stuff.co.nz.  Author:  Editorial Staff.

I need to become more technology savvy and would like to invest in some good cloud computing software to store our company’s data. How should I go about this?”

A: Cloud computing is an IT innovation gaining momentum world-wide. Cloud computing effectively outsources parts of your IT structure and has a number of benefits including allowing IT to focus on providing solutions and innovation to your business. Another benefit is that costs associated with cloud-based IT services are operational in nature so there’s no need for capital investment and fixed cost structures. Added to this data volumes continue to grow exponentially creating problems for data back-ups and archiving. 

So how to go about moving to cloud-computing?…

Grazed from Times Live.  Author: Greg Gordan.

MICROSOFT and Nokia are once again in the ascendancy, Apple is on the cusp of more great things and BlackBerry is on the wane. That, in a nutshell, is what will be the state of the tech world in 2012.

But the tech stars and black holes will be obscured by the cloud which will cover just about everything next year.

The building blocks that will turn cloud computing into a reality for South Africans in 2012 are just about in place.

Cheaper, faster ubiquitous bandwidth, a willingness by businesses and consumers to trust cloud-based systems and a growing number of devices that use the cloud to provide services mean its time has come…

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

The Apache Software Foundation, where Oracle sent OpenOffice in June after it adjured the stuff, said Tuesday that it will put out OpenOffice 3.4 in the first quarter whose code will all be under the Apache license, resolving lingering incompatibility issues.

It used what was ostensibly an open letter to the Open Document Format community to distance itself from the new German Team OpenOffice.com fork and its fund-raising attempts and warn it about misusing its trademark including "OpenOffice.org and all related marks."

It also said that given OpenOffice’s large ecosystem it’s "impossible to agree upon a single vision" so it’s not going to try and says it doesn’t "seek to be the only player. Instead we seek to offer a neutral and powerful collaboration opportunity." It talked about rising "above political, social and commercial differences" and claimed "Apache OpenOffice offers much more potential for OpenOffice.org than ‘just’ an end-user Microsoft Office replacement" but it’s unclear where it’s going with this happy talk…

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

Workday, the six-year-old SaaS ERP start-up co-founded by David Duffield after a resistant PeopleSoft finally fell to Oracle, is planning to IPO in the second half of next year, according to two unidentified Bloomberg sources. It’s supposed to want to raise $200 million-$500 million.

Workday, a threat to Oracle and SAP, is credited in some quarters with provoking SAP to spend $3.4 billion on SuccessFactors, a direct competitor, a price that could tickle Workday’s valuation.

It has raised in the neighborhood of $190 million over repeated rounds, including an F round in October that reportedly included Michael Dell and Jeff Bezos. Duffield has also supplied millions of its bankroll…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

DataDirect Networks (DDN), the world’s largest privately held information storage company, today announced that the company has been named for the second year in a row as one of the 100 fastest-growing private companies in the Los Angeles area — the second largest metropolitan region in the United States — by the Los Angeles Business Journal. DDN was one of only 14 companies on the list with more than $150M in annual revenue.

"We are very pleased to again be recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in greater Los Angeles," said Alex Bouzari, CEO and cofounder, DataDirect Networks. "In today’s era of Big Data and Cloud Computing, organizations are seeking to derive maximum value from the massive amount of information they have to process every day, and DDN delivers the products and technology to help them do just that. Around the world, our solutions are helping scientists achieve important discoveries, businesses bring best-selling products to market faster and more profitably, governments reduce crime, and consumers experience more fun and life-like entertainment. It is a very exciting time to be in the field of technology, and we are thrilled to be at the center of it."…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author:  Howard M. Cohen.

Misinformation and a lack of understanding have delayed some companies from obtaining the advantages of cloud computing.

With the explosion of information regarding cloud computing, a lot of people think that everybody knows more than they want to about the technology. Yet according to many IT solution providers who are working with customers to help them transition to the cloud, the biggest issue holding them back is a lack of understanding about what exactly is cloud computing.

“Not understanding the cloud is holding them back,” said Connie Arentson, president of Heartland Technology Solutions. “The fact is they’ve got their infrastructure in-house with all their data on it. There’s a security in knowing where it’s at and having it there.”…