Author: David

Anyone paying attention to recent developments in cloud computing will understand just how much data is now being stored in private and public clouds around the world. This big data explosion means that companies of all sizes have access to an amount of data that was unthinkable just a few decades ago, but without the ability to perform complex business analytics, companies may just find themselves buried under all this information. Some recent moves by IBM show just how important analytics have become, especially in commerce, and how much they promise to transform the face of business for those who know how to harness them…

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) has always occupied a position secondary to the other C-suite executives like the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). However, that is changing with the advent of cloud computing. So, what’s this new cloud-friendly CIO like?

According to a survey commissioned by CA Technologies and conducted by market research firm Vanson Bourne, cloud computing has shaken up the traditional role of the CIO. 615 CIOs in organizations with 500 or more employees in the telecoms, retail, financial and manufacturing sectors in the Asia-Pacific region responded to the survey, whose report titled “The Future Role of the CIO 2011” was released in Singapore…

Amazon’s new Elastic Network Interfaces should enable  companies to deploy workloads in Amazon’s Virtual Private Cloud in a more flexible manner. As such, the technology helps move Amazon Web Services — built to provide inexpensive and fairly vanilla web-scale computing infrastructure – –  up the stack to enterprise-class computing,  experts said this week.

With Amazon VPCs, business customers can define and provision their own private section of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud for their compute loads, selecting their own IP addresses, subnets, etc. Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs)  result from Amazon separating IP addresses and some of their associated attributes out from the underlying EC2 storage instances, according to an Amazon Web Services blog post. …

Cloud computing is no longer the curiosity it was a few years ago. Today companies are increasingly looking to cloud computing as an integral component of their computing strategy. The rationale is clear. Companies now understand that cloud computing offers the possibility of being able to more to seamlessly change IT without having the time and expense of setting up, configuring, and deploying new systems. Many companies are discovering that it is much easier to experiment and innovate with cloud computing than with traditional computing models.

But as with any emerging area it is too soon to declare victory. Cloud computing is complicated in many ways. While 2011 was the year when cloud computing took its place as a legitimate strategy, 2012 will be the year when companies need to tackle operational issues of cloud computing. Therefore, I am predicting five big trends for cloud in 2012…

At first glance, cloud computing may seem to be distinct from the austere world of special operations forces (SOF). But Special Operations Technology‘s Eric Marks has a very interesting piece on how SOF can use the cloud to gain the tactical advantage.

Some highlights:

• Cloud to the edge tactical mobile computing, which would feature the re-engineering of mission threads and processes so they could be executed by mobile devices. “This could include controlling a UAV via a smartphone, or having map, radio, and GPS capabilities all in one small pocket-sized device.” Hear that, al-Qaeda? These dudes might be flying a drone with an iPhone! Of course, this makes me feel bad since all I do with my iPhone is browse icanhazcheezburger.com…

‘ve already voiced my take on the key trends shaping the future of cloud computing. But what should you expect in the near term? Here’s what I think will happen in cloud computing next year.

Rapid rise of data living in the cloud. I’ve called 2013 the year of data in the cloud, and I stand behind that. What about 2012? Consider the data problems faced by most enterprises, as well as the availability of newer technology such as Hadoop and cloud-based relational database systems. We will see this space explode next year, and the momentum will hit in 2013.

The rise of the "consumer cloud." Also called "retail clouds," offerings such as iCloud, Box.net, Dropbox, Office 365, and Google Apps will dominate much of the spending in 2012 as the at-home market finds that cloud computing is both convenient and cheap…

he most dramatic advantages of cloud computing are often seen in the enterprise segment. But for large corporate IT departments to prosper in their use of the innovative technology, business managers may have to reexamine and redesign their organizational structures.

Although the majority of organizations are aware of the benefits afforded by the cloud, few are currently positioned to take advantage, according to Forbes. As IT becomes a central component of business strategies, interdepartmental collaboration and cooperation will be essential.

"Business executive involvement will be especially helpful when outsourcing IT processes, such as cloud computing," Association of Enterprise Architects spokesmen Steve Nunn told the news source. "The business architect will be called upon to ensure the strategic relevancy of transformation in a repeatable fashion as cycle times and rollouts happen faster."…

For enterprises, the cloud can be as much of a problem as an opportunity. If employees can’t access the cloud, or if the data centers and other cloud infrastructure suffer an outage, productivity and sales can grind to a halt. Wireless is the latest wild card: By 2016, 70 percent of cloud users will access those applications and services via wireless, Ericsson predicts. Wireless is even more unpredictable than fiber and copper, so how can enterprises ensure that wireless doesn’t jeopardize their cloud-based systems?

Bernard Golden — author of Virtualization for Dummies and CEO of HyperStratus, a cloud computing consultancy — recently spoke with Intelligence in Software about the top pitfalls and best practices that CIOs and IT managers need to consider when it comes to maximizing cloud uptime...