Is Cloud Computing The Victim Or The Suspect?
When cloud computing arrived at center stage back in the late 1990’s, it was the future. It was the invention of the microchip all over again. IT departments and CFO’s everywhere were breathing a sigh of relief. They saw the cloud as a means to ending budget overages, pesky support tickets and reducing hardware costs. As soon as the media got wind of this nifty cloud thingy, well, the cloud metaphors were more prolific than Captain America cosplayers at a Comic-on. In fact, one could even say the media was largely responsible for the cloud’s success. After all, we know the media is built on driving the rise of a trend and then greedily exposing its crash and burn. That begs the question, is cloud computing really as fabulous as we think it is? Is the cloud a victim of commercialism or a suspect in the breakdown of data security?…
Amazon Pushes Harder To Win Government Cloud Market
Amazon Web Services is a market leader in cloud computing, but it’s been a latecomer to the federal cloud market. The company is now pushing hard into the government market, releasing a government-focused cloud earlier this month and continuing to increase the size of its public sector group.
While Amazon has had government customers since the early days of its S3 storage service and EC2 infrastructure service (NASA was a launch partner for S3), the company didn’t begin to build its government-focused business until 2009, and didn’t have a formalized public sector business unit until late 2010, when it brought in former Microsoft federal sector VP Teresa Carlson…
Cloud ATM demo’d by Diebold
Diebold has taken the wraps off a prototype for a bank ATM that uses virtualisation technology.
Relying on remote servers instead of in-built computing resources reduces complexity while offering greater reliability and security. Diebold described the prototype as a "game changer" and part of its roadmap to make greater use of cloud-based technologies in cash machines and self-service kiosks…
Baidu sees possible acquisitions in mobile, cloud
China’s top search engine Baidu Inc is on the lookout for potential acquisitions and investment opportunities in the mobile and cloud computing spaces, its chief financial officer said on Friday.
"We constantly assess our business needs and are on the lookout in the industry space for what will be a good fit for us," Jennifer Li also told Reuters in an interview…
Google’s Schmidt’s cloud computing triple thread
Taking to the stage to deliver the closing keynote of Salesfore.com’s Dreamforce conference, Schmidt said the tech leaders of the future will embrace the three key trends of mobile, local and social, with the top programmers today building mobile applications.
"The best vendors will offer mobile services and the next generation of startups will be based on that," Schmidt told the audience.
With the phones of the future able to tell where you’ve been, what you did and the people you met (with your permission, Schmidt hastened to add), it’s only a matter of time before they will be suggesting places to go, and people to meet…
Virtualisation is not cloud computing
Virtualisation is not the key to cloud, according to one of the industry’s most well-known chief executives (CEOs).
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, listed the merits of the technology and admitted to using VMware in his own corporate data centres, but, during a Q&A session at Dreamforce 2011, he said it wasn’t cloud computing.
First off, the CEO claimed those who used it as a migration tool to the cloud had the wrong end of the stick…
Puppet, Chef Ease Transition to Cloud Computing
Organizations as diverse as Northrop Grumman (NOC), Harvard University, Zynga, and the New York Stock Exchange (NYX) have filled job websites with requests for talented puppeteers and master chefs. A quick dig into the job listings reveals that these positions have nothing to do with office entertainment or gourmet meals. Instead, the companies want people who have mastered Puppet or Chef, competing software tools that sit at the heart of the cloud computing revolution…
Cloud Security Is Looking Overcast
Eran Feigenbaum knows a thing or two about risk. He moonlights as the TV and stage magician “Eran Raven,” known for stunts involving snakes, scorpions, and razor blades. He once played Russian roulette with nail guns on the NBC show Phenomenon, and in August he did a five-day run at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. That pedigree serves him well in his day job as director of security for Google’s (GOOG) business applications, where he’s responsible for convincing corporate risk managers of the safety of cloud computing. Working in computer security requires “a hyperawareness” of risk, he says, “the same as when you’re on stage performing with nail guns.”…
Implementation of Cloud Computing Solutions in Federal Agencies: Part 4 – Cloud Computing for Defense and Intelligence
The defense and intelligence communities are not immune to cloud computing. Arguably more than any other government agencies, their missions require a fabric of utility computing that scales on demand and enables self discovery and self-service access to secure, timely and relevant information in support of mission: individual or shared. The traditional IT model requires system engineering that binds most software to the hardware and does not provide an enterprise suite of functionality or allow for increased flexibility and a governed lifecycle of services. Designing software independence from the hardware allows an operating system, applications and data to “live” across the enterprise and is fundamental to the transformation of compute, storage and network functionality…
Implementation of Cloud Computing Solutions in Federal Agencies : Part 3 – Cloud Transition Lessons Learned
While the benefits and value of the federal cloud computing policy can be debated, the world’s transition to cloud computing as an integral component of any IT infrastructure cannot be denied. The prudent government executive should, therefore, heed the lessons learned from the many private industry corporations that already have miles behind them on this journey.
When identifying a potential cloud computing project, one should always count on a multi-year transition. Organizations should always use a consistent cloud opportunity identification process to reduce the risk of project failure by leveraging data from successful cloud implementations. Clients need to determine set metrics (economic, operational and service) with direct linkage to specific mission requirement(s). Use of a gate-driven cloud adoption process designed to terminate failed projects early in the project lifecycle and deliver measurable capabilities within a quick timeframe (weeks—not years) is highly recommended…