Author: David

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author:  Dennis Howlett.

Appirio has announced CloudSpokes, an open crowdsourcing environment for enterprise. It is committing $1 million in contest funding to help seed the initiative. From the blurbs, here’s how it works:

Companies who need cloud development work can sponsor a challenge on CloudSpokes, giving developers a way to earn cash rewards, and test and prove their skills for badges and other recognition…

Grazed from IT Business World.  Author: Arthur Cole.

It seems that the more virtualization and the cloud come to dominate data center architecture, the more all of the major advances – the ones that are truly transforming the way we work and interact with others – are happening in the virtual and application layers. In the end, I reasoned that hardware does matter, but it no longer carries the weight of IT innovation. Hardware provides the foundation for all the fun stuff that’s happening in the enterprise, but there isn’t much reason to stress over a particular server deployment or storage array anymore – unless it fails.

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Kevin Kwang.

According to Trent Mayberry, Accenture’s technology geographic lead for Asean, as software moves away from the shrink-wrapped sales and app distribution models, toward the software-as-a-service model, there will be changes in the way ISVs and SIs operate.

With regard to ISVs, he said: "Governance is perhaps one area that will take new forms. Processes that have been traditionally rigid will change and give way to more adaptive models to encourage the viral adoption that cloud and mobility promises."

Grazed from Experian QAS.  Author:  James Glass.

Small companies interested in making use of mobile marketing could decide to employ dedicated software-as-a-service solutions.

This is according to a prediction from Roger Woodend, general manager of 2ergo Australia, who told the Business Spectator website that software-as-a-service mobile marketing tools are being developed, with the potential to give smaller retailers the chance to compete in this field with their larger competitors.

Grazed from Experian QAS.  Author: Neil Hill.

Businesses that are unsure of who is in charge of their data quality strategies across their operations have been advised to put effective governance programmes into place.

This is according to IT Business Edge blogger Loraine Lawson, who said data integration can sometimes lead to confusion over who is responsible for what information and whether or not records are accurate.

"But since data governance tells you who is responsible for the data, you know where to go to resolve these sorts of data quality questions," she said.

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Antony Savvas.

Enterprise IT faces "dramatic changes" as a result of eight trends identified by consultancy Accenture.

Accenture says new data management systems, social platforms and cloud computing will help drive the evolution of enterprise IT.

The Accenture Technology Vision 2011 report identifies eight emerging trends that "challenge long-held assumptions about IT". The report offers “action steps” that businesses and governments can take to prepare "for the new world of computing".

Grazed from Government Computer News.  Author: Jeffrey Schwartz.

VMware this week introduced software that ties internal vSphere virtual machines to service providers’ cloud platforms, a move the company described as key to bridging public and private clouds based on its virtual machines.

The company’s vCloud Connector, announced at last Fall’s VMworld 2010 conference, will ship by the end of March. It is a free plugin to vSphere 4.0 that will let administrators deploy VMs running in the data center to a service provider running VMware’s vCloud platform.

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Scott Lowe.

The backup market continues to expand with new options and capabilities, despite the fact that organizations tend to be pretty conservative when it comes to making large scale changes to backup infrastructure and processes. These backup options come with new processes and opportunities that can be exploited for improved disaster recovery or streamlined operations.

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Derrick Harris.

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author:  Dan Nystedt.

Executives from Facebook, Google and other companies have held talks with Twitter over a possible acquisition of the micro-blogging service, pushing its estimated value as high as US$10 billion, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The figure is high for a company that only had revenue of $45 million last year, posted a loss, and estimates its revenue this year will be between $100 million to $110 million, the Journal said.