Category: News

Grazed from ComputerWeekly. Author: Warwick Ashford.

Cyber attacks on cloud environments have almost reached the same level as attacks on traditional IT, with increased adoption of cloud-based services by the enterprise, a study shows. The 2014 Cloud Security Report by security-as-a-service provider Alert Logic is based on an analysis of data from cloud and on-premise infrastructures of 2,200 customers.

In the past year, brute force attacks on cloud environments climbed from 30% to 44% of customers, and vulnerability scans increased from 27% to 44%, the study found. Brute force attacks typically involve a large number of attempts testing multiple common credential failings to find a way in, while vulnerability scans are automated attempts to find a security weakness in applications, services or protocol implementations that can be exploited…

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

CliQr Technologies, the leader in cloud migration and full application lifecycle management, today announced it has been recognized as one of the "Cool Vendors in Cloud Management, 2014(1)" for its CloudCenter(TM) technology by the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, Gartner, Inc. Each year, Gartner publishes a series of research reports in key technology areas that highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services.

"We’re honored to be recognized as a ‘Cool Vendor’ by Gartner. We believe this inclusion validates our application-centric approach to cloud migration and management — an approach that is already resonating with the market," said Gaurav Manglik, co-founder and CEO of CliQr. "Businesses today have come to realize that the ultimate benefit of cloud computing involves the ability to fluidly move and manage applications and data to and across a variety of users, and private and public clouds depending on workload criteria. This is the true promise of the cloud — and to accomplish this in any scalable fashion organizations require the ability to liberate applications from being bound to diverse cloud infrastructures and services. And this is exactly what CliQr delivers."…

Grazed from EnterpriseStorageForum. Author: Drew Robb.

The follow-up article to our hybrid cloud storage buying guide provides tips, advice and cautions for those seeking to implement a hybrid cloud storage environment. Some companies are already well on their way to building a sophisticated internal cloud. Others have gotten their feet wet in the public cloud and know the ropes there fairly well. So there is no one-size-fits-all way to go about implementing a hybrid cloud. It all depends on where you are right now.

Hybrid Cloud Storage: Starting Points

Building a hybrid cloud storage deployment could just as easily start from a public or private cloud focus. “Because a hybrid cloud combines public cloud and private data center principles, it’s possible to plan a hybrid cloud deployment from either of these starting points. Picking the better starting point, however, will make it easier to address business goals,” said Molly Rector, Chief Marketing Officer, at Data Direct Networks (DDN)…

Grazed from NPR. Author: Steve Henn.

You hear the term "the cloud" or "cloud computing," and you picture something puffy, white, clean and quiet. Cloud computing is anything but. Even from a distance you can hear the hum of a modern data center. Last week, I visited one of the largest in Santa Clara, Calif., in the heart of Silicon Valley. It’s called SC1, is owned by DuPont Fabros Technology and is about a quarter-mile long.

"It’s about the same size and length as a Nimitz aircraft carrier," says Paul Hopkins, a regional vice president for the company, shortly after buzzing me through the door. The entrance is guarded, and employees need fingerprint scans to get in and out. Hopkins has agreed to show me around…

Grazed from MSPAlliance. Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud security company Total Defense has gone through a rebranding and will now go by the name of iSheriff. The name change goes along with the company’s sale of its consumer division to Untangle. As a result, iSheriff, will now be dedicated to creating cloud security solutions for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).

“Over the last few years, the Total Defense brand has become synonymous with comprehensive protection of the digital assets that we’ve all come to rely upon, in both corporate and consumer settings,” said Paul Lipman, CEO, iSheriff. “This transaction is a win-win for both our consumer and corporate partners and customers…

Grazed from ChannelPartnersOnline. Author: TC Doyle.

A new study of SMB customers by Techaisle suggests that cloud computing has become a strategic platform for small and midsize (SMBs) customers, not just a tactical tool used for saving a few bucks. The new report, which is entitled “SMB & Mid-Market Cloud Computing Adoption Trends," highlights seven distinct developments underway in this important customer segment.

Among them: SMB customers who once turned to cloud computing as a means to save money now do so with the expectation that it will increase their agility and competitiveness. In addition to why the cloud is being adopted, the study also zeroed in on other trends, including who inside SMB companies drives adoption, what kinds of clouds they use, why cloud usage patterns change and how, who is responsible for security, what are the attributes of successful cloud implementations and what are the inhibitors to broader adoption…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Todd R. Weiss.

The Google Cloud Platform is expanding its capabilities with Hadoop through new connectors that can be used with Google BigQuery and Google Cloud Datastore to run Hadoop queries. Also bolstering the cloud platform is a new version of Google App Engine that includes scalability and performance improvements. The new Hadoop connectors were announced by Pratul Dublish, a cloud platform product manager, in an April 16 post on the Google Cloud Platform Blog.

"Today, we are making it easier for you to run Hadoop jobs directly against your data in Google BigQuery and Google Cloud Datastore with the Preview release of Google BigQuery connector and Google Cloud Datastore connector for Hadoop," wrote Dublish. "The Google BigQuery and Google Cloud Datastore connectors implement Hadoop’s InputFormat and OutputFormat interfaces for accessing data…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Editorial Staff.

For some time now, genomics or the study of genes has been branded as the possible playing field for the next medical revolution. Indeed, some believe that genomics can have as much an impact on human civilization this century as computers did in the previous one, with possible applications from the frivolous (specifying eye color in an unborn child) to momentous (developing designer medicine to target specific symptoms in specific patients).

Gene sequencing produces an enormous amount of data, and processing this data requires an enormous amount of computing power. While the price of gene sequencers has reduced drastically over the years, the same is not true for computing resources. Unless, cloud computing is the resource being used…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Eileen Yu.

LG’s consulting services unit is seeking out growth opportunities in cloud computing and big data, which it believes will be further fueled by the emergence of smart devices. "Our goal is to become one of the most trusted suppliers for technology solutions in cloud computing and big data," said Kim Dae-hoon, CEO of LG CNS, during last week’s Entrue World 2014 forum, reported The Korea Times.

He said the world was transitioning toward Smart Technology 2.0, an era comprising smart devices such as smart glasses, faster network connectivity, big data, and cloud computing services. Businesses in the automotive, medical, security, transportation, logistics, and manufacturing sectors would benefit most from this new realm, Kim noted, adding that LG CNS is poised to rise this wave. Its cloud offerings include virtual desktop infrastructure, storage, and consulting services…

Grazed from Datamation. Author: Jeff Kaplan.

Although I’ve been a big advocate of the business benefits of moving corporate data centers, software development and enterprise applications to the Cloud, I’m also a realist about the significant challenges that this migration process entails. The many obstacles to adopting a Cloud-first strategy worldwide were brought home to me again by a good friend who happens to be a CIO of a multinational company.

My friend, “Joe,” called me unexpectedly the other day after we hadn’t talked for a few months. He’s a very successful CIO who has taken on numerous executive IT jobs in major corporations to help them achieve various milestones or recover from a significant setback…