Category: News

Grazed from ScientificComputing.  Author: Tom Abate.

Just as Netflix uses an algorithm to recommend movies we ought to see, a Stanford software system offers by-the-moment advice to thousands of server-farm computers on how to efficiently share the workload.

We hear a lot about the future of computing in the cloud, but not much about the efficiency of the data centers that make the cloud possible. In those facilities, clusters of server computers work together to host applications ranging from social networks to big data analytics…

Grazed from FierceCIO. Author: David Weldon.

Government agencies at the federal and state level are lured to cloud computing by the promise of cost savings and expanded services. But there are also risks associated with moving operations and applications to the cloud. A recent report by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill looks at contracting issues that government agencies face with adopting cloud services. The report was written for the IBM Center for the Business of Government.

"As with any form of government contracting, there are risks to be considered," notes an article at Governing. "Do governments lose control over their data? Do they risk losing access to it? Are they locked into a single vendor? The key to success is writing and negotiating a strong contract."…

Grazed from ITWeb. Author: Editorial Staff.

Global trends, like big data, cloud computing and advanced security threats, are challenging the relationship between IT and the business, forcing a new operating model for IT. As a result, today’s CIOs must act as independent service providers, competing for the end-user’s business in an open marketplace.

That’s the opinion of Servaas Venter, country manager of EMC Southern Africa, who says CIOs are at the centre of value creation. "As brokers of value, CIOs will find that protecting corporate data and improving productivity are the top goals of their major technology investments over the next 12 months," Venter says…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

A senior official at HSBC has expressed concerns that IT bosses could end up behind bars due to loose regulation in the financial services sector. Speaking at Cloud Expo Europe, head of Research and Innovation Barry Childe said regulators have not yet created adequate standards around cloud services, which could create risks for those using them, V3 reports.

He explained: "Right now a financial services IT professional is at risk if he outsources a service elsewhere and a leak happens. There is a risk that he would potentially go to prison. There’s no get out of jail free card because he used a third party. "We need a code of conduct of due diligence. We need a standard to allow financial services firms to work with third parties."…

Grazed from Wired. Author: Klint Finley.

When former government contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA was conducting digital surveillance on a massive scale, many feared for the future of cloud computing. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation estimated that Snowden’s revelations could cost U.S. cloud companies $22 billion to $35 billion in foreign business over the next three years, and countless pundits predicted that American businesses would flee the cloud as well. People would prefer to run software and store data on their own computers, the argument went, rather than host their operations atop outside services potentially compromised by the NSA.

But it looks like the cloud industry is still growing. And in very big way. The world’s largest cloud computing services — services where you can run software and store data without buying your own hardware — are run by Amazon, and according to a new study from independent researcher Huan Liu, Amazon’s operation grew by a whopping 62 percent over the past two years…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

The term "cloud" has different meanings to different people. It’s so broadly defined with so many meanings that it really does not mean much at all. However, several cloud concepts are gaining more interest, whether in cloud contexts or not. By focusing on these concepts, rather than the more general notion of cloud computing, you can get more value in your organization’s technology, cloud and otherwise.

Three concepts in particular stand out: devops, management and governance, and data analytics. Devops (development and operations) is a software development process and sets of technology that provide an agile relationship between development and IT operations. The objective of devops is to change and improve the relationship by advocating better communication and collaboration between the two organizations…

Grazed from JavaWorld. Author: Peter Wayner.

If the cartoonists are right, heaven is located in a cloud where everyone wears white robes, every machine is lightning quick, everything you do works perfectly, and every action is accompanied by angels playing lyres. The current sales pitch for the enterprise cloud isn’t much different, except for the robes and the music. The cloud providers have an infinite number of machines, and they’re just waiting to run your code perfectly.

The sales pitch is seductive because the cloud offers many advantages. There are no utility bills to pay, no server room staff who want the night off, and no crazy tax issues for amortizing the cost of the machines over N years. You give them your credit card, and you get root on a machine, often within minutes…

Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Juniper Networks, the industry leader in network innovation, is honored to announce it was selected as a Reader Trust award winner in the Best Cloud Computing Security Solution, Best Network Access Control Solution and Best Unified Threat Management Security Solution categories at the 2014 SC Awards. Juniper Networks® Firefly Host, Juniper Networks Unified Access Control and Juniper Networks SRX Series Services Gateway for the Branch were selected from a group of finalists representing the best the information security industry has to offer.

The Juniper Networks solutions were recognized by a panel of readers, representing the audience of SC Magazine, as the top product in the Reader Trust award competition. The announcement was made Feb. 25, 2014 at the SC Awards ceremony held in conjunction with the annual RSA Conference in San Francisco…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Daniel Price.

Amazon gets a lot of coverage on this website for their Amazon Web Services, a fast-growing subset of the company that sells on-demand cloud-computing power to both large companies and private individuals. It has rapidly become the de-facto standard cloud computing services, and is expected to be worth close to $50 billion by 2015.

However, it was another potential Amazon service received a lot of coverage in late 2013, as the company announced ‘Amazon Prime Air’ – a delivery system to get packages from its online store straight to customers in under thirty minutes. Here we look at five lesser-known facts about Amazon’s new delivery drones:…

Grazed from WashingtonTechnology. Author: Stephanie Meloni.

Don’t expect much speed as the federal government moves toward cloud solutions. At a January AFCEA luncheon, Tim Rudolph, U.S. Air Force senior leader for integrated information capabilities, gave an analogy of how the military services are testing the waters with cloud adoption:

• The Army is in the water up to its knees.
• The Air Force is in a car near the edge of the water with a kayak strapped to the roof.
• The Marine Corps is wading in with a knife in its mouth.
• And the Navy is digging its own pond.

His tongue-in-cheek comments highlighted the uneven approach the military departments are taking to cloud adoption. The Army is the farthest along, particularly with its move last year of both unclassified and classified email accounts to the DOD Enterprise Email service, hosted by the Defense Information Systems Agency. The Air Force more recently joined the Army in using DEE, although Air Force participation is limited to just unclassified email accounts for the time being…