Category: News

Grazed from MotelyFool.  Author: Timothy Green.

2013 has not been kind to IT giant IBM . The company’s stock has been declining since hitting highs last March, with disappointing earnings and a collapse of the hardware business in emerging markets largely to blame. IBM was the only stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to decline in 2013, even after a significant end-of-year surge.

2014 will be a year of challenges for IBM, but the company should continue to make progress toward its long-term goals. Hewlett-Packard managed to win some market share from IBM in the server business in 2013, and the general trend toward cloud computing will continue to pressure IBM’s hardware business and the server industry as a whole. Meanwhile, Amazon’s aggressive expansion of its cloud services has put IBM in the position of playing catch up, with at least one high-profile private cloud contract going to the retail giant instead of Big Blue in 2013. There’s certainly plenty to worry about going forward for IBM, but many of these worries seem overdone…

Grazed from FederalTimes. Author: Nichole Blake Johnson.

The June deadline is quickly approaching for cloud providers to prove their services meet federal security standards. Meanwhile, agencies are being advised to inventory whether their cloud contractors have made the cut. The deadline isn’t that far off considering it can take a company six months to complete the government’s security cloud program, known as FedRAMP. Cloud services in use at federal agencies must meet FedRAMP security requirements by June 5.

“If agencies have cloud providers that have not been accredited they should contact my office and ask if they are in the pipeline,” said Maria Roat with the General Services Administration. Roat, who serves as FedRAMP director, spoke last month at the Federal Cloud Computing Summit in Washington…

Grazed from CloudComputingTopics. Author: Editorial Staff.

Did you know that more than half of American companies have converted to the cloud? No one can deny the benefits of cloud computing, but security issues are still a concern for many. Since the days of PRISM, surveillance controlled by the NSA, Americans have been acutely aware that their data is being tracked. Cyber-crime mimicking “Big Brother” has reached new levels when it comes to the security of your data and communications.

Are You Securing Your Cloud In The Right Manner?

Cloud Computing is not just about securing a good cloud service provider; it’s about ensuring that your data and communications are secure. Gaining confidence and trust in your cloud service provider (CSP) is just a mere aspect of cloud security. Here’s a look at eight commandments every company should follow to ensure the security of your cloud no matter what region…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Manoj Tiwari.

Cloud computing is everywhere and presents a compelling value proposition for its end users. However issues like privacy and security still are grey areas when it comes to public clouds. Here presented are five issues one must be aware of:

1. You own the data and hence the responsibility CSP

Many cloud users do not know the answer to this question – Who owns my personal information once I upload it on the Cloud Service Provider’s (CSP) server? Most public cloud service providers recognize that the user retains ownership of data once it is uploaded. (e.g. https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms) This also means that you have decided to trust the CSP with handling of your data. The CSP may have some responsibility for handling the information safely but not all. You may choose a different service provider or choose not to put particular data on cloud altogether. But the buck stops at you are responsible for the data you put up there…

Grazed from The Var Guy. Author: Charlene OHanlon.

Cloud backup provider Carbonite (CARB) is streamlining its lineup of services offerings to better meet the needs of its solution provider partners and their customers.? The company is doing away with its current five-plan menu of services and is now categorizing its plans into three core areas: Personal, Pro and Server, said David Hauser, senior director at Carbonite.

The move coincides with what the market needs and how the market is purchasing new cloud services, he noted. “What we found out with our current structure is people have different needs—some SOHOs have a personal need for backup, while some just want to do servers,” he said. “These better align with what the market is asking for.”…

Grazed from BizTech2. Author: Editorial Staff.

Scott Davis, CTO for VMware’s End User Computing B.U. shares his vision for technology in 2014. “I think we will see a growing realisation that mobile app to cloud services is the key distributed application construct to focus on. That means less focus on securing and managing physical devices, as well as less reliance on VPNs and the corporate LAN itself since it is becoming a less significant boundary. There will be a greater focus on app to cloud service security technologies. I think we will see more embracing of mobile/cloud applications in our day to day lives. The apps on your phone will become the brains for your car’s navigation and audio systems, and the car dashboard becomes just the display technology,” says Davis.

As part of this broader movement to the mobile/cloud, he predicts 2014 will be a big year for Desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) aka Windows-as-a-Service. With users demanding greater mobility and access while IT departments look for ways to reduce TCO of enterprise desktops, DaaS is an ideal approach for enabling/delivering access to business critical Windows applications for mobile users in a cost effective manner…

Grazed from CIOL. Author: Editorial Staff.

Microsoft recently announced a wave of new enterprise products and services to help companies seize the opportunities of cloud computing and overcome today’s top IT challenges. New Windows Server, System Center, Visual Studio, Windows Azure, Windows Intune, SQL Server, and Dynamics solutions will accelerate cloud benefits for customers. Complementing many services, these new offerings deliver on Microsoft’s enterprise cloud strategy.

Hybrid infrastructure and modern applications

To help customers build IT infrastructure that delivers continuous services and applications across clouds, Microsoft has released Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2. Together, these new products empower companies to create datacenters without boundaries using Hyper-V for high-scale virtualization; high-performance storage at dramatically lower costs; built-in, software-defined networking; and hybrid business continuity…

Grazed from PRWeb.  Author: PR Announcement.

Corelynx has announced that all its cloud services and software will be based on Open Stack powered open cloud architecture. Open cloud architecture will benefit both Corelynx, and its customers. Corelynx will gain from the unparalleled innovation found in open source communities along with the vibrant ecosystem of ISV partners that grow from these open standards initiatives. The customers will benefit from the ability to leverage the open source and open standards APIs and to extend them—either through third-party capability or through innovation and extension of their own.

Corelynx and OpenStack

OpenStack is the largest active open source, cloud project community in the world with 189+ organizations and 9,100+ individuals participating. This huge global collaboration of developers and technologists are working to produce a ubiquitous Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) open source cloud computing platform…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: David Linthicum.

According to Midsize Insider (an IBM publication), “The term ‘cloud’ has been an IT catchphrase for a short period although the types of services that define this technology have been in use for some time. This kind of computing may already be mainstream and no longer have the need for a catchphrase.”

This is something I’ve been saying for awhile, that the term ‘cloud’ will eventually bake out of cloud computing and it will be just another model for computing.  Much like other technologies that came along in the past, it just becomes a part of our architectural arsenal.  The term “cloud” always seemed buzz-wordy to me.  Indeed, we called it other things before the term “cloud” stuck, including on-demand, Web 2.0, Internet-hosted, etc., but I’m not sure those are any better…

Grazed from IDG News.  Author: Sharon Florentine.

Thanks to cloud computing along with other disruptive technologies such as mobility, M2M and big data analytics, workers will have more and better information at their fingertips, allowing them to make smarter decisions faster in 2014.

"We are experiencing the democratization of enterprise technology," says David Small, chief platform officer of Verizon Enterprise Solutions. "Mirroring what has happened in consumer technology, enterprise technology users look for services to be delivered on demand, to a time and place of their choosing and in the way that they want. In 2014, enterprise success will be measured by how well organizations are able to use technology to meet user expectations and harness individual innovation."…