Category: News

Grazed from US News and World Reports. Author: Tom Risen.

International concern about digital spying by the National Security Agency could make it difficult for U.S. companies to gain customers in the growing cloud-computing business, and could cost them up to $35 billion through 2016. European cloud computing businesses could gain customers by portraying themselves as less vulnerable to data requests and spying than U.S. companies, according to a report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, which called for greater transparency about government monitoring to combat this perception.

If the U.S. loses about 10 percent of foreign business to European or Asian competitors and keeps its projected domestic market share, American cloud-computing providers might lose $21.5 billion over the next three years, explained Daniel Castro, the senior analyst at ITIF who wrote the report. "On the high end, U.S. cloud computing providers might lose $35.0 billion by 2016," Castro said in the report. "This assumes the U.S. eventually loses 20 percent of the foreign market to competitors and retains its current domestic market share."…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Dan Kusnetzky.

I recently attended a Cloud Forum sponsored by IBM that focused on the needs of the midmarket, what companies were likely to do and tried to look five years into the future. IBM gathered together an impressive group of made up of members of the analyst, journalist and developer communities. A few executives of midmarket companies were also attending. All-in-all, it was a fantastic exchange of views. One of the segments focused on what midmaket companies were hoping to find when looking at cloud computing products and service. Although the conversation moved back and forth across the room very rapidly, I’ll do my best to summarize the key points.

Software integration

Midmarket companies often have neither the resource nor the staff to construct their own complete solutions even though they have similar operational issues as the largest of companies. They are seeking complete solutions that address their own unique operational needs rather than having to find and integrate services from many suppliers…

Grazed from BZ Media.  Author: Event Announcement.

If you are building applications or architecting systems using Amazon Web Services then attend Cloud DevCon in San Franciso, on June 23-25, 2014, to get practical AWS training and take your AWS development to a higher level!   Come to Cloud DevCon to learn the best ways to:

• Develop and deploy applications to Amazon’s cloud
• Master AWS services such as Management Console, Elastic Beanstalk, OpsWorks, CloudFormation and more!
• Learn how to integrate technologies and languages to leverage the cost savings of cloud computing with the systems you already have
• Take your AWS knowledge to the next level – choose from more than 55 tutorials and classes and put together your own custom program!…

Grazed from BZ Media.  Author: Event Announcement.

The third Big Data TechCon returns to Boston for three days March 31–April 2. Last year more than 500 people attended the inaugural event, allowing for excellent networking on top of the more than 45 Big Data classes and tutorials that were offered. The two previous iterations of Big Data TechCon have allowed us to select and bring back only the finest speakers and top scoring classes to make sure that your Big Data conference experience is unparalleled.

Big Data TechCon features practical, how-to classes and tutorials for IT and Big Data professionals, including data and business analysts, developers, software architects, data scientists, and project managers. Big Data TechCon is the how-to Big Data training conference for professionals implementing and analyzing Big Data…

Grazed from Closer Still Media.  Author: Event Announcement.

Cloud Expo Europe 2014 is located at ExCeL Exhibition Centre, London on the 26th & 27th February 2014. It is EMEA’s leading event for senior IT decision makers in client side organisations and the cloud industry.

The world-class conference programme includes 10 dedicated theatres and a total of 250 speakers taking part across the two day event. The event also incorporates a leading international exhibition, including over 150 suppliers. All of this is free of charge…

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: Doug Bonderud.

When cloud computing first made the leap from hype to viable business technology, midsize companies had precious few options for service providers. Sure, early adopters sold proprietary cloud computing solutions, which offered ease of deployment, but they hid technical details behind thick curtains, away from prying IT eyes. The rise of open-source cloud technologies, however, may herald a shift from corporate to community control of distributed networking. Does that mean it’s time to retire "cloud computing"?

The Shine Is Off

According to Lucas Carlson, developer of Heroku for PHP and cloud service AppFog, there’s a case to be made for open-source. In a recent Wired article, Carlson argues that the current proprietary cloud computing model takes away a measure of control from the consumer. Massive cloud deployments leverage powerful infrastructure to provide simple app development, testing environments and software delivery systems. Along with their benefits, they keep midsize IT professionals from digging deep and creating clouds specific to their needs…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

Riverbed Technology (RVBD) has released the results of a survey conducted at the Amazon Web Services re:Invent conference earlier this month. In surveying 122 people responsible for IT management and application development management at large enterprises, the company turned up some interesting data that shows the top four concerns related to public cloud platforms.

The top concern, as indicated by 90 percent of survey respondents, is reliability. But the other top three concerns aren’t all that far off in terms of percentage. Of the respondents, 88 percent indicated performance as a top concern, followed by security at 86 percent and cost at 84 percent…

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Amy Bishop.

Cloud this and cloud that are on the lips of every IT professional. Beyond being an overhyped buzzword, cloud computing is a technology that’s innovating the way that many businesses, from startups to enterprises, handle their IT needs. Whether it’s specific applications or a complete infrastructure, cloud technology continues to transform the IT landscape.

What is the public cloud?

Businesses have a few different cloud options to choose from: Public cloud services are run through third-party providers, whereas the private cloud is controlled directly by the business itself and distributes computing resources within the company. It’s also possible to use a combination of both. The public cloud provides a cost advantage and an overhead advantage to businesses, since you don’t have to pay for equipment cost or maintenance. However, the disadvantage is that you don’t have direct access to the hardware or software. It’s hosted offsite at the cloud service’s facility, which can raise some security concerns…

Grazed from BusinessInsider. Author: Julie Bort.

When it comes to raking in the money on cloud computing Amazon still "dwarfs all competition," writes John Dinsdale, an analyst at market researcher Synergy in a new report. The total cloud computing market hit $2.5 billion in revenue in Q3, up 46% the same quarter of 2012, Synergy found.

Not only did Amazon grab most of that, it grew its own cloud revenues by 55% and increased its overall market share. As for exactly how much money that is, Amazon doesn’t directly report the revenue it makes on its cloud. It lumps it into the "other revenue" category. Some analysts estimate Amazon will generate at least $3 billion from its cloud this year, and that could be low. In 2013 so far, Amazon reported $2.7 billion in "other" revenue…

Grazed from MidsizeInsider. Author: Jason Hannula.

Mobile commerce has exploded in the last year. It is outpacing the growth of e-commerce by 200 percent, and 63 percent of people expect to shop via their smartphone in the next year, according to an infographic on NEXTlevel. Additionally, for users accessing e-commerce sites, mobile devices account for 48 percent of the time spent on the site by consumers. Constant connection to potential customers via their mobile device of choice offers significant opportunities for consumer marketing.

Cloud Containment

In a review conducted one year after the 2012 Forrester Research forecast for cloud computing, James Staten reported in ZDNet that the cloud had been predicted to be a natural partner to mobile commerce, but this has yet to play out as expected. Success has been found in utilizing or providing mobile back-end service layers, and these services handle both the elastic response required by mobile clients and the insulation of back office and data centers from traffic explosions associated with mobile engagement. Bypassing the mobile back-end service model has lead to poor performance for mobile end-user devices and the corporate back end…