Category: News

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: Marissa Tejada.

Cloud computing is being embraced by an increasing number of midsize firms, according to a new study. The researchers from Spiceworks, Inc. found that, in addition to the cloud, two other third-platform technologies, virtualization and mobility, are what midsize firms are using to increase productivity and to meet their business goals.

More Cloud to Go Around

The new report, "State of SMB IT 1H 2013," featured in ChannelPro SMB, took into account the responses of IT departments with fewer than 1,000 employees. The semiannual study found that employees at these smaller firms used more cloud services compared to larger firms. Virtualization grew as well; more than 80 percent of firms with 250 to 999 employees have adopted virtualization technology. As for mobility, tablets are ruling the roost at midsize firms; almost 60 percent of IT professionals said that they have tablets in their networks. Researchers expect that the percentage will grow, with 70 percent of midsize firms adopting tablet use by the end of 2013…

Grazed from PCWorld. Author: Tom Bradley.

Everything’s coming up mobile these days. Gartner estimates that PC sales will make up only about 13 percent of device sales in 2013—and some undisclosed portion of those PCs are notebooks. The more we rely on small, mobile devices to get things done, the more we also depend on cloud storage and services to extend functionality beyond what the mobile device itself is capable of. That’s why mobile and cloud will become mobile cloud.

The IEEE Computer Society lists mobile cloud as one of its Top Technology Trends for 2014. IEEE explains, “Mobile devices are constrained by their memory, processing power, and battery life. But combined with cloud computing, data processing and storage can happen outside of mobile devices.”…

Grazed from Wired. Author: Klint Finley.

Docker wants to help developers run their applications anywhere and everywhere. This week, the project got a little closer to that goal by bringing the platform to all major versions of the Linux operating system. Docker is a tool for bundling everything you need to run a particular application into a single “container.”

These containers can be moved from computer to computer — be they physical machines or virtual computer servers — in much the same way a standardized shipping container can be loaded onto any ship or train or loading dock. Each container runs in isolation of all the other containers on a computer…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Colin Barker.

I recently attended a discussion of the key components of the phenomenon known as Amazon Web Services (AWS), which I’ve turned into a basic walkthrough for anyone considering making a first move into cloud computing. AWS is Amazon’s fast growing cloud service: each day AWS adds server capacity equivalent to what Amazon had when it was a $5bn company back in 2003.

In 2006 Amazon servers handled 2.9 billion requests and in 2010 that hit 262 billion. This year the company expects its servers to handle 2 trillion, which works out at a million requests per second. That’s some pretty heavy computational lifting, and at these volumes Amazon benefits from great economy of scale…

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…