Category: News

Grazed from TMCNet. Author: Kathleen Richards.

Virtualization and cloud computing have advanced rapidly despite overarching security concerns. Industry guru and provocateur Chris Hoff predicted a bumpy ride, and some of the vendor and technology fallout, as virtualization deployments spun up — and lowered costs for some companies — but security lagged behind. After two years of research and "solid hands-on collaborative work with networking, security and audit practitioners and managers" at enterprises and service providers worldwide, Hoff delivered a landmark presentation on the issues surrounding virtualization security at the Black Hat conference in 2008 that caught people’s attention.

Five years later, we are thrilled that he is the author of our November cover story, "Virtualization Security Dynamics Get Old," and catching us up on the past, present, and perhaps most importantly, future of virtualization, cloud computing and security. Many of the problems he initially outlined remain, but progress is being made, writes Hoff:..

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Editorial Staff.

According to most all credible research including Gartner, cloud computing promises economic advantages, speed, agility, flexibility, infinite elasticity and innovation—and at Tech Data, we too believe in that philosophy. So with so many obvious advantages, why aren’t more solution providers investing in and leading with the cloud?

Consider this question: We all love cloud in theory, but do we,in fact, really “get it”? I would assert that we’re not there yet. It’s a bold statement, but one that I’m willing to stand behind. In fact, I’ll take it one step further and say that the true success of cloud in the channel collectively depends on all of us—through our collective adoption and enablement. The sooner that we as an industry are educated and understand and embrace the value of cloud for the end user, the sooner we can begin to truly capitalize on everything that the cloud has to offer. The potential of cloud solutions is significant and multi-layered. We have, in fact, barely tapped the surface…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Brandon Butler.

The website for MegaCloud, a provider of free and paid consumer cloud storage, is inaccessible and users of the service are complaining on social media sites that they have not had access to their data for days. It’s unclear why the service is not working and whether it is because of a technical glitch or if the company has gone out of business. When attempting to access MegaCloud.com, it returns a notice that the site could not be found. None of the other sites associated with MegaCloud work either, such as the features page, pricing information and the contact links.

The service appears to have been dark for at least a couple of days. Users on various Internet forums have been posing questions about the service and why it is down, for two days, as of Friday. The site IsItDownRightNow.com shows that the site is not accessible, and has about a dozen people questioning why…

Grazed from InfoSecurity. Author: Gavin Hill.

Secure Shell (SSH) is the de facto protocol used by millions to authenticate to workloads running in the cloud and transfer data securely. Even more SSH sessions are established automatically between systems, allowing those systems to securely transfer data without human intervention. In either case, this technology underpins the security of vital network communications. According to the Ponemon Institute, organizations recognize SSH’s role in securing network communication and list threats to their SSH keys as the number one most alarming threat arising from failure to control trust in the cloud.

SSH authentication holds only as strong as the safeguards around the authentication tokens, the SSH keys. Failure to secure and protect these keys can compromise the environment, breaking down the trust that SSH should establish. Malicious actors take advantage of common mistakes in key management, the following are some of the common pitfalls organizations fall prey to…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

SafeNet is adding encryption to Amazon (AMZN) EC2 workloads, as well as the ability for customers to maintain full ownership of encryption keys, to its ProtectV data protection offering. SafeNet ProtectV with Virtual KeySecure was designed to run entirely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure and is also compatible with AWS CloudHSM.

Cloud encryption and, more specifically, the ownership of encryption keys has been getting additional notice lately as customers look for security solutions that not only can protect their cloud-based apps and data, but also place the encryption keys in their hands, giving them a certain amount of ownership over the security of their own cloud endeavors…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Janel Ryan.

Today’s business environment requires CFOs to improve efficiencies and reduce costs. Given that the topic is cloud computing, a CFO will likely hear a lot of hype, but the most important thing to consider in a cloud solution is, “Which business problems do I want to solve?” Consider these:

Maximize Cost Efficiencies
From a cost savings perspective, cloud computing can preserve capital, turning a large, upfront CapEx into an OpEx. Cost savings stem from providing a “pay as you go” model.

Strategy
Cloud computing is not one-size-fits-all. As you review your business needs and priorities, understand that while some applications will be a better fit for cloud. The low barrier to entry in terms of capital outlay can make it possible for you to reach new customers across the globe. Further, new customers can come online faster because resources are readily available and scalable…

Grazed from CloudComputingNews. Author: Tim Jennings.

Oracle’s September 2013 customer event was notable for a series of announcements designed to help the company’s customers improve the speed and agility of their information systems. The flagship news revolved around Oracle’s core competence of database technology, with forthcoming releases of an in-memory option for Oracle Database 12c that promises to significantly speed up analytic queries, and of an enterprise-grade Database as a Service (DBaaS) offering, part of the Oracle Public Cloud. The latter is reaching a new level of maturity, assisted by the acquisition earlier in 2013 of cloud infrastructure specialist Nimbula.

One of the dominant themes of the conference was machine-to-machine (M2M) technology and the Internet of Things (IoT), and here Oracle is positioning its Java technology as an end-to-end platform for solution development. It also announced an upcoming new version of its Java as a Service offering, which again provides enterprise-grade development capabilities in the Oracle Public Cloud. These headlines were further supported by new engineered systems for in-memory computing and for database backup, and by good progress across many areas of the product portfolio…

Grazed from FloridaNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Quandis, Inc., a leading provider of default management technology solutions, announced that it has become a technology partner of Amazon’s Web Services Partner Network (APN). Joining APN underscores the investment and commitment that Quandis has made to utilize Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud computing.

“We’ve been using AWS cloud-based storage services for quite some time to cost effectively and efficiently support our enterprise-level client base,” said Eric Patrick, CTO of Quandis. “By joining AWS Partner Network we are able to take advantage of a number of different services that benefit us, it allows us to further scale our technology, and it provides us with additional expertise in managing data that resides in the cloud.”…

Grazed from Datamation. Author: Rob Enderle.

I’m at EMC’s analyst event in Boston this week and it’s an interesting event. One of the compelling stats that they shared: approximately 18% of large companies are choosing to build their own public cloud because they feel they can do it better and cheaper than services like Amazon Web Services can. EMC is moving on this opportunity with a solution called “Project Nile” and I think the trend is very interesting. Let me explain.

Private vs. Public Cloud

Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the IT space you likely know this: private cloud efforts have advantages that include compliance, security, and IT oversight. Disadvantages include cost, inflexibility, and bureaucratic red tape. These services are supplied and managed by IT, using technology generally purchased through third parties…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: CJ Arlotta.

Salesforce.com (CRM) is taking its Salesforce AppExchange to another level by offering a private version to businesses looking to customize their own app store for employees. Salesforce Private AppExchange, generally available on Friday, will enable businesses to build a private, customized app store that lets them manage and distribute custom, mobile, Internet and desktop apps, Salesforce said.

AppExchange Director of Marketing Sara Varni spoke with Talkin’ Cloud on the enterprise issues that her company’s Private AppExchange is designed to fix. "There was no one central place you could go to find all the apps being used in your company," she said, "and the process was painful," pointing out that employees would have to log a ticket and wait for IT to respond…