Cloud Deployment Debate: Bake Or Boostrap?
Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Joe Masters Emison.
Several months ago, I said that Netflix’s push to drive the adoption of its open-source cloud-management toolkit, NetflixOSS, had the potential to "ruin cloud computing." Part of my argument revolved around the Netflix Aminator tool, which facilities the creation of Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). While Aminator may be a good choice for Netflix, I argued that it encourages exactly the wrong habits for the majority of companies trying to deploy applications in the cloud.
After many long discussions about that initial article, I believe there is still significant confusion about how one should best use AMIs (or the equivalent from other public cloud providers), and so I am dedicating this column to what I call "the baking debate."…
Quest, a technology management company, today announced it has been named Company of the Year in the Cloud Elite category of the 2013 Solution Provider 500 list, sponsored by The Channel Company’s CRN. The Solution Provider 500 awards span eight categories including Cloud Elite, and recognize those Solution Provider 500 companies that have evolved and thrived in today’s cloud and services driven IT era. Quest ranked 161 on the 2013 SP500 list, up from 192 last year, and received the Company of the Year Cloud Elite award at the 2013 Best of Breed Conference in Tampa, FL which recognizes the nation’s top IT solution providers.
When Google Apps arrived in 2006, it stood on the cutting edge of web-hosted email and collaboration suites for businesses, a bold pioneer clearing a path in the new, wild frontier of enterprise cloud computing. Seven years later, complacency has diluted that innovative spirit, and Google Apps now trails competing suites from IBM, Cisco and Microsoft in areas like enterprise social networking (ESN) and unified communications (UC).
Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu accused Microsoft (MSFT) this week in a blog post of having an "oxygen supply problem," claiming that "Microsoft Office has long been the de-facto monopoly." "That is the nice thing about facing a monopoly in an adjacent market – every player other than the monopoly would win if they get a non-zero share of a massively shrunk market," he said.
AURA a global provider of Business Process Management (BPM) software, has announced the creation and launch of its sound Cloud Computing structure. This will enable any type of organization, public or private, to undertake BPM implementation projects through the AuraPortal suite without the usual structure and investment concerns inherent in such projects, and with the software licenses included in the service. The idea of the Cloud is simple: It consists of adopting for the computing services the same model used in utilities services.
Networking is changing fast with the rise of software-defined networking (SDN), cloud networking, and highly mobile network clients. Startup Pertino is banking on these trends with its interesting new way of providing connectivity. Pertino’s foundation is in SDN-enabled cloud-based networking primarily aimed at the SMB market, using what it calls its Cloud Network Engine.
Microsoft gets a lot of justified blame for faltering in smartphones and tablets. However, while the company has a long way to go to catch up in mobile, it is playing a very strong catch-up game in cloud computing. Last week the company touted its cloud success in its quarterly analyst call, published a memo outlining a raft of new features and made an acquisition that didn’t get a whole lot of media play, but will buttress the company’s plan to be an easy on-ramp to the cloud and to deliver applications developed by tying together API-based services.