Category: News

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: Amanda Kondolojy.

When you think of high cloud energy consumption, the image of the crowded and stuffy data center likely comes to mind. However, new research from AT&T’s Bell Labs and the University of Melbourne has revealed that traditional data centers only account for 9 percent of the cloud’s overall energy consumption, which is in stark contrast to conventional wisdom and the push by some environmental groups to minimize data centers because of their energy consumption. However, looking at the whole picture of cloud computing energy consumption, data centers definitely are not the energy beasts they were once thought to be.

So where is all the cloud energy going? ZDNet Reports that 90 percent of the overall cloud energy consumption is taken by wireless access network technologies. In fact, on average, wireless networking, including Wi-Fi access and 4G connections, takes up a whopping ten times more power than data centers…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Wyatt Kash.

The Department of Defense (DOD) is taking tentative steps with Google to tackle one of the primary obstacles to adopting commercial cloud computing: the need to reliably authenticate users.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) confirmed that it is developing a proof of concept Authentication Gateway Service (AGS) that would allow for secure translation between DOD public key infrastructure (PKI) common access card authentication and Google-provided cloud services.

"This is a pilot effort to validate the ability to use DISA’s Authentication Gateway with external cloud solutions using the standards-based Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) protocol as well as explore interoperability and usability issues in commercial cloud-based email services," said David M. Mihelcic, CTO for DISA…

Grazed from ReadWrite Cloud. Author: David Sobotta.

As cloud computing services become ever more popular, you might begin to wonder how much you can really trust them to perform when you need them? I decided to find out – by testing the top file-transfer/file-storage/file-backup services.

In many ways, getting a file from one computer to multiple computers is the most challenging task for the cloud. And because I like to use multiple computers running multiple operating systems, including Linux, Windows and the Mac, that function is particularly important to me…

Grazed from Information Week. Author: Thomas Claburn.

Google I/O 2013 has come and gone without major developments affecting the company’s two primary platforms, Android and Chrome, but the developer conference nonetheless demonstrated how Google is outpacing its competitors. Certainly, that’s evident in the numbers Google provided, 900 million Android activations to date and 750 million users of Chrome worldwide. But such statistics only sketch the outline of Google’s success.

Google began as a search company and seventeen years later, the head of the company’s search technology, Amit Singhal opened his portion of the Google I/O keynote by taking about the end of search as we know it. Even if that’s more rhetoric than reality — Google will still be in the search ad business no matter how search changes for the foreseeable future — it reveals a willingness to take risks that Apple and Microsoft seem to be unwilling or unable to match…

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: Marissa Tejada.

SaaS-based CRM is in demand. A new survey by Gartner shows that one out of every four customer relationship management software tools sold were SaaS based. As midsize firms consider new CRM software or seek to upgrade their current systems, this growing trend could be of interest in their decision.

Market Share

The report by Gartner, called Market Share Analysis: Customer Relationship Management Software, was recently featured in Cloud Tech, and found that customer relationship management software sales grew last year at an impressive rate from $16B to $18B. With an increase of 12.5 percent, the category scored three times the average of other software categories. According to the results, clients are mostly turning to CRM software to improve customer service and support as well as sales. Gartner also found the majority of customer relationship management software (80 percent) is being sold in North America and western Europe. Growth markets include China and Latin America. Top customer relationship management software vendors include Salesforce.com, SAP, and IBM…

Grazed from MarketWired. Author: PR Announcement.

Metamarkets, the leader in real-time analytics for online advertising, today announced that it has been named by AlwaysOn as one of the 2013 OnDemand Companies to Watch. Inclusion in this distinguished list signifies leadership amongst its peers and game-changing approaches and technologies that are likely to disrupt existing markets and entrenched players. Metamarkets was specially selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts spanning the globe based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.

"Metamarkets is honored to be named as an OnDemand Company to Watch. We’ve experienced significant market traction and are constantly innovating to exceed our customers’ expectations. We recently added Executive Chair Deb Rieman and VP of Engineering Steven Harris to our leadership bench and will continue to strengthen our position within the digital and mobile advertising analytics space," said Michael Driscoll, CEO, Metamarkets. "We are very pleased to be recognized by AlwaysOn for our accomplishments in Big Data analytics with our cloud offering in the online advertising space."…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Omri Erel.

The presence of cloud computing as a tool in business is getting a reaction almost as though it’s something new. There’s a lot of attention being paid to advances mostly as a result of affordable, scalable SaaS solutions. These solutions allow for a mobility and ease of access for which older systems didn’t allow. Given that they’re a symptom of the newer cloud computing push, they’re of course serving to earn accolades for the cloud that it did not have previously.

Of course, cloud computing in business is not brand new. It largely went unrecognized for what it was for such a long time, largely due to the fact that it wasn’t referred to as ‘cloud computing’. As a result, people often fail to make the proper connection between the present and the past, and to realize, in retrospect, that it’s always been around…

Grazed from The Var Guy. Author: Editorial Staff.

The VMware vCloud Hybrid Service (an IaaS cloud alternative to Amazon Web Services, Windows Azure and Google Compute Engine) launches May 21. For VMware (NYSE:VMW) channel partners, there are at least five timely questions worth asking. Here’s a preview plus some perspective from The VAR Guy.

First, the background: VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger unveiled the IaaS cloud plan back on March 13 during an EMC-VMware Strategic Forum. Fast forward to this week: Gelsinger and Bill Fathers (GM, Hybrid Cloud Services) will unwrap the new IaaS cloud for partners and customers. The big questions?…

Grazed from MarketWire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Powering its market leadership in cloud computing, business continuity, and battle-tested data recovery solutions, Venyu today announced the company has secured two premier honors in the "2013 Hot Companies and Best Products Awards," sponsored by Network Products Guide (NPG). The industry’s leading technology research and advisory guide is the world’s premier IT honors recognizing achievements in every facet of the industry.

Driving the company to victory are Venyu’s primary solutions which include cloud services, data center services and cloud backup. The VenyuCloud offering delivers leading cloud servers and data centers powered by VMware. Through its data center offerings, Venyu provides such critical services as managed hosting and collocation hosting. The company’s RestartIT is a battle-tested cloud backup and recovery platform specifically designed to meet the needs of today’s businesses…