Category: News

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Rick Blaisdell.

As we discussed in an older article, cloud computing technologies are on the rise in the healthcare industry. From large hospitals to physicians and administrators to small medical services providers, all have seen cost savings from implementing and utilizing cloud-based solutions. Today we will focus more on small medical services providers and on how they can use cloud computing technologies. Here are the cloud-based solutions most used by doctors and physicians:

Cloud storage. Information storage is of major importance for doctors as they need to keep medical records, notes, test results, cardiology and radiology images, available and secure. There are two alternatives when it comes to cloud storage solutions for medical services: the electronic medical record solution (EMR) and the electronic health record solution (EHR)…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Thomas Claburn.

Cloud Sherpas, a company that helps businesses implement cloud computing services, released Thursday an open source Python framework to simplify custom app development on Google App Engine. Recently named Google Apps implementation partner of the year by Google, Cloud Sherpas has amassed some 3,000 corporate customers since 2007 and boasts projected 2013 revenue of more than $100 million. Most of its business involves helping companies deploy cloud computing services like Google Apps and Saleforce.com.

But in 2011, the company was losing custom app development opportunities presented by its enterprise clients because there were too few tools available to accelerate Google App Engine projects. The absence of a mature tool ecosystem for App Engine meant that custom apps tended to take longer and cost more than clients would accept. Tim Lockyear, director of application development at Cloud Sherpas, said in a phone interview that his team spent much of 2011 and 2012 working on software to make it easier to create custom app engine projects that could interact with Google Apps…

Grazed from Huawei. Author: PR Announcement.

Huawei has launched FusionCloud, an open-source cloud computing platform compatible with OpenStack software. Developed in response to the industry trend towards openness and standardization, FusionCloud will enable carrier organizations to establish agile, efficient and open cloud platforms and services, Huawei said. FusionCloud features three core components, namely FusionSphere, FusionCube and FusionAccess.

FusionSphere is a Huawei-developed cloud operating system and part of Huawei’s Distributed Cloud Data Center (DC2) architecture. FusionSphere is capable of integrating IT infrastructures from different vendors, and can run unified resources scheduling. FusionCube is a converged infrastructure that integrates computing, storage, and network capabilities to help carriers establish data centres or branch infrastructures. FusionAccess ensures seamless cloud connection, allowing users to access securely cloud services and applications from terminals over fixed or mobile networks. The new products follow Huawei joining the OpenStack Foundation in October 2012.

Grazed from CRN. Author: Joseph Kovar.

VMware is staying focused on a simple three-part message about the software-defined data center, hybrid cloud and end-user computing, and it is encouraging its solution providers to do the same if they want to successfully navigate the tremendous changes going on in the data center. That’s the word from VMware President and COO Carl Eschenbach during his closing keynote of this year’s VMware Partner Exchange conference, held this week in Las Vegas.

Eschenbach, speaking before a packed hall of solution providers and technology partners, said that VMware two weeks ago told its own team during the company’s 2013 internal global kickoff event that VMware is embarking on the next part of the journey to transform the IT industry as it moves toward adopting cloud infrastructures…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Louis Columbus.

Using analytics to better understand the cloud computing job market is fascinating. One of the most advanced companies in this area is Wanted Analytics, who aggregates job postings from over 500 job boards and maintains a database of over 600 million unique job listings. They specialize in business intelligence for the talent marketplace, providing insights into how one company’s salary range compares to competitors for the same position, also calculating the difficulty to hire a given type of candidate.

They’ve developed a unique Hiring Scale to accomplish this. I recently had a chance to test-drive their analytics applications. Using the parameters to analyze all cloud computing jobs that pay $100,000 a year or more for the analysis, I ran several queries. Key takeaways include the following:…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Mark Eisenberg.

The Gartner Hype Cycle is a powerful tool for understanding where new technologies are with regard to their acceptance in the mainstream. And Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing, 2012 report raises some interesting — and often confusing — points for cloud computing adoption.

There is a big difference between the description of phases of the cycle on the curve, such as "Trough of Disillusionment," and the report’s table of contents, which labels sections by describing the transition between phases. The curve shows Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) on the upslope of the trough, yet Gartner places it in a section titled "Sliding in to the Trough." This creates two very different perceptions…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Euan Harris.

I watched with interest recently an interview with NetSuite CEO, Zach Nelson on Bloomberg TV. During the interview Nelson stated his belief that retail wasn’t dead and that Apple had shown the way to all retailers with regards customer experience. Nelson also stated that in his mind, retail would be the next industry to be “disrupted by the cloud”. In this blog I will examine some of the reasons why retailers might look to the cloud for business management systems that help to grow their business.

Customer Experience

Retailers are faced with a battle on two fronts, being squeezed by the need to cut costs at the same time as customers are demanding an increasingly better experience. They expect an ‘omnichannel’ shopping experience where they can interact with a brand through any channel and receive a consistent experience across the board. They want to be able to shop anywhere, on any device and be able to receive merchandise anywhere, hence the rise of offerings such as ‘click and collect’…