Category: News

January 3, 2013 Off

Cloud Computing: Google Pushes Paperless Pledge

By David

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Thomas Claburn.

Google is encouraging users of its Google Drive online storage service to go paperless in 2013 as a way to save time, money and trees. "This year, Google Drive is part of the Paperless Coalition, a group of organizations and products that help you live completely in a paper-free world," declared Google product marketing manager Meredith Blackwell in a blog post. "So whether you’re an expense reporter, invoice tracker, file hoarder or note jotter, you can do it all without using paper."

Joining Google in its coalition are several other online services: HelloFax, an online fax service; Manilla, an online bill management service; HelloSign, an e-signature service; Expensify, an online expense reporting service; Xero, an online business accounting service; and Fujitsu, which makes the ScanSnap scanner…

January 3, 2013 Off

Growing confidence in cloud security

By David

Grazed from CSO. Author: Ellen Messmer.

Cloud computing is blowing into 2013 on the winds of confidence, with IT professionals increasingly convinced that the security controls are adequate, but still very, very leery. Take Len Peters, CIO at Yale University, who has undertaken a cost-benefit analysis of cloud-based services in comparison to on-premises software purchases, finding that not only are unit costs less for the kind of software-as-a-service (SaaS) he’s most interested in, but that SaaS can also further the compliance and security goals the IT department has long espoused.

Last spring, Yale elected to migrate from an on-premises IT management application to the cloud-based ServiceNow. The economic analysis indicated a positive cost advantage within 13 months. But security and compliance considerations were and always are going to be critical factors in cloud-computing decisions, Peters says. Like many IT pros, he found himself asking the questions, "Is the cloud safe? What are the potential risks?"…

January 3, 2013 Off

Everyone Envies Amazon Cloud Computing Business

By David

Grazed from eCommerce Bytes. Author: Ina Steiner.

The largest retailers and the smallest online merchants bemoan the power Amazon wields in retail, but the company also has tech firms racing to keep up. Over the years, Amazon developed expertise building its own retail site, and in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) began offering IT infrastructure services to other businesses in the form of web services – now commonly known as cloud computing.

Some people may have been confused when an outage at Netflix on Christmas Eve was blamed on Amazon, but despite the fact that Netflix competes with Amazon in streaming digital content, Netflix uses AWS to power its site. (Amazon apologized for its outage without naming which customers had been affected.)…

January 3, 2013 Off

Cloud Computing: HP Suggests It’s Looking at Weeding Its Holdings

By David

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Maureen O’Gara.

Hewlett-Packard, which is desperately seeking ways to get its boat off the sandbar, told the SEC last week in its annual 10-K that "we continue to evaluate the potential disposition of assets and businesses that may no longer help us meet our objectives."

Bloomberg, which worked over New Year’s Eve, says the company didn’t use that language in its last 10-K filing when CEO Meg Whitman reversed her ousted predecessor’s destabilizing notion of somehow spinning off the company’s PC unit, and instead moved printers into it…

January 3, 2013 Off

Ten predictions for cloud computing in 2013

By David

Grazed from Business News Americas. Author: Patrick Nixon.

Chile-based Latin American IT company Sonda sees 2013 as the year when cloud computing will see consolidation in the region. Sonda’s regional cloud computing manager Sergio Rademacher has identified 10 key trends.

1 Cost saving

According to international studies, 30% of companies will move a significant part of their business applications to the cloud, generating a reduction of 10-40% in the cost of hardware, servers, software licenses and upgrades, energy consumption, and support tasks…

January 3, 2013 Off

RiverMeadow Software Cloud Migration SaaS to Be Offered to VMware Service Providers

By David
Grazed from RiverMeadow Software.  Author: PR Announcement

RiverMeadow Software Inc., developer of the RiverMeadow cloud migration SaaS, the world’s only automated server migration solution developed specifically for Carrier and Service Provider Clouds, today announced it will offer its cloud migration SaaS to VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) partners.

Only RiverMeadow can truly migrate servers into and between clouds "as-is" with the least amount of cost and complexity, eliminating the onboarding challenges for service providers and enterprise users. The RiverMeadow cloud migration SaaS is an API based platform designed from the ground up to automate the migration of physical, virtual and cloud based servers into and between public, private and hybrid cloud environments. The RiverMeadow SaaS supports an unlimited number of service providers and enterprise users at a given time. By simply providing their Cloud URL and credentials, users can instantly access all the processes necessary to automate server migrations from start-to-finish.

 
January 2, 2013 Off

LabTech Software Preps 2 Cloud Computing Surprises for MSPs

By David

Grazed from MSPMentor. Author: Joe Panettieri.

LabTech Software, the remote monitoring and management (RMM) software company, is working on two specific cloud computing strategies to empower MSPs over the long haul. The first involves integrated, end-to-end cloud solutions that MSPs can offer their customers. The second involves integrated capabilities that allow MSPs to provision, monitor and bill for those services. CEO Matt Nachtrab offered MSPmentor some deeper thoughts about the strategy during a recent email exchange. I’m starting to wonder: Will LabTech and/or sister company ConnectWise emerge as a cloud aggregator — allowing MSPs to source and manage a range of third-party cloud services for customers? Here’s the update.

First, some big-picture background. The cloud aggregator industry seems to be accelerating rapidly. Most of the major IT distributors — Avnet, Ingram Micro, Tech Data and more — have cloud aggregator or cloud services strategies in place. Tech Data will update its TD Cloud initiative during a conference next week in Tampa, Fla.; and Ingram will host a cloud conference March. (Both are among our Top 100 Channel Partner Conferences of 2013.)…

January 2, 2013 Off

Cloud Computing: VMTurbo Operations Manager Certified on VCE Vblock

By David

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

Cloud builders that use VCE Vblock as the central piece to their cloud puzzle have a new tool available in their kits. VMTurbo, which makes intelligent workload management software for cloud and virtualized environments, has managed to receive VCE Vblock Ready certification for its VMTurbo Operations Manager.

According to VMTurbo, its technology provides a cloud-scale control plane capable of continuously identifying and automating resource allocation and workload placement decisions, but it also keeps in mind technical and business constraints so it can optimize performance and maximize utilization. Now the technology is officially available for use on Vblock systems…

January 2, 2013 Off

Synchronoss Acquires Cloud Services Provider NewBay From RIM

By David

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

Research In Motion (RIM) has let go of its cloud services company, NewBay, selling it to Synchronoss Technologies for $55.5 million in cash. The acquisition closed just after Santa’s visit to all the good, little boys and girls. The acquisition of the Dublin, Ireland-based cloud services company will give Bridgewater, New Jersey-based Synchronoss the ability to expand its global mobility platform enablement strategy considerably. The acquisition followed shortly on the heels of two C-level executive appointments at NewBay. The cloud services company appointed Tom Goguen as CEO in September and Mark Payne as CFO in October. Both were former RIM executives who now find themselves with brand new bosses. Still, this deal must have been in the works for some time.

This is a fast turnaround for RIM, which only snapped up NewBay in October 2011. RIM, which is frequently being scrutinized for its recent issues in the mobile device market, barely held onto the cloud services company for a year. Whether it just wasn’t the fit RIM execs thought it would be or it was a sale of necessity is unknown…

January 2, 2013 Off

Canonical Enhancing JuJu Cloud Services Orchestration Tools

By David

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Christopher Tozzi.

Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth is focused on JuJu, a solution for deploying cloud services. JuJu is already mature and useful, but Ubuntu developers envision expanding on it in major ways in 2013, as evidence from mailing archives and Canonical announcements.

When it comes to cloud computing — which Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has earmarked as a major focus for Canonical in 2013 — one of the Ubuntu ecosystem’s most innovative projects is JuJu, a solution for deploying cloud services. JuJu is already mature and useful, but Ubuntu developers envision expanding on it in major ways in the new year, as evidence from mailing archives and Canonical announcements reveals…