Category: News

Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Matthew Candelaria.

Definitions of cloud computing are easy to find, but a single, authoritative definition is hard to come by. Perhaps the best work in this area was done by Böhm, et al. By compiling characteristics of 17 different scholarly and industrial definitions, the authors identified five primary characteristics of cloud computing allowing a definition such as: "Cloud computing is a service that delivers scalable hardware and/or software solutions via the Internet or other network on a pay-per-usage basis." (Emphasis indicates essential definition elements).

Cloud computing can further be broken down into three common types: SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. SaaS (Software as a Service) allows users to log into and utilize preprogrammed software that is owned and maintained by the service provider. PaaS (Platform as a Service) gives users tools and languages owned and maintained by the service provider that can be used to build and deploy customized applications. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) provides users with storage and processing, allowing users full control over the use of that infrastructure. There are other divisions of cloud computing, but these are the most common…

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: David Tom.

Google has earned recognition in the enterprise industry through its Google Apps software, a series of cloud-based applications that permit collaborative document writing, slide show construction, and text and video messaging. When the program began six years ago, Google anticipated that the program would catch on with small businesses and tech start-ups. However, they had no idea that larger corporations would follow suit.

Competitive Pricing and Online Collaboration

According to an article by The New York Times , the search engine company has recently formed contracts with drug-maker Hoffman-La Roche and the US Interior Department, businesses that each have over 80,000 employees using the product. It is believed that the software’s growth can be attributed to its competitive pricing model as well as the public’s transition to cloud-based technologies. Melissa Webster, an analyst at IDC, stated, "Google is getting traction. It looks like 2013 is going to be the year for content and collaboration in the cloud."…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Abdul Salam.

People often ask what is the real difference of cloud computing and “the internet” or “ isn’t the internet already cloud computing”. I often tell them that cloud computing does not equal the internet or vice-versa, the internet is simply the best delivery platform that cloud computing can make use of. You can have a cloud computing infrastructure totally isolated from the internet and it is called a private cloud network. Still, some private cloud networks are made to be accessible via the internet, but the argument still stands that cloud computing does not automatically mean or require the internet.

What makes cloud computing itself is not the hardware technology or the infrastructure, what makes it cloud computing is the way that services and functions are being handled and delivered. In essence what cloud computing means is that everything is being done by a server that is located somewhere that you and I should really not concern ourselves anymore, it’s somewhere out there, “in the clouds”. Behind all the services and applications that are labeled as “cloud” are servers, lots and lots of servers where all the processing elements are, the CPU, RAM, GPU, and even the storage devices…

Grazed from GamingBolt.  Author: Kartik Mudgal.

SimCity developers recently faced the wrath of Reddit in an AMA, where they were asked about the DRM that was included in the game. Reddit members completely rejected the game citing DRM and mentioned that the developers should remove it if they want any sales.

The developers have responded and since it’s a directive from the publisher to include DRM and other things, their hands are tied, but here’s what they had to say.  Maxis’ Lucy Bradshaw mentioned that there’s a lot of cloud computing required to power SimCity so the DRM was required…

Grazed from Bloomberg.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Mobily owns today a strong infrastructure supporting the 3G and 4G networks, said its CEO Khalid Al-Kaf.  He was speaking at the Mobily Application Developers Conference 2012.  Senior Mobily officials were also present.  A large number of local and international experts in information technology as well as amateur developers, professional mobile application developers are taking part in the event.

The CEO opened the conference with a speech about the future of telecommunications and information technology.  He said: "The technical world today is running at an accelerated pace, each day witnessing significant shifts and developments created by the people’s need to communicate in social media…

Grazed from WSJ.  Author: Yoree Koh.

Myanmar’s central bank is headed for the cloud.   After decades of performing the bulk of the Central Bank of Myanmar’s work longhand, a trio of Japanese companies are pushing the institution to the technological cutting edge. The three companies — Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd Limited and KDDI Corp.  — collaborated to build the Southeast Asian country its first Internet-linked computing platform in an attempt to help the central bank’s antiquated systems keep pace with Myanmar’s rapid change.

Myanmar has ushered in a raft of reforms over the last 18 months in a move to breathe new economic life into the country lift impoverished and stuck in time after decades of military rule ended two years ago. One of the key challenges is to modernize Myanmar’s aging systems…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Standards have increasingly become the core for countries to reserve strategic resources and enhance international competitiveness. "The man who sets up standards gets the world" has been repeatedly demonstrated in the IT field, where giants like Microsoft, Apple and Qualcomm serve as good examples. Cloud computing, conforming to the worldwide demand for integrating computing resources and service capabilities, is the strategic vantage point in the current international IT competition. Therefore, China’s competitiveness in the international IT field will depend on our ability of setting up independent standards for cloud computing in the future.

Cloud Computing Industry: Risks Behind Prosperity

In 2011, China’s cloud computing industry witnessed a prosperous development. Cloud computing continued to extend from governments to enterprises and to individual users, from the IT industry to traditional agriculture and industry in addition to the modern service industry. The industrial size reached RMB160 billion, up 63.8% year-on-year, and it is expected to reach RMB 800 billion in 2014…

Grazed from InformationWeek.  Author: J. Nicholas Hoover.

In a bid to accelerate and make more cost-effective the adoption of cloud computing, the federal government Thursday issued the first government-wide security authorization for a cloud computing service as part of the new Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP).

The FedRAMP program will eventually be a mandatory, common approach to ensuring that cloud computing services meet federal cybersecurity requirements. It will replace the historically agency-by-agency and therefore often duplicative approach to certifying that services meet these requirements. For now, though, almost 19 months after being announced, FedRAMP is still just getting off the ground…

Grazed from JDSupra.  Author: Editorial Staff.

The term “cloud computing” has been tossed about as the new trend in IT. Unfortunately, just as often has you hear the term echoed as the “next big thing” a comprehensible definition rarely follows. So what is cloud computing? The United States National Institute of Standards & Technology (“NIST”) defines cloud computing as:

A model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.  This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.

Perhaps more succinctly put, cloud computing “involves the sum of a service to store, transmit and process information and employs the internet as the means to access and move the information."…