Category: News

December 4, 2012 Off

Avnet Technology Solutions Introduces Cloud Computing Offerings Powered by Amazon Web Services

By David

Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Avnet Technology Solutions, a global IT solutions distribution leader and an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), today unveiled four off-premise cloud computing solutions powered by Amazon Web Services® (AWS). These initial offerings provide managed service provider (MSP), value-added reseller (VAR), and independent software vendor (ISV) partners with integrated, packaged solutions that span the AWS portfolio.

“Avnet’s new solutions built on AWS complement our partners’ portfolios. We specifically designed these solutions to align with how end customers want to purchase cloud computing offerings, which will ensure that our partners can quickly, easily and cost effectively take these solutions to market.”…

December 4, 2012 Off

On the Horizon for Cloud Computing in 2013? Greater Openness and Control at the User Level

By David

Grazed from Business Wire. Author: PR Announcement.

The forecast for cloud computing in 2013? A veritable downpour of innovation: the first touch-based operating system. Greater emphasis on the “open cloud.” Apple’s new virtual server. VMWare’s new “self-service” virtualization product. And that’s just for starters. “With openness comes questions of security and data and application interoperability, among other issues.”

For an IT environment defined by seemingly non-stop evolution, cloud computing will welcome a host of groundbreaking technologies in 2013, according to Infinitely Virtual CEO Adam Stern. “In looking at innovations shaping the cloud hosting and computing environment for next year, I believe this will be the most exciting time in the history of the cloud model,” Stern says. “Whether you’re a medium-size business or an early stage startup, in 2013 you will be able to take advantage of new technology that gives you both greater control over your virtual environment, and also more flexibility.”…

December 4, 2012 Off

How banks can select a reliable cloud computing provider

By David

Grazed from The Houson Business Journal. Author: Lisa Chason.

Businesses all over the world are making the leap to the cloud as a cost-effective way to store and protect vast amounts of transactional data and information. Financial institutions are no different. However, given the sensitive nature of the data that banks handle with every transaction, it is crucial to understand how to design and deploy the right cloud solution to ensure security of customers’ information.

In recent years, security breaches impacting financial institutions and their customers have been widely reported, so banks are continuously updating their security platforms — and may be hesitant to transition to the cloud, which is sometimes perceived as less secure…

December 4, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing: Prism Skylabs Launches Partner Program

By David

Grazed from Security Info Watch. Author: Deborah O’Mara.

Prism Skylabs, based in San Francisco, recently unveiled a new partner program for systems integrators. The Silicon Valley company, a cloud-based service that is changing the way video is accessed, stored and analyzed, recently launched the program designed specifically for installation companies who understand the importance of bringing a differentiated product to market.

With little or no barrier to entry and the ability to offer the service to current customers with smaller IP/IT footprints consisting of off-the-shelf hardware, the program gives participants an easy way to leverage the existing video infrastructure, add value and increase their recurring monthly revenue…

December 4, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing: VMware Launches Software-Defined Data Center

By David

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Charles Babcock.

VMware announced Monday that it has integrated its virtualized environment software with its cloud management products, putting into one box the software that generates virtual machines, applies cloud management, and introduces performance and capacity management to the resulting environment.

Dubbed VMware vCloud Suite 5.1, it combines the latest version of three previously separate products: vCenter Operations Management Suite 5.6 for virtual systems management; vFabric Application Director 5.0 for deploying applications in a virtual environment; and vCloud Suite 5.1 for managing pooled resources as a cloud operation…

December 4, 2012 Off

Games developers look to the cloud

By David

Grazed from SMH. Author: Brad Howarth.

While many businesses are still weighing up the benefits and risks of cloud computing, the cloud saved the skin of Australian games developer Halfbrick when dealing with the explosive popularity of its Fruit Ninja games.

Halfbrick’s executive producer Dale Freya said the launch of Fruit Ninja Frenzy on Facebook resulted in user numbers rocketing from hundreds of thousands to millions.
“At one point Facebook did a promotion on the game, and we weren’t even aware of it,” Freya said. “The game went from one million active monthly users to about 9 million in the course of a couple of months.”…

December 4, 2012 Off

AWS Marketplace Announces Support for Software Running on Microsoft Windows

By David
Grazed from Amazon.  Author: PR Announcement
 

Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), today announced that the AWS Marketplace now supports Windows-based software and other new software categories including Big Data solutions. AWS Marketplace is an online store that makes it easy for customers to find, compare, and immediately start using the software they need to build products and run their businesses. Customers can now quickly discover and 1-Click deploy software products running on Windows Server to the AWS Cloud, including well-known business intelligence, database, and hosting solutions. As with all products in the AWS Marketplace, customers pay only for what they use and can scale their software up or down as needed. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances running Windows Server, include 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2, and 2012 editions, and as with all Amazon EC2 Windows instances, customers have the option of enterprise-class support and updates, while taking advantage of the security, scalability, and pay-as-you-go pricing of AWS. To learn more about the AWS Marketplace, visit http://aws.amazon.com/marketplace.

 
December 4, 2012 Off

Amazon and NetApp: Linking Public and Private Cloud Storage

By David
Grazed from TalkinCloud.  Author: Joe Panetierri.

NetApp Private Storage for Amazon Web Services — a new offering — is a sign of things to come for VARs, MSPs and cloud integrators that want to connect the dots between public and private cloud services. Plus, the Amazon-NetApp relationship could signal Avnet Technology Solutions‘ growing influence as a bridge between the traditional IT channel and the cloud services market.

NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) announced the private storage solution during the AWS re:Invent conference last week. The offering leverages AWS Direct Connect, giving customers the ability to link existing on-premises storage infrastructure to Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) public cloud storage.  Over the next six to 12 months, I suspect most major on-premises storage companies will offer some sort of bursting option that allows customers and partners to extend into Amazon’s cloud…

December 4, 2012 Off

What Bilbo Baggins Teaches Us About Cloud Computing

By David
Grazed from WindowsITPro.  Author: B. K. Winstead.

Cloud computing and the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins? What might they have in common? On the surface, you’d have to say nothing. But I’ve been thinking about The Hobbit lately, with the much-anticipated Peter Jackson epic set to debut in theaters soon. Although I’m sure J. R. R. Tolkien had no notion of cloud computing, or computers for that matter, Bilbo’s story can still be read as an allegory for the journey that many IT pros take when they move to the cloud — with many of the same lessons to be learned.

At the start, Bilbo is quite content in his little hobbit hole, Bag End, in the Shire. Think of that as IT pros in the traditional mode of on-premises deployments. Had he been left to himself, that’s exactly where Bilbo would have stayed. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), Gandalf chose Bilbo to accompany the dwarves on their quest across the wilds to the Lonely Mountain. We can say Gandalf is like a CIO or CEO or some conglomeration of super powerful execs. And the dwarves? We’ll call them end users that Bilbo has to successfully move along to the cloud…

December 4, 2012 Off

Why VMware is spinning off Cloud Foundry and SpringSource

By David
Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Barb Darrow.

The decision by VMware and parent EMC to spin out VMware’s “tier 2″ technologies into a separate subsidiary shows that they’re under pressure to compete with massive cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft in the enterprise.

To say VMware and EMC are desperately seeking enterprise cloud credibility with the proposed spinoff of Cloud Foundry and SpringSource along with key EMC technologies into a separate subsidiary might be overstating the case. But not by much. The move shows that EMC and VMware must strengthen their hand in enterprise software and cloud computing. The EMC subsidiary, expected to be announced this week,  will focus resources — and about 1,000 former VMware employees — on this key segment where VMware’s buyout of SpringSource in 2009 and other acquisitions failed to gain traction…