Category: News

November 23, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing Gets Complicated

By David

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: Shaun Drew.

It’s hard to find any modern technology news that doesn’t, in some way, touch upon the cloud. This pervasive new way of thinking about business technology is understandable, but some new thoughts on the matter suggest that jumping in feet first may not be the best option, regardless of the obvious benefits. To further complicate matters, new research shows that many businesses are entering the cloud without IT’s knowledge or approval, which can be a dangerous situation.

A Cautious Approach

These days, there’s no doubting the benefits of cloud computing. It greatly enhances the chances of meaningful collaboration, reduces IT infrastructure costs, and makes it easier to initiate changes within an IT organization. These realities are bringing more and more businesses into the cloud with each passing day, including a large number of small and midsize businesses that aren’t naturally technology companies. This is all in spite of the well-documented issues that the cloud can bring…

November 23, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing: Why Owning Software or Data ‘No Longer Makes Sense’

By David

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Joe McKendrick.

Is a subscription-based economy — fueled by cloud computing — now the new normal? Two industry experts participating in a recent Webcast say yes, and enterprises of all types and sizes are being drawn into this new world. ‘Psychological, not financial, factors drive cloud decisions:’ Wharton’s Don Huesman, SAP’s Erik Berggren.

“We are moving into a world that is evolving into a subscription economy,” says Erik Berggren, vice president of customer results and global research at Success Factors (an SAP company). “What you want both as a consumer and as a business user is the utility of something. You want a means of transportation. You want computing power. You want answers to your questions. You want to get something done really quickly in your business. That’s going to be the driving force.”…

November 23, 2012 Off

IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS clouds continue to evolve

By David

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Ovum.

Cloud computing is an increasingly multi-faceted phenomenon. It continues to quickly evolve not just at private and public cloud levels (and increasingly in the continuum between these two extremes) but also at infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS) levels.

In the Ovum report, 2013 Trends to Watch: Private and Public Clouds, Ovum advises that cloud service providers and consumers need to take into account the latest IaaS developments at network level, get their head around the PaaS market, and understand how – and to what extent – SaaS is evolving into business process-as-a-service (BPaaS)…

November 23, 2012 Off

Study shows differences between cloud users and non-users

By David

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: James Bourne.

A cornerstone study into cloud computing in the UK has revealed the key difference in opinion between cloud users and non-cloud users. The study, from Raconteur Media and written by Mike O’Driscoll entitled ‘Navigating the Cloud’, had a relatively small survey base – just under 250 completed at least part of the survey – but of that number, there was a lot of clout – 84% saw themselves as the key IT decision maker.

Again, software as a service (SaaS) proved itself to be the most mature cloud market. 81% of respondents currently use SaaS, compared to 45% for information as a service (IaaS) and 38% for platform as a service (38%). Crucially, only 5% of respondents had no plans to use SaaS in their company. This correlates with research from Symform which showed that SaaS “continued to be the entryway” for cloud platforms…

November 23, 2012 Off

Five top tips for the journey to cloud

By David

Grazed from TechWorld. Author: Malcolm Herbert.

A comparison between enterprise IT and public cloud computing dramatically highlights the benefits of moving to cloud. Application deployment times can shrink from weeks in the traditional data centre to minutes in a cloud data centre; new application development time accelerates from years to weeks (or months at most); cost per virtual machine plummets from dollars to cents; server administrator ratios can explode from 20:1 to 300:1; while efficiency increases, with resource utilisation soaring from 20 to 75 percent.

With measurable benefits like these, it’s no wonder that IDC expects that by 2015 the majority of the enterprise market will require integrated hybrid cloud management capabilities (Source: IDC Cloud Management Study, 2011 Survey). Cloud computing requires new architectures at the infrastructure and application levels to benefit from all the value that it offers, such as agility and scalability of IT services. Therefore, the discussion on cloud computing provides a compelling reason to look at an open source strategy and the opportunities it brings…

November 23, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing For Lawyers

By David

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Rick Blaisdell.

For attorneys or paralegals, cloud computing could mean access to data anytime and anywhere. As long as they can connect to the Internet, work can be accessed from their home, office, client offices or from their smart phones. Lawyers can also work collaboratively on files and documents, even when they are physically not in the same location. For some lawyers, cloud computing is already an affordable and flexible alternative to traditional desktop and client server based software technologies.

Law firms are slowly moving to the cloud. The American Lawyer ‘s 16th annual survey gathered responses from 82 law firms and revealed that 65% of them use cloud computing. Of those firms using the cloud, 77% described it as a positive experience…

November 23, 2012 Off

Cloud Computing: Feds look into HP claims of Autonomy fraud

By David

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into HP’s allegations that former Autonomy management misled the company about its books, according to a Bloomberg News report. The SEC brought in the FBI because criminal acts have been alleged by HP management. The FBI is looking into Hewlett Packard’s allegations that Autonomy execs lied about their company’s books prior to HP’s $11.1 purchase of the company last year, according to Bloomberg.

The Bloomberg article cites a “person familiar with the matter” saying that the Securities and Exchange Commission brought in the FBI because criminal acts have been alleged. The news comes a day after HP CEO Meg Whitman charged that Autonomy executives mislead HP about the company’s finances, failed to disclose key information and otherwise behaved badly. HP said it had referred the matter to the SEC in the US and the UK’s Serious Fraud office…

November 23, 2012 Off

Cloud and big data – a fusion of two innovative IT trends

By David

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Ian Foddering.

As market awareness and adoption increases, so customer confidence and clarity is growing and companies are better able to evaluate the benefits and challenges that big data presents their individual organisations.

It’s not surprising to see that big data is the top IT spending priority in Gartner’s recent global forecast. These figures correlate with Cisco’s recent CloudWatch survey, which found that Big Data will be an important aspect of IT strategy and is set to increase in importance over the next 12 months…

November 23, 2012 Off

VMware ties up with ThinkCloud in India

By David

Grazed from Telecom Tiger. Author: Editorial Staff.

VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, has said that it has partnered with RCV Innovations’ ThinkCloud as a VMware Authorized Training Center (VATC) in India.

‘ThinkCloud’ is a training and consulting initiative for cloud computing by RCV Innovations, a Hyderabad-based IT company with a focus on healthcare, education and cloud computing. Under the agreement, RCV Innovations’ ThinkCloud will offer VMware-certified training courses to customers, channel partners and the general public on VMware products, solutions and services in Hyderabad and Kolkata…

November 22, 2012 Off

Increase in Market Confidence in the Cloud

By David

Grazed from UCStrategies. Author: Editorial Staff.

A November 2012 survey related to cloud computing revealed the numerous growth opportunities for both buyers and consumers. According to Michael Skok, Partner at North Bridge Venture Partners, there is a growing interest in the cloud and understanding its potential. He claimed that the survey has enabled a greater understanding of the key issues related to the cloud, from the perspectives of customers and vendors.

“On the inhibitors, one of the things that’s interesting this year is that, if you look back to 2011, 10 percent of the survey respondents would have said that the cloud is just too risky, and they gave many reasons last year. This year, we’re down to 3 percent. So that’s a significant drop,” said Skok…