Category: News

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Nicole Laskowski.

Cloud computing technology is maturing, as is the practice of storing and analyzing data there. While privacy and accessibility concerns still remain, they no longer completely eclipse features like elasticity and quick deployment. "There’s a lot of momentum for the cloud," said Tony Cosentino, vice president and research director for Ventana Research, an IT research and consulting firm based in San Ramon, Calif. "I’d expect to see a continuation of this trend in BI [business intelligence] and analytics."

The keyword is continuation. Success stories about analytics in the cloud are becoming easier to find, but barriers still exist, Cosentino said. And for one analytics business, overcoming those barriers required a shift in its culture and pricing model…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

The first version of the CloudStack open-source cloud platform carrying the Apache Foundation imprimatur is now available for download. The new “Incubating release” 4.0.0 integrates CloudBridge Amazon API support and support for Ceph and Caringo storage options. Seven months after Citrix turned the CloudStack open-source cloud project over to the Apache Foundation, the first Apache-blessed code is out.

The new 4.0.0 “incubating release” of CloudStack adds CloudBridge, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) API extension, right into the CloudStack package so that users can “turn on” Amazon S3 and EC2 support if they want. There is also a bunch of support for other third-party technologies including Ceph and Caringo storage and the Nicira network virtualization platform. The code can be downloaded from the Apache site…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

According to a CIO survey by hosting provider ElasticHosts, "83 percent of companies are frustrated with having to cut through marketing hype to find out which solutions are genuine cloud offerings and which are merely conventional hosting services with the word ‘cloud’ added to the title." Good ol’ cloud-washing in action!

Two-thirds of the survey’s respondents had been offered "cloud" services that are fixed-term, 40 percent had been offered services that weren’t elastic or scalable, and 32 percent were offered services that weren’t even self-service. (Keep in mind that a provider did this survey, so selfish interests are in play.)…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Appcore®, provider of the industry’s only complete automated cloud computing platform, and Cologix, a network-neutral colocation and interconnection provider, today announced a partnership to enable customers to deploy Appcore Onsite™ within Cologix’s 11 data centers across North America.

Cologix currently services over 550 customers across nearly every industry, ranging from carrier to managed services, media, content, financial services and enterprise businesses. Leveraging Appcore’s technology solution empowers Cologix customers to implement scalable public or private cloud environments according to their business model or cloud focus…

Grazed from RealWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Interoute Communications Ltd, owner operator of Europe’s largest cloud services platform, is building out its European Data Centres as demand increases for its cloud services. The introduction of an applications management product set and the launch of Interoute’s Virtual Data Centre (VDC) solution have contributed to the surge in computing revenues. The Company’s Unified ICT strategy, leveraging Europe’s largest cloud services platform to offer computing, communication and connectivity services, continues to attract international enterprises that demand an integrated approach.

In Q3 2012, Interoute extended its Virtual Data Centre platform into its Berlin facility and prepared its Paris Data Centre for the launch of its innovative solution in Q4. Earlier this year, the Company was selected by the UK Government as an IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) provider for that nation’s G-Cloud programme. Interoute’s Virtual Data Centre enables organisations to create highly dynamic scalable cloud computing services, allowing customers to provision new computing resources in minutes and to select from any of Interoute’s VDC enabled Data Centres in Amsterdam, Berlin, Geneva and London via a fully automated online portal…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Joe Panettieri.

Historically, the biggest cloud computing concern typically involved security. But over the long haul, the top concern will shift to cloud integration needs, predicted Amy Anderson, IBM Cloud Partner Program Manager. On a somewhat similar note, Gartner, the research firm, has been telling channel partners to focus on cloud broker and cloud aggregator systems that support integrated cloud services deployments.

Speaking at Cloud Channel Summit, IBM’s Anderson said technology is now the most important external force impacting business, according to an IBM Cloud Partner Program Manager Amy Anderson, quoting a recent survey of 1,700 CEOs worldwide. “Cloud computing creates whole new opportunities,” said Anderson. “You have to rethink IT and rethink business.” The technologies foremost on the minds of CEOs include analytics, mobile, cloud and social. “They are so intertwined it’s almost impossible to pull them apart…

Grazed from AccountingToday. Author: Jim Ericson.

On the eve of an election in a year full of rancor over whether taxation belongs at the federal, state or local level, corporate IT buyers are already getting a taste of how regional levies could affect their current costs and future strategies. The new wrinkle amid growing demand for departmental and line of business technology comes in state taxation of cloud computing, services that move the delivery and maintenance of business tools into the hands of third-party providers.

“There is a lack of uniformity nationwide addressing the taxation of traditional versus cloud services and it’s causing lots of headaches,” says Carolynn Iafrate Kranz, a partner, Kranz & Associates, PLLC, a boutique law firm specializing in state and local tax consulting…

Grazed from CloudTimes. Author: Xath Cruz.

Cloud computing is said to be a game changing technologies in the recent history of computing. Unfortunately, due to its young age, cloud companies don’t have yet any process that allows for a set procedure on how to investigate or go about cloud issues. Due to this absence, they have no means of ensuring the robustness and suitability of cloud services when it comes to supporting investigations of criminal activity.

Introduction

Cloud computing technology has shown massive game-changing potential akin to the ones exhibited by other significant computing technologies such as mainframes, PCs, minicomputers, and even smartphones. It has the ability to radically alter the way information technology services are created, accessed, and manage…