Category: News

Grazed from ITWorld Canada. Author: Howard Solomon.

Traditionally, Canadian organizations are slow to adopt technology and cloud computing is no different. But the country manager for EMC Corp., which sells storage and virtualization solutions, isn’t frustrated by our conservatism.

“It doesn’t because the whole ‘big bang’ approach to go [entirely] to the public cloud is a difficult approach to make,” Michael Sharum, said in an interview Wednesday at the EMC Forum, a day-long seminar in Toronto to showcase its solutions…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Rohan Pearce.

Elasticity — the ability to ramp up or down computing resources depending on need — is one of the key benefits of cloud computing. Not being shackled to their own, in-house hardware means organisations can dial up the amount of resources they need to crunch big data sets, run their Web presence during spikes and troughs in demand and process periodic jobs without needing the internal resources necessary to cope with peak demand.

But although the IT department may be less likely to have to run out to buy a new server or two, they will still have to make decisions about the purchase of resources from a cloud provider. Of course, cloud computing will let you change your mind and respond to changes in an organisation’s demand, but, according to a group of Microsoft researchers, there may be an easier way to go about it, with benefits for both providers and ‘cloud consumers’…

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.

Which type of Amazon Web Services Reserved Instance should your company deploy and for what time period for any given job? These are the kinds of questions Cloudyn’s new calculator can help you sort out for yourself, the company said.

We all hear how inexpensive Amazon cloud computing services are. We also hear about how many companies spin up way more Amazon EC2 compute power than they need. The net, net, net, is that Amazon, as cheap as it is, could be cheaper if companies just buy and pay for what they need…

Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.

CA Technologies today announced the release of “Cloud Standards: Agreements That Hold Together Clouds,” the latest book from CA Press. The book is a definitive guide to the technology that supports the cloud and the standards that make cloud computing possible.

“Cloud Standards: Agreements That Hold Together Clouds” details existing and in-progress industry standards related to cloud computing. With more than 20 years of industry experience, author Marvin Waschke is a leading authority on cloud standards. In the book, Waschke draws upon years of active participation in standards groups including the DMTF Cloud Management Working Group, the OASIS TOSCA Technical Committee and the W3C Service Modeling Language Working Group. He provides an in-depth overview of how existing standards are used and gives engineers practical advice on constructing clouds and cloud-based services…

Grazed from Reuters. Author: Editorial Staff.

Akamai Technologies Inc (AKAM.O) beat Wall Street expectations as the internet content delivery company reported higher revenue in its cloud computing and media delivery segments. Shares of the company, which helps firms deliver content faster by avoiding congestion on the Web, were up 5.5 percent in after-market trade.

Akamai has been benefiting from a strong demand for online videos and companies spending more on internet initiatives to cut costs…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Reuven Cohen.

I was recently invited to Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, Ontario, to attend an event hosted by the Canadian Cloud Council. The focus of the event was to discuss ways to help accelerate the adoption and proliferation of Canadian cloud centric products in services. Before I get into what was discussed, I need to provide some context to the current state of Internet connectivity in Canada. To understand the Internet landscape in Canada is to endeavour into the realm of duopolies, bandwidth caps and mediocre Internet connections. As it stands today, Canada has effectively become the Digital Third World.

A recent video interview with The Globe and Mail’s Omar El Akkad and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings summaries the problems with cloud computing in Canada. Hastings’ specifically calls out capped Internet plans as compared to the rest of the world saying “Canada has the misfortune of being the country with the lowest internet caps maybe in the world but certainly in the developed world and in all of the Netflix world. In Mexico, Internet is largely uncapped; in the US it’s largely uncapped; in the UK it’s completely uncapped; in Canada there’s a number of providers with very low caps…I don’t quite understand it.”…

Grazed from iHotDesk. Author: Editorial Staff.

Because of its massive manufacturing output, China is amongst the biggest polluters in the world. But according to a new report it could clean up its act with cloud computing. A study conducted by Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) found that use of cloud computing services in the country could reduce its annual greenhouse gas emission by almost two mega tonnes.

That is the equivalent of taking more than 700,000 cars off the road which would save more than 900 million Yuan (approx. £89.9 million) in energy costs. The study, which is entitled ‘The Enabling Technologies of a Low-Carbon Economy- a Focus on Cloud Computing’ looked into how the cloud could help to reduce CO2 emissions in Canada, Brazil and seven European nations as well as in China…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Savvis, a CenturyLink company (NYSE: CTL) and global leader in cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprises, has been positioned by Gartner Inc. as a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service. The report can be accessed at http://savvis.com/magic-quadrant-leader.

"Enterprises need perspective in today’s competitive cloud landscape, and we consider our position in the Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service a strong testament of Savvis as a global cloud leader," said Bill Fathers, president of Savvis. "Enterprises turn to Savvis for the unmatched support and security that comes with having an extensive data center footprint, comprehensive suite of Symphony cloud services and high-performance global network integrated across our extensive portfolio of services."…

Grazed from DataCenterKnowledge. Author: Jason Verge.

There is a shift underway in how Wall Street trading firms manage their technology, as financial cloud services aim to reduce the cost of low-latency trading infrastructure and to streamline access to a wide variety of trading applications. Cloud computing has been a savior to those in expense management mode, as well as has been a boon to startup firms.

Several cloud offerings have lowered the barrier to entry, while providing compelling financial considerations to go with a financial cloud service. NYSE EuroNext and NASDAQ OMX Group came to market with financial cloud services in a bid to fill up their data centers, as well as diversify and increase revenue on coattails of their respective brands. Colocation providers like FiberMedia have gone to market with their own vertically-targeted offerings as well, while financial infrastructure services have also become key offerings for providers like Equinix, Telx and Savvis, who all continue to court the financial vertical…