Cloud Computing: Apps Associates and Amazon Web Services Launch ‘Try-It-Now-Free’ Labs
Apps Associates, in conjunction with Amazon Web Services (AWS), announced today the launch of a series of cloud-based environments for Oracle applications, technology and database customers. Cloud computing services is leading the drive behind the growth of IT outsourcing in 2012 from $3.4B USD to $5.0B USD, a 48.7% increased according to IT research firm, Gartner.
The purpose of the “Try-It-Now-Free” labs is to provide a simple, effective way for Oracle users and IT community to gain hands-on experience with cloud services and to understand their application within the enterprise…
Cloud Service Providers Challenge Traditional IT Outsourcing
Global IT services spending should reach more than $251 billion dollars this year, up 2.1 percent from 2011, according to Gartner’s latest IT outsourcing forecast. Adjusting for currency changes, that’s actually around a 4.1 percent increase in spending–about the same level of growth as the year prior, according to Gartner research director Brian Britz.
But the fastest growing segment of outsourcing–cloud computing services–is expected to nearly double from $3.4 billion in 2011 to $5 billion this year. Even more notable–infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) will contribute 38 percent of the increment outsourcing growth in 2012, compared to 8 percent in 2011. "This is reflective of how difficult the current market is for established IT outsourcing services–like data center outsourcing–and the providers of those services," Britz says. "There is definitely some displacement or substitution of cloud for what might have otherwise been delivered through more traditional outsourcing models taking place."…
The Cloud Migration Hidden Costs
According to the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, the return on investment of cloud computing may not be able to meet expectations due to hidden costs.
In its white paper “Calculating Cloud ROI: From the Customer Perspective”, there are 5 hidden costs which everyone must be aware of before they move to the clouds:
- There is a cost involved when an enterprise decides to house their IT services back to its premises because it will be faced with regulatory changes.
- There is also a cost involved in mitigating cloud computing risks.
- Some expenses may be incurred unexpectedly when systems are migrated to the clouds.
- Due to the shift to cloud computing, there’s going to be a loss of IT knowledge which provides competitive differentiation.
- There’s also a lock-in provision with a proprietary service or particular cloud service provider which is expected to slow down any future plans for adopting open standards-based services…
The bright cloud over public safety
With every day that dawns, the global technology skies are becoming more and more cloudy. However, I’m not predicting dark, stormy days ahead — far from it.
These are the cumulus clouds of computing opportunity. From the federal government to banking to healthcare, organizations and industries across the spectrum are realizing that moving their premises-based technology infrastructure to off-site, cloud-based solutions can offer real benefits.
While discussion about cloud computing has been going on in the public safety community for a few years, the idea of broad implementation has not been widely accepted. Early commercial cloud solutions were nebulous and untested, which rendered them incompatible with public safety…
MAPPS/ASPRS Announce Preliminary Program for “Ground to Cloud (R)evolution” Joint Specialty Conference
The revolution and evolution of cloud computing and other emerging new technologies impacting the practice of geospatial professionals will be presented at the 2012 MAPPS/ASPRS Joint Specialty Conference to be held October 29 through November 1 in Tampa, Florida.
Technical sessions during the conference will address the most pressing technologies and their applications including 3D, mobile mapping, cloud data management, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), lidar and the role of cloud computing with these technologies…
Cloud Computing: Cisco Boss Makes Contradictory Assumptions About Virtualization
Grazed from NetworkComputing. Author: Kevin Fogarty.
During the past decade, nearly everything in the tech world has gone virtual: Servers, applications, desktops, data centers, even jobs–at least to the tens of thousands of contractors doing full-time work at part-time pay with no benefits.
The one exception to the rule that virtual is better than physical is the one thing on which all the other advances in virtualization, cloud computing and job-creation avoidance depend: the network. At least, that’s according to John Chambers, CEO of the company with the most to lose from any wholesale separation of the value of a network from the underlying hardware that makes it possible.
High-quality, high-speed, reliable, secure, multi-functional networks require both good hardware and good software, Chambers told investors and analysts on Cisco’s earnings call this week (transcript via SeekingAlpha)…
Vision Solutions to Present Seminar on International Privacy Laws and Cloud Security at World Forum
Grazed from MarketWire. Author: PR Announcement.
Vision Solutions, Inc., the world’s leading provider of information availability software and services for Windows, Linux, IBM Power Systems and Cloud Computing markets, today announced a seminar on August 22nd, 2012 at the Cloud Computing World Forum, Latin America 2012 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The seminar will address data security in the cloud and how companies can protect their investment at the Cloud Computing World Forum, August 22-23.
Storing data in the cloud eliminates the need for organizations to build and maintain their own data centers, however, ensuring that data is protected and available when it’s needed is a critical assumption in the IT plan. Renato Hirata, Regional Systems Architect for Vision Solutions, will discuss:…
Finding Blue-Sky Success In The Cloud
Grazed from Forbes. Author: Lori Kozlowski.
Making a dent in the Internet and generally doing stuff before everyone else makes you a pioneer. A term often reserved for the curious prospectors and miners, who settled the West.
Cloud computing has become a red-hot field in recent years, as the idea of “the cloud” has matured. One Los Angeles-based company has quietly seen steady and astronomical success in this sector, as they attempted web-only approaches to the Internet long before the notion became popular.
Cornerstone On Demand provides workplace solutions and talent management software (essentially software that helps companies with training, recruiting, and performance). They began doing this far before the term “talent management” became common…
Europe: Lots of cloud opportunity to tap
Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Barb Darrow.
European cloud adoption has happened slower than in the U.S., but there are signs that it’s about to rapidly accelerate. At Structure:Europe, cloud luminaries will talk about how they see this change unfolding and what’s motivating it. Hint: It’s not just about saving money.
There’s a ton of cloud opportunity in Europe — the question is how fast it will come to fruition and what’s driving it…
Gartner: Big Data, Smart Devices, Cloud Computing, Maturing As Technologies, BOYD Rises
In all the talk of emerging technologies, there is often the suspicion that much of it is just hype. Gartner has been observing these technologies and since 1995 measuring the level of hype against the reality of those technologies. Among the fast moving technologies in this year’s studies are cloud computing, Big Data and media tablets.
Technology Cycles
To avoid indulging in the hype that Gartner has set out to identify in its Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2012 report, it needs to be clear what Gartner is actually measuring. According to Gartner researchers Jackie Fenn and Hung LeHong, what they are doing is measuring the ‘hype’ around technologies and comparing that with what has actually been delivered…