Asking the right questions can ensure cloud computing data security
With organizations producing — and responsible for — more data than ever before, the cloud has proven a viable data management option. But don’t expect to just send your data to the provider and be done with it — cloud computing data security is as much your responsibility as it is theirs.
Do [your cloud providers] have processes and procedures in place to make sure people are not accessing information they should not be seeing?
During sessions on this topic at Compliance Week 2012, held in Washington, D.C., this week, experts said doing your homework on your needs, as well as on cloud providers’ business models, are key to ensuring cloud computing data security…
Egenera Makes the Leap to Cloud Management
The way blade pioneer Egenera remembers things it invented converged infrastructure before it had to abandon its x86 BladeFrame servers, switches and storage for software based on its trusty Processor Area Network (PAN) Manager.
It is now making the obligatory move from other people’s virtualized blade servers to the private cloud still focused on blades.
Egenera has yet to make the great leap to rack servers. Blades, according to CEO Peter Manca, are more uniform and – although racks dominate – blades are faster growing.
While the company works out what to do about racks, its new Pan Cloud Director offers a self-service portal that handles both physical and virtual environments, taking care of all those applications that don’t like to be virtualized and sidestepping lock-in issues…
Cloud computing gaffes and other letdowns
Everyone makes mistakes. Cloud vendors let you down by failing to live up to promises spelled out in their SLAs, and even Internet giants like Google get caught meddling using seemingly Orwellian tactics. And that’s what this installment of Quotes from the Cloud is about: The mistakes we make.
Made a major gaffe recently? Don’t panic. Sometimes when it seems like nothing is going right, all you need is a place to turn when the proverbial stuff hits the fan. Here’s some advice for cloud admins in the midst of a meltdown. And, if nothing else, this week’s news will prove you aren’t the only one making mistakes.
"There is nothing ‘next generation’ about HP’s announcement."
Shlomo Swidler, CEO of Orchestratus Inc., is less than impressed with HP’s Converged Cloud updates. Though the hardware giant hasn’t made any mistakes, per se, it seems like HP is constantly playing catch-up to compete with well-established cloud players. Was it too quick to release its first iteration of the Converged Cloud portfolio? Or were the updates just really good afterthoughts? Though some are cautiously optimistic about HP’s next-round of updates, some experts say they still may not be enough to sway enterprise customers…
FAA Chooses Office 365: Microsoft One-Ups Google In Battle For Government Cloud Market
In early 2011, former U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and team helped institute a “Cloud First” policy, which aimed to speed up the government’s internal adoption of cloud computing and services. Since then, many government agencies have begun moving their collaboration and productivity applications to the cloud. Today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) became the latest to transition, awarding Computer Sciences Corp a contract worth as much as $91 million to implement its cloud productivity solution based on Microsoft Office 365, which includes messaging, calendaring, IMs and webconferencing.
According to Microsoft’s statement, 60,000 FAA employees and 20,000 employees at the Department of Transportation will be migrating to Office 365. The contract, which is for one year service with an option for an additional six years, is somewhat of a big, symbolic win for Microsoft in its ongoing efforts to win control of the government cloud market….
Could Cloud Computing Help Restore Our Trust in Banks?
Could cloud computing help restore our trust in the banking system? That’s a tall order, since the responsiveness and stability of our financial system rests on many factors, from adroit management practices to proper and measured fiscal and monetary policies. But some financial technology experts say technology — particularly cloud computing — can help repair some of the damage wrought in recent years and advance the banking sector into a new realm.
Cloud computing’s disruptive impact on banking will affect how institutions transform how consumers research, learn about and buy financial services and products, and manage their personal finances. That’s the view in a new report out of Accenture, authored by Emmanuel Sardet of Accenture Financial Services, and Emmanuel Viale of Accenture Technology Labs. No company in any industry can afford to ignore cloud computing, they write, but it’s impact will be strongly felt within the financial services sector…
CitizenHawk Introduces Cloud-Based Online Brand Protection Platform
CitizenHawk, a global provider of online brand protection and enforcement services, has introduced a powerful online brand protection tool and offering it to clients on a subscription basis.
HawkDiscovery is a cloud-based technology platform that enables users to search the entire Web and detect use of trademarked terms and phrases, helping uncover instances of brand abuse ranging from counterfeiting to cybersquatting. It also permits monitoring of content on specific websites and produces alerts notifying users of new activity. HawkDiscovery features a fully integrated workflow and case management system that acts as a kind of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for brand protection. The system lets users analyze and assess particular instances of online infringement, determine appropriate responses, and manage remediation activities from initial detection through final resolution – with every action tracked, recorded and shared with appropriate personnel.
“Major companies realize their brands are among their most precious corporate assets, and they spend enormous amounts of time and money promoting them to consumers, investors and others,” said David Duckwitz, CitizenHawk’s president and chief executive. “Unfortunately, the more well known and popular a brand is, the more attractive it becomes to typosquatters and others seeking to exploit it on the Internet. Marketing, legal, compliance and IT professionals now have a way to fight back with cost effective tools that not only can uncover such abuse but effectively respond to it.”
Citrix Enters Mobile Data and Video Market with Acquisition of Bytemobile
Citrix today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Bytemobile, a leading provider of data and video optimization solutions for mobile network operators. This acquisition gives Citrix a key strategic foothold in the core infrastructure of more than 130 mobile operators in 60 countries around the world, significantly extending the company’s market reach, and enhancing the broader Citrix strategy of powering mobile workstyles and cloud services.
With the advent of the Cloud Era, mobile operators are experiencing explosive growth in network traffic, driven by the combination of new consumer devices, rich multimedia content, and high speed 3G, 4G and LTE networks. By joining forces, Citrix and Bytemobile will be able to offer these operators combined solutions that deliver a high quality user experience to mobile subscribers, while helping operators manage the exponential growth of mobile network traffic with the best performance, visibility and efficiency. The acquisition builds on a strategic partnership announced earlier this year that combined the Bytemobile Smart Capacity technology with the Citrix NetScaler line of cloud networking solutions.
Mad Cow Friday: Microsoft Tad – Tad on Cloud Economics
Some IT providers are talking cloud, but still living in a virt-based world. See why Microsoft offers a private cloud solution that is built for the future and ready now.
Windows Azure Virtual Machine is Here!
On June 7, 2012 in San Francisco, Scott Guthrie encouraged the world to Meet the New Windows Azure. As part of this milestone, Scott announced the availability of several Windows Azure Preview Features including a new Virtual Machine capability.
Oracle’s Mark Hurd: App complexity will drive customers to our cloud
So now we know. With the announcement of Oracle Public Cloud [1] yesterday, the last of the big traditional IT vendors has weighed into the cloud.
This one could be a game-changer. The Oracle Cloud will offer over 100 SaaS (software as a service) enterprise applications, a PaaS (platform as a service) primarily intended to serve Java developers, and a cloud version of the Oracle database. The company also unveiled a new Platinum Services offering [2] for Exadata and Exalogic systems, as well as for the Oracle Public Cloud.
Immediately after the announcement, I interviewed Oracle co-president Mark Hurd to get a better sense of the thinking behind the monster offering, particularly how he felt Oracle could justify the $35 billion investment behind it and why the company had chosen to deliver the application portfolio as single-tenanted applications, which shifts some of the burden of maintaining apps back to the customer…