Category: News

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Matt Wallace.

IT managers at enterprises of all sizes are exploring cloud computing and virtualization as a way to address conflicting demands within their organizations. These mounting pressures include a lack of internal resources, mandates from the CFO to lower costs, and the struggle to complete key initiatives while also performing mundane server maintenance and application storage tasks. These same IT professionals are also being asked to build and implement battle-tested disaster recovery and business continuity plans that not only reduce data loss and downtime, but present a recovery time objective that prevents the organization from further interruption in the wake of an outage.

You may have read some controversial articles in the early days of cloud computing stating that there is no such thing as ROI for cloud computing. These early cloud pundits believed that buying into cloud services is not an investment, but an avoidance in an investment – therefore, ROI cannot be measured…

Grazed from Network World.  Author: Linda Musthaler.

In the Fifth Annual State of the Network Global Study published by Network Instruments in March 2012, 74% of the survey respondents indicate that their top concern about cloud computing is "security for corporate data." This survey is consistent with many others that always seem to identify data security concerns as a leading inhibitor to the adoption of cloud computing.

Actually, I think "security" is a catch-all phrase that also encompasses concerns about data residency (i.e., where is the data?) and data privacy (i.e., who can see our personally identifiable information, or PII?). Many organizations are fearful of or prohibited from placing data in the cloud due to restrictions on access to data or compliance with government or industry regulations…

Grazed from Bloomberg BNA.  Author: Editorial Staff.

The states are reacting to the growing use of new technologies such as cloud computing by adopting disparate nexus tax policies, Bloomberg BNA’s 12th annual Survey of State Tax Departments shows.

The survey this year focuses on how the states are taxing the new technologies and transactions that have emerged as the U.S. economy continues to shift from bricks and mortar of Main Street to the web-based world, which mostly operates independent of state or local borders. Most of the questions in the annual survey aim to clarify each state’s positions on the gray areas of corporate income and sales and use tax administration. Every state, except Alaska, participated in the survey…

One of our readers, Twitter followers and CloudCow friend submitted the following photo from Easter that we wanted to share with everyone.  This is a cupcake after our own heart — a Hoofer cupcake!

Thanks to @OscarOnlineCRM http://www.oscaronline.biz/ for sending! 

We appreciate you being a member of our cowherd!

Do you have a CloudCow photo you’d like to share with us?  Tweet it to us @cloudcowmedia

 

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Maureen O’Gara.

Google finally introduced its long-trumpeted cloud-based Google Drive Tuesday hours before Apple released its Q2 results.

Drive happens to compete with iCloud and Apple’s results, which could have been, shall we say, edgy, turned out to be over-the-top.

Drive also competes with Microsoft’s SkyDrive, Dropbox, Box, Amazon’s Cloud Drive and SugarSync.

Google says Drive users will get 5GB of free online storage for videos, photos, songs, files and PDFs that they can upload, create, edit, view, sync, share by way of different rights, collaborate on, get notifications, recognize scanned files, store, search (by word, owner, even some images to a point) and access from anywhere from PCs, Macs and Android devices (Gmail, iPhones, iPads, Chrome OS and Linux to come)…

Grazed from V3.co.uk.  Author: Daniel Robinson.

Ubuntu developer Canonical has officially released Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, the latest version of its enterprise-focused Linux distribution, which now includes provisioning and cloud computing features in its server build, and support for common desktop virtualisation platforms in its desktop build.

Available to download now, Ubuntu 12.04 is the fourth Long Term Support (LTS) release of the Linux platform, for which Canonical guarantees maintenance and security updates for five years.

Although aimed at enterprise users, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is free for anyone to download, with Canonical earning its revenue through technical support and services to corporate customers…

Grazed from CRN.  Author: George Watt.

For many companies planning to adopt or expand cloud services, deriving value and cost savings from their investment is the bottom line, and the decision is understandably challenging. Not only can there be uncertainty in relinquishing control of critical business services, but placing all of a firm’s loyalty in one service provider can introduce new risk – which can potentially bring big losses if things go awry.

A hybrid cloud approach allows your customer to hedge its bets, and brings opportunities for resellers to gain new clients. It allows simultaneous but discrete adoption of both public and private cloud systems and reduces the customer’s risk of adoption. Resellers can propose a hybrid cloud system as a proving ground for new customers, demonstrating the strength of their offering through low-risk services and applications on their way to evolving towards offering more business-critical services…

Grazed from PRWeb.  Author: PR Announcement.

Real Cloud Solutions LLC, a leading supplier of cloud-computing enablement for independent software venders (ISVs), today announced Dolphin Enterprises Ltd., a financial software solution provider to Private Mortgage Lenders, an agreement for Cloud deployment of their Mortgage Investment Management software utilizing Real Cloud Solutions™ technology and platform.

“Dolphin develops and implements software solutions for private lenders, trust companies, MICs or Mortgage Investment Corporations and Syndicated Lenders for the past decade. Now with the recent launch of the Share Registry system, implementing a cloud solution will increase market share for clients in the exempt market Industry in Canada as well as for all private share and bond issuers,” stated Shannon Dolphin, CEO of Dolphin Enterprises…

Grazed from Forbes.  Author: Larry Magid.

After writing a quick hands-on look at Google Drive hours after it was released, I’ve had a chance to put the new service through more of its paces.

What strikes me about Google Drive is that it’s a hybrid between cloud storage and cloud computing. Like Dropbox, SugarSync and other cloud storage services, it allows you to store files created on a PC, Mac or mobile device. But like what used to be called Google Docs, it also allows you to create and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

That model makes sense, especially for Google. If the search giant had its way, there would be no Macs and PCs –just Android tablets and Chrome laptops that run software and store data on Google servers. That’s a bit of an exaggeration (actually most Google employees I know still use Macs or Windows machines) but it’s clearly the long-term direction the company is moving in. It’s not going to be reality for a long time given the fact that high-speed Internet access is not yet available everywhere on and above the planet.  And it’s not clear how cloud computing will emerge on mobile devices, given the current fascination with apps which, are basically the mobile equivalent of PC software…

Grazed from InfoWorld.  Author: David Linthicum.

The world of cloud computing grows like a weed in summer, and many assumptions are being made that just aren’t correct. I’ve previously exposed four cloud myths you shouldn’t believe. Now it’s time for me to climb up on my soapbox and correct a few more.

Myth 1: Cloud computing is bringing back vendor lock-in. The notion that using cloud computing features (such as APIs) created by one provider or another causes dreaded lock-in seems to be a common mantra. The reality is that using any technology, except the most primitive, causes some degree of dependency on that technology or its service provider. Cloud providers are no exception…