Category: News

Grazed from IT Business Edge.  Author: Michael Vizard.

As it becomes clearer that mobile computing and the cloud are two ends of the same spectrum, IT organizations are increasingly coupling these technologies. Most IT organizations have little experience with creating mobile applications that need to be constantly updated. By developing and then hosting them in the cloud, IT organizations can not only minimize the risks associated with developing these applications, they can also more easily introduce new agile development methodologies.

To address the specific challenge, IBM recently moved to acquire Worklight, a provider of application development tools that allow IT organizations to create these applications and offers tools for managing them. At the same time, IBM also announced that its BigFix managed services platform includes support for a range of tablet PC devices in addition to smartphones…

Grazed from The Wall Street Journal.  Author: Jeremy Jerzemsky.

Amazon.com Inc. lowered rates on computer storage it rents over the Internet, as the company applies its strategy of aggressive pricing to cloud computing.

The Seattle-based company cut its price plans by more than 10% for the first 500 terabytes of data that customers store in Amazon’s Internet-based S3 service, which is used for hosting media, backing up files and storing data for businesses to analyze. A terabyte is double the amount of space on a typical laptop computer’s hard drive.

“High volume/low margin businesses are in our DNA,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in an email. “Driving cost efficiencies is an area we’re going to continue to focus on.”…

Grazed from Information Week.  Author:  J. Nicholas Hoover.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s IT Laboratory, which works on IT standards and metrics as well as federal cybersecurity programs, will be placing a new focus on big data and mobility technologies this year and will continue its work on cybersecurity and cloud computing, according to IT Lab Director Chuck Romine.

Romine, who took over for retiring IT Lab director Cita Furlani last fall, told InformationWeek that NIST will be increasing its work on standards, interoperability, reliability, and usability of big data technologies. Government and the private sector continue to amass huge data sets to help facilitate everything from more targeted marketing to improved government oversight.

"NIST can have a lot of impact on the big data question," Romine said, noting that the agency has been involved for years in analysis of how the federal government and private sector can better harness the power of large quantities of data. In 2009, for example, NIST helped publish a report called "Harnessing the Power of Digital Data."…

Grazed from The Daily Disruption.  Author: PR Announcement.

Deloitte announced today it is entering into a global alliance with salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, to provide multinational and international companies with the software, mobile and open cloud computing technologies for the social enterprise.  Paul Clemmons, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and leader of Deloitte’s cloud market offering and emerging solutions service line, will lead the global alliance.  He is based in San Francisco.

“Companies in general, but specifically our clients are looking to work more effectively and more efficiently. The inherent benefits and possibilities via cloud computing and salesforce.com can represent a solution catalyst.  It’s an exciting time to be at the frontier of this domain with a pioneer like salesforce.com,” said Bill Allison, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and global technology leader.  “And Paul has a long history leading our efforts in this market, giving us the experience and global network we need to drive this alliance.”

Grazed from PipeLine.  Author: Tim Young

The thing about hype is that, sooner or later, it’s time to put-up or shut-up. That time, it seems, has come for the cloud.

Here in the U.S., the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has published its final, official definition of cloud computing, after 15 previous iterations. This "model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources" is more than just web-apps and off-site storage. It’s a definition that characterizes a baseline for cloud computing against which agencies and potential cloud adopters can judge so-called "cloud" services.

By having this standard against which to measure services, according to NIST computer scientist Peter Mell, "They are more likely to reap the promised benefits of cloud—cost savings, energy savings, rapid deployment and customer empowerment." …

Grazed from New York Times Bits.  Author: Quentin Hardy.

Paul Maritz has been chief executive of VMWare since July 2008. VMWare’s server virtualization has made possible a vast consolidation of the computer business toward commodity chips and open-source software. It was also critical in the shift to “cloud” computing. A native of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Mr. Maritz joined Intel in 1981. From 1986 to 2000 he was at Microsoft serving on its executive committee and overseeing Microsoft’s expansion into client-server corporate computing. He then founded a computing company which in 2008 was acquired by EMC, which also owns VMWare. The following is an edited version of an interview with Mr. Maritz:

What is your most interesting business opportunity?

Fifty percent of the world’s computer applications now run on virtualized servers. We are deliberately trying to make a transition with this company, from a server transformation proposition to overall information technology transformation…

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

As predictably as the sun rising in the east, Oracle Monday rejected the slashed $272 million award for damages that the presiding federal court judge decided it should get from SAP for its admitted copyright infringement rather than the $1.3 billion the jury awarded Oracle in late 2010 following a captivating and highly publicized trial.

Oracle told the court it wants the new trial it was offered to "vindicate" the jury and its property rights as well as to avoid risking its right to appeal the court’s decision.

SAP, which agreed to pay a $20 million fine to the US government to avoid criminal prosecution, said it was "disappointed."…

Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Sourya Biswas.

This is the eighth in a continuing series on startups raising funding. You can read the first six in the series here:  Cloud Computing Startups Raise Big Money:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Today, there are two startups in focus – Symplified and Tidemark.

Tidemark (http://www.tidemark.net/)

California startup Tidemark, which promises to provide “Enterprise Performance Management Built for the Cloud,” raised $24 million in Series C funding led by Redpoint Ventures, with Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and entrepreneur Dave Duffield participating. Earlier, it had raised $6.3 million in Series A and $5 million in Series B rounds…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author:  PR Announcement.

Telx(R) today announced that it has entered a strategic alliance with Appcore, a leading global provider of enterprise private hosted cloud services. Under the terms of the partnership, Telx is now providing its 1,000+ colocation customers across 17 C3 Cloud Connection Centers direct, dedicated access to Appcore’s turnkey private hosted cloud solution via the Telx Cloud Xchange.

"The partnership between Appcore and Telx is an important strategic alliance for enterprise and service providers wanting to deliver the benefits of private cloud to their customers. Telx is a world-class data center operator ideal for the Appcore Onsite Private Cloud solution. Through this alliance, we are able to bring a customer’s branded, private, dedicated cloud service online in 30 days or less with gold global support, enabling them to reap the rewards of cloud computing without the headaches of building it themselves," said Brian Donaghy, Appcore CEO…

Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Florence G. de Borja.

With the recent worldwide popularity of cloud computing, it is expected to gain more momentum with more and more industries making use of such technology. The accounting profession can experience the most benefits because the accounting field processes a lot of data which can be housed online through cloud computing. However, not every accountant knows cloud computing and it is but expected that they have doubts as to the integrity of the technology. As such, this article hopes to explain the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing with regards to the accounting profession.

Accountants can benefit from cloud computing because it eliminates purchasing software and servers, and maintaining and running them. The old technology infrastructure which requires all software and servers to be housed in the accountant’s office is now being replaced with a more robust and inexpensive technology known as cloud computing. Cloud applications are run through the web. An accountant just needs a computer or a laptop and an internet connection to be able to run accounting applications.  The software and server are managed not by the accountant but by the cloud application vendor. Typical applications available for accountants include full ERP (enterprise resource planning), payroll, and tax software. The accountant need not purchase a license to use the software. He/she just needs to pay subscription fees…