Category: News

Grazed from CIO.  Author: Christine Burns.

If you think cloud computing is a disruptive force within the enterprise, just imagine what the cloud is doing to the vendor landscape.

The sheer number of cloud players – or companies that claim to be cloud players — is staggering. By some estimates there are more than 2,000 software as a service (SaaS) companies alone. At this early point in the cloud revolution, there are certainly front runners, but the field is wide open.

For example, the marquee SaaS player, Salesforce.com, owned a paltry 8.7% of the total SaaS market, according to a 2010 IDC report that tracked 84 vendors. Other big names –Intuit, Cisco, Microsoft, Google and Symantec – were all below 5% each. That leaves scores of other competitors with tiny market shares today, and no place to go but up…

There’s so much happening in the cloud computing area nowadays, and Windows Azure just seems like Microsoft’s version of Amazon Web Services. I notice that Azure is coined as “platform as a service”. Can you walk us through the differences?

Amazon Web Services are generally considered “infrastructure as a service”. Both Infrastructure and platform as a service are public cloud offerings to deliver computing resources. The difference lies in the level of abstraction provided by each…

Grazed from Wall Street Journal.  Author: Jack Hough.

For a way to invest in "cloud computing" without paying a stratospheric price, take a cue from Wall Street’s newest tech enthusiast: Warren Buffett.

Mr. Buffett, who has long avoided computing stocks while favoring railroads, soft drinks and insurance, announced this week that his Berkshire Hathaway has amassed a $10.7 billion stake in International Business Machines, making it the second-largest shareholder.

Last year, the century-old tech giant announced a goal to boost yearly cloud-computing revenues by $3 billion by 2015, to $7 billion. That is a sliver relative to its current total revenues of $106 billion, but it is an important source of growth…

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Stephen Bell.

New Zealand could be leading most of the world in the evolution of a code of practice for cloud computing.

Looking around the world, says project coordinator Joy Cottle, it appears there is only one fully-fledged code, in the UK. The US National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) has developed terms of reference towards a code, a process that took two-and-a-half years. New Zealand’s code, scheduled to be issued in version 1.0 by the end of March next year, could well arrive before the NIST code is finalised, Cottle told a consultation meeting in Wellington. There is interest in the New Zealand code of practice effort from Australian parties with a stake in the cloud…

Grazed from SFGate.  Author: PR Announcement.

CloudAccess, the leading provider of cloud-based security solutions and services, received a coveted Golden Bridge Award for Innovation in Technology at the 3rd Annual Golden Bridge Awards ceremony in New York. The award for best cloud security solution was presented to CloudAccess for its SingleSource platform.

Cloud Access has been an innovator in developing high-performance security solutions that make cloud computing viable for organizations with critical operational, compliance and regulatory issues. Its robust SingleSource platform offers organizations an array of cost-effective solutions to meet their unique security needs, including: software as a service (SaaS) applications, identity management, log management, security information and event management and single sign on (SSO) web security solutions. CloudAccess provides enterprise security in a SaaS application for amazing dependability, scalability and affordability. Each component of the SingleSource platform can be configured to meet the specific business requirements of an organization…

Grazed from PR Wire.  Author:  PR Announcement.

Finding a Cloud service to keep all your files safe, secure and internet accessible whether it’s for your personal use or to manage your business content online, just got a lot easier. Cloud computing has been around for more than a decade and is becoming widely adopted as individual consumers and businesses are realizing the benefits the cloud presents. There has been an unprecedented increase in the availability and quantity of data users require to store and the search is on to find providers with the best features at the right price for comparison and review.

For home use, instant, automatic protection for photos, music, and digital files while having information accessible wherever you are is a priority. Executives looking to increase their agility and to manage organizational complexity are finding that with Cloud computing they have a valuable tool that forms the core of a new business process that is capable of radically improving performance…

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Radiant Technologies today announces their achievement of the newly created Microsoft Dynamics Cloud Partner certification. As a cloud partner, Radiant Technologies provides customers the power to choose how they deploy Microsoft Dynamics, whether in the Cloud via SaaS, or on-premises.

Due to high demand, rapid globalization, and intense competition, Microsoft developed a solution to reduce IT costs, minimize staffing expenses, lower expenditures, and increase flexibility. This solution is the existing, proven Microsoft Dynamics product line, now available as a Cloud Computing solution with a hosted server model. Radiant Technologies also has recently introduced a cloud industry website: Microsoft Dynamics in the Cloud…

Grazed from eWeek.  Author:  Darryl K. Taft.

Oracle announced a new version of its Java application server, Oracle WebLogic Server, 12c, which enables enterprises to better integrate cloud computing into their IT mix.

As the center piece of Oracle’s Cloud Application Foundation, and a core part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware product family, Oracle WebLogic Server continues to deliver innovative capabilities for building, deploying and running Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) applications. It also features enhancements to help customers and partners lower their total cost of ownership and derive more value from their current application infrastructure, while accelerating the development cycle and reducing time to market for their applications…

 

Grazed from Reuters.  Author:  Michael Shields.

Germany’s SAP announced a $3.4 billion cash deal to buy U.S. web-based software company SuccessFactors, joining the scramble among technology firms to offer cloud-computing services to businesses.

SAP said on Saturday it would pay $40 per share for SuccessFactors, a premium of 52 percent over both its Friday closing price and the one-month volume-weighted average price, making it expensive for any rival bidder that might want to put in a counter bid.

SuccessFactors, which first went public at $10 a share four years ago, makes human resources software used by companies to review employee performance, It competes with Taleo Corp and Kenexa Corp…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Brady Reiter.

With cloud computing adoption and growth well established, more cloud vendors are entering the market and differentiating themselves by providing specialized services that focus on specific customers, geographies, applications or service models. Cloud services focused on optimizing business-critical applications make sense for enterprise customers looking for high-performance, highly available infrastructures.

But as a cloud customer, how do you know if your managed cloud provider truly has a specialized touch when it comes to optimizing, for example, BI applications from Oracle or ERP solutions from Microsoft?

Generic cloud infrastructure is insufficient for the demands of business-critical applications. IT executives seeking the efficiencies of cloud computing for critical enterprise applications need to evaluate the overall application expertise of their cloud infrastructure providers and assess their application expertise and their ability and flexibility to optimize their cloud infrastructure for business-critical applications. Application optimization needs to be addressed across the entire technology stack, from the physical hardware to the service delivery architecture to the application…