Category: News

Grazed from Network World. Author: Brandon Butler.

Managing clouds can be a challenge given that virtual machines and storage are running in two different environments simultaneously. A crowded industry of cloud management platforms (CMP) has emerged to help. Gartner Research Director Mindy Cancila says the CMP market is young and maturing; customers should understand the limitations of various options. Here are four tips from Cancila for organizations considering cloud management products.

IaaS needs its own tools

Many organizations began their cloud journey by using SaaS tools like Office 365, Salesforce or some other business planning software. These SaaS platforms may require some new skills, but customers don’t usually need to purchase a whole new management platform to use them. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is different…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: James Bourne.

Organisations’ fears of cloud-based backup are mostly down to inexperience or ignorance of how the systems work rather than technological issues, according to new survey results released by analyst house Clutch.co. The research, which surveyed more than 300 small to medium US businesses to measure the benefits and challenges of cloud-based backup, found that 87% of respondents said online backup was either equally or more secure than on-premises equivalents. 24% argued it was “much more” secure, with 32% opting for “somewhat” and 31% equally secure. Only 2% argued online backup was much less secure.

In terms of benefits to cloud backup, greater data security (31%) was most frequently cited, ahead of data space (21%) and simpler backup (21%), while more than a third (37%) of businesses polled said they had experienced no problems when utilising cloud backup, with downtime and bugs (36%) cited most often ahead of limited data space (22%), security issues (19%), and data recovery problems (14%)…

Grazed from YahooFinance. Author: Shudeep Chandrasekhar.

For the uninitiated, cloud computing can be a daunting subject. For investors, it’s a nightmare. ETFs like First Trust ISE Cloud Computing Index Fund (SKYY) do a good job of aggregating the best stocks in this segment, but as with any ETF you tend to get a lot of chaff with the wheat. This article showcases the three largest cloud providers in the world and highlights why they will remain at the top for the foreseeable future.

What is cloud computing?

In its simplest form, the cloud is merely virtual real estate space for data. As businesses started to move away from keeping manual records to "computerizing" themselves, they needed increasingly large amounts of hardware and a host of software applications to keep the engine running. In addition, they had to invest in networking solutions and other add-ons that made them more efficient…

Grazed from FTAdvisor. Author: Damian Fantato.

The Financial Conduct Authority has published guidance on how financial advisers should outsource to cloud computing providers amid concerns its requirements are too burdensome and onerous. Published today (7 July), the note stated firms using cloud services and other third-party IT providers must have a clear and documented business case or rationale if using them for “critical or important operational functions or material outsourcing”, as well as carrying out a risk assessment.

The regulator also stated firms must insist on being notified promptly in the case of any breaches, must have physical access to a provider’s data centres and there should be no restrictions on the number of requests firms can make of the provider to access or receive data. But some of these requirements were criticised during the consultation on the FCA’s proposals, while the regulator has watered down other rules after concerns were raised…

Grazed from BaselineMag. Author: Editorial Staff.

Since its birth in 2000, cloud computing has evolved rapidly. Organizations of all sizes and industries are shifting their infrastructure and data into the cloud. Even companies in traditionally change-resistant sectors are waking up to the fact that cloud solutions cut costs and risks and drive greater productivity.

While security remains a concern for cloud computing, a study from the Cloud Security Alliance found that 65 percent of security officers and IT managers think the cloud is at least as secure as on-premise software. Getting beyond the security concern represents an important tipping point, but the cloud is really about scalable and flexible back-end processes. It’s about the ability to harness massive IT resources on demand….

Read more from the source @ http://www.baselinemag.com/cloud-computing/cloud-mobile-synergy-impact-on-automation.html#sthash.NFUjzqXJ.dpuf

Grazed from InvestingNews. Author: Morag McGreevey.

Cloud computing companies are sweeping the tech landscape at a pace that’s sometimes leaving investors behind. The sector changes so rapidly and dynamically that it’s sometimes difficult to determine which companies are going to transform the way we think about information, data, mobility and tech… and which will prove to be a flash in the pan.

In order to glean some insight into the market, the Investing News Network looked into the investing habits of venture capitalists in this sector. By looking to these professionals, who make a career of getting in on the ground floor, we can estimate the next big trends in cloud investing which are likely to take hold. So without further ado, here’s how to invest in cloud like a venture capitalist…

Grazed from CloudExpo. Author: John Basso.

As I wrote earlier this year over at InfoWorld, Microsoft took another step toward being king of the cloud hill when it announced in January that it was releasing its Azure stack to the public. There are many technical reasons why this is cool, but more importantly, it’s the psychological advantage this gives Microsoft.

Google has always had the ability for developers using its stack to develop locally on the same tools that run in Google App Engine. It recently forked its environments, so now the local and cloud environments are slightly different for some of the configurations — I can’t tell you how many nights I have lost sleep because of environments being slightly different! Development and hosting are two completely different things. What Microsoft did is one-upped Google and Amazon…

Grazed from HuffingtonPost. Author: Jeff Cates.

In today’s digital age, you would be hard-pressed to find an industry that hasn’t been transformed by technology. I’ve spoken about the dramatic shift in Canada’s small business landscape in the last few years as we move away from the notion of the "mom and pop" shop down the street towards the innovative startup run by tech-savvy, digital entrepreneurs.

New technologies, cloud computing in particular, have also changed the face of the accounting industry, transforming the way accounting professionals collaborate with their small business clients and empowering them to expand their role from compliance officer to trusted business adviser…

Grazed from PRNewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Fujitsu Limited, Oracle Corporation, and Oracle Corporation Japan today announced that they have agreed to form a new strategic alliance to deliver enterprise-grade, world-class cloud services to customers in Japan and their subsidiaries around the world. In order to take advantage of cloud computing to speed innovation, reduce costs and drive business growth, organizations need IT partners that can deliver the performance, security and management capabilities that are demanded by enterprise workloads.

To help organizations in Japan capitalize on this opportunity and confidently move enterprise workloads to the cloud, Oracle Cloud Application and Platform services – such as Oracle Database Cloud Service and Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud – will be powered by Fujitsu’s datacenters in Japan. Under the new strategic alliance, Fujitsu will work to drive sales of robust cloud offerings to companies in Japan and their subsidiaries around the world…

Grazed from ITWebAfrica. Author: Editorial Staff.

OpenStack continues to gain momentum as the basis for both private cloud and a network functions virtualisation (NFV) enabler. OpenStack, an open-source software platform used to deliver cloud computing, continues to gain momentum as the basis for both private cloud in the enterprise and a network functions virtualisation (NFV) enabler in service provider environments, both of which are grappling with the challenge of scaling faster and further than ever before.

Leading cyber-security company F5 Networks (F5), whose solutions are distributed across more than 20 African countries by Networks Unlimited, is no stranger to scalability and is dedicated to enabling not only enterprises and service providers reach their goals of faster deployments with greater business agility, but also the community that has long supported and driven OpenStack to become the force it is today: its developers…