Category: News

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: John S. Webster.

If you listen to the hype surrounding OpenStack, it’s nothing less than a panacea offering fast, relatively easy, cost-efficient tools for deploying enterprise apps as cloud services. Some analysts are far less bullish, arguing that building a private cloud with OpenStack is a daunting task. We interviewed OpenStack trailblazers from large enterprises like Walmart, Time Warner Cable, and PayPal.

They say OpenStack is ready for prime time deployment in the enterprise – as long as you understand the potential pitfalls and impediments. You need to have the right staff. You need to start small. And you need to be ready to handle potential issues in the areas of upgrades, scalability and ease of use…

Grazed from Business.com. Author: Rick Delgado.

Are you a cloud supporter or a cloud skeptic? That’s the divide many businesses are facing as cloud computing continues to gain in popularity. While cloud supporters maintain that it can provide numerous benefits for companies, cloud skeptics say it presents too many issues surrounding security and data ownership.

These issues are of particular concern for small businesses since they usually operate with limited budgets and resources. But what do real world results say about the effectiveness of using the cloud? Luckily, a new study has recently been released detailing how small businesses are using the cloud to great success. It shows that those who remain skeptical of the cloud might be missing out on some golden opportunities to expand their businesses and earn a lot more money…

Grazed from InsideHPC. Author: Editorial Staff.

Human lives could be at risk if we get the technology of cloud computing and big data wrong in applications such as driverless cars and personalized medicine, this year’s ISC Cloud and Big Data conference will be told. The conference is moving from the picturesque setting of Heidelberg to the more pragmatic Frankfurt Marriott Hotel, located directly across the street from the Frankfurt Messe Fairgrounds.

Whereas last year’s event offered separate conferences on cloud computing and on big data, this year’s conference, which takes place from 28 to 30 September, offers parallel tracks that recognize the tight relationship between the technology of cloud computing and the scientific and business challenges of big data…

Grazed from CloudPro. Author: Clare Hopping.

Amazon’s Pop-up Loft programme has launched in London, targeting start-ups with training and web service support for using its own public cloud. The initiative will be stationed in Fore Street, close to the City of London, until the end of October and will allow developers, engineers and entrepreneurs collaborate on AWS solutions with Amazon’s experts and other cloud computing partners on hand to give advice and direction.

The aim for Amazon is to encourage entrepreneurs to use AWS for building systems for their start-up, while the training courses, boot camps, self-paced labs, seminars and networking events will help spread knowledge among the developer community. The programme comprises different paths for developers to take, covering different subject areas including Ask and Architect to give developers one-to-one advice about their existing architecture, features and saving costs, while the Technical Bootcamp strand will be one-day training sessions that will guide developers to create their own AWS live environments using the AWS Management Console…

Read more from the source @ http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/cloud-essentials/public-cloud/5343/aws-opens-london-cloud-space-to-target-start-ups

Grazed from ITWeb. Author: Editorial Staff.

There has been a lot of speculation on whether cloud ERP would potentially replace aging core ERP systems that are out of support or running on an old technology platforms. According to Palladium Business Solutions managing director Stephen Corrigan, Cloud ERP is accelerating faster than analyst predictions.

Gartner also predicts that on-premises ERP systems will soon get the ‘legacy’ label. It says the highly customised ERP systems are looking a bit long in the tooth, to the point where by 2016 it will be common practice to refer to them as ‘legacy’ software. "As Cloud Computing adoption in the ERP arena increases, the technical edges early adopters achieved narrow a bit, while the disadvantages typical of new technology (down time, reliable infrastructure) also stabilise…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Jason Perlow.

The iPad Pro. There’s been a lot of fallout as to whether this machine is truly enterprise worthy, is or isn’t a laptop replacement, or if the device will resonate with prosumers and enterprises.  I maintain that despite the misleading "Pro" moniker, this device is not an enterprise-class device, nor is it well-suited for many kinds of existing vertical market applications, for a number of reasons. But I’m not going to re-hash that in this piece.

The success (or lack thereof) of this device is going to hinge upon whether or not an elite group of high-level business executives at large corporations are going to want to use one of these as their primary device instead of a Mac or Windows laptop or even a regular iPad, like they may use today…

Grazed from SysCon Media.  Author: Editorial Staff.

In a recent blog article, I discussed the difference between cloud backup and cloud disaster recovery (or “DR”). In a nutshell, with cloud backup, you basically pay a third-party service provider a monthly fee to have them back up your firm’s data and store it in the cloud, so it can be restored on-demand at a later date.

With cloud DR, you gain the option to restore your data/server images to an always-on offsite virtual cloud environment capable of running live production servers. Your recovery time dramatically shrinks with this option.  So, is the reduced recovery time with cloud disaster recovery achieved solely through superior technology, or does this recovery advantage also depend on human processes?…

Grazed from TVNewsRoom.  Author: Editorial Staff.

“This newest expansion of the IBM Watson Health Cloud makes it an even more robust and flexible platform for the life sciences and healthcare industries and explains its rapid adoption among leading organizations in these fields”, Rhodin added.  In January 2014, IBM launched the IBM Watson unit, a business dedicated to developing and commercializing cloud-delivered cognitive computing technologies.

IBM said it has expanded its portfolio with Watson Health Cloud for Life Sciences Compliance and Watson Care Manager. “IBM Watson Health has been on fast growth trajectory and has a strong foundation that well positions us to continue to seize opportunities across the continuum of life sciences and healthcare”…

Grazed from CloudWards.net.  Author: Vladimir Covic.

The OpenStack Innovation Center will immediately be populated by some 200 Rackspace employees, all of which are a part of OpenStack team.  Intel’s vice president for the software and services group, and general manager of Intel Open Source Technology Center, Imad Sousou said:

“We are going to make this the launching pad to make OpenStack and the entire cloud available to everyone in the industry. And, yes, we’re hiring.”  Joining them in San Antonio, where the center will be located, will be Intel’s developers from:…

Grazed from CBROnline.  Author: James Nunns.

Cloud has a significant role to play in business; Nyberg doesn’t question this, but he believes that it has its shortcomings.  "What a lot of companies are finding is that once you get above a certain utilisation rate, it’s actually cheaper to own the machine yourself."

Believing that almost all of Cray’s large machines in industry, and to some degree in research and academia, could be described as private cloud resources, he says: "Once you reach a certain utilisation level, those things flip over and you’re starting to hear that more and as the cloud market matures a lot of organisations start moving over towards it and experimenting and discovering exactly that."…