Category: News

Grazed from SysConMedia.  Author: Gregor Petri.

By now it is widely acknowledged that cloud enables a fast (agile) start. But more important than a fast start is getting results quickly. We are talking then about high productivity platforms, a category of PaaS. Funnily enough, several cloud providers – such as Microsoft and Google – launched a PaaS platform first and only later – when they saw how quickly the virtual machine based IaaS services from Amazon were becoming popular – technically did a step back to launch a lower level IaaS service.

Achieving cloudiness aspects such as scalability, elasticity, pay for use and service orientation is however quit difficult if your building blocks consist of merely virtual machines and load balancers…

Grazed from GreenBiz. Author: Lauren Hepler.

In February, Apple announced a massive $848 million solar deal as part of pursuit to power its operations with 100 percent renewable energy. Google, Facebook and Salesforce have all made their own 100 percent renewable energy commitments. Even notorious sustainability laggard Amazon is taking action on its goal of powering its hulking cloud computing division with clean energy.

The question now: if and how the tech industry’s highly visible — and once seemingly far-fetched — clean energy goals might make a bigger imprint on other industries during a crucial year for climate politics. “At least 11 big IT companies have committed to 100 percent renewables," said Ryan Schuchard, associate director of climate change for nonprofit sustainability membership group BSR. "(Tech) has one of the best levers of any sector to move on renewables."…

Read more from the source @ http://www.greenbiz.com/article/can-silicon-valley-sell-big-business-climate-action

Grazed from TechTarget.  Author:  Jeff Kaplan.

Amazon Web Services continues to set the pace in public cloud as it regularly rolls out new cloud offerings and prices its existing services to meet the changing needs of customers. But other players are seeking to gain a share of the market by creating their own cloud categories and pushing the boundaries of the cloud marketplace.

The proliferation of cloud services has created a double-edged sword. The stream of new cloud alternatives has produced a buyers’ market, characterized by intensifying price competition. But it has also made it more difficult for IT and corporate decision makers to determine which cloud offerings are best suited to meet their particular business and technological requirements…

Grazed from TechTarget.  Author: Beth Pariseau.

The United States federal government is moving beyond high-level cultural concerns as it looks to catch up to the private sector in cloud computing.  Instead of conversations about culture, this week’s Amazon Web Services Public Sector Symposium here featured discussions about legislation and regulatory initiatives that are in the works to connect the federal government to public cloud.

Federal government poster children were paraded before the crowd at a keynote presentation with tales of success in the trenches with cloud computing — including Healthcare.gov.  The site famously experienced freezes, crashes and other glitches when it first opened to the public in October 2013…

Grazed from Bloomberg.  Author: Jack Clark.

International Business Machines Corp. will expand the networking services available through its SoftLayer cloud technology, trying to catch up with deep-pocketed rivals.  IBM researchers and engineers are now making regular trips to SoftLayer’s headquarters in Dallas to discuss product plans and get educated about cloud operation, said Marc Jones, SoftLayer’s chief technology officer.

Increasing cloud revenue is critical for IBM. It has tried to boost sales for operations like cloud computing and data analytics but that hasn’t been enough to make up for declines in longstanding operations — such as services and hardware — and revenue lost from divestitures…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Joe McKendrick.

Compliance is one of those thankless activities that add a lot more pain than gain to IT managers’ and professionals’ worklives. It’s a matter of doing the minimum that needs to get done and be done with it, so one can get back to the good things, like building commerce and analytics systems.

Accordingly, most IT departments are ill-prepared for any audits that may come their way. A new survey finds three out of five IT professionals say they’re not ready for compliance audits…

Grazed from CIOToday. Author: Shirley Siluk.

The new in-app customer support offering from Salesforce, announced Thursday, includes an Amazon Mayday-like SOS button that instantly puts users in touch with agents for live, on-screen video help. The new cloud Relevant Products/Services-based Service for Apps will also enable companies to provide customers with in-app knowledge bases, chat support, case monitoring and tap-to-call access to phone support.

While Salesforce SOS is available now, the other app tools are scheduled to roll out in private beta later this year. Salesforce said Service for Apps will let enterprises easily embed multi-channel customer service directly into their mobile apps and fills a gap in existing customer relationship management. While 88 percent of mobile users’ time is spent in apps, most organizations aren’t yet making mobile a part of the service experience, according to Salesforce…

Read more from the source @ http://www.cio-today.com/article/index.php?story_id=12100208I4YK

Grazed from SkyhighNetworks.  Author: Editorial Staff.

 The worldwide cloud computing market is expected to grow to $191 billion by 2020, according to analyst firm Forrester, up from $91 billion in 2015. There are numerous advantages of cloud computing driving a secular move to the cloud; among them lower cost, faster time to market, and increased employee productivity. However, the security of data in the cloud is a key concern holding back cloud adoption for IT departments.

Employees are not waiting for IT; they’re bringing cloud services to work as part of a larger “bring your own cloud” or BYOC movement. The Ponemon Institute surveyed 400 IT and IT security leaders to uncover how companies are managing user-led cloud adoption…

Grazed from Diginomica.  Author: Phil Wainwright.

Today’s announcement of a tie-up between cloud collaboration vendor Box and venerable computing giant IBM gives new insight into a broader strategic direction for both vendors.  In Box’s case, this is its second partnership with a big name in enterprise software in as many weeks. Earlier this month it joined forces with Microsoft to announce Box for Office Online, which allows direct editing of Office files shared in Box.

 Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Stanton Jones.