Category: News

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Judy Ko.

“Cloud makes everything so easy.” “Cloud computing is the great democratizer.” “Simplicity is the essence of cloud.” These are among the tried and true benefits that are trotted out in praise of cloud computing, and in many senses they have proven true. Hence, the now very mainstream adoption of cloud applications and computing platforms that we see all around us.

But the laws of physics cannot be ignored, no matter how amazing the technology is. Recalling your high school physics class: things that begin in a state of simplicity and order devolve toward complexity and disorder, unless you apply work. (Witness Saturday mornings in my house as neatly organized toys and LEGOs inevitably evolve into a disaster zone—apologies for the not entirely accurate yet highly representative analogy.)…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Don Reisinger.

Today, enterprises can offload a wide range of computing services and applications from internal servers and data centers to the cloud. In fact, it is entirely feasible and possibly even cost-effective for a large enterprise to run all of its computing resources in the cloud. So it is no surprise that companies are taking a close look at what internal computing services it can offload to a cloud platform.

These services range from Web storage to full business productivity suites that include email, word processing, presentations, online meetings and sales management applications. Companies can buy as much data processing capacity as they could possibly need, whether it is for a single big project that requires a lot of data processing muscle or to run all the applications for an entire enterprise…

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Sean McGrath.

It may surprise you to learn that the roots of cloud computing were planted well before the term made it into everyday speech. J.C.R. Licklider, one of the key developers of ARPANET, envisioned a global network capable of computation, while Professor John McCarthy said at MIT’s centennial celebration in 1961:

"Computing may someday be organized as a public utility just as the telephone system is a public utility. Each subscriber needs to pay only for the capacity he actually uses, but he has access to all programming languages characteristic of a very large system … Certain subscribers might offer service to other subscribers …

Grazed from UCMerced.edu. Author: Editorial Staff.

A UC Merced researcher has come up with a new, super-efficient encryption system for smart phones that lets users secure data being sent to and retrieved from the cloud. Encrypting data on your phone or tablet — including pictures, documents and videos — protects against the kinds of leaks and hacks that seem to be in the news almost every week. But those devices have energy and storage limits, and encryption systems can be costly.

In the Cloud LabOpens a new window at UC Merced, graduate student Mehdi Bahrami, who works with Chancellor’s Professor Mukesh Singhal in the School of Engineering, devised a new lightweight data privacy method for mobile clients to store data in one or multiple clouds without using a lot of a mobile device’s resources…

Grazed from Wired. Author: Cade Metz.

FOR MANY, DOCKER is the next big thing in cloud computing. But some big names—most notably Google—are now backing an alternative to this enormously-influential technology. In December, one of Docker’s earliest supporters, the Silicon Valley startup CoreOS, unveiled an open source project called Rocket.

CoreOS founder and CEO Alex Polvi felt that Docker had strayed from its original mission, and with Rocket, he and his colleagues hoped to bring that mission back to the fore. Five months later, Google has put its considerable weight behind this effort, officially joining the Rocket open source project and rolling the technology into one of its cloud computing tools…

Grazed from FT. Author: Richard Waters.

Cisco Systems on Monday brought the curtain down on one of Silicon Valley’s longest-running chief executive acts as it announced that John Chambers would step aside after 20 years. However, in an unusual division of power that leaves him at the centre of the networking equipment company’s leadership, Cisco said Mr Chambers would stay on as full-time chairman.

Mr Chambers, who built Cisco from a small maker of internet routers into the world’s biggest networking equipment company, will hand the chief executive title to Chuck Robbins, head of the company’s global sales division, on July 26. In an apparent attempt to head off concerns about what his involvement would be in the company’s management after the reshuffle, Cisco said Mr Chambers would “devote his time to supporting Robbins”, as well as dealing with the company’s customers and governments around the world…

Grazed from Fortune. Author: Barb Darrow.

Given the hype, you might think that all applications and data in the universe are now sitting in someone’s cloud. But you would be wrong. The corporate world is at the beginning of the cloud computing era and tons of applications—especially those at the largest businesses—still run in server rooms or data centers operated by the companies in question.

And, that fact, along with pre-existing relationships with information technology (IT) pros who manage all of it, give Microsoft MSFT -0.08% a big advantage over born-in-the-cloud providers, according to CEO Satya Nadella. Thousands of companies run Microsoft SQL Server databases, SharePoint file sharing, Exchange email, System Center management, and other services on their premises…

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Susan Perschke.

Once moved to the cloud, applications become more challenging to manage. Cloud app performance management and performance monitoring tools help identify bottlenecks and other performance metrics. Good tools can help determine if bottlenecks are isolated to the application itself or if there are system-wide issues with a particular provider.

The most granular tools can even do a deep-dive into the app to see if individual processes, such as database queries, are running optimally. For this review, we tested four commercial products, Exoprise CloudReady, AppNeta, ThousandEyes and Dynatrace. We focused mainly on ease of deployment, day-to-day management, overall features and cost…

Read more from the source @ http://www.networkworld.com/article/2915837/cloud-computing/top-tools-to-manage-cloud-apps.html

Grazed from Fortune. Author: Barb Darrow.

We live in strange times. Companies are increasingly running applications on computers owned and operated by another company. Employees tend to look upon their colleagues in information technology as more of a nuisance than an asset. Satya Nadella thinks his company can help make sense of it all.

On Monday, at Microsoft’s Ignite conference in Chicago, the chief executive will directly address those tech professionals who make sure email gets where it needs to go and that corporate databases keep chugging along. To them Nadella will issue a reminder that even though many dollars budgeted for technology are now flowing to marketing or other corporate departments, that doesn’t mean IT spending is down overall or that the need for tech specialists has evaporated. Quite the contrary…

Read more from the source @ https://fortune.com/2015/05/04/satya-nadella-ceo-microsoft/

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud security certification is getting a new dimension. At the RSA conference earlier this month the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and (ISC)² announced a new cloud security certification: Certified Cloud Security Professional, or CCSP for short. (ISC)² is most famous for its flagship certification: Certified Information Systems Security Professional or CISSP. More than 100,000 professionals maintain this certification and it is widely recognized. The Cloud Security Alliance pioneered the cloud security field a few years ago, and runs the CCSK (Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge) programme. The CCSP body of knowledge covers 6 domains:

• Architectural Concepts and Design Requirements
• Cloud Data Security
• Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security
• Cloud Application Security
• Operations
• Legal and Compliance…