Category: News

Grazed from Marketwire.  Author: PR Announcement.

Bitcasa, the company that makes storage simple and secure, was recognized at the 2014-2015 Cloud Awards last night, winning the "Best Infrastructure" category for Bitcasa CloudFS.

With CloudFS, developers, OEMs, and other service providers can leverage Bitcasa’s global cloud infrastructure to rapidly integrate cloud storage into applications and services. Offering a full set of APIs, including pre‐built files and folders along with upload, download, sync, and other media services, CloudFS accelerates application development on public cloud storage…

Grazed from CloudComputingInfo.  Author: Kenneth Van Surksam.

Platform9, which exited stealthmode in August last year last weekreleased it’s Software as a Service (SaaS) solution based on OpenStack. This platform aims to reduce operational complexity offering non-disruptive setup and upgrades, a single pane of glass (unified management) for KVM and VMware vSphere, a native support for teams collaboration and a solid OpenStack base.

All you need to do is sign up for a Platform9 account, and pair your servers with it. The Platform9 dashboard starts offering visibility into your infrastructure across compute, storage, network and existing workloads…

Grazed from CloudTech.  Author: James Bourne.

IBM has announced the launch of Identity Mixer, a cloud-based technology which aims to protect personal data by only revealing the bare minimum for transactions, on its BlueMix developer platform.

The release, which has not coincidentally been pegged for Data Privacy Day, uses a cryptographic algorithm to only reveal selected pieces of a user’s information, such as date of birth, home address, and credit card number, to third parties…

Grazed from CIO.  Author: Bernard Golden.

In 2014, Gartner introduced a prescriptive organization model for enterprise IT called “Bimodal IT.” It posits that IT organizations of the future will have two separate flavors, if you will: Type 1 is traditional IT, focused on stability and efficiency, while Type 2 is an experimental, agile organization focused on time-to-market, rapid application evolution, and, in particular, tight alignment with business units.

Here is one description of bimodal IT from a Gartner conference attendee — unfortunately, Gartner has not yet chosen to publish a full description of the concept that can be accessed by non-subscribers, although a good overview of it can be gleaned from the firm’s report outline…

Grazed from SysCon Media.  Author: Elizabeth White.

OneCloud Software has launched the OneCloud Partner Program. Responding to demand from prospective partners, the Program offers managed service providers (MSPs) and resellers the resources they need to grow their business with the OneCloud Recovery solution. OneCloud Recovery is an automated solution for disaster recovery/business continuity (DR/BC), which leverages Amazon Web Services as the disaster recovery site.

"This is a tremendous opportunity with an innovative hybrid cloud-based DRproduct and a partner committed to providing the tools and support that will enable a competitive advantage," said Marc Crespi, CEO at OneCloud Software…

Grazed from TechTarget.  Author: Dan Sullivan.

With multiple models and all that fine print, cloud licensing gets complicated quickly. Risks arise when IT isn’t clear on what’s allowed and what’s not. And when you’re not sure whom to contact for support, the complications only grow.

Prior to cloud computing, perpetual licenses were common. With these licenses, users purchase software and can use it as needed — subject to other license restrictions. But to ensure you have access to updated software, users may need to pay for ongoing maintenance…

Grazed from TalkinCloud.  Author: Dan Kobialka.

CloudBees has secured $23.5 million in a financing round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Existing investors Matrix Partners,Verizon Ventures and Blue Cloud Ventures also participated in the financing round.

To date, CloudBees has raised nearly $50 million in total financing; the continuous delivery (CD) platform provider previously added $11.2 million in Series C financing last March…

Grazed from InformationWeek.  Author: Ben Kepes.

Respected cloud computing commentator and consultant Ian Apperley has spent significant time studying the UK’s G-Cloud program. G-Cloud is a program introduced by the UK Government back in 2012 that aimed to offer public-sector organizations throughout the UK access to cloud infrastructure. The idea of the initiative was that the G-Cloud organization would negotiate agreements with suppliers, thus avoiding the need for individual organizations to complete a full procurement process. On top of that, G-Cloud created a “CloudStore” where public sector bodies could search for services covered by the G-Cloud supply agreements.

In a recent post, Apperley suggested that the UK Government cloud program is for all intents and purposes dead. Apperley has a professional interest in the G-Cloud story – he has studied the UK program as part of an assessment of opportunities that existed for New Zealand’s Departments of Internal Affairs. Apperley concluded that the G-Cloud model was a good one – it created a level playing field for suppliers, more generally used to favorites being played by departmental IT staff…

Grazed from Nextgov.  Author:  Frank Konkel.

The General Services Administration is the latest agency to commit big bucks to cloud computing, awarding Laurel, Maryland-based Aquilent a 5-year blanket purchase agreement for cloud services worth up to $100 million.

Awarded through GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, the contract will be a GSA-wide procurement vehicle, meaning any organization or department within GSA has a quick route by which to procure many variations of cloud services…

Grazed from InformationWeek.  Author: Kelly Sheridan.

Microsoft’s most recent earnings report indicates a fall in quarterly profit due to restructuring expenses and tax adjustments. While revenue increased 8% from the same quarter a year ago, net income fell by 10%. However, sales of its Surface tablet and the company’s cloud computing business offered some bright spots.

The tech giant reported revenue of $26.47 billion during its quarterly earnings calls on Jan. 26. Microsoft’s profit had fallen from the previous year, with numbers clocking in at $5.86 billion, or $0.71 per share, compared with $6.56 billion during the same quarter the previous year…