Category: News

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: David Chernicoff.

IBM continues its $1.2 billion investment in cloud computing a bit closer to home after recent announcements focusing on new European data centers with the opening of their first SoftLayer cloud data center in Mexico. Customers needing to have location-sensitive data stored near at hand or looking to develop a presence in Mexico and Latin America will be able to take advantage not only of the new facility but also the data protection offered by redundancy options within the SoftLayer network.

The new facility has less than 25 ms latency from the existing Dallas SoftLayer data center and customers can take advantage of the free, unmetered bandwidth between the data centers on SoftLayer’s private network, providing high performance options for backup, data protection, and business continuity…

Grazed from SiliconAngle. Author: Alina Popescu.

IBM’s 13th generation of System z has just been launched and its integration with the cloud brings the “mainframe back on the table as a relevant piece of infrastructure,” says Dave Vellante in his opening analysis with John Furrier that kicked off theCUBE’s IBM zNext coverage on Wednesday. In itself, this billion dollar investment only generates 3 percent of the company’s revenue, but the added elements of software and mainframe boost it to over 20 percent.

Vellante pointed to a previous VMware statement about “building a software mainframe” which would have security built in, virtualization, and openness. “The industry has always wanted to build a mainframe. IBM has got one.” said Vellante. “The cloud and mobile drive this trend,” Furrier added. He also raised the question of how existing businesses will integrate this new system…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Mike Vizard.

With more types of applications being put into the cloud every day organizations of all size are now starting to think in terms of now only putting entire business processes into the cloud, but also essentially turning data into a service. Speaking at an Oracle CloudWorld event in New York this week, Thomas Kurian, president of product development at Oracle (ORCL), outlined how the convergence of applications and identity management will soon give rise to the notion of delivering data-as-a-service.

The basic idea is that as Oracle, for example, continues to extend its portfolio of applications in the cloud around a common data model and user interface, the lines between cloud applications will continue to blur. In its place Kurian said what will emerge a set of identity management services in the cloud that will enable users to mix and match data across multiple cloud applications depending on what permissions they have and their role inside the organization…

Read more from the source @ http://talkincloud.com/cloud-computing/01142015/oracle-cloudworld-rise-data-service

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Pedro Hernandez.

In October, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella proclaimed that "Microsoft Loves Linux," during a press event. Today, the company is backing up that once-inconceivable statement with a new offering that enables organizations to migrate their Linux servers and virtual machines (VMs) to Microsoft’s massive Azure cloud computing service.

"Today, we are excited to add support for the migration of Linux physical and virtual machines to Azure, this functionality will further bolster the support for heterogeneity in MA [Migration Accelerator]," announced Srinath Vasireddy, principal lead program manager for Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise, in a Jan. 13 blog post. Migration Accelerator, based on technology acquired from last summer’s InMage buy, enables organizations to transfer physical and virtual server workloads to the cloud…

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Serdar Yegulalp.

If uptime and availability are what matter most in a cloud provider — for many, they are — Amazon and Google currently lead the pack. Azure, on the other hand, has a ways to go. Cloud-service analytics firm CloudHarmony, which harvests statistics about the uptimes and reliability behaviors of dozens of cloud hosts, recently released statistics detailing total availability across 2014 for all the hosts it tracks.

The list includes major names like Amazon and Azure, up-and-comers like SoftLayer, midtier players like Rackspace, and other, smaller providers like Vault Networks and DigitalOcean. Tracked services don’t include only cloud VM services like Amazon’s EC2, but also CDN, DNS, object storage, and application engines…

Grazed from Zacks. Author: Editorial Staff.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM – Analyst Report) recently announced its collaboration with the largest commercial bank in Thailand — Bangkok Bank — to offer a host of cloud services. Reportedly, Bangkok Bank has been using Akamai’s Web Performance Solutions that increased users’ satisfaction and resulted in customer growth.

The deal will primarily focus on cyber security for customers given the critical financial information stored on the bank’s database. Akamai’s security solutions such as the Kona Site Defender and Web Application Firewall, Prolexic, Site Shield and Fast DNS which protect against the largest Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks would provide Bangkok Bank with the utmost cloud security, thereby translating into significant growth opportunities over the long term forthe company….

Grazed from BusinessInsider. Author: Matt Rosoff.

The tech industry is red hot. Salaries for computer programmers hit an all-time high last year. Tech workers are asking for more money than ever before — and can often pick and choose between multiple job offers. The top six best-performing cities in the US are all tech hubs. Rents in San Francisco and Silicon Valley are absurd.

So can you guess which industry had more layoffs in 2014 than any other? The computer industry. That’s right: According to job placement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, the computer industry cut 59,528 jobs last year. That’s up 69% from 32,136 job cuts in 2013, and it’s way ahead of the No. 2 worst-performing sector, retail, where 43,783 jobs were cut in 2014…

Grazed from NYTimes. Author: Quentin Hardy.

Are software makers writing themselves out of a good living? Recent trends in the computer business indicate we are about to see a phenomenal growth in computing power and the relative ease with which software can be created to utilize it. In one case, powerful cloud computing companies that are accessible to the public — and often to developers of new software — appear to be quickly expanding.

Intel says that in the last five years it has seen a tenfold increase, to 200, in the number of public clouds. There is no sign of that slowing down, with big companies like Google and Amazon offering even more services for software developers to put more things online, including connected household devices, millions of hours of video, and fast-growing start-ups like Airbnb or Khan Academy…

Read more from the source @ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/why-software-containers-wont-be-bad-news-for-programmers/?_r=0

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Mikael Ricknas.

More price cuts are expected this year because of fierce competition between cloud and on-site software providers, and enterprises will be the beneficiaries. In particular, in the customer relationship management market, a key cloud battleground, seat prices for segments such as sales force automation are expected to decline in the next twelve months and by 25 percent through 2018, according to market research company Gartner.

This will be caused by incumbent vendors heavily discounting their cloud offerings to try and prevent their existing on-site customers from defecting to companies such as Salesforce.com and SugarCRM. Enterprises will also benefit from increased price competition in other areas, such as database management system application infrastructure and middleware. However, the price competition in these sectors isn’t quite as ferocious…