Category: News

Grazed from CSC. Author: Dr. James Serack.

When I think of the quaint phrase “horseless carriage,” it conjures up for me an image, in black and white, of startled men in bowler hats pointing to a newly invented passing motor car. There was a time when carriages were drawn by horses so the adjective “horseless” was required to communicate the new invention from what was then the norm. But within a decade those motorized vehicles had become the new norm, and the phrase became obsolete. Now we of course just call them cars, and almost everyone owns one.

Recently while in California, waiting for the walk light to cross a busy urban intersection, I felt a bit like those men in the hats. When the traffic light changed to green, ALL the lead cars moved silently forward for several meters – and I found myself surprised by the prevalence of “hybrid cars” on the road. I did not yet expect them to be so common. Maybe soon we also won’t need the “hybrid” adjective as they become the norm on roadways. And significantly, while we get used to the idea, those who live in places where hybrids are common are already taking the next steps to develop new habits and practices for getting the best performance from the next generation of “plug in” hybrids…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: CJ Arlotta.

Spanning Cloud Apps wants to help Salesforce.com (CRM) administrators with protecting Salesforce1 customers from data loss. The Austin, Texas-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) backup company on Wednesday unveiled Spanning Backup for Salesforce1 Mobile, a new mobile app for Salesforce administrators looking to manage and monitor automated backups and restore activities within the Salesforce platform.

The company said the new product offering allows Salesforce administrators to monitor the statuses of backups; track activities; and receive proactive udates for backup and recovery activities. "Salesforce is investing heavily in mobile, and Spanning wants to be an integral part of the Salesforce ecosystem," Spanning CEO Jeff Erramouspe told Talkin’ Cloud in an interview…

Grazed from CRN. Author: Joseph Tsidulko.

Almost two-thirds of America’s corporate leaders who participated in a recent study believe adoption of cloud computing is good for business. That’s according to The Path to Value in the Cloud survey conducted by Oxford Economics, an international advisory firm, and released by telecom provider Windstream.

Oxford Economics queried 350 executives from across the United States. One-third of the respondents were CEOs, CTOs or COOs; the rest held other executive positions at their companies. The results shed light on how business leaders view the changing IT landscape and shift to virtual infrastructure — insights that solution providers can leverage to sell products and services…

To view slideshow and read more from the source, visit http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/cloud/300073609/corporate-america-agrees-cloud-is-good-for-business.htm

Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: PR Announcement.

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash storage solutions, and Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI), today announced that the SanDisk ULLtraDIMM(TM) solid state drive (SSD), the industry’s first enterprise-class, ultra-low latency, memory-channel connected storage solution, will begin shipping in Supermicro’s Green SuperServer(R) and SuperStorage platforms. Adding flash storage on the memory bus provides Supermicro(R) with a powerful solution to help customers address growing data center application performance requirements without a significant infrastructure investment.

"The ULLtraDIMM SSD was designed to expand the reach of flash storage throughout the data center and scale to meet the requirements of any enterprise application – no matter how bandwidth or capacity intensive," said John Scaramuzzo, senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise Storage Solutions at SanDisk. "We are very excited to partner with Supermicro in offering this innovative, ultra-low latency storage solution to help their customers accelerate the performance of their cloud, virtualization, HPC and other applications and experience the benefits of a flash-transformed data center."…

Grazed from MSPMentor. Author: Michael Brown.

In 2013, public IT cloud service spending was estimated at $47.4 billion. Research firm IDC predicts that by 2017, spending will more than double to $107 billion. And within the next four years, the growth rate of the IT industry as a whole will be 5 times what is today. Certainly some of that spending will go to cloud-based file sharing.

Companies are beginning to view cloud computing in a different light and IT departments are feeling the pressure to roll out the new technology quickly, securely, and cost efficiently. The cloud is not just being seen as an alternative IT solution. It’s a way to foster innovation, gain a competitive advantage, and create more personalized connections with customers inexpensively, if it’s deployed correctly, that is…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Hannah Pullen-Blasnik.

In a presentation at the 2014 TDWI Executive Summit in Boston, consultant and author David Linthicum discussed the impact of cloud computing on business intelligence and data analytics — and the opportunities it presents to organizations. Describing big data analytics in particular as "the killer app for cloud computing," Linthicum offered tips and advice on designing tiered data architecture for cloud analytics uses.

According to Linthicum, who is a senior vice president at Boston-based consultancy Cloud Technology Partners Inc., a solid architecture is the key to unlocking the potential benefits of cloud platforms. Linthicum said many cloud-based BI and analytics systems lack a well-grounded architecture, which he argued isn’t the fault of IT architects, but rather a result of the corporate focus on short-term — and often shortsighted — plans…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Editorial Staff.

For many, the cloud removes processing power constraints from the equation, allowing to think freely and creatively. The costs don’t increase much, or at all: using a single computer for 1000 hours costs the same as using 1000 for an hour. So cloud computing allows tackling big ideas and data, even for those without the proper infrastructure.

Pharmaceutical companies, large enterprises and even the layman benefit from the availability of the cloud, already pushing the available technology to its limits. But there is, you’d probably agree, the difference between a company that merely stores data in the cloud and a company that utilizes the bleeding-edge benefits that cloud computing can provide. The latter is what we’ll be concentrating on in this article…

Grazed from NetworkComputing. Author: Scott S. Lowe.

Managing virtual machines in the cloud doesn’t mean interpreting the pets vs. cattle meme literally. It requires automating systems and processes to care for the herd. In the cloud world, the "pets vs. cattle" meme is everywhere. It’s almost universally used as the means to differentiate cloud implementations from so-called traditional virtualization environments. For those who aren’t familiar with this analogy, here’s the short version:

In traditional virtualization, VMs are like pets. Administrators give them unique names and care for them if they get "sick." In other words, administrators or application owners get attached to their VMs. In cloud environments, instances are like cattle. They are given generic names like instance-048, and they are a dime a dozen. If an instance gets "sick," then you just shoot it in the head (destroy the instance and spin up a new one). In other words, instances are disposable and replaceable, so don’t get attached…

Grazed from CloudComputing. Author: Lori MacVittie.

It’s not the first time we’ve heard the statement that cloud can be too expensive and I doubt it will be the last. This latest episode comes from Alexei Rodriguez, Head of Ops at Evernote by way of Structure 2014: https://twitter.com/joeweinman/status/479769276027379712. It is important to note that this admission – like those in the past – have come from what we call "web monsters."

Web monsters are, as the name implies, web-first (and usually only) organizations who have millions (or billions) of users. Modern web monsters generally have only one application for which they are responsible, a la Evernote, Netflix, Facebook, etc…
It is unlikely that most enterprises will encounter this same conundrum – that of the cloud actually costing more than a DIY approach – for short-lived projects…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: David H Deans.

What if you could deploy a new IT service shortly after you defined the requirements? And, just imagine the bliss, if your IT spend could directly translate into a competitive advantage. Predicting the ROI would be relatively easy. You would be the envy of your peer group. Unfortunately, as most senior executives already know, it’s never that simple.

Typically, you perform the technology assessment due diligence up-front, you place your bets based upon the most compelling guidance, and then you closely monitor the results. It’s an iterative process, where confidence builds over time. Maybe that’s why new business technology spending tends to be aligned with a past success. But this procurement model doesn’t adapt very well in response to unanticipated significant market events or the rapid acceleration of unplanned technology migrations. Moreover, tight budgets and other resource constraints can severely limit an organisation’s ability to react quickly to changing environments…