Category: News

Grazed from FierceGovernmentIT. Author: Henry Kenyon.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is planning to make its first tentative steps into the federal cloud computing arena as it seeks a solution to store sensitive crime data. In a request released July 7, the DEA is surveying cloud providers for the most cost-efficient way to shift data to an agency-wide hybrid cloud. One of the major nodes in this proposed cloud architecture will be the DEA’s Sterling Park Technology Center, or SPTC.

The agency wants to move its eGIS capability – a Google Earth-based crime information system that uses geospatial mapping data to tag crime and suspect location data – to the cloud. eGIS is currently hosted at SPTC, but the goal is to create a secondary site hosted on a Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program-compliant government community cloud run by an authorized commercial cloud service provider…

Grazed from FierceCIO. Author: David Weldon.

Cloud computing is becoming a game changer for many organizations, and that means the IT manager of the future needs to be well-versed in all things cloud. That is the clear message from a recent article at Tech Page One, which examined current trends in IT, and what they mean to the skills required of IT leaders.

"Transition can be a rough time for any company, no matter the reason," the article notes. "With the constant development and implementation of new technology, company IT departments are almost always in a state of transition, adapting to major changes and making sure things run smoothly. IT managers need to be ready, particularly for the big changes happening in the near future."…

Grazed from WSJ. Author: Alistair Blair.

Google Wednesday fired another shot in the price wars for cloud-computing services, offering businesses more free storage in an effort to compete with industry leader Amazon Web Services. Google Cloud Platform offered two terabytes of free storage for a year, through one of its partners, a startup called Panzura.

The move highlights the battle among Google, Amazon and Microsoft MSFT -0.26% to provide companies with remote storage, computing power and other technology services, which reduce companies’ need to buy and run their own equipment. Some industry insiders predict storage will soon be free…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Eric Lundquist.

The concept of using cloud computing to replace or augment your IT infrastructure is still relatively new. The introduction of Amazon Web Services in 2006 is a good date to pick as a starting point for this trend. We are now halfway through 2014 and Google, IBM, HP and the OpenStack gang have had their turns to talk about their latest cloud offerings. So this is a good time to see what is changing in cloud computing. Here are five trends I’m watching.

1. Transparency: I consistently hear from users and potential users that cloud computing sounds great, but while the tech is fairly straightforward to consider it is still devilishly difficult to figure out the pricing. This seems like it should be simple to solve. While the big cloud vendors are very public about price cutting, there remains lots of room to help CIOs figure out in advance what they will pay…

Read more from the source @ http://www.eweek.com/cloud/five-trends-show-why-cloud-computing-is-far-from-mature.html

Grazed from WCCFTech. Author: Fahad Arif.

In the initial months after announcing its latest eighth generation video game console, one of the things that Microsoft boasted the most about was Xbox One Cloud. Less in a way, but the platform holder still actually talks about the potential that lies in marriage between cloud technology and video game streaming, and recently speaking at Develop, the Redmond-based company talked about the power of Xbox One Cloud, and via a blueprint, the company explained how cloud computing can enable massive multiplayer games.

We are around more than a half year through the launch of Microsoft’s latest console, and after all those Cloud computing talks, we still have not seen Xbox One Cloud in action, besides one technical demo of course, however, Microsoft keeps the memory alive by occasional informative sessions on how Cloud computing can change the way we play video games. Recently, Microsoft’s Rob Fraser talked about the potential of Xbox One Cloud and the company’s Azure servers at Develop Conference…

Read more from the source @ http://wccftech.com/microsoft-reveales-xbox-cloud-flow-layout-explains-cloud-enables-massive-multiplayer-games/

Grazed from DataCentres. Author: Editorial Staff.

A new report from research house, IDC Worldwide Semi-annual Public Cloud Services Tracker show the worldwide market for cloud services hit $US45.7 billion) during 2013. Of that total, $US10.78 billion (24%) was spent on ERP systems and $US8.13 billion (18%) was spent on CRM. ERP systems (such as SAP, Oracle or Microsoft Dynamics AX) are integrated whole-of-business management applications integrating accounting, payroll, manufacturing, supply chain management and project management. Meanwhile, CRM software (such as Salesforce) manages customer relationships.

Other major cloud-based service categories included servers at $US3.981 billion or 9% of the market, collaborative applications (such as Office 365) at $US3.37 billion, and security software at $US2.922 billion. The strength of ERP and CRM spending meant the Software-as-a-Service model accounted for 72% of the market, with Platform-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service making up 14% each.

Grazed from eBusinessPlanet. Author: David Deans.

Public cloud service adoption is already a mainstream phenomenon in most organizations. Meanwhile, many large enterprises see a private cloud in their future. But choosing whether to invest in building an internal cloud infrastructure or buy from a cloud service provider will become more challenging – in anticipation, savvy IT leaders are becoming brokers of dynamic business technology solutions.

Hybrid cloud resource management and progressive operational process adoption are the key focal points in preparation for this transition. Moreover, Line of Business demand for emerging use cases and just-in-time IT workload creation requires speedy access to a managed self-serve DevOps deployment model…

Grazed from CloudTweaks. Author: Editorial Staff.

One of the least considered benefits of cloud computing in the average small or mid-sized business manager’s mind is the aspect of disaster recovery. Part of the reason for this is that so few small and mid-size businesses have ever contemplated the impact of a major disaster on their IT infrastructure, let alone built a comprehensive disaster recovery plan.

Disaster recovery

In fact, more than 95 percent of the SME customers that my colleagues have worked with over the last 20 years had never contemplated the impact that a fire, flood, or even the more mundane threat of employee sabotage might have on their businesses. And when confronted with the costs and time impact of implementing a disaster recovery plan — along with the associated processes of dry runs on recovery, staff training, hardware investment, and redundant systems — their willingness to leave it to luck only increased…

Grazed from DataCenterDynamics. Author: Laura Luo.

China Mobile’s Chongqing Data Center broke ground in the Chongqing Liangjiang International Cloud Computing Industrial Park on June 30th. This is one of the key projects for developing Chongqing’s cloud computing and big data industries. China Mobile’s new data center will cover an area of 120,000sqm and will be built in two phases. It is estimated that 4800 racks capable of hosting about 32,000 servers will be put into use when phase one is completed in 2016.

A total of 13,000 racks accommodating 130,000 servers will be brought online once the project is finished. The new data center is expected to provide an infrastructure and open platform for cloud computing related industries in Chongqing as envisioned by the Chongqing Municipal Government’s “Cloud Plan”. In 2011 the Chongqing Municipal government signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China Mobile in Beijing with the aim of transforming Chongqing into a smart city based on cloud technologies.

Grazed from Channelnomics. Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud storage and content management company Box is fast becoming a focal point of the cloud computing era. While other cloud ventures such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite have become productive service providers, Box plods along with high cash-burn rates and an indeterminate exit strategy.

Yesterday, Box announced it raised another $150 million in fresh venture funding, adding to its $80 million in cash reserves and bringing its total investment backing to $450 million. The company is now worth, by some estimates, $2.4 billion, even though its revenues are somewhere around $200 million…