Latest News from Cloud Computing for SMBs

The Essential Cloud Considerations

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:00:00 EST

Thinking about jumping on the cloud? True, I’ve had no qualms in showing my skepticism towards the marketing of ‘cloud computing’ and it being the mere repackaging of solutions which have existed for years, but the fact is it still addresses a concept and reality that exists and one which holds numerous benefits. Indeed abandoning an existing on site IT infrastructure for a cloud provider that most often or not can’t offer the same level of security, control or performance is not an easy decision but one which CIOs and IT executives are seriously considering when weighing up the economic benefits. As with any change though, a move towards the cloud necessitates a sound and comprehensive assessment to avoid the trap of a short term benefit turning into a long term nightmare.

Orchestra Hits 20,000 Views on YouTube for SAP Business One

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:45:00 EST

As of March 10th, 2010 almost exactly one year after uploading our first how-to video, our videos are averaging 150 collective hits per day and have reached the 20,000 view milestone. Being the author of these videos, I am glad to see that people are benefiting from our content and really gaining some value from their SAP Business One systems. As we continue into 2010, our goals will be more heavily focused on the SAP Business One 8.8 release and how to utilize the new features in a more advanced fashion. We will, of course, continue covering the little tips and tricks as well.

Cloud Computing for Small Business

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:45:00 EST

Orchestra explains how we use Cloud Computing and how it can benefit many small businesses. Cloud computing allows us to lower our IT costs, keep out IT resources scalable, and provides greater security and stability than we can ourselves. Find out more about how cloud computing can benefit small business in this great article.

Nine Steps To an Enterprise Cloud Service Utility

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST

Virtualization is the topic du jour in IT today. The technology is cool, the attributes are slick and now the stock market even is tracking it. The adoption problem that is facing virtualization strategies stems from a bottom up IT driven approach versus a top down business aligned approach. Furthermore, the technology is limitingin value unless it is implemented as a “virtual enterprise cloud service oriented platform architecture” with a dynamic operational model. The playbook for exploiting virtualizaiton AND other key enabling technology components is outlined in nine steps below. Fundamentally, an enterprise cloud vs a public cloud is specifically business aligned to the enteprise. The program creates a virtual oriented cloud utility platform that incorporates the needs of the business, the control over execution and the leverage of everything virtual.

Introducing the Concept of the "Resource Cloud" at Cloud Expo 2010 in New York

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whom most people know as an English poet, also wrote some very nice prose about words. For example he was the one who summed up poetry itself as being about, above all, choosing "the best possible words in the best possible order."

Another fellow who knew a thing or two about words was a predecessor of mine - by a few hundred years! - at Trinity College, Cambridge. His name was Archbishop Richard Chevenix Trench and he produced, among another things, a little volume call On The Study of Words. This was back in 1852.

At one point in this book, Trench is musing on the power of words and, in particular, the role that words play in paving the way for the public acceptance of ideas.

Some ideas, he notes, just don't seem to catch on until the right words are found to "nail" them down.

I was strongly reminded of Coleridge, and of Trench, when interviewing a technology CEO the other day about Cloud Computing. Because this particular CEO seemed to be a beacon of light amid the murky fog surrounding Cloud Computing. And what stuck in my mind particularly was his ability, just as Archbishop Trench noted, to "nail down" the essential value proposition of Cloud Computing.

One new term that he used and that struck me as particularly insightful was this: "Resource Cloud."

This term definitely resonates immediately with me as being one that will not just help, it will triumph. Instead of talking of hardware, of physical servers, what the world needs to do is think of there as existing a "Resource Cloud" in which providers of resources and consumers who use compute power are matched up.

"Those consumers don't need to know, and indeed don't care, where the resources are," said my CEO. "So let the providers with the hardware push it into the cloud while the consumers consume it by creating virtual machines."

He continued:

"'I need X terabytes of storage at this kind of performance level, let us say Grade A performance, and I need 30 CPU cores,' the consumer might say, and the providers will run the hardware necessary to supply that need. IT runs the hardware side, but it doesn't manage the virtual side. That is done by the customer at via their Virtual Data Center."

So this is his vision, the vision also known loosely as "Virtualization 2.0"

But to my ear, "Resource Cloud" is the stronger metaphor, with more likelihood of catching on. And in 21 days' time I will revisit this posting to add the name of the CEO concerned. He already has established himself as thought leader in the world of technology. I haven't a doubt that he will come very soon to be recognized too as the man who put datacenter virtualization on the map forever and for always with the introduction of this one colloquy: REsource Cloud."

What do you think? Is it the best term? Do you have a better one?

Cloud Expo Sponsor SOASTA Makes WSJ's Hottest VC-Backed Firms List

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST

SOASTA, a Bronze Sponsor of 5th International Cloud Expo cloud computing conference, upcoming next month in New York (April 19-21, 2010), has been named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the fifty "hottest" VC-backed firms in the US - the only Cloud player among the seventeen IT companies listed. The WSJ rankings were calculated based on how each company scored in the following components: the track record of success for the venture-capital investors who sit on the company's board (Board Ranking); the amount of capital raised by the company over the last three years, in comparison to its peers (Total Equity Ranking); the track record of success for the company's founders and chief executive (Executive Ranking); and the recent growth in the value of the company (Valuation Ranking).

SAP Announces New Version of SAP Business One

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:48:40 EST

SAP announced the new version of SAP Business One last week, noting it's improved usability, faster time to value, and the benefits of the partner channel on the product. SAP Business One is now used by thousands of companies worldwide, helping to manage the entire business and foster future growth. The new version, SAP Business One 8.8, continues to bring strong value to small and midsize companies, especially with the new embedded Crystal Reports.

Cloud Computing in Developing Countries

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST

At the Digital Africa Summit 2010 in Kampala, Uganda, discussion is rightly focused on both telecommunications policy and economic development. Cloud computing is a topic heard among sidebar discussions, although it has yet to hit the mainstream of conference programming. We will bring a series of reports from Digital Africa – it is a very exciting group of people who truly have the best interests of Africa as their key objective. Kicked off by Dr. Gilbert Balibaseka Bukenya, Vice President of Uganda, the conference also included ministers of communications from Uganda, Niger, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso. Other nations are well represented with representatives from the private sector, government, and education.

Microsoft Is "All In" for Cloud Computing

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:45:00 EST

Expo, of which Microsoft is a Gold sponsor and one of the biggest exhibitors (out of over 70 leading Cloud companies exhibiting), came out of the corner swinging. Specifically Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, gave a speech on Thursday to computer science students at the University of Washington. He discussed what’s ahead for computing, with a focus on how cloud computing will change the way people and businesses use technology.

Skytap Automates Networks in the Cloud

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST

Gee, and it seems just the other day that Seattle-based cloud start-up Skytap Inc, the little number where Amazon’s Jeff Bezos parked some of his fortune, was in the virtual lab automation business. Well, it’s branching out. It’s gone into the cloud-ware network automation business. It claims to be able to – poof! – create scalable ready-to-run virtual data centers with fancy advanced multi-tier network topologies in the cloud without a steady supply of aspirin, a self-service web interface facility that should accelerate multi-tier enterprise application deployments of, say, complex ERP and CRM systems to the cloud.

NaviSite Appoints R. Brooks Borcherding as President

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:20:00 EST

NaviSite announced on Monday the promotion of R. Brooks Borcherding as President. Borcherding will expand his current responsibilities to incorporate overall sales, marketing, operations and service delivery in addition to business planning and day-to-day operations. “Since joining the company last April, Brooks has successfully sharpened our focus on the large enterprise market,” said Arthur Becker, NaviSite’s Chief Executive Officer. “His promotion to President is recognition of his significant contributions to the business and our continued confidence in his ability to drive the company’s success going forward.” Borcherding’s primary objective will be to accelerate NaviSite’s transformation into the leading provider of complex hosting, application management and cloud solutions for enterprise customers.

Cloud Computing Bootcamp Returns to New York City April 20, 2010

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:45:00 EST

No one can properly understand anything related to enterprise-level Cloud Computing without having first gained a reasonable understanding of the very basics. SYS-CON's pioneering Cloud Computing Bootcamp is designed with that in mind. It is a one-day, fully immersive deep-dive into the Cloud, in which the sessions during the day seek to deal with real problems and look at alternative solutions. The ever-popular Bootcamp, which is now held regularly around the world, is being held next in conjunction the 5th Cloud Expo in New York, NY (April 20, 2010). It is led by software industry entrepreneur and Bootcamp Instructor Alan Williamson.

Developing Disaster Recovery Models with Cloud Computing

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:45:00 EST

How does a small or medium business ensure it can meet the basic needs for disaster recovery and business continuity? Whether it be Internet-facing applications, or Enterprise-facing applications and data, one of the most important issues faced by small companies is the potential loss of information and applications needed to run their operations. Disaster recovery and business continuity. Recovery point objectives and recovery time objectives. Backing up data to offsite locations, and potentially running mirrored processing sites – it is an expensive business requirement to fulfill. Particularly for budget conscious small and medium-sized companies.

Surgient Named “Gold Sponsor” of the World’s Largest Cloud Computing Event

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:15:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that Surgient, a leading provider of automation and management software for enterprise private clouds, has been named “Gold Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 5th International Cloud Expo (www.CloudComputingExpo.com), which will take place on April 19-21, 2010, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. Surgient’s patented, award-winning private cloud automation product, the Surgient Platform, enables global 2000 IT organizations and managed services providers (MSPs) to quickly implement and manage successful private and internal clouds, maximizing existing IT resources and driving capital and operating cost savings for the enterprise. The Surgient Platform leverages leading virtualization and systems management technologies to automate the deployment and management of complex, user-centric IT services. Through its unique, just-in-time self-service approach, administrators and users access the infrastructure-as-a-service cloud, on-demand and through guaranteed reservations. With support for mixed virtual/physical environments and seamless scaling from the department to the enterprise, Surgient drives substantial business savings.

CA Decides to Join Cloud Computing Trade Group

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST

CA will work with other alliance members including technology vendors, customers and cloud providers to sort through the security issues, educate would-be cloud adopters and address the real issues, said Matthew Gardiner, director of CA’s security and compliance business unit. “It’s no secret that one of the big areas of concern, both rational and perhaps irrational, about cloud is related to security and management because organizations are putting things where they hadn’t before, applications and data,” said Gardiner.

SAP Netweaver B1iSN for SAP Business One

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:45:00 EST

SAP Netweaver B1iSN for SAP Business One is an enterprise level integration tool, built for small and midsize companies. Netweaver allows for seamless integration to dozens of systems using pre-built integration frameworks. Whether it is an E-commerce website, parent company running R/3, or an old Access database, Netweaver can integrate it into SAP Business One.

Gartner Analyst Says Cloud Computing "Immature" Yet Inevitable

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:45:00 EST

"Over time we will see cloud alternatives to every application from communications, collaboration and portals," according to Gartner Managing Vice President Gene Phifer, who was in Manila to speak in a conference conducted by IBM. The computer giant launched its new Lotus and Domino collaboration products. "Everything that you have on data center now should be in the cloud in due time," he said.

IBM Partner Dutch Cloud Seeks Cloud Computing Opportunities

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:45:00 EST

"We see a lot of enthusiasm in the marketplace for cloud computing, but we also see a lot of question marks," said Olaf Friedrichs, founder and managing partner at Dutch Cloud, an IBM partner in the Netherlands that specializes in providing IT infrastructure-as-a-cloud services.

IBM Takes Cloud Computing Pulse at Its Conference

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:45:00 EST

IBM is addressing its customers and channel partners this week-end in Las Vegas at its Pulse Conference. The conference focuses on Blue's Tivoli systems management software, and was expected to draw more than 1,000 Tivoli solution providers, according to IBM VP Sandy Carter. "There are a lot of opportunities for our partners to make money in cloud computing," Carter said. "The number-one opportunity we're seeing is cloud architecture services."

Hybrid Clouds – More Hype Than Happen, More Talk Than Tech

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:15:00 EST

I had a great conversation with a well-respected colleague of mine today. We discussed what it will take to deliver on the promise of hybrid clouds. We both agreed that a significant amount of intelligence needs to be added to the current architecture of Cloud Computing in order to even begin to deliver on the promise of making a hybrid cloud a reality. My colleague seems to think it will take the industry another decade to really make these technologies as ubiquitous as IP and the Internet itself. I'm of the opinion that we can get there faster if the industry collaboratively focuses on some of the major hurdles. A hybrid cloud is one in which a workload can theoretically move seamlessly between a private cloud and a public cloud. Hybrid clouds offer the panacea that you can have protected workloads internally, capacity-driven workloads in an on-demand public cloud, and the ability to shift some of those workloads between the two, depending on requirements.

Jaspersoft to Present at Cloud Expo April 19-21 New York City

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:45:00 EST

Business Intelligence programs have been getting gradually better about delivering on their promise of instant analytics to support business decisions. Today’s BI platforms have more functionality than ever with dashboards, customizable reporting and more data flexibility. Yet only 15% of the knowledge workers who could be using BI are using these new tools. With such low penetration numbers, how intelligent are businesses really becoming?

Spiceworks to Present at Largest Cloud Computing Conference

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:30:00 EST

Cloud services adoption by small and medium businesses offers tremendous opportunities for providers. But SMBs have specific priorities in mind when deciding what to put on the cloud. In his session at the 5th International Cloud Expo, Jay Hallberg, co-founder of Spiceworks, will discuss the latest SMB cloud computing adoption trends and what's hot and what's not. Jay Hallberg is co-founder of Spiceworks, launched in January 2006 to simplify the management, marketing & sales of information technology for small and medium-businesses. He has spoken on social apps for business and SMB tech industry trends at top events. He is frequently quoted in top publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, InformationWeek, Investor's Business Daily, eWeek, and Network World.

Staples Moves from Paper Clips to Maybe the Cloud

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST

Staples, the big office supplies outlet, is going to start offering “enterprise-class” tech support to SMBs through to Fortune 1000s. It’s even considering putting cloud computing on the menu. According to Jim Lippie, VP of the company’s network services, IT accounts for the SMBs’ second-largest fixed cost after people. Staples thinks it can be a low-cost provider. It figures it can run an SMB’s entire IT operation, if it likes. The newfangled Staples Technology Solutions will offer consulting and hardware; managed services like onsite and remote server and desktop support for Macs, Windows and Linux platforms as well as Cisco and Citrix widgetry; printer fleet management; data center assessments and solutions including 24/7 disaster recovery; and network services.

Electric Cloud Updates Software Offerings

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:45:00 EST

Electric Cloud has accelerated the software production management field today with improvements to two key products: ElectricAccelerator and ElectricCommander 3.5. ElectricAccelerator boasts a new feature that provides parallel processing and subbuild technology. Dubbed "Electrify," the patented technology promises to speed development on private or public compute clouds by applying the benefits of parallelization to new development tools and tasks. With Electrify, developers can conduct parallel testing or data modeling on their desktop, in a private cloud or on a dedicated server. Meanwhile, the subbuild technology works to help developers avoid unnecessary or broken builds by identifying only the components required for the current project. [Disclosure: Electric Cloud is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

Start-up Uses the Cloud Computing for Primary Storage

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:30:00 EST

A year-old start-up thinks it’s cracked the code on using the cloud for primary storage, not just backup. The Massachusetts concern, an outfit called Nasuni, is currently offering a free 15-day come-all-ya download of its widgetry, a virtual NAS file server that runs in a VMware virtual machine, dubbed, simply enough, the Nasuni Filer. Right now it automatically provisions file storage on Amazon S3 and Iron Mountain. Other clouds, like Nirvanix and Rackspace, are supposed to be added in the next 60 days. Nasuni imagines customers eventually sending the same files to different clouds for redundancy.

CA and NetApp Build Solutions for Public and Private Cloud Infrastructures

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:15:00 EST

CA and NetApp on Tuesday announced an extension of their multi-year solutions partnership to develop management solutions for public and private cloud environments. As a result, the companies are integrating CA'svirtualization, automation and service assurance offerings with NetApp's storage management solutions. The unified solutions will further help customers drive operational efficiencies through improved business agility, productivity and service quality, while also helping to lower costs and reduce risks that are associated with virtualization and cloud-based infrastructures.

Enterprise Cloud Computing as the Digital Nervous System of the Enterprise

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST

Businesses today face a tsunami of challenges unlike it has ever faced in history: globalization, geo-political, rise of the Internet consumer, customer mind-share dynamics, proliferation of information and content to manage and maintain (with regulatory & security concerns). This requires new ways to do business: 1) provide an enriched and consistent quality customer experience; 2) conduct business over any form of electronic channel; 3) rapid adoption of new business models; 4) transact business in the most efficient & effective means possible; 5) incorporate "turn on dime" transaction workflow, and rapidly make informed decisions.

Down-to-Earth Contracts that Keep the Cloud Aloft

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:45:00 EST

This article looks at the basic interoperability requirements when communicating with the Cloud, and in particular at techniques and standards used to express and enforce wire-level contracts between communicating parties, as these parties are increasingly also contracting parties in a Cloud environment. Many standards already developed for Web services and service-oriented architectures provide to the communicating parties a good understanding and control of the expected quality of service at the most basic level of the interaction.

Ready to Move Your Enterprise Apps to the Cloud?

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:15:00 EST

CloudSwitch’s innovative software appliance enables enterprises to move their existing applications to the right cloud computing environment – securely, simply and without changes. With CloudSwitch, applications remain tightly integrated with enterprise data center tools and policies, and can be moved easily between different cloud environments and back into the data center based on the requirements of the business. CloudSwitch protects enterprises from the complexity, risks and potential lock-in of cloud computing, freeing them to leverage the cloud’s advantages in cost and business agility.

Mitsubishi DSC To Resell IBM’s CloudBurst Technology

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:30:00 EST

Starting in February DCS, a k a Mitsubishi Research Institute DCS Company, the ~1,800-man systems integrator, will resell IBM’s CloudBurst private cloud infrastructure, to Japanese customers in various industries. It also plans on using the widgetry to provide various services out of its own data center in Chiba Prefecture starting with an internal R&D environment. And besides the private cloud business it figures to get into SaaS too.

Transitioning to Cloud Computing

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:00:00 EST

The drive toward cloud computing continues to be a dominant infrastructure deployment theme for organizations looking to reduce costs, increase storage and optimize mobility. What many fail to realize is the trend towards cloud computing is continually forcing IT managers to rethink fundamental security issues as a barrage of new attacks and exploits continue to assault the cloud every day. Compelling for any business model, cloud computing delivers a scalable, accessible and high-performing computing infrastructure that comes at an appealing price for organizations. Similarly, operating in the cloud allows for the convergence of new and emerging technologies. Providing appeal to both the provider and the consumer, cloud computing enables new application deployment and recovery options, as well as new application business models. However, cloud computing may not be the panacea that the press and many organizations make it out to be. We must have trust and confidence in the platform on which we are deploying our applications and data. We must be able to maintain control of the information that drives our business. Ultimately, we must be able to prove that trust to our auditors. The solution, having not yet been defined, could be deemed "auditability."

Hyper9 Business-Driven Virtualization: Optimizing Insight and Efficiency

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:45:00 EST

In this whitepaper we explore how mission-critical business applications – the next virtualization frontier and the focus of most current initiatives – demand more predictable service levels and faster response times, further increasing the pressures on IT operations.

The Death of Cloud Computing the Birth of Dream Computing

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:30:00 EST

I do dream in color, not always vivid color, but color just the same. Today, I was awakened by one of my 5 boys in the middle of a great dream about the future. In my dream, I was in a big white room just as a door was opening and someone was about to walk in. Who was that? That's when I was awakened. Don't you hate dream interruption? Or Idruption? Quick note, I heard the iPad comes with an Idruption finisher, those guys at Apple are so innovative. What I do recall from my dream was that it was the summer of 2012, and Jeff Bezos, Paul Sagan and I were celebrating the 2 year anniversary of the merger of our three companies. There was a lot of talk about how 50% of the Fortune 1000 had shut down their data centers and moved all their operations onto our Dream Cloud. So much for that Gartner prediction -"By 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets." The other thing that was clear from the conversation was that Dream Computing as a category had completely replaced the term Cloud Computing.

Cloud Start-up Pulls in $8m A Round

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:30:00 EST

Nasuni, a Massachusetts start-up that’s about to trot out a gateway to cloud storage, has gotten $8 million in Series A funding from North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners. Nasuni founders CEO Andres Rodriguez, an ex-CTO of the New York Times, and Robert Mason pioneered a cloud storage architecture at Archivas, which Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) acquired in 2007 for $120 million.

The American Dream Is Alive with Cloud Computing

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:45:00 EST

The principles and freedoms of the American dream are finding themselves resurrected again with cloud computing. The following blog will outline background, details and living proof that cloud computing is one of the catalysts of the future that will bring the American dream back! As an immigrant and soon to be citizen of the United States of America, I have experienced first hand and continue to experience the greatness of this country and rewards of the American dream.

Reporting for the Cloud

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:15:00 EST

Normally when you read or hear someone talk about application environments running on cloud platforms a lot of focus is put on provisioning and elasticity. Mainly the claims are that you should be able to very quickly provision full application environments on the cloud platform and that those environments should grow, and shrink, based on the demands on the system. I certainly have no argument that those capabilities are important functionality for a cloud platform, but based on some recent conversations with several different users I'm beginning to think we aren't talking enough about another important feature for these solutions. That feature is the degree to which the application environments running on cloud platforms can be audited. I certainly have no argument that those capabilities are important functionality for a cloud platform, but based on some recent conversations with several different users I'm beginning to think we aren't talking enough about another important feature for these solutions. That feature is the degree to which the application environments running on cloud platforms can be audited.

Got Excel? Go Cloud in 2010

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST

At the recent Hadoop World conference, Doug Cutting, Hadoop Project Founder, remarked that "The Dream" was to provide non-programmers with the power of parallel cloud computing tools such as MapReduce and Hadoop, via simple, easy-to-use spreadsheet-like interfaces. Not only can you develop and launch massively parallel MapReduce/Hadoop-style cloud computations, simply and seamlessly from within the standard Excel interface, you can also go way beyond tools such as Elastic MapReduce and Hadoop, developing and launching live, continuous, realtime stream processing applications in the cloud, from that same Excel interface.

Enterprise Cloud Computing Utilities

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:00:00 EST

Today’s CIO organizations face a complex array of challenges in managing the Business Platform (the group of applications and services that implement the Business Value Chain (BVC)). The business expects technology innovation as a business differentiator, demands application portfolio stability, requires change requests to be handled promptly, experiences growth rates that are often unpredictable and exponential, and exerts continuous pressure to reduce product time to market. Complicating this, these challenges are being made to IT with reduced investment support from the business. At the same time, the very business model of IT is changing—how applications, content, information, and infrastructure are delivered.

Introducing WebSphere CloudBurst 1.1

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST

I’ve written numerous technical entries both here and elsewhere about the WebSphere CloudBurst Appliance. The appliance is a cloud management device that is geared towards those enterprises that for a variety of reasons (security, privacy, performance, customization capability, existing investment, etc.) are looking to benefit from on-premise or private clouds. The initial version of WebSphere CloudBurst, released in June of 2009, introduced the capability for users to create, deploy, and manage WebSphere application environments in a cloud that they retain control over. While that may seem straight forward enough, this can radically change the way users perceive their application environments. By using this appliance-based approach, users can achieve flexibility and agility because of instead of in spite of their approach to the creation, provisioning, and maintenance of application platforms.

2010 New Year’s Resolutions of a Cloud Visionary

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:30:00 EST

As we end 2009 and head into 2010 I thought I'd take a moment to publicly state some of my goals and resolutions for the upcoming year. You'll notice that most of these goals are business focused, but alas, lately I've been very business focused with Enomaly and my various other schemes. 5. Keep Giving Back. For anyone who knows me, knows that I am a doer. From CloudCamps, to Cloud Interop, from Advisory boards to mentorships. I will continue to give back whenever and where-ever I can. If there is an itch, I will do my best to scratch it.

Gladinet Releases Cloud Desktop v1.4.2 with Support for Windows Azure

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:15:00 EST

Gladinet (http://www.gladinet.com) has announced the release of Cloud Desktop v1.4.2. This version adds the soon-to-be-released Microsoft Windows Azure platform to the list of cloud storage providers that the service platform supports. Cloud Desktop, which provides an Internet-based virtual disk drive for users, also supports AT&T Synaptic Storage, Amazon S3, Google Docs and EMC Atmos, among many others.

"Swamp Computing" a.k.a. Cloud Computing

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:45:00 EST

MIT Technology review recently published a great article titled: Security in the Ether addressing security, privacy and reliability issues resulting from cloud computing. Some of the interesting points in this article are summarized. Cloud data may be mishandled by the cloud provider because of technology gaps, but more importantly, such information can be extracted through a court issued subpoena. Whether the data resident in the cloud versus on-premise makes it more or less likely to a subpoena being exercised is yet to be seen. Bit and bytes lost accidentally or intentionally have a strange way of persisting and being recovered eventually. 22 Million emails "lost" during Bush's era were "suprisingly" recovered by computer technicians recently.

ISV Cloud Computing Onboarding: A New Business Environment

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 17:30:00 EST

In the recent past, ISVs and SaaS vendors were increasingly evaluating the impact of cloud computing trends on their business. Cloud strategy has an all-round impact on ISVs, their customers and system integrators. From an ISV’s perspective, cloud strategy acts as a revenue and customer-growth engine, facilitating penetration to wider customer segments and geographies.

The Busy Executive’s Quick Cloud Computing Reference Guide

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:45:00 EST

As an executive, you may be hearing many different viewpoints about Cloud Computing; some of them promising significant IT cost reductions and reductions in capital expenditures. Don't get caught off guard regarding all the technical complexities of developing and offering Cloud Computing services, the whole reason you're considering this option is so others will take care of these factors for you. Although you still need to be an educated consumer, you don't need to be in the weeds to ensure you're not caught with your pants around your ankles if you decide to use Cloud Computing services.

Eleven Key Components of the Enterprise Cloud

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:00:00 EST

Define the business and IT linkage of demand and supply. Orient the analysis and model creations around the interactive dynamics of consumption of IT resources by the business and the fulfillment behavior of processing by IT. This needs to be correlated with the value-chain function and the corresponding products or services, differentiated by business type (liquidity, risk transference, advice), business importance (margin, labor, flow) and cost to transact.

Free Virtual Appliance for Cloud Computing

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:15:00 EST

up.time represents a quantum leap forward for companies that need to drive both IT performance and cost-savings, while ensuring a consistent quality of service. The technology provides IT managers with an unobstructed view of the datacenter to efficiently manage distributed applications and global services levels, while maximizing enterprise-wide IT resources. The solution's ability to provide dashboards that deeply monitor, measure, and manage IT infrastructure and applications in virtual, physical and Cloud environments, as well as across multiple/remote locations, platforms, databases, and more has helped hundreds of customers achieve new levels of performance and immediate cost savings.

Adaptivity “Platinum Plus Sponsor” of Cloud Expo

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:00:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that Adaptivity, the IT transformation company, has been named "Platinum Plus Sponsor" of SYS-CON's 5th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo (www.CloudComputingExpo.com), which will take place on April 19-21, 2010, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. Adaptivity's CEO Tony Bishop will be offering major thought leadership in a Morning Keynote.

Mellanox Technologies to Exhibit at Cloud Expo New York

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that Mellanox Technologies, a leading supplier of end-to-end connectivity solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 5th International Cloud Expo (www.CloudComputingExpo.com), which will take place on April 19-21, 2010, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. Mellanox Technologies is a leading supplier of end-to-end connectivity solutions for servers and storage that optimize data center performance. Mellanox products deliver market-leading bandwidth, performance, scalability, power conservation and cost-effectiveness while converging multiple legacy network technologies into one future-proof solution.

Oracle Named Exclusive Diamond Sponsor of Cloud Expo 2010

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:30:00 EST

SYS-CON Events announced today that Oracle was named exclusive "Diamond Sponsor" of Cloud Expo 2010. Cloud Expo was formed in 2007 the same day the term "cloud computing" was coined. That same year, the first Cloud Expo took place in New York City with 450 delegates. Next April, Cloud Expo is returning to New York City with more than 5,000 delegates and over 100 sponsors and exhibitors. "Cloud" has become synonymous with "computing" and "software" in two short years. Cloud Expo is the new PC Expo, Comdex, and InternetWorld of our decade. By 2012, more than 50,000 delegates per year will participate in Cloud Expo worldwide.

Is Monitoring Virtual, Physical and Cloud Assets Easy?

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:30:00 EST

Deep Virtual Server Monitoring: CPU ready, Memory Balloon, Memory Zero, and many more granular Metrics, monitor Physical, Virtual, and Cloud: Services, applications, servers and more. Onsite/remote datacenters, hybrid environments, outsourced infrastructure, Real World Cast Savings: Per-Physical-Server Licensing. Reduce costs up to 90%