Microsoft to Keynote at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
The next generation of Microsoft Online Services brings with it many exciting new features. In his keynote on Day 4 at the 7th International Cloud Expo, Eron Kelly, Senior Director of Product Management for the Microsoft Online Services, will deep dive into the enhancements coming for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and other Microsoft Online Services. He will also discuss the current and future service capabilities, partner opportunities, and service roadmap.
Cloud Hosting
CariNet provides the best private cloud hosting services period. We provide hosting, training and consulting on private server clusters, private clouds and hybrid cluster / cloud hosting environments. We provide custom hosting solutions with seamless scalability, increased reliability, and unparalleled ease of management. While our focus is trained on the future, we never lose sight of what made us the premier cloud hosting provider we are today; top-notch support for all of our customers. CariNet has continued growing since 1997 primarily on word of mouth referrals from our global base of customers. CariNet’s datacenters host customers from over 150 countries. We know that all of our customers are our partners because our continued success and growth is 100% dependent on your continued success and growth.
CariNet has become a leader in the cloud hosting field with a wide variety of cloud offerings to supplement our traditional servers and server clusters. Whether you work in Linux or Windows, you will love CariNet. We are partners with 3tera in offering their AppLogic Cloud Operating System and we are the only hosting company in the world with an Intel Premier Partnership. We have hosted the world for well over a decade, and are fluent in all things Internet and server related. We build, own and operate all of our datacenters and facilities in the United States and are capable of handling customers and demands of any size. We have also expanded our global footprint through partnerships with other datacenters around the world. Contact CariNet; your Complete Cloud Computing Center.
Cloud Computing Vision Necessary to Succeed in the Cloud
As cloud computing adoption increases, many enterprises are not developing a full vision for their cloud computing efforts. Most of the projects being deployed in the cloud are more for testing and proof of concept than actual production, but there are projects that show such success in the cloud that they are left there permanently. I am not one to discourage enterprises from 'testing the waters' of the cloud in whatever fashion they deem proper, but I do highly recommend that an overall 'cloud computing vision' be developed when the cloud is to be officially adopted as a production resource.
K7 Cloud Solutions to Exhibit at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that K7 Networks, a provider of high-quality security software solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 7th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1?4, 2010, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. K7 Cloud Solution's Cloud Computing Products enable Hosting Providers with technology to offer Platform as a service (100% API Compatible with Google App Engine(TM)), Web Application Scalability as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service. K7 Cloud Solution's three products are Cyclozzo(PaaS), ScaleInfra(Auto Scaling) and FluidVM(IaaS).
Grow Your SMB with Cloud Storage
The basic principle of growing the business is finding the best person to get the job done, with reasonable cost. That is why the payroll is outsourced to ADP; In-house Email Server replaced by Google Apps Premier; Business contacts are managed by Salesforce.com. Your in-house data storage will grow as your business grow. Over time, it will become expensive. For example, it may take a couple of days to backup 50G data to a FTP server. It will take 200 days to do the same thing for 5 Terabytes of data. Your business premise usually is the slowest link to the Internet. It will not be a good idea to have local storage grow to a level that it is difficult to transfer to a different location over Internet.
Brocade Wants to Kill Your Cloud Buzz
In his keynote address at the NetEvents Press Summit in Istanbul, Brocade CMO John McHugh pulled a major "Debbie Downer," decrying the immediacy of cloud computing and calling it "overhyped". He further predicted that true utility computing is "probably 10 or more years away" and counseled IT in the meantime to work with a single vendor to build a private cloud "inside a metal cage." He also used the opportunity to defend networking pure-plays like Brocade and take what seemed possibly to be a thinly veiled swipe at HP for its acquisition of 3Com, saying that integrated server-network solutions "have failed to provide customers with the flexibility and economies they need." And, finally, he wrapped up his downbeat dialectic by apparently speaking for the entire industry and saying ?We just don't [at this time] have technical, legal and security [capabilities] to engage fully with cloud.? It sounds like the little Dutch boy needs a nap and when he wakes up he should read the latest research from CompTIA which reveals, among other things, that, in the next year, 72% of end-user organizations will expand the number and types of cloud services they use. Brocade shorts, are you listening?
Microsoft to Keynote at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
The next generation of Microsoft Online Services brings with it many exciting new features. In his keynote on Day 4 at the 7th International Cloud Expo, Eron Kelly, Senior Director of Product Management for the Microsoft Online Services, will deep dive into the enhancements coming for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and other Microsoft Online Services. He will also discuss the current and future service capabilities, partner opportunities, and service roadmap.
Nimsoft?s Andy Kicklighter to Present at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
Monitoring requirements have fundamentally changed as a result of cloud-based services and offerings. Essentially, cloud-based solutions have become an extension of your business-critical environment, and to keep business services running smoothly requires a new approach to monitoring. Today, you not only need to monitor your traditional physical data center infrastructure and newer virtualized environments, but also your public cloud-based resources, often an internal private cloud environment as well, and if you are bringing to market a cloud-based service there is a third set of monitoring challenges. In his session at the 7th International Cloud Expo, Andy Kicklighter, Sr. Technical Marketing Manager for Cloud at Nimsoft, will focus on what you need to know about monitoring for each of these three scenarios, and how Nimsoft?s monitoring solution addresses these needs.
Cloud Computing Vision Necessary to Succeed in the Cloud
As cloud computing adoption increases, many enterprises are not developing a full vision for their cloud computing efforts. Most of the projects being deployed in the cloud are more for testing and proof of concept than actual production, but there are projects that show such success in the cloud that they are left there permanently. I am not one to discourage enterprises from 'testing the waters' of the cloud in whatever fashion they deem proper, but I do highly recommend that an overall 'cloud computing vision' be developed when the cloud is to be officially adopted as a production resource.
Don?t Believe the Hype ? Understand Cloud Computing Before Jumping In
It?s great to see analysts like Gartner urging caution around cloud adoption because it?s important to see beyond the hype. Cloud computing will not be right for everyone and everything and it?s important to realize that not all cloud services are created equal. Having entered early into the industry, it is gratifying to see that my predictions for the benefits that cloud brings business have become reality: we?re now at the stage where cloud is going beyond early adopters and is reaching its peak as defined by the Gartner hype cycle. It is during this phase that customers need to be extra vigilant. With previous generation services being rebranded to take advantage of the latest buzzword and industry standards still in their infancy, it really is a case of ?buyer beware.?
K7 Cloud Solutions to Exhibit at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that K7 Networks, a provider of high-quality security software solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 7th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1?4, 2010, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. K7 Cloud Solution's Cloud Computing Products enable Hosting Providers with technology to offer Platform as a service (100% API Compatible with Google App Engine(TM)), Web Application Scalability as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service. K7 Cloud Solution's three products are Cyclozzo(PaaS), ScaleInfra(Auto Scaling) and FluidVM(IaaS).
System Migration in the Cloud at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
ShadowProtect provides fast and reliable disaster recovery and system migration to the same system, dissimilar hardware and to and from virtual environments ? P2P, P2V, V2P and V2V. ShadowProtect solutions are an integral part of industry-leading cloud solutions as the engine for backup, replication and failover of servers, desktops and laptops. In his session at the 7th International Cloud Expo, Dave Stufflebeam, Technical Account Manager at StorageCraft, will present the ShadowProtect product line of automatic disk-based backup, disaster recovery and system migration solutions. He will also demonstrate ShadowProtect and show how easy it is to recover, protect and migrate your systems to and from the cloud.
Data Residency and the Rise of the Quasi-Public Cloud
One of the issues surrounding cloud adoption is the data governance requirements a customer may have, and what, if any, controls the cloud provider offers. For example, a financial institution within a jurisdiction such as Switzerland or Australia has regulatory compliance requirements stipulating that customer information must remain within the jurisdiction. For a large organization, this ?data residency? issue may be enough of a deterrent to adopting a public cloud solution ? unless that cloud hovers over their jurisdiction, they must look at on-premise solutions as the only viable alternative. It?s interesting to note that encryption of the data is not a viable option here. In some jurisdictions, the regulations treat encrypted values as clear text. The value, in any format, is still the value, and therefore at risk. In discussing it with a number of CIOs recently, even without a regulatory requirement, they were still unwilling to simply encrypt their data. Why? Moore?s law, for one. As one CIO pointed out ? ?five years from now, that notebook on your desk will likely be able to decrypt anything that I can encrypt today?. Another mentioned that ?managing encryption keys is not practical. If I have a million records of data in the cloud, it?s wholly impractical to extract, re-encrypt, and re-insert all of those records, even if it was physically possible?. The only practical alternative is to keep the data at home.
Spiceworks Co-Founder to Present at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
IT professionals at the world?s five million small and mid-sized businesses control the adoption of cloud services for nearly 200 million employees. They?re also tasked with figuring out how to effectively manage increasingly hybrid cloud computing/on-premise technology environments. In his session at the 7th International Cloud Expo, Jay Hallberg, Co-Founder & VP of Spiceworks, will discuss how more than one million IT pros are using free IT management software and the world?s largest online small business tech community to collaborate and better manage their cloud services. In addition, cloud services vendors will learn new ways to reach and distribute their applications to the elusive small business tech buyer.
Grow Your SMB with Cloud Storage
The basic principle of growing the business is finding the best person to get the job done, with reasonable cost. That is why the payroll is outsourced to ADP; In-house Email Server replaced by Google Apps Premier; Business contacts are managed by Salesforce.com. Your in-house data storage will grow as your business grow. Over time, it will become expensive. For example, it may take a couple of days to backup 50G data to a FTP server. It will take 200 days to do the same thing for 5 Terabytes of data. Your business premise usually is the slowest link to the Internet. It will not be a good idea to have local storage grow to a level that it is difficult to transfer to a different location over Internet.
Windows Azure with Java at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
Microsoft's Windows Azure platform is a virtualized and abstracted application platform that can be used to build highly scalable and reliable applications, with Java. The environment consists of a set of application services such as "no-SQL" table storage, blob storage, queues, relational database service, Internet service bus, access control, etc. Java applications can be built using these services via Web services APIs, and your own JVM, without having to be concerned with the underlying server OS and infrastructure. In his session at the 7th International Cloud Expo, David Chou, technical architect at Microsoft, will provide an overview of the Windows Azure platform environment, and cover how to develop and deploy Java applications in Windows Azure and how to architect horizontally scalable applications in Windows Azure.
JIRA Studio Hosted Development Suite
JIRA Studio is a hosted software development tool suite that supports every role of a high-performing development team through every stage of your software development process. JIRA Studio lets your team focus on quickly delivering great software without worrying about tool infrastructure. JIRA Studio is used by hundreds of organizations large and small, from multinational companies, government agencies, and worldwide service firms to early stage start-ups and open source projects.
Dell Helps Customers Accelerate Cloud Computing Models
To help customers capitalize on the efficiencies of the Virtual Era, Dell on Wednesday introduced new capabilities and services for its Virtual Integrated System (VIS) architecture. Dell recognizes businesses have made significant technology purchases and its approach to converged architectures allows them to preserve and fully leverage their existing data center infrastructure without creating technology silos or undertaking a rip-and-replace strategy. The Dell VIS architecture and services help customers transition new and existing technologies to an open, cloud-like model that dynamically provisions application workloads and unifies heterogeneous compute, storage and networking assets into a common pool of resources. As a result, it?s now possible for customers to lower the costs associated with managing IT, improve the flexibility needed to respond to changing business needs, and more efficiently deploy and move application workloads across physical and virtual resources.
Compliance in the Cloud at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
More and more enterprises consider Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) part of their overall IT strategy, leading to questions around compliance and security. In his session at the 7th International Cloud Expo, Davi Ottenheimer will answer these questions including where does data reside and how is it being protected? Has the service provider gone through specific compliance audit controls for their data center and infrastructure? What control over access is given to my environment? How is role-based access managed? And how are security and firewall policies managed?
CloudFucius Councils: Cloud?s Love/Hate Relationship
I?m afraid so....let?s get more! I don?t like it and....here?s a check. I?m not safe....but I need another. I?m so sick of you...give me a big hug. As I?ve mentioned on a few occasions, it seems like a new cloud computing survey gets released on a weekly basis and often the results make me want to scratch my head.
Iron, Power, and Cloud Computing: Let's Get Real
It wasn't long ago that Green Computing was not part of any conversation. To be sure, there were concerns about monitor radiation, and disgust that the West was sending old systems to developing nations so that very poorly paid laborers could bust them up and be directly exposed to the poisons within. This disposal issue has not gone away. But today, Green is meant to refer to energy usage, to reducing carbon footprints (even if you have to charter a jet to Bali to make your point), to keep us from unwittingly turning the Earth into Venus.
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Defining Your Cloud Strategy and Roadmap
You?ve heard the buzz about cloud computing and its potential benefits, but what will that mean specifically for your business? Where are your greatest opportunities for leveraging the cloud and what ROI can you expect? How can you plan for responsible adoption of the cloud that maximizes benefits while reducing risk? In his session at the 7th International Cloud Expo, Rinat Shagisultanov, Principal Consultant, Custom Application Development Practice, at Neudesic (a Microsoft Gold Partner), will show how a cloud computing assessment can bring the cloud into sharp focus for an organization through activities that find cloud synergies, mitigate concerns, identify promising opportunities and analyze them for ROI and suitability. From this analysis a strategy can be formed for sound use of cloud computing by your company along with a roadmap for optimum adoption. To illustrate the process an assessment walkthrough and conclusions for a hypothetical company will be reviewed.
Cloud Computing: Sentrigo Joins Cloud Security Alliance
Sentrigo, Inc. on Tuesday announced that it has joined the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) as a corporate sponsor to help develop best practices for protecting sensitive data and achieving compliance in cloud computing deployments. Sentrigo will work with the Cloud Security Alliance to help organizations best understand how different approaches for risk mitigation and compliance can address the unique requirements of cloud-based applications, especially as they relate to sensitive data. Sentrigo?s Hedgehog database security solutions suite is built on a unique, distributed architecture that monitors and audits data access of each database virtual server, allowing effective security and efficient operation in the cloud.
?Out, Out, Damn?d Cisco?: HP
Sounding as obsessive-compulsive as Lady Macbeth, HP said Monday that it had finally ripped all the Cisco-supplied WAN routers and switches out of its six data centers and replaced them with its own networking widgetry. HP swore to go Cisco-free in April when its acquisition of network pioneer 3COM closed. You can?t very well give aid and comfort to a one-time friend that?s turned on you and now wants to sell servers.
Live Forensics and the Cloud
Cloud Computing offers a sense of ?vastness? in terms of storage and remote processing. According to Simpson Garfinkil, a major challenge to any digital forensics investigator investigating data within the cloud; can be an inability to locate or identify data or code that is lost when single data structures are split into elements.
To Cloud or Not to Cloud
I've been asked quite a few times, "when will it be a good time to get into cloud computing?" by potential clients. My answer is typically it depends... I know, I know.... not much direction there, but really it all depends. Why ? Well, some may state, "we all know of the much beaten security concerns, and we will ensure that systems on our end are secured and synced to work in tandem with the vendors security." Can one ensure some degree of monitoring by the implementation of an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) residing within the system hosting the gateway into the cloud? The intent of such an implementation can be to monitor the cloud gateway system's software for anomalies, variances from expected traffic and quantity of access into an enterprise's cloud service.
Automated Governance: Cloud Computing's Lynchpin for Success or Failure
As cloud-delivered services become the coin of the productivity realm, how those services are managed as they are developed, deployed, and used -- across a services lifecycle -- increasingly determines their true value. And yet governance is still too often fractured, poorly extended across the development-and-deployment continuum, and often not able to satisfy the new complexity inherent in cloud models.
Controlling Cloud and iPad. Be the Usher, Not the Bouncer
The purpose of an usher, be it at an old time movie theater or a wedding, is to take people to suitable seats and see that they?re comfortable. The purpose of a bouncer is to throw out bums and keep the peace. These two words conjure pictures in your head of similar folks, but their function is completely opposite. Many of the things confronting IT today that are as much driven by the business and buzz as by IT and requirements are Cloud Computing and Wireless Devices. Look back historically and find parallels to these things, they?ll help you decide how to handle both phenomenon.
Minnesota and Private Cloud
I had a blog partially written for today when @GeorgeVHulme tweeted this: "WAHOO! Minnesota goes Private Cloud!". And that changed my thoughts and direction completely. Here?s the article George linked to State of Minnesota Signs Historic Cloud Computing Agreement With Microsoft. The fact that it was private cloud and with Microsoft got me to read the article. And it?s actually a pretty impressive story for both the state and for Microsoft. In essence, this takes ?private cloud? to a different place than I would have envisioned. They?re outsourcing. Yes, there?s a line in the sand, beyond which the state has complete control, but they have essentially given Microsoft their infrastructure (the collaboration and email piece of it anyway) and are holding Microsoft accountable for security and software maintenance. That?s a pretty solid plan if the admins at the state can manage the applications as they need/desire. There are gray areas that would need to be covered, like what types of threats are user/application threats that Microsoft isn?t responsible for, what?s the escalation path, etc. But those are no doubt covered in the contract, which we don?t have access to.
HP Plays to Oracle?s Card
Pretending it?s not a prey animal, Oracle?s fair weather friend HP this week announced turnkey private cloud solutions for Oracle applications that should shorten and simplify the deployment process. HP wants to be an easy-to-buy-from one-stop shop. The infrastructure widgetry on offer is targeted at the mid- and enterprise markets and called HP Private Cloud Solutions for Oracle Applications. The stuff is tailored to complex, multi-tiered environments so clients can deploy Oracle applications in hours and not dick around for months with configurations and architectural designs.
What Is New in Gladinet CloudAFS 2
Today we announced the ?Home Directory? support for Gladinet CloudAFS 2, which works with major cloud storage services such as Amazon S3, AT&T Synaptic Storage, EMC Atmos, Google Storage, Mezeo, Nirvanix, Peer1 and Windows Azure. The Gladinet development team is also working on the Rackspace CloudFiles, OpenStack, Caringo CAStor and other integration support. Pretty soon, these cloud storage services will be integrated to Gladinet Cloud Suite.
Microsoft Ices Cloud Computing Deal with Minnesota
Another apparently cool thing: The agreement can extend down to the county and local levels, too. "We currently consume cloud-based services for key financial business applications," said Marilyn McCarter, CIO of Scott County, Minnesota. "This agreement creates a tremendous potential opportunity for counties." Scott County is a relatively small but fast-growing county on the edge of the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Microsoft will be responsible for app management in this agreement. This should be a good test case for delivering Cloud Computing services remotely to a relatively transparent customer. You can be sure the company will be scrutinized, and its cost savings and other potential benefits widely debated.
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Harnessing Hybrid Clouds ? Agility and Choice
How can cloud platforms from different vendors be used to create hybrid clouds that benefit developers and consumers of these platforms? In their session at the 7th International Cloud Expo, Jonathan Bryce, CTO & Founder of The Rackspace Cloud, and Joseph Hofstader, Cloud Computing Architect/Evangelist at Microsoft, will look at Rackspace?s Cloud Servers for Windows and Microsoft?s Windows Azure and address such topics as: The differences between the two platforms The developer experience Scenarios in which companies may wish to employ aspects of both platforms in a hybrid cloud experience
Cloud Computing: TwinStrata Releases Cloud Storage Appliance
TwinStrata on Monday announced that its CloudArray software is now available as an appliance. The company's new SAN appliance offers all the features and benefits of its CloudArray software in a pre-configured, performance-optimized package that can be quickly and easily installed in any data center or colocation facility. CloudArray is an enterprise-class data protection solution that enables organizations to create affordable and secure data protection and disaster recovery plans that include online remote storage for backups, archives and critical business data. In the event of a disruption or outage, the data can be restored on-site, off-site, or in the cloud. CloudArray seamlessly integrates existing applications to the storage cloud while providing secure, anywhere, anytime application accessibility.
RIM Unveils its Tablet
Having been kicked in the teeth by both iPhone and Android smartphones this year, Research In Motion unveiled its rumored iPad copycat Monday in an attempt to stop both Apple and Google from leaching more of its revenues.
HP, Intel, Yahoo! Announce New Contributors to Open Cirrus Cloud Computing
HP, Intel, and Yahoo! on Monday announced that four new organizations will join Open Cirrus, a global, multiple data center, open source test bed for the advancement of cloud computing research. China Mobile Research Institute (CMRI), the Supercomputing Center of Galicia (CESGA), China Telecom's Guangzhou Research Institute (GSTA), and Georgia Tech University's Center for Experimental Research in Computer Systems (CERCS) have become the latest to join the research effort, expanding the global footprint of Open Cirrus to 14 locations and creating the most geographically diverse cloud computing test bed currently available to researchers. Cloud computing significantly reduces costs for software providers and allows customers to have access to powerful applications on a wider variety of devices. However, driving advancements in the cloud approach has presented significant challenges to developers. One barrier to innovation is providing research and development (R&D) professionals access to next-generation cloud computing resources in order to develop new tools, techniques and applications.
Cisco/EMC/VMware Triad Lets Orange Play With Its VBlocks
Orange Business Services, the France Telecom Orange global systems integration unit has teamed up VCE Coalition stakeholders Cisco, EMC and VMware to offer IaaS and SaaS cloud services to enterprise customers in as many as 132 countries. The four companies joined cyber-hands today for a rousing chorus of "Kumbaya", announcing an ostensible "alliance", dubbed Flexible 4 Business. As the delivery agent in the mix, OBS will deploy and manage premises-based and hosted private clouds using VCE Vblock Infrastucture packages. Services will initially include tiered IaaS services as well as backup, communications and security services, and consulting services for legacy system integration and migration. Offerings will be priced on both capex and opex models and some of the services will migrate into Orange's SME public cloud in the future. Beyond the announcement and selling stuff to Orange, the role of the other three companies in the alliance is unclear.
Cloud Sherpas Recognized by Everything Channel?s CRN Magazine as a Top Cloud VAR
Leading Reseller Publication Says Cloud Sherpas “Gets It” When Referring to the Benefits of Cloud Computing for Enterprise Customers ATLANTA, GA – September 27, 2010 – Cloud Sherpas, a leading Google Apps solution provider, today announced that it has been recognized as one of the “30 Cloud VARs That Get It” by Everything Channel’s CRN [...]
The VMware Guy ? VMware?s Five Steps to Cloud Computing
Looking to foray into the cloud? Contact The VMware Guy to implement virtualization and cloud computing projects - from proof of concept through production deployment. http://www.thevmwareguy.com Recently, VMware?s Channel Chief shared how VMware will bring solution providers into the fold to deliver and deploy Cloud Computing solutions for their clients. He outlined a 5 step [...]
Live Forensics and the Cloud - Part 1
Within the realms of digital forensics analysts traditionally performed analysis on static data, either from a core dump, bit to bit imaging etc. Recently we have seen an increased focus directed at the live forensics environment. As users rely more on mobile and other remote devices to access data on demand; data possibly held in some manner of cloud environment, investigators will have to adapt their mode of investigations to suit. I recall reading a marketing pitch a while aback where some vendor claimed that an advantage of Cloud Computing is, an ability to conduct live forensics without disrupting mission critical systems. How effective this claim may be, is subject to examination.
Cloud Computing: Amazon Backs Cloud Storage Start-up
Cloud storage newcomer Cirtas Systems said Monday that it got $10 million in A funding from NEA, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Amazon. The company is selling an interoperable Bluejet Cloud Storage Controller solution to medium to large enterprise data centers that?s supposed to make cloud storage work like onsite enterprise storage arrays. The 2U 3.5TB appliance, based on DRAM, solid-state drives and 7,200-rpm hard disk drives, combines WAN optimization techniques and encryption with storage array virtualization capabilities. It caches high-priority data locally and stores secondary data in the cloud using WAN optimization technology and claims data-compression ratios of 2:1 to 3:1, depending on the data type, and a data deduplication ratio as high as 50:1 for backup.
Oracle Unveils Exalogic Elastic Cloud
Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, an integrated middleware machine, was announced on Monday at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud is an integrated hardware and software system engineered, tested, and tuned by Oracle to run Java and non-Java applications with extreme performance. It provides a complete cloud application infrastructure, consolidating the widest possible range of Java and non-Java application types and workloads and meeting demanding service-level requirements. The software has been tuned to exploit the I/O fabric in the Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud machine in order to deliver performance results 10x better than a standard application server configuration.
Can We Cut the Cloud Computing Overhype?
To be fair, most Cloud presentations I've seen from vendors recently do define what specific challenges they address, and how they solve them. But it would be nice to have a standard map of common IT scenarios and processes to which Cloud can be applied, with vendors pointing to precisely where in these scenarios their products fit. Maybe it's just a simple matter of staying with the SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS progression.
Cloud or Not to Cloud That Is The Question
Markus Shulz, the Global Compliance Officer at Zurich Financial Services explained on Thursday that in a post-financial crises, regulation is expected to increase, specifically in a short term environment, but will likely have long-term effects. While there are many facets to the implications of an increasingly regulated financial environment, this concept does set the stage as to whether cloud computing would survive the obstacles of a strongly regulated industry
Malware and Cloud Jacking
Malicious software or malware is a security nightmare. One can agree with a statement that malware in the internet is a growing epidemic and is costing industry billions of dollars each year. According to Microsoft malware ?is short for malicious software and is typically used as a catch-all term to refer to any software designed to cause damage to a single computer, server, or computer network, whether it's a virus, spyware, et al.?
Larry?s Got Himself a Cloud Machine
Not long ago Larry Ellison was the guy who couldn?t stand the taste of the word cloud in his mouth. Well, now he?s got one of his own. Well, to be precise, he?s got a rack-mounted pre-packaged integrated middleware machine ? and if you?ve never heard of such a thing it?s because it?s supposed to be the only one around. Larry calls it ?one big honking cloud.?
Currency of the Realm
Productivity gains are the great economic miracle worker, allowing seemingly competing economies to grow simultaneously. The irony of Nic Carr's question--whether IT matters because everybody has access to the same stuff--is that it matters because of this. IT can be a great leveler of the playing field. In recent years, tiny Ireland and tinier Estonia emerged as first-class economies by embracing technology aggressively. (Ireland's recent problems stem from the same sloppy banking practices that hit the US so hard in late 2008, not from technology.)
RightScale Takes in $25m Third Round
RightScale has come into another $25 million in funding. That makes about $47 million in the cloud management start-up. The third-round investment was led by Tenaya Capital (once Lehman Brothers Venture Partners) and joined by DAG Ventures with other current investors, Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures and Presidio Ventures, joining in. RightScale CEO Michael Crandell says they forced the money on him. The company hadn?t exhausted the $22 million it had and wasn?t looking for more but he was cornered at a social event. He took it because he knew he would eventually he looking for more.
Cloud Computing in Philippines, Asia Presents Major Major Challenge
There are other positive signs. The growth of business process outsourcing (BPO)--mostly call centers, but with increasing tech sown in--has created 400,000 new jobs in the past decade, and brings in several billion dollars annually. I have a client as part of my small consulting business who has supported the creation of about 50 jobs here, and things are working out well. I have never personally experienced day-to-day corruption here, having navigated several tricky bureaucratic procedures with nothing untoward along the way. Noy's vision of "combating inequality (which) remains one of the greatest challenges of our times," as he told the UN, has many obstacles strewn in its path. "The chasm between the powerful and powerless, the have and have-nots, remain to be bridged," he said.
Top Four Cloud Computing Models
The umbrella of cloud computing is a big one. Like any technology in the early stages of adoption, there are competing models, each claiming to be the optimal configuration and each, more than likely, suited to specific kinds of businesses and specific kinds of business needs. Indeed, the number of cloud permutations is nearly as diverse as the number of companies using them.
Still, over time, there are consistent models that begin to emerge. Here’s a look at some of the top cloud computing models in production today:
1. The Internal Cloud. This is, in many ways, the most common type of cloud computing. The internal cloud occurs within a single organization, allowing them to implement virtualization for in-house services. The premise is that internal infrastructure including server, networks, storage and applications will be connected and virtualized, which in turn allows It to move things around in such a way as to maximize efficiency. This is different from a simply virtualized situation in that it allows a higher degree of automation and even a chargeback capability for the other business units.
2. External Cloud Hosting. This type of cloud model uses an external service via a cloud provider, and it’s access by the organization via the Internet. This is probably the most cost-effective way to utilize the cloud. The big concern with this model, of course, is security. Performance is also a concern, in many quarters.
3. The Hybrid Cloud. The Hybrid cloud model mixes both internal cloud computing and external cloud hosting. This is where most businesses shine. It allows a highly customized approach, and lets a business use the cloud when it makes sense and avoid ti when it doesn’t make sense.
4. Traditional SaaS. SaaS is still out there, and it’s especially common among SMBs. A small business that uses 37Signals for project management or Google for its company email is adopting the cloud on the most micro of levels.
As you can imagine, each model fits some business models better than others. Large corporations might benefit from the internal cloud, whereas smaller businesses will most likely be external or traditional SaaS. As cloud computing continues to evolve, businesses will continue to shift back and forth through these four major paradigms.
Internal 
Cloud Computing
Click here to join the LinkedIn Group
Cloud Usage and Worker Mobility Increase Need For Stronger Security Policies
Growth in cloud computing and in the number of workers who are either mobile or who work at home are co-enabling trends that are bringing increasing headaches for IT security personnel. Many recent reports have drawn attention to the growing security challenges in cloud-based IT. But, now, a just-released report by Symantec shows the other side of the risk equation, revealing that one third of remote and mobile workers exhibit potentially unsafe web browsing habits, and in comparison with their in-office colleagues, they are as much as five times more likely to visit inappropriate sites, and almost six times more likely to trigger undetected malware contact. Also, in a report last June, the company showed that more than 80% of web sites blocked as malicious by IT security policies were actually legitimate sites that had been compromised. All this makes it clear that it is more important than every for companies of all sizes to tighten up their IT security, especially where remote workers are concerned.
CSS Corp to Present on the Services Cloud at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
One of the least covered cloud computing topics has been its impact on traditional IT services and the outsourcing business. While there are many opportunities to provide IT consulting services to help organizations leverage cloud computing, there is a compelling argument for services companies to utilize the cloud to optimize the delivery of their entire portfolio of services. In his session at the 7th International Cloud Expo, Ahmar Abbas, Sr. VP of Infrastructure Management at CSS Corp, will provide insight into how cloud can be a pivotal platform to deliver a broad portfolio of services ranging from IT Helpdesk, Remote Infrastructure Management, Performance Testing, Analytics and Desktop Application Management.
Canadian Cloud Computing Solution for European Commission Cloud Log Jam
The New York Times recently reported that cloud computing is not being adopted as quickly in Europe as in other parts of the world because of European Commission privacy laws that place rigid limits on the movement of information beyond the borders of the 27-country European Union. Industry lobbyists are working to loosen and streamline existing laws on international data transfer to permit the eventual creation of a comprehensive, workable, global privacy framework that is consistent, flexible, transparent and principles-based. Cloud Ventures, a Canadian consultancy incubating Canadian Cloud technology, is forwarding a technology company Esotera that has a technology which solves the data privacy concerns of European countries in a single sweep.
Popular Dropbox Store-Sync-Share Cloud Service Morphing Into Middleware
Dropbox, one of many cloud-based services for storing, syncing and sharing files, yesterday announced updates for their Android and Apple editions, a new version for Blackberry, and that there are now more than one hundred apps that have incorporated their API. Updates - natch. Blackberry - cool. 100+ apps - hold the phone! Dropbox is already one of the slicker consumer cloud storage providers, but it is locked in a perpetual feature race with Box.net and other popular services for supremacy in an unsustainably crowded field of similar offerings. What sets Dropbox apart is its API, the strategy behind it, and the runway ahead of it. It enables many different kinds of applications to use Dropbox as a data source, destination, or transfer mechanism, forming a sort of interactive data communications fabric in the cloud. Until now, syncing/sharing has been either a stand-alone service available from many different providers, or a captive capability embedded within many different individual applications. By making its API freely available to app developers, Dropbox frees them from rolling their own sync/store capabilities and it makes them a marketing channel for its own subscription service, giving it a significant leg up on its direct competitors. And, most importantly, it enables subscribers to use the Dropbox service to enable transparent data sharing between multiple applications, which is a new thing in the cloud.
Compuware to Present on Cloud Performance at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
The CloudSleuth community is a great place for enterprises to learn about performance in the cloud. As a cloud service provider, CloudSleuth also provides some great opportunities to promote your services and content to an interested and engaged audience. In his session at the 7th International Cloud Expo, Doug Willoughby, currently the Director of Cloud Computing for Compuware, will discuss the various opportunities available and how to get the most from CloudSleuth as a service provider.