Latest News from CloudCommons 2012

This Week in Cloud, May 16, 2013: The rogue cloud crackdown, IT departments are the new CSPs, Cloud failure points. And more…

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:58:05 EDT

CA World 2013!

The Smart Enterprise team spent time at CA World 2013 capturing key stories, major announcements, and interviews with thought leaders on the show floor. View the coverage on Smart Enterprise.

Cloud News

A survey by PMG reveals that companies are starting to crackdown on employees’ use of rogue cloud services, according to this Forbes article. Compliance and security concerns are leading the drive to tougher restrictions on services like DropBox, Skype, and social media sites.
A new survey by InformationWeek reveals that 40% of companies are now using cloud services and 51% of organizations cite security defects in cloud technology as a top risk, according to this InformationWeek article. The study also revealed that adoption of SaaS was down 8% since last year.
3Tcloud, a China-based cloud service provider, has installed more than 6,000 cloud terminal devices in schools across the city of Zhuji, according to this ZDnet article. The company has installed the devices in 118 schools and plans to start expanding beyond Zhuji.

Featured Content

Video: CloudViews Unplugged

In this episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss the growth of Microsoft Azure, the EPA's move to cloud, seven misconceptions of cloud, international cloud computing stories and more!

Featured Article

Know Your Cloud Failure Points

By David Strom, Independent Writer

Part of securing your cloud-based apps is in understanding where the failure points are and how to recover from them. This isn't as easy as it sounds, because clouds can get complex as bits and pieces of various servers and links are added. What starts out as a simple web server turns into a database or two running atop of a series of application servers. And if more than one programmer is working on this configuration, knowing what VMs are dependent on others and how to restart particular services in the appropriate order isn't always obvious.

There is a solution. Take a look at how Netflix has attacked this problem. They test their large Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure continually with what they call "Chaos Monkey." Last year two engineers from Netflix, Cory Bennett and Ariel Tseitlin, blogged about their invention and how they deliberately tried to fail at their jobs. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Are IT departments becoming cloud service providers? In this Forbes blog, Joe McKendrick discusses a new survey which reveals that large companies are starting to view their IT department as providers of private cloud services.
Should retailers start making the move to cloud? In this Wired blog, Vish Ganapathy discusses how a move to the cloud could help brick-and-mortar shops improve their business and relationship with customers.
Should the HR department worry about employees using the cloud? In this InfoWorld article, David Linthicum details why HR should stop worrying about the cloud and instead focus on how to make employees more productive.

Trend Watch

Can big data really do everything its proponents say it can? In this Foreign Policy blog, Kate Crawford discusses the issue of “dirty-data” and how algorithms can be biased.
Can DevOps drive better collaboration and communication between operations and development? In this Talking Innovation podcast, Lonne Jaffee explains why IT leaders and CIOs need DevOps on their radar.

Upcoming Cloud Events

CTIA 2013: May 21-23, Las Vegas, NV
Cloud East: May 24, Cambridge, UK
Cloud Expo: June 10-13, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, May 9, 2013: U.K. issues cloud-first policy, Dell acquires Enstratius, OpenStack’s growing pains. And more…

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:28:05 EDT

CA World 2013!

The Smart Enterprise team spent time at CA World 2013 capturing key stories, major announcements, and interviews with thought leaders on the show floor. View the coverage on Smart Enterprise.

Cloud News

The U.K. government announced that it plans to formally adopt a cloud-first policy, according to this InformationWeek article. As part of the cloud-first policy, government agencies will be required to evaluate cloud solutions to meet their IT needs before considering other options.
Dell announced that it is purchasing Enstratius, a cloud computing startup that provides tools and dashboards for private and hybrid clouds, according to this GigaOM article.
Adobe announced that it will not be offering the next edition of its Creative Suite on disks and instead focus on selling its software to customers via its Creative Cloud, which allows users to keep up to date with the latest software and backup their files to the cloud for a monthly fee, according to this InformationWeek article.
A new Kickstarter project aims to help users connect to the cloud when they’re without power or an internet connection with the BRCK, a portable wi-fi router and mobile modem, according to this Quartz article.

Featured Content

Video: CloudViews Unplugged

Featured Article

Mobility Trends Demand CIOs Become Chief Experience Officers

By George Watt, CA Technologies

Recently, while thinking about several of the technology trends impacting mobility and mobile computing, my thoughts again turned to the one trend that I believe is driving all of the others. This trend has the potential to dramatically change the role of IT and IT leaders.

In order to better understand the overarching trend, first consider some of the most important trends impacting mobility: multichannel apps, app atomization, multi-persona, and context awareness and sensing. Those are but a few of the key technology trends impacting mobility and mobile computing. There are a host of others, such as open data that are making mobile applications even more powerful and valuable. Not to mention the advances in the mobile devices themselves. We really have moved past "feature rich mobile phones" and now have powerful mobile computing platforms which happen to be capable of placing a phone call. Though, to return to my original question, what does this mean? What do these things have in common? Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is cloud computing revolutionizing the manufacturing industry? In this Forbes blog, Louis Columbus discusses why manufacturing companies are moving to the cloud and describes 10 ways in which cloud computing is revolutionizing the industry.
Is OpenStack experiencing growing pains? In this Cloud Storm Chasers blog, Marvin Waschke discusses the recent news of OpenStack members questioning the standard’s interoperability and why interoperability is so difficult to achieve.

Trend Watch

Is allowing BYOD (bring your own device) right for your organization? In this Forbes blog, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes discusses how BYOD is shifting the corporate policy, how to determine if BYOD is right for your organization, and what to do after you’ve determined to move forward with a BYOD policy.
Is social media changing the way we live our lives? In this Innovation Today blog, Jacob Lamm discusses the movie Disconnect and analyzes the way the film portrays a generation that has grown up with social media at their fingertips.

Upcoming Cloud Events

RICON East: May 13-14, New York, NY
CTIA 2013: May 21-23, Las Vegas, NV
Cloud East: May 24, Cambridge, UK

This Week in Cloud, April 18, 2013: AWS Certification Program, CloudStore 300% sales increase, 25% of companies in cloud. And more…

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:50:04 EDT

CA World 2013!

The Smart Enterprise team just returned from CA World 2013 where they were writing blogs, live tweeting, and shooting interviews and booth walkthroughs. You can view the coverage on Smart Enterprise.

Cloud News

Amazon announced a new certification program that’s intended to show a person’s ability to write specifications, build, run and manage an AWS implementation, according to this GigaOM article. The certification program is targeted toward solutions architects, SysOps administrators, and developers.
In March, the U.K. Government’s CloudStore increased sales by 300% over the previous month, according to this InformationWeek article. The increase in sales could be a good sign for the CloudStore which has only shown modest results since its launch.
A new survey by RightScale reveals that 25% of companies are “heavily into cloud computing,” according to this Forbes article. The survey also revealed that many companies are interested in a multi-cloud approach.

Featured Content

Smart Enterprise Magazine: Absolutely, Positively Innovative

This Smart Enterprise article profiles how the shipping giant Federal Express is two years into a modernization of its IT operations that includes moving to a private cloud to provide on-demand technology services for the business. Download the free iPad app or read the online edition of Smart Enterprise.

Featured Article

The Successful Mobile Enterprise

By Lonne Jaffe, CA Technologies

There are almost seven billion people in the world, and there are already about six billion mobile phone subscriptions. Analysts are predicting that over a billion advanced smartphones and tablets are going to be purchased worldwide next year alone.

Almost every conversation I have with senior business and technology leaders involves mobility as at least one of their key focus areas. In many cases mobile technology is quickly becoming or has already become the primary way that an enterprise interacts with its customers, partners, and employees. As a result, a substantial portion of the major capital investments in software and hardware that enterprises are making today are being driven primarily by their need to create a first class mobile technology experience. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is cloud computing changing the role of IT? In this JourneytotheCloud blog, John Dixon wraps up the last #CloudViews tweetchat on cloud and the changing role of IT.
Are cloud computing misconceptions holding you back? In this Business2Community article, Amy Short outlines 7 common misconceptions that may be holding your organization back from cloud, including it’s a fad, it’s not secure, it’s costly and complicated, and more.

Trend Watch

A new Gartner report predicts that 50% of companies will require BYOD (bring your own device) by 2017, according to this PCWorld article.
What are the do’s and don’ts of a BYOD policy? In this CIO.com blog, Matt Karlyn details the key elements of a good BYOD policy.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Interop 2013: May 6-10, Las Vegas, NV
RICON East: May 13-14, New York, NY
CTIA 2013: May 21-23, Las Vegas, NV
Cloud East: May 24, Cambridge, UK

This Week in Cloud, April 26, 2013: AWS S3 reaches 2 trillion objects, CA Technologies acquires Layer 7 & Nolio, CSA cloud guidelines for SMBs. And more…

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:18:39 EDT

CA World 2013!

The Smart Enterprise team just returned from CA World 2013 where they were writing blogs, live tweeting, and shooting interviews and booth walkthroughs. You can view the coverage on Smart Enterprise.

Cloud News

Amazon announced this week that there are currently two trillion objects now stored in S3, according to this CloudTech article. Jeff Barr, AWS chief evangelist, stated that it took six years for AWS to reach one trillion objects in S3 and one year to double that number.
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) announced a new membership level and working groups to educate SMBs on best practices for cloud computing, according to this press release.
Magnasoft Northstar, an Indian startup, announced a new cloud computing solution that aims to ensure the safety of children when they are traveling to and from school, according to this InformationWeek.in article. The solution, which runs on AWS, tracks school buses and vans, notifies parents of bus arrivals, and allows parents to remotely view their children on the bus.

Featured Content

Smart Enterprise Magazine: Absolutely, Positively Innovative

Featured Article

Mobile, DevOps, Cloud: CA Wagers Its Technology Future on Disruptive Trends

By Denise Dubie, CA Technologies

“Don’t forget to challenge us,” Peter Griffiths, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Solutions and Technology Group at CA Technologies, told attendees of his technology keynote at CA World ’13. “We love working and helping you to innovate.”

With some 38 years of managing and securing customer environments from the mainframe to distributed computing to the cloud and now mobile under its belt, Griffiths emphasized CA’s intention to take its expertise further. He used the Monday morning keynote (watch a replay here) to introduce: enhanced cloud security, service desk capabilities and mobile device management; the acquisition of two companies (Nolio and Layer 7 Technologies) featuring capabilities that will further the company’s DevOps and cloud strategies, respectively; and a comprehensive look at the aforementioned DevOps capabilities and opportunities. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is cloud computing changing the role of IT? Join us in the next @CloudCommons #CloudViews tweetchat on cloud computing and the changing role of IT. You can preview the questions and download the calendar invite on Smart Enterprise.
Will the OpenStack Foundation start cracking down on service providers that don’t stick to the OpenStack standards? In this InfoWorld blog, David Linthicum discusses how large organizations may want to add their own proprietary API extensions and go outside of the standard.
Are businesses or hackers more drawn to cloud? In this DarkReading article, Michael Cobb discusses how the features of cloud computing that make it so attractive to businesses also make it attractive to hackers.

Trend Watch

Watch the video replays from CA World 2013 which includes a keynote by Sir Richard Branson and the Luminaries Live! program, which features 10 IT luminaries each given 5 minutes to share how IT trends like big data, social media, and cloud are changing the world.
CA Technologies announced that it will acquire Layer 7, an API management and security company, and Nolio, an application automation company, according to this ZDnet article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

AWS Summit US 2013: April 30, San Francisco, CA
Interop 2013: May 6-10, Las Vegas, NV
RICON East: May 13-14, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, April 11, 2013: U.S. Navy issues new cloud policy, Cloud computing price wars, Mobile device CO2 emissions. And more…

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:00:49 EDT

Ask Branson!

Here’s your chance to have your questions answered by Sir Richard Branson. Submit your question on Facebook for a chance to have your question included in an interview with Sir Richard Branson at CA World 2013.

Cloud News

The U.S. Navy has issued a new cloud computing policy in order to increase efficiency and save costs, according to this Forbes article. The Navy plans to move publicly releasable information to cloud service providers who meet their mission and security requirements.
A new Digital Realty Trust survey reveals that 98% of IT decision makers plan to expand their data center in the next two years and 61% said that building an internal cloud was the reason for the expansion, according to this GigaOM article.
A survey of Irish IT resellers revealed that 85% of their customers inquired about cloud services in the last year, according to this Independent.ie article.

Featured Content

Smart Enterprise Magazine: Absolutely, Positively Innovative

Featured Article

Is Cloud Storage Safe?

By Marvin Waschke, CA Technologies

On March 26, Bloomberg published a report "How Private Data Became Public on Amazon's Cloud" with chilling implications. At least some of the exposed data was clearly intended to be private and leaves the companies involved dealing with potential losses and embarrassment. Revelations like this make many, both inside and outside IT, look at cloud privacy with trepidation.

But even this discovery does not show that any cloud storage option is less safe than on-premises storage. Let me explain why. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Who will win the cloud computing price war? In this NetworkWorld article, Brandon Butler looks at how cloud providers like Google and Amazon are on a race to the bottom after Google announced a 4 percent price cut across the board and Amazon followed by announcing a 26 percent price cut for Windows virtual machines on-demand.
Are you confused about cloud tax laws? In this episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss the hard truths of cloud computing, cloud tax laws, robots leveraging the cloud to complete complex tasks and more.

Trend Watch

Wireless networking infrastructure for mobile devices consumes 10 times more power than data centers worldwide, according to this Ars Technica article. By 2015, Wi-Fi and broadband for mobile devices could produce up to 30 megatons of CO2, equivalent to the carbon emissions of close to 5 million cars.
For the first time, scientists were able to detect unreported evidence of drug side effects before the F.D.A issued a warning, by using data drawn from search queries entered into Bing, Yahoo, and Google, according to this New York Times article. Using data-mining techniques, the researchers analyzed over 82 million searches for drug and symptom information to determine that there was an increased risk of hypoglycemia for people who combine two specific drugs.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Rackspace Cloudathon: April 12-14, London, UK
AWS Summit 2013: April 23, London, UK
CA World 2013: April 21-24, Las Vegas, NV

This Week in Cloud, April 4, 2013

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:55:00 EDT

RSA Conference Interviews!

Watch interviews from the RSA Conference featuring thought leaders from the Cloud Security Alliance, NIST, the CISO Executive Network, the International Association for Privacy Professionals and more on Smart Enterprise.

Cloud News

Nebula launched the long awaited Nebula One, a cloud based computer that allows users to easily connect cloud-based solutions, like AWS and OpenStack, into existing servers from Dell, HP, and IBM, to create a system that can be controlled by a single person, according to this RedOrbit article.
DigitalOcean, a cloud computing startup based in New York, revealed that data may be leaking between its customers after one customer found gigabytes of another customer’s data on his account, according to this Wired article. DigitalOcean’s cloud server platform is an inexpensive alternative to Rackspace and Amazon Web Services.
Savvis announced ClientConnect, an online portal that helps Savvis customers connect and share offerings that are hosted in Savvis’ datacenter facilities, according to this Datacenter Dynamic article. David Chernicoff discusses why services providers should take advantage of this model and the importance of a reliable infrastructure for customers of cloud services in this ZDnet article.

Featured Content

EMA Radar for Private Cloud Platforms: Report Summary and CA Technologies Profile

In this report, Analyst firm EMA shares its evaluation of 13 leading private cloud vendors, including IBM, CA Technologies, HP, VMware, and Microsoft. The private clouds were evaluated based on features, architecture, integration, time, effort, and cost.

Featured Article

Building A Cloud-Savvy Model for TCO and ROI

By Ravi Rajagopal, CA Technologies

Economic benefits almost always lead the argument for moving to cloud computing. We’re told many things: cloud is cheaper; cloud frees up IT resources; cloud reduces capital expenditures; cloud allows organizations to scale with demand.

Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. The only way to make an informed decision, backed by a solid return on investment (ROI), is to first understand the total cost of ownership (TCO) for your current and planned cloud infrastructure in advance of any cloud adoption.

This is obvious, right? But you might be surprised to learn that many large organizations commit to cloud computing without really knowing their TCO and projected ROI. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

In this episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss the hard truths of cloud computing, cloud tax laws, robots leveraging the cloud to complete complex tasks and more.
Is PayPal replacing its VMware servers with OpenStack? In this InformationWeek article, Charles Babcock explains why the move to OpenStack doesn’t necessary mean that PayPal will replace its existing servers.
Looking to join a cloud computing tweetchat? In this NetworkWorld blog, Brandon Butler discusses the benefits and drawbacks of tweetchats and provides a list of ongoing cloud computing chats.

Trend Watch

What is keeping the CIO up at night? In this ZDNet blog, Grey Menegaz details his conversation with executives from Datalink, Savvis, Druva and others to put together a list of the trends that are top of mind for today’s CIOs. The list includes big data, cloud, distributed sharing, BYOD, and more.
Three out of four IT professionals believe that if employees bring their own devices to work it will make them more productive, according to this AppsTechNews article. The figure comes from a Quest survey which is highlighted in a new BYOD infographic.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Rackspace Cloudathon: April 12-14, London, UK
AWS Summit 2013: April 23, London, UK
CA World 2013: April 21-24, Las Vegas, NV

This Week in Cloud, March 28, 2013: BSA global cloud scorecard, Availability & security issues for AWS users, Cloud computing taxes. And more…

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 09:11:22 EDT

RSA Conference Interviews!

Cloud News

The Software Alliance (BSA) recently released the 2013 BSA Global Cloud Computing Scorecard, according to this CloudTech article. The scorecard, which ranks the top 20 countries in terms of cloud readiness, ranked Japan first, followed by Australia and the United States.
A recent survey by CloudCheckr reveals that users of Amazon Web Services suffer from a large number of availability and security issues, according to this SYS-CON article. The survey of 400 users found that over 99% of them were operating in the cloud with at least one serious best practice exception from a list of over 125 best practices.
A new report by Alert Logic reveals that Web application attacks were the most common security incident for on-premise and cloud environments in the last 6 months, according to this SecurityWeek article. Fifty-two percent of cloud provider environments were affected by the attacks compared to 39% of enterprise environments.

Featured Content

EMA Radar for Private Cloud Platforms: Report Summary and CA Technologies Profile

Featured Article

New Ponemon Institute Study Shows Cloud Security Still A Mixed Bag?

By David Strom, Independent Writer

When was the last time you left your IT security up to the whims of your end users? Well, according to a new Ponemon Institute study, Security of Cloud Computing Users 2013, commissioned by CA Technologies, "seventy-nine percent of respondents selected end-users as the number one group responsible for the security of cloud service providers." That's a depressing thought.

If ever there was evidence that security in the cloud is not top-of-mind, this study proves the point several times over. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Looking for the hard truths about cloud computing? In this InfoWorld blog, Peter Wayner shares the 12 hard truths of cloud computing, sharing the lessons he’s learned from trying out various commercial clouds. The 12 hard truths include an abundance of choices, the mystery of security, the difficulty of moving data, calculating cost, figuring out laws and more.
Will cloud computing be taxed? In this Channelnomics blog, Chris Gonsalves dives into the topic of cloud taxes and finds that while there’s still a lot of confusion around how to tax cloud computing, service providers should expect that cloud computing will soon be subject to taxes.
Are we witnessing the death of the traditional sourcing model? In this CloudTech blog, James Bourne details reports from Gartner that predict the continued growth of SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS will displace traditional sourcing methods by 2015.
What’s the real cost of cloud computing? In this Smart Enterprise blog, Jeanne Morain details 10 key steps that CIOs should take to reduce hidden costs.

Trend Watch

Do mobile security experts trust anyone? In this Smart Enterprise blog, Jay Fry details the results of a recent webcast poll on bring your own device (BYOD) which revealed that people in charge of mobile security think that mobile devices and users shouldn’t be trusted.
Is your mobile device storing data that’s intended for the cloud? In this TechWorld article, Brandon Butler delves into a recent report by researchers at the University of Glasglow who ran tests on smartphones and discovered that after uploading data to the cloud, metadata and traces of deleted files remained on the device, making the data and the cloud susceptible to hackers.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: April 2-5, Silicon Valley, CA
Rackspace Cloudathon: April 12-14, London, UK
AWS Summit 2013: April 23, London, UK
CA World 2013: April 21-24, Las Vegas, NV

This Week in Cloud, March 21, 2013: CIA & DHS shifting to cloud, Netflix developer prize, Top 5 cloud risks. And more…

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:33:17 EDT

RSA Conference Interviews!

Cloud News

The CIA may have agreed to a 10-year cloud contract with Amazon worth $600 million, according to this FCW article. Amazon and the CIA have yet to confirm the contract, but sources say that Amazon will help the CIA build a private cloud and keep the agency up to date with emerging technology trends.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is shifting to a cloud platform and moving to agile development methodologies, according to this ComputerWorld article. The DHS expects the move to save costs and improve IT operations.
Netflix announced the Netflix Cloud Prize, a new developer contest which will award developers a total of $100,000 for improvements to Netflix’s cloud services, according to this TechCrunch article.
Rackspace Hosting announced the Open Cloud Academy, a new training program designed to provide students with IT certifications for open cloud technologies, according to this Herald Online article.

Featured Content

CloudViews Unplugged Video: Migrating to the Cloud

In the latest episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss migration to the cloud, IBM's Watson helps oncologists develop cancer treatments, green cloud algorithms, and the zombie alert issued over the Emergency Alert System.

Featured Article

Is the financial services sector ready for cloud?

By Derek Stevens, CA Technologies

Over the past two years, I've had the opportunity to sit down with numerous cloud service provider executives as part of the Cloud Luminaries program and ask them about where the market is headed, the obstacles to cloud computing, and how the cloud improves on previous technologies. These companies that are on the cutting edge of cloud almost always cite security as the number one barrier to cloud adoption for their customers. Certain industries, such as the financial services industry, need to take special care to ensure that their data is secure. As a result many of them are making a slow move to the cloud, in most cases, through a private cloud model.

If you think that the mattress is a safer place for your money than the cloud, you might find it worthwhile to hear from companies that have concluded the cloud is actually more secure than on-premise (and more secure than money under the mattress, for that matter). Read the full article.

Cloud Views

What are the top 5 cloud risks that you should stop ignoring? In this InfoWorld article, Roger Grimes shares the top 5 cloud risks that companies face as a customer of a public cloud service, including the risks of shared access, virtual exploits, authentication and access control, availability, and ownership.
Are CIOs waiting for the public cloud to mature? In this InformationWeek article, Gary Flood reveals that some CIOs may be holding off on moving to a private cloud model so that they can jump to a public cloud model when the technology becomes more mature.

Trend Watch

Will the rise of internet connected devices mean big business for big data? In this GigaOM blog, Barb Darrow details how Guarav Dhillon, CEO of SnapLogic, envisions the impact of the Internet of Things on big data.
Will DevOps unite software development and the business? In this Smart Enterprise article (registration required), Doug Bartholomew takes a look at how Nationwide is using agile development and DevOps to reduce costs and unite software development and the business.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: April 2-5, Silicon Valley, CA
Rackspace Cloudathon: April 12-14, London, UK
AWS Summit 2013: April 23, London, UK
CA World 2013: April 21-24, Las Vegas, NV

This Week in Cloud, March 14, 2013: VMware’s hybrid cloud, Cloud platform for robots, Cloud security study results. And more…

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:21:15 EDT

RSA Conference Interviews!

Cloud News

VMware announced its plans to create a hybrid cloud service offering which will compete with Amazon Web Services in the enterprise cloud space, according to this TechCrunch article. The product, VMware vCloud Hybrid Service, is expected to launch later this year.
RoboEarth announced the launch of Rapyuta, a cloud computing platform which is designed to help robots complete complex tasks, according to this IEEE Spectrum article. You can watch a video of how the platform will assist robots on YouTube.
Amazon announced that new AWS EC2 customers will gain access to a virtual private cloud platform (EC2-VPC) free of charge, according to this ZDNet article.
A recent Saugatuck report revealed that the costs of running workloads in a public cloud may be more expensive than running them on-premise for enterprises that have a well-run IT environment, according to this ZDNet article. The authors said that to take full advantage of the cloud, enterprises need to understand which workloads are right for the cloud.

Featured Content

CloudViews Unplugged Video: Migrating to the Cloud

Featured Article

Cloud Security: Too Important to Leave to End Users

By Bob Scheier, Independent Writer

My jaw dropped as I was reading the findings of the just-released Security of Cloud Computing Users Study conducted by Ponemon Institute for CA Technologies. Only half the respondents evaluate the security of the software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offers they buy. Only half are confident in the security of those services. And only half take common sense precautions, including assessing whether the cloud makes it harder to protect confidential information, proactively assessing which information is too sensitive for the cloud, and auditing or assessing cloud-computing resources before deployment.

Who do organizations make responsible for cloud security? Get ready to be horrified. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is cloud computing winning the trust war? In this Forbes blog, Louis Columbus describes how CIOs are slowly learning to trust the cloud despite high profile outages and the failure of some cloud providers to meet SLAs.
Who’s minding your cloud? This infographic on Visual.ly details the results from the latest cloud security study conducted by the Ponemon Institute.
Who made the CRN’s coolest cloud vendor list? In this CRN slideshow, Jack McCarthy details CRN’s picks for the top 20 coolest cloud infrastructure vendors.

Trend Watch

Will your next job require you to bring your own device (BYOD)? In this ITWorld blog, Paul Kapustka wonders if it will soon be a requirement for new employees to bring their iPad to work.
How powerful is uniqueness? In this Smart Enterprise video and blog, Carrie Gates discusses Vint Cerf’s RSA Keynote and the power of uniqueness when it comes to identity management.

Upcoming Cloud Events

3rd Annual Cloud World Forum MENA: March 19-20, Dubia, United Arab Emirates
GigaOM Structure: Data 2013: March 20-21, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, March 7, 2013: Ponemon cloud security study, BYOD leads to cloud, The 4 MYs of cloud computing. And more…

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 11:32:12 EST

RSA Conference Interviews!

Watch interviews from the RSA Conference featuring thought leaders from the Cloud Security Alliance, NIST, the CISO Executive Network, and more on Smart Enterprise.

Cloud News

A new Ponemon study, commissioned by CA Technologies, reveals that organizations are more confident in the security of the cloud and have put better security practices in place over the last two years, according to this Dark Reading article. You can watch a video about the study on Smart Enterprise and read the infographic.
A new CDW study revealed that close to 75% of IT professionals said their organization’s decision to take on cloud computing was influenced by employees’ use of personal devices, according to this ZDNet article. The study found that 39% of organizations have already adopted cloud services.
Huawei launched an open-source cloud platform called FusionCloud, according to this NetworkWorld article. FusionCloud is compatible with OpenStack and is made up of three core components: FusionSphere for integrating IT infrastructures from other vendors, FusionCube which is a converged infrastructure, and FusionAccess for cloud connection.
UK IT decision makers are putting virtualization and data center management ahead of cloud computing, according to this ihotdesk article. The article refers to a recent TechTarget and Computer Weekly survey of 400 IT professionals which found that 49% of IT professionals were primarily focused on virtualization implementation and 39% were focused on data center consolidation.
Illinois Department of Corrections recently replaced a large 1980’s mainframe and 41 legacy applications with a cloud-based criminal justice system, according to this Corrections article. The move is expected to significantly cut costs and improve efficiency.

Featured Content

CloudViews Unplugged Video: Migrating to the Cloud

Featured Article

The 4 MYs of Cloud Computing and IT Transformation

By George Watt, CA Technologies

It is often stated that technology is easy and people are hard. Whether or not you agree with that, the sentiment must be heeded. Otherwise, even the best technical solutions can be doomed to failure or irrelevancy. For those who find themselves deeply focused on technical solutions, this can be easily forgotten. Interpersonal change management issues can arise without warning and from almost anywhere, including people who control programs and budgets. In my experience, this challenge often begins with people getting a bit self-focused, in some cases bordering on territorial, about four key things, which I like to call the 4 MYs. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

What should CIOs examine before moving to the cloud? In this InformationWeek blog, Vijay Sethi discusses five areas that CIO should focus on before moving to the cloud, including fully understanding the concept and implications of cloud, understanding potential ROI, evaluating SLAs, understanding implementation times and a changed in culture and mindset.
What are you trying to accomplish with the cloud? In this Forbes blog, Joe McKendrick discusses how not enough business are indentifying what they are actually trying to accomplish before determining what type of infrastructure model to pursue.
Does cloud computing reduce IT costs? In this Virtualization Review blog, Jeffrey Schwartz reviews two recent studies which found that cloud computing does reduce costs for many, but not all businesses.

Trend Watch

Are employees stealing corporate data? In this ZDNet blog, Rachel King discusses a recent Symantec study which revealed that about half of employees are stealing corporate data. Sixty-two percent of those surveyed considered it acceptable to transfer work documents to their personal devices.
Is DevOps all hype? In this Service Assurance Daily blog, Jason Meserve discusses some of the latest DevOps research and links to a replay of a recent DevOps webcast.
Intel’s bring-your-own-device (BYOD) program saved the company five million hours in 2012, according to this FierceMobileIT article. Intel employees said that on average, they were saving 57 minutes a day by using their own devices.

Upcoming Cloud Events

3rd Annual Cloud World Forum MENA: March 19-20, Dubia, United Arab Emirates
GigaOM Structure: Data 2013: March 20-21, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 28, 2013: RSA Conference news, Google public cloud for the enterprise, DevOps and the art of IT operations. And more…

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:12:35 EST

Vote for CloudViews Unplugged!

Vote for CloudViews Unplugged for the best 2013 podcast on vSphere-land. CloudViews Unplugged is on the second page of the survey.

Cloud News

At the RSA Conference this week, the Department of Homeland Security said that the lack of individuals with cyber security skills needs urgent attention, according to this ComputerWeekly article. The article points to a recent survey which revealed that frequent data breaches are having a big effect on the global economy.
Google has announced that RightScale will be the first reseller of Google Compute Engine, Google’s public cloud infrastructure, according to this BusinessInsider article. RightScale will offer support for Google Compute Engine to enterprise customers looking to migrate to the cloud.
A new report by Forrester Research revealed that up to 70% of what IT administrators call “private cloud” doesn’t meet the guidelines for a private cloud, according to this NetworkWorld article.
The Smart Enterprise team is on the show floor at the RSA Conference this week. Follow our live tweets from @SmartEnterprise and look for our photos, interviews, and blogs on Smart Enterprise Exchange.

Featured Content

CloudViews Unplugged Video: Data Security, Rogue Cloud & Swarm Computing

In the latest episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss cloud security, rogue cloud, swarm-based computing and video production in the cloud.

Featured Article

DevOps and the Art of IT Operations

By Michael Hugos, Independent Writer

Business lives in an online, real-time world. It has to respond online and in real-time too. Taking months or years to respond to changing markets just won't cut it anymore. That goes double for responding with business models that aren't online and mobile savvy. Changes and enhancements to applications are the new reality today, not just an occasional event. Close communication and collaboration between application development teams and IT operations teams is crucial for success. And that's what DevOps is all about.

DevOps builds on what Agile started. By using Agile approaches, development teams can build new applications and add new features in short iterations. But if IT operations people can't roll that new software into production as quickly as it's developed, what good does it do? Enter DevOps, which is a response to the growing interdependence between software development and IT operations. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is the cloud secure? Join us after the RSA Conference for a @CloudCommons #CloudViews tweetchat on March 5th at 12:00 p.m. ET where we’ll be discussing cloud security. Download the calendar invite and preview the questions on Smart Enterprise.
What are the top 9 cloud computing threats for 2013? In this InfoWorld blog, Ted Samson outlines “The Notorious Nine,” a cloud threat list that was created from responses to a Cloud Security Alliance survey of industry experts. The list includes data breaches, data loss, service traffic hijacking, insecure interfaces and APIs, denial of service, malicious insiders, cloud abuse, insufficient due diligence, and shared technology vulnerabilities.
Should more businesses be migrating to the cloud? In this InfoWorld blog, David Linthicum discusses recent findings which reveal that schools and governments are moving to the cloud faster than most Global 2000 enterprises.

Trend Watch

What are the most frustrating parts of managing mobile devices for enterprises? In this ZDNet blog, Joe McKendrick shares the results of a recent survey which reveals the top 5 most frustrating issues of BYOD for IT managers, including mobile device onboarding and support, support for non-provisioned devices, data encryption and loss, and help desk ticketing.
Will big data transform IT security? In this Forbes blog, Art Coviello shares his thoughts on how big data is transforming IT security and how the technology has matured since the last RSA Conference.

Upcoming Cloud Events

RSA Conference: February 25 – March 1, San Francisco, CA
3rd Annual Cloud World Forum MENA: March 19-20, Dubia, United Arab Emirates
GigaOM Structure: Data 2013: March 20-21, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, February 21, 2013: Microsoft Azure beats AWS in performance test, 47% of enterprises plan for private cloud. And more…

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:23:02 EST

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Cloud News

Microsoft Azure performed better than Amazon Web Services in a series of write/read/delete tests conducted by Nasuni, according to this CIO article. Microsoft’s cloud was 56% faster at writing data to the cloud and 39% faster at reading data than AWS.
A recent survey by 451 Research of 100 enterprises revealed that 47% have plans to implement a private cloud in 2013, according to this FierceEnterpriseCommunications article. Nineteen percent of respondents said they are using a public cloud service.
A new report by Gartner predicts that Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) will have a compound annual growth rate of 41.3% through 2016, according to this Forbes article. Gartner predicts that IaaS will be the fastest growing public cloud service.
A new CDW Government study predicts that 35% of IT budgets for K-12 schools will be spent on cloud computing by 2017, according to this The Journal article. Schools will increasingly use the cloud for storage, collaboration, and productivity tools.

Featured Content

CloudViews Unplugged Video: Data Security, Rogue Cloud & Swarm Computing

In the latest episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss cloud security, rogue cloud, swarm-based computing and video production in the cloud.

Featured Article

How to Use the Rogue Cloud to Innovate the Right Cloud

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

People keep storing and sharing highly sensitive information in the public cloud despite the warnings about the dangers, and despite story after news story that validates those warnings. This is the rogue cloud—a de facto innovation platform that exists thanks to legions of organizations diving headlong into cloud computing, without the guidance and involvement of IT.

The rise of the rogue cloud isn’t always an innocent mistake by happy-go-lucky but otherwise responsible users. Nearly one-fourth of the respondents (23%) in the IDC Innovation Imperative research commissioned by CA Technologies said innovation projects were frequently pursued stealthily, where IT was consciously and deliberately shut out of the projects. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is the cloud secure? Join us for a @CloudCommons #CloudViews tweetchat on March 5th at 12:00 p.m. ET where we’ll be discussing cloud security. Download the calendar invite and preview the questions on Smart Enterprise.
How are you measuring cloud ROI? In this Forbes blog, Joe McKendrick shares the results of a recent survey conducted by The Open Group which revealed that only 20% of respondents had mechanisms in place to measure cloud ROI.
Where’s the cloud headed in 2013? In this Asia Cloud Forum blog, George Watt shares his cloud predictions for 2013, including apps get the wrecking ball, a high-impact cyber attack launched from the cloud and the year of community clouds.

Trend Watch

Will your next storage device be DNA? In this Smart Enterprise blog, Randy Weis discusses the benefits and drawbacks of molecular and DNA storage devices.
Is Amazon Web Services working on a new disruptive big data tool? In this The Register blog, Jack Clark pieces together clues from multiple new Amazon job listings to predict that AWS is planning a new near-real-time analytics database that can handle exabytes of data.
What are you looking forward to at RSA? In this CA Security Management blog, Leanne Agurkis details why she enjoys going to RSA and the events that she's looking forward to this year.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Computing for DoD & Government Summit: February 25-27, Alexandria, VA
RSA Conference: February 25 – March 1, San Francisco, CA
3rd Annual Cloud World Forum MENA: March 19-20, Dubia, United Arab Emirates
GigaOM Structure: Data 2013: March 20-21, New York, NY

IBM Watson Helps Fight Cancer from the Cloud

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 07:45:00 EST

IBM announced that it is offering a cloud-based version of Watson to help oncologists develop cancer treatments, according to this GigaOM article. Watson is famous for defeating Ken Jennings in a game of Jeopardy!, but IBM has big plans for the system and is teaming up with hospitals and universities to realize Watson’s full potential.

A recent survey by KPMG of over 600 business and IT executives revealed that the key cloud challenges include the costs of implementation, integration with existing architecture, data loss and privacy risk, and loss of control. This Forbes blog by Joe McKendrick details the results and shows the breakdown of how cloud computing is being adopted by enterprises.

CenturyLink’s cloud division, savvisdirect, announced a new private cloud service for application development called AppGrid, according to this InformationWeek article. You can find out more about savvisdirect in this Cloud Luminaries video.

Dropbox announced changes to Dropbox for Teams to make it more enterprise friendly, according to this GigaOM article. The update will allow admins to keep documents in the company and also track user activity.

Featured Content

CloudViews Unplugged Video: Data Security, Rogue Cloud & Swarm Computing

In the latest episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss cloud security, rogue cloud, swarm-based computing and video production in the cloud.

Featured Article

Where Standards and Open Source Intersect: The Cloud

By Marvin Waschke, CA Technologies

Implementing a cloud requires complex software, and standards help simplify cloud software design with specifications for interoperability. Open source cloud platforms take a different approach, offering coded components supported by a community of developers. Open source software (OSS) code is public, unlike typical proprietary software that keeps code private. Usually, OSS projects are public community efforts, although software vendors sometimes develop open source code. OSS licenses vary considerably, but they generally include free access to the software in some form, but they may limit the ways that the code can be used. OSS projects are often among the first adopters of standards. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

What is the true cost of cloud computing? In this InfoWorld blog, David Linthicum details a recent Amazon outage that cost the company over $4 million in lost sales and discusses how businesses really need to understand the true cost of outages in order to create effective SLAs.
Is the cloud secure? In this CloudTweaks blog, Zig Roberts shares an infographic based off results from the 2012 SailPoint Market Pulse Survey which highlights the security risks associated with cloud computing.
Does cloud computing have dark secrets? In this CIO blog, David Taber indentifies three cloud secrets that organizations should know about if they are hosting their data in the cloud.

Trend Watch

Is your data center stuck in the Medieval Age? In this Smart Enterprise blog, Mike Denning discusses why the traditional approach to securing a data center is no longer sufficient for protecting data.
How do you plan to protect data on your employees’ devices? In this Smart Enterprise blog, Valeh Nazemoff discusses how companies are strategizing governance plans for BYOD and gives a quick recap of the last #CloudViews tweetchat.
A new survey by Microsoft revealed that 75% of enterprises have plans to launch a big data project within the next year, according to this Datamation article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Computing Forum 2013: February 20-21, Canberra, Australia
Cloud Computing for DoD & Government Summit: February 25-27, Alexandria, VA
RSA Conference: February 25 – March 1, San Francisco, CA

This Week in Cloud, February 7, 2013: Dell’s cloud strategy, Netflix to open-source more of the Simian Army, Big year for big data. And more…

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:43:32 EST

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Join the Cloud Commons group on Smart Enterprise to stay up-to-date on the latest cloud news, videos, blogs, and events.

Cloud News

Dell has been taken out of the public trading space in a buyout by Michael Dell, Silver Lake, and Microsoft, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article. The article offers predictions on what may happen to Dell’s cloud business, which could include a greater focus on Office 365.
Netflix told developers this week that they should expect to see more of the Simian Army open-sourced, according to this GigaOM article. The Simian Army tools are used to test and improve services run on AWS. The article details what tools developers can expect to see in the near future.
Cloud spending by SMBs in 2012 reached $45 billion with 6 million new SMBs purchasing cloud services, according to this Datamation article. The figures are based on a report by Parallels, a cloud tool vendor, which also predicts that the market will grow to $95 billion by 2015.
One-third of organizations polled in a recent KPMG survey reported that the cost of moving to the cloud was higher than they expected, according to this IT World Canada article. One of the reasons for the increased cost was due to required changes to the organizations' IT architecture.

Featured Content

CloudViews Unplugged Video: Data Security, Rogue Cloud & Swarm Computing

In the latest episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss cloud security, rogue cloud, swarm-based computing and video production in the cloud.

Featured Article

Your Big Year for Big Data Starts Now

By Bruno Aziza, SiSense

We’ve all heard the buzz about the big data explosion. According to a recent Gartner forecast report, big data was expected to drive $28 billion in worldwide IT spending in 2012, and more than $230 billion will be allocated to this new market through 2016.

A large part of this amount will help adapt infrastructures and processes to the demands caused by all types of data (unstructured and structured) as well as new device capabilities. If you haven’t investigated what the proliferation of big data means to your business by now, you might already be late. The Wall Street Journal reports that 85 percent of Fortune 1000 companies already have big data-related projects under way. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Does the U.S. or the U.K. have a better understanding of the cloud? In this InformationWeek article, Gary Flood highlights a new survey that reveals that U.K. citizens may have a better understanding of the term “cloud” than their counterparts in the U.S.
How do you navigate the cloud security maze? In this Wired blog, Ryan Kean explains how cloud computing could potentially improve an organization's overall security.

Trend Watch

What are the five enterprise technology trends to watch in 2013? In this Forbes blog, Eric Savitz details the upcoming trends for 2013, including hybrid cloud, mobility, connect machines, smarter networks, and the security arms race.
How can you transform your IT infrastructure? In this Smart Enterprise blog, Jennifer Zaino identifies five tips for transforming your infrastructure, courtesy of Michael Sargent, General Manager of Enterprise Management at CA Technologies.

Upcoming Cloud Events

WSO2Con 2013: February 12-14, London, UK
Cloud Computing Forum 2013: February 20-21, Canberra, Australia
Cloud Computing for DoD & Government Summit: February 25-27, Alexandria, VA

This Week in Cloud, January 31, 2013: AWS Startup Challenge winners, IBM SmartCloud, Cloud increases DDoS attacks. And more…

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:11:30 EST

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Join the Cloud Commons group on Smart Enterprise to stay up-to-date on the latest cloud news, videos, blogs, and events.

Cloud News

Amazon announced the winners of its Global Startup Challenge this week, according to this InformationWeek article. The winners of the challenge included Grand Cru, LogMyCalls, MortarData, and TraceLink. You can read more about the contest and the winners on Amazon.
IBM announced a global expansion of SmartCloud Enterprise+, its enterprise-grade Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and IBM SmartCloud for SAP Applications, according to this Data Center Knowledge article. SmartCloud Enterprise+ is now available in the U.S., Germany, Canada, France, Brazil, Japan, and Australia.
Cloud computing data centers are increasingly being target by denial-of-service attacks, according to this CloudTech article. A recent survey by Arbor Networks that included 130 respondents in the enterprise and network operator fields revealed that 76% reported denial of service (DDoS) attacks that targeted their customers in 2012.
A recent survey by OneLogin that questioned 200 IT and business professionals revealed that 71% of respondents admitted to using unsanctioned cloud apps, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article.

Featured Content

CloudViews Unplugged Video: AWS Outage, Google Science Grants & Netflix Janitor Monkey

In the latest episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss the Christmas Eve AWS outage, cloud standards, Google awarding 6 science projects with up to one billion core-computing hours and Netflix Janitor Monkey.

Featured Article

The Rogue Cloud Runaround

By Bob Scheier, Independent Writer

There's a quiet crisis brewing in how organizations are adopting the cloud. Cloud services and apps are getting more popular by the day, but instead of driving enterprise innovation, they're stifling it. The use of cloud services outside the control or knowledge of IT has led to the emergence of what technology leaders increasingly refer to as "the rogue cloud." This bona-fide platform is growing fast and taking hold in many global organizations, yet it lacks the proper security, technical, and financial controls any IT leader would demand.

It's a problem hiding in plain sight. Just look around at the cloud deployments popping up in your own organization, or look to research reports. Gatepoint Research's SimplyDIRECT September 2012 Cloud Pulse Report found four out of ten responders interested in cloud computing initiatives, with the following month's report finding nearly eight out of ten complaining their organizations "only occasionally" deliver new services quickly enough. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Did you miss the #CloudViews tweetchat on the future of BYOD? You can read the full transcript in the cloud group on Smart Enterprise.
Are cloud contracts negotiable? In this InfoWorld blog, David Linthicum discusses how the “take it or leave it” contracts that many cloud providers offer their customers are pushing enterprises away from cloud adoption.
What cloud computing job skills are in demand? In the Baseline presentation, Dennis McCafferty outlines the positions with increased demand due to the cloud, including project managers, business analysts, app developers and more.
Are there cloud computing myths? In this BizJournal blog, Heinan Landa outlines the top 4 cloud computing myths and details why they should be dispelled.

Trend Watch

Stanford researchers recently ran a jet-engine-noise simulation application across 1.5 million cores simultaneously, according to this GigaOM article. Creating code that is optimized for multi-core processors will improve the types of applications that can run on future laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
How is big data benefiting you? In this Wired blog, Jake Weatherly provides an introduction to big data and reveals how you might be benefiting from the trend.

Upcoming Cloud Events

WSO2Con 2013: February 12-14, London, UK
Cloud Computing Forum 2013: February 20-21, Canberra, Australia
Cloud Computing for DoD & Government Summit: February 25-27, Alexandria, VA

This Week in Cloud, January 24, 2013: New AWS EC2 instance for analytics, Preparing for the SLA Cold War, 7 sins of cloud computing. And more…

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:00:00 EST

Join the Cloud Community!

Join the Cloud Commons group on Smart Enterprise to stay up-to-date on the latest cloud news, videos, blogs, and events.

Cloud News

Amazon announced a new type of instance this week for AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) that focuses on memory intensive analytics, according to this ZDNet article. The instances are designed for workloads requiring a large amount of memory to maintain high-performance.
Red Hat plans to add the software it acquired from its purchase of ManageIQ to its CloudForms offering, according to this InfoWorld article. The new software package will provide customers with a comprehensive set of management software required to run virtual applications in a hybrid environment.
A recent European survey revealed that 38% of IT decision makers who use cloud backup and recovery tools aren’t sure that their data is being backed up or saved securely in the cloud, according to this ComputerWorld UK article.
Rackspace Hosting plans to expand its presence in the UK with a new 10 megawatt data center, according to this Data Center Knowledge article.

Featured Content

CloudViews Unplugged Video: AWS Outage, Google Science Grants & Netflix Janitor Monkey

Feature Article

Preparing for the Cloud Computing SLA Cold War

By George Watt, CA Technologies

In a recent article, "Cloud Providers Ready to Strike With Nuclear Option", Simon Phipps stated that issues related to cloud service level agreements (SLAs) are "under acknowledged and overdue for attention". If you are not already convinced of this, ask yourself the following question: "When is the last time you read one of the click through services agreements you are presented with when acquiring a personal cloud (or other) service?"

Come on, be honest. I won't tell anyone. If you are like most people, you have probably reached the point where you've spent so much time reading through agreements, and you've read so many of them, they are all beginning to look the same. (Many of them probably are the same.) And since it is just you and I having a confidential conversation you can tell me whether you have ever read any of them. Unless you are someone who deals with SLAs for a living, I would bet Andi Mann's lunch that you have not read one in a very long time. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

What is the future of BYOD? Join us for a @CloudCommons #CloudViews tweetchat on January 29th at 2ET where we’ll be discussing the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement. You can preview the questions and download the calendar invite on Smart Enterprise.
What are the seven sins of cloud computing? In this Wired blog, Jake Gardner details the seven sins of cloud computing which includes organizational ignorance, belief in just the SLA, role assumptions, accepting guarantees of compliance, unregulated usage, thinking outsourcing removes risk, and failing to understand failure.
Is this really the year of cloud? In this InfoWorld blog, David Linthicum discusses a recent Gartner survey of 2,000 CIOs which revealed that cloud computing remains a top tech priority for 2013.
Are you ready for the public cloud? In this Smart Enterprise blog, Valeh Nazemoff discusses how to determine what belongs in the public cloud.

Trend Watch

RSA says that in the next few years, enterprises will begin using big data analytics to assess threats and risks and improve security decisions, according to this SecurityWeek article. The company suggests that organizations should start investing in security teams to bolster their analytics capabilities.
Data scientists may be the most sought after job title in the near future, according to this The Fiscal Times article. The rise of big data has created a need for employees who are specialized in statistics, analytics, visualization, and computer science.

Upcoming Cloud Events

International Conference on Computing: January 28-31, San Diego, CA
Cloud Expo Europe: January 29-30, Olympia, London
International Conference on Cloud Computing and Service Science: January 30-31, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

This Week in Cloud, January 17, 2013: Netflix Janitor Monkey, DARPA defends against cyber attacks, 9 questions for your cloud provider. And more…

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 10:39:26 EST

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Join the Cloud Commons group on Smart Enterprise to stay up-to-date on the latest cloud news, videos, blogs, and events.

Cloud News

Netflix announced that they’ve open-sourced Janitor Monkey, a tool that finds and deletes unused cloud resources on Amazon Web Services (AWS), according to this ComputerWorld article. Janitor Monkey, which is part of Netflix’s Simian Army, could result in cost savings for AWS customers.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has created a new program aimed at keeping systems and cloud services running while a cyber attack is taking place, according to this AOL Defense article. DARPA’s Mission-oriented Resilient Clouds program is designed to test for corruption and divert resources around affected nodes.
The Department of Defense is on its way to drastically reducing the number of data centers it owns and operates by moving to a cloud model, according to this Defense.gov press release.

Featured Content

CloudViews Unplugged Video: AWS Outage, Google Science Grants & Netflix Janitor Monkey

Feature Article

Time To Stop Forgiving Cloud Providers for Repeated Failures

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

For a long time now, cloud pundits – service providers, boosters, analysts, vendors, and other mostly vested interests – have stood behind a curtain of “downtime happens, design for failure” when assessing cloud outages.

It seems that with every new failure, the self-styled clouderati repeatedly implore IT leaders to believe that, despite what we are seeing with our own eyes on an almost weekly basis, cloud providers are better at IT than you are.

Over and over, the pundits’ response is a yet another chorus of, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” Rather, CIOs and others are implored to simply trust the great and powerful Oz (or is that ‘Aws’?) to provide better uptime than their own in-house IT services. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

What questions should you ask a cloud provider? In this Forbes blog, Joe McKendrick shares 9 questions that you should ask a provider before signing a cloud contract and details the parts of the arrangement that are negotiable.
What cloud computing model should enterprises plan for in 2013? In this Smart Enterprise blog, Jeanne Morain discusses how the public cloud may not be mature enough for enterprise adoption, but there are ways that enterprises can leverage the value of public cloud while mitigating risk.
Is cloud computing ready for prime time? In this Smart Enterprise blog, John Dixon recaps the December #CloudViews tweetchat on public cloud and shares his thoughts on public cloud strategy, security, and how to get started with cloud.

Trend Watch

How are new trends affecting the traditional IT model? In this GigaOM blog, James Urquhart describes how devops, complex adaptive systems, and anti-fragility are resulting in the emergence of a new IT model.
What’s in store for enterprise mobility in 2013? In this Smart Enterprise blog, Jay Fry takes a look at enterprise mobility trends and patterns of 2012 to predict where enterprise mobility is going in 2013.

Upcoming Cloud Events

International Conference on Computing: January 28-31, San Diego, CA
Cloud Expo Europe: January 29-30, Olympia, London
International Conference on Cloud Computing and Service Science: January 30-31, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

This Week in Cloud, January 10, 2013: Amazon AWS revenue, New EU cloud strategy, Cloud computing’s Achilles' heel. And more…

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:58:00 EST

Watch CloudViews Unplugged!

Watch the latest episode of CloudViews Unplugged – Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies take a look at the best cloud predictions for 2013.

Cloud News

Amazon Web Services is expected to have revenue of $3.8 billion in 2013, according to this ZDNet article, and could be worth $19 billion to $30 billion if it were a standalone company.
The European Commission announced a new cloud computing strategy for the European Union. According to this Cloud Tech article, if the strategy is successful it will facilitate the use of the cloud across the EU both in the state and private sector.
The HIPAA privacy and security rules will soon be modified to apply to all business associates, including cloud vendors that have access to patient data, according to this GovInfo Security article. This will help ensure patient data is safeguarded by bringing cloud services under direct regulations of HIPAA.

Featured Content

Smart Enterprise Magazine: Identity as the New Perimeter

The cloud-based mobile enterprise needs special protection. Centralized identity management is the best solution, says John Hawley of CA Technologies. Read “Identity as the New Perimeter,” in the new issue of Smart Enterprise magazine Fearless: How IT Security Empowers Business. Download the free iPad app or read the online edition today.

Feature Article

The Lynchpin to Transforming Security from an Inhibitor to an Enabler of Enterprise Cloud

By Mike Denning, CA Technologies

CA Technologies customer surveys and studies consistently find security remains IT’s top concern about the cloud. IT professionals intuitively see and fear the risks involved in moving to the cloud, with its associated loss of control over the physical environment, processes, policies, and people.

This lack of confidence in cloud security has been, and continues to be, a major inhibitor to enterprise cloud adoption and the potential benefits. That can change, however, if the security focus is changed from data to identity. By putting identity first, you achieve a profound shift in security posture that can transform security from an inhibitor to an enabler of enterprise cloud adoption. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is customer service the Achilles' heel of cloud computing? In this InfoWorld blog, David Linthicum explains why public cloud providers will be forced to step up their customer service in order to serve the enterprise market.
Your legacy apps may be impacting your cloud benefits, according to this ComputerWorld blog. It discusses why moving your weighty legacy apps, such as those used for billing, claims and inventory management, may help you achieve compelling cloud benefits.
Are all clouds created equal? In this GigaOM blog, Stacey Higginbotham outlines the four types of cloud computing and how they differ. These include Enterprise, Webscale, Cloud, and HPC and Data.

Trend Watch

Will big data help drive IT spending? This InfoWorld blog reports that Gartner is estimating IT spending will hit $3.7 trillion this year and $3.8 trillion by 2014, fueled by big data and other information management initiatives.
IDC estimates that the big data market will grow revenue at 31.7 percent a year until it hits $23.8 billion in 2016. However, in this GigaOM article, Derrick Harris suggests that number could look a lot bigger when analytics, SaaS applications and other products are included.
Do standards harmonize innovation? In this Smart Enterprise blog, Jacob Lamm discusses how standards promote innovation and enable creativity within a structure, similar to blues and improvisational music.

Upcoming Cloud Events

International Conference on Computing: January 28-31, San Diego, CA
Cloud Expo Europe: January 29-30, Olympia, London
International Conference on Cloud Computing and Service Science: January 30-31, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

This Week in Cloud, January 3, 2013: RIM sells NewBay, Amazon’s Christmas Eve outage, Can a cloud provider pull the plug on your service? And more…

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 09:18:59 EST

Watch CloudViews Unplugged!

Watch the latest episode of CloudViews Unplugged – Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies take a look at the best cloud predictions for 2013.

Cloud News

Research In Motion (RIM) has sold NewBay, its cloud services company, to Synchronoss Technologies for $55.5 million, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article. The acquisition will expand the global presence of Synchronoss and add the major mobile operators in Europe to its customer list.
Amazon Web Services experienced an outage which left Netflix customers without service on Christmas Eve, according to this New York Times article. Amazon traced the outage to an issue with its load balancing service.
A recent IDC report predicts that 7 million jobs will be created by cloud computing over the next three years, according to this InformationWeek article. The report, which was sponsored by Microsoft, also claims that there are currently 1.7 million cloud-related job openings worldwide.

Featured Content

Smart Enterprise Magazine: Identity as the New Perimeter

Feature Article

Capacity Management on the Journey to Cloud

By Jeremy Rossbach, CA Technologies

Cloud initiatives are at the top of many our customers’ to-do lists nowadays. Whether they are looking to migrate applications to the cloud or just choose the appropriate cloud provider to host a business service during peak utilization periods, capacity management is at the heart of these difficult business decisions. A capacity management solution can provide answers to questions like "How will my workloads affect the performance of the cloud provider's hosted platforms I consume?" and "How can I be sure my application's performance will not suffer when migrating to the cloud?" Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Can your cloud provider pull the plug on your service? In this InfoWorld blog, Simon Phipps examines the terms of use from some of the leading cloud providers and reveals that cloud providers maintain the right to suspend your service.
What are your cloud computing resolutions for 2013? In this InfoWorld blog, David Linthicum shares his suggestions for 2013, including: I resolve not to cloud-wash, not to use cloud computing for everything, to always consider management, performance, and service governance, and not to question cloud security before I understand the technology.
Are you looking for a wide variety of cloud and IT predictions for 2013? On VMblog.com, David Marshall shares the 2013 predictions of numerous cloud companies, including Dell, HP, CA Technologies and Rackspace.

Trend Watch

What can CIOs do to drive innovation? In this Smart Enterprise blog, Denise Dubie recaps a recent Talking Innovation podcast with Jacob Lamm, executive VP of Strategy and Corporate Development at CA Technologies, where he discusses how the CIO’s role needs to change in order to embrace and drive innovation across the organization.
Are vendors rebranding their products to ride the hype of big data? In this Forbes blog, Edd Dumbill discusses the imprecision of the term ‘big data’ and how some vendors are capitalizing on the trend.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Virtualization and Cloud Summit 2013: January 7-14, Anaheim, CA
International Conference on Computing: January 28-31, San Diego, CA
Cloud Expo Europe: January 29-30, Olympia, London
International Conference on Cloud Computing and Service Science: January 30-31, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

This Week in Cloud, December 20, 2012: Google cloud science grants, Cloud outages of 2012, Cloud predictions continue. And more…

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:16:45 EST

Happy Holidays!

The This Week in Cloud team wants to wish you a happy holiday! We’ll be taking a break from our coverage next week, but we look forward to continuing to provide you with the latest cloud news in the new year.

Cloud News

Google announced that it has awarded grants to six science based projects, giving each project 100 million core-computing hours, according to this GigaOM article. Google detailed the winning research projects, ranging from pharmaceutical to astrophysical research, in its Research Blog.
There were many high profile cloud outages in 2012. This CRN slideshow reveals the top 10 outages that have occurred this year.
Amazon announced AWS Detailed Billing Reports in response to customer demand for more detailed billing of their cloud usage, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article. The new reports break down billing by the hour.

Featured Content

Smart Enterprise Magazine: Identity as the New Perimeter

Feature Article

Measure the Cloud for Business Value

By George Watt, CA Technologies

Despite decades of talk about how IT needs to align to the business, in many organizations, IT and the business are not speaking the same language -- if they're speaking at all. In fact, nearly half (41%) of the business managers surveyed in a recent CA Technologies study said IT lacks communications skills.

This communication gap exists, in large part, because often we in IT don't focus on the right topics. We're likely to talk about service metrics: how long systems are up, how quickly systems that are down are brought back up, how many help desk calls are resolved, and that sort of thing. These metrics matter, but they're tactical to the business, perhaps aside from their use in preventing finger-pointing about lousy service. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Having trouble sorting through all those cloud predictions? In this episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss the latest cloud predictions for 2013.
Should software companies be entirely cloud-based? In this Forbes blog, Joe McKendrick examines how cloud computing is shifting the traditional on-premise business model for software companies.
Did you miss the #CloudViews tweetchat on public cloud? We asked our 30 chat participants questions on the maturity of public cloud, cloud security, and where to get started with cloud. You can read the Storify transcript on Smart Enterprise.

Trend Watch

How do CEOs feel about big data? In this Forbes blog, Robert Reiss reached out to the CEOs of GE Healthcare and ADT, as well as the head of wealth management at Merrill Lynch to get their opinions on the rise of big data and the impact that it may have on their industries.
Where’s IT headed in 2013? In this press release, CA Technologies outlines its 5 IT predictions for 2013 including: big data grows up, enterprises adopt public cloud, identity is the new perimeter, the seventh sense, and mobile/social first in the enterprise.
IBM announced that it is acquiring StoredIQ, a privately-held company that specializes in big data, according to this ZDNet article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Expo Europe: January 29-30, Olympia, London
International Conference on Computing: January 28-31, San Diego, CA
Cloud Expo Europe: January 29-30, Olympia, London
International Conference on Cloud Computing and Service Science: January 30-31, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

This Week in Cloud, December 13, 2012: Competing standards could harm market, The Weather Channel scales with storms, Big data, DevOps & cloud. And more…

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:13:34 EST

The Innovative CIO!

The Innovative CIO: How IT Leaders Can Drive Business Transformation – the new book from Andi Mann and George Watt

Cloud News

The APM group recently warned that competing cloud computing standards could harm the market, according to this ComputerWeekly article. There are currently around 20 competing cloud standards and APM argues that without an industry-wide standard, organizations may be hesitant to move to cloud.
The Weather Channel recently experienced its highest traffic ever during Hurricane Sandy and a recent switch to the cloud allowed their real-time radar mapping system to scale with the increased demand, according to this NetworkWorld article. During the hurricane, they scaled up from 20 to 175 AWS nodes to meet the demand of 450 million users.
Savvis, a managed hosting provider, has launched Savvis Direct, a beta compute service, as well as Symphony Cloud Storage, according to this InformationWeek article. Symphony Cloud Storage could compete with similar services from Amazon and Google.

Featured Content

Smart Enterprise Magazine: Identity as the New Perimeter

The cloud-based mobile enterprise needs special protection. Centralized identity management is the best solution, says John Hawley of CA Technologies. Read “Identity as the New Perimeter,” in the new issue of Smart Enterprise magazine Fearless: How IT Security Empowers Business. Download the free iPad app or read the online edition today.

Feature Article

Cloud and the Changing Roles within IT

By Denise Dubie, CA Technologies

Cloud computing is credited with transforming the landscape of IT from how the business procures services and resources to how vendors deliver product to the role IT plays in acquiring and delivering technology. It's important that IT leaders see the opportunities cloud offers the technology organization and the business it supports rather than view the changes cloud presents as anything other than an evolution of the role of IT. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

How mature is the public cloud? Join us for a @CloudCommons #CloudViews tweetchat on December 18th at 2ET where we’ll be discussing the public cloud. You can preview the questions on Smart Enterprise.
Where is cloud computing going in 2013? In this Forbes blog, Joe McKendrick shares his 7 cloud computing predictions for 2013, including more hosted private cloud, the new PCs – personal clouds, cloud talent shortages, and “cloud” as a defining term fades.

Trend Watch

How did DevOps emerge? This Wired article examines how the application-centric nature of cloud computing has led to the emergence of DevOps, a term for the collaboration between software development and IT operations teams.
A recent GigaSpaces survey of 243 IT professionals revealed that 80% of respondents see big data processing as mission critical and only 20% said that they had no plans to move big data to the cloud, according to this DataCenterKnowledge article. To find out more about what GigaSpaces is doing with cloud, watch this Cloud Luminaries video.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Expo Europe: January 29-30, Olympia, London
International Conference on Computing: January 28-31, San Diego, CA
Cloud Expo Europe: January 29-30, Olympia, London
International Conference on Cloud Computing and Service Science: January 30-31, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

This Week in Cloud, December 6, 2012: Cloud predictions for 2013, EMC & VMware’s new business unit, 1 in 5 employees use Dropbox. And more…

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:51:12 EST

The Innovative CIO!

The Innovative CIO: How IT Leaders Can Drive Business Transformation – the new book from Andi Mann and George Watt

Cloud News

The contributors to the Forrester Cloud Playbook have put together a list of the top 10 cloud predictions for 2013, according to this Forbes article. The analysts predict that we’ll see some of the following trends next year: Cloud and mobile will become one, we’ll stop equating cloud with AWS, and we’ll finally stop saying – “everything is going cloud.”
VMware and EMC announced their plans to create a new business unit, the Pivotal Initiative, according to this InformationWeek article. The business unit will merge VMware and EMC’s cloud computing and big data products.
A new report by Nasuni reveals that 1 out of 5 employees use Dropbox to share and store work files even though their organization’s IT department prohibits it, according to this ZDNet article. The highest usage was found among director and VP level employees.

Featured Content

Smart Enterprise Magazine: Identity as the New Perimeter

The cloud-based mobile enterprise needs special protection. Centralized identity management is the best solution, says John Hawley of CA Technologies. Read “Identity as the New Perimeter,” in the new issue of Smart Enterprise magazine Fearless: How IT Security Empowers Business. Download the free iPad app or read the online edition today.

Feature Article

A Simple and Effective Acid Test for Innovation

By George Watt, CA Technologies

Many believe innovation rarely happens by accident. That the eureka moment enshrined in popular culture is mostly myth. Certainly there are times when momentous insights and ideas pop into our heads as bolts out of the blue. But insights alone aren’t innovations. When it comes to business and IT innovation, success is nearly always the result of patience, practice, process and people.

That means orchestras, not soloists. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

How mature is the public cloud? Join us for a @CloudCommons #CloudViews tweetchat on December 18th at 2ET where we’ll be discussing the public cloud. You can preview the questions on Smart Enterprise.
What are the cloud questions you should be asking your provider? In this Forbes blog, Joe McKendrick outlines Spiceworks’ top 50 questions that cloud customers should ask providers. The categories range from “Nuts & Bolts” to “Warm & Fuzzy” questions.
How should you make the case for cloud? In this Smart Enterprise video, Markku Lepisto of Nokia Siemens Networks discusses the advantages of cloud computing for the telecommunications industry and what you can do to make the case for cloud within your organization.

Trend Watch

Data protection laws may stall some big data plans, but there may be ways to get around the challenge, according to this ZDNet UK article. In the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recently released a code of practice that aims to give organizations guidance on how to properly anonymize data and still leverage the power of big data.
Do cloud and big data go hand-in-hand? In this GigaOM blog, Derrick Harris takes a look at Amazon’s recent announcements from AWS re:Invent and what they show about the company’s strategy when it comes to cloud and big data.
A new Talking Innovation podcast was released featuring Andi Mann. The Talking Innovation series focuses on how you can transform IT to be a catalyst for innovation in your organization.

Upcoming Cloud Events

UP 2012 – Cloud Computing Conference: December 12, San Francisco, CA
Cloud Expo Europe: January 29-30, Olympia, London
International conference on Computing: January 28-31, San Diego, CA

This Week in Cloud, November 30, 2012: News from AWS re:Invent, Cisco to acquire Meraki, Does BYOD cost too much? And more…

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:46:42 EST

Watch CloudViews Unplugged!

Watch the November episode of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.

Cloud News

Amazon announced a 25% cut in Amazon S3 pricing at the AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, according to this InformationWeek article. Andy Jassy, SVP of AWS, announced the cut at the event’s first keynote speech. The Smart Enterprise team was at the event armed with cameras, recorders and twitter accounts. You can view the photos on flickr.
Amazon announced two new EC2 instance types at AWS re:Invent and a new service, AWS Data Pipeline, according to this Smart Enterprise article.
Cisco has plans to acquire Meraki, a networking company with solutions that are centrally managed from the cloud, according to this Talkin' Cloud article. If the acquisition goes through, the deal will close at the end of Cisco’s second quarter, 2013 and will cost $1.2 billion.
Rackspace announced a new startup program in the UK, which gives startups the opportunity to apply for up to 12,000 euros of free cloud hosting, according to this ZDnet article.

Featured Content

Gartner Report: Hype Cycle for Big Data, 2012

Big data is one of the most hyped terms in the market today. The first Big Data Hype Cycle helps enterprises develop strategies to address the growing business need for insight from datasets of increasing volume, velocity and variety. You can read the full report compliments of Smart Enterprise.

Feature Article

New Research Explains What Really Makes a Successful Hybrid Cloud

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a sucker for excellent research and data. Well, my friend and co-author on Visible Ops - Private Cloud, Kurt Milne (@kurtmilne on Twitter), just sucked me in with some excellent new research on 'Private and Hybrid Cloud IaaS Project Success Factors'. It was published by the IT Process Institute, so I knew immediately that it would be both interesting and important, and that it would provide immediately actionable insight - because that is what ITPI does. Indeed it is all I expected - 31 pages of pure awesomesauce, to be exact! Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Want to see what you missed at AWS re:Invent? In this CA Cloud Storm Chasers blog, Robyn Herbert wraps up the events of the second day of the conference, including the keynote by SVP of AWS, Andy Jassy and sessions including “Making the Case for Cloud” and “From Science Fiction to Reality: NASA’s journey to the cloud.”
Are enterprises running workloads in the cloud? In this GigaOM blog, Barb Darrow surmises that almost every Fortune 1000 company is running workloads in Amazon Web Services. Amazon has been offering many discounts in an attempt to lure enterprise customers away from traditional vendors.

Trend Watch

General Electric released a new study that predicts the "internet of things" (for example, internet-connected smart phones, traffic cameras, and wristbands), could increase global GDP by $10-15 trillion by 2030, according to this GigaOM article. The study says that a 1% increase in efficiency from automation could save $30 billion in the aviation industry and $63 billion in healthcare industry.
Does managing BYOD cost too much? In this ZDnet blog, Jamie Yap describes the recent finding from the China Market Research Group (CMR) which revealed that due to the costs of supporting multiple device platforms and the risks involved in BYOD, many Asian companies are finding it more cost effective to distribute devices to their employees.
Is big data disrupting IT? In this Forbes blog, Gil Press argues that IT needs to start embracing new ideas, technology, and change, instead of falling back on the practice of control and stability.

Upcoming Cloud Events

IEEE CloudCom 2012: December 3-6, Taipei, Taiwan
UP 2012 – Cloud Computing Conference: December 12, San Francisco, CA
Cloud Expo Europe: January 29-30, Olympia, London
International conference on Computing: January 28-31, San Diego, CA

This Week in Cloud, November 15, 2012: Amazon’s new data center, Cloud market forecasts, Where is the cloud headed in 2013? And more…

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:41:47 EST

Watch CloudViews Unplugged!

Watch the November episode of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.

Cloud News

Oracle is acquiring Instantis, a cloud-based and on-premise project portfolio management (PPM) solution, according to this GigaOM blog. Oracle plans to use Instantis capabilities with its Fusion and Primavera applications.
Recent forecasts on enterprise software and cloud computing reveal that analytics, mobility, security, and integrating legacy systems are influencing IT buyer’s decisions, according to this Forbes article. The article rounds up ten of the latest predictions on market growth and trends.
Amazon opened a new data center in Sydney, Australia, according to this InformationWeek article. The data center will lower latency for the 10,000 AWS customers in Australia and New Zealand.
In the November episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies wrap up the latest cloud news in 10 minutes. They discuss how cloud is morphing healthcare, the increase in cloud adoption among government and educational institutions, a new survey that reveals CFOs see quantifiable cloud benefits and more.

Featured Content

Gartner Report: Hype Cycle for Big Data, 2012

Feature Article

What do Sandy, Netflix and CIMI have in common?

By Marvin Waschke, CA Technologies

Watching hurricane Sandy from a safe distance reminded me that our online culture is vulnerable to a long list of threats: floods, wind storms, wild fires, cyber-attacks can all turn our wonderful handhelds, laptops, and desktops into useless bricks of plastic and steel. Disasters are inevitable, but planning and preparedness can reduce or avoid the damage.

The cloud presents both new opportunities for failover and disaster recovery and new challenges when disaster strikes. Enterprises today have plans to failover to a cloud if their data center is compromised. Many individuals already benefit from cloud backup services that automatically backup their disks and restore them in a few clicks. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Where is the cloud headed in 2013? In this Wired blog, Brian Patrick Donaghy details four predictions on where the cloud market is heading, including cloud will move into early majority state in the U.S., local cloud networks will emerge and community cloud will advance.
Is the U.S. government falling behind in its cloud adoption? In this InfoWorld blog, David Linthicum suggests that the government needs to start picking up the pace when it comes to cloud adoption.
Which cloud deployment model is right for you? In this Wired blog, Ken Copas discusses the various cloud models, including public and private clouds, and reveals which deployment might be right for your company.

Trend Watch

Facebook announced a new open-source data-processing tool set, Corona, which is designed to meet the massive scale of social media, according to this ReadWrite article. Facebook has the largest Hadoop cluster in the world at 100 petabytes and the big data tool is designed to meet some of the challenges Facebook encountered while using Hadoop on such a large scale.
Is managing the BYOD trend distracting CIOs from the true power of mobile applications? In this Forbes blog, Dan Woods suggests that CIOs’ BYOD strategy shouldn’t be solely focused on making sure devices are safe, secure, and manageable. They also need to pay attention to the potential for mobile applications to improve productivity.

Upcoming Cloud Events

AWS re:Invent: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV
Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV
IEEE CloudCom 2012: December 3-6, Taipei, Taiwan
UP 2012 – Cloud Computing Conference: December 12, San Francisco, CA

This Week in Cloud, November 8, 2012: Netflix releases code for AWS, Google cloud powers agricultural monitoring, Cloud standards and innovation. And more…

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:07:48 EST

Watch CloudViews Unplugged!

Watch the CloudViews special edition interview with Marvin Waschke, author of Cloud Standards: Agreements That Hold Together Clouds

Cloud News

Netflix announced that it has released the code for its Edda tool which allows for rapid querying and reporting on Amazon Web Services resources, according to this GigaOM article. The open source code is now available on Github.
Australian scientists are using Google’s cloud to deliver maps, tools, and data about the Australian landscape to land managers, according to this Farm Weekly article. Users will have access to a vegetation monitoring tool which will allow them to look at the health of the landscape and monitor risks such as pests, diseases, and fire.
Microsoft announced that they have signed a licensing pact with 21 Vianet, an Internet data center services provider in China, which will now offer Windows Azure services, according to the GigaOM article. Forrester research predicts that the Chinese cloud market will be worth $3.8 billion by 2020.

Featured Content

Gartner Report: Hype Cycle for Big Data, 2012

Feature Article

Cloud Standards and Innovation

By Jacob Lamm, CA Technologies

Cloud computing has been written about extensively. Yet just when you thought that everything you wanted to know about clouds has been covered, along comes a new book by Marv Waschke suggesting that you look at cloud computing from another angle. Standards anyone? In "Cloud Standards: Agreements That Hold Together Clouds," Waschke argues that without the standards that keep all of its component technologies from varied sources working together, cloud computing as we know it today would not be possible.

Add to that, without standards, innovation in the cloud would not be possible-or at a minimum would be severely hampered. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Join in the @CloudCommons #CloudViews tweetchat on cloud standards on Tuesday, November 13th at 2 PM ET. You can preview the questions on Smart Enterprise and download the calendar invite.
Which apps should you move to the cloud? In this Forrester blog, James Staten reveals that asking which legacy apps should be moved to the cloud is the wrong question for companies looking to get started with cloud computing. Instead, companies should be focusing on starting their cloud adoption efforts with new capabilities, as moving legacy applications may be too expensive and aren’t built to take full advantage of the cloud.
Is big data changing the way politics work? In this Huffington Post blog, Keya Dannenbaum details how big data is changing the game of politics by giving politicians and campaign volunteers access to voter data in order to personalize campaign outreach.

MSP Corner

Will Sandy’s impact cause MSPs to rethink their cloud strategy? In this MSPmentor blog, Jessica Davis discusses how the cloud is only good if you can access your data – and environmental disasters that cause power outages may mean you can’t keep your business running.
At the Cloud Channel Summit this week, channel partners gathered to learn from cloud veterans about the various ways they can build their cloud business. This CRN article outlines some of ways in which partners can expect to grow their cloud business.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Computing World Forum Asia: November 12-14, Singapore
AWS re:Invent: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV
Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV

This Week in Cloud, November 1, 2012: 96% of CFOs see cloud benefits, Big Data tracks Sandy, Cloud data centers prepare for storm. And more…

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:19:44 EDT

Watch CloudViews Unplugged!

Watch the CloudViews special edition interview with Marvin Waschke, author of Cloud Standards: Agreements That Hold Together Clouds

Cloud News

A recent Google-sponsored survey of 800 CFOs revealed that 96% of them believe that cloud computing provides quantifiable benefits to their business, according to this InfoWorld article. The survey also revealed that 94% of CFOs believe that cloud computing will be an important part of their success.
Big data companies were showcasing how their products and tools can help save money and lives through data analysis, according to this GigaOM article. The article details new big data tools and dashboards from Google, Palantir, SiSense, and Datum Companies.
Companies with data centers on the east coast were taking steps to prepare for Hurricane Sandy this week, according to this GigaOM article. The article details how companies like Terremark and Internap prepared for the storm and advises companies on what they can do to mitigate the risk of losing data and ensuring business continuity during a hurricane.

Featured Content

Gartner Report: Hype Cycle for Big Data, 2012

Feature Article

Could Cloud Call the Mainframe Home?

By Denise Dubie, CA Technologies

Study reveals IT decision makers plan to incorporate mainframes into cloud strategies.

Tomorrow's cloud strategy could read a bit like a bride's must-have list: something old, something new and perhaps even something from Big Blue. Recent survey data reveals plans among a majority of global IT decision makers to strategically couple cloud computing initiatives with existing mainframe platforms to create private and hybrid cloud environments.

The findings come as part of a larger study from CA Technologies, dubbed "The Mainframe as a Mainstay of the Enterprise 2012," which found more than 80% of IT decision makers worldwide believe the mainframe to be a "highly strategic part of their IT plans." The CA Technologies commissioned study, conducted by Decipher Research, surveyed some 623 IT professionals in 11 countries. And the results overwhelmingly show that despite some exaggerated reports in the press about the mainframe being "dead," a majority of IT leaders realize the value the platform offers and the potential benefits to building future technology strategy on a foundation as solid as the mainframe. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Due to sweeping power outages in the Northeast, we postponed our @CloudCommons #CloudViews tweetchat on cloud standards that was scheduled for October 30th. The event will now take place on Tuesday, November 13th. You can preview the questions on Smart Enterprise.
Does it matter if the CIO is happy with cloud? In this Forbes.com blog, Joe McKendrick quotes Andi Mann and recent data from a CA Technologies commissioned IDG survey to reveal that the business may not be on the same page as the CIO when it comes to cloud computing.
Are EU policies smothering the cloud? In this ZDNet blog, Phil Wainewright, the chair of EuroCloud UK, suggests that the industry needs to step up to ensure that policies aren’t put in place that will smother the cloud.

MSP Corner

Can MSPs predict cloud outages? In this MSPmentor blog, Joe Panettieri discusses new tools that monitor the cloud for warning signs of an impending outage.
Are cloud data centers prepared for disasters? In this Talkin’ Cloud blog, Chris Talbot reveals how Hurricane Sandy affected east coast data centers and details storm related announcements by Rackspace and Nirvanix.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Computing World Forum Asia: November 12-14, Singapore
AWS re:Invent: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV
Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV

This Week in Cloud, October 25, 2012: Amazon outage, OpenStack Cloud Block Storage, New cloud hardware can reduce costs by 30%. And more…

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:32:12 EDT

Watch CloudViews Unplugged!

Watch the October episode of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.

Cloud News

Amazon’s east coast data center experienced another outage this week that brought down many popular websites, including Reddit, Heroku, and Foursquare, according to this ZDNet article. In this GigaOM blog, Barb Darrow details the outage and wonders why sites like Heroku aren’t distributing their workloads among geographic locations and availability zones.
Rackspace announced Cloud Block Storage for its OpenStack cloud this week which will allow users to decide on the size and type of block storage for their compute instances, according to this GigaOM article. The new offering, which competes with Amazon Elastic Block Storage, allows users to choose between SSD and traditional disk-based storage.
The hardware behind the cloud can make a big difference in speed and cost, according to this BBC article. Researchers at Deutsch Telekom Laboratories discovered that the difference between fast and slow instances of Amazon EC2 can vary in speed by as much as 40% and since Amazon charges by the hour, users can cut up to 30% of their bill by choosing faster instances. You can read the results of the experiment in this report.

Featured Content

IDC Report: Cloud Systems Management 2011 Vendor Shares: Market Moves Beyond Self-Service

A new report from IDC examines the growth of the worldwide cloud systems management software market and ranks the current vendors, including CA Technologies, VMWare, BMC, HP, and IBM based on their 2011 cloud systems management software revenue. You can read the full report on CA.com.

Feature Article

The #1 Best Practice For Cloud-Based Innovation

By Adam Famularo, CA Technologies

Here's one thing everyone in IT can agree on: nobody agrees on best practices for cloud-based innovation. There's an ongoing debate about how to use the cloud, and what role it should play in the enterprise to foster innovation. That shouldn't be surprising, since we're still debating how to define the cloud itself, despite the fact that the term has been in use, technically, since at least the early 90s, and probably longer.

Part of this is due to the fact that the cloud is still evolving, and rapidly so. Vendors, analysts, consultants, and IT leaders alike continue to coin new buzzwords to describe some nuanced view or technical model for the cloud ("hyper-hybrid cloud," anyone?). And vendors specifically are slapping the "aaS" moniker on more offerings every day, to the extent that I expect to soon see Acronyms as a Service. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Are cloud standards important? Join us for a @CloudCommons #CloudViews cloud standards tweetchat on Tuesday, October 30th at 2 PM ET. You can preview the questions on Smart Enterprise.
What are the three biggest cloud computing terrors? In this InfoWorld blog, David Linthicum describes how lack of security planning, the absence of service governance, and public cloud performance issues can turn your promising cloud deployment into a nightmare.
Gartner outlined the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2013 at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Orlando this week, according to this Forbes article. The article details the top 10 trends, including personal cloud, hybrid IT and cloud computing, mobile device battles, and strategic big data.

MSP Corner

How can channel partners get ahead of the competition and stay relevant in hard economic times? In this ComputerWorld blog, Hafizah Osman shares advice from channel experts and analysts to come up with nine ways that channel businesses can grow in the current market.
Do MSPs need to focus more on innovation and less on IT maintenance? In this MSPMentor blog, Joe Panettieri suggests that MSPs should start spending less time on IT maintenance and support and instead start their own cloud application and software development.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Computing World Forum Asia: November 12-14, Singapore
AWS re:Invent: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV
Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV

This Week in Cloud, October 18, 2012: Cloud puts high demands on networks, Cloud infographic, Cloud standards interview. And more…

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:21:00 EDT

Watch CloudViews Unplugged!

Watch the October episode of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.

Cloud News

Cloud services are putting new demands on enterprise networks, a recent survey by Juniper Networks and Forrester Research revealed, according to this AllThingsD article. Of the 150 senior IT executives surveyed, 58% said that they had to upgrade their networking hardware to meet the new demands brought on by cloud services.
A new infographic by CA Technologies reveals that 80% of companies believe that cloud computing drives innovation, but over half of those companies don’t have plans to implement the technology yet, according to this Mashable article.
Citrix announced that its open-source CloudStack platform gained key support from CA Technologies and Cisco this week, according to this GigaOM blog. Citrix’s commercial CloudStack implementation, CloudPlatform, will now connect into Cisco’s Nexus switches, Unified Computing System (UCS) and Open Network Environment (ONE) and CA Technologies’ Cloud Automation Suite and Nimsoft Monitor.
A recent survey by Tecala of 136 CIOs and IT managers reveals that 62% of Australian organizations are planning to increase their spending on cloud computing in the next year, according to this ZDNet article. Close to 80% of those respondents said they’d use cloud to replace physical servers.
The cloud may be heading to cooler climates, according to this Data Center Knowledge article. By strategically choosing the location of cloud data centers, cloud providers may be able to drastically reduce or eliminate their cooling costs and cut down on overall power consumption.

Featured Content

IDC Report: Cloud Systems Management 2011 Vendor Shares: Market Moves Beyond

Feature article

Cutting through the cloud clutter

By Katherine Demacopoulos, CA Technologies

It feels like there is never enough time to keep up with the changes that cloud computing is bringing to the IT market. What's the latest data on projected market growth and enterprise adoption of cloud services? Which cloud deployment models are proving most popular with enterprises and why? What's the latest news from the vendor community and what's the real impact behind the hype? What are some of the unexpected and interesting applications of cloud computing across healthcare, financial services and other industries? What's been going on lately with cloud standards and regulations and why does it matter?

These are the types of questions that Andi Mann and George Watt answer in CA Technologies new monthly video chat series, CloudViews Unplugged. We know you don't have a lot of extra time to spare, so we keep every episode short and only cover the stories that matter most. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Are cloud standards important? In this special edition of CloudViews Unplugged, Marvin Waschke, author of Cloud Standards: Agreements That Hold Cloud Together, is interviewed by Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies. In the video, Waschke discusses why cloud standards are important and how they can help foster innovation. Join Marvin, Andi, and George for a @CloudCommons #CloudViews cloud standards tweetchat on Tuesday, October 30th at 2 PM ET.
Is the clock ticking for OpenStack? Forrester analyst James Staten says that organizations that are members of the OpenStack cloud computing project need to see a return on their investment soon or they may lose interest, according to this PC Advisor article.
Should educational institutions adopt cloud computing? In this Huffington Post blog, Naibo Yu describes how his startup is promoting the use of cloud computing in Chinese classrooms. Allowing students to access lessons and materials at any time from their PC or tablet is an obvious benefit, but Yu also cites the ability to access user analysis and data as a crucial step in ensuring the students are receiving the best education.
What are the top 5 benefits of cloud computing? In this Wired blog, Edwin Schouten outlines the 5 key benefits that cloud provides for companies including business agility, new business models, less operational issues, better use of resources, and less capital expense.

MSP Corner

Is the cloud leading to more opportunities for MSPs? In this Channel Partners blog, Angela Trillhaase describes how the cloud and mobile are opening up more opportunities for MSPs when it comes to midsized companies.
Will IT ever regain control of all employees’ devices again? In this MSPMentor blog, Jessica Davis takes a look at the rise and future of bring your own device (BYOD).

Upcoming Cloud Events

Gartner Symposium & ITxpo 2012: October 21-25, Orlando, FL
Cloud Computing World Forum Asia: November 12-14, Singapore
AWS re:Invent: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV
Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV

This Week in Cloud, October 12, 2012: IBM & AT&T’s cloud offering, CIO survey reveal cloud growth, Cloud cartoon caption contest. And more…

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 09:41:17 EDT

Watch CloudViews Unplugged!

Watch the October episode of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.

Cloud News

IBM and AT&T are teaming up to deliver new cloud services over private networks, according to this ComputerWorld article. As part of the new offering, customers will have access to IBM’s cloud resources over AT&T’s virtual private network, which the companies claim will result in improved security.
A recent survey reveals that companies are seeing mostly positive results from adopting cloud technology, according to this Forbes.com article. The Navint Partners report which showcased the results of a Fortune 500 roundtable survey of 20 CIOs, reveals that those companies are achieving the expected cost savings, efficiency and competitive advantage benefits.
Amazon announced this week that they’ve seen a rapid rise in cloud adoption from government agencies and educational institutions, according to this InformationWeek article. More than 1,500 educational institutions and 300 government agencies are using Amazon Web Services.
The European Commission says that cloud computing could generate 2.5 million jobs within the European Union and result in an extra 583 billion euros between 2015 and 2020, according to this CNBC article.

Featured Content

IDC Report: Cloud Systems Management 2011 Vendor Shares: Market Moves Beyond

Feature article

10 Ways IT Can Own Cloud Decisions

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

And musings on the actual state of cloud computing

If anyone wasn't wondering about the cloud's readiness for enterprise computing, they are now, thanks to several stories in the news recently. Some of these reports question cloud computing's business value, adoption rates and whether the enterprise is ready for the cloud (or vice versa).

Others ask if IT professionals are even capable of delivering cloud services reliably and securely. Still others warn of a coming cloud boogie-man lurking in the shadows, waiting to spring a privacy trap on us, like some kind of cloud computing video game troll. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

This week, CA Technologies launched the cloud cartoon caption contest. Enter your best caption for a chance to win a Kindle Fire™ HD and visit the new CloudViews landing page for cloud cartoons, infographics and more.
Is the cloud leading to more lock-in? In this New York Times blog, Quentin Hardy examines the cloud strategies of Oracle and Hewlett-Packard and suggests that the cloud may be increasing the amount of vendor lock-in among large cloud providers.
What will happen at this year’s OpenStack Summit? In this GigaOM blog, Barb Darrow discusses the 8 big OpenStack questions about the future of OpenStack. On the list: Is VMware a friend, foe or frenemy? Will OpenStack prevail against Eucalyptus and CloudStack? Openstack – the Linux or Unix of cloud?

MSP Corner

CA Technologies unveiled a new version of Nimsoft Monitor and announced that Nimsoft will now be known as CA Nimsoft, bringing the product into the CA Technologies Service Assurance portfolio, according to this MSPMentor article.
A recent CDW Small Business Mobility Report reveals that only 50% of IT managers at small businesses believe that they have an effective mobile device strategy. In this MSPMentor blog, CJ Arlotta describes how MSPs can take advantage of this large gap.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Computing World Forum – India: October 16-17, Mumbai, India
Gartner Symposium & ITxpo 2012: October 21-25, Orlando, FL
AWS re:Invent: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV

This Week in Cloud, October 4, 2012: Cloud Computing Act of 2012, Cloud leads to advances in healthcare, GoDaddy shuts down Cloud Servers. And more…

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 18:35:13 EDT

Watch CloudViews Unplugged!

Watch the October episode of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.

Cloud News

A new bill that focuses on the enforcement of criminal and civil law with regards to cloud computing was recently introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar. The Cloud Computing Act of 2012’s primary purpose is to provide extra protection for cloud services as part of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. In this Forbes blog, Eric Goldman details what he considers the major problems with the bill and regulating the Internet in general.
Morgridge Institute, a non-profit that conducts biomedical research, is using cloud computing to index human stem cells, which will allow researchers to determine how to build various types of cell structures for research and experimentation, according to this GigaOM article. The Morgridge Institute used Cycle Computing’s software and AWS to process and index the stem cells.
The healthcare industry is improving treatment and saving time and money with cloud computing, according to this NPR article. Researchers at pharmaceutical companies are increasingly leveraging the power of cloud computing to discover new drugs and treatments.
GoDaddy announced that it is no longer going to offer its Cloud Servers product for SMBs, according to this GigaOM article. GoDaddy said in a statement that while they will continue to support Cloud Servers customers for the time being, they’ve decided to double-down on their shared hosting and site builder products.
Oracle made several cloud product announcements at Oracle OpenWorld this week, according to this CRN article. The announcements included storage, messaging, financial reporting, and budgeting services.

Featured Content

IDC Report: Cloud Systems Management 2011 Vendor Shares: Market Moves Beyond

Feature article

The Hype About Gartner’s Cloud Computing Hype Cycle

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

And musings on the actual state of cloud computing

Cloud Views

In the October episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies wrap up the cloud news in 10 minutes. Topics include rogue enterprise IT spending, schools using cloud for collaboration, restaurants using cloud and mobile, Amazon's EC2 instances marketplace and more.
What is cloud computing anyway? In this GigaOM blog, Mark Thiele argues that everyone needs to stop worrying about what the cloud is or isn’t and instead they should be focused on leveraging technology that meets their requirements and enables them to achieve agility and create opportunity.
Will the term cloud computing soon be replaced? In this ReadWriteWeb blog, Brain Proffitt identifies some of the challenges that consumers are having with the term “cloud” and explains what some companies are doing to better define cloud computing.

MSP Corner

What are the 10 issues that destroy customers’ confidence in cloud computing? In this Talkin’ Cloud blog, Chris Talbot details the results of a recent Cloud Security Alliance and ISACA survey which showed that issues like contract lock-in, data privacy, and longevity or suppliers are eroding customer confidence.
Germany may be the next big market for MSPs, according to this MSPmentor article. The strength of the market in Germany is due to a strong economy and large base of SMEs that need IT services.

Upcoming Cloud Events

VMworld 2012: October 9 – 11, Barcelona, Spain
Cloud Computing World Forum – India: October 16-17, Mumbai, India
Gartner Symposium & ITxpo 2012: October 21-25, Orlando, FL
AWS re:Invent: November 27-29, Las Vegas, NV

This Week in Cloud, September 27, 2012: Cloud more secure than on-premise, IBM’s SMB offering, NASDAQ’s cloud app

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:35:04 EDT

This Week in Cloud on the go!

Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

A recent Alert Logic survey revealed that cloud apps are more secure than apps that are on-premise, according to this Forbes article. The survey examined 70,000 security breaches over a 12-month period.
IBM will be taking on Amazon, Google, and Saleforce.com with cloud offerings that target businesses with less than 1,000 employees, according to this IT World article.
NASDAQ OMX is headed to the cloud with a new offering called FinQloud which will run on Amazon Web Services, according to this GigaOM article. FinQloud will store and analyze financial trading data.
Cloud computing in the classroom is allowing students to better collaborate and access assignments and class documents when they are ill, according to The Times of Northwest Indiana article. Hobart Middle School is using Google Apps and social media to provide its students with a collaborative environment where students can learn, participate, and challenge each other.
A recent Pike report titled “Smart Government Technologies” says that the cities will be spending $1.4 billion annually on cloud services by 2017, according to this Information Management article.
Google will purchase clean energy from a wind farm in Oklahoma to power one of its Oklahoma-based data centers, according to this GigaOM article. This is the first time that clean energy will directly power one of Google’s data centers.

Featured Content

IDC Report: Cloud Systems Management 2011 Vendor Shares: Market Moves Beyond

Feature article

Is Cloud Driving Innovation? #CloudViews

By Derek Stevens, CA Technologies

#CloudViews Tweet Chat: 2:00 PM ET – Friday, September 28th

Every organization strives to be innovative, but what are companies actually doing to incubate innovation and how are new technologies contributing to innovation?

The topic of cloud and innovation was recently examined in an Innovation Today blog by Denise Dubie where she details a recent CA Technologies survey which asked the question: How does cloud computing drive innovation? “The responses from some 788 site visitors showed that the majority (nearly 80%) do attribute cloud computing with contributing to innovation somehow. Twenty-one percent said that it does not contribute,” Denise said. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Will CMOs outspend CIOs on IT services? In this GigaOM blog, Barb Darrow discusses the rise of rogue IT and Gartner’s recent projection that in five years CMOs will outspend CIOs on IT.
Is cloud computing increasing the number of women in IT? In this PC Advisor article, Sandra Gittlen examines how cloud computing is opening more opportunities for women in IT due to the characteristics of the cloud, such as its emphasis on collaboration and project management.
Are mobile devices and cloud computing making an impact on the restaurant industry? In The Next Web article, Mike Vardy examines how restaurants are starting to adopt new technology to lower costs and increase productivity.
What do non-profits need to know about the cloud? In this NPQ blog, John Hoffman gives an overview of the cloud with a focus on non-profits and details some recent surveys to explain how non-profits should approach the cloud.

MSP Corner

Is Saleforce.com’s new Chatterbox offering going to compete with Box’s offering? In this Talkin’ Cloud blog, Chris Talbot discusses the partnership between Box and Salesforce.com and reveals how the two services may not directly compete.
Avnet Technology Solutions is partnering with Amazon to enable MSPs to offer custom cloud solutions that involve Oracle database services, according to this Talkin’ Cloud article.

Upcoming Cloud Events

OracleWorld: September 30 – October 4, San Francisco, CA
Interop Enterprise Cloud Summit: October 1 – 5, New York, NY
MSPWorld: October 3 – 5, Austin, TX
VMworld 2012: October 9 – 11, Barcelona, Spain

This Week in Cloud, September 20, 2012: Amazon EC2 marketplace, Lenovo acquires Stoneware, Gartner: IaaS market to grow 45%. And more…

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:33:18 EDT

This Week in Cloud on the go!

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Cloud News

Amazon EC2 customers who have purchased more EC2 reserved instances than they need can now sell those instances to other EC2 customers in Amazon’s new marketplace, according to this GigaOM article. The reserved instances are purchased with 1 to 3 year commitments and this new marketplace now offers customers a way to sell their unused instances when demand changes. In this GigaOM blog, Dr. James Mitchell details his beta test of the new marketplace.
Lenovo, the world’s second largest PC maker, has purchased cloud computing software company Stoneware, according to The Seattle Times article. Stoneware, which has cloud solutions for the government and education industry, will help Lenovo connect its smartphones, tablets, and PCs.
Gartner predicts that the worldwide public cloud computing services market will grow 19.6% this year, according to The Economic Times article. The global market is expected to reach $109 billion, led by the Infrastructure-as-a-Service market which will grow 45.4% this year.
CA Technologies announced a new version of CA Infrastructure Management, according to this ZDNet article. The management software collects performance data and offers user-specific views of the system through a single dashboard. The software integrates CA Technologies recent application acquisitions, such as Nimsoft and NetQoS.

Featured Content

IDC Report: Cloud Systems Management 2011 Vendor Shares: Market Moves Beyond

Feature article

Accelerating Public Cloud Access

By Doug Bartholomew, Smart Enterprise Exchange

A funny thing happened to Winged Media, a three-year-old Australian firm, on the way to building out its global service offering over the public cloud — in this case Amazon’s S3 data storage service. The company, which provides platform-based marketing solutions for Internet-domain investors, wanted to launch a cloud-based Internet-domain auction service, but in a trial, Winged Media encountered very slow global access to the data.

Some quick analysis revealed that the customers suffering the slow response times were incurring data latency — that is, sluggish response resulting from their great distance from the content. The problem was critical for Winged Media to solve because it affected the company’s Protrada Domain Exchange, an auction site on which expiring, or back-order, domains from different sources go up for bid. Winged Media needed to be certain it could update and synchronize its servers around the world for its global customer base or its flagship service wouldn’t fly. Read the full article (registration required).

Cloud Views

Gartner recently released a list of the 5 things that the private cloud isn’t. In this Network World article, Brendon Butler details the Gartner’s list which includes private cloud is not just virtualization, is not just a money saver, is not always on-premise, is not just in the infrastructure layer, and may not always be private.
Does Europe really lag behind the U.S. when it comes to cloud computing? In this GigaOM blog, Barb Darrow reveals some of the latest research on Europe’s cloud market to show that Europe may not be lagging behind for long.

MSP Corner

Will OpenStack become the Linux of the cloud? In this MSPmentor blog, Joe Panettieri discusses how OpenStack’s potential may be a powerful draw for MSPs.
How should MSPs deal with increased data and multiple monitoring systems? In this MSPmentor blog, Jessica Davis details the features of the new CA Infrastructure Management suite which provides monitoring and analytics of the network infrastructure.

Upcoming Cloud Events

OracleWorld: September 30 – October 4, San Francisco, CA
Interop Enterprise Cloud Summit: October 1 – 5, New York, NY
MSPWorld: October 3 – 5, Austin, TX
VMworld 2012: October 9 – 11, Barcelona, Spain

This Week in Cloud, September 13, 2012: SMEs benefit from G-Cloud, Salesforce.com Chatterbox, Cloud-based design simulations. And more…

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 16:04:19 EDT

This Week in Cloud on the go!

Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

The UK Government’s G-Cloud is enabling SMEs to deliver more IT services to the government, according to this UKAuthority article. Denise McDonagh, program director of G-Cloud, said that 75% of the government’s spend on IT services through G-Cloud to date has gone to SMEs.
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff said that Salesforce.com is planning to offer a service called Chatterbox, according to this GigaOM article. Chatterbox will be an enterprise-class file-sharing service.
High-end design simulation software is coming to the cloud at a fraction of the cost. Autodesk’s new offering, Simulation 360, allows users to run simulations without the need for in-house high-performance systems, according to this GigaOM article. Simulation software can cost from $20k to $100k per user per year, but with the new cloud offering, the cost drops to just over $3k per year.
KPMG’s latest Issues Monitor says the global cloud computing industry will be worth an extra $2.2 billion by the end of the year and most of that growth will come from the SME sector, according to this ComputerWeekly article. KPMG predicts that the worldwide market will be worth $14.5 billion by the start of 2013.

Featured Content

Gartner Report: Hype Cycle for Big Data, 2012

Feature article

A Foundation for Interoperable Clouds

By Marvin Waschke, CA Technologies

The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) has released version 1.0 of the Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface (CIMI). CIMI is an important step forward and here's why.

The cloud is often described as "utility computing," computing resources packaged as a metered service. Utility computing can have enormous benefits to IT consumers, freeing them from maintenance tasks and capital investments that are far from their core business. Utility computing is comparable to electrical utilities, and it is easy to jump to the logical conclusion that the kind of revolution that freely available electricity drove in the first half of the 20th century is about to take place in computing. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

In the September episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies wrap up the month’s cloud news in 10 minutes! This month’s topics include SMEs benefiting from cloud, Google Science Fair winner uses cloud to help detect breast cancer, AWS gathers Mars data, green cloud, Australia privacy laws, and more!
Do on-premise data centers waste resources? A new survey from Savvis revealed that a majority of IT and business managers believe that on-premise data centers are a waste of resources, according to this CloudPro article. The survey also revealed that 85% of companies are using cloud services to some degree.
When is moving to the cloud a bad idea? In this Forbes.com blog, Joe McKendrick reveals some of the highlights from Joe Weinman’s new book, Cloudonomics. In the blog, he summarizes 18 areas where cloud computing make sense, such as communications, consolidations, and continuity, and 10 areas that don’t.

MSP Corner

A recent report by Frost & Sullivan shows that the Infrastructure-as-a-Service market is booming in Australia and many local MSPs are taking advantage of increased adoption rates, according to this MSPnews article.
Will the iPhone 5 disrupt the CSP and MSP market? In this Talkin’ Cloud blog, Joe Panettieri suggests that many of today’s CSPs focus on PC and server data protection, but with the increasing popularity of the iPhone and iCloud, CSPs should start to implement mobile device management (MDM) and BYOD policies and services.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Dreamforce ’12: September 18-21, San Francisco, CA
Hosting & Cloud Transformation Summit: September 18-20, New York, NY
OracleWorld: September 30 – October 4, San Francisco, CA

UK’s Cloud First Policy, Big Data Best Practices, and More…

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 06:00:00 EDT

Close to a year has passed since the UK government published their Cloud Computing Strategy which included a ‘cloud first’ policy similar to the one implemented in the United States. In this ZDNet blog, Steve Ranger examines the government’s progress and concludes that while the plans are progressing in some areas, the cloud-first policy hasn’t been widely adopted.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), Fujitsu, Verizon, and eBay are working together on developing best practices and standards for Big Data security and privacy, according to this FierceTelecom article.

Analyst firm IDC predicts that as many as 30% of cloud providers in the cloud market today may not be around in 2015, according to this Channelnomics article. You can read the IDC press release on IDC.com.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced that government agencies can now purchase cloud-based email services from 17 approved providers, according to this gov.AOL article. GSA was the first federal agency to migrate to cloud-based email and the agency expects to save $15 million from the switch over the next 5 years.

Featured Content

Gartner Report: Hype Cycle for Big Data, 2012

Feature article

Delivering value the DirecTV way: Aligning IT with the business

By Derek Stevens, CA Technologies

What happens when the business starts provisioning cloud services without consulting IT?

A credit card number is all that is needed for the business to bypass IT and purchase a cloud service. The growing trend of line of business services purchased without the input of IT is leading to many new problems that the IT department must deal with, from integration to security. It also raises the question of who is responsible for the ongoing maintenance and management of services which haven’t been approved by the IT department.

This topic was broached by Andi Mann and George Watt in a recent episode of CloudViews Unplugged when they discussed a survey which revealed that, in many organizations, the IT department is becoming responsible for cloud services that the business or employees purchased without consulting IT. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Where will the impact of cloud computing be felt the most? In this New York Times blog, Quentin Hardy discusses how cloud computing may dramatically impact the poorest countries in the world, giving countries without constant electricity and proper sanitation the ability to use cloud supercomputers.
Are cloud companies copying each other? In this InfoWorld blog, David Linthicum says he sees a growing trend of cloud companies playing it safe and mimicking each other. He calls for more innovation and creativity among cloud providers to create game changing services.

MSP Corner

The MSPmentor 250, 2012 report was published this week on MSPmentor. The annual list contains what MSPmentor declares are the “world’s top” MSP experts.
How should systems integrators position themselves to take advantage of cloud computing now and in the future? In this Talkin’ Cloud blog, Justin Crotty discusses the ways in which systems integrators can approach cloud infrastructure.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Connect: September 10-13, 2012, Chicago, IL
Dreamforce ’12: September 18-21, San Francisco, CA
Hosting & Cloud Transformation Summit: September 18-20, New York, NY
OracleWorld: September 30 – October 4, San Francisco, CA

This Week in Cloud, August 30, 2012

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 02:30:00 EDT

Andrew R. Jassy, the head of Amazon Web Services, believes that Amazon’s cloud services can be as big, if not bigger, than its retail business, according to this New York Times article. The article reported that Amazon currently has over 600 AWS related job openings posted on their website.

CSA Certification; Amazon's Glacier; Cloud Tax and More

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 04:15:00 EDT

Amazon launched a low-cost storage service called Amazon Glacier, according to this TechCrunch article. The latest of Amazon’s cloud services, Amazon Glacier provides “secure and durable storage for data archiving and backup,” according to this Amazon Glacier overview. Massachusetts has been grappling with how to tax cloud computing services and this month, it has decided on the conditions that make the cloud taxable, according to this NetworkWorld article. Massachusetts will collect taxes on SaaS when a license is required to run the service. Taxes won’t be collected on free, open source software.

This Week in Cloud, August 2, 2012: Oracle acquires Xsigo, Netflix Chaos Monkey, Cloud drives innovation. And more…

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:40:58 EDT

This Week in Cloud on the go!

Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

Oracle announced that it has signed a deal to acquire Xsigo Systems, a company that specializes in software defined networking, according to this ComputerWorld article. Oracle plans to combine Xsigo’s tools with its Oracle VM server virtualization technology.
Netflix has open sourced Chaos Monkey, code that it uses to test what will happen to cloud-hosted applications when virtual servers go down unexpectedly, according to this GigaOM article. Netflix, which runs on Amazon Web Services, said that Chaos Monkey is flexible enough to run on other providers’ clouds beyond AWS.
Amazon announced Provisioned IOPS (Input Output Per Second) which can reach up to 10,000 IOPS for use with large, big data analytics jobs and high transactional solutions such as SAP, according to this GigaOM article. You can read more about the offering and watch a video in the AWS blog.
A recent survey conducted by Business Software Alliance (BSA) and Ipsos Public Affairs determined that emerging markets are more likely to use cloud services than mature ones, according to this CloudPro article. In emerging markets, 50 percent of respondents use some kind of cloud service, but in mature markets, that figure drops to 33 percent.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Cloud Course: Cloud Essentials

A 2011 Cloud Adoption study by BitNami, Cloud.com, and Zenoss of 500 IT professionals, found that one of the biggest inhibitors to cloud computing is a lack of training. ITprenuers and CA Technologies are now offering Cloud Essentials courses where students will gain a core understanding of how to adopt, operate and govern the cloud. Sign up for a Cloud Essentials Overview course or download the web-based version of the course.

Feature article

Stop following and start leading

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

As technology innovation becomes ever more central to business innovation, the pressure flows onto the shoulders of today's CIO. Yet they are not being offered more resources to deliver these innovations, nor are their existing systems getting easier or cheaper to own and manage. So the modern CIO must try to meet this ever-increasing demand for innovation, despite their own ever-decreasing capacity to deliver innovation. This is the "new normal" for today's CIO - and this gap between business demand and IT capacity is only getting wider.

There is no doubt then that almost every business, from the smallest startup to the largest enterprise, will increasingly rely on cloud computing, because cloud - whether private, public, community, or hybrid - promises to close this gap. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

@CloudCommons hosted a #CloudViews tweet chat on international cloud on Tuesday, July 31st. You can find a list of the question and a transcript of the event on Cloud Commons.
In the August episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies discuss emerging cloud markets, big data, 7 common cloud challenges, cloud-based farming, Netflix Chaos Monkey, and Amazon cloud outages.
What will cloud computing look like in 2020? In this ZDNet blog, Jack Clark uses recent data from Forbes to predict 10 ways in which cloud computing will look radically different in 2020.
Can a solar flare knock out your cloud? In this Virtualization Review blog, Elias Khnaser details how a large solar flare could impact cloud computing.
Do cloud computing and innovation go hand-in-hand? In this CA Innovation Central blog, Denise Dubie examines recent poll data that looks at how the cloud is driving innovation.

MSP Corner

Businesses still have a lot of questions when it comes to cloud. In this MSPmentor blog, Mike Cullen reveals the nine questions that every MSP or CSP should anticipate.
At the CompTIA Breakaway in Las Vegas this week, cloud will be a major topic of discussion. In this MSPmentor blog, Ted Roller discuss the sessions that cloud-interested attendees won’t want to miss.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Cloud Computing World Forum: August 22 – 23, Sao Paulo, Brazil
VMWorld 2012: August 26-30, San Francisco, CA
Cloud Connect: September 10-13, 2012, Chicago, IL
Dreamforce ’12: September 18-21, San Francisco, CA

This Week in Cloud

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:11:00 EDT

A majority of companies reported that they are adding new types of skills and roles to their IT departments to handle their growing cloud requirements, according to this Forbes article. The data comes from a recent CompTIA survey which revealed the current skills that are in demand include private cloud developers and administrators, cloud architects, departmental liaisons, integration specialists, and compliance specialists. VMWare has acquired Nicira, a privately held company known for its software defined networking technology for $1.26 billion, according to this TechCrunch article. Nicira's open-source software creates a layer of abstraction between servers and networking gear, and allows for virtualized pools of networking capability.

Cloud Economics, US DoD’s Cloud Plans, Microsoft Office Cloud, and More…

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 08:00:00 EDT

The US Department of Defense has released a four-step plan to expand its use of cloud computing, according to this Federal Times article. The DoD will incentivize the use of cloud computing and train new professionals on how to procure cloud services, in addition to incorporating cloud software and hardware into their data centers. The plan allows for the purchase of both government and commercial cloud solutions. The next version of Microsoft Office will include social and cloud computing features, according to this PCMag article. Microsoft Office 2013, which will work with touch-screen devices run on Windows 8, will save documents to Microsoft’s SkyDrive and enable access to files from mobile devices. RightScale acquired the Scottish cloud computing cost forecasting website ShopForCloud, according to this SYS-CON article. The site allows users to access the current pricing of many of the most popular cloud services and shows what a business’s cloud will cost with various architecture models and usage patterns.

Olympic Cloud, CloudViews Unplugged, Cloud-Based EHR, and More...

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 07:45:00 EDT

IT spending is on the rise, according to this New York Times article. Recent figures published by Gartner state that IT spending will increase by 3% from 2011, more than was previously predicted. Cloud computing is one of the main contributors to the increased spending as more companies start to adopt the technology. Spending on public cloud services is predicted to rise from $91b in 2011 to $109b in 2012. Still, cloud services represent only a fraction of the $3.6 trillion that is predicted to be spent on IT in 2012.

Download the This Week in Cloud iPhone app. Now it’s even easier to get your weekly cloud news and perspectives.

Cloud News

IT spending is on the rise, according to this New York Times article. Recent figures published by Gartner state that IT spending will increase by 3% from 2011, more than was previously predicted. Cloud computing is one of the main contributors to the increased spending as more companies start to adopt the technology. Spending on public cloud services is predicted to rise from $91b in 2011 to $109b in 2012. Still, cloud services represent only a fraction of the $3.6 trillion that is predicted to be spent on IT in 2012.
The Olympics may be the perfect event to showcase the power and scalability of cloud computing, but unfortunately, that won’t be happening in London this year, according to this ZDnet blog. CIO for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, Gerry Pennell, revealed that cloud infrastructure isn’t mature enough to support the games, but he predicts that we’ll see cloud computing being utilized in future events.
Microsoft announced a pre-beta version of the Service Management Portal which provides a Windows Azure-like Infrastructure-as-a-Service experience for users, whether they are using Microsoft’s cloud or not, according to this GigaOM article.
Cloud computing may add as many as 14 million new jobs worldwide by 2015, according to this Forbes.com article.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Cloud Sourcing: Lessons Learned from Early Adopters

Cloud offerings continue to grow in maturity and volume. CIOs look at them as an alternative in their IT value chain. Gartner recently assesses organizations that purchased cloud-based service offerings. This report by Gartner (compliments of Cloud Commons® Ecosystem) shares some early lessons from their experiences.

Feature article

Survey Says - We’re More Comfortable with Cloud, Yet Same Worries Persist

By George Hulme, Independent Writer

A survey released just prior to the 2012 GigaOM Structure Conference had a number of interesting results about cloud services adoption. It seems organizations are concerned about security, compliance, and cloud lock-in, but certainly not enough to curb adoption.

785 respondents including industry experts, users and vendors participated in the survey. Respondents were asked about such cloud issues as business drivers, objections, and its business impact. One potential ding of the survey is that 65 percent of respondents were vendors, and only 35 percent were classified as customers. So the results may skew heavily toward what vendors would like to see market realities to be, rather than what they are. Plus, cloud vendors are certain to be cloud champions (one would certainly hope so, anyway).

Here are a number of the headline findings from the survey I found interesting. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

In the July episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies wrap up the month’s cloud news in 10 minutes. This month’s episode topics include Europe’s cloud, Oracle’s cloud, Google Coordinate and IaaS, Facebook and more!
Is cloud-based EHR taking the healthcare industry by storm? In this Cloud Commons blog, George Hulme discusses a recent article which declared that cloud-based EHR is having a huge impact on the health industry, but the data may not be there to back the claim.
Should you design your cloud for failure? In this Forbes blog, Reuven Cohen discusses the recent outage of Amazon Web Services due to a lightning storm on the east coast that brought down popular websites including Netflix, Pinterest and Instagram. Reuven suggests that businesses should rely on more than one cloud provider and an automated fail-over process to ensure business continuity.
A recent survey conducted by Rackspace revealed that 91% of IT decision makers think cloud computing is a positive thing, according to this ZDNet blog. The survey also revealed some of the top concerns when it comes to cloud including adding additional computing power and vendor lock-in.

MSP Corner

A recent report from AMI Partners reveals that US SMBs will invest $34 billion in cloud services in 2012, according to this MSPmentor article. This article takes a look out how MSPs should be positioning themselves to take advantage of the increased interest in cloud among SMBs.
With HostingCon just around the corner, many MSPs that are evaluating cloud services and strategies will be heading to the event in Boston, according to this Talkin’ Cloud blog. The blog also details some of the current trends for MSPs and their involvement with cloud.

Upcoming Cloud Events

HostingCon 2012: July 16-18, Boston, MA
Cloud Identity Summit 2012: July 16 – 19, Vail, CO
Cloud Computing World Forum: August 22 – 23, Sao Paulo, Brazil
VMWorld 2012: August 26-30, San Francisco, CA

This Week in Cloud, June 21, 2012: Cloud failures cost $70m, CERN: EU laws slow adoption, Gartner’s 10 IT trends. And more…

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:50:52 EDT

Watch CloudViews Unplugged

Watch the June edition of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.

Cloud News

Cloud failures may have cost upward of $70 million since 2007, according to this PCWorld article. The International Working Group on Cloud Resiliency (IWGCR) revealed that cloud outages of 13 well-known cloud services in the last five years resulted in an availability rate of 99.9% which is well below the expected reliability rate for mission-critical applications, which should be 99.999%.
The Researchers at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva recently revealed that European data protection laws are hindering them from adopting cloud computing on a significant scale, according to this ComputerWorld article. CERN revealed that only a fraction of the data it collects from the Large Hadron Collider accelerator, which generates about a petabyte of raw data per second, is stored.
Gartner released a list of the top 10 emerging infrastructure trends for 2012, according to this InfoWorld article. The list includes consumerization and the tablet, infinite data center, resource management, mobility and the personal cloud, hybrid clouds, fabric data centers, IT complexity, storage and big data, end of your service help desk and software-defined networks virtualizing the data center.
Amazon EC2 suffered a major outage last week at their largest data center, which brought down some popular websites including Quora, Hipchat, and Heroku, according to this ZDNet blog. The outage was due to a power failure and subsequent generator failure.
Eucalyptus announced updates to its cloud platform to add new features for rapid deployment and to remove the distinction between their open source and enterprise versions, according to this CloudPro article. The platform will now be fully open source and the source code will be available through Github.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Cloud Sourcing: Lessons Learned from Early Adopters

Feature article

The Great Cloud Debate Rages On

By George Watt, CA Technologies

Cloud computing has been steadily, some might say "rapidly", gaining traction as a strategic business weapon. Every day brings new articles about businesses that have discovered how to leverage cloud computing to drive agility, take advantage of new opportunities, improve service, or lower costs. Lately there has even been an increase in the number of people who are touting cloud technologies as ways to improve security or business continuity; something very few would have said even a year ago. (Though some of us have been of that opinion for quite some time.)

To me this does not suggest that cloud computing is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Rather, I believe it is a sign that business and technology leaders are beginning to figure out when cloud computing can help them - and when it cannot. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is the cloud coming to an end? Join us as we discuss the future of cloud in our next Cloud Commons #CloudViews tweet chat. The event will take place on Friday, June 22nd at 1:00 PM ET. For a preview of the questions, read this Cloud Commons blog.
Will the Amazon EC2 outage impact cloud confidence? In this GigaOM blog, Barb Darrow discusses the recent outage and what it means for AWS and their customers.
Is the cloud creating a ‘trickle-down’ effect for all employees? In this ZDNet blog, Rachel King examines a recent report by GigaOM which details how the cloud is impacting employees and transforming companies.

MSP Corner

Are subscription terms a thing of the past? In this MSPmentor blog, Joe Panettieri discusses the 12-month Windows Intune lock-in and how it may be a deal breaker for many MSPs.
In today’s market, SMBs often find themselves competing with larger organizations, but MSPs may be able to help level the playing field by offering enterprise-class services to SMBs, according to this MSPmentor blog.

Upcoming Cloud Events

IEEE Cloud 2012: June 24 - 29, Honolulu, HI
Cloud Identity Summit 2012: July 16 – 19, Vail, CO
Cloud Computing World Forum: August 22 – 23, Sao Paulo, Brazil
VMWorld 2012: August 26-30, San Francisco, CA

This Week in Cloud, June 14, 2012: Oracle Cloud, New FedRAMP guidelines, Is a cloud meltdown imminent? And more…

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:50:33 EDT

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Cloud News

Oracle is entering the public cloud sector with Oracle Cloud, according to this ReadWriteWeb article. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, revealed that it took seven years of engineering and innovation as well as key strategic acquisitions to create Oracle Cloud, which features almost every on-premise Oracle tool and application.
The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) issued new guidelines this week for the standardization of basic security requirements that cloud providers will have to meet before they receive a government contract, according to this Washington Post article. The guidelines were developed by the General Services Administration, the Defense and Homeland Security department and the Office of Management and Budget.
A recent North American survey of 121 cloud service providers revealed that over 50% of CSP customers are opting for private clouds, while only 32% of customers are going to the public cloud, according to this Cloud Nation article. The survey, which was conducted by CA Technologies, also revealed how service providers plan to drive revenue, sell to customers, and detailed the success of service providers’ cloud ventures thus far.
Microsoft demonstrated Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure as part of a keynote this week at its TechEd North America conference, according to this PCWorld article. Satya Nadella, president of Microsoft’s Server & Tools division, detailed the new requirements that IT is facing and touted how Microsoft’s products can help customers “usher in the era of the cloud OS.”
The Cloud Commons® Ecosystem announced several key developments this week including recent partner activity, Marketplace and Developer Studio updates and its expansion into global markets. You can read the announcement on Cloud Commons.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Evaluating the Openness of Platform as a Service

Many platform-as-a-service vendors now call their offerings "open." Users need to understand that openness is different for cloud services so that they can evaluate whether PaaS offerings will deliver the benefits of openness. This report by Gartner (compliments of Cloud Commons® Ecosystem), examines what makes a PaaS offering open and offers recommendations for how to evaluate the openness of a platform.

Feature article

The Cloud Market is Wide Open for the Taking

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

Recently I wrote about how public cloud is failing large enterprises. Despite the wild success of public cloud for consumer and SMB use cases, I noted that most research shows that enterprises are investing substantially more in private cloud than public cloud, because cloud service providers (CSPs) are failing to satisfy enterprise requirements for service assurance, security, compliance, billing, governance, etc.

Most people I spoke with agreed with this analysis, but some told me (and still others talked among themselves) that I could not be right. They said they have seen hundreds of enterprises that have adopted public cloud. Relating their stories of such-and-such an enterprise they just did business with, or the hundreds of unnamed enterprises they recently sold to, they said that I must be wrong.

Of course, there are exceptions. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is the cloud coming to an end? Join us as we discuss the future of cloud in our next Cloud Commons #CloudViews tweet chat. The event will take place on Friday, June 22nd at 1:00 PM ET. You can find out more information about the tweet chat on Cloud Commons.
Is a cloud meltdown imminent? It could be, according to Bryan Ford, a Yale University researcher. In this ComputerWorld article, Chris Kanaracus details the recent paper, which suggests that the cloud’s increased popularity and the fact that users may mix and bundle services may result in unpredictable interactions between load-balancers and lead to a cloud meltdown.
Is the cloud the future of IT? In this ComputerWorldUK blog, Antony Savvas details a recent report by Forrester that declares that commoditization, not cloud, is the future of IT, although cloud does support commoditization.

MSP Corner

What are the top services that MSPs should offer to their customers? This IT Channel Insight article describes the top 7 services that MSPs should offer, including email, collaboration, web hosting, VoIP, monitoring, IT Help Desk/Support and IdM/AAA.
Channel partners may be getting more comfortable with the cloud, according to this ChannelInsider article. Jason Bystrak, sales director for the North American Services Division at Ingram Micro, details his perception of solution providers and the market from the recent Ingram Micro 2012 Cloud Summit conference.
This MSPmentor article describes the top 20 cloud services takeaways from the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit.

Upcoming Cloud Events

IEEE Cloud 2012: June 24 - 29, Honolulu, HI
Cloud Identity Summit 2012: July 16 – 19, Vail, CO
Cloud Computing World Forum: August 22 – 23, Sao Paulo, Brazil
VMWorld 2012: August 26-30, San Francisco, CA

This Week in Cloud, June 7, 2012: NIST releases cloud guide, Public cloud = big enterprise fail. Europe lags years behind the U.S., And more…

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:50:02 EDT

Watch CloudViews Unplugged

Watch the June edition of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.

Cloud News

NIST released the final version of Cloud Computing Synopsis and Recommendations, an 81-page document that details cloud systems in an easy to understand, plain language manner. The guide was produced for IT decision makers ranging from the CIO to system and network administrators. You can read more about the document in this NIST press release.
Europe’s uptake of cloud computing will trail the United States by at least two years, according to this Gartner press release. Gartner highlights four main inhibitors including diverse data privacy regulations, complex B2B multienterprise integration and processes, the slowness and undesired effects of some EU policies and the investment hold caused by the euro crisis.
HP announced a number of new cloud offerings at its annual HP Discover conference this week, according to this InfoWorld article. The new offerings, many of which have been applied to HP’s flagship CloudSystem, focus on a single architecture that spans both in-house and public clouds.
Microsoft is partnering with Quanta Computer to design a Windows-based private cloud in a box, according to this PCWorld article. As part of its Private Cloud Fast Track program, Microsoft has been working with hardware companies, such as Dell and Fujitsu, to design private cloud systems.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Evaluating the Openness of Platform as a Service

Feature article

Why the Public Cloud is a Big Fat Enterprise #Fail

By Andi Mann, CA Technologies

With the advent of the consumer driven enterprise, there are now two ways to define the success of a platform. One is to look at adoption rates and declare a platform successful based on how many people are using it. By that measure, the public cloud is a smashing enterprise success.

Billions of users worldwide are using public cloud services such as Dropbox, Google Drive (formerly Docs), Skype, Evernote, YouTube and, yes, even Facebook to do business with colleagues, customers, partners and vendors.

But the other way to define platform success is to look at what businesses, organizations and institutions are actually investing in and encouraging people to use. By that measure, the public cloud is a resounding enterprise flop. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is this the end of cloud? In the June episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt discuss cloud bill shock, the government’s $5.5b savings from cloud, IBM’s ban of Siri, Google Chrome, Facebook and the end of the cloud!
Which public cloud vendor is right for you? In this ZDNet blog, Gery Menegaz details four recommendations from a recent Gartner article on how to choose the right IaaS vendor.
Is BYOD turning into bypass your CIO? In this CIO article, Tom Kaneshige takes a look at how mobile upstarts are selling to businesses and it doesn’t always involve the CIO. The article gives suggestions for how CIOs should deal with the rise of BYOD to improve the relationship between business and IT.
Is the cloud ready from prime time? In this NetworkWorld article, Brandon Butler examines the concerns over cloud security and reliability and takes a look at how SMBs and enterprises are reacting differently to the cloud.

MSP Corner

Former Federal CIO Vivek Kundra detailed how cloud computing will introduce new opportunities for MSPs, VARs, and cloud integrators at the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit. You can read a recap of the keynote in this Talkin’ Cloud article and watch a recent video interview with Vivek Kundra on Cloud Luminaries.
Who said the cloud isn’t secure? Radix Technologies houses their data center in a 15,000 square-foot former military bunker that was built into a mountain in the Swiss Alps. Radix, which helps enterprises make the transition to the cloud, uses the air and natural water flow of the mountain for cooling, according to this MSPmentor article.
Avnet has launched a dedicated cloud solutions team in order to help MSPs, VARs and ISVs deliver cloud services, according to this Channelnomics article. Avnet is partnering with Savvis and will link partners into Savvis’ cloud managed services.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Microsoft TechEd: June 11 – 14, Orlando, FL
Cloud Expo: June 11 – 14, Orlando, FL
Cloud Computing World Forum: June 12 – 13, London, UK
RightScale Conference: June 13, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, May 24, 2012: IT outsourcing up 7.8%, Vermont refunds cloud tax, Enterprise BYOD trends. And more…

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:49:31 EDT

Watch CloudViews Unplugged

Watch the May edition of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.

Cloud News

A recent Gartner report revealed that IT outsourcing was up 7.8% in 2011, according to this ComputerWeekly article. The highest growth came from providers that are rooted in cloud services and Indian-based IT service providers.
The Vermont Tax Department is issuing refunds to businesses that paid a “cloud computing” tax during the last few years and they are also issuing a one-year moratorium on the tax, according to this Vermont Public Radio article. If the moratorium is extended, it could serve to attract more technology businesses to Vermont.
CA Technologies showcased a new project which demonstrates the viability of cloud-based mission-critical applications at TM Forum’s Management World Conference in Dublin, according to this CloudPro article. The project, titled “Resilient Cloud for Defense,” helps maintain critical systems and applications in the cloud during disasters.
IBM is making some big changes to their SmartCloud public cloud, according to a recent The Register article. With increased availability and higher service levels, IBM is hoping to attract some customers away from its competitors, including Amazon AWS.
EMC has acquired Syncplicity, an enterprise file-management service provider, according to this ChannelWorld.in article. Syncplicity offers services that allow enterprise users to use applications on a variety of devices while offering secure access and synchronization.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Top Five Trends for Private Cloud Through year-end 2012, a significant number of pilot and production deployments of private cloud services will emerge, and hybrid cloud capability will become a major requirement. The market for cloud management platforms will expand greatly, but a number of vendors will be acquired or will exit the market. Outsourcing will become a mainstream alternative to internally deployed private clouds. This report by Gartner (compliments of Cloud Commons), examines the top five trends for private cloud and offers recommendations for your business based on those trends.

Feature article

Cloud Ecosystem Members Create a Win-Win-Win for Disaster Prevention

By Jeff Abbott, Cloud Commons

Redundancy is one of those necessary evils. It's necessary in the modern world for not-so-uncommon scenarios of unplanned, and often unavoidable circumstances. For example, I've been waiting for my new DSLR camera from Nikon for two years and counting. But there were tragic natural and unnatural disasters in Japan (tsunami and nuclear meltdown). Among countless bigger issues, it halted development, production and delivery of my camera to my home in Boston (yes, I got off easy). Nikon then turned to its backup plan... Thailand. Then, catastrophic floods dealt another major blow to my 36.3MP camera. (Before sending me hate mail... I know that the losses, expenses, and recovery related to these disasters are beyond comprehension or calculation). In our global economy, disasters anywhere can affect people everywhere. And this is why redundancy is more necessary than ever. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Are employees reaching outside of IT to consume business services? In this Cloud Common blog, John Dixon answers some of the key questions surrounding rogue IT.
Who thinks the cloud is secure? In this Talkin’ Cloud blog, Brian Taylor discusses recent survey data that suggests that while SMBs who aren’t currently consuming cloud services are worried about cloud security, SMBs who have already adopted cloud services see the cloud as a way to potentially enhance security and save money.

MSP Corner

Are MSPs making money from the cloud? In this Talkin’ Cloud blog, Justin Crotty identifies how MSPs should approach cloud in order to increase profits.
The cloud data services market is set to grow and MSPs may find the most potential among SMBs, according to this MSPmentor article. The article examines a recent survey by J.D. Power & Associates that studied current usage of cloud data services among enterprises and SMBs.
Nimbo, a New York-based VAR, is looking to jump into the cloud storage game and faceoff against competitors like Google, DropBox and Box, according to this CRN article. Nimbo’s software works with Microsoft Azure and Windows Active Directory to allow synchronization across multiple devices at a competitive price.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Microsoft TechEd: June 11 – 14, Orlando, FL
Cloud Expo: June 11 – 14, Orlando, FL
Cloud Computing World Forum: June 12 – 13, London, UK
RightScale Conference: June 13, New York, NY

This Week in Cloud, May 17, 2012: Google says cloud is reaching tipping point, SAP’s cloud plans, Cloud improves security. And more…

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:46:09 EDT

Watch CloudViews Unplugged

Watch the May edition of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.

Cloud News

Google CIO Ben Fried says that the cloud is about to reach a tipping point, according to this WSJ.com article. Fried examines the shift to the cloud that has been occurring over the last 4 years as workers have grown accustomed to simple and free cloud tools at home and want the ability to use the same tools at work.
During the Sapphire conference in Orlando, SAP announced their upcoming cloud computing plans that focus on mobility, big data analytics and social networking, according to this PCWorld article. The announcement comes a few months after SAP’s $3.4 billion acquisition of SuccessFactors.
Of the 300 North American companies that responded to a recent CA Technologies commissioned survey, all of them admitted to data or application loss over the past year, according to this eWeek article. The results detail the importance of a proper cloud backup and recovery plan.
Cisco released their Global Cloud Networking Survey, which revealed that 72% of respondents saw data protection security as one of the top obstacles to a successful cloud implementation, according to this Forbes.com article. The survey of 1,300 IT professionals revealed some of the pain points that the industry is currently experiencing with the transition to cloud.
HP put its open-source OpenStack public cloud into public beta last week, according to this GigaOM article. The offering includes HP Cloud Compute, HP Cloud Object Storage and HP Cloud Content Delivery Network.
Cisco announced plans to debut a new product called Cloud Connect in June, according to this ZDNet article. Cloud Connect will ensure secure connectivity between cloud environments and virtualized data centers.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Through year-end 2012, a significant number of pilot and production deployments of private cloud services will emerge, and hybrid cloud capability will become a major requirement. The market for cloud management platforms will expand greatly, but a number of vendors will be acquired or will exit the market. Outsourcing will become a mainstream alternative to internally deployed private clouds. This report by Gartner (compliments of Cloud Commons), examines the top five trends for private cloud and offers recommendations for your business based on those trends.

Feature article

New Cloud Standards Set to Help Illuminate Cloud Provider Security

By George Hulme, Independent Writer

Emerging cloud security standards, if successful, would benefit providers and cloud services customers alike, experts say.

What is more secure--public cloud or private cloud? Which cloud services provider is more secure than another? How do you vet the security of a SaaS provider beyond reading a SAS 70 or SSAE 16 audit? These questions have confused cloud computing buyers since its inception. This year, however, emerging cloud security standards promise – if successful – to help the adopters of cloud services to vet more clearly the security of those providers. Read the full article.

CloudViews

In this episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt discuss the open vs. proprietary cloud debate, the benefits of cloud for the Australian economy, the U.S. Army's cloud-in-a-box, the cloud's environmental impact, image sharing via the cloud for the healthcare industry and more!
Does cloud computing actually improve security? In this PC Advisor blog, Robert Scheier debunks the commonly held belief that the cloud isn’t secure. In his opinion, if you partner with the right vendor, the cloud can actually improve security.
Are perimeter defenses enough to secure sensitive information in the new world of BYOD and cloud? In this ComputerWorld blog, Thor Olavsrud details how the proliferation of cloud and BYOD are increasing the number of identity and access rights that large organizations have to manage.
A new report by Zenprise which focused on the growing trends of BYOD concludes that many enterprises are now embracing BYOD while blacklisting certain applications like Facebook and Angry Birds, according to this MSPmentor article.

MSP Corner

Bradford Networks recently secured $3 million in Series C funding to support the growing demand of the company’s network access control (NAC) solution which is a comprehensive security approach for the BYOD trend, according to this MSPmentor article.
Will Red Hat’s OpenShift PaaS resonate with their customers and developers? In this Talkin’ Cloud blog, Joe Panettieri examines the future plans and potential for Red Hat’s OpenShift PaaS.

Upcoming Cloud Events

TMForum Management World: May 21 – 24, Dublin, Ireland
The Business of Cloud Computing: May 21 – 22, Dallas, Texas
Microsoft TechEd: June 11 – 14, Orlando, FL
Cloud Computing World Forum: June 12 – 13, London, UK

This Week in Cloud

Thu, 10 May 2012 07:58:00 EDT

Can Google Apps unseat Microsoft Office and Exchange? This CIO article shares insight from the CIO of New England Biolabs, which recently conducted proof-of-concept testing with Google Apps for Business. While New England Biolabs decided to stick with its Outlook/Exchange Server set-up and plans to transition to a hybrid solution that adds the cloud-based Microsoft Office 365, the article also highlights why organizations should consider Google Apps.

US Government Saves $5.5B From Cloud

Fri, 04 May 2012 03:00:00 EDT

A recent study revealed that the government is saving around $5.5 billion a year since the shift to cloud, according to this CRN article. The study was created from interviews with 108 federal IT managers and CIOs and was published by MeriTalk Cloud Computing Exchange. The study also found that if they had been more aggressive in cloud adoption, the government could have saved $12 billion.

VCs Spend $6.9 Billion on Cloud Startups

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 03:45:00 EDT

Venture capitalists devoted $6.9 billion in 2011 to cloud startups, which is an increase of 68% over 2010, according to this InformationWeek article. Author Patrick Houston recommends that enterprises develop a rigorous process for vetting IT cloud tools and vendors now to prepare yourself for the onslaught of new cloud services that will be coming soon.

How Green is Your Cloud Provider?

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 03:15:00 EDT

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Cloud News

Rackspace will offer a production version of their OpenStack open-source cloud platform beginning on May 1st, according to this GigaOM blog. Rackspace and NASA launched the OpenStack cloud project in 2010 and since then, HP, Cisco, Dell, IBM, Red Hat and others have contributed to the project.
Is the cloud really green? A recent report by Greenpeace suggests that it depends on who your cloud provider is and the way in which they are consuming electricity. According to this NPR blog, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon Web Services all rely heavily on coal, while Google, Yahoo, and Facebook continue to move toward renewable resources for their clouds.
Microsoft announced its largest cloud deal to date with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), according to this InformationWeek article. Microsoft will provide online service and software to 7.5 million students and professors maintained by the AICTE.
As an alternative to Vblock, EMC announced an all-in-one private cloud system this week, according to this PCWorld article. The VSPEX platform gives channel partners the ability to offer enterprises custom systems with applications that meet their customer’s needs.
The media and entertainment industry has taken the bull by the horns when it comes to cloud computing. At the conference for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in Las Vegas, technology vendors are showcasing their cloud-based solutions that radically change the delivery and sharing of video content. Read more about what Forrester Research reported on the demand for cloud services in the media industry in this ZDNet article.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons

Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud

Feature article

Private Cloud ROI – More Examples Wanted

By George Hulme, Independent Writer

We’ve discussed the potential benefits of private cloud a number of times. Organizations have talked about the ability to maintain full control and transparency over their systems that they believe is necessary to attain the level of security that they want.

Sometimes, as was the case with game maker Zynga, their private cloud helps them to reach the level of business agility that they need. However, we’re also starting to hear more about how private clouds can also be more cost effective, especially when done by organizations that have the people with the right skills and experience in place. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

Is the future of cloud open-source? In this PCWorld blog, Thor Olavsrud details observations from Red Hat’s Bryan Che on why many companies are choosing open-source cloud.
The war wages on between open-source and proprietary cloud. In this ITWorld blog, Brandon Butler comments on a recent blog post by VMWare that defends the benefits of their private cloud and takes a jab at the open-source solutions available in the market.
Want to learn how the Cloud Commons® Ecosystem can help build your business? This white paper on Cloud Commons outlines how solution providers leverage the ecosystem to engage prospects, create compelling cloud services offerings, and bring them to market.

MSP Corner

Are MSPs becoming a little too comfortable with cloud? In this MSPmentor blog, Joe Panettieri suggests that while MSPs are enjoying huge growth from cloud, they should be keeping their eyes open for new cloud opportunities.
PEER 1 Hosting announced the deployment of Nimsoft Unified Manager this week in order to provide its customers with monitoring capabilities, according to this article at the WHIR.
Will price competition from large companies lead to the extinction of lifestyle MSPs? In this MSPmentor article, Jessica Davis examines the current MSP market and the impact that cloud is having on the industry.

Upcoming Cloud Events

Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
TMForum Management World: May 21 – 24, Dublin, Ireland
The Business of Cloud Computing: May 21 – 22, Dallas, Texas
Microsoft TechEd: June 11 – 14, Orlando, FL
Cloud Computing World Forum, June 12 – 13, London, UK

This Week in Cloud

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 06:46:00 EDT

HP announced its HP Converged Cloud based on a ‘hardened’ version of OpenStack software, targeting hybrid enterprise deployments and pushing for a common architecture across private and public clouds as well as traditional data centers. To learn more about the components of the offering, which include public cloud services, a service virtualization offering and Cloud Maps, which will provide templates of pre-configured cloud services, read this InformationWeek article. The offerings will be available in public beta on May 10. Here, InformationWeek editor Chris Murphy summarizes HP’s cloud strategy and this ZDnet blog explores whether HP can effectively move into delivering public cloud services, while supporting its existing services.