Cloudipedia – Cloud News

Is This the Year PaaS Goes Mainstream? – Mon, 13 Feb 2012
For years, the industry has readied itself for widespread adoption of PaaS. Is 2012 the year when this latest cloud technology gets the recognition it deserves? – Will 2012 be the year of platform as a service? If you let the vendors tell it, 2011 was to be the year PaaS offerings began to coalesce and take off. And the major market research firms have been watching the space carefully, predicting consolidation and more and more investment in PaaS. Whil…

Google’s Home Entertainment Gambit Borrows From Apple’s Ecosystem Strategy – Fri, 17 Feb 2012
There was a time when it was okay to have one consumer electronics company specialize in building one product and another company building another, with both businesses working together yet apart to keep the technology sector humming along. Thanks to Apple’s unbridled success the companys stock passed $500 this week and it is worth more than Google and Microsoft combined it has become fashionable for high-tech giants to develop and nurture a whole ecosystem. Take Apple’s approach to mobile. The company builds its own hardware and software, and controls the supply chain and component pipeline for its iPhones, iPads and other devices like no other tech company in the history of the industry. Increasingly, Amazon and now Google are following in Apple’s footsteps. Amazon, once solely an e-commerce and Web services provider, has spent the last several years building Kindle e-readers. Then, Amazon added the Kindle Fire tablet to bite off a chunk of the consumer Web market Apple triggered with the iPad. Not to be outdone, Google is building a home entertainment system, and the company is borrowing heavily from the ideas that Apple and Amazon have already set in motion. What is Google up to in its quest to control the living room? eWEEK explores the possibilities. – …

Rackspace Hosting Acquires SharePoint911 – Fri, 17 Feb 2012
Rackspace said it can help further accelerate adoption of SharePoint, one of the fastest-growing applications in the business productivity segment. – Cloud computing specialist Rackspace Hosting announced its acquisition of SharePoint911, a provider of SharePoint consulting, training and quot;JumpStart quot; services within SharePoint. The unification of both companies provides capabilities to deliver SharePoint hosting solutions along with …

Cloud Computing and Data Integration: 10 Trends to Watch – Thu, 16 Feb 2012
Increasingly, large organizations are discovering and using enterprise information with the objective of growing or transforming their business as they seek more holistic approaches to their data integration and data management practices. This is all in an effort to address the challenges associated with the growing volume, variety, velocity and complexity of information. In 2012, more companies will continue moving their business processes to the cloud, intensifying expectations for cloud data integration and data management as a part of a company’s information infrastructure. The desired end result: to enable a more agile, quicker and more cost-effective response to business needs. To get a better handle on the way this approach to data is developing, eWEEK spoke to Robert Fox, director of B2B/EAI software development for Liaison Technologies, a global provider of secure cloud-based integration and data management services and solutions. – …

Cloud Services Adoption Rises for Small Businesses: Parallels Report – Thu, 16 Feb 2012
SMBs continue to lead the adoption of cloud services, as the U.S. market experienced a 25 percent increase in 2011, growing to $15.1 billion. – Parallels, a hosting and cloud services enablement provider, released the latest updates of Parallels SMB Cloud Insights, its series of research that profiles the cloud buying behavior of small to midsize businesses (SMBs), the fastest-growing segment for cloud services. The survey results continues…

Tim Cook Vague on Apple TV Future – Wed, 15 Feb 2012
Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about Apple TV during a recent keynote, but remained reluctant to share concrete news on future plans. – Apple CEO Tim Cook offered some hints about the direction of Apple TV, as part of his much-circulated Feb. 14 keynote at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco. After cautioning that he ?wouldnt want to go into detail about future stuff,? Cook conceded that ?we nee…

Microsoft Reduces Pricing for SQL Azure, Offers New 100MB Database Option – Tue, 14 Feb 2012
Microsoft announced a reduction in pricing for its SQL Azure cloud database services, also introducing a new 100MB database option. – Microsoft announced a reduction in pricing for its SQL Azure cloud database service. In a Feb. 14 post on the Windows Azure team blog, Steven Martin, general manager of Windows Azure business planning, said that to meet evolving customer needs ?across both ends of the database size spectrum,? Micro…

ATandT Synaptic Compute as a Service Boasts VMware Features – Mon, 13 Feb 2012
The service allows users to provision and scale compute resources and shift workloads between their private clouds and AT&Ts network-based cloud. – Network operator AT amp;T announced the release of Synaptic Compute as a Service with VMware vCloud Datacenter Service, an enterprise-class cloud service combining technologies from AT amp;Ts virtual private networking (VPN) specialists and cloud infrastructure software industry provider VMware. …

Multiple Cloud Formations Require New Security Approaches – Mon, 13 Feb 2012
Analysis: New-generation service providers are filling gaps in private-public cloud security. – Reliable user authentication in deployment of a cloud service is of utmost importance. Even though a cloud service to which you subscribe may have two-factor or higher levels of secure authentication, certain protocols must be observed and rules must be followed to enter each session. Frequent ch…

VMware Issues vCloud Integration Manager – Fri, 10 Feb 2012
The platform will include Web-based portals to streamline and automate service plan, customer lifecycle and reseller management. – Virtualization and cloud infrastructure specialist VMware (NYSE: VMW), introduced the vCloud Integration Manager, a platform designed to help service providers automate the delivery and operations of VMware vCloud Director -based clouds. vCloud Integration Manager is expected to be available in the …

The senseless battle over easy, secure data access – Tue, 21 Feb 2012

In reading “IT, keep your hands off my cloud storage” by InfoWorld’s Galen Gruman, as well as some of the feedback to it, I was reminded of the many, many times I’ve had strikingly similar conversations with my own clients — both those in the IT trenches and the C-level folks expressing usability concerns on behalf of the user base.

VMware offers incentives, specializations for channel partners – Tue, 21 Feb 2012

Last week, VMware welcomed a record number of resellers, integrators, and business partners to the VMware Partners Exchange (PEX) 2012 conference in Las Vegas, where an impressive 4,300 people made the journey to hear what the virtualization giant had to say.

HP releases ‘power user’ thin client – Tue, 14 Feb 2012

Calling a thin client a device for power users may seem like an oxymoron, but Hewlett-Packard is giving it a try.

HP Monday released two thin client devices, including one it says is a potential replacement for desktops used by knowledge workers. The update is the first to HP thin clients in two years.

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VMware paves path to hybrid clouds with vCloud Integration Manager – Mon, 13 Feb 2012

Last week VMware introduced its latest weapon in the battle for cloud domination: the VMware vCloud Integration Manager. According to the company, the new tool should be battle ready and operational in the first quarter of 2012, and it’ll be priced on a usage-based subscription model familiar to vCloud Service Providers.

Cloudscaling set to offer OpenStack private cloud platform – Fri, 10 Feb 2012

Cloudscaling plans to introduce on Monday an OpenStack-based platform that enterprises can use to build private clouds.

This will be the first product offering from Cloudscaling, which built its business as a services company that helped others design and create their cloud infrastructures.

OnLive’s train wreck: Office on the iPad – Tue, 07 Feb 2012

Demos, like appearances, can be deceiving. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, one of the media hits was OnLive Desktop, a service that provisions a Windows 7 desktop environment that includes Microsoft Office 2010 to the iPad over an Internet connection.

VMware VCP5 certification upgrade deadline fast approaching – Mon, 06 Feb 2012

For many VMware administrators, having VMware certification is a badge of honor within the virtualization community. Being a VMware Certified Professional (VCP) says a lot about an individual’s dedication to the technology and level of expertise. And as the demand for IT professionals with data center virtualization skills increases, it is essential to be able to distinguish yourself in the job market.

The future of hypervisors – Fri, 03 Feb 2012

The world of hypervisors is complicated by the fact that there are proprietary and open source tools, each with different strengths and weaknesses.

One expert says the difference between the two is that innovation is coming out of the open source products at a quicker pace. But another expert doesn’t quite believe that first to market is the key to success. He says this market is too important to be downloading open source bits frequently. With that dilemma, enterprises instead turn to commercially supported products.

Virtualization no silver bullet for Macs or mobile – Fri, 03 Feb 2012

In 2006, Apple’s Intel-based Macs opened the door to running Windows via desktop virtualization; suddenly users could have their personal Macs and business PCs in one box. It’s a big reason, I believe, that Mac market share has continued to grow faster than overall PC market share for the last five years. The shift to Intel and the accompanying ability to run Windows gave people the security blanket they needed to make the switch.

VMTurbo upgrade supports all three major virtualization platforms – Wed, 01 Feb 2012

VMTurbo has upgraded its operations management suite to support the three major virtual environments and to improve its capacity-planning tool.

With the new 3.0 version of Operations Manager, the software can now manage Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware’s vSphere individually or in multi-hypervisor deployments, the company says. This version adds XenServer to its capabilities.

Microsoft next in line to file EU complaint against Motorola Mobility – Wed, 22 Feb 201
Microsoft has launched a formal complaint against Motorola Mobility due to Standard Essential Patent ‘abuse’.

Symantec survey shows surge in mobile apps, switching IT focus – Wed, 22 Feb 201
Symantec’s 2012 State of Mobility survey shows that mobile use within corporations is rapidly becoming mainstream.

MegaUpload founder released on bail – Wed, 22 Feb 201
A New Zealand court has concluded Kim DotCom is not enough of a flight risk; bail has been granted.

Amazon Web Services launches application workflow service – Wed, 22 Feb 201
AWS is looking to automate a lot of that business logic with the Simple Workflow Service.

A cloud-based cap table for startups – Wed, 22 Feb 201
Attention startup founders: Capography aims to bring the cloud-based ease of a product like Mint.com to the inherent ugliness of your cap table spreadsheet.

HP’s Q1: No drama counts as a win – Wed, 22 Feb 201
HP’s quarter is likely to be mixed, but the bar has been set low enough for the company to quietly start topping expectations.

AppSense launches free Dropbox security product – Tue, 21 Feb 201
Virtualization solutions provider AppSense is launching a new security solution for personal cloud services, such as Dropbox.DataLocker is designed to address the gap between convenience and concern over personal data stored in the cloud.Thus, DataLocker includes technology that is supposed to easily encrypt sensitive information in Dropbox accounts and other personal cloud storage spaces without [...]

Intuit Q2 carried by SMB, cloud transition – Tue, 21 Feb 201
Intuit’s Q2 results look good, with beaten Wall Street expectations, and increased revenue, helped by the shift towards a cloud computing model and SMB uptake.

Brocade’s Q1 stronger than expected – Tue, 21 Feb 201
Brocade cited strength in storage product demand and service provider customers. On the other side of the revenue equation, Brocade said enterprise and federal government sales were soft.

Dell’s Q4 a mixed bag with pockets of enterprise strength – Tue, 21 Feb 201
For fiscal 2013, the company said that non-GAAP earnings will top the $2.13 a share mark posted in fiscal 2012.

Cisco – More than Half of Workloads to be Cloud - Tue, 07 Feb 2012
More than 50 percent of all workloads will be processed in the cloud by 2014. This statement comes from a Cisco “Global Cloud” whitepaper, which examines the current state of things and guesses where we’ll be at in 2015. It also forecasts a 22-percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for cloud datacenters, with the share of workloads handled by these centers rising from 21 percent back in 2010 to 57 percent by 2015. The report says that the workloads themselves will increase about 2.5 times in that period. Cloud is of course the key to these additional workloads, as it shifts the paradigm from one workload to multiple workloads on any single server. The Cisco report also sees cloud-based traffic growing at a 33-percent CAGR in the 2010-2015, accounting for 34 percent of all datacenter traffic by 2015, as the total datacenter dataflow approaches 5 zettabytes annually worldwide. A quick reminder shows that 5 zettabytes equals 5 billion terabytes. (I prefer to think of a zettabyte as a 1021 byte, as I quickly lose track of the names after “tera-”.) Much of this will be driven by video, and especially video on mobile devices. The Cisco research implies this – although overall cloud-based datacenter traffic will be 34 percent in 2015, the consumer cloud will be 37-percent cloud-driven, compared to only 19 percent within the business cloud. Getting out my old slide rule deduces that this means the consumer cloud will account for five-sixths of total datacenter traffic – about 83 percent of it. ZOMFG. No wonder the paleolithic mandarins of the music and film industries want to cast sharing and everything else under the guise of stealing and terrorism. The Cisco report also has a section devoted to Cloud Readiness. This is the same term used by AsiaCloud, which published a report on the topic last year, and which features Cisco’s Singapore-based CTO Bernie Trudel as one of its leaders. The Cisco report states that a location must have a download speed of greater than 2.5Mbps (and latency of less than 50ms) to handle advanced cloud applications. It defines the latter as advanced gaming, video chat, and file sharing; HD audio and video conferencing; and streaming of super HD video. It prescribes a modest download speed between 750kbps and 2.5Mbps for “intermediate” cloud apps, including telephony, basic chat and conferencing, and what it terms advanced social networking. Seems modest enough. My recent research on bandwidth around the world, which used – as did the Cisco report – bandwidth speed data from Seattle-based Ookla, shows all of the world leaders with speeds many times that of Cisco’s advanced requirement. Even the laggards amongst today’s dynamic, developing economies – such as such as India and the Philippines (both at 1.7Mbps), Indonesia (at 1.35Mbps), and Nigeria (at 880kbps) – meet the intermediate standard. Other developing hotspots such as Jordan (at 2.97Mbps), South Africa (at 3.02Mbps), and Kenya (at 3.31Mbps) are far above the advanced standard. The leaders in my own Tau Index research are typically 6x to 10x above the advanced standard. All this tells me that Cisco is on track with its projections. We’ll be wallowing in zettabytes soon enough, and we’ll have the capacity to do this. Now, if someone can help me figure out what this means for the hardware industry – chips, storage, and plumbing – I might get totally optimistic about the near future.

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The New OpenNebula Self-Service Portal in Action - Tue, 07 Feb 2012
A new episode of the screencast series is now available at the OpenNebula YouTube Channel. This screencast demonstrates the new easily-customizable self-service portal for cloud consumers. Its aim is to offer a simplified access to shared infrastructure for non-IT end users. The screencast shows how to create a virtual network, how to upload an image, and how to launch virtual machines using them.

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Big Data: “An Even Bigger Deal than Cloud,” Says Expert - Tue, 07 Feb 2012
“The volume of data we’re generating now from machines pales in comparison to the volume of data we’ll soon generate from our own bodies,” says data security expert Dave Asprey. Writing in a Trend Micro blog, Asprey – who is one of the leaders in the emerging Quantified Self movement – explains his vision of a world in which personal biometrical data is shared via the cloud.

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Cloud Expo New York: The Dark Side of Virtualization - Tue, 07 Feb 2012
Virtualization and private cloud are good for server consolidation, creating flexible environments, and saving IT budget dollars. A recent survey of 1200 companies with 500+ employees showed that 59% had server virtualization in production or pilot. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Dave Asprey, VP of Cloud Security at Trend Micro, will explain the types of situations when you should consider not virtualizing some of your applications. Reasons range from technical to legal to IT ops to politics to finances. Attend this session, and hear a true IT insider’s guide to the truth about virtualization.

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SoftLayer Appoints New Chief Financial Officer - Tue, 07 Feb 2012
SoftLayer Technologies on Monday announced the appointment of Walter Z. Berger as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective in March. A seasoned finance and accounting executive, Mr. Berger will help guide and oversee the company’s continued market leadership and financial growth. He brings more than 30 years of experience to SoftLayer, including extensive operational experience as a CFO with several large, publicly held companies. Lance Crosby, CEO for SoftLayer, notes that Berger’s “proven track record and leadership will be invaluable as we embark on our next phase of growth. We’re delighted to have such a high caliber executive join our team.” Prior to joining SoftLayer Technologies, Mr. Berger was the CFO and executive vice president of Leap Wireless International Inc. From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Berger served in senior management roles at CBS Corporation, including as executive vice president and chief financial officer for CBS Radio, a division of CBS Corporation. Prior to joining CBS Radio, Mr. Berger served as executive vice president and CFO and a director of Emmis Communications from 1999 to 2005. From 1996 to 1997, Mr. Berger served as executive vice president and CFO of LG&E Energy Corporation and in 1997 was promoted to group president of the Energy Marketing Division, where he served until 1999. Early in his career, Mr. Berger held a number of financial and operating management roles in the manufacturing, service and energy fields. Mr. Berger began his career in audit at Arthur Andersen in 1977. Mr. Berger is a certified public accountant and holds a Bachelor of Arts in business administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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Security in the Clouds: The IPT Swiss IT Challenge - Tue, 07 Feb 2012
Probably the best part of my job as CTO of Layer 7 Technologies is having the opportunity to spend time with our customers. They challenge my assumptions, push me for commitments, and take me to task for any issues; but … Continue reading ?

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Cloud Expo New York: Cloud Security for Regulated Industries – CloudAudit - Tue, 07 Feb 2012
Regulation of consumer and corporate data is increasing in response to the growing movement into cloud service offerings. Coupled with high-profile intrusions by groups such as Anonymous and Lulzsec, the necessity for a standard way to assess the security of cloud service providers becomes apparent. CloudAudit is an open standard developed by a Cloud Security Alliance working group that provides an open, common, extensible namespace and interface to enable cloud providers and authorized customers to automate audits, assertions, assessments and assurance for their cloud infrastructure, platform or application environments.

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Why SaaS and ISVs Clash - Tue, 07 Feb 2012
Interest in cloud-based applications continues apace, but hosting can be a complicated endeavor for ISVs. The enduring popularity of Software-as-a-service (SaaS) isn’t accidental. Whether you’re a technology reseller or a traditional enterprise, there’s a lot to like about the use of a service model for software delivery, including low monthly cost, fast time-to-market and few deployment hiccups. But SaaS does not reward all organizations equally. Unfortunately for ISVs, who fall on the ‘delivery’ side of the service-delivery relationship, the benefits of SaaS are tempered by risks. The nature of being an ISV complicates many decisions about technology and some of these will be amplified when ISVs move toward SaaS delivery. In order to make a smooth transition, ISVs must develop a strategy in full recognition of these unique challenges.

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How Quickly Will Software Vendors Move to the Cloud? - Tue, 07 Feb 2012
There’s an excellent discussion going on over on the Cloud Computing Google Group about the pace of migration of traditional software to a SaaS model. Here I recently went into some of the very real reasons why the migration is slower than some would like, but didn’t really talk about the pace of adoption. There are some numbers that make for some interesting analysis. According to PwC, in 2009, the top 100 software vendors (traditional non-SaaS) generated 3.7% of their revenues from SaaS in the US; and 1.1% of their revenues from SaaS in Europe. In the same report, the US has a 44% market share and Europe has 36% market share by revenue (License, Maintenance and Support). According to Gartner, in 2010, the WW installed enterprise software market grossed about $104 Billion. So, roughly, we could say that installed software vendors (US & EU only) brought in nearly $5 Billion in revenues in 2010. So nearly 5% of revenues since the inception of SaaS (not including ASP)?

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Cloud Expo New York: Cloud Computing and Healthcare - Tue, 07 Feb 2012
What are the legal implications and consequences of cloud computing in the healthcare and high-tech sectors? What are the potential legal protections and solutions from the point of view of providers, suppliers and consumers? In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Paul Rubell, a Partner at Meltzer Lippe, will discuss the federal mandates that will encourage “meaningful use” of EHR technology by 2015, and what those mandates will require executives to understand about cloud computing and solutions for implementing cloud computing across large companies, corporations and not-for-profits in advance of federal mandates.

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Google, Facebook Fierce Tech Rivalry Looms: 10 Reasons Why - Sat, 04 Feb 2012
NEWS ANALYSIS: Google and Facebook have their gun sights set on each other. As Facebook gains huge new riches with its initial public stock offering, the competition between these two giants is likely to become fierce and even nasty. – When Facebook first launched, it was looked at as a niche social network. The site catered to college kids and seemed to be destined to live in that world. But after an increasing number of people joined the site, and its CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg decided to open it up to the general pu…

Facebook IPO to Dwarf Recent Groupon, Zynga, LinkedIn Stock Market Debuts - Thu, 02 Feb 2012
Facebook filed for its initial public offering as expected Feb. 1, ending a week of hype, buzz and punditry that had financial and Internet analysts predicting the social network giant’s initial public offering would be the biggest in the history of the Internet. The company will trade under the ticker symbol ?FB,? but has not revealed whether it will trade on the NASDAQ or NYSE. While Facebook will go on touting its Like buttons for Web publishers and hawking its Timeline user interface for consumers and applications alike, the company’s financial statements will be poked, prodded and pored over by hundreds of experts looking to divine just how big an Internet player Facebook is now and can become 5, 10, 15 years down the road. Facebook may be the biggest IPO to date, but it isn’t the only game in town. In this slide show, eWEEK takes a look at some of the top Internet company IPOs of the past couple of years, along with some obvious earlier blockbuster debuts. Plus, we make our logical guess for whom we think the next IPO will be. – …

Facebook IPO Will Put Social Network in Google, Apple’s League - Wed, 01 Feb 2012
Facebook’s Feb. 1 filing for a $5 billion initial public stock offering has the potential to give the world’s biggest social network a market capitalization that would put it in the same rarified league as Google and Apple. The question is whether its future growth and financial performance will keep it there. – Facebook filed for a $5 billion initial public offering (IPO) Feb. 1, claiming to make $3.7 billion in annual revenue, $1.8 billion in operating income and $1 billion in net income. With some 845 million users, Facebook may not have been an Internet darling for a few years. When the social net…

Microsoft Snipes at Google on Privacy - Wed, 01 Feb 2012
Microsoft wasted no time taking some very public jabs at Google’s privacy-policy controversy. – Microsoft wasted no time swiping at Google over its recent privacy controversy. Starting March 1, Google will fold 60 of its 70 existing product-privacy policies into one blanket policy. Users cannot opt out. Under the auspices of its new policy, the search-engine giant will also treat any user wit…

EnterpriseDB Creates Database as a Service for Cloud Hosting Platforms - Wed, 01 Feb 2012
News Analysis: EnterpriseDB is hoping entice more enterprises into cloud computing with a database-as-a-service offering geared to challenge Oracle in the database market. – EnterpriseDB has announced a new database-as-a-service offering, which will bring EnterpriseDBs PostgreSQL and PostgreSQL Plus database products to the cloud. The company has already forged agreements with leading cloud services hosts to immediately offer EnterpriseDB’s PostgreSQL Plus Cloud Ser…

CloudPassage Fills Gaps in Private-Public Cloud Security - Mon, 30 Jan 2012
The security as a service (SaaS) vendor combines hosted security with cloud access to build secure environments for public and hybrid cloud users. – When it comes to the cloud, security has always been the No. 1 concern for users. After all, as data travels around the Internet, there are numerous windows of opportunity for data interception or capture. A single weak link can lead to system compromise and lost information. Now there’s a clou…

Microsoft Offers $60K in Azure Cloud Services to Startups, Launches BizSpark Plus - Mon, 30 Jan 2012
Microsoft announces BizSpark Plus, an extension of its BizSpark program, and teams with startup accelerator TechStars to offer $60,000 in cloud computing services to startups. – Microsoft announced its new BizSpark Plus, an extension to its BizSpark program to help startups get off the ground faster, as well as a new partnership with startup accelerator TechStars to make free cloud computing services available to select, high potential startups. Microsoft and TechSta…

Alfresco Team Simplifies Collaboration - Fri, 27 Jan 2012
Alfresco Team is a package of powerful collaboration tools that can be quickly deployed for a small workgroup or pilot project, but one which can easily scale to fit ones needs. It works well with the Alfresco Mobile tools for Apple iOS, which themselves open up entirely new ways for businesses to capture and use images and sound. Alfresco Software is attempting to address the small and mid-range customer with Alfresco Team, based on the Alfresco Enterprise architecture used by nearly 2,000 businesses, including Home Depot, Michelin and the United Kingdoms National Health Service. It can be deployed in a traditional premise-based environment running Linux or Windows, or on an Amazon EC2 instance. Alfresco Team offers solid enterprise-class content management features including version tracking and granular user access. Coupled with the Alfresco Mobile tools for iOS, which allow the capture of audio, still images and video, Alfresco Team offers a first-class collaboration environment that meets the budget of the smallest organization. Alfresco Team Makes Collaboration Simple – …

Fujitsu, ServiceMesh Expand Cloud Offerings - Fri, 27 Jan 2012
Fujitsu and ServiceMesh have a new partnership that looks to brings more public and private cloud offerings to their enterprise customers. – Cloud platform vendor ServiceMesh has forged a relationship with Fujitsu, giving ServiceMesh customers access to Fujitsus global, on-demand cloud computing footprint. ServiceMesh’s customers will now be able to build hybrid cloud instances, which can be optimized to deliver IT services at lower cost…

Small Business Knowledge of Cloud Capabilities Grows: Fonality - Fri, 27 Jan 2012
The study concluded that cloud-based unified communications (UC) could eliminate productivity shortfalls among SMBs. – Small businesses are increasingly becoming educated about the benefits cloud computing holds for their companies, according to a report from Fonality, a business communications company. Fonality released the results of a survey conducted by Webtorials, which measured 2012 communications goals…

VMware VCP5 certification upgrade deadline fast approaching - Mon, 06 Feb 2012

For many VMware administrators, having VMware certification is a badge of honor within the virtualization community. Being a VMware Certified Professional (VCP) says a lot about an individual’s dedication to the technology and level of expertise. And as the demand for IT professionals with data center virtualization skills increases, it is essential to be able to distinguish yourself in the job market.

The future of hypervisors - Fri, 03 Feb 2012

The world of hypervisors is complicated by the fact that there are proprietary and open source tools, each with different strengths and weaknesses.

One expert says the difference between the two is that innovation is coming out of the open source products at a quicker pace. But another expert doesn’t quite believe that first to market is the key to success. He says this market is too important to be downloading open source bits frequently. With that dilemma, enterprises instead turn to commercially supported products.

Virtualization no silver bullet for Macs or mobile - Fri, 03 Feb 2012

In 2006, Apple’s Intel-based Macs opened the door to running Windows via desktop virtualization; suddenly users could have their personal Macs and business PCs in one box. It’s a big reason, I believe, that Mac market share has continued to grow faster than overall PC market share for the last five years. The shift to Intel and the accompanying ability to run Windows gave people the security blanket they needed to make the switch.

VMTurbo upgrade supports all three major virtualization platforms - Wed, 01 Feb 2012

VMTurbo has upgraded its operations management suite to support the three major virtual environments and to improve its capacity-planning tool.

With the new 3.0 version of Operations Manager, the software can now manage Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware’s vSphere individually or in multi-hypervisor deployments, the company says. This version adds XenServer to its capabilities.

A tour of Microsoft System Center 2012 - Wed, 01 Feb 2012

I admit it: I never liked Microsoft’s System Center server management suite. If you are one of my long-time readers, you know I mention it only sporadically, and even then without enthusiasm. It’s felt like a patch job of unrelated products. But the forthcoming System Center 2012 – now available in the form of a release candidate — might just change my mind.

Microsoft ‘committed’ to Hyper-V OpenStack support - Tue, 31 Jan 2012

Microsoft may try to revive support for Hyper-V in OpenStack as the community considers removing the code — which one OpenStack developer called broken and unmaintained — from the stack.

“Microsoft is committed to working with the community to resolve the current issues with Hyper-V and OpenStack,” Microsoft said in a statement.

VMware releases vCenter Operations Management 5.0 for virtualization and cloud infrastructures - Mon, 30 Jan 2012

VMware’s latest move to help accelerate private cloud adoption came last week with the official announcement of VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite 5.0.

Microsoft takes aim at VMware and the cloud with System Center 2012 - Mon, 23 Jan 2012

The skirmish between VMware and Microsoft for greater control over thevirtualization and cloud markets is only going to get bigger and more intense in 2012.

NetApp’s Tom Georgens: How we got big, stayed nimble, and view storage today - Thu, 19 Jan 2012

Those of us with a bit of institutional memory recall a brash upstart named Network Appliance that burst onto the storage scene to challenge EMC — itself once a brash newcomer — and other storage royalty like IBM. But that was 20 years ago, as difficult as that seems to believe, and the company, now named NetApp, is $5 billion-plus storage leader in its own right.

Smarter hypervisor use can lead to a ‘big, big change’ in security - Thu, 19 Jan 2012

To gain insight on the months ahead as they relate to IT attacks, malware, cloud security, and the impact of virtualization on security, we recently chatted with Simon Crosby, former CTO of Citrix Systems’ data center and cloud business.

Groupon acquires e-commerce data startup Adku - Mon, 06 Feb 201
Founded by a group of former Google employees in San Francisco, Adku used basically big data for the personalization of online shopping experiences.

Redbox’s makeover: NCR deal, Verizon venture - Mon, 06 Feb 201
Redbox will buy NCR’s entertainment kiosk unit and launch a streaming service with Verizon. Meanwhile, Redbox parent Coinstar blows away its earnings targets.

Wolfram|Alpha Pro launching this week - Mon, 06 Feb 201
Wolfram|Alpha’s founder explains the next big step in the evolution of the “knowledge engine,” which is touted to enable users to dig deeper than ever into its vast library and personalize their experiences.

Google: Madonna tops Tom Brady, Patriots and Giants in searches - Mon, 06 Feb 201
Mobile traffic saw a huge increase in Google searches during commercial breaks, likely with more viewers out and about at Super Bowl parties.

PC bill of materials creep higher amid hard drive shortage - Mon, 06 Feb 201
Hard drives represent 11 percent to 12 percent of the PC bill of materials.

NPD: Android attracting more than half of new smartphone shoppers - Mon, 06 Feb 201
Apple sold the most smartphones in Q4 2011, but Android might win the race as it is attracting more first-time buyers than iOS, according to NPD research.

HTC’s Q1 outlook stinks: Is Q2 rebound theory wrong? - Mon, 06 Feb 201
HTC is betting that new products in March can “normalize” its profit margins. The reality may be that HTC’s glory days may be gone forever as Samsung and Apple run away from the smartphone pack.

IT spending to gain 5 percent in 2012, says IDC - Mon, 06 Feb 201
Overall, IDC said it was heartened by the IT spending trends given the wild cards in the global economy. Europe remains an economic mess, but BRIC countries will spend heavily on tech.

EMC unveils VFCache, targets Fusion-io - Sun, 05 Feb 201
EMC’s VFCache is designed to meld the storage array to the server. The storage giant is targeting Fusion-io in an effort to bring more Flash memory to data centers.

Mobile banking could be must-have option for consumers - Sun, 05 Feb 201
Over twice as many consumers at the nation’s largest banks are using mobile banking more than are those at credit unions, according to a new report.

NJVC^®, one of the largest information technology solutions providers supporting the U.S. Department of Defense, and Virtual Global, a premier provider of software and cloud computing platform solutions for a variety of industry and federal customers, announce the release of a joint white paper, “Platform a Service (PaaS): What Is It? Why Is It So Important?.”

The paper clarifies the confusion surrounding PaaS for IT decision makers in the federal government. The National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) suggests PaaS as a component of the Federal Cloud Computing Reference Architecture, but one major challenge exists: Most buyers do not understand what PaaS is, why it is important and how it can help federal agencies cut development costs by more than 50 percent.

“Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel said that platform as a service is the next major value set for federal cloud computing, and it also aligns closely with his Shared Services initiative to knock down stovepipe software and save money,” said Kevin Jackson, co-author and general manager, NJVC cloud services. “I hope that this whitepaper will help raise awareness of its importance in the federal marketplace.”

Many PaaS vendors require their customers to make long-term commitments to proprietary infrastructures. Some early adopters of PaaS unknowingly have already made casual, long-term commitments to infrastructure providers. “It’s somewhat like buying gum at the counter, but needing to rent the store for 10 years,” said Cary Landis, co-author and Virtual Global senior platform architect and founder. “That is why NIST is stressing the importance of openness and portability. IT buyers must understand PaaS to make the right decisions early.”

PaaS makes it possible for software developers to participate in the cloud. Until recently, the cloud has been dominated by big email and infrastructure providers selling commodity services. “PaaS changes the landscape—it opens the playing field to hundreds of thousands of software developers and integrators, giving them a way to actively participate,” according to Jackson.

“Whereas the first wave of cloud computing was about consolidating data centers, the PaaS wave is about consolidating applications. It will be a more complex ride, but the savings will be greater,” Landis said.

Download the white paper at no cost at http://www.slideshare.net/kvjacksn/njvcvirtual-global-paas-white-paper.

NJVC and Virtual Global are team members on the GovCloud™ initiative.

About NJVC

With a focus on information technology automation, NJVC specializes in supporting highly secure, complex IT enterprises in mission-critical environments, particularly for the intelligence and defense communities. We offer a wide breadth of IT and strategic solutions to our customers, ranging from strategic consulting to managed flexible services in five business areas: Cloud Services, Cyber Security, Data Center Services, IT Services and Print Solutions. Our global workforce includes dedicated and talented employees with 94 percent holding security clearances located at more than 170 customer sites. We partner with our customers to support their missions. To learn more, visit www.njvc.com.

About Virtual Global

Virtual Global is a premier provider of software and cloud computing platform solutions for a variety of industry and federal clients. The SaaS Maker™ family of platform products is open and modular, so that you can integrate with existing open source, legacy and 3rd-party web services. It is also portable across data centers. http://www.virtualglobal.com

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization pressed into action – Wed, 18 Jan 2012

Red Hat has released the third version of its RHEV (Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization) software package, which includes improvements that would make it suitable for larger deployments, and a new console for self-provisioning.

RHEV 3.0 represents a significant step forward for the readiness of KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) within the enterprise, and should be considered as a viable virtualization alternative to more widely used products from companies such as VMware and Microsoft, noted IDC cloud and virtualization analyst Gary Chen.

Has Cloud Computing Changed IT for the Better? – Sat, 21 Jan 2012
fast-moving industry discussion panel at the 9th International Cloud Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, November 7-10, Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan was joined by Dr. Rich Wolski, CTO and Co-founder of Eucalyptus Systems Inc.; Sheng Liang, CTO Cloud Platforms Group, Citrix Systems; Rick Nucci, Co-Founder and CTO of Dell Boomi; Paulo Rosado, Founder & CEO of OutSystems; Jeff Hobbs, VP Engineering, ActiveState; Brian Lillie, CIO at Equinix; and Vineet Tyagi, Head of Impetus Labs at Impetus Technologies. Some of the questions discussed were: are truly secure public clouds feasible, for example, or only private ones? and how exactly does a company or organization go about deciding whether to migrate only specific applications to the cloud – such as storage or security – or their overall IT infrastructure?

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Measuring IT’s Impact by Region – Sat, 21 Jan 2012
Which of these things do you like best – motorcycles, race cars, or big ol’ jet airliners? This question is relevant when you’re considering new markets or sources, an acquisition or subsidiary office, or an investment. Information about population size and wealth can be accessed in seconds, and there are many absolute measures of size, wealth, and national development. But none of this basic information provides a relative comparison. The Usual Suspects Look at, say, the World Economic Forum’s Competitive Index. There they are, the developed countries at the top, the developing ones at the bottom. Here in the Philippines, many people sweat out whether the country will finish 69th or 79th on the list. Wrong focus. People in the Philippines should be focusing on its regional neighbors, fellow members of the “Big Six” economies among the nations of the Associatino of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. People in the United States should no doubt strive to lead the world by any measure – but should also see how its immediate neighbor Canada is doing. (It’s doing quite well by many measures.) And when it’s time for you to consider the countries and regions of the world, you no doubt take a practical approach doesn’t directly compare the apples of Germany with the oranges of Brazil – or a motorcyle with a car or plane. How Does It Feel? The research I’ve been conducting and writing about for the past several months addresses this problem by providing a relative, “pound-for-pound” (or “apples-to-apples”) look at the IT expenditures of 80+ nations of the world. As I wrote yesterday, my work also seeks to find “torque” within societies, on the premise that IT is disruptive and furthermore that a highly aggressive commitment to it may be aggressively disruptive. My Tau Index – being developed with the support of Cloud Computing Journal and Computerworld Philippines – integrates several technological and social dimensions to derive a single, rational measurement. I embarked on the Tau Index to answer questions I’ve had about the “look and feel” of places I’ve visited. People who’ve had the fortune to travel internationally will tell you that you get an immediate feeling for a country the instant you step off the plane, for better or worse. The visceral experience of breathing and doing business in any place transcends simple statistics that can lead one to believe that all of the countries of, say, Latin America or Southeast Asia are essentially the same. Certainly when it comes to their IT deployments, they’re not; my research is focused on finding those places that are the most dynamic today and therefore have the better chances of improving themselves tomorrow. Yesterday, I provided a list of the leading nations in my research, by income level. Today, I’ve provided a brief list of the leading countries by region. For more information on the data and how I derived it, email me or Tweet me up. Americas Canada Honduras United States Mexico Chile Western Europe Sweden UK Netherlands Germany Finland Central/Eastern Europe Bulgaria Ukraine Lithuania Romania Hungary Asia South Korea Vietnam Hong Kong Bangladesh Malaysia N Africa/Middle East Morocco Egypt Israel Saudi Arabia Turkey Sub-Saharan Africa Senegal South Africa Kenya Cameroon Nigeria

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Scribe Boosts Cloud Offering with GUI Synchronization Services – Fri, 20 Jan 2012
Scribe Software, a customer relationship management (CRM) data integration provider, will launch next week Scribe Online Synchronization Services (SYS). According to the Manchester, NH-based company, Scribe Online provides a cloud-based alternative to integration middleware, and simplifies the integration experience without sacrificing performance or functionality. The goal is to allow companies to reap the benefits of integrated CRM data from a variety of sources and technologies in days, rather than months.

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Virtually Clearing Cloud Initiatives Through WAN Optimization – Fri, 20 Jan 2012
There is a storm rising in the midst of enterprise networks today. It builds quickly and overtakes unsuspecting companies as the popularity of virtual initiatives causes data volumes on their networks to swell to proportions too large to access efficiently over existing bandwidth. The challenge then becomes one of optimizing underlying network infrastructure in order to support the increased flow of traffic caused by the data surge. Application virtualization, cloud computing and Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDIs) deliver enormous management and costs savings, but these benefits are offset when application performance hampers end user productivity. This often happens when virtual applications and desktops are delivered across a Wide Area Network (WAN). Optimizing the WAN and improving network stability is therefore paramount to ensuring companies meet their business objectives and take full advantage of the technology in which they have invested large amounts of money.

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The Security Trope from a Best-Practices Perspective – Fri, 20 Jan 2012
The ever-present raven of Cloud Computing called “security” cannot be ignored. In this Lunchtime Power Panel at the 9th International Cloud Expo, five prominent members of the Cloud Network of Women (CloudNOW) – Jocelyn DeGance Graham, Founder and President of Cloud Network Of Women (CloudNOW); Jill Tummler Singer, CIO for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO); Jamie Dos Santos is President & CEO, Terremark Federal Group; Kristin Lovejoy is the Vice President of Information Technology Risk for IBM; and Melissa Siems, Sr. Director, Cloud Security at McAfee – explored the security trope from a best practices perspective.

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Cloud Transaction Synchronicity – Fri, 20 Jan 2012
High-Frequency Trading (HFT) and secret algorithms have become the new competitive strategy in today’s global financial industry. The faster traders can turn around trades, the faster they can get in and out of quick markets and short time pockets of opportunity. Having accurate records of when a transaction occurs is critical as to processing the trade and valuating the transaction. There are many articles and white papers discussing cloud computing and shared services. New services that are being touted are things like SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). What is missing is the ability to sync up transactions coming from various outbound originations. What is necessary is the ability to provide Timing as a Service (TaaS).

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The Benefits of Moving to the Cloud – Fri, 20 Jan 2012
Just how big is Cloud Computing going to get, and by what date? What, five years on, are already the main drivers? What are the most profitable cloud implementations that are already in use “under the hood” of businesses, agencies, and organizations? In which new areas are we seeing most attention being given to the benefits of moving to the Cloud? These and other key cloud questions were asked and answered in this very special “Power Panel” at the 9th International Cloud Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, November 7-10. Moderated by Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan, parpticipants in this Power Panel included Treb Ryan, Co-Founder & CEO atOpSource; Mårten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems; Dave Roberts, VP, Strategy & Marketing at ServiceMesh; Rodney Rogers, Chairman & CEO of Virtustream; and Warren Heffelfinger, CEO of GoGrid.

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Measuring Cloud Storage Performance – Fri, 20 Jan 2012
There are many excellent reasons to use cloud storage, but fast and efficient transfer of large amounts of data isn’t usually listed as a benefit. That’s one of the reasons why people use cloud storage gateways: to speed up cloud storage access. Recently, I realized we’ve never published any details on the performance gains that one should expect when using the CloudArray storage gateway, so I decided to create a simple illustrative test. In this article, I describe the results and explain some cloud storage implementation details that contribute to performance differences. I came up with a quick test: copy one gigabyte of fully random data to the cloud, broken up into 32768 32k files. The questions are, how long would it take for a user to copy that much data to a CloudArray volume, and how soon before all of that data is safely stored in the cloud?

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Why Poor Data Classification in Government Will Impact BYOD – Fri, 20 Jan 2012
In recent discussions with IT leaders from both federal and Department of Defense sides of US government, representatives stated that they are having a heck of a time accommodating expansive growth in mobile computing. This is critical given that today, in most cases, agencies and departments still have control over which mobile devices can be used. In the future, these executives realize that the changing demographics of contractors and employees means they will not only need to support continually growing traffic, multiple presentations and increased asset management, but will also have to deal with a wide spectrum of mobile devices due to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). This idea that these executives will one day soon have to loosen their grip over endpoints is a major concern. Contrary to belief it is not about power and supremacy over their domain. Most users have no concept of the level of complexity for managing access and availability of data and applications when there is no control over the endpoint; nor should they. While network security solutions have improved dramatically over the past decade, improper use of the tools and ever increasing abilities of hackers means that “locking the front door” isn’t good enough to solve this problem by itself.

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Piston Delivers First OpenStack-Based Cloud OS – Fri, 20 Jan 2012
The first OpenStack-based cloud operating system came out Wednesday. The start-up Piston Cloud Computing Inc delivered the thing, which makes sense since Piston’s founders were instrumental in OpenStack, which is a framework, not a product. The widgetry is called Piston Enterprise OS or pentOS for short and it will sell for $3,500 a server a year, a price that includes 24/7 telephone support. Piston co-founder and CEO Joshua McKenty said Piston sold maybe 10 of the things ahead of general availability and the code was destined for big iron $250,000 hardware installations. People apparently just bought it after seeing the demo at Cloud Expo. Nothing is in production yet.

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Anonymous Avenges Megaupload Shutdown With Attacks on FBI, Hollywood Websites – Fri, 20 Jan 2012
Hours after the Department of Justice announced it had shut down file-sharing site Megaupload, the Anonymous hacker collective launched extensive retaliatory DDoS attacks against federal and entertainment industry Websites. – Almost immediately after federal prosecutors shut down Megaupload.com on charges of violating piracy laws, Twitter and online forums exploded with chatter about revenge and retaliation. Federal prosecutors shut down file-sharing service Megaupload.com on Jan. 19 for distributing illegal conte…

FBI Shuts Down Megaupload File-Sharing Site With Online Piracy Indictments – Thu, 19 Jan 2012
Megaupload, one of the largest file-sharing services on the Internet, has been shut down by federal prosecutors on charges that it systematically abetted widespread piracy of copyrighted music, movies, video and other intellectual property. – Just a day after a 24-hour blackout of popular Websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit and BoingBoing, which were protesting a pair of controversial anti-piracy bills making their way through Congress, federal law enforcement stepped in and shut down one of the world’s largest file-sharing sites. T…

SOPA, PIPA Protest Boosted Awareness, Forced Congress to Shift Support – Thu, 19 Jan 2012
The online blackout by Wikipedia, Reddit and other sites drew so much public comment and criticisms of the SOPA and PIPA legislation that several members of Congress publicly abandoned the bills. – The voluntary Internet blackout, in which approximately 7,000 sites, including online encyclopedia Wikipedia, made their sites inaccessible to protest Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act generated a lot of discussion online and convinced several lawmakers to reconsider their support for the co…

Yahoo Co-Founder Jerry Yang Departs With More Whimper Than Bang – Wed, 18 Jan 2012
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang Jan. 17 resigned from the company’s board of directors, severing his final tie with the Internet company he helped build when he was a Stanford University student 17 years ago. His departure may bring some satisfaction to financial analysts who believe Yang is largely responsible for Yahoo’s downward spiral, particularly since he replaced Terry Semel as Yahoo CEO in 2007. Yahoo’s downfall amounts to a failure to keep pace with the financial and user-engagement growth enjoyed by Internet rivals Google and Facebook. New Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson hopes to breathe some fresh life into the struggling Internet power, which still has a staggering 700 million visitors worldwide each month. This eWEEK slide show provides a brief retrospective of how Yahoo evolved under Yang’s watch. – …

Google Search, Plus Your World: What Is It and How to Stop It – Wed, 18 Jan 2012
Google’s Search, plus your world (also known as SPYW) technology, a social approach to search that injects content from users’ Google+ posts and Picasa photos into users’ search results, has ruffled feathers in the Internet sector like no product since Google Buzz. While Buzz, Googles failed social search effort, rubbed people the wrong way for exposing their Gmail contacts to other people, this personal search initiative is controversial for different reasons. On the privacy front, the service is not opt-in, which is a problem for privacy groups even though search results are tailored to each individual. However, not only are results HTTPS encrypted but Google has also made sure to mark personal results with specific designations used on Google+, including brandings for Public, Limited or Only you. More seriously, SPYW fails to aggregate content from Facebook and Twitter in the search results. This is proving to be a huge problem for Google critics who have accused the company of engaging in antitrust practices. Of course, this approach isn’t without some rationale and its own back story, which eWEEK gladly supplies here in this slide show. – …

Don’t Build Your Own Private Cloud in 2012: 10 Reasons Why – Wed, 18 Jan 2012
There are usually two or more sides to every story. There’s the angle that comes from the originator of the story, and then there can be multiple additional perspectives. The world of cloud computing is no exception. While enterprises continue to build hybrid and private clouds that still require buying and implementing hardware and software, there are a number of reasons for some companies not to “roll their own” clouds. It all depends upon the IT requirements of the enterprise, to be sure. In this eWEEK slide show we provide a contrarian position with reasons NOT to build a cloud system. In the interest of full disclosure, these reasons are being provided by a cloud-service provider, InfoStreet . Realizing that InfoStreet’s view can certainly be viewed as self-serving, we present them here as a foundation for possible discussion. Our information provider is Marcy Hoffman, vice president of demand generation at InfoStreet, which provides such cloud applications as virus-protected and spam-free email, email archiving, shared calendars, tasks, customer relationship management, file sharing, knowledge base, and portals. – …

SOPA Legislative Debate Needs Leadership and Fresh Ideas – Tue, 17 Jan 2012
NEWS ANALYSIS: The current contentious debate over legislation to outlaw online piracy seems to be defined mostly by the refusal of the parties involved to move away from their all-or-nothing approach. – There’s no question that the current situation surrounding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) currently foundering in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the similarly stalled Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate, is a mess. While both bills seem to have little chance of passage in the cu…

Microsoft Unveils Simplified Licensing Scheme for System Center 2012 – Tue, 17 Jan 2012
With a new, simplified licensing plan for its System Center 2012, Microsoft is looking to spur the adoption of its private cloud offerings. – If there is one data center problem that cloud computing has obscured more than any other issue, it is licensing. IT managers are finding the licensing surrounding cloud technologies, especially virtualization, have become near impossible to manage. Microsoft, in an effort to spur adoption of i…

Microsoft Takes a New Approach to the Cloud – Tue, 17 Jan 2012
Microsoft is leveraging existing products and revamping others to bring multiple flavors of the cloud to businesses seeking an IT paradigm shift. – REDMOND, Wash. ?Cloud? was the big word at Microsofts recent Private Cloud Reviewers Workshop here. There were many other words uttered, such as System Center 2012, Windows Azure, Hyper-V and so forth, but ?cloud? seemed to be spoken the most. However, whenever presenters during the event which ra…

Cisco, EMC, SAP Back Cloud Portability Standards Initiative – Tue, 17 Jan 2012
The inititative will enable the interoperable description of application and infrastructure cloud services. – The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, a non-profit international consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information space, launched an open standards initiative to enhance the portability of cloud applicat…

NetApp’s Tom Georgens: How we got big, stayed nimble, and view storage today – Thu, 19 Jan 2012

Those of us with a bit of institutional memory recall a brash upstart named Network Appliance that burst onto the storage scene to challenge EMC — itself once a brash newcomer — and other storage royalty like IBM. But that was 20 years ago, as difficult as that seems to believe, and the company, now named NetApp, is $5 billion-plus storage leader in its own right.

Smarter hypervisor use can lead to a ‘big, big change’ in security – Thu, 19 Jan 2012

To gain insight on the months ahead as they relate to IT attacks, malware, cloud security, and the impact of virtualization on security, we recently chatted with Simon Crosby, former CTO of Citrix Systems’ data center and cloud business.

Atlantis diskless appliance cuts VDI costs – Wed, 18 Jan 2012

Virtual Desktop storage provider Altantis Computing has announced a new product that runs nonpersistent virtual desktop environments using only server memory.

Need an agile infrastructure? Do your homework – Tue, 17 Jan 2012

Companies looking for more agile data centers are increasingly turning to public (external) or private (internal) clouds with virtualized servers, storage and networks. Getting the lowest cost and the best speed and flexibility from those systems requires assessing everything from performance to control and interoperability. And the larger your organization is, the more planning it takes to create an “enterprise grade” cloud that meets your performance, security and compliance needs.

Google adds VMware co-founder to its board of directors – Tue, 17 Jan 2012

Last week Google surprised many in the virtualization world by naming Diane Greene to its board of directors, filling the 10th seat vacated more than two years ago when Arthur Levinson resigned. In addition to the new board member position, Greene will serve on Google’s audit committee.

Red Bend aims to bring mobile virtualization and BYOD to the masses – Mon, 09 Jan 2012

The idea behind mobile virtualization technology is quite simple: Platform developers take a smartphone and add some type of a virtualization layer to it to provide users with a personal/corporate all-in-one device, which will help with corporate BYOD initiatives. Corporate data can be protected from personal applications, and users can keep their personal information private and free from corporate management and company policies.

The year’s best hardware, software, and cloud services – Mon, 09 Jan 2012

Was it the philosopher George Santayana who said, “Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it?” Did he offer any hints for those of us who want to repeat the past, especially the successes? We’re beyond the teary elegies of 2011 and deep into making resolutions for 2012. If we’re going to stand half a chance of creating something great this year, it only makes sense to pause and celebrate what went right in 2011.

Picking the top technologies in a wild year – Mon, 09 Jan 2012

Whenever someone asks me how InfoWorld differs from other IT publications, I cite two facts off the bat: Most of our articles are written by experienced, working IT people — and we’re one of the few publications that still does real enterprise product reviews.

How to handle virtual desktops, wireless, network performance issues – Wed, 04 Jan 2012

Schools are for learning, and the information technology and security professionals who support networks and applications in the nation’s K-12 and university systems are discovering new tactics in what can be challenging IT environments. Here we talk to four professionals in the education realm to get a sense for their top IT issues and what they do to handle them.

Netflix also reorganizes as CMO heads to the board – Fri, 20 Jan 201
Netflix will be looking for a new chief marketing officer outside of the company in the coming months.

Zynga online gambling plan: One dangerous cash cow – Fri, 20 Jan 201
Zynga and gambling will be like crack to those who can’t control the urge to wager. Combine the addictive nature of Facebook and you have a double whammy. It’s a sweet business though.

Intel reshuffles executive deck, names new COO – Fri, 20 Jan 201
Intel’s senior vice president of worldwide manufacturing gets bumped up to chief operating officer amid a slew of other appointments and adjustments in Intel’s leadership.

SOPA, PIPA debate ranks higher than most big events in 2011 – Fri, 20 Jan 201
The online fervor about SOPA and PIPA was discussed more than the 2011 Super Bowl and the Oprah finale.

SOPA, PIPA postponed: Nice work, everyone – Fri, 20 Jan 201
Both SOPA and PIPA have been shelved, and “no further action” will be taken until a general consensus has been made, and compromises sought.

New Google accounts automatically register users for Gmail, Google+ – Fri, 20 Jan 201
Google is showing just how committed it is to promoting its social networking platform.

Windows Phone jumping to No. 2 in smartphone market by 2015? – Fri, 20 Jan 201
Analysts predict that new Nokia products designed for North America specifically, including the Lumia 900, will help boost Windows Phone to rank second the mobile OS market within three years.

Wintel’s great China divide: Intel’s gain, Microsoft’s pain – Fri, 20 Jan 201
Intel could become a huge smartphone player and benefit from PC sales only if it dominates China somehow. Piracy hampers Microsoft.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire profitable: You bet – Fri, 20 Jan 201
Even if Amazon started out underwater on the Kindle Fire’s manufacturing costs, the company is already in the black on my account. Not bad for a month’s work.

Anonymous hacks DOJ, RIAA, MPAA and Universal Music websites – Thu, 19 Jan 201
Anonymous is going after the music and entertainment industries as well as the Department of Justice in retaliation to several arrests made on Thursday morning.

SOPA, PIPA Protest Boosted Awareness, Forced Congress to Shift Support - Thu, 19 Jan 2012
The online blackout by Wikipedia, Reddit and other sites drew so much public comment and criticisms of the SOPA and PIPA legislation that several members of Congress publicly abandoned the bills. – The voluntary Internet blackout, in which approximately 7,000 sites, including online encyclopedia Wikipedia, made their sites inaccessible to protest Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act generated a lot of discussion online and convinced several lawmakers to reconsider their support for the co…

Nexenta Raises $21 Million C Round - Fri, 20 Jan 2012
Nexenta, the open storage shop, has picked up a $21 million C round from Menlo Ventures, which led the investment, as well as Sierra Ventures and Razor’s Edge, which participated. The threesome joins existing investors Javelin Venture Partners and TransLink Capital. The start-up says it’s been growing 400% year-over-year for the last three years, which is supposed to make it the fastest-growing company in enterprise storage. It claims 4,000 customers like the US Army and Korea Telecom representing $300 million in hardware sales through the channel and partners such as VMware, Citrix, Cisco, Intel, Dell and Arista. Nexenta trades in software called NexentaStor that’s build on ZFS, runs on any industry standard hardware and is supposed to be ideal for cloud deployments, virtualized data centers and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments.

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How to Measure IT’s Relative Impact - Fri, 20 Jan 2012
The research I’ve been conducting and writing about for the past several months provides a relative, “pound-for-pound” look at the IT expenditures of 80+ nations of the world. This image is popular among the people I meet in the Philippines, the home of pound-for-pound champion boxer/congressman/national hero Manny Pacquiao. But my work seeks to find “torque” within societies, on the premise that IT is disruptive and furthermore that a highly aggressive commitment to it may be aggressively disruptive. Thus I’ve named it the Tau Index, as the Greek letter Tau is used to measure torque (and related characteristics throughout the sciences.) Comparative images that work here include a motocross cycle, a Formula 1 car, and the Space Shuttle. All are powerful, with plenty of torque. All are to be taken seriously. It’s just a matter of degree – what type of market are you living in, hiring in, developing in, sourcing in, or investing in? Torque is “twisty” (and therefore, potentially disruptive) power that must be handled carefully. And to be sure, several nations listed in my original Top 25 list in late 2010 became headline-grabbers during the Arab Spring in 2011. Other top finishers included Ukraine (which maintains a tenuous peace among two rival factions) and Vietnam (which is starting to make headlines with rumblings of labor unrest). I’ve modified the list since its original publication, adding a few more dimensions and working to smooth out the data integrations within the index. I’ve also focused more on the achievements of developed nations, after focusing more on developing nations in the early stages of my research. The stars among the developed nations are less likely to undergo the revolutionary change found in the most highly rated developing nations, but are clearly in transformative phases that could leave their neighbors in the dust some day. I embarked on the Tau Index to answer questions I’ve had about the “look and feel” of places I’ve visited. Why does Southeast Asia feel more energetic and vibrant than Latin America, even though the economies throughout these regions are similar? Why does Sweden seem more dynamic than neighboring Norway? Why do the BRIC nations not impress me with their dynamism as much as many other places? What in hell is wrong with the United States these days? This year, I’ll be focusing on the presence and impact of cloud computing within the nations of the world. There are easy ways to measure its presence, but a more difficult task to determine its impact. I’m confident my formulas and calculations will let us discern at least a measure of said impact. For now, here are the most highly rated countries in my current calculations, tiered up within income levels: Developed Tier A (per capita income $30K+) 1. Sweden 2. United Kingdom 3. Japan 4. Singapore 5. Canada Developed Tier B (PCI $16K-$29K) 1. Czech Republic 2. South Korea 3. Slovakia 4. Hong Kong 5. Slovenia Developing Tier A (PCI $7K-$16K) 1. Hungary 2. Romania 3. Saudi Arabia 4. Poland 5. Russia Developing Tier B (PCI $3K-$7K) 1. Malaysia 2. Bulgaria 3. Thailand 4. South Africa 5. Tunisia Developing Tier C (PCI <$3K) 1. Bangladesh 2. Ukraine 3. Morocco 4. Egypt 5. Honduras 6. Senegal 7. Vietnam 8. Pakistan 9. India 10. Kenya, Philippines (tie) Follow me on Twitter

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Has Cloud Computing Changed IT for the Better? - Fri, 20 Jan 2012
fast-moving industry discussion panel at the 9th International Cloud Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, November 7-10, Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan was joined by Dr. Rich Wolski, CTO and Co-founder of Eucalyptus Systems Inc.; Sheng Liang, CTO Cloud Platforms Group, Citrix Systems; Rick Nucci, Co-Founder and CTO of Dell Boomi; Paulo Rosado, Founder & CEO of OutSystems; Jeff Hobbs, VP Engineering, ActiveState; Brian Lillie, CIO at Equinix; and Vineet Tyagi, Head of Impetus Labs at Impetus Technologies. Some of the questions discussed were: are truly secure public clouds feasible, for example, or only private ones? and how exactly does a company or organization go about deciding whether to migrate only specific applications to the cloud – such as storage or security – or their overall IT infrastructure?

read more

The Benefits of Moving to the Cloud - Thu, 19 Jan 2012
Just how big is Cloud Computing going to get, and by what date? What, five years on, are already the main drivers? What are the most profitable cloud implementations that are already in use “under the hood” of businesses, agencies, and organizations? In which new areas are we seeing most attention being given to the benefits of moving to the Cloud? These and other key cloud questions were asked and answered in this very special “Power Panel” at the 9th International Cloud Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, November 7-10. Moderated by Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan, parpticipants in this Power Panel included Treb Ryan, Co-Founder & CEO atOpSource; Mårten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems; Dave Roberts, VP, Strategy & Marketing at ServiceMesh; Rodney Rogers, Chairman & CEO of Virtustream; and Warren Heffelfinger, CEO of GoGrid.

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Three Ways iCloud Impacts Enterprise Security - Thu, 19 Jan 2012
Consumer technology solutions have, for the most part, maintained a healthy distance from enterprise IT operations. Sure, executives in the mid-2000s all needed help getting their Blackberry synced with your Outlook server, and company laptops have been a relatively standard thing for longer than that. By and large, however, most consumer solutions haven’t created too many issues for IT. The release of iCloud and iOS5, however, might prove to be a different story.

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The Five Rules of Cloud Computing Litigation - Thu, 19 Jan 2012

“Cloud computing is the major approach that most organizations should be adapting for their applications in this new era of mobile computing.” You have all read the ads and the articles that hype it, along with all the overnight experts that tout how they know that Cloud Computing is the universal solution for today’s and tomorrow’s organizations. Now, let’s get back on the ground and understand what some of the real potholes and obstacles are on the road to a more efficient and effective IT infrastructure. There are many “experts” out there touting all the positive aspects to Cloud Computing but like anything else, there are issues and concerns to address.

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Why Poor Data Classification in Government Will Impact BYOD - Thu, 19 Jan 2012
In recent discussions with IT leaders from both federal and Department of Defense sides of US government, representatives stated that they are having a heck of a time accommodating expansive growth in mobile computing. This is critical given that today, in most cases, agencies and departments still have control over which mobile devices can be used. In the future, these executives realize that the changing demographics of contractors and employees means they will not only need to support continually growing traffic, multiple presentations and increased asset management, but will also have to deal with a wide spectrum of mobile devices due to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). This idea that these executives will one day soon have to loosen their grip over endpoints is a major concern. Contrary to belief it is not about power and supremacy over their domain. Most users have no concept of the level of complexity for managing access and availability of data and applications when there is no control over the endpoint; nor should they. While network security solutions have improved dramatically over the past decade, improper use of the tools and ever increasing abilities of hackers means that “locking the front door” isn’t good enough to solve this problem by itself.

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Where Does the Cloud Take Us Next? - Thu, 19 Jan 2012
Where does the cloud take us next? In this fast-moving discussion panel at the 9th International Cloud Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, November 7-10, Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan, along with Pete Malcolm, CEO of Abiquo; Lawrence Guillory, CEO of Racemi Inc.; Mårten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems; and Darryl Brown, Director of Cloud, SaaS & Media at Telx provide their unique perspectives on how cloud computing is changing the way we work and live. Cloud Expo New York, June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, and Cloud Expo Silicon Valley, November 5–8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.

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Measuring Cloud Storage Performance - Thu, 19 Jan 2012
There are many excellent reasons to use cloud storage, but fast and efficient transfer of large amounts of data isn’t usually listed as a benefit. That’s one of the reasons why people use cloud storage gateways: to speed up cloud storage access. Recently, I realized we’ve never published any details on the performance gains that one should expect when using the CloudArray storage gateway, so I decided to create a simple illustrative test. In this article, I describe the results and explain some cloud storage implementation details that contribute to performance differences. I came up with a quick test: copy one gigabyte of fully random data to the cloud, broken up into 32768 32k files. The questions are, how long would it take for a user to copy that much data to a CloudArray volume, and how soon before all of that data is safely stored in the cloud?

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The Ascendancy of the Application Layer Threat - Thu, 19 Jan 2012
Many are familiar with the name of the legendary Alexander the Great, if not the specific battles in which he fought. And even those familiar with his many victorious conquests are not so familiar with his contributions to his father’s battles in which he certainly honed the tactical and strategic expertise that led to his conquest of the “known” world. macedonia battle helm In 339 BC, for example, then Macedonian King Phillip II – the father of Alexander the Great – became engaged in a battle at Chaeronea against the combined forces of ancient Greece. While the details are interesting, they are not really all that germane to technology except for commentary on what may be* Phillips’ tactics during the battle, as suggested by the Macedonian author Polyaenus.

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Anonymous Avenges Megaupload Shutdown With Attacks on FBI, Hollywood Websites - Fri, 20 Jan 2012
Hours after the Department of Justice announced it had shutdown file-sharing site Megaupload, the Anonymous hacker collective launched extensive retaliatory DDoS attacks against federal and entertainment industry websites. – Almost immediately after federal prosecutors shut down Megaupload.com on charges of violating piracy laws, Twitter and online forums exploded with chatter about revenge and retaliation. Federal prosecutors shut down file-sharing service Megaupload.com on Jan. 19 for distributing illegal content i…

FBI Shuts Down Megaupload File-Sharing Site With Online Piracy Indictments - Thu, 19 Jan 2012
Megaupload, one of the largest file-sharing services on the Internet, has been shut down by federal prosecutors on charges that it systematically abetted widespread piracy of copyrighted music, movies, video and other intellectual property. – Just a day after a 24-hour blackout of popular websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit and BoingBoing protested a pair of controversial anti-piracy bill making their way through Congress, federal law enforcement stepped in and shut down one of the world’s largest file-sharing sites. The 72-page indi…

Yahoo Co-Founder Jerry Yang Departs With More Whimper Than Bang - Wed, 18 Jan 2012
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang Jan. 17 resigned from the company’s board of directors, severing his final tie with the Internet company he helped build when he was a Stanford University student 17 years ago. His departure may bring some satisfaction to financial analysts who believe Yang is largely responsible for Yahoo’s downward spiral, particularly since he replaced Terry Semel as Yahoo CEO in 2007. Yahoo’s downfall amounts to a failure to keep pace with the financial and user-engagement growth enjoyed by Internet rivals Google and Facebook. New Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson hopes to breathe some fresh life into the struggling Internet power, which still has a staggering 700 million visitors worldwide each month. This eWEEK slide show provides a brief retrospective of how Yahoo evolved under Yang’s watch. – …

Google Search, Plus Your World: What Is It and How to Stop It - Wed, 18 Jan 2012
Google’s Search, plus your world (also known as SPYW) technology, a social approach to search that injects content from users’ Google+ posts and Picasa photos into users’ search results, has ruffled feathers in the Internet sector like no product since Google Buzz. While Buzz, Googles failed social search effort, rubbed people the wrong way for exposing their Gmail contacts to other people, this personal search initiative is controversial for different reasons. On the privacy front, the service is not opt-in, which is a problem for privacy groups even though search results are tailored to each individual. However, not only are results HTTPS encrypted but Google has also made sure to mark personal results with specific designations used on Google+, including brandings for Public, Limited or Only you. More seriously, SPYW fails to aggregate content from Facebook and Twitter in the search results. This is proving to be a huge problem for Google critics who have accused the company of engaging in antitrust practices. Of course, this approach isn’t without some rationale and its own back story, which eWEEK gladly supplies here in this slide show. – …

Don’t Build Your Own Private Cloud in 2012: 10 Reasons Why - Wed, 18 Jan 2012
There are usually two or more sides to every story. There’s the angle that comes from the originator of the story, and then there can be multiple additional perspectives. The world of cloud computing is no exception. While enterprises continue to build hybrid and private clouds that still require buying and implementing hardware and software, there are a number of reasons for some companies not to “roll their own” clouds. It all depends upon the IT requirements of the enterprise, to be sure. In this eWEEK slide show we provide a contrarian position with reasons NOT to build a cloud system. In the interest of full disclosure, these reasons are being provided by a cloud-service provider, InfoStreet . Realizing that InfoStreet’s view can certainly be viewed as self-serving, we present them here as a foundation for possible discussion. Our information provider is Marcy Hoffman, vice president of demand generation at InfoStreet, which provides such cloud applications as virus-protected and spam-free email, email archiving, shared calendars, tasks, customer relationship management, file sharing, knowledge base, and portals. – …

SOPA Legislative Debate Needs Leadership and Fresh Ideas - Tue, 17 Jan 2012
NEWS ANALYSIS: The current contentious debate over legislation to outlaw online piracy seems to be defined mostly by the refusal of the parties involved to move away from their all-or-nothing approach. – There’s no question that the current situation surrounding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) currently foundering in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the similarly stalled Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate, is a mess. While both bills seem to have little chance of passage in the cu…

Microsoft Unveils Simplified Licensing Scheme for System Center 2012 - Tue, 17 Jan 2012
With a new, simplified licensing plan for its System Center 2012, Microsoft is looking to spur the adoption of its private cloud offerings. – If there is one data center problem that cloud computing has obscured more than any other issue, it is licensing. IT managers are finding the licensing surrounding cloud technologies, especially virtualization, have become near impossible to manage. Microsoft, in an effort to spur adoption of i…

Microsoft Takes a New Approach to the Cloud - Tue, 17 Jan 2012
Microsoft is leveraging existing products and revamping others to bring multiple flavors of the cloud to businesses seeking an IT paradigm shift. – REDMOND, Wash. ?Cloud? was the big word at Microsofts recent Private Cloud Reviewers Workshop here. There were many other words uttered, such as System Center 2012, Windows Azure, Hyper-V and so forth, but ?cloud? seemed to be spoken the most. However, whenever presenters during the event which ra…

Cisco, EMC, SAP Back Cloud Portability Standards Initiative - Tue, 17 Jan 2012
The inititative will enable the interoperable description of application and infrastructure cloud services. – The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, a non-profit international consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information space, launched an open standards initiative to enhance the portability of cloud applicat…

NetApp’s Tom Georgens: How we got big, stayed nimble, and view storage today - Thu, 19 Jan 2012

Those of us with a bit of institutional memory recall a brash upstart named Network Appliance that burst onto the storage scene to challenge EMC — itself once a brash newcomer — and other storage royalty like IBM. But that was 20 years ago, as difficult as that seems to believe, and the company, now named NetApp, is $5 billion-plus storage leader in its own right.

Smarter hypervisor use can lead to a ‘big, big change’ in security - Thu, 19 Jan 2012

To gain insight on the months ahead as they relate to IT attacks, malware, cloud security, and the impact of virtualization on security, we recently chatted with Simon Crosby, former CTO of Citrix Systems’ data center and cloud business.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization pressed into action - Wed, 18 Jan 2012

Red Hat has released the third version of its RHEV (Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization) software package, which includes improvements that would make it suitable for larger deployments, and a new console for self-provisioning.

RHEV 3.0 represents a significant step forward for the readiness of KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) within the enterprise, and should be considered as a viable virtualization alternative to more widely used products from companies such as VMware and Microsoft, noted IDC cloud and virtualization analyst Gary Chen.

Atlantis diskless appliance cuts VDI costs - Wed, 18 Jan 2012

Virtual Desktop storage provider Altantis Computing has announced a new product that runs nonpersistent virtual desktop environments using only server memory.

Need an agile infrastructure? Do your homework - Tue, 17 Jan 2012

Companies looking for more agile data centers are increasingly turning to public (external) or private (internal) clouds with virtualized servers, storage and networks. Getting the lowest cost and the best speed and flexibility from those systems requires assessing everything from performance to control and interoperability. And the larger your organization is, the more planning it takes to create an “enterprise grade” cloud that meets your performance, security and compliance needs.

Google adds VMware co-founder to its board of directors - Tue, 17 Jan 2012

Last week Google surprised many in the virtualization world by naming Diane Greene to its board of directors, filling the 10th seat vacated more than two years ago when Arthur Levinson resigned. In addition to the new board member position, Greene will serve on Google’s audit committee.

Red Bend aims to bring mobile virtualization and BYOD to the masses - Mon, 09 Jan 2012

The idea behind mobile virtualization technology is quite simple: Platform developers take a smartphone and add some type of a virtualization layer to it to provide users with a personal/corporate all-in-one device, which will help with corporate BYOD initiatives. Corporate data can be protected from personal applications, and users can keep their personal information private and free from corporate management and company policies.

The year’s best hardware, software, and cloud services - Mon, 09 Jan 2012

Was it the philosopher George Santayana who said, “Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it?” Did he offer any hints for those of us who want to repeat the past, especially the successes? We’re beyond the teary elegies of 2011 and deep into making resolutions for 2012. If we’re going to stand half a chance of creating something great this year, it only makes sense to pause and celebrate what went right in 2011.

Picking the top technologies in a wild year - Mon, 09 Jan 2012

Whenever someone asks me how InfoWorld differs from other IT publications, I cite two facts off the bat: Most of our articles are written by experienced, working IT people — and we’re one of the few publications that still does real enterprise product reviews.

How to handle virtual desktops, wireless, network performance issues - Wed, 04 Jan 2012

Schools are for learning, and the information technology and security professionals who support networks and applications in the nation’s K-12 and university systems are discovering new tactics in what can be challenging IT environments. Here we talk to four professionals in the education realm to get a sense for their top IT issues and what they do to handle them.

Windows Phone jumping to No. 2 in smartphone market by 2015? - Fri, 20 Jan 201
Analysts predict that new Nokia products designed for North America specifically, including the Lumia 900, will help boost Windows Phone to rank second the mobile OS market within three years.

Wintel’s great China divide: Intel’s gain, Microsoft’s pain - Fri, 20 Jan 201
Intel could become a huge smartphone player and benefit from PC sales only if it dominates China somehow. Piracy hampers Microsoft.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire profitable: You bet - Fri, 20 Jan 201
Even if Amazon started out underwater on the Kindle Fire’s manufacturing costs, the company is already in the black on my account. Not bad for a month’s work.

Anonymous hacks DOJ, RIAA, MPAA and Universal Music websites - Thu, 19 Jan 201
Anonymous is going after the music and entertainment industries as well as the Department of Justice in retaliation to several arrests made on Thursday morning.

Google Enterprise: 5,000 new customers a day - Thu, 19 Jan 201
While Google uses large enterprise customer wins to garner headlines, the company appears to be focusing on the small business market.

Google downplays Europe concerns after Q4 earnings - Thu, 19 Jan 201
Google investors inquired during the company’s conference call about whether or not the rocky economic climate in Europe played a role at all in the fourth quarter report.

Intel betting on its 2012 pipeline - Thu, 19 Jan 201
CEO Paul Otellini said that the chip giant has a “tremendous product and technology pipeline.” But only Intel’s data center dominance is a slam dunk.

Microsoft fiscal Q2 revenue miss estimates thanks to Windows - Thu, 19 Jan 201
The Windows and Windows Live Division was the only unit that declined from the previous quarter, posting a revenue of $4.74 billion, down 6 percent.

IBM: 2012 outlook solid, 2015 roadmap on track - Thu, 19 Jan 201
New IBM CEO Ginni Rometty sticks with Big Blue’s 2015 and 2012 outlooks.

Google’s Q4 revenue disappoints - Thu, 19 Jan 201
Google did not beat Wall Street estimates against rising concerns about business in Europe, and stock prices took a major hit.