Private clouds solve many problems for enterprises and bring unique operational challenges along with them. There are dozens of companies of all sizes that will build you a private cloud and turn over the keys – then what? Trying to convert a traditional enterprise IT operations team to think and act like a true «cloud ops» team is setting your project up for failure.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Wayne Walls, an OpenStack Developer Advocate at Rackspace Cloud, will share lessons learned, discuss operations models available to enterprises for their private cloud deployments and how easy it is to try OpenStack in the data center of choice. As the service leader in Cloud Computing, Rackspace provides managed cloud and infrastructure solutions to over 100,000 global customers – come learn from us.

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Cloud computing is becoming an integral part of every enterprise IT environment. With multiple cloud deployment models to choose from, understanding the essential components to any cloud solution will help ensure your success.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Orestes Melgarejo, Director of Product Management for Citrix XenApp, will explain how to design your cloud strategy with your goals, requirements and existing environment in mind in order to quickly transform datacenter resources into automated, elastic, self-service clouds that ensure the best security, performance and reliability whether they are running in the enterprise datacenter or in an external cloud.

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10. It’s an approach, not a technology

9. It’s truly global, in the way that food and oil are global

8. It levels the playing field for developing companies and developing nations

7. It’s revived the software industry in a way that was unthinkable a decade ago

6. It fosters the growth of apolitical Open Source

5. It pushes countries to improve their bandwidth

4. It drives the creation of shiny new toys

3. It’s green, no matter what Greenpeace says

2. Its imprecise definition means technology writers will have jobs trying to explain it for a long, long time

1. It isn’t Facebook

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As a Platinum Sponsor of Cloud Expo New York, Intel is offering special passes to SYS-CON’s 10th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
Intel is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices.
Cloud Expo 2012 New York, June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.

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IT departments are experiencing storage capacity needs doubling every 12-18 months, 50x the amount of information and 75x the number of files. IT managers are dealing with growing constraints on space, power and costs to manage their data center infrastructure. Intel is helping businesses and users realize the benefits of cloud computing technology by working to develop open standards that operate across disparate IT infrastructures and by delivering cloud-based architectures that enable federated, automated and client-aware cloud services. The foundation for this vision will be defined by an open approach that delivers best of breed technologies + flexibility + choice from data center infrastructure to client devices.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Tony Hamilton, Enterprise Marketing Manager at Intel, will discuss how Intel is bringing together a broad network of leading hardware and solution providers to build and enhance cloud solutions that are interoperable, multi-vendor and embrace open standards.

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Yottaa on Tuesday announced that it has closed $9 million in Series B funding. This round of funding allows Yottaa to accelerate the delivery of affordable services that optimize, protect and monitor websites and critical web applications for any organization – in particular, for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). «At Yottaa, we optimize the web,” noted Yottaa CEO Coach Wei. “We make speed, scale and security easy and affordable to our customers for their websites and critical web applications.»
Implementing Yottaa speeds web performance by up to 600 percent and improves conversions by up to 30 percent according to customer data. All existing investors, including General Catalyst Partners, Stata Venture Partners and Cambridge West Ventures returned for this round and were joined by additional undisclosed investors.

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When you have an existing system, and you have a need to deploy a mobile app that won’t interfere with what’s already in place, the cloud can offer a great solution if managed correctly.

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– Survey reveals cost plays a key role when it comes to Cloud uptake –

Uncertainty around the current economic climate is forcing organizations to look at alternatives to on-site IT infrastructures and resources with one-in-three organizations citing managed services as a more affordable option, according to a survey conducted by hosted services provider Rise.

The research carried out at a recent event, surveyed over 100 IT industry representatives, regarding their willingness to embrace Cloud computing.

The results revealed that over one-third of the respondents stated that ‘affordability’ was a key driver when looking to move from on-premise to managed services. Cost was also referenced when it came to the demands of end users considering a migration to the Cloud. The potentially huge cost savings that can be realized by such a move was ranked second highest in a list of various demands.

The results also suggest that while firms are starting to gain a better understanding of Cloud computing, there still exists a level of uncertainty when it comes to the actual adoption. Over 50 per cent of respondents highlighted issues such as a lack of understanding, as well as security and complexity concerns as reasons for not migrating.

The results from the survey also include:

– Almost two-thirds of participants are looking to migrate to the Cloud within the next two years
– 63 per cent of participants identified cost and maintenance as the biggest challenge when it comes to managing existing IT systems
– Over 50 per cent of interviewees stated loss of control and security and storage as barriers to Cloud entry

According to Steve Holford, director at Rise, the results suggest that while uncertainty still exists around Cloud uptake, the cost benefits are forcing organizations to take a more serious look at managed services. «The uncertainty hovering over the financial markets has acted as a bit of a wake up call, forcing people to actively go out and see where savings can be made, and Cloud is most certainly one of those areas.

«The financial commitment that goes with maintaining an in-house IT infrastructure is huge, and Cloud computing represents an opportunity to do away with expensive upgrades and maintenance costs.»

Steve continued: «The low cost adoption of Cloud can potentially lead to enormous cost savings for a business, and in the current climate these can’t be ignored. Instead of buying additional servers and storage devices that are used only a fraction of the time, employees can have access to Cloud applications and only pay for the amount of time actually used. Also, by outsourcing your IT needs you’ll be able to realign and focus on core business activities. We appreciate that a lot uncertainty still exists, and that us why a hybrid Cloud model offering the benefits of a hosted service while keeping sensitive data on site might also be an attractive option.»

– ENDS –

About Rise
Rise is the channel sales division of Fasthosts Internet Group. Based in Gloucester UK, Rise provides Cloud Computing and hosted IT services to a variety of customers, who rely on its web-hosting services and DataCenter on Demand™ platform. Rise equips its channel partners with the infrastructure they need to provide Cloud services. This includes virtual and dedicated servers, storage, backup, web hosting and disaster recovery.

Rise host these services from the secure infrastructure of Rise’s DataCenter on Demand and support them 24/7/365. In honor of its commitment to delivering products and services for outstanding adoption and application of innovation, Rise was named 2011 winner of The Hosting Partner of the Year Award, at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Awards, as well as being awarded the Microsoft Hyper-V Cloud Partner of the year in March 2011. For more information, please see: http://uk.rise.co/ 


For further information please contact:
Andrew Chatterton/Nick Bird
Spreckley Partners
e. rise@spreckley.co.uk
t. +44 (0)207 388 9988

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The backbone to the consulting services from the CBPN is the CTM best practice – Cloud Transformation Management, and the primary outputs from these engagements will be CTM Roadmaps. CTM Roadmaps enable migration to Cloud Computing through Shared Service-based models. Shared Service Roadmaps The fundamental role of the CBPN is to catalogue Cloud Best Practices, […]

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Yahoo Sunday finally cut a deal with Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.

It’s agreed to sell half its 40% stake back to the Chinese e-commerce company for at least $6.3 billion in cash and $800 million in preferred stock. Alibaba will also pay Yahoo $550 million up-front and royalties for operating Yahoo China for at least four years.

The companies have been trying to negotiate a deal for the last two year through four Yahoo CEOs, whichever way you count.

Alibaba is supposed to go public by the end of 2015, which will give Yahoo the opportunity to dispose another 10% of its shares. Either Alibaba will buy them at the IPO price or Yahoo will sell them in the IPO.

Yahoo bought its stake in Alibaba in 2005 for $1 billion. If Yahoo had only been as astute in valuing Microsoft’s $47.5 billion acquisition offer four years ago. Microsoft offered $33 a share for Yahoo, which hasn’t seen the upside of 20 bucks a share since.

Alibaba represents a hefty piece of the US company’s $19 billion market cap.

The Chinese company is looking for $2.3 billion from existing investors to pay the tab and the amount Yahoo realizes depends on how equity financiers value Alibaba. It needs a valuation of $35 billion-$40 billion to pay Yahoo $7.1 billion; $45 billion would give Yahoo $7.6 billion and $50 billion $8.1 billion. Alibaba was valued at $32 billion in September.

According to Yahoo CFO Tim Morse Yahoo intends to pay capital gains taxes on the deal, netting at least $4.2 billion after taxes and return “substantially all” of that to shareholders. The deal is expected to close in the six months.

Alibaba runs Alibaba.com, its core B2B site, as well as two of China’s biggest online shopping sites Taobao and Tmall, the first for small merchants and second for established brands.

One of its biggest problems is logistics, which basically stink in China. Payments are also a problem, according to Bloomberg, and it’s facing share-eating competition. Being Chinese, counterfeit goods are a constant issue.

Alibaba spun off its Alipay payment unit last year to a company controlled by Alibaba founder Jack Ma without telling Yahoo and claimed later that the Chinese government wouldn’t license an electronic payment service that wasn’t entirely Chinese-owned. It eventually made some restitution. It’s believed Alibaba may want to expand its payments position.

Softbank still owns 30% of Alibaba. It and Yahoo have agreed to dilute their voting rights below their combined 50% share ownership, giving Ma the control he craves.

Yahoo will be able to make other investments in China if it chooses. Yahoo and Alibaba are also reportedly talking about strategic initiatives.

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