Avanade, the global enterprise IT services company started by Accenture and Microsoft in 2000 to focus on Microsoft widgetry, has acquired the software written by a young 15-month-old SaaS operations start-up by the name of Opstera that helps manage cloud solutions, the underlying platform and dependent cloud services.
The price it paid is unknown.
The pair has reportedly been working together on a public cloud management service for Azure. The technology provides application monitoring and management of Windows Azure apps.
The start-up said in a FAQ that “There is a strong need in the enterprise for comprehensive managed services that can guarantee a high level of availability and operational efficiency of the infrastructure similar to what they are used for on-premises solutions. Opstera software will be an addition to an already strong portfolio focused on cloud managed services.”
Monthly Archives: February 2013
Dropbox API Allows Developers to Get Sync With Less Effort
Dropbox today announced a new application programming interface for in-app synch. The new API is intended to lure developers to Dropbox by making programmers’ life easier by letting their native iOS/Android apps treat users’ cloud-based files as if they were stored locally.
“Give your app its own private Dropbox client and leave the syncing to us.”
Learn more at Dropbox.
Virtualization Security in Cloud Computing
2011 ended with the popularization of an idea: bringing VMs (virtual machines) onto the cloud. Recent years have seen great advancements in both cloud computing and virtualization. On the one hand there is the ability to pool various resources to provide Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service. At its most basic, this is what describes cloud computing. On the other hand, we have virtual machines that provide agility, flexibility, and scalability to the cloud resources by allowing the vendors to copy, move, and manipulate their VMs at will. The term virtual machine essentially describes sharing the resources of one single physical computer into various computers within itself. VMware and virtual box are commonly used virtual systems on desktops. Cloud computing effectively stands for many computers pretending to be one computing environment. Obviously, cloud computing would have many virtualized systems to maximize resources.
Cubby cloud sync, storage service From LogMeInOut of Beta
LogMeIn Inc. announced the general availability of its new cloud sync and storage service, Cubby. An easy-to-use, secure cloud service for sharing files across devices and with other people, Cubby offers the flexibility to turn any number of PC or Mac folders into ‘cubbies’ that can be accessed from Android phones and tablets, iPads and iPhones, as well other PCs and Macs from virtually anywhere in the world.
People can quickly share individual files or entire folders with others via a simple one-click link, or can choose to invite friends, colleagues, clients, and business partners into their ‘cubbies’ to collaborate across shared files and projects. The free version, Cubby Basic, includes Cubby’s signature sync-in-place flexibility (any folder can be a ‘cubby’), free desktop and mobile apps, 5GB of cloud storage, and the ability to share files via the cloud.
A premium version, Cubby Pro, builds on this by offering the flexibility to share content across computers with or without the cloud (via Cubby’s distinct DirectSync™ mode), additional controls for sharing your most sensitive content, multi-user accounts, and 100GB or more of cloud storage.
Run Your Own On-Premise Elastic Cloud Infrastructure
“Enterprise organizations across industries, web application providers and service providers increasingly are asking for a private elastic cloud infrastructure solution to support new applications in order to modernize their infrastructure,” said Michael Grant, CEO of Cloudscaling, as the self-styled “elastic cloud infrastructure” software company today released Open Cloud System (OCS) 2.0 for general availability in production deployments.
“As a production-grade elastic cloud solution, Open Cloud System is positioned to capitalize on this trend.”
Run Your Own On-Premise Elastic Cloud Infrastructure
“Enterprise organizations across industries, web application providers and service providers increasingly are asking for a private elastic cloud infrastructure solution to support new applications in order to modernize their infrastructure,” said Michael Grant, CEO of Cloudscaling, as the self-styled “elastic cloud infrastructure” software company today released Open Cloud System (OCS) 2.0 for general availability in production deployments.
“As a production-grade elastic cloud solution, Open Cloud System is positioned to capitalize on this trend.”
5 biggest mistakes admins make with cloud firewalls
The cloud can be a great investment for most organisations. It offers the promise to significantly increase capacity and agility, while simultaneously reducing costs.
Companies invest significant resource to attain a great ROI in the cloud, but if that investment isn’t secured, migrating could turn out to be a disaster.
Most cloud adopters underestimate the philosophical and technological change required to security when migrating to the cloud. It’s a problem that affects organisations of all sizes, whether they have a few or a few hundred cloud servers. So, to help these and others, we’ve put together the following list of the five most common cloud server firewall mistakes to avoid:
#1: Too many rules = Trouble
In development, you typically start with just a few rules in your cloud firewall or Amazon Security Groups. By the time you get into production, however, the list of rules and policy …
Cloud Migration Software Adds Support for SoftLayer CloudLayer
Racemi, the moving company for the cloud, announced on Thursday updates to its cloud migration software that add support for the SoftLayer CloudLayer platform. As part of the launch, Racemi has also announced special pricing of $99 per migration to CloudLayer for the next 30 days.
SoftLayer is the largest, privately held, cloud infrastructure provider in the world, with 13 data centers and 17 points-of-presence spanning the U.S., Asia and Europe.
The updates to Racemi’s Cloud Path software as a service (SaaS) and DynaCenter on-premises software now support physical and virtual server migrations to CloudLayer cloud servers built on SoftLayer’s automated infrastructure and Citrix XenServer. It’s also possible to automatically migrate cloud instances from other cloud providers to CloudLayer. This provides customers with additional flexibility and choice when it comes to migrating existing workloads to public cloud computing resources. Additional information is available at www.racemi.com/index.php/softlayer.
Eucalyptus, CloudStack, OpenStack & OpenNebula: A Tale of Two Cloud Models
Over the last five years, since the release of the first open-source version of OpenNebula in March 2008, we have been involved in many presentations, discussions and meetings where people wanted to know how OpenNebula compares with the rest of open-source Cloud Management Platforms (CMPs), mostly with Eucalyptus and OpenStack. The most common understanding is that all CMPs are competing in the same market, trying to fill the same gap. Consequently, people jump to the wrong conclusion that after years of a fierce competition, there will only be one winner, a single open-source CMP in the market. However, as discussed by Joe Brockmeier in his post “It’s Not Highlander, There Can Be More Than One Open Source Cloud”, there is room in the market for several open-source CMPs that, addressing different cloud niches, will fit together into a broad open cloud ecosystem.
Amazon Mints Its Own Coins
Amazon is going to use a virtual currency it calls Amazon Coins to stimulate the development and sale of games, applications and in-app virtual goods for its Kindle Fire tablet.
One Amazon Coin is worth a penny and Amazon means to shower shoppers with tens of millions of dollars in free Amazon Coins in May. Consumers can also buy their own Amazon Coins.
The scheme will only be available in the US at the Amazon Appstore and can’t be used to pay for subscription services.
Developers will still get their regular 70% cut.
Developers have to submit any new apps and have them approved by April 25 to qualify for the gimmick.