Toll Gates, Pot Holes, Grid Lock – Roadblocks to DevOps

In his session at 2nd DevOps Summit, Vasu Sankhavaram, Chief Strategist of DevOps and Cross Portfolio Architecture Alignment at HP Software, will discuss strategic and tactical challenges for DevOps adoption – how to get buy-in for and implement DevOps.
Vasu Sankhavaram is Chief Strategist of DevOps and Cross Portfolio Architecture Alignment within HP Software. He has been working in the area of DevOps and Continuous Delivery since 2009.

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Hiring for cloud? Here’s how to find the right people

Demand for cloud-skilled IT workers continues to outstrip the supply, and demand keeps growing.  You can’t pick up a technology journal without seeing quotes from hiring managers who complain about the lack of cloud skills in the job market these days.  Training and OJT are well underway, but growth is just too steep to fill all of the jobs.

The search for cloud talent is made harder due to several realities in the tech industry:

  • Cloud providers do a poor job of providing generalized cloud computing skills. They typically focus only on their technology, which shouldn’t be surprising. However, the majority of enterprises use many clouds, so cloud professionals need to understand most of them.
  • Certification programs are far too general. We all know the differences between IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS. The deeper skills and knowledge are more desirable these days, but they are not what the certifications …

Fanning the Flames of Agile

Knowledge creation is a major source of value creation. And great companies –and their employees – know that continuous learning is a key to generating knowledge, and thus value. The agile mindset, particularly in development, is gaining popularity, with credit to a suite of powerful ideas and practices commonly known as the agile methodology – defined by Wikipedia as “software development methods based on iterative and incremental development.”
In February 2001, a group of 17 software developers wrote the Agile Manifesto, the Magna Carta of the agile movement. At just 68 words, it was elegant, but at that point just words on paper. Early attempts to apply it came by adapting existing techniques such as lean manufacturing (adapted from Toyota’s methodologies), Crystal, Scrum and XP (Extreme Programming). Admittedly, we were still learning. Buying into “agile” signaled your ideals were more lofty than grounded. Agile supporters were revolutionary, but agile was not.

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Digital Disciplines: Strategies for Things and the Cloud

The Internet of Things is a natural complement to the cloud and related technologies such as Big Data, analytics, and mobility.
In his session at 14th Cloud Expo, Joe Weinman will discuss four generic strategies – digital disciplines – to exploit emerging digital technologies for strategic advantage.
Joe Weinman has over 30 years of experience in executive leadership positions at Telx, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, and Bell Laboratories, in areas such as corporate strategy, business development, product management, operations, and R&D. He is a frequent keynote speaker, blogger and the founder of Cloudonomics – a rigorous, multidisciplinary approach to valuing the cloud. He has been awarded 14 U.S. and international patents in diverse fields and has been showcased in numerous global broadcasts, print and online publications.

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CodeFutures Named Among Top 100 Companies in Data Management & Analysis

CodeFutures on Wednesday announced that it has been named a Top-100 company in data management and analysis by Database Trends and Applications magazine (www.dbta.com). The “DBTA 100: The Companies That Matter Most in Data” list recognizes Big Data vendors based on their presence, execution, vision and innovation in delivering products and services to the marketplace.
“We’re excited to announce our second annual list, as the industry continues to grow and transform. Today, more than ever, businesses are looking for ways to manage and leverage their information resources to create new opportunities and deliver a real competitive advantage. A fundamental change is taking place where every business is also moving towards becoming a data business,” remarked Thomas Hogan, Group Publisher at Database Trends and Applications. “This list seeks to highlight those companies that have been successful in establishing themselves as unique resources for data professionals and stakeholders.”

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Gartner’s IaaS Quadrant highlights how Microsoft is winning race for second place

There’s been an awful lot of research in the infrastructure as a service space over the past several weeks. Well bow down now, because Gartner has released its Magic Quadrant and there’s plenty to digest.

You thought Amazon Web Services (AWS) would be streets ahead at the top of the Quadrant? You thought correct. You thought Microsoft would be the nearest challenger to AWS? You thought correct there too.

What you might not have been expecting was that AWS and Microsoft were the only two companies Gartner analyst Lydia Leong deemed worthy of the ‘leaders’ tag. A gaggle of players comprise the visionaries section: CenturyLink, CSC, IBM – noted in the Quadrant at IBM (SoftLayer) – Google and Verizon Terremark.

Several other companies reside in the niche players category; the nearest challengers here are Rackspace and VMware, whilst GoGrid and Joyent finished flat last. HP, who recently invested a billion …

Choosing Cloud Providers – Has the Provider Utilized a Proven Methodology?

What process has your provider undertaken to ensure that the cloud tenant will receive predictable performance and service? What was involved in the planning? Who owns and operates the data center? What technology is being used? How is it being supported?
In his session at 14th Cloud Expo, Dave Weisbrot, Cloud Business Manager for QTS, will provide the attendees a look into what it takes to stand up and stand behind a highly available certified cloud IaaS.

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Redefining the Enterprise OS: A Red Hat Virtual Event

Hear from Red Hat leaders and industry experts on Tuesday, June 10, 2014, at 11am and see how Red Hat Enterprise Linux continues to deliver unmatched customer value, increased efficiency, and true strategic advantage for global customers across every industry.
Attendees will learn more about how Red Hat Enterprise Linux has:
Transformed the IT industry.
Redefined the server operating system.
Enabled unparalleled choice for customers.
Created the foundation for cloud computing.
The event is open and complimentary for all Red Hat customers, partners, contributors, and any open source enthusiasts.

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OpenNebula Collaborates with IBM SoftLayer in Hybrid Cloud Computing

OpenNebula features unique functionality for virtualization of the datacenter. Among them, it is worth highlighting its support to build cloud bursting architectures where private cloud resources can be easily supplemented with resources from a remote public cloud to meet fluctuating demands. The reason behind this uniqueness is the transparency to use and maintain the cloud bursting functionality for both end users and cloud administrators.

The latest version of OpenNebula, Carina, offers a simple but comprehensive framework that enables resource allocation to different groups of users in federated data centers and hybrid cloud deployments. OpenNebula offers a single management point for both local private and remote public cloud resources, with an end user self-service portal (Cloud View) that enables the consumption of hybrid virtual machine templates. These hybrid templates are intended to define identical virtual machines -in terms of provided service- whether they get deployed in the local infrastructure using local resources, or if the scheduler decides to deploy them remotely in a public cloud provider.

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How to Maximize ROI of Private Clouds

In their session at 14th Cloud Expo, Jeff Tegethoff, CEO of Appcore, and Krishna Subramanian, VP of Product Marketing, Cloud Platforms at Citrix, will take a closer look at how Citrix CloudPlatform enables the transformation of IT by enabling them to manage both traditional enterprise and cloud-native workloads to maximize ROI. During this session they will discuss the benefits of using an enterprise-grade orchestration platform and what the future holds. Finally they will look at use cases that are enabling successful production ready clouds including hosted desktops.

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