We all know that cloud computing can save time, money, and apparently all but does your laundry for you, but what are its real-use applications?
In her session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Victoria Kouyoumjian, Senior Business and Technology Strategist at Esri, will showcase multiple use cases of geospatial solutions that leverage the cloud computing deployment models to provide better government transparency, stakeholder engagement, and save lives … (really). Based on professional experiences, she will also address the top issues to consider when navigating business in the cloud.
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Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Greg O’Connor – AppZero
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now just eight weeks away, what better time to introduce you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference…
We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else have they written and/or said about the Cloud that is transforming the world of Enterprise IT, side by side with the exploding use of enterprise Big Data – processed in the Cloud – to drive value for businesses…?
Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Treb Ryan – OpSource
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now just eight bweeks away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference…
How Green is Your Cloud Provider?
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Watch the latest edition of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.
Cloud News
- Rackspace will offer a production version of their OpenStack open-source cloud platform beginning on May 1st, according to this GigaOM blog. Rackspace and NASA launched the OpenStack cloud project in 2010 and since then, HP, Cisco, Dell, IBM, Red Hat and others have contributed to the project.
- Is the cloud really green? A recent report by Greenpeace suggests that it depends on who your cloud provider is and the way in which they are consuming electricity. According to this NPR blog, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon Web Services all rely heavily on coal, while Google, Yahoo, and Facebook continue to move toward renewable resources for their clouds.
- Microsoft announced its largest cloud deal to date with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), according to this InformationWeek article. Microsoft will provide online service and software to 7.5 million students and professors maintained by the AICTE.
- As an alternative to Vblock, EMC announced an all-in-one private cloud system this week, according to this PCWorld article. The VSPEX platform gives channel partners the ability to offer enterprises custom systems with applications that meet their customer’s needs.
- The media and entertainment industry has taken the bull by the horns when it comes to cloud computing. At the conference for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in Las Vegas, technology vendors are showcasing their cloud-based solutions that radically change the delivery and sharing of video content. Read more about what Forrester Research reported on the demand for cloud services in the media industry in this ZDNet article.
Featured Content on Cloud Commons
Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud
Through year-end 2012, a significant number of pilot and production deployments of private cloud services will emerge, and hybrid cloud capability will become a major requirement. The market for cloud management platforms will expand greatly, but a number of vendors will be acquired or will exit the market. Outsourcing will become a mainstream alternative to internally deployed private clouds. This report by Gartner (compliments of Cloud Commons), examines the top five trends for private cloud and offers recommendations for your business based on those trends.
Feature article
Private Cloud ROI – More Examples Wanted
By George Hulme, Independent Writer
We’ve discussed the potential benefits of private cloud a number of times. Organizations have talked about the ability to maintain full control and transparency over their systems that they believe is necessary to attain the level of security that they want.
Sometimes, as was the case with game maker Zynga, their private cloud helps them to reach the level of business agility that they need. However, we’re also starting to hear more about how private clouds can also be more cost effective, especially when done by organizations that have the people with the right skills and experience in place. Read the full article.
Cloud Views
- Is the future of cloud open-source? In this PCWorld blog, Thor Olavsrud details observations from Red Hat’s Bryan Che on why many companies are choosing open-source cloud.
- The war wages on between open-source and proprietary cloud. In this ITWorld blog, Brandon Butler comments on a recent blog post by VMWare that defends the benefits of their private cloud and takes a jab at the open-source solutions available in the market.
- Want to learn how the Cloud Commons® Ecosystem can help build your business? This white paper on Cloud Commons outlines how solution providers leverage the ecosystem to engage prospects, create compelling cloud services offerings, and bring them to market.
MSP Corner
- Are MSPs becoming a little too comfortable with cloud? In this MSPmentor blog, Joe Panettieri suggests that while MSPs are enjoying huge growth from cloud, they should be keeping their eyes open for new cloud opportunities.
- PEER 1 Hosting announced the deployment of Nimsoft Unified Manager this week in order to provide its customers with monitoring capabilities, according to this article at the WHIR.
- Will price competition from large companies lead to the extinction of lifestyle MSPs? In this MSPmentor article, Jessica Davis examines the current MSP market and the impact that cloud is having on the industry.
Upcoming Cloud Events
- Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
- TMForum Management World: May 21 – 24, Dublin, Ireland
- The Business of Cloud Computing: May 21 – 22, Dallas, Texas
- Microsoft TechEd: June 11 – 14, Orlando, FL
- Cloud Computing World Forum, June 12 – 13, London, UK
Alert Logic Threat Manager for Amazon EC2 Now Available on AWS Marketplace
Alert Logic, a provider of Security-as-a-Service for the cloud, has announced that Alert Logic Threat Manager for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is among the first security solutions available directly through Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. Participation in AWS Marketplace represents a major change in how customers acquire Alert Logic’s network security services. Customers seeking vulnerability assessment and intrusion detection can quickly provision Alert Logic Threat Manager for Amazon EC2 and immediately and cost-effectively start protecting their infrastructure running on the AWS platform.
Alert Logic Threat Manager for EC2 is available as a utility service and billed on an hourly basis. It is a Security-as-a-Service solution that provides subscribers the ability to automatically aggregate and correlate anomalous behavior patterns to quickly identify threats and attacks to their network by leveraging Alert Logic’s patented expert system, which includes 7-Factor Threat Scenario Modeling used to identify incidents. As described in the recent Alert Logic State of Cloud Security Report, Spring 2012, this system is used to observe billions of security events annually and verify the tens of thousands of security threats that require a response.
Cloud Expo New York: Embracing the Mobile Cloud from Start to Finish
As workers continue to demand business apps on their connected devices, the mobile cloud will play a key role in changing the enterprise IT landscape forever. The mobile cloud provides users with the ability to go beyond the capabilities of their smart devices by offering unlimited data storage, processing services and other functions not native to the devices – typically through the intermediary of mobile apps.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Faraz Syed, President, Keynote DeviceAnywhere, will discuss how, to make it work, companies must plan for the whole application life cycle from development and testing through to monitoring, or risk failing to realize the potential of the mobile cloud.
In Apple’s iCloud, One Key to Rule Them All
Earlier this month it became widely publicized that Apple maintains complete control over the master encryption key to their marquee cloud offering, iCloud. Now, to anyone familiar with security and encryption this should come as no surprise. In order for nearly all consumer cloud services to provide anywhere access to data the provider must be able to encrypt and decrypt data on the fly. But it brings up the bigger question of, who should I trust with my data?
To even begin to answer that question, we need to first look at what types of data are being stored inside Apple’s iCloud. For our purposes, we’ll break the data into two sets: general media files and personal files. The first group consists of music, movies, books, and mobile apps – not exactly what you’d call sensitive data. If a third-party were to gain access to your music library, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. The second group, however, is made up of much more personal documents, including notes, calendar events, mail, contacts, and user settings. This is personal information, there’s no question about it, but would a hacker or rogue Apple employee really go through the effort to read your email, text messages, and photos? Maybe if you are Scarlett Johansson – but that’s a different story…
Performance Management in ‘Big Data’ Applications at Cloud Expo New York
Do applications using NoSQL still require performance management? Is it always the best option to throw more hardware at a MapReduce job? In both cases, performance management is still about the application, but “Big Data” technologies have added a new wrinkle.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Michael Kopp, Technology Strategist at dynaTrace Software, will explain some of the main application performance problems of “Big Data” applications and how to solve them.
The Dramatic Shift in Cloud Computing Intentions
A new survey suggests that as cloud moves into the mainstream of business, it brings new sources of anxiety as well. This disruption and the dramatic shift in cloud computing intentions over the past few years is revealed in a report by Saugatuck Technology.
“Buying and deployment patterns have shifted rapidly toward a near full embrace of the cloud, from the more tactical and point solution-focused initiatives not long ago,” writes Bill McNee, author of the report.
Saugatuck Technology conducted in-depth interviews with CIOs and CTOs at 12 large organizations. The CIOs and CTOs see themselves as now entering a “crisis of opportunity” and innovation, McNee wrote in the report. The crisis is about more than just a revolution in service delivery, McNee said. The dilemna is also fueled by the drive toward mobility, advanced analytics and social business. What this calls for is “a new mission for IT, with a new set of roles, responsibilities and skills required for success.”
Amazon Web Services Launches AWS Marketplace
“AWS Marketplace brings the same simple, trusted, and secure online shopping experience that customers enjoy on Amazon.com’s retail website to software built for the AWS platform, streamlining the process of doing research and purchasing software,” said Terry Hanold, Vice President of New Business Initiatives, Amazon Web Services LLC (AWS), as AWS, today launched an online store to make it easy for customers to find, compare, and immediately start using the software and technical services they need to build products and run their businesses.