2014 is likely to prove to be a big year in data protection for many industries – none more so that the cloud computing industry with the possible adoption of the EU’s proposed Data Protection Regulation, implementation of European cyber security strategies and moves by Germany and France to set up a European Communications Network.

In a recent weekly podcast, German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested a European Communications Network should be set up to avoid potential access to data by the U.S. Government. In the podcast Merkel commented: “We’ll talk about European providers that offer security to our citizens, so one shouldn’t have to send emails and other information across the Atlantic”.

It is not clear whether these comments will ever develop into anything more concrete but what is clear is that concerns around data protection and cyber security are driving a number of regulatory developments that …

My first experience with an “inverted yield curve” was in 2001 just prior to the tech bubble bursting. I was working on a financial portal for an investment bank and one of the charts was a yield curve. It looked odd all of a sudden, so I looked it up in a book of financial terms. An inverted yield is indicated when interest rates for short-term capital are higher than interest rates for long-term capital. In other words, people are willing to pay a significant price to alleviate short-term concerns because they’re focused on the now and not so concerned about one year, three years, five years, or thirty years from now. Inverted yield curves some believe signal disruption in financial markets. On the surface, Cloud First seems to signal the disruption that is cloud computing. To take this metaphor a little further, this inversion of Cloud First from “Cloud Never” suggests to me an inverted set of concerns. Does Cloud First prioritize an immediate need to say “something” about the cloud and cloud strategy? Does Cloud First prioritize the now while discounting near, mid, and long-term opportunities that far exceed the “costs less, more agile, faster time-to-market” recording I hear played daily throughout the blogosphere? Beyond staying Cloud First what else can enterprise technology teams prioritize that may amplify their ability to execute in the cloud?

read more

QTS Realty Trust (NYSE: QTS), one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing providers of data center facilities and managed services, announced the 2013 performance of its channel partner program and planned enhancements for this year.
QTS finished 2013 with 74 partners that closed sales, and of those sales, 54 were new customers to QTS. The result was a 21 percent growth in revenue over last year from the channel partner program. Charlotte, N.C.-based telecommunications and data center consulting firm Converged Network Services Group (CNSG) was honored with winning Partner of the Year for the second consecutive year.
“CNSG had an outstanding performance in 2013 generating more revenue than any other QTS Partner,” said Frank Eagle, vice president, business development – QTS. “Based on their data center services focus, strong sales skills and work to integrate our sales teams, it’s no surprise that they repeated as our top performing partner.”

read more

QTS Realty Trust has launched the QTS Enterprise Cloud, an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution. Built upon industry-leading VMware, EMC and Cisco technologies, the platform is secure and flexible to meet evolving enterprise IT infrastructure needs.
“As a VMware vCloud® Powered Partner, QTS has adopted VMware vCloud Suite to deliver its Enterprise Cloud Services,” said Geoff Waters, vice president, Global Channel Partners –VMware. “We congratulate QTS on the launch of QTS Enterprise Cloud.”
QTS Enterprise Cloud is housed in QTS’ Atlanta-Suwanee and Santa Clara data centers, which employ multi-factor physical and logical security protocols. QTS’ Enterprise Cloud extends the cloud and managed services component of the company’s 3C’s product portfolio, and meets growing market demand among enterprise customers for control and visibility.

read more

The cable companies and telcos who dominate the U.S. market for Internet access won a victory when they succeeded in having the heart of the FCC’s ruling on net neutrality struck down. Now, for the first time legally, those companies can both block content and offer fast lane services at their discretion.
I have mentioned several times in my recent series of blogs that the eventual outcome of this decision may not be as obvious as we first thought: it may be less bad than network neutrality advocates feared, and rather less wonderful than some of the anti-neutrality advocates hoped. In previous blogs, I mentioned that neither the device vendors nor the edge providers will sit by passively and let the carrier’s Internet service providers (ISPs) call all the shots. To really understand this, it is worth reviewing other aspects of the Internet as they are actually evolving, as compared to the somewhat static model apparently envisioned by the courts, the FCC and some of the carriers.

read more

Everybody’s got a plan. Until they get punched in the face.
It’s go time. You knew it was coming. Now what? VictorOps opens an incident that puts your customized company and personal escalation policies into play. Push notifications to our native mobile apps, SMS messages to your phone, or (gasp!) an actual phone call. We won’t stop until we find you.
Drill down to an insane amount of detail without leaving your life.
With a swipe of our native Android or iOS mobile app, you’re up to speed on the situation. Are you the one person that sees a pattern in the data that the others don’t? Simply add a post to the timeline to get everyone else on the same page. Never pay SMS or phone overages.

read more

The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) has begun offering an open process that will enable governments, agencies and businesses to create and manage a secure, hybrid IT computing environment quickly and cost effectively.
Known as the NCOIC Rapid Response Capability (NRRC™), the process defines how to build a federated cloud infrastructure that provides a foundation for information sharing within a secure environment, enabling a diverse group of users to exchange data via their different technology applications so they can work on a common project or problem.

read more

CloudBees, Inc., on Wednesday announced it has closed an $11.2 million Series C financing round. The round was led by Verizon Ventures, the investment arm of Verizon Communications Inc. The round also included existing investors Matrix Partners and LightSpeed Venture Partners, as well as new investor Blue Cloud Ventures.
“PaaS and continuous delivery are transforming the way enterprises create business applications and deliver value to the business by accelerating the way applications are built and deployed,” said Sacha Labourey, founder and chief executive officer of CloudBees. “CloudBees is at the center of this evolution and we are excited to have a group with the stature of Verizon Ventures lead our Series C investment round.”

read more

IBM on Wednesday announced it has deployed a business-to-business (B2B) cloud-based network that will help transform the Indian automotive industry by accelerating the movement of data and reducing transaction costs by up to 80 percent. The new exchange – AutoDX – was developed in partnership with the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) and the Automotive Components Manufacturers Association (ACMA), the two leading industry bodies in the Indian automotive industry.

read more

PaaS provider CloudBees has secured series C funding to the tune of $11.2m (£6.7m), in a round of investment led by Verizon Ventures.

The latest round puts the total investment at $25.7m (£15.4m), with Verizon joining existing investors Matrix Partners and LightSpeed Venture Partners, as well as new investor Blue Cloud Ventures.

According to CloudBees CEO Sacha Labourey, the money will be used in two capacities – increasing go-to-market capability in different geographies, as well as further investment in the product, with particular focus on its enterprise product, Jenkins.

“We are getting great traction especially around Jenkins, and there is demand from large organisations to scale their environment and help us get more efficient at managing big companies’ delivery environment,” he told CloudTech.

According to Labourey, the enterprise expertise only plays a small part in what makes CloudBees appealing to the venture capitalists.

“A lot of the …