Why Cloud Computing Skills Will Be Required for IT Workers

The cloud is changing not only how businesses access applications and provide services to their customers, it’s changing the way they view their own employees, according to a recent report.
With the impact of cloud computing on data access and the availability of cloud storage, job descriptions are also undergoing change as businesses move to the cloud. This change is transforming IT departments as well as the company as a whole. IT workers are now expected to search for cost-effective cloud computing applications, according to an article on CloudTimes.org.
With cloud computing, CIOs can now focus on creating business strategies rather than devote their time to fixing IT problems. There is now a growing demand for cloud strategy consultants, cloud architects and cloud service planners. According to a report released by the Center for Economics and Business Research and EMC, the growing demand for cloud computing services will generate at least 446,000 jobs yearly until 2015.

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Life in a Startup: Getting Above the Noise

Today at AppZero, we are fortunate enough to have been selected as one of the 25 Hot Cloud Startups by Startup 50, published by Jeff Vance. The list was published on February 9, 2013 as a prelude to his upcoming story “10 Hot Cloud Startups to Watch” for CIO.
One of the biggest challenges in a startup is that there are so many things you have to do. In the very beginning, the company must progress from idea to product. Then the original product idea for some reason does not make grade (not compelling enough, too competitive a market, etc.) and the company has to pivot from the original premise.
The other foundational ingredient needed to create a great company is the team. The team is critical — they test, scrutinize and kick around the original idea, which more often than not, pivots or morphs into a better one. Only a tight-knit team can distill the benefits and core value lurking underneath the surface of an immature prototype while dealing with time pressures. Running out of cash, proving the viability of the product, acquiring customers and closing financing are just a few of the time pressures that can tear a team apart.

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Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Jill T. Singer – NRO

With Cloud Expo New York | 12th Cloud Expo [June 10-13, 2013] hurtling towards us, let’s start to take a look at the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference coming up June 10-13 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

We have technical and strategy sessions for you all four days 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…?

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…?

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McAfee Named “Gold Sponsor” of Cloud Expo New York

SYS-CON Events announced today that McAfee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation, has been named “Gold Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
McAfee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), empowers businesses, the public sector, and home users to safely experience the benefits of the Internet. The company delivers proactive and proven security solutions and services for systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world. With its Security Connected strategy, innovative approach to hardware-enhanced security, and unique Global Threat Intelligence network, McAfee is relentlessly focused on keeping its customers safe.

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Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Greg O’Connor – AppZero

With Cloud Expo New York | 12th Cloud Expo [June 10-13, 2013] hurtling towards us, let’s start to take a look at the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference coming up June 10-13 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

We have technical and strategy sessions for you all four days 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…?

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AWS Launches OpsWorks

Amazon Web Services has launched AWS OpsWorks to help developers manage the complete application lifecycle.
The move recognizes that more and more applications are running in the cloud and that developers have been using third-party tools – perhaps at the expense of flexibility, control or custom tooling – at least that’s Amazon’s story – to manage resource provisioning, configuration management, deployment, monitoring and access control.
OpsWorks is supposed to automate things end-to-end so developers can orchestrate the tasks required to model, deploy, scale and maintain their applications.
It’s said to support a variety of application architectures and any software with a scripted installation.

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Rackspace examines cloudy cost savings in new survey

Nearly nine in 10 companies agree that moving to the cloud has resulted in cost savings, according to a new survey from open cloud provider Rackspace.

The research looked at over 1300 US and UK-based companies, as well as conducting qualitative interviews with executives surveyed.

Of course, it’s not the biggest surprise that a cloud vendor is advocating companies moving to the cloud.

In a whitepaper illustrating the research, this was made abundantly clear in terms of what the survey had found. Cloud computing “saves money”, “helps increase competitiveness” and “offers exciting opportunities for businesses of all sizes”, according to the research.

Sounds good. But what statistics are in the report to back up this assertion?

88% of businesses using the cloud stated that they have saved money as a result, with three in five believing that cloud computing has improved infrastructure efficiency, enabling more time “to focus on …

SAML Finds Its Cloud Legs

Despite the slow descent into irrelevance of SOA and its core standards, several of its ancillary standards remain steadfastly alive and in some cases are growing in relevance. In particular, SAML is gaining steam thanks in large part to the explosive adoption of SaaS.
SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language), now on its second major version, was most commonly associated with efforts by the Liberty Alliance (long since defunct and absorbed into the Kantara Initiative) to federate authentication and authorization across the web. The “big deal” with SAML was that it was easily supported by the browser. Of course when it was introduced there were few services enterprises felt needed federation with corporate systems and thus despite the energy surrounding the project it was largely ineffective at producing the desired results.

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SAML Finds Its Cloud Legs

Despite the slow descent into irrelevance of SOA and its core standards, several of its ancillary standards remain steadfastly alive and in some cases are growing in relevance. In particular, SAML is gaining steam thanks in large part to the explosive adoption of SaaS.
SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language), now on its second major version, was most commonly associated with efforts by the Liberty Alliance (long since defunct and absorbed into the Kantara Initiative) to federate authentication and authorization across the web. The “big deal” with SAML was that it was easily supported by the browser. Of course when it was introduced there were few services enterprises felt needed federation with corporate systems and thus despite the energy surrounding the project it was largely ineffective at producing the desired results.

read more

The cloud news categorized.