Red Hat has released a public preview of its OpenStack IaaS distribution a couple of weeks after Rackspace got the ball rolling and went production with the open source stuff on its own public cloud.

Red Hat, the third-biggest contributor to the current Essex release, is being a bit more circumspect about it. Its stuff is unsupported at this point.

It says it’s making sure the thing is enterprise-worthy, stable and certified apropos of introducing it as an enterprise subscription product. Whether Essex meets those criteria is reportedly debatable but Red Hat maintains that it will be the “industry’s only enterprise-ready OpenStack distribution.”

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A new report from consultants KPMG has shown that software as a service (SaaS) is expanding rapidly, and the threat of a double dip recession is purportedly driving cloud adoption.

It’s a reasonable enough assumption – companies moving to the cloud often do so in the hope of reducing cost, after all – and it appears SaaS is the best model with which to achieve that aim, although there are still some worries for CIOs to consider.

The key factors that are driving growth in the global SaaS market according to the report were:

• Cost cutting – “post recession the opportunity to save costs is attracting companies”
• Ease of speed and deployment, resulting in more evident value from software purchases
• Increasing demand from SMEs, with the pay-as-you-use SaaS model hitting home

The figures of SaaS adoption were intriguing, particularly given a previous KPMG survey, 2011’s Embracing the Cloud, revealed that nearly …

Captain’s Log, Stardate 8.5.12: Greetings and salutations from the communications deck of SolarVPS. After exploring wide ranging galaxies all across the Universe, we have managed to track down our Star Fleet Commander, SolarVPS COO Ross Brouse. After skirting through nebula’s and asteroid belts, our commander has something to say about a brand new SolarVPS product, […]

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Cloud Replication Services features technology that can mirror your live applications to secondary data centres running Cloud services. Example providers include Allstream, who offer Cloud Replication Services as part of their enterprise IT portfolio. They ask and answer the question about the role of Cloud in BCP scenarios in this white paper, supported by this IDC report. They show […]

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Network infrastructure design has never faced more complex real-world demands. Fast, reliable connectivity
is at the heart of business today, whether it is powering global systems, internal operations or customer-facing
communications and services. Private and public cloud applications, complex usage models and scale requirements
that may span literally billions of transactions have sparked a growing focus on scalable, high performance
networks.

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Microsoft holds rights to Apple patents that are broader than the deal Apple was willing to cut with Samsung in 2010 but they’re circumscribed by a “no cloning” provision.

Apple’s patent licensing and strategy director Boris Teksler said so Monday in the Apple v Samsung trial in California.

Microsoft’s rights to Apple design and feature patents may derive from a cross-license the companies signed in 1997. Teksler didn’t say if the pact was updated or new, given Microsoft’s coming adventure in tablets, how long it runs or whether money is involved.

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Apple is apparently more reasonable than it lets on.

Back in 2010 it offered Samsung a license. Apple estimates that it might have cost Samsung $288 million back then. Now it’s asking $2.5 billion and that’s just in the current case in California.

FOSS Patents calls it “the most spectacular revelation of the ongoing trial.”

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Microsoft disclosed in a blog post Monday that Asus, Dell, Lenovo and Samsung will be selling ARM-based Windows RT widgets alongside Microsoft’s own Surface tablets, the software giant’s first foray into computers.

It’s the first time Microsoft has named its RT OEMs.

Toshiba is missing from the list because it couldn’t get some unidentified parts in time for launch. It will be going with more conventional Windows 8 x86-based machines, according to Bloomberg.

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Juniper Networks o Tuesday today announced that Turkish Airlines, Turkey’s national airline with over 200 global locations, has upgraded its global network and standardized on Juniper Networks’ integrated portfolio of software, switching, security and routing products. Turkish Airlines’ new network has simplified and centralized the airline’s infrastructure, delivering an estimated cost savings of approximately $9.5 million in five years in employee resources, $6 million in telecommunication costs and $3.1 million in support services.

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