As you may have read in prior installments of this series, businesses whose IT infrastructure resides on-premise can ease the integration of cloud infrastructure into their existing environment by adopting a phased roadmap that provides numerous benefits along the way.
The final installment of this series examines how organizations can improve and streamline their business by utilizing analytics based on cloud infrastructure. Unlike prior stages of the roadmap geared toward reducing costs, this stage can help increase top-line revenues, an even more attractive driver than cost-efficiency.

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Eliminating Single Points of Failure From Your Private Cloud

– Brought to you by 2X Cloud Computing guest blogger Brien M. Posey –

When an organisation deploys a private cloud, that private cloud quickly becomes an indispensable, mission critical infrastructure component. That being the case, it is important to construct the private cloud in a way that avoids the potential for a single point of failure.

Although it is impossible to delve into a comprehensive discussion of fault tolerance within the confines of a blog post, I wanted to take the opportunity to discuss some strategies for eliminating single points of failure within your private cloud.

Eliminating single points of failure means implementing redundancy for critical system components. In the case of a private cloud the redundant components that you will need and your overall fault-tolerant strategy will depend on what the private cloud is designed to and on the ways in …

As all eyes were on Australia in the Asia Pacific cloud computing space, New Zealand has taken a similar leap through the Institute of IT Professionals NZ (IITP) and published an updated cloud policy, called the Cloud Code.

The v2.0, released today, has two key agreements for all potential signatories: no cloud washing, and upfront disclosure of cloud products and services.

New Zealand’s cloudy code of practice was first developed in 2011, in partnership with the major CSPs, so it could be argued that this release is a long time coming. Yet it certainly appears timely, with Australia pushing forward its National Cloud Computing Strategy back in May.

And with 86% of Australian enterprises currently in the cloud, according to figures recently published by IDC, the growth potential is clear – as CloudTech examined in its editorial earlier this month.

But what will this latest development mean for New …

Compelling consumer applications are created every day. Are you ready for the IT implications both internally and externally? As your datacenter needs more capacity, the cloud will be critical to success. What are the key considerations to help plan for the needed capacity over time? And how can the cloud best work with your existing applications?
In his General Session at 12th Cloud Expo, Brian Jawalka, Enterprise Solutions Architect at Rackspace Hosting, talks about the SaaS consumer apps that are forcing IT to evolve. Learn how a hybrid approach can add agility, flexibility and speed-to-market for your organization.

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“We’re honored to be recognized by AlwaysOn for our dedication to product innovation and customer success,” commented Aria Systems CEO Tom Dibble on the announcement that Aria Systems has been selected by AlwaysOn as one of the AlwaysOn Global 250 winners. “We are honored to be among such a notable group of innovators and pioneers.” Inclusion in the AlwaysOn Global 250 signifies leadership amongst its peers and game-changing approaches and technologies that are likely to disrupt existing markets and entrenched players in the global Silicon Valley.
The AlwaysOn Global 250 list honorees were selected by the editorial team of AlwaysOn and experts in industry and investment based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz. The Global 250 list is designed to showcase rapidly growing companies who provide investors with the potential of a steep upside.
“More and more enterprise companies are embracing Aria as the optimal solution for their recurring revenue needs, and having this momentum validated by AlwaysOn is something we really appreciate,” Dibble stated.

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For most enterprises, cost savings and increased efficiencies are the primary motivations for making the move to cloud computing. But recent studies from Gartner and other firms have identified concerns over cloud security and data privacy as being the leading barriers to cloud adoption. In this piece, Ron Ross of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Purdue University professor, Eugene Spafford, discussed the question of whether adopting the cloud actually brings more or less risk to an enterprise.
Ron Ross’s belief is that a portion of an enterprise’s operational complexities can be mediated by moving certain types of data to the cloud. He specifically believes that when a company is able to classify data as critical versus not as sensitive, it helps organizations identify what data can be moved to the cloud without the same level of concern over security. Moving less sensitive data off premise reduces complexity by decreasing the data the enterprise must manage and secure internally. This shift in data storage essentially puts the security concerns on the public cloud provider and removes it from the organization.

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These days, it seems that every cloud provider claims that cloud is safer than your traditional datacenter. Is it though?
In his General Session at 12th Cloud Expo, Rishi Bhargava, VP of Product Management for Datacenter and Server Security group at McAfee, helps you explore and address the security challenges and considerations for public cloud (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS).
Rishi Bhargava is Vice President of Product Management for Datacenter and Server Security group at McAfee, Inc. He is responsible for Product management and strategy for datacenter solution. A visionary and technology enthusiast, he is also driving all Embedded Security Products Initiatives at McAfee. With over 12 years of diverse experience in product development and product management, he has a reputation for turning small ideas into successful market leading products.

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Cisco, in a diversification move, is buying Maryland-based cyber-security house Sourcefire for $76 a share in cash and retention bonuses, paying roughly a 29% premium to Monday’s closing price of $59.08.
The pair means to combine their widgetry to protect users everywhere – from any device to any cloud – before, during and after an attack.
They say that the evolution of the “Internet of Everything” is making discrete security products useless against dynamic threats and that Sourcefire can provide highly automated, continuously aware threat detection including next-generation intrusion prevention systems, next-generation firewalls and advanced malware protection.

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