MadeiraCloud, a San Francisco cloud management and visualization start-up, has raised a $1.5 million Series A round from Sequoia Capital’s China Fund that will help get its WYSIWYG SaaS widgetry to launch, a milestone it hopes to hit by the end of the year.
Madeira, which is focused on Amazon Web Services, has a drag-and-drop tool that lets users design, provision, manage and monitor cloud infrastructure resources quickly and easily.
This Visual Cloud Management Platform has been in public beta since last June and CEO Daniel O’Prey says it’s collected thousands of users in ventures from start-ups to teams in large companies across 85 countries.

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Cloud computing is transforming the way businesses think about and leverage technology. As a result, the general understanding of cloud computing has come a long way in a short time. However, there are still many misconceptions about what cloud computing is and what it can do for businesses that adopt this game-changing computing model.
In his General Session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Gene Eun, Senior Director, Oracle Cloud at Oracle, will discuss and dispel some of the common myths about cloud computing that still exist today. Attendees will learn about the flexibility and choice that cloud can offer so that they can make more informed decisions when choosing cloud for their businesses.

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HIMSS 2013 was a big moment for cloud in healthcare. As a topic of discussion, it was certainly on the lips of many at the show, but increasingly the realities of cost and functionality are pushing direct-to-patient organizations to consider the cloud not only as part of how they run IT, but as the way IT will work moving forward.
Cost savings is only part of the conversation, as is scalability, and mobility. Healthcare organizations are certainly taking advantage of these benefits, though cloud computing has become, in a way, a more fundamental proposition to help solve some of the major issues these companies face.

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Tony Baer, Principal Analyst, Software – Enterprise Solutions

Actian, the vendor formerly known as Ingres, has suddenly put itself on the map through rapid-fire acquisitions of Pervasive Software, ParAccel, and Versant Software. The die was cast more than two years ago with its acquisition of Vectorwise, a fast, single-node analytic database.

Actian’s goal is to assemble a mini-stack that includes a data integration engine and different data platforms for different transactional and analytic use cases. With the acquisitions, Actian winds up with a mix of mature, maintenance-oriented businesses that can contribute cash flow towards developing emerging data platforms for harnessing Big Data.

While Actian has bought its way to a $150m business – big enough to be noticed – its challenge is building critical mass in at least one or two of its product segments.

Deep heritage

Actian, the outgrowth of the Ingres business, has been in search of a high-growth engine …

The best manufacturers I’ve visited this year all share a common attribute: they are obsessed with making themselves as easy as possible to work with from a supply chain, distribution and services standpoint.  Many are evaluating cloud-based manufacturing applications including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and several have adopted cloud-based applications across their companies.

With so much interest, there is much confusion as well.  I recently spoke with Cindy Jutras, founder and CEO of MintJutras.  Her firm has recently completed a survey of SaaS adoption in manufacturing, distribution and other industries.  She found the following:

• 49% of respondents in the manufacturing & distribution industries do not understand the difference between single- and multi-tenant SaaS architectures.  Overall 66% of respondents to the survey did not know.

• SaaS-based applications are 22% of all manufacturing and distribution software installed today, and will grow to 45% within ten years according to MintJutras.

• The three most …

The best manufacturers I’ve visited this year all share a common attribute: they are obsessed with making themselves as easy as possible to work with from a supply chain, distribution and services standpoint.  Many are evaluating cloud-based manufacturing applications including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and several have adopted cloud-based applications across their companies.

With so much interest, there is much confusion as well.  I recently spoke with Cindy Jutras, founder and CEO of MintJutras.  Her firm has recently completed a survey of SaaS adoption in manufacturing, distribution and other industries.  She found the following:

• 49% of respondents in the manufacturing & distribution industries do not understand the difference between single- and multi-tenant SaaS architectures.  Overall 66% of respondents to the survey did not know.

• SaaS-based applications are 22% of all manufacturing and distribution software installed today, and will grow to 45% within ten years according to MintJutras.

• The three most …

The best manufacturers I’ve visited this year all share a common attribute: they are obsessed with making themselves as easy as possible to work with from a supply chain, distribution and services standpoint.  Many are evaluating cloud-based manufacturing applications including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and several have adopted cloud-based applications across their companies.

With so much interest, there is much confusion as well.  I recently spoke with Cindy Jutras, founder and CEO of MintJutras.  Her firm has recently completed a survey of SaaS adoption in manufacturing, distribution and other industries.  She found the following:

• 49% of respondents in the manufacturing & distribution industries do not understand the difference between single- and multi-tenant SaaS architectures.  Overall 66% of respondents to the survey did not know.

• SaaS-based applications are 22% of all manufacturing and distribution software installed today, and will grow to 45% within ten years according to MintJutras.

• The three most …

This year will see the turning point for the public cloud, as a result of repeated security infractions and regulatory issues.

Companies are beginning to realise that they need a secure and stable infrastructure, which is both fast and flexible. They need to think about systems that allow them to ramp up resources, as well as scaling them down depending on business needs.

For many service providers, 99% uptime is seen as good, however as the role of service providers becomes even more critical, that one per cent of downtime isn’t good enough anymore.

This is what is starting to be seen with the public cloud. The fundamental question is, what infrastructure would you run your important business system on and how risky are you willing to be with business data? 

The public cloud emerged as a quick and scalable utility that could revolutionise enterprise IT, however, due to …

Another day, another cloud survey, and for 69% of the near 250 IT professionals quizzed by business process automation firm PMG, the hybrid cloud is the “wave of the future within their organisations”.

The combination of public and private cloud is really starting to gain traction in 2013. But why?

The most important reason for adopting hybrid clouds, according to 38% of respondents, was that cloud apps were deployed faster. Delivering better value (21%), and being able to meet requirements more easily (10%) were the next most popular suggestions.

Elsewhere, the survey touched on more general cloud trends. Only 18% of respondents said they weren’t going to procure more cloud services in the next 18-24 months, whilst more than three in five (64%) agreed that BYOD equalled corporate cloud usage.

A good cloud survey is rarely without a question on cloudy security threats, and this report is no different …