New breakthroughs in cloud-based data management empower databases with the necessary elasticity they need to be truly responsive to the ebbs and tides of supply and demand.
Cloud computing allows all capital assets – computing power, memory and storage for example – to be exchanged at the best price, giving everyone the best value for their money. Like any free market, it will only deliver its full benefits to buyers and sellers if the right conditions are available. There can be no barriers to entry, and assets in the cloud must be capable of free movement.
Unfortunately, the unsuitability of traditional relational database management systems (RDBMS) has created such a blockage. Their lack of elasticity or liquidity demobilizes computing resources. However, new developments in cloud database technology (like database bursting and hibernating functions) show how the database component can have the necessary fluidity to bring cloud-computing closer to ‘perfect market’ conditions and begin to deliver its full benefits.
Cloud Expo | IBM & OpenStack Together: Accelerating Cloud Adoption & ROI
Speed-to-market and improving ROI for new cloud services are an important element for adopting cloud computing. Open source technology translates into savings for clients in terms of flexibility and interoperability. OpenStack is leading the way in open source for IaaS, capturing the attention of the cloud customers, business partners and vendors alike, and producing the ubiquitous open source cloud computing platform for public and private clouds.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Andrew Trossman, Distinguished Engineer, IBM Common Cloud Stack at IBM, will discuss IBM’s role in OpenStack including key contributions to strengthen OpenStack, ending with a wrap up of an overview of IBM’s plans for the adoption of OpenStack as part of the IBM SmartCloud portfolio.
Intel Buys Stonesoft for McAfee
Intel security unit McAfee, the semiconductor’s largest acquisition ever, is buying Stonesoft Oyi, a Finnish company founded in 1990 that’s got next-generation network firewalls. It’s paying $389 million cash.
That’s a 128% premium to the outfit’s closing price on May 3 or $5.90 (€4.5) a share.
Intel, which says it’s been looking for a better firewall solution and evasion-prevention widgetry for some time to ward off cyber-attacks, expects the market to be worth over $4 billion by 2016.
CEO Ilkka Hiidenheimo, who owns 16.3% of the company and will make $61.5 million on the deal, claims Stonesoft+McAfee will offer “a 360-degree solution.”
Is Adobe embracing the cloud a sign of the times?
Recent headlines are full of companies moving towards SaaS (software as a service) models.
Many of these are perky start-ups utilising new opportunities, whilst others are high-profile players like Adobe, which has announced going forward that its “Creative Suite” products will exist solely in the cloud.
Adobe, at the annual “MAX” event, has completely re-branded the companies most well-known Creative products which consists of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Premiere Pro. Each will now gain a CC moniker (e.g. Photoshop CC) which represents “Creative Cloud”.
The blog post announcing the changes quotes: “As the world changes, so must the tools and services we use to create. This presents a unique opportunity to re-imagine the creative process.”
Interestingly, Adobe has also made the decision to kill off web-design tool ‘Fireworks’. The product was only used by a small subset of users, but very diehard fans.
Adobe says in a post …
TWD & Associates, IP Data Solutions Partner For Compliant Cloud-based eDiscovery
TWD & Associates, Inc. (TWD), a communication and collaboration solutions provider for the public sector, today announced it has partnered with IP Data Solutions (IPDS), a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, to provide electronic discovery (eDiscovery) solutions for archived content systems. Archived content, including legacy email and data files, are migrated to a secure, cloud-based environment with sophisticated, integrated software search tools, allowing users to quickly and easily locate documentation for litigation, research, Inspector General (IG),General Counsel, U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) requests.
“Government agencies must comply with data retention and email archival legislation to ensure information is available and accessible,” said Larry Besterman, President and CEO, TWD. “A normal eDiscovery process could require weeks to cull through existing archives. Our solution allows a search to be performed in seconds.”
The eDiscovery solution works with customers’ current cloud strategies and is compliant with all federal mandates. By placing archived email and files in the cloud, users have infinite scalability, allowing their data to grow or reduce in accordance with their retention policies. It also has synergy with existing discovery systems, if current systems are in place across an organization. The solution requires no hardware or software and is provided as a managed service, improving efficiencies, increasing cost savings and allowing accessibility from any location by an authorized user. It allows agencies to integrate their storage, archiving and eDiscovery needs into one solution, reducing the requirements for duplicative data storage.
“Electronic discovery has traditionally been a very expensive and reactive activity,” said Gary Thompson, President, IPDS. “Given these times of intense budgetary constraints, a solution like ours is valuable because it helps clients implement a more proactive, cost-effective and efficient approach to what is normally a complicated process.”
The cloud-based infrastructure is Statement on Accounting Standards (SAS) 70 Type II, PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Level 1, International Organization of Standards (ISO) 27001 and Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) compliant. Additionally all client data resides within the continental United States (CONUS).
To learn more about the joint TWD and IPDS eDiscovery solution, call IPDS at (301) 519-8015.
Certifiably Cloud: AWS Announces Accreditation
Are you AWS certified?
Last week several reporters, including Gathering Clouds friend in the field Barb Darrow, analyzed Amazon’s recent announcement of its cloud certification program. Widely seen as a positive move for the company, the announcement does raise some questions.
While the practice of certification is well established, AWS’ announcement is of particular note, as it both solidifies the company from the perspective of it’s platform and tools becoming trainable skills (and therefore more applicable to enterprise standards of usage) and positions the service as becoming far more self-supporting (since it will require those specific trainable skills). If we thought AWS was a sticky service before (in terms of its proprietary functionalities, third party tool sets, and APIs, this move certainly makes that notion even clearer.
VMware: Hybrid Cloud Leader?
As Amazon (AMZN) continues with its amazing public cloud momentum, Palo Alto-based VMware (VMW) has stepped up its efforts to educate the industry about an even more powerful and disruptive form of cloud computing, called hybrid cloud. According to VMware, hybrid cloud promises to be an upcoming disruption in how applications and services are delivered […]
UK G-Cloud to champion public cloud
Joe Dignan, Chief Analyst, Public Sector Technology
The third iteration of the UK government’s cloud store is about to go live, so what has changed and what is likely to happen next?
The good news is that we appear to have reached the end of the beginning for G-Cloud, with the Cabinet Office reporting sales of £18.2m going through the first two procurement frameworks, G-Cloud i (Gi) and G-Cloud ii (Gii).
The delay in getting G-Cloud iii (Giii) up and running is apparently due to there being 50% more suppliers and a much greater diversity of offerings. The increase in volume has caused the small G-Cloud team issues in sending out award letters.
However, the government has finally agreed on a “public cloud first” policy. This policy is something that the G-Cloud team, led by Denise McDonagh, has championed and it is a game-changer in a number of …
Adobe Abandons Shrinkwrap for the Cloud
Adobe Monday became the first major software house to dump traditional
shrinkwrapped software for cloud subscriptions.
Others like Microsoft have a foot in both camps. Adobe says it’s going
100% cloud. The announcement was made at the Adobe MAX conference,
Lunch Keynote at Cloud Expo | Strategies for App Delivery in the Cloud Era
Cloud computing continues to gain momentum as enterprises of all sizes and across all industries seek to harness the business agility promised by this computing model. Despite its long-accepted benefits, the cloud has also fallen victim to performance and reliability challenges, combined with a perceived lack of security. As a result this has led to slower predicted growth and adoption of this still promising infrastructure methodology.
In his Lunch Keynote at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Neil Cohen, Akamai’s Vice President of Global Product Marketing, will discuss how to overcome these challenges, and the role application delivery solutions play in optimizing public and hybrid cloud architectures without sacrificing performance, security or control.